Gizmodo: ars

The Ars and Giz WWDC Party Was a Good Time

Brian Lam — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:44:50 EDT

Things went well last night at the Giz and Ars WWDC party. So well, I woke up a little late this morning. If you came, thank you for making it an event full of wonderful, beautiful people. Yes, you too, mysterious ponytail man wearing an Apple shirt! All 7 of you. I met lots of great devs, but there were some people I saw who I didn't get a chance to say hello to like Leah Culver of Pownce, iJustine and Jordan Golson and Megan McCarthy, of ValleyWag fame. Here are some photos, courtesy of commenter BossKev and his amazing Nikon D3 DSLR. (WANT.) Jacqui and Clint from Ars have some photos up on their page, but If you've got extra photos, let me know and I'll put em in the gallery. Nutbastard: thanks for covering my bar tip and making the drive to hang out. [Ars and more from Flickr user Cirne]

Tonight: Have a Drink on Giz and Ars Technica at WWDC 2008

Brian Lam — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:21:14 EDT

Hey there. We're throwing a WWDC party with our BFFs at Ars Technica tonight. So if you're going to be at WWDC as a reader, developer, journalist or just another fanboy, I'd like to invite you to come have a beer on us. Hope you can make it.

8-11pm

Harlot
46 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
[Upcoming]

Conde Nast Buys Ars Technica

Brian Lam — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:38:14 EDT

Conde Nast and Wired bought Ars Technica for a rumored $25 million. More details are coming on Monday but I'm happy to see friends at both Wired and Ars get together in this deal. [Techcrunch, Thanks Arn]

Let Giz and Ars Technica Buy You a Beer at Macworld 2008

Brian Lam — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:40:23 EST

CES is in full swing. But if today's new Mac Pro and Xserve announcements are the news Apple can spare from the keynote, Macworld is going to be huge. To celebrate, I'd like to buy you a beer if you're going to the show. Just come on over to this party Giz and Ars are co-sponsoring.

Where: Harlot at 46 Minna St, San Francisco, CA
When: 8 p.m. Pacific Time
I think pals like FSJ, Leander from Cult of Mac, some other Wired pals, and Arn from Macrumors are planning to stop by too. More soon.

Ars Benches the New iMac, Predictably Decent Performance

blongo3 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:00:49 EDT

While we poked and prodded our new iMac trying to answer all of your questions, Ars Technicha went their traditional route and benchmarked the hell out of the poor iMac. The 20-inch, 2.4GHz machine with 2GB or RAM " outdid a MacBook Pro with an identical CPU and FSB in my testing, and it was more than competitive with a Mac Pro in formal tests." That said, these aren't huge increases over modern hardware. And the Mac Pro destroyed the iMac in heavily multi-threaded tests. Such is the predictability of performance in all x86 era. [Ars]

Ars Technica's iPhone Review Long and Distinguished

Adrian Covert — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:59:49 EDT

Ars Technica's iPhone review is long and touches upon some great things we missed, like activation itself, as well as a few hacks, and tons of videos. But it gets a full post for its full-on destruction derby stress test including lots of keys, gravel, knives, boots, concrete, and a toilet. This isn't a malicious breakdown, like a blending; this is for science. And don't forget our own review if you haven't checked it out. (We just updated.) [Ars]

17-inch High Res Macbook Pro Reviewed By a Real Geek

Brian Lam — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:17:43 EDT

The Ars ladies and gents are zero fluff geeks. Which is why I'm recommending you take a look at Eric Bangeman's review of the new 1920 x 1200 17-inch Macbook Pro.

Mainly, they say the battery life is a little better, but the performance is definitely better. And they wish it had an LED backlight. But you'll want to be privy to the extra detail in the full review if you're thinking of buying.

Pros
* Significantly faster than its predecessor
* Build quality and design
* Built-in 802.11n support
* Surprisingly svelte for a 17" laptop
* High-quality 1920x1200 display great for those who need the resolution
* Faster boot times
* Very beefy default configuration: 2GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive
* Modestly better battery life

Cons

* No LED backlighting
* Both SO-DIMM slots occupied in default configuration
* Relatively poor OpenGL performance versus its predecessor
* Meager software bundle
* Laptop uncomfortably hot to the touch at times

– Brian Lam

Santa Rosa comes to the Mac: a review of the new MacBook Pro [Ars]

Format War Non-News: Walmart's $300 Yellow HD DVD Peril, and Why None of This Matters Yet

Brian Lam — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:06:58 EDT

So you've heard the rumor about Walmart getting a wave of cheap Chinese HD DVD players? Here's an article by Digital Trends riding the 1000-Digg wave declaring the format war is done. Finshed. Decided. All by the giant retailer's might, HD DVD will win. It makes some sense, and gives some insight to how the retailer decides what to stock.

One thing the article ignores: Current facts.

Right now, Walmart carries not only an HD DVD player for a marginally more expensive $349, by Toshiba, but a $900 dollar Blu-ray player, too. So the $300 dollar rumored price of the Chinese players are a factor, but not more than it already has been with Walmart's existing stock. So there's no reason to write this article now. Unless you factor in the quantity of the rumored players: 2 million. That's more than the combined title sales of both Blu-ray and HD DVD together, which says more about the pathetic states of both parties. (Anyone know DVD's adoption rates by year one offhand?) But I'm not sure these will be a factor — limited supply has never been the issue. It's been limited demand. See for yourself — Walmart's $349 player is going on clearance right now. You want a price point to crow about? I think it's $199. (That's the psychological barrier marketers say husbands have to ask their wives for permission to cross.) Imagine those 2 million players get here, are left unwanted on shelves, and get marked down to $175. Now you're talking about some leverage in the fight. Oh what's that? Hmm, you're already close to this pricing with this dealzmodo of 5 free HD DVD discs with the purchase of a $300 HD DVD player.

How about the fact that Blu-ray sales were great this quarter. I personally believe it has to do with people buying movies they actually want to watch. And five of the six major studios do Blu or Both (Only Universal does strictly HD DVD). Geeks, don't forget, content is king. Will the studios bow to Walmart? Maybe. They've done it before, in Walmart's groundbreaking but shitty video service that is the first and only to have all 6 studios on board. But that hasn't done very well either, has it? I thought retail might could do anything, but apparently, Walmart's customers are not leading edge adopters? I wonder how that affects their power in this cutting edge war?

Of course, this is a lot of talk based on rumors. Neither Walmart or HD DVD groups have made a statement yet. The format war is not decided, and I seriously doubt Walmart is going to do the deciding without the say of both the studios and your wallets. So, steady as she goes.

Back to those Q1 numbers. On to a better article, which John Falcone of CNet sent me: Eric at Ars, kings of reason and analysis on the net, remind us that In

When we discuss HD DVD and Blu-ray at this point in time, we're talking about really small numbers. When sales are in the tens of thousands and not the millions, the market is especially susceptible to changes.

Yes. Like when a few hundred HD DVD fanboys spiked the Amazon sales numbers with a synchronized April 15th buy. (Again, Amazon is a much better metric for leading edge buyers than Walmart.)

With volumes like what we're seeing now, however, it's like trying to call an election with less than 2 percent of the precincts reporting.

Ultimately, until gals like this one can name a format by heart, its not over.

And this is why, even if it's fun to talk about, we call it non-news.–Brian Lam and Keith K.