Engadget

Typically, when a company wants to meet, you expect more of the same -- not a change in strategy, nor a decision to enter an entirely new product category. So when Razer wanted to meet us one bright, oddly cold San Franciscan morning last August, we certainly weren't expecting to meet its CEO, Tan Min-Liang, and we definitely weren't prepared to find a 17-inch prototype laptop, henceforth known as the Blade.

Shaving puns aside, we listened to Liang proudly wax on about the results of nearly three years of development, much of which involved recruiting a bevy of talent from the now-defunct OQO. What they'd accomplished, according to Liang, was the "world's first true gaming portable." An audacious statement, sure, especially considering the Blade was to be Razer's foray into the PC market. No matter. Liang's impetus was clear: the outfit would cater to gamers who'd been left in a vacuum after formerly gaming-obsessed companies sold out, leaving the segment to languish. His angle, however, would be different. The Blade wasn't going to be a gaudy, gargantuan, no-holds barred device with outright performance in mind. No, instead the 0.8-inch thick aluminum beaut would attempt to straddle the worlds of portability with performance, seeking to hit a perfectly balanced middle ground.

That sounded reasonable, but judging by reactions from most of you, the decision to stuff this $2,799 rig with a mid-range GeForce GT 555M card wasn't. Nor was the call to kit it with a paltry 320GB of rotational storage. Razer would rectify the latter in December, promising 256GB SSDs for all -- a concession that would push shipments back, well, until now. Still, even after toying with it briefly at CES, our impressions were ultimately shallow, as we couldn't get much of a feel for it in that controlled environment. Which brings us to the present day, and with Razer graciously airdropping a Blade onto our doorstep, does this experimental laptop stand up to its maker's gutsy claims? Or will those who've shelled just shy of three grand be sorely disappointed with its execution? Well, there's only one way to find out, and that's to join us past the break.

You have to love the last days leading up to a major event like Mobile World Congress, because the rumor mill just doesn't stop. The focus of this particular whisper is Nokia's Lumia series, which according to Reuters should have at least two new members before the show is over. Its sources indicate that the oft-rumored global version of the Lumia 900 is go (AT&T's model shown above), as well as a lower-end Lumia 610. All of us who crave the deeper details are still left in the dark about what we can expect on these devices, but it does give us a heckuva lot more to look forward to next week.

Desperate times call for desperate measures -- namely, new gadgets. Disappointed with his Droid Charge's ever-depleting battery capacity, Tim took a $100 portable charger for a spin to see if he could eke out a little extra runtime before racing for an outlet. Meanwhile, Dan agreed to wear his first E-Ink watch after his analog Fossil timepiece outlived all compatible wristbands. Rounding things out, we have a more traditional account of gadget nostalgia from Don Melanson, who explains why he won't be replacing his aging D90 anytime soon.

Been keeping up with Mozilla Labs' Apps project? Today the company's focused on developers, with pleasing news if you've been looking to get your app's feet wet in it. In the coming weeks at Mobile World Congress, the Firefox maker will finally open its self-titled Marketplace's doors for app submissions. If you're unfamiliar, Mozilla's been working to create an "operating system- and device-independent market," based on its own APIs, HTML5 and other open source materials. The end result will be the ability to use said apps without being locked down by your devices and their respective app stores. The store is set to open up for consumer consumption later in the year, so now's your chance to reserve your software's spot and name on the list. More details await in press release after the break and at source link below, while you get your code ready.

Samsung's R&D department has been working overtime as it strives to break the idea it copies wholesale ideas from its competition. Yesterday we heard word about its planned new cloud service and today it's announced that it'll be unveiling a unique education-focused app for Galaxy Tabs 8.9 and 10.1. Learning Hub will provide free materials from 30 major educational establishments from elementary schools through to universities, although there's no word on what certificates you'll be able to earn at the end of your course. The program will expand to other devices in the Galaxy family later on, once the company's done showing off the software at MWC.

After being denied twice, Megaupload co-founder Kim Dotcom has been granted bail by a New Zealand judge, who ruled he isn't in fact a flight risk. To date, the court's rationale for keeping Dotcom behind bars has been that he might flee to his native Germany in a bid to avoid extradition to the US, where he stands accused of generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds through the exchange of copyrighted material. And though prosecutors had previously argued that Dotcom has multiple passports and bank accounts and a "history of fleeing criminal charges," district court Judge N.R. Dawson concluded the risk of him taking off has been overstated. In particular, he noted, Dotcom has a wife, three children and another on the way, and that "the US government has not shown since [his] arrest that he has access to any money." Though he's returning home, so to speak, he's not permitted to enter the mansion where he's been living before his arrest (he'll instead stay in a small house nearby, according to Reuters). While there, he must wear an electronic tracking device on his ankle, and access to the internet (and helicopters!) is forbidden. And that, readers, is where he shall remain -- at least until the extradition hearing begins, likely sometime this summer.