11 Oct 09 Cheap netbook sales bringing down laptop revenues, no brainers require no brains

Hey, this is probably surprising to no one, but here we go. A new market research report from DisplaySearch says that the overall mobile PC market is down about 5 percent over last year. The main reason cited for this decline? The increasing popularity of netbooks, which average around $300, and are much, much cheaper than traditional laptops. Netbook revenue is up 264 percent from last year, and have contributed to an overall lowering of the average PC cost by 19 percent. While this is certainly bad news for the PC industry itself, hooray for all of us, right?!

Filed under: Laptops

Cheap netbook sales bringing down laptop revenues, no brainers require no brains originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Oct 2009 07:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tagi: mobile pc market, netbooks, reas, brains, bad news, laptops, market research report, nbsp, decline, popularity, sun

18 Oct 09 Gemei's 4.3-inch HD8800 PMP does 1080p out, other cool things for $122

It's been a hot minute since we've seen a compelling new media player from the labs of Gemei, but the HD8800 ain't half bad. Offering up a 4.3-inch display with an 800 x 480 resolution, this touchscreen-based PMP packs 8GB of internal memory, a battery good for five hours of movie playback (or ten hours with audio), USB 2.0 connectivity, 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and support for more formats than you'll ever use. Oh, and then there's that handy video out feature, which can supposedly shoot out content at up to 1080p via HDMI. It's yours right now for a buck-twenty-two, but only heaven knows if that "JESSICA" wallpaper is changeable.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Gemei's 4.3-inch HD8800 PMP does 1080p out, other cool things for $122 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tagi: gemei, audio usb, internal memory, cool things, millimeter, nbsp, wallpaper, heaven, sun

18 Oct 09 Homemade pink Xbox 360 controller makes the ladies say 'heyyy!'

Not that we haven't seen pink Xbox 360 controllers before (including one from Microsoft itself), but this one just oozes class. Constructed by Flickr user 4apples for the lovely lady (ladies?) in his life, he took all the time one would expect a handsome young bloke to take by dissembling it, painting each piece in varying shades of pink and slapping it all back together. Have a look at the read link for the finished project, and naw, we won't tell your special someone if you decide to follow suit and call it an original.

[Via technabob]

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Homemade pink Xbox 360 controller makes the ladies say 'heyyy!' originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tagi: gaming peripherals, young bloke, somee, technabob, xbox 360, lovely lady, shades, xbox, nbsp, microsoft, sun

21 Oct 09 The Popcorn Hour C-200 media streamer makes its way into the wild

It looks like Popcorn Hour's C-200 media streamer is making its way into end-users' hands, so prepare yourself for a flurry of reviews. Our friend Brent over at GeekTonic should be jumping into the fray soon, and has kicked things off with a preview. Yeah, the C-200 is bigger than its sibling A-100, but it brings so much to the table that we'd say Popcorn Hour has packed in just as much -- if not more -- goodness per cubic inch. With space available for a hard and/or Blu-ray drive, wired and wireless networking, and USB ports to round out the input connectivity, the C-200 then adds a smorgasbord of codec support just to make sure your bits will survive the translation back into entertainment. With the "it plays anything" kind of capability the C-200 is promising, we've got a feeling that a positive review or two might be the only thing standing between us and a $300 dent in our credit cards.

[Via ZatzNotFunny]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

The Popcorn Hour C-200 media streamer makes its way into the wild originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tagi: media streamer, friend brent, usb ports, cubic inch, wireless networking, smorgasbord, sibling, blu ray, end users, home entertainment, hdtv, credit cards, goodness, capability, nbsp

22 Oct 09 Amazon's international Kindle surprises owners with $20 refund, limited web browsing

The only thing better than unannounced functionality is an automatic, surprise refund on your purchase. With the international version of Amazon's 6-inch Kindle you get both. Several readers who ordered the $279 international Kindle have received the following email:

Good news! Due to strong customer demand for our newest Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6" Kindles. As part of this consolidation, we are lowering the price of the Kindle you just purchased from $279 down to $259. You don't need to do anything to get the lower price--we are automatically issuing you a $20 refund. This refund should be processed in the next few days and will appear as a credit on your next billing statement.

By "strong customer demand" we assume that Amazon means "we're trying to stay competitive with the $259 Barnes and Noble Nook," but that's just a hunch. A hands-on at the Gadget Lab also reveals the inclusion of web browsing thought to have been disabled. For the most part it is disabled but Amazon does let you browse to the English version of Wikipedia and nowhere else. The hands-on also notes "dead slow" 3G performance and Amazon's decision to ship the international Kindle with a US power plug regardless of destination. Weird.

[Thanks, Simon]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

Amazon's international Kindle surprises owners with $20 refund, limited web browsing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tagi: barnes and noble, amaz, billing statement, customer demand, amazon, web browsing, hunch, nook, wikipedia, gadget, 3g, surprises, gadgets, sim, few days, nbsp