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Daily Update for June 15, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Distro Issue 44 is here and it's time to get fit!
Here in the states, it's just about time to start hitting the beach, and despite what you might have heard, not all of us here at Engadget are perpetually bikini-ready. In this week's issue of Distro, we'll follow our own Daniel Cooper on an eight-week quest to slim down before his summertime nuptials. In "Fitter, Happier" Daniel puts a series of fitness gadgets to the test to find out if machines really can make you a healthier, skinnier and, ultimately, happier human being. We'll also bring you the best of Computex 2012, a look at gaming's big three at E3 and give you our impressions of Microsoft's latest Windows 8 preview, Lenovo's ThinkPad X230 and Sony's NEX-F3. Rounding things out, we'll take a closer look at some of the biggest names in fit tech with "Eyes-On" and jog your memory with an early ancestor to the MP3 player in "Time Machines." So hit the appropriate link below and get to downloading. Distro Issue 44 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (For sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
HyperPDF for OS X offers page-turning reader for PDF books
Why should iBooks have all the fun? The US$9.99 HyperPDF app for OS X from developer NeoMobili lets you turn PDF pages nearly as beautifully. Use swipe gestures to move through pages in the app's easily accessible "reader mode." That's not all you can do with HyperPDF. The app offers many of the same annotation features as Preview as well as a presentation mode (although you cannot as-of-yet combine PDFs or move around pages). In presentations, you can transform your PDFs into slides, using numerous built-in transitions to move from one screen to the next. I gave the features a once-over and they all seemed to work as advertised. It's the reader mode here, however, that's the visual stand-out. The page turns offer a really nice way to browse books on your Mac. I was less impressed by the tedium involved in the presentation mode. Perhaps I missed the point, but adding separate transitions for each page left me cold. Instead, I'd really like to see the app grow and focus more on the reader component. It needs to offer more built-in options as part of the reading presentation, rather than separating out the annotation aspect. For example, I'd love to be able to add bookmarks, highlights, and other annotations from within the reader. Also, I wish search were integrated directly, as that's a big part of how I work with books on my Mac. And, unfortunately, you cannot highlight or copy text from that view. Put these together into a coherent single UI, and NeoMobili might have a winner on its hands. HyperPDF shows great promise but as it stands, it lacks a little maturity that end-users might expect from a $10 App Store app, especially when compared to iBooks on iOS. I like the reading presentation a lot but I was left wishing for more. The app developer tells me that he plans to port the app to iOS and to offer shared iCloud syncing between platforms. Other things on his to-do list include: "a find feature, outline and link support in reading mode, bookmarks support (with iCloud synch), zoom in reading mode, and notes in reading mode." Thanks, Chris Roy
The Daily Grind: What game have you judged without playing it?
Okay, let's face it, there are a lot of MMOs out these days. And MMOs aren't like single-player games, where you can jump in and play for a few hours to get a decent idea of the gameplay. No, to really get an idea of what an MMO is like you need to sit down and play for quite some time, get a feel for the community, chat with other players... It's a long road, and no one can walk it for every game. So we wind up judging games out of hand. We form an opinion about games that we've never played based on screenshots and snippets of reviews. We decide that Aion is a grindfest, Second Life is a nightmarish adult playground, Age of Conan is a bug-filled exercise in silliness, and Wizard101 is exclusively for children below age 10. But there's more to these games. Each one of these games has a lot more going on than that simple and short description -- a description that may not even be accurate now, if it ever was true. So what about you? What game have you formed an opinion on without any play time, either now or in the past? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Google+ Local sees reviews from friends, Zagat invade your restaurant hunts (video)
We'd been wondering what Google would do following its acquisition of Zagat, and now we know: it's part of Google+ Local, a boost to Maps, general search, and Google+ itself. Zagat's point system now automatically shows up in search results for restaurants that have been given the extra scrutiny. Those of us who don't trust The Man for reviews will also now see Google+ friends' picks surface at the same time. The addition is considered important enough that Google is even adding a Local tab on Google+ just to show recommendations, so you won't have to abandon your constant updating (you're always posting on Google+, right?) to find a well-rated sushi place. Local should be live soon, if not now, and will make search plus Your World that much more omnipresent.
Distro Issue 41: a visit to the Lowcountry's Twelve South, TiVo Premiere XL4 and HTC EVO 4G LTE
It's the most wonderful time of the week once again, pals. Like most seven-day periods, this one comes to a close with the latest issue of our e-magazine for your gadget reading pleasure. Front and center this time around, our own Darren Murph pays a visit to the South Carolina HQ of accessory maker Twelve South to chat about making a big splash while staying small. On the review side of things, we take a gander at the TiVo Premiere XL4 and the HTC EVO 4G LTE to see how they stack up and we go hands-on with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Sounder's iOS app. Reaction Time makes an appearance too -- taking a long look at Max Payne 3 while listing this week's must-have game releases. The usual suspects fall in line as well, as you might expect. Switched On discusses RIM and Nokia, IRL sneaks a look in at our gear collections, former Doctor Who script editor Christopher H. Bidmead pauses for the Q&A and Dustin Harbin has the Last Word on what killed dinosaurs. Go ahead. Grab the device of your choice and hit the appropriate download link to grab a copy of this week's e-publication. Distro Issue 41 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (For sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
CTIA Wireless 2012 wrap-up
Oh, how we will miss New Orleans. It's been a long and busy week in the Big Easy as tens of thousands of calories were sacrificed in the name of bringing you the most comprehensive coverage of CTIA's annual spring show. Not that we mind -- we love doing it, and it's easy justification for the dozens of beignets we downed during our stay. The event was a tad on the quiet side this year (no companies announced any buyouts, for starters) we still kept ourselves more than adequately busy sticking our noses in every nook and cranny of the show floor. After the break, feast upon our entire scope of coverage, in case you missed it the first time around.
Distro Issue 40: the battle for smartphone dominance continues and we go hands-on at CTIA 2012
Having trouble with the barrage of smartphone news in recent weeks? Don't worry, we've got you covered in this Friday's edition of our e-publication. The focus this week is the on-going quest for the ultimate smartphone champion. In our search, we take a look at the recently outted Samsung Galaxy S III while putting both the AT&T HTC One X and the Sprint Galaxy Nexus through their paces. While he's a fan of their thin frames, Darren Murph demands better battery life in new laptops and his editorial offers some thoughts on the matter. Our hands-on section is all CTIA this week, as we look back at a handful of gadgets that caught our eye. Smartphone reviews just not doing the trick this week? Well, we take the Jawbone Big Jambox for a spin in this week's issue as well. Yes, all the regulars are here -- including Reaction Time with a word on The Avengers and Call of Duty. Stat takes a look at phone profits, Switched On tackles smartplayers, IRL takes another peek in our backpacks, Square's CTO Bob Lee gets cozy with the Q&A and Dustin Harbin offers the Last Word on excessive texters. So, grab a seat in your favorite reading chair and hit the download link of your choice to get your copy of our tablet mag. Distro Issue 40 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (For sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 review round-up: 'just get here if you can'
While the world still waits for the GTX 680 to reach Newegg, NVIDIA has pushed ahead with the next card down in its stack: the $399 GTX 670. This more affordable option keeps most of the main Kepler credentials intact, but it necessarily makes a few compromises on the computational side, with fewer processing cores (1344 instead of 1536) and texture units (112 instead of 128) as well as slower base clock speed (915MHz instead of 1006MHz). Is that likely to be a problem? Judging from reviewers' responses published today, which cover cards from a range of vendors, probably not. In fact, as TechSpot puts it, "there's very little to critique," because the GTX 670 matches the performance of AMD's flagship Radeon HD 7970 at a much lower price. AnandTech's benchmarks put the reference board only ten percent (or a handful of fps) behind the GTX 680 in many recent games, leaving it "nipping at the 7970's heels," but it was still plenty powerful enough to play Arkham City or Battlefield 3 at 5760 x 1200 with high settings. PCPer's stats put the new card 15 to 20 percent behind the 680, but found good scaling in SLI mode. The Tech Report found the the GTX 670's cheap stock cooler let it down slightly, with a "friction-filled" idle noise well above the top-end Radeons and even above the dual-GPU GTX 690 -- but under load it conducted itself relatively well. We could go on, but ultimately if you're looking to buy this card then you'll want to do your own research at the links below, and then do a raindance. Read - TechSpot Read - AnandTech Read - The Tech Report Read - PC Per Read - HotHardware Read - Tom's Hardware Read - Hexus
Nikon D800 review roundup: significant upgrades to an already top-notch DSLR
Three years is quite a long time for any one gadget to complete its product cycle -- even a high-end DSLR. The D700 remained on its flagship DSLR perch since its launch in the summer of 2008, all the way through Nikon's D800 announcement earlier this year. During that tenure, the full-frame camera became the primary workhorse for a bounty of photography pros, and it appears safe to confirm that its successor is up to the same task. The 36.3-megapixel D800 has completed its labs tour, leaving reviewers with positive impressions across the board. As always, DPReview offers some of the most comprehensive analysis on the web, and highlights several advantages over the D800's competitor, the Canon 5D Mark III, including a higher megapixel count (36MP vs. 22MP) and a significantly lower price tag ($3,000 vs. $3,500). CNET struggles to identify cons, and praises the cam for its "stellar photos, excellent videos, speedy performance, and a relatively streamlined shooting design." Ken Rockwell brings a D800E into the reviews mix, concluding that the low-pass-filter-less flavor isn't the best fit for everyone. Finally, newcomer The Photo Brigade put the camera in the hands of Preston Mack, a professional on assignment who used the DSLR to capture a GigaPan photo for MLB.com and offered this takeaway: "I am very happy with the Nikon D800 camera. It is an amazing value." Overall, seems like quite a hit -- you'll find links to all of the above reviews just past the break.
Distro Issue 39 takes a look back at 40 years of Atari and the console's cultural impact
If you're in the market for some weekend reading, we've got quite the issue of our weekly tablet mag in the hopper. James Trew takes a look back at 40 years of cultural impact at the hands of Atari in this installment's feature. It doesn't matter to Darren Murph that Apple isn't making an iPad / MacBook Air hybrid, he still wants one and he tells why. Keeping with the gaming theme, Ludwig Kietzmann asks if Trials Evolution is the perfect game in this week's Reaction Time. The hands-on section pays a visit to BlackBerry World while spending some time with Spotify's iPad app and Microsoft's new SkyDrive software offerings. On the reviews side of things, we put the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, Acer Iconia Tab A510 and a duo of throwback mirrorless cameras through the wringer. Speaking of e-readers, Switched On offers some thoughts on the matter and IRL lets you in on three more of our go-to gadgets. If that's not enough, Stat shows how Android slates are feeling the Kindle Fire's heat, The Next Web's Martin Bryant has a go at the Q&A and Box Brown has the Last Word on a hero's required pixel density. Ready to feed that retro gaming appetite? Visit your link of choice below to grab a copy of the weekly to get started. Distro Issue 39 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (For sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Distro Issue 38: a peek at the Navy's Robotics Laboratory and an interview with MSI's Jeans Huang
Ah, yes. The end of the week is upon us. Of course, this means that the latest installment of our tablet publication has arrived. Stepping up to the plate this time around, Brian Heater takes a look inside LASR, the Navy's Robotics Lab, and Richard Lai chats with MSI co-founder Jeans Huang. After a strong debut last week, Ludwig Kietzmann is back with Reaction Time and his take on Journey. Our brand spankin' new hands-on section looks back at Spotify's Android preview, Alexandre Herchovitch's HP Pavilion DM1, MIT's Arduino-powered DrumTop and Google Drive. We spend some quality time with the T-Mobile HTC One S, LG Viper, ASUS TF300 and MSI GT70 while Switched On tackles Kickstarter project funding. Looking for something more? IRL reveals our personal gadget stash, the Stat takes a look at tech jobs, Tapbots co-creator Mark Jardine handles the Q&A and Box Brown offers the Last Word on Facebook's recent purchase. Go ahead and hit your favorite link below to snag your copy of this week's e-magazine. Distro Issue 38 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (For sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Distro Issue 37 chats with Microsoft's Bill Buxton on the future of the natural UI
Chin up, friends. The week is coming to a close and a fresh issue of our tablet mag is hot off the e-presses. Front and center this week, Microsoft's Bill Buxton discusses the future of the Natural UI. We also feature the start of Reaction Time, a regular column from Joystiq's Editor-in-chief Ludwig Kietzmann. Here, he'll tackle the current state of gaming from week to week. Also new this time around, a look back at the hands-on opps that we've had over the past seven days and Switched On continues its look at smartphone growth. The HTC One V, Titan II and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) get put through their paces while Darren Murph offers some thoughts on Facebook's role as a digital scrapbook. IRL offers a regular peek into our gear habits, the Stat breaks down screen resolution, DigitalRev's Kai Man Wong runs through the Q&A gauntlet and Box Brown has the Last Word on Angry Birds Space. So what are you waiting for? Head on down to the link of your choice to begin your download. Distro Issue 37 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (For sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Researchers out faux product review groups with a lot of math and some help from Google
Ever consulted a crowdsourced review for a product or service before committing your hard-earned funds to the cause? Have you wondered how legit the opinions you read really are? Well, it seems that help is on the way to uncover paid opinion spamming and KIRF reviews. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have released detailed calculations in the report Spotting Fake Reviewer Groups in Consumer Reviews -- an effort aided by a Google Faculty Research Award. Exactly how does this work, you ask? Using the GSRank (Group Spam Rank) algorithm, behaviors of both individuals and a group as a whole are used to gather data on the suspected spammers. Factors such as content similarity, reviewing products early (to be most effective), ratio of the group size to total reviewers and the number of products the group has been in cahoots on are a few bits of data that go into the analysis. The report states, "Experimental results showed that GSRank significantly outperformed the state-of-the-art supervised classification, regression, and learning to rank algorithms." Here's to hoping this research gets wrapped into a nice software application, but for now, review mods may want to brush up on their advanced math skills. If you're curious about the full explanation, hit the source link for the full-text PDF.
Ivy Bridge-packing HP EliteBook gets reviewed, scores well in early tests
Hear that? That, friends, is the sound of someone in Intel's PR department banging his head against a desk. Though we've read more than a few rumors about the company's forthcoming Ivy Bridge chips, Intel has yet to fully detail the new platform, and has controlled the flow of information so tightly that laptop makers won't even use the words Ivy Bridge when talking about upcoming systems. (It's always "next-generation Intel Core processors," but we digress.) So it's a pleasant surprise, then, to see a review of an Ivy Bridge system before Intel even makes its official announcement. Laptop Reviews has apparently been testing a yet-to-be-announced HP EliteBook 8470p with an unspecified Core i7 processor, integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics, 8GB of RAM and an Intel 320 solid-state drive. Though the testing team doesn't have much to say about battery life, the raw performance scores are quite impressive, surpassing those belonging to heavy hitters like the HP Envy 17 and Lenovo ThinkPad W520 workstation. Then again, Laptop Reviews is quick to admit that that SSD may have helped boost scores beyond what you'd see in an Ivy Bridge system with a good old-fashioned hard drive. On the graphics side, too, the spankin' new HD 4000 provides a nice (read: several-thousand-point) boost over systems running HD 3000, though we'll have to wait a little longer for real-world gaming tests, it seems. That's the abridged version, but we encourage you to hit up the source link for some more detailed remarks, along with comparisons to other systems.
Distro Issue 36 lands with The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, the New York International Auto Show, Ultrabooks and Nikon's D4
Buckle up, folks. The latest installment of our weekly e-publication is chock full of awesome. First, we caught up with The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne to chat about the role of tech in their music and, more specifically, the group's upcoming album. In case you were napping, we take another look at what the New York International Auto Show had to offer this year and what Google needs to do to keep it weird. For your gadget fix, we put the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 and 15-inch Samsung Series 9 Ultrabooks as well as the Nikon D4 through the wringer. To top that all off, Snap Analysis looks at Facebook's purchase of Instagram, the Stat counts Android flavors, Crackberry founder Kevin Michaluk tackles the Q&A and Box Brown has the Last Word. An e-copy of your very own is a few clicks away, as your download link awaits below.Distro Issue 36 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
Distro Issue 35 gets smart with the Smartphone Buyers Guide, HTC's army of Ones and Nokia's Lumia 900
Just last week, Nielsen announced that smartphones now account for almost half of US mobile ringers. As such, we thought it only fitting to dedicate this, the 35th issue of our fine weekly, to those intelligent pocket dwellers. In it, we'll bring you our top handset picks from the big four and beyond, with the Spring 2012 edition of our Smartphone Buyers Guide, as well as our in-depth impressions of the HTC One S, One X and Sense 4 UI and Nokia's Lumia 900. Also in this issue, a look back at the history of the smartphone in this week's Stat, a Q&A with Jared Polin of FroKnowsPhoto and the comic stylings of Dustin Harbin for the Last Word. So hit the appropriate link below and enjoy!Distro Issue 35 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
Distro Issue 34 takes a 'Shot in the Dark' with Canon's 5D Mark III
If you were lucky enough to grab a 5D Mark III when they hit shelves last week, you know how well the slick shooter performs with the lights down low. If you're still pondering plunking down $3,500 for the DSLR, on the other hand, you can check out the camera's night moves in this issue of Distro. And if you're looking for even more of our expert opinions, we have reviews of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.7 for Verizon, a 14-inch Series 5 Ultrabook, a pre-production Galaxy Note 10.1 and SYNC by 50 Wireless Headphones. We'll also grill Mutemath's Darren King and give you an Angry Bird's-eye view of the smartphone market in this week's Switched On. So grab your device of choice and hit the appropriate download link below.Distro Issue 34 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
Canon EOS 5D Mark III field review
Shoot in the dark. That's essentially what you can do with the Canon 5D Mark III -- with a top sensitivity of ISO 102,400, what was once unfathomable could soon become an acceptable standard. While point-and-shoot manufacturers are adding WiFi and GPS, and tweaking algorithms in an effort to boost sensitivity beyond the 6400 mark, Canon and Nikon are making clear cases for a DSLR upgrade, by drastically improving image quality. The 5D Mark II had an excellent three-year run, but with its 22.3-megapixel sensor, 1.04M-dot 3.2-inch LCD, improved autofocus and high-performance video capabilities, Canon's latest full-frame DSLR is an entirely different beast, and a very compelling successor. We spent two glorious weeks with a pre-production 5D Mark III before reluctantly shipping it back to Canon. The biggest benefit (for us, at least) has been high-ISO shooting. While the former 5D could theoretically handle ISO 25,600 captures as well, its native range topped out at 6400 -- venturing beyond that territory meant taking a hit on image quality, making it a seldom-used feature that benefited the camera's spec sheet far more than our low-light snap collection. With this latest iteration, we were able to capture sharp images in environments where there was far too little light to make out details with the naked eye, just as we have with the larger (and pricier) Nikon D3S. Our resulting scenes look like they were lit with sophisticated rigs, or in an environment that allotted far more natural light than was actually available. Low-light shooting is but one benefit of the Mark III, however, so join us past the break for a closer look in our field review.
Third generation iPad reviews hit the Internet
March 16 is the day the iPad will go on sale and if you are like us here at TUAW, you can't wait for Friday to arrive. To help pass the time, you can check out all the new reviews from our fellow journalists who got an early look at Apple's tablet device. Follow the links below and see what these reviewers have to say about the new iPad: Jason Snell of Macworld: "It's the iPad that millions of people have embraced, only one year better." Jim Dalrymple of The Loop: "So, what did I like about the iPad? Simple - the experience. Nobody in the market today can touch the Apple experience." John Gruber of Daring Fireball: " The iPad display is so good that it shows, like no device before it, just how crummy most images on the web are." MG Siegler of TechCrunch: "Let me be clear: the new iPad is a huge technological leap forward. It has by far the best screen I've ever seen anywhere and it's something I can hold in my hand and touch and use for 10 hours at a time." David Pogue of The New York Times: "There's no Steve Jobs "one more thing" moment here; Apple just took its white-hot iPad and added the latest screen, battery and cellular technologies." Edward C. Baig of USA Today: "But then you have a look at what Apple calls the "retina display" on the new iPad, technology first applied to recent iPhones, and you're blown away." Clayton Morris of Fox News: "But having used the new iPad for the past week now, I can tell you it's a giant leap for connected mankind." Joshua Topolsky for the Washington Post: "In all, the new iPad is in a class by itself. As the latest product in a lineage of devices that defined this category, the iPad continues to stand head and shoulders above the competition." Rich Jaroslovsky of Bloomberg News: "Yet once again, Apple has -- with a minimum of effort -- lapped the field." Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal: "There is another dimension to speed: the overall responsiveness of the device. The new iPad is just as buttery smooth to use as the iPad 2." Joshua Topolsky of The Verge: "It's everything the previous generation was, and then some. Stable, reliable, speedy, and long-lived. What more can you ask for?" Shane Richmond of The Telegraph: "It's hard to overstate the significance of the new screen. Apple has packed four times as many pixels into the same space and the improvement has to be seen to be believed." David Phelan of PocketLint: "This year, it's all about the screen. Sure, the third-generation iPad has lots of other improvements but it's the brilliance of the display which leaps out at you as soon as you wake the screen." Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear: "Apple doesn't need another revolution, it has already started one, and the new iPad brings a fresh degree of refinement to a segment in which it is undoubtedly the king." When you are done reading, head on back to TUAW and let us know what you think.
