[via NotCot]

Features:

• Never loses suction
• Ball technology makes it easy to maneuver
• Animal model picks up pet hair like nobody’s business

Pros:

• Seriously, it never loses suction
• Attachments actually work
• Dust catcher is really easy to remove

Cons:

• Price
• No where to attach the mini-turbine attachment
• Price

Product Page

Full Review:
So what could make a vacuum so cool that it’s worth $549? Well, I’m here to tell you that the Dyson really sucks. Hard. In fact, the first time you use it, you’ll be seriously surprised at the amount of dust and dirt it’ll pull out of your carpet. A little backstory – I live in Nevada, and we have dust. It’s just part of life, we have dust storms, wind, and all kinds of nasty weather. As a result no matter how clean you keep your house, you still get dust. I’ve had various other brands of vacuums in the past, and they did a reasonable job, but I was quite honestly surprised at how well the DC25 cleans. When I moved into my current home, it had new carpet. So I’m very much aware of the age of the inexpensive carpet that we put down. The Dyson was able to actually restore some of the nap of the carpet, to the point that it actually felt like new.

The model I’m reviewing today is the DC25 Animal. This particular model is specifically designed for people with pets, and we have 3 cats in my household. As a result, we get cat hair everywhere, and it’s a pain to keep the furniture clean. One thing that has always annoyed me about other vacuum cleaners is the attachments. Why on earth do they bother to include that miniature “upholstery brush” that is supposed to spin using the force of the suction, but it never works? Well, I’m here to tell you that the Dyson version works. This means that I don’t have to set the couch cushions on the floor and vacuum them, I can just plug the extension hose into the mini-turbine, and it spins. Not only that, but when I actually touch the mini-turbine to the couch fabric, it keeps spinning. This was literally the feature that made me go, “yeah, this vacuum is worth the money”.

All is not perfect with the DC25 though, there were a couple of things that annoyed me. Specifically, the mini-turbine doesn’t attach to the vacuum anywhere. You have to put it somewhere safe, and hope you don’t forget where you put it. On cheaper vacuum cleaners it snaps onto the body of the cleaner, I’m not really sure why that’s not the case with the Dyson. The other issue is with the main beater. If you (or your significant other) has long hair, sooner or later you’re going to have to clean that beater. And the disassembly process to get at the beater is a pain. Of course, that’s not a problem particular to the Dyson, but I expected it to have some kind of magic blade that would make the hair not wrap around the beater brush. Maybe in the next version.

Conclusion: I really, really like the Dyson. I was prepared to dismiss it as an overpriced gimmick, but I’m actually happy to say that I was wrong. Despite the price, the Dyson DC25 Animal is easy to recommend to people. It’s a truly great product that does exactly what they show it doing on the commercials. My hat is off to you, James Dyson.

How bad is it? Well, if you’re on the phone and you accidentally press the search button, you can disconnect the call. Don’t like the Calendar notification? That’s a shame. The GPS doesn’t work well with Google or Bing maps. If you are on one call, and second call comes in, the Caller ID will display the correct information. Until you answer the call. Then the screen will go blank and you won’t be able to see anything until you hang up the phone. The worst part? There are no work arounds for any of these issues. Guess you’ll have to wait until the firmware update to fix this stuff.

For the whole list, hit up the BGR website. It’s too long to show here.

So these rumors come as no surprise; if I had “a person with proven knowledge,” I would have cited them with such a rumor months ago, whether they said so or not. It makes sense for a number of reasons.

1. The iPad is limited. Oh, put down your pitchforks. You know what I mean. I don’t think the iPad was ever meant to be a single device, but like their other computers, it was always going to be a range, with different sizes and slightly different specs. But the first thing was to put out one, in the hypothetical Goldilocks zone for tablets, and see if consumers bit. They did. Time to expand. Variety would be necessarily more restricted than the laptops, since the iOS platform is far more controlled, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t have a large, medium, and small. Those are things that will never confuse customers, and which provide easy prices to rally around. I suspect the iPad is the medium, with a 7″ and 11″ (or thereabouts) in the cards for the next year. iPad, iPad Pro, and iPad Mini. Or something.

2. The wolves are (kind of) at the door. They’re really small wolves, and the door is 3 million iPads thick, but they are scratching at it nonetheless. Being first to the market has definite benefits, but HP, Google, Motorola, Microsoft, Blackberry, and pretty much every other tech giant on the planet wants a piece of Apple, and although the iPad could likely stand alone on its strengths, there’s no reason to let it. A more compact iPad with a camera for FaceTime (and likely a few other minor improvements) would take the wind out of the competition’s sails — and sales, if only because it’s new and new sells.

3. They need FaceTime devices. Another rumor that showed up today is that Apple is expanding FaceTime to OS X and possibly Windows machines (developers are still waiting on that “open standard,” though). While the new iPod touch took some of the pressure off Apple to provide non-iPhone-4 FaceTime devices, it would be mighty strange if they left the iPad as the only non-compatible device for a whole year. Apple wants to make FaceTime a marquee feature of their products — simple, no-nonsense video chat on all their devices — and if the holiday season isn’t the time to push that, I don’t know what is. I can see it now: “A Very Special Apple Holiday Event,” with snow on the logo and everything. FaceTime for all, and to all a good night.

The original iPad, it seems reasonable to assume, will remain unchanged for the time being. What we’re looking at is a great opportunity for Apple to introduce a new product, not to unexpectedly update the original, an action which consumers might look on as kind of a bait and switch. I’d also guess that availability wouldn’t be until well after the holidays, which isn’t optimal for a gift-oriented release, but it’s better than nothing. Knowing there’s a new iPad in the near future might dampen your desire for a compact Android tablet or Palmpad.

Of course, this is all rumor and speculation, and of course it had to show up literally the day after I start considering buying one of these damn things, so to be honest I don’t know whether I even want to believe it.

Continue reading…

UK plan pricing is in line with expectations, but it’s anybody’s guess what US carriers are planning. I’d go with a $20/mo. limited and $30/mo. unlimited, but I could be way off. The subsidy gap is pretty large, and carriers might want a little more of a guarantee. Samsung is betting big on this, though, and plans to sell ten million this year, so they’re probably giving the carriers a sweetheart deal on the hardware.

[via Abitare and NotCot]

The K-5 costs $1699, and while you can scope the full details over at the Pentax forums, I’ll limit myself to the high points.

16.2 megapixels (1.52x cropped sensor)
ISO 200-12800, expandable to 50/25600
HD video: 1080p, 720p, VGA at 25 or 30 FPS
Weather-sealed magnesium body
Penta-prism viewfinder
Dual SD slots

I’m guessing it’s also got the new high-res LCD that’s in the K-r, if not a superior one. We’re missing burst speed and a couple tiny specs, but that seems to be the full picture. They mention a translucent LCD displaying focus points and framing grid in the viewfinder. I wonder how they have the ability to do this without darkening the image?

Anyway, the K-5 looks like a real solid camera. I’m not sold on the K-r, but this seems like a pretty good match for the other options at the $1500-$2000 price point.

[via Photography Bay]

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