hardware - page 32

‘Conventional Wisdom’ (and the rumor mill) suggest that Apple will remain on the Xenon platform for it’s Mac Pro line. Yet, while browsing Geekbench results, I came across this result indicating an i7 powered Mac Pro 4,1, published less than a Half Hour Ago on Geekbench (which also if we remember broke the existence of i7 powered Mac Book Pro’s a couple of months back).

It’s not too far fetched that Apple might use i7’s in its entry-level Mac Pro. While previously the single and dual processor versions of Apples top box were effectively the same, with the only difference being the number of processors installed, the current version changed that. The current Mac Pro’s have already segmented the line with the entry level being powered by Intel Xeon X3540 processors (which can not be deployed in a dual processor configuration), and the top model being powered by the Intel Xeon X5570.

This split is important because for the first time it require Mac Pro’s to have different motherboards, EFI, etc depending on the variant of the pro machine. Since they’ve already segmented the line based upon architecture, it’s all the more reasonable that they might use the i7 in the low-end Mac Pro.

The only argument against this is performance. As bench-marked, the alleged i7 pro-box scores lower than the current entry model. Turning lemons into lemon-aid however, perhaps this is the mid-level (ie between the Mini and the Mac Pro) tower many of us have been waiting for forever.

Of all the accessories for the iPad, a networked-attached storage device may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but a NAS may actually prove to be very handy.

A NAS allows you to store all your memory-hogging media cheaply and in one place. Instead of buying the more expensive 64GB iPad, which will soon get filled with movies, music and other media, get the 32GB model and invest $100 in Iomega’s iConnect Wireless Data Station.

The iConnect is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to get an iTunes share on your home or office network.

Well, it’s official: as rumored, HP’s own would-be iPad killer, the Slate, is basically just a keyboard-less netbook turned inside out.

In fact, it’s such a underwhelming, bog standard effort compared to the iPad that in a leaked internal document, HP saw fit to highlight the iPad’s advantages over the Slate in red.

Ever since the iPhone’s release, one of the most pervasive criticisms of Apple’s handhelds as dedicated gaming devices have been the device’s lack of analog controls. It’s a criticism that has seemed considerably limper as time goes on and developers have figured out to utilize the iPhone’s touchscreen and accelerometer effectively, but for certain genres like fighting games and twitch shooters, there’s still something be said for the good old d-pad.

If a new Apple patent is anything to go by, Cupertino agrees. They have filed an application for a snap-on D-Pad with control buttons that wraps around an iPhone or iPad to offer more precision gaming.

Interested in picking up an iPad but a couple of bills short? The electronics sweatshops of Shenzhen again come to the rescue with their own counterfeit iPads, completete with WiFi, Bluetooth, 4GB of storage and a cute, knock-off operating system skinned like OS X 10.0.

The company who makes them, Shenzhen Huayi, says their iPad looks like a giant iPhone… although I’m guessing he’s never seen one, since this is a big iPod if I ever saw one.

If you’re a collector of Apple knock-offs or just a poor SOB, the “iPad” can be yours for just $290, and it’ll be available on Saturday simultaneously with the release of the iPad proper.

[via Redmond Pie]

Although his fingers are always yellow with nicotine and his teeth are always brown with Marmite, Gadget Lab’s Charlie Sorrel is my very favorite of secret boyfriends, and it’s mostly due to that wonderfully sinuous memory of his.

The latest fragment of mnemosyne plucked from the pickled depths of Sorrel’s gin barrel mind? Charlie realized that the iPad Camera Connection Kit — Apple’s suggested method for directly transferring your digicam’s photos to your tablet — looks remarkably similar to 2005’s iPod Camera Connector, which allowed you to do the same thing on your iPod Photo (albeit, without the USB dongle). In fact, they look identical.

What that means is that if you happen to have that old, useless iPod Camera Connector dongle collecting detritus in a drawer, you may well just be be able to slap it into your iPad when it’s delivered. Or you may not, but if you ask us, there’s no real reason for Apple to change the tech here when they can just recycle an old piece of hardware for an entirely new generation of device.

Well spotted, Charlie, old top.

Sometimes, I look at my iPhone and, fighting the quell of soul-sickness, remark to myself “Yeah, I guess it’s a pretty good phone, but I wish it had a cord.”

Cords, after all, are very useful things: they allow even the cheapest telephone to enjoy the dual-function of a tethered nunchuck, can be wound tight around you if you get cold and are just eminently necessary if, like me, you happen to be an auto-erotic asphyxiator trying to get through a long distance relationship.

The Desk Phone Dock for the iPhone gives your iPhone back its cord. It’s a docking station featuring two built-in speakers, a microphone, volume control, instant mute, and both USB and AC power sources. Want to call your girlfriend? Just dial her contact, pick up the ivory handset and garrote yourself with abandon as she picks up and remarks in dulcet tones, “I thought I told you never to call me again.”

All joking aside, this is a pretty gorgeous docking station. If you want to use your iPhone like a landline when you’re at work, the Desk Phone Dock isn’t just functional, but its design is totally inkeeping with a Mac-friendly workspace.

The New York Times this morning calls Tony Fadell the “godfather” of the iPod (he’s leaving Apple for greener pastures). But the title should probably go to Jon Rubinstein, the former head of Apple’s Mac and iPod divisions and now CEO of Palm.

The history of the iPod’s development is told here and here, but the short story is:

1. In late 2000, Steve Jobs asked his executive team to look at gadgets people were attaching to the Macs. Perhaps Apple could do a better job of designing them. Videocameras were an obvious candidate, but they were already pretty good. Jobs wasn’t sure Apple could do better. But early MP3 players were a different story — they were horrible.

2. Jon Rubinstein, the head of hardware, hired Tony Fadell to look into making some prototypes, but the project didn’t go into high gear until Toshiba showed Rubinstein a tiny 1.8-inch hard drive it had just developed. They had no idea what to do with it, but Rubinstein did.

3. Rubinstein called Jobs to tell him he’d found the perfect technology for an MP3 player, and he kept Fadell on to oversee the early protoypes. Fadell did such a good job, he went on to become head of the iPod division and eventually took Rubinstein’s job.

As Steven Levy says in his writeup of the iPod’s development, The Perfect Thing:

There is no single “father of the iPod.” Development was a multitrack process, with Fadell, now on staff, in charge of the actual workings of the device, Robbin heading the software and interface team, Jonathan Ive doing the industrial design, Rubenstein overseeing the project, and Jobs himself rubbernecking as only he could.

However, I give credit to Rubinstein, who was at the heart of the development process. He had the initial technological insight, put together the team to develop it, and led the charge to keep improving and updating the device. If there’s a godfather of the iPod, it’s Jon Rubinstein.

If you want to do any serious typing on the iPad, the iPad Keyboard Dock is going to be a must-have accessory… but what if you want to use your existing Bluetooth keyboard? It’ll already work just fine with your iPad just fine, but the challenge is one of positioning. You need some way to prop your iPad up, monitor like, while you type.

The BookArc from TwelveSouth is a parabola of aluminum lined with silicone to slap your iPad into when you want to do some serious typing. Unlike Apple’s own dock, it supports both horizontal and vertical docking, so you can type in any position.

There’s no launch date or price for the BookArc yet, but if the MacBook Arc is anything to go buy, expect it to cost about $50. That’s probably too much when you can just buy yourself any one of the many kickstand-boasting protective iPad cases about to come to market and have all of the BookArc’s advantages while maintaining portability.

When you’re out and about, it usually behooves you to keep a coiled iPod docking cable with you, if just to charge your devices… but they’re easy-to-forget in their ungainliness.

Scosche’s latest product is an elegant solution to the problem of ubiquitous cable possession: the flipSYNC USB charger and transfer cable will juice up and sync your iPhone or iPod when you need it, and when you don’t, it coils up into a keychain about as small as your automobile’s alarm fob.

The flipSYNC is available from Scosche’s official site for only $20.

For years I’ve been shuttling movies and TV shows between Macs at home and work using a portable hard drive.

But now that same drive is hooked to the internet thanks to the Pogoplug, a nifty $129 device that turns any USB hard drive into your own little cloud server accessible over the Internet.

Sitting on a bookshelf at work, the Pogoplug serves up all my files over the Net, even to my iPhone. It’s also going be a great complement to the iPad (arriving Saturday), storing all my media and streaming music and movies over the net without eating up the iPad’s limited memory.

Although it’s never going to replace the iPod in most people’s pockets, Microsoft’s done a lot to overcome the initial missteps with their Zune line of portable media players.

In fact, if not for the overwhelming advantages of the App Store, I’d recommend the Zune HD to people over the iPod Touch. It’s a fantastic media player with a beautiful high-definition screen and a great interface, and it’s available at a wonderfully down-to-earth price: the 32GB Zune HD only costs $199 compared to the 32GB iPod Touch’s price of $299.

Only the Zune platform’s woeful app marketplace makes it a sucker buy for those who want the most of their PMPs: if all you want to do is watch movies or listen to MP3s, the 32GB Zune HD is a great deal.

Now, Microsoft is teasing the imminent release of the 64GB Zune HD. There’s no price available yet, but my guess would be $299, which is $100 cheaper than the 64GB iPod Touch. Whether or not you think that’s a good deal depends a lot on how invested you are in the App Store, but if you’re looking for a great, next-gen PMP at an affordable price, this is one Microsoft product that even an Apple fan can feel pretty good about owning.

Someone just forwarded me this hilarious story about a woman who was pinned to the floor by her Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro is a big, heavy machine and can weigh upwards of 40 lbs. The story circulated on an Apple consultant mailing list recently. Here it is, typos and all:

This is by far one of the funniest tech calls that I have ever recieved. One of my clients called this morning to say she is trapped under her MacPro tower and she needed me to come asap to help her out. I asked “where are you?” and she said “at home not at the studio”. She screamed “just get here!”. So I rushed over there, punched in the key code to get through the gate and entered her house calling out her name. I found her laying flat on her back on the staircase with the MacPro crushing her chest. I ran up there to pull the tower off her and I couldn’t help but to laugh. You see she is this small 4 foot 6 inches middle aged tiny lady. She just didn’t have the strenght to push the tower off. She had this idea to move the tower upstairs but because the tower was so heavy for her, she thought she could pull the tower while laying flat on her back over her body. Crawling the machine slowly up the stairs. It didn’t work. Helped her move the tower upstairs but the tower ended back down stairs anyway. It was just too funny.

So there you have it. Pro tip: Don’t move heavy machines around by putting them on your body and crawling across the floor.

With the update of many of Apple’s pro apps including Final Cut, and Aperture, the hardware they’re designed to run on is starting to feel a little stale.  Certainly the top of the line Mac Pros, still dominate Geekbench scores for the first thousand pages or so,  but for the first time in the Intel era, the MacBook Pro is no longer the dominant laptop.  So too, is the fate of the entry model Mac Pro, which is finding itself out-classes by average gaming rigs on the PC side.

These updates are Waaaaay past due, I know I’ve got both a Mac Pro and  a 17” Macbook Pro in need of an update, but for those of you not staying up every Monday night in the hopes of a Christmas-like Tuesday morning, here’s the skinny:

• Mac Pro: last updated 03 March 2009, 388 days ago. Average release cycle: 236 days.
• Macbook Pro: last updated 08 June 2009, 291 days ago. Average release cycle: 200 days.

Certainly Apple dominates profitability in the computer market, but they do that by staying far, far ahead of the curve in technology, innovation and design.   But that competitive advantage is only sustainable as long as you drive as hard as Apple has historically to stay out front. That’s not happening here with this generation of machines.  This has been the longest wait for Pro Laptops in the Intel era, and so far the second longest wait for a pro tower.

Of course, Steve has words of comfort for the faithful, “Not to Worry” he wrote in response to a like-minded cultist’s query last week.

I’m not worried, Steve. I’d like to say I’m running out of patience, but what choice do I have, really?

…and so the wait continues, see ya on Tuesday…

Pioneer have just unveiled two new high-powered 7.1 SurroundSound AV receivers… both of which come with a homegrown remote app, making them perfect additions to your home theater set-up if you like to do all of your media control through your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Both the VSX-1020-K and VSX-1120-K feature Bluetooth audio streaming, HDMI 1.4 connections for 3D home theater systems, Internet radio support and Dolby ProLogic IIz decoding in the 5.1 channel receivers. For $200 more, the VSX-1120-K includes the Marvell Qdeo video processor, which provides excellent clarity and superb accuracy for the highest quality video switching.

As for the app, iControlAV is Pioneer’s first foray into app development, and predictably allows its flagship AV Receivers to be fully controlled over WiFi.

Unfortunately, there’s no release date available for either model, but the VSX-1020-K starts at $549, and the VSX-1120-K will cost $749.

The iPad certainly hasn’t made the once-untouchable Kindle look cutting edge, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves: the Kindle’s still got some advantages on Apple’s e-reading tablet. For one, the Kindle’s e-ink screen is much easier for long reading sessions than the iPad’s LED-backlit LCD display… and because of the power efficiency of e-ink, the Kindle can go weeks at a time without needing a charge. For a lot of people, the Kindle is going to be good enough, especially for the $259.99 price.

The problem is, while the Kindle has some advantages on the iPad, what it’s doing technologically is easily done for less. Enter the Kobo, a $150 e-reader that smartly shaves a few specs to undercut the already-ailing Kindle by over a hundred bucks.

According to tech apocrypha, after Commodore International released their revolutionary PET 2001 home PC, a couple of scruffy young men named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak plopped down in Commodore’s offices with a cardboard box full of circuit boards and tried to pitch the more established electronics company the first Apple II prototype, a revolutionary home PC with far more advanced color, graphics and sound capabilities. Jobs and Woz had no money, and they wanted Commodore to push the Apple II to market.

Instead, Commodore balked, following up the PET 2001 with the VIC-20 in 1980, and then finally bringing to market the computer they would become best known for: the Commodore 64. Largely thanks to a sub-$200 price drop, It went on to sell 17 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer of all time with an astonishing 30-40% market share between 1983 and 1986. The computer was such a success that was only discontinued in 1994.

Oh, how things change. Now, Commodore International is basically dead, and the company Commodore shuffled out the door is one of the most profitable computer companies on Earth. But after sixteen years, the Commodore 64 has finally raised a mottled hand out of the grave. Can it compete with Apple once more?

My guilty little secret is that my ugly Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook is my favorite Mac laptop.

It’s certainly not the prettiest (a Frankenstein) or the most powerful (a sloth) but it’s the one with the twenty hours of battery life spread between two interchangeable batteries always swinging from a satchel (read: man purse) on my hip.

What was once a lackluster Windows XP lilicomputer is now, thanks to the OSx86 project and this wonderful guide, the one Mac I’m always guaranteed to have on me.

Not content with their DIY touchscreen analysis experiment back in January, the team at Moto Labs have gone one better, and repeated the test with more handheld devices and a fairer test environment.

Novatel have just announced some fantastic new functionality for their wonderful MiFi series of mobile WiFi hotspots: live iPhone and iPod Touch media streaming.

Using any application that supports UPnP/DLNA media steaming for the iPod Touch (e.g. PlugPlayer), the latest update will allow you to stream music and movies to your Apple handset from the MiFi’s microSD card slot.

With microSD cards now coming in capacities up to 32GB, what this means is that you can now pretty easily double the capacity of your media library if you’re willing to pick up a MiFi… and while the MiFi might be a redundant addition to your gadget bag if you’ve got an iPhone 3G, it would be an excellent way to keep your iPod Touch mobile and media rich without signing a two-year contract.

[via Gadget Lab]

In an endless sea of interchangeable memory cards, Eye-Fi has managed to stand out from the crowd by infusing their line of postage stamp sized SD cards with WiFi capabilities… and looking hip while doing so.

Their latest card, the Eye-Fi Pro X2, is a lightning-fast, Class 6 SD card that will wirelessly sync you photos or videos to iPhoto without ever once having to pull out your digicam’s mini-USB cable. The Pro X2 can also automatically upload to MobileMe, Flickr, Evernote, Picasa, Facebook and YouTube through the card’s 802.11n WiFi chip, and it’ll even send notifications automatically by email, Facebook, Twitter or SMS when you’ve uploaded something new. It all happens invisibly as soon as your Eye-Fi card is within range of a hotspot it can connect to.

Eye-Fis are fantastic cards, but they don’t come cheap: the Pro X2 costs $150 for an 8GB card.

At yesterday’s 2010 CTIA Wireless Show in Las Vegas, BlueAnt unveiled their latest iPhone-pairable Bluetooth headset, the T1.

The BlueAnt T1 is aimed less at your average desk jockey than, perhaps, the amorphously-envisaged NASA engineer testing shuttle engines in wind tunnels all day long. BlueAnt’s patented “Wind Armour Technology” promises to provide clear audio even in winds up to 22mph.

Otherwise, the T1’s sealed design promises to keep out dust and moisture, while removable silicon cases protect the headset from drops. Other features include automated caller announce, voice-controlled answering capabilties and A2DP support which will allow you to hear commands from your iPhone’s GPS software, if you’ve got it.

The BlueAnt T1 should be available in May for about $80.

In the wee hours of the morning, Nintendo very quietly announced the successor to its wildly successful line of Nintendo DS gaming handhelds: the Nintendo 3DS.

Following Nintendo’s recent trend of embracing bold and unconventional gaming hardware (e.g. the Nintendo Wii’s motion-sensing controls, or the original Nintendo DS’s dual screen / touchscreen approach) the 3DS, as its name implies, promises to bring full 3D without glasses to handheld gaming.

What’s of interest to the announcement for Apple fans, though, is the timing. Like many tech companies, Nintendo tends to announce its biggest products at industry events. The Nintendo DS is such a wild success for the company, they’d be sure to announce their follow-up handheld at a major expo, such as May’s E3 Expo.

Instead, though, Nintendo chose to announce the 3DS with a terse press release and a promise to give more details in May…. following right on the heels of a report that shows that the iPhone and iPod Touch have claimed 19% of the handheld gaming market from Nintendo, thanks to the App Store, in only 21 months.

This announcement has all the hallmarks of a hastily made pacifying gesture to Nintendo investors alarmed by Apple’s unexpected success in the handheld gaming market: “Don’t worry, we’re not resting on our laurels, we’ve got something new up our sleeves.”

I’m eagerly anticipating E3’s 3DS announcements. My guess is that the App Store has changed the mobile gaming development scene forever, and an integral part to Nintendo’s own strategy will be to extend their WiiWare downloadable games service to the 3DS while opening it up to public submissions.

If your iPhone 3Gs just can’t handle your video needs and you need to get serious without going pro, JVCs latest handheld camcorder, the Everio GZ-HM550, has a lot to recommend it: this is an affordable and lightweight camera capable of shooting at full HD resolution of 1080p.

The Everio GZ-HM550 has excellent specs for the price, including a 10.6 megapixel CMOS sensor, 32GB of inbuilt storage, an SD / SDHC expansion slot, 16x optical zoom and the lesser (but still nice) ability to use the camera to take 9MP still shots.

One of the more interesting ways the Everio GZ-HM550 differentiates itself from the competition, though, is through its integrated Blueooth module, which will allow you to remote control the camera’s play, zoom and record functions through your cellphone, as well as use your phone’s GPS abilities to geotag your videos through Google Earth.

Otherwise, the Everio GZ-HM550 plays well with Macs, allowing videos to be directly exported to iTunes and synced with your iPod or iPhone.

If you’re interested in adding another camera to your bag, the JVC Everio GZ-HM550 is on sale now for just $799.95.

MEDL Technology’s The Panel is a monitor you can travel with: a slim, rechargeable 13-inch monitor that will work with just about any major device over USB… no VGA, MiniDisplay or HDMI port required.

Weighing just 2.2 pounds and lasting over five hours a recharge, the 1280 x 800 LED-backlit Panel will hook up with about any device that can interface over USB, including PCs, Macs, iPhones, Ipods, DVD players, digicams and video game consoles.

This actually looks pretty useful. Not only can you use it as an easily totable secondary monitor, but you could use the Panel to bring lots of not-so-portable machines on the road with you.

Unfortunately, we’re still waiting for a price and release date, which means we’ve probably got a few months to go yet before we use the Panel to bring our Mac Mini to the local Starbucks for its debutante appearance.