Hasta La Gadget!

You may or may not be aware, but Apple has a penchant for announcing new iPods in early September, as it has for years. With just over four weeks to go before the most likely (but nigh confirmed) press event week is upon us, expect the rumor mill to ratchet up appropriately. Here’s one care of Mac Rumors; the gang’s been sent some pictures from parts supplier iPhonerevivers that allegedly show a new iPod touch LCD screen And sure enough, in place of an earpiece is a slot perfectly suited for that oft-rumored (and possibly email-based) front-facing camera. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this piece — the resemblance to early July’s leak doesn’t escape us — but these photos are decidedly fresh and from a different source. Mounting evidence… or are we all just being had? Wouldn’t surprise us if we found out for sure before ides of September.

Apple iPod touch LCD screen with front-facing camera slot spied? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was almost exactly a month ago that we reported on swirling rumors of Microsoft pulling together a multitouch-capable mouse to call its own, while earlier this week we saw the company’s Twitter feed enlivened with teasers of a mysterious new touch-input device. Coincidence? No chance, says Neowin, whose insider source confirms the Arc Touch Mouse moniker and also adds that launch is expected in September. It’s said this peripheral will come with just basic touch functionality initially, with multitouch presumably being thrown in via a later update. Sounds like Microsoft’s version of the Magic Trackpad, though the Mouse part of its name suggests it’ll also be able to track around your desktop like a more conventional rodent as well. That’d certainly offer more versatility than the stationary Apple option, but we have our doubts about the ergonomics of using a flat mouse over long periods of time. More should be known soon, provided @msfthardware keeps feeling loquacious.

Update: Never mind waiting for MSFT to tell us, the Arc Touch Mouse has appeared in a reseller’s price list with an MSRP a few cents south of $70 — right in line with Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse pricing.

Continue reading Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse rumor resurfaces, expected in September for $69.95 (updated)

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse rumor resurfaces, expected in September for $69.95 (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look familiar? We know, it’s tough to keep this endless barrage of Android gear straight, so let us refresh your memory: this phone, allegedly the HTC Paradise, matches up perfectly with a model PC70110 that we spied in the FCC all the way back in April on its way to AT&T. Sure enough, some lucky dude apparently scooped it up as an “AT&T sample” from an eager seller on Craigslist recently — and considering that the only QWERTY Android device that the carrier’s got right now is the Backflip, we’d be delighted to see it come along any day now. That’s not the only unreleased piece of hardware he managed to score, though: turns out he also got the Fiesta, a phone we haven’t heard about in a full year and could very well have fallen on the scrap heap by now. The picture provided of the Fiesta isn’t that great (check the Source link to see it), but from what we see and the fact that it’s got a 3.2 megapixel camera, our guess is that it’s been supplanted at retail by the Aria. At any rate, good to see AT&T seems to be keeping the heat on Android.

HTC Paradise and Fiesta flipped on Craiglist, AT&T-bound? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Apple acquired Lala, the obvious use for all that local scanning and internet streaming technology would have been to serve up our hard-drive-based iTunes music libraries from the cloud. Here we are though, eight months later, and the only significant impact from the acquisition was the closure of the Lala music service. And it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon. According to an investigative piece by CNET, Apple is telling the big-four music execs that it won’t be offering any significant cloud-based music offerings within the next few months. In fact, CNET‘s sources claim that Apple still hasn’t obtained the licenses required to store and distribute music via a cloud-based service. So what’s Apple doing with all that Lala talent then? According to CNET, the team has been working on an “undisclosed video feature” instead of music. Additional sources at the major film studios claim that Apple plans to create “digital shelves” this year letting iTunes users store movies and other media on Apple’s servers. Hmm, does that sound like Keychest to you?

Naturally, all of this makes sense in light of Apple’s plan to open a 500,000 square foot data center (pictured above) in North Carolina later this year at a cost of $1 billion. What better facility to serve up 99 cent streaming TV rentals to a completely overhauled Apple TV in the home, and highly mobile iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone devices on the go. Anecdotally, it’s not like Apple’s showing too much concern with storage limits on its iOS devices — the iPhone 4 just launched in the same 16GB and 32GB offerings as the 3GS instead of the typical doubling of flash storage we’ve come to expect from new iPhone iterations. So really, the question isn’t if, it’s just a matter of when.

Original image courtesy of Cult of Mac

Apple’s Lala music team working on video streaming service for 2010 launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were secretly hoping that RIM’s acquisition of the blackpad.com domain name was nothing more than a joke (or a preventative measure, at worse), but it sure sounds as if that’ll be the name the folks in Waterloo go with come this winter. According to unnamed sources who have unloaded new information to Bloomberg, RIM’s first tablet will actually be “introduced in November,” though there’s no clear indication as to when it’ll ship. Said sources have also stated that the device will sport a 9.7-inch display, inbuilt WiFi and Bluetooth, and a downright comical Blackpad label. We get the BlackBerry link and all, but really? Here’s hoping for a last minute change of heart.

[Thanks, Simon]

RIM’s 9.7-inch Blackpad rumored for November launch — yes, Blackpad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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