Reviews

A very early review of iPhone OS 3.0

For the past week, I've been able to play with the beta version on the new iPhone OS 3.0. As you probably know, the 3.0 update brings a long list of features to the iPhone including multimedia messaging, cut and paste and a landscape keyboard. As I said last week, iPhone 3.0 has more many more hits than misses, particularly since it finally adds some very basic features that almost every other cell phone has.

Since this is a beta version, I'm not going to get hung up on the obvious bugs. Yes, my iPhone is much slower, and it has a tendency to crash more often, but such problems are to be expected on an OS that's not quite ready for the real world. Instead, I will tell you about my general experience form a usability standpoint.

Cut, cop and paste This is just as Apple execs described at the OS 3.0 announcement. Just double tap a selection to get the cut/copy/paste commands to appear. You then can change the highlighted area by dragging the blue "grab points" around the page. Once you get to your pasting area, just tap the screen again and select the "paste" button. I like the "shake to undo" option, as well. There's just one caveat: at present it seems to be working for notes only.

Landscape keyboard This is one of those "careful what you wish for" situations. After haranguing Apple over the past twenty months to give us a landscape keyboard for texting, notes and e-mail, I have to admit that it does take some acclimation now that I have it. Though the landscape keyboard is much wider with larger buttons, it's also a lot shorter. It did take me a couple of days to get the hang of it. Don't think that I'm not complaining, though, as it's quite the opposite. I love… Read more

mac.column.ted: Secrets of the Dual-Band AirPort Extreme

contributed by Ted Landau

Apple's latest version of its AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) supports simultaneous dual-band. As Apple explains, this means that the new Extreme has separate "2.4GHz and 5GHz bands...to ensure top performance for all your devices." As this was a feature I could definitely use, I decided to buy a new AEBS. My intention was to update my existing older and overly-complicated setup. For those of you considering buying a new Extreme, I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that, if you have a relatively simple … Read more

iPhone OS 3.0 hands-on screenshots

We managed to get a sneak peek at the iPhone OS 3.0.

It's a beta version, so things could change between now and the official release this summer, but we captured a few screenshots to give you an idea of its look and feel.

Of course, we checked out the biggest additions, such as cut and paste, multimedia messaging, and the landscape keyboard. Yet we also cruised through the "shake to shuffle" feature, the Spotlight search feature, the voice memo recorder, and a few others. We even found something we that we weren't expecting.

So … Read more

Count your calories--for free--with Lose It! (Review)

Trying to lose weight? Forget the diet du jour: It all boils down to math. If you burn more calories than you consume, presto: the pounds come off.

Fortunately, there's a tool that makes this math incredibly easy: Lose It! This terrific little program lets you create a weight goal and log your daily food intake and exercise.

Yep, it's a fancy calorie-counter. But it's a really good one, and I've found it has numerous advantages over traditional calorie-counting methods. For starters, because it lives on your iPhone, it goes where you go. There's nothing … Read more

ColorSplash for iPhone (Review)

We've called the 2.0 megapixel camera in the iPhone mediocre and it still is. However, the software applications supporting photography on the iPhone continue to amaze.

ColorSplash by Hendrick Kueck (iTunes Link) is an app that allows you to make some very dramatic changes to your photos for its $1.99 price tag. The software uses a process called desaturation to convert your photos to black and white while letting you leave behind color in select details. The results are stunning.

ColorSplash includes a nice, built-in tutorial to get you going quickly--spend a few moments with it and … Read more

YG Acoustics Anat Reference II speakers, $107,000

You'll get no argument from me that $107,000 seems like a lot of money for a pair of speakers.

But the YG Acoustics Anat Reference II Professional is a lot of speaker. Stereophile magazine's Wes Phillips delved deep into the flagship speaker's build and sound quality in his review. It was a tough assignment, but somebody had to do it.

While $107,000 is definitely out of my price range, that doesn't mean there's not a market, albeit a very small market, for products that advance the state of the art. Great, but who buys these things?

Answer: rich people. You probably know some of their names. Rock icon Bruce Springsteen just signed a new $110,000,000 contract. The Boss could and should buy these things (maybe he'd make better-sounding records). And the last time I checked, Tom Cruise is still getting upward of $20 million to appear in a movie. A pair of YG Acoustics Anat Reference II Professionals would be a nice start for his home theater.

In addition, sports superstars are still signing megamillion contracts, and big-business CEOs are still eating at fancy restaurants. Even now, the rich aren't hurting; luxury markets are holding steady.

The Anat Reference II Professional is a three-piece modular loudspeaker. It is, shall we say, on the statuesque side of large; the Reference Main Module sits atop the Studio passive subwoofer, which, in turn, rests upon the Professional powered subwoofer. Each three-module array weighs 440 pounds.

Most of each module is made of aircraft-grade aluminum; the front baffles are a machined "ballistic grade" alloy of aluminum and titanium. The speakers are shipped in six custom aluminum flight cases.… Read more

Single-speaker home theater solution, now with bass!

I'm asked this question all the time: "Are there any great-sounding TV speakers?"

People want "something good," but they don't want hassles, and they sure as hell don't want to decipher techno-babble setup instructions. Nowadays there are plenty of single speaker systems to choose from, but most of them don't sound all that good, and setup--while way better than a bona fide multichannel system--is still more complicated than it ought to be.

Enter the Zvox Z-Base 550 Low-Profile Single Cabinet Surround Sound System ($500). From the front, it looks like just another … Read more

An iPhone 3.0 software wish list

Update: We now know the details of iPhone 3.0. Happily, it includes many of the features listed here. Check out the iPhone 3.0 details and read the live blog of the event.

As iPhone owners await Tuesday's announcement of the iPhone 3.0 software, the Web is abuzz with speculation about what new features the update will bring. Of course, we couldn't let this opportunity pass without chiming in as well.

Ever since the first iPhone was born more than two years ago, and following the introduction of the iPhone 3G last summer, we've made no secret that the iPhone lacks many features we think it should have. We've blogged a few times detailing our complaints, but here you can find a full list in no particular order.

We've also browsed through your blog comments and e-mails to see the features that you hope to see. And please feel free to add anything that we've missed. … Read more

Wallet App addresses iPhone security flaws (Review)

You learned recently that the iPhone and iPod Touch are not as secure as we would like them to be.

Luckily for iPhone and iPod Touch users, third-party vendors are supplying applications that help fill some security holes. Acrylic Software makes software that fills some of these chinks. Its Mac software, Wallet 3, costs $20 CDN ($15.62 US); upgrades are priced at $5 CDN ($3.91 US) and requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard--sadly, there is no Windows version. A version of Wallet for the iPhone and iPod Touch (iTunes Link) costs $3.99 US.

Wallet for iPhone … Read more

Panasonic TC-PG15 series--Quick Take

The TC-PG15 series sits near the top of Panasonic's extensive plasma lineup for 2009. These three displays are very similar to the company's TC-PG10 series, aside from styling. The G10s have a silver fade along the bottom of the frame, while the G15s are all black, and the G15s boast thinner panels: 2.1 inches versus about 4 inches on the G10 models. The TC-PG15 series also lacks a 54-inch screen size, and costs about $100 more than the G10s. It's reserved for "regional retail" sales channels, while the mainstream G10 series is available nationwide.… Read more