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PC Magazine names 13-inch MacBook Pro Editor's Choice
PC Magazine has singled out the new MacBook Pro 13 inch Retina display laptop as its Editors' Choice for a high-end ultraportable laptop. The review states that "if you absolutely must have a display with greater than HD resolution and you need to take that show on the road, you want this laptop." Even with the high praise the magazine notes the laptop is pricey and requires Retina-optimized apps for the best user experience. The US$1699.00 (starting price) MacBook Pro sports more than 4 million pixels, flash-based storage and a weight of 3.57 pounds it is a lust-worthy laptop. For I/O, the new model has two Thunderbolt ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and an HDMI output so you can display your work on an HDTV. It does lack an optical drive, and Apple is pretty much eliminating these drives from all new hardware. The company does offer a $79.00 external SuperDrive for those who don't want to be without one.
The unofficial user guide to the Media Center TV Pack
It's been almost two months since we got our hands on the Media Center TV Pack (aka Fiji) and although CEDIA has come and gone, we haven't really seen much fanfare from Microsoft touting the new update for Media Center -- we haven't even seen as much as a change log or feature list. The good news is that when big companies fail to spell out what's new in an update, usually someone in the community steps up and fills in the gaps. This time around it's PC Mag, which has really done a great job of not only spelling out most of the new features, but the bugs as well. So instead of holding your breath waiting on big blue to clue you in if this update is worth all the fuss, head on over and give it a read.
PC Mag gives iPod Touch an Editor's Choice
PC Magazine has given the iPod Touch a 5/5 score and their Editor's Choice award. High praise even from a definitely non-Apple source. Tom Gideon calls it "a thing of beauty," and says it's the best iPod ever. Well, no duh.He does say a major drawback is that the WiFi store doesn't contain movies, but that's just a matter of time, isn't it? Otherwise, he says the store works great, and will allow for plenty of spur-of-the-moment music purchasing (which surely Apple will love). Gideon even spends quite a bit of time on what I really think is one of the most important features of the iPod Touch-- the Starbucks integration. Every time you pass a Starbucks, an icon shows up in the dock of the iPod Touch's iTunes WiFi screen, and that is huge. Advertisers with even a little bit of forward-looking ability are probably fainting at the thought of what they can do with what.Strangely enough, Gideon doesn't mention the one problem I have with an iPod Touch, and the reason I'm sticking with my video iPod: the memory. 8 and 16gb are just embarrassing for a serious music player, whether the interface is amazing or not. For Gideon and other folks with only 16gb of music, obviously it's not a problem. But for us music lovers, who want to carry around our entire collection in our pockets, the current Touch doesn't cut it. Better to stick with a classic and leave the awesome interface for the iPhone.
PC Mag VIP posts switcher tips
There are switchers, and then there are Switchers. Robyn Peterson, executive product director/executive producer at Ziff Davis, is a capital-S-Switcher; when the guy who's responsible for PCMag.com jumps the tracks to a Mac, there's a serious movement afoot.Peterson has his rationale for the switch and a list of five tips for switchers ("Where's the Start menu?!?") posted over yonder. Just one more indication that the Intel migration, though challenging and sometimes painful, is paying dividends in market share for Apple.[via MacNN]
DS Lite vs. PSP: who has the best picture quality?
In the third part of their Picture Quality Shoot-Out series, PC Magazine, along with DisplayMate Technologies' Dr. Raymond Soneira, put Nintendo and Sony's handhelds under the magnifying glass to try and discern which had the superior picture quality. Given that most folks are happy with whatever choice they made for handheld gaming (or both if they're pretty hardcore), picture quality superiority isn't all that important in defining a console's overall worth. However, having the word "fanboy" in our title means we need to comment on the report and you fine readers undoubtedly need to comment (we welcome the comments!).Surprisingly, the picture quality on each device is close to equal. The PSP has a better DPI (dots per square inch) coming in at 130, with the DS Lite trailing at 110. However, the brightness on the DS beats out the PSP, even when plugged in to an AC outlet, by featuring a 200 cd/m² brightness (compared to the highest possible on the PSP being 148 cd/m² and 115 cd/m² when unplugged. Finally, the article points out that the DS is leagues better at handling colors than the PSP, with the largest color gamut of handheld devices at 74%, compared to the PSP's 54%.According to the report, the PSP wins with a score of B+ compared to the DS Lite's B. Still, the margins of victory are fairly small on each aspect tested, so the technical superiority of either platform is easily argued. [Via PSP Fanboy]
DS versus PSP: the battle for the best LCD
PC Magazine got a "display expert" from DisplayMate Technology to evaluate the screen performance of the DS Lite and the PSP. To a casual observer, both have stunning displays. But how do they fare when they're analyzed by the same methods used on high-end HDTVs? The report is incredibly thorough, so I'll just give you some key highlights:
