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Filed under: Laptops

Look, there are a hundred reasons to think this might be fake. That janky right corner, the inexplicable “dock in the trackpad” conundrum, the odd lighting and the entirely-too-convenient iSight self portrait. Still, whoever made this has their finger on the pulse of the Apple faithful — or pretty much anyone else that thinks Apple is long overdue for a MacBook Pro refresh. We’ve got Air-inspired curves, a touchscreen trackpad, aluminum and glass in the style of Apple’s latest iMacs, and what appear to be separated keys, which have been slow in coming to the MacBook Pro holdout. Naturally there’s zero info on who the source is, and we’re expecting a “hah, I totally fooled you guys” to spring up at any moment, but there’s clearly some pent up demand for this thing if the rumor mill is any indication.

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Filed under: Laptops

The folks at Laptop Magazine already offered up a few thoughts on Lenovo’s IdeaPad S10 netbook after they got their hands on one last month but, as is their nature, they’ve now followed things up with a full review now that the unit is actually landing into the hands of customers. As you might expect, while they did find the netbook to be one of the most stylish options currently avaialble, they also found quite a few trade-offs, including a slightly less spacious keyboard than is normally found on a 10-inch netbook, and an unfortunately weak three-cell battery. Somewhat notably, they also found that while the S10 was a “bit warmer” than other netbooks, it wasn’t the worst they’ve seen, with the highest measured temperature being 101° fahrenheit, which is a bit less toasty than some earlier reports. Be sure to hit up the read link below for the full rundown, including some benchmarks and, of course, plenty of pictures.

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Filed under: Laptops

It’s been nearly a year since Panasonic rolled out its 7-series ToughBooks, and it looks like they’re now finally being shoved aside for some new and improved 8-series models — namely, the F8, T8 and W8, which, among other things, each include Qualcomm’s Gobi dual-3G chipset. At the top of the heap is the 14-inch F8 (pictured above), which boasts a more than adequate 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor, a ruggedized 160GB hard drive, a DVD drive and, yes, a handle, all in a suprisingly lightweight 3.7-pound package. The T8 and W8, on the other hand, take things down to the 12-inch form-factor, and each pack a low-voltage 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor along with mostly identical specs, with the notable exepction of a touchscreen that’s exclusive to the T8 and a DVD drive that’s only available on the W8. Look for all three to roll out in November, with the F8 setting you back $2,499, and the T8 and W8 each running $2,099.

[Via Electronista]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

How many Google and HTC engineers does it take to build an Android phone? We don’t have the punchline to that one, exactly — but at least we have a pretty good idea of how long it takes. HTC’s Chief Marketing Officer has revealed that it kicked off negotiations with Google some five years ago — before it had even acquired Android, interestingly — and has been deeply embedded in the Android team for the past three years. That’s a long frickin’ time, but we figure the first model’s probably ten times harder to throw together than its successors are, so hopefully we’ll see a nice cadence of “HTC Innovation” from here on out. We know it’s been said many times before, but it probably bears repeating: Touch Pro and Touch HD with Android, guys. Please.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Engadget editor-at-large and gdgt co-founder Ryan Block contributes Engadget Cares, a friendly advice column for the people who make your technology.

It’s not hard to argue that the App Store’s inspired success for the mobile software world, with over 100 million programs downloaded on only a few million phones in just a matter of months. Palm, Nokia, Microsoft must all be simmering (and understandably so). But Apple, if you’re having trouble getting buy-in from passionate developers with a serious creative vision for iPhone apps beyond the dozens of me-too calculators and to-do lists — and you know you are — the writing’s on the wall, and you’re the one who put it there.

But it’s not just about the draconian SDK agreement (which we’ll get to in a minute), or the uncertainty that runs through every developer — large and small — as they wonder whether you’ll will give the all-important thumbs-up to the app they’ve just invested all that blood / sweat / tears / money into (we’ll get to that, too). What seems to the rest of us like nefarious intent may simply be Apple coming to grips with its own successes by reacting with the same kneejerk response it plies to most everything else: control and micromanagement.

Let’s rewind for a moment though, and go back to what Steve said at this Spring’s iPhone roadmap event, where the SDK was introduced for the first time. As Steve’s introduction reached its crescendo, he excitedly declared, “The developers and us have the same exact interest, which is to get as many apps out in front of as many iPhone users as possible,” but “there are going to be some apps we’re not going to distribute: porn, malicious apps, apps that invade your privacy…” The slide listed “malicious,” “illegal,” “porn,” “privacy,” “bandwidth hog,” and “unforeseen.” Ah, unforeseen — glorious wiggle room. I suppose “apps that might compete with our own” wouldn’t have gone over as well with the crowd. Read on.

Continue reading Engadget Cares: save us from Apple’s groundbreaking, developer-shackling App Store

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