Apple set to reshuffle its line-up and launch a new netbook or MacBook touch

Apple looks set to reshuffle its overall offering to consumers around the world and to launch a new version of its MacBook Air device as part of the rearrangements.

The company is as keen as any of its rivals to avoid seeing the growing popularity of tablet PCs damage netbook sales and a new edition of the Air looks like part of a plan to keep MacBook usage on the increase.

Apple is yet to confirm how its product range will look as autumn turns to winter but Cnet Magazine claims to have the inside track and reckons a smaller MacBook Air will be unveiled in the US before the week is out.

Speculation remains as to whether the new Air will switch-on as instantly as iPad users have become accustomed to and while the new device is likely to be smaller than previous versions, it will probably still be a few inches larger in terms of screen size than its 9.7-inch slates.

Clearly, tablet PCs and iPads in particular are among the most dynamic market sectors in consumer electronics at present but firms like Apple are certainly not ready to accept the terminal demise of their laptop and netbook ranges.

However, they do seem willing to drop their asking prices for devices like the MacBook Air, which was well over £1,000 when first released in the UK but should soon be available at considerably lower rates. Evidently, Apple doesn’t want to see its popularity with consumers worldwide or its momentum in a variety of markets being hindered by prohibitive pricing.

If the latest reports are accurate, the new Apple netbook will be running on an older version of Intel’s Core processor and should be equipped with a longer battery life than earlier models were able to offer.

Apple is set to reveal its latest financial figures this week and is expected to show strong growth in company profits, helped by huge takings from laptop, desktop and tablet PC sales during the third quarter of this year.

Via : laptopshop

Prototype MacBook Air Spotted?

Whispers of a MacBook Air refresh have been going around recently and now a picture of a new 13.3-inch MacBook Air has surfaced, with the lower panel opened, showing the increase in battery capacity. Before you get too happy, the leak mentions that it's still running the same Core 2 Duo SL9400 processor as the current generation MacBook Air, hinting that this might be a prototype, possibly dating back to at least April.

Regardless of whether it's a prototype or final product, it's still good news that Apple is looking to improve its MacBook Air. Other improvements include a modern unibody style chassis, along with a large single mouse button trackpad, similar to that found on modern MacBooks.

Via : ubergizmo

Apple May Launch Mini MacBook Air Next Week

There are strong rumors that Apple will be introducing their new smaller MacBook Air by next week. Sources reported that the price will be significantly lower than the current MacBook price ($1499).

Though the exact dimensions are not known, new new Mini MacBook Air is described as “smaller and sleeker” by the company. The current rumor says that it will about 11.6 inches or will be in between 9.7 and 13.3 inches (slightly more than an iPad). According to the sources the new Air will be using an older version of Intel’s core processor with Nvidia MCP89 chipset rather than the new core i5/i7 chips, which is used in MacBook pro models.

The New Mini MacBook Air will have a longer battery life as well. It is not confirmed whether the Air will have an “instant-on” capability

Via : hardgeek

MacBook Air dual refresh confirmed? 13.3″ & 11.6″ with super-fast boot tipped

More anonymous sources have come forward with MacBook Air refresh information, corroborating leaks over the weekend about what Apple are tipped to be announcing at their “Back to the Mac” event this coming Wednesday. According to Cult of Mac‘s “well-placed source”, Apple is indeed readying two versions of the new MacBook Air, a direct 13.3-inch replacement to the current model and a smaller, 11.6-inch “netbook” version.

As for specifications, the source claims that Apple will offer two CPUs: a 2.1GHz processor with 2GB of RAM as standard, and a 2.4 GHz with 4GB of RAM. Each will have an SSD, which Apple has taken advantage of to speed up boot times. ”It boots so fast, it’s unbelievable” their source says, while the physical design “does not have curves. It has straight edges. It’s boxier, like the iPhone 4.”

Like the MacBook Pro range it has a unibody aluminum chassis though is apparently not as curvy, with a USB port on each side, a non-angled MagSafe connector, a Mini DisplayPort and an SD card slot. The keyboard is tipped as the same black layout as the MacBook Pro, with a multitouch trackpad and integrated button underneath. Graphics are courtesy of NVIDIA’s GeForce 320M, while the battery is 50-percent bigger, delivering 8-10 hours of battery life.

Finally, pricing. Though the source is claiming prices could be as low as $1,100 for the 13-inch MacBook Air and $999 for the 11-inch version, Cult of Mac reckon $1,400 and $1,100 respectively is more likely. We’ll be liveblogging the whole Back to the Mac event on Wednesday, so join us at http://live.slashgear.com/ for all the news as it happens.

Via : slashgear

Netflix on Wii now accessible without disc

Due to exclusivity agreements with Microsoft, users of Netflix’s popular Instant Streaming feature on PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles were restricted to using a disc the company provided to access the service. Thankfully, those times are over.

Nintendo has announced that starting today, Netflix subscribers can download the new Netflix Channel from the Wii Shop Channel. This new channel allows users to view and access any of the thousands of TV programs and movies right from the Wii’s main menu. It also means you won’t have to eject your copy of Kirby’s Epic Yarn every time you have a craving for Law & Order: SVU.

Sony made similar moves last week, ditching the disc to support Instant Streaming from the main system menu.

Via : thetanooki

GetJar Hosts Full, Free, Non-Beta Version Of Angry Birds For Android

t's hard to explain why, but for some reason, Angry Birds has taken over the mobile gaming world. It's easily the most popular game out at the moment for mobile platforms, but up until a few months ago, it wasn't available on Android. That was fixed with a Beta version, but it only featured a few levels and there were definite quirks in the software. Now, GetJar, the world’s second largest mobile apps store, has launched Rovio's full, non-beta version of Angry Birds for Android.

People are already reporting that GetJar's servers are struggling to keep up with the demand and withstand the load, which again proves just how popular this is. It's not available on the Android market yet, but it will probably get there eventually. The best news, aside from it escaping beta, is that the full version is totally free. You know what to do know: head over to GetJar and download it! If the servers can keep up...

More @ hothardware

Angry Birds Full Version Free Download goes past 1million in just 1 Day: Android app users welcome Rovio with glee!

Angry Birds is now out on Android and those fuming little things have set the Android app platform on fire by making their way into over a million handsets in just one day. It is more trouble for pigs, as now they get beaten down on millions of android-based mobiles across the globe.

Rovio must be really happy with what they have as their full version of Angry Birds on Android surely set a new record by reaching the 1 million download mark in less than a day. It seems that both users and Rovio are delighted with the ‘fighting feathers’ on Google’s Mobile Operating System. The announcement came on Twitter (The hottest way to make official announcements these days). Rovio has already sold over 6.5 million copies of Angry Birds on Apple’s iOS platform.

Priced at $.99 for the iPhone and $1.99 for the iPad, Rovio has made plenty by selling Angry Birds on the iOS platform already and with the million-plus free copies already out on Android, it shows the potential of both Android as a popular mobile OS for major launches and also Rovio’s ability to keep customers happy and loyal.

Via : devicemag

Big Day for Apple Stock Earnings, iPad And iPhone Sales Should Surge

Apple’s stock price has been on a tear lately. Shooting up past $300 like it was nothing, and now about to open today above $315 per share. With Apple’s earnings to be reported after the market closes today, many investors are wondering if it’s too late to get in, or if they should perhaps consider buying some shares before the earnings report comes out.

Analysts are all over the place in terms of expected earnings, as well as total sales numbers on the Apple iPad and iPhone. With the stock already having moved up a tremendous amount in the last few weeks, some experts think that anything besides a complete blowout of expectations will cause the stock to lose some of it’s recent gains.

What would be considered a “complete blowout”? It’s hard to say, however I think that if they can report about $19.5 billion in revenue for the 4th quarter, as compared with their forecast of $18 billion, and an analyst consensus of $18.86 billion, investors will likely continue to jump into the stock, even at the today’s prices. Other important numbers that investors are looking for are the total sales figures of iPad and iPhones. Likely a number around 5 million iPads, and 12 million iPhones will please them. Anything less could be seen as a slight weakness, something that Apple has yet to really show. Either way, despite the numbers we get today, Apple should continue to be a strong investment, with continued innovation, and a PE ratio that is not at all expensive, historically speaking.

Via : thenewsoftoday

Alcatel-Lucent Boosts Mobile Backhaul with New Aggregation Router

Alcatel-Lucent is expanding its mobile backhaul portfolio with a new 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR)-18 optimized for large aggregation sites or smaller central hub sites.

The Alcatel-Lucent 7705 SAR-18 is a 10-rack unit (RU) platform offering up to 140 Gbps of scalable capacity for backhauling traffic from "‘AnyG to LTE" (2G, 3G and LTE) radio access networks. It supports the same services as Alcatel-Lucent's flagship 7750 Service Router, but to meet the price points required in mobile backhaul applications, the 7705 employs commercial silicon. Serving at key aggregation points, the 7705 router supports all packet-based timing/synchronization mechanisms and offers sophisticated Ethernet OAM.

Along with the new platform, Alcatel-Lucent is offering end-to-end, unified network and policy management from the Radio Access Network (RAN) to the packet core. The Alcatel-Lucent 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) now provides seamless end-to- end IP/MPLS-based management for the entire wireless network domain. With the 5620 SAM, Alcatel-Lucent brings the strength of its IP/MPLS management expertise to simplify provisioning and operations and accelerate faulty detection and rectification. Furthermore, the Alcatel-Lucent SAR family of products is now integrated with the Alcatel-Lucent 9500 Microwave Packet Radio (MPR) family, for seamless microwave-based backhaul.

Alcatel-Lucent also noted that it also moved into the number one market share position with 23% of worldwide Ethernet cell site gateway and router revenue for the first half of 2010, according to data published by Infonetics. To date, Alcatel-Lucent is involved in over 50 LTE trials and has won seven LTE contracts worldwide.

Via : convergedigest

Blizzard, SteelSeries Co-Develop World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse

SteelSeries has developed another World of Warcraft mouse. Hopefully they’ve learned a few lessons from their previous mouse, which was OK but sorta flawed at the same time. It’s called the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm MMO Gaming mouse, and it was co-developed with Blizzard. And given my various conversations with the folks at SteelSeries over the past months, I know that Blizzard doesn’t lend its name to just any peripheral, much less take the time to co-develop one.

As you can see with your eyes, the color scheme sorta goes along with Cataclysm, the newest expansion pack that’s set for release on December 7.

So what does the mouse do?

First off, it works with both Mac and PC. Setup is handled in-game.

There’s 14 buttons that you can program some 130 preset commands. Presumably things like “cast spell 3,” etc. Or, you can map any number of your custom macros that you’ve spent months (years?) perfecting. The mouse itself can store one profile, while the software can store an additional 10 profiles.

SteelSeries says they’ve taken all the feedback generated with their first WoW mouse, and along with Blizzard, have created something that delivers “ a more comfortable, intuitive, and ultimately better experience.”

Via : crunchgear