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Ask GadgetGuy: Why SHOULDN’T I buy an iPad Mini right now?

ipad miniRoss from Facebook asks:

Hey Gadget Guy… tell me why I shouldn’t buy an iPad Mini, and what I should buy instead, and why it’d be better. I don’t want to admit to drinking the apple-flavored kool-aid, but I love my iPhone, and wanna get a pair of tablets for me and my special lady friend… yeah, we gotta get 2 because we can’t share. hehe…
Thanks!

No worries on “drinking the kool-aid”, I’d be daft to say Apple doesn’t make fine products. The Mini is in an interesting position at the moment however, and buying one now, might not be the best move.

It’s old hardware. It was old-ish hardware when it was released, essentially a shrunk iPad 2. This brings up numerous support questions, like whether it will receive two full proper updates of iOS, as the iPad 2 is most likely done with major updates this year. That and I would fully expect we’ll see an iPad Mini refresh this November. Plus for hardware almost three years old, it’s really expensive compared to the current crop of Android Mini tablets.

And to answer your question about what else to buy, I’d start by looking at the Nexus 7.

Nexus 7 - hero - press siteFor $100 less you get a MUCH nicer true HD 1080p screen, in proper widescreen (so if you watch movies, you don’t lose half your display to letter-boxing). Remember the current Mini isn’t a “Retina” device.

Other things like stereo speakers and NFC might be a wash, but it’s much more current technology.

It’s not out yet, but the LTE variant of the Nexus 7 will likely sell for about $20 more than the least expensive, WiFi only iPad Mini. Ouch.

In conclusion, depending on what you want to do with a tablet, an iPad Mini today would still be a fine purchase. It is a sexy little tablet. However, if you can hold off, treat yourself to more of a Thanksgiving present, you’ll probably get a better “bang for buck”.

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Google Fiber continues expansion in Kansas

roeland parkColor me jealous.

Posted on the official Google Fiber blog, the Roeland Park City Council has voted to approve a measure which will allow Google to provide internet and TV services to their residents. Great news for folks living in Roeland Park, as they’re going to get a little more competition for digital connectivity, and 1Gbps broadband sounds like it’ll be just the ticket.

No ETA on the rollout, but Google is encouraging residents to sign up for email alerts for when more info is available.

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Are 2011 MacBook Pro GPU’s failing?

Macbook proThe cool thing about Apple is how hard they work at software+hardware integration. The bummer is you can only buy an Apple from Apple, so if there’s a problem with a certain batch of Apple products, you’re kinda stuck.

Currently on the Apple message boards, a post has racked up over 136 pages of replies from folks having, and trying to fix, issues with older MacBook Pros using discrete graphics chips. Computers freezing, information getting corrupted, locking up, even some stories of blue screens of death. With a thread this long, it’s difficult to establish a clear pattern of what might be failing, but enough people are pointing to logic board and GPU issues that it might just be a theme.

No official word from Apple regarding any potential issues with this line of MacBooks. Do yo own a MacBook Pro from 2011? Are you/ were you having problems?

MacBook Pro 2011 17″ hard freeze (136 pages)

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American Society of Media Photographers warns of Facebook’s new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

facebook camera iconWe keep dancing around this issue. Facebook needs to monetize somehow, and one avenue to explore is using the media being uploaded to Facebook and pairing it with advertisers. As of September 5th, Facebook’s new ToS has added the following passage:

You give us permission to use your name, and profile picture,content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us, subject to the limits you place. This means, for example, that you permit a business or other entity to pay us to display your name and/or profile picture with your content or information, without any compensation to you. If you have selected a specific audience for your content or information, we will respect your choice when we use it.

The strike-through is language being cut from the new ToS.

Which looks pretty damning. See those ads on the right hand side of the screen? See those sponsored posts? If you’ve got photos uploaded to Facebook, they can attach those pics to ads. You receive zero compensation for this ad enhancement. Regardless if Facebook actively pursues this kind of monetization or not, the fact that these ToS changes are always snuck in under our radars just makes the whole affair feel slimy and invasive.

And the bummer is FB is missing out on an opportunity to go semi-pro. If they were upfront with their users, and even offered some kind of partner or affiliate program, they’d probably have scores of people sign up. Facebook could single-handedly shut down all other stock photo and video sites on the web with the amount of photo and video traffic they receive.

Instead, now they look greedy and sneaky. A bad combo for the internet.

The ASMP site has an FAQ you can read if you’re concerned about Facebook’s new policy.

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Oyster aims to be the Netflix of books.

oyster monthly subscription ebook all you can eat service somegadgetguyAll you can eat subscription model services have proven very popular with consumers. Personally I’m on the hook monthly for Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Google Play Music. I also happen to read a lot…

Oyster is a new start-up which is trying to shake up the way we monetize reading books, namely by applying the same model which already works for movies to the printed (or digitally inked) page. The execution is simple enough. Customers spend $9.95 a month, and they get access to over 100,000 launch titles from major publishers. Read as much or as little of any book in the catalog.

It’s first launching on the iPhone with an iPad version in the works. No word on Android or Windows Phone versions of the service. If the service proves popular at all however, it would be an easy retrofit for the Google Play store. Google recently released a subscription service for music.

The idea of an unlimited monthly book subscription service is interesting. I like having a library of books both dead-tree and digital to look at. These things that I own and can page through any time I like. Oyster could combine my desire for immediacy, while overcoming my fear of buying books I might not like.  I got over the notion of owning a DVD library when Netflix introduced streaming. Maybe this could work for books too?

What also remains to be seen is how subscription services might impact libraries in the future, as many are now offering ebooks.

Currently Oyster is invite only. More info at https://www.oysterbooks.com/

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‘The IT Crowd’ will return with a one-off show wrap up episode this month!

the it crowd series ending special

A little geek entertainment news. The IT Crowd is one of my all time favorite TV shows. I recorded the theme song off of Netflix to use as my ringtone. I’m in that deep.

Well all good things must officially come to an end, and The IT Crowd will air a special 40 minute wrap up episode later this month on Channel 4. Show runner Graham Linehan dropped the bomb on Twitter yesterday:

It was announced back in May that they would be producing the special, and now we’re finally going to be able to see it.

Damn. First Nokia, and now IT Crowd. I shall name this week “End of an Era” week.

BBC Channel 4 should have more news soon.

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IFA 2013: Panasonic Toughpad 4K – a 20 inch tablet running Windows 8.1

panasonic toughpad 4k ifa somegadgetguyIt’s audacious. PC sales are slowing up, so tech companies need to come up with new product lines to excite the public. Microsoft is blurring the lines between tablets and PC’s with Windows 8, and manufacturers are starting to develop hardware based on that shift.

Panasonic is making the Toughpad 4K a real product. A year ago they showed off a proof of concept 4K display running Windows. Soon you’ll be able to buy one!

This 20″ display has a resolution of 3840×2560, and is being marketed towards graphics and design professionals. In addition to touch controls, there’s the option to use an inductive stylus to get work done. Powered by a Core i5, 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA graphics, and up to 256GB of solid state storage, Panasonic is smudging the lines on “portable” computing. There needs to be a new classification for these types of slate. Something like “Semi-Mobile”.

Impressively, this thing is actually battery powered, and those high performance guts can run for around two hours without being connected to an outlet. At only five pounds, you could conceivably leave the house with the Toughpad. Something you’d never really consider doing with an iMac for example. It opens up some interesting possibilities for temporary workstations and situations where you’d need visuals like presentations. Instead of lugging a laptop and a projector, just pack up your Toughpad.

We’ll see more of this type of product soon in the coming months, as even Sony is releasing a “semi-mobile” computer.

No info on a USA release, but Toughpad 4K should arrive in Europe the middle of November. Expect it to drop for around  €4,500 (about $6000).

(picture via @Windows)

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Rumor: No surprise Microsoft MIGHT be working on a Surface 2. Gasp!

microsoft surface pro somegadgetguy

No really folks. Apparently we’re going to treat this rumor like it’s really hot news. Great.

Apparently Microsoft hasn’t been sitting around twiddling its collective thumbs since the release of the Surface Pro. Color me shocked, they MIGHT just be working on a follow up to their groundbreaking slate PC. Real facts here are slim, but there’s a lot we can glean without much effort.

See there’s this new lower-power processor out from Intel called Haswell. It wasn’t out when the original Surface Pro was released, but it’s popping up in all kinds of new laptops, and is proving very popular thanks to its improved power management. It sips way less juice, and is now the brains behind the new Asus Transformer Book T300 and Sony’s beautiful new Tap 11. Those two represent the closest direct competition to the idea which bore the Surface Pro. Taking laptop-grade hardware, and cramming it into a device little bigger than an iPad.

So here’s the hot scoop, Microsoft will use THAT processor in their follow up to the Surface Pro! Bam! I KNOW!

It’ll probably even have more RAM too! BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS WITH TECH! IT GETS MORE RAM!

I mean seriously. These aren’t even “leaks”, they’re just obvious paths of improvement. How frustrating would it be if I acted all coy about the Samsung Galaxy S5 having a more powerful processor and a better camera. SHOCKING! But you heard it here first. EXCLUSIVE! HOT!

What no one really knows for certain is what a release schedule might look like. The original Surface RT was released in October of last year, with the Surface Pro held up until February of this year. Microsoft would do well to get ahead of this hardware cycle, as they have to play a little catch up with all the Haswell products hitting the market now.

We also know that Windows 8.1 will be released to consumers on October 17th, so the timing on a refreshed Surface could tie together really well.

If a refreshed Surface Pro even happens.

Because apparently people are surprised when major companies secretly work on improving products. And this is why I hate writing up rumor posts…

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