Hasta La Gadget!

According to an analyst, Apple could be working on a connected HDTV

Gadget Lab Notes is an eclectic roundup of gadget news briefs and intriguing products that catch our eye.

Does Apple Have a Smart TV in the Works?
According to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty they do. She expects Apple to out a “Smart TV” with DVR, gaming, and FaceTime capabilities sometime in 2012 or 2013. Asian component suppliers suggest that they’re in the process of building a prototype. An Apple HDTV set could be capable of snagging a big portion of the connected television market; even if Apple only captured 1% of the TV market by 2013, they’d make about $4 billion in profits.

Analysts See Apple Branded Television Set in 2012 [9to5 Mac]

Anonymous FCC Agent About T-Mo/AT&T Merger: No Way
An unnamed FCC official said there’s “no way” the FCC would approve AT&T’s proposed buyout of T-Mobile. The agency hasn’t begun formally evaluating the proposal, but they plan to look at whether the merger is a benefit to the public. Similar deals have gone through in the past despite such warnings from agency officials.

AT&T Deal May Face ‘Steep Climb’ at FCC [WSJ]

XGear Smart Cover Enhancer Protects the Back of Your iPad 2
For those that want a bit more protection for their new tablet, the XGear Smart Cover Enhancer could be the answer. It is a thin protective case that snaps onto the back of the iPad. It’s easy to install and remove, and ensures your tablet won’t get nicked as it slides across a table or gets transported in a backpack. It’s available in black or clear for $35.

Smart Cover Enhancer Snap Case [XGear via Slashgear]

A Trump-Worthy iPad of Diamonds, Gold, and… T-Rex Bones?
Why settle for a regular old iPad 2 when you can get an $8 million 24 ct gold model? The “iPad 2 Gold History Edition” includes 53 flawless diamonds, a 24 ct Apple logo and 24 ct gold back weighing 2,000 grams (so much for the new iPad’s weight-loss). But that’s not all: the main front frame is made of Ammolite, the oldest rock in the world, with shaved in portions of a 65 million year old T-rex thighbone. It’s finished off with more diamonds inlaid on the front.

iPad 2 Gold History Edition [Stuart Hughes via Oh Gizmo]

Mobiado Concept Aston Marton Phone Is See-Through
The Mobiado CPT002 Aston Martin concept Android phone would feature a capacitive touchscreen on top of solid sapphire crystal. Platinum sidebabars would house the battery, SIM card, and electronics. Fancy! And of course, it’d have integration with your Aston Martin car—it would hook up to the display, showing parking spots, points of interest, automatically update social media sites with photos and stats when you’re on road trips (should you choose), and help control the responsiveness of the airbag and other safety deployments should a crash occur.

Mobiado CPT002 Aston Martin Concept Promises Transparent Touchscreen [Android Community]

Concept Pacifier Would Discretely Deliver Medicine To Your Baby
The Dr. Shuuuuuut pacifier seems like a pretty clever way to effectively deliver medicine to your sick wee one (and nope, my U key did not get stuck). There’s a special chamber within the pacifier that can hold a capsule of medicine. Place a capsule in and twist the cap to release the medicine. As junior sucks, very small amounts are slowly swallowed—theoretically, such small amounts they won’t even notice or taste it.

Dr. Shuuuuuut [Yanko Design]

You wouldn’t think something classifiable as “wearable storage” would look so darn dapper, but here we are, staring at just about the finest cufflinks we ever did see. Not only are these handmade shirt cuffs beautiful in the most steampunk of ways, they’re also pretty useful as each features an 8GB flash storage chip with the utterly ubiquitous USB connector attached. Basically, they’re what James Bond would wear if James Bond wore really awesome cufflinks. The general idea behind them might not exactly be original anymore, but we can’t really fault the execution here. What we could probably find fault with is our lack of $225 of disposable coin, the price one will have to pay to sport this unique pair of hand-carved, walnut-enclosed memory sticks.

[Thanks, Amelia]

Continue reading Steampunk USB cufflinks are as awesome as they are pricey

Steampunk USB cufflinks are as awesome as they are pricey originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, okay, €7,250 (about $10,150) sounds positively exorbitant for a phone with a microscopic 2-inch display that dares to boast of “200 calendar entries” as a “feature,” but hear us out — that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the €42,000 ($58,800) you’ll pay for the gilded version. That’s right: for €7,250 you get nothing more than common stainless steel coating the front and rear of your Æsir Yves Béhar, the latest entry in the long-running luxury phone trend that includes Mobiado, Gresso, and Nokia subsidiary Vertu, among others. As the name implies, the phone — which, we’ll admit, is pretty gorgeous — was penned by none other than famed designer Yves Béhar… but then again, so is the $200 Jawbone Jambox. Six of one, half-dozen of the other, right? Look for it to ship around the world in the summer and fall.

Æsir’s Yves Béhar-designed phone starts at just €7,250, plenty left for mortgage on the summer home originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long road for the Karma to reach production, but now it finally has an end in sight: March 21st. That’s the date Fisker promises to start rolling its gorgeous PHEV off assembly lines, with deliveries to the first humans to reserve one coming up in April. The price for the 2012 Karma remains a mighty $95,900, though if you ask our brethren over at Autoblog, that’s a bunch of pennies well spent. Fisker expects to start producing 1,500 Karmas per month starting in October and to then sell 15,000 a year from 2012 onwards.

Fisker Karma enters production on March 21st, our future shortly thereafter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even in its “standard” magnesium alloy body, the Leica M9 is an exclusive piece of kit that prices out all but the most fervent and deep-pocketed rangefinder lovers. Nonetheless, Leica has a habit of putting together even more limited editions of its shooters, one of which has recently been subjected to a thorough unboxing and video overview. Only 500 special edition Titanium M9s cameras have been produced, each one individually numbered and costing nearly £20,000 (or about $32,000) in a set with a Summilux-M 35mm F1.4 lens, also made from titanium. With a full frame 18 megapixel CCD sensor and dual image processors inside, it’s a fully fleshed-out beast of a portable shooter, but you’d probably expect nothing less given the fact it costs more than most cars. Go past the break to ogle this special M9.

[Thanks, Aaron]

Continue reading Leica M9 Titanium unboxed, handled with all the care a $32,000 camera deserves (video)

Leica M9 Titanium unboxed, handled with all the care a $32,000 camera deserves (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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