Chicago (IL) - It time for a new round of Apple rumors. Apple is widely expected to refresh its iPod lineup in August. There is your usual set of rumors out there with some interesting thoughts on likely changes and upgrades. Sources seem to agree that the upgrades will more evolutionary than evolutionary, which, if the sources are correct, may be surprising as Appleā€™s iPod sales growth shows signs of a slowdown and the company could need a new blockbuster media player rather sooner than later.

Apple’s long-standing commanding lead in music player space is all but given, especially now that competitors seem to launch new efforts to tackle its lead. Despite Dell’s withdrawal from the MP3 player market in 2006, the company is apparently planning a comeback with a new player slated for a September release. Apple Insider reported that Apple recently sent an advisory bulletin to a selected group of resellers, telling them to load up with iPods and certain Macs, a sign of upcoming shortages in the distribution channel ahead of a product.

With new iPods apparently just around the corner, we wonder whether Apple can deliver enough new features to woo consumers and keep competitors at distance. Read the rest of this entry »

Los Angeles (CA) - With first beta of the 2.1 firmware for the iPhone/iPod touch now seeded to developers, speculations about new features are gathering steam. Of course, most of us won’t settle for anything less than the missing features expected in 2.0 in the first place. We all know that Apple’s priority list doesn’t always match that of its users, but it’s high time for Cupertino-folks to address basics that portray iPhone as a toy compared to rest of the industry.

Ah man, don’t you just wish that next iPhone firmware update brings end-user features sadly missing from 2.0? True, the current firmware was huge step ahead over 1.1.4 as it added important enterprise capabilities such as Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for push email, contact and calendar, Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to corporate networks and the ability to remotely wipe handset if it’s stolen (think Blackberryā€™s ā€˜nukeā€™ function). We understand that the enterprise is top priority for Apple, but the focus on business users left regular iPhone users short on new stuff. With the exception of the App Store that became the killer feature, we got a GPS-enhanced Maps application, support for MobileMe cloud services, contact searching, bulk move and messages delete, saving photos, parental controls and embedded YouTube videos. That’s it, more or less. It just doesn’t cut it for most of us. Read the rest of this entry »

Lenovo, one of the worldā€™s largest makers of personal computers that is mostly known for its ThinkPad-branded business user-oriented premium-class laptops, is considering to enter the market of low-cost netbooks later this year, a representative for the company in Taiwan said on Wednesday.

Ken Wong, general manager of Lenovo Taiwan, said in an interview with DigiTimes web-site that the company was considering launching a netbook product designed with consideration for both consumer and enterprise markets. However, he did not reveal any details.

According to unofficial information, Lenovo will release its netbook by the end of September. It is quite a surprise that the company mostly known for high-end ThinkPad laptops for business users and IdeaPad notebooks for consumers has decided to enter the market of relatively low-cost machines, such as Asus Eee PC, MSI Wind and so on. Read the rest of this entry »

Alienware has begun offering Nvidia ā€™s Quadro FX 3600M GPU as a $600 option for its 15.4″ Area-51 m15x notebook. According to the manufacturer, the hardware upgrade allows designers and engineers to work in complex, real-time, photorealistic environments throughout an array of CAD, DCC and scientific applications.

Alienware also offers an NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M on the Area-51 and said it will soon offer the Quadro FX 3600M on the Area-51 m17x.

The Area-51 m15x is priced from $1500. A fully loaded model costs about $5000.

Round Rock (TX) ā€“ Dell is ready to return to the MP3 player battlefield and take another shot at Appleā€™s iPod. Following the Digital Jukebox (Dell DJ), which was introduced in 2003 and scrapped in 2006, Dell apparently believes that it has now what it takes to compete with the iPod for market share.

According to an article published by the Wall Street Journal today, the new device could be on sale as early as September. Our sources indicated that actually several new devices are in the works, which all may be aiming more or less for consumers that are attracted by the design-focused Apple brand. In fact, Dell has invited journalists for a product unveiling on August 12, which promises ā€œnew products that redefine mobility as the industry knows it.ā€¯ While this event appears to be notebook-focused with ā€œmind-blowing designs and exciting new features,ā€¯ it would only make sense for Dell to show this new media player at this event as well, if the WSJ is correct and a media player in fact has been developed by the company. Read the rest of this entry »

Calgary (CA) ā€“ Voodoo, the boutique end of HP, has been designing crazy computers for a while, and HPā€™s almost unlimited resources have now allowed it to make an even crazier laptop. We first wrote about the ultra-portable Envy 133 back on June 10th and now take a closer look at Voodooā€™s MacBook Air-killer.

Read the rest of this entry »

iPod haters at Anything But iPod uncovered something new and questionable on Creative’s Hong Kong site–the Zen Krystal. It’s an MP3 player that looks extremely similar to the Zen Stone Plus, and sports pretty much the same feature set, the same maximum 4GB capacity, and a similar screen.

Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who has upgraded from an original iPhone to the new 3G model may have noticed that the screen is a little warmer than it used to be.

The LCD on the latest 3G iPhone model from Apple is brighter than the original, but that improvement comes at an interesting cost ā€“ a colder white point. Whereas the original screen had a white point temperature of 8300k, according to measurements taken by Richard Baguley of Wirelessinfo.com the new screen is somewhere closer to 7000k. This translates to a yellow cast that some are calling the ‘pee filter’. Read the rest of this entry »

Mouse pads, like mice themselves, are personal devices. There’s no one “best” item that is perfect for everyone. Some people have big hands, some small hands. Some play with high mouse sensitivity and small movements, some play with low mouse sensitivity and large sweeping motions. Some people like lots of mouse buttons, others just a few.

Read the rest of this entry »

As far as peripherals go whilst Microsoft undoubtedly produce reliable and functional products its range of keyboards and mice are, its fair to say, hardly ever flaunting any particular innovation or, for that matter, any sense of overt design flair but that could be set to change thanks to a leak that details a new, crescent shaped collapsible, optical notebook mouse from MS known as the Arc. Read the rest of this entry »