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iPhone reselling is giving Apple a foothold in emerging markets
Business Insider spoke with Gazelle about the life cycle of a used smartphone and discussed how the old iPhone in your drawer can land in the hand of someone in China. Israel Ganot, the CEO of Gazelle, says that 50 percent of its wholesale inventory of used smartphones is sold to overseas distributors. Many of these distributors then sell the used devices on the streets of Vietnam and China for $350, which is a fraction of the cost of a new handset. You would think these low-cost phones hurt Apple's bottom line, but the Gazelle CEO claims they are actually helping the Cupertino company gain a foothold in these emerging markets. Even though Apple isn't getting money for the used hardware sale, the company is getting new customers, who are dropping cash to buy music, movies and apps in the iTunes Store. You can read more about Gazelle and the life cycle of its used phones in the article on Business Insider.
Gazelle: Third-gen iPad trade-ins spiked after iPad 4, mini announcement
On October 23, 2012 when Apple announced the fourth-generation iPad and iPad mini, the TUAW newsroom was abuzz with questions, one of which was "How many owners of third-generation iPads are going to get rid of their 'old' devices to get a new iPad?" Thanks to Gazelle, a company that accepts trade-ins of Apple gear in return for cold, hard cash, we how have an answer of sorts. On that day, Gazelle recorded a 700 percent increase in the volume of iPad trade-ins, with 450 percent of that increase happening immediately after the end of the Apple announcement. So, how many of those trade-ins were third-gen iPads? Gazelle's numbers show that a whopping 70 percent of the trade-in offers made were for iPad 3s, with the 32 GB WiFi model being the most popular trade-in. Not every iPad 3 owner jumped on the opportunity to get one of the new devices. But Gazelle alone presented about 140,000 offers on October 23 to iPad owners anxious to go faster or smaller. That's a lot of people clamoring to trade in a device that was only seven months old. Gazelle Chief Gadget Officer Anthony Scarsella also noted that a whopping 17 million connected devices were activated on Christmas Day 2012 -- that's up from 6.8 million the year before. It looks like there will be a lot of trade-ins coming up after Apple's next announcements.
Building a perfect iPhone return box
TUAW readers are probably familiar with Gazelle. It's a service, started in 2008, with one goal in mind -- to make it simple for people to send in used consumer electronics devices (primarily Apple products) and receive cash in return. CNET has a fun post today about how Gazelle has gone through many iterations of designing the perfect box for customers to use when sending in their used equipment. Initially, Gazelle would supply customers with a US Postal Service box and an envelope. Many of their clients figured that they needed to add some padding to make sure their old iPhone or iPad arrived in one piece, so they dropped everything ranging from unused disposable diapers to pillows into the boxes. This added time and waste to Gazelle's process, so they set out to design their own return boxes. After more than a hundred versions of the Gazelle phone box, the company came up with a simple box, seen above, that holds an iPhone in place under a piece of plastic film. There's a pre-paid label inside that the sender places on the outside of the box, and a small piece of Gazelle-branded packing tape to close it all up. The result? No more diapers and pillows being sent to Gazelle. The company is also planning a redesign of their return box for iPads.
Daily Update for November 28, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Gadget reseller Gazelle works to deter thieves
Thieves who steal iPhones and iPads are going to have a harder time getting rid of their stolen hardware thanks to a new partnership between Gazelle and CheckMEND. According to VentureBeat, Gazelle will soon scan all its trade-in devices against CheckMEND, a service that compiles information on stolen devices from the FBI, police, wireless carriers and others. If a trade-in item shows up in the database as lost or stolen, Gazelle will refuse to pay for the device and return it to the sender. CheckMEND is a new service offered by UK company Recipero. Launched in the UK, the CheckMEND service recently expanded to the US. The company claims it is the "US's largest consumer electronics background reports service." Gazelle is the first US trade-in service to use the service.
The iPad 3rd-gen's "miraculous transformation" from magical device to object of shame
Anyone who buys Apple products will eventually experience deep frustration with Apple the company. It's inevitable and predictable, and usually brief. It also disproportionately affects those who consider themselves loyalists, fans and enthusiasts -- those of us who bleed six colors, as it were. The sense of a personal relationship, a bargain or a deal with the brand is what makes the perceived offenses feel so personal. They aren't, of course, but that's how we feel. As was the case with the original iPhone's dramatic price cut two months after launch, the company's response is often simply "that's technology." Things are going to change quickly, and from time to time that means early adopters or may experience some mild turbulence. To my mind, that's a different (and lesser) sort of anxiety than the "Apple is messing with my livelihood" freakout over Final Cut Studio's evaporation making way for Final Cut X, but the core feeling is the same: "We had a deal, Apple, and you betrayed us." That sense of betrayal is quite strong right now, as the iPad 4th generation's introduction has set the teeth of some v3 buyers on edge. Apple may or may not be taking a lenient stance on upgrades; we noted yesterday the reports of a discretionary policy in allowing up to 30 days for iPad 3rd-gen exchanges. Early adopter regret is clearly evident in our former TUAW colleague Christina Warren's op-ed for Mashable, where she shares both denial and anger over the introduction of the fourth generation full-size iPad only seven months after she bought a maxed-out 3rd generation Retina iPad. I have nothing but fondness and respect for Christina, and I don't doubt the sincerity of her personal reaction to having her 3rd-gen iPad lose both bragging rights and resale value. But let's recap her relationship to new technology, in her own words: "I'm an early adopter. Most iPad 3 owners won't consider doing anything with their iPad 3; they'll keep using it until it stops working (or the new iPad 5 is released in six months), so I recognize this is a specific rant. Still, people like me are Apple's most loyal customers. Eventually, this sort of thing tends to trickle down to everyone else." Perhaps the "trickle-down" frustration from fans to customers was valid back when Apple sold expensive computers to a tiny fraction of the PC market. Maybe it was even true when iPods began to break out to the wider consumer electronics landscape. For the Apple of today -- the massive, mass-market behemoth -- it's simply irrelevant. The pattern of early adoption, resale and racing on to the next new thing that Christina describes in her piece makes her a stark outlier among Apple's modern-day worldwide customer base; likewise, the angry, frustrated "loyal Apple users" who are now so aggrieved about the quick refresh of the iPad represent a tiny minority of the consumers who have purchased those 100 million iPads (to say nothing of the education and enterprise buyers, who are still buying iPad 2s by the pallet). Most of the argument in favor of feeling aggrieved and shortchanged by the quick iPad turn coalesces around expectations. Apple "always" releases one new iPad per year; it's "always" in the spring; the sun "always" rises in the east. Of course, this attitude confuses patterns with promises; they are different things. Did customer expectations get confounded by the release of a newer iPad model less than a year after the previous one? Yep. Was this yearly tick-tock something Apple ever committed to preserving in perpetuity? Not at all. People make plans and purchases based on certain assumptions (or by asking one of their tech-savvy friends); when those assumptions turn out to be unfounded, they may be upset. But their assumptions are not Apple's problem, except insofar as they express their frustration by not buying Apple products. Which, we must acknowledge, they are free to do -- their protest move will simply lessen the overwhelming pre-order demand and inevitable sellout delays on the 4th gen iPad by a tiny fraction of a percent. Of course, feelings aren't about rational utility and Econ 101; iPad 3 owners are entitled to have the reactions they have, and no amount of arguing will change that. But even a casual review of the engineering and marketing circumstances indicates that the short-cycle iPad refresh was the least evil of Apple's options here. In her frustration over the new iPad, Christina detours into an appraisal of the platonic ideal iPad 3 and a half that Apple "should have released" back in March. "In many ways," she writes, "this [fourth generation iPad] is the product Apple should have released as the iPad 3. I understand chips might not have been ready, pricing might not have been ideal -- but seriously, this is clearly what the iPad 3 should have been." Well, sure, chips might not have been ready. But release it anyway -- engineering be dashed! No, wait, sorry, that doesn't make any sense. We can't on the one hand castigate Apple for releasing an iPad 3rd-gen that was underpowered for its HiDPI display and lacked the Lightning port and then on the other hand admit that those upgraded components weren't actually production-ready. We can wish for things to be ready when we want them, but unfortunately technology doesn't work quite like that. But even if we were to give this position the benefit of every doubt -- assume that Apple had the 4th-gen iPad on the shelf shrinkwrapped and ready to go, but chose to release the 3rd-gen anyway -- there's one huge reason why it had to be that way. Let's suppose that Phil Schiller and his marketing team were well aware of Christina's yet-to-be-realized frustration back in March of this year, and indeed for many months before that (knowing, as we do, that Apple's product development cycles cover years rather than weeks). Assume as well that the iPhone 5 launch date couldn't shift forward to let it hit with the iPad 3/4 in March. What could Apple do? "Let's go ahead and ship the Lightning version of the iPad now," says Phil, "and we'll catch up with the iPhone 5 in September." Our imaginary Phil Schiller is then forcibly removed from Apple's Cupertino campus, never to darken its doors again. Why? Because when you have a single product with revenues that handily surpass the GDP of Ecuador, you do. Not. Mess with that. The iPhone may look like a smartphone, but it is actually a revenue machine. Every single decision Apple makes today has to be framed against the question "is it good for the iPhone?" If not, it simply does not happen. Somewhere down the line the creative destruction instincts will kick back in and Apple will design its own iPhone killer, but right now every quarter's results and more than 2/3rds of Apple's dollars depend on the iPhone's desirability in the market. Introducing a Lightning-based iPad six months before the iPhone 5 announcement fails that test. Showing the new interface port would make every iPhone sale between March and September much, much harder -- consumers could not suspend their disbelief, knowing as they would that they were getting something soon to be outdated. Even though the blogosphere had begun to show convincing examples of the Lightning port as early as May, a tentative hint is worlds away from "Here's the new iPad, and as you may notice it's got a different connector. Hey, where'd you all go?" That's two quarters down the tubes, and millions of customers lost to other mobile ecosystems. iPad sales are nice, but they're not the franchise; iPhone is the franchise. Note that when Apple introduces dramatic new technologies nowadays, they inevitably come to the iPhone first. Siri? iPhone. Lightning? iPhone. Retina? iPhone -- and that's before it got to the MacBook Pro, for goodness' sakes. iCloud and LTE have some wiggle room on this; one reason LTE hit the iPad before the iPhone is that it's much easier to solve power problems if you're engineering a device that is basically a giant battery with a screen glued to it, and it's not an Apple innovation (in fact the iPhone was quite a ways behind the market). Why not just wait, then, and hold back on the iPad refresh more than seven months until after the iPhone 5 is launched? Because if you're going to confound those customer expectations of annual upgrades one way or another, doing it by delaying the new & improved product is the wrong way to go if you're Apple. The iPad 2 had run its course as the flagship by the beginning of 2012, and there was enough value in the 3rd-gen (Siri, LTE, and that luscious Retina display) to retake the tablet lead, especially with Surface, Amazon and Android beginning to sniff at the iPad's heels. Apple would rather give people something good right now and better later, instead of lamely claiming that the iPad 2 is still the best thing going well past its sell-by date. No, given the choice of waiting or pushing out the 3rd-gen, Apple made the right call. Often, when we look to justify our anger, we step to righteousness: it's not about me, it's about how this is bad for Apple. Christina's worry is that consumers now will be gunshy about buying into new iPads if they think the new one is coming within moments. She's not convinced that the quick turn is an aberration; she worries that sub-annual iPad refreshes may now be the norm. "If that upgrade cycle is compressed," she says, "I believe some consumers may just choose to continue waiting. Take iPad 2 owners, for example. Rather than running to upgrade to an iPad 4 this Christmas, I could see some owners choosing to wait. After all, what if Apple releases a new tablet in April? Or June? Why not just wait? Wait too long and you're up against the next refresh cycle. Now Apple has missed recapturing that customer in a fiscal year. That's a bad thing." Another cognitive miss here: a broken pattern can in fact be an exception to the reigning rule rather than an example of a new rule. As one of the commenters on Christina's piece points out, just because this iPad came early that doesn't mean the next one will; in fact, given the lifespan of the original iPod 30-pin connector, it could be a decade before Apple is ready to move past Lightning to the next big thing. Calling a reset and shifting the annual upgrade cycle for the iPad to September from March actually means better uptake for the holiday sales rush, not worse. There are some real fiscal consequences to the early upgrade for those who were not planning to hold onto their iPads indefinitely. Christina rightly points out that iPad 3 owners who were expecting to resell their devices are now facing far lower returns than they "reasonably" might have expected to get. While iPads bought over the past two or four weeks may be exchangeable, people who were depending on resale arbitrage have gotten shorted on their bet. This, too, gets chalked up to the difference between patterns and promises. Nobody guaranteed that your spend on that iPad 3 would be recoverable -- expecting to get some fixed percentage of your money back on the device is entirely on you. It certainly is frustrating, but it's not at all clear that it can be pinned down as Apple's fault. Apple sold you an iPad so you could use it as an iPad, not as an investment vehicle. There are also hints of a valid argument in the notion that the 3rd-gen iPad is actually not a fully baked product, with issues of heat, weight and speed. You can bounce this back and forth, but the fact is that if you were happy with your iPad 3 last week then the failings and flaws you see now are entirely driven by your awareness of the new shiny thing, not by any realistic standard of performance. Again, I don't want to delegitimize the frustration that these folks feel -- feelings are always valid. It's when we reject ownership of our feelings and decide to pin them on something outside our control that things get slippery. Taking the irate stance that Apple's shafted you personally by introducing something new "too soon" may be an understandable reaction. But it's not reasonable to blame Apple for acting in its own best interests, and nothing here suggests that there was something else the company could have done to prevent the marginal pain. Also, in terms of relative utility, if it needs to be said: The iPad 3rd-gen you bought in March, April or May is every bit as functional now as it was last week; it runs the same apps, shows the same videos and docks with the same peripherals (something that the new 4th-gen iPad, for the record, cannot yet do). Christina's argument that the "high-end games" will now target the 4th-gen is a hypothesis, not evidence; iOS and the vast majority of apps will continue to support the 3rd-gen and the iPad 2 for quite some time to come. Millions of users are still happily using their original iPads, and they may not know or care that anyone is torqued about having a 3rd-gen that's no longer top of the charts. Let's also remember that this is an iPad, not a heart transplant. We're talking about something that many may want but nobody needs, after all. Having the luxury of buying a new iPad -- whether it's once a year, every two years, every six months, whenever -- is a remarkable thing in itself, and an opportunity that billions of people will never have. Including, most likely, the people that built the very iPad you're pining for. You can read some other savvy reactions to the 3rd gen/4th gen transition from Don McAllister, Fraser Spiers and Harry Marks.
Apple partners with PowerON to offer iPhone 4S trade-ins
Are you an iPhone 4S owner? Looking to swap up for the next new phone? Bryan Wolfe over at App Advice writes about Apple's iPhone trade-in options. Fulfilled through its PowerON partner ("Apple is not involved in the transaction between PowerON and the Reuse & Recycling service customers."), the Reuse and Recycling program offers up to $345 for top-of-the-line 4S's in perfect condition. The site quoted $280 for my middle-range, lightly-used 32 GB 4S, regardless of whether I ship back the power cord or not. That's an estimate, likely an upper bound, which allows PowerON to evaluate the unit upon receipt. You provide your contact details, agree to the terms and conditions, and affirm that the unit is not stolen. PowerON supplies you with prepaid options for packaging and shipping. After your unit is received and inspected, you'll receive an Apple gift card. Prices are, of course, subject to change as the demand for your unit changes over time. Wolfe points out that Gazelle, the iOS buyback powerhouse, is offering an iPhone price lock, good until October 1st. You can lock in today's price now, and keep your phone until the new one ships. They're offering $275 for the same 32 GB 4S unit as PowerON, i.e. almost identically valued. Whatever option you decide on, make sure to wipe your unit before shipping it. Use Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.
You're the Pundit: What's the best way to unload your old iTech?
When it comes to forecasting the next big thing, we turn to our secret weapon: the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is trade-ins (all prices quoted are as of this writing). With Amazon offering US$297 for a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad versus Gazelle's $250, it's worth shopping around for the best trade-in offers. And yet, service, reliability, and name brand recognition seems to play an important role in the who-do-you-trust game. Are you in the market to sell your iPad? Who have you used and was your experience positive? You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your insight. %Poll-73984%
Study: iPad holds value longer than Kindle
Electronics retailer Gazelle has been calculating up the various values of used electronics, and the firm has found that the iPad will hold its value way better than the Amazon Kindle has so far. The Kindle e-readers have only held, at the most, about 33% of their price after a year of use, while the iPad is usually sold for about 50% of its original price. Even the iPhone is more valuable after it's used: Old iPhones are selling for about 40% of their original price. It's no surprise why: Apple products are continuing to remain in demand even after they're updated, and the Kindle's lower price and fewer features probably doesn't help the resale value either. If there's a not a big difference between the used and new prices and not many new features, why wouldn't you just buy a new Kindle? Obviously the iPad 2 is faster and has that camera, but an original iPad is still very useful, making it much more valuable for the price. All of that said, of course, this tablet market is changing very quickly, and the pattern that we've seen with the iPhone is that as more models come out, the earliest models are worth even less; just find an original iPhone on Craiglist these days to see how cheap they can be now that the 4 and 4S are out. With another iteration of the iPad expected out this year, we might see the earliest models become quite cheap on the resale scale.
Gazelle reports BlackBerry trade-ins at an all-time high
BlackBerry owners faced a multi-day outage earlier this month that undoubtedly caused some unhappy customers to abandon the platform, but it was the launch of the iPhone 4S that may have led to a mass exodus, says electronics recycler Gazelle. Earlier this month, the trade-in of BlackBerry devices climbed, but in the past week, the number of these trades skyrocketed by 80%. This spike coincided with the launch of the iPhone 4S, says Gazelle Chief Gadget Officer Anthony Scarsella. Android handsets also increased 72% in the same time period and many of these trades were from Sprint customers, but this spike may not entirely be the result of the iPhone 4S, says Scarsella. Yes, this is the first iPhone for Sprint and it may be attracting some Android converts, but it's equally likely these Android customers are trading in their older handsets before the launch of the Motorola Droid Razr and Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Even the iPhone was not immune from the iPhone 4S effect. Customers with older iPhone models flocked to Gazelle to lock in higher trade-in prices before the iPhone 4S launch. During its peak, Gazelle was processing an iPhone trade-in every 15 seconds and has accepted a total of 65,000 iPhones since it started buying them back. At this pace, the recycler should reach 75,000 iPhones by the end of this week.
iPhone 4 users begin selling back old units
iPhone 4 owners are starting to sell their used units as Apple prepares to announce its successor. It's a common practice -- sell the "old" tech to help finance the new -- and one Boston-based electronics retailer is already experiencing a significant uptick in smartphone trade-ins and iPhones being offered for sale. Gazelle's Anthony Scarsella says the current iPhone sell-back is "much more aggressive" than it was when the iPhone 4 was released. Scarsella told The Street that 4,500 people tried to sell their iPhones last week, an increase of nearly 30% from the prior week. If those rates continue, he expects Gazelle to see more than 20,000 customers try to sell iPhones to Gazelle via the web. That would represent 10 times what the company saw with the iPhone 4 transition. Of course, there are several online vendors willing to buy back your old iPhone. NextWorth is one that I've used, and ReCellular is also offering buy-backs.
How to check if you're eligible for an iPhone upgrade
With a new iPhone or two just around the corner, TUAW has been getting the usual flood of "how can I check to see if I'm eligible for an upgrade" emails. At least for those of us in the US on either the AT&T or Verizon networks, that's a fairly easy proposition. Here's how to see if you'll be eligible for an iPhone upgrade. AT&T For AT&T users, checking eligibility is drop-dead easy. Open the Phone app on your iPhone, tap in the magic code *639#, and tap the Call button. A message appears telling you that "a message will be sent to your phone." Within seconds, a text message arrives with the details of your eligibility (or lack thereof): In my case, AT&T is offering me an upgrade for $18 and a pair of handcuffs tying me to AT&T for another two years. I bought my iPhone 4 on the first day of availability, and spend a few bucks on my data plan, including a Personal Hotspot tethering plan. Although none of us at TUAW know how AT&T decides who gets an "early upgrade," it seems that the more you spend, the more they like you. Imagine that... Verizon Verizon users need to log onto the Verizon website and go to the My Verizon tab. For each phone, you'll see whether or not you're eligible for an upgrade, and the date that the particular device is eligible. Many thanks to my colleague Kelly Hodgkins for grabbing the Verizon screenshot for me. Now that you can tell whether or not you're eligible, you might want to start thinking about how to get rid of that "slightly used" iPhone 4 that is currently in your hand. Just a reminder that Gazelle.com and other resale sites are ready and willing to purchase your iPhone 4. Gazelle's current bounty for a 32 GB iPhone 4 in good condition is $169, while a mint condition model bumps your take up to $250.
iPhone resellers eagerly await iPhone 5
When you consider that there are four different versions of iPhones out there (original, 3G, 3GS, and 4), and all of them have sold a ton of units, it's clear that there are a whole lot of used iPhones around. That's probably why, as GigaOm reports, iPhone resellers are very excited for another new version of the iPhone. Reseller site Gazelle says that just minutes after the announcement of the latest iPhone 4, over 10,000 old iPhones flowed in. If an iPhone 5 is announced soon, Gazelle plans to see another big bump in items for sale. While resales go up a lot when a new iPhone update is announced, the time in between isn't nearly as successful. Over 32,000 iPhones were traded on Gazelle last year, but this year there have only been 18,000 trades. A new iPhone would boost that number, especially since we already know consumers are hungering to buy it, no matter what the new features. Meanwhile, resellers will have to wait. We've heard plenty of rumors, but there's no official announcement yet of a new iPhone 5 -- or even a new iPad, which would certainly inspire plenty of resales on that device as well.
Increase in iPad recycling prompts Gazelle to enter reseller market
After the iPad 2 announcement, Gazelle saw a marked increase in the number of first generation iPads being recycled by consumers. The electronics recycler has received so many iPad 1 tablets in good to excellent condition that it has decided to begin selling them back to consumers in the upcoming weeks. Gazelle lets consumers send in used electronics for cash. It's an easy way to sell your device without the hassle of deadbeat sellers on eBay or the spam from Craigslist. The amount paid out depends on the model of the device and its condition. Currently, Gazelle is paying $183 for a good condition 16 GB WiFi iPad model. Since the iPad 2 announcement, the company has accepted almost 17,000 iPads, 90% of which are in mint condition. Rather than resell these iPads through Amazon or eBay, Gazelle has decided to open an online store as an extension of its current website. Pricing is still being determined, but the used iPads will likely cost between US$300 to $500. Gazelle may also collaborate with Square Trade to offer warranties on these used devices. If all goes well with the iPad, Gazelle plans to eventually add the iPhone to its online store. The company expects to receive over 50,000 iPhone 4 handsets when the iPhone 5 hits the market later this year.
Used iPads selling well on eBay and Gazelle
If online sales of the original iPad are any indication, then the iPad 2 may be a big seller for Apple when it launches later this week. eBay officials told the NYT's Bits blog that offers for the original iPad on the Instant Sale section of its website has skyrocketed to 15,931 since the announcement on March 2. Thousands of these offers appeared within the first few hours after the Apple event. This number eclipses the 1,500 offers for non-Apple tablets which have been received over the past few months. Used electronics company Gazelle is also reporting brisk trading of the original iPad. Gazelle purchases used devices from customers who send in their device and receive cash in return. Since the iPad 2 announcement last week, Gazelle has accepted 7,000 iPads. Over 2,000 of thee iPads were processed during the hours following Steve Jobs' announcement. Kristina Kennedy, a spokesperson for Gazelle, confirmed the company has paid out over $2 million for iPads in the last week alone. Can you guess which iPad model is the most popular? According to Gazelle, the 16 GB WiFi model is the most popular model being accepted by the electronics trade-in company. Prices for the iPad are reasonable with Gazelle paying $240 for a good condition 16 GB WiFi model. The same model is selling for about $305 on eBay's Instant Sale section.
System 76 brings Sandy Bridge to Ubuntu with Gazelle and Serval laptops
System 76 has been doing open source right for quite some time now, and it's just unleashed what it claims is the "most powerfull Ubuntu laptop in the world" -- so powerful it needs that extra L. It's the Serval Professional, offering your choice of Intel Core i7 processors ranging from the 2GHz 2630QM to the 2.5GHz 2920XM. Graphics are handled by a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M GPU that pumps 1080p worth of pixel dust to a 15.6-inch, LED-backlit display. Prices for that machine start at $1,379 but you're only a few mouse clicks away from three times that. On the slightly lower-end scale is the Gazelle Professional, with a more limited range of processors and graphics options, but the same 15.6-inch display and a price that starts at $1,239. Both come with any operating system you like -- so long as it's Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. %Gallery-115027%
Microsoft's "Gazelle" browser detailed -- it's more of a research project
If you're particularly attuned to tech gossip, you'll know that Google's Chrome OS announcement has prompted a lot of whispers about something called "Gazelle" being cooked up in Microsoft's labs. Part browser, part OS, the word on the street is that Gazelle will be announced soon, and ultimately compete in some way with either Chrome (the browser) or Chrome (the OS). As usual, most of this is just based on hopes and fairytales, but the scholarly folks at Ars Technica have done some digging and come up with a white paper from Microsoft Research that details some of what Gazelle is all about -- and surprise surprise, although it shares some similarities with Chrome, it's actually quite different.At the most general level, Gazelle is an experiment in building an ultrasecure browser. Like Chrome, it breaks tasks up into different processes, but instead of separating at the page level, Gazelle breaks individual page elements into different processes, allowing content from different servers to be isolated and ultimately providing fine-grained security controls. To manage all these different processes, there's a central "kernel," which is where all the OS talk stems from -- it's all still running on Windows, and the rendering engine is still IE's Trident engine, but Gazelle manages all those separate processes independently, kind of like a virtualized OS. It's certainly interesting stuff, but it's still all just a research project for now -- Chrome OS is still vapor, but it's clear that Google intends to ship something, while Gazelle seems more suited to inspire future versions of IE. Still, it's interesting reading if you're into it, so hit the read link for more.Read - Ars Technica analysisRead - Microsoft Gazelle white paper [Warning: PDF][Image courtesy of Robert Scoble]
