Mac Pro Sales Resume in Europe After Previous Ban
Apple’s redesigned Mac Pro is on sale in Europe after the previous model sustained near a year-long ban in the region, reports MacGeneration [Google Translate] (via 9to5Mac).
Sales of the Mac Pro in Europe were originally halted last March after regulatory requirements went into effect, as Apple issued a notice to its distributors in the region. Currently, Apple’s stores in Europe list a ship date of February for new orders of the computer, with MacGeneration adding that some recently placed orders are being marked for delivery as early as January 14.
Apple originally unveiled the redesigned Mac Pro at its October 2013 media event, and began online orders for the computer last month. Similar to its availability in Europe, Mac Pro models also still show a shipping estimate of February on the U.S. Apple Online Store, while Mac Pro units appear to be out-of-stock at all Apple Retail Stores.
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Early benchmarks suggest NVIDIA’s new Tegra chip outperforms Apple and Qualcomm
The graph above comes courtesy of Tom’s Hardware and, whichever way you look it, it suggests NVIDIA is onto a good thing. The company’s recently announced Tegra K1 processor combines a handful of ARM Cortex-A15 CPUs with a GPU based on the same successful Kepler graphics architecture found in desktops and laptops. The result seems to be a minimum 25 percent lead over the current generation of flagship chips, including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and Apple’s 64-bit A7, as measured with 3DMark. You’ll find a roughly similar pattern in other tests over at the source link, but before you disappear into a new tab here’s a couple of disclaimers: Firstly, these scores are based on a Lenovo Thinkvision 28 Android all-in-one (with a lovely 4K panel), which Tom’s Hardware was led to believe (but not officially told) contains a K1. Secondly, assuming this is a K1, it’s definitely not the 64-bit version; it’s not running at NVIDIA’s claimed max clock speed of 2.3GHz, and it’s almost certainly not using market-ready drivers — all of which suggests that 2014′s crop of Tegra K1-powered tablets could be even more powerful than what we’re seeing right now.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Lenovo, NVIDIA
Source: Tom’s Hardware
Uber taxi vandalized in France despite new law favoring regular cab drivers
Though a new French law gives cabs there a 15 minute head start against private companies like Uber and LeCab, taxi drivers are far from done protesting. Things may have just taken a violent turn, as an Uber car with a pair of Eventbrite execs aboard was just attacked on its way from a Paris airport. The culprits slashed two tires, dumped glue on the car and broke windows, which cut the hands of CTO Kat Borlongan, according to her tweet. She added that the Uber driver managed to maneuver out of harm’s way before the attackers could enter the vehicle. While there’s no proof that taxi drivers are responsible, they’ve vehemently protested the new car services, claiming their livelihoods — and the enormous sums they paid to get their permits — are threatened. Meanwhile, there’s a good chance the new “15-minute” law will be struck down anyway, according to Rude Baguette. That’s because the legislation was passed by presidential decree, meaning it’s held to a higher anti-competition standard — which it seems unlikely to meet.
Update: Uber has confirmed and “strongly condemned” the attack in a statement to Venture Beat (after the break).
[Image credit: Rude Baguette]
Unfortunately, I can confirm this morning’s incident in Paris occurred and we strongly condemn this severe violence two of our riders and our partner were confronted with.
First and foremost, we are relieved that all involved are safe and ok. Also, we would like to praise our partner who has shown great courage and professionalism, focusing on getting his customers out of a very challenging situation as swiftly as possible.
That the taxis chose to use violence today is unacceptable, that they chose to strike is their business. However, Parisians also have a choice when it comes to moving around in their cities, and today’s incident will certainly not tempt Parisians into choosing a taxi for their next ride. Safety, reliability and choice, not violence, are what continues to draw customers towards private hire vehicles.
Filed under: Transportation, Internet
Via: Rude Baguette
Source: Kat Borlongan (Twitter)
Get the Handset You Deserve – Compare Mobile Phone Deals
There are plenty of leading manufacturers of mobile phones in the market and to choose one of the best from among them, you need to take the help of a comparison website. These comparison websites have been designed with an eye of a detail to provide some of the best services to consumers across the country. When it is your hard earned money, then you obviously look for the greatest deal at a cheaper price, right? But how will you find the best deals in your area code?
These days every company has its own website; visiting such websites can be one way to get their prices and quotes. Secondly, you can walk into their store to find these offers and deals. However, both the ways are quite time consuming, energy driven and pain staking; this is probably why most of the individuals opt for whatever first deal they land upon. Considering the fact that time constraint is something that every one faces these days, it is not really the fault of an individual.
However, today, with comparison websites like simply switch, things have become quite easier than what one could comprehend. Today with a single click of the mouse, one can find a huge list of service providers with their offers, deals, discounts, incentive packages and more under a single roof. All that one is required to do is to use their area post code to get the list of service providers offering their services in the respective areas.
How do the mobile comparison websites help?
Mobile comparison websites allow you to make a thorough comparison on the price, features, and other aspects of the mobile phone and the services offered. The long list of offers and features can confuse you in arriving at a decision and hence this comparison is highly suggestive. You can get almost all information under a single roof when you choose to go through a comparison website on mobile phone.
With the ongoing trends in the market, one looks to buying a smart phone with a long list of features. The type of phone, a touch screen, smart phone, business handsets, multimedia phones, or a GPS phone is what you will look into while buying a phone and it is on a comparison website that you will come across categorized handsets with all the detailed info. The handsets are arranged on a comparison website like simply switch as per the brand name of the handset manufacturers making it easy for you in your search. Whether you are looking for handsets from a particular brand or looking towards certain specific features or may be your budget is limited; whatever is the reason for your search, these websites bring in all the answers with just a bit of research and patience. You might get all the features you are looking forward to in a particular mobile phone within your budget. Switching from one provider to the other is also not a tough task when you find a better deal for yourself. So, what are you waiting for?
Increased Theft of Apple Devices ‘Driving Force’ Behind Rise of Larcenies in New York City
According to new data from the New York Police Department (via The Wall Street Journal), the rising theft of devices such as the iPhone and iPad remained one of the driving forces behind the high amount of grand larcenies last year in New York City. In detail, the data showed that Apple products were involved in 8,465 thefts and made up for 18% of all grand larcenies in the city, which rose 13% overall in 2013 from the year prior.
Apple products are so popular among criminals that the NYPD specifically tracks thefts of that brand, officials said. In 2013, Apple products made up more than 18% of all grand larcenies—that is more than 8,000 devices, according to police. In 2002, there were 25 grand larcenies of Apple products, police said.
A spokeswoman for the company said Apple has “led the industry in helping customers protect their lost or stolen devices” since it launched its “Find My iPhone” app in 2009, which allows users to track a stolen phone and erase personal data remotely.
In 2012, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg released data showing that the theft of iPhones and iPads contributed to growth of the overall crime index for the city, as the police department recorded 3,890 more Apple product thefts than for the same period in 2011.
iPhone and iPad thefts continue to be a major issue for law enforcement, despite efforts to implement various theft deterrent programs. However, Apple’s Activation Lock feature, which prevents stolen phones from being reactivated without an iCloud password, has received praise from various groups since its inclusion in iOS 7.
San Francisco district attorney George Gascón and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who have spearheaded anti-theft efforts, called Activation Lock the “world’s first attempt to implement a technological solution to the global smartphone theft epidemic,” while the police department distributed flyers near Apple Retail Stores encouraging users to download iOS 7.
The New York City Council also announced in November that it was considering a pawn shop bill that would require second hand dealers and pawn brokers to maintain easily accessible electronic records of purchased items, however the status of the bill is currently unknown. Notably, a national phone database established last year was found to be largely ineffective against smartphone thefts in the U.S., with law enforcement authorities even pressing smartphone manufacturers to build a kill switch into phones. 
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Sprint abandons its ‘One Up’ early upgrade plan after just a few months
It appears Sprint’s answer to T-Mobile’s UnCarrier campaign hasn’t been quite the success the company hoped it would be. Less than four months after it announced its “One Up” early upgrade plan, Big Yellow began phasing out the tariff from January 9th and is now directing online customers to its new “Framily” plan instead. With Framily, Sprint is attempting to drive down the cost of friends and family plans by rewarding customers with lower monthly fees for each additional person they add (up to 10) to a single account. The One Up plan, however, was specifically designed to reduce the cost of upgrading to a brand-new smartphone every year. Sprint has yet to indicate whether its Framily plan is a direct replacement for One Up or whether we can expect a reinvention of the early upgrade plan in the future — we’ve asked Sprint what it plans to do next and will update you should we receive a response.
Filed under: Wireless, Mobile, Sprint
Via: The Verge
Source: Sprint Support
Rumored Nokia Normandy prototype surfaces on Twitter, reveals little
That thing up there? Word on the street (that is, Twitter) is that it’s an engineering prototype of the Nokia Normandy, a low-end Android device due sometime in 2014. The name has been floating around for a few months now, often accompanied by images flaunting Nokia’s usual design cues but without the hardware shutter button or LED flash that adorn its Lumia devices. Normally, that would peg the hardware for Nokia’s Asha line, but rumors persist that the Normandy will actually be running a Nokia-tweaked version of Google’s open-source OS.
Screenshots leaked earlier this month also suggested that the device would support dual SIMs and showed of mockups with touch-screen notifications and a customized Skype app. Unfortunately, the leaked device doesn’t do much to add or detract from that rumor, revealing only a generic back button, a Nokia boot screen and a rubberized case that obfuscates the handset’s features. Still, something is clearly afoot; we’ll let you know when we know what, exactly, it is.
Filed under: Cellphones, Nokia
Via: GSM Arena
Source: Twitter
Mac Pro back on sale in Europe following previous ban
EU bureaucrats famously revoked their ban on ugly fruit, but they never showed such leniency to Apple. The older Mac Pro breached rules requiring extra shielding on fans and electrical ports and as a result it hasn’t been seen on European store shelves since last March. Fortunately, however, the new 2013 Mac Pro passes muster, and some customers in France are seeing shipping estimates as early as mid-January — although most folks who order their canister of computing today should expect to receive it sometime in February.
Via: MacGeneration, 9to5mac
Source: Apple Store
Leaving Las Vegas: Farewell to CES 2014
We came. We saw. We got punched in the head. Some of Engadget’s New York-based editors took longer to get to Las Vegas than those traveling in from Hong Kong or Tokyo, thanks to winter storms that caused the cancelation of thousands of flights. But we all made it, and by Sunday evening, when we kicked off our coverage at CES Unveiled — the unofficial start of the event — our whole team was in place, and some had already been here for days.
In addition to publishing hundreds of posts about all of the major products and services announced here, we opened our stage to dozens of amazing speakers, including company founders and CEOs like Bre Pettis of MakerBot, Fitbit’s James Park and Stern Pinball’s Gary Stern (yes, there was pinball at CES!). All of our interviews from CES are available here, so if you missed something, be sure to check it out now.
This was also our first year as the host of the official Best of CES Awards, and that meant spending hours checking out more products than ever, deliberating long into the night as we chose our finalists and winners, and ultimately, having a great time presenting our unique 3D-printed trophies to the winners on our stage. Many of us also had a chance to try out the new Oculus Rift “Crystal Cove” prototype, which won the coveted “Best of the Best” award, along with the award for Best Emerging Technology, and after doing so, there was little doubt about why it deserved to win.
As always, the Engadget team had an amazing, exciting, sleepless week, as we wore out our feet traversing over 2 million square feet of exhibit space and our hands writing thousands of words each day. Other people may go to CES to attend parties or to see Christopher Lloyd pull up in a DeLorean and show off his guitar chops. We do it to make sure we can provide you with the best news, features, interviews and information about the world’s largest trade show (though we did find time to scope out the DeLorean). If you missed anything, check out our wrap-up posts right here. I’d like to thank the entire Engadget team for once again proving that, even if there’s no official award for it, there’s only one team that can truly be called the best at covering CES!
CES 2014 by the numbers:
- Posts: 565
- Photo galleries: 248
- Videos: 125
- Best of CES winners (including People’s Choice): 15
- Engadget Mini updates: 1,120
- Tweets: 720
- Facebook updates: 536
- Interviews: 46
- Products added to the Engadget database: 375
- Podcasts: 7
- Podcasts featuring an inadvertent f-bomb (find it yourself!): 1
- Podcasts in which Brian Heater, lacking a guitar to smash, threw down his mic and stormed off stage for the last time: 1
Now you see it…
Now you don’t.
Photos by Edgar Alvarez, Richard Lai, Will Lipman, Marc Perton and Michael Gorman
Filed under: Announcements
CES 2014: Audio roundup
Imagine the footsteps of thousands and thousands of people. Now add in hundreds of booths showing loud promo videos, playing music and giving demos over microphones. That is the literal sound of CES. The theoretical sound of CES will come from some of the products you see below. We feel this selection of products gives you a pretty good feel for the trends we’re likely to see in 2014. Enjoy.
Desktop audio
Usually, this isn’t a category that gets too much attention. Digital audio interfaces may come in all shapes and sizes, but they are ultimately fairly utilitarian devices. Korg, however, tried to spice the genre up a little with its AudioGate USB DAC line. What’s different about these guys? Well the larger model certainly has an eye-catching design, but it’s the companion software that offers high-resolution DSD audio output that we think will make it an appealing prospect.
Home entertainment
The thing with audio is that it’s often a feature of something else, rather than a gadget’s dedicated function. Case in point? LG’s new SoundPlate (LAB540W). Part soundbar, part Blu-ray player, the SoundPlate has 4.1 audio (and an external subwoofer) that cranks out your movie soundtrack at 320 watts. WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity only serve to add virtual cherries onto the metaphorical cake.
Headphones
Sifting through the many, many new pairs of headphones on show at CES would be nigh on impossible. But, through all the noise, a few pairs do tend to bubble up into our consciousness. 50 Cent’s new line of Star Wars-themed and sport-friendly cans is one such example. In particular, the water/sweat-proof wireless sync models that offer cable-free comfortable training look like a winner. DJs, on the other hand, might want to take a look at Sennheiser’s new line of DJ headphones. Purpose built with spinners in mind, these things look and feel solid — oh, and they sound great, too.
Accessories
Audio accessories usually come in two categories: cheap and crazy expensive. B&O’s Essence falls into the latter category, but we won’t lie: We’re curious about it. As far as we can tell, it’s a fancy-pants physical audio controller for the audio lover that has everything. And that’s OK. Why shouldn’t these things exist? Essentially, you can place these around your home and seamlessly control your music as you saunter from room to room. Or just have one in your man/woman cave. You’ll need some B&O gear for it to work with, of course, but if you’re at all in the market for thing like this, we imagine you already have that covered.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
AIVAnet 