Google made a big splash when it revealed plans to offer Chromebooks to enterprise and education customers under a subscription model. What’s not clear is how much of a splash it actually made in those markets. While the notion of paying a monthly fee for three years, instead of buying a machine up front sounds like a game changer, some people just like the comfort of the familiar. To that end Google is now offering those same customers the option to purchase a Chromebook (with a year of support included) in one lump sum — $449 for the WiFi model or $519 for the 3G to educational customers, while business are looking at $559 and $639 respectively. After that first year is through, customers have the option to sign up for a monthly support contract, at $5 a month for education and $13 a month for enterprise.

Chromebooks now available to enterprise and education customers with a pay-once option originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was exactly seven years ago today that Warty Warthog, the very first release of Ubuntu (despite its 4.10 version number), hit the Internet and became and almost instant success. In those years Canonical has built the world’s most popular desktop Linux distribution and a powerful presence in the server industry thanks to its LTS (Long Term Support) releases. With Oneiric Ocelot in the books, it’s time for the team to set its sights on yet another enterprise-friendly and super stable release, 12.04 LTS — Precise Pangolin. Don’t expect any big new features or drastic UI changes, the LTS releases are all about fine tuning what’s already there. Hit up the source for a few more details on Pangolin and the more coverage link for the original Ubuntu announcement.

Ubuntu turns 7, Canonical gets to work on Precise Pangolin originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Frankly, we’d advise against crossing anyone given to costumed superheroics, but a policy is a policy. Book selling giant Barnes & Noble has begun pulling select DC Comics from store shelves this week, in response to a deal struck between the publisher and Amazon, which will make digital copies of a number of comics exclusively available through the online retailer for use with the forthcoming Kindle Fire. The move is part of Barnes & Noble’s policy to remove physical books from its shelves if the available digital version of the text is not offered up to the company. According to an exec, “To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms and not have the e-book available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, anytime.” J’onn J’onzz has yet to weigh in on the matter.

Barnes & Noble pulls DC Comics from shelves over Kindle kerfuffle, risks Martian Manhunter’s wrath originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Oct 2011 19:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cheer up, ladies, because Mitsubishi Electric is about to make your elevator ride substantially less awkward. Yesterday, the company unveiled plans to construct what it hopes will become the world’s fastest lifts, as part of a new project in China. The forthcoming set of elevators will be housed within the still-incomplete Shanghai Tower, where they’ll travel between the basement and 119th floor at a speed of 59 feet per second — a rate that would narrowly eclipse the current Guinness world record, which sits at about 55 feet per second. These elevators, of course, would be significantly slower if they were filled with vomit, which is why Mitsubishi will add active roller guides, vibration-dampening roof covers and pneumatic controls to make the ride a bit easier on the human body. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before these flesh wagons enter the record books, as the Shanghai Tower likely won’t be completed until 2014. Willy Wonka, however, has already begun the appeals process. Elevate past the break for more information in the full press release.

[Image courtesy of AMC]

Continue reading Mitsubishi Electric to build world’s fastest elevator, usher in the death of small talk

Mitsubishi Electric to build world’s fastest elevator, usher in the death of small talk originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Amazon lets you check out Kindle books from library websites, asks you to shush yourself at home

Amazon lets you check out Kindle books from library websites, asks you to shush yourself at home originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dark stains aside, it looks like the S3′s WiFi and Bluetooth credentials are all in order so we’ll hopefully see its skinny 17mm (0.67-inch) form stateside before too long. The regulatory teardown pics don’t tell us a great deal, but then we already know plenty from our earlier hands-on: a choice of Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, a 13.3-inch (1366 x 768) display and a competitive €799 European price tag, not to mention some heavy expectations from the Ultrabook promoters at Intel.

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook opened up for the FCC, should have showered first originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No need for the bookshelf speakers? No problem. Aperion Audio just introduced the second-generation Zona Home Audio Link system, enabling cable detesters to send music from any USB / 3.5mm-enabled source to, well… just about anything. The basic HAL package is comprised of a compact wireless transmitter and receiver, and since there’s no proprietary shenanigans going on, it’s about as universal in nature as you’ll find. Needless to say, folks who’ve been trying to find an easy(ish) way to convert their existing indoor / outdoor speakers into wireless speakers should certainly have a gander, and given that it’ll stream uncompressed 16 bit/48 kHz CD-quality audio to up to three simultaneous zones, the $149 price tag just might be justified. Hit the source to learn more (or place your order, if you’ve heard enough).

Continue reading Aperion Audio’s second-gen Zona Home Audio Link cuts the musical tether for $150

Aperion Audio’s second-gen Zona Home Audio Link cuts the musical tether for $150 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Woo, boy. We’ve been bursting at the seams to share this one, and it’s finally time — Engadget is teaming up with the one and only eBoy (read our introduction here) in order to open up our very own t-shirt shop! We’ve worked with eBoy over the years, and we’ve never been let down by their mind-blowing work. Every so often, we’ve offered up a stash of shirts for our dear readers to snap up, and every time, they were gone before sundown. That’s just not right. To remedy said quandary, we’ve worked up a beautiful arrangement that’ll have one of our favorite artists whipping out t-shirt designs for us, and they’ll be handling the orders and logistics as they’ve been doing for years. Pre-orders are live worldwide right now, and initial shipments should start flowing around mid-October. Our first five designs are showcased in the gallery below, and if you’re interested, surf on down to the source link below to grab one (or two!). They’re priced at $24 (US / Canada), or €20 elsewhere, and if you’re curious about sizing, have a look at American Apparel’s size chart right here.

We hope you love ‘em as much as we do, and we’ll be giving 50 percent of the proceeds received to Child’s Play Charity, which provides games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world.

The Engadget / eBoy t-shirt shop is officially open, pre-orders start today! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another CEDIA is in the books, and if you weren’t there, just know the story was — as it has been in many corners of the country — the economy. Oh sure, projectors that cost only $10k still seemed value priced, but everywhere you looked companies were extending their products a little closer to the mass market. Whether it’s a heavy duty wall mounts, wireless hi fi systems or, most surprisingly, $300 powered shades from companies like Lutron, custom theater equipment is getting cheaper and ready to work in more homes. Interested in remaking a home theater while spending less than $10k and without building an entirely new house around it? 2011 may be your year.

As far as the hardware on display, we also got a look at TiVo’s new Premiere Elite DVR (hint: it looks and runs like a TiVo) and Dish Network’s new Tailgater portable satellite dish. Another treat was an MHL-to-HDMI adapter from DVDO that could make hooking your celly up to pretty much any TV on the go and charging it at the same time easy. At the THX booth, it had its stamp slapped on LG’s newest Nano LED lit 3D LCD, as well as a new program for soundbar / subwoofer combinations it says will result in more accurate sound for implementations where surround speakers don’t make sense. We also got a demo of its new Media Director protocol that can automatically configure compatible home theater equipment based on the content being watched. The Star Wars Blu-ray discs will be the first ones to ship with the embedded metadata, while partnerships with chipmakers mean software updates could start rolling out shortly for manufacturers that choose to deliver them — the demo ran on an HDI Dune player — and next year’s new devices should ship with the feature included.

The usual slew of projectors included new models from Mitsubishi and Digital Projection, with automatic settings for ultrawidescreen viewing as one of the hot features (other than 4K) this year. For a better look at some of the things we spotted on the show floor check the gallery below, and details in their press releases after the break.

Continue reading CEDIA 2011 odds and ends wrap up: THX, TiVo and plenty of projectors

CEDIA 2011 odds and ends wrap up: THX, TiVo and plenty of projectors originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The last time we reviewed the Envy 14, we concluded, by and large, that HP got it right. The company succeeded in delivering good performance and graphics punch, all while correcting a teensy overheating problem and adding an optical drive and backlit keyboard. Then there was that rock-solid, engraved metal chassis that made it one of the most attractive notebooks on the market — a distinction it still holds to this day. So as you can imagine, when HP refreshed the Envy 14 this summer, there wasn’t exactly a lot to improve. What we have here is a nearly identical machine, with the same stunning design — not to mention, $1,000 starting price. Now, though, HP is selling it with Sandy Bridge processors and USB 3.0 — the kind of tweaks laptop makers have been rolling out for the better part of this year.

Normally, that kind of speed bump wouldn’t warrant us re-reviewing a laptop. In fact, we probably wouldn’t be revisiting the Envy 14 if it weren’t for two things. For starters, we’ve received an unusual number of emails, tweets and comments from readers, imploring us to weigh in on the Sandy Bridge version before they pull the trigger. Secondly, in addition to that processor swap, HP has fine-tuned the touchpad drivers, and assures us the trackpad isn’t the flaky mess it was the last two times around. So how much better is the Envy 14 in the year two thousand and eleven? Let’s find out.

Continue reading HP Envy 14 review (2011)

HP Envy 14 review (2011) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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