Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Podcasts

We’re back, just as promised! This week, Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, and Nilay Patel discuss the finer points of new ASUS laptops, Casio digicams, and a score of other compelling, enthralling, and generally fascinating items that will tickle your braincells and delight your many respectable senses. Sit back, relax, kick off your shoes, crack open a can of Dr. Terrific’s Party Juice, and enjoy the soothing sounds and delightful pseudo-sights of the Engadget Podcast.

Note: We’re waiting on Apple now to get the iTunes feed — and spot in the store — back up and running. Feel free to ping them with requests to make it happen.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, and Nilay Patel
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Professor Murder - Dutch Hex

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Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

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Original post by Trent Wolbe

Filed under: Laptops

Way back in the hazy salad days of 2001, Apple worked up a bold revamp of its flagship laptop line, the Powerbook. The company, in the pursuit of stronger, lighter, more attractive materials, moved from the black plastic casings it had used for its G3 computers to a sleek titanium shell. It was the onset of a new era in Macs. The basic look was clean and simple: squared edges, a roomy and functional layout, the matching pair of stereo speakers to either side of the keyboard, a consistent silver coloring throughout. In 2003, the company refined this design, replacing the titanium with lighter-weight aluminum and heralding in one of the most recognizable and persistent pieces of industrial design in the computer industry. The MacBook Pro (as it became known) has remained largely unchanged in the five years of its existence — in fact, the look and feel of the laptop has become such a staple of the Apple lineup that it’s almost as representative of the company as the Apple logo itself. But five years (or seven in the long view) is an awful long time to see one design, and the user outcry for significant updates has been nearly constant.

Those cries were answered last Tuesday, when the company announced the long-rumored (and badly leaked) refreshes for both the MacBook Pro and MacBook lines. As with most of the modern designs emanating from Cupertino, these are evolutionary — not revolutionary — steps, but they′re drastic in comparison to the stale, familiar versions of our not-so-distant past. Beyond the spit and polish of the Air- and iMac-inspired casings, the company has re-upped the internals as well; new graphics chips, a completely new motherboard design, and some slashing and burning of familiar ports are part of the new packages. So did Apple deliver the goods on what is arguably the most anticipated laptop release in recent memory, or has it failed to meet the absurdly high expectations placed upon it… and is that even possible? Read on to find out.

Continue reading MacBook and MacBook Pro review

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones

Well, we’ve seen the Nokia 5800 Tube’s keyboard, home screen, video player, and uh, Bat-Sonar, so we might as well keep going with these shots of the browser. Kudos to Nokia for delivering something just slightly more impressive this time around than we’re used to from S60 Touch, but we’re still not feeling the super-90s aesthetic — check out those icons at the bottom. We’re still hoping to be blown away when this thing finally launches, but it’s looking less and less likely with each new screenshot.

[Thanks, Marie]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

At this point, we’ve seen the Tube from everyone but Nokia — heck, even Morgan Freeman got a chance to show it off — and it looks like that trend isn’t going to abate any time soon. Another round of in-the-wild shots of the supposed XpressMusic 5800 have popped up (yes, the latest prototype seems to have dropped the “XpressMedia” badge), showing off a pretty uninspiring keyboard that we can only hope has no bearing on the final product. Guess that’s why they haven’t announced this sucker yet, eh? We hope?

[Via The Nokia Blog]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: GPS

In the brave new world of GPS, Nokia and NAVTEQ are one as are TomTom and Tele Atlas. At least that will be the picture within 5 business days. With the European Commission’s “unconditional approval” granted, Nokia can now close the deal on its planned, $8.1 billion acquisition of NAVTEQ.

What makes the whole thing a bit more interesting is that Google signed a long term agreement with Tele Atlas on Monday which gives it access to Tele Atlas maps for use in any of Google’s mobile, desktop, and on-line offerings. A move likely to put Android in even greater competition with Nokia which opted out of the Open Handset Alliance. Good times.

Read — EU approves acquisition
Read — Google’s deal with Tele Atlas

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Storage

LaCie′s bright orange Rugged Hard Disk hasn’t changed much externally since it surfaced over two years ago, but what used to buy you 160GB will now land you a full half-terabyte with dough left over for several In-N-Out runs. The latest Rugged drive packs Hitachi’s 500GB Travelstar 5K500 and still maintains the scratch-resistant aluminum shell and shock-resistant rubber bumper. As for ports, you’ll find a USB 2.0-only edition or a more versatile iteration that includes USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 sockets. Either flavor comes bundled with the company’s Setup Assistant and backup software, and if you’re tired of waiting for 1TB in your pocket, you can make do with this one for just $299.99 / $399.99 depending on your choice of interface(s).

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Prior to today, it had certainly been a hot, hot minute since we’d heard a peep out of GETAC, but here we are peeking the firm’s second new product in as many days. The E100 tablet PC weighs in at just three pounds, but this dainty gizmo reportedly meets MIL-STD-810F and IP54 standards for “durability and protection against dirt, dust, water, motion, vibration, temperature and other factors that would severely damage or disable a commercial-grade PC.” Beyond its tough attire, you’ll find an 8.4-inch SVGA display (optional sunlight readable) with 800 nits of brightness, an 800MHz Intel Stealey processor, up to 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 60 to 100GB shock-resistant hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 and optional WWAN / GPS to boot. Sadly, we′re not even given a clue as to how much this bad boy will cost, but we′ll go ahead and assume “pricey″ to be on the safe side.

[Image courtesy of RuggedPCReview]

 

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Transportation

Just as Toyota saw fit to pimp its own forthcoming plug-in hybrid, General Motors is hitting back with “hopes” to produce a similarly equipped Saturn Vue Green Line in 2010 as well. We know, GM doesn’t have the greatest track record when it comes to delivering on time, but you say what you have to in order to keep up, right? Nevertheless, this vehicle is slated to house a “modified version of GM’s two-mode hybrid system and plug-in technology” along with an obligatory Li-ion, and current testing has shown it able to traverse ten miles at “low speeds″ when running on battery power alone. It’s also stated that the SUV can be fully recharged in just under five hours, but alas, GM isn’t opening its mouth even a little to address pricing expectations. Hit the read link for a gallery of photos — who knows when you’ll see it in the flesh.

 

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Transportation

It sure didn’t take long for folks to jump to conclusions about the inspiration behind GM’s new Hummer HX concept vehicle but — surprise, surprise — the company’s now denying that any such influence exists. According to GM design director Carl Zipfel, the HX wasn′t modeled on Halo’s Warthog but on “modern-day ATVs” — even though he freely admits that both he and several of the vehicle’s designers play Halo. Of course, it’s entirely possible that they’re just saying that now that they’ve realized they’d already been outdone by Chrysler in the subconscious Halo-imitation department.

[Via Digg]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Transportation

We’re guessing some nasty memos have been getting passed around at Hummer headquarters lately since consumers have been going ga-ga over fuel efficient vehicles. Something along those lines may explain a concept vehicle introduced by the company at this year’s Detroit Auto Show: a smaller, lighter, and ᭉ-capable new SUV dubbed the Hummer HX. GM CEO Rick Wagoner lauded the domestically-produced ethanol-based fuel used in the new design, which rings a number of Halo bells, not unlike the Jeep Renegade concept we′ve seen recently. The sport-utility rocks a slew of unique features, including an armored underbelly, customizable LED displays, removable fender flares and roof, and lack of a radio or CD player (it’s only got an iPod dock). Of course, the car is just for show right now — but maybe it’s a sign that the age of fuel-guzzling Hummers is coming to a close… nah, probably not.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: CES

GM spliced and diced a Chevy Volt hydrogen prototype and put it up for the world to see at this year’s 2008 CES. Rocking GM’s fifth generation fuel cell stack en-lieu of a regular gasoline engine, we wouldn’t hold our breath seeing this before the electric version drops in 2010. Peep the gallery below for the full run-down.

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Original post by Dante Cesa

Filed under: GPS

There’s certainly no shortage of GPS devices out there to aid your golf game, but the folks at uPlay seem to think they’ve got one to beat ‘em all, with them even going so far as to tout their new uPro device as the “iPhone of golf GPS technology.” Exactly what earns it that designation, we’re not sure, but the device will let golfers determine the distance to holes from their current location, and give them aerial photography, video flyovers, and details on course hazards, among other things. No word on a price or release date just yet, it seems, but we’d expect those details to be revealed when uPlay shows off the device at the 2008 PGA Show that gets underway in Orlando on January 16th.

 

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Displays

Envision’s 22-inch G218a1 display probably didn’t turn a lot of heads when it was only at Best Buy, and and something tells us the non-exclusive G218c1 won’t capture much more attention, even with the addition of a 1.3 megapixel webcam and integrated microphone. The anonymous black design hides the same internals as the ϋ: 1680 x 1050 resolution, 700:1 contrast ratio, 5ms response time, VGA and DVI-D inputs, and a set of built-in stereo speakers, but the price has been raised to $330. Available now, as are several better and cheaper panels.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Laptops

Tired of waiting for Black Friday? Just plain terrified of getting mauled? If you happen to fit into either of the aforementioned categories, take heart, as Dell’s got you covered. The firm’s 15.4-inch Vostro 1000 — which was listed earlier this year for as low as $449 — has now dipped $50 lower to crack the oh-so-crucial $400 barrier. The all-black lappie features a 1.7GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-53 processor, Windows XP Home Edition, an XGA panel, 120GB 5,400 RPM hard drive, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a DVD writer (with dual-layer DVD+R write capability), ATI’s Radeon Xpress 1150 integrated graphics set, 802.11g WiFi and a four-cell Li-ion battery to boot. Nah, this budget machine won’t satisfactorily churn through any advanced audio / video editing, but we’d bet it can handle Doom just fine.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph