As it turns out, 2013 probably wasn't the Year of the Smartwatch, given that none of the wearable tech released last year set the world on fire. But 2013 was the year I got my first smartwatch, as the Pebble shipped in January, and, as one of the device's Kickstarter backers, I received mine a month later.
Thirty years ago, Apple introduced the Macintosh, and we all learned why 1984 wasn't going to be like 1984. A lot has changed in 30 years, and yet even in as fast-moving a field as technology, Apple and the Mac are still here. A time traveler from 1984, fresh from Steve Jobs's introduction of the original Mac, would probably be able to point at one of today's iMacs and identify it as the logical evolution of the original.
Sometimes it's the little things.
The iPad mini with Retina display has arrived. As someone who dumped the full-sized iPad for the iPad mini a year ago, I've been excited to get my hands on this new model. Can its small size beat out the all-new, all-lightweight iPad Air for a place in my heart and my backpack? I've been using mine for half a day; here are some initial impressions ahead of my full review.
It's right there in the name: The most important trait of the iPad Air is that it weighs only a pound. For a company that obsesses over making devices thinner and lighter, it must have been torture for Apple to spend nearly three years making a series of iPads that were better than their predecessors, but not smaller. Now it has.
Sometimes it takes a while to get used to the iPad. I just finished up a FaceTime call with my mother, who got an iPad mini for Christmas last year. After a couple of months, she was still using her MacBook more than the iPad, and I was concerned that it was just a misbegotten purchase. But today she complained that the only reason she used her laptop anymore was to print, because her printer doesn't support AirPrint.
I'm still working away at the new iPad Air, not to mention loading it up with movies and TV shows for my cross-country flight. But in the meantime, Jim Galbraith of the Macworld Lab has run some speed tests on the new iPad Air compared to other recent(ish) iOS devices. The results are not shocking, but they're still impressive: The iPad Air is pretty much the fastest iOS device ever.
I got my iPad Air this morning a little after 9am., and while I tried to gather some first impressions about Apple's new, lighter full-sized tablet while at the office, I really needed to retreat home to put it to the most important test: How does it work when I'm sitting on the sofa in my living room?
With Apple widely expected to be launching a new iPad mini, it's worth revisiting what makes the mini such a compelling product.
Apple's pattern of iteration isn't smooth when it comes to the iPhone. It bumps along: a new case design one year, more subtle advancements the next. The iPhone 5s is, as the name implies, a phone that doesn't look much different from last year's iPhone 5. But the mostly static exterior belies the numerous changes inside the device.
The iPhone advances in ticks and tocks, new designs alternating with more subtle advancements. I haven't decided whether the iPhone 5s is a tick or a tock. It most definitely looks like last year's model but there is also most definitely more to it than meets the eye. (And besides, which one is tick and which one is tock?)
The iPhone 5c is here! Last week I got my hands on one briefly during a press event at Apple's campus, but now I've had a bit more time to study the colorful new iPhone models. A full review will need to wait for a whole lot more quality time with the product, but here are some of my first impressions.
Isaac Asimov was a pretty cool guy. He's famous for his science fiction (I, Robot, the Foundation series), but he wrote or edited more than 500 books, fiction and non-fiction alike. And in 1964, he wrote an astounding piece for the New York Times envisioning the World's Fair of 2014.
Jobs hits movie theaters this week. Jason Snell talks to director Joshua Michael Stern about his biopic of the late Apple co-founder and CEO.
Not too long ago, the comics world seemed to view digital comics in the same way J. Jonah Jameson views Spider-Man: as a threat and a menace. In 2013, the world of comics has embraced and accepted digital, and at Comic-Con the discussion was more about how the comics medium should evolve and adapt to a world in which readers are experiencing comics on their phones and iPads rather than on paper.
