Computers that work, and those that just don’t.
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.
Elites, Gadgets and the desire to do terrible things to couriers…
My, but I’ve been busy. So busy, in fact that the only mention I made of a column that went up yesterday was via my Twitter account. For those of you not following (why?), here it is:
Vintage Tech: Looking Back At Elite: “Some games are good. Very few are great. Even fewer are fantastic. But only one game is undeniably Elite.”
Speaking of Twitter, and keeping things online, I’ve been venting my frustration at couriers on Twitter for some time now via the use of the #punchcourierinface hashtag. Before anyone gets out the restraining orders, I’m not a physically violent man in any genuine way — it’s just a tool for expressing annoyance. Anyway, today, I jokingly commented that I use the tag enough that I should start selling T-Shirts. A certain other journalist (the guilty parties know who they are) said they’d buy one. One thing leads to another, and that leads to the…
PunchCourierInFace Cafe Press Store
As noted, I’m not doing this as a genuine revenue raiser for myself, and if anyone does buy anything, all the proceeds will head directly to BeyondBlue. If there are any graphic designers or similar who can come up with a better design they’d be willing to donate, drop me a line.
Back in the more solid, actual world, I’m also heavily within this month’s issue of PC User magazine. Astonishingly, for a magazine with such a strong cover focus on the iPad, I’ve not contributed a single iPad-centric word within. Hmm. Something might have to be done about that. Instead, what you’ll find within with my byline on it includes reviews of the Belkin F6D6230AU4 (who thinks up these names?), JVC BoomBlaster RV-NB50, Motorola DEXT, Kogan 26″ LED TV, Jabra Stone, Powermat Wireless Charging Pad, Modu Phone, Olin iPhone Wireless Charger and Flip MinoHD.
Astonishingly, if you so chose, you could buy a #punchcourierinface branded Flip Mino HD. I’m not expecting that to be a huge seller, however.
I might not be new, but perhaps I’m cool…
The June issue of PC User Magazine is out now, suspiciously close to an actual on-sale-in-June time frame. Just when I think that magazine cover dates don’t make sense, they start doing so! It’s doing my head in.
Anyway, aside from a review of the Belkin HomeBase for TestBench, the majority of my writing in this month’s issue is in the “Cool & New” section. It’s also the majority of the Cool & New section, with reviews of the HTC Desire, Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N700, Uniden Wireless Power Starter Kit, Edifier Esiena IF360, Blackberry Storm 9250 and Navigon 1400.
At my age, I’m arguably not all that new, so by a process of deduction, that must mean I’m cool — right?
Right?
Damn. Thought I could get away with that one.
Meanwhile, in the Web world, I’ve been going slightly insane testing PVRs for CNET.com.au.
LG HR599D: “LG’s HR599D is a grab bag of Blu-ray, DLNA media player and dual-tuner PVR. Combination units can go either way. Sometimes you get a superb mix of ingredients well presented that combine to enhance each component’s strengths. All too often, however, you get a lucky dip of bubble and squeak that attempts to cover over its flaws by bamboozling you with how much it can do…”
Headsets, backup and getting to Home Base…
No, not in that way. Stop thinking what you’re thinking!*
I’ve got the hopeful-ometer cranked up to eleven for tonight’s IT Journo awards, where I’ll inevitably not win an award.
Hang on a minute. That doesn’t sound like the hopeful-ometer is working at all!
Excuse me while I hit it repeatedly with this wrench. Keep yourselves amused with these reviews, live today at CNET.com.au:
Plantronics Voyager Pro: “Plantronics’ headset design harks back to days when Bluetooth headsets were big and bulky, but it works well.”
Belkin Home Base: “Want to pump up your router’s capabilities? Belkin’s Home Base makes it simple — for a price.”
Meanwhile, in the print world, there’s also the May issue of Australian PC User Magazine. This month I’ve contributed a roundup of backup software as well as reviews of Internode’s MiFi, Edimax’s 3G-6210N, Google’s Nexus One and Nokia’s N97 Mini.
*Well, OK. You can think it for a while. If you really must.
Power, broadband, VoIP and gadgets
Another busy week kicks off here at alexkidman.com. Busier than normal, actually; between events, dentistry and child-minding duties I’ve got less than a full working day to polish off a week’s worth of work. Not even one single day; stray batches of hours here and there. Going to be interesting juggling all of it and still intermittently sleeping.
Today’s offerings start at CNET.com.au, where I’ve cast a critical eye over Uniden’s “wireless” charging solution:
Uniden Wireless Power Starter Kit: “Uniden’s charging solution couldn’t be easier to use, but a full kit is rather costly.”
Then there’s the April edition of Australian PC User magazine, where I’ve written one of the key cover stories on ADSL broadband and VoIP plans. I suffer through all the tables, terms and conditions and comparisons so that you don’t have to. All you have to do is buy the current issue, on sale now.
Aside from the exciting world of broadband tables, you’ll also find my reviews within of the Varta Solar Charger, TomTom Car Kit For iPod Touch, HTC HD2, Navigon 6300 and LG New Chocolate Slide BL42K.
PVRs, PC User and Perspiration…
My, but it’s hot. And humid. And ‘hunpleasant. Today is clearly alliteration day. On with the show!
CNET.com.au has a PVR review of mine up:
LG MS409D HD DVR: “LG’s take on a dual-tuner DVR works well and has some unique features, but it’s expensive.”
Meanwhile, in the print world, the February issue of PC User is out in stores. Inside you’ll find my reviews of the NETGEAR WNDR3700 router, a roundup of notepad replacement applications and a whole bunch of gadget and games reviews. More specifically, on the gadget side I test TomTom’s XXL 540 GPS, Logitech’s Harmony 700 remote control, Sony’s Playstation 3 Play TV PVR, Philips’ AE5230 Digital Radio, Sony Ericsson’s Aino Phone, Withings’ WiFi Scale and Laser’s DVBT-MP32 Portable TV. On the games side, Ratchet & Clank A Crack In Time, Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games, NBA 2K10, New Super Mario Bros Wii and Lego Rock Band were all rocked out to. Especially Lego Rock Band…
Solitary sister, is there still a part of you that wants to give?
Astonishing what iTunes throws up on random some days to make up my subject lines. Hadn’t thought about that song in years. I’m willing to bet you haven’t either…
And that’s as good a random segue as any into today’s articles. Firstly, online. At CNET.com.au I dip into notebook territory:
Asus UL50Vt: “The UL50Vt’s black style almost makes it look like an evil, but considerably cheaper MacBook Pro model…”
(nb: Those who prefer a more business-style spin (and advertising) with their notebook reviews can read the same thing here at ZDNet)
At PC Authority I’ve been doing some cooking with iPhones. Not that they get quite that hot, but anyway:
Amazing Apps for your iPhone: 6 apps to turn your iPhone into a recipe book: “No recipes that use Alcohol, Anchovies and Baking Powder? Fail.”
Then in the print world, there’s the January 2010 issue of Australian PC User.
Please don’t ask me to explain magazine cover dates; we’ll be here all day and everyone will still be confused. Anyway, this issue chalks up an impressive twenty years of PC User, and means that in my own case, I’ve had articles published in the 20 year anniversary issues of both PC User and Australian Personal Computer. Although APC’s 20th was quite some time ago — I was still on staff there in that case.
I wonder how many of the gold boxes there are still around?
Anyway, my contributions to this month’s issue encompass reviews of Amazon’s Kindle, Virgin Mobile’s WiFi Modem, Uniden’s TRAX 5000 GPS, Toshiba’s 22DV615Y DVD/TV Combo, Flip’s MinoHD Camcorder, Jabra’s HALO Bluetooth headset and finally EA’s Beatles Rock Band. Phew. That should keep them busy for, say.. 20 years?
No?
Oh well. Back to the word mill then.
Ordinary Heroes, there’s one on every street…
Mmm.. New Howard Jones album. That’ll make up a nice number of subject lines for the next couple of weeks, methinks. With my “showing off” cap, I’m even in the liner notes…. albeit via a patronage/bribe model, but still…
I’ve also been busy writing stuff. At PC Authority’s local Web site, I collected up as many iPhone Apps relating to holy texts as I could find:
Amazing Apps For Your iPhone: Religious Texts: “There’s a lot of Bibles in the App store. A whole lot. Want to follow your faith from the comfort of your phone? These apps make it easy.”
I’m also in the print edition of the current mag, covering off the home networking and connected family portions of the massive Christmas Gift Guide.
Meanwhile, at another publishing house, not so far away, I’m all over the current issue of Australian PC User Magazine. 
I put McAfee’s Family Protection under the microscope and discover a rather startling omission in its protection engine. Speaking of engines, I used one extensively for a roundup of 11 GPS units, an article I started writing back in July with a massive and lengthy road test that took me from Sydney to Adelaide to Melbourne and back again to Sydney. A whole lot of roads (and a huge quantity of spinal pain) later, and a GPS feature was born. I guess it’s true — you really do have to suffer for the art!
My regular roundups of the best mobiles covers off the snazzy Samsung HD ICON and the slightly schizophrenic DualSIM Mini phones, as well as standalone reviews of the Kogan Pro 26, Logitech S315I rechargeable iPod/iPhone Speaker dock and the very spiffy Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0.
I want you, I want you so bad…
Abbey Road won the voting, for anyone keeping score. So it’ll be on my rotation, and probably my subject lines for the next week or two. Not that easy to come up with subject lines, though, when the above line is about 40% of the lyrics of an entire song…
Speaking of almost creating half of a thing, I’m all over the November 2009 issue of Australian PC User Magazine*. You could start on page 14, where you’d find my reviews of the Netcomm 3G18WN, Axim MR-108N 3G and Edimax 3G-6200N wireless routers. Skip forward to pages 18-19, where I put all the current browser contenders to the test to discover the best of breed for Windows web browsing, with a result that’s sure to put a few cats amongst the avians. Jump to pages 36-38 where a dozen DAB+ digital radios go under my mighty testing hammer — and only a few don’t shatter into chunks of plastic and silicon. But I’m just warming up! Pages 54-56 see me delving into the murky waters of the PVR market with seven models tested. And yet there’s still more, with standalone reviews of the HTC Snap, Powertraveller PowerGorilla and SolarGorilla, Samsung ICON Galaxy and BenQ Joybee GP1 Mini Projector. Finally, to cool down, I’ve reviewed Wii Sports Resort in the games pages.
Phew. It’s tiring just typing that out. Imagine the amount of work that went into testing it all. I think I need a lie down, which I’ll have while you pop down the newsagency for a copy.
*Remember folks, the extra-smoooooth segues are free here to every third buyer! You’re one of the lucky ones!
It’s as easy as Pi…
It always bothered me that the Master said that. It indicated that the Gallifreyans, an ancient race, used classical Greek letters. And what’s more, they used them to describe particular bits of mathematical theory in exactly the same way that the human race would, billions of galaxies away.
And if you understood all that, congratulations. You’re as big a geek as I am.
iPhone owning geeks my age let out little squeaks of joy this week with the announcement of the release of a C64 iPhone emulator via the iTunes App store. A little too excited, as it turns out. I’ve weighed in with my opinion of matters at MacTheBlog:
MacTheBlog: The 64k Question: “Realistically, you’re going to be of a certain age — thirty or above, mostly — to be interested in Manomio’s Commodore 64 emulator at all. I would throw up an iTunes store link for your enjoyment if that describes you, but I can’t, as Apple’s withdrawn it from sale almost as soon as it went up.”
I’m also throughout the October 2009 issue of Australian PC User, in various guises. With my Test Bench hat on, I’ve reviewed the HP 2309M monitor. With my Cool & New hat on (because I count as both, I guess), I’ve reviewed the Kogan Blu-Ray Player 2.0, Nokia’s N97 smartphone, HTC’s Touch Pro 2 and the Targus APV11AU, AKA “The Electric Coffee Cup Of Death”. Finally, with my sports gamer’s hat on, I’ve reviewed The Bigs 2 and Fight Night Round 4. The October issue of PC User should be in stores now. Well, not all stores. Those that sell magazines, mostly, and presumably doctor’s waiting rooms in about eleven years time. I wouldn’t wait if I were you.
