Archive for October 19th, 2009

Apple‘s fiscal Q4 2009 conference call is just about to begin, but the press release is already out and about. Wondering how Jobs and Company did? Precisely like you thought they would: they’re making out like gangbusters over there. While the rest of the world slowly sees profits inching back up, Apple’s relishing in $1.67 billion worth of net profit it pulled in from $9.87 billion in revenue. A year ago, the outfit managed to post a quarterly profit of “just” $1.14 billion, and we’re also told that gross margin was up 36.6 percent. It should be noted that international sales accounted for a whopping 46 percent of this quarter’s revenue, and Mac computer sales managed to shoot up some 17 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. In keeping with Apple’s own acknowledgment that the standalone iPod is dying, sales of the iconic media player dipped 8 percent year-over-year (10.2 million units were sold), while 7.4 million iPhones were moved representing a 7 percent uptick from this period a year ago.

Stevie J himself is quoted as saying that Apple is “thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” and in case you haven’t noticed, the holiday quarter hasn’t even been completed yet. Oh, and if you were looking for bread crumbs as for what’s on deck, chew on this: “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.” Great new products, you say? Would one of them happen to include some sort of, say, tablet PC?

Catch our updates after the break…

Continue reading Apple reports fiscal Q4 earnings: $1.67b profit, Mac sales way up, iPod sales down, ‘great new products’ for 2010

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops

Apple reports fiscal Q4 earnings: $1.67b profit, Mac sales way up, iPod sales down, ‘great new products’ for 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yanko Design is well known for digging up some of the most amazing, most commercializable concepts on the world wide web, and today the site has finally taken the next logical step. With every awesome mockup comes the inevitable question: “Yo, holmes — where can I buy this?” With the grand opening of the YD Store, you can now exchange your currency for such luxuries as the d°light Huggable Pillow, Magnetic Spice Stand, Sorapot and Cloud Chair. We couldn’t be happier to see some of these incredible designs ushered into the market place, and if you’re feeling the same, you can give that read link a tap to enter a deep, dark world that’s bound to drain your wallet dry. Have fun!

Update: Seems the site is getting battered at the moment, though we’re sure they’re buying more bandwidth as we speak. Right?

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Yanko Design opens store, oodles of concepts now on the market originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As if the consumer electronics world didn’t have enough drama to deal with this week, we’re now hearing that Canon just might be readying a new pro-level DSLR for a Tuesday launch. The long-awaited successor to the EOS 1D Mark III is reportedly on the way, and considering that the Japanese do everything they possibly can to avoid the number four (it’s pronounced the same as the word for death, if you must know), the EOS 1D Mark V is the only plausible candidate. We’re hearing whispers that the Nikon D3S rival will boast a 16 megapixel sensor, 1080p movie mode, 19 selectable AF points and an native ISO ceiling of 25,600 (with a boost to 102,400). The pain? Just under five large, though we’d take all of this with a healthy serving of salt until tomorrow ushers itself in.

[Via Electronista]

Read – Philip Bloom
Read – Canon Rumors

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon’s EOS 1D Mark V DSLR defying death, launching tomorrow? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, would you look at that? With Dell’s 0.39-inch thick Adamo XPS just days from hitting virtual store shelves, the high-end Adamo Desire is undergoing a minor face lift… on the inside. Back in July, the Desire editions (available in Pearl and Onyx hues) stooped to $2,299 and shipped with a 1.4GHz CPU and a 128GB SSD. Today, those same machines are available with a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo SL9600 processor, 256GB SSD, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit). The best part? The MSRP has remained the same. Huzzah!

[Thanks, Billy]

Filed under: Laptops

Dell Adamo Desire gets 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo SL9600, 256GB SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The once-nonexistent intersection of netbooks and e-readers seems to be populating quite hastily these days, first with this morning’s questionable Spring Design Alex and now with the entourage eDGe. On the left side of this dual-screen, dual-function hybrid, where ePub and PDF files are said to open by default, we’ve got a 9.7-inch e-paper display with 16 shades of gray. On the right, a 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 resolution screen with Android. Both sides are stylus-centric touchscreen — scribbling and note-taking is encouraged here — and other amenities include 3GB memory, 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth, SD slot, two USB ports, 3.5mm headphone jack, a Li-ion battery for up to six hours, and support for EVDO / HSDPA via external modem. No word on what processor’s actually under the hood, but we won’t get our hopes up for anything more than very casual browsing. The site just launched with pre-orders being accepted to the tune of $490, or $530 if you’re wanting any color other than midnight blue, and will ship out February 2010. We also happened to stumble upon a PDF presentation from the company dated back to August 2009, if you feel so inclined to take a trip down memory lane.

Read – Entourage eDGe product page
Read – Aug. 2009 presentation [Warning: PDF file]

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Entourage eDGe is the red-headed stepchild of two oversaturated markets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What do you know? It looks like Apple’s filed yet another patent application. The company’s newest is named (in the short, pithy way that patents are named) Synchronization of Media State Across Multiple Devices. Combining the ubiquity of MobileMe with the media syncing that goes down when you dock your iPod or iPhone, the application suggests that soon you might find all your Engadget Show episodes automagically picking up where you left ‘em when you switch devices — without any lag time or any pesky cables. As Macworld points out, also included in the paperwork is distance tracking functionality — just the thing for automating sync operations when two devices come within range (it’s unclear whether this will be done via Bluetooth or WiFi). Perhaps this news isn’t exciting to the couch potatoes among us (you know, because they never leave the couch) but all you TV addicts “on the go” must be psyched.

[Via Macworld]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video

MobileMe media sync detailed in Apple patent application originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, talk about a letdown. It’s hard to put into mere words just how excited we were about the OCZ Z-Drive when we saw an early prototype shell way back at CeBIT, and now that it’s shipping out to affluent users, we’ve got a remarkably thorough review explaining that it’s probably not the dream device we were all hoping for. The good folks over at Hot Hardware managed to slam the Z-Drive m84 into their PCIe slot and run it through a battery of tests, and aside from larger file transfers, there just wasn’t a mind-blowing amount of awesomeness to speak of. Critics expected this thing to rival at least an SSD RAID solution driven by a software RAID controller, but for whatever reason, that simply wasn’t the case. Hit the read link for more benchmarks than you’d ever care to see on a weekend, and feel free to pocket that plastic.

Filed under: Storage

OCZ’s Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD gets exhaustively reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hard though it may be to believe, the Roku has been rockin’ the lives of Netflix fanatics for nearly 1.5 years, and if you were thinking an updated version was in order, you’d be on the right train of thought. Images delivered to us today prove that a refreshed iteration is on the horizon, with the Roku XR (model number N1101) retaining the same overall look and feel as the original but adding in niceties like 802.11n wireless support, a USB socket (presumably for loading up media locally) and a 2.5A power input (as opposed to 1.5A). You can also see that the dedicated reset button has been yanked and the bundled remote is exactly the same; in fact, we’re told that the old remote controls the Roku XR sans issue. There’s no word yet on a price or release date, but we’re guessing we’ll know significantly more prior to Christmas. Oh, and yeah — you’re not the only one thinking this is quite the underwhelming update, but hey, maybe it’ll street for $9.99.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Roku XR adds 802.11n, USB port and a longing for something more originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You might recall that RIM was rumored to be following down Sony Ericsson’s path of branded Bluetooth watches to accompany its phones, and now, it looks like we might have the first real renderings of the final product before our eyes. This here wrist candy is possibly called the “inPulse” (not to be confused with Verizon’s similarly-named prepaid offering), featuring an OLED display, real-time message preview, and presumably some sort of glanceable caller ID to make needlessly pulling your Tour out of its holster a thing of the past. Interestingly, it seems like the watch isn’t being developed in-house — instead, work has been farmed out to some company dedicated to the BlackBerry aftermarket with an official announcement expected “soon.” As far as we know, Sony Ericsson’s watches — which arguably look nicer on account of their analog / digital hybrid design — haven’t been hot sellers, but who knows, maybe RIM’s got some neat tricks up its sleeve with this one.

[Thanks, Evan]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables

RIM’s BlackBerry watch pictured, possibly called ‘inPulse?’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa, what have we here? It’s Alex, the dual-screen e-book reader from Spring Design looking very much like the Barnes and Noble device rumored for a Tuesday launch. It features a 6-inch E-ink EPD (electronic paper display) and 3.5-inch LCD running Google’s Android OS for browsing the web or viewing video, audio, photos, and notes. It also packs a removeable SD card, speaker, headphone jack, and WiFi or 3G EVDO/CDMA and GSM radios. An interesting Duet Navigator feature even lets you toggle content captured on the LCD and present it back to the EPD to save on battery life. The device is planned for release sometime this year without any details on who might be involved in that exercise.

Update: We just heard from Spring Design’s PR person, Pat Meier Johnson. We were told that the Alex device above is not the rumored dual-screen Barnes & Noble reader, “this is an entirely different device.” Judging by the hastily prepared web site coincidentally appearing on the eve of the B&N device launch, and the domain’s registrar, Albert Teng, who has numerous patent applications (not patents granted) covering “electronic devices having complementary dual-displays,” we’d say this announcement is quite possibly a desperate attempt to lay claim on intellectual property rights instead of a real product with real manufacturers and real content partners. We’ll see when, or if, it launches.

Filed under: Displays

Spring Design Alex: dual-screen Android-based e-reader (Update: not for Barnes & Noble) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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