Gizmodo Australia » rumour smashed

That Awesome Lenovo Pocket Yoga Netbook From Earlier This Morning? Not a Product

John Mahoney — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:35:08 +0000

Sadly, the folks at Lenovo’s design department have outed the Pocket Yoga as a two-year-old concept. Why photos of it showed up on a Lenovo Flickr stream earlier today is anyone’s guess, but as of now, they’re denying that this is an actual upcoming product. Boo. [Lenovo Design Matters]

Dell Denies Mini 9 Undersized Battery Claims, Testing Concurs with Dell

Mark Wilson — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:59:00 +0000

Reports hit yesterday that Dell had shipped Mini 9 reviewers a 32Wh battery while shorting consumers with an undersized 24Wh battery. Dell has since denied the claims, and further testing sides with Dell, too.

According to a spokesperson,

Mini 9 is configured with and has never shipped with anything but 32WH batteries. A third party test program being used in the field doesn’t properly program every vendor’s battery to report power (versus current) capabilities, and so the utility is not properly reporting the actual battery capacity. We have confirmed this and all packs are 4-cell 32Whr, and will deliver more than 4 hours of battery life in typical usage.

Indeed, the original forum poster even admitted that the “24Wh” battery actually had a longer life span than their “32Wh” version. And both batteries exceeded four hours of usage.

So between Dell’s outright denial and further testing by forum members, it looks like this rumour was smashed. Whether or not we have a real explanation as to the odd discrepancies in testing software, as long as it’s not screwing with battery life, I really couldn’t care less.

T-Mobile Probably Did Not Sell 1.5 Million G1 Pre-Orders

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:45:00 +0000

Did the announcement that T-Mobile sold 1.5 million G1 pre-orders sound a little too fantastic to be true? Information Week thought so and talked to the guy behind the astronomical number–a mathematician at The Motley Fool. Turns out that some iffy multiplication may have been involved and the number of pre-orders sold is probably closer to 200,000 to 300,000. Big, but not crazy big.

I contacted Anders Bylund, the author of the original Motley Fool article that hundreds of stories are citing. I was curious as to how he got these figures and he gave me his rationale.
He cited a Cens.com article that said, “according to industry insiders, T-Mobile is planning to order a total of between 1.5 million and 2 million units of G1 with HTC in the near future, including 400,000 to 500,000 to be sold in the fourth quarter of this year.”
Then, Bylund cited T-Mobile selling out of pre-order units, and tripling the number of phones initially available. He then tripled the 500,000 number to get 1.5 million.

Considering the iPhone, which launched in 20 different countries, only hit a million during its first weekend, we all probably should have been a little more suspicious of one phone in one country on one carrier surpassing that. The G1 looks to be a spectacular competitor, but we ought not to lose our heads rooting for its success. [Infoweek]

Microsoft Ads Featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld Not Cancelled

Mark Wilson — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:15:00 +0000

From a trusted Crispin Porter source, we’ve learned that the internet has jumped the gun and that the Microsoft Gates/Seinfeld ads have not been axed. It’s true, Microsoft apparently asked the agency to focus on the new “I’m a PC” spots. And it’s true, the agency has gotten plenty of “I don’t know what this means” response in their measured statistics of the Gates/Seinfeld ads. But no one has pulled the plug on the dynamic duo just yet.

In fact, Crispin Porter has another completed spot featuring the lovable, affluent couple in the can, ready to air (even though it won’t quite yet). And while the agency has prioritised development to the anti-Mac ads, there are still full plans to go ahead and produce more Seinfeld/Gates spots unless Microsoft were to pull the plug first (which, once again, they have not at this time).

It’s good to know that in a time of economic uncertainty, Gates and Seinfeld haven’t been laid off just yet.

Rumour Smash: Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Doesn’t Have Hidden 3G Powers (Yet)

Matt Buchanan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:25:48 +0000

Even though Vodafone is gleefully selling Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 with built-in 3G, it turns out that Mini 9s sold in the US actually don’t possess latent 3G powers like that annoying kid on Heroes. A solid source close to the matter told us that while every Mini 9 uses the same motherboard with a port for integrated mobile broadband (’cause it’s cheaper than using two versions), the mini 9s sold so far in the US don’t have the antenna or radio for 3G. However, they will by the end of the year, with Dell’s usual range of mobile broadband options.

Rumour Smashed: No New Kindle This Year

Mark Wilson — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Despite the rumours, it looks like there will be no sunny retirement for the current Kindle. From Amazon’s chief spokesperson to the New York Times:

One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.

Oh well, maybe next Christmas. Sorry Timmy, don’t cry. Santa still loves you—it’s Jeff Bezos who doesn’t. [NYT]

Nikon D700 Shots Revealed as Fake

Gizmodo US Edition — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:35:00 +0000

Darnit darnit–that’s what you’ll be saying if you’re an eager Nikon fan, waiting for the new mid-range D700 DSLR. Those shots we showed you in our previous rumour post? Yep: faked. Over on NikonD700.com they’ve got a link to the original pre-Photoshopped image on Flickr. It’s of a D300, and is clearly of a higher quality and resolution than the D700 fake. See below for the full pic.

[Flickr via NikonD700.com]

Rumour Smashed: Activating iPhone 3G Will NOT Brick Your Old iPhone (And Your Mum Can Activate It From Home)

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:51:00 +0000

There’s a scary rumour more than a few readers have asked us about, that activating an iPhone 3G would brick your old iPhone. So here’s the deal, straight from AT&T. If you activate a new iPhone 3G, your wireless number is obviously ported to it. But can totally give it to your cousin in the boonies where’s the no 3G to use as a phone–they just hook it up to their computer, sync it and setup a plan through iTunes just like you did when you brought it home for the very first time. No trips to the AT&T store required. Sweet, eh? If you’re greedy and want to hang on to it, then it’ll basically become an iPod touch–it’ll do everything it used to, sans go on AT&T’s network. [Giz Explains iPhone 3G]

Update: Optus iPhone Pricing Details ‘Wrong’

Nick Broughall — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:00:55 +0000

Update: About half an hour ago I received an angry phonecall from Optus about this story. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that the pricing tip I received was “wrong”. No more information was given, other than the fact that the story was incorrect.
looks like we still have a little wait before we know what we’ll be paying for the iPhone…

The biggest question on everyone’s lips now that the iPhone has been announced in Australia is how much it’s going to cost you. Well, a friendly tipster has stealthily procured those details and sent them through to Giz AU. Thanks Tipster!

So, if you’re an Optus customer, here’s what ~~you can expect~~ we were told:

*The iPhone is only available on a 24 month contract – you can’t purchase it outright
*The 8GB model will cost $220, the 16GB $330
*Only the 16GB is available in white
*Optus won’t be selling accessories – they will be sold through the Apple store
*There will be two plans available: a $79 cap with 1GB data and $300 worth of calls; and a $99 cap with 3GB of data and $400 worth of calls
*Both plans include Visual Voicemail
*30c flagfall; 35c per 30 seconds talk, 25c SMS messages

Now, as with any tip, this isn’t 100 percent confirmed yet – I’ll be chasing up with Optus in the morning to get confirmation. But the source seems legit from my end, and the pricing all sounds about what I was expecting.

What do you guys think? Is $79 for 1GB worth of data good enough value for money for a portable internet device?

[iPhone 3G on Giz]

iPhone 3G Rumour Accuracy Check: We Were Right(ish)!

Gizmodo US Edition — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:40:00 +0000

Last Friday, we rounded up and judged the most colorful iPhone 3G rumours floating around the tubes. Now that Steve has spilled the beans, I bet you’re curious as to how accurate our thinking was. Turns out we were pretty much on target with our verdicts.