portables
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Everything you don't want to know about the Nintendo Switch
Being a Nintendo fan is often an exercise in managing expectations. For years, we've watched the company just miss the mark with online services, third-party game availability and outdated hardware specifications. The frustration of seeing a company you like make so many odd decisions can wear you down. Now, Nintendo is about to release a new game console, and as always, it's far from perfect. For the most loyal Nintendo fans, these imperfections can evoke one of two responses: anger that the company has failed to live up to their expectations, or denial that the company is doing anything wrong at all. That's no way to live. Instead, let's skip the first four stages of grief and embrace the Nintendo Switch's faults with acceptance. This is everything the Nintendo Switch is doing wrong at launch (so far).
Nintendo 3DS XL sports less reflective screen than its predecessor, improved parallax effect
Supersized screens may be the centerpiece of Nintendo's 3DS XL, but a new Iwata Asks interview reveals that its top display packs some new anti-glare tech too. Takashi Murakami, from the company's Mechanical Design Group, notes that each of the LCD's three glare-prone layers were specially treated to reduce reflectivity from the original 3DS' 12 percent, down to three. According to head honcho Iwata, anti-reflection coatings have been on the Big N's radar since the GameBoy Advance era, but were typically abandoned because they were too pricey. The Q&A session also confirmed something we noticed when we put the handheld through the review gauntlet -- the larger display increases the parallax effect, which translates to a deeper looking 3D experience. If your current handheld's screen bounces too much light for your liking, the XL can take its place starting August 19th in North America.
Apple portables set to dominate latter half of 2011
According to Fortune, financial analysts from Deutsche Bank are predicting a rise in Apple's global portable computer sales for the rest of this year. If the iPad is included in those numbers, the rise is downright astonishing, taking Apple from last place among the six vendors studied all the way up to first. Including the iPad in this analysis may seem a questionable move, but if you want to get technical about it the device is a portable computer. Analysis shows that even if the iPad isn't included in these numbers, Apple is still poised to see huge gains in 2011 thanks to the release of OS X Lion and high demand for the MacBook Air. At the same time that Apple is expected to see sales and market share gains, every other PC maker is showing steep declines in Deutsche Bank's analysis. The firm cites "stagnation" in the Microsoft/PC market and notes that so-called "Ultrabooks" are not yet price-competitive with Apple's MacBook Air. The situation is even grimmer in the tablet market, which can still be handily summarized as "iPad... and then everything else." Apple has warned investors to expect a decline in revenues for the next quarter due to a product transition. Without knowing what that transition is, we have no way of knowing how it will dampen the huge gains that Deutsche Bank and other financial analysts are predicting for the rest of the "Year of the iPad 2."
The cost of Apple's products, adjusted for inflation
A site called VoucherCodes recently tried to figure out if the $499 entry-level iPad really is as good a deal as many have claimed. They analyzed the cost of several of Apple's products, adjusted for inflation, and some of the results are pretty astonishing. The first Apple computer ever created, the Apple I, cost $666.66 in 1976. Adjusted to 2010 dollars, that Apple I would cost $2,540, which isn't too bad. But the Apple Lisa, Apple's first stab at creating a computer with a Graphical User Interface, cost $9,995 in 1983, or a staggering $21,745 in today's dollars. Sure, the GUI was a cool bit of innovation, over $20,000 for a personal computer? Comparing the iPad to previous Apple portables is even more interesting. Apple's first portable computer cost $6,500 in 1989 -- which would be almost $11,400 today -- while the $699 Newton from 1993 would cost nearly $1,050 in today's dollars. Most intriguing of all is that the first iPod, released for $399 in 2001, cost $488 in today's dollars. That's just $11 under the cost of the iPad, a device that has far more storage, processing power, and access to more features than the first iPod could even dream of only nine and a half years ago. Apple's handhelds are cheaper than ever, even when you bring inflation into the mix. Within my lifetime alone, computers have gone from luxury items and objects of curiosity, something people would have to save several months of paychecks in order to buy, to something people buy on a whim, for a week's pay, and carry around with them in their pockets. It's not surprising that the cost of computers has come down over time, but when charts like the one at VoucherCodes drive home just how much prices have dropped in terms of the real value of the US dollar, it's pretty amazing.
Swap a Macbook's glossy display for matte
Users have a love/hate relationship with Apple's glossy displays. Namely, they either love them or they hate them. I haven't used one myself, as I'll be hanging on to my original MacBook Pro until it ceases to work.Until now, shoppers could get either a glossy or matte display with the 15" MacBook Pro, but not the 13" model. TechRestore has stepped in to do the "repair." For $200, they'll remove your 13" MacBook or MacBook Pro's glossy display and slap a matte screen in its place. The work comes with a 1-year warranty and TechRestore says they'll have your precious back to you within 24 hours of receipt. Note that this requires a trade-in of your existing screen; you won't get it back.If you have this service done, please let us know how it goes. Enjoy your glare-free computing!For comparison, RadTech sells an anti-glare film that can be applied over a glossy display. They're available for the 13in MacBook/Pro (unibody), the 15in MacBook Pro (unibody), the 17in MacBook Pro (unibody) and various iMacs. You can get the full list here. The films start at $19.95US each.[Via Cult Of Mac]
Reviewing the new MacBook Pro
Blogger Shawn Blanc has written another one of his thorough reviews. This time, it's the new MacBook Pro. The interesting thing is that he's using it to replace his Mac Pro. Most tech professionals have a primary machine (often a desktop) and a secondary (usually a laptop). After living with this setup for some time, Shawn noticed that the laptop had become his main machine:"I don't need the Mac Pro. The loss in horsepower is negligible for what I do, and the gain in simplicity cannot be expressed with words. I'm selling the tower and going back to being a one-computer consumer, and connoisseur of fine laptops."The same thing eventually happened to me. My MacBook Pro is the machine I use most often, and my iMac is the machine I use to sync my iPhone, make iTunes purchases and upload photos. Other than that, it pretty much just sits around.Shawn goes on to describe setup, migration of his older data and (much, much) more. The whole thing is written in Shawn's comprehensive and readable style. Check it out.
Win a BookEndz Dock for MacBook from Macsimum News
If you failed to win the BookEndz Dock for MacBook that we gave away last month, Macsimum News (MN) is offering you another chance. It's almost April, so they're having a good, old-fashioned Easter Egg Hunt. Several articles on the site will be littered with colorful eggs. Keep track of which eggs appear where between today (Feb. 25) and March 18, then email your findings back to the folks at MN. You can read the full details here.The BookEndz Dock is a cool product. In our previous review, Mat said, "The MacBook model looks particularly nice with a built-in 5 port powered USB hub and both VGA and DVI connectors...and [makes] moving a MacBook (Pro) between locations with many different peripherals quite easy."Good luck, everyone.
Future Apple Notebooks likely to benefit from flash?
Another cool thing about the transition to Intel is the availability of more information for informed guesses about the future direction of Apple hardware. Since Apple is increasingly using technology also offered to other OEMs it's harder for Apple to keep likely future developments secret for as long as they have in the past. This informed speculation in APC Magazine is a perfect example. They apparently interviewed a Samsung engineer about the new hybrid hard drives that Microsoft is promoting for use with Vista and asked if Samsung had offered the technology to Apple. The Samsung engineer indicated that they had done so but that Apple had turned them down. This leads APC to conjecture that Apple is likely to use Intel's Robson flash chip technology in future notebooks instead. The flash chip module uses flash memory "as a 'smart storage' buffer between system RAM and the hard drive." This offers a number of potential benefits including quicker boot times and better performance on apps that access the hard drive a lot (since flash is faster than a hard drive), as well as improved battery life (since the power hunger motor in the HD is not spinning as much). Let's just hope that Apple gets out in front on this technology like they have with so many others.
Marvell intros first combo WiFi / Bluetooth chip for portables
We wouldn't even think of buying a cellphone that didn't incorporate both WiFi and Bluetooth, so you better believe we were excited to learn of semiconductor manufacturer Marvell's new combo 802.11a/b/g - BT chip for portables, which is supposedly the first of its kind. The so-called 88W8688 -- which supports Bluetooth 2.0 and hardware acceleration for UMA, IMS, etc. -- has a footprint of less than 80-square-millimeters, or about half the size of current two-chip combinations. For consumers, this will mean smaller versions of all the gadgets we love, and most importantly for us, those super-functional-but-chunky smartphones that we feel naked without. Although the chip is currently shipping to select Marvell OEM partners, it has yet to announced which specific device categories will see the first implementations; our plea: get these puppies to HTC as quickly as possible!
PSP to see $50 price cut, sez analyst
With Nintendo's DS and DS Lite clearly showing the most momentum in the portable gaming space (who knew that a dedicated product could trump one with more bells and whistles?), word on the the street is that Sony is expected to drop the PSP's retail price down to $150. American Technology Research's P.J. McNealy feels that a slew of popular games such as Brain Age and New Super Mario Brothers have given the DS a much-needed boost in popularity, while the multimedia-centric PSP hasn't had a real hit since the last Grand Theft Auto title. Combined with the fact that the UMD is all but dead, McNealy believes that Sony's gotta do something to reinvigorate interest in its portable device, and a price cut seems like the best way to woo potential DS purchasers away. At $150, the newly-priced PSP wouldn't be that much more expensive than Nintendo's offering, and the company's recent push to offer movies on MemorySticks might be just the differentiating factor that would convince consumers to choose feature sets over games. Still, with its innovative input system and non-traditional titles, the DS would seem to appeal to a larger potential audience than the PSP, so even a price drop might not be enough to turn things around for Sony.[Thanks, Scott]
Fan-made "portable" GameCube is a beast [update 1]
Ben Harklin over at Nintendo Central has constructed a real (big) beauty: a semi-portable GameCube. He writes: "After a month of on-off work, I've finished my handheld Gamecube. Calling it a Portable Gamecube is an [overstatement] because I'm still tethered to the wall and it is still bulky and heavy."And we thought the GameCube was known for its cute, little size. Hey, whatever it takes to play Smash Brothers on the go.[update 1: corrected quoter's misuse of understatement to overstatement]
How-to overclock your Nintendo DS
If you've gotten just a little too good at your Nintendo DS games and are looking for more of a challenge -- and also looking to void your warranty -- now there's a way to hack your console for making everything run almost twice as fast. A Japanese modder has just posted step-by-step directions (in Japanese, unfortunately) for re-wiring a DS Lite to perform at a claimed 1.7x speed, complete with a toggle switch in case you decide that turbo mode isn't appropriate for all occasions. It looks like you have to be pretty handy with a soldering iron to tackle this particular project, so if you've got the skillz and about four hours to waste on tinkering around with your DS's sensitive circuitry, then accelerated performance -- and funny-sounding audio -- will be your reward.[Via Maxconsole]
DIY camera for the Nintendo DS
We're all aware that a digital camera/webcam for the Sony PSP is right around the corner, but how many of you knew that you could also snap photos with your Nintendo DS? Don't feel bad; we didn't know it was possible either until we spotted modder Kako's handiwork on YouTube -- apparently he's taken a Treva CMOS chipset, done a bit of rewiring, and written software that allows the unit to output images directly to his DS Lite. We can't vouch for the picture quality, and the frame rates are positively sluggish, but at least this mod gives Nintendo fanboys one less missing feature to defend when the PSP crowd goes into one of those regular, tiresome diatribes listing the many reasons why their product totally "pwns" the little dual screen console -- in fact, you'll probably catch a few examples of said diatribes right here in the comments section of this very post.[Via DS Fanboy]
Vonage prepping VoIP solutions for DS and PSP?
Although neither device has a true VoIP option yet, UK tech site T3 is reporting that "a source close to...Vonage" (i.e. a friend of a friend of a friend) has confirmed that the VoIP provider is developing WiFi calling solutions for both the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. We've known for awhile that both systems were capable of implementing the ol' VoIP, but other than a random blog musing we reported on last year, this is the first indication we've seen of a major player making moves in this direction. Even for a rumor, the details here are pretty thin, such as how Vonage plans to actually implement VoIP in the disparate devices -- the possibilities include a firmware update for the PSP, and either DSpeak-like software or an Opera-like cartridge for the DS -- or even a hint of when we can expect to see any products come to market. As you might expect, Vonage itself declined to comment on the matter when contacted by T3.
Are portables killing our eyes?
As if we weren't already worried enough about our cellphone causing Blackberry thumb, certain indecisiveness, and, of course, brain cancer, the WSJ is now reporting that according to some leading opticians, portables, especially with small screens and smaller fonts, could be causing irreversible eye strain and damage to our vision. Apparently the action of focusing for long periods of time on small spacial areas held relatively closely to the body -- especially displays with poor contrast ratios, and bad glare -- tends to overwork the eye's ciliary muscles, and might be causing deteriorated vision in the same young group of patients now visiting doctors for other technologically related ailments, like portable audio related hearing loss -- a group far too young to be coming in for their annual eyes, ears, and artificial hip-bone checkup.[Via TechDirt]
