Hasta La Gadget!

You may have heard that admist the craziness of CES, Apple decided to launch its Mac App Store on this fine January morning. We’ve gone ahead and updated our machines to 10.6.6, so we’re officially App Store ready. Read on past the break for a walkthrough of the basics, as well as a smattering of some early apps featured front and center.

Continue reading Mac App Store hands-on

Mac App Store hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Helmet cam user? Chances are you’ve suffered the extreme indignity of capturing footage of the sky or the ground but, sadly, nothing in between. They’re hard to aim. GoPro is tackling that issue with the LCD BacPack, a clip-on LCD that attaches on the back interface port on 1080p HD Hero cameras, showing you not only what the camera is looking at but also battery life and even a speaker. Then there’s the Battery BacPac, which is the same size but instead of a display makes room for a second battery and, thanks to its miniUSB port, doubles as an external battery charger. Neat! And, yes, there’s a new back cover needed to fit over the new bulge.

Finally there’s the egregious 3D Hero expansion, a revised version of what we saw in September. It comes with a cable to ensure that both start filming at the same time, though sadly it doesn’t come with any extra neck muscles to keep this thing aloft should you affix it to your helmet. We got a chance to look at some of the resulting footage and the results are compelling — not as clear as your average big-budget Hollywood summer release but, considering the size of the thing, quite compelling. All three devices are expected to launch in the next few months but, sadly, at undisclosed prices.

GoPro 3D Hero, Battery, and LCD BacPac hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Printers don’t often get us hot and bothered, but Canon‘s PIXMA MX882 certainly has us intrigued. The main draw is that Dual Function panel up front, which combines a 3-inch LCD with a unique set of hard keys that have dynamic displays below that change depending on what function you’re trying to access. For example, when you go to send a fax, they turn into a keypad, and change to other related buttons if you want to copy or scan. On top of that, it’s got support for the iOS and Android Canon photo printing apps, as well as built-in WiFi and Ethernet. To further sweeten the deal, it’s got duplex scanning and printing capabilities, along with five individual color print cartridges so if you run of out of one color, you don’t need to replace the whole thing. Oh, did we mention it costs less than $200? Yeah, we told you it was good.

Canon PIXMA MX882 hands-on: an all-in-one with superpowers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Klipsch managed to unveil a black-and-white version of its high-end Image X10i earbuds as well as something referred to as a LightSpeaker at last CES, and this year they’re doing the inevitable: unveiling a trio of iDevice-friendly sound systems. All a part of the new Gallery series, the Studio, Forum and Arena are all making their debut tonight in Vegas. Each of these units are AirPlay certified, meaning that each one will wirelessly ingest smooth jams and fusion metal from a nearby iTunes library. The Studio and Forum each have slots along the front edge where you can rest your iPhone / iPod / iPad, while the high-end Arena actually has a 30-pin Dock Connector port as well as a video output. The unit’s the company had on display this evening were far from being production quality, but the overall design was nice, if not a touch understated. To remedy that on the Studio, the outfit plans to offer well over a dozen faceplates with various graphics — if sales are strong, we’re told that it could create similar plates for the higher-end siblings.

To go along with those, Klipsch also unveiled a trifecta of slim, passive speakers: the G-12, G16, G-28 and G-42. These range from $299 to $599 per speaker, and are obviously aimed at the more affluent crowd. One thing of note — the backs of these speakers have clever cutouts along the bottom and rear, enabling you to better manage your wires. Yeah, wires. These units definitely aren’t wireless, but here’s hoping for 2012, right? As for the iPod sound systems? Those are slated to ship in Q2 or Q3 with prices set for $399 (Studio), $599 (Forum) and $799 (Arena).

Continue reading Klipsch unveils AirPlay-enabled Gallery Studio, Forum and Arena soundbars (hands-on)

Klipsch unveils AirPlay-enabled Gallery Studio, Forum and Arena soundbars (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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