Cameras

Sony Alpha SLT A57 Hands-On: DSLR Performance Without A DSLR Price

Sony’s latest $800 Alpha camera sure looks like a budget DSLR, huh? Well, it is, but our hands-on today has us thinking it might just perform above its paltry price tag.


March 1, 2012
Software

Windows 8 On A MacBook Air: Beautiful And Kinda Broken

The MacBook Air is the most beautiful piece of computing hardware you can put in front of your face. Windows 8 is arguably the most exciting software counterpart right now — sorry, Mountain Lion. So what happens when you mix?


February 22, 2012
Computing

BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 Test Notes: Worth The Wait?

This isn’t the review of the BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 software. That comes tomorrow. Rather, these are just some early impressions and comparisons to the 1.0 software running through my head as I get acclimated with the thing. These opinions that may or may not change with time and familiarity.


March 13, 2011
Computing

The iPad 2 Burning Question: Black Or White?

You would think a simple aesthetic choice, a binary question of preference, would have an easy answer. The black iPad or the white one? But it’s slightly more complicated than you might think.


June 26, 2010
Cameras

Test Notes: iPhone 4 Camera

The best camera is the one you have with you, so I carry a very nice point-and-shoot everywhere. Nothing else has been good enough. But the iPhone 4 is.


Mobile

Design Test Note: Fragile Beauty

iPhone 4, you’re the most beautiful thing. Holding you – so solid, so smooth, your zowielala screen glowing – makes me greedy. My precious. I want to lick you. I can’t stop looking at you. But your industrial design is a failure.


June 25, 2010
Mobile

iPhone 4 Test Notes: Call Quality

The iPhone 4 is supposed to have better reception than prior generations. Its additional noise-cancellation microphone should result in better call quality and less distortion during chats. Our somewhat unscientific tests confirmed it – iPhone 4 is go for talk.


Mobile

Test Notes: FaceTime

Video calling has been a sci-fi staple for decades. From 2001 to Back to the Future people chatting face-to-face from great distances was a way of saying “Hey, look, it’s the future!” So does Facetime mean we’re in the future?


Mobile

Test Notes: iPhone 4 App Speed

Day-to-day, the speed difference between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS isn’t that different. But in more intensive apps and games? The iPhone 4 smokes the 3GS and is nearly as fast as the iPad.


Mobile

Test Notes: iPhone Screen

When I try to look for the pixels, I get close. Then closer. Before I can discern them, my vision goes cross-eyed, blurry. Eyes: 0; Retina Display: 1.