So now that the iPhone 3G is out and about, is it safe to assume iPhone rumors will be minimal? Ah nope. Thanks to an unconfirmed source, the folks at MacBlogz are reporting that a possible red colored iPhone 3G might be hitting the shelves during the holiday season. 

A red colored iPhone 3G certainly wouldn’t be surprising at all - especially since Apple already has several (PRODUCT) RED versions of their products. The question is - would a red colored iPhone 3G increase sales of the handset?

[Check it out via Boy Genius Report]

Technorati Tags: iPhone 3G, Red

Korean manufacture Ripple has announced a new small form factor desktop PC featuring the Intel Atom processor inside. Classified as a nettop system, the new Ripple Mini Chocolate system features the following:

• An Intel 1.6GHz Atom processor
• A mini-ITX motherboard
• Four USB 2.0 ports
• Max of 2GB of memory
• Slot loading drive
• Intel 945GC chipset
• 2 SATA connectors
• 1 IDE connector
• HD audio
• 10/100 Ethernet
• Measurements of 215 x 210 x 80 mm

The Ripple Mini Chocolate is currently available in Korea for a price of around $207 dollars (or 209,000 KRW). It’ certainly a cute system - here’s hoping that U.S. computer manufacturers will deliver stylish PC systems built around these low power processors also. I’d love to get one of these systems and run Linux on them.

[Check it out via SlashGear]

Technorati Tags: Ripple Mini Chocolate, Intel Atom

HP, Linksys, and D-Link won’t be the only ones with standalone Media Center Extenders anymore. Samsung has announced that their upcoming MediaLive adapter will be coming out in August for an estimated price of around $200 dollars. Like other Extenders for Windows Media Centers, MediaLive connects to PC’s running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate and delivers the familiar Windows Media Center interface on a large screen TV set. 

MediaLive will support the streaming of the following forms of content:

• For online content, it will be Media Center online content providers such as Vongo, MovieLink, Showtime TV, XM Radio, and Fox Sports
• For audio, it will be WMA, MP3, and AC3
• For video, it will be WMV, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264
• For pictures, it will be JPEG

MediaLive supports both USB 2.0 Slave and USB 2.0 Host specs and has an HDMI CEC port as well as an Ethernet port. The unit measures 270 x 48 x 155 mm and weighs around 1.8kg. The MediaLive will be available in August for an estimated price of $200 dollars.

It’s also important to note that the MediaLive adapter is cheaper than the upcoming HP MediaSmart Connect Extender. Also note - the MediaLive picture is from Gizmodo.

Technorati Tags: Samsung MediaLive, Extender for Windows Media Center

It looks like HP has begun rolling out the new add-ins to their EX470 Windows Home Server systems. My system just notified me about 25 minutes ago that two new add-ins were ready to be installed on my EX470:

Just in case you can’t see the image above, the two add-ins are as follows:

• PVConnect MediaServer for HP MediaSmart - easily share your media among all connected devices.
• McAfee Total Protection Service - automatically protect your home server from the latest virus and spyware threats

To install these add-ins, one has to go to the Add-ins section of the Windows Home Server Settings and then click on the “Available” tab. You’ll see the following:

Of the two add-ins, the McAfee add-in definitely appears to be the most valuable addition to HP EX470 Windows Home Server. There’s nothing like free anti-virus protection for the server if you ask me!

It’s not clear when HP will roll out Power Pack 1 for their MediaSmart servers but I think I’ll probably go ahead and download it directly from Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: HP, EX470 MediaSmart, Windows Home Server, Add-ins, Power Pack 1

Heads up Windows Home Server users out there - the Windows Home Server Team has announced that the anticipated Power Pack 1 update has finally been released to manufacturing (RTM). Power Pack 1 is now available via the Microsoft Download Center and will become available via Windows Update sometime in August.  OEM partners selling Windows Home Server systems will update their systems with Power Pack 1 over the coming weeks. HP EX470/475 owners can expect the update soon along with additional enhancements such as enhanced media streaming capabilities from PacketVideo, server-side anti-virus from McAfee, and compatibility with 64 bit home PCs.

General updates and features found in Power Pack 1 include support for PCs running Windows Vista 64 bit OS’s, backup of home server Shared Folders, remote access improvements, more efficient power consumption, and overall better performance. Yes, that infamous data corruption bug is also fixed.

Finally, Microsoft has also updated the Windows Home Server software development kit (SDK) for Power Pack 1.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Windows Home Server, Power Pack 1

If you’ve been interested in either upgrading your current computer or building a new computer, you should know that Intel lowered some prices for their Core 2 Duo processor lineup. According to ExtremeTech, the fastest Core 2 Duo, the E8500 which is clocked at 3.16GHz, had its price reduced by 31 percent down to $183 dollars. The E8400 (running at 3 GHz) also saw it’s price cut to the same $183 dollar price which basically means this processor will probably get phased out by Intel.

On the low end, the E7200 saw a price reduction of 13 percent which brought the price down to $113. This also happens to be the price for the E4600 and E4500 which have slower clock speeds and smaller L2 caches (could be that these processors will also be eliminated?)

Why the price cuts? It’s a combination of traditional price cuts combined with Intel’s desire to start moving dual core processors to make room for quad core processors.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Intel Core 2 Duo, price cuts,

iSkin has announced a new armband solution for the iPod nano 3G called the DuoBand. The DuoBand  has a unique dual layer design which combines a silicon layer and a frontal ViSOR layer into one package. The silicon layer is designed to protect the iPod nano from shocks, dirt, dust, and moisture while the ViSOR layer protects the frontal areas of the iPod nano from scratches and other impact damages.

The DuoBand also features a breathable armband that allows you to slide in/out the protected iPod nano. The DuoBand  is available in Amp (energy red with metallic accent) and Maxum (power black with carbon accent) and retails for $39.99.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: iSkin, DuoBand, iPod nano 3G

Think Apple’s business is being driven by the iPod and iPhone? Guess again - Apple’s Mac business is alive and well as they’ve announced that 2.4 million Macs were shipped during the third quarter ending June 28th. That represents a 41 percent unit growth and a whopping 43 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. In total, Apple posted amazing revenues of 7.46 billion with a net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion (or $1.19 per diluted share). Compare those numbers to the year-ago quarter which were 5.41 billion and a net quarterly profit of $818 million. Gross profits dipped somewhat - from 36.9 percent to 34.8 percent.

Here are other stats of interest:

• 11 million iPods were sold during the quarter - 12 percent unit growth and seven percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter
• 717,000 iPhones were sold during the quarter compared to 270K in year ago quarter (of course the iPhone had just started sales during the third quarter of last year)

Now here’s where things get interesting. Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, decided to warn analysts that 4th quarter gross margins will be negatively affected by a “product transition.” So as News.com points out - let the guessing games begin. What exactly does this product transition mean exactly? Does this lend credence that new notebooks are coming out from Apple? Does this mean product prices are coming down? Does it mean things getting more expensive to manufacture? It’s really anyone’s guess right now (but you can be sure that people will be coming out with their own theories now). For the record though, News.com thinks that Apple will do two things during the fourth quarter: Introduce new Centrino 2 based MacBooks and reduce price for the iPod touch.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Apple, Third Quarter, 2008, Fourth Quarter, Apple iPhone, Mac, iPod Touch

The folks at NotebookReview.com have published a comprehensive review of the HP Pavilion tx2500z Tablet PC here on their website. The HP Pavilion tx2500z is a relatively inexpensive Table PC with prices starting at $899.99. Specs include:

• 12.1 inch touch-screen display
• Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1
• AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core processor
• Optional fingerprint reader
• Up to 250GB HDD
• CD/DVD burner
• High gloss black case with “Echo” pattern
• 802.11 b/g wireless LAN
• Optional Verizon Wireless V740 1XEVDO PC ExpressCard
• Optional webcam
• Three USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard/34 slot, S-Video, VGA, Consumer IR, and 5-in1 media card reader

Here’s what NotebookReview thought of the system:

College students and other consumers should be happy with all the features the tx2500 packs, especially considering it’s available for under $1,000.

[Check it out via SlashGear]

Technorati Tags: HP Pavilion tx2500z, NotebookReview, Review, Tablet PC

So what do you do if a new product like the iPhone 3G is released? Well if you’re iSuppli, you go ahead and rip it apart to perform a “teardown analysis” of course. It’s almost a tradition now to hear what a significant product costs after it’s been introduced into the market and the iPhone 3G is no different here. According to iSuppli, the new 8GB iPhone 3G is approximately fifty dollars less than the 1st generation iPhone. Initial production costs for the iPhone 3G is estimated to be at $174.33 (this consists of the iPhone’s 3G bill of materials and manufacturing expenses. It does not include costs such as software development, shipping, packaging, accessories that go with the phone, marketing etc). Compare this number to last year’s number of $227 and yes.. the company did indeed shave dollars off the manufacturing process. This isn’t too surprising since the major upgrades to the new iPhone are the 3G support and the inclusion of GPS. Going to a plastic backing, and sticking with the same panel has allowed Apple to focus on reducing overall costs of the iPhone and thereby increasing sales margins.

iSuppli estimates that profit margins for the new phone will be around 55 percent. How did it get this number? Here’s the breakdown:

Apple manufacturing and bill of materials costs for 8GB iPhone 3G: $174.33

Apple pays $50 dollars for IP royalties

AT&T is estimated to be paying a $300 subsidy  per 8GB iPhone to Apple making the 8GB actually worth $499 ($199 + $300).

Thus $499 - $224.33 = $274.67 which is a 55 percent profit margin. NICE

If you’re curious as to the components found in the phone - make sure to check out the iSuppli webpage here.

[Check it out via Crave]

Technorati Tags: Apple iPhone 3G, teardown analysis, iSuppli