Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Dell is rumored to be headed back into the handheld business. The so-called resurrection will come with a possible partnership with Hon Hai Precision Industry, aka Foxconn Electronics. Teaming up with Foxconn Electronics is said to bring about a Windows Mobile based handheld with GPS. Looks like Dell’s previous decision to hire Motorola’s VP of the Cell Phone division, Ron Garriques could really pay off. Or maybe Dell was a bit jealous of Acer with and their recent acquisition of E-Ten, so much so that Dell also wants join the handheld bandwagon once again.

Read [IntoMobile]

Last fall when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced plans to launch iTV by Q1 2007, it wasn’t very clear what direction they would go with it.  Would they simply use it as a wireless set-top-box that streams content from your iTunes collection to your TV?  Would they wire it to your cable and have their own TiVo-like DVR unit?  If the past is any predictor of the future, everything that’s hit the streets so far is a RUMOR… and that’s it.  Products are rumors until they’re announced, and that’s what this one is.  Matt over at PVRBlog is reporting on a ”Wild rumor” that hit his inbox recently.

Apple will be licensing TiVo patented technology for iTV. Also, the name iTV has changed to Mac Media Capsule

Yeah… that’s what I thought.  This one goes down as one of the most unlikely scenerios to be included in Steve’s announcement at Macworld 2007.  Let’s be honest here.  If Apple was going to make a DVR, they would want to OWN the technology as well as sell it.  They would have their good old friends at Hon Hai Precision (AKA Foxconn) whip them up the unit from scratch.

Apple is smart enough to realize a streaming set-top-box will not appeal to the mass market.  If they’re only targeting Apple fanboys, then this would be the product they would release.  However, like I said… they’re smarter than that.

Read [PVRBlog]
Via [SeekingAlpha]

According to The Commercial Times, Taiwanese company Hon Hai Precision (AKA Foxconn), which manufactures the Mac mini and iPod, has apparently won a contract to manufacture 12 million mobile phone handsets (iPhone) for Apple.  The long awaited iPhone has been rumored for a long time now, and may come just in time to go head-to-head with Microsoft’s ZunePhone.

In other news, Forbes reports that Hon Hai has also won a contract for a “new 15-inch ‘MacBook’ personal computers which it will deliver starting next month or in January.” The quantity and value of the contract were not revealed by either parties.

Note: The image above is obvioulsy just a mockup.

Read [ThinkSecret]
Read [Forbes / The Commercial Times]

Since the company moved to Intel chips, Apple has been dropping new computers and models like hot-cakes.  Their newest (rumor) computer expected to hit the market is the new 15.4 inch MacBook, which will be produced by Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and ship in May 2007, sources say.  This is the first time Foxconn has produced any computers under the Apple brand-name, so with that comes the possibility for bugs and glitches.  Previously, Asustek was the sole supplier for Apple’s MacBook.

According to Vincent Chen, an analyst at Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CLSA) that was quoted in the Chinese paper Commercial Times last week, Foxconn will start producing one new MacBook to Apple by year-end, while orders with Asustek will decrease by 1/3 in 2007.

Foxconn and Asustek aren’t just competing for MacBook production, but Foxconn will also start delivering PlayStation 3 units to Sony in February 2007.

Read [DigiTimes]