Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve been keeping an ear to the techie ground, you’ll probably have heard some analyst chatter suggesting RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook may be delayed due to issues relating to its supposedly poor battery life. That scuttlebutt has now turned out to be mostly unfounded, with RIM clarifying the situation through a communiqué sent to Erictric:

“Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented. RIM is on track with its schedule to optimize the BlackBerry PlayBook’s battery life and looks forward to providing customers with a professional grade tablet that offers superior performance with comparable battery life.”

To be sure, it’s not an outright denial that there may be PlayBooks floating about with disappointing battery performance, but the immaturity of the software on them is clearly such as to invalidate any conclusions drawn. Perhaps more important than the imprecise discussion of battery longevity (what does “comparable” even mean in this context?) is the note that the company is still on track to complete its software optimizations and deliver its first tablet on schedule. Guess we can all quit worrying now.

RIM: BlackBerry PlayBook battery life is still being optimized, won’t cause delays originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 04:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was only a couple of weeks ago that BlockBuster and Warner Bros were trialling the release of DVD titles into the former company’s rental kiosks on their day of commercial release, but it seems like that’s a future we’re not going to see any more of. The pair have now announced a partnership whereby BlockBuster will offer WB’s new DVD titles for rent 28 days after launch, matching Redbox and Netflix who are also subject to a four-week delay. This follows similar deals being concluded by BlockBuster with Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox, with the major benefits being lower acquisition costs and a direct relationship with the studio. We just wonder if those savings will be worth losing the one big differentiator BlockBuster had working in its favor.

Continue reading BlockBuster to distribute Warner Bros DVD rentals 28 days after release, losing edge on competition

BlockBuster to distribute Warner Bros DVD rentals 28 days after release, losing edge on competition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’d been following this story for a few days and holding off on calling it a delay since even the quickest orders weren’t expected to arrive in owners’ hands until today, but would-be Venue Pro owners now seem to be getting emails directly from Dell that their orders have been officially delayed until early January. The reason for the delay is anybody’s guess, but it’s an open secret that Dell’s been having quality control issues on the Venue Pro through its ODM, Qisda — and we’ve already seen issues with WiFi (allegedly a software issue alone), mislabeled batteries, and SIM card registration in the field. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that some miracle gets the early orders delivered sooner than 2011, because seriously, we can think of a few nerds that would love one of these bad boys in their stockings this year. Launch bugs are a serious bummer, aren’t they?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We’ve just gotten an official statement from Dell on the matter — it doesn’t really clarify anything, but at least they’re acknowledging the situation:

“Dell continually monitors its manufacturing and supply for all its products. We are looking in to potential ship date changes and will issue an update as soon as it’s available.”

Dell Venue Pro apparently delayed again, targeting January now (update: Dell ‘looking into’ delays) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long, hard road for Intel in the mobile space, but it looks like things are about to get brighter: speaking at the Barclay’s Capital Global Technology Conference today, CEO Paul Otellini said that some 35 Moorestown tablets running a mix of Windows, Android, and MeeGo would arrive in 2011. (No wonder the company just formed a tablet and netbook division.) What’s more, he provided a handy chart showing the OS breakdown by vendor: Toshiba, Dell, Fujitsu are going Windows-only, while Asus and Lenovo are building both Windows and Android products, and Acer’s going straight MeeGo. (Remember, Acer’s using AMD in its Windows tablet.) That’s pretty much right on schedule, and we’d expect to see several of these at CES, but not all the news is so rosy: Otellini also said that Medfield-based smartphones won’t arrive until “mid-2011,” which is a bit of a delay from the “first half of 2011” we’d been told in June. Sure, it doesn’t sound like the end of the world, but ARM-based competitors like Qualcomm, TI, and NVIDIA continue to push ever farther ahead with multicore designs, and Intel can’t very well catch up with delayed parts. Then again, if Intel can really deliver the performance and efficiency it’s been promising it might not matter — we’ll see what CES has in store.

Intel’s Otellini says 35 Atom-based tablets coming in 2011, but smartphones get pushed back (again) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sorry, Apple mobile device users, your first little pre-holidays gift has been delayed. Apple has reportedly canceled today’s expected iOS 4.2 release, the controversial one that might or might not be lacking AirPrint. We’d hoped to solve that particular mystery before the weekend, but it seems we’ll have to wait a little longer thanks to a serious looking connectivity bug plaguing the iPad. Many users of the Golden Master version of 4.2 reported that a WiFi connection could be established by their devices but, once made, they were unable to actually do anything on the ‘net, and not being able to do anything on the ‘net is what we like to call a Very Bad Thing. No word on exactly when a new version will be available, but it should still drop within the next few weeks.

iOS 4.2 reportedly delayed, iPad WiFi issues to blame originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 07:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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