Hasta La Gadget!

I just want to promise the readers that I would never make a joke about one of Sarah Palin’s daughters. Unless I thought of a really good one.

1. Here’s a way to get even more out of an already good deal. Dell is selling the Olympus SP-565 UZ for $90 off, bringing the total to $229.99. That’s a good price, since the 10 megapixel camera offers a 20x wide-angle zoom, anti-blur technology, and face tracking that works with up to 16 faces. But wait, if you enter the code FMSZTHZ7$1QFBT at checkout, you’ll get $30 more off, dropping the price to $199.99. That promotional code expires on June 17, so get moving.

2. Bargain laptops typically offer smaller screens, but here’s a good deal on a 15.6-inch notebook. Office Max is selling the Acer Aspire AS5735-6694 (catchy name, Acer) for $479.99, a $200 savings off the list price. It comes with a 2.0GHz Intel Core2 Duo processor, Windows Vista Home Premium, 4GB DDR2 RAM, and a 250GB hard drive.

3. There are great deals to be found with refurbished computers. Consider the HP Pavilion a6707c desktop. Buy.com has it for $394.99, with free shipping. It’s tricked out with a 2.4GHz Pentium E2220 processor, 4GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and Windows Vista Home Premium. You’ll even get a keyboard and mouse.

It’s kind of amazing how much Apple got right yesterday—and what they got wrong: Their product lines are completely scrambled. The Pro designation has become meaningless and $99 iPhones look just like $499 iPhones.

It’s possible that when the subsidized iPhone 3G dropped last year for $199, a new Apple was born. We just didn’t see it clearly until today, with the announcement of the iPhone 3GS and new MacBook Pro line.

“Pro” used to be a real designation: A Pro machine was designed and built for working professionals. It had more power, better build quality and “top 10 percent” features for the users who needed it—or at least wanted to pay a lot more for it. Now, it’s just a brand.

It’s true that the unibody MacBooks were more like their brawnier “Pro” siblings than ever before—it was even the rationale behind our dual review. But there were still very real dividing lines between them: Most importantly, Pro machines had dedicated graphics cards. As of yesterday, that’s not true. The $1700 15-inch Pro doesn’t have one, and none of 13-inch newly designated Pro models have them either. Also, what kind of professional machine lacks a removable battery, anyway? (Swapping out batteries is how we got through the back-to-back Nintendo and Sony keynotes at E3 this year, though admittedly, the significantly improved battery life might be part of the answer.)

Don’t get us wrong, we love that Apple brought many of the Pro hallmarks down to their consumer machines, like the aluminum chassis, and that now high-end Apple laptops are more affordable than ever. But now real pros probably won’t even look at most of the Pro line.

The new products also don’t show how special you are for paying the most to buy the best. The cheap models and the pricey ones are identical. Your crazy high-end 32GB iPhone 3GS looks just like that other guy’s $99 iPhone 3G. Every unibody MacBook is now a Pro—whether you spend $1200 or twice as much. The old distinctions have been erased.

A leveling of class distinctions in Apple products is going to sting people who valued the affectation of elitism that came with using Apple’s top-of-the-line products. Even subtle differences—like the premium paid for the matte black MacBook over the otherwise identical shiny white one, were signals, beamed out to the others in the coffee shop, declaring who was “da boss.” You know, the guys who wore the white earbuds with pride five years ago. Admittedly, sometimes those guys need a left hook to the kidneys (and sometimes, we are those guys). Maybe it’s good to make the best technology accessible to everybody, with no indicators of who paid more for what.

Maybe Apple is trying to create good design that works for anyone and everyone. I can respect that. Still, the question remains: Does this make rich people look like poor people, or poor people look like rich people? The privileged must know.

The DRI Technical Notebook Sleeve is the newest addition to the DRI Technical luggage collection from Kena Kai. The rugged-chic bag is gray with an orange outline and comes with a removable shoulder strap.

The DRI is made from a tarpaulin material with heavy-duty nylon webbing for strength and durability. A welded seam technology helps protect whatever you put inside it from water, and the bag’s roll-top closure further protects your notebook. Inside is a padded inner lining that keeps your notebook safe and in place.

I carried the 15.4-inch DRI around for a while, mostly on rainy days, to test out the waterproof claim, and it did the job. The notebook stayed dry and safe in the bag. One issue I had was that the shoulder strap was uncomfortable; it’s too thin. As its name implies, the bag is best used as a sleeve.

The DRI Technical Notebook Sleeve is available in three sizes: Netbook, 13.3-inch, and 15.4-inch–priced at $34.99, $39.99 and $44.99, respectively, at Kena Kai.

Post by Iman  Edwards

Hewlett-Packard and its Compaq division said Thursday that the company would recall approximately 70,000 notebook PCs because of a risk that the battery could overheat.

Two reports of those lithium-ion batteries overheating were supplied to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, which is overseeing the recall. Minor property damage was recorded.

 The affected models were sold between August 2007 through March 2008. Models that can contain a recalled
battery include:

Last night I discovered an incredibly dumb — and what I consider to be dangerous — setting enabled by default in my unibody MacBook Pro. In the Bluetooth preferences, it’s the box checkmarked “Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer.” Sounds innocent enough, but it could’ve killed my computer.

Here’s what happened: I was in a rush to leave the office to meet a colleague for coffee, so I closed my MacBook Pro and threw my Bluetooth mouse into my laptop bag. After my coffee meeting, I ended up at a bar and took my notebook out to quickly check my e-mail. It was scalding hot all over, and when I opened the lid I was greeted with the gray screen of death. And I realized my notebook, though closed, was still on for hours — the heat insulated by my bag.

After checking the Apple support forums I found a thread where a user reported the exact same problem, and it turned out it was because his Bluetooth mouse was left on in his bag, too; he remedied the issue by unchecking the default Bluetooth setting. I was relieved that the solution was so simple, but I was still pretty concerned that this was a default setting in the first place.

Imagine if I hadn’t checked my notebook for a few more hours. That could’ve caused a serious burn injury, or at worst, a fire. True, it was my own negligence to not turn off my Bluetooth mouse before throwing it in my bag, but I think it’s reasonable to assume many people have done the same thing. (Heck, I often don’t turn off my Bluetooth mouse when it’s on my desk at home, as it shuts down when it’s inactive. Clearly it’s not the same when your mouse is in your bag and you’re keeping it on by walking around.)

Also, I say it’s unintelligent that this feature is turned on by default because for notebooks, it’s useless. Usually when we sleep our notebooks, we close the lid. On a MacBook, opening the lid wakes it back up automatically. There’s no need to use the Bluetooth mouse to wake up the notebook. This setting should certainly not be turned on by default.

MacBook users? If you own a Bluetooth mouse, disable this setting now. Have you seen any other strange settings turned on by default that I should disable? Feel free to point them out in the comments below.

Photo: WzaHk/Flickr