Author: Kat Hannaford

MacBooks bought between 2006 and 2007 could be eligible for a free hard drive replacement, with Apple dodging a guilty admission, stating that “a very small percentage…may fail under certain conditions.” UPDATED (with advice from a Mac Genius).

If you own a white or black MacBook bought between 2006 and 2007, with either a 1.83GHz, 3Ghz, or 2.16GHz processor and 60GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB or 160GB, you may be in luck. Or out of luck—as you have to prove the hard drive actually has failed.

The offer is open until August the 15th of this year, or three years after the MacBook was purchased. Now all Apple has to do is address the faulty iMac problem, and we’re gold. Oh, and these eight issues with the iPad…[Reg Hardware]

Image credit: TheYoungThousands

UPDATE: A Mac Genius has written in with the following information:

“the hdd replacement applies to macbook models “Macbook 13-inch” (i.e. the original 06 model) and “Macbook mid-2007.” there is a model in between that is not covered. Also, unlike Apple REPs (repair extension programs), these repairs appear on what apple calls its CS-Matrix (a breakout list of procedure deemed eligible for customer service, or “CS” codes). the CS-matrix is not governed by the 3-year REP expiration and is considered “cover until further notice.”

if you really want to freak out a genius bar employee, just sidle up and mention you have a CS-matrix-eligible macbook hard drive replacement. or don’t because we’ll hate you for being douchey ;)”

The DS 2 (not to be confused with the XL, which only ate a super mushroom), is reportedly alive and kicking, with developers now testing the motion-sensing console—but it won’t be ready in time for GDC in March.

CVG spoke to a developer at one of the studios that’s been lucky enough to receive the early prototype, and apparently it’s already making waves there:

“It’s genuinely the best thing I think I’ve ever worked with, I can tell you that it’s got a ’tilt’ function that’s not dissimilar to iPhone, but does a lot more. We know that The Pokemon Company are getting special attention with it.”

The Pokemon Company is a a division of Nintendo that handles marketing and licensing for Pokemon games—suggesting one of the launch titles that will take advantage of the HD screen and motion-sensing console will be a continuation of the Pokemon saga. It’s been a while since I’ve checked in with Ash and Pikachu, but I’ll definitely give it another spin if it’s got some cool iPhone-like tilt control when battling. [CVG]

We’ve all got at least one vacuum cleaner lying around the house (gathering dust, in some cases), but hopefully no-one will be inspired by BBC presenter Jem Stansfield who scales buildings using sucking force from the machines.

I don’t want to be receiving any photos of your bruises after you fall flat on your face 2ft up the side of your garage, but this is how Stansfield cobbled together his “Spiderman gloves,” which he’s used to climb up to 120ft previously.

An earlier feat, climbing the side of the BBC building:

Just a reminder: if you try this at home, don’t send me the x-rays of your fractured fibula. [The Telegraph and Daily Mail]

The Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm is fast becoming the standard chip for smartphones—both Android and Windows Mobile—but surprisingly we haven’t seen anything that can harness its performance in gaming. That may change this year, according to Qualcomm.

Speaking to Mobile-Entertainment at Mobile World Congress, their VP of product management, Mark Frankel, said:

“There will be, by the end of this year, specific game-centric platforms launched around Snapdragon”

“You’ll be able to see clearly that gaming is the main focus of those devices. There’ll be a category of gaming devices that hasn’t been on the marketplace before using Snapdragon.”

The lack of gaming-centric phones was something we were bemoaning recently, although that could change with the Xbox 360 integration in Windows Phone 7 Series. [Mobile-Entertainment]

Not every gadget comes with an inbuilt solar charger, like the Puma Phone. XPAL’s Solar Egg can do the job just fine, dangling from a keychain or belt-loop (if you dare) and charging to 90 per cent in four hours.

It doesn’t even need a hot summer’s day to do so, with XPAL claiming it works just as well in “medium levels of natural light.” It’s compatible with all types of gadgets with (presumably) a few cables included, and will be out in March. [XPAL via Engadget]

A few blurry pics and a viral video that was promptly yanked from YouTube have led to the official announcement of the Puma Phone, aka, the phone that makes me wish I was more sporty.

When I was a kid, if someone turned up wearing Puma sneakers instead of Nike/Adidas/Converse, they were ridiculed. Looking back, it was pretty harsh, but had we known Puma would be putting its name to a phone this stylish, I doubt we would’ve hung that poor kid from his shoelaces on the monkeybars. (I kid, obviously—it was from his braces.)

Despite this phone being made by Sagem (not exactly a brand you can boast about), it’s a pretty incredible device—the specs are decent enough, but the overall experience of using one is amazing. It’s been styled to an inch of its life, with every corner of the custom OS looking like it’s stepped out of a graphic designer’s wet dream.

It’s a pretty ordinary touchscreen phone shape, feels nice in your hand with quite a good build (it actually reminded me a bit of the first HTC Touch in terms of size and shape, only painted with gloss), but not as well built as the stuff coming out of HTC nowadays. It’s light, but does feel quite plastic.

Flipping it over though reveals the kicker—a solar panel for charging in the sun. It’s not the first phone with a solar panel, but Puma’s paws have got right into the nitty gritty of the functionality—with the phone telling you how many minutes you’ve got charged up by solar power, and what that translates to in terms of messages you can send, minutes you can talk for, and so on.

It also rewards you, with the minutes being exchanged for Puma merchandise in the store. It’s a really neat touch, and will definitely be an incentive to charge as much as you can by mother nature’s rays.

Sadly, it’s the screen that lets the hardware down—it’s a 2.8-inch QVGA TFT capacitive touchscreen with 240 x 320 pixels, and while it was responsive it just wasn’t the sharpest picture we’ve seen on a phone. It may do with the fact that every single screen is bright red, but even looking at Dylan, the Puma Phone‘s pet puma, who strolls past the screen roaring at you, it was a bit of a muddy image.

There’s two ways you can go on the homescreen—towards the sports side, or the lifestyle screen. Sports has all the fitness programs, like a pedometer, bike tracker, run tracker, compass, alarm, stopwatch and RSS for sports-related news. Every program is very Puma Phone—bright red, and stylised.

The lifestyle screen has everything else you could possibly need—music player (which is a very cool turntable, where you see the arm dropping the Puma logo-record onto the player and then spinning around—it actually lets you scratch); messages, email, camera and so on. The social app opens up to display your Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube accounts, which are pretty basic but quite clear and easy to use.

Shooting photos on the 3.2-megapixel camera was pretty similar to the experience of using an Android phone—very easy to use, and the LED flash and 6x digital zoom worked well too. I took a few snaps in the bright strip lighting-lit room and they were clear with no visible complaints. It also handles video conferencing at VGA resolution (see that forward-facing camera, there?), but I didn’t try that out.

To make a call quickly, or get to one of your other oft-used apps, the ‘magic carpet’ can be pulled up, almost like the opposite of Android’s curtain, which comes down. There, you can make a quick phone call or see the Puma store.

Needless to say, I think it’ll be a real shocker at Mobile World Congress. While Microsoft’s big Windows Phone 7 was surprising, we kind of expected it to deliver on the good stuff. The Puma Phone has come out of nowhere, and I can definitely see it becoming a viable second phone for anyone sporty-inclined. It won’t replace your smartphone, but there’s enough new features and incentives to continue using it (charging the solar panel to collect enough points to buy Puma stuff), so it’s definitely worth your attention. [Puma Phone]

Video from our friends at Recombu:

I know what you’re thinking—Puma and Sagem, two brands you’re not particularly fond of. Yet, somehow the alchemy is perfect, as Puma has ensured every aspect of the OS and hardware is ultra-styled and feature-led.

It’s a light device, at 115g in weight, but feature-packed with a solar panel on the back for charging by mother nature’s rays. The more you charge by the sun, the more points you collect, which can be spent in the Puma store. You can see how many extra minutes you can talk for, or play music for, or how many extra texts you can send, from charging by the sun. It’s little things like this which show how much attention has been paid to all the aspects of the Puma Phone‘s design.

The screen is a 2.8-inch QVGA TFT capacitive panel, with 240 x 320 pixels. Battery life isn’t as great as some others on the block, with just a 880 mAh component being used, but the solar panel will more than compensate for that. A 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash and 6x digital zoom is on the back, with a forward-facing camera for VGA video conferencing on the front.

As it’s intended for being strapped to your arm, or shoved in your pocket to calculate stats on your training, the compass and A-GPS add strength to the pedometer and GPS tracker functions.

For a full hands-on preview of the Puma Phone, check it out over here, but in the meantime be content with knowing it’ll go on sale in Europe in the next two months—with worldwide details expected soon after. [Puma Phone]

In case it didn’t get drummed into you nearly enough, 2010 is going to be about 3DTV. According to the WSJ, Hollywood studios are seeing the “Avatar effect” which is making them rush out 3D films extra-fast.

We already know some of the big 3D titles that’ll be hitting this year, but apparently over 20 will be fighting each other off to be screened in the 10 per cent of 3D-compatible cinemas in the US.

Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans and How To Train Your Dragon will all be released before April, with Despicable Me and Toy Story 3 in July and Harry Potter, Megamind and Tangled in November. Cinema chains are quickly adding as many 3D screens as they can squeeze under their roofs, but there’s an obvious strain that could result in ticket prices increasing to compensate for all the massive overheads. [WSJ]

A new feature that’s making its way onto all of HTC’s Android phones via its Sense overlay is the “helicopter view,” as they call it internally. It’s like Mac OS X’s Exposé function, letting you see all homescreens instantly.

Recombu has shot a hands-on video of the Desire, which specs-wise is identical to the Nexus One, only with HTC Sense slicked over the top. It’s a quick look at what to expect, and how you’ll be accessing all those lovely homescreen widgets in the future. [Recombu]

We spoke at great length about how Microsoft will be offering apps on the Windows Phone 7 Series Marketplace, but until now hadn’t seen exactly what it’d look like. Pocket Now has grabbed the goods, which you can see underneath.

The opening screen, below, has the different options for the Marketplace: apps, games, music and podcasts. The first two words, Contoso and Fabrikam, are placeholders for Microsoft—fictional company names they often use.

Once you choose applications on the Marketplace opening screen, the several screens will display the featured apps, the newest, and most popular. Square thumbnails represent each app, and the whole UI is very much in-keeping with the rest of the OS. [Peter Wissinger via Pocket Now]

One phone that didn’t get leaked to death before the announcement was HTC’s HD Mini. After yesterday’s WinPho7 launch, Windows Mobile 6.5.3 may seem tired, but the hardware on this industrial wonder is anything but.

I mentioned the word “industrial,” which is possibly the best word I can think of it. If the Legend is the sexy younger sister, and the Desire is the brainy older sister, then the HD Mini is the younger emo brother. With visible screws on each corner of the back, it’s rugged, hard and very manly, almost giving the Droid a run for its money. It may not be powered by Android, but I still think this phone is worth your attention—at least, until Windows Phone Series 7 launches.

Photos courtesy of our friends at ElectricPig

Specs-wise, the 3.2-inch capacitive HVGA screen has 320 X 480 pixels, a 600Mhz processor has been used, and RAM and ROM are at 384MB and 512MB respectively. The camera is the typical 5.0-megapixel autofocus/flash affair, and Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi are included—you can actually turn the phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, like with the HD2.

Here’s a video from Recombu, who deemed it “small and slightly pointless.” But only slightly!

Slicked over Windows Mobile is HTC Sense, which makes it bearable, but with Windows Phone 7 Series just around the corner, the HD Mini may just find it’s the slightly-emo stepchild.

Inspired by the Nexus One (which HTC made), the Desire—or Bravo, if you prefer—has a 3.7-inch AMOLED screen with multitouch, with 480 x 800 pixels. It’s the best display I’ve seen on a phone for a while.

Internally, a 1Ghz Snapdragon chip, 512MB of ROM and 576MB of RAM, 1400 mAh battery, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS all lurk. The camera is 5.0-megapixels with autofocus and flash. It’s running Android 2.1 with HTC Sense, and will be available in a couple of months time. It’s better-specced than the Legend, but with those looks, the Legend will steal the show I’m sure.

Here’s what our friends at TechRadar had to say in their hands on:

Those that watched the Nexus One announcement unfold but wished that HTC had plugged its cool Sense overlay onto the phone will be pleased, as this is what the Desire is all about.

Essentially it’s the same phone as the Google Nexus One, with the slim 11.9 depth chassis and smooth exterior making it a real joy to hold in the hand.

It’s a little on the large side thanks to packing a 3.7-inch OLED screen, but HTC has had a look at the few foibles the Nexus One has and sorted them out on the Desire.

The main difference lives on the front of the phone – the trackball has been replaced with an optical option instead, meaning a less tactile feel when trying to navigate through menus.

It’s not a real negative point though – it’s just that some people might have to take a while to get used to not actually scrolling anything physical.

The touch sensitive buttons on the front of the HTC Desire, which our review pointed out were a little bit fiddly, have been replaced by physical keys, which respond nicely to the touch and allow easier access through the phone.

The Sense UI is back in force on top of Android 2.1, and it’s even more cracking than before. The phone is fully multi-touch enabled, and this is never better exemplified than in the Leap view.

Simply pinch inwards on one of the home screens, and the Desire shows off all the currently running displays in an easy to poke format, meaning no more scrolling to get to the other end of your screen.

The WVGA screen is just tip-top for multimedia as well – we’ve moaned in the past that the Android music player is staid and boring.

But we’re glad to report that this element has been put right with the Sense overlay, offering you the chance to slide through artists, albums and songs at the bottom of the device.

Video on the Desire also looks great, as you might imagine – you can watch all variety of codecs on the phone and the 3.7-inch OLED screen gives some scarily deep blacks and lovely colour saturation, as well as a terrific response time for fast moving scenes.

The internet browser on the HTC Desire is up there with the best of them – we managed to load a couple of fairly heavy websites in a few seconds – over an EDGE connection, which is miles faster than most competitors.

We’re mightily impressed with the HTC Desire, and can see that this is going to be a real iPhone contender in 2010, no matter what Steve Jobs brings out later this year.

Photos courtesy of Tech Radar.

Not only is HTC’s Legend their best-looking Android phone to date, I’m going to throw my hat in the ring and say it’s the best-looking Android phone period. Created from a single piece of aluminum, it’s more than MacBook-esque.

Running Android 2.1 with HTC Sense, it’s got a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen with 320 x 480 pixels, capacitive but of course. The camera is 5.0-megapixels with autofocus and flash; there’s a 600 MHz processor and 512MB ROM (with microSD card slot), 384MB of RAM. The battery is 1300 mAh, so a bit less than the Hero, and the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS are included.

Here’s a video from Recombu, who called it their favorite Android phone to date:

And here’s what our friends at TechRadar had to say:

The aluminium body replaces the Hero’s Teflon coating, and while it might be susceptible to scratching from keys or loose change, it certainly adds a premium look to the device.

When we first used the Hero earlier in 2009, it was apparent that the phone had some serious firmware issues – we’re happy to report that the Legend doesn’t suffer this way, at least not from the outset.

The capacitive 3.2-inch HVGA screen might look a little bigger, but that’s because the phone is actually slimmer and thinner than before – HTC tells us this is because it’s been able to save space by making it all out of one solid block, thus removing the need for a frame.

Another upgrade to the screen is the fact it’s now an OLED rather than your conventional LCD – this means vivid colours and drop dead gorgeous contrast ratios like those seen on the Samsung Jet. We can’t wait to try watching an extended video session on this device.

Photos courtesy of TechRadar.

One interesting thing to note about the Legend is that it’s got a few new tricks up its Android sleeve. A “helicopter view” which is almost like Mac OS X’s exposé means you can pinch the screen to view all the five Android homescreens, switching between the widgets easily.

A new FriendStream scrobbles all status updates. photos and links from your various social networking sites (currently, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr are supported), but you can still use the individual widgets and apps if you prefer.

It’s out in Europe late March/early April in Europe, with worldwide availability to be confirmed. I’ve got to say, after getting hands-on with it recently this will definitely be my next Android handset.

That slick-looking Mini GD880 phone from LG that was introduced last week has been handed some more details for its profile card at MWC. It’ll be the first phone to support LG’s new 3-Way Sync service, Air Sync.

It’s a fancy way of saying it continually syncs over the air using that very-2010 term “cloud computing”, backing up browsing habits, photos, videos, calendars and contact details. Information is exchanged from the phone to the user’s computer, with the last 100 websites visited on the PC being transferred to the GD880, embarrassing search results and all.

It’ll be available in the UK in April, with international release details expected later. For the full story on the specs, head on over here.

Whatever happens in Japan is usually replicated across the world a few years later, so while LG, Mitsubishi and co are busy readying OLED TVs, Sony’s pulling out of OLED production in Japan.

They’ll still continue selling OLED TVs internationally, but won’t pursue the Japanese market anymore, due to slow sales. Their XEL-1 was the first to hit the market, just two years ago, and sells for 200,000 Yen ($2,222) in Japan—all 11-inches of it. No wonder they didn’t catch on.

If you were considering a super-slim, super-expensive set this year, then LG’s expected to release a 15-inch model in the States this year—though with the death knell being sounded proceed at your own caution. [Reuters]

Have you ever heard of Lumigon? Me neither. Apparently they’re a Danish company who’ve spent two years working on these three ultra-stylish Android phones. You can tell they’re European, right? Though saying that, Nokia is European too…

The three T1, S1 and E1 models all run Android 2.1, and have TFT capacitive touchscreens, A-GPS, 720p over HDMI output, and Freescale i.MX51 processors. It sounds like they’ll also have a Lumigon-developed skin over the top of Android, “to give the user even more user-friendliness,” they claim. Mm-hmm.

While full specs haven’t been offered by Lumigon yet, the phones will be able to be used as universal remotes and pair up with Lumigon’s Bluetooth keyboard. The touchscreen candybar T1 will go on sale in the next couple of months, with the T9 slider S1 a month or two later, and the E1 later this year, featuring a “unique navigation system and a shape never experience in mobile phones.” [Lumigon via Engadget]