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Distro Issue 28: A slew of device reviews and a look back at CP+ 2012
Apple's kitty cat-flavored OS refresh may have dominated the news this week, but it was a deluge of product reviews that kept the wheels spinning at Distro HQ. Issue 28 is one of our heftiest yet, featuring Sony's stateside PS Vita, Ainovo's $99 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet, Motorola's QWERTY kin, the Droid 4, the AT&T version of Samsung's ample Galaxy Note and LG's fashionable Prada Phone. Shaking things up a bit, Zach Honig travels to Yokohama, Japan to bring you the biggest breakouts from the 2012 CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show. And, to round it all out, we've got a healthy helping of content you won't see anywhere else, like Ross Rubin's Switched On, Donald Melanson's Recommended Reading, our Q&A with Netbooknews' Nicole Scott and a lesson on "How to Be Happy" by cartoonist Shannon Wheeler.Distro Issue 28 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
IRL: Bowers & Wilkins P5 headphones, Speck SeeThru Satin and the Nokia N800
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Of this week's IRL contributors, two have already tried out that replacement for iChat. For the purposes of this column, though, all three are waxing on about something very old, at least by early adopter standards. For starters, James still get the warm-and-fuzzies holding his Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, despite its crawling page load times. Joe, our resident audio guru, explains why he tosses a reference to Bowers & Wilkins' P5 into almost every one of his headphone reviews. And the object of Mat's affection -- a laptop skin -- slipped under our radar when it came out over a year ago. So is James actually still using that N800? What's Joe's obsession with B&W? And why would anyone spend $50 on a notebook prophylactic? Read on to find out.
Distro goes 'Beyond the Revolution' to explore tech in post-Mubarak Egypt
Nearly one year ago, dictator Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down after 18 consecutive days of protest by Egyptian citizens. Those demonstrations were organized largely through the use of social networking, cell phones and banned TV channels, a greater trend that permeated the revolutionary period now known as the Arab Spring. To mark the anniversary of Mubarak's ousting, Sharif Sakr traveled to Egypt to speak with five Egyptians about the role that technology plays in their lives today. This issue of Distro also features reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, Motorola's Droid RAZR Maxx, Sony's Alpha NEX-7 and a Q&A with the founder of the Ubuntu Project, Mark Shuttleworth. If you've been looking for a good reason to download an issue of Distro, look no further.Distro Issue 27 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
Distro Issue 26: Smartwatch face-off, Ryan Block and more
Are you ready for a showdown? You're in luck! In the latest edition of our fine weekly, Myriam Joire tackles wrist-top computing, comparing the inPulse and WIMM One smartwatches. Also in this issue, Zachary Lutz takes the BlackBerry Curve 9360 for a spin; Dana Wollman puts HP's latest Envy 15 through the paces; and Joe Pollicino tries to keep Klipsch's Mode M40 headphones in place. If that wasn't enough to pique your interest, our former editor-in-chief, Ryan Block, returns to take on the Distro Q&A and Box Brown offers a comic look at becoming an iBooks Author. So go on and get to downloading!Distro Issue 26 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
IRL: Voltaic Spark, LG Optimus One and the Galaxy Nexus
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Want to read about Facebook's inflated valuation? A (debunked) rumor that Snooki is pregnant? Neither do we. So, let's do what we do best, and talk gadgets instead. This week, Engadget editor Don Melanson defends his phone of choice, James takes the Voltaic Spark for a spin in Spain and Mat talks about bonding with the Galaxy Nexus at CES. (Sadly, this fling, like others before it, stayed in Vegas.) How's it all working out for them? As always, we've got your quick takes tucked after the break.
Player documents the two-headed monster of his own WoW addiction
The slow, viscous slide into a life consumed by gaming has become a media tale standard, usually including a bleary-eyed shot of the player blinking in the thin light of the computer monitor. Penned by journalists unfamiliar with the enveloping nature of MMOs, these stories skitter across the surface of a passion turned fixation. Without an understanding of the many positive forces of games like World of Warcraft, writers are unable to do more than entwine readers within a Lovecraftian tangle of gaming's most mind-numbing temptations, pushing them back into the light at the end with a complete, triumphant rebuke of the game in question. The tale of Sevrin's descent into and return from Azeroth takes a different turn. A third-year film production student from the United Kingdom, Sevrin hasn't blocked World of Warcraft from his every thought -- instead, he spent months poring over his experiences to create a documentary of his experience. IRL: In Real Life, a short film featured last week on WoW Moviewatch (watch it again after the break), takes a frank look at how incessant gaming nearly pulled a young man's life off track -- and then provided the fuel for the creative project that's helping him move on. If anyone could understand this kind of rise and fall, this dance with the glamors that wetly suck players into the virtual vortex, only to spit them out coughing and gasping with a renewed appreciation for life, it's fellow WoW Insider reader Keelhaul, aka The Mogfather, the player who racked up an incredible 1 million gold only to turn around and give it all away. "Brilliant," he commented simply on last week's Moviewatch showing of Sevrin's video. "Change a bit of the storyline and that's me as well." We suspect it's many of us, to some degree. Let's look inside at Sevrin's take.
Distro Issue 25: Ultrabook overload, Snap Analysis and Gina Trapani
Distro is 25... weeks old, today! And to celebrate we're debuting a new page that puts you, our readers, front and center. We've been sending out questions over various social networking channels and collecting your answers for the inaugural run of Snap Analysis. Among other things, you weighed in on RIM's CEO switch up, as did our own Darren Murph in his editorial, "RIM's New CEO Isn't the Shakeup It Needed." We have more editorializing coming your way from the desk of Donald Melanson, who's taking the Ultrabook marketing hype to task. Also in this issue, we test drive the BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 and review the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 and Huawei's Honor. Lifehacker's Gina Trapani takes on the Distro Q&A, IRL goes back to CES and Ross Rubin explores Apple's education push. There's a lot to soak up in this issue, so hit the appropriate link below and get to reading!
IRL: the Kindle Touch, a repurposed Army bag and a non-user replaceable laptop battery
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Hi there, folks. It's that time of the week where we share our close and very personal experiences with various gadget paraphernalia. This week, Brian makes the switch from the Nook Simple Touch to the Kindle Touch, Ben explains why he'd rather replace his own laptop battery, thank you very much, and Don makes the case for a laptop bag that looks anything but.
WoW Moviewatch: IRL - In Real Life
IRL - In Real Life is about one player's struggle with WoW addiction. While I normally get a little apprehensive when this subject gets brought up, I think the creator did a good job of talking about how he fell down a tunnel, got somewhat obsessed, and then pulled himself out of the hole. The video is incredibly smooth, well produced, and excellently narrated. I think the little in-jokes, clever, informative graphics, and carefully balanced approach is what makes the movie so effective. It'd be easy to go on a rant about how the game's never done -- you can't ever say you're "done" -- and so on. Instead, the narrator looked inside himself and found his own answers. This video won't be for everyone, but it's definitely worth watching. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
IRL: The CES 2012 Edition, featuring AirDrop, a new MBP and Crumpler
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. We came, we saw, we collapsed. After seven days in Vegas and 700-plus posts, we'd love nothing more than to catch up on The Daily Show, eat something other than In-N-Out Burger and bask in what we hope will be a slow news week. Alas, though, the show must go on, and so must our gadget ramblings. And what better place to start than with the gear we schlepped to CES? You'd think, like marathoners prepping for a race, that we'd stick with the high-tech equivalent of broken-in sneakers, red gatorade and other safe bets. But in fact, the week saw a few of us taking a chance on unfamiliar tech -- everything from the Elgato Turbo H.264 to the Sony NEX-C3. For Darren, the transition from thumb drives to AirDrop was benign, though largely ineffectual. In Terrence's case, an impulsive foray into the world of Macs left him without functioning USB ports. Good times, right? Meet us past the break for a few tales of what went right (or dreadfully wrong) last week in Vegas.
IRL: Logitech Y-R0026 Bluetooth keyboard, Apple MacBook and a Virgin America flight with the Series 5 Chromebook
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. In this, the last IRL until after we get back from CES, we've got a tale from Brian, who spent his Virgin America flight home to the west coast playing with his first Chromebook. Meanwhile, Andy defends the idea of spending $130 on a Bluetooth keyboard, and Mr. Christopher Trout explains why he's loathe to recycle his three year-old MacBook, even if it has devolved into a glorified media hub. Before we turn around and give you wall-to-wall coverage of all the new stuff, meet us past the break to spend a few minutes with some oldies-but-goodies.
IRL: Pioneer Kuro PDP-6010FD, Tonium Pacemaker and the Samsung Galaxy Note
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. For those of you who think all we do in IRL is wax nostalgic about gadgets we've owned for years, you'd be... mostly right. Indeed, this week we've got Mr. Ben Drawbaugh talking up the HDTV he owns (as opposed to the one he wants), and James is here to break down the limitations of his discontinued Tonium Pacemaker. We've got one happy new gadget owner, though, and that would be Zach Honig, who recently traded his iPhone 4 for a Samsung Galaxy Note. So how's that S-Pen working out for him? Head past the break to find out.
IRL: Spotify, Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 and Oakley's AP backpack 3.0
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. In this, our last edition of IRL before worldwide eat-Chinese-food-and-go-to-the-movies day, we're unpacking our gifts a few days early. Darren replaced his document scanner after his old one went to wherever it is that deceased scanners go, Joe finally settled on a gadget bag stylish enough to go with his skinny jeans and Brian's given himself the gift of a Spotify premium account. So how's it going, here in real life? Head past the break to find out.
IRL: Nike+, UTStarcom PPC-6700 and the Droid Incredible
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. We have an inside joke among the Engadget staff: one of these days, we say, we'll publish IRL: The Luddite Edition. It's not that we go home to bunny-ear TVs and VCRs, though for a group of journalists trained to calculate pixels per Super AMOLED inch, we're awfully set in our ways. That, and there's nothing like brainstorming IRL ideas to make a grizzled tech editor feel a little nostalgic. That's the place Darren was in when he dug up his PPC-6700 from '06 -- and Lydia, too, who thinks about ditching Nike+, but won't. As for Billy, he's not wistful; just biding his time until he can replace his Incredible with something he really wants. So how good is good enough for a bunch of tech writers? Meet us past the break to find out.
IRL: Google Voice, FastMac's U Socket and returning the iPhone 4S
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Hi there, folks. Happy almost-four-day-weekend to you too. As you'd expect, we're not the types to waste an opportunity to tie IRL into a national eating orgy, so this week's edition is appropriately about giving thanks. Terrence appreciates Google Voice, even if it slips some incomprehensible one-liners into his transcriptions. Zach, meanwhile, is mighty happy about his U Socket purchase (because wall-mounted USB ports are a beautiful, beautiful thing). And Joe -- actually, he's none too grateful for the two iPhone 4S' he returned, though he is glad Google hurried up and released Ice Cream Sandwich. What's his problem, anyway? Meet us after the break to find out.
IRL: Verizon SCH-LC11 LTE hotspot, Sennheiser CXC 700 headphones and the Xperia Arc
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. It's that time of the week, where we take a pause from blitzkrieg hands-on opps and pick apart the gadgets we've been using long-term. This time around, Joe tries Sennheiser's CXC 700 headphones, Mat defends the original Xperia Arc and Darren breaks down the pitfalls of trying to get work done with a temperamental VZW hotspot. Because when it comes to getting a consistent LTE signal across the US, what could possibly go wrong?
IRL: Nikon D3S, iPod 4G and Klipsch's Image One headphones
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. We almost don't want to talk about our tablets and phones this week, just because one or two show-stoppers here and there have made pretty much everything we own seem wholly inadequate. So we'll tell you about the stuff we won't be trading in anytime soon. For James, that means a good pair of over-ear headphones, for Darren it's a $6,000 camera and for Daniel it's a 40GB iPod with "Dan Cooper is awesome" engraved on the back (19 year-olds, right?). No complaints this time: just a trio of Engadget editors sounding off on what's been worth it.
IRL: Kingston Wi-Drive, Dyson DC35 and being an Ubuntu fanboy
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. The lively comments in yesterday's Nest thermostat post got us thinking: for all our talk of smartphones and Ultrabooks, it's the mundane, not-glamorous stuff that we're spending most of our money on. Take Brad, for instance, who had to make room in his iTunes library for the Aladdin soundtrack and had to get creative after maxing out his iPhone's (non-expandable) storage. Or Zach, who felt not one, but two vacuum cleaners were necessary in his bachelor pad. And at least one of us avoids paying anything by choosing to tinker around in Ubuntu. How'd Brad make do with his 16GB of fixed storage? Why is Zach such a compulsive cleaner? And who's the Linux fanboy on staff? Meet us after the break to find out.
IRL: Playseat Evolution, HTC Thunderbolt and a five-year-old iMac
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Quick poll for the Android loyalists out there: anyone getting the Droid RAZR? Opting for the Galaxy Nexus instead? There's still one or two of us here at Engadget clinging onto our OG Droids and Nexus Ones, and after a week of high-profile handset announcements, we might be hemming and hawing for another month yet. We'll throw Michael in that boat, even though he took a chance on the Thunderbolt earlier this year and will be stuck with its battery-draining ways for at least another Revolution of the Earth. As for the rest of us not due for an upgrade, Joe is still justifying his $350 gaming toy while Billy is bringing up Team Luddite on his five-year-old iMac. You know the drill by now: join us past the break where we'll talk about the trusty (and embarrassingly old) gear we're using in real life.
IRL: AirPort Express, Jabra Freeway and rooting the Nook Color
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Now that we've gotten all the dirty details on the new iPhone, we Engadget editors have a few precious days to kick back, unwind and futz around on our aging gadgets before Google and Samsung team up to announce a certain something something next week. Until then, Darren's traveling from Japan to San Francisco and back -- most likely with his AirPort Express in tow, Joseph is rooting the snot out of his Nook Color and Brad's just trying to keep up on podcasts while driving the kiddies around.
