What you’re about to see is Sony engineer Shinji Oguchi’s teardown of the laptop he certainly helped create. Sony lets us know that this is also Oguchi’s first visit to the United States as well as the SGNL by Sony studio. In addition to both the teardown and the put back together videos Sony is giving away a free upgrade to full HD display on models ordered now through 3/31/2011 – all you’ve got to do is select “13.1 LED backlit Full HD display (1920×1080)” while you’re building your custom laptop in the Sony store and enter coupon code “ZFREEHD” at the checkout. Note also that this coupon is limited to 2 per order and is limited in whole to 250 uses, so go for it quick!

First let’s have a look at the teardown of this magnificent machine:

Then let’s have a look at putting it back together!

Look like the amalgamation you’re looking to construct and keep? I think we’ll leave this to the professionals. Note also that this device features Intel’s Light Peak port with 10Gbps bi-directional data transfer speeds and is available in several color combinations including black, carbon indigo, and premium carbon black. Exciting! A 0.66-inch thin masterpiece for the ages.

[via Sony]

However, there’s no exact indication of how – or indeed when – Canon might start using Thunderbolt in its products. The obvious implementation would be the addition of a Thunderbolt port to its DSLR cameras for high-speed offloading of photos and video, as well as real-time capture from the camera’s high-resolution sensor to a connected computer.

Interestingly, Canon and Apple were tipped to be collaborating on a new project yesterday, though the nature of the partnership is still a mystery. One suggestion was that Canon could be helping closely with the development of the next Final Cut update.

Hardware

At first glance, there’s little to differentiate this new MacBook Pro from the model it replaces. Apple has kept the unibody aluminum chassis, backlit keyboard and broad, glass multitouch trackpad, and the glossy display is the same 1440 x 900 resolution and 15.4-inch size. At first glance, even the ports look the same, thanks to Thunderbolt – more on which later – sharing the same form-factor as Mini DisplayPort.

We can’t complain too much, though. First off, Apple’s MacBook Pro notebooks offer some of the best industrial design around, pairing high-quality materials, high build quality and good looks into something the generally plastic-shelled PC market still can’t better. The 15-inch MacBook Pro tips the scales at the same 5.6 pounds as its predecessor, and measures a reasonably slimline 0.95-inches.

Second, and more important, is the considerable refresh that’s gone on inside the aluminum casing. Sandy Bridge is the order of the day here, with the 13-, 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro models all getting processors from Intel’s 2011 range. The 13-inch starts off with a Core i5 as standard (and Core i7 as an option) but the 15- and 17-inch models both pack Core i7 chips from the off. In our review unit, the higher-specified standard configuration, that means Intel’s 2.2GHz Core i7-2720QM. 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory is the minimum, with 8GB a factory-fit option.

Graphics have undergone a significant change as well, with NVIDIA’s discrete GPUs replaced by AMD’s Radeon 6000 Series paired with Intel HD Graphics 3000. Apple has obviously deemed Intel’s integrated GPU sufficient for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, but the 15- and 17-inch models have a choice of the AMD Radeon HD 6490M (with 256GB of GDDR5 memory) on the entry-level MacBook Pro 15 or the Radeon HD 6750M (with 1GB of GDDR5 memory) on the higher-spec 15-inch and as standard on the 17-inch.

As in the 2010 range, OS X automatically switches between integrated and discrete graphics depending on your activity. For basic web browsing and document editing, then, the MacBook Pro will default to the low-power, energy-frugal Intel HD Graphics 3000 chipset; start gaming, or doing video processing in iMovie, and the AMD Radeon GPU will kick in. There’s no need to log out and back in again to switch, as with earlier dual-GPU configurations.

Storage begins with 320/500/750GB hard-drives, depending on size and SKU, all running at a somewhat disappointing 5,400rpm. Faster, 7,200rpm HDDs are optional, as are SSDs up to 512GB. The slot-loading 8x SuperDrive is still present, while ports include gigabit ethernet, FireWire 800, audio in, audio out, an SDXC memory card slot, MagSafe power and, of course, Thunderbolt. Wireless options include WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; there’s still no integrated 3G option. A microphone is hidden under the left speaker grille, and there’s a new, 720p FaceTime HD webcam above the screen, more on which later.

Software

Apple may be previewing Mac OS X Lion, but these latest MacBook Pro notebooks still come with Snow Leopard pre-installed. There’s also the usual iLife ’11 suite, consisting of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb and iDVD. The Mac App Store is pre-loaded, for access to a broad catalog of third-party software, as is the freshly-out-of-beta FaceTime for Mac app for holding video calls with other Mac owners as well as iPhone 4 and iPod touch users.

Performance

All the hardware changes would be for nothing if the new MacBook Pro’s performance didn’t stand up, but that’s most definitely not the case. We started out with Geekbench as usual, a synthetic test of processor and memory, and the difference between the 2011 model and its mid-2010 predecessor was dramatic. The new MacBook Pro scored 10,932, while the Core i7-620M 2010 machine – running at 2.66GHz, and with 4GB of RAM – scored 6,309. That’s a more than 70-percent boost in stepping up to the quadcore model.

We then turned to Cinebench, which benchmarks both CPU and graphics card performance, using a mixture of 3D renderings and OpenGL tests. It gives a good overview of how capable a computer will be at system-intensive tasks like video processing and gaming. Again, we compared the mid-2010 MacBook Pro with the new 2011 model.

Unsurprisingly, the new notebook outclassed its predecessor across the board. The four individual cores of the 2011 model scored higher in CPU testing, and the overall CPU performance was more than twice what the older model could manage. As for graphics, in the OpenGL testing the 2010 MacBook Pro managed 17.27fps, while the new model achieved 35.42fps.

Finally, we looked to xbench, a combination of CPU, GPU, memory and drive testing. Again, the quadcore processor and fast RAM made short work of the 2010 notebook, with xbench’s CPU, thread and memory tests coming out 14-percent, 68-percent and 71-percent higher respectively. Graphics, too, were comprehensively higher, with the 2011 MacBook Pro scoring on average 37-percent higher across xbench’s various GPU tests.

In fact, the only element really holding the new MacBook Pro back was the hard-drive, its 5,400rpm speed proving underwhelming. xbench recorded sequential uncached write speeds of 111.13 MB/sec and read speeds of 28.56 MB/sec with 4K blocks, and write speeds of 83.25 MB/sec and read speeds of 77.54 MB/sec with 256K blocks. Random uncached write speeds reached 1.47 MB/sec and read speeds of 0.42 MB/sec with 4K blocks, and write speeds of 29.06 MB/sec and read speeds of 24.36 MB/sec with 256K blocks.

Contrast that with the speeds recorded from the third-party Samsung 470 Series SSD (review) in our 2010 MacBook Pro test unit, and the limitations of a traditional HDD become clear. In both sequential and random reads and writes, the SSD thoroughly bests the HDD: sequential write rates reach as high as 234.52 MB/sec (with 4K blocks) while read rates manage 210.36 MB/sec (with 256K blocks). The boost to random read/write performance is even more dramatic, the faster and more responsive SSD making a strong argument for bypassing HDDs altogether. Overall, with the standard-fit HDD the 2011 MacBook Pro scored 222.31 in xbench – versus the 312.47 of the SSD-equipped 2010 notebook – but that increased to 413.91 when we installed the SSD into the new model.

High benchmarking figures are one thing, but it’s real world performance that makes the difference – and convinces someone whether or not to upgrade. We tested the 2011 MacBook Pro with high definition video exporting in iMovie, and the improvements are considerable. Exporting a 720p clip lasting 1m 31s on the new notebook took 1m 41s; in contrast, the 2010 notebook (with the SSD) took 3m 03s. When we switched the standard HDD for an SSD in the new MacBook Pro, that slimmed the export down to just 1m 33s.

We then ran the same test, with the SSD still installed, on the same clip but exporting at 1080p, and the 2011 MacBook Pro took 2m 55s. It’s worth remembering that this is merely the final export process; the 2011 model also imported raw footage quicker than its predecessor, and was faster making cuts and edits as we modified clips.

FaceTime HD

Apple introduced FaceTime, its proprietary video calling system, with the launch of the iPhone 4, and since then it has spread to the fourth-gen iPod touch and, most recently, to OS X. With FaceTime HD, Apple marks the transition to a higher-resolution webcam, supporting 1280 x 720 video. It’s certainly far clearer and crisper, a noticeable step up from the previous generation of MacBook Pro.

FaceTime HD makes the most sense between new MacBook Pro owners, given they’re the only ones who will actually see the HD part. Previous-gen notebooks had VGA resolution iSight webcams, so won’t be able to send (but will be able to see) 720p video, and the iPhone 4 and latest iPod touch each have VGA front-facing cameras themselves. We’d expect Apple to remedy the latter in future updates, and the iPad is expected to get a front-facing camera itself in its imminent refresh.

Thunderbolt

Arguably the most interesting feature of the new MacBook Pro is, frustratingly, the one we can’t currently test. Thunderbolt is Intel’s production name for Light Peak, the high-speed connectivity standard that hopes to replace USB, FireWire and various video ports along with way. Promising 10Gbps of bi-directional communication, along with 10W of bus-power and the ability to daisy-chain in strings of up to six peripherals, Thunderbolt makes its debut on the 2011 MacBook Pro line.

For the moment, though, the Thunderbolt port will generally only see Mini DisplayPort connectors plugged in: there simply aren’t any Thunderbolt peripherals out there yet. It’s backward compatible with your existing Mini DisplayPort hardware, so a current Apple LED Cinema Display will hook up without adapters required, but we’ll have to wait until later in 2011 for the first Thunderbolt hardware. That’s going to include external storage – LaCie, Promise and others are talking about RAID arrays, and Apple has shown us a dual-SSD high performance external drive targeted at video professionals – as well as A/V interfaces.

From what we’ve seen in private demonstrations with Apple, however, Thunderbolt has no shortage of promise. A 5GB file moved from the MacBook Pro to a Promise Pegasus RAID in a matter of seconds; meanwhile, the notebook could pull four, uncompressed HD video streams from the RAID, then push that back out down the same Thunderbolt pipe to an LED Cinema Display. In effect, there’s 20 Gbps of bandwidth to play with – 10 Gbps for DisplayPort video and 10 Gbps for PCI Express data – with this particular demo pulling at around 7 Gbps from the RAID and then pushing at around 6 Gbps to the monitor. Apple tells us that, theoretically, a single Thunderbolt connection could drive two 27-inch LED Cinema Displays simultaneously. Since there’s no daisy-chain Thunderbolt connection on the current Cinema Display line, however, they’d either need to be updated or users have a desktop hub.

Battery Life

As with previous iterations, the 2011 MacBook Pro range features integrated, non-user-replaceable batteries. However, it also marks a change in how Apple measures runtime estimates. Traditionally, manufacturers have promised the longest figures possible, leading to usage expectations far beyond what notebooks can actually achieve in everyday use.

Apple’s switch, then, is to a more realistic model of testing, or what the company is calling “wireless web testing.” That involves setting the display brightness to 50-percent and then browsing “25 popular websites” over a WiFi connection until the MacBook Pro expires.

The result is a shorter estimate, on paper, compared to previous generations of notebook, but one, which is more in keeping with what owners can legitimately expect. Apple suggests 7 hours is reasonable, and we’ve found that to be pretty accurate. The previous-generation model was rated at up to 9 hours using Apple’s old-style testing, but we found 7 hours was a likely maximum in regular use.

With an HD video on looped-playback in the background, we exported seven 1m 31 second 1080p HD videos, import and edited numerous images in iPhoto, then browsed and wrote emails over WiFi; brightness was at 3 bars for around 45 minutes and then at 50-percent for the remainder of the time, until the notebook shut down after 3 hours and 15 minutes. It’s still relatively early days for the new MacBook Pro, and so we’ll revisit battery life after some more real-world testing over the next week or so.

Pricing and Value

The new 2011 MacBook Pro line starts at $1,199 for the entry-level 13-inch, though that rises to $1,799 if you want a 15-inch model. Our review unit – with the 2.2GHz CPU, 750GB 5,400rpm HDD and AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1GB graphics – is $2,199. The single 17-inch pre-configuration is $2,499. Making like-for-like comparisons with Windows notebooks is difficult, since availability and pricing for models using the 2011 Core Series processors isn’t expected until mid-March at the earliest. Still, we’d expect Apple’s machines to command a small premium though in return offer currently exclusive features like Thunderbolt connectivity.

As ever, there are a few points to bear in mind. Those replacing a previous-gen MacBook Pro won’t be able to carry across any RAM upgrades, since the new model uses faster chips than the older versions, and Apple charges $200 for an extra 4GB. Still, with the right screwdriver head it’s relatively straightforward to open the base panel and swap out the memory for a third-party 8GB upgrade.

While that bottom panel is open, it’s worth considering an SSD. One of the more common questions we’re asked is whether a solid-state drive makes for a practical and worthwhile upgrade in a notebook, and our answer is generally yes – as long as you can afford it. There’s obviously a penalty involved in terms of both price and capacity; Apple’s official SSD upgrades, for instance, are $200 for 128GB, $600 for 256GB or a whopping $1,200 – the same as a brand new 13-inch MacBook Pro – for 512GB. In comparison, the entry-level 15-inch machine comes with 500GB of regular HDD storage as standard (for a frustrating $100 you can upgrade that to a faster, but identically sized, 7,200rpm version).

Nonetheless, there are cheaper third-party SSDs out there, and they make a significant impact in performance and durability. A set of spinning platters preserving all your vital files is always going to be a potential liability, and while SSDs aren’t immune to data loss, they’re more resilient to the sort of knocks and bumps most laptops suffer in daily use. With some strategic data management and an external drive, road-warriors can generally work around the capacity limitations and benefit considerably from the speed boost.

Wrap-Up

Make no mistake, this is a dramatically faster MacBook Pro than its predecessor, and the bulk of the credit must go to Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors. The combination of the quad-core CPU, fast memory and capable AMD Radeon GPU adds up to a notebook that’s adept at media editing and should turn its hand to gaming as well, if that’s your priority. Apple’s 7 hour battery estimates obviously won’t hold up if you’re doing heavy-duty video processing, but the Intel integrated graphics hold up their end of the bargain and give the new MacBook Pro some legs when it comes to everyday tasks like browsing, email and Office apps.

Thunderbolt makes another speed promise, but it’s too early to tell what impact the new connection will have. Even when peripherals using the port are on the market, they’ll be of primary interest to media editing professionals with high expectations and deep pockets. Most everyday users will probably still be satisfied with the speed USB 2.0 or FireWire 800 offers, and prove unwilling to spend what first-gen Thunderbolt hardware costs. That said, each new port technology has to start somewhere, and Apple has proved at-times ruthless in its adoption of cutting-edge standards. You can bet the company has an eye on ditching FireWire, USB and the others in favor of Thunderbolt, just as it did before with parallel ports, serial ports and floppy drives.

The 2011 MacBook Pro range, then, does a solid job of building on the strengths of its predecessors while also introducing new functionality and speed. The Sandy Bridge processors make a compelling argument, and the dual graphics mean the notebook has a double life as a hardcore media cruncher and an everyday machine capable of lasting most of a workday on a single charge. Factor in OS X’s usability, strong build quality, and the future-proofing Thunderbolt provides, and the 2011 MacBook Pro adds up to a near-perfect speed demon beautifully wrapped up in a timeless chassis. Rating: We’re working out our metrics for rating so please check back for details. [visit Apple MacBook Pro website for more details]

MacBook Pro 15-inch (early 2011)

MacBook Pro 15-inch with ThunderBolt Unboxing video:

Hands-on, the general experience is much the same as before. The keyboard is still responsive and pleasant to type on, the display is still – unless you’ve opted for the matte finish – highly glossy but bright and color-rich, and the unibody chassis is still head and shoulders above what most of the PC competition can offer. Even the ports look, at first glance, the same, though closer examination confirms the DisplayPort logo has been switched for a Thor-style Thunderbolt.

iSight has gone, replaced by a FaceTime-HD camera, which supports up to 720p HD video calls between Macs and with iPhone 4 and iPod touch owners. The new FaceTime app is preloaded on the new notebooks (or a $0.99 download on older models – which run at VGA not 720p – from the Mac App Store) and the quality is surprisingly strong. Obviously chats with mobile users will be limited by the bandwidth they have to receive and the fact that, currently, both the phone and PMP have a VGA camera themselves; we wouldn’t be surprised to see a 720p HD webcam on the iPad 2 next week.

With no Thunderbolt-compatible hardware on the market – although various manufacturers have confirmed they’ll be offering devices using the Light Peak based standard – we can only go from Apple’s own demonstrations as to how the technology works. Even from a short demo, however, the potential is clear. Apple showed a Promise Pegasus RAID hooked up via Thunderbolt to a new MacBook Pro, with a 27-inch LED Cinema Display linked off of that.

With a theoretical limit of 10 Gbps, it’s no surprise that file transfers were blisteringly fast. A selection of files from 5GB to 10GB shifted from laptop to RAID in just seconds. More impressive was how Thunderbolt handled bi-directional data. Apple showed how the MacBook Pro could pull four, uncompressed HD video streams from the Pegasus RAID, and then push that back out down the same Thunderbolt pipe to the LED Cinema Display. In effect, there’s 20 Gbps of bandwidth to play with – 10 Gbps for DisplayPort video and 10 Gbps for PCI Express data – with this particular demo pulling at around 7 Gbps from the RAID and then pushing at around 6 Gbps to the monitor. In theory, Apple pointed out, you could push the data for two 27-inch LED Cinema Displays simultaneously, though since the panels don’t currently have a daisy-chain Thunderbolt port, that’s hypothetical right now.

Finally, Apple showed a currently-unnamed Intel external storage device, in effect a pair of 256GB SSDs packaged into a semi-ruggedized external enclosure. Hooked up via Thunderbolt it’s intended for heavy duty video editing, taking advantage of the huge two-way bandwidth and direct PCI Express connection to keep up with the MacBook Pro’s quadcore processor.

We’ll be putting the new MacBook Pro 15-inch through its paces for the full SlashGear review, including benchmarking the new Sandy Bridge processors and AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1GB graphics. As a sample, Apple showed us rendering a huge image in Modo 3D – across all eight virtualized cores of the Core i7 processor – in 21 seconds, versus over 60 seconds on the last-gen Core i7 MacBook Pro. Until then, enjoy the hands-on gallery and video!

MacBook Pro 15-inch with ThunderBolt Unboxing video:

Based on PCI Express and DisplayPort, Thunderbolt uses the same port as Mini DisplayPort and so requires no adapter to hook up to existing monitors, like Apple’s own LED Cinema Display line. However, with the right adapters it can connect to USB, FireWire, gigabit ethernet and Fibre Channel networks, as well as HDMI, DVI or VGA.

More importantly, though, it can be used with Thunderbolt-compliant devices like RAID arrays and video capture boxes, offering hugely increased throughput between your new MacBook Pro and the external device. You can daisy-chain up to six devices with no impact on speed (or five devices and an LED Cinema Display). Intel reckons you’ll be able to transfer a full-length HD movie in less than 30 seconds over Thunderbolt, or backup one year of continuous MP3 playback in just over 10 minutes.

Best of all, this isn’t some Apple-only walled garden. Intel is pushing Thunderbolt with all its might, and so we should hopefully see it gradually replace existing connectors with a blast of steaming hot speed.

As for what those fresh MacBook Pro units will bring, we’re expecting lashings of Sandy Bridge across the board and a switch in graphics strategy. NVIDIA is believed to be out, replaced by AMD Radeon GPUs on the 15- and 17-inch machines and integrated graphics alone on the 13-inchers.

There’s also been plenty of talk about Apple Thunderbolt, the company’s branded version of Intel’s Light Peak connection technology. That promises 10GBs transfer rates, although from what we’ve seen there are still plenty of legacy connectors to keep us happy.

We’ll know all the details very soon; the Apple Store usually returns at around 8am EST, which is only an hour away.

The connector – which resembles a Mini DisplayPort socket – is expected to grant new, high-speed data transfers to the updated MacBook Pro line. It will also double as an external graphics output, presumably using a bundled adapter cable.

Apple is expected to make the new MacBook Pro range official tomorrow, Thursday February 24. Intel is also scheduled to make a Light Peak announcement on the same day, so we’re guessing we’ll hear more about Thunderbolt’s technical capabilities then.

[Thanks Theo!]

Meanwhile, Mac4Ever has acquired further shots of of the Thunderbolt logo and other supposedly promotional material from Apple, including a glimpse of a seemingly unchanged keyboard and trackpad assembly, and the promise of a dual-core Intel Core i5 processor. According to them, the port shown above is found on the side of a MacBook Pro 13-inch.

What’s confusing is how Apple is using Thunderbolt. Light Peak is billed as a replacement for ethernet, display connections and data connections, like USB and FireWire, but the Thunderbolt port – if legitimate – is shown alongside all but display connectivity. It’s possible, some have speculated, that the connection isn’t in fact Light Peak at all, but a modified Mini DisplayPort for data use as well as graphics.

[via Twitter]

The 13-inch MacBook Pro will also apparently get a third USB port along with a matte screen option on the higher-end SKU. The display itself will run at 1440 x 900, while the 15-inch will get a 1680 x 1050 panel; each will have 4GB of RAM as standard, and be around 200g less in weight than the models they replace. As for the 17-inch MacBook Pro, that will apparently be around 300g heavier, and have 8GB of RAM as standard.

Battery life is tipped at 12hrs for the 13-inch and 1hrs for the 15-inch. Finally, the white polycarbonate MacBook will apparently be finally retired, with the 11-inch MacBook Air taking on the role of entry-level Apple notebook. Pricing is believed to be €1,199 ($1,645) for the 13-inch entry-level (and €1,499 for the second version), €1,799 ($2,468) for the 15-inch entry-level (and €2,199 for the second version) and €2,499 ($3,429) for the 17-inch entry-level.

Intel is holding a Light Peak event on Thursday, and Apple is expected to reveal its new MacBook Pro range on the same day. The new connector could well replace Mini DisplayPort on the notebooks, being supplied with an adapter to hook up to external displays.

[via OnTechies and via Engadget]

Intel a released statement today saying that it will be hosting a press briefing this Thursday in San Francisco to “discuss a new technology that is about to appear on the market.”

Light Peak is a high-speed connection technology that is significantly faster than USB 3.0 and can carry data at 10GB per second in both directions at the same time. It will likely be adopted on many upcoming devices and is rumored to be on the iPad 2 as well.

[via 9 to 5 Mac]

As PC Pro reported in mid-2010, Intel’s Light Peak development team had been using a hybrid connector that allowed for not only the new, high-speed technology but backward compatibility with USB ports together with a power supply. The modified plug wasn’t certified by the USB-IF at the time.

Apple’s interest in Light Peak has been cemented with a number of patents around the technology, including embedding an optical data system in a MagSafe connector. Rumors have also suggested that imminent MacBook Pro updates might replace one or more existing ports with Light Peak. If the speculation around the iPad 2 pans out, Apple could be leaving the second-gen slate with both a traditional dock connector – for compatibility with legacy notebooks and speaker-docks – and the new port for high-speed media transfers.

The exact reason for the delay is unspecified, with CNET only saying that “practical realities dictate more conventional technology” be used. It’s speculated that this could mean Intel is unclear whether fiber optic cables will have the same resilience to everyday use as regular cabling, or if careless users might accidentally crack the lightpipes.

According to the source, data speeds – up to 10 gigabits per second, with simultaneous bi-directional communication supported – will not be impacted by the use of copper. Sony and Apple are tipped to be among the first companies to use Light Peak, which is being billed as a catch-all alternative to USB, ethernet, display connections and more.

[via Expreview]

SlashPIRACY
I’ll just leave this here and you tell me what you think about it. This is a quote from a spokesperson from the BPI (essentially England’s music industry, similar to USA’s RIAA) responding to Google’s recent tweaks to its search service like removing words associated with piracy from appearing on autocomplete: “It is encouraging that Google is beginning to respond to our calls to act more responsibly with regard to illegal content, … However, this package of measures, while welcome, still ignores the heart of the problem – that Google search overwhelmingly directs consumers looking for music and other digital entertainment to illegal sites” – these words basically repeated by Richard Mollet of the Publishers Association: “We hope that the measures announced today take effect quickly and that Google could then consider going further, so that illegal sites don’t appear in general free search results.”

[Via BBC]

R3 Media Network

SlashPhone
Google Planning on Their Own online eBook Store
PSP Phone Spotted in Greece [caught on video]

Android Community
Pocket God hits Android, has issues
Speck launches new cases for Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S
Spotify for Android update suits tablets, speeds performance
Verizon’s 4G LTE Network Initial Impressions
Business Insider Ranks Google TV and Nexus One Among Top 15 Biggest Tech Flops of 2010
Google Doodles Now Available on Mobile Devices
Android Flash Player Updated 10.1.105.7
Galaxy S Android 2.2 Delay Addressed by T-Mobile – Maybe Due Next Week?
NOOKcolor Receives Full Teardown
Android 2.3 Gingerbread User Interface Demonstration [in Cantonese] [GINGERBREAD YAY]

SlashGear
Malcolm Fontier outs iMojito hybrid iPhone case and wallet
Verizon 4G LTE contract-free options confirmed
NASA find new lifeform: arsenic microbe widens likelihood of extraterrestrial life [BIGGEST NEWS EVER, EVER]
OnLive PlayPack $9.99 flat-rate gaming plan debuts as MicroConsoles ship
iPad bests Galaxy Tab in perceived value; neither live up to RRP
RIM adds The Astonishing Tribe to its team
Apple TV HD movie streaming delays frustrating owners
Samsung develops highest density LPDDR2 DRAM in industry for mobile devices
HTC watching tablet market and will focus on Android rather than Windows Phone 7 for now
ThinkGeek ships uber geeky Electronic Music Synthesizer shirt
XIM3 gadget breaks cover to let you bring other controller types to your Xbox 360
PeeWee launches new PeeWee Power 2.0 laptop for kids
Sanus outs new basic TV stands and no-drill TV mount
Amazon yank WikiLeaks hosting amid first-amendment furore [FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU]
Motorola wireless STB streamer due at CES 2011 to take on Slingbox [Updated]
Apple 3D patent details glasses-free display
UK to lead in 4G LTE roll-out, regulator Ofcom predicts
Advent Vega tablet back on sale [Update: all gone!]
Apple fiber-optic MagSafe cable patent tips potential Light Peak support
Fifty Percent of Xbox LIVE Users Are Gold Subscribers, So Says Microsoft
Wii Speak Phased Out by Nintendo …Maybe
New Right-Click Menu item for YouTube Allows Instant Time Link
NASA: The Definition of Life Has Just Expanded [A WHOLE NEW WORLD]
Concept Design Shows Smartphone Floating in Mid-Air to Charge Battery
Sony Aims for Life-Size 3D Holographics by 2022
Just admit it: We all want bigger HDTVs [COLUMN]
Logitech Revue Promoted by Kevin Bacon’s Biggest Fan
Apple Patent Application Suggests Pop-Up Radial Menus Could be Included in iOS 5
Angry Birds Seasons Expansion Now Available in Apple App Store [WEEE]
Advent Vega unboxing & hands-on [Video] [FEATURED]
4G Motorola devices in early 2011; tablets imminent & Verizon iPhone tipped for Q1

To see more Daily Slash posts, click here: [The Daily Slash] or here: [SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up]

R3 Media Network

Android Community
Sprint 4G Now Available in 6 More Cities
LG Unveils Korea Only LU3000, faster than Galaxy S
Sony Ericsson rolling out Android update for Xperia X8 and X10
Fujifilm offers doctors new way to see x-rays and more from Android phones
Sharp Galapagos tablets due in Japan on December 10
Nexus S hits the FCC again, this time with new antennas
HTC G2 Free at Best Buy
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Install the Android Market on the Android Emulator
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HTC Desire Z now available from Vodafone UK [Updated]

SlashGear
Windows Phone 7 outsold by Android 15:1 in UK suggests retailer
ASUS Eee Note EA-800 hits Taiwan this week for $228; US debut in Q1 2011
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OMG…Aliens Pulse Rifle replica from ThinkGeek is epic
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AMOLED panel firms actively developing more capacity
SlashGear Cyber Monday Round Up [FEATURED]
Apple masses legal team ahead of Nokia patent showdown
Toshiba crams battery inside new TVs for viewing with no power
comScore says online spending on Black Friday hit $648 million
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Samsung Super AMOLED production up 10x in 2011 as company posts record small display profit
Chinese Government directly responsible for Google-hack says WikiLeaks [WHAAAT?]
Microsoft physical touchscreen patent app tips dynamic Surface
iPhone 3GS & 3G get iOS 4.2.1 carrier unlock with new redsn0w tool
Why Apple’s all-SSD, Light Peak MacBook Pro makes sense [COLUMN]
Richard Branson vs Rupert Murdoch in iPad Magazine Wars Soon
In Search of Solder and a Sense of Achievement [COLUMN]
MacBook Pro refresh with SSD, Light Peak & no DVD in April 2011? [BIG FAT NEWS]

To see more wrap-up posts, follow the following tags: [The Daily Slash] or [SlashGear Morning Wrap-up]

As the tipsters would have it, Apple’s 2011 MacBook Pro – set for an April launch next year – will see traditional, platter-based hard-drives dropped in favor of standard SSDs across the line. At the same time, Apple supposedly intends to throw out the integrated SuperDrive DVD burner, following the path set by the MacBook Air, instead relying on external optical drives should users want to burn discs. Finally, the last significant change is a new, high-speed connection type, bypassing eSATA and USB 3.0 and instead jumping to Intel’s Light Peak, capable – in its first iteration – of 10 Gbps bi-directional throughput.

SSD’s have been available as options on MacBook Pro notebooks for years now, and you can currently specify the existing 15- and 17-inch models with up to 512GB examples. Apple’s change would be remarkable because it would see, barring the fans, the MacBook Pro lose all its moving parts. It would also reintroduce a significant differentiator between the entry-level MacBook line and the high-end machines, where currently it’s all relatively blurry. Apple could also well use the MacBook Pro refresh to debut official SSD TRIM support in OS X, something that’s being mentioned in the About This Mac dialog in Snow Leopard but not currently enabled:

Dropping the SuperDrive, meanwhile, would create more space for batteries, which as we’ve seen in the iPad, the MacBook Air and other recent Apple models with non-user-replaceable power packs, have become the largest occupiers of the company’s sleek aluminum casings. Bigger batteries mean longer runtimes – the MacBook Pro line already offering significantly greater longevity than many Windows-based rivals – or the ability to offset faster processors. Steve Jobs has already said that he sees no place for Blu-ray in Apple’s machines, instead preferring online distribution of content and data; those still requiring “legacy” options would be welcome to pick from the low-cost array of external disc burners, but it’s clear that, by eschewing Blu-ray, Apple considers optical media a dying technology. We’ve seen the same ostensibly draconian decisions in the past, when Apple cut out floppy drives and parallel/serial ports.

It’s all a path to more speed, with the various components – and decisions on which to leave out or replace – conspiring to rid the flagship notebook line of its current weak links. Light Peak offers super-fast connectivity with peripherals and other hardware, but traditional hard-drives could present a weakness in the data chain. Fast solid-state memory would correct that. Simultaneously, Light Peak is intended not only as a USB 3.0 replacement, but a universal successor to SCSI, SATA, USB, FireWire, PCI Express, ethernet and HDMI. Rather than accommodating an array of ports – each taking up chassis space and making assumptions as to what connectivity users will demand – Apple could eventually offer just a few Light Peak ports. Not in this first new iteration, perhaps, but you can bet the company has an eye on the second, third and fourth revisions down the line.

Beyond bare speed, it also gives Apple more opportunity to keep users within their ecosystem: just as the Apple TV lacks a DVD player, meaning rentals and purchases generally have to be through iTunes, so the MacBook Pro will present another way for DRM-enabled content and connectivity to take hold. Oh, there’ll be a halfway house on offer, an entry-level “legacy” MacBook Pro for those not quite brave enough to make the jump, but from the shape of the rest of the range it’ll be clear that those who opt for it are missing out on what’s considered “the future”.

That offering will be alluring, certainly. Fast, slim, slickly-designed and long-running notebooks, with access to Apple’s ever-broadening iOS and OS X software catalogs and the speed of consumer devices like the iPad. On the other hand, Jobs & Co. haven’t been shy in their play for a connected ecosystem, one in which they have a strong hand in how data is managed, distributed and paid for, and while abandoning things like optical drives could lead to lighter or otherwise improved notebooks, there are compromises that will turn off many who resist the relatively controlled Apple world. Still, where Apple goes, the PC industry arguably follows, and what’s considered high-end is likely to stick closely to Cupertino’s idea of MacBook Pro perfection.

“The new MacBook Pros will move to solid state storage, up to 512GB, remove the optical drive, and we believe light-peak is being pushed to make it’s first-ever entrance into the market, another Apple exclusive.” Three Guys and a Podcast

Light Peak is a new, super-high-speed data transfer technology promising – in its first iteration, at least – up to 10 Gbps of bidirectional throughput. Billed as the replacement to USB 3.0, Intel has previously said that the first Light Peak enabled machines should arrive by early 2011; they’ve also worked with Apple on the system, and TGAAP reckon the technology will be a Cupertino exclusive, at least at first.

Finally, the new MacBook Pro will also apparently lose its optical drive, and gain a new version of Final Cut Pro that will also debut in April 2011. Apple is expected to keep a “legacy” 15-inch MBP for those unwilling to drop the DVD burner, priced at around $1,799, but the new machines should kick off at $1,999. It’s unclear exactly what the podcast’s sources are, but they do have a reasonable track history of predicting Apple events.

[via Slashdot]

As for the laptop, that gets a new 12mm square chip that converts the electrical signals into light pulses.  According to Intel’s chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, while 10Gbit/sec may be the headline figure – and that’s simultaneous in both directions – there’s theoretically no limit to the sort of bandwidth Light Peak could actually provide.

“We expect to increase that speed dramatically,” he told PC Pro, “you’ll see multiple displays being served by a single Light Peak connection. There’s almost no limit to the bandwidth – fibres can carry trillions of bits per second.”  Intel expect Light Peak hardware to be available to manufacturers by the end of 2010.

Intel’s Light Peak standard is a 10Gbps peripheral standard, which, as noted above, was meant to suitably link up other standards; but as Kahn put it, while speaking at Intel’s Developer Forum in Beijing, he sees it as a replacement to the 5Gbps standard of USB 3.0. When will this change occur? He sees it starting to take hold in 2011. Also noteworthy, Kahn seemed to believe that not only would Light Peak replace USB 3.0, but also any other standard that may be released in the future.

As for release dates of the Light Peak standard, Kahn made sure to note that component makers would get their hands on it in late 2010, and consumer-ready PCs would be ready to go by some time early in 2011. Seen as a complementary standard to USB 3.0 right now, it’s mainly utilized as a method to reduce the number of connections inside a computer. There are some that believe that Light Peak may be utilized in upcoming Apple devices, such as the iPhone 4G (or whatever it’s going to be called), which could mean syncing to iTunes would only take a fraction of the time it currently does on USB 2.0. Our fingers are crossed that this turns out to be true.

[via Electronista]