Apple’s online store in Germany is now selling both the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 unlocked and contract free, with the 8GB 3GS starting at the price of 519 euros and the iPhone 4 16GB and 32GB models costing 629 euros and 739 euros respectively.
Unlocked Phones are also now available in Apple’s four German retail locations.
How about some unlocked iPhone action in other parts of the world?
Source: ZDNet. TechRestore CEO Shannon Jean:
The screen is paper thin and it’s not inside a housing like the traditional screens. It’s in layers, it’s insane. I don’t think there’s ever been a screen like this used in a laptop. It’s very similar to a Sony PSP screen, where the LCD panel and backlight are separate pieces.
So Apple really is in the LCD cell business. Modularizing the LCD takes a lot of hands and time but the main purpose is to standardize. So you can drop it into different chassis. At times Apple can’t make use of standardized modularized LCDs, the 11.6-inch MacBook Air being a case in point. With an impossibly thin unibody display chassis Apple found a way to make the LCD itself thin: get rid of all the unnecessary standard parts.
Akihabara News: The MSI FR600 3D is a 15.6-inch 3D notebook PC sporting a 1920×1080 pixel format and LED backlight. The built-in webcam is 720p capable: we should expect notebook brands to move from 640×480 to 1280×720. I think 3D glasses are included.
There are a lot of 3D product announcements: TVs, monitors, notebook PCs, and even mobile phones. Are you going to get one? I’m not; I don’t want to fry my already-bad eyes. In Dvorak: 3D Bad For Your Eyes:
What happens is this: having each eye being completely blocked out thirty or sixty times per second is the equivalent of having a high-frequency strobe going off in your face. You’re probably aware of the danger this presents to epileptics and others: seizures, nausea, and fatigue are not uncommon.
Bloomberg: Motorola sold US$2 billion worth of handsets in the third quarter. Operating profits were $3 million. Of those handsets Motorola sold 3.8 million smartphones. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that all phones sold last quarter by Motorola were smartphones. I’m being very generous here. Motorola made about 79 cents per smartphone. Hmm…
CNN:
Frequent travelers may appreciate the convenience of the 11-inch MacBook Air, which can remain in a passenger’s bag when going through airport security, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman told CNN.
But the only thing we can expect the TSA to be is being “consistently inconsistent”. Here’s a suggestion from Darren Murph at Engadget:
In theory, you shouldn’t have to remove it from your backpack as you struggle to reach your gate, but if we had to guess, we’d say you’ll be ask to take it out and re-run it if you try.
Just take it out. Imagine the snickering from all the folks behind you when they realize they are being delayed because of your brand new Apple thingamajig.
Bang & Olufsen’s BeoVision 10-32 is a 32-inch LCD TV sporting a 1920×1080 pixel format and a LED backlight (edge-lit). Priced at €4,000. For that price I should expect a full LED backlight with amazing local dimming technology. The square frame on these BeoVision TVs from B&O are simple and elegant, just simplify further and make everything black including the polished aluminum frame.
Apple filed its 2010 annual report today. MacRumors found some interesting tidbits including this one:
The Company expects its gross margin percentage to decrease in future periods compared to levels achieved during 2010 and anticipates gross margin levels of about 36% in the first quarter of 2011. This expected decline is largely due to a higher mix of new and innovative products that have higher cost structures and deliver greater value to customers, and expected and potential future component cost and other cost increases.
The new MacBook Airs have a unibody display chassis. That probably has a higher cost structure than previous ones. The rest of the MacBook line will probably get full unibody construction in the next updates, in addition to IPS LCDs, I’m hoping. The next iPad will definitely have a higher cost structure than version 1.0: my guess is a 9.7-inch 2048×1536 IPS LCD. And all of this at current prices or less. Example: no one is close to US$499 for a 9.7-inch equivalent tablet. Dell and HP should be worried.
Pegatron Technology internally expects its Apple CDMA iPhone shipments to reach 10 million units in 2011 and the company has recently started to gear up and is installing new equipment as well as hiring about 10,000 new employees at its plant in Shanghai, China, according to sources from component makers.
Pegatron also makes MacBooks and the iPad for Apple. I recently upgraded to the iPhone 4 and AT&T sucks where I live. Maybe I should take advantage of the no-questions-asked 30-day return policy…
via Daring Fireball, Dr. Drang on Mac resolutions:
When the Mac first came out, one of its great WYSIWYG features was that a pixel on the screen was supposed to be equal in size to a printer’s point: 1/72″.
Not now:
On a 11″ MacBook Air, a 72-pixel line—which would measure 1 inch long against an onscreen ruler—is just 0.53 physical inches long. On a 21.5″ iMac, that same line is 0.70 inches long. User interface items, like buttons, menu items, and scroll bars are 30% bigger on the iMac than on the Air.
Aside from the newly introduced MacBook Airs and the 17-inch MacBook Pro, most Macs have a resolution that is within a tight range of 109 to 113 PPI.
The resolution on new Macs seem to be converging around 130 PPI. The 11.6-inch MacBook Air has a range-topping 135 PPI while the larger 13.3-inch version has 128 PPI. The 17-inch MacBook Pro has 133 PPI. If you consider the 1680×1050 option on the 15-inch MacBook Pro the resolution increases from 110 to almost 129 PPI.
Next generation MacBook and Pros will most likely change:
That leaves the iMacs. If the 21.5-inch iMac goes from 1920×1080 to 2560×1440 the resolution increases from 102 to 137 PPI. The 27-inch iMac will need to increase to 2880×1800 (double 1440×900) to get to 126 PPI.
Although not exactly the same a tight range around 130 PPI for all Macs will make the overall experience similar.
The original Macintosh had a 9-inch monochrome CRT display and had a pixel format of 512×342. That’s about 68 PPI. Interestingly that’s also about half of what the new Macbooks are converging toward. So maybe the new Macs’ great WYSIWYG feature will be that 2×2 pixels on the screen will be equal to size to a printer’s point: 1/72″.
Trusted Reviews on the 11.6-inch MacBook Air:
The screen didn’t make quite as much of an impact as we hoped, looking like a lesser quality panel than those of other MacBooks; contrast, colour saturation, and viewing angles all seemed worse. That said it is still a more than nice display for general use. Moreover it’s resolution of 1,366 x 768… is a combination of screen size and resolution that seems to have fallen out of favour so we’re glad to see it return. Essentially, to our minds it’s the perfect balance of portability and practicality.
Can we expect an IPS LCD to show up on a MacBook? I sure hope so.
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