With their entry-level MacBook sticking at $999, Apple have obviously decided that avoiding the price-race to the bottom is no way to better the last quarter’s excellent financial performance. We’ve just picked up our 13.3-inch polycarbonate MacBook review unit, and to be frank we can’t blame them; it’s a little thicker and a little heavier than the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro, but it’s also quite a bit cheaper, too.
While the new 27-inch iMacs may be Apple’s eye-catchers, especially in Apple Stores, it’s the company’s new Magic Mouse peripheral that will find its way to the most desks. By junking the trackball of the Mighty Mouse and replacing it with a touch-sensitive surface, Apple have not only catered for the demands of desktop users calling out for multitouch, but bypassed ongoing reliability frustrations of the mechanical ball. After the cut, our live Magic Mouse gallery together with some hands-on first impressions.
Barnes and Noble’s nook may not be the first wireless ebook reader we’ve seen, but with its dual displays, color touchscreen, compact form-factor and Android OS it’s perhaps the most distinctive. The nook isn’t expected to launch until the end of November, but SlashGear were at the B&N launch event in NYC today. Check out our coverage – and some first impressions – after the cut.
Updated with video after the cut
The Apple Store has just gone back online with a broad sweep of updates, and I’ve been catching up with Apple this morning to go hands-on with the new range. After the cut, all the details and some hands-on feedback with the new 13.3-inch MacBook, three new Mac mini desktops, four new iMacs with 21.5-inch and 27-inch Full HD IPS displays and, in the top-spec model, a Core i5 or Core i7 processor, and the new Apple Magic Mouse with a multitouch trackpad.
Up until now, choosing a Bluetooth headset has demanded you pick between outright style and audio performance. Devices like the Plantronics Discovery 975 and the Jawbone PRIME have gone some way in disguising their boom microphones and preserving sound quality, but there’s still no mistaking that you’re wearing a Bluetooth headset. Into the fray steps the Jabra Stone, distinctive both for its curvaceous styling and its promises of boomless natural-sounding audio. Is your next Bluetooth headset a Stone’s throw away? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
As Motorola have found over the past couple of years, it’s taking an increasing amount to get geeks and gadget lovers to stand up and pay attention to a new cellphone. Right now, one sure-fire way of doing that is by launching an Android device, and so that’s what the ailing mobile giant has done in the shape of the Motorola CLIQ (aka the DEXT outside of the US). Not only does the CLIQ promise to make a splash among Android handsets, it also marks the debut of Motorola’s attempt to corral social networking into a mobile device. In our review we’ll not only be looking at the CLIQ hardware, as Motorola’s first-generation Android smartphone, but at MOTOBLUR and its potential beyond the CLIQ. Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
HP have also updated their business notebooks and desktop range today, in the shape of the HP ProBook 6445b and ProBook 6545b laptops and the HP Elite 7000 Business Desktop PC. The two notebooks each offer a choice of AMD Turion II, Athlon II or Sempron processors, together with up to 8GB of RAM, up to 500GB HDD/128GB SSD, and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 graphics. The ProBook 6445b has a 14-inch display running at 1,366 x 768 while the ProBook 6545b has a 15.6-inch display running at either 1,366 x 768 or 1,600 x 900.
HP have gone touch-crazy in the run-up to Windows 7’s release, pushing out several new touch-sensitive products including a 42-inch widescreen LCD. The HP TouchSmart tx2 updates the original convertible tx2, and has a 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen which also accepts stylus input; meanwhile there are two new TouchSmart desktop ranges, in the shape of the consumer-oriented HP TouchSmart 300 and 600 – at 20- and 23-inches respectively – and the business-centric HP TouchSmart 9100, a 23-inch model targeted at the hospitality and retail markets.
Samsung only made the Android-based Moment official a few hours ago, but we’ve already been playing with it today. Sprint’s first Android device certainly makes a good first impression, with an eye-catching, color-popping AMOLED touchscreen that’s certainly on a par with its rivals for capacitive touch-sensitivity, though we wish Samsung could’ve put the Moment on a diet before it launched as it’s not the smallest of handsets.
AT&T’s first Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone, the HTC Pure, has some reasonable heritage; while the casing may look new, the guts of the handset are shared with HTC’s Touch Diamond2. Back when we reviewed the Diamond2 in May, we described it as the best Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone on the market, and suggested it was well placed for the promised update to 6.5. Has the Pure managed to deliver on that? Check out the SlashGear review after the cut. Click to Read Windows Mobile 6.5 Review
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