Hasta La Gadget!

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got a 500GB ioSafe Solo on offer, ideal for protecting even your most intimate interoffice love letters from hell and high water. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Big thanks to ioSafe for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) 500GB ioSafe Solo external hard drive. Approximate retail value is $199.98.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Monday, July 27th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Continue reading Engadget’s recession antidote: win a 500GB ioSafe Solo!

Filed under: Storage

Engadget’s recession antidote: win a 500GB ioSafe Solo! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got a swank GigaPan Epic Imager on offer, ideal for capturing those landscapes in ways you’ve only dreamed about. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Big thanks to GigaPan for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) GigaPan Epic Imager. Approximate retail value is $299.99.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, July 24st, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Continue reading Engadget’s recession antidote: win a GigaPan Epic Imager!

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets

Engadget’s recession antidote: win a GigaPan Epic Imager! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Love ’em or hate ’em, Apple knows how to sell, and sell big. As we tune into the company’s fiscal 2009 third quarter conference call this afternoon, we’re told that it has just recorded its “best non-holiday quarter [in terms of] revenue and earnings” in company history. This, mind you, was recorded during what most say is the worst recession since the Great Depression. All told, Apple netted a quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, and international sales accounted for a staggering 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue. The outfit continued to steamroll the competition in MP3 sales, moving 10.2 million iPod units in the quarter; of note, that was a seven percent decrease from last year, but given that fact that we’re getting ever-closer to a saturation point with these things, we aren’t too shocked to hear it.

The company also confessed that the iPhone and iPod touch was cannibalizing traditional iPod sales (defined by Apple as the “shuffle, nano and classic”), but so long as those purchases stay within the realm of Apple, we’re sure it doesn’t much mind. The firm was also quick to boast of a 626 percent increase in iPhone sales from this quarter a year ago, but considering that its handsets were only available in a handful of nations then compared to scores of countries now, we still maintain that next quarter’s iPhone sales will be the real measuring stick. Still, Peter Oppenheimer — Apple’s senior vice president and Chief Financial Officer — did admit that the company was currently unable to meet iPhone 3GS demand in virtually every country where Apple is shipping it to. Which is funny, since we haven’t heard of too many Americans that are still having trouble locating one. When talking about iTunes, we were reminded of the 1.5 billion total applications downloaded from the App Store, while some eight billion jams had been purchased (both since launch). In fact, Apple claimed that it was “years ahead” of rivals when comparing the App Store all those other application markets. Finally, Mac sales scooted up some four percent with a grand total of 2.6 million unit sold, which went down as the company’s best-ever June quarter in terms of personal computer sales.

When asked (again) about the possibility of Apple introducing a netbook, we were reminded that Apple “isn’t out to make the most computers, just to make the best computers.” Furthermore the suits at the company have yet to figure out how to build “the best” at the “$299, $399 or $499” level, once again extinguishing any hope of a low-cost Mac laptop anytime soon. He went on to say that “some customers buying these [netbooks] become disappointed / disenchanted,” asserting that Apple is simply striving to make the “best, most innovative” machines and “give customers the most value.” To quote Mr. Oppenheimer when responding to a question over an iPod-like device with a larger screen:

“I never want to discount anything in the future and never want to talk about new products. People want a full-featured notebook, some of the netbooks being delivered are very slow, have software technology that is old, don’t have a robust computing experience, small display, cramped keyboard, I could go on but I won’t. We’ll only play in things where we can be very innovative and be proud of.”

Okay Apple, we get it — you’re not interested in the netbook space. Gosh.

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops

Apple bucks recession, records best non-holiday quarter in company history originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For a device that took a solid year to go from “debuting at E3” to “shipping,” we’re pretty surprised to see that Nintendo’s Wii MotionPlus held as much steam as it did. With overall video game sales dropping in June for the first time since 2000 (when looking at year-over-year figures, anyway), the Big N still had a few hundred thousand reasons to smile. Aside from the 361,700 Wii consoles and 766,500 DS units that shipped in June, the company also managed to sell 169,000 Wii MotionPlus dongles — and that’s not including the ones that were packaged with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, of which 272,400 units were sold. The real kicker, however, is that the accessory’s real partner in crime (that’d be Wii Sports Resort) has yet to be released. It’s good to be king, ain’t it Mario?

Filed under: Gaming

Nintendo’s Wii MotionPlus selling well, and Wii Sports Resort ain’t even out yet originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got an OWI Robotic Arm Kit on offer. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Huge thanks to OWI for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) OWI Robotic Arm Kit. Approximate retail value is $53.95.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Saturday, July 18th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Robots

Engadget’s recession antidote: win an OWI Robotic Arm Edge! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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