Editorial: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

I don't like it. Not one iota. But frankly, it doesn't much matter -- Apple's officially done with the optical drive, and there's no evidence more strikingly clear than the mid 2011 refresh of its Mac mini. Last year, that bantam box arrived with a $699 price tag, pep in its step and a personality that could charm even the most hardened desktop owner. This year, a $599 model showed up on my doorstep promising the same, but instead it delivered a noticeable drop in actual functionality. Pundits have argued that you could tether a USB SuperDrive to the new mini and save $20 in the process compared to last year's rig, but does relying on a cabled accessory go hand-in-hand with beauty and simplicity? No, and I've every reason to believe that Apple would agree.

Despite the obvious -- that consumers would buy a mini to reduce the sheer burden of operating a convoluted desktop setup -- Apple's gone and yanked what has become a staple in both Macs and PCs alike. For years, ODDs have been standard fare, spinning CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs (however briefly) and Blu-ray Discs, not to mention a few other formats that didn't do much to deserve a mention. Compared to most everything else in the technology universe, the tried-and-true optical drive has managed to hang around well beyond what it's creator likely had in mind, but it's pretty obvious that 2011 is to the ODD what 1998 was to the floppy drive. At least in the mind of one Steven P. Jobs.

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Editorial: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/27/editorial-apples-officially-over-the-optical-drive-for-better/

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Review: The Lexus LX 570 is An All-Terrain Electronic Fun House

It floored me to think that here I was, cruising down this familiar two-track at nearly 60 mph. This is the route to one of my tree stands and generally a trip done in my father-in-law's Ford F150. But my teeth were still intact and I didn't feel like the trail was crushing my spine. I was floating along in this $89k Lexus flagship, cooled by air-conditioned seats, jamming to Sublime on Rdio over a Bluetooth link to my Droid X. The windows were down, the sunroof open and I have two bottles of water in the air-conditioned cooler box directly under my right elbow. Life was good. The 2011 Lexus LX 570 served me well over the last week. It performed admirably as a camping utility vehicle in the backwoods of Michigan and equally as well around town. I don't think I've ever been more satisfied with a vehicle that has a potential deal breaker.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/VIypN0DKQC4/

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ARM alchemy turns ubiquity into gold, profits up 25 percent

A 25 percent rise in profits might look modest compared to the 167 percent explosion announced at the end of Q2 last year, but we doubt anyone at ARM's UK HQ will be moaning. A typically understated earnings report highlighted 1.1 billion ARM-based chips shipped into mobiles and tablets, plus another 800 million chips into other types of devices in Q2. Other tidbits included two new signings for next-gen Cortex-A15 chips, plus two more for Mali graphics chips, which ought to help the mobile chip king maintain its dominance into next year. If you had an extra sausage with your fry-up this morning, ARM, then you deserved it.

ARM alchemy turns ubiquity into gold, profits up 25 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/1im8RhuQz78/

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magicJack PLUS Review

I’ve long been a proponent of Voice over�IP (VoIP), having dumped the phone company over 7 years ago.� During�this period I’ve used 2 major vendors and only� switched to the latest one because my former VOIP supplier was getting greedy.� The price performance has been outstanding and the quality has been more than acceptable.� I’ve [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/07/22/magicjack-plus-review/

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Sand Trap is a fun and difficult physics maze game

Sand Trap is one of those games that at first seem too hard to bother with, but when you try to stop playing it you discover you're hooked.

The goal is to get as much sand as you possibly can out of the maze and into the bucket at the bottom of the screen. You need to rotate your maze every which way to get the sand rolling around it. You then try to direct the sand to one of the exits of the maze, and hopefully into the bucket. It took me several tries to actually get sand into the bucket, but that might be due to the fact that I didn't even realize the bucket was there at first. Things improved significantly after that.

As you level up, the mazes get more complicated, with moving parts and other things making your life more difficult. Once you manage to get through all these obstacles and get enough sand into your bucket, you can move on.

As I mentioned, this is not an easy game, but it's highly addictive. The graphics remind me of some long lost game from the 80s, but this just proves that you don't need super graphics and crazy sound to make a game work. There's a soothing guitar track playing in the background and that's it, as far as I could hear, and you can enjoy it just as much with no sound at all.

If you like a fun physics challenge, don't miss out on this one!

Sand Trap is a fun and difficult physics maze game originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/sand-trap-is-a-fun-physics-maze-game/

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The iPhone 5: Surprise Me

If somebody asks me who makes the best-looking phone, I tell them it's Samsung. The phones are sleek, stylish and light, and the Galaxy smartphones and tablets always have a brilliant display. Despite that, the iPhone 4 is still great, and my lean toward Apple is just too strong to permit me to do anything more with a Samsung phone than just mess around for a while. Yeah, I love my iPhone, and I want to keep it.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72927.html

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Flexible Bike Racks Look Great, Probably Aren?t

We all know that a cable — even a hardened one — is just about the worst bike lock you can use. I learned this lesson some years ago when I lived in London. I came out of the pub to find my D-lock on the ground, still intact and looped through the ends of [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/07/flexible-bike-racks-look-great-probably-arent/

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