The PS3 Slim, the newest iteration of the PlayStation 3, comes with the lowest price ever for the PS3: $299. Because of the price cut, the PS3's sales rose in August and September, and many people see signs of a resurgence for the console.
(Credit: Sony)Is Sony's PlayStation 3 at long last ready to stop being its rivals' punching bag?
With its first-place finish in September in number of units sold, Sony finally has a tangible response to persistent criticism that its PS3 can't keep up with its next-generation video game console competitors, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii.
For the month, according to video game analysts at the NPD Group, Sony sold 491,800 PS3s in the United States, while Nintendo moved 462,800 Wiis and consumers bought 352,600 of Microsoft's Xbox 360s. It was the first time since the next-generation console wars began in earnest nearly three years ago that the PS3 finished a month on top.
Yet, as everyone knows, a single positive piece of data does not a trend make--something Sony's competitors are quick to point out--especially when the existing trend is so contradictory. So, on the heels of those rosy-at-long-last September numbers, and the August price cut and launch of the new PS3 Slim that preceded them, can Sony finally demonstrate conclusively to its detractors that it is through being badly outmaneuvered?
According to a group of experts interviewed for this article, the answer appears to be yes. No one will yet predict that Sony is ready to grab hold of the leadership position it enjoyed in previous console generations. However, there does seem to be widespread agreement that for the first time since its November 2006 launch, the PS3 is ready to seriously compete for that role.
"I think that the fact that they did introduce a new footprint for the PS3 (the Slim) and a lower price point, coupled with some of the really high-demand games" coming out for the platform, "could really prime the pump for Sony to have a resurgence for the PS3," said Brian Crecente, editor of the popular video game blog Kotaku.
"I do think that we are probably going to see, if not it topping the charts leading into the holiday, it...doing better than it has in (the recent) past," he said.
Beginning a comeback in a hole
There's no doubt, however, that Sony is beginning any PS3 resurgence in a rather sizable hole. Since the start of the current console generation (in November 2006 for the PS3 and the Wii, and November 2005 for the Xbox 360), Sony has sold 25.26 million PS3s worldwide and 9.76 million in the U.S, according to VGChartz, a Web site that aggregates video game sales data. By comparison, the Wii has moved 54.19 million units worldwide, of which 25.05 million were in the U.S., and Microsoft--with its one-year head-start--has sold 32.51 million Xboxes, including 18.66 million in the U.S.
By those measures, the PS3 has a minimum of a 2-1 disadvantage, in the U.S. at least, when it comes to the PS3 install base. That fact puts pressure on third-party developers working on games for the console because they know that there are at least twice as many Xbox buyers in the U.S. as there are for the PS3.
That dynamic, in turn, has led to one of the biggest complaints over the years about the PS3: that the software lineup has paled in comparison to that of the Xbox. To be sure, Sony has always disputed that notion.
Hard to prognosticate
Over the last three years, this space has been home to multiple arguments that the PS3 would one day emerge as the clear-cut winner of the next-gen console wars. But there's also been plenty of room here for the theory that Sony's flagship video game device was doomed to languish behind the Xbox and the Wii.
Clearly, prognostication about the PS3's fortunes has been difficult. And with the state of the economy in flux, supply chains always hard to analyze, and consumers' whims ever-changing, there's no way to know for sure how the console wars will go from here on out.
But Sony definitely feels like it's finally in the driver's seat.
"Overall, we're just hitting a stride that just (reasserts) what we knew all along--that there's tremendous value under the (PS3's) hood," said Julie Han, Sony PlayStation spokesperson.
That's a notion that video game industry analysts agree with. Yet when talking about Sony's laudable September numbers, they also point, first and foremost, to the fact that there were a lot of consumers sitting on the sidelines, just waiting for the company to lower the PS3's price. In August, with the release of the $299 PS3 Slim, Sony did just that.
"It's really a combination of pent-up demand and (the point) where value and pricing meet," said Jesse Divnich, an analyst with Electronic Entertainment Design and Research. "The (thing) about the PS3 was, it was really a system ahead of its time. Developers didn't really have the capabilities to take advantage of all the power in the PS3, and at the same time you had systems like the Wii, which just had perfect timing. But now, (the PS3) has caught up."
That means, Divnich continued, that the time has finally come where the PS3's jam-packed collection of a powerful video game console, a Blu-ray player, and built-in Wi-Fi met consumers' needs, even as the price dropped to where large numbers of people feel they can afford it. The lowest-priced Xbox costs $199, while the Wii runs $249.
Finally hitting a 'sweet spot'
Divnich said that at $299, the PS3 has finally hit its "sweet spot." And he said while it's likely the initial boost of sales that came as a result of the August price cut will slow down, "Long term, into 2010 and 2011, I don't think the PS3 is going to be in last place to the degree it was before. The gap between the systems will be much smaller."
For his part, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said he expects the PS3 to outsell the Xbox during the holiday season because of the perceived value of the $299 PS3, loaded as it is with the Blu-ray player and Wi-Fi. He and others do, however, still think that Nintendo will sell more Wiis because of the broader general appeal of that device and the fact that it is seen as a better Christmas present.
"Is Sony back? Yeah," said Pachter. "Are they back as the leader? Probably not. Are they back in second? Probably."
Another analyst, Lazard Capital Markets Senior Vice President Colin Sebastian, also attributed the September PS3 sales boost to the "pent-up" demand for a lower price, and said that there would have been serious trouble for the console if the results had not been so good.
"If they had not shown the uptick with the price cut," Sebastian said, "then we'd all be putting a nail in the coffin for (the PS3). But what we're seeing is that there's still life left for the PS3, and that's an encouraging data point (for Sony)."
Still, as Pachter put it, "Microsoft is not the type of company that's going to stay (down) for a long time. They don't like it."
That's why, Pachter said, if the PS3 can keep pace with the Xbox for the next few months, there's a good chance that Microsoft will drop the price of its console another $50 sometime early next year, a move he doesn't think Sony would be able to match.
To be sure, Microsoft wouldn't easily cut the Xbox's price--"they're certainly not going to give money away just for the hell of it," Pachter said--but it is an arrow in their quiver.
Sebastian said he, too, could see an Xbox price cut next year, as well as one for the Wii. Would Sony follow suit if its rivals did so?
"They could do it," Sebastian said. "It's just a matter of what their tolerance is for absorbing less revenue on the hardware side, and whether they can make up that revenue on the software side."
According to Xbox spokesman David Dennis, a price cut is just one of many things Microsoft would consider as a way to keep pace with the market. He said other possibilities include different hardware and software bundles. "There's a lot of different levers you can pull," Dennis said.
Not surprisingly, Dennis is dismissive of the PS3's sales boost. He agreed that there were a lot of people waiting to buy the console at a lower price, but said that the impressive initial jump in units sold came as a result of early leaks of pictures and information about the PS3 Slim, and so there were "months of pent-up demand."
Further, he predicted that Sony would not see a sustained resurgence for its console and that even in September, when the PS3 outsold the Xbox and the Wii, Microsoft brought in more revenue for the entire Xbox ecosystem--including accessories, software, and fees for online services--than did Sony.
The two halves of 2010
In the end, most people seem to agree that the overall fortunes of the consoles have as much to do with software as price. That's why each of the analysts talked to for this story pointed to a bright future for Sony: They see a lot of strength in the PS3's coming games lineup, which includes titles like God of War III and Gran Turismo 5. And then there's also Sony's PlayStation Motion Controller, which could bring the PS3 more Wii-like functionality.
That's why Divnich said he thinks that the PS3 is likely to dominate the first half of 2010.
But he also expects that Microsoft will release its highly anticipated Project Natal motion-sensitive controller in the second half of 2010, a move that could stir up the console pot anew. Indeed, Divnich said he thinks that the Xbox will once again overtake the PS3 at that point.
And after that? It's anybody's guess.
Poetic Kinetics' Wi-Fi flowers
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)SAN FRANCISCO--A pair of Los Angeles artists have teamed up with Toyota on an unusually functional art project: a set of large, colorful flowers that have been providing free Wi-Fi and power outlets in public places around the country.
Currently on display in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens, the flowers--the creation of a company called Poetic Kinetics and its principals, Patrick Shearn and Cynthia Washburn--are part of a campaign for Toyota's newest generation Prius.
Brightly colored by day and lit up with LEDs at night, the flowers have been on tour around the country for several weeks. According to John Lisko, the executive communications director for Saatchi & Saatchi, Toyota's ad agency on the project, the flowers have gone through Boston, New York, Chicago, Seattle, and will shortly be departing for Los Angeles.
Inspired, at least in part, by a set of giant, mobile flowers Shearn built for Burning Man in 2005 and 2006, Toyota commissioned the project to reflect the theme of the new Prius: Harmony between man, nature, and machine.
The Wi-Fi flowers are lit up at night.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Run on solar power, the flowers pull in an Internet signal via a 3G network, explained Washburn, and then convert it to Wi-Fi, which covers a radius of about 200 feet around each flower.
For now, the project is no more than temporary art. But Lisko said that Toyota is "thinking through" the possibility of providing permanent versions, particularly because, he said, the public feedback has been so strongly positive.
Designed for Burning Man 2005 and 2006, these two art cars, a flower and a venus fly trap, were among the most popular pieces at Burning Man.
(Credit: Poetic Kinetics)
Among the highlights of Road Trip 2009 was getting to be on hand for new cadet in-processing at the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)After more than five weeks and 5,765 miles of driving through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and very, very small parts of Arizona and Nevada, Road Trip 2009 is over.
This was the fourth year I've done this project, and I've now covered a fourth major region of the United States. In 2006, it was the Pacific Northwest; in 2007, the Southwest; in 2008, the deep South; and this year, it was the Rocky Mountain region. All told, my CNET Road Trips have taken me through 21 states and have covered 18,618 miles. And while there are 29 states I haven't visited yet (on Road Trip, at least), I feel like the projects have allowed me to see a great deal of our amazing country, including many of the back roads that most people don't get to see. And that is quite a privilege.
For me, there were many highlights this year. Any list of those (not exhaustive, of course, as that would be impossible in a story like this) would include being on hand for new cadet in-processing at the Air Force Academy; getting a chance to visit and explore the infrastructure of the underground fortress, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station; visiting a group of Utah canyons and national parks I've been wanting to see for years; trekking to the great Utah Earthworks, the late Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty and his wife Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels; getting to be the first reporter to see the completed solid rocket booster designed for future missions to the moon--and maybe Mars; walking the volcanic wonderland that is Craters of the Moon; driving through Montana's incomparable Glacier National Park; seeing the incredible downsides of decades of hard-core mining in Butte, Mont.; visiting a former Wyoming coal mine that has been reclaimed and turned into a huge wind farm; and, of course, fulfilling a years-long mission to explore the hot springs of Idaho.
The trip began, and ended, in Denver. But by the end, that felt like pure coincidence, especially as I returned to the Mile High City from a totally different direction than I had left it. Ultimately, though, I have to seriously tip my hat to Colorado's Rocky Mountain region. Coming from California, I always felt that the Sierra Nevada mountains were as good as it gets--in North America, at least. Now, I'm thinking I may have to reevaluate.
The technology
As always, Road Trip is also a chance for me to try out some of the latest tech gear. Among the gadgets I was testing out that I ended up using the most were Apple's latest 13-inch MacBook Pro; Nikon's D5000 digital SLR (complete with HD video); Inmarsat's BGAN satellite modem; Flip Video's UltraHD; Apple's iPod Touch; Amazon's Kindle 2; Verizon's MiFi 2200 mobile hot spot; Hewlett-Packard's OfficeJet H470; LiveScribe's Pulse pen; and of course, the Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV I drove for those 5,765 miles.
It may say 1,765 miles, but this is actually the final mileage for Road Trip 2009: 5,765.4 miles.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)When you're driving about 150 miles a day for more than five weeks, as well as doing three or four hours of daily reporting and an additional three or four hours of writing and photo processing, there's not a lot of time left for other things. And that includes trying out new technologies.
That means, of course, that some of the gadgets and technology I had brought with me never made it out of the bag. Among those are Sony's MDR-NC22 noise-canceling headphones and Adobe's Creative Suite 4 Master Collection.
I also didn't really get a chance to use Apple's iPhone 3GS much, at least beyond what my own personal iPhone 3G can do. I will say, however, that the 3GS is definitely much faster than the previous model, and if I wasn't locked into my 3G, I would likely upgrade now.
Getting online
As someone needing to do a fair bit of online research and, of course, file daily stories and photo galleries, the quality of Internet connectivity was constantly on my mind.
I stayed in 27 different motels during the course of the trip, and while almost all of them promised high-speed wireless Internet, my conclusion is that few were able to actually deliver on that commitment.
I don't know why I'm still surprised at that fact. After four years of doing these road trips, I guess I assume that by now, big hotel chains like Best Western, Holiday Inn Express, and so on will have figured out how to provide true high-speed Internet to their customers. Yet, again and again, my experience was of slow, barely usable connectivity. I guess my standards are too high.
The Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman road-tested on Road Trip 2009.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)That meant it was often a struggle to get my stories and photos out on time. Fortunately, cafes, restaurants, and libraries also offered Wi-Fi, and I always had access to Verizon's EV-DO network, though that, too, was often sub-standard in quality.
Wrapping up
So now Road Trip 2009 draws to a close, and I will get back to my usual reporting on all things geek culture, mainly from my office in San Francisco. But my thoughts are already turning to Road Trip 2010, which I believe will take me to the East Coast. So if you have thoughts on destinations that might make make sense for me to check out, please don't hesitate to let me know.
In the meantime, thank you so much to everyone who assisted me on this project, be it the many public affairs representatives who took time out of their busy schedules to accommodate me, or my editors, who often had to be cleaning up my words late at night.
On the left is the BGAN mobile satellite modem CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman used to get online from the middle of a national forest in Wyoming during Road Trip 2009.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)LAKE GRANBY, Colo.--The question was: is it possible to set up a functional workspace deep in the wilderness?
That's what I set out to do, as one of my last goals of Road Trip 2009. I planned on driving well into the mountains of southern Wyoming to see if I could get some work done far from any modern communications infrastructure.
To that end, I ended up driving south from Rawlins, Wyo., and headed into the Sierra Madre mountains, not far from the Colorado border. However, the campground there that I had intended to try out had been stripped bare of any trees as part of a program to try to manage a pine beetle epidemic that has plagued millions of acres of forest throughout the West.
Hoping for some shade, I abandoned the Sierra Madres and drove east, where not that far away are the Medicine Bow mountains. After trying out a few campgrounds, I settled on a wonderful, small U.S. Forest Service campground called Lincoln Park, where I was able to snag a sweet little shady spot alongside a creek.
The real question, though, was whether it had a clear view of the southeastern sky. That would be crucial for using the Inmarsat BGAN satellite modem I was depending on for getting online. Other parts of my experiment, including being able to print wirelessly with the HP Officejet H470 printer I was testing out (see video below), didn't require any particular kind of location, but if I had any hopes of being able to do research or file stories, let alone photographs, I'd need to be able to get online.
Cell service in the forest?
My first attempts at using the BGAN at Lincoln Park didn't go well. Despite there being a small stand of trees just to the southeast of me, the device seemed to indicate it was getting a strong signal. Strong enough to get online, at least. And at first, it did connect, albeit only enough to run an instant-message application. I couldn't get it to load a Web page, access e-mail, or do anything requiring any real bandwidth.
I was a little panicked because I had a deadline to meet and wasn't sure what to do.
Bemused at seeing a camper pounding away at a computer, a pack of tech gadgets nearby, the campground host came by to see what I was doing. When I told him, and said I was having trouble getting online, he pointed out that only about three miles away was a small bar and grill with Wi-Fi. It was after 9 p.m., so it was closed, but I decided to see if I could grab a little of the place's signal.
It turned out to be called The Place, and while they were closed, I got permission to sit in their parking lot and use their Wi-Fi. So for that first night, I was able to get my story and photos out, despite the frustratingly slow speed of the connection.
When I got back to camp, I was quite tired, so I retired to my tent. I pulled out my iPhone to set an alarm for the morning, and as I did, I noticed it had a signal. Indeed, I was able to make a phone call right from my tent in the middle of the forest. Who knew?
In fact, I was awakened the next morning by the phone ringing, a wholly unexpected development.
Getting BGAN working
Things were a little more relaxed now, as they should be in the woods. But I still had work to do, and assuming that I wasn't going to be able to get the BGAN to work, I drove back to the bar and grill and this time sat down inside and worked for a couple hours. However, this was definitely not what I had wanted out of this experiment.
I went back to the campground and, taking advantage of the cell phone service, I called my contact at Inmarsat to see if there was something I should be doing differently to get the BGAN working. We went through a series of diagnostics, but everything seemed like it was correct. The one thing I should do differently, he said, was try connecting BGAN to my computer while the laptop was shut down.
The advantages of working in the wilderness: stunning views of the Rockies, as seen from Lake Granby, in Colorado.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)I tried that from a picnic table not far from my site--this one had a clear view of the southeastern sky--and voila! There was the Internet. It wasn't as fast as I had hoped, but it worked, and I was able to get done most of what I needed to.
Another part of the experiment was to see if I could make phone calls from the forest using the Iridium 9555A satellite phone I had with me. Frustratingly, this really seemed inconsistent, just as it had been earlier in the trip when I'd tried to use it. I've used Iridium sat phones on previous Road Trips, so I wondered if I was doing something wrong. But I had a very clear view of the southern sky, the antenna was up and the signal seemed to go in and out. I got a call through, but it was not an ideal experience.
Moving on to Colorado
I had wanted to try this mobile office experiment in a couple of different places, so I set out in search of another campground. After a wonderful drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, I ended up on a hilltop at a campground overlooking Granby Lake. Tall Rocky Mountain ranges were visible in every direction, and the lake itself was absolutely stunning.
But true wilderness this was not. For one thing, I had four bars of Verizon's EV-DO signal. That meant that I could sit at my campsite and work without having to deal with any potential BGAN problems. Not that I had any when I tried out BGAN again, just to make sure I really knew what I was doing with it.
Still, I was fully off the grid. Well, as off the grid as you can be and still have enough power to last for a couple of days of rather heavy computing needs. And that meant that at Lake Granby, and in the Wyoming wilderness, I had had to plug my various devices into the Audi Q7 TDI I've been driving on Road Trip to recharge.
Ultimately, though, I'd say that while there were some false starts and some cheats--relying on a bar and grill's Wi-Fi isn't really the same thing as setting up a mobile office in the woods--the experiment was a success. I proved (to myself, at least) that it was possible to work deep in the woods.
And while I'd rather have been relaxing that whole time, I had work to do. But it was nice to be among the trees and creeks and lakes for a few days instead of in motels and on the road.
This Nikon D5000 camera--which also shoots HD video--has been an integral part of Road Trip 2009. It's just one of a large group of gadgets Terdiman has been road-testing on the trip.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)CASPER, Wyo.--Each year, when I plan for my annual Road Trip project, I coordinate both a long list of destinations to visit and a big box full of tech gadgets to test out. Plus a car.
Some of those gadgets get used once or twice, and then get put away again. But others, for better or worse, become integral components of the trip.
Over the next week or so, I'll be posting my (amateur) reviews of all these gadgets, in each case talking about what I thought of them, and how they fit into the trip. In most cases, I'll review more than one product in a story.
Today, for example, I'm going to discuss my experiences with three of the most important tools I've had with me on Road Trip 2009: A Nikon D5000 camera; a brand-new 13-inch MacBook Pro; and a LiveScribe Pulse pen.
Nikon D5000
For a few years, I've owned a Canon Rebel XT. I like it just fine, but I've never bought any additional lenses for it, beyond the kit 18-55mm lens that it came with. And that's why, when I've headed out on Road Trip the last two years, I've been willing to try out cameras from Nikon: because I'm not wedded to Canon yet.
This year, Nikon lent me its new D5000 digital SLR, which, in addition to being a very nice fairly-low-end camera, also shoots high-definition video. As one of the first DSLRs to incorporate HD video, I was very interested in trying it out and seeing how it stacked up against other small video cameras. But more on that comparison in a later story.
Along with the kit 18-55mm lens that the D5000 comes with, Nikon also lent me a 55-200mm zoom lens. There was a third lens, but I haven't used it, so it's not worth mentioning.
So far, I've taken 6,740 photos during the trip, most with the D5000. My conclusion after all those photos: the camera is a really nice piece of prosumer equipment that offers users, even on the automatic setting, really nice pictures.
My big cross to bear as a photographer is that I don't know how to use all the various settings on cameras, so what I can produce is limited by that lack of full knowledge of the tool. Yet, despite that, I'd have to say that the D5000 has turned out some spectacular shots. It does great in good lighting, and even in the case of limited natural light, it can often do really well.
I have been frustrated by the lack of a wide-angle lens, which is what I've mainly used the last two years on Road Trip. This time around, I've basically stuck with the 18-55mm lens, and occasionally pulled out the zoom. Still, with some exceptions, the 18-55mm seems to be up to the task. Any limitations, though, are more environmental and less the lens itself.
The D5000 can take a lot of pictures quickly, and that's nice, especially if you're trying to capture live action. That was helpful in taking some shots of a bison in Yellowstone National Park the other day. Also for trying to get shots of a train going into, and out of, a tunnel in Wyoming.
In rough lighting situations, the camera is sometimes not all that good in automatic. In those cases, I have switched over to manual.
But truly, where the D5000 shines is when there's ample light. In Glacier National Park, for example, I got some spectacular shots of waterfalls, mossy hillsides, and even a baby mountain goat.
It also shines in battery life. I think I recently went more than a week without changing batteries, and that's impressive. That timing would be reduced significantly by shooting more video, since video utilizes the camera's big LCD screen.
To be perfectly honest, I haven't played around all that much with the camera's menu structure, or its more advanced features. I'm sure that if I had, my pictures would have been even better.
One oddity about the camera is that every now and then, it seems to take it upon itself to forget the date and time, and require me to reset those parameters. Not having noticed that the first couple of times means that a few sets of photos appear chronologically, long before they were actually taken. I'm assuming it's a software bug, unless I'm doing something wrong I'm not aware of.
The video camera takes pretty nice HD video. Like I said, I'll talk about that in more length later on. But suffice it to say, I'd be happy counting on the D5000 for simple, short HD video. However, unless I'm missing something, there's no way to get it to shoot video longer than 5 minutes, which is slightly annoying.
At the end of this trip, I'll have to return the D5000 and once again return to my Rebel XT. But as I mentioned, I've not invested in Canon lenses yet, and after two years of shooting with Nikon equipment, I'm going to have to seriously investigate whether that's the way I should go, long-term.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro I'm using on Road Trip 2009. Very similar to the last 13-inch MacBook, this computer has been very useful during this project.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Without a computer, of course, Road Trip 2009 would have been a non-starter. Despite carting around several very expensive gadgets with me for thousands of miles, it's the new 13-inch MacBook Pro Apple lent me that I pretty much take with me everywhere I go for fear of it getting stolen from the car. The rest of the gear? Let the insurance take care of it. If I lose the computer, it's time to go home.
Originally, I had planned on using a 13-inch MacBook on the trip. But just before I left, Apple introduced the new line of MacBook Pros and they offered one of the 13-inch models. A no brainer, of course I said yes.
To be honest, there aren't that many differences between the MacBook I was going to use and the new MacBook Pro. In fact, put them side-by-side and it's almost impossible to tell which is which.
The one sure way, however, is to look for the little SD card slot on the side of the MacBook Pro, a feature no Apple computer had until June. And when I go home and return to the 2007 vintage 15-inch MacBook Pro that is my normal work computer, I think this is the thing I'll miss most on my Road Trip laptop.
That's because, having taken more than 6,000 pictures, it is so nice to be able to simply pull the SD card out of the camera (actually two cameras, as I have a small Canon PowerShot I own with me as well, that also uses SD) and then slide it straight into the computer. I understand that's something that's been available on some PC laptops for awhile, and, well, it's about time Apple added this. It is such an upgrade from having to connect your camera with a USB cable that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to go back.
The other big new feature on the MacBook Pro is its unibody form factor, and its non-replaceable battery. I was a little worried about that, since I usually carry a spare battery with me when I'm in the field, but in truth, this has been fine. Apple says that the new battery has a much longer life than its former models, and I'd have to agree.
My sense, after four weeks of using the computer, is that the battery lasts about three hours, perhaps a little more. Apple advertises it as offering seven hours, but if that's even possible, it's under extremely optimal power circumstances. And that's not me: I'm constantly online, looking at video, editing photos, and the like. So three-plus hours seems reasonable.
However, my experience is that it's been inconsistent, and I don't feel like that's related to what I'm doing. Sometimes the battery life just plummets. Other times it lasts forever. My conclusion is that Apple has some work to do on the long-lasting batteries. Still, I've only had the battery conk out on me once during the entire trip.
The computer also features a 250 Gigabyte hard drive, and that's been incredibly useful, since, as I've said, I've taken more than 6,700 photos. That adds up to 50 Gigabyes of pictures. If I was on my personal MacBook Pro, that would nearly eat up the entire hard drive. So knowing I've got plenty of space left has been a really good feeling.
The new MacBook Pro features iLife 09, including the latest edition of iPhoto. Apple gave me a briefing on many of the advanced features of iPhoto--facial recognition, adding geographic data and the like--but in all honesty, I haven't really used them. Mainly, I've just edited photos and exported them. And for that, the newest version of the software has been great.
Beyond that, the computer is a Mac, and so much of it will be familiar to anyone who uses OS X.
All told, then, I would say that the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is a lot of computer for not that much money--I think this model, with a 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4 Gigabyes of RAM, would run $1,500, plus tax. Would I buy this computer if I was in the market? Absolutely. Would I have complaints about anything? Not really, beyond the inconsistent battery performance.
The LiveScribe Pulse pen, which synchronizes notes to a recording of audio, an incredible thing for a reporter doing many interviews on the road.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Another extremely valuable Road Trip gadget I've had with me this year has been LiveScribe's Pulse pen. CNET has covered this product several times, so I won't bore you with all the details of it. But suffice it to say that as a reporter on the road, talking to lots of different people and trying to keep up with notebook after notebook full of barely legible notes, having a pen that can record what people are saying, and synchronize those notes to the audio has been great.
Essentially, the Pulse pen lets you record audio of, say, an interview, and then, because the notes are written on special proprietary paper with a barely visible grid, it is able to synch the audio to pretty much the exact spot where something was said. So, imagine you're looking back through your notes and realize you didn't get all of what someone was saying. Simply tap on the notes there and the pen plays back the recording, right from that spot.
Several times, when I've pulled the Pulse pen out and explained what it does, my interview subjects have gotten rather excited and seemed about ready to go buy one. My experience would legitimize that feeling.
On the whole, I'd say the Pulse pen is a boon to someone in my field. Being able to count on going back and instantly finding exactly what was said at any point in a conversation is a big, big thing. As someone who usually turns stories around within a day, it's not entirely the paradigm-shifting technology I thought it might be, only because often, I simply don't have time to go back and listen to much of the audio. Still, it's a great advance.
Perhaps it's the individual pen I've got, but recordings on this one pick up the scratching of the pen on paper far too easily. The first couple times I used it, it rendered some of the audio unusable. After consulting with LiveScribe, they suggested I do my interviews with the headphones that come with the pen plugged into it, because they have a built-in microphone. The idea is that that gets the microphone away from the contact of pen on paper.
And that's worked out much better. You can still hear the scribbling, which means I could never use the audio for anything requiring high-quality, but then, that's not really what it's for, anyway.
The other thing that's surprised me is how quickly the ink cartridges in the pen ran out. But that's just a little quibble.
Ultimately, I think the Pulse pen is a very big technological leap forward, and I can't wait to see what LiveScribe--or others working on this technology--come up with next. It would be nice if the pen were thinner, for example, but I'm sure that's coming.
One thing that's interesting to me is that LiveScribe allows PC users--and soon, Mac users, I'm told--to print their own paper. That means that the company won't necessarily be making money off the paper. To me, that's surprising, because that's like Gillette giving away the blades, and not just the razor.
But the Pulse pen is rather pricey--around $150 for a 1 Gigabyte model and $200 for 2 Gigabytes--so perhaps the company feels it can make enough money that way. Also, the company is offering APIs so that developers can write applications for the pen, and perhaps there's some revenue opportunities there, as well.
I didn't really use LiveScribe's community features, the main element of which is that you can upload your notes onto the Internet, making them viewable--and clickable--by anyone. I just haven't had the time.
And in the end, would I recommend the Pulse pen? Yes, definitely, and to anyone who takes a lot of notes. My quibbles are, as I said, small, and in truth, I am amazed at this technology.
For the next week, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Wyoming and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
TOOELE, Utah--The first time I tried to physically turn the page of the book I was reading on my Kindle DX, I realized the mistake and chuckled at myself.
The second time I did it, I chuckled, too. But a little bit less.
And the third time? I thought to myself that perhaps I have a problem.
Exhausted after 12 nonstop days of Road Trip 2009, I decided Wednesday evening to lie low and read a book. But rather than pull out one of the three or four actual paper books I'd brought with me, I thought I'd try, for the first time, the Amazon Kindle DX I'd also brought with me to road test.
The Kindle DX has a bigger screen than its predecessor, but still doesn't allow readers to physically turn the pages of the book they're reading. For that, one would need an actual book.
(Credit: Amazon.com)And my initial conclusion: When you try an entirely new way of doing something you've done all your life, it can really mess with your mind.
I turned the Kindle on after returning to my hotel in this little town not far from Salt Lake City, having checked online for a title that looked interesting to read. I'd settled on Christopher McDougall's "Born to Run," a nonfiction tale of a writer who went to Mexico in search of a people known as the fastest and sturdiest runners on Earth. Having already set up the Amazon account, and being connected to the Internet, I found that downloading the title was a snap. Even with no instructions, the e-book was available for reading within what seemed like a minute.
So rather than waiting, I plopped down on the bed, loaded up the book, and started to read.
And at the end of that first full page of text, that's when I discovered how hard it is to break years and years of conditioning--at the end of a page, you flip to the next one. It's just what you do. Except that on a Kindle, the paper has this hard, thick plastic feel to it. And it doesn't flip, no matter how hard you try.
Instead, you're supposed to click the "next page" button. And, it's true, that works perfectly. You click the button, and in an instant, the next page of text is there for your reading pleasure.
As I said, however, I couldn't shake the conditioning. Again and again I reached for that corner of the page, trying to flip it. Maybe it was because I was so tired. Or perhaps it was because Amazon has done a really nice job of making the digital text look like what you'd find in a real book.
I began to think that was it: While the screen is smaller than a normal paperback, it's not that much smaller, and they've chosen a font and look-and-feel that truly conjure up the sense that you've got a true book in front of you.
That sense is compounded by the leather case I've got the Kindle in, meaning that, as with a book cover, there is a left side and a right side to what I'm holding up in front of me. But here, I decided, was a tangible flaw: Given that I was holding something with two sides, it was nagging my subconscious to not have a page of text on the left side.
And then, even as I got further and further into the book, I was still trying to flip that piece of paper.
All of this, of course, is my way of saying that the Kindle DX is a really nice piece of technology. It's easy and quick to use, offers an appealing presentation of a book and, while it doesn't have access to all the titles I might like to read, it seems to have a fairly sizable library.
Before cracking open the cover of the book, as it were, I'd only seen a few Kindles in action. As a device, I don't think it's anywhere near as elegant as, say, an iPod. But functionally, it is a piece of cake, and that, ultimately, is the point, right?
Literary purists are always going to hold out for the true book they can hold on to and read in front of the fire. But for folks who want to travel light, yet have access to a number of books, or for those who aren't purists, I can see the Kindle being a fine answer.
I just wonder how long it will take me before I get used to not being able to flip that corner to the next page. Of course, that brings up another problem. When I pick up my next real book, how long will it take me to stop trying to click the "next page" button?
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
ASPEN, Colo.--One thing I love is finding uses for things that perhaps no one has thought of before.
I'd already been on Road Trip 2009 for several days when I arrived in this tony Colorado mountain town known best as a playground for the rich and famous. I was hoping to go for a walk and find something good to eat.
It had been a long day of driving, starting in Colorado Springs, and traveling over Independence Pass, a 12,095 "Top of the Rockies" spot just on the Continental Divide. I had planned to stroll around Aspen for a bit and then use my iPhone to get online and find something inexpensive for dinner.
But I had neglected to charge the iPhone, and by the time I got to town, the battery was more or less dead. This is Road Trip, however, and as someone carting around a car full of high-tech gear, I was determined to find a workaround.
Though it is designed to provide a hot-spot for as many as five people in one place, the Verizon MiFi 2200 allowed CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman to create a mobile Wi-Fi connection for an iPod Touch as he walked around Aspen, Colo.
(Credit: Verizon)One of the gadgets I am road-testing is a 32GB iPod Touch, a device that, if it has access to a Wi-Fi connection, can do much of what the iPhone can do. But on a walk around a town you don't know, it's hard to count on finding such a connection, especially these days when most people password-protect their Wi-Fi.
However, I also am carrying Verizon's MiFi 2200 mobile hot spot, which converts the carrier's EV-DO signal into a Wi-Fi connection that up to five people can share. I had already used the MiFi to provide a signal for the iPod Touch at the very beginning of the trip so that, while sitting on a boarding airplane, I could download a large file from iTunes.
Now, I realized that by turning the MiFi on and sticking it in my back pocket, I could become, in essence, a walking hot spot, allowing me to get online on the iPod Touch, no matter where I was in town. That meant that I could use the Skype app to make a phone call, run several other apps for one reason or another, and look up good places to eat using the device's browser.
Of course, this is the kind of workaround that isn't going to make sense for most people. If you're going to bother paying for an iPod Touch and a MiFi, you might as well just get an iPhone. But if you're road-testing a number of tech gadgets and you see a way to jerry-rig something to solve a problem, why not do it?
It turns out that it's hard to find decent, inexpensive food in Aspen. But thanks to being able to get online while I walked around, I did end up at a terrific place where I had a good, moderately healthy meal for under $20.
And, since I became a walking hot spot, I was also able to get online on my computer, as well, meaning that I was able to actually do some work while I ate, despite the fact that the restaurant where I found that inexpensive meal didn't offer Wi-Fi.
In the end, one thing puzzled me, though. When I first linked the iPod Touch to the MiFi connection, I tried to locate myself using the device's map feature. But instead of pinpointing where I was in Aspen, it told me I was somewhere in Virginia. I thought that was odd, but I chalked it up to the fact that without a GPS chip, it figures out its location relative to the Wi-Fi signals it finds. Given that the MiFi is a loaner, I thought that maybe it had come from Virginia.
Later, however, when I returned to my car and got ready to head out, I plugged in my iPhone and again, with some power, tried to see if it, with GPS, it could locate me. Oddly, though, the iPhone also told me I was in Virginia.
My only conclusion for the fact that both devices told me this: that the folks in Aspen have figured out some way to trick Google Maps so as to keep out the hoi-polloi. But maybe it was something else. If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman sits at the very top of Colorado's Mount Evans on Sunday, just a couple hundred feet above the highest paved road in North America.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)MOUNT EVANS, Colo.--It's the first day of summer, and I'm driving through a snowstorm.
I'm here, on the highest paved road in North America, and my fingers are numb from the cold. But I'm online, and I have to say, that's pretty cool.
This was supposed to be a live-blog, but circumstances got in the way. More on that later.
As part of Road Trip 2009, Terdiman is road-testing an Audi Q7 TDI, which has a so-called 'clean diesel' engine.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)I drove to just below the summit of 14,264-foot Mount Evans (see video below, with audio affected by heavy wind) on Sunday, the first official day of Road Trip 2009, my journey through the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains of the United States.
I got online via Inmarsat's BGAN mobile satellite modem, which, when pointed in the right direction, gets a pretty good signal. Good enough, in fact, that I was able to video chat with my wife and a friend. They said it was the "coolest thing ever." I don't know about that, but it is pretty sweet.
I tweeted from the top, as well, but I wasn't able to live-blog. It was quite cold, the wind was fierce, and I was sitting precariously on some rather uncomfortable rocks at the very top. I'd also hoped to take the Internet signal from the BGAN and share it via the MacBook Pro I'm using with the iPod Touch I've got with me. But for some reason, the Touch couldn't get online, even though it could see the signal coming from the Mac. I blame the rather extreme conditions.
Regardless of a few technical snafus, however, this was a pretty successful venture. As I perched atop North America, live-chatting with my wife and my friend, several people scrambled up to the top, saw me sitting there with my computer and the BGAN, and asked what I was doing. And that felt good.
But what felt even better was being able to pick up the computer while on the video link with my wife and moving it around so that she could see where I was. She can't be with me right now, but in this small way, I was able to bring her along.
And I'll do my best to bring you along as well. For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation, and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Corrected at 3:55 p.m. PDT: This post was updated to correct the elevation of Mount Evans' summit. The correct height is 14,264 feet.
OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT--When I wrote to Verizon, asking for a MiFi 2200 mobile hotspot review unit for my upcoming Road Trip 2009 project, the response I got back was, basically, "Why would you want that?"
The MiFi operates on Verizon's EV-DO network, and converts that mobile broadband signal into a Wi-Fi signal that up to five people can use. So the question really was, Why would I, one person, find useful an Internet connectivity technology designed for multiple people?
I've just started using the device, so I've hardly scratched the surface of its potential, but here's one reason why.
Using a Verizon MiFi 2200 makes it possible to download large audio files on an iPhone via Wi-Fi.
(Credit: Verizon)I boarded my flight to Denver to begin Road Trip--my annual journey through a region of the United States in search of the most interesting destinations there to write about and photograph--and decided I wanted to use my iPhone to download one of the terrific TED talks to listen to during the flight.
The problem was that the file was more than 10 megabytes, and the iPhone will only let you download files that big if you're on a Wi-Fi network. Now, I've been using Verizon's EV-DO technology for some time, and I love it, but the plug-in EV-DO cards only provide connectivity to your computer. Technically, I suppose, you could turn on Internet sharing on the computer and create a Wi-Fi signal that way, but that's an awful big hassle.
Instead, because I had a MiFi with me--an amazingly small device that looks much more like a thin piece of chocolate than a great new technology--I was able to quickly create a Wi-Fi hotspot and satisfy the iPhone's needs.
Next thing I knew, as the plane prepared to depart our gate, I was in a race against time, trying to download the entire 55 megabytes before they closed the door and required everyone to turn off their phones.
Well, let's just say that I was able to get the entire file onto the phone. I won't comment on whether the door had already closed.
To me, this is very big leap forward. Being able to turn on a personal hot spot like that, without needing to pull out the computer, opens up a ton of possibilities. I love my EV-DO card, but it's unwieldy to the point of being annoying. It sticks out of the side of my computer, works only with the laptop and on some machines, requires Verizon's VZAcess Manager software. The MiFi, by comparison, can fit in your shirt pocket and offer up Wi-Fi at the push of a button.
Frankly, I don't think its utility depends in any way on multiple people using it. Here, by myself on a plane about to take off for Denver, I've already proved--to myself at least--that MiFi is a technology perfectly suitable for one.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Hoover Dam was a big hit from Road Trip 2007. What will be the biggest surprises of Road Trip 2009?
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)In the United States, the major east-west Interstate highways are denominated by multiples of tens: I-10 goes from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fla. I-40 goes from Barstow, Calif., to Wilmington, N.C. I-80 goes from San Francisco to New York.
The north-south Interstates, meanwhile, are denominated with fives. I-5 goes from the U.S.-Mexico border, through San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Seattle and ends at the U.S.-Canada border. I-15 goes from from San Diego to the Canadian border near Sweetgrass, Mont. And I-95 heads north from Miami all the way to northeast Maine.
Over the last three years, I've spent part of each summer doing a project called CNET Road Trip, and each time I've driven long distances through a specific region of the country. In 2006, it was the Pacific Northwest. In 2007, it was the Southwest. And in 2008, it was 4,593 miles through the Southeast.
All told, I've covered 12,853 miles and 17 states. But one of the little details about the three trips that I've enjoyed the most is that combined, I've driven at least a few miles on every one of those north-south divide-by-five interstates, except I-35. I spent a lot of time on I-5 on Road Trip 2006; I touched I-15 and I-25 on Road Trip 2007; and I actually hit I-45, I-55, I-65, I-75, I-85 and I-95 on Road Trip 2008.
On Sunday, I'll begin Road Trip 2009 in Denver. And looking back at that U.S. map, I realize that after this year's journey--which will take me through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming--I'll have also driven on each of the divide-by-ten Interstates except I-30. Looking at that map, clearly there's a hole in the country I need to think about for future Road Trips.
Nevertheless, this time around, it's the Rocky Mountain region and a bit of the Great Plains. It'll start off with a drive--in the Audi Q7 TDI I'll be road-testing--to Mount Evans, due west of Denver, which features the highest paved road in North America. And given that the Audi has a so-called "clean diesel" engine, I'll be writing a fair bit about that technology and what it means for fuel efficiency and the environment.
There will be three major themes this year: military and defense; energy and sustainable living research; and America's natural wonders. To be sure, there will likely be plenty of little meanderings off those themes, but they will be the major backbones of the project.
That means I'll be visiting places like North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain); the Air Force Academy; the Department of Energy's Idaho National Lab; a series of locations in and near national parks in Utah that were first put on a list by the Bush administration for drilling to private interests and then taken off the list by the new Obama administration; a firefighting technology center in Missoula, Mont.; a maker of commuter train engines in Boise, Idaho; an innovative wind farm in Wyoming; Air Force Space Command, also in Wyoming; Yellowstone National Park, also in Wyoming; the Badlands in South Dakota; a nonprofit working to help Boulder, Colo., transition to a peak-oil environment; and much, much more.
But even though I've worked out a more complete itinerary this year than I have in the past, I've still got plenty of wiggle room for unexpected discoveries. And I hope that you, dear readers, will get in touch with me as I go with suggestions for places to go and things to see.
Among the many high-tech gadgets Terdiman will be road-testing will be the new iPhone 3G S.
(Credit: Apple)Along the way, I'll be blogging constantly, posting regular photo galleries and some video, Twittering like mad, organizing meet-ups through Facebook; and giving away a whole series of things, including DVD sets from Showtime, Halo: ODST game codes from Microsoft; lots of video games; and more.
As I have each of the three previous trips, I'll also be bringing a long a veritable Best Buy's worth of high-tech gadgetry to test out. Among the devices are Apple's brand-spanking-new 13-inch MacBook Pro and iPhone 3G S; Verizon's MiFi 2200 mobile hot-spot; Iridium's new 9555 satellite phone; Inmarsat's Explorer 500 mobile satellite modem; Amazon's Kindle 2; and LiveScribe's Pulse pen; and more.
Last year, I took thousands of pictures with Nikon's D60 digital SLR. This year, I'll have Nikon's new D5000 dSLR, which adds HD video capabilities. I'll also be shooting some HD video with Flip Video's UltraHD. And I hope to edit some of the photos and video with the applications in Adobe's Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, and will be printing photos on Hewlett-Packard's Officejet H470wbt, a fully mobile printer.
And when I need to chill out and watch a movie, I'll have a pair of Sony's MDR-NC22 noise-canceling headphones to listen with.
On Road Trip 2009, Terdiman will be taking thousands of pictures with the Nikon D5000, which can also take HD video.
(Credit: Nikon)I intend, during the trip, to blog about my experiences using each and every one of the products I'll have with me.
As in previous years, Road Trip 2009 will be both a great deal of fun and a tremendous challenge. I'll be working nearly nonstop, posting stories constantly, driving several hundred miles a day on average, and even trying to get a little food and sleep. And I'll be by myself most of the time.
But I will have plenty of good music to listen to, thousands of miles of beautiful country to look at, and the chance to visit some of the most interesting destinations this country has to offer.
It is a tough job. But as they say, somebody's got to do it.
Starting today, please check out the Road Trip 2009 page frequently, follow my Twitter feed, and join my Facebook fan page. I'll do my best to bring you along with me.
