Gadget Access

Posted Jan 15th 2008 5:48PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Cellphones, Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment
iPhone / iPod touch updates

• The iPhone 1000 SMS limit is now lifted! Huzzah!
• You can now “pre-type” with two thumbs on v1.1.3 now (i.e. type, type, lift thumb, lift thumb — instead of the usual type, lift, type lift, which is a big slow-down). Thanks Dan L.
• Gmail IMAP is now officially supported! Thanks, Niall.
• iPod touch can still geolocate, but using Skyhook only (since, naturally, it doesn’t have cell tower access like the iPhone + Google).

Apple TV updates

• The update adds AirTunes support for the Apple TV for streaming directly to the device.
• Your average HD movie download for the ATV is going to be about 4GB — but if you’ve got a reasonably fast connection it should start streaming and playing within a minute.
• Standard SD movies should be a bout 1.2GB.
• Just to be clear about how rentals work, they can’t move OUT of the Apple TV if acquired ON the ATV. If you need to finish your movie on the go but bought from ATV, you have to rent it again on iTunes with your computer.
• You’ve also now got “favorites,” which act as pseudo-subscriptions. These aren’t synced or the same as the subs in iTunes.
• Front Row is NOT undergoing any UI changes (at this time). Don’t expect it to look the same as the new Apple TV.
• Search isn’t alphabetical, it’s predictive and recommendation based. So if you’re looking up a letter, the results will seem out of order, but will actually be calculated to be the most likely hit based on popularity.
• There’s Dolby Digital 5.1, as we saw, but otherwise there are no codec changes in the ATV.

Head this way for even more on the new Apple TV and iPhone / iPod touch v1.1.3 updates:

Apple TV Take 2 hands-on
More details on Apple’s iTunes movie / HD rentals

Video: iPhone firmware 1.1.3 doing its thing
The skinny on iPhone and iPod touch firmware 1.1.3
iPhone firmware 1.1.3 update announced: it’s just like we heard

Posted Jan 15th 2008 11:57AM by Chris Ziegler
Filed under: Laptops, Wireless
Not a bad turnaround time — Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, ratified just a few months back by the Bluetooth SIG, has found its way into the MacBook Air’s unnaturally thin shell. This should lead to improved (read: quicker) pairing, better battery life, and improved security over 2.0. Only trick is to find a few other 2.1 devices, of course.

Posted Jan 15th 2008 4:23PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Laptops
We’ve got word back from Apple on MacBook Air battery replacement. The good news is a new MBA battery is the same as a new MacBook Pro battery: $129. And hey, installation is even free! The bad news hasn’t changed though, you’ll still likely have to hand over your machine to Apple until they can get the new battery installed. Who knows, maybe they’ll roll out a program for end-user battery installation.

The Palm Centro smartphone is now available in pink (in addition to red and black). I’ve been enamored of the red Palm Centro ever since I realized that the iPhone is not really an adequate replacement - all by itself, that is - for my Treo (I need my Palm applications back). But now I find that I like this pink one - it’s not a Paris Hilton hot pink or an old lady powdery pink, but a sleek metallic pink. Normally $399, but you can get it for just $99 with a new wireless plan.

Posted Jan 15th 2008 2:11PM by Joshua Topolsky
Enjoy the wiggling icons and the new links to webapps. We have to admit, the new Google Maps features are pretty sweet, what with all the hybrid mapping and location finding, though we guess that the other additions like rearranging icons might be more exciting had we not “done things” to our phones already. Honestly, we were really hoping for a peek at the SDK, but Steve gave us nothing. At least you can admire these tasty photos.

Gallery: Apple iPhone firmware 1.1.3 hands-on

Posted Jan 15th 2008 8:41AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Announcements
Got your final Macworld predictions in? Excellent. Steve takes the stage and the show gets started in just a couple of hours now, so run off that DO NOT DISTURB sign on the office printer while you still have a chance.

07:00AM - Hawaii
09:00AM - Pacific
10:00AM - Mountain
11:00AM - Central
12:00PM - Eastern
05:00PM - GMT / London
06:00PM - Paris
08:00PM - Moscow
02:00AM - Tokyo (January 16th)

Where you need to be:
Live Steve Jobs Macworld keynote
All Macworld 2008 coverage [RSS]

Back when I was younger an awesome move came out that introduced me to James Bond. That movie was Goldeneye, and sadly there hadn’t been a movie featuring 007 in over six years, so I was only vaguely familiar with the character at the time. While the movie was great, the corresponding video game was better. I doubt that there are few people who owned a Nintendo 64 that didn’t lose many nights of sleep trying to attain the coveted 007 Agent mode.

Unfortunately, the game is over a decade old, and my Nintendo 64 has been out of commission for some time. I’ve thought about getting a new one so I can revisit classics such as this, however, it was recently confirmed that the game would be re-released on Xbox Live Arcade. Unfortunately it was also put on hold indefinitely in almost the same breath.

Many rabid fans would ask why the game has been shelved, and depending on who you ask, you can get some very different answers. The first rumor that was buzzing around said that Nintendo and Microsoft were squabbling about profits. The latest word from Microsoft is that Saoru Iwata of Nintendo doesn’t want the game released on a competitor’s console, as it was originally and exclusive for the N64.

Honestly, I could care less what the issue is. There have been rumors of the game getting re-released for too long. I think I speak for many gamers when I say that these companies need to find some middle ground and get this game out the door.

Source: Kotaku

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We are getting close now…the Apple Store is down now, a prerequisite to anything newsworthy coming out of Job’s jowls.  What will be outed today?  Hinted at?  And how about that “one more thing”? 

I’ve no freaking idea, but I am as giddy as a schoolgirl.  So, I’ll leave it to the Apple experts over at Appletell to let me know.  You can check out their best guesses, er predictions here.

Remember, you can also catch the live blog at Appletell as well.  We’ll talk about the big stuff here at Gadgetell, rest assured, but if you live and breath the Apple life, check out Appletell’s in depth coverage.  Throwing a Digg their way doesn’t hurt either.

Posted Jan 15th 2008 8:03AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: LaptopsWell here you have it. After the rumors surfaced back in July, Acer is offering Ubuntu 7.10 as a pre-load on their 14.1-inch Aspire 4315-100508C model with 1,280 x 800 resolution, 1.86GHz Celeron M 540, 512MB memory, 80GB disk, and DVD optical drive. Better yet, the price is just NZ$699 — that’s $553 in US greenbacks. The offer appears to be good in New Zealand only for the moment. Toe dipping the consumer waters are we Acer?

[Via Geekzone]

Beam It Up Scotty. Funski name for a clever little application which lets you convert, compress and upload files to any mobile phone. Why you ask? Well, for one thing it’s a great way to transfer files from your computer to a remote friend’s cell phone. Physically remote of course, not emotionally…oh never mind.

We uploaded a 24 MB .avi file, and it was a fast and painless process. Once the file is uploaded, if it’s video you can optimise (i.e. compress) it for the iPhone or for low or high quality 3gp on the fly. The service will then send an SMS to the target phone with a link to download the file. All files are stored for a month.

Although the service is free, it’s a shame that they automatically cut video and audio length back to 5 minutes, especially when you remember that YouTube vids have a max run time of 10 minutes. Ah well, still a good effort all round, and very useful.

 Beam It Up Scotty is a service that allows anybody to quickly send their favorite image, audio or video file to their cellphone. It will be automatically converted into a cellphone compatible file format. After the file has been uploaded to our system, you can choose to compress it to reduce download time and transfer costs. After conversion, we will send an SMS/text message with a download link to your cellphone. Using this link you can download the file to your phone.