Alex Kidman

A mix of opinion and reviews today for your reading pleasure.

Firstly, at MacTheBlog, an examination of the “It Just Works” Apple culture, and why I think it’s a very bad thing.

MacTheBlog: It Doesn’t Just Work: “You know what? Sometimes — more than most Mac fans would like to admit — it just doesn’t work.”

Then at CNET, two notebook reviews:

Dell Inspiron M501R: “The M501R is a capable desktop replacement as long as power is never far away at all.”

Acer Aspire TimelineX 5820TG: “Acer’s tag line for this notebook is “extreme”. It’s so extreme, it seems, that a simple X will suffice to convey just how extreme it actually is.”

And finally, the September 2010 issue of Australian PC User, which poked its nose through my letterbox today. I’ve got a fair bit of reviews content within, including reviews of eighteen different iPod Speaker docks, eleven different DAB+ Digital Radios and standalone reviews of the Dell 1130N Laser Printer, BigPond Elite Network Gateway, Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Legend, Belkin F8Z492AU Bluetooth Music Receiver, Cygnett Zooom, Kodak Playsport, Uniden ULP 100 and the rather excellent Super Mario Galaxy 2. It’s on sale now at both good newsagencies and those dedicated to evil, but I’d suggest going to the good ones. You never know what else they’ll try to up-sell you with at an evil newsagency.

I’ve got to resist the temptation to drop a Blackadder quote in here. Somehow.

This week’s Vintage Tech column at PC Authority covers one of Microsoft’s least successful products:

Vintage Tech: Looking back at Microsoft Bob: “Managed by Bill Gates’ wife, intended to make Windows simple enough for anybody. So why aren’t we all Bobbing along now?”

Meanwhile I’m covering all sorts of product bases at CNET.com.au with laptops, printers and speaker reviews:

Dell Studio XPS 1647: “The inclusion of Core i5/Corei7 processors to Dell’s Studio XPS line adds performance where it matters, but battery life is still a concern.”

HP Officejet Pro 8000 (A809): “The Officejet Pro 8000 does indeed jet along nicely in draft mode printing, but best quality is another story altogether.”

Divoom Revo-3: “Think of a line of inexpensive but unexciting PC speakers. Congratulations, you just envisaged the Revo-3.”

As I write this, I’ve been awake since 2am with the mother (and father, and possibly great-aunt) of all head colds. Yuck. I’m going to go crawl under a duvet and pretend to be dead, but don’t my zombie state let that stop the virtual presses. Not one, not two but three more articles to finish out the week, all at PC Authority:

Believe it or not, but Telstra BigPond is our new winner for best wireless broadband: “Telstra’s reputation as expensive crumbles in our wireless broadband test. Read why we believe Telstra is changing their ways, and why Telstra wireless is now finally attractive…”

Dell Laptop Buyer’s Guide: Inspiron R vs XPS vs Alienware: “If you’re looking for a mid-range Dell laptop, the range now includes the brand new Inspiron R, as well as XPS and Alienware laptops. So how does the value stack up?”

Vintage Tech: Ye olde 3.5″ floppy disks now surprisingly expensive: “We might laugh about 1.44MB floppy disks, but they were the storage medium champ of their time. And nowadays they’re not exactly cheap.”

Well, except for every paycheque being a fortune, that is. But I can’t complain, with plenty of work flowing my way right now. Keeping with the Aliens-inspired theme, my review of one very Alien laptop has just gone live at CNET.com.au:

Alienware M11x: “Alienware’s a Dell subsidiary, and as such the range of configuration options means that you can have an M11x in a variety of configurations, rather like a pizza. “

Thankfully, while the thin white duke is pretty famous, I’m not. Or at least not to the best of my knowledge. If there’s any paparazzi out there stalking me, they’re doing a very stealthy job of it.

There’s a lot of my work out there that I haven’t particularly plugged as yet. I’m blaming the 3,000km I drove over the weekend, including 1,500km in a single stint. Ow. My everything either hurts or feels like it’s dropped off. I’ll check which is which while you get on with reading it all.

Firstly, CNET.com.au has three reviews of mine:

Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet: “Dell’s tablet isn’t cheap, but it’ll appeal to the business crowd who desire a solidly built system.”

Asus O!Play HDP-R1 Media Player: “We can’t help it. We’ve tried long and hard, but every time we even think about mentioning the name of Asus’ HD Media streaming box, we have to suppress a childish giggle, simply because, by calling it the O!Play, we’re instantly reminded of a certain yoghurt brand…”

Jawbone Prime: “The Jawbone Prime’s ability to filter out nearby sounds is astonishingly good. We suspect black magic is at work here.”

And then at MacTheBlog, I’ve pondered Apple’s rather interesting attitude to how much memory should cost:

MacTheBlog: Memories: A Pricing Game: “There’s a certain small argument there, in that memory sticks put together by a guy in a shed in Dubbo probably aren’t quite as good as Apple’s, even if you do get a slab of beer with every order. But not all memory is sourced from Dubbo.”

Mmm.. bacon.

What a bizarre week, filled with unwell children, unco-operative chicken coops and difficult questions. And, naturally enough, yet more work published online. PC Authority covered off my thoughts on scoring cheaper iPhone apps:

Amazing Apps for your Phone: Here’s how to get cheap iPhone apps: “Pricing varies — and there is a lot of free content out there — but even if they were all only priced at the lowest local paid price, $1.19, you’d be looking at $77,350 to buy them all. And about forty iPhone 3GS units to hold them all, but we digress.”

Meanwhile, CNET.com.au published my review of Dell’s stylish iMac-a-like:

Dell Studio One 19: “It’s a fair guess that anyone buying a system from Dell will know who they’re buying it from. Dell’s not taking any chances however, and every single component of the system bears a prominent Dell logo.”

A couple of reviews and a small feature for today’s efforts to lower the mortgage. First at PC Authority:

How to get legal movies online quota free: “How can you get movies as cheaply as possible? We compare TiVo, BigPond Movies, and iTunes Movies.”

And then two reviews at CNET.com.au.

Dell Inspiron Mini 1210: “Tastes and needs will vary, but we’re still not sold on the “bigger” form factor for netbooks…”

Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds: “If you asked any PC user to describe Lenovo’s ThinkPad line, the chances are that phrases like “solid”, “boxy” and “heavy” would come to the fore pretty quickly. It’s a very apt description for the W700ds, the biggest and boxiest of them all…”

“Me Dad was a bit of a Communist, know what I mean?”

Look, that quote has nothing to to do with my most recent paid writing work. But something has to bring a smile to my face right now, and that did. So there.

Anyway, I completely missed this story, written last week for PC Authority:

Dell’s Windows XP Downgrade Plan: “With the cut-off for XP sales fast approaching, what do you do if you’re opposed to switching to Vista?”

And I noticed it today, after this one went to print. Erm. Pixel. There still isn’t a good, catchy term for Web publishing, is there?

Apple Store: The Grumpy Report: “Yes, it’s very nice and shiny, but get out of my damn way…”

Another quick news story at PC Authority today:

Dell wants you to “touch and feel”: “They won’t be as prevalent as McDonald’s, but you’ll soon be able to pop into the House of Dell (aka Officeworks) at 104 locations around Australia. Will this inspire love for Dell?”