Listen, you know the drill by now: Macworld is less than a month away, and that causes a Cupertino-sized rumor mill to fill up with hints of new / refreshed hardware of all shapes and sizes. The crew at TUAW claim they’ve heard from sources that a new Mac mini will be unveiled with an aluminum finish, a Time Capsule-esque “lip,” and a SATA optical drive that can be customized as a second HDD instead. Additionally, TechCrunch states it has three independent sources that confirm there’s a huge iPod touch is coming next Fall with a 7 or 9-inch screen. There’s no indication if they anticipate a Macworld announcement here, but if true, we anticipate the cargo pants industry to react accordingly. Finally, and possibly related to the TechCrunch rumor, a Taiwan news site claims Quanta Personal is anticipating to add Apple and Sony (is that you, Vaio P?) as clients for manufacturing netbooks in 2009. For those playing along at home, at some point next year we should expect a bigger iPod touch, a netbook, a smaller iPhone, a revised iMac, a revised Mac mini, and totally no love at all for the Mac Pro.

Read - Big form iPod touch to launch Fall ‘09
Read - Rumor watch: new Mac mini go for launch
Read - Quanta expects zero YoY NB shipment growth in Q4, 2008

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Apple rumor roundup: aluminum Mac minis and supersized iPod touches originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First International Personal — which is a majority owner in Everex and the manufacturer of the first OpenMoko handset — has delivered an intriguing tiny machine to us courtesy of the oh-so-revealing FCC. The FIC CW001 Mini-note will arrive on US soil packing a 10.4-inch 1,024 x 600 resolution display, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 2.5-inch SATA II hard drive, dual USB 2.0 ports, a single ExpressCard slot, Intel’s 945 GSE graphics, a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, an optical drive and a Windows-based (XP, presumably) OS. You’ll also find an inbuilt microphone, headphone jack, VGA output, Ethernet socket, a 4-in-1 multicard reader and a 4-cell Li-ion good for around 4.5 hours of battery life. No telling if this will surface as yet another Cloudbook, but everything here hinges on the price. Then again, doesn’t it always?

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

FIC’s 10.4-inch CW001 Mini-note splashes down in FCC database originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Clearly, Mike Lazaridis has the chops when it comes to running a business. What he clearly lacks, however, is a firm definition of the term “netbook.” To his credit, we still feel the exact boundaries for netbooks have yet to be determined (fret not, Psion Teklogix is hammering out those details), but calling a BlackBerry Storm one is — how do you say? — a bit of a stretch. During a current sit down with RIM’s president, CNET Asia heard the bigwig answer like so when questioned about viewing netbooks as competitors: “No, I think I can put netbooks in here [referring to the BlackBerry Storm]. These are netbooks. They’re just smaller.” Wait, Mike — don’t you think smartphones are more like MIDs or UMPCs? Or do we just have you all wrong here?

[Via phoneArena]

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops

RIM’s president calls BlackBerry Storm a small netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though a few lucky souls have already wrapped their paws around Lenovo’s totally unorthodox W700ds, the dual-screened machine has yet to undergo a proper review… until now. Laptop Mag found the rig to be expectedly dominant in all the right areas, with a ridiculous graphics performance and a stunning display. Yeah, display. As in, singular. The main 17-inch panel was nothing short of stupendous, though the pull-out 10.6-inch LCD was stated to be “significantly duller and dimmer.” Additionally, the vertical orientation wasn’t well suited for much of anything outside of sidebar applications (chat boxes, Photoshop toolbars, etc.), but you probably knew that already, didn’t you? All told, the W700ds wasn’t deemed the ideal value in the world with an anticipated price point of around $5,000, but those with highly specialized needs might just pay the premium to make their dreams come true.

Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700ds photographed and reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For a robotic soldier that’ll never get tired with the firepower of a machine gun, look no further than Foster-Miller’s TALON. Continue reading to see more.

Via Techeblog

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There’s only about 12-hours left to enter, so get your entries in before the 11:59pm PST deadline tonight. Just to recap: please enter by clicking here and telling us whether or not you’ll be upgrading to Windows 7, and why.

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For $100,000 on eBay, you could pick up the original Star Wars sales booklet that was sent to motion picture houses in the 70’s — “if you look closely at the main picture, the ‘W’ in ‘Wars’ isn’t the same ‘W’ as we know today.” Auction page. Click here for first picture in gallery.

Each page in this book is perfect. The person I’m selling this for was a member of the AP and was at the press conference for ‘The Star Wars’ and although they weren’t supposed to get this book, as it was solely for the theater houses, he’d a friend inside Fox that gave him a copy while he was there.

[via eBay]

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Google managed to snap photos of a host of prototype Porsches in Colorado, while scanning the roads for its StreetView service. Click here for one more picture.

We’re not sure how old these photos are, but they’re supposedly of updated “Boxters, Caymans and even a 911″. Is nothing safe?

[via Gizmodo - Autoblog]

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The SEGA Live Band from Japantrendshop “is the first sensor-enabled stage that plays music based on the instruments you place on the stage.” Available now, priced at $307. Product page. Video after the break.

You can choose from either the “Rock” or “Jazz” instrument sets, which also come with pre-loaded music for instant play.

[via Japantrendshop]

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Amazon is offering the R2-D2 Astromech Droid Robot for only $109.25 shipped, originally priced at $169.99. It comes “with movie-accurate messages and flashing lights, this droid responds to voice commands and has a special arm designed to keep your beverage handy.” Product page. Video after the break.

More than 15-inches tall, this sophisticated R2-D2 model boasts a secret cargo compartment, a unique swing-down utility arm that’s also a beverage holder, a removable sensor scope, a working light beam, sound-processing microphones, and an adaptable droid mood-status indicator.

[via Amazon]

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