First up, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop. This one boasted rugged construction, but had trouble with our torture gantlet: mainly the heat test and the part where I spilled a cup of hot coffee on its otherwise outstanding keyboard. It comes on, but the keyboard and touch pad are unresponsive. … Read more
You asked, we answered. It turns out that the iPod Touch is the product a surprising number of you wanted to see unboxed and tortured on our show -- so here you go! In addition to the regular gauntlet of tests, it seemed pretty obvious that the Wild Card for the iPod Touch pretty much had to involve children. So we rounded up four kids, ages 2 to 5, and gave them pizza, chips, candy, fruit, and juice, and let them go crazy with the iPods. Let me be honest: I could watch this video all day long, and not … Read more
We're back, and just in time for the holiday shopping season! Welcome to the pre-Black Friday episode of Always On: the unboxing extravaganza.
This episode alone features Google's two new pure-Android Nexus devices -- the LG Nexus 4 and the Nexus 10 tablet. I so wanted to love the Nexus 4, since I'm definitely in the market for a pure-Android device, but I'm skeptical (as is our CNET reviewer, Lynn La) about the lack of 4G LTE in the unlocked model. Then again, I don't have to sit around worrying about it since the phone … Read more
This week, we got a new production assistant, Nic Henry (welcome, Nic!). And Nic got a pretty fun assignment: go down to San Francisco's Westfield mall at 8 a.m. and find a way to get in line at Microsoft's Surface pop-up store on the second floor. Then, Molly will roll in at 9:30 all cheerful to take your place in line and buy some tablets! It's good to be the talent.
Nic did a great job, though, and interestingly, ended up second in a line that grew to probably about 50 people while we waited … Read more
I told you the new dock connector change was awful.
Apple unexpectedly unveiled a new fourth-generation iPad today, just six months after the birth of the cheekily dubbed "new iPad." That's the shortest planned obsolescence window I've ever seen from Apple, and CNET's Roger Cheng is not alone in feeling burned at spending $500 (or more) on a gadget that's just been significantly upgraded at the same price.
Make no mistake, though -- the suddenness of the iPad update has nothing to do with the faster A6X processor, expanded LTE support, and 10-hour battery … Read more
I hear a lot of geeks make jokes about "really pretty paperweights." Even some Android fans have been known to refer to the iPhone that way, just for amusement. In this case, it's ... kind of true.
We put the iPhone 4S through the normal battery of tests back in season 1, and it was relatively tough, despite a nasty purple line on the screen after being dropped. But its unibody construction meant we could never dry it out enough to save it from a spin in the washing machine.
But I believe in miracles, and I'm … Read more
When Samsung debuted the Galaxy Note last year at CES, the phone met with, well, a mountain of mockery.
It was inexplicably huge, it came with a stylus, hallmark of the hopelessly unhip, and worse, pundits took to calling it a "phablet" -- half phone, half tablet. It appeared to be a product in search of a market it could never, ever hope to find.
We were wrong. The Note found a following, and Samsung reportedly sold 20 million of the funny little things. That's pretty good for a tweener device with no known purpose.
And here … Read more
Last month Amazon.com's CEO Jeff Besos, unveiled the new Kindle line, complete with new updates to the current Kindles and an 8.9" Fire. Naturally, Molly bought all of the new kindles, including the "revolutionary" Paperwhite!
We unboxed the 7" Kindle Fire a few episodes back, and now it was time to enter it into our torture chamber. That Kindle Fire really took a beating from us, and we were all shocked to see it survive. I personally would be using it right now, but agree with Molly. It's just too WIDE to … Read more
Everyone else is excited about this being the episode where we torture test the iPhone 5 -- and believe me, I get that, it's pretty exciting. And it was a pretty dramatic test, to be sure, I think you'll be surprised at the combination of tough and not tough displayed by that phone.
But for me, this episode is all about the America's Cup piece! That's just selfish, though; it's because I had such a great time riding on that catamaran -- and I do think the broadcasting tech is fascinating. America's Cup racing … Read more
... it only comes on when it's plugged in. Hey, but I'm pretty sure it's just a battery issue, so I bet it's a pretty easy fix, and you'll have yourself a really tough-looking MacBook Air! Me, I'd enter to win it, for sure. And it's not like it's our Nexus 7 or anything. That's coming later.
So, if you'd like to be the proud owner of the Always On Collector's Edition MacBook Air, just enter to win in the comments below! In our last giveaway, we proffered the iPad … Read more
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