Coming today: the wide-screen, touch-controlled iPod?

The beat goes on: reports suggest a full-screen, 120GB hard drive, wi-fi enabled, internet-radio-equipped iPod is on the way…

Technology blogs are buzzing with speculation that Apple with reveal a wide-screen iPod with touch control tonight when Steve Jobs, the company’s chief executive, takes the stage in a product launch event that will beamed live around the world.

“Apple will at last unveil a touch-screen iPod with a 3.5-inch display at its media event Wednesday, sources have confirmed,” the ThinkSecret blog said. Two years’ ago Apple sued the same site for allegedly divulging trade secrets.

Other reports suggest the new device will have a massive 120GB of storage in a built in hard drive. An integrated wi-fi connection, which could allow users to download music and video directly to the device – cutting out a computer for the first time – is seen as a possibility. Others have tentatively suggested the new iPod could also be kitted out to pick up internet radio.

Wall Street also fully expects a revamped line of iPods – a move regarded as essential if Apple is to ensure that the now iconic line of music players maintains its dominance of the digital music market. The company has sold more than 100 million of the gadgets since the iPod’s debut five years ago.

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Apple iPhone Review – " Conclusions "

Also see my previous review Apple iPhone Review – ” internet “

So how does one rate a product that’s as complicated as the iPhone? The problem here is complex. On the one hand, the iPhone is absolutely revolutionary, like a device from the future that has arrived on earth unexpectedly. On the other, more pragmatic hand, the iPhone simply doesn’t deliver some obvious and common functionality that’s offered by today’s supposedly inferior smart phones. Yep, the iPhone is a paradox. And while I have indeed provided a rating, or score, for the device, I do so only with the understanding that this rating is inherently flawed for two reasons. First, like any review, this iPhone review is a slice in time, an opinion about a product that is in flux and will no doubt change and improve in the months and years ahead. Second, everyone’s needs are different, and while I believe that the iPhone is utterly useless as a traditional smart phone, it is incredibly compelling in that it has created a new product category: The iPhone is a portable multimedia, Internet, and communications style statement, not a smart phone. They’re not the same thing at all, and each satisfies different needs and wants.

Complications aside, I feel better about this review than I do about the quickie iPhone reviews that appeared in major US publications in the last week of June 2007. To read those reviews, you’d never discover that the iPhone had serious flaws, that it didn’t provide some very basic features, or that it was anything short of brilliant. Those reviewers should be ashamed of themselves. The truth of the iPhone, I wrote two months ago, will be revealed only when real people have had real experiences with the device. And while a truth like that evolves over time, I’m comfortable with the knowledge that I’ve given the iPhone a much fairer and realistic review than anything you may have read in “The New York Times,” “The Wall Street Journal,” “USA Today,” or “Newsweek.” So much has happened since the end of June. We’ve seen how buggy the iPhone’s iPod application is, and the steps Apple has taken to solve those problems via a number of software updates. We’ve watched as users returned from Europe with $1000 to $4000 AT&T bills, courtesy of the iPhone’s less-than-transparent international roaming disabilities. And we’ve discovered that some of the iPhone’s most publicized features don’t work consistently or at all in certain iPhone applications. I’m curious that those early iPhone reviewers never tackled these and other serious iPhone issues. It’s funny what you can find out about a product when you actually spend time with it.

Why is this important? Normally, I wouldn’t care what an Apple-loving fanboy at a major US newspaper writes. But the iPhone is an important product, regardless of its usefulness today, and it will touch millions and millions of people. This is a computing platform for the future, a peek at the way things will be done years down the road. It’s important to me that I get this one right, so that there’s a record–an accurate record–of how things evolved when Apple inevitably improves the iPhone. And though this is a Windows-centric Web site, the iPhone is important to us all because it will impact the Windows-using world (i.e. “the world”) in two ways. Windows users are the mainstream and majority market for this device; we are the ones who use the iPhone. And as with the original Mac, it’s highly likely that the computing innovations seen first in the iPhone will popularize themselves further as Microsoft and other companies adapt them to their own products. Whatever happens, we’ll be able to trace a major form of computing in the future back to the iPhone just as we can now trace the modern PC back in time to the Mac.

So back to the rating. I’ve written at length about the functional and usability aspects of the iPhone. Looking back at the first six parts of this review, we might consider rating these functional areas separately and then combine and average them to arrive at a final score. This approach has some value, but is by definition flawed because some will prefer to weight certain features higher than others. But with this limitation in mind, let’s see what happens.

Core technology: I examined the iPhone’s design and usability, as well as its core features, like the multi-touch screen with rotational capabilities, the virtual keyboard, the ambient light sensor, the device’s wireless capabilities, its built-in memory (and lack of expansion capabilities), and its Mac OS X underpinnings. This isn’t a huge win for the iPhone, overall: the hardware is excellent, even leading edge, but it is lacking numerous features and some core technologies–like rotation–are sparingly or only partially implemented throughout the device. It’s unclear whether the OS X base is a boon or curse at this point; the number of iPhone vulnerabilities that quickly popped up the wake of its release suggests it’s not much of a strength right now. And using a full desktop OS obviously adds needless complexity.

Score: ***

Phone: In Part 3 of this review, I looked at the iPhone’s phone capabilities and found them to be excellent and truly praiseworthy. There are always quibbles, but this one is a win for Apple. The iPhone is a tremendous phone.

Score: *****

Applications: I looked at the iPhone’s 11 built-in (non-core) applications in Part 4 of this review. Here, things are decidedly mixed: While a few of the built-in apps (Calendar, Photos) are first rate, most are middling, and one, Notes, is abysmal. Overall, I’d give the built-in applications an overall score of three stars, but for one thing: Apple doesn’t allow you to modify the application list at all, so you can’t even remove applications you don’t want. Worse yet, Apple has closed down the iPhone so that third party developers can’t write native applications for the device. That’s a huge mistake and makes this device dramatically less useful and desirable than it should be.

Score: **

iPod: If you’re looking for the ultimate iPod, look no further than the iPhone. Sure, the 4 GB and 8 GB memory constraints of the current iPhone limit its usefulness as a movie player, but the CoverFlow interface and other leading-edge features more than make up for a few issues. The iPhone is a superb portable media player.

Score: *****

Internet: It’s hard to exaggerate how problematic the iPhone’s email and Web browsing features are. Email is particularly bad: The iPhone supports four proprietary email services natively (well, three if you exclude the Mac-specific .Mac service) but does so differently for each It also supports POP3 and IMAP email services, but offers no compatibility at all with the Exchange corporate standard. Email is a mixed bag for obvious reasons: While Apple promises a “full Web” experience on the iPhone, and not the thumbnail-sized view you get with most smart phones, it delivers that experience through a second-rate version of a third-rate browser, Safari. Compatibility is horrible, and while squeezing to zoom makes for a cool demo, it’s painful in real world usage. The iPhone delivers more of the Web than other cell phones, yes, but the experience simply reinforces the notion that mobile devices work best with sites designed specifically for mobile browsers. And you don’t need Safari for that. Ultimately, the iPhone’s Internet functionality is just frustrating, a hint of what it can be like in the future.

Score: ***

Average these scores and you’ll come away with a 3.6 out of 5, somewhere between three and four stars. That’s not horrible, I guess, and Apple fans might argue that I should round that up to four stars. I can’t do that. There are just too many tradeoffs in the iPhone to warrant a four star rating, too many issues in these functional areas that don’t reflect so kindly on Apple’s first phone offering.

The first, obviously, is price. At $500 to $600 for the iPhone, plus two years of monthly service fees and innumerable other fees, the iPhone is expensive. It doesn’t do a lot of what other smart phones do, either. You can’t connect to Exchange as mentioned above, but you also can’t use the phone with a decent 3G service. It can’t be used as a high-speed modem for your PC, as my Verizon-based Motorola Q can. You can’t replace the battery or add memory. You can’t type on a real keyboard or use GPS. God help you if you bring it overseas; AT&T international roaming fees are already legendary, and for all the wrong reasons. You can’t download new ringtones, applications, songs, and other items over the air. The list of what you can’t do is actually surprisingly long. The iPhone is a closed box. If you want that exact box, just the way it is, and can afford it, go nuts. But most people don’t make decisions like that.

Here’s one way to think about it. If you’re in the market for a smart phone, forget the iPhone. It’s a lot more expensive than the Windows Mobile and Blackberry competition, is tied to AT&T’s lousy EDGE network, doesn’t integrate or synchronize well with the Windows-based applications you actually use, and can’t be expanded or extended in any meaningful way. Apple has proven painfully slow in updating the device’s functionality, which is all the more important since they’re the only source of new features. To date, there have been none, just a few bug fixes.

On the other hand, if you’re a leading edge kind of user, the type of person that simply must have the latest and greatest, regardless of cost, and aren’t particularly beholden to a corporate email system or the Windows-oriented computing paradigm, the iPhone will be almost painfully compelling. It is gorgeous to look at and use, sleek and pretty, and desirable. I’ve compared it to Tolkien’s One Ring in that it’s a jealous lover, one that will seek to betray you constantly by slipping out of your pocket on the subway. Regardless, you will love the device more than you should. More than is normal.

The truth is, no one needs an iPhone. But if you do need a cell phone, and you sort of like the idea of an integrated device that offers portable Internet functionality, excellent iPod features, and some other marginally interesting, if not fully realized, capabilities, all served up inside what might just be the nicest cell phone ever made, Apple has something they’d really like to sell you. The price is exorbitant, not just in real dollar terms, but also in the sense that you’re really locking yourself into this Apple closed box. You might have to change email services to get the best experience. You might need to purchase Microsoft Outlook if you just want to access your calendar on the phone. In some ways, you’ll never stop paying for the iPhone, with your time, money, and soul. It just goes on and on and on.

True gadget geeks won’t care. But I didn’t write this review for those who waited in line on June 25 so they could be the first on earth to have a device that, soon, millions will own. I wrote this review for you, the fence sitter. The normal person. The guy who’s seen the constant iPhone ads on TV and in subway stations and has wondered if this thing, this expensive hunk of plastic, will actually solve some problems. The guy who, quite frankly, shouldn’t be wasting his hard earned cash on an expensive toy that, ultimately, doesn’t really solve any problems at all.

The iPhone is awesome. There’s just one problem: You don’t need it.

Apple iPhone Review – " internet "

The iPhone is billed as the ultimate portable Internet device, featuring “the most advanced Web browser ever” and rich HTML email. The reality, as is often the case with over-hyped technologies, is a bit less exciting. Dogged as it is by the horrific AT&T EDGE network, the iPhone will never achieve meaningful Internet transfer speeds, regardless of the quality of its browser, and I’ve suffered through constant and annoying service disconnections, making the features even less useful. But if you look at the iPhone’s Web browser and Mail applications, a more disturbing trend emerges. This isn’t a first class Internet experience at all. In fact, it’s decidedly second rate.

Oftentimes, it’s not the underlying technology’s fault. The iPhone, as ever, features amazing hardware and software features that put traditional smart phones to shame. Browsing the Web, you can double-tap and squeeze the screen to zoom into Web pages, a handy feature when you consider that the iPhone’s diminutive screen resolution is incapable of displaying traditional Web pages in a readable format. Obviously, other smart phones are even worse: My Motorola Q has a tiny screen compared to that of the iPhone. But as you’ll see in a moment, the iPhone’s hardware and software strengths amount to nothing when it comes to Web browsing: It’s still painful browsing the traditional Web, and you’ll find yourself gravitating to the mobile Web sites ghetto.

Email is similarly constrained, but since the iPhone supports a few different email services natively, and many others via generic POP3 and IMAP3 compatibility, your email experience will vary wildly depending on which service you use. Indeed, diehard iPhone fanatics may wish to switch to a particular email service (hint: It’s not Apple’s) in order to get the best experience.

Yup, it’s a mess. But that’s what makes this so much fun. Let’s dive right in and see how the iPhone handles the Internet.

Making the connection

I’ve covered this elsewhere in the review, but your overall iPhone experience, and your iPhone Internet experience specifically, will be horrible or decent depending on how you’re making the connection. The iPhone will intelligently default to a preferred Wi-Fi connection (802.11b or 802.11g) if one is available. So if you’re browsing at home (for some reason) or in a trusted hot spot that you frequent, the connection speeds will be decent.

For the other 99 percent of the time you’ll be out and about, however, the iPhone will utilize AT&T’s subpar EDGE network. This is a “2.5G” network that’s less than one-third as fast as, and quite a bit less reliable than, Verizon’s high-speed 3G offering, EV-DO, according to my unscientific testing. Put simply, EDGE is both slow and dodgy, and the constant disconnections I suffer from are exasperating. It makes using the iPhone’s Internet features aggravating.

Unfortunately, you’re going to need to keep an eye on the little status bar at the top of the screen to see how you’re connecting. A small Wi-Fi graphic indicates you’re connecting via the wireless connection. A small square “E” means you’re using EDGE. Since most iPhone data plans restrict the amount of data you can use per month, you have yet another reason to avoid EDGE as much as possible. But should you travel internationally, as I did in August, you’ll have an even better reason to watch this area of the screen carefully: Even if you sign up for one of AT&T’s Draconian international plans, you will pay through the nose for non-Wi-Fi data use overseas. People have come up with bills of several thousand dollars for just two weeks of international uses. Yes, I’m serious.

What Apple really needs is a software switch that will disable all non-phone traffic over EDGE. The problem is that in addition to the standard browser and email applications, there are other iPhone applications, like YouTube, Maps, and Weather, that will query the Internet the second they’re tapped. That can make for some expensive mistakes.

Safari

Anyone who’s browsed the Web on a smart phone knows how lousy it can be trying to access even well-written sites using the small screens and hokey browsers typically used on such devices. And that’s why the iPhone promises to be such a breath of fresh air: It features a huge high resolution screen, given the size of the device, and promises a desktop-like Web experienced with a “full-featured” browser that’s based on the Safari browser Apple has been providing to OS X users for years. (This year, the company shipped a lackluster version for Windows as well.)

This is, sadly, a fantasy. First of all, even the desktop version of Safari can hardly be called first class. Despite making an excellent stab at standards compliant, Safari suffers in the most important measure of quality for Web browsers: Usage. Today, most people use Internet Explorer to browse the Web, and those that don’t largely use Firefox. The iPhone would have been much more useful had Apple bundled a copy of either browser on the phone instead of Safari. As it is, iPhone users will have to suffer from the same compatibility issues that dog desktop users of the browser.

But it’s even worse: That’s because the iPhone version of Safari isn’t actually the same as the desktop version, and it drops key features like support for Java and Adobe Flash, two of the most popular browser add-on technologies in the world. And the iPhone’s JavaScript support is reportedly so horribly slow that it runs between 100 and 226 times slower than desktop browser versions of the technology. Ouch.

It’s also worth noting that Safari is one of the only iPhone applications in which the screen rotation feature actually works reasonably well. You can browse the Web in both portrait and landscape modes (I find landscape more readable), and switch on the fly. The only times that isn’t true is when you’re in the Bookmarks list (always portrait) or when you’re working in the Address Bar and have the virtual keyboard displayed. Once that keyboard is up, you can’t rotate the screen. But you can use the keyboard in portrait or landscape mode, unlike most apps.

The iPhone’s version of Safari handles Web forms in a unique and generally usable way. Clicking a text form brings up an edit box, but if you click a drop-down list box, you’ll get a unique scroller control with all of the available options. Nice.

OK, fine. But what about Safari’s ability to display and then zoom into areas of full-fledged Web sites? This actually does work fine, though I find this way navigating the Web to be highly frustrating. Yes, you can view sites that will never look right on, say, the Pocket IE version that comes with Windows Mobile. But the screen size issue isn’t going away on the iPhone, and sometimes being able to see how something should look is even more frustrating than not getting it at all. Long story short: The Web experience on the iPhone is nothing to get excited about, and as is the case with the Q and other traditional smart phones, sites designed specifically for mobile devices still work best.

In fact, this situation is so similar to that on the Q that I’ve spent a great deal of time finding and saving bookmarks for good mobile Web sites. I use a lot of Google services, and that company offers nice mobile-friendly versions of Google search, Gmail, Google Calendar, and even Picasa, and they work just fine on the iPhone.

Mail

While the iPhone’s email application, Mail, benefits greatly from the large screen of the device, the actual email support it delivers is sub-par, even by smart phone standards. (Look to Windows Mobile’s Pocket Outlook Email for an obvious comparison.) Most of the email support is POP-based, though those lucky enough to have IMAP support can at least take advantage of that system’s work-on-the-server approach. I happen to use Gmail, and was hoping the iPhone would offer something sophisticated, given all the rumors about Apple and Google working so closely together. That isn’t the case.

Obviously, the best mobile email is text-based, and here the iPhone does a great job of displaying messages with its gorgeous screen and crisp fonts. Now if we could only do things like download and edit Word documents and not just view them. And why can’t I save JPEG attachments to the device and use them for wallpaper? Too obvious?

One of the problems with Mail is the result of a simple design flaw in the iPhone: If you click on a hyperlink in Mail, the link opens in Safari. But if you want to get back to email, there’s no Back button messing up the device design. So you have to click the Home button and then manually tap the on-screen Mail icon to go back to your mail, and the message you were reading. Another problem with Mail relates to one of the iPhone’s many inconsistencies: If you’re viewing a list of messages in your Inbox and rotate the screen to landscape mode, the display doesn’t swivel with you. The view doesn’t swivel when you’re viewing email messages or attached Word documents either. (You can view but not edit or save Word documents sent via email.) Both would benefit from this possibility, and because the iPhone does this in other places, it’s bewildering when it doesn’t work. Apple makes a big deal out of the screen rotation stuff: It should work consistently everywhere.

The iPhone supports a few email services, if not natively, then at least specially. These are, in order of sophistication, from best to worst:

Yahoo! Mail

Unique to the iPhone, Yahoo! Mail is a special form of “push” email that is described as being IMAP-like, which is excellent if you happen to be a user of this service. Yahoo! will literally push server-based changes–like new folders, new email, and so on–to the device automatically every fifteen minutes. This is the preferred email service for use on the iPhone.

.Mac.

Users of Apple’s .Mac email–all 16 of them–can take advantage of IMAP technology, which is a first-rate experience, but not as sophisticated as push email: Basically, the iPhone has to manually sync with the server on a set schedule (every fifteen minutes by default). That means that the iPhone won’t be updated with new messages until in manually pings the server. With Yahoo!, it’s almost instantaneous. In case it’s not obvious, no Windows user would ever sign up for .Mac email, and thus .Mac support is useless to most iPhone users.

AOL

AOL uses IMAP on the iPhone. The big advantage of the iPhone’s “native” AOL support is that the device only requires your name, user name, and password, and then configures the server settings automatically.

Any IMAP email service

If you are using a third party email service that supports IMAP, and have access to the server information you need to configure it, iPhone is good to go. This includes, by the way, the supposed “Exchange support” that’s advertised in the Mail Settings on the device: Exchange only works if it’s configured for IMAP, a setting any credible mail administrator would never allow, since it opens up the server to a wider variety of electronic attacks. Put simply, the iPhone does not support Exchange in any meaningful way.

Gmail

Though Google’s email service is listed as one of the top-tier choices in the Add Account section of Mail Settings, it’s just POP access. The only advantage is that you don’t have to look up the server settings; the iPhone will do that automatically when you enter your name, email address, and password. This is really unsophisticated and doesn’t meet my needs, as I use Gmail’s server-side filters and labels extensively, and these don’t translate to client-side access technologies like POP3 at all.

Any POP email service

If you are using a third party email service that supports POP, and have access to the server information you need to configure it, iPhone is good to go. Note that POP email is unsophisticated but better than nothing.

Web mail

As a failover, you could also access any Web-based email service, like Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, or whatever, through Safari, which ranges from OK to completely unacceptable depending on the service and various browser compatibility issues. I’ve found Gmail access to be decent (but not “good”) via Gmail Mobile in Safari, and I’ll certainly use that before I ever configure Gmail for POP.

Basically, if you use Yahoo!, you’re all set: Yahoo! Mail on the iPhone is a first class experience. I’d describe .Mac mail, AOL Mail, and any other IMAP-based email as a second class experience. Everything else is a joke, or at best better than nothing if you have simple email needs. In my particular case, I’m stuck using Gmail Mobile via the Web, which is what I was doing on the Windows Mobile-based Motorola Q, though Google does offer a (lousy) Java-based Gmail client on some smart phones too. So it’s basically the same experience, with some pros and cons. On the iPhone, the screen is bigger and nicer looking than that of the Q, which is good. But you can’t download attachments or edit documents, which is terrible.

Ultimately, I was hoping that the iPhone would offer a killer native Gmail application, but really all it has is a POP-based Gmail client. That’s useless to me because I organize my email up on the server using Gmail’s amazing labels-based technology, which treats email like a database table which you can access using different filtered views. This stuff doesn’t get pulled down to any client, POP or otherwise, so Google and/or Apple would need to actually do some work to make the iPhone a first-class Gmail citizen. I desperately want a smart phone that can do this. The iPhone isn’t it.

A word about desktop sync

I’ve highlighted throughout this review that Apple’s lackadaisical approach to PC/iPhone synchronization is a weak link for the product, especially for those hoping to access their calendar on the device. As far as the iPhone’s Internet features are concerned, there are two primary synchronization points: Web browser and email.

On the Web browser front, you can synchronize with Internet Explorer or, get this, Safari. There’s no Firefox or Opera option, despite the fact that Firefox, especially, has garnered some serious market share in recent years. Safari, meanwhile, is something of a joke. However, it’s Apple’s product, so no one should be surprised that it’s supported.

If you’re familiar with Windows Mobile devices, you’ve probably seen the Mobile Favorites option that crops up in IE after you’ve installed ActiveSync (XP or older) or Windows Mobile Device Manager (Vista). Browser sync with the iPhone is similar: As you save bookmarks on the iPhone, and sync with the PC, they’re synced to the desktop browser you’ve selected in iTunes. This works the same in Safari as it does on IE, where your iPhone-based bookmarks and desktop Safari-based bookmarks are comingled in the same list. It’s inelegant, but it gets the job done. Assuming you use IE or Safari. (On the iPhone, synced bookmarks can be found in folders called Bookmarks Menu and Bookmarks Bar, if you’re using Safari to sync. This makes them a bit more ponderous to use.)

On the email front, you can choose to sync mail accounts between Windows Mail or Outlook and the device. Because of the lackluster nature of the iPhone’s support for Gmail, the fact that I’m accessing Gmail from Google’s Web-based interface anyway, I’ve pretty much opted out of this system for day-to-day use. But I did test this feature early on, and here’s how it works: Email sync isn’t really “email sync,” it’s “email account settings sync.” And it’s one way only, from PC to iPhone. So if you set up an email account on the iPhone and set up iTunes to sync with Windows Mail, that account won’t be created on the desktop, sorry. (Contacts are synced both ways, so that changes you make on the phone are copied back to your desktop application, or to Yahoo! if you’ve selected that service.)

This means, in short, that you will need to download your email messages to the device using the device in order to read them on the device; they won’t sync over from the desktop.

Final thoughts

As with most of the iPhone experience, accessing the Internet is ultimately frustrating. Yes, it works: The iPhone offers a best-ever mobile Web experience in some ways, but is limited in serious ways as well, thanks to the use of Safari technology and a lack of popular plugins. The email support, in my mind, is horribly broken unless you have very simple needs. (And if you do, why would you spend $600 to access your email on a phone?) There’s no easy fix for these issues. Apple will never replace the iPhone’s Safari browser with a more appropriate and Windows-friendly choice, obviously. And the device’s email support would need to be redone from the ground up to natively support the email services Windows users really use, like Gmail and Hotmail. (Perhaps Google will eventually write a first-rate iPhone Gmail application. I can dream.) And then there’s EDGE, the iPhone’s Achilles Heel. I could go on and on about this wireless disaster.

Until these issues are addressed, the iPhone is a less-than-ideal Internet companion for most Windows users, despite the obvious technical advantages of the device itself. Hopefully, we’ll see some upgrades in this area in the near future.

Well, it’s time to arrive at some kind of conclusion about the Apple iPhone. In the final part of this review, which should be up shortly, I will provide an overall score for the device and explain how I arrived at this decision. Stay tuned!

Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch (Core 2 Duo T7700) Review

The Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch is still the lightest in its category, and now has the fastest components and a new screen resolution to boot.

• It continues to be the lightest 17-inch laptop on the market, but now Apple throws in the fastest components to date, as well as a 1080p resolution.
• New Intel platform. Fast processor. Excellent graphics for gaming. Highest screen resolution available. Elegant design. Lightest 17-inch laptop on the market. Fast hard drive.
• Lack of less-expensive configurations. RAM upgrade is insanely expensive.

The Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch (Core 2 Duo T7700; $3,799 direct) is the only 17-inch laptop that can be labeled as both a thin-and-light laptop and a desktop replacement. It’s thin-and-light in that it weighs a mere 6.7 pounds, yet with its drool-inducing 17-inch widescreen, it can kick your current desktop to the curb. But this shouldn’t be news to anyone. This form factor has been Apple’s formula for success since the first MacBook Pro 17-inch debuted in 2003. The latest revision involves gutting the inside of the laptop to make room for Intel’s Centrino Duo platform. And for video perfectionists, you can now get the 17-inch MacBook Pro with a 1,920-by-1,200 resolution.

Keeping an entire laptop line to a thickness of 1 inch while upgrading performance parts every six months isn’t an easy task, but Apple has figured out how to do it, and do it well. It’s even more amazing that the 17-inch MacBook Pro is able to come in under 7 pounds, whereas its peers, the Dell Inspiron 1720 and the HP Pavilion dv9000t (Vista), both weigh more than 8 pounds. The reason for this may be that Apple’s use of an aluminum-alloy chassis gives it more flexibility in molding laptops. Or perhaps it’s just sheer engineering ingenuity that allows Apple to come up with great designs.

The area surrounding the keyboard follows the laws of simplicity, clean of any marketing stickers, extra media buttons, and tacky colors. Individual keys are tagged with subtlety in mind. Each letter, dark on a silver background, looks less prominent as you move away from the keyboard. The strong white letters against a black keyboard, like the ones found on the dv9000t (Vista), seem an eyesore when compared with those on a MacBook Pro. Both the full-size keyboard and the touchpad are centered with respect to the 17-inch widescreen, adding to the uniformity. The single mouse button further contributes to the symmetry.

The screen is the type that calls out to video professionals, photographers, gamers, and media enthusiasts. Apple adds to its appeal by offering an option for a glossy, 1,920-by-1,200 screen resolution, which is what I received for testing. If you haven’t been a big fan of watching movies on a laptop, this screen will definitely change your mind. It’s not as bright as the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED) of the MacBook Pro, but the color detail and picture quality are still mind-blowing. It’s a $100 upgrade; Apple offers other screen options that are just as impressive. The higher-resolution screen also paves the way for Blu-ray drives to come (although Apple hasn’t announced that yet, it looks like a done deal).

Prior to this revision, temperatures were uncomfortable on the MacBook Pro for any type of lap work. It’s now actually one of the few 17-inch laptops that you can place comfortably on your lap for a good length of time. With a combination of better power management and cooler operating components, the MacBook Pro 17-inch (Core 2 Duo T7700) is now lukewarm instead of piping hot. As measured with a Fluke IR thermometer, temperatures did not break 100° F, even in the base. The palm rests and keyboard are comfortable when you’re surfing the Web and word processing. Running a DVD movie or performing a more aggressive task will add a little heat to the outside but not enough to be uncomfortable.

With the feature set, Apple continues along the lines of simplicity, which could be both a good and a bad thing. I love that the webcam is practically unnoticeable—it’s only the size of a square in the game Minesweeper. The iSight camera is probably the best webcam in the industry. The dual-layer DVD burner is slot-loaded, meaning that instead of a tray that comes out it has a slot into which you insert the disc, like a CD player on a car dashboard. The three USB ports compare unfavorably with the Dell 1720’s five, but they’re more than enough for external peripherals. The MacBook Pro 17-inch comes with a 160GB hard drive. You can find hard drives this size on sub-$1,000 laptops; the difference is that this one spins at 7,200 rpm. You can upgrade, of course, but for this kind of money I was looking for a standard configuration with a higher capacity than 160GB. The only complex thing about the feature set is the extensive software suite that Apple throws in free. It’s worth mentioning because it’s the best in terms of giving you an excellent photo editor (iPhoto), video editor (iMovie), audio editor (Garageband), and DVD playback interface (iDVD), with remote (FrontRow).

Performance is nothing less than fantastic, but I wish Apple would offer the 17-inch model with a less-pricey configuration, as it did for the MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED). My configuration costs $3,799. Of course, it has the fastest Intel Core 2 Duo processor (the 2.4G-Hz T7700), 3GB of RAM, and a gaming-worthy graphics card (the nVidia GeForce 8600M GT). The T7700 processor is a $700 premium. If Apple offered other processor configurations, would-be Apple converts would come flocking to the site. Another complaint: The $750 the company charges for a RAM upgrade (from 2GB to 4GB; the 3GB that my unit came with is not listed on the site) is outrageous. Granted, this is Apple, but this crosses the line between luxury and gouging consumers.

I ran SYSmark 2007 Preview benchmark tests under Windows XP Pro using Apple’s Boot Camp software. If you plan on using Parallel’s virtual client for dual-booting Windows, I suggest upgrading the RAM to 4GB, even if you have to do it yourself. In SYSmark 2007 Preview Overall score, this MacBook Pro outperformed the Dell 1720 by 19 percent. The Apple’s Photoshop test results were 16 percent higher and video-encoding tests were 6 percent faster than those of the Dell. It beat the Dell 1720 in every aspect, except for battery life. The Inspiron 1720 does have a bigger (85 Wh) battery than the Apple’s (60 Wt). The MacBook Pro 17-inch (Core 2 Duo T7700) managed only 2 hours 25 minutes running down a DVD movie.

The one thing holding me back from giving the Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch (Core 2 Duo T7700) an Editors’ Choice is the lack of less-expensive configuration options. What you do get for your money are the fastest components on earth, with the new Intel Centrino Duo platform and an impressive screen resolution. It’s the type of desktop replacement (or thin-and-light laptop) that current MacBook owners, as well as would-be Apple converts, will drool over, whether or not they can afford it.

Panda Internet Security 2008 Review

Panda Internet Security 2008 got the best score we’ve ever seen in antispyware testing, but some other features need work.

• The virus/spyware protection is this suite’s super standout: It’s the first product ever to ace both my spyware-removal and spyware-prevention tests. The firewall is powerful, but the antispam is weak. Other than simple local backup, most of this version’s new features are disappointing.
• Stellar performance in antispyware testing—the best ever. Backs up important files to a local/network drive or CD/DVD. Firewall handles program control without confusing pop-ups.am is weak. Other than simple local backup, most of this version’s new features are disappointing.
• Antispam missed over half the undeniable spam. New tune-up feature does nothing Windows didn’t do. Parental control is limited. In testing, new phishing protection did absolutely nothing.

At first glance, Panda Internet Security 2008 hardly looks different from last year’s model, but there are some exciting additions. It now includes Wi-Fi security, and, like BitDefender Total Security 2008 and Norton 360, it offers backup and performance tuning. One big change is invisible: the on-demand scanner now uses the same technology as Panda’s Internet-based TotalScan, and it truly rocks. Not every change is for the better in this iteration of the suite, however.

Panda 2008’s main screen displays program status in four panes: security protection, unwanted content filters, optimization and backup, and updates and subscription. You can expand each pane to see detailed status or click on a link to change settings. If anything’s wrong, the pane gets a red tint and an “Attention” message. There isn’t a big button to fix all problems, as you’ll find in Norton Internet Security 2007 or BitDefender Total Security 2008. But the product’s regular self-diagnosis will always offer to fix the worst outstanding problem.

Panda has touted the behavior-based protection of its TruPrevent technology for some years now. TruPrevent is designed to protect against threats too new to be identified by signature, and it does seem to work. Watch out, though, because if your system has less than 500MB of memory available, the installer will omit TruPrevent without warning. To be sure you’ve got TruPrevent on your protection team, open the Security Protection panel and find the line “Protection against unknown threats.” It should say OK. If instead it says Install, click on that link to install it. Or just select a custom installation at the start and make sure the box for TruPrevent is checked. Of course, the app really ought to warn you if it’s not going to install a key component like this in the first place.

The other half of Panda’s dynamic protection duo is signature-based scanning, which now uses the technology from Panda’s TotalScan online scanner. Panda calls the new scanning technology “megadetection.” It scans files on access and also scans any files received by e-mail, IM, or download. You can launch a scan of the whole computer, files on disk, mail items, or a custom selection. A wizard helps you schedule specific scan types at intervals ranging from hours to years. In the on-demand and on-schedule scans, you’ll want to check the settings box for Genetic Heuristic Scan—it’s off by default, probably because it takes a bit longer. Still, a combined virus and spyware scan with the Genetic Heuristic Scan activated on my standard clean test system took a bit over 30 minutes, about the same as what Norton Internet Security 2007 took. That being the case, if I were Panda, I’d activate this feature by default. It seems more sensible for a security app to give people maximum protection out of the box and then guide them through performance, rather than vice versa.

Panda doesn’t participate in Virus Bulletin’s VB 100% testing, but West Coast Labs gives Panda’s products checkmark certification for virus detection and removal, as well as for detection of Trojan horses, spyware, and general malware. ICSA has certified Panda’s 2007 suite for virus detection and has certified other Panda products for cleaning (the suite wasn’t specifically tested). Though all the significant suites now run under Vista, Panda 2008 actually has the “Works with Windows Vista” certification from Microsoft.

As always, I installed the product on virtual machines infested with 20-odd malware samples, including adware, spyware, Trojans, rootkits, and rogue antispyware programs. Panda 2008 took charge right from the start: Its preinstall scan disabled at least a portion of over three-quarters of the samples. Better yet, it wasn’t bothered at all by one grouchy malware sample that blocks installation of many security programs. One of my test systems is a bit unstable because of the installed malware; this system frequently goes into a blue-screen death spiral after an incomplete removal attempt. Panda managed to dodge that particular bullet.

That’s not to say there weren’t some bumps in the road. One malware sample that installs as a driver caused the scan to hang every time. Scanning in Safe Mode was no better. I ran the online version of TotalScan, which detected the sample but hung upon trying to remove it. On advice from Panda, I booted from the company’s Rescue CD to scan from a 100-percent clean operating system. The scan successfully identified the offending files, but, because the drive is formatted for NTFS, it could not remove them. I like the idea of the Rescue CD, but the inability to clean up NTFS drives seems like a rather big limitation! The Rescue CD did finger the problem files, though. Again on Panda’s advice, I booted into the Windows XP Recovery Console and deleted as many of those files as I could. After that, I was able to run the scan normally.

With that problem out of the way, Panda’s megadetection made a clean sweep: a perfect 10 out of 10! It successfully removed the essential executable files for every single one of the malware samples. In many cases, it left behind data files and Registry items—sometimes dozens of them—but without the malicious program, those items are harmless. In a similar test against commercial keyloggers, it wasn’t even remotely as effective, scoring 2.1 out of 10. But I give much less weight to the keylogger test.

Sometimes a product that excels at removing malware isn’t so good at keeping the creepy-crawlies out of a clean system in the first place, or vice versa. Panda isn’t one of those: It swept the field once more in the spyware blocking test. When I tried installing the same set of samples on a clean system, Panda destroyed 80 percent of them the moment I clicked on them, and it blocked the others sometime during the install process. Another perfect 10! That beats the previous record of 9.8, scored by Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 5.0 in the same test. And it beats our current Editor’s Choice for antispyware, Spy Sweeper 5.5 with Spy Sweeper 5.5 with Antivirus, in both prevention and removal. Here again, the protection against commercial keyloggers was much weaker, a mere 3.6 of 10. If someone’s at your desk installing a keylogger, however, you’ve got problems no software can solve.

When a product eliminates tons of malware on sight, it’s usually identifying the threats by matching their signatures. For a deeper test, I modified each of the malware installers that triggered Panda 2008’s shoot-on-sight reaction, renaming them, changing some non-executable bytes, and padding them with nulls to change the size. Panda still deleted about 60 percent of the modified installers on sight, but the rest at least started the install process. The suite missed one of them completely and couldn’t prevent another from installing. This is still quite a good performance against hand-modified threats—megadetection is a winner! My only gripe is that the scanner hung on that one malware sample; that should not happen.

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Review: T-Mobile Wing

The Wing is the first phone from T-Mobile to ship with Windows Mobile 6. It is made by HTC, and is the successor to the MDA, with the same processor and memory under the hood, but with upgraded software, more buttons, and a better camera. The first thing you notice when you pull it out of the box, though, is the casing. The color is a deep blue hue that I liked very much. The other thing you notice as soon as it’s in your hands is the rubberized texture. It makes the phone very easy to hold on to. They basically took the texture from the back of the Dash and applied it to the entire case on this phone.

Further inspection of the casing reveals a multitude of buttons. On the front, there are the Talk and End buttons, two softkeys corresponding to the two selection items displayed at the bottom of the screen, a Start menu button, and an OK button that you can use to close most application windows, along with a four-way navigation wheel with an enter button in the center. On the sides you will find a volume slider bar, a reset button, a camera button, a power button, a voice command button, and a messaging button, for quick access to your text messages and emails.

Like the MDA, this phone is also is of the slider variety, with a full keyboard located under the screen. The keys are slightly rubberized and I found them easy to type with. After using the phone for about a week, my thumbs had grown accustomed to the layout and I was able to type fairly quickly without many mistakes. The one thing about the keyboard I did not like was the location and size of the softkeys. They are about a third the size of all the other keys, which makes them a little tricky to hit reliably. I found that it was usually easier just to use the touchscreen in situations involving the need for a softkey.

As this phone comes with Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft’s newest mobile OS, I decided that I would sync it with Microsoft’s newest desktop OS, Windows Vista. I already had Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 installed on Vista, so upon plugging in the Wing, it was immediately recognized. And, unlike several other phones I’ve used with Mobile Device Center, the picture that came up when I plugged in the Wing actually looked like a Wing.

The Wing synchronized flawlessly with Vista, I was able to sync Mobile Favorites and copy over custom ring tones I created. Under Programs and Services, there were specific T-Mobile links for items such as managing your account and getting help with the Wing itself. This is very nice integration between WM6 and MDC6, much better than with WM5 and ActiveSync.

Next, I decided to test out the camera. The 2MP camera has a self-portrait window right next to the lens, which, although isn’t a huge addition to the phone, is nice to have. Especially when phones in direct competition, such as the Sprint Mogul, don’t. The camera has several capture modes:

• Photo: Captures standard still images.
• Video: Captures video clips, with or without accompanying audio.
• MMS Video: Captures video clips suitable for sending with picture messages.
• Contacts Picture: Captures a still image and gives you the option to immediately assign it as a Photo ID for a contact.
• Picture Theme: Captures still images and places them within frames.
• Sports: Captures a sequence of still images (3, 5, 7, or 10) automatically.
• Burst: Captures a sequence of still images (maximum 30) as long as the CAMERA button on the device or the ENTER button on the NAVIGATION Control is kept pressed.

I took several photos with the phone both indoors and out. Is it a Leica? No. But in a well-lit area where your subject isn’t moving much, it takes a decent photo. The videos were about the same.

One of the greatest improvements over the MDA is the addition of Windows Mobile 6, and all the upgraded features it brings with it. HTLM emails were viewable as designed, the calendar layouts were much better, I was able set up Internet sharing with a laptop, and email management was much easier. The new Windows Live set of features was also there. Windows Live Messenger worked great, but I did have issues with Windows Live Hotmail accounts. The initial sync would bring everything across, but after that, clicking Send/Receive never brought across any more emails, although I can’t say for sure if the blame lies with WM6 or with the WL Hotmail servers.

Speaking of using the Wing for laptop Internet access, if you have the T-Mobile Internet plan (and with a phone like this, I can’t see why you wouldn’t) you automatically have unlimited access to any T-Mobile HotSpot, both with your laptop and the Wing, so if you’re in need of a connection and there’s a Starbucks somewhere nearby, you’re probably in luck.

One other thing I really liked was the addition of a task manager docked at the top right-hand corner of the screen. This applet allows you to close running programs without having to go into the memory settings app. That saved me an immense amount of time. There are apps out there already that do this, but most of them aren’t free, and this seems like something that should have been included with Windows Mobile years ago.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that it’s also a phone. The calls were very clear and people on the other end of my conversations reported that they had no problems hearing me. The speakerphone was decent, but tended to get a little distorted at higher volumes. T-Mobile lists a four hour talk time for the included battery, and since I don’t really have that kind of spare time, I’ll take them at their word. I can say that using the email and web browsing functions all day long (including some WiFi access) still left me with battery power to spare at the end of the day, so I was very pleased with that, since I typically do web, texting, and email more than actual phone calls anyway. The Wing also supports myFaves, so you can place unlimited calls to the five people you call the most.

As for the cons, there weren’t that many, really. The 201 Mhz processor is a little sluggish when several apps are open, and very sluggish changing the screen to landscape mode when the keyboard slides out if there are apps running. The screen was very bright and easy to read, but in direct sunlight, it was nearly impossible to see anything. The Wing could also use a memory upgrade. Out of the box, there was only about 13MB of available RAM, which won’t exactly allow you to use it as an MP3 player. Given the limited amount of ram available, a 512 MicroSD card in the box wouldn’t be a bad idea. Also, my new mail notification audible alerts quit firing periodically. I would either have to reboot the phone, or go to the Notifications and remove then re-add the alert sound. Something a little faster than Edge connectivity would be nice as well, but the downloads weren’t that bad overall.

I really liked this phone, and I’m sad that I have to return it tomorrow. For anyone with an aging MDA that they love, I would highly recommend this phone as an upgrade. And for anyone else in the market for a new Windows Mobile-powered device as well. I give it eight stars out of ten.

Finally, here are some specifications:

• Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• 201Mhz TI OMAP 850 processor
• 128MB ROM
• 64MB RAM
• 2.8-inch QVGA display
• Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900), GPRS, EDGE
• USB 1.1
• 802.11b/g Wireless
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 2 MP Camera
• MicroSD slot

Review: Lenovo Thinkpad T61

The last couple of weeks I have been carrying around a Lenovo T61 notebook, the latest in the Lenovo T series. This notebook is a significant departure from the T60 that I had previously been carrying.

Specs

It has a clear bright LCD screen that is a 14.1″ widescreen with a 1440×900 resolution and sturdy hinges that minimize shake while traveling. It also comes in a 15.4 widescreen,. Powering the graphics in our model you have an NVidia Quatro NVS with 128MB of RAM. This was good enough to score me 4.0 in Windows Experience index. This might be low because of drivers. You can opt for an Intel card with 256mb of memory if you are so inclined.

It comes with the latest Intel Centrino chipset a Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7500 that rated a 5.1 on the Windows Experience Index and 1GB of memory, that we bumped to 2GB. I wouldn’t recommend anything less if you are planning on running Windows Vista.

It comes standard with a TPM 1.2 chip and compatible BIOS that makes secureing your drive with Bitlocker a breeze. Further specs on the Lenovo site here.

Design

With the business traveler in mind there are a number of new design points that separate this model from its predecessors, all of which are improvements. One of the first thing you will likely notice is that the audio ports have been moved to the front of the notebook for ease of use. No more propping a booted laptop on its side to find the headphone jack when you are cramped in the middle seat on your flight home from wherever you had just been. You will also find that it is now sporting a 1394 port also located on the front. Another noticeable change is the speakers have been relocated to the top of the keyboard.

Drivers

As with any platform that will ship after Windows Vista you will have to load a few drivers off the Lenovo web site if you are doing a clean install, you can grab all the downloads you need here. I have tried both x86 and x64 drivers on the notebook and all of the drivers performed great.

Summary

Lenovo has kept the business focus of the Thinkpad notebook line without being afraid to innovate. Staying true to the essence of the line they have built a solid performer ideal for the business traveler. My only complaint so far has been battery life. I had heard claims of significantly better batter life possible on the new lines, but I have yet to see that in my testing. Final rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Intel ‘LaGrande’ Chipset Ships, First Test of New vPro Trusted Platform

One of the most ambitious new features ever to be built into an x86 motherboard is now publicly available: a hypervisor-based computer that runs both the operating system and its underlying BIOS under the control of a virtual machine monitor.

Underneath these physical and virtual layers is Intel’s latest and boldest implementation of the Trusted Computing platform – the highly anticipated, and in some circles dreaded, LaGrande platform, now called Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). It is quite literally a computer that provides the entire universe for another computer, replacing the BIOS with a radically advanced underlying system capable of detecting incursion at the deepest levels.

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Review: Madden 08 for PSP

Madden 08 on the PSP is pretty much Madden 07 on the PSP, with slightly smoother animations and noticeably faster loading. This late in the PSP’s life cycle, the graphics are so good it’s like having a mini-PS2 in the palm of your hands. And since the controls are the same as always, this game picks up pretty much where last year’s effort left off.

As Madden 08 for PSP loads up for the first time, you will notice how familiar everything is. There’s new music, but it’s still the same husky “E-A Sports” intro that’s become a signature of the company. The menus read slightly cleaner than in last year’s version, and their look is consistent with the versions on other consoles.

After a quick game with Peyton Manning and the Colts, I jumped into the franchise mode with the San Diego Chargers, because I was eager to play around with LaDainian Tomlinson. The game has indicators to tell you what star power the players have, and that makes it easier than ever to see your opponent’s weaknesses (and your own) without having to go into some menu.

{ad} The game loaded quickly, which should ease the minds of jaded PSP owners. Better still, taking care of all the franchise busy work (which some people love doing, but I can’t stand) is easily 10x faster than last year. I typically play the PSP on the train ride to work, and I remember how frustrated I was losing about half my commute to franchise operations in Madden 07 for PSP. Not so with this year’s installment, which lets you spend much more time on the field than off it.

Gameplay-wise, little has changed, and the only difference seems to be that everything is a little nicer. The game’s animation is silky smooth, and the colors are appropriately bold and dull–so, for example, helmets glisten, but worn grass does not. Although the faces are not quite as detailed as on home consoles, the movements are just as refined. Controls are pick-up-and-play easy for Madden veterans. And the difficulty settings are just right.

John Madden and Al Michaels are in the booth, with their typical banter and play-calling. Michaels is better synced than he was last year, so you get an even better feel for the game. Madden, however, seems like he may have mailed this one in. Maybe I’ve played too many of his games over the years, but I think he re-used some VO from Madden 04. It’s also entirely possible that EA just really liked some of his sayings. Or maybe he would say the exact same things in real-life broadcasting. It may seem like a strange thing to quibble about, but I found myself finishing Madden’s sentences, and that got really distracting. It also doesn’t help that Madden seems to talk about plays as if the highlights reel is showing even when you try to skip the highlight.

Besides the VO, sounds on this game are incredible. I love the emphatic clang that comes with selecting plays, and the on-field grunts and calls are quite realistic. Although I didn’t necessarily know the artists playing, I wasn’t distracted by the music. One thing that did bother me was the roar of the crowd. The default setting is cacophonous, and often times their reactions make no sense. Cheer when the home team is getting thrashed? I don’t get it. I ended up turning the crowd volume down to about 10-15% of the default, because I couldn’t handle the silence either.

All told, this is a big win for the PSP. Madden 08 made enough improvements to Madden 07 to truly impress me. It’s the best sports game ever for a reason, and if you need your football on the go, then this is the game for you.

Review: Madden 08 for PSP

Madden 08 on the PSP is pretty much Madden 07 on the PSP, with slightly smoother animations and noticeably faster loading. This late in the PSP’s life cycle, the graphics are so good it’s like having a mini-PS2 in the palm of your hands. And since the controls are the same as always, this game picks up pretty much where last year’s effort left off.

As Madden 08 for PSP loads up for the first time, you will notice how familiar everything is. There’s new music, but it’s still the same husky “E-A Sports” intro that’s become a signature of the company. The menus read slightly cleaner than in last year’s version, and their look is consistent with the versions on other consoles.

After a quick game with Peyton Manning and the Colts, I jumped into the franchise mode with the San Diego Chargers, because I was eager to play around with LaDainian Tomlinson. The game has indicators to tell you what star power the players have, and that makes it easier than ever to see your opponent’s weaknesses (and your own) without having to go into some menu.

{ad} The game loaded quickly, which should ease the minds of jaded PSP owners. Better still, taking care of all the franchise busy work (which some people love doing, but I can’t stand) is easily 10x faster than last year. I typically play the PSP on the train ride to work, and I remember how frustrated I was losing about half my commute to franchise operations in Madden 07 for PSP. Not so with this year’s installment, which lets you spend much more time on the field than off it.

Gameplay-wise, little has changed, and the only difference seems to be that everything is a little nicer. The game’s animation is silky smooth, and the colors are appropriately bold and dull–so, for example, helmets glisten, but worn grass does not. Although the faces are not quite as detailed as on home consoles, the movements are just as refined. Controls are pick-up-and-play easy for Madden veterans. And the difficulty settings are just right.

John Madden and Al Michaels are in the booth, with their typical banter and play-calling. Michaels is better synced than he was last year, so you get an even better feel for the game. Madden, however, seems like he may have mailed this one in. Maybe I’ve played too many of his games over the years, but I think he re-used some VO from Madden 04. It’s also entirely possible that EA just really liked some of his sayings. Or maybe he would say the exact same things in real-life broadcasting. It may seem like a strange thing to quibble about, but I found myself finishing Madden’s sentences, and that got really distracting. It also doesn’t help that Madden seems to talk about plays as if the highlights reel is showing even when you try to skip the highlight.

Besides the VO, sounds on this game are incredible. I love the emphatic clang that comes with selecting plays, and the on-field grunts and calls are quite realistic. Although I didn’t necessarily know the artists playing, I wasn’t distracted by the music. One thing that did bother me was the roar of the crowd. The default setting is cacophonous, and often times their reactions make no sense. Cheer when the home team is getting thrashed? I don’t get it. I ended up turning the crowd volume down to about 10-15% of the default, because I couldn’t handle the silence either.

All told, this is a big win for the PSP. Madden 08 made enough improvements to Madden 07 to truly impress me. It’s the best sports game ever for a reason, and if you need your football on the go, then this is the game for you.