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Mossberg reviews the iPod touch (he likes it)
If there was a grand poobah of tech journalists it would Walt Mossberg, the tech columnist for the Wall Street Journal. His opinion can make, or break, a product. Luckily for Apple Walt tends to love their stuff, and the iPod touch is no exception.The iPod touch gets high praise for its iPod functionality, and the mobileSafari addition is welcome. Walt also enjoyed the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (which I am anxiously awaiting on my iPhone). There are some things he didn't like, though. The battery life fell short of Apple's specs, and the lack of physical controls (the iPhone has physical volume controls) makes it tough to use the iPod touch when it isn't in your hand. The lack of a mail program also gets Walt's goat, but he chalks it up to Apple not wanting to compete too much with the more expensive iPhone (which has a mail program built in).TUAW readers, are you enjoying your iPod touch as much as Walt?
Walt Mossberg gives Ubuntu the cold-shoulder
Captain Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal Brigade delivered a pounding frontal attack to the good folks in the Ubuntu bunker today, sounding off about the Linux OS distribution that's been taking a lot of people (but not old Mossy) by storm. According to his review yesterday of the burgeoning (and free) Canonical operating system, Walt Mossberg says that although Ubuntu is, "Relatively slick," he feels that there are too many, "little complications and hassles that will quickly frustrate most people who just want to use their computers, not maintain or tweak them." Apparently, after testing on a stock Dell system with the software pre-installed, Walt argued that the lack of codecs for playing some audio and video formats, trouble connecting iPods, and a trackpad which can't be adjusted, are just a few of the problems that most people will find intolerable in the open-source OS. Mossberg talks about users who, "...simply want their digital products to operate as promised, with as little maintenance and hassle as possible," and feels the answer for them is Windows or OS X, not the new, untested, and unpolished Ubuntu. While we don't agree on every point, perhaps this will push Canonical to tighten up its OS and really target the mainstream. [Warning: read link requires subscription][Via Crave]
Mossberg harshes on Dell's new Vostro lineup
That's right Walt, kick 'em while they're down. The godfather of tech-soul has given Dell's new Vostro lineup of PCs and services for small (25 employees and less) businesses a thorough drubbing this morning. How bad was it? Well, he found the entire Vostro initiative to be, "nothing special, nothing particularly tailored for small business at all." While the lack of craplets (pre-loaded trial software) was a nicety, the fact that they ship the XP units without any "security software" but with the notoriously insecure IE6 browser (not 7 or even Firefox) was simply inexcusable for machines sold to businesses without IT departments. He even dubs the affordable yet "bulky, plain" Vostro 1500 a "branding-and-marketing ploy." Ouch. See the man throw down the criticism after the break.
Walt Mossberg tackles Apple's iWork '08
The Moss-man has gotten into a down-and-dirty review of Apple's latest version of its Office-battling software suite iWork '08 (which includes Pages, Keynote, and the new spreadsheet program Numbers) and delivers a one-two punch to the new package. Apparently, Cupertino's entry just can't match up to Office's triple power play of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, though Walt says that iWork '08 is an elegant and sophisticated solution for users looking for something with a little less power -- which should come as no surprise to most. Mossberg's not all doom and gloom though, happily noting that Pages has reined in its desktop publishing aspect and become more of a dedicated word processor, Numbers is a "refreshing innovation," that's more "approachable" than its competitor, and Keynote actually bests PowerPoint in ease of use. In the end, however, Mossy says all the flair and high design doesn't make up for the succulent and unbridled power in Office -- but you knew that already, right?[Via Techmeme]
Mossberg hints at Flash update for iPhone
We know, we've all been clamoring for Flash support on the iPhone since before the thing even launched, and while we've seen subtle hints here and there suggesting that it would indeed come to fruition, now we've got someone to blame if our hopes are deflated. In a recent Q&A session, Walt Mossberg himself addressed the issue, and didn't make any bones about sharing Apple's future plans. Speaking directly about Adobe's Flash technology, Walt stated that "Apple says it plans to add that plug-in through an early software update," which he surmises "will occur within the next couple of months." Sadly, there was no elaboration beyond the aforementioned bit, but he certainly sounds confident about the iPhone eventually playing nice with Flash, no?[Via MacRumors]
iPhone's missing iChat, MMS, etc. coming via software updates?
In parallel to his iPhone review, Uncle Walt also published an email conversation he had with Steve Jobs. While most of Jobsie's "we don't talk about future products" responses could have been foretold, one response is worth noting. When asked about the lack of instant messaging, video recording, and real-time GPS navigation, Steve responded with the following: "I will say that the iPhone is the most sophisticated software platform ever created for a mobile device, and that we think software features are where the action will be in the coming years. Stay tuned." Right, software. Remember Apple's promise of free software updates that will "surprise and delight" both Apple TV and iPhone customers? Well, they've already delivered a v1.1 YouTube update for Apple TV and certainly the most notable of missing features -- MMS, iChat, A2DP, text copy and paste, video recording, MP3 (or AAC in the case of Apple) ringtones -- are all software related. Sure, you can't download a 3G or GPS radio, but there's certainly hope of filling the gaps on the software side.Update: Page 31 of the AT&T iPhone Launch Training Participant Guide says that "MMS and IM messages are included in the iPhone Data Plan." So go ahead Apple, flip the switch, what are you waiting for?
Most so-called iPhone alternatives are nothing of the sort
I think a lot of people are getting confused as to what expensive phones are actually designed for. Analysts are trying to compare the iPhone to efforts from other companies, or folks like Walt are touting the Nokia N95 and BlackBerry Curve as potential alternatives. While I might be a little biased since I write for TUAW, I still think these are bad comparisons. Just because a phone costs north of $400 or $500, doesn't mean that phone is designed for the same purposes as any other phone in the general vicinity of its price. Take the Nokia N95, for example - it's an über-camera phone (which costs nearly $800, by the way). That's what it does. It has a freaking 5 megapixel camera that is making mobile photo geeks go nuts, and that's what it should do. It doesn't have any form of a full QWERTY keyboard, and it isn't designed to be a full-featured multimedia rollercoaster ride of music, movies, and podcasts. It's an über-camera phone. Period.
Uncle Walt has his iPhone
The clock is ticking, folks: Walt Mossberg has his iPhone. At a speech for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Fake Steve's favorite technology writer pulled out his review unit to "oohs and ahs" and gave some preliminary impressions. With only a couple of hours of hands-on time, there were already pros and cons showing up; as far as the big question (the virtual keyboard) he noted, "In the first hour it works a little better than I thought, but I'm still not sure it works as well as a regular keyboard." Walt, fairminded journalist that he is, will be giving the iPhone a full workout leading up to a published review sometime around, I dunno, June 29.In case you missed it, the iPhone keyboard was a big point of contention amongst the fast-talking traders on CNBC's Fast Money tonight (seriously, these guys make Lorelai and Rory sound like half-speed recordings). Check out the appearance by our own talking head Scott McNulty as he tries to settle down these overcaffeinated market geeks. (Video requires registration and US residency, some sort of SEC regulation, yeah yeah lame we know working on it love ya mean it.)Thanks Michael
iPhone APB: Walt already has one
Catching a collective "Ugh!" from tech media everywhere (except maybe David Pogue), the inimitable Walt Mossberg already has his review iPhone as of this morning, which he apparently wasn't under embargo to discuss since he blurted as much out during The Chronicle's Presidents Forum. Apparently Walt "[doesn't] know whether [he'll] give it a good review or not," but is rarin' to go in testing its touchscreen keyboard, stating, "I can tell you that in the first hour it works a little better than I thought, but I'm still not sure it works as well as a regular keyboard -- and the first hour is not a very fair test, so I'm going to keep going at it." Ok Walt, you keep on keepin' on with that device; you know how to reach your less privileged pals at Engadget if you want to let us hold the mythic machine for a moment, yeah?
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."
Found Footage: Steve Jobs at All Things Digital 2007
We've been blogging about Steve Job's appearance at All Things Digital a lot today, and now you can watch it for yourself. A ten minute highlight reel has been posted on the All Things Digital website. I recommend you watch the whole video for a classic Jobs quote.
Steve Ballmer live from D 2007
Steve "Developers!" Ballmer is set to take the stage this morning at D, but since we don't know exactly what time that's going to happen you all are gonna have to hang tight until he does. We expect he'll be discussing last night's Surface announcement, but we'll see what else he's got planned for us. Stick close! UPDATE: D has posted video highlights of Ballmer's chat, our original liveblog after the jump.
Lots of mentions in the New Yorker's Mossberg profile
Not that we'd want to steal the show from the inimitable Walt Mossberg, but we were pretty stoked to see ourselves up in lights in the New Yorker's profile written by none other than Ken Auletta. (Even Engadget commenter Dermot81 got a shoutout in the profile.) Here are a few clips from our mentions:"On January 9th, when, at the annual MacWorld conference, Steve Jobs, the C.E.O. of Apple, offered the first glimpse of Apple's forthcoming iPhone, a combination cell phone and music player, the blog Engadget.com had more traffic than the Times' Web site.""Bloggers have taken note of [Mossberg getting Apple products early]. A comment posted in April on Engadget, by Dermot81, read, 'Mossberg may be the biggest Apple fanboy on the face of the planet, so I'd take any review he does of an Apple product with a grain of salt.'""Of the blogs that review products, Engadget, now owned by AOL, has the biggest audience; it gets about eight million unique visitors per month. It also has its own office, six hundred square feet on the top floor of a five-story walkup on Allen Street, on the Lower East Side, which doubles as the apartment of Peter Rojas, its founder. Three P.C.s are on his desk, and one of his windows frames the Empire State Building, several miles uptown. Rojas, who just turned thirty-two, studied at Harvard and got a master's degree in English literature from the University of Sussex, in England; like Mossberg, he started as a print journalist, freelancing for various publications. Also like Mossberg, Rojas accepts no gifts and no junkets, and returns the products that he tests. 'The only asset you have to differentiate yourself from competitors is your credibility,' he says. A corner of his apartment is piled with FedEx boxes. Rojas estimates that he has written more than six thousand posts for Engadget, and another four thousand for his previous blog, Gizmodo. A Mossberg column runs about nine hundred words; posts written by Rojas, three full-time employees, and paid freelancers average between fifty and a hundred and fifty words. With the reviews he wrote for publications, Rojas says, 'you kind of had to water it down and assume the audience didn't really care about what you write about and you had to 'hook' them into the article. What I realized about blogging is you're not going to read a blog about gadgets unless you're really interested in gadgets. I assume that our readers know that Sprint and Verizon are CDMA networks, and that T-Mobile and A.T.&T./Cingular are GSM networks.' And by "writing up," he adds, 'the higher we aim the more it grows, because the audience responds to that.' Rojas says that what Mossberg does 'is great, because he is able to translate for an audience that may not care, whereas I write for an audience that already cares.' Mossberg says that he has respect for Engadget, but, "like so many of the tech or gadget Web sites, it is more of a product-alert system, mostly printing descriptions, albeit with attitude. It really doesn't do hands-on reviews."This isn't the first time Monsieur Mossberg and Engadget have crossed paths, and we're hoping it won't be the last. Here's to you, Unkie Walt.
Uncle Walt gives Apple TV a thumbs-up
Our favorite 'dead tree media' technology columnist, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, has a review out today (available free at ptech.wsj.com or with subscription at the mothership) of the Apple TV -- the 6-min video above includes most of the high points. Mr. Mossberg praises the unit for its simplicity and ease of setup; he appreciates the fit and finish of the Apple TV and likes the fact that it doesn't try to be everything for everyone. He and co-author Katherine Boehret say the Apple TV is a "pleasure to use," and it "worked great, and we 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."Walt thoughtfully points out that you don't need a Mac to use an Apple TV (XP or Vista with iTunes works fine), and that his unit performed perfectly skip- and stutter-free on his 802.11g network, even without the speed boost of 802.11n/Airport Extreme. Interestingly, Walt suggests the main competition for the Apple TV isn't a similar device from Sling, Belkin or other second-tier vendors: it's the big kahuna, the Xbox 360. Thanks Ben!
Walt reviews Vista: Eh.
We're willing to bet those among you that don't make gagging sounds whenever you're in eyeshot of a PC have probably already played with Vista a bit. Maybe you don't have the last beta installed on your machine, but you've sat down to a Vista box and at least logged a few minutes with oohs and ahhs at Aero and Flip 3D. So by this point you probably well understand that Vista, while being a major step forward for Microsoft, will for most users represent something more of a long overdue feature pack, finally bringing Windows up to date with OS X. Granted, Vista does diverge a bit with such features as tablet input and its best of breed Media Center interface (which we're absolutely stoked to start using), but we found ourselves largely agreeing with Unkie Walt's assessment that while this may be the strongest version of Windows yet, it's still got a ways to go to pull ahead of its competitors from a technological standpoint.
Review roundup: Pogue and Mossberg on the Zune experience
After having already seen photo galleries, video walkthroughs, and endless spec sheets focused on Microsoft's upcoming Zune player, there's no real need to hear Walt Mossberg's and David Pogue's take on the attempted iPod-assassin -- but we'd be lying if we said that we had absolutely no interest in learning the opinions of two of the day's most influential tech journalists with regard to one of the most hyped consumer electronics products of the year. In their thorough write-ups, both Pogue and Mossberg tell us what we pretty much already knew about the device, and which can best be summed up by this variation on a famous political retort: "Mr. Ballmer, I served with the iPod; I knew the iPod; the iPod was a friend of mine. Mr. Ballmer, your Zune is no iPod." Specifically, each of these esteemed reviewers found the Zune lacking in terms of portability ("The Zune looks big and blocky, sort of like a prototype for a gadget, rather than a finished product," said Mossberg), battery life (less than the iPod's, or even Microsoft's own claims), and content selection (there are currently no movies, TV shows, or podcasts available on the Zune Marketplace, although a last-minute deal with Universal does bulk up the offerings somewhat). Furthermore, Zune's one potential "iPod-killing" feature -- music sharing over WiFi -- is judged to be a complete dud; instead of truly helping the consumer discover new music, Pogue opines that "you can't shake the feeling that it's all just a big plug for Microsoft's music store." Mossberg goes on to knock the Marketplace's point system -- you can only buy points in $5 blocks -- and both gentlemen lament the dearth of accessories and the perceived "screw you" to all parties who have already invested in the PlaysForSure microcosm. So, is there nothing positive to say about the ol' Zune? Of course not: the device gets high marks for its smooth syncing, polished GUI, intuitive navigation, ability to dock with an Xbox 360, and solid build quality. The problem is, these niceties don't outweigh the missing or frustrating features -- so although it may be a decent player on its own merits, it falls far short in the inevitable comparisons to Apple's darling. Still, we're reminded once again that this is only the first generation of Microsoft's entry into portable audio hardware, and like so many other products from Redmond, it promises to only get better with time.Read- PogueRead- Mossberg
Uncle Walt still likes iPods, and iTunes too
Walt Mossberg, the king of tech journalists, offers up his review of Apple's latest iterations of the iPod and iTunes. Walt was impressed with the evolution of the iPod, along with the cut in price, and the redesign of the Shuffle, however, he thinks that the real action is happening in iTunes 7. It seems Walt really likes Coverflow, a feature that does very little for me but it is kinda cool the first time you see it. Walt likens it to browsing LPs in yesterdays (LPs, for our younger readers, were like big CDs that you played on a turntable).Overall, Walt gives iTunes and the iPod a thumbs up.
Holy crap, Mossberg reviews toilet seat
It's a rare occurrence when we're more interested in a product's reviewer than the product itself, but when esteemed and influential tech journalist Walt Mossberg dropped his pants to get the scoop on a high-tech toilet seat, well, we knew there was some fun to be had. Unkie Walt (as he's affectionately known around here) and his trusty sidekick Katie decided to throw modesty to the wind and have Brondell's $800 Swash 800 electronic toilet seats installed in their respective homes; since the main draws of this product are its twin bidet-like spray wands (one for him and two for her), we couldn't help but picture the distinguished Mr. Mossberg enjoying the morning's Wall Street Journal while having his nether regions blasted with SuperSoaker-like jets of water -- a simultaneously amusing and disturbing image. The Swash 800 also features a heated seat and air drying feature that supposedly eliminates the need for toilet paper, but both Walt and Katie found that it was inefficient for completely, um, cleansing themselves after answering nature's call. Another downside to this model is that you need to hook it up to an electrical outlet, so unless you already have one conveniently placed behind the toilet (for your iPod dock / toilet paper dispenser, perhaps), you'll either have to get one installed or run an unsightly extension cord to the closest socket. In the end, toilets come across a lot like Mossberg himself: the old-fashioned ones just seem to do the job better.[Via Slashdot]
Uncle Walt says run to get an iPod + Nike Sport Kit
Walt Mossberg, the elder statesman of tech journalism, continues the good press for the iPod + Nike Sport Kit. He, and Katherine Boehret, both gave the gizmo a whirl during their normal running/walking routines and felt their workouts transformed from solitary drudgery to running with a training (a disembodied trainer, but a trainer nonetheless).They both wish it included a heart monitor, and that it was a little easier to use it with non-Nike shoes, but give it high marks for doing what it is billed to do.
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."