Hasta La Gadget!

The Tilt stand will tilt your MacBook Pro, amongst other things

Tilt is a mishmash of notebook accessories, shoved surprisingly neatly into a sleek plastic box. This box then clips onto your MacBook Pro, and provides more functions than you’re likely to need.

The first is the most obvious. Tilt will tilt you computer slightly forward. Some say this makes for easier typing, some says that the increased angle causes more stress on the wrists. You probably already know which one you believe.

Next is an integrated cooler. Pop the USB cord from the side, plug it into the Mac and the fan will spin up and keep things cool. This may not be the best option if you’re running on batteries. Then again, if it stops the Mac’s own fans from spinning up, the overall power drain might not be too bad. The Tilt also has its own plastic feet for better airflow.

Finally, the base of the case has a tripod screw hole. This will be either completely useless, or amazingly handy. If you are a DJ, photographer, videographer, musician or anyone else who uses a computer in conjunction with other gear away from the desk, this function alone might be worth the $55 asking price.

Tilt is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, where a pledge of $45 will get you a Tilt when they ship. Things are looking good, too. the designer — madMINDS — only wants $8,000 to get started, and there’s over a month left.

Tilt product page [madMINDS. Thanks Spencer!]

Tilt Kickstarter page [Kickstarter]

Wondering what happened to that prototype 3G MacBook Pro Apple had pulled off eBay? Not too long ago, the boys in Cupertino reclaimed the specimen, along with a handful of spare parts the would-be auctioneer used to get the rig back into working order. After relinquishing of the prototype to Apple security in early September, previous owner Carl Frega petitioned the firm to return the repair parts to him. Last week, Frega finally received an unmarked FedEx package containing a notebook battery, hard drive, and two sticks of RAM. Despite the repossession, CNET reports that the outfit never gave Frega proof that the machine legally belonged to Apple, although he did say that the hardware and serial number were authentic. For more on the MacBook’s journey through Craigslist, small claims court and its 15 minutes of eBay fame, hit the second CNET link below.

Prototype MacBook Pro repair parts returned to owner, 3G antenna stays in Cook’s kitchen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tim Cook kicked off today’s ‘Let’s talk iPhone‘ event by the numbers, mentioning that “the MacBook Pro and iMac are the number one best selling notebook and desktop in the United States.” Apparently the Mac platform grew by 23 percent over the last year, versus a four percent growth from the PC sector. Brandishing a chart tracing the trend back five years, Cook says that Apple is now pushing 60 million Mac users worldwide, leaving Cupertino just shy of owning a fourth of the personal computer market. “There are still 77 percent of people who are buying something else,” Cook said, “We have an incredibly high ceiling here. We have a long way to go.”

Tim Cook: Macbook Pro and iMac are the best selling notebook and desktop in the US originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re trying to make a name for yourself in the incredibly crowded portable storage space, you can innovate and create something totally awesome, or you can do this. The mDock from mLogic is an external hard drive, port extender and port blocker all rolled into one pricey coffin-like chamber of fail. $219 will net you an eternal resting place for 500 gigs of data, while $299 ups the ante to an entire terabyte. Plus, with a pair of front-facing USB ports, you can add a third-party portable storage yokel for the less-than-princely sum of 50 bucks. If you haven’t already gathered, the mDock is designed for mMacbook Pros, but there’s also the iMac-mountable mBack (curiously not the iBack), designed with Apple’s familiar desktop flavor in mind. That variant is slightly more affordable, with pricing ranging from $169 for 1TB to $349 for 3TB, but you’ll forgo the dock-like USB hub and headphone jack. There’s no word on when to expect these life-changing devices in stores, but it’s never too early to dust off the mChair iChair and park yourself on 5th Ave.

Update: As pointed out by many in the comments most ports that are blocked by the mDock are replicated on the silver brick, including the Magsafe. The only restriction appears to be a lack of pass-through for Thunderbolt, but you do get a mini DisplayPort for hooking up external monitors. We’ve added one more pic after the break.

Continue reading mLogic mDock extends your MacBook ports, steals your Thunder(bolt)

mLogic mDock extends your MacBook ports, steals your Thunder(bolt) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember your first cellphone? If you’re old enough, that memory will include a pull-out antenna of some kind, a vestigial RF tail whose genes were passed down from walkie-talkies and field radios of old. And it seems that Apple, presumably before building its multi-zillion-dollar antenna lab, was also experimenting with pop-up antennae on its old MacBook Pros.

Here’s a photo of a heretofore secret prototype MacBook Pro with built-in 3G, up for sale on Ebay and currently requiring a bid of over $11,000 to win the auction. Externally, the Santa Rosa-based MacBook Pro looks like any other pre-unibody MBP, apart from a small slide-out rabbit ear in the top right corner of the lid. This extends to give better reception to the soldered-on SIM circuit board within. The inside is also full of prototype gear, from the red motherboard to the “evaluation” optical drive (going on the optical drives in the current MacBook Airs, I guess it failed the evaluation [**rimshot**]).

Interesting is the amount of polish that has gone into hardware which was destined never to see the comfort of an Apple Store display table. Not only is that antenna a perfect match for the lid, but the SIM card slot has a very professional-looking home in the battery bay (just like a cellphone).

If (and probably when) the MacBook Air gets a 3G radio, the antenna is much more likely to be sitting behind a plastic RF window like that in the iPad 3G, and the SIM will probably have a little pop-out drawer, also like the iPad 3G (and iPhone). Which probably only makes this glimpse inside Apple’s secret design lab all the more interesting.

Unreleased PROTOTYPE Apple Macbook Pro 15″ With 3G [Ebay via TUAW]

See Also:

• Antenna-gate
• Apple's Answer to Antennagate: Free iPhone 4 Cases
• IPhone 4 Loses Reception When Antenna Band Is Touched
• Antenna-Aid Makes iPhone Reception All Better