Hasta La Gadget!

Wiretapping Act could spell ‘finito’ for Italian Wikipedia originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The store’s still not very well stocked, but now you can pay Apple for DRM-ed books in most of Europe

Apple has pushed its iTunes music store into the last corners of Europe, launching the store in the twelve EU member countries still without it. Now iTunes users in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia will now be able to buy music from Apple, just eight and a half years after it first opened for business.

These aren’t the only rumblings in iTunes, either. The iBookstore is also moving into new territories, adding 25 new territories. These are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland, according to author Liz Castro, who compiled the list from a new drop-down for publishers that lets them choose where their books are sold.

Previously, paid-for books were only available in the U.S, UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada. Everywhere else got free Project Gutenberg titles.

I checked in at the Spanish store and there are indeed a bunch of books in there, although not many. Last night there was one title for sale — Davis Allen’s Getting Things Done. The fact that stock is now increasing makes me think that some Spanish Apple engineer may have read it (rimshot).

Lack of any kind of announcement from Apple means that your best bet is to just check in on the various stores over the next few days and see if anything has changed. And if anyone in a country not listed above sees the new stores, let us know in the comments.

Apple’s iBookstore opens in 25 new countries [Pigs, Gourds and Wikis]

iTunes Music Store Goes Live In 12 More EU Countries, iBookstore Coming To More Countries Soon [Mac Stories]

See Also:

• iBooks Store Loaded with Project Gutenberg Titles at Launch …
• Kobo Beats iBooks with International iPad Bookstore, App

Storage enthusiasts (yeah, there is such a thing — what of it?) would probably tell you that PCIe-based SSDs are a dime a dozen these days. But in all seriousness, the prices we’re seeing are proof that a few more competitors wouldn’t hurt. A few weeks back, Austria’s own Angelbird started to ship a solution that we first heard about during 2010, and we were fortunate enough to pop a Wings PCIe SSD RAID card into our Mac Pro for testing. For years, we’ve been booting this up and running every single application off of its stock HDD — a 640GB Hitachi HDE721064SLA360 (7200RPM) — as we surmise many of you desktop owners might be. Anxious to see if these are the Wings your existing tower needs to soar? Head on past the break for our impressions.

Continue reading Angelbird’s Wings PCIe-based SSD preview and benchmarks

Angelbird’s Wings PCIe-based SSD preview and benchmarks originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Voice enters internal testing across Europe, international launch on the horizon? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, well. Looks like those leaked press shots (and hands-on photos and video walk-through) were on the money. HTC just officially announced the Rhyme — that womanly handset otherwise known as the Bliss. As it happens, HTC isn’t explicitly marketing this as a lady phone, though it bears all the markers of a device pandering toward those of us with XX chromosomes. Which is to say, it’s petite and purple with middling specs. What you’re looking at is a handset with a 3.7-inch WVGA display, a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm CPU, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage space, a non-removable battery, microSD expansion slot, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS radios and dual 5MP / VGA cameras. The phone runs Android 2.3 with “next-generation” Sense (that would be version 3.5) layered on top.

And, as rumored, you can pair it with an optional “Charm Indicator,” a bubble that glows purple when the phone is ringing so that you’ll never again miss a call because your phone is buried beneath nail files and fifty tubes of lipstick. Other accessories include a wireless dashboard speaker for the car, a dock and a workout armband. As that tell-tale FCC report revealed, the purple version you see up there will land on Verizon as a 3G device, with a silver version arriving in Asia and Europe next month. HTC has yet to confirm pricing or availability. If leaks are to be believed, though, those of you with small hands and deep murses should be able to pre-order yours any day now.

Update: We’re told that it’ll sell for the typical $199 on a two-year contract (which includes all accessories), with pre-orders starting on the the 22nd and availability pegged for September 29th. A bit steep given the specifications, but hey — you’ll pay a premium for style, right? Right?

Update 2: As for global aspirations, we heard from an HTC representative that it’ll soon be available on an unspecified amount of European carriers, where it’ll be hawked as the “Hourglass,” tinged in a “sand-like color.” All other specifications and accessories will remain the same, though.

Update 3: Check out our hands-on (with video!) right here.

Continue reading HTC Rhyme official: 3G, 3.7-inch display, single-core CPU, headed to Verizon for $199 on contract

HTC Rhyme official: 3G, 3.7-inch display, single-core CPU, headed to Verizon for $199 on contract originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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