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A letter from your editor: Changes ahead
My name is Christopher Trout, your new editor-in-chief. You may not recognize my name, but chances are you've read something I've written. When I arrived at Engadget nearly seven years ago, I was a freelancer fresh off of unemployment, our rivalry with Gizmodo was going strong and Josh Topolsky was planning an exit to start The Verge. In the coming years, I'd serve under three other editors, first as a full-time writer, then as the executive editor of our award-winning digital magazine, Distro. I've also been the managing editor of the whole damn thing, and, most recently, the main site's second-in-command. Oh, and, yes, I am that sex robot guy.
Editor's Letter: Distro, shutting down...
There are few things more heartbreaking for an editor than turning the lights off on a publication. Unfortunately, today marks the second time I've had to perform that unrewarding task. And while I plan to make good on my promise to take what we've learned here at Distro and transfer it to Engadget at large, I'm no less disheartened to have to flip the switch. When Tim Stevens asked me to take the reins of what was then referred to as Project X, I was skeptical. It was the summer of 2011, just over a year since the release of the first iPad, and tablet magazine publishing was largely an untested market. Sure, mainstream media was investing massive amounts of money in the space -- we're looking at you, Rupert -- but part of me couldn't shake the feeling that turning a blog into a magazine (digital or otherwise) was a step back, not a step forward.
Editor's Letter: Slow and steady wins the race
In each issue of Distro, Executive Editor Marc Perton publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. In this week's Distro, we take a closer look at Apple's two new iPhones, the 5c and 5s. The 5c, despite being less impressive when it comes to features and specs, may actually be the more popular of the two models. As Myriam Joire says in her review, the pastel-hued phone is "a gorgeous handset that brings a breath of fresh air to the iPhone lineup. For many people, it might even be a better choice than the iPhone 5s." That, of course, doesn't mean the 5s isn't worth considering. In her review of Apple's new flagship model, Myriam declares it the best iPhone ever made and says that Apple "took a good product and made it better through hardware upgrades, new features and completely revamped software." If you have an iPhone 5, should you upgrade? You'll have to read the full review to find out. Also in this week's Distro, we check in with audiophile and Head-fi.org founder Jude Mansilla. His favorite classic gadget? It's a tie between the Newton MessagePad and a portable CD player paired with a good set of headphones, which he says "started me on the journey that turned into Head-Fi.org."
Editor's Letter: The secret is out
In each issue of Distro, Executive Editor Marc Perton publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. This week's Distro includes our first hands-on looks at Apple's new iPhones, the 5c and 5s. And you should read them -- and check out our hands-on videos. But I'm not going to be spoiling anything by saying that we didn't find anything about the new phones very surprising. After months of speculation, leaks and rumors, Apple's iPhone event this Tuesday was something of a letdown. From the "champagne" iPhone 5s, to the phone's fingerprint reader, to the "budget" 5c series, virtually everything that was announced on Tuesday was public knowledge -- or at least well-circulated on the rumor mill -- well in advance. Unlike earlier Apple announcements, there was no "one more thing" lurking under the covers. The launch of the iPhone 5c and 5s was a by-the-numbers Apple event that could have been assembled from an Apple launch kit. Tight guest list and carefully orchestrated media buzz? Check. Black-shirted CEO? Check. Brief performance by an aging pop star? Check. Excitement and surprises? Sorry, not this time.
Editor's Letter: Summer? What summer?
In each issue of Distro, Executive Editor Marc Perton publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. In the US, Labor Day traditionally marks the end of the lazy days of summer, and the beginning of the busy fall season. While this summer was hardly quiet -- it included, you might recall, major product launches from the likes of Motorola, Google, LG, HTC and others -- the fall started with a bang, with Microsoft's surprise announcement on Labor Day that it was buying Nokia's devices and services division for $7 billion. The deal gets Microsoft a guaranteed hardware partner for Windows Phone, and quite possibly a new CEO, as the company has all but admitted that Nokia's Stephen Elop is first in line to replace outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer. It might also be considered a bargain. Just two years ago, Google paid over $12 billion for Motorola; that same year, Microsoft made another expensive telecom acquisition: it bought Skype for $8.5 billion. Before we even had time to digest Microsoft's news, Apple announced -- somewhat anticlimactically -- that it would indeed have a major event next week, where the company is expected to launch an upgraded iPhone 5, as well as a lower-end model, along with lots of new colors. Meanwhile, Amazon announced an upgraded version of the Kindle Paperwhite e-book reader, and Google's Android KitKat became the first operating system with a name licensed from a candy company. And this was all before the week's real news started rolling in from IFA.
Editor's Letter: Color commentary
In each issue of Distro, Executive Editor Marc Perton publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. There's a very good chance you're reading this on a tablet. Distro is, after all, first and foremost, a tablet magazine. There's also a reasonable chance you're reading this on a computer. Distro works on Windows 8; we have a platform-neutral PDF version; and most of what we publish in Distro also appears on Engadget. There is, however, almost no chance that you're reading this on a color e-book reader (no, not a color tablet; an e-paper reader). And that's too bad. In this week's Distro, Sean Buckley tells the story of color e-paper, a once-promising technology that simply couldn't make it in a tablet-centric world. Despite years of development work and the tantalizing promise of high-resolution, daylight-readable, low-power displays, color e-paper was rendered an also-ran once the iPad began gaining popularity and low-cost Android tablets followed suit. Major e-reader makers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo, all released their own color tablets -- at prices below their $300-plus color e-ink competitors. That strategy wasn't without its fallout; B&N eventually got out of the tablet market, and Kobo continues to struggle to gain market share in the US. But color e-book readers fared even more poorly, and color e-paper's future is now tied to other devices, such as smartwatches.
Editor's Letter: Back to school
In each issue of Distro, Executive Editor Marc Perton publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. There was a time when gearing up to go back to school meant little more than picking up a new backpack, some clothes and the latest HP calculator. Those days, of course, are long gone, and even fifth-graders can expect to start the school year with a new smartphone and laptop. In this issue of Distro, Engadget's annual back to school guide presents our latest recommendations for everything from tablets to TVs to gaming gear. And if you're a US resident over 18 (sorry fifth-graders), there's still time to enter our Back to School sweepstakes, where we're giving away tons of great gadgets, including laptops, e-readers and smartphones.
Editor's Letter: Is Hyperloop loopy, or the future of public transportation?
In each issue of Distro, Executive Editor Marc Perton publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. If you can say one thing about Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla Motors, it's that he thinks big. After making his fortune by selling his online payments company to PayPal, he's focused on creating entirely new industries, including commercial rocketry and electric cars. His latest idea, the Hyperloop, could eclipse both of those, at least in creative vision. The high-speed transportation system is basically a modern take on the pneumatic tube, and could potentially hurl travelers from Los Angeles to San Francisco at over 700 miles per hour, bridging the two cities in just about a half-hour. The cost to taxpayers: a mere $6 billion.
Editor's Letter: Will LG get lucky with the G2?
In each issue of Distro, Executive Editor Marc Perton publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. It wasn't long ago that the electronics divisions of Samsung and Lucky-Goldstar, two massive Korean conglomerates, played second fiddle to Japanese competitors like Sony and Panasonic. Today, of course, Samsung is a leading manufacturer of everything from tablets to TVs, while Sony makes most of its money by selling life insurance. The renamed LG, meanwhile, continues to battle Samsung on the international stage. In the cellphone industry, for example, LG ranks fourth, behind Apple, Nokia and market-leader Samsung. In TVs, LG ranks second, behind, yes, first-place Samsung. LG's latest salvo, fired this week, comes in the form of the G2, a flagship smartphone that left our Sarah Silbert impressed during her brief time with it. Boasting a 13-megapixel camera that can potentially hold its own against the shooters in the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4, and a range of new features like Answer Me, which lets the phone automatically connect to incoming calls when held to your ear, the G2 could be, in Sarah's words, "a compelling flagship."
Editor's Letter: Made in the USA... sort of
Motorola has been doing its best to build some buzz around the Moto X, which launched this week. As a smartphone, the X is decidedly middle-of-the-road. It boasts specs and a design similar to the Droid models Motorola announced last week. Available later this month at $199 on-contract from most major US carriers, the X's biggest claim to fame -- other than swappable backplates, including one made of wood -- is the fact that it's assembled in the US, in a 500,000-square-foot factory in Fort Worth, Texas. Yes, that's "assembled." Despite widespread reports that the X is being made in the US, most of its components, from its display to those backplates, are produced in factories around the world, and workers in Texas will assemble the phones. Does it really matter where your smartphone is made? If your main concern is domestic job creation, it might. A 2012 survey by Boston Consulting Group found that over 80 percent of Americans are willing to pay more for products that are made in the US instead of China, mainly because they want to keep jobs in the country. Interestingly, the same survey found that 60 percent of Chinese consumers would pay a premium for US-made products, apparently based on the belief that the US produces higher-quality products. When it comes to smartphones, that's an idea that's difficult to put to the test; there are none currently manufactured in the United States, and that's not about to change with the launch of the X.
Editor's Letter: The mobile megapixel wars go thermonuclear
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. Nokia has been teasing a zoomable Windows Phone smartphone for what seems like ages now, and finally it has been revealed. It's the Nokia Lumia 1020, stepping up another 100 over the 920 thanks to the addition of a 41-megapixel, backside-illuminated sensor sitting behind a six-element Zeiss lens. Video capture is 1080p and the cameraphone intriguingly offers full manual control, but it's basically a Lumia 920 beyond that, with a 4.5-inch, 1,280 x 768 display and a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor. So, naturally, the draw is that camera, and while we've seen some promising early results from stills and videos, we're obviously going to have to spend more time with the thing to see if it's worth the considerable dent it will make in your pocket. Admittedly, it's far more pocketable than Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom, but it remains to be seen whether megapixels can really sell phones. We'll find out on July 26th, when the phone will be available at AT&T for $300. %Gallery-193609%
Editor's Letter: More than a point release
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. This week is Microsoft's time to shine. Its Build conference, typically held later in the year, kicked off on Wednesday and along with it came a lot more about Windows 8.1 -- which we thought we already knew plenty about, honestly. But there was more to learn, including a new milestone for the Windows Store: 100,000 apps. Well, almost 100,000 apps. Steve Ballmer said the store was "approaching" that number and has racked up "hundreds of millions" of downloads. A bit of a far cry from Apple's 50 billion, but hey, it's early days yet. More interesting to me is the inclusion of native 3D-printing support in Windows 8.1. Good 'ol 2D printers were certainly common before the traditional driver came into standard practice, but that market didn't really take off until they effectively became plug and play. One could say it's perhaps a bit early for that kind of native support to be needed in Windows for a 3D printer, but better too soon than too late.
Editor's Letter: E3 vs. WWDC
In each issue of Distro, Editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. One major press event going on means we need to get our game faces on. Two happening simultaneously? Hoo boy, that raises the stakes. This year we had full teams on the ground in both San Francisco and Los Angeles for the dueling media extravaganzas that were E3 and WWDC. In one, we learned a lot about two incredible new gaming systems and saw dozens of fantastic new games. In the other? Two new important operating systems, one new laptop and a new desktop that even Mac haters will have to admit is quite a thing. We'll start with WWDC, since I was actually there for that one, and the biggest news of the day was the long-awaited unveiling of iOS 7. Apple reps were merciless in their ire toward the former versions' skeuomorphic tendencies, poking fun at the green velvet, the mock stitching and the faux surfaces that previously played such a big part of the iPhone and iPad experience. Now things are rather simpler -- and a bit more abstract.
Editor's Letter: Windows 8 gets its start back
In each issue of Distro, Editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. There are times when you need to stay strong, ignore the criticism and do what you know is right. Then, there are some times when the masses are right and listening is the smart thing. With Windows 8, Microsoft made many radical changes, not the least of which being the deletion of the fabled Start button. This week we got our first taste of that operating system's first major update, Windows 8.1, and it includes a number of notable upgrades and improvements. Perhaps the most notable? The return of a Start button. Well, sort of. It's now called a "Start Tip" as it isn't a proper button, but you can click on it and bring up the tiled Start Screen interface. So, the Start button is back, but not the Start menu. That's fine by me, as I don't think hidden, contextual elements make much sense in a keyboard-and-mouse environment. And the other tweaks are nice, including a far more comprehensive Settings section, a functional lock screen and, finally, the ability to adjust the size of applications that you've snapped to either side of your screen. Maybe in Windows 8.2 we'll get fully resizable windows!
Editor's Letter: One more Xbox
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. Can you believe we've had the Xbox 360 since 2005? As a child of the two- or three-year console cycle, a system still going strong after eight seems inconceivable. Finally, it's being put out to pasture -- somewhat unceremoniously. The Xbox One is its successor and, with no backwards compatibility for disc-based or downloaded games, those looking to make the leap to the next generation in the fall will already want to start weaning themselves from Microsoft's current wunderconsole. It'll make it easier for both of you when it comes time to unplug it. And you probably will want to unplug it and make the upgrade, though to be fair there's plenty to be cynical about with the Xbox One. So, I'll get that out of the way first, starting with the name. Microsoft is trying to send the message that the new Xbox is the only device you'll need to control your living room. That may be, but One? HTC, of course, called its latest flagship the One, but that was a case of a company distancing itself from previous, complicated naming schemes and going with something simpler. Here, there have been only two previous generations of the Xbox. Calling the third one the "One" is simply confusing. Still, it beats "Xbox Foo," which is what Microsoft's initial press release mentioned. Someone, it seems, got the memo on the official name a little too late.
Editor's Letter: 3D printing grows up
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. Another week with Google Glass and, as I grow more accustomed to having it in my life, I find myself struggling more and more to come up with reasons to wear the thing. I'm still very happy to stop on the street and give people a demo, but if I'm being honest, I don't need that much attention from strangers in my life. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very excited about the potential here, but it's safe to say the novelty is running out. Still, this week Glass did get a nice improvement. The XE5 update was released late Tuesday night and shipped with a series of small but important niceties, like notifications from Google+ and the ability to do a search from anywhere in the UI. Unfortunately, this update also changes things such that uploads will only occur from the headset when it's plugged in and on WiFi. That'll help battery life -- at a somewhat unfortunate cost to wireless functionality.
Editor's Letter: Welcome to May
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. A bit of a lull this week ahead of what is shaping up to be an insane May -- and perhaps an even crazier June. We have events stacked three-deep at times, with industry ones like Google I/O, BlackBerry World, CTIA and SID Display Week looming along with private ones like Microsoft's next-generation Xbox unveiling. Next month? WWDC and the Electronic Entertainment Expo, just to name a few. Giddyup. This week, we got what should be the final dredges of first-quarter earnings, with Facebook reporting $1.46 billion in revenue. That's a 38 percent increase over this quarter last year and a healthy $312 million in profit. Daily active users are also up, from 526 million to 665 million and, perhaps most importantly, Facebook managed to increase the performance of its mobile ads. That will be the key to its long-term success.
Editor's Letter: The new consoles are coming
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. This week I'm writing from a special place: from the perspective of a Google Glass owner. Well, to be honest I'm not wearing them this exact moment -- I'm actually at 30,000 feet, making the most of a Gogo connection, and when your phone is in airplane mode there's not much point in wearing the headset. Unless, of course, you're looking for a conversation starter. In that role, the headset performs impeccably even when turned completely off. It's been an interesting couple days wearing the headset around, days I'll continue to chronicle on the site because I know many of you are eager to know what Glass is like. I know this because I've had dozens of strangers come up to me and ask, "What's it like?" Suffice to say, Glass is very interesting and the potential is compelling, but right now the thing is somewhat frustrating in its limited functionality. That'll change real soon as more developers get to grips with the Mirror API.
Editor's Letter: Google glass gone wild
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. It seems like ages since Sergey Brin staged one of the most dramatic product launches of all time at last year's Google I/O, guiding a bemused audience through a cavalcade of extreme antics that saw a prototype Google Glass headset delivered to the Moscone Center courtesy of skydivers, BMX riders and mountain climbers. This week, the very first Explorer Editions of Google Glass shipped to lucky recipients through rather more pedestrian means: UPS. Still, those deliveries were received with no less excitement. These early units are shipping out in waves, with many of the I/O pre-orderers (including this eager editor) left waiting and watching unboxing videos with envy. The first videos of the early editions in action started hitting YouTube en masse, something we're sure will become increasingly commonplace through the spring. We also finally got the full specs for the thing, including 802.11b/g and Bluetooth connectivity, 16GB of internal storage and a 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p video recording.
Editor's Letter: The fiber fight for Austin's future
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news. There comes a time in every modern geek's life when they seriously consider moving to Kansas City, simply to gain access to the wonder that is Google Fiber. This week, would-be bandwidth pilgrims gained another potential destination: Austin, Texas. Yes, the increasingly trendy SXSW locale has officially signed on with Google to start rolling out the connectivity in 2014. Sadly, we're told to not expect much in the way of access until the summer of next year, which seems like ages, but that should give you plenty of time to save up for a down payment. Austin housing rates are soaring of late. Not wanting to be left out of the party, AT&T promptly announced its own initiative to bring high-speed fiber connectivity to Austin just hours after Google. Ma Bell is promising 1 Gbps speeds and the same sort of accessibility and contracts as Google's service, thus creating a very interesting battleground for high-speed connectivity. It's the sort of fiber-optic gluttony that we'd all like to indulge in some day, and if Google can keep pushing AT&T like this, perhaps some day we actually will.
