Gadgets Future

Metal Gear Solid 4 is taking so long that maybe the 5G ipod was current when it was time to render Solid Snake’s mp3 player. Or maybe Snake just likes to keep things old school. Either way, these screenshots from the show yet another video game cameo appearance from Apple.

Metal Gear Solid 4’s Extensive Product Placement [Game|Life]

If we take a statement from Intel Germany’s CEO, mix in a little internet rumor and season with a salty sprinkling of speculation, we come up with an Apple Internet Tablet. Here’s the first ingredient, machine translated from ZDNET, Germany:

Germany-World’s managing director Hannes Schwaderer today confirms what has long been a rumor on the Internet […]: namely, that there is an iPhone with Intel’s new nuclear-chip type. The device is slightly larger than the current version, Schwaderer. This is not the Intel chip, but to the larger display in the new iPhone is used.

For “Nuclear Chip” read “Atom”, Intel’s 45nm x86 chip intended for UMPC use. Apparently, this will not be a replacement for the current iPhone, but an addition, like the MacBook Touch we last dreamed about back before MacWorld in January.

ZDNET thinks that the screen will sport a 720 x 480 pixel resolution, which suggests a mini-tablet sized device (the current iPhone’s screen measures 320×480 pixels). That puts it close to the Eee PC’s 800×400 resolution. A high-res, always connected tablet with movies, music and the Mac OS? Goodbye, Kindle.

UPDATE: The German blog fsck spoke to Intel’s Mike Cato about this statement. It turns out that it was more speculation thanconfirmation (cleaned up from machine translation):

Intel’s press spokesman Mike Cato made clear to me that the statement made by Hannes Schwaderer so definitely not taken. Rather, Intel has used (and in this case is Mr. Schwaderer) the iPhone as a long time example for the entire category of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), that the Atom increasingly has to stop. Whether the iPhone, or other device from Apple’s mobile wireless platform will use Atom still remains open.

iphone comes with a larger display and Intel nuclear [ZDNET via MacRumors]

Apple’s second-biggest event of the year, its Worldwide Developers Conference, is drawing near. That means it’s time for the tech media’s traditional heap of speculation and wishful thinking, hammered into the constraints of a numbered list. So with no further ado, here is Wired.com’s list of the top events to expect at WWDC 2008, June 9-13 in San Francisco.

What’s that you say? You’d like to go? Hope you already bought your tickets, because WWDC is already sold out. Fortunately, you can see the future right here on Gadget Lab.

Disclaimer: ninety percent of what is written below (or on any gadget blog) will turn out to be far from the mark or just plain wrong, but hey, if we don’t make a guess, we won’t get anything right.

1. 3G iPhone

We expect this one at least to come true. The stock of current iPhones has dried up. Even the Mothership has run out, and orders are being filled with by a combination of rationing (AT&T is limiting orders to one per customer) and recycling (AT&T is selling reconditioned handsets). The rumors are whirling around us like trailer park dogs in a twister, and seemingly every telco in the world is announcing deals with Apple, bringing the potential market of the iPhone to 500 million.

What to expect? Well, 3G is all but certain. GPS would be nice, although it isn’t a standard part of the Infineon chip (pdf) expected to power the iPhone 2.0. The software we mostly know about because the SDK is out there in use and leaking new information almost daily. A proper camera is essential: The crappy 2 megapixel camera in the current iphone is not much more than an afterthought; the new one should at least have video.

A month ago we asked you what you would like to see and you came up with some crackers: Radio (never), Bluetooth for headphones (maybe), MicroSD slot (yeah, right) and a real keyboard (never!)

Expect the 3G iPhone to become available right around June 15, which is when AT&T employees have been told not to take a vacation (presumably, to deal with the iPhone demand).

Likelihood: 10/10

2. Proper New MacBook Pro

Up until we broke the news of the macbook air (one day before it first slid from a manilla envelope), many people were predicting a new 12" MacBook Pro to replace the beloved 12" PowerBook of old. Apple refreshed the aging pro notebook line in February, but apart from some multi touch love under the hood, there wasn’t much change. In fact, the MacBook Pro is almost exactly the same in looks as the original PowerBook G4, announced back in January 2001. It’s time for a change.

We expect a big multi touch trackpad, the new chiclet-style keyboard, an almost bezel-less screen (which should bring the overall size down despite still having a 15" screen) and perhaps some 3G connectivity (Apple has so many deals with cellphone networks now that an international rollout of an always-on connection is feasible). We’ll probably see a version without an optical drive, too, perhaps with a second hard drive filing the space. And after all the whining about the MacBook Air being a little wussy in its specs, it could be time for Apple to drive home a powerful, well endowed twelve-incher.

Likelihood: 8/10

3. Aluminum MacBook

This rumor has been drifting in the background for a while. If true, expect nothing more than a new case and a multi touch trackpad. White plastic used to be the marker that set the consumer goods apart from the pro gear, but ever since the iMac went all brushed aluminum and the ipod lost its iconic white case, that’s no longer so.

Likelihood: 4/10

4. Internet Tablet

Steve Jobs said that Apple would never make a Tablet Mac. He also said there would never be a video iPod. A Kindle-sized iPod Touch would certainly be a great toy, but would anybody buy it? The iPod Touch is popular because it is a regular sized iPod with a slew of killer features, and people are used to the size. But a MacBook Touch would be a whole new product: too big to fit in a pocket and too small to do any real work (not to mention the lack of a real keyboard). But then, if anybody can take a flailing (read: all current tablet PCs) category and make it attractive, it’s Apple. Remember the iPod?

Likelihood: 1/10

5. Touch Screen Nano
Why not? Ever since Apple got all touchy-feely with the iPhone, touch is showing up everywhere. We don’t expect a full on mini iPod Touch, but an iPod of the current Nano’s size which is all screen on one face is certainly possible. Apple could leave out email and Maps (and the Stocks application – who ever uses that apart from Jobs himself?), but Wi-Fi would be likely, if only for buying tracks from the iTunes Store.

Likelihood: 5/10

Over to you. What would you like to see from El Jobso at the WWDC keynote?

Photo credit: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com.

by Darren Murph, posted May 16th 2008 at 3:40PM
See how easy it is everyone? All that’s required to snag a BlackBerry Bold well before its public release is to become a Grammy award-winning artist, sell out shows worldwide, date a smattering of superstars and convince Fender to create and sell your own branded guitar. While you’re off working on step one, John Mayer is living it up with his brand new blackberry Bold. Granted, he can’t claim to be the very first with said handset, but it’s likely the first completely legitimate edition let loose. Of course, once you’ve landed the Curve and macbook air before everyone else on the planet, snagging a Bold is just child’s play.

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Canon’s new Selphy CP770 is a dye sublimation printer in a bucket. It will output 6″x4″ prints at the rate of one per minute. Did we say it comes in a bucket? The unusual design starts to make sense when you read Canon’s blurb: The printer works with an optional battery for use at picnics and parties, where the bucket is also ideal for carrying fried chicken.

There’s a small 2.5″ LCD screen for previewing before you print and the printer will take input from just about anything: USB, Infra Red, optional Bluetooth and pretty much any memory card in existence. A niche product, to be sure, but a cute one. In a bucket. $150, plus $80 for the battery.

Product page [Canon via TWiP]

While we have already seen the blackberry Bold announced as a soon-to-be AT&T and Rogers handset, up till now we just knew that the Bold would be available “beginning this summer.” It seems the answer to the release date as well as some other interesting tidbits have just been leaked.

While the Rogers release date is still unclear, we can tell you that AT&T will make it available in July for $300. However, in a little more interesting news it seems that the Bold is also headed for T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint just a few months later. They are all set to offer up the Bold beginning in September. Verizon and Sprint customers will have to shell out the same $300 as AT&T customers, however T-Mobile seems to be a slight bit higher coming in at $350.

Of course, these have not been confirmed by any of the carriers, so these dates and prices are still subject to change. Lets at least hope that the T-Mobile price drops just a little, otherwise that seems quite unfair.

Read [InfoSync] Via [EngadgetMobile]

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Remember that awesome looking Acer Aspire Gemstone notebook we covered last March? Well, that baby finally arrived in Acer authorized resellers and retailers all over the US. If you already forgot about it, let us give you a little refresh, the Gemstone Blue boasts of 18.4 (Aspire 8920) and 16-inch (Aspire 6920) LCD displays with fully functional HD cinematic features. If you’re seriously considering getting The Aspire Gemstone Blue 8290 which retails for $1,299 or the 6920 which retails for $849, here’s a brief recap of their features.

Both notebooks boast of an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9500, Mobile Intel PM965 Express chipset, up to 320GB hard drive, integrated Blu-ray disc drive or 8x DVD Super Multi double-layer drive, 6-in-1 card reader, Express Card/54 slot, HDMI port with HDCP support, WLAN, Bluetooth and integrated webcam. For graphics, the 8920 gets a NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GS or NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS, while the 6920 gets a NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS.

Read [Business Wire]

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Whoa.  Hold it right there.  Is everyone drinking fouled cool aid or just gone straight to the rock?  What happened to our little cottage industry this week?  Let’s play “Who’s on Crack” shall we:

Microsoft. Says they hope to earn a 40% marketshare by 2012.  They were at 13% in ‘07.  Verdict?  Crack.

Amazon.  Analyst says the Kindle will sell like hotcakes, er iPods and be a $750 Million business by 2010.  Um, the same Kindle I’ve been making fun of for a while now?  Sorry.  Crack.

CBS buys C|Net. Even forgetting the premium they paid for it, C|Net (contrary to what Om thinks) is a dead brand.  Dead.  Sure they have a big audience but who still goes there for real product info?  I did back in the 90s.  Not since.  Dead.  And yes, Crack.

Icahn to Yahoo: you’re fired. Kudos to Mr. Icahn for standing up what he believes in.  Yangs personal battle with Microsoft seemed to figure into the play and did so at the expense of the talented folks at Yahoo.  I give Jerry Yang the crack here.  Icahn stays on the wagon.  For now.

Apple rumor mill. Kicking into overdrive this week, you’ll see strung out bloggers right and left in the coming weeks ahead. Crazy Intel rumors, retracted or better yet: oh, that never happened…wha?  Intel let the cat out of the bag, crackers.

Touch screen blackberry.  Ah Boy Genius, your photoshopping skills are fantabulous.  If only the real deal looked half as good as your rendering.  I am not sure who, but there is crack involved.

Note for the kids: Gadgetell does not endorse crack.  As far as I know, we endorse nothing.  Except maybe Unicorns.  Doug, Adam, Robert: can I get a ruling on endorsing Unicorns?

Anything to add to this illustrious list?

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Typepad bloggers who use the BlackBerry Curve or the Pearl will have no more reason not to update their blogs a little more often, as Six Apart is bringing its native mobile blogging application to both blackberry handsets. This means that these bloggers can now upload photos, manage comments, as well as draft, edit and post to their Typepad blogs directly from their phone.

Whereas before, BlackBerry users were able to use post to their blogs using their phones’ mobile web browser or the email-to-blog feature, now with Typepad’s native application, they can just do the same task without opening their phones browser. The post-to-blog feature is now embedded as one of menus of the their BlackBerry Curve or Pearl.

With the addition of BlackBerry models into the list of mobile platforms that TypePad supports, including Symbian Series 60, Windows Mobile and Palm, what is now left for Six Apart is an iphone supported application, which it promises to deliver soon.

The Six Apart mobile blogging application for BlackBerry Curve and Pearl is available for download at http://www.typepad.com/mobile.

Via [IntoMobile]

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