Apple opens up repair program for some MacBook hard drives

This one goes back a few years, but Apple has now finally, officially confirmed a hard drive problem that has plagued some MacBooks, and it’s announced a repair program that will allow you to get your hard drive replaced even if the MacBook is out of warranty. The specific models covered are both black and white MacBooks from 2006 and 2007 with 1.83GHz, 2GHz, or 2.16GHz processors, and either 60GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB, or 160GB hard drives. As you may recall, the hard drive issue in question is a pretty nasty one that can leave your data unrecoverable, but it seems like Apple will only replace your drive once you’re stuck with the flashing question mark on boot-up — it’s just recommending that people backup their data in the meantime. Hit up the link below for the complete details.

Apple opens up repair program for some MacBook hard drives originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Macworld |  Apple | Email this | Comments

View full post on Engadget

Kingston’s latest SSDNow V+ reviewed in 128GB flavor

Kingston’s SSDNow V+ series is hitting the streets, and bit-tech.net has put it, and its new Toshiba controller, through the ringer. That new silicon offers TRIM support in Windows 7, intended to remove any lingering fears of performance degradation, and this drive has been graced with 128MB of internal cache to conquer random read and write performance. In general the review finds that the controller does its job and TRIM’d deletes don’t have a major affect on performance, but there still was some degradation after 1TB worth of writes and deletes. Beyond that the included cache didn’t seem to help random I/O performance, and in general the drive doesn’t exactly dominate the benchmarks. So, if you’ve recently upgraded to something else and were feeling a bit of buyers’ remorse, you’re safe — for now.

Kingston’s latest SSDNow V+ reviewed in 128GB flavor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink |  bit-tech.net | Email this | Comments

View full post on Engadget

RIM CEO claims we are staring ‘down the barrel of a capacity crunch,’ should all get BlackBerrys to prevent it

Capacity crunch, isn’t that a breakfast cereal? RIM’s Mike Lazaridis seems to have been a real grouch at MWC this week as apparently he hasn’t stopped talking about the doom and gloom awaiting mobile carriers over the next few years. Focusing on the bandwidth-hungry North American market, Lazaridis has criticized the apparently irresponsible network saturation growth, which he sees as being primarily driven by app-centric operating systems. If you’re wondering who he could possibly be referring to, let Mike clarify it — according to him, you could carry five BlackBerry devices for each iPhone on a network. As evidence of his firm’s focus on efficiency, he points us to that freshly demoed WebKit browser, which he claims uses a third of the bandwidth required by the competition from Apple and Google. If only he wasn’t implying that owning a BlackBerry would save the internet, Mike’s sales pitch would be rather compelling — those are mighty impressive numbers he is citing.

RIM CEO claims we are staring ‘down the barrel of a capacity crunch,’ should all get BlackBerrys to prevent it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink 9 to 5 Mac  |  Daily Telegraph, Economic Times  | Email this | Comments

View full post on Engadget

Gobandit GPS HD action camcorder captures your exploits, top speed (video)

Regardless of how sharp the footage captured from your most recent extreme endeavor looks, chances are it won’t seem as fast as it felt at the time. Soon, though, you’ll have some hard proof to back up your tall tales with the waterproof gobandit GPS HD. It has an integrated GPS module that logs your position as you film with it, enabling you to view your course on a map and, most interestingly, apply some overlays to the resulting footage, showing your current speed, top speed, and altitude. Video is captured at a maximum of 720p30, though 5 megapixel stills can be grabbed automatically at two or five second intervals. 2GB of memory is built into the cam, but SDHC support means up to 32GB of footage from the side of your lid. Thrill-seekers can get their pre-order on now ahead of an April release, but with an MSRP of £299.99 ($470) we’ll probably stick with our GoPros, our ContourHDs, and our wild claims about triple-digit speeds. Extreme teaser video after the break.

[Thanks, Tobias]

Continue reading Gobandit GPS HD action camcorder captures your exploits, top speed (video)

Gobandit GPS HD action camcorder captures your exploits, top speed (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Assist |  GoBandit | Email this | Comments

View full post on Engadget

Engadget Mobile Podcast 035: MWC Day 1 – 02.16.2010

Four men in a Catalonian apartment talk about the the weather and the future of telephones. Hilarity ensues.

Go here to see the original:
Engadget Mobile Podcast 035: MWC Day 1 – 02.16.2010

UK police drone grounded for flying without a license

UK police drone grounded for flying without a license originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  BBC  | Email this | Comments

View full post on Engadget

Analog Tweet-O-Meter shows city-specific Twitter activity the old fashioned way

Never mind keeping track of how many gold medals Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Monaco rack up during the Winter Olympics; the real nerds are watching to see exactly how many tweets are being pushed out per minute from a smattering of cities around the world. CASA’s Tweet-O-Meter has been running on a webpage for awhile now, but frankly, the novelty tends to wear quickly. These, however, are far more tempting to the retinas. What you’re looking at above are a few analog Tweet-O-Meters, which do exactly what you think they do: showcase the amount of tweets that are leaving New York, London and Paris at any given time by moving a needle within a conventional gauge. Head on past the break for a video, and be sure to express your reaction on your favorite up-and-coming social networking site.

[Thanks, Dr. Andrew]

Continue reading Analog Tweet-O-Meter shows city-specific Twitter activity the old fashioned way

Analog Tweet-O-Meter shows city-specific Twitter activity the old fashioned way originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CASA, Digital Urban  | Email this | Comments

View full post on Engadget

HexBug’s robotic creatures are the creepy crawlers of the future

Okay, so it isn’t as artsy as making gooey bugs in a miniature oven, but HexBug’s little micro-robotic tchotchkes are a good time in their own right. The digital entomologists at HexBugs decided to unleash the new Ant Micro and Nano Newton at New York City’s Toy Fair, and for some peculiar reason we were quite enamored with watching these autonomous, high speed creatures run around the carpeted show floor. Powered by two button cell batteries, $11.99 Ant Micro has front and rear touch sensors that allow it to maneuver around objects in its path and it’s hard, colored transparent exoskeleton casing was durable enough for the little guys to crash into a wooden plank and reverse course. The $9.99 tiny motor powered, 12-legged Nano Newton holds a special place in our heart, and the Jolly Rancher sized caterpillar vibrates uncontrollably and is able to flip itself over and walk forward. HexBugs will also sell different Habitat sets so the creatures can run around on their own without adult supervision. Luckily for you, these little guys weren’t camera shy — check the pics below!

HexBug’s robotic creatures are the creepy crawlers of the future originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  HexBug  | Email this | Comments

View full post on Engadget

Editorial: Engadget on Windows Phone 7 Series

Microsoft took a dramatic step with Windows Phone 7 Series this morning at MWC in Barcelona, and obviously we’ve been talking about it all day here at Engadget HQ.

More:
Editorial: Engadget on Windows Phone 7 Series

Editorial: Engadget on Windows Phone 7 Series

Microsoft took a dramatic step with Windows Phone 7 Series this morning at MWC in Barcelona, and obviously we’ve been talking about it all day here at Engadget HQ. Just like with the iPad and the Droid , opinions on the staff are all over the map — it’s not every day that a company reboots an entire OS — so we’re going to let everyone speak for themselves, starting with the people who’ve handled Windows Phone 7 Series in person: Josh, Chris, Thomas, and Sean.

See more here:
Editorial: Engadget on Windows Phone 7 Series

Next Page »