Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s be honest, the only time you’re likely to consider Apple’s prices for own-brand peripherals reasonable is when someone else is paying for them. It’s not unusual, therefore, for folks to look to complement their walled Apple garden with a few well selected accessories from the grey market. Such as this here Smart Cover knockoff, which saves you a whopping six bucks off the Apple price at only $33, comes with detachable (no user assistance required) hinge elements, and has a special pet-repelling odor as an added extra. Yes, it’s pretty terrible and self-destructs the moment you look at it. And, naturally, it’s available to watch on video right after the break.

Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake: the iPad Smart Cover done wrong (video)

Keepin’ it real fake: the iPad Smart Cover done wrong (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Wired  |  MIC Gadget  | Email this | Comments

Visualized: eBay’s iPad 2 sales, thus far originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CNET  | Email this | Comments

In business, there’s a right way to take on a rival, and apparently, the Dell way. If you’re up for taking a lesson in the latter, look no further than the CIO article down in our source link. There, Dell’s global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organizations, Andy Lark, attempted to prove why the iPad didn’t stand a chance in the enterprise market — a market where two-thirds of the Fortune 100 are already adopting or piloting the device. The interview meanders on in a few different directions, but the highlight of the whole thing is right here:

“An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600; that’s double of what you’re paying,” he claimed. “That’s not feasible…. Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex.”

Even in Australia, the most expensive iPad 2 (a 64GB model with 3G) runs A$949, and unless Lark plans on bundling an Optimus Maximus and Hela Glider Mouse into the package, we’re struggling to see where his estimates came from. In fact, the one thing that major tablet makers have struggled to match the iPad on is price, making the comparison even more galling. ‘Tis a shame — all he would’ve had to do in order to be taken seriously was point out the lackluster screen resolution, omission of a USB port, the missing SD card slot and disgusting reliance on iTunes. Lesson learned, we guess.

Update: Andy himself pinged us to reveal that pricing in the article was actually referring to New Zealand dollars, but confessed that it never cited as such. NZ$1600 rolls down to around $1219, so it starts to make a lot more sense there. This also included basic adapters and such that’d be necessary to make an iPad do fairly basic tasks, like output video and interface with a limited selection of USB peripherals.

Dell’s Andy Lark bashes the iPad, points out far-fetched figures instead of actual flaws originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Yahoo! News (Digital Trends)  |  CIO  | Email this | Comments

By now you’ve probably watched iFixit’s recent iPad 2 teardown video several times while drooling profusely, but we just know you’re itching to find out what’s different with the innards of the WiFi-only, GSM, and CDMA versions. Well once again, iFixit’s got you covered — via an “exceptionally cool” user-contributed post, this time. A grand total of three iPad 2s were sacrificed in this round, revealing variations in case design, antenna count, WWAN board layout, radio chipset choices, and headphone jack assemblies. Besides clearly visible changes like the black antenna window on the 3G models and the microSIM slot on the GSM version, it’s interesting to note that Apple made the same design choices with the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4. The CDMA model features an additional antenna over its GSM sibling, and uses a Qualcomm Gobi dual-mode radio which supports both CDMA and GSM — the latter being unused — along with an integrated GPS receiver, just like the iPhone 4 for Verizon. The GSM version, meanwhile, uses an Infineon chipset for GSM and a separate Broadcom module for GPS, just like the global iPhone 4. Follow the source link below for more sordid details plus high-resolution pictures.

iPad 2 sliced up again, this time in the name of radio science originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 03:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  iFixit  | Email this | Comments

You may or may not know this, but the iPad 2 became available in 22 countries today, and from the looks of it above (snapped at London’s Regent Street store), waiting in line was part of the deal. Now, we have this theory that people love to line up for anything, so we’re not going to draw any conclusions about how dreamy the product is, but please, if you shot any line photos today, feel free to send them our way and we’ll throw them in our post after the break.

Continue reading iPad 2 international launch causes people to line up in line all over again (updated)

iPad 2 international launch causes people to line up in line all over again (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments