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Filed under: Podcasts

We’re back, just as promised! This week, Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, and Nilay Patel discuss the finer points of new ASUS laptops, Casio digicams, and a score of other compelling, enthralling, and generally fascinating items that will tickle your braincells and delight your many respectable senses. Sit back, relax, kick off your shoes, crack open a can of Dr. Terrific’s Party Juice, and enjoy the soothing sounds and delightful pseudo-sights of the Engadget Podcast.

Update: It looks like the Podcast is back up in iTunes! Thanks to everyone who pinged them, but you can call off the dogs — and a big thanks to Scott at Apple for making it happen!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, and Nilay Patel
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Professor Murder - Dutch Hex

Subscribe to the podcast

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).
[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.
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[Zune]Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace

Download the podcast

LISTEN (MP3)
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Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

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Source: Trent Wolbe

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Filed under: Laptops

With a new MacBook announcement now just days away, speculation is unsurprisingly at a fever pitch as to exactly what Apple has in store, and the folks at PC Perspective have now pieced together a few clues to whet your appetite in anticipation of the big event. Most of those are drawn from mounting evidence from the NVIDIA camp, including the image above that made an appearance on the company’s website a few days ago and, most importantly, word that NVIDIA would be releasing its GeForce 9400 and 9300 chipsets based on the MCP79 integrated chipset design on October 15th (conveniently not stepping on Apple’s toes the day before). The implication there being that the GeForce chipsets would replace the relatively underpowered integrated Intel graphics on the current MacBooks, with the new MacBook Pros supposedly getting an additional boost from a discrete G92-based mobility GeForce 9600. As PC Perspective points out, if true, that would be quite a coup for NVIDIA, especially considering that it wasn’t all that long ago some were talking about it quitting the chipset business altogether.

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Source: Donald Melanson

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Filed under: Laptops

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Brick_MacBook_Pro_leaked_in_up_close_spy_shot’; Since we heard those “Brick” rumors the other day, the mill has been all but silent… until now. It’s hard to tell exactly what we’re looking at here, but damned if this doesn’t look like some fancy new MacBook Pro carved out of a single piece of metal (except for those sides, so, there goes that theory). We’ll let you make your own decisions after giving this the once over, but if this is what Apple has in store for us, our curiosity is definitely piqued.

Update: MacRumors reports that the photo originates from this Chinese site.

Update 2: More pics appear to have surfaced, check them out here!

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Source: Joshua Topolsky

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Filed under: Laptops

The Apple rumor mill has really cooked up a doozy this time. According to 9to5mac — a site with a fairly good track record — Apple’s next big thing isn’t just a laptop or an iPod… it’s an entirely new manufacturing process. If you believe the site’s sources, an as-yet-unannounced event on October 14th will herald in a new iteration of the MacBook dubbed the “Brick,” but the big news won’t actually be about the laptop. Apparently, Apple has created a brand-new process to sculpt casings for products out of aircraft-grade aluminum, using a system that carves the pieces out of a single block of metal using “3D lasers” and water-jet cutting. The new technique will supposedly allow for seamless components which require no bending or folding, won’t use screws to join together, are ultra-light but also “super strong,” and will enable the company to rapidly prototype and produce new designs. Of course, not a single word of this is confirmed or even acknowledged by Apple, though we have been hearing whispers of the “Brick” for a few weeks now. Ultimately, everyone should approach this news with extreme skepticism, but if these rumors get magically transmuted into reality, there’s no telling what kind of new gear Apple might have up its sleeve.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Joshua Topolsky

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Filed under: Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video

According to a report from AppleInsider, the Cupertino giant is issuing “advisement bulletins” to some of its channel partners suggesting they get their hands on iPods and MacBooks / MacBook Pros while the gettin’s good. It seems that Apple is telling resellers to place orders for a four-week block’s worth of top-selling iPods, saying that within the next seven days supplies will become extremely limited, while recommending a three-week supply of MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The article claims that this practice is familiar to third-party sellers, and indicates Apple is ramping up for its holiday season (and new iPods and MacBooks / Pros, presumably). Of course, right now this is just whispers in high school hallways, but we can promise you this: Apple will be selling something this holiday season. You have our word.

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Source: Joshua Topolsky

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Filed under: Tablet PCs

Folks have been been hacking together their own Mac tablets for what seems like forever, and it looks like there’s no signs of the tradition letting up, at least until Apple finally decides to make its own. This latest one from Wei of Weistudio is slightly more complex than most, however, with it employing a MacBook, a Wacom Intuos tablet, a separate 15-inch LCD panel, and some custom-made materials, along with an exhastive amount of fine-tuning to ensure that everything worked just right. As you can see above and at the site linked below, Wei also didn’t cut any corners when it came to the fit and finish of the device, right down to the Apple and crossbones logo on the back.

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Source: Donald Melanson

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Filed under: Displays, Laptops

Word on the street — and by “street” we mean “the internet” — is that Apple will begin exclusive use of LED BLUs for displays in all of its MacBooks come 2009. According to the Chinese-language paper Economic Daily News, the computer-maker’s Taiwanese supplier of LED backlight units, Kenmos, will increase shipments in the coming year of the brighter, longer-lasting, better dressed components. Of course, the paper could be making this all up to toy with our emotions and break our little hearts… but why would they do that?

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Source: Joshua Topolsky

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Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Oklahoma Christian University? Sure as hell (woops) haven’t heard of it either, but they must be the Cal to Abilene Christian University’s Stanford (or sub your fav rivalry here) as they seem ready to pony up the cash necessary to fund the next free-gear-to-students publicity stunt. This time the offering is not only an iPod touch or iPhone, but a new MacBook as well — and to sweeten the deal, current students can trade their machines in for a new one. Your tuition (and tithing) dollars hard at work, OCU parents, students, and alumni.

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Source: Ryan Block

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