Posts Tagged reviews
Foxit eSlick Reader Review
Posted by jasoncross in Media on November 2, 2009
You may be familiar with Foxit Software’s PDF viewing app, which is a pretty good alternative to Adobe’s PDF viewer. Did you know they make an ebook reader as well? I recently reviewed it for PC World. The long and short of it is this: it’s not that great. The interface is sort of clunky, and it really only reads PDF and plain text documents. It’s got no wireless capability at all, and it’s priced the same as other, better ebook readers. It’s no Kindle, and not the sharp competitor the new Barnes and Noble new Nook reader is. Check out the review at PC World.
I’m not sure how the review ended up with a score of 72 (good). They come up with that number as a composite of various sub-scores and stuff I give them when I submit it, but my scores were pretty low. I think the text of the review makes it pretty clear that I don’t think it’s a “good” ebook reader.
Zune HD Review at Maximum PC
Posted by jasoncross in Media on September 23, 2009
I recently reviewed the Zune HD for the fine folks over at Maximum PC. So go there and check out the review. I bring up a lot of points in the review, but overall I love the Zune HD. Microsoft has truly made a great device, great software, and a great service here. A lot of reviews sort of skimp on talking about Zune Pass, but it really is the major differentiator here. The software and device are really made to worth together with it, feeding you more and more music rather than just giving you control over the music you already have. I sum things up thusly:
“If you want a portable player primarily for media, the Zune HD trounces the iPod Touch. Music, video, and podcast offerings are similar, but the Zune has FM and HD radio, marginally better sound quality, 720p video output, the optional Zune Pass subscription service for music, and an honest-to-goodness superior interface. The software on both desktop and device is designed to be vastly better for discovering new music. If you want a pocket computer to run apps and play games, with music and video playing as a second-tier function, the incredibly robust App Store on the iPod Touch make it still the obvious choice.”
Zune Pass is magically awesome. $15 a month gets you all the music you want. Obviously it has DRM so that it expires when you stop subscribing. Otherwise you’d just subscribe for one month, download thousands of songs, and quit, laughing all the way to the bank. But for that $15 a month, you also get 10 song credits you can use to download 10 totally DRM-free songs you can keep forever. And believe me, when you can download and listen to as many tracks as you want, you’ll easily find way more than 10 songs you want to keep a month. This, combined with the software’s new Smart DJ feature, will introduce you to lots of awesome new music you don’t have and let you quickly, easily, and legally download it.
Samsung NP-Q320 Review at PC World
Posted by jasoncross in PC Tech, Work on September 17, 2009
My latest laptop review is up now at PC World, for the Samsung NP-Q320. It’s a pretty good notebook for the price. At just under $1,000, I think it hits the sweet spot for price/performance for a lot of folks. Those $600 notebooks just have too many compromises, I think. At that point you might as well go for something really small and light in the $400 range. I generally prefer a notebook that is small and light enough not to be a burden to carry around (no 17″ models for me…I’m just not the market for that), and for me a really good notebook has got to have discrete graphics. Even if it’s just the extremely low-end GeForce G 105M, as in this Samsung, it’s still way better than integrated graphics.
Of course, if I were buying a notebook for myself, I’d probably wait until the middle of October and get one of those really awesome new HP Envy notebooks. They’re a lot more expensive, but oh-so-awesome. (Probably. Who knows what “gotchas” they haven’t told us about yet.)
Apple’s New iStuff
Posted by jasoncross in Media, Software on September 11, 2009
Like many other geeks that take great interest in what Apple does to for them, I followed along with Wednesday’s press event. I eagerly updated my iPhone 3G to 3.1 as soon as it was available, and constantly refreshed the iTunes page until I could download iTunes 9.
Of course, Apple announced some stuff beyond iTunes 9 and a new iPhone firmware update, like a major upgrade to the iPod nano, and new iPod touch models and pricing. There was no huge, drop-everything-and-run-down-to-the-Apple-Store announcement, but overall a decent day of releases.
(A side note: On the bus one day, I heard a group of inner city teens talk about going to the “iPod Store” downtown, referring to the San Francisco Apple Store location. That’s what Apple is to them – the iPod company. Take that to mean what you will.)
Now that I’ve had time to use this stuff and let the other announcements sink in, here are some thoughts.
Where You Can Find My Work
Posted by jasoncross in Media, Work on August 27, 2009
This week I’m on Tekzilla talking about video cards. Episode 103. The host, old co-worker and all around great guy Patrick Norton, asked me where viewers can find my blog, and said something about how I should put links up here to my freelance articles. Which of course, I should do. It’s one of the reasons I started this thing, and I still haven’t gotten around to it. So let’s fix that right now.
XBLA, PSN, and WiiWare Quality Analysis
Posted by jasoncross in Gaming, Media on August 14, 2009
The other day I got to thinking…I wonder which console has the best downloadable games? No, I’m not talking about being able to download full PSP games off the Playstation Network or older retail boxed titles on the new Xbox Live “games on demand” thing. And I don’t mean downloadable add-on content for store-bought games. I mean games made for the download market: Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, and WiiWare.
I mean, I know which console I think has the best downloadable games. I mean, I love Fat Princess and all, but I generally find a whole lot more games I like on XBLA. That’s personal preference. What can we learn about the quality of the games on these services, statistically? So I headed on over to Metacritic (a site that averages review scores for movies, TV, DVDs, and Games, in case you’re unaware) and found the top 20 games for XBLA, PSN, and WiiWare. Here’s the raw data, with analysis at the end.
This is the Only Level
Posted by jasoncross in Gaming on August 10, 2009
I don’t always get behind those experimental flash-based “rethinking what is is to be a game” type games. This one is just too clever and fun to ignore.
Stop whatever you’re doing and go play This is the Only Level. There’s only one level! See that screenshot? That’s it. That’s the level. You press the button to open the door and go to the pipe. And then you play the same level…again. Only this time it’s different. A short phrase in the lower left gives you a clue as to how things are different, and some trial and error is involved, but that’s really what this game is about. It’s about taking a single, extremely simple level and wringing as much gameplay as possible out of it by altering the rules of the environment.
Jonathan Blow would love it.
Logitech Comfort Lapdesk micro-review
Posted by jasoncross in PC Tech on August 7, 2009
I live in what you would call a “small San Francisco apartment” with my girlfriend. It’s nice, and the location is great, but there are times when I long for the extra couple of hundred square feet I used to have in Vermont. Because of the relatively tight space, and because I love my new laptop, I’ve started doing a lot of work (and play) sitting in bed with a few pillows propped behind me.
Anyone familiar with this knows of the need for a decent lap pad/desk/stand type of thing. Something with a soft bottom to be comfortable on your legs, a hard top to keep your notebook steady and prop it up a bit, and enough thickness to keep your legs from frying thanks to the inevitable laptop heat.