This press photo is crying out for a caption competition, but this isn’t Take a Break magazine so we’ll bluster on with the purpose of that perky antenna. Rokland Technologies’ BearExtender n3 is a WiFi 802.11n adapter intended specifically for Macs, and promises four-times the wireless range of your regular MacBook or MacBook Pro.
There’s a lot to like about Sony’s VAIO X ultraportable – its indecently-skinny build, the engineering intelligence that went into its design, and its lengthy battery life just to name a few things – but if you’re less than inspired by Windows 7 then how about a Mac OS X version? That’s not one of Sony’s official options, but insanelymac forum member Asama took it upon himself to throw OS X Snow Leopard onto the VAIO X himself.
To do so he used the hacked together build of Snow Leopard that’s been put together for the Sony VAIO P, reasoning that many of the components used in that don’t-call-it-a-netbook machine were the same as used in the VAIO X. Happily it installed quite merrily, though as expected the WiFi doesn’t work. Where fixing that in the VAIO P is a case of taking out the wireless card and swapping in a different one, it’s a more arduous task on the VAIO X since so much has been soldered into place in the name of space-saving.
This past week I was at the opening of Apple’s latest store in NYC. It’s a work of art with a forty five foot glass wall, an all glass ceiling and marble walls. Along with that there’s the now iconic glass staircase. In many ways, it’s more a community gathering place for Apple customers and potential customers than it is a retail store. The beauty of the stores are effective but that’s not what’s ultimately driving sales. At the end of the day, the physical store is merely the visible manifestation of the Apple customer experience. Exercise if you’re Michael Dell. Build a store with a forty five foot glass wall and ceiling and see if you sell more PCs.
MacBook Air clones coming out of China aren’t in short supply, but the constant refreshing has at least pushed them beyond Apple’s official model in some respects. Shanzai have been taking a look at the Shenzhen Tong Men Tech Company’s latest offering, and while it lacks some of the official Air’s style, its removable battery, integrated 3G, relative surfeit of ports and $249 price tag go a long way to making up for it.
It’s no ThinkPad netbook, but Lenovo’s latest IdeaPad ultraportable – as helpfully previewed by our camera-fumbling friends at the FCC – does at least have an unusual CPU to maintain our interest. The FL5-B3 – which we’re guessing is not going to be the netbook’s final name – uses a 1.66GHz Intel Pineview processor, presumably the Atom N450, paired with 2GB of RAM and a 250GB hard-drive. While they’re still minimal specs in the notebook world, after what seems like a lifetime of half that memory and a meager 160GB of storage they’re very welcome.
It looks like Dell is planning to release a mobile internet device, or a MID. The details are few and far between but the product—code-named Streak—looks like it packs Wi-Fi, 3G and Android 2.0 all into one. It is exactly what Intel has been calling a mobile internet device for the past few years: larger than a smartphone, primarily for accessing the Net, and featuring multimedia and even GPS functionality. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet and the leaked video of the Dell device gives us a better glimpse of what is to come and what it can do. Ironically (and you will see why later), when I watched the video I immediately thought: ah, so Dell wants to make an iPhone with a larger 5-inch screen!
We’ve seen it teased and we’ve seen the first photos, but today Dell is finally giving us the skinny (pun intended) on the thinnest notebook ever – the Dell Adamo XPS. The 9.99 mm thin notebook, which will be shipping in time for the holidays, will inevitably be compared to Apple’s Macbook Air and no doubt it is thinner, but the starting $1,800 price tag won’t make it cheaper.
After the cut: Dell Adamo XPS hands-on impressions, gallery, and video
With the MacBook now brought smack up to date with unibody styling, and the fully metal-clad iMac causing a stir on desktops, it seems like about the right sort of time to ask what the iPhone could learn from the new designs? Happily Isamu Sanada – who you might recall from these fair pages in previous months – is one step ahead of us, and he’s put together some concept art of what an iMac-inspired fourth-gen iPhone might look like.
It’s the biggest all-in-one Apple have ever offered, not to mention the fastest and most media-centric, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to hypnotize anybody wandering into their local Apple Store. The hyperbole practically writes itself, but at the end of the day is the 27-inch Apple iMac more than just a desktop trophy? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
With the launch of the unibody MacBook, Apple have not only completed the transition to their newest laptop aesthetic but also narrowed the gap between their entry-level and Pro ranges. On face level that can only mean good things for the end consumer, but does the $999 MacBook really represent the bargain Apple tell us it is? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
SlashGear Japan
