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AT&T's SoundStream iOS dock takes a stroll through the FCC
Well, AT&T doesn't seem too keen on keeping any secrets when it comes to its SoundStream iOS speaker dock. On its way through the FCC today, the little iOS speaker station will act as both a charger and beat blaster for you iPod or iPhone and has Bluetooth baked in. It also offers FM radio, an alarm clock, EQ and local weather information by way of the associated myDock App. So what's in the box? According to the user manual you can expect to find a set of dock adapters (allowing for just about any iPhone or iPod to fit in), the typical AC adapter, a remote control and the docking station itself. It's certainly not the hottest dock we've ever seen, but we'll hold our judgment until we see how the thing actually performs. In the meantime, a very hefty FCC filing awaits you at the source.
Dell Latitude ST tablet gets official with vague press release, dead links (video)
Remember that Latitude ST that Dell gave us a sneak peek at earlier in the week? Well it's slowly inching its way towards an official release, appearing on Dell's Corporate Blog early this morning. The Windows 7-based enterprise tablet is powered by an Intel Atom processor and includes a 10-inch multi-touch display with stylus, WiFi, mobile broadband options, front and rear webcams and a mic. There are also durability features like Gorilla Glass and a rubber bumper, enabling it to survive violent impacts with plush office carpeting. Port details are rather vague in the PR, though USB, HDMI and an SD card reader get their 15 seconds of fame in the promo video. There are also security features, like remote hard drive wipe, Microsoft Bitlocker support (this is a Windows 7 tablet, after all) and a Kensington Lock slot. Pricing details are absent and the product page isn't live quite yet (though that didn't stop Dell from linking to it from the blog post), but it looks like we could see these ship as soon as November 1st. Ready to get your tap and sketch on? Jump past the break for an enterprise montage, complete with doctors, educators and suit-sporting business pros. Update: Looks like the specs have leaked out overseas, so we're guessing it'll get official soon enough. Update 2: And here come the unboxing videos! Update 3: And Dell's business page is up! Thanks, One Love!
Dell Latitude ST promo video shows off stylus, docking station
Looking forward to Dell's latest Windows slate? Point your peepers here, the outfit's Malaysian site just unleashed a promo video showing off the firm's Latitude ST tablet. The preview confirms that the 10-inch tablet will sport front and rear cameras, HDMI-out, a built-in stylus and an Intel Atom processor. The Latitude ST can also be paired with a familiar looking docking station, leaving us to wonder if we're looking at Dell's 'Peju' Tablet in its final form. Care to wonder with us? You'll find the video after the break.
mLogic mDock extends your MacBook ports, steals your Thunder(bolt)
If you're trying to make a name for yourself in the incredibly crowded portable storage space, you can innovate and create something totally awesome, or you can do this. The mDock from mLogic is an external hard drive, port extender and port blocker all rolled into one pricey coffin-like chamber of fail. $219 will net you an eternal resting place for 500 gigs of data, while $299 ups the ante to an entire terabyte. Plus, with a pair of front-facing USB ports, you can add a third-party portable storage yokel for the less-than-princely sum of 50 bucks. If you haven't already gathered, the mDock is designed for mMacbook Pros, but there's also the iMac-mountable mBack (curiously not the iBack), designed with Apple's familiar desktop flavor in mind. That variant is slightly more affordable, with pricing ranging from $169 for 1TB to $349 for 3TB, but you'll forgo the dock-like USB hub and headphone jack. There's no word on when to expect these life-changing devices in stores, but it's never too early to dust off the mChair iChair and park yourself on 5th Ave. Update: As pointed out by many in the comments most ports that are blocked by the mDock are replicated on the silver brick, including the Magsafe. The only restriction appears to be a lack of pass-through for Thunderbolt, but you do get a mini DisplayPort for hooking up external monitors. We've added one more pic after the break.
Engadget's back to school guide 2011: accessories
Welcome to Engadget's Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we're here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we've got a slew of accessories -- and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back -- at the end of the month we'll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides -- and hit up the hub page right here! Fall's slowly, but surely creeping back in, and we bet you've already started to gather up the necessary gear for your return to the residence hall. Sure, you've got the basics covered, with a computer, smartphone, MP3 player and even a tablet at the ready. But wouldn't it be nice to start the school year off in style with some handy accoutrements to trick out those digital crutches? Let's face it, you're going to need a lapdesk buffer zone between you and your laptop's scorching heat for those countless hours spent churning out term papers. Or, an external hard drive, so you can store those full seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and bring the late night funny to your stressed-out friends. However you manage to make it through the year and snag that 4.0 GPA, we've got a selection of accessorized aids to match your collegiate budget. Oh, and don't forget, we're giving away $3,000 worth of essential back to school gear to 15 readers, and you can be among the chosen few simply by dropping a comment below! Click on past the break to start browsing.
Bluelounge MiniDock for iOS cuts the cord, declutters your life
Forget about that Klimt print and your torn John Belushi Animal House poster, if you've got a few of those Jony Ive-crafted iSlabs lying around, you should flaunt'em -- according to the designers at Bluelounge. Available for iOS owners in the US, UK and EU, the company's MiniDock makes use of your existing Apple USB power adapter for a cordless, outlet-mounted charging and display station. The design studio created the dock with a clutter-free existence in mind, but its focus on "customers who are passionate about their iPhones" is a much more telling inspiration. You can go ahead and snag one of these for $20 now, just keep it tucked away from any Android-toting houseguests.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer stand and adapters surface on Amazon Germany
We feel like if you're going to buy an Eee Pad Transformer, you may as well spring for the $150 docking station -- you know, the thing that makes the tablet so noteworthy. And we don't need to remind you it also happens to be a solid value proposition: the dock brings not just a full keyboard, but two USB ports, an SD card reader, and up to seven hours of extended battery life. There must be some people content with just the slate, though, because ASUS is rolling out a trio of accessories that offer pieces of the docking station's functionality. Head on over to Amazon Germany and you'll find individual USB and SD adapters for €19 ($27) a pop. And though it's not listed with the adapters, NetbookNews also spotted a €29 ($41) stand with a USB port, SD slot, and headphone jack. Before you get too excited, though, Amazon is saying the adapters will ship one to three months from now, which leaves you quite a bit of time to save up for the full keyboard dock. Just saying, folks. %Gallery-130235%
Sony's new VAIO Z ultraportable laptop with Power Media Dock hands-on (video)
Now that we've seen Sony's new VAIO Z in its luscious press shots, it's time to face reality and lay our itchy hands on this 13-inch ultraportable laptop, along with its eccentric expansion dock that packs both a Blu-ray drive and an AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics chip (with 1GB of video RAM). Just as we were told by our little birdie, said dock is connected to the notebook via Light Peak -- a first for Sony -- but there's a catch: Sony's only implementing the architecture and not the connector, so for the time being, this sweet high speed connection is only compatible with the docking unit and nothing else. Anyhow, here's a quick recap: what we have here is a 1.18kg feather-light machine packing an Intel Sandy Bridge i5 (also available with an i7), 256GB SSD and 1.3 megapixel webcam, plus a matte LCD display with resolution at 1600 x 900 or an optional 1920 x 1080. Oh yes, for an extra cost, you get some sweet full HD action at just 13 inches. This upgraded display performed well in the relatively dark confines of the press event, but how it fares under direct sunlight remains to be seen. Read on for more hands-on impression. %Gallery-127316% %Gallery-127288% %Gallery-127289%
Best Buy adds $50 dock to its collection of HTC Flyer accessories
Surely by now you've recouped that $80 you begrudgingly forked over for your Flyer stylus, right? Good. Because the parade of accessories for the 7-inch slate continues. Now, Best Buy's selling a matching white micro-USB dock for $50. It's perfect for transforming the slate into the aluminum-clad bedside alarm of your dreams, but you can also connect your own MHL adapter to the rear micro-USB port, allowing you to output video to an HDTV. Looks like more than a few folks are sweet on the idea of porting HTC Watch to a bigger screen -- the dock's back-ordered with a one- to two-week delay. But is it worth the fifty bucks? We'll leave that to you and your wallet.
Gigabyte M2432 laptop with GeForce GT 440 graphics card dock hands-on
Gigabyte's no stranger in the field of dockable computing devices, and its M2432 laptop shown off at Computex is yet another example proving just this. Let's focus on the actual machine first: here we have a Core i5-2410M (2.3GHz to 2.9GHz) rig packing a 14-inch 1,366 x 768 LCD, Intel HD Graphics 3000, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB 7200rpm hard drive, and a DVD burner that can be swapped with a secondary battery. You'll also find 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, HDMI-out, VGA-out, 1.3 megapixel webcam, an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port, and two USB 3.0 ports on this Windows 7 Home Premium laptop. All of this weigh 1.8kg (3.97lbs). There's a bit of a surprise inside the expansion dock: by laying the M2432 on top of it, not only are you adding six extra USB 2.0 ports plus DVI-out and another HDMI-out, but you're also kicking up its graphics power with the built-in desktop-class NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 with 1GB video RAM. So essentially, the dock doubles as an external graphics card. No word on prices or availability just yet, so stay tuned. %Gallery-125293%
j5 Creates a Wormhole, enables keyboard and mouse sharing with just one cable
There are already plenty of keyboard and mouse sharing solutions out there, but alas, most are not foolproof nor affordable enough for the average Joe. As such, we fell in love with j5 Create's Wormhole KM Switch and Wormhole Station at Computex. The former, pictured above, is simply a cable sporting a USB dongle on each end; whereas the latter is an aluminum, externally powered expansion dock rod that comes with an intergrated KM switch, two USB 3.0 ports (which requires a USB 3.0 host for full potential, of course), a power button at the end, and card readers for microSD, SD, and MemoryStick. After the one-click setup using the built-in installer, you can set your preferred method to toggle the keyboard and mouse switching: either by clicking the middle mouse button, by clicking a user-defined hot area on the screen, or by simply moving the cursor off one side of the screen. As you'll see in our hands-on video after the break, the switching was seamless, and we had no problem with drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste across the two PCs. If either the Wormhole KM Switch or the Wormhole Station sounds like your kind of gadget, then keep an eye out for them at Fry's soon for $29.99 (about $10 cheaper than IOGEAR's USB Laptop KVM Switch) and $129, respectively. Additionally, there'll also be a Mac-compatible KM Switch available next month for $39.99. Update: We're certainly aware of the free, cross-platform Synergy software solution, but it's not ideal for those who are less tech-savvy, plus it doesn't handle drag-and-drop across computers. %Gallery-125233%
Gigabyte announces S1080 Windows 7 tablet with USB 3.0 and optical drive dock
We're here at Computex's pre-show event to get some hands-on time with a few new products. As expected many tablets are present, and one such device is Gigabyte's S1080 Windows 7 tablet, which we almost mistook as Viewsonic's Viewpad 7. Here you have a 14.94mm-thick chassis housing a 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen LCD, along with an Intel Atom N570, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 320GB hard drive (2.5 inches, 5400rpm, SATA). Other tidbits include a USB 2.0 port, USB 3.0 port, SD card reader, RJ-45 jack, 1.3 megapixel webcam, 4,000mAh battery, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and 3.5G modem. All of this boil down to an 895g (32oz) package. If the S1080 doesn't interested you, then maybe its accompanying multimedia dock will. Like similar offerings from competitors, Gigabyte's version adds stereo speakers, VGA output, three USB 2.0 ports, and audio line-in to the tablet. But the real zinger here is the front-loading optical drive, which is a rare sight on docking stations these days. Oh, and if the built-in 4,000mAh battery isn't enough for you, there's also an optional 2.700mAh battery bar that hooks onto the bottom of the tablet. Expect the S1080 to hit US markets in June for around $700, with the yet-to-be-priced dock to follow later on in the summer (or you could just fly to Taiwan in July to pick one up). %Gallery-124734%
Alarm Dock gives your iPhone retro cred
There are plenty of alarm clock apps and plenty of docking stations available for iPhones, but the Alarm Dock from Jonas Damon is a cut above the rest -- it looks, quite simply, gorgeously retro. Reminiscent of those GE alarm clocks your parents had on their bedside table, your iPhone slides into a cutout in the front of the beechwood dock. Together with the (included) flip-clock app, it gives a great old-school look to your bedroom. It fits the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 and iPod touches, but note that the dock is effectively just a holder for your i-Device -- you thread your regular charging cable through the back to charge your phone and the speaker grill on the top is just that, it doesn't include a speaker. But for just $39.50, it might be just what you need to set off your waterbed. Cool, daddio. [Via Swiss Miss]
Samsung Central Station hands-on (video)
The last time we saw Samsung's Central Station in person it wasn't so much of a hands-on moment as a drive-by peep show. Nearly four months later, it's about to go on sale, and Samsung finally let us play with a final unit. For those of you who missed it in Vegas, the Central Station is a 1080p monitor that doubles as a docking station, replete with HDMI and VGA output, a speaker port, four USB ports (two of 'em USB 3.0), plus an additional USB port just for wired connections (more on that in a bit). The best part, of course, is that all of this docking happens wirelessly with the help of a small dongle that plugs into your laptop's USB port -- even if it's of the 2.0 variety. The promise is that all you need to do is walk within range of the monitor to be able to mirror (or extend) your desktop, stream 1080p video, and access USB peripherals, such as external hard drives. So is this display as simple to use as advertised? Mosey on past the break and check out our hands-on video to see for yourself. %Gallery-122402%
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (UK edition) review
The world's love affair with tablets may have been bubbling along under the surface for a while, but it really got started in earnest during CES 2010. Back in those wild days, you could see 15-inch jumbo screens, TV tuners, and even hybrid pseudo-laptops stalking the tablet area of your favorite trade show. ASUS was there too, of course, though it still believed in the upstart smartbook category -- a modernized take on the netbook that relied on an ARM CPU and a mobile OS to extract more battery life out of a lighter, thinner device -- and was busy showing off a seductively slim prototype of just such a machine. Alas, nothing came of that Neo concept, most likely because it was relying on Android 1.6 and a Tegra 2 system-on-chip that was then still months away from hitting the market. %Gallery-121404% Today, however, is a different day. The 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 is finally being produced in volume, Google has evolved Android to version 3.0, specifically targeting higher-resolution displays, and ASUS has abandoned the idea that a keyboard is crucial to mobile computing. No, wait, that last bit's still there. The Eee Pad Transformer is a 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet very much in keeping with the current trend, but it also has an optional keyboard dock that turns it into a, you guessed it, instant smartbook. So, does that mean you'll get two devices in one or has ASUS been overly ambitious and compromised too much? We got to grips with the £380 16GB WiFi-only model and its keyboard buddy (£430 when bought as a pair) in an effort to find out. Answers await just past the break. %Gallery-121419%
iTable iPhone dock looks like a smartphone, acts like a stereo (video)
We've seen enough iPhone docking stations to last a lifetime -- we've even seen our fair share of tables that take style cues from the smartphone -- but we have to admit, Kyle Buckner's iTable is in a league of its own. This rather involved docking solution combines the aesthetics of the iPhone 4 with a little bachelor-pad-of-the-future flair, allowing its user to summon a set of eight recessed speakers with a simple swipe of the hand. It's also packing a set of four aluminum-trimmed cup holders, complete with LED lights to give your drinks a little mood lighting of their own. The thing's all hand-crafted, and while it was designed with the iPhone 4 in mind, it can be built to fit your smartphone of choice. If you're actually considering purchasing one of these things, may we also suggest a floating bed? Of course, you could always just hop on past the jump and check out a video of the table in action instead.
Samsung's Droid Charge spotted in leaked promo material, multimedia dock in tow
Like it or not, it's a Big Red kind of day. The latest VZW news to splash down in our inbox is the shot you see above -- the first hint of promotional material surrounding Samsung's Droid Charge. If you'll recall, this phone began its (public) life at CES 2011 sans a name, but as a source correctly predicted, the name shown above will be the one that sticks. Proving that the Atrix 4G setup was more than just a fluke, Sammy's also showcasing a must-have peripheral: the multimedia desktop dock. Said accessory ships with a built-in battery charger and spare cell, but with no apparent signs of a video output, we're having a hard time getting too hot and bothered.
Chinon's Avi Stylix iPod / iPhone docking station packs 7-inch LCD, streams Netflix*
It doesn't scream quality (or maybe the legion of professional stock photographers were all on vacation last week), but the June-bound Avi Stylix does have something that the vast majority of me-too iPod / iPhone docking stations do not: an embedded 7-inch LCD. The usual suspects are also here, including a Dock Connector port, twin two-watt speakers, USB port, SD card slot and a bundled remote. The kicker is its ability to stream Netflix, but there's an obvious catch; you'll need an iPhone or iPod touch with a live internet connection in order to do so. There's no actual WiFi module built into the main unit, so you'll need to rely on your connected device to pull in the content. Still, for $99.99, it might not be a bad bet for your guest room. Or your office desk, since you know you aren't getting any actual work done.
Samsung's Central Station wireless monitor appears in Europe as SyncMaster C27A750
Back when we first laid eyes on Samsung's Central Station, we were excited by its wireless docking capabilities, and now it looks like the company's ready to let the monitor loose on European soil, albeit with a decidedly less American moniker. The SyncMaster C27A750, a 27-inch affair, uses Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology via a USB dongle to connect to your laptop. It touts a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and sports HDMI, VGA, and USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. The new SyncMaster will hit Europe by the end of April for about €600, but we've yet to hear anything about Central Station's ETA -- very sneaky, Samsung... very sneaky.
Motorola lifts our spirits with new Atrix 4G video
Been feeling down this cold and dreary January? Well, let Motorola "introduce" you to its new smartphone! The CES conqueror we already know as the Atrix 4G has received a fresh promo video from the mothership, highlighting its laptop and HD multimedia docks (giving us a decent peek at the docked UI for both), dual-core processor and related gaming credentials, and, of course, that gorgeous qHD screen resolution on the handset itself. It's all set to a very uplifting soundtrack, connoting all the beautiful opportunity and potential that our collective smartphone future holds. [Thanks, engadgeteer]
