<![CDATA[Gizmodo: ed baig]]> http://tags.gizmodo.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gizmodo.com.png <![CDATA[Gizmodo: ed baig]]> http://gizmodo.com/tag/edbaig http://gizmodo.com/tag/edbaig <![CDATA[iPhone 3GS Review Matrix: What Everybody's Saying]]> It's time for another roundup of pundits espousing heartfelt admiration and none-too-bloody criticism of a pretty hot Apple product. How did they—I mean "it"—do this time around? Have a look-see...

As usual, this matrix is just the tip of the molehill—if you want to really get in deep with these colorful characters, here's where to look:

NYT - David Pogue

WSJ - Walt Mossberg

USA Today - Ed Baig

Wired - Steven Levy

Cnet - Kent German

Engadget - Josh Topolsky

Ars Technica

Laptop

Crunchgear

Gear Live

Gizmodo - Jason Chen

And if we've missed your review, send it in: we'll add it to the list.

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<![CDATA[Palm Pre Review Matrix: What Everybody's Saying]]> When a bunch of reviews hit, it's useful—and sometimes funny—to see how they echo each other, and how they differ.

In the Palm Pre reviews, nobody used the word "iPhone" as much as WSJ's Walt Mossberg—he was a third more likely to use it than his colleagues David Pogue (NYT) and Ed Baig (USA Today) were, and he even lead with a discussion of it, before mentioning the Pre. Nobody wrote nearly as long as Josh at Engadget: His review is over 10,000 words; ours, the next longest, was just over 3,000. There was a lot of consensus here, though notable disharmony when it came to Sprint service and the Pre's tight keyboard.

And nobody, but nobody, mastered the metaphor like Jason Chen. Except maybe David Pogue. Read on...

Of course, there's no way to fit even all the main points into the review matrix, so if you want to go and check out the other reviews for yourself, damnit, you should!

*Apologies for not including Steven Levy's piece from Wired. We saw it too late to include it in the mix.

NYT - David Pogue
USA Today - Ed Baig
WSJ - Walt Mossberg
Engadget - Josh Topolsky
Gizmodo - Jason Chen

UPDATE: Check Out All These Other Palm Pre Reviews
Time - Josh Quittner
Newsweek - Dan Lyons
PC Magazine - Sascha Segan
Laptop - Mark Spoonauer
SlashGear and MyPre - Vincent Nguyen
PC World - Ginny Mies

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<![CDATA[Gizmodo's iPhone 3G Review Matrix]]> How do you read three lengthy reviews at the same time, really really fast? You jump to our review matrix of the iPhone 3G, first judged exclusively by the Three Amigos of Appledom: Ed Baig of USA Today, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times.

If you need more gritty and less nitty, check out Chen's rundown of the reviews. Or, if you have some spare time, read the Three Amigos' own unexpurgated scribblings. [USA Today, WSJ/AllThingsD, NYT]

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<![CDATA[iPhone 3G Reviews Are In]]> The first iPhone 3G reviews have just hit, from Walt Mossberg of the WSJ and All Things D, Ed Baig from USA Today and David Pogue from the NYTimes. No one goes deep into the app store but here's what they think:

Walt Mossberg of the WSJ has been testing it "for a couple of weeks" and sees that surfing on the faster 3G is between three and five times the speed of the original iPhone. However, Moss found that browsing on the 3G network drained his battery much faster than browsing on the original. Externally, he says the speaker was "much louder" (YES!) for both music and speakerphone, but otherwise pretty much the same as the original. One bug/feature he ran into was that you can only sync your calendar and contacts with either Exchange or your personal accounts, not both.

In Mossberg's own battery tests, he got 4 hours and 27 minutes (short of 5 hours) of talk time, which is three hours less than his test on the original iPhone. Using 3G, he got 5 hours and 49 minutes, which is slightly better than Apple's own claim. He couldn't test any apps on his iPhone 3G, but did on his old iPhone—they worked pretty much as advertised. He concludes with pretty much what we've all known: it's slightly more expensive on AT&T due to the higher price plan, but satisfies people who really need that 3G speed. What's weird is that Mossberg didn't test the GPS functionality at all, so we're left wondering how that is. [All Things D]

Ed Baig of USA Today also tested the iPhone 3G and claims both that it was worth the wait, but still not perfect. His complaints of the first one—no video capture, no Bluetooth stereo and no voice dialing—are still there. Also, AT&T's 3G coverage was nonexistent in his New Jersey home, which kinda negates the whole "iPhone 3G" thing. He notes that the new plastic backing helps reception, and the new flush headphone jack is "a welcome development." Unlike Mossberg, Baig does have something to note on the GPS. He says he was quite impressed by its accuracy when searching for pizza places while driving, and hopes that there will be a third-party add-on for turn-by-turn live directions.

Baig also says that the speaker is improved, but notes strangely that you can't directly charge the new iPhone 3G in some old accessories, such as a Bose SoundDock or a Belkin car kit. There's actually an adapter coming that will enable charging on those. Weird. He finishes up with his wishes for the next generation: Flash, Java and WMV support, removable battery and an expandable memory slot. All in all, a pretty positive review. [USA Today]

David Pogue of the NYT says that the audio quality is much improved, and notes that both incoming and outgoing sound is better than before. "In fact, few cellphones sound this good." The curved back makes the phone feel better in your hand, which is a definite plus. However, he says, the missing "standard cellphone features" from the first generation are also missing from this one. He hopes that the third-party Apps from the iPhone App Store will help fill in the gaps, but some of the ones we've seen—finding parking spots, free phone calls at Wi-Fi hotspots, random restaurant recommender, expense tracker, Etch-a-Sketch and tip calculator—don't exactly make up for the missing MMS, video recording and cut and paste features. Pogue also noticed the GPS does not support turn-by-turn navigation.

Pogue doesn't have much else in the way of benchmarks or impressions, but comes off seeming like he really likes the phone because of the iPhone 2.0 software; something old iPhone owners will be able to get for free. [NYT]

Notes: We have to say that Mossberg's review was the best in terms of completeness (save for the GPS omission). Normally, Newsweek would have a review up for the iPhone along with these three guys, but both they and Wired don't have an early review. This, we think, is because Steven Levy (the old Newsweek guy) at Wired, and Fake Steve Jobs (who hasn't quite started at Newsweek) didn't get the nod from Apple. We had our own hands on with the phone back at WWDC, which covers a lot of the exterior hardware elements as well as some of the software details.

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<![CDATA[Our MacBook Air Review Matrix]]>
The so-called "four horsemen" of Apple product reviews have weighed in on the near weightless MacBook Air. You may have seen our post on it last night. You may have even caught one or two of the reviews. But only now can you sit back and enjoy the best quotes from all four reviews in a handy easy-to-read review matrix from your friends at Gizmodo.

MacBook_Air_Review_Matrix.jpgWhile most of the additional material covered in the reviews is basically factual stuff that you've already been agonizing over for a week or more, they're all decent reads if you have the time.

• Pogue's preview-review from 1/17 New York Times

Ed Baig's story in USA Today

Steven Levy's piece from Newsweek's website

Walt Mossberg's review from Wall Street Journal and allthingd.com

Of course, if you don't have the time for those, pop over to Chen's superfast big-shot review summary and then, well, get about your business. [All About MacBook Air]

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<![CDATA[Where Is David Pogue's MacBook Air Review?]]> Pogue_w_Flowers.jpgWednesday night around this time, we like to check in with our favorite columnists. Tonight we expected MacBook Air reviews from Walt Mossberg at WSJ, Ed Baig at USA Today, Steven Levy at Newsweek and of course, David Pogue at the venerable New York Times. Only, when I refreshed my browser at 9pm, Pogue's Jan. 24 State of the Art column turned out to cover Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac and MacSpeech Dictate, rather than the far sexier (and more controversial) MacBook Air. UPDATE: Pogue scoops the other A-Team members by reviewing the Macbook Air on the Macworld show floor. His response in the comments. [First MacBook Air Reviews]

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<![CDATA[Oscars All Round for Ed and Jeff from USA Today]]> USA Today's Ed Baig and Jeff Graham have done their own video review of the iPhone. And it—er... it's—let's just say it makes Ed Wood look like Scorsese, although Jeff's Hawaian number beats Ed's angora sweater. Oh, dear, judge for yourselves.


iPhone Review - USA TODAY's Ed Baig & Jefferson Graham [You Tube]

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<![CDATA[Opinions Side-By-Side In Our iPhone Review Matrix]]>
If you were too lazy to actually read the four iPhone reviews that came out last night, we've done the hard part and stuck the most salient tidbits into a chart, hoping to see both agreement and dissent among the elders: David Pogue of the New York Times, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Ed Baig of USA Today and Steven Levy of Newsweek. (What happened to Lev Grossman at Time Magazine? He usually gets the Apple stuff early too.) Jump for our painstakingly created review matrix—it's fun to notice what words they all use, and when one totally disagrees with the rest.


The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype [New York Times]

The iPhone is Breakthrough Handheld Computer [Wall Street Journal]

Apple's iPhone isn't perfect, but it's worthy of the hype [USA Today]

At Last, the iPhone: A first look [Newsweek]

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<![CDATA[Exclusive Pics from USA Today's DirecTV Sat-Go Grope]]> Ed Baig and Jeff Graham, the reviewin' duo over at USA Today, were among the first to press with a review of DirecTV's new mobile receiver, the Sat-Go. As you Giz readers probably already know, the kit by Humax has a 17-inch LCD screen, integrated receiver, "laptop-style" battery, remote and antenna. That is, the lid of the carrying case is the antenna. Ed and Jeff were kind enough to share with us some of the shots they took that didn't make it into the final story. Follow the jump for excerpts from Ed's review.


While the $1499 kit isn't portable in the sense that a laptop is, the guys say it's as "luggable" as any mobile computer built before 1990. Says Ed:

The trickiest part of setting it up is finding a suitable (and hopefully flat) spot to place the antenna. As with any DirecTV installation, the antenna requires an unobstructed view of the southern sky [hence the compass built into the side of the carrying case]...The quick-start guide shows you dish-pointing coordinates for 15 major markets, with a lengthier list inside the manual. Pressing a button on the TV shows you a signal-strength meter; you'll need 50% or better to pull in a picture.

There's more bad news:
It's hard to imagine in this day and age, but tree leaves are the great technical barrier. They prevented me from ever getting a signal in my backyard. After a bit of trial and error, I was able to get reception in my front lawn.

If you're truly in the middle of nowhere, forget about catching much of the game if you have to rely on the replaceable lithium-ion battery; it lasts just an hour, and a full recharge takes eight hours.


The good news(?):
Under ideal circumstances, you'll connect Sat-Go to a wall jack, or cigarette lighter adapter for powering it up through your car or boat.

Since the satellite receiver is built into the LCD, you can use Sat-Go as an additional TV tuner in your house. Under that scenario, you connect the LCD by cable to the more typical dish installation on the roof.


Truth be told, while Ed gave it three stars out of four and called it "really cool" right in the headline, he seems smitten with the idea—especially for gameday tailgaters—not the execution. If you are still holding out for one, you might want to read Ed's column in full, skipping over the headline of course, or check out the more amusing video of Ed and Jeff discussing Sat-Go. (I'm no theater critic, but something tells me Jeff is just feigning ignorance.)

DirecTV Sat-Go [Gizmodo]

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