Hasta La Gadget!

Seagate has been pushing the areal density envelope for years now, but by and large, these “developments” we hear about typically fade into the cold, harsh winter night without ever amounting to anything tangible. Not so this go ’round, with the company confirming to Thinq (and reaffirmed on our end) that it will be “announcing a 3TB drive later this year.” If you’ll recall, 2TB drives have held the crown for the world’s largest since early 2009, and if all goes to plan, we’ll be able to buy drives 50 percent larger than even those before the dawn of 2011. The company didn’t talk details — we’re still left to envision a price, release date and spindle speed — but it didn’t hesitate to mention a few issues that users with older operating systems may encounter. Essentially, you’ll need to have a rig that’s fully capable of handling the Long LBA (logical block addressing) standard, which means that you’ll need updated drivers, an updated BIOS and either a 64-bit copy of Vista, Windows 7 or “modified version of Linux.” As you’d expect, Windows XP users needn’t pay this platter any mind, and while Seagate is hopeful that industry players will all rally in short order to support the new HDD, there’s still a chance that these growing pains will lead to delays. What we’re most jazzed about here, crazily enough, isn’t the predictable jump in capacity — it’s the fantasies of über-cheap 2TB drives once they fall from the top.

[Thanks, JC]

Seagate confirms 3TB hard drive for 2010, possible 32-bit OS issues originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 May 2010 17:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PC maker Acer has been saying for months that it will launch laptops loaded with Google’s Chrome OS in the second half of the year. Now, rumors say Acer Chrome OS gadgets will debut next month, much sooner than most industry watchers would have bet.

Acer is likely to introduce its Chrome OS products at the Computex trade show in Taiwan held June 1 to June 5, multiple sources told VentureBeat.

If true, the move will mark a significant step for Google in the PC industry. Google introduced Chrome OS in November as a lightweight, browser-based operating system that would boot up in seven seconds or less. Google said the first Chrome OS netbooks would be available late 2010.

Soon after, Acer’s president of IT products division Jim Wong said his company is “aggressively pursuing” to become one of the first PC makers to offer Chrome devices. Acer said it expects to launch its products in the second half of the year, and it expects to ship one million Chrome devices in 2010.

Acer hasn’t mentioned pricing for its Chrome OS netbooks. But recently Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he expects Chrome OS netbooks to cost between $300 and $400, coming in line with devices running Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Acer might be the first to release Chrome laptops, but it probably won’t be long before companies such as Asus and Lenovo follow.

See Also:

• Acer Plans a Million Chrome OS Netbooks, New E-Reader
• Mock-ups Show a Google Chrome OS Tablet
• Chrome OS Netbooks For Under $400, Says Google
• Google Chrome OS: Ditch Your Hard Drives, the Future Is the Web …

Photo: (nDevilTV/Flickr)

Apple’s supposedly confidential agreement with AT&T was not a secret after all: They struck a five-year exclusivity contract to carry the iPhone in 2007, an old court document reveals. Still, the validity of the contract remains a question.

An ongoing class action suit filed against Apple and AT&T in 2007 alleged that the two parties held a monopoly over the iPhone by locking consumers into a contract for an indefinite amount of time. However, Engadget’s Nilay Patel discovered that Apple filed a brief in October 2008 citing a USA Today article, which says Apple and AT&T struck a five-year agreement for the iPhone in 2007.

“AT&T has exclusive U.S. distribution rights for five years — an eternity in the go-go cellphone world,” the USA Today article dated May 23, 2007 wrote. “And Apple is barred for that time from developing a version of the iPhone for CDMA wireless networks.”

That would imply AT&T will be the exclusive U.S. carrier of the iPhone until 2012, which comes at odds with persistent rumors that Apple’s contract with AT&T expires this year and that a Verizon iPhone is due this fall. However, Engadget’s Patel notes that the contract could very well have been amended since then. Also, it’s unclear whether the contract would only apply to a specific model of the iPhone (first- or second-generation, for example). If that were the case, it would still open doors for Verizon to carry a brand new model of the iPhone.

Rumors of a Verizon iPhone gained more credence in March when The Wall Street Journal, which has a solid track record for Apple rumors, was tipped about a CDMA-compatible iPhone scheduled for mass production in September. CDMA is the standard used by Verizon.

Also, just today, tech blog Crunchgear claims it received a tip that advertising company Landor Associates is already preparing an ad campaign for a Verizon iPhone. Crunchgear has been an unreliable source of Apple rumors, according to MacRumors’ Arnold Kim, but the idea of an ad agency leaking information is plausible.

See Also:

• Analyst Predicts Verizon iPhone Announcement Next Week
• Verizon to Apple: We Want the iPhone
• WSJ: Apple to Produce Verizon iPhone in September
• Verizon iPhone ‘Unlikely’ in 2010, Says Analyst
• Verizon iPhone Could be Here Next Year
• Verizon iPhone Could Arrive Next Year After All
• Verizon Attacks the iPhone, Hints at Upcoming Droid

Photo: Fr3d/org/Flickr

MacRumors has been playing the old “dig inside the software update for treasure” game again, and has indeed come up with some booty. This time, it’s the latest iPhone OS4 beta, and the nugget inside is these two lines of text which suggest a new iPhone will shoot 720p hi-def video:

>AVCaptureSessionPreset640×480

>AVCaptureSessionPreset1280×720

If the allegedly stolen Gizmodo iPhone was the real thing (and it probably is) then this better-quality video recording matches up nicely with what looked like an improved stills camera. And in practical market terms, there’s only so much even Apple can get away with when it comes to cameras. It seems almost every other smartphone these days shoots 720p, so the iPhone really needs to keep up.

Next iPhone to Record 1280×720 HD Video? [MacRumors]

Photo illustration: Charlie Sorrel

Render plus logo does not a new phone make, but that didn’t keep us from admiring the ridiculous form factor on this supposed Nokia C2. While the ‘C’ label puts the device squarely in dumbphone territory and the only specs available (320 x 240 display, 2 megapixel camera) don’t belabor that point, split-horizontal keyboards have a special place in our heart, and we eagerly await their return. That said, Nokia better get cracking if they want to beat the MOTOSPLIT — the way we see it, they’re one whole leaked, possibly fake render behind the competition.

Nokia C2 render spins QWERTY right round originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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