INTERNET New Ipad TALES from SOUTH the PACIFIC Bringing Wireless to the Disconnected

030912 #31 + Apple‘s INTERNET New iPad TALES from SOUTH the PACIFIC Bringing Wireless to the Disconnected

BY DARREN MURPH

Is Lytro’s Light Field Is Dell’s XPS 13 All And Steve Wozniak Camera Infinitely Better? Beauty and No Brawn? Takes on the Distro Q&A advertisement DISTRO Issue #31...

“I can see the BlueSky cell tower from my fale; it doesn’t look like a detraction of the natural beauty. It looks like a broadcasting beacon of hope.”

»Enter »Features »ESC editor’s letter review q&a The New, New iPad Lytro Light Field Camera Apple Co-Founder By Tim Stevens By Dante Cesa Steve Wozniak »the weekly stat review last word The Travel Habits of Dell XPS 13 Tech Talk with Engadget’s Senior Editors By Tim Stevens Albert Quimbly By Billy Steele By Sean Pryor preview switched on Forget the Numbers, This Is The iPad’s Landscape the ‘New’ iPad Orientation By Darren Murph By Ross Rubin feature recommended reading » Internet Tales from Google’s Watchful Eye the South Pacific and More By Darren Murph By Donald Melanson

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 The New, New iPad Editor’s Letter

Well, we can finally stop talking about the iPad 3, reap the sweetest rewards. iPad 2S, iPad HD and the rest of its ilk. We now know But, even if the mere idea what the new iPad is going to be called — just that and of owning an Apple product nothing more. This finally signals a dose of sanity in makes you uncomfortable, the product naming for Apple’s iOS devices, which you’ll still be a winner in the are all more or less falling into annual releases like long run. Apple pushing this the company’s line of MacBooks, iMacs and so forth. resolution pushes the entire So, this means we’ll probably industry to keep up and it’s not get a “the new iPhone” this fall hard to imagine a time where — ending years of speculation all higher-end tablets and even on what the iPhone 5 will look laptops have Retina-caliber dis- like — and we can merrily go on plays. I wouldn’t be surprised if our way to a somewhat uncom- we get there within a year, and fortable future where the iPad is as a fan of things that look nice, actually newer and cooler than that makes me pretty excited. the iPad 2. This also begs the The other advancements in question of what Apple might the new iPad are rather less choose to call a smaller, lower- groundbreaking, but that end tablet should it ever decide doesn’t change the fact that to aim directly at Amazon’s the thing is going to be a huge Kindle Fire. Perhaps the iNote? seller, and the iPad 2, at $100 We have the full run-down ina LCD, looks like it will truly cheaper, won’t slow down. of the thing courtesy of Dar- push the industry forward. That wasn’t the only news ren Murph later in this issue, For ages we’ve been limping from the event, with Apple but name aside, we got exactly along with low-res portable unveiling some great new iOS what we expected with the new devices and only recently have apps, including a mobile ver- iPad — that is to say a device smartphones pushed into HD sion of iPhoto that is surpris- that looks almost exactly like territory — albeit only the land ingly powerful even for reason- the current one, including the of 720p. At CES a few tablets ably serious photogs — if they same visual styling and same showed promise of 1080p on a can find a good way to get their 9.7-inch glassy expanse on the slate, but Apple’s the first to get pics in the tablet. front. But, what’s beneath that something that chock full of Apple also upgraded the glass, the new 2048 x 1536 Ret- pixels to market and so it will AppleTV, moving it

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 up to 1080p support. It’s a nat- phones and the PS Vita as well. ural update since the iPad itself That’s good news for owners of now supports 1080p content, such devices, but we can still but still no sign of a proper TV think of a couple-dozen origi- from Apple. nal PlayStation games we’d There was one last interest- Apple pushing like to see ported over first. ing bit to the event that came this resolution In this week’s Distro we’re at the tail end of things. Tim pushes the entire naturally going to give you the Cook closed by saying “We’re run-down on the new iPad, just getting started” while industry to keep but there’s a heck of a lot more standing before a slide that up and it’s not than that. We have an amazing said “2012: There’s a lot to piece from our resident globe- look forward to.” It’s almost as hard to imagine trotter Darren Murph, talking if Apple was saying “Okay, so a time where all about the challenges of bring- this announcement was maybe ing broadband to the masses just a little tame, but we have higher-end tablets and, in a related feature, we’ll some really good stuff coming. and even laptops give you a look at just how Promise.” With two predomi- many frequent flier miles the nantly evolutionary product have Retina- Engadget team collectively launches down, maybe it’s time caliber displays. racked up last year. We have to start expecting something Dante Cesa’s review of the truly bonkers for the next. An revolutionary Lytro camera, Air-thin MacBook Pro with a my take on Dell’s evolution- Retina display? That’s my pie- ary Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook, in-the-sky wish. Ross Rubin discusses where Now, you might not believe 22 Cans. No word on what the the new iPad fits in and Apple it, but there was some other Bullfrog veteran will be cooking co-founder Steve Wozniak sits news in the tech world this up next but we have it on good down for our Q&A. You won’t week, particularly from the authority that it will be slightly want to miss it and, if you’ve gaming front since the Game kooky and potentially zany. managed to get this far, you Developer Conference is going Also on the gaming front, shouldn’t have to. Enjoy. on — across the street from Sony announced the release of Apple, interestingly. a beta SDK for developers who Storied game producer Peter would like to push games to Molyneux of Lionhead Stu- the PlayStation Suite. It’s free dios, the creative voice behind for now but titles developed the Fable series among many through the full $99 version other amazing titles, stepped (which arrives “later this year”) tim stevens away from his role at Microsoft will be eligible for deployment editor-in-chief, to found a new outlet called through PlayStation Certified engadget

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 ENTER: THE WEEKLY STAT

Vancouver Seattle Portland

Dublin London Berlin Montreal Paris Tokyo Albany NYC Barcelona Taipei Philadelphia Hong Kong San Francisco Washington DC

Las Vegas Los Angeles

San Diego

DANA WOLLMAN MICHAEL GORMAN RICHARD LAI TIM STEVENS MYRIAM JOIRE DARREN MURPH BRIAN HEATER DON MELANSON AMAR TOOR RICHARD LAWLER CHRISTOPHER ZACH HONIG TROUT SOURCE: ENGADGET STAFF

The Weekly Stat

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 ENTER: SWITCHED ON

THE IPAD’S LANDSCAPE ORIENTATION

Switched On

Operating system advances have in many ways driven the two major classes of tablets seeking to grab a share of the iPad’s market. Windows 8 will bring the new Metro user interface and ARM support to allow the PC-class to scale down. While Android 4.0 unifies the platform’s tablet and smartphone operating systems, encouraging it to take better advantage of the larger screen capabilities, and scale up. ¶ Indeed, the full potential of the new iPad won’t be known until the next release BY ROSS RUBIN of iOS, as is typical of Apple’s historically tight pairing of can function as both a notebook PC hardware and software; that and a tablet, manufacturers have a other shoe will likely drop powerful marketing message that at its developer conference the best tablet is the one you don’t in June. Despite the lack of have to buy as a second device. a new operating system or On the software side, however, form factor, the third-gener- Microsoft is arguably asking Win- ation iPad and its now price- dows developers to make at least reduced predecessor have set as great a shift between the classic the stage for how Apple plans Windows user interface and Met- to defend against Android ro as Apple has between the Mac and Windows tablets. and iOS. Apple’s recent announce- ments better prepare the company Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) The View from Above for this challenge in three ways: is executive director and For a company with such a bolstering the device’s processor, principal analyst of the rich software history, Micro- improving its first-party produc- NPD Connected Intelligence soft challenges the iPad with tivity and creativity applications, service at The NPD Group. Windows tablets that seem to and showcasing how increasingly Views expressed in Switched rely more on bits than atoms. sophisticated apps such On are his own. In offering form factors that as Sketchbook Ink and

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 It is a level of favoritism that Google and Microsoft can never have for any given device...

iPhoto can take on tasks previously re- The View from Within served for the PC. Apple’s greatest defense against com- petitors, though, is not about improved The View from Below specs or lower prices, but more about That third tactic will also be effective how it sees the iPad. iPad apps shown in defending the tide of tablets that at this week’s event, including iPhoto, Google hopes will rise up from the An- with its engaging user interface, and droid smartphone army. After all, the GarageBand, with its novel networked storage-deficient and camera-lacking Jam Session feature, show how Apple Kindle Fire, the most successful iPad considers the iPad not as another PC competitor to date, could hardly be po- form factor or opportunity for devel- sitioned more as an exclusive content opers to spruce up a smartphone app consumption device in the tradition incrementally, but rather as some- of its e-paper-based forebearers. But thing special and unique. It is a level mostly it is the iPad 2’s new lower price of favoritism that Google and Micro- that will be Apple’s defense against An- soft can never have for any given de- droid. While its $399 price point won’t vice running their licensed software. lure many price-conscious Kindle Fire Apple’s success in communicating that buyers, it does put renewed pressure passionate perspective with develop- on other Android tablet makers that ers and consumers has not just fueled have seen their 10-inch offerings slip the marketplace success of the iPad, into that price range. but its products in general.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 ENTER: RECOMMENDED READING I’m Being Followed: How Google — and 104 Other Companies — Are Tracking Me on the Web

by Alexis Madrigal The Atlantic

The fact that advertisers are following what you do on the web likely isn’t much of a surprise to most, but the extent of that tracking may well be. Alexis Madrigal recently attempted to get to the bottom of things, and the result is an in-depth look at just how many companies are tracking you, and what it all means. Also worth reading is Madrigal’s follow-up piece on how the deceptively simple Drudge Report website is using state-of-the-art advertising tools.

AROUND THE WEB

TED and Meta TED: On-Scene Are Smartphones Changing What Lord of the Files: How GitHub Musings From the Wonderdome It Means to be Human? Tamed Free Software (And More) by Steven Levy by Janelle Nanos by Robert McMillan Wired Epicenter Boston Magazine Wired Enterprise This year’s TED con- How do our interactions The open source reference sparked a fair with technology change pository GitHub recently bit of debate before a as our smartphones made news after it was single speaker even took the and other devices become hacked by one of its own mem- stage (see Nathan Jurgenson’s smarter and smarter? Boston bers, but the fact that such a hack “Against TED” essay recently Magazine’s Janelle Nanos tries received so much coverage is also featured in this section), but to answer that question by look- a testament to the site’s growing what of the event itself? Steven ing at some of the latest devel- prominence. Here, Robert Mac- Levy reports on the proceedings opments, with some additional Millan looks at just how it arrived with an eye towards the meta insight from the likes of MIT’s at its current state and what’s in for Wired. Sherry Turkle. store for its future. Photo: Brian Jackson / Alamy Recommended Reading

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 Review

Lytro Camera Review by dante cesa Lytro’s debut camera only shines when taking well-lit pictures with multiple layers of focus. In its current incarnation it’s an accessory, but we suspect it’s only a matter of time before all cameras work this way.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 DON’T LET THAT CUTE DESIGN FOOL YOU. Lytro, the world’s first commercial light field camera, is the culmination of nearly twenty years of research — a project that once occupied an entire wall facade, and has since been miniaturized into something that fits in the palm of your hand. An impressive feat, sure, but not as arresting as the end result: the ability to refocus pictures, even after you’ve taken them.

To achieve such magical endeavors, the product quite this refined, so minimal- Lytro camera uses heaps of custom soft- ist in its sensibility. ware (armed with a custom .lfp file format) coupled with some serious silicon IT FEELS AS IF LYTRO’S to measure not just color and the inten- ENGINEERS WERE INCAPABLE sity of light, but its direction, too. The OF CLOSING THE CHAPTER latter is achieved with an eleven “mega- ON THEIR MASTERPIECE UNTIL ray” sensor, which is bolted to an f/2.0 THEY STRIPPED IT OF 8x optical zoom lens, all encased within EVERYTHING BUT THE that sleek body. Seeking to save us from ESSENTIALS. unfocused mishaps, the technological tour de force also unlocks some consid- This seems that much more impres- erable creative potential. So, is the $399 sive, too, when you remember this is shooter going to revolutionize photog- the work of a startup — one unveiling raphy as we know it? Or does Lytro’s its first piece of hardware, at that. Other first foray into consumer electronics CE makers just got put on notice. fall prey to the shortcomings of a 1.0 But let’s delve deeper into the intrica- product? cies of what makes this thing tick. The design is a jarring blend of metal and Hardware rubber, and the overall effect is nothing Despite the inherent complexity stuffed short of striking. For starters, we have within, the Lytro camera’s exterior an anodized aluminum barrel, which couldn’t be more simple. That’s high- houses the f/2.0 8x optical zoom lens. praise: it isn’t often that we encounter a That, in turn, is fused to a rubberized

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 cube where the sensor, various electrics and touchscreen all reside. It’s worth noting that the rubber portion is where you’ll spend all your time, as that’s where all of the spartan controls live. Things like a shutter button and capacitive-touch zoom slider up top, followed by a power button and a micro-USB door directly opposite on its bottom. Completing the tour, let’s turn our attention to the 1.46-inch touchscreen adorning the back side. Despite its premium glass construction and responsive performance, Lytro doesn’t quite make up for the poor quality of the display itself. Some of that disappointment stems from its unimpressive 128 x 128 resolution, sure, but more worrisome is its tendency to wash out as soon as you turn it ever-so slightly off-angle. That’s a problem because pulling off Okay, not everyone will be comfortable those cool depth-of-field shots means adopting the “shoot first ask questions more often than not you’ll be contort- later” mantra, but that’s how we gen- ing the hardware at odd angles. We also erally used it outdoors — a habit made took issue with its performance in bright sweeter with the help of some fast shut- light — get used to creating shade with ter releases. Naturally, your mileage your hand cupped to the unit as you try will vary depending on your technique to frame shots out in the wild. (human skills still do count for some- Having a poor display on a piece of thing here), but as we’ll explain, we photographic kit would normally be a were more than happy with the results, bummer, if not a deal-breaker. Ulti- so long as we had adequate lighting at mately, though, it’ll hit you that the the ready. camera workflow you’ve been practic- ing for your entire life doesn’t neces- User Interface sarily apply here. Soon enough, you’ll If we’re honest, the current user state stop worrying about focus, and realize of camera interfaces is pretty abysmal. Lytro liberates you to dwell on compo- Years upon years of crud, including left- sition and exposure, the latter of which overs from directional-driven UX, do you can tweak by tapping the screen. not a happy Engadget reviewer make.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 gesture also reveals a Settings icon (the THANKFULLY, LYTRO’S cog in the upper right corner), which is THROWN CAUTION TO THE where you’ll find the About, Delete All WIND AND STARTED ANEW, and Factory Reset menus. ADOPTING THE SAME Before we get ahead of ourselves, SIMPLISTIC APPROACH ON THE let’s talk a little bit more about cre- INTERIOR AS ON ITS EXTERIOR. ative mode, the only alternative shooting setting this camera offers. Tuned For starters, taking photos is as simple for finer control, in this mode the cam- as waking the unit (either by pressing its era is less worried about maximizing a power or shutter button) and pressing shot’s future refocus potential — essen- the shutter to take a picture. To zoom, tially a fancy way of saying it’ll now slide your finger along the capacitive let you take much closer macro shots zoom bar up top. Swiping up on the with a shallower and flatter depth of touchscreen reveals that dock you see field, which means less of that Lytro- above, with three tappable icons, which refocusing magic applies later. Getting enable “creative mode” (more on that started, you’ll know it’s active thanks in a bit) and show remaining storage to an onscreen blue border. Creative and respective battery capacities. That mode gives you access to the full range

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 of the camera’s optical zoom (8x versus the “Every day” mode’s 3.5x) in addi- tion to enabling tap-to-focus (instead of the default mode’s more restrictive tap for exposure). Once you’ve actually taken a shot, viewing your creations is as simple as swiping to the left. From there you can continuously swipe left back in time, or right to return to the viewfinder. Thankfully, if you’ve perused through a lot of photos, you don’t have to endlessly swipe to get back into capture mode — one press of the shutter button and you’re ready to start captur- ing again. Sliding across the zoom bar while viewing those creations reveals a 3 x 3 grid view, similar to how most digital cameras manage photos these days. And if you swipe upward while viewing a single photo, the same dock appears as before, except this time you’ve got a delete button occupying the leftmost spot where creative mode lived.

Image Quality, Performance and Battery Life Ultimately, it’s of no consequence how beautiful the hardware or onboard the Lytro camera have 1080 x 1080 software is if a camera fails at its one resolution — good enough, the com- purpose: taking pictures. With Lytro pany says, for 5 x 7 prints. things are a little complicated in this Well-lit snaps with two or more layers department, insofar as the camera of focus are really where Lytro comes excels in certain situations, while put- into its own. With proper lighting, col- ting on a mediocre performance in ors are vibrant and generally accurate others. Before we walk you through the across the range, and Lytro had no results, it’s worth setting the expec- problem conquering more tricky shots tation that you won’t be getting any with highlights and shadows. Unfor- poster-sized prints here. Shots from tunately, we can’t say the same about

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 well-lit, but focally flat long distance or On the upside, though, shutter per- landscape shots, where pictures con- formance and zooming are both much sistently lacked sharpness and detail. better. Booting is near instantaneous If you’re into depth-of-field shots, the and first captures, with their reassur- Lytro’s a worthy companion; just be ing click, are ready to go less than a sec- cognizant you won’t be sending your ond later. Shots thereafter continue at a current shooter to the graveyard. rapid clip — speedy enough, certainly, Unfortunately, things don’t get bet- for us to catch waves breaking or a cat ter when it comes to low-light perfor- mid-yawn. Of course, this isn’t rapid- mance. Yes, in theory, that wide f/2.0 fire shooting on the order of a DSLR, aperture lets a lot of light in, but pre- but the quick reflexes of Lytro’s camera pare yourself for copious amounts of is still worlds better than most smart- noise. High-contrast shots taken dur- phones and, we’d hazard, most point- ing a beachside hike passed, but more and-shoots as well. Image quality when often than not you’ll have to sift through zoomed at full bore (in creative mode, quite a few iffy shots with copious noise naturally) is relatively good, and, as an before finding an acceptable one. added bonus, all that lens movement happens within the unit’s barrel, meaning there’s no lens protrusion here. As for battery life, we don’t have any complaints either. You should get at least a day trip’s worth of photos from the on-board lithium-ion battery. We’re talking anywhere from 200 to 300 shots per charge, which, consider- ing the onboard processing, we found perfectly within the range of acceptable. Charging is a strict micro- USB-only affair, although for those travelling sans computer, we’re told there’s a forthcoming (yet unpriced) optional fast charger, which should cater to the more serious Lytro enthusiast.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 Software You might have missed the passing reference in our intro, but the Lytro camera doesn’t output your run-of-the-mill JPEG. Instead all that directional light infor- mation is stuffed into a custom format the company calls a “Light field picture file,” or .lfp for short. Ergo, to do anything with a picture that originated from a Lytro camera, you’ll naturally need the company’s home- grown desktop appli- cation. The good news is the installer’s pre- loaded on the camera — just plug it in and follow the prompts to make your way through the installer package. But we hope you also caught that installer package nuance, is being backed up (not photos, that’s as here comes the bad news. For now, for sure) — but the company did tell us Lytro’s desktop software is Mac only this happens once every time you plug (requiring 10.6.6 or above), although the camera into a different machine. the company says a Windows version After conquering the backup, .lfp files will follow at some point this year. start copying to the disk (with previ- Upon firing up the desktop software ously starred images given first bid- for the first time, you’ll be informed ding) while the suite simultaneously you must complete a one-time backup begins processing each RAW-like .lfp of the camera’s internals before pro- into something the desktop suite can ceeding. It’s unclear to us what exactly digest. You’ll know when the process-

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 ing is complete, as one by one, grayscale files are untouched, new functionality thumbnails give way to color replace- like the previous tech demos the com- ments, which means they’re ready for pany has shown (like shifting perspec- some TLC, courtesy of the suite’s rudi- tive and making images all-in-focus) mentary editing chops. will come to photos you’ve taken today When it comes to editing, all you can in a future release. really do with the software is refocus to The final piece of the software puzzle your heart’s content (by clicking differ- relates to sharing. Upon logging into a ent spots in the picture), actuate image Lytro.com account, one can upload cap- rotations and bring up additional info tures to their own gallery on the com- on a capture with more in-depth data pany’s website. Pictures uploaded can (like shutter, ISO, focal length and be publicly visible or private and addi- aperture values). That might not sound tionally the desktop software supports like a lot, and it isn’t, but Lytro prom- direct uploads to a connected Facebook ises it’ll quickly iterate with new fea- account. Choosing the latter creates an tures over time. And because those .lfp inline “living” Flash-powered embed on

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 the social network, which friends can the earliest of days. For the photogra- then interact with by refocusing inline phy aficionados in the audience, $399 on Facebook to their hearts content. is chump change compared to the kinds Additionally there’s support for Twit- of glass in your collection, making Lytro ter and HTML embeds, although you’ll a no-brainer and worthy companion of have to navigate over to the intended space in your camera bag. For the rest picture in the Lytro gallery portal and of us, though, patience is a virtue. click share buttons to complete those tasks from your browser. Dante’s been tinkering with gadgets Finally, those looking to get their old since age four. If he’s not yodeling, he’s school sharing on, can export JPEGs out aimlessly wandering in SF. from a secret option in the desktop software, which only rears its head when you right-click on a thumbnail. Sneaky. BOTTOMLINE Wrap-Up While there’s so much right with Lytro’s debut shooter, it will, even at its best, Lytro Camera be no more than another accessory living in your camera bag. Although we’re $399 smitten by its delectably simple UI PROS and gorgeous hardware (its washed-out • Refocuses images after the fact screen not withstanding), its inability • Stellar build quality to shine in limited shooting conditions • Simple but intuitive UI means you’ll never be able to just make the Lytro your sole photographic com- CONS panion. • Low resolution (~1MP) captures That’s saddening — it’s obvious Lytro’s • Poor screen onto something huge, and we’re impa- • Iffy low-light performance tiently awaiting the day when cameras of all sizes make use of the technology Lytro’s debut camera only shines when on display here. Whether the company taking well-lit pictures with multiple layers of will realize our dream by building out a focus. In its current incarnation it’s an acces- full line of Lightray-equipped cameras sory, but we suspect it’s only a matter of time remains to be seen, but with a such a before all cameras work this way. solid technical and groundbreaking foundation, things can only get better. The end game is long and these are

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 Review

Dell XPS 13 by tim stevens Dell’s XPS 13 is one of the best looking Ultrabooks we’ve seen yet, but isn’t necessarily the best Ultrabook.

You don’t have to be a marketing skeptic to agree that “Ultrabook” is a somewhat hyperbolic term for a class of devices designed a little thinner, a little lighter and maybe a little quicker than those notebooks that have come before. From a pure hardware standpoint there’s nothing particularly “ultra” about them when compared to a standard Wintel lappytop, but manufacturers are, thankfully, using this as an opportunity to raise their game on another front that’s becoming increasingly important in the world of portable computing: aesthetics.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 thing take up a huge amount of space in your bag. If PC makers are going That Dell took the to get really serious about going after Apple with slinky laptops, they’re going time to design a to have to come up with some slinkier metal flap just power adapters to match. Ignoring that bit of standard-issue to hide unsightly fare, the XPS 13 makes a great first logos and stickers impression. If you’ve been following along, you’ll notice it dispenses with says a lot about many of the gaudy embellishments that made the XPS 14z and 15z so polariz- the attention to ing, with only the fingerprint-free metal detail here. lid and pillowy keyboard tying it all together. Its lid is of satiny aluminum with a sandblasted sort of appearance, embossed in the middle with a glossy, Compared to clunky laptops of yore, 1.5-inch Dell logo. The bottom, though, many Ultrabooks mark a truly massive is even more alluring. Protected beneath step forward when it comes to purity a thin rubberized coating is a carbon of design and Dell is showing some fiber construction that feels fantastic. impressive chops with the new XPS 13. You don’t have to be a motorsports nut But, when you’re buckled in to coach to appreciate the look of a fine carbon class and it’s time to get to work, looks weave, and with the soft-touch coating are less important than having a solid it creates a surface that’s reassuringly laptop that performs. Does the new XPS easy to hold onto when you’re wander- have the brawn to match its beauty? ing around the office trying to find your Let’s find out. next meeting. That grippability is further aided by a Look and Feel pair of rubber feet that run the width of Right out of the box it’s clear Dell is try- the bottom of the unit, one on the front ing to make a statement with the new and the back. These also do a fine job XPS 13. Simple, dark, minimalist pack- of keeping the laptop in place when typ- aging contains the sliver of the laptop ing furiously in said meeting, elevating itself — and an unfortunately clunky the thing slightly so that the ridge of air power brick. The 45-watt adapter is vents on the bottom can do their thing. smaller than many others Dell makes, And they seem to do their thing well. but it’s outfitted with a fat, three- We never noticed an excessively warm pronged power cable that makes the lap thanks to our Core i5-equipped unit.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 Inset amid that lovely weave is design this metal cover just to hide all another bit of brushed aluminum, a these unsightly logos and stickers says metal plate with “XPS” menacingly a lot about the attention to detail here. present. (We think this logo would Try to open the laptop, though, and make for far more interesting lid decor you’ll realize some further attention than that somewhat overly friendly was needed elsewhere. There’s a some- Dell circle with its quirky E.) Flip this what stiff hinge, which isn’t necessarily flap open and hidden below is the ugly a problem (you certainly don’t have to Windows product key sticker along worry about it separating on its own), with about a million certification logos but actually getting it open can be a bit (FCC, etc.). That Dell took the time to of a challenge. Stick a finger under the

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 After using the keyboard for a few days we found ourselves neither loving nor hating it, but we did lean toward the latter when it came to lip of the lid and, when you start to lift, the trackpad. the laptop will start to flip over before opening. And that’s not because it’s a particularly light little thing. In fact, at just under three pounds, it’s actually ited, but comprehensive enough. On the fractionally heavier than the physically left are a 3.5mm headset jack, USB 2.0 larger 13-inch MacBook Air. port and the power input. On the right is Get it open and you’re presented with a USB 3.0 port and a Mini DisplayPort, a backlit, island-style keyboard, black plus a series of five little white LEDs that semi-gloss keys raised over a matte will give you the battery’s current charge background and situated above a sim- at the press of a button. And that’s it. ilarly dark touchpad, power button to Dell went the way of Lenovo and sadly the upper-left. opted not to include an SD card reader, At 2.99 pounds (1.36kg), the XPS 13 which we would consider an oversight. is in good company among the 2.96- pound MacBook Air and the 2.9-pound Keyboard and Trackpad ASUS Zenbook UX31, though none Following in the footsteps of the XPS of these are quite as impossibly light 14z and 15z, the keys here are small but as the Toshiba Portege Z830, which comfortable, feeling slightly tall and weighs a mere 2.47 pounds. Certainly, springy, but not overly so. There are Dell’s entry bests the HP Folio 13 (3.3 no dedicated media keys at your dis- pounds), along with the 13-inch Sam- posal; the various F keys doing dou- sung Series 5 Ultrabook (3.5 pounds) ble-duty with the help of the Fn key and the untold number of 14-inchers nestled between Ctrl and the Windows we’ll see this year. logo key. All told, it feels like a step up Available ports are predictably lim- from the shallow ‘boards you’ll find on

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 so many other Ultrabooks, such as the we’d wind up highlighting a full row of UX31 and Acer Aspire S3. text. This happened over and over again After using the keyboard for a few regardless of how precise we tried to be. days we found ourselves neither loving nor hating it, but we did lean toward Display and Sound the latter when it came to the clickable This is, again, a 13-inch laptop. While trackpad. It too has a soft-touch feel to there are multiple choices for proces- it, which makes it a bit sticky as you try sor and disk size there’s but one dis- to gesture. We could live with that if it play on offer, a 1366 x 768 unit that were responsive enough. We cranked manages to do greater than 720p, but the sensitivity as high as we could in not by much. It is a 16:9 aspect ratio the Cypress TrackPad settings, which display, so the panel itself is slightly helped to some degree, but it still felt shorter and wider than that on the unpredictable and unreliable. 13-inch MacBook Air, despite the XPS We particularly had issues when click- 13 itself being slightly narrower. ing, as the slight movement of our Yes, indeed we have some skinny fingertip when depressing the track- bezels here, but sadly we’re also talk- pad would cause the cursor to jump. ing about a screen that has a lower pixel Instead of simply placing the text caret density than the 1600 x 900 panel on

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 sor with 4GB of RAM and we found it to be more than adequate for general The speakers are computing tasks, including writing this good enough that very review. It was quite snappy and responsive navigating through Win- you can leave your dows, playing videos, listening to music Jambox at home. and, in general, computing. A cold boot is completed in a very respectable 15 seconds and the system the $1,100 UX31. (The Air has a 1440 x wakes from a sleep almost instantly. 900 display, but you’ll pay $1,299 and A 3DMark score of 4,130 puts this in up for the privilege.) It’s not a massive the higher end compared with other difference, but individual pixels are far Ultrabooks, though slightly behind the more noticeable on the Dell. UX31. We were unable to get Vantage The contrast of the display doesn’t to execute successfully. exactly impress either. Get perfectly on- center and it’s adequate, but stray more Battery Life than a few degrees to either side and it Our XPS 13 and its six-cell, non- quickly begins to fade. This is a particu- removable battery soldiered through lar problem when you’re looking down our standard battery rundown test of from above, as you’re likely to be when videos looping endlessly for a respect- sitting upright with this guy on your lap. able four hours and 58 minutes before The hinge doesn’t let you lay the screen succumbing to exhaustion. That’s a flat enough and you’re often stuck with half-hour longer than the last XPS we a decidedly pasty image. reviewed could manage, the XPS 15z, We were, however, quite impressed by and a full two hours more than 2010’s the integrated speakers — surprisingly XPS 14. But, looking at a more direct so. Even at moderate levels the laptop competitor, it lags about an hour easily filled a hotel room with adequate behind what HP’s Folio 13 managed on sound and, when cranked, managed to the same test. become uncomfortably loud. This will Of course, your computing tasks not beat the quality of even mid-range might not entail simply looping vid- cans or earbuds, but it’s certainly good eos endlessly, and indeed ours don’t enough that you can leave your Jam- either. With the WiFi on and con- box at home. nected and the screen set to a moderate brightness we managed almost six Performance hours on a charge of light web surfing Our base-spec XPS 13 contains a and document editing. Lose the WiFi 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M proces- and you could surely do well better,

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 PCMARK BENCHMARK VANTAGE 3DMARK06 BATTERY LIFE

Dell XPS 13 (1.6GHz Core i5-2467M, N/A 4,130 4:58 Intel HD Graphics 3000)

HP Folio 13 (1.6GHz Core i5-2467M, 6,701 3,387 6:08 Intel HD Graphics 3000)

Toshiba Portege Z835 (1.4GHz Core 5,894 3,601 5:49 i3-2367M, Intel HD Graphics 3000)

Lenovo IdeaPad U300s (1.8GHz 9,939 3,651 5:08 Core i7-2677M, Intel HD Graphics 3000)

ASUS Zenbook UX31 (1.7GHz Core 10,508 4,209 5:41 i5-2557M, Intel HD Graphics 3000)

Acer Aspire S3 (1.6GHz Core i5- 5,367 3,221 4:11 2467M, Intel HD Graphics 3000)

13-inch, 2011 MacBook Air (1.7GHz 9,484 4,223 5:32 (Mac OS X) Core i5-2557M, Intel HD Graphics 4:12 (Windows) 3000)

2011 Samsung Series 9 (1.7GHz 7,582 2,240 4:20 Core i5-2537M, Intel HD Graphics 3000)

with trialware pop-ups in your face. Those annoyances set a lasting impression, and it isn’t a good one. With previous XPS models we’ve found ourselves shaking our heads as we scrolled through the Programs listing, but we’re happy to report Dell has kept things respectably clean with the XPS 13. McAfee SecurityCenter is here and probably the most nagging app that’s pre-installed, prompting you to hop online and activate it. There is also a solid complement of Dell applications though we’re thinking Dell’s estimate for controlling the webcam, creating of eight hours and 53 minutes is a bit recovery media and backing up the optimistic for most usage situations. laptop. That too throws up an annoy- ing pop-up after you boot, but it’s only Software suggesting you create a recovery media, It’s hard to take a premium laptop something that is a good idea. The only seriously when it’s constantly nagging slight complication is that, by default,

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 the DataSafe app wants to write that favorably to the competition, at least stuff to disc, something the XPS is ill- from Apple’s camp. Though higher- equipped to do out of the box. Thank- res, the 13-inch Air comes in at $300 fully it can also write to USB drives, higher than the $999 XPS 13 and, if you should you have one big enough. move up to a 256GB SSD, you’re looking at $1,599 — and that’s still with a Configuration Options and the Core i5 processor. Still, raw specs aren’t Competition everything, and it’s worth bearing in On the inside, again, is an Intel Core mind that for $1,299 you get a skinny i5-2467M processor clocked at 1.6GHz laptop with a comfy keyboard and reli- and paired with 4GB of RAM. Con- able trackpad — a combination we can’t figured with a 128GB SSD this laptop say we’ve found in any of the Windows- would cost you $999, a price we con- based Ultrabooks we’ve tested so far. sider reasonably fair. However, step However, the lowest-end of HP’s Folio up to the 256GB model with a Core 13 Ultrabooks comes in at about $100 i7-2637M processor and you’re look- cheaper than the XPS 13, and starts with ing at a somewhat less wallet-friendly a Core i5 processor, 128GB SSD and dis- (though still fair) $1,499. play that suffers from the same issues That said, both options compare as the XPS 13. If you’re looking for the

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 value leader, at $900 that’s still the one. BOTTOMLINE At that rough $1,500 price point the XPS 13 sits about on par with the highest-end Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, Dell which also comes with 256GB of XPS 13 storage and a somewhat disappointing display. (The U300s is also missing $999+ an SD reader, but it makes up for it somewhat with an elegant design and PROS one of the more ergonomically sound • Lovely, sophisticated design keyboards we’ve tested.) But, if you’re • Good performance looking for something in this category • Powerful speakers with a genuinely good display, right now it’s still the $1,099-plus UX31 CONS that’s taking the cake — or, of course, • No SD reader the Air. As always, though, we’d be • Mediocre display remiss if we didn’t remind you the • Unreliable touchpad UX31’s fast performance, healthy battery life, gorgeous design and high- res display all come at the expense of Dell’s XPS 13 is one of the best looking one sticky, shallow keyboard. Ultrabooks we’ve seen yet, but isn’t neces-

Wrap-Up From the moment it comes out of the box the XPS 13 looks and feels like a thetics aside and we wouldn’t say it’s truly premium product and, with a nice universally better than HP’s Folio 13 keyboard and respectable performance, that’s about $100 cheaper. It is, how- it’s a nice machine to use, too. But, the ever, better looking. display suffers the same complaints we’ve seen with other Ultrabooks in this Dana Wollman contributed to this price range — middling resolution, poor review. off-angle contrast — and the trackpad only works well when it feels like it. Tim Stevens is Editor-in-chief at En- It is, then, another solid choice at the gadget, a lifelong gamer, a wanna-be sub-$1,000 price point, but put aes- racer, and a born Vermonter.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 Preview Forget the Numbers, This Is the ‘New’ iPad

Here she is — the iPad HD! Er, new iPad. Breaking away from the numerical tracking system used before (and still used in the iPhone range), Apple has decided to highlight the most major change in its newest slate by simply dubbing it “new.” By and large, the new guy is the same as the old

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 guy (Home button included), but with a few nice amenities that could very well convince OG iPad owners to upgrade.

Look and Feel Upon touching the HD variant, it’s not the overall form factor that grabs us — it’s the screen. Given that we’re unashamed pixel density enthusiasts, seeing a 2,048 x 1,536 resolution display in the same area as the prior ‘Pad’s is stunning. Nearly two months ago, ASUS wowed our entire CES trailer are predictably ridiculous; even taking with a reported 1,920 x 1,200 display a peek from an extreme side angle gives on the TF700T; this, however, is some- way to a fairly solid image with next to thing that really needs to be ogled to no washout. In terms of physical dimen- truly appreciate. In fact, the first view- sions, the new iPad is ever-so-slightly ing conjured up familiar feelings — the thicker than the iPad 2, but we’re told same that came to light when placing that “most accessories” (including the the iPhone 4 beside the iPhone 3G for Smart Cover) should work just fine. the first time. Unsurprisingly, Apple has managed Camera to produce something truly beautiful to Other differences? Well, the camera’s look at, and while we’ve yet to see the full been greatly enhanced; not too shocking potential of having this many pixels on given that: a) the iPhone 4S is sporting a 9.7-inch slate, we’re guessing a cadre bolstered optics and b) FaceTime chats of developers are already hard at work just won’t look as sexy without a higher- remedying that. Beyond being dazzling res sensor to fill up that higher-res dis- from a density standpoint, colors are play. We weren’t able to give FaceTime sharp and accurate, and viewing angles a run here in San Francisco, but you can

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 dedicated silicon for the camera mod- ule and a lot more horsepower on the graphics front. The A5X adds quad- core graphics power, and while zipping through home panes doesn’t feel dra- matically faster, the bulk of the added horsepower isn’t truly appreciated until you fire up a forthcoming 3D title.

Everything Else There’s also a new ability to delete photos from Photo Stream with iOS 5.1 bet we will in our upcoming review. (a particularly pointed issue for some users), and the camera shutter button Voice Dictation has been relocated to roughly halfway As for Siri? Well, it’s not here per se, up the screen in both horizontal and but voice dictation is a nice compro- vertical orientations — it’s a heck of a mise. However, the Voice Dictation fea- lot more useful there. Everything else, ture here requires a web connection, including the headphone jack, volume which leaves us baffled at the omission rocker, mic slit and Dock Connection, of Siri. With Airplane mode toggled on, remain the same as the iPad 2. We poked the microphone button on the keyboard around in the Settings menu, and didn’t simply vanishes. In practice, though, see an option to disable LTE on the Ver- Dictation picked up our phrases per- izon slate that we had in front of us; you fectly, even in a crowded room that was may remember the ability to disable 3G simply buzzing from random chatter. on prior models, but it doesn’t seem that those having LTE issues will be able to Processor force themselves down to a slower net- We confirmed that the new iPad has the work — at least not on the VZW edition. same “CPU” as the iPad 2, but there’s The new iPhoto app is simply astound-

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 ing. It’s fast, it’s elegant and infinitely evaluate how devs are taking advantage useful. And the tweaks that you can apply of the massive uptick in pixels. In fact, to your photos are seriously impressive; we’re hoping for an entirely new wave gimmicky this is not. At $4.99, it’s prob- of apps that will be enabled by the abil- ably the best bargain you’ll find on the ity to shove so much more content onto App Store, particularly if you’re a photo a single screen. That said, it’ll be really lover, and those that rely on iCloud will interesting to see how new apps — those appreciate the ability to edit on the iPad designed specifically for the iPad’s ret- and have the revised version simply ina display — scale down to the display synced into iPhoto or Aperture. As for seen on the iPad 1 and 2. the new iWork apps? All of those will There’s no doubt that this here tablet work on prior iPads, and even the new feels every bit like a $500 product, ooz- “trailer” feature in iMovie will be opera- ing quality from edge to edge and being tional on the prior versions. as delightful as ever to use. Is it the second coming of the tablet? Of course not, Wrap-Up but if we’ve learned anything from the We can already hear the pundits cockily iPhone 4S, it doesn’t need to be. Apple renaming this thing the iPad 2S, but as just put an insane amount of real estate Apple’s latest quarter has shown, peo- in the hands of crafty developers, and ple tend to spend money on even slight frankly, we can’t wait to see what they upgrades to existing hardware. Much cook up. like the first iPad, it’s pretty tough to say what sort of market impact the new Darren holds the Guinness World Re- iPad will have without first waiting for cord for being the most prolific profes- developers. A few months down the sional blogger on planet Earth. He’s road, we’ll be able to more appropriately also an argonaut.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 INTERNET TALES THE FROM SOUTH PACIFIC

Bringing Wireless to the Disconnected

BY DARREN MURPH

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 “We only have dial-up here. You’d be shocked at the speeds. [Laughs.] But it’s okay — as long as I can send and reply to email, I’m fine with it.”

Those were the words spoken to me each fale. It’s taking a bit of time to get just weeks ago by the absolutely precious right, as the drawings are actually done owner of Litia Sini Beach Resort on the in New Zealand.” extreme southeastern tip of Upolo. For I nodded my head in understanding, those unaware, that’s Samoa’s most pop- immediately thinking that this must be ulous island (approximately 135,000 in reaction to the catastrophic tsunami people) — a sliver of lush, mountainous of September 2009, caused by a mag- land dropped almost perfectly in the nitude 8.1 submarine earthquake that center of the Pacific Ocean. I chuckled a hit barely 100 miles from the very spot bit upon hearing it, immediately realiz- I was sitting. It was the largest quake ing that I had a connection in the palm of of 2009. The entire resort was leveled. my hand that was 20, 30, perhaps even Dozens upon dozens were killed. And 40 times quicker than what this busi- here we were, over two full years later, ness owner was relying on. She paused, and the evacuation schematics are still as if to collect her thoughts before going in “draft.” Simultaneously, I wondered into a familiar spiel about the resort’s just how large that PDF was that my amenities, and then drew my attention eyes were seeing. 1MB? 4MB? How to the display of her laptop. many minutes of her day were spent “It’s still a draft for now, but this is the downloading each new copy on a dial- new tsunami evacuation plan that we’re up connection? How much sooner could working on. Soon, we’ll have this in these plans have been solidified if copi-

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 ous amounts of affordable broadband Within a second, it was clear that what- internet were at her fingertips? How ever “emergency” we were dealing with many hours would she spend down- didn’t involve a life-threatening act of loading the enlarged copy suitable for God, and within another, I had turned printing and posting as a public notice the handset completely off. “I better just inside the resort? save whatever juice is left in here,” I told While my own mental gears were my wife. “Yeah — kind of crazy that you turning, a soft, cadenced slap of waves can get 3G out here,” she replied. continued on behind me, fellow guests As it turns out, “crazy” doesn’t even retreated to their porches with a good begin to describe it. book and the government of Samoa decided to kill the power to the entire Taken for Granted village without so much as a warning. Samoa is just one place that provides a “Due to the emergency,” I was told. vivid, undeniable reminder of just how “We’re calling soon to see about when it often I take the internet for granted. I will be back.” grew up in a generation that demanded Without a second thought, I pulled out the internet; one where the expectation a half-charged Galaxy S II and furiously of near-ubiquity was the norm. But Googled weather conditions for the sur- here, thousands of miles from home and rounding area, watching intently as the merely 80 miles from America’s near- up and down arrows beneath that com- est overseas territory, the mindset is forting “H+” logo turned on and off. different. I can’t say for sure that wide-

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 spread, affordable, high-speed access to the World Wide Web is an immediate recipe for a nation’s success, but I can say that it puts a country’s people in a far better place than they’d be without it. Just as books are vital to literacy, the internet is now vital to economic growth and development. I’ve always known these things, but being planted in a place for a solid week where the internet was harder to come by than those other essentials had a serious impact on me. Am I crazy for thinking high-speed internet access should be a human right? Probably, but some things are worth being called crazy for. The good news, however, is that Samoa — precisely like Fiji and so many other emerging nations — is hopping on the internet bandwagon at precisely the right time. Rather than deal with “Samoa’s First 4G Network!” the signs costly hardline infrastructure — spend- proclaimed. The entire immigration and ing millions running wire to impossibly luggage hall was splattered with them, remote villages that don’t even count showcasing BlueSky, Samoa’s sparkling sealed roads as an accessible luxury new wireless network. “Whoa, 4G in — they’re skipping right to wireless. Samoa?” I asked myself. Indeed. Well, Digicel has operated a 2G network on kind of. As it turns out, even the childish Samoa for some time now, and in fact, marketing speak that has baffled sim- I was impressed by how many Digicel pletons in America found a way to this billboards were advertising a simple island, as the network actually tops out dumbphone-to-dumbphone money at HSPA+. It’s not LTE, nor WiMAX, transfer process that nations like Amer- but 21Mbps down and 5.7Mbps up (the ica never really seemed to embrace. But maximum offered here) is not only money transfers are only the start. game-changing for the people of Samoa; it’s transformational. The Wireless Revolution is Real Unfortunately, the BlueSky office in When I waltzed into APW airport at the airport was closed for the night, some absurd hour of the morning, I was but a quick drive to downtown Apia the hit with a full-frontal advertising blitz. next morning found me at a bona fide

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 BlueSky retail store. Within 15 minutes I was in and out with a local SIM card, programmed with 200MB of data. So, there’s good news and rough news here, and I’ll give you the latter first. For some reason — economics, if I had to hazard a guess — BlueSky is pricing its 200MB data package at SAT$80 (that’s around USD$40), and it’s split into two buckets: 100MB to be used from 7AM to 7PM, and 100MB to be used during the non-peak hours of 7:01PM to 6:59AM. Just to add perspective, Vir- ticularly for most locals, but this is also gin Mobile USA offers contract-free the company hawking a year-old Galaxy mobile hotspots with a USD$20 plan S II for SAT$2,199, or just over $1,000 that offers 500MB; USD$50 gets you in greenbacks. My allotted 200MB van- unlimited data, with 3G speeds for the ished fairly quickly when using Maps first 2.5GB. Needless to say, BlueSky’s to guide myself around foreign streets, offering is mighty, mighty pricey, par- Google to find nearby attractions and

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 Gmail to keep up with work. Moreover, ISP, iPasifika. The starter plan comes the network itself wasn’t entirely reli- in at SAT$99 (around USD$50) per able, with a data outage lasting a solid month, and includes — wait for it — five hours one morning on at least the 500MB. Overage fees? SAT$0.30 per eastern side of Upolo. megabyte. Need a few more MBs? All it Now, the good news: someone took a takes to get 10,000 each month is a pal- chance. try SAT$1,075 (a little over USD$500), There’s probably no business case and it’s probably worth mentioning that in existence that could prove a stag- your speeds are throttled to a maximum geringly expensive HSPA+ rollout on of 128Kbps during daylight hours and Samoa would be worth it, but I’m here 512Kbps during the night. If you need to tell you that it is. Digicel’s network 10GB of monthly throughput for your in Lolumanu (where Litia Sini Beach business (evidently “business” means Resort is located) can only muster GPRS “1Mbps”), you can get that installed for data speeds. That’s slower than EDGE, the low, low sum of SAT$1,895 (around and in practice, it’s thoroughly useless. USD$950). That’s a small fortune BlueSky offers five bars of HSPA+ here, to your everyday American; to many and there can’t be over 100 people that Samoans, those tallies are just laugh- call this place home. Within five years, able. I’m betting that Lydia will ditch her To wit, 4G wireless services offer a dial-up connection and rely solely on a tremendous alternative to something BlueSky SIM to run her business — a that might as well not exist given the SIM that can travel with her across the aforesaid price points. Imagine a world island, right to the heart of Apia where where this far-flung beach resort has few tourists bother to leave. In fact, the bandwidth to upload daily sunrise that’s exactly what BlueSky is hoping videos or captures of local dances to for; the company is straight-up market- enchant potential customers. Imagine a ing its newfangled technology as a true world where the owner’s internet is fast substitute to lackluster (and expensive) enough to enable her to reply to reserva- landline-based internet service. I know tion requests in hours, not days. Imag- AT&T and Verizon Wireless are in no ine a world where she’s able to handle position to strain their networks in the all of her online duties while she sips same way, but still — this is the future. her morning coffee, instead of the same chores dragging on through the morning. Priced out of Reach It’s not just different, it’s a seismic shift. Just to give you an idea of how impos- I can see the BlueSky cell tower from my sibly out-of-reach high-speed inter- fale; it doesn’t look like a detraction of net is in Samoa, let’s take a look at the the natural beauty. It looks like a broad- nation’s self-proclaimed “premiere” casting beacon of hope.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 Economic Impact that showcased looping videos of each A few hours to the west sit a man and island’s grandeur. his wife in Vanuatu, an isolated island “It’s spectacularly useless,” he chain that’s only now beginning to quipped. “They still believe that peo- explore the efforts of tourism. Some of ple arrive in Port Vila and then decide the South Pacific’s most excellent div- which outer islands to visit. Truth is, ing is here, not to mention dozens of these decisions are being made on varied islands with unspoiled beauty, couches in Sydney and Los Angeles, incredibly hospitable people and lead- months before they ever book a plane ers who are grasping with ways to con- ticket.” nect far more than Port Vila (Vanuatu’s He’s right. The internet is perhaps capital) with the rest of the world. I met even harder to come by in Vanuatu, them here in Samoa. They’d been in where a large part of the population one of the more remote islands in the doesn’t even bother with email. “Give aforesaid nation for the past year, help- ‘em time,” I think. They may have ing the locals to better their healthcare missed the broadband revolution, but practices. In speaking to the gentleman the high-speed wireless revolution is about this piece, he mentioned a glis- at their doorstep, and I’m guessing it’s tening new tourism building in the cap- just a matter of time before Vanuatu’s ital, replete with big-screen televisions remote villagers bypass the desktop

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 completely and end up with something SIM — go on, I implore you. It’s impos- far more portable — and, in truth, more sible to find. Sure, a GoPhone can be powerful. picked up from any Walmart, but it’s not the same. Empowering visitors with Problems of Our Own the ability to immediately have wire- The conversation comes full circle when less, high-speed internet access as soon you look at highly developed nations as they arrive within one’s borders just like the UK and America. In England, makes business sense, and the situa- O2 will happily sell you a prepaid SIM tion is so insanely ignored by our carri- with a few hundred megabytes of data. ers that startups like Xcom Global have It’s all fairly simple, really. But use over been able to set up MiFi rental shops at 100MB per day, and you’re cut off until LAX to fill the void in some tiny way. the next 24-hour cycle. Oh, and image The point? Wireless build-outs show uploads are horrifically compressed, the promise to bring the entire internet so forget about tethering to get a bit to the fringes of the world that desper- of work (read: Facebooking) done. In ately need it, for fear of falling forever the States, the situation is even more behind. Furthermore, I view my recent pathetic. Show up in any of our major jaunts to corners of the globe that aren’t airports and look for a prepaid data quite as frequented as proof of a few

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 things: one, the wireless explosion is still makes sense, we’d see yet another mon- ongoing, and two, it’s going to change umental boom. Exporting and import- lives in a huge way. The thought of having would no longer require phone calls ing go-anywhere, high-speed internet and painful dealings with dial-up; but access in a place like Samoa was a pipe of course, that’s a different discussion dream just a half-decade ago. A score for a different itinerary. from now, I suspect the tourism industry and its economy on the whole will Darren holds the Guinness World Re- be far more developed than it is today cord for being the most prolific profes- — and if ever the world could work out sional blogger on planet Earth. He’s a global data roaming agreement that also an argonaut.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 Q&A STEVE WOZNIAK PIONEERED THE PERSONAL COMPUTING INDUSTRY WITH THE APPLE I AND II. NOW HE TACKLES OUR BURNING QUESTIONS IN THE MOST THOROUGH Q&A TO DATE. SPOILER ALERT: HE HAS A THING FOR THE BITTEN FRUIT.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 WHAT GADGET make with my iPhone. I use File- DO YOU DEPEND ON Chute to upload files that I want MOST? to distribute but which are too large for email. I use Dropbox to WOZNIAK: Macbook Pro 17-inch share with my iPhones. I’m always for most of my email, including backed up with my home Time web links and video links. Capsule. I write AppleScripts, too. I have a calendar life that is Most of my photos I collect with complicated, so I use BusyCal iPhoto but I use Aperture for my and Google Calendar. I keep two finer photos, mostly from my Leica different browsers open to avoid M9. I keep reminder links and files some confusion. I enter calen- on my desktop and I have catego- dar dates with time zones, which ries (folders) in my dock for things I can’t do on my iPhone. I watch like “fun relief” and “important”. DVD’s since I don’t have broad- I keep folders on my desktop for band where I live. I record videos things like the songs I’m currently for promotions and interviews attracted to and upcoming speech and it’s handy to have the notes events. I also keep many notes of in front of me on the screen. I do info I need all the time, like home a lot of Skype interviews and it’s IP numbers and game scores, handy to see notes for those as in Stickies, but I close Stickes to well. I often copy from one source keep things neater. I also have a (web page maybe) to an email I’m few games in my dock for quick composing. access. I read Google news and use Net- NewsWire to keep up with gen- IF YOU READ THIS eral and tech news. I use it when I travel for Slingbox. I’m better on YOU’LL SEE WHY the large keyboard. The larger MY LIFE HAS MANY screen is great for maps and photo viewing. I also keep tons of music ASPECTS THAT and movies on the SSD, although DON’T TRANSLATE the smaller size cramps me over a full HD. I often take notes regard- WELL TO AN IPAD ing business talks and paste them into TextEdit docs to view during OR IPHONE AS MY phone calls. These calls I usually PRIMARY GADGET

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 WHICH DO YOU and others onto tape this way. LOOK BACK UPON MOST FONDLY? AFTER MY THIRD

My first transistor radio was the YEAR OF COLLEGE, heart of my gadget love today. It I BUILT A BUNCH fit in my hand and brought me a world of music 24 / 7. Even while I OF GADGETS FOR slept it was right there beside me playing. The ham radio transmit- MYSELF AND ter and receiver I built when I was THEY WERE ALL 10 was a very important gadget. I learned a lot of radio theory and FAVORITES [about] electronics and construc- One was a Pong game that tion of electronic devices that worked with the TV in my apart- would stick for life. I didn’t know ment. I would have called the the word ‘gadget’ but I would Breakout game that I designed always be in love with devices for Atari a favorite gadget but they that were interactive, where got the prototype and I don’t even you turned dials and the device think I kept a schematic. My TV responds. I wouldn’t say that my terminal to access computers on first 4-function calculator was a the ARPANET over modems was favorite gadget but my HP-35 sci- a great gadget and it got a lot of entific calculator certainly was. I attention. Needless to say, the guess before that you’d call my Apple I and Apple ][ were useful slide rule a gadget. and fun gadgets. I had a tube radio that brought After that I’d say that my first the early days of FM to me in my Navigation system (an Alpine bedroom at home. Eventually, in unit in my Hummer) was a great my own apartment, I would have gadget and life would never be a Pioneer 828 Receiver that was the same. The Apple ][c was my the heart of my music life. I had favorite Apple ][. I actually liked a turntable, too, but I got a reel- the Portable Macintosh. Possibly to-reel tape recorder (GE) at a my favorite Macintosh ever was local discount store and it was the Duo, although I very much like a very unusual gadget for 1970. the current MacBook Pros. I recorded all my Dylan albums Over the years I had pocket TVs

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 and small, battery-operated video ners that I used to listen to analog tape players for movies. I can’t cell phone calls. One was some- pinpoint the models now. I had thing like RC-1 and it fit in your many very thin CD players and palm. The other had a name like recording Walkmen — usually AOR 900 or something. I’d have such gadgets were Sony branded. to go out to the garage to get the Add to this list every iPod ever exact models. I used these quite made (and every size), every a bit and have good stories as to iPhone and the iPads. what I heard. My first camera was a Kodak I could add many to this list. Brownie camera. I had too many important cameras in my life to FOR EACH OF detail them all here. Some early Casio PHD (Push Here Dummy) THESE, AND MANY cameras were so thin I loved them MORE, I HAVE MANY and recommended them. I liked the Sony cameras with internal SPECIFIC MEMORIES zoom. I’ve had a lot of analog and digital DSL cameras but not since OF CARRYING THEM the Canon D5 Mk II. Plus, I dearly AROUND AND treasure my recent Leica M9-P camera. SHOWING THEM OFF I had the Motorola ‘brick’ cell AND USING THEM phone and then moved on with all the subsequent Motorola IN WAYS THAT advances... Star TAC, Elite, etc. I MEANT A LOT TO ME. probably used my RAZR the lon- gest of any phone. In later digi- I’m sure that I’ve missed many tal phone days I liked my Nokia others. 8890 very much. When the iPhone came out, I’d carry the iPhone for WHICH COMPANY DOES THE internet stuff and the RAZR for MOST TO PUSH THE INDUSTRY? phone calls, for quite a while. You have to be kidding. Apple The Segway is a great gad- leads the way. A bunch of com- get that I haven’t had to move on panies could be like an ocean of from, in all the time since it first products with waves and ripples. came out. But Apple is an Everest. The day I had a couple of very nice scan- Apple introduces a new prod-

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 uct you know it’s not the same WHAT TRAITS DO YOU MOST as before and you know it’s the DEPLORE IN A SMARTPHONE? future for everyone. Lousy sound quality, even for voice. The iPhone is the best that WHAT IS YOUR OPERATING I’ve had, by far. SYSTEM OF CHOICE? When battery life is poor. Hard OS X. We had something similar in to truly multitask while on a call the LISA but at the wrong point in without a second phone. Navigat- time, cost-wise. I never got coming web pages can be frustrating fortable when I had to use Win- on a small screen. Accidentally dows. As for mobile devices, I pre- touching the screen can be disas- fer iOS. It’s limited in some ways trous on occasion. but that can be an advantage for many of us. I DON’T LIKE

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE RUNNING AN APP GADGET NAMES? TO TAKE A PHOTO. I’m not coming up with a good answer to this one. Apple has to MORE AND MORE be first. Newton was great too. iRobot isn’t bad. Google is another APPS AND FEATURES great name. I have loved the name REQUIRE INTERNET “Mophie” as well. MiFi isn’t bad. CONNECTION WHAT ARE YOUR LEAST FAVORITE? AND SERVERS Boring technical names, like ThinkPad xxxx. For things like [THAT ARE] NOT cameras there are never enough OVERBURDENED names so they mostly have boring numbers. When servers are down, the mes- saging is all wrong, causing you to WHICH APP DO YOU take unneeded actions like reset- DEPEND ON MOST? ting accounts. Printing limitations. Mail. I wish that Eudora, the unsup- ported original Eudora, would run WHICH DO YOU MOST ADMIRE? under Lion. It made my life much Slimness, single-handed usabil- easier and better. ity, hands-free links to cars, use of

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 camera in apps for things like QR nology at the component level. At codes and Google Goggles, phone the device level, I’d say the iPhone locating services, NFC payment is the best current one, although systems with the ability to put the Apple ][ is close (taking into funds on NFC via internet rather account when it was). than ATM, syncing with computer, texting, VoIP apps like Line2 and WHICH DO YOU MOST DESPISE? Skype, Sling Player apps, radio apps, Sirius-XM app, voice record- MOVING TO THE ing for reminders, photos and movie taking. CLOUD TOO FAST... YOU DON’T WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF THE PERFECT DEVICE? OWN ANYTHING Hard to say. Best features of all OUT THERE the best gadgets plus a voice rec- ognition system that really under- You aren’t assured that what stands me and what I want, no works today will even be there matter how I say it. It returns tomorrow. Things that used to answers, rather than links to sites be built into my iPhone now fail that may not even have the answer because the cloud is ‘down.’ I want. It would ‘see’ me with video I despised my HTC Thunderbolt and gauge other things about what phone greatly. I hated the Sense I’m saying or doing. It would know UI and the battery would often go me as well as any best friend and down in one hour. always know what to say and how I also despise email because I to say it to me. I would want to give get too much for my open policies. up on human friends. International cellular data is very dangerous. I had a $7,000 WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST bill once after half a day in Ger- GADGET MEMORY? many. I had a $16,000 bill after a Transistor radio, about 1958. day in Moscow with my iPhone in my pocket the entire time except WHAT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE- maybe a couple of Foursquare MENT DO YOU MOST ADMIRE? check-ins. (AT&T has no cover- The transistor or the planar pro- age of Russia on any international cess for making chips. That’s tech- data plans and if your iPhone is

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 locked to AT&T, you can forget BE? about a local SIM card.) Built in auto navigation.

WHAT FAULT ARE YOU MOST WHAT DOES BEING CONNECTED TOLERANT OF IN A GADGET? MEAN TO YOU? Color? Screen quality? Sound Not as much as to many. I don’t quality? use my mobile devices much while walking around. I save computer WHICH ARE YOU MOST time for my computer. I don’t like INTOLERANT OF? my iPhone to take me from the Every time you do something that friends I’m with. Hotel internet is would seem to be the right thing so unreliable and slow that I carry based on other parts of life, but many mifi’s and mobile hotspot it does the wrong thing. Battery phones though, so in that way my running out too fast. Apps quit- phones are a big part of my con- ting after working for a while to nectivity. get data entered correctly. Some- thing that works in one mode fails WHEN ARE YOU LEAST LIKELY in another (SIRI and hands-free TO REPLY TO AN EMAIL? connection). Too many to list here. When I’m busy and it requires a long answer. WHEN HAS YOUR SMARTPHONE BEEN OF THE MOST HELP? WHEN DID YOU LAST Travel — keeping up with flight DISCONNECT? info, checking tip rules for a country, looking for concerts in a city, notifying friends, photo memories, RIGHT NOW I FEAR trading contact info, etc. DISCONNECTING

WHAT DEVICE DO YOU FROM THE COVET MOST? INTERNET iPhone 4S unlocked. Beautiful. Easy to manage. Just right in so But in the late 90’s I took a three- many ways. week cruise in the South Pacific with no phone or internet service. IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING I had other priorities and survived. ABOUT YOUR PHONE WHAT WOULD IT It was a very pleasant time.

DISTRO | ISSUE #31 MARCH 9, 2012 ESC: THE LAST WORD

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