Category: rant

  • Without Siri, the iPhone reminder app stinks

    One of the cool new features of the iPhone 4S — and the most hyped in Apple’s advertisements — is using the digital assistant Siri to set reminders. When you use Siri, you can usually speak as if  you were talking to another person and Siri will figure out what you mean. Tell Siri “Make…

  • Two small hardware updates are game changers for Macbook Air and Mac mini

    Apple massively upgraded two of its best hardware products today, the Macbook Air and the Mac mini. There are loads of changes and improvements. But only two are real game changers to me: 1. The addition of a Thunderbolt port on MacBook Airs means you finally will be able¹ to connect external hard drives and…

  • Give Amazon credit for great data on Blu-ray Lord of the Rings

    I’ve been among the many movie fans disappointed by the studios’ greedy Blu-ray releases. Last year’s issue of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (non-extended editions) was probably an all-time low. New Line Cinema paid the price, with so many one-star reviews on Amazon that the discs were eventually consigned to the store’s virtual discount…

  • The future of Apple computing isn’t all led by Apple

    There’s a great video up on Macworld’s site of a conversation between four highly knowledgeable Mac pundits about the “future of the Mac.” The participants were Daringfireball’s John Gruber and Tidbits’ Adam Engst along with Jason Snell and Dan Moren from Macworld. The discussion was interesting and worth the 48 minutes or so of my…

  • Just when I got off AT&T, Motorola’s Atrix 4G tries to lure me back

    (Update 2/3/11 — oops, Motorola seems to be way overpricing the laptop dock) Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in -Michael Corleone, The Godfather III A couple of weeks ago, I ended a long and tortuous tenure as an AT&T mobile phone customer in the Boston area. First on a…

  • Why can’t anyone compare iTunes store video to Android’s offerings?

    The other day, Josh Topolsky at Engadget published a lengthy and detailed review of the new Samsung Nexus S smartphone which runs the very latest version of Google’s Android operating system. The 3,300 word review seemingly runs through every feature, includes a dozen or more pictures and generally appears to be the most thorough run…

  • Living in the future, Apple style, some day

    Tech journalist Harry McCracken has an excellent post up about the implications of the latest Macbook Air line. He noticed a bit in Apple’s press release that I had overlooked: Apple® today unveiled an all new MacBook Air®, the first of a next generation of notebooks which will replace mechanical hard disks and optical drives…

  • Internet TV a long way off because that’s how they want it

    (updated 10/22) There’s a really important article semi-buried on page B3 of the New York Times today: Internet is a Weapon in Cable Fight. You should go read it but the short version is that the Fox network is fueding with cable provider Cablevision over payments for carrying regular TV stations on the cable system.…

  • One-star boycotts may be working

    There was a lot of debate over the past few years about consumers rating down books, movies and other products with one-star reviews because of issues not directly related to the quality of the entertainment. Rather, fans were upset about formatting, pricing, obnoxious digital rights management and other media deficiencies. Authors and producers whined but…

  • Review: Top 10 reasons why Civ V is awful (updated)

    (UPDATE in December 2014 — I guess it’s impressive that this debate is still going on and people are still adding comments to the blog post. I personally think it’s a little silly to criticize the post, which was written more than four years ago, over the many game features which have been updated or added since,…