Tag Archives: PC Authority

Best Value 3G WiFi Modems and The Future Of The Tablet

  By Alex | December 13, 2010 - 5:15 pm | Published
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The week kicks off with a couple of columns. First up, at PC Authority, I look at the pricing and plans for 3G “MiFi” style Modem/Routers:

Best Value Pre-Paid Portable 3G Wi-Fi Modems: “Whether you call them MiFis, Portable Routers, Battery Routers, Portable Hotspots or merely “that thing that I use to connect my stuff when I’m out”, portable battery powered Wi-Fi 3G routers are hot right now. “

Meanwhile, at Geekspeak, I look to the future of tablets:

Geekspeak: What does 2011 hold for the Tablet? “2010 was, if anything, the year of the Tablet…”

Useless USB drives, Terrifying Terabytes, Killer Couch Potatoes And… Lapdances?

  By Alex | December 8, 2010 - 2:15 pm | Published
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It’s all in a day’s work for an in-demand technology journalist, really. You should see what it’s like around here when I get really busy.*

First up, CNET.com.au has a review of a nice product that doesn’t seem to have a particular niche in mind.

Hitachi LifeStudio Mobile Plus: “Hitachi’s Mobile LifeStudio has an interesting design, but we can’t work out who would actually find it useful and valuable.”

Then over at PC Authority, alliteration meets the world of ISPs by way of broadband plans with scads of data attached:

Should you be terrified of terabyte plans? “Still, at least a 1TB plan should be easy to decipher. Just take the cost of the plan and divide it by 1TB (remembering that ISPs tend to count 1TB=1000GB, for the mathematically pedantic) and you’ve got a good measuring stick, right? Not so fast!”

Then at Geekspeak, I ponder on whether ABC’s iView app will spell the death of the couch potato, and try to resurrect a ’70s National icon at the same time:

Geekspeak: ABC’s iView app spells the death of the couch potato: “If you’re of a certain age, you’ll recall the mascot of the ‘Life Be In It’ campaign: Norm.”

Before finally finishing up at Hydrapinion with lapdancing. No, not that sort of lapdancing.

Hydrapinion: The Lapdance Problem: “For all that we’d opted for slightly different methods of note taking, we were all struck with the same basic problem.”

*Which is pretty much all the time at the moment. Anyone tells you Freelancers have it easy, send them my way for ‘re-education’. With a brick.

This Is Your Product. This Is Your Product Under The Reviews Hammer.

  By Alex | December 1, 2010 - 8:07 am | Published
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Musings on good and bad products permeate today’s offerings. First of all, there’s my contribution to a group article over at PC Authority on the worst products ever:

The worst products we’ve ever reviewed… “You’ve probably never heard of the Fish PC. There’s good reason for that.”

Then at Hydrapinion, the bad product matrix spins around the question of gadget robustness:

Hydrapinion: How tough should your gadgets be? “Real build quality’s a tough thing to assess in the limited time for a product review, especially for a portable gadget that’s likely to see more than a few knocks and bumps along the way.”

I often get asked “who do I work for”?

  By Alex | November 12, 2010 - 1:20 pm | Published
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It’s a question with an ever-evolving answer, but the broad answer is usually that as a freelancer, I’ll work for anyone who’ll pay the bills*. Which is why I’m concurrently across so many titles, both online and in print.

As an example, this month’s PC User magazine has a lot of my content. I’ve tested twenty-five smartphones for the cover feature, ranging from the high end hero models right down to the entry level cheap and cheerful types. To compliment that, I’ve also done a run of testing the 3G networks that those same smartphones rely on, although via USB modems just to mix things up a bit.  In standalone review spaces, I’ve also tested the Clickfree Transformer, Plantronics Gamecom 777 headphones, Aximcom MR102N portable 3G router and LG’s Optimus 7Q Windows 7 smartphone. Which means I’ve actually tested twenty six smartphones across the span of this issue. And there’s more to come next month…

Meanwhile, at PC Authority, I’ve contributed brief thoughts to the cover article there, dubbed “50 Expert Tips”. Which presumably means I should add “Expert” to my business cards the next time they’re reprinted. My particular expertise on call here is to do with Apple, and if you’ve ever wondered what I look like, there’s even an accompanying headshot to go with the tech tip. Although I’m not usually quite that blue-tinged in real life.

*There are exceptions to this ‘will write for anyone’ rule. They know who they are, or at least should do.

It costs how much, exactly?

  By Alex | November 12, 2010 - 12:57 pm | Published
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The sticker shock of the price of the Samsung Galaxy Tab took a lot of people by surprise, myself included.

Then I discovered that it’s actually slightly worse than it seems. I should tip my hat in the direction of fellow journalist Darren Yates, as the article spun out from a Twitter discussion I was having with him this morning. That led to this story at PC Authority:

Galaxy Tab More Expensive Than Any iPad: “That $999 “outright” price isn’t entirely accurate…”

Slick printers and sleek notebooks

  By Alex | October 21, 2010 - 8:32 pm | Published
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Another day, another raft of Apple announcements. Of course I was going to write something on them, although it’s a little different from my usual all-in-grab-bag analysis of everything announced. Instead, I’ve posed a question over at PC Authority:

If you had $1000 to spend on an Apple product, which one should you buy? “We’ve broken down each Apple model by their good and bad points, including the Air, Macbook, Mac Mini, iPad and iPhone.”

Meanwhile, over at CNET.com.au, a review of one of the best looking printers I’ve ever seen. Bearing in mind how functionally ugly most printers are, that’s quite an achievement.

HP Envy 100: “Other printers should be envious of the Envy 100′s good printing looks, but they might smirk at its ordinary print speeds.”

And before it slips past me, yesterday also saw my Hydrapinion Carry column take a long hard look at Nokia’s camera-centric smartphone strategy:

Just Shoot Me? “Attending the launch of Nokia’s latest smartphone the N8, yesterday, I was battered over the head with the same repeated message…”

T-Shirts and Terabytes, Fifty Cent and Choice

  By Alex | September 6, 2010 - 12:58 pm | Published
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Things were so much easier when I picked subject lines based on what I was listening to at the time. Still, the above subject line does make sense. Of a sort.

Firstly, the T-Shirts, over at PC Authority, where I’ve looked over Internode’s new “T-Shirt” 1TB broadband plans:

Internode enters the 1TB race with “T-Shirt” plans: “Internode’s new “T-Shirt” plans offer up to a tantalising 1TB of data. But will they cost you the shirt off your back? We investigate the real value.”

And then over at MacTheMag, my regularly weekly blog considers the exact details of Apple’s new product offerings, by working out how much choice is included. Fifty Cent makes a guest appearance, as apparently Apple’s new Ping social network figures I should follow him. Which I guess goes to prove that Ping may be many things, but a Genius it is not.

MacTheBlog: Please, Apple, can I have less? “The confetti has been swept up, Chris Martin has vanished off to … well … wherever it is Chris Martin vanishes off to when he’s not performing, and what we’re left with is, to my appraisal, not all that satisfactory. To put some specifics to this, it seems that Apple’s gone all out to remove elements of choice.”

The one in which I go insane, and so does a major ISP

  By Alex | August 18, 2010 - 3:22 pm | Published
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I was actually going to take today off as a sick day. Dropped everyone in at their respective places of work and education, and headed home to spend the day in bed getting better. But then the phone rang. Again and again. Couriers started turning up, and it became clear that my plans to recover would have to be put on hold, as would recovery. It’s enough to drive a man mad.

Which is a clunky but effective segue into this week’s Hydrapinion column, which is all about screen protectors:

Hydrapinion: The complete lunatic’s guide to putting on a screen protector: “In the interests of preserving the sanity of future screen protector applicators, I’ve assembled this handy how-to-checklist.”

I can’t explicitly say that iiNet’s gone insane. For a start, the company can afford really fancy lawyers. But I can imagine an iiNet advertising campaign shouting about KERAZY VALUES! in a distinctive Irish lilt after today’s announcement of new broadband plans, which forms the basis of my weekly broadband value column at PC Authority:

iiNet rejigs plan values, announces first 1TB download plan: “The ISP price war we’ve alluded to previously? It’s well and truly on. iiNet today announced the first plan in Australia to offer a combined 1TB of downloads.”

Surfing the data waves

  By Alex | August 11, 2010 - 3:15 pm | Published
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Today, it’s all about data, data, data and waves. First up at Hydrapinion, I opined about the odd nature of Optus’ latest data promotion:

Hydrapinion: Half price data pricing makes half as much sense: “I mean, really, which sounds better to you — the ‘fake’ 4 to 8c per MB, or the actual 0.5-1c per MB?”

I’m not done with data analysis yet, though, as Internode’s announced changes to its broadband plans go under the analytical hammer at PC Authority:

How do Internode’s new mega-allowance plans stack up? “How do Internode’s new plans compare to Telstra’s recent drastic price drops? We crunch the numbers to assess the real value.”

And then finally at Geekspeak, I go over the basics of Google’s soon-to-be-defunct Wave product:

Geekspeak: Waving Goodbye: “Not every tech product is an instant hit, even when it’s backed by a big brand name.”

Data ain’t data…

  By Alex | August 6, 2010 - 12:50 pm | Published
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That’s broadband data, that is. Not so much Brent Spiner, if you know what I mean. In this case, another analysis of broadband plans article for PC Authority, looking at this week’s announcement by Optus of “off-peak” mobile broadband plans:

Optus launches off-peak Mobile Broadband – but is it good value? “We crunch the numbers on Optus’ latest broadband deals.”