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Columns

The PS Vita Will Be Sony’s Last Portable

Don Reisinger, Feb 13th 2012 Discuss [0]

Sony’s PlayStation Vita will be launching soon. The portable will come with dual thumbsticks, a nice, big display, and a design that puts Nintendo’s 3DS to shame. And at a starting price of $249.99, it’s in the sweet spot for serious gamers who want a solid portable.

But just because the PlayStation Vita seems attractive, it doesn’t mean that it’ll be a winner. In fact, I’m a firm believer that the Vita will be Sony’s last portable, and the device that could very well put an end to the company’s entire mobile-gaming division.

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Columns

Someone told Samsung we needed another tablet

Chris Davies, Feb 13th 2012 Discuss [0]

At what point do you stage an intervention: gently prise the set-square and soldering iron from Samsung‘s hands, and lead them from the tablet labs and into a quiet room where all the iPad adverts have been snipped from the coffee table magazines? This morning Samsung outed its latest model, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, a 7-inch successor to the original Galaxy Tab of late 2010. In the intervening period, we’ve seen a cavalcade of Samsung slates – the Tab 10.1 and 8.9, the 7.7 with its Super AMOLED Plus display, the 7.0 Plus which, for a while, looked like the original Tab replacement, and they’ve not been the only ones. Has Samsung got a tablet obsession or is it simply reading the market right?

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Columns

Why I Don’t Want to Imagine A World Without A DVR

Don Reisinger, Feb 11th 2012 Discuss [0]

Over the past several weeks, I haven’t had much time to sit in front of my television when my favorite shows come on. I’ve either been out of the house, working, or doing something that wouldn’t allow me to watch anything live.

Luckily, though, I accessed my favorite shows on my DVR and TiVo. Whenever I had a chance to check out an episode, I did. And when I realized that what I was watching was really not worth it, I deleted it and moved on. Best of all, I didn’t have to watch a single commercial.

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Columns

Apple will dominate MWC… and it won’t even be there

Chris Davies, Feb 9th 2012 Discuss [0]

If there’s one thing Apple knows, it’s how to grab attention, and the company looks on track to dominate Mobile World Congress this year despite having no official presence at the show. Talk of a third-gen iPad event in the first week of March is particularly believable, not just because it fits with previous rumors but because it gives Apple the chance to bulldoze its name into headlines during one of the biggest mobile events of the year. It’s certainly not the first time Apple has cast its shadow, though - this is, after all, the company whose iPhone 4 won Best Mobile Device at MWC 2011 without even showing up in Barcelona.

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Columns

Why Microsoft’s Kinect Is the Next Big Thing In Gaming

Don Reisinger, Feb 4th 2012 Discuss [0]

As I’ve said numerous times on these pages before, I’m deeply concerned by motion gaming. I think it’s holding the gaming business back and helps to make the space seem “gimmicky” — something I thought we were trying to move away from.

My issues with motion gaming have prompted me to turn my back on the Wii. In fact, I haven’t even seen my Wii in well over a year, since it’s been sitting in my closet with the rest of the obsolete and boring consoles I’ve bought over the years.

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Columns

Do You Still Need An iPod?

Don Reisinger, Feb 2nd 2012 Discuss [0]

When Apple announced its fiscal first quarter earnings last week, which encompassed the three months ended December 2011, much of the attention went to the company’s exceedingly strong iPhone and iPad sales. There was also a lot of talk about its huge profit and exploding cash reserves.

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Columns

Facebook’s IPO, webOS and the Perfect Social Phone

Chris Davies, Feb 2nd 2012 Discuss [0]

Facebook’s IPO filing gave us an inkling of how much money the social network expects to make when it floats this year, but also a hint of what it could spend it on: the first true Facebook Phone. In among the lengthy IPO documentation were not only details of Facebook’s existing achievements in mobile but a map of the challenges yet to come along with Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest fears for the future. $100m is enough to stage a big attack on the mobile market, though, and there’s one obvious place to start: HP’s webOS.

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Columns

Hirai’s Big Challenge: Selling us Four Sony Screens

Chris Davies, Feb 1st 2012 Discuss [0]

Freshly-appointed Sony CEO Kaz Hirai faces the difficult challenge of delivering on predecessor Howard Stringer’s ambitious four-screen strategy: convincing users to buy not just one Sony device, but as many as four of them. Stringers’ grand design – of tablets, TVs, smartphones phones and computers all interacting – is an determined attempt to follow Apple’s lead of a tightly integrated ecosystem of content sharing across devices

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Columns

Apple Retail Will Be the Last Tech Stores Standing (And That’s OK)

Don Reisinger, Jan 31st 2012 Discuss [0]

When I think back over the years, I can remember countless technology-focused brick-and-mortar stores I enjoyed shopping at. From CompUSA to Circuit City to the ridiculous number of other stores that came and went, there was a time when a large portion of my life was spent shopping in the brick-and-mortar.

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Columns

Could “Unlimited” Save T-Mobile USA?

Chris Davies, Jan 30th 2012 Discuss [0]

T-Mobile USA has a problem: uninterested subscribers, patchy “4G” coverage and, with the collapse of the AT&T acquisition deal, sole responsibility for digging itself out of the whole mess. The carrier – or more accurately owners Deutsche Telekom – had envisaged AT&T taking over responsibility for US operations, leaving the German parent company to handle the European market it’s far more familiar with. Those schemes have been left in disarray, but could T-Mobile’s UK cousin have shown it the way to shock-style market salvation?

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Columns

Why I’d Take An Xbox 360 Over An Apple TV Any Day

Don Reisinger, Jan 28th 2012 Discuss [0]

I’m often asked by friends if they should buy an Apple TV. They usually head to the Apple Store to buy a new iPad or iPhone, and while there, they come across Apple’s little set-top box. For just $99, it seems like a bargain. And so, they ask me if they should plunk down the cash to buy one.

The first question I ask when I field the question is, “do you own an Xbox 360?”

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Columns

What the Apple TV Needs to No Longer Be A Hobby

Don Reisinger, Jan 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

I’m a little confused.

Remember back when Apple first introduced the Apple TV, and the company said that it was designed to be a hobby device? Well, in 2010, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, after unveiling a new version of the device, said it was no longer a hobby. Now, though, it appears it is again, since Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook said earlier this week that the device is still — wait for it — a hobby.