John Herrman, Author at Gizmodo

Microsoft On Phone Hardware: “No, We’re Not Going To Do That”

Microsoft’s been consistently cagey about whether or not they’ll make their own phone hardware “like Zune and Xbox,” but today at a Windows Mobile roundtable, Robbie “Not Glacial” Bach put it straight: It’s not happening. Officially. https://gizmodo.com/robbie-bach-promises-windows-mobile-wont-evolve-so-damn-5375506 Specifically, he said “No, we’re not going to do that,” which is odd, considering the sheer persistence—and substance—of…

Tech News John Herrman

HTC Imagio Review: HTC Is Microsoft’s Best Critic

For Windows Mobile 6.5, the OS is only (and thankfully) half the story. Microsoft left plenty up to the carriers and handset manufacturers, and with the Imagio, Verizon and HTC have at least created something interesting. https://gizmodo.com/windows-mobile-6-5-review-theres-no-excuse-for-this-5374876 The Gadget Verizon’s HTC Imagio is a touchscreen Windows Mobile 6.5 handset, or “Windows Phone,” with a healthy,…

Reviews John Herrman

Windows Mobile 6.5 Review: There’s No Excuse For This

I really didn’t want to beat up on WinMo here, because at this point it just feels tired. But man, come on Microsoft, you’re giving me no choice. Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t just a letdown—it barely seems done. We’ve been watching Windows Mobile 6.5—or Windows Phone, as Microsoft is sometimes calling it—for months, since Jesus…

Reviews John Herrman

Almost Nobody Owns Just Macs

NPD’s Household Penetration Study found a 3% uptick in Mac households for 2009. This makes sense! What’s surprising (or not) is that of the 12% of homes with a Mac, less than 2% are Mac-exclusive. The 2% figure is extrapolated from NPD’s less direct assessment: [A]pproximately 12 percent of all U.S. computer owning households own…

Tech News John Herrman

How To: Install Homebrew On Palm Pre 1.2.1

WebOS 1.2(.1) is here, and yes: It broke homebrew. Amazingly, it only took devs about two days to bounce back. Here’s how to bring hundreds of free apps, tweaks and themes to your Pre, without flashing your firmware. https://gizmodo.com/palm-pres-webos-1-2-goes-live-5369604 Why Homebrew? Paid apps are due in the official App Catalog any day now—actually they’re running…

Tech News John Herrman

Elite Military Hacker Squad Would Stop Wars With Bits, Not Bombs

Efforts to drag our military’s cybersecurity into the 21st century are well underway, but John Arquilla, professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, wants more: A preemptive international hacker force, which would cripple enemies before they even become a problem. https://gizmodo.com/air-force-cyber-command-wants-intarwebs-supremacy-365042 Existing plans for a new online defense strategy don’t seem particularly bad, except for that…

Tech News John Herrman

WebOS 1.2.1 Fixes Palm Pre iTunes Syncing, Exchange Breakage

When webOS 1.2 didn’t re-fix the syncing compatibility that iTunes 9 re-broke, it almost looked like this bizarre little Apple/Palm standoff had finally just, you know, puttered out. Well, nope, for some reason! Cue webOS 1.2.1. https://gizmodo.com/palm-pres-webos-1-2-goes-live-5369604 Palm’s possibly heroic, mostly inconsequential iTunes-molesting theatrics aside, the fix most people were actually waiting for involved an…

Tech News John Herrman

The Week In iPhone Apps: The Beautiful Game

Don’t listen to the pasty dude with the Arsenal shirt who lives downstairs—FIFA 10 isn’t the only good thing to land in the App Store this week. Not even close. AP Stylebook: Anyone who has to crank out copy on a regular basis is probably familiar with the AP’ stylebook, but an iPhone app seems…

Tech News John Herrman

It’s a Terrible Day to Be a Pirate (Bay)

It’s bad enough that the Pirate Bay’s prospective buyers are world-class sketchballs—today, we find out that the Pirate Bay’s business dealings are even shadier. Oh, and Google’s culling TBP from their results Things: they don’t look so good. https://gizmodo.com/pirate-bay-bought-out-suddenly-respects-copyrights-5304354 Given their earnest public defense of filesharing and aggressive posturing, I always assumed the Pirate Bay…

Tech News John Herrman

Nokia’s 3G Booklet Netbook Spotted at Best Buy With Less Atrocious $600 Price Tag

The one way Nokia could doom their well-styled, long-lasting, 3G-and-GPS-having Booklet netbook? By punching it in the mouth with an $800+ price, like they did in the UK. A Best Buy inventory shot points lower, but not by much. https://gizmodo.com/nokia-dishes-booklet-3gs-full-specs-and-price-5350654 The Windows 7 netbook, which’ll be a Best Buy exclusive when it first goes on…

Tech News John Herrman

Kindle Couple’s Marriage Will Last Forever, Even After the Battery Dies

Because that’s how E-Ink works, get it!? Well, it was either that or a joke about Amazon remote–deleting these folks’ legitimately conceived future children. https://gizmodo.com/big-brother-amazon-remotely-deletes-purchased-copies-of-5317180 This is a found photo from a Facebook album, without context, which leaves some nagging questions: Is it a Kindle, or a Kindle 2? (The coloration up top screams Kindle…

Commerce John Herrman

Cyclopedia Augmented Reality iPhone App Drenches Your World In Wikipedia

App concepts don’t get much simpler than this, or much cooler: Cyclopedia takes Wikipedia’s tens of thousands of geotagged entries, and overlays them onto a live, compass-oriented view of your surroundings. If this sounds an awful lot like Wikitude, the AR Android app that just can’t seem to eek its way into the App Store,…

Tech News John Herrman

T-Mobile Pushing Android 1.6 Donut Update Right Now

Alas, not for everyone: Having sent the update to Ion developer phones just a few days ago, T-Mobile is commencing a gradual rollout that should finish up in the next few days. Here’s what you’ll get, with this Donut: • Universal-ish search with an updated “Quick Search” box • Much fast camera performance, with a…

Tech News John Herrman

Spotify Adds Offline Music Caching to Its Desktop Player, Makes iTunes Look Prudish

Not being allowed to have music subscription service Spotify is now officially the worst thing about being an American: Subscribers will soon be able to listen to unlimited music offline, just like in the murders-everything-else Spotify iPhone app. https://lifehacker.com/spotify-is-the-best-desktop-music-player-weve-ever-used-5330148 The feature, which lets users designate any or all of their content to be available offline,…

Tech News John Herrman

Pioneer Churns Out the World’s First 12x Blu-ray Burner

The BDR-205 is pretty much like any other mainstream 5.25-inch internal Blu-ray writer, in terms of looks and features, except for the fact that it, get this, spins slightly faster than the current crop of 8x writers. Slightly! I was tempted to try to find a late-90s press release for Pioneer’s first 12x CD burner…

Tech News John Herrman

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac Lands October 2nd

After months of flirting, an engagement, and even an infamous sex tape, BlackBerry and Mac OS have finally set a date: This coming Friday, BlackBerry Desktop Manager, which makes syncing your BlackBerry to a Mac bearable for the first time in history, will see an official release. [RIM] https://gizmodo.com/at-long-last-blackberry-desktop-comes-to-mac-5318749

Tech News John Herrman

BlackBerry-Toting TiVo Addicts: You Are No Longer Without an App

TiVo’s tardy BlackBerry app may look a little barebones—and what BlackBerry app doesn’t, honestly?— but it’s a far sight faster than the DVRs’ mobile web interface, and it’s free. https://gizmodo.com/use-your-cellphone-to-control-your-box-with-tivo-mobile-5098453 TiVo’s approach here is direct and clear: This is a basic scheduling app, for searching for, reading about, and marking content for recording, in situations…

Tech News John Herrman

Man, They Just Don’t Make Tech Demos Like They Used To

In 1878 Charles Bennett, a gentleman, discovered a new gelatin dry plate emulsion, which allowed for photos to be exposed almost instantaneously. So how did he show off his amazing new technology? By blowing up a mule, naturally. The experiment ran thusly: A mule was strapped with dynamite, which was connected to a detonator. The…

Tech News John Herrman

Aloysius, the Amazing Exploding Photo-Mule

“It became necessary, one day, at Willet’s Point, to destroy a worthless mule.” “The mule was placed in proper position before a photo camera and duly focused upon the animal’s forehead, a cotton bag was tied containing six ounces of dynamite.” “On pressing the key so as to send the electricity through the wires, the…

Tech News John Herrman

Why iPhone TV Apps Are Doomed to Mediocrity

Ok, I was impressed with CNN’s new iPhone app. It’s nice! But Dan Frommer over at Silicon Alley Insider thinks it could—and should—be much, much better, and he’s right. CNN crippled their app to protect themselves. https://gizmodo.com/cnns-iphone-app-makes-other-news-apps-look-lazy-5369713 What makes CNN Mobile interesting is its video content, which is split between on-demand clips from the network,…

Tech News John Herrman

John Herrman

Microsoft On Phone Hardware: “No, We’re Not Going To Do That”

HTC Imagio Review: HTC Is Microsoft’s Best Critic

Windows Mobile 6.5 Review: There’s No Excuse For This

Almost Nobody Owns Just Macs

How To: Install Homebrew On Palm Pre 1.2.1

Elite Military Hacker Squad Would Stop Wars With Bits, Not Bombs

WebOS 1.2.1 Fixes Palm Pre iTunes Syncing, Exchange Breakage

The Week In iPhone Apps: The Beautiful Game

It’s a Terrible Day to Be a Pirate (Bay)

Nokia’s 3G Booklet Netbook Spotted at Best Buy With Less Atrocious $600 Price Tag

Kindle Couple’s Marriage Will Last Forever, Even After the Battery Dies

Cyclopedia Augmented Reality iPhone App Drenches Your World In Wikipedia

T-Mobile Pushing Android 1.6 Donut Update Right Now

Spotify Adds Offline Music Caching to Its Desktop Player, Makes iTunes Look Prudish

Pioneer Churns Out the World’s First 12x Blu-ray Burner

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac Lands October 2nd

BlackBerry-Toting TiVo Addicts: You Are No Longer Without an App

Man, They Just Don’t Make Tech Demos Like They Used To

Aloysius, the Amazing Exploding Photo-Mule

Why iPhone TV Apps Are Doomed to Mediocrity

Amazon’s 50-Inch Smart Fire TV Is Still 40% Off After the Spring Sale, Price Could Jump Back Anytime

Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta Glasses Now on GlassesUSA With 50% Off Lens Upgrades, Get Vision AI Glasses for Less

This Windows 11 Pro Mini PC Shows Up at a Record Low on Amazon After the Spring Sale, No Need for a Tower Desktop

The ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Moment Designed for You to Gawk at Hugh Jackman’s Chiseled Body Is Now an Action Figure

Marshall Emberton III Bluetooth Speaker Isn’t Supposed to Be This Cheap, Even the New Midnight Blue at an All-Time Low

2026 MacBook Pro (M5 Pro) Breaks Into Its First Sale on Amazon, While Apple Store Still Has None on the New Laptop

Don’t Hold Your Breath for a ‘Super Smash Bros.’ Movie

What’s Actually the Best Way to Get a Good Night’s Sleep? We Asked Scientists

Game to Lose Online Mode After Its Server Partner Pivots to You’ll Never Guess What

This $400 (Not) AI Keychain Is Pointless, Extravagant, and Weirdly Lovable

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?