According to a screen capture @ 9 :09 in apples last week event there seem to be a embedded i-sight camera in Steve Jobs iPad. Although, it could be the ambient light sensor. Mission:Repair (Certified Mac Technicians) have reported to received repair parts for the iPad and there seem to be a camera area on those too!

What you guys think?

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The Apple “ iTablet” finally got its name and image today at Steve Jobs keynote.  The iPad is official. The Hype has been a long time coming but its finally here!

The apple iPad is going to retail starting @ $499 for the 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model. The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90.

The iPad is a half-inch thick and weighs only 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display.

it’s running a custom 1GHz Apple “A4″ chip developed by the P.A. Semi team, with a 10-hour battery life and a month of standby.

The iPad comes built in with a 30-pin Dock connector a speaker, a microphone, Bluetooth, and 802.11n WiFi, and an accelerometer and a compass as well.

There’s also a keyboard dock, which connects underneath in the portrait orientation. The device can be synced and managed by iTunes.

As expected, it can run iPhone apps .The 3G version comes with new data plans: 250MB for $14.99  and  unlimited plan for $29.99 a month contract-free on… AT&T.

Activations and cancellations  are handled on the iPad, so you can activate and cancel whenever you want.

Every iPad comes GSM unlocked, so you can use it with your favorite carrier..

Whats your thoughts? COMMENT!

Keep it to The Gadget 411 for more info!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Well this sure isn’t something I’ve seen before. With all this “2010 is the year of the tablet” talk, did you feel that you were going to have to make the choice between a tablet and a laptop/netbook? Well Lenovo may just have the answer: Get both! The answer comes in their IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, a device that has yet to be revealed at CES (which starts on January 7th in Las Vegas). No one has actually gotten their dirty little mittens on “Hannah Montana” laptop, as I am dubbing it (because when you dock/undock the tablet/screen, its a whole different “person”! Get it?). In fact, after a quick Google News search, only Engadget has published an article about this interesting little hybrid.

Due to the dual nature of the IdeaPad U1, its specs need to separated into 2 lists:

While in full laptop mode (or, as “Hannah Montana”):

• CULV Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• 3.8 pounds

When the screen/tablet is removed (or, as “Miley Cyrus”):

• Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon chip
• 16 GB SSD
• Boots Lenovo’s Skylight Linux interface

Price: $999

Release: Sometime in June

Tune back to The Gadget 411 for more detailed specs when Lenovo officially announced the U1 Hybrid at CES!

(In all honesty, I can’t wait until they release the IdeaPad U2. Talk about a product placement made in heaven Bono!)

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The new decade is already poised to start off in a huge way in the tech world. Google has a press conference scheduled for Monday in which they will be releasing the Nexus One, their first foray into the world of hardware. Some say this is going to be to the first “true” Google phone. Engadget already got their hands on one. Check out their first impressions.

Also, rumors have been at all time high for Apple’s “universe-changing” tablet/ebook/large-iPhone/iSlate(?). Rumors about this device have been around for at least five years, and kind of died down with the release of the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Now some serious sources like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and many others seem to be pretty confident that this “God gadget” will be coming in 2010. Some have even concluded that an Apple event will be held at the end of the month and will focus on the “mobile computing space” (aka a tablet). After waiting years for a touch-screen iPod because of rumors of its release every other week, I now only believe it when I see it. Though this time, with the fever pitch of rumors, I may just believe it before I see it. Just like the iPod changed the music industry this past decade, the Apple tablet may change the print industry over the next decade. The end of the month couldn’t come soon enough. If this “iSlate” actually does come out then, you bet you’ll be hearing from me about it!

So, which of these tech news items gets you excited/hopeful for the coming year/decade? Sound off in the poll after the break!

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On Christmas Day last Friday, the United States experienced its first serious terrorist scare in months. On a plane originating from Yemen, headed to Detroit, Michigan by way of Amsterdam, a man attempted to detonate an explosive device, but fortunately was unsuccessful. You didn’t come here to read international headlines, however, and chances are, you already knew about this. I bring this up because, with every new terror scare/attempt/attack, there are alway new policies put into place, new regulations implemented and new limitations put on travel, all in the hopes of improving our travel safety. These new regulations may have an effect on the technology we hold oh so dear. Continue Reading

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How much television do you watch? Now, how much television do you watch on your television? If you’re like me you don’t have time for such pesky things as TV schedules and minutes-long commercial breaks. In this day in age the Internet is king, and the king mandated that we the people shall get some TV whenever we want it.

As of last week, change that mandate from some to all: One the world’s largest cable service providers, Comcast, has bought NBC. You know, NBC! Aka the NATIONAL Broadcasting Company, aka the parent network of CNBC, Bravo and USA (among many others). With this merger, a big, drooling, fire-breathing, Chuck-Norrising, monster, behemoth has been born.

Comcast is the largest ISP (internet service provider) with nearly 20 million subscribers, and NBC, is well, NBC. So what’s so special about this merger? I’ll put it this way: Not only does Comcast not control the tubes that connect us all, they can control what flows through those tubes (in terms of digital entertainment).

Now, there are two camps probably forming at this point. On one side we have the “WTF Comcast?! Way to go and destroy my Net Neutrality dreams!” camp, and on the other side we have the “Woohoo! I’m so pumped because now I will have more access to all my favorite hit NBC shows like Community, The Office and 30 Rock (it’s comedy night done right, starting tonight at 8:30! Am I right NBC? That pitch was free, the next one won’t be)!

The latter camp has good reason to be excited. Today, no one pays attention to the schedules TV stations set up because God gave us things like Tivo and Hulu. When we want our entertainment, we get it. This Comcast-NBC deal will make this even more true than it already is.

Though this is exciting, I do also sympathize with the “WTF?!” camp. Comcast controlling what entertainment you consume means that it is the decider. Want to catch some Leno? No problem! “Here you go”, Comcast will say, “watch as much Jay as you want!” Now should you have the nerve to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, well Comcast may very well be to say “You want Kimmel? OK. As long as you pay us, not a problem.” I think I just got a shiver down my spine, because that could be one dark future.

Having to pay to watch Jimmy Kimmel, may be a scary notion, but you could come out from under the covers for a little bit, because nothing has actually been set yet. Thankfully you live in the United States of Insanely-complex-government-system-rica, and it likely will not be another year until you actually see the full effects of this merger. There’s the FCC, the FTC, the Justice Department and who knows who else that needs to approve this merger. This merger will be a hot topic in parts of Washington over the next year, and could seriously shake up how we get our Conan in a year’s time. Speaking of Conan, check out his take on this merger in a clip from The Tonight Show!

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Oh it is so on! After just a couple of weeks out in the wild, Google Wave has itself a competitor. And it’s from Mozilla. Who knew? The war for the next best modern communication tool has begun. At least, it will soon.

A few weeks ago, Mozilla, as many of you may now as the company that brought you the Firefox browser, have announced plans to release a web application that they hope will streamline the way you intake information, called Raindrop. This comes right on the heels of the preview release of Google Wave, pegged by Google as what email would look if it were invented by today.Wave hopes to be another/new way to communicate. Raindrop wants to help you organize all the communication you already do.

After using Wave for a few weeks, with a couple of contacts, I found it to be just another thing to check. I already use AIM, Facebook Chat, Google Chat, and Twitter to stay in contact with humanity (let us not forget good ol’  face-to-face conversations). Even with a desktop application like Waveboard, I found no need for Wave, no way to integrate it into my online lifestyle.

Just about everyone these days uses Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, blah blah blah blah blah. If you read blogs, such as this one, chances are you know about and/or use just about every social media tool out there. There are tons. We all spend so much of our day checking on all of them for updates, it gets me thinking: how do we have the time to update if were always looking at other peoples posts and profiles? And, would we have anything to post, since were spending all of our time checking on what others are doing? It boggles my mind. Really, these are the most pressing issues in my life.

Hearing about Raindrop let me breathe a sigh of relief. It is not trying to be something entirely new. It takes your email, tweets, Facebook messages, flickr updates, YouTube posts, Google Docs, and whatever else you may have, and puts it all in one place. According to the Raindrop blog ,Raindrop is an effort that starts by trying to understand today’s web of conversations, and aims to design an interface that helps people get a handle on their digital world. There is so much information we need to digest, chances are you may miss the messages that are actually important. Messages that are from, like, real people.

Though only in version 0.1 (yes, point-one), if youre feeling ballsy, you can download the developer code from the Raindrop website. Mozilla, in typical-Mozilla fashion, wants YOU to play with their code. Come up with mock-ups, ask questions and hack away! Its open source, so go crazy!

Im excited! Are you?

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Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions today announced the first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 external storage solution.  The DriveStation HD-HXU3 is ideal for creative professionals, computer power users and digital content creators, delivering transfer rates up to 625 MB per second (or five Gbits per second) for the quick transfer and storage of  high-resolution graphics, digital audio/video, large multimedia files, photos and more.

“Innovation has always been Buffalo Technology’s core value and the new DriveStation HD-HXU3 combines both USB 3.0 performance, and the latest hard disk technology to give consumers the fastest, and most reliable solution on the market,” said Ralph Spagnola, vice president of sales at Buffalo Technology.  “The DriveStation HD-HXU3 delivers on Buffalo’s ongoing commitment in delivering high quality, robust storage solutions to meet the high demands of today’s consumers.”

The DriveStation USB 3.0 storage solution is backward-compatible and works with all USB 2.0 enabled computers and notebooks, as well as forthcoming USB 3.0 models. Available in 1.0TB, 1.5TB and 2.0TB capacities, the DriveStationâ„¢ HD-HXU3 with SuperSpeed USB gives users the ability to quickly back-up and store important data and other digital assets.

In conjunction with the new SuperSpeed USB DriveStation, Buffalo has released a two-port USB 3.0 PCI Express Interface Card IFC-PCIE2U3. The USB 3.0 PCI Express Interface Card allows users to upgrade their PC or Mac to utilize SuperSpeed USB for faster data transfer speeds than ever before. The DriveStation HD-HXU3 gives users the ability to quickly back up important data and store office work, digital photos, music and movies in one central location.

Included with each DriveStation USB 3.0 HD-HXU3 storage solution is Memeo’s award-winning backup package. Memeo AutoBackup software gives you the power to securely and automatically manage and backup your files in real-time. No need for manual or scheduled backups, Memeo AutoBackup will find any new or updated file instantly and automatically, copying them to the drive so that you have a safe copy. After the initial setup, you never have to look at it again.

Pricing and Availability
The DriveStation USB 3.0 HD-HXU3 is backed by a limited one-year warranty that includes toll-free 24/7 technical support and is available now at estimated street prices of $199.99 for 1TB (HD-HX1.0TU3), $249.99 for 1.5TB (HD-HX1.5TU3) and $399.99 for 2.0TB (HD-HX2.0TU3).

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Apple® today introduced the new wireless Magic Mouse, the first mouse to use Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ technology. Pioneered on iPhone®, iPod touch® and Mac® notebook trackpads, Multi-Touch allows customers to navigate using intuitive finger gestures. Instead of mechanical buttons, scroll wheels or scroll balls, the entire top of the Magic Mouse is a seamless Multi-Touch surface. Magic Mouse comes standard with the new iMac® and will be available as a Mac accessory at just $69.

“Apple is the Multi-Touch leader, pioneering the use of this innovative technology in iPhone, iPod touch and Mac notebook trackpads,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Apple’s Multi-Touch technology allows us to offer an easy to use mouse in a simple and elegant design.”

Magic Mouse features a seamless touch-sensitive enclosure that allows it to be a single or multi-button mouse with advanced gesture support. Using intuitive gestures, users can easily scroll through long documents, pan across large images or swipe to move forward or backward through a collection of web pages or photos. Magic Mouse works for left or right handed users and multi-button or gesture commands can be easily configured from within System Preferences.

The Magic Mouse laser tracking engine provides a smooth, consistent experience across more surfaces than a traditional optical tracking system. Magic Mouse uses Bluetooth wireless capabilities to create a clean, cable-free desk top and its secure wireless connection works from up to 10 meters away. To extend battery performance, Magic Mouse includes an advanced power management system that works with Mac OS® X to automatically switch to low power modes during periods of inactivity. The wireless Magic Mouse is powered by two AA batteries which are included.

Pricing & Availability
Magic Mouse comes standard with the new iMac and is available at the end of October through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $69 (US). Magic Mouse requires Mac OS X Leopard® version 10.5.8 or later

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Technical difficulties could delay the camera-equipped iPods widely expected at the Apple event on Wednesday, according to sources cited by AppleInsider. The unnamed source says that Apple is facing problems with the production of new iPods, more exactly with the camera hardware.

apple ipod camera
Apple’s iPod family
Apple is expected to introduce camera-equipped iPods at the special event, although, as usual, Apple did not disclose any information about what will be unveiled. However, photos of third-party iPod touch and nano cases sporting a camera hole have been doing the rounds online for a few months now — which led us to believe that Apple is indeed putting cameras into iPods.

But according to a report from AppleInsider, not everything is rosy in Apple land, because the Cupertino company is having technical problems putting cameras into iPods. Hardmac carries a similar report, which suggests the problem lies with the iPod touch camera module. Both publications say that this could mean the new iPods won’t hit the market this September.

If all the speculation about photo-equipped iPods is true, then we will most likely see 3.2-megapixel-camera-fitted iPods — basically the same image sensors found in the current generation iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 3GS’s camera features autofocus and video recording capabilities, but no flash is present. The software on the 3GS can also trim movies captured with the phone’s camera and upload them on YouTube.

The iPod classic, Apple’s only remaining hard-drive based music player, is not expected to get a camera upgrade. On the contrary, rumors suggest that Apple will drop the hard-drive based iPods, in favor of an all-flash memory lineup, just like Microsoft is doing with its current line of Zune players.

Source [ PCWORLD]

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