Reviews
Source: XKCD
App store ratings are both a blessing and a curse. They can offer prospective buyers a semi-objective opinion on the use of an app and be the means of pushing a wary shopper to a purchase, but that all kind of hinges on the user actually providing useful information or even not having a personal vendetta against you.
I can completely sympathize with users not wanting to get hoodwinked out of their own cash, but many app store reviews are actually pretty worthless, even ones rated high. But if that weren't enough, I got a really strange email last...
Yesterday I waited 5 hours in line to get my hands on a new iPad 2.
The Device
Having owned the original iPad for almost a year now, the iPad has been an integral part of my life workflow. I use it to gorge on RSS feeds, keeping up on the latest news and loved it for reading books. Despite what Amazon would tell you, the iPad is a wonderful eBook reader. Most people don't live at the beach or spend most of their time outdoors, so the fact that you can't read very well in the open sunlight is not an...
I went to the Apple store today to check out all the new products that came out a few weeks ago. It was cool to see the new iPod lineup, but I have to admit, it was quite underwhelming.
First, with the new iPod Touch, Apple set a pretty high bar as far as features go with the new iPhone 4. Apple has always created artificial parity between the iPhone and the Touch, but this time I really think they sold themselves short. First off is the camera. New to the Touch line, the front camera is about the same as...
Print media is in trouble. I see it in the eyes of solicitors trying to get me to subscribe to the paper. Their selling point completely rests on coupons you can get in the Sunday paper. Never mind the great stories, sleuthing, or anything else related to the content. It’s all about the coupons. I get nearly all my news online (even local news) for free, so I need to get a newspaper subscription for the coupons? I can get those online, too. So when WIRED released a promo video showing off what they had in mind for a tablet...
If you've been following my Twitter account it should be very obvious that I purchased an iPad yesterday. The buying experience was pretty smooth despite the huge crowds that had turned out. I got there only about an hour and fifteen minutes before the 5pm release time and there weren't more than a dozen or so people waiting. There were quite a few people that had arrived after me, however. Many people walked by and asked me what we were in line for. One person asked if the new iPhone had come out, but I...
I was able to get into the Apple store this morning using a secret technique to beat the crowds, just so I didn't have to wait in line for eternity. I've been using this iPad for a little while now and can say that I am both impressed and underwhelmed at the same time. The device is attractive, no doubt, and is very responsive, but some of the apps just straight up suck--especially the double pixeled ones. I'll post a photo later, but the apps designed for iPhone just look absolutely horrid on the higher resolution display, and I'm...
I have been looking for a NAS for a long time, so when Newegg had a deal on the Intel Entry Storage System SS4200-E NAS Server, I jumped right on it. Selling itself with four internal SATA connections, two external eSATA ports and USB up the yin-yang, I thought this would be a good buy for my purposes. My primary intention was to create a 6TB (yes, terabyte) array where I could have all my ripped DVD, Blu-Ray, music and computer backups but still have plenty of space to grow into. To cut to the chase, I have had nothing...
Despite the modest turn out at Apple and AT&T stores for its release, looks like the iPhone 3GS is just as hot as last year's model, selling over one million units over the weekend.
I too picked one up and it didn't fail to impress. Speed has definitely been on tap as I instantly noticed that it loaded apps in seconds that typically took several seconds to load. The speed here seems a bit clichéd (especially if you've been reading other reviews saying the same) but is well worth the $100 difference between last year's 8GB model currently...
Today was pretty exciting as far as Apple news goes with the announcement of the release of Mac OS X 10.6 'Snow Leopard', new MacBooks, MacBook Air price reductions, iPhone OS 3.0, and yes, the iPhone 3GS. Most rumors actually turned out to be correct, such as MMS, a 3 megapixel auto-focus camera, tethering, magnometer, and video recording. Some that didn't pan out were the new matte finish (instead of a glossy back), but the most happed for, but more far-fetched non-event was the forward facing video lens. Others that I didn't find anywhere on the rumor sites included the...
I installed the first release candidate for Windows 7 this afternoon. I was pretty impressed. Install is pretty easy, setup a snap, and the operating itself seems to have the polish one expects out of product that has over a twenty year history. The biggest thing, however, is it is much more responsive when playing games than its predecessor, Windows Vista, ever had.
The UI, too, has gotten quite a rework. From the new task bar to a few new eye-candy tweaks, Windows 7 is worthy of an upgrade from Windows XP. Except on thing--why upgrade? XP works fine for me,...
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