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First "official" reviews of the iPhone are out
Sure, there's been a lot of speculation and discussion about the iPhone, its features and its usability in the mainstream and online press. We might even be guilty of a little speculation here at TUAW, too. I know, try to contain your surprise. Fortunately, speculation time is coming quickly to an end as release day approaches and we get real announcements of data plans and other details. In addition to all the "official" announcements, we've got some actual reviews of the device hitting the wires this evening.Some of the lauded Apple pundits dropping reviews today are Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret of the Wall Street Journal, who call the iPhone "a breakthrough handheld computer," and New York Times columnist David Pogue, who says the iPhone "matches most of its hype." To be sure, I expected these rather notable Apple fans to express positive reviews about the device. Still, it's good to see actual reviews in print which confirm what I, and many others, hoped the device would be. Reading these reviews, I'm even more convinced I want an iPhone on Friday. Of course, if I really want one, I probably should get in line now -- especially if more reviews like these come out.What about you, the highly intelligent and discerning TUAW reader? Do these reviews give you any more reason to get an iPhone, or do they make no difference at this point?Thanks Scott
Bill Gates on the future of computer interaction
In a very rare joint interview with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on stage at last week's D 2007, Microsoft founder Bill Gates told hosts Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher, both of the Wallstreet Journal, of his vision for the future of interaction with technology, and therefore gaming, and inadvertently used the Nintendo Wii as a stepping stone."Imagine a game machine where you can just pick up a bat and swing it or the tennis racket," said Gates, to which Mossberg noted that one exists, referencing Wii Sports."No, no, that's not it," said Gates, "you can't pick up your tennis racket and swing it, ['Oh, I see what you mean,' said Mossberg] you can't sit there with your friends and do those natural things. That's a 3D positional device, this is video recognition, this is a camera seeing what's going on ... the camera will be ubiquitous."
Mossberg reviews Samsung Q1 Ultra: "finally an acceptable choice"
Walt Mossberg didn't pull any punches when he reviewed the first Samsung UMPC, calling the out the Q1 for its lack of a keyboard, low screen resolution, short battery life, and high price. Well, Samsung apparently took those criticisms to heart, because ol' Unkie Walt says that the Q1 Ultra is "a giant improvement" and shows that "Samsung is serious about this." Mossberg also says that while the split thumbpad keyboard takes some getting used to, it's perfectly usable, although you won't be cranking out any Word docs on it. Battery life, at three hours, still doesn't impress Walt, and price is still an issue, but overall, he says the Q1 Ultra is a good choice for students, frequent travelers, and other people who don't do a lot of document creation but still want to take notes and write email on the go. That's a huge endorsement for the UMPC platform if you ask us, but we'll have to see what consumers think this time around.
Mossberg reviews Apple TV: "simple and elegant"
Only Walt Mossberg's clout can muster up an Apple TV 10 days prior to its launch. So naturally, he and WSJ colleague Katherine Boehret were first-up with a review on Apple's initial living room sally. Their take? Well, they call the "beautifully designed, easy-to-use" Apple TV "classic Apple: simple and elegant." They tested on three Macs and three PCs (yes, running Vista too) running iTunes and successfully streamed data without stuttering over both 802.11n (as you'd hope) and even 802.11g WiFi. Oh sure, there were limitations: for example, you can't control the volume with Apple's remote and only trailers and "previews" of iTunes Store content can be streamed directly from the Apple TV interface. Although Walt expects the latter to change via a "software update" to give users the ability to stream or download a variety of content (like Google Video?) direct from the Internet. Oh, and what about that USB port on the back; that's for slinging additional disk capacity right? Nope, it's apparently only for service and diagnostics. Shame. Still, the Apple TV "worked great" for moving media off the home PC and onto the big (television) screen. As such, Walt and Co "can easily recommend it for people who are yearning for a simple way to show on their big TVs all that stuff trapped on their computers." Update: The Walt and "Katie" video review is now available after the break.[Via MacRumors]
Mossberg harshes on Comcast's DVR (and says something or other about TiVo Series3)
Mossy has a pleasant little rant today about one of our biggest pet peeves here at Engadget: namely, how totally crap the DVRs offered by cable companies are, especially when compared with the new TiVo Series3. He focuses primarly on Comcast's abomination of a box, the Motorola DCT3412 (pictured above), but we can tell you that the garbage you get from Time Warner Cable isn't any better. Mossberg nails the dilemma facing every gadgethead who wants a DVR that can handle HD cable: you can either overpay for an elegant solution or cough up a few bucks a month for a frustrating, awful solution. The smart thing would be for the cable companies to license TiVo's technology, which would allow them to charge a little bit more for a premium experience, but still way less than the total cost of ownership of a TiVo Series3. That's supposedly what Comcast is doing (we're still waiting to see the first fruits of their partnership), but in the meantime we're keeping an eye out for the first CableCARD-ready Vista Media Center PCs. Nah, they won't be as cheap as a Series3 (at least initially), but at least you get a full-fledged PC for your money -- and there isn't a silly monthly service charge for program listings.
Wall Street Journal's Mossberg picks Wii over PS3 [update 1]
Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg (pictured) is possibly the most influential technology writer in the country. So when Mossberg compares the Wii and the PS3 by saying Nintendo's system is "the more exciting, fun and satisfying of the two new game machines," it shouldn't be taken lightly.Mossberg and a group of four 20-something volunteer testers were duly impressed with the PS3's graphics and multimedia functions, but no so much so that they thought it was worth the extra price over the Xbox 360. The testers were much more excited about the Wii's motion-sensitive controls and the way they made games easier to get into. One of the female testers, a college athlete and non-gamer, said the Wii was the first time she ever felt successful playing a video game.Mossberg's reputation doesn't mean he's infallible -- the column erroneously suggests gamers will need to spend $100 on HDMI cables for the PS3 and that a classic controller is required for all Wii classic downloads. Outside of the factual errors, though, the opinions expressed by Mossberg and his testers might be more than a little worrying to Sony and its supporters.[Update: Changed Read link below to a version that requires no registration. Thanks Clay.]
Mossberg rules out 1080p as "an important factor" in HDTV buying
Walter Mossberg has taken questions and given answers on everything from scratch-prone iPod nanos to toilet seats, and now he's on the hot seat taking fire from prospective HDTV buyers. Other than touting his recently purchased Pioneer Elite PRO-1140HD plasma as being his display of choice, he tackled a nagging issue concerning 1080p (or the lack thereof). He opens by stating that 1080p "isn't an important factor at all," claiming that television networks will not embrace the format "anytime soon," and that the average joe can't tell the difference between the already-stunning 1080i and 1080p in the first place. He reiterated that only "techies, hardcore gamers, and videophiles" should even take 1080p into consideration (unless you're using the monitor primarily on your PC, of course), and shouldn't postpone that impending HDTV purchase another day waiting for 1080p-capable sets to fall in price. He also mentions that while built-in OTA tuners are certainly a boon for users inclined to setup an antenna and receive such programming, acquiring most other non-network HD feeds will require a subscription to a cable / satellite provider anyway, thus potentially diminishing its importance in your purchase. Regardless, buying an HDTV can certainly be a daunting task, but in the end, Mossberg insinuates that you shouldn't underestimate your own two eyes in discovering which set will please you most.[Via digg]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part IX - Gates watches pirated videos
We fell hard so in love with all these wonderful execu-quotes, we're giving them a series here on Engadget, ala Keepin' it real fake, etc. We doubt there's nary a person in our millions-large audience who hasn't occasionally partaken in a copyright-infringing YouTube clip (must we mention Lazy Sunday?), or a even a bad no-no Torrented film; we certainly couldn't dodge the accusation ourselves. But you've kind of got to hand it to the world's richest man -- someone known for his fine-tipped views on intellectual property and piracy -- admitting to, then backing out of, then copping to watching pirated video content. Peep this tidbit from Mr. Gates to Mossberg and Kara Swisher in a recent WSJ interview:Mossberg: Talk about YouTube. What do you think about that? Why aren't you doing something like that?Gates: If we did YouTube, we'd be in a lot of trouble. First of all, people would say, "How do you make money?" Second, they'd say, what about all that copyright violation taking place up there. It's a neat site. I saw a bunch of old Harlem Globetrotters movies up there the other night, it's great.Swisher: You watch physics lectures and Harlem Globetrotters?Gates: This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places.Swisher: But those were stolen, correct?Gates: Stolen's a strong word. It's copyrighted content that the owner wasn't paid for. So yes.Look, we aren't here to point fingers, and we do think they kind of backed him into a corner there. But call us crazy, maybe it's just time to face the fact that legal attacks to this and that video sharing site for short clips just ain't the way to get people to pay a hundred some-odd bucks for crappy cable service, y'know? Gates, we salute your candor, hypocritical though it may seem.[Via The Raw Feed]
Stringer: The Xbox 360 is an "obsession"
Well, you know what they say about what to do when you have nothing nice to say ... erm, say that the competing gaming platform (in this case, the 360) is an "obsession"?That's exactly what Sony CEO Howard Stringer had to offer in an interview with Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal recently. While sharing how The Da Vinci Code from Sony beat up on "X-Men 3" (aka The Last Stand) over in Europe, he seemed to mistakenly throw in "Xbox 3" in the stead of Fox's great summer blockbuster hope. Following Mossberg's correction, Stringer is reported to have retorted, laughing, "There's an obsession!"We don't know if he's referring to the media's obsession with the corporate gaming rivalry, his own obsession with the console that would dethrone the PlayStation, or some combination of the two (irony really doesn't help here), but he does seem to at least outwardly admire Bill Gates' salesmanship (as well as his hypocrisy in delaying Windows Vista while lambasting the PS3 delay). Of course, a lot of supposed compliments could go both ways, so we've provided a few handy links below to check out what other "nice" things hardware execs have had to say about their competitors lately. We're sure it's all in good fun.[Thanks, JC & SickNic; also via GameDaily BIZ]See also: Nice words -- "Thanks," "flattered," and "flattering." Not-so-nice words -- "Plagiarism," "no need for PC," "not mainstream for most games," and "same old experiences with new graphics."
The Pipeline: Pundits dish on MacBooks, XM Inno and Treo 700p
Welcome back to The Pipeline, a weekly feature where we dig through the mainstream media and see what the pundits, prognosticators and and pencil pushers have been discussing over the past week. Unlike some recent weeks, there was no single tech story that dominated the mainstream media this week. Yes, most journos dutifully covered Apple's two big events -- the launch of the MacBook and the opening of the company's New York store -- but Apple didn't get the same sort of monolithic coverage that, say, the Samsung Q1 garnered a couple of weeks ago. In fact, one of the few mainstream media MacBook reviews we came across this week was written not by The New York Times' David Pogue or The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, but by blogger Glenn Fleishman, slumming it in his day job at the Seattle Times. Fleishman praised the new non-laptop for its upgradability, iSight camera and ability to add a second display, but pointed out that its integrated graphics make it a less-than-ideal choice for anyone doing video-intensive work -- which we assume is part of Apple's plan to find a way to get at least some consumers to pay $2,000 and up for the MacBook Pro, with its ATI Radeon X1600 GPU.
The Pipeline: The press gets game, Mossberg ignites Apple frenzy
Welcome back to The Pipeline, a weekly feature where we dig through the mainstream media and see what the pundits, prognosticators and and pencil pushers have been discussing over the past week. This week, not surprisingly the scribes from the mainstream press joined us at E3, checking out the latest from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft -- though, from the looks of things, many of our ink-stained cohorts seemed more interested in seeing how the "booth babe" ban was going. The Los Angeles Times, E3's hometown paper, had excellent coverage overall, but that coverage was somewhat overshadowed by the booth babe reportage, which included text, a photo gallery and videos. A few miles up the coast, the San Francisco Chronicle didn't have the Times' wall-to-wall coverage, but still managed to pay homage to the girls of E3, pointing out that the highly publicized crackdown on the raciest attire has had results: "Where once cleavage, upper thighs and midriffs were almost impossible to avoid, they have been more or less hidden behind baby T-shirts and more-modest tank tops. And it seems like there are fewer booth babes overall." Of course, the biggest E3 scoop by the mainstream media came from Time Magazine, with its exclusive preview of the Wii, which appeared in the magazine a full two days before the conference started. For those of us who considered ourselves lucky to get a chance to try out the new console without having to wait in line for an hour, it was a stark reminder that the MSM still have a lot of clout when it comes to getting scoops from big companies.
Mossberg goes to Boot Camp and survives unscathed
While some early message-board reviews of Apple's new Boot Camp software -- which was announced earlier today -- seem to show that there are at least some hazards to running Windows on a Mac (see the pic at right, which is apparently one of the first Boot Camp-assisted Mac BSODs), The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg has given the new boot manager a thumbs up. According to Mossberg (who was able to sneak a copy out of Cupertino a few days ago), after installing Boot Camp and Windows on an Intel iMac, Windows ran "blazingly fast," and all of the apps he tested ran "flawlessly." Mossberg put the install time -- including both installing Boot Camp itself and running the usual Windows installer -- at 57 minutes, 40 of which were claimed by the Windows setup program. Despite being generally pleased, Mossberg did find a few glitches, including having to reset the clock every time Windows is booted (apparently the system clock used by the iMac isn't recognized by Windows) and not being able to use Apple's iSight camera. All in all, however, Mossberg summed things up with what may soon become Apple's new tagline: "Whether you want to run Mac or Windows programs, an Apple computer may be the only computer you'll need."Read (sub reqd)
