Hasta La Gadget!

Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrates iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud at WWDC 2011. (Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com)

Apple may be preparing to release two major products simultaneously this week: upgrades for its MacBook Air subnotebook and Mac OS X Lion, the latest Mac operating system.

The MacBook Air refresh and the arrival of OS X Lion will arrive Wednesday, possibly at 8:30 a.m. EDT, sources told AppleInsider. The tip comes in line with a report last week published by All Things Digital, which also claimed the products would debut sometime this week.

The MacBook Air last got a reboot in October 2010 as a 13.3-inch and an 11.6-inch model with super slim silhouettes: 0.68 inches at their thickest point, to be exact. OS X Lion, which was announced at Apple’s Back to the Mac event and previewed at WWDC 2011, is supposed to marry iOS and OS X, merging some of the more successful features in iOS into their new desktop platform. However, early reviews have not been promising.

The new MacBook Airs will feature backlit keyboards and Thunderbolt ports, like their MacBook Pro big brothers, according to AppleInsider. They’ll also include Sandy Bridge processors and come standard with 4GB of RAM and a minimum of 128GB storage capacity — the better to run OS X Lion with.

Apple’s Steve Jobs last year said that both OS X Lion and the superslim MacBook Air are taking lessons learned from the iPad and rolling them into a PC system. Indeed, Lion will incorporate some characteristics from the iPad with new multitouch gestures and a Launchpad for opening apps, which resembles the iPad’s home screen. The MacBook Air’s long battery life and usage of flash memory also mimic the iPad. These two products symbolize the gradual convergence between PCs and mobile products as traditional laptops become thinner, lighter, more low-powered and more dependent on web-based storage.

See Also:

• Size Does Matter With the 11-inch MacBook Air
• Why Apple Saddled the MacBook Air With Weak CPUs

When Motorola took the wraps off it’s rugged Titanium in May it left out a pair of pretty crucial details — namely price and release date. Thankfully, our friends over at Sprintfeed scored some details and it looks like the “Sturdy and QWERTY” Android handset will be landing on July 24th for $150. Otherwise there’s nothing new to report, you’re still getting the same military-grade resistance to the elements, support for Nextel Direct Connect, and five megapixel camera. Sadly, it’s also still shipping with Eclair leaving this Moto a solid two generations behind the current crop of Google phones. Still, if you need a smartphone with a physical keyboard that can withstand some serious abuse there aren’t too many other options out there.

Update: We just received the image as well from an anonymous source — looks legit!

[Thanks, Jon]

Motorola Titanium coming to Sprint on July 24th for $149, still stubbornly rocking Eclair originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, what do we have here? From the looks of it, we’ve got ourselves launch dates for a slate of new Lenovo tablets. A little note from the outfit’s Affiliate Program, pictured above, shows the Android-packing IdeaPad K1 will, unsurprisingly, debut in late June or July, with a June 28th arrival being pegged for its rumored ThinkPad tablet. What’s more, we could see a refresh of the company’s IdeaCentre nettop coming our way August 30th. Looks like this summer could be a hot one for Lenovo, but we’ll just have to wait and see how things pan out.

Update: We just heard from the folks at Lenovo, and they’re saying the dates here are “no longer valid.” Unfortunately, that sounds like an unwanted delay to us, but we’ll keep you posted as we hear more.

Lenovo ThinkPad, IdeaPad tablets coming later this month? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Jun 2011 11:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As much as we love Google Translate, we’re pretty sure the Nokia N9 won’t be packing a side of gorilla flavored desert when it ships later this year — but that Swedish release date? Sure, we’ll take a salty look. According to an official press release from European carrier 3 Group, Nokia’s flagship handset should be landing in Sweden on September 23, 2011. The PR goes on to tout the N9’s buttonless interface, trio of home screens, and (when properly translated) Gorilla Glass AMOLED screen. Hit the source link to see the PR, in all it’s auto-translated glory, for yourself.

Nokia N9 to ship in Sweden on September 23rd, saith awkwardly translated release originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon may not be shipping HP’s first webOS tablet until July 17th, but why wait? The outfit itself just affirmed that the long-awaited TouchPad will go on sale to eager Americans on July 1st, with the UK, Ireland, France and Germany a few days later (and Canada in mid-July). Following that, a phased rollout will take it to Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore and Spain “later this year.” It’ll be on sale pretty much everywhere for $499.99 (16GB) / $599.99 (32GB) — or £399 / £479 across the pond — with pre-orders starting at your favorite e-tailer just ten days from today. For those looking for a highly connected version HP also made clear that it’ll be partnering with AT&T for a 3G (or will it be “4G?”) edition later in the summer. Head on past the break for a look at the full retail partner list, and yeah, yesterday would be a great time to start saving up.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Official: HP TouchPad ships July 1st in US, 3G model coming to AT&T ‘this summer’

Official: HP TouchPad ships July 1st in US, 3G model coming to AT&T ‘this summer’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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