This new $199 device is called the Kindle Fire, and after testing it for a week, I think it’s a good—though not a great—product and a very good value. It doesn’t just add color to the Kindle, it adds a robust ability to store and stream music, TV shows and movies—and a weaker ability to store and display color photos. And it offers about 8,500 apps at launch, including Netflix, Angry Birds and QuickOffice.

To be clear, the Kindle Fire is much less capable and versatile than the entry-level $499 iPad 2. It has a fraction of the apps, a smaller screen, much weaker battery life, a slower Web browser, half the internal storage and no cameras or microphone. It also has a rigid and somewhat frustrating user interface far less fluid than Apple’s.

Kindle Fire

But the Fire has some big things going for it. First, the $199 price, though the Fire’s seven-inch screen is less than half the surface area of the iPad’s display. Second, the Amazon and Kindle brands, already known and loved for e-readers and more. Third, Amazon is the only major tablet maker other than Apple with a large, famous, easy-to-use content ecosystem that sells music, video, books and periodicals. The Fire can be thought of as a hardware front end to all that cloud content.

Finally, while the Fire, like many other tablets, is based on Google’s Android operating system, Amazon has taken the bold step of hiding Android. It shuns its user interface and nearly all of Google’s apps and services, including Google’s app store. The Fire’s software is all about the content and apps Amazon has sold you and the easy purchase of more.

When compared to the iPad 2, I suspect the Fire will appeal to people on a budget and to those who envision using the iPad mainly to consume content, as opposed to those who see the larger tablet as a partial laptop replacement. For instance, while the Fire has a decent Web browser and a rudimentary email program, it lacks basic built-in apps, such as a calendar, notepad or maps. However, for people primarily interested in reading books and periodicals, the Fire may seem too heavy and costly when compared with a low-end Kindle or Nook.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet

The Fire isn’t only competing with the iPad and other general-purpose tablets. It has to contend with a new, low-price, similar-size color tablet out this week from e-reader rival, Barnes & Noble. This device, the Nook Tablet, is B&N’s second-generation color slate and costs $249, still less than an iPad. I’ve also been trying it out for a few days and found it has some pluses and minuses compared with the Fire.

The Nook Tablet boasts double the internal storage and a slot to expand it. It has better battery life and a more interactive approach to children’s books. But beyond books and magazines, it lacks either Amazon’s or Apple’s large, simple, built-in ecosystem for other kinds of content, such as music, movies and TV shows.

Instead, Barnes & Noble boasts it offers choice, by including video apps like Netflix and music apps like Pandora. However, these same apps also appear on the Fire and the iPad, along with the Amazon and Apple stores.

And it appears to offer even fewer apps than Amazon does (Barnes & Noble doesn’t provide a number). Also, while its screen is the same size as the Fire’s, the Nook is larger overall, though a bit lighter.

Hardware

The Fire’s hardware is plain and clunky. It’s a thick black box with zero style. There isn’t even a volume control or a physical home button, and the on/off button is a small thing hidden inconveniently on the bottom edge.

In the quest to meet the $199 price point, Amazon omitted many features common on other tablets. There are no cameras or microphone, no GPS for determining your location, no Bluetooth for headsets or wireless speakers and no included earbuds. The Fire is Wi-Fi only—it has no built-in cellular connectivity. There isn’t even an included cable for connecting to a computer, something you may want to do to get photos into the Fire, since Amazon lacks an online photo service.

There is just 8 gigabytes of memory, half the total of the base iPad or the Nook Tablet, and only about 6 gigabytes of that is available to store content. If you want to download movies, you won’t be able to fit many into the Fire.

User Interface

When I first saw it, I really liked the Fire’s user interface. Instead of screens full of icons or folders, it presents virtual shelves filled with the books, magazines, music, TV shows, movies, apps and websites you’ve used. A large one has the most recent items, with smaller shelves below it. These are for your favorite items. Across the top is a search bar and a list of categories, like Books, Music, Videos, Apps.

But I became frustrated with the interface. There’s something off with the touch calibration on the top shelf, or Carousel, which scrolls through a seemingly endless stream of items. It can be difficult to get it to stop on the item you want and it takes more pressure than it should to open the selection.

Also, you can’t configure the main screen much. You can’t reorder the top shelf, and while you can place items on the favorites shelves, they are in the order you added them, not how you like them.

On the Nook Tablet, the user interface is a jumble of different approaches, which I consider confusing. There’s a main screen where you can place favorite icons but also see a scrolling row of items, a drop-down list of other items and a bottom row of tiny icons representing categories. But there’s also a separate interface called the library, with categories and shelves.

Browser

A big selling point for the Fire is a supposedly speedy Web browser called Silk, which splits the task of fetching Web pages between the tablet and Amazon’s super-fast cloud computers. The latter can cache common, static page elements and learn which sites and pages people most often use, so they are pre-fetched and ready to go when needed.

However, in my tests, the Fire’s Silk browser was noticeably slower than the iPad 2′s browser.

This pattern was consistent over scores of Web pages, and on four Wi-Fi networks and two different Fire devices. Amazon’s explanation is that its split-browser system requires lots of user data to achieve its speed advantages, and only a small number of people are using it, so it will get faster over time.

Content

I found it easy to buy, stream, download and use content on the Fire. Reading books was a pleasure, as on any Kindle. Movies and TV shows looked good, and music played quickly and well, despite weak speakers. In general, I found magazines and newspapers looked better on the iPad, mostly due to the larger screen.

Recognizing this, Amazon offers a “text view” of magazines, which makes them easier to read but loses the original formatting.

Screen

After years of suggesting the gray-scale, E-Ink screen on the Kindle was better for reading than a color LCD screen, Amazon now has a Kindle with the latter display. If anything, it struck me as glossier than the iPad screen. It’s vivid and sharp, but not high definition. When I asked an Amazon executive about the reading issue and the company’s past position, he suggested people who prefer E-Ink buy one of each Kindle and use the older style for reading, pointing out the pair would cost less than an iPad. I said, while that was true, such people would be carrying two devices, not one.

Battery Life

In my standard tablet battery test, playing back to back videos with the wireless turned on and the screen at 75% brightness, the Fire lasted 5 hours, 47 minutes, or less than 60% of the iPad 2′s performance on the same test, and about an hour less than the Nook Tablet’s performance. In more general use, I didn’t find myself worrying about the battery. But the Fire requires charging much more often than the traditional Kindle.

Bottom Line

At $199, and with Amazon’s content ecosystem behind it, the Fire is an attractive alternative for many people who might otherwise have bought an iPad or another Android device, especially if their principal interest is content consumption.

The Nook Tablet also is worth considering, though it lacks a music and video ecosystem.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

http://allthingsd.com/20111111/iphone-4s-battery-suckage-persists-for-some/ http://allthingsd.com/20111111/iphone-4s-battery-suckage-persists-for-some/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:41:41 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=143228 Thursday afternoon, Apple released iOS 5.0.1 — an update to its mobile OS intended to resolve an issue that was shortening the battery life of iPhones and other devices that use the software. For some, it did just that. But for an increasingly vocal group of others, it did not. A quick check of Apple’s support forums show an increasing number of complaints claiming the issue is persisting or even worsening for some.

“Upgraded to 5.0.1 this morning,” reads one complaint. “Still draining at the exact same rate. Unplugged with a full charge 2 1/2 hours ago, and already down to 80 percent with light usage. Just lost 2 percent during a 15 minute shower. I see no difference at all.”

“I was a full charge at 5pm,” reads another. “After a few phone calls I went to bed around 2 a.m. with a 48 percent charge. Woke up at 8 a.m. with a full drain. It was in standby mode. That’s crazy!”

Another: “After installing 5.01 i charged it up fully before going to bed and after 7 hrs just sitting there lost 79 percent, and have lost further 5 percent while logging in and typing this. Going to try a full back up and restore this eve…”

And another: “Early yesterday afternoon, I downloaded the iOS 5.0.1 update on my iPhone 4s. After installing, I watched my battery drain 10 percent in 40 minutes while doing nothing on the phone. This update does absolutely nothing for battery life.”

Certainly for that user and others whose complaints I cited above. But for others, iOS 5.0.1 seems to have done the trick. “It really seems to have fixed the problem,” one ATD reader told me. “Battery life looking much better now,” said another.

So there appears to be a broad range of experience here, and lots of inconsistencies. Anecdotally, here at ATD we’re running the gamut. For some of our iPhone 4S users, batteries post-5.0.1 are draining as quickly as they were prior to it. For others, battery life has improved. And for a few of us who never experienced the issue and have had good battery life all along, there’s been no change whatsoever.

We’ve reached out to Apple for an explanation and will update here if one is offered.

UPDATE: Apple just issued the following statement to AllThingsD.

“The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices. We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111111/iphone-4s-battery-suckage-persists-for-some/feed/ 0

http://allthingsd.com/20111109/a-guide-for-pc-buyers-not-looking-for-a-tablet/ http://allthingsd.com/20111109/a-guide-for-pc-buyers-not-looking-for-a-tablet/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:02:27 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=142638 If you’re shopping for a laptop this autumn, you’ll find most of the capabilities and prices in the sluggish market unchanged. You’ll still likely be considering whether it’s time to get a tablet instead of a new laptop.

But if you’re focused on a Windows machine, and you look carefully, you’ll see that a new class of portable PC is beginning to appear. It’s called the “ultrabook,” and is essentially the Windows version of Apple’s popular, nearly four-year old MacBook Air—an ultraskinny, light, speedy, versatile laptop with long battery life.

The arrival of the ultrabook is a welcome development, not only because it spices up the market, but because I consider the MacBook Air the best all-around consumer laptop available, and anything that emulates it is a good idea, if done well.

There are only a few ultrabooks available this season and they aren’t for everybody. Most have limited storage and, like the MacBook Air, are priced near the $1,000 range—rich territory in a tight economy where Apple buyers seem comfortable, though not many others. Still, this new class of Windows laptop is the only fundamentally fresh choice in the laptop market.

If the price is too high, you should be able to get a capable major-brand laptop for between $500 and $800, with plenty of storage and memory.

My annual fall laptop buyers’ guide today offers tips for wading through the technobabble in computer ads, and in online and physical stores. As always, these tips are for average consumers doing common tasks, such as email, Web browsing, social networking, general office productivity, photos, music, videos and simple games. This guide isn’t meant for corporate buyers, or for hard-core gamers or serious media producers.

The recently unveiled Asus Zenbook

The tablet question: Tablets like Apple’s iPad 2 and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 can perform many, though not all, of the functions of a laptop. Most tablet lovers find themselves reaching for their laptops less often to do things like email. If your budget is limited and you’re thinking of shelling out $500 for a full-size tablet, consider whether you can put off getting a new laptop this year instead of buying both.

Future Windows: If you’re shopping for a Windows laptop, be aware that in 2012, Microsoft will offer a new version of Windows, called Windows 8, with a radical new multitouch interface that makes use of a touch screen. The software giant stresses that Windows 8 won’t require such a screen, and will still work with a mouse or touch pad. But unless you have a laptop with a multi-touch screen, you won’t be able to take advantage of the Windows 8 touch-screen features.

Ultrabooks: Four companies make this class of laptop: Acer, Lenovo, Asus and, shortly, Toshiba. These machines are under 0.8 inch thick, weigh less than three pounds, and generally claim long battery life and almost-instant startup times. All run Windows 7; none has a touch screen. Like the MacBook Air, they use solid-state drives (though some combine these with standard hard disks) and have screens of either 11 inches or 13 inches. Prices generally run from around $900 to $1,100.

Windows vs. Mac: Mac laptops cost more and offer less variety than Windows laptops. The least expensive Mac laptop is $999, while a few stripped-down Windows portables can be had for under $300. Well-equipped Windows laptops start at $500 to $600. But Apple laptops combine beauty, ruggedness and long battery life with good customer service. Macs also come with better built-in software, including the new Lion operating system, which includes some tablet-like features. And they can run Windows, at extra cost.

Finally, Mac users don’t fear viruses and other malicious software, because virtually none work on the Mac.

Memory: Get at least 4 gigabytes of memory, or RAM, on a new Windows computer. On a Mac, most consumers can get away with 2 gigabytes.

Processors: Intel’s latest chips are the i3, i5, and i7 Core models. But a laptop with chips from rival AMD, or older Intel dual-core chips, also is OK.

Graphics: Usually less expensive machines have wimpier graphics hardware, and costlier ones have more powerful graphics. Better graphics can make your whole machine faster, because more and more software is designed to offload general processing tasks onto the graphics chips.

Hard disks: A 320-gigabyte hard disk should be the minimum on most PCs. Solid-state disks, like those in the new ultrabooks or the MacBook Air, generally come in sizes of 128 GB or 256 GB. They omit moving parts and use flash memory to store your files, as on a smartphone or tablet. They are costlier, but faster, and use less power.

Ports: Many PCs now come with a port called HDMI, which makes linking to a high-definition TV easy. There is a new, much faster USB port, called USB 3.0, but few peripheral devices can use it. And Apple has introduced yet another high-speed connector that has little practical use so far, called Thunderbolt.

As always, be wary of sales pitches and don’t buy more laptop than you need.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111109/a-guide-for-pc-buyers-not-looking-for-a-tablet/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111109/iphone-battery-drain/ http://allthingsd.com/20111109/iphone-battery-drain/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:00:01 +0000 Walt Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=142644 Q:

My iPhone 4S gets much worse battery life than my iPhone 4 did. I need to charge it by midafternoon, whereas the prior model easily lasted all day. Do you know why and what can be done about it?

A:

Apple says it has found some bugs in its new iPhone and iPad operating system, called iOS 5, which adversely affect battery life for some users. It is promising to release a new version that addresses the problem in a few weeks.

I have heard from several users of the new iPhone 4S and from others who upgraded their older models to the new operating system that their battery lives have degraded.

However, in my own tests and experience, I have seen no reduction in battery life on my upgraded iPhone 4, which still comfortably lasts a full day. And the iPhone 4S Apple lent me for testing also made it through a whole day, every day.

If you can’t wait for Apple’s fix, some websites have reported major improvements by changing a simple setting. You go to Location Services, then System Services, and turn off “Setting Time Zone.” I haven’t tested this and don’t know if it works.

Q:

What is the cheapest device you would recommend to be able to do Skype or any other way of doing video chat?

A:

I’d consider the $199 iPod Touch, which has a front camera, can run several different video chat apps, and requires no monthly cellular service payments.

Another option would be the least expensive Windows laptop or netbook with a built-in webcam. You could also do this with a smartphone, but then you’d likely be paying a monthly bill. Another option is a tablet capable of video chatting, but most cost more than $199.

Q:

How do I sync my new Android phone with my Mac?

A:

Android is generally designed to sync things like contacts and calendar items with online services, especially Google’s, but not with local data on either PCs or Macs.

I have generally found in testing Android phones that you can drag over large files like songs and photos from a Mac by just plugging in the phone via a USB cable and dragging over the files manually.

However, there’s a $40 program called The Missing Sync for Android that claims to facilitate syncing Android phones with both PCs and Macs. I haven’t tested it.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111109/iphone-battery-drain/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111108/consumer-reports-says-iphone-4s-fixes-antenna-woes-can-finally-recommend/ http://allthingsd.com/20111108/consumer-reports-says-iphone-4s-fixes-antenna-woes-can-finally-recommend/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:40:19 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=141695 Consumer Reports, which has long had issues with the iPhone, says Apple has finally come out with a smartphone it can recommend.

The magazine initially withheld its recommendation because of call-quality issues. Even when Apple added a Verizon model, Consumer Reports said it could not recommend the phone because of the “Antennagate” issue, in which holding the phone a certain way could affect the phone’s signal.

“In special reception tests of the iPhone 4S that duplicated those we did on the iPhone 4, the newer phone did not display the same reception flaw, which involves a loss of signal strength when you touch a spot on the phone’s lower left side while you’re in an area with a weak signal,” the magazine’s Mike Gikas said in a blog post.

The company noted the battery issues that some users have been experiencing with iOS 5, and said it would retest the device when Apple releases its software update.

Although it added the new iPhone to its recommended list, Consumer Reports said that Apple’s model still trails several of the newest Android devices in its rankings, including Samsung’s Galaxy S II family of phones and Motorola’s Droid Bionic.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111108/consumer-reports-says-iphone-4s-fixes-antenna-woes-can-finally-recommend/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111102/apple-some-ios5-bugs-prompting-iphone-battery-issues/ http://allthingsd.com/20111102/apple-some-ios5-bugs-prompting-iphone-battery-issues/#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:30:42 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=139585 Apple on Wednesday said it had found a few problems that are leading some iPhone customers to experience less-than-expected battery life with iPhones running its latest software.

“A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices,” Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD. “We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”

Apple declined to comment beyond the statement.

Complaints about battery life issues have been growing on the Web in recent days, but began shortly after both iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S were made publicly available last month.

The problems appear to vary based on what network a user is on, usage patterns and other factors.

While Apple has been mum until now about the issues, its support forums have been filled with postings on the issue. And, although Apple is not offering any advice on what customers should do until the software update is released, those same forums contain various potential fixes that may help. Some customers have found some success by limiting notifications and by turning off a feature that automatically adjusts to new time zones.

Despite the battery issues, the iPhone 4S has been a huge seller, with Sprint and AT&T setting records for initial sales.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111102/apple-some-ios5-bugs-prompting-iphone-battery-issues/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110921/a-galaxy-s-sequel-with-big-screen-ambitions/ http://allthingsd.com/20110921/a-galaxy-s-sequel-with-big-screen-ambitions/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2011 01:03:06 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=123374 In the crowded and sometimes confusing market for smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system, Samsung’s Galaxy models have been among the best and most popular. Launched last year on multiple carriers, the Galaxy S models made the Korean electronics giant a serious rival to Apple’s iPhone as well as to Android competitors like Motorola and HTC.

Now, Samsung has introduced the second generation of the Galaxy S in the U.S., after the company reported selling five million of the new devices in Europe and Korea in 85 days. (For context, Apple sold about 20 million iPhones world-wide in its last reported quarter.) The new models are dubbed Galaxy S II, and will be carried by Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile in slightly different variations.

I’ve been testing the first of these new phones, which made its debut on the Sprint network last week. It goes by the lengthy, ungainly name of “Samsung Galaxy S II, Epic 4G Touch” and costs $200 with a two-year contract. But its name isn’t the only thing about this phone that’s super-sized. It also has a gargantuan 4.52-inch screen, which swells its overall dimensions to a size that dwarfs many other smartphones. For instance, its footprint is about a third larger than the iPhone 4′s.

Samsung Galaxy S II, Epic 4G Touch

The huge screen is something of a gamble for Samsung and its carrier partners. It makes the phone more attractive for some functions, like watching videos, playing games and viewing photos. But it also makes the Epic 4G harder to fit in a pocket or small purse, or to hold comfortably in smaller hands. And it looks really big when held up to the ear.

To its credit, Samsung has managed to offset the greater length and width by keeping the phone thin and light. It’s only slightly thicker than the iPhone 4 and actually weighs less. But the company pulled off this feat by using a plastic housing that feels insubstantial and fragile. For instance, the removable rear cover is a bendable, paper-thin plastic sheet that I found hard to snap on firmly.

Overall, I consider the Epic 4G Touch to be a capable, versatile smartphone with good battery life and a sharp, rich display. It worked well in my tests for voice and data, and it benefits from Sprint’s unlimited data plans, which compare favorably with the metered data plans of AT&T and Verizon. Like other Android phones, it also offers a rich catalog of 250,000 third-party apps—smaller than the iPhone’s total of 425,000, but still quite large.

However, whether the new Epic is the right phone for you depends on how you feel about its large size and general feel. You’ll also have to be comfortable with Android itself, which is still more complicated than the iPhone’s operating system. And you’ll want to make sure you have good reception for Sprint’s 4G network, which I found varied widely in speed.

The Epic’s hardware performed generally well in my tests. That huge display looked sharp and vivid, even though it actually has a lower resolution than the iPhone 4′s much smaller 3.5-inch screen. One reason may be that the Galaxy S II uses a different display technology than that on most other phones, something called Super AMOLED Plus, which Samsung claims has better blacks and sharper images.

The 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera took very good still photos and high-definition videos. The speakers were clear for both phone calls and music in my tests. The phone comes with 16 gigabytes of internal memory and has a slot for an optional added memory card.

I didn’t do a formal battery test, but, in my experience, the Epic easily lasted all day between charges, even when I had played several TV shows.

Sprint’s 4G network was less consistent. It’s supposed to deliver download speeds of between 3 megabits per second and 6 mbps, with peaks of up to 10 mbps. But, in my home outside Washington, D.C., the Epic never came close, struggling to reach even 2 mbps in most of my tests. By contrast, in tests I ran in Palo Alto, Calif., the Epic on 4G was blazing, racking up speeds of between 6.5 and 11 mbps in test after test.

Also less impressive was the software. Android itself is getting smoother and simpler, but still has a geekier feel than Apple’s iOS operating system. For instance, to do such common things as composing a new message or searching through your mail in Google’s own Gmail app, you have to first open a menu rather than just directly tapping icons from the main screen. And Samsung actually boasts that the Galaxy S II has an improved “Task Manager,” a utility for managing running apps that average users will never want to consult.

Samsung, like most Android phone makers, adds its own software overlay to Android. The company calls this TouchWiz, and in the new Galaxy S II it includes several motion-based features, like tilting the device to reduce or enlarge the screen contents, or moving the device left or right while holding an icon to reposition the icon. I found the former clumsy but liked the latter, once I got the hang of it.

I also tried Samsung’s built-in video store, called Media Hub, with mixed results. Before boarding a plane, I purchased two TV shows and rented a movie. The TV shows played fine, but to my surprise and irritation, the movie refused to play without an Internet connection, even though it had been paid for and downloaded to the phone, because the program needed to go online to “acquire a license.”

Samsung also includes optional “live panels,” rectangular widgets on the screen that update constantly to show things like the weather, or news headlines with photos. These looked good when they worked. But in my tests, the weather one often failed to update and once crashed the phone. The news panel was usually slow to display photos.

Bottom line: The Sprint version of the Galaxy S II isn’t for everyone. But if you crave a big screen and don’t mind the bigger size, you might like it.

Write to Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110921/a-galaxy-s-sequel-with-big-screen-ambitions/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110824/jobs-leave-a-legacy-of-changed-industries/ http://allthingsd.com/20110824/jobs-leave-a-legacy-of-changed-industries/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:18:37 +0000 Walt Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=113653

Steve Jobs’s resignation as chief executive officer of Apple is the end of an extraordinary era, not just for Apple, but for the global technology industry in general. Jobs is a historic business figure whose impact was deeply felt far beyond the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, and who was widely emulated at other companies.

And now, for the first time since 1997, he won’t be the company’s chief executive.

To be very clear, Jobs, while seriously ill, is very much alive. Extremely well-informed sources at Apple say he intends to remain involved in developing major future products and strategy and intends to be an active chairman of the board, even while new CEO Tim Cook runs the company day to day.

So, this is not an obituary. But his health is reported to be up and down, and even an active chairman isn’t the same as a CEO.

CEOs resign every day, so why is this departure so meaningful?

Most people are lucky if they can change the world in one important way, but Jobs, in multiple stages of his business career, changed global technology, media and lifestyles in multiple ways on multiple occasions.

He did it because he was willing to take big risks on new ideas, and not be satisfied with small innovations fed by market research. He also insisted on high quality and had the guts to leave out features others found essential and to kill technologies, like the floppy drive and the removable battery, he decided were no longer needed. And he has been a brilliant marketer, personally passionate about his products.

In his first act at Apple, the company he co-founded in 1976, he helped envision and catalyze the personal computer revolution. The Apple II computer he developed with Steve Wozniak wasn’t the only mass-market PC released in 1977, but it was the one that had the most enduring impact.

In 1984, he again upended computing by leading the development of the Macintosh, the first commercially successful computer to use a mouse and graphical user interface. It cemented the template for how every computer works today, even though Apple was handily bested in the PC sales wars by archrival Microsoft.

After being forced out of Apple in 1985, it’s well known that Jobs ran an unsuccessful computer firm called NeXT. But he also did a couple of game-changing things during that exile. First, NeXT developed an operating system that later morphed into the excellent Macintosh operating system, called OS X, and also the operating system that drives Apple’s mobile devices, called iOS.

In addition, he purchased Pixar, a small computer animation firm which he was able, over years, to turn into one of the world’s most successful movie studios and later sell to Disney for billions. It changed animation forever.

In his most recent act, he returned in 1997 to take over as CEO of Apple as part of that company’s purchase of NeXT. What he found was a diminished company which was reputedly only months from bankruptcy and saddled with mediocre products.

Fourteen years later, the company is a highly profitable behemoth, the most financially valuable and influential technology company in the world, whose every product is eagerly anticipated, snapped up quickly by consumers, and aped by competitors, even though they are often priced higher than rival devices.

While CEO of the revived Apple, he introduced the dominant digital music player, the iPod, and created the most successful digital media service, iTunes. He introduced the first super-smartphone, the iPhone, and the only truly successful tablet computer, the iPad, which is in the process of replacing the laptop, at least in part. And he built the world’s largest app store.

One almost forgets that he built a phenomenally successful chain of retail stores, too.

Apple’s devices and software services have dramatically changed the mobile phone industry, the music industry, the film and TV industries, the publishing industry and others.

Meanwhile, even while declaring that we are in the “post-PC era,” Jobs resuscitated his early baby, the Mac. While it may never become the world’s biggest selling computer, it is lusted after worldwide, and its sales have outgrown those of the overall PC industry for five years running. Plus, with models like the sleek, solid-state MacBook Air, he’s actually merging the tablet and the PC.

Now, rumors are rife that Apple is working on re-inventing another common device: the TV. The secretive company won’t say a word about that, but nobody should be surprised if it happens, just based on Jobs’s track record.

And that’s why the day Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple isn’t like the day a typical CEO resigns.

Here is a video of me taken recently, talking about Jobs’s career:

Related posts

• Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple; Cook Takes Reins
• Steve Jobs’s Resignation Letter: “I Have Made Some of the Best Friends of My Life at Apple.”
• Apple Stock Falls After Jobs Announcement
• Steve Jobs Live on Stage in 2010 (Video)
• Tim Cook as Apple CEO: A Tested and Steady Hand
• Essay: Jobs’s Departure as CEO of Apple Is the End of an Extraordinary Era
• What Happens Next at Apple?
• Mossberg on Jobs (Video)
• Analysts Confident in Apple’s Prospects
• Apple Shares Bounce Back
• Tim Cook: Apple Will Continue to Make the Best Products in the World
• Does Tim Cook Need His Own Tim Cook?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110824/jobs-leave-a-legacy-of-changed-industries/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110819/mission-motors-closes-a-round-of-funding-and-swears-it-wont-blow-it-all-on-awesome-electric-motorcycles/ http://allthingsd.com/20110819/mission-motors-closes-a-round-of-funding-and-swears-it-wont-blow-it-all-on-awesome-electric-motorcycles/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:31:10 +0000 Drake Martinet http://allthingsd.com/?p=112025

San Francisco-based Mission Motors holds a land speed record for an electric motorcycle and, as of this week, also holds a $9.3 million Series B round of funding to commercialize that bike — or at least parts of it.

Sadly, CEO Jit Bhattacharya informed me his company won’t be using the cash to make more of its achingly fast electric motorcycles.

But, even if the bike remains a rarity, the funding is real enough.

The round, led by Warburg Pincus, also includes a hefty line of credit to the company — a provision that makes sense when you realize how capital intensive the real next step will be.

That’s because Mission Motors is moving to become a supplier of electrical drive systems to vehicle makers — “OEMs” in industry speak.

Specifically, it is “looking at [applications] where size and weight are a factor,” said Bhattacharya.

So what does that mean exactly?

An electric drive system, at its most basic, is made up of three components: Batteries to store power, a motor to convert the electricity to physical motion and a speed controller that governs how fast it all happens.

Mission Motors isn’t doing game-changing battery research. Nor is it inventing a fundamentally new kind of motor.

In essence, Mission’s team is not unlike an uber-geeky group of high school car nuts — spending time and money trying to squeeze a little more performance out of a bunch of off-the-shelf parts.

This game of inches gets especially important when you are trying to shoehorn an electric drive system into tiny places.

Bhattacharya mentioned applications like small hybrids, where designers must fit an internal combustion engine, an electric motor and a battery package in the same car.

“If you drop the weight of the components, you basically improve the range,” he said.

So, where will we see a Mission Motors power system next?

Bhattacharya wouldn’t say, although the company has already worked with Honda on prototype cars.

All I could get from the CEO, after much badgering, was, “Our focus is on building compact systems that could go into all kinds of applications.”

In any case, I stopped by Mission Motors’ new office in SOMA to see if I could ride its record-setting, electric pavement monster and at least I got a video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110819/mission-motors-closes-a-round-of-funding-and-swears-it-wont-blow-it-all-on-awesome-electric-motorcycles/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110819/with-hps-raising-of-the-worlds-biggest-white-flag-will-jon-rubinstein-and-todd-bradley-surrender-too/ http://allthingsd.com/20110819/with-hps-raising-of-the-worlds-biggest-white-flag-will-jon-rubinstein-and-todd-bradley-surrender-too/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:08:13 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=112015

It wasn’t until dinner this past Sunday night that CEO Léo Apotheker told Todd Bradley, the head of its Personal Systems Group, that he was about to push key parts of Bradley’s huge unit off the cliff.

That included stopping selling hardware — smartphones and TouchPad tablets — based on the webOS it acquired from Palm last year, a $1.2 billion deal that Bradley played a big part in.

In addition, HP said it was considering spinning out its PC business and would “explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.”

But, until a few days ago, several sources close to the situation said, Bradley knew nothing of these plans and neither did webOS’s key driver of late, former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein.

This surprising lack of disclosure by HP to two of its key execs begs the question: Will they stay or will they go now?

According to sources, staying put is the plan for both for now, although it depends on what such a spinoff will look like.

It’s clear at this point that Bradley — who was once the CEO of Palm himself and was once considered the most likely successor to former CEO Mark Hurd, before Hurd’s sudden resignation last year — is the leading CEO candidate of its spun-out independent PC company if that’s what HP decides to do.

But it’s not a lock, either. And, apparently, Bradley has not been locked in with regards to a spinoff either and would likely have a lot of offers from tech companies in Silicon Valley to choose from if he wanted.

“Who will they get if Bradley goes at this point, if they want to spin it off?” said one person at the company.

But, added another: “Bradley is in the catbird seat if he wants to be and it’s his to lose.”

That depends, of course, on what his is.

Questions include:

Will that new company include any of the consumer part of the printer business — a huge cash cow — if HP is indeed leaving the arena?

Will webOS go with the new set-up, so that it can take advantage of the patents and licensing income?

Will HP continue to be the brand name on the devices this computer company spinoff would make?

These are just a few of the issues in a deal of untold complexity. But perhaps the most obvious one is who would get custody of Rubinstein?

To begin: Bradley is a big fan and would certainly want him around if there were a spinoff, said several sources.

But to do what?

Rubinstein, a well-known tech exec, had been leading the webOS efforts for HP, but was recently moved upstairs to a larger but fuzzy role, to run product development and innovation for the PSG unit. He has been reporting to Bradley.

At the time, the move was seen by many as the first step out the door by Rubinstein, with one person joking that “he’d much rather be at his Mexican beach house than HP.”

Among the disgruntlements: Several sources said Rubinstein felt that TouchPad wasn’t ready to ship and that Apotheker has reneged on a public promise not to until the tablet was “perfect.”

That ire is no surprise, since the device was then subject to tough criticism, including by AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg, who noted in his review:

“… In my view, despite its attractive and different user interface, this first version is simply no match for the iPad. It suffers from poor battery life, a paucity of apps and other deficits.”

In addition, unlike others there, Rubinstein has been more of a product guy and not an HP lifer. That begs the question of whether he’d like to sign up to another big company stint, even if he had more control.

“He’s been to that party before, and the reality is that he is not a career big company person,” said one person.

One important note: Rubinstein was unable to make webOS work when Palm was already a standalone independent company. And, although a new HP spinoff would be huge and better funded, it is still very much an uphill and competitive battle on the computer, smartphone and tablet fronts.

In addition, keeping a competitive operating system going is also a costly bear of an issue.

“It’s a cyclical, high-velocity business and there are other huge players from Apple and Google in smartphones and tablets to Lenovo and Dell in PCs,” said another source. “There might be a lot of great products in the pipeline for webOS, but it will not be easy to make them a success.”

That said, noted another person who knows Rubinstein well, “he really cares about webOS and does not want to see it go away.”

That might be true, although that is just what might happen if HP decides to sell it off to someone else or makes the spinoff a difficult endeavor.

In that case, it’s an offer Bradley and Rubinstein can refuse.

Related posts

• Hewlett-Packard Says Goodbye to PCs, webOS
• HP Pulls Plug on webOS Hardware, Leaves OS Future in Doubt
• HP And webOS: But They Seemed So Happy Together!
• Liveblogging HP’s “Everything Including the Kitchen Sink” Conference Call
• HP’s Apotheker: We Struck Out with WebOS, but Maybe Someone Else Wants a Swing?
• Viral Video: Like Palm’s Creepy Naked Lady, TouchPad’s Floating Celeb Heads Get the HP Boot
• Licensing webOS May Not Be Much of an Option for HP
• Hewlett-Packard’s PC Business: What Happens Next?
• Worth More Dead Than Alive: Could HP Turn a Profit on Palm’s Patents?
• With HP’s Raising of the World’s Biggest White Flag, Will Jon Rubinstein and Todd Bradley Surrender Too?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110819/with-hps-raising-of-the-worlds-biggest-white-flag-will-jon-rubinstein-and-todd-bradley-surrender-too/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110817/how-to-outfit-the-ipad-2-to-make-typing-easier/ http://allthingsd.com/20110817/how-to-outfit-the-ipad-2-to-make-typing-easier/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:04:29 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=111401 Although it’s a smash hit, Apple’s iPad isn’t winning the hearts of users who find it difficult to type on its onscreen keyboard. And even for many who love their iPads for other things and can type shorter items on the screen, the lack of a physical keyboard has meant they still must turn to their laptops for intensive typing tasks.

One solution to this dilemma has been to carry a separate wireless keyboard. But that means carrying two things. So a number of companies offer protective cases for the iPad 2 with low-profile, but real, keyboards built right into their inner surfaces. These keyboards appear when you open the cases, which act as stands for the tablet while you type.

I’ve been testing four such iPad 2 combo keyboard cases, each of which lists for $100. I also took a look at a slightly different accessory, a new full-size $130 keyboard and stand for the iPad 2 that folds up and holds the tablet for carrying, though it doesn’t cover or protect the screen.

If I were personally going to buy one of these, it would likely be the Logitech Keyboard Case for iPad 2, a thin, light and sturdy aluminum enclosure with a keyboard I liked. But this is a personal decision, involving the look and shape of the case, the feel of the keyboard and the angles at which they prop up the iPad. I strongly recommend going to a store and trying some before choosing one.

Though these rival cases differ, they all have certain things in common. They all make the beautiful, slim iPad 2 much bulkier and heavier. Also, the keyboards inside these cases require recharging after a few weeks or months, depending on how heavily they’re used. And none comes with a charger. You have to charge them from a laptop, or by using the wall adapter that you use to charge the iPad itself, or another USB-compatible charger.

In addition, these cases only work well for typing when you place them on a flat surface. And I found they make it clumsier to hold the iPad for reading. They have special keys for such things as replicating the iPad’s home button; searching; volume; copy, cut and paste; and controlling music and video playback. Most also switch the iPad’s screen on and off when you open or close them. Finally, with each keyboard, you have to perform a simple, one-time Bluetooth “pairing” process with the iPad the first time you use them.

Here are some features and downsides to the cases and keyboards I tested.

Logitech Keyboard Case for iPad 2

This is the simplest of the keyboard cases I tested. It’s just a thin, rigid aluminum tray with a recessed keyboard in the bottom. To use it as a carrying case, you snap your iPad 2 into the tray, where it’s held tight by rubbery pads in the corners that keep the screen from touching the keyboard. You can still charge the iPad while it’s in the case. When you’re ready to type, you remove the iPad 2 and stand it up in a groove above the top row of keys, in either a horizontal or vertical position.

This case is the only one I tried that doesn’t completely cover the iPad 2. It uses the tablet’s aluminum back as a part of its protection. I found it to be lighter, thinner and yet sturdier than the others. I also liked the feel of its keyboard and found the angle at which it held the iPad to be excellent. The product was developed by a small company called Zagg, which made a similar case for the original iPad. Logitech is coming out later this month with a version for the 10.1-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet.

Zaggfolio

Zagg also has come out with its own new design for the iPad 2, a hard-plastic wraparound case that completely covers the tablet. The iPad snaps inside the top cover, and the cover, when opened, tilts forward to allow the tablet to nestle into a groove in a keyboard that is almost identical to that of the Logitech. One difference: The folio allows the iPad 2 to be used only in horizontal mode while in the case.

The first units of the folio, which came out in July, had a defective closure. That has been fixed and the company is offering to replace the early units. I tested the revised version and it closes tightly. The folio comes in a variety of colors, as does its removable keyboard—the only removable keyboard I tested. This case also had the best-aligned cutouts for the iPad 2′s buttons and ports of the wraparound models tested.

Kensington KeyFolio Pro

This is a soft-plastic case that, like the Zagg, stores the iPad 2 inside the top lid and places the keyboard inside the bottom lid. It has no latch, and doesn’t switch the iPad screen on and off. The Kensington differs from the others in that it has a swivel mechanism that allows the iPad 2 to be used vertically or horizontally while tucked into the top cover. However, I found the angle at which it placed the screen to be too straight for comfortable viewing while typing. And, in vertical mode, I found the screen was a bit wobbly. I liked the feel of the keyboard, but it was the only wraparound that lacked dedicated buttons for copy, cut and paste.

Belkin Keyboard Folio

This is another soft plastic wraparound model, but I found it too complicated and bulky. It tucks the keyboard under the top flap that holds the iPad 2, so you can use it as just a stand. But this made it thick and, to my eye, odd-looking, when closed. On the plus side, it offers multiple angles, though it only allows horizontal use of the iPad.

I found the keyboard more cramped than those on the others. I also found the iPad hardest to insert and remove on the Belkin, and the holes for the ports and buttons to be the least aligned.

Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard

This isn’t actually a case and it doesn’t protect the screen at all. Instead, its main selling point is that, unlike the others, it packs in a full-size keyboard that protrudes beyond the iPad’s dimensions via a clever design. The keyboard is hinged in the middle and folds out from beneath a hard-plastic cradle that holds the iPad 2 face up and allows access to all the ports and buttons. When the keyboard unfolds, it raises the iPad into a standing position, in horizontal orientation. It probably will appeal most to people just carrying an iPad around the office or home. It costs $130, and, to protect the screen, you’d have to shell out another $40 for Apple’s own screen cover. It will be unveiled next week and available in September.

Bottom line: You don’t need either a case or a keyboard to use an iPad 2, but if you want both in one package, there are plenty of choices.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110817/how-to-outfit-the-ipad-2-to-make-typing-easier/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110803/leyden-energy-raises-20-million-to-build-a-better-battery/ http://allthingsd.com/20110803/leyden-energy-raises-20-million-to-build-a-better-battery/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:00:58 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=105514 While mobile devices seem to get faster, more powerful and smaller every year, there is one attribute that seems to be perennially wanting: Battery life.

Fremont, Calif.-based Leyden Energy hopes to change that. The start-up is focused on a new battery chemistry it says should allow its batteries to run 25 percent longer on a single charge and last for three years, as opposed to the typical single year of useful battery life.

The chip industry touts the fact that performance tends to double every 18 months or so, a maxim dubbed Moore’s Law in honor of the Intel founder who noted the trend. Battery life, meanwhile, has barely been able to double over the past 20 years, Leyden CEO Aakar Patel said in an interview.

And Patel would know, having spent his career in the battery industry. Before starting Leyden, Patel was chief operating officer of a battery distributor and also spent five years at Duracell.

“We don’t follow any Moore’s law,” Patel told AllThingsD.

Leyden may not be able to change that entirely, but Patel said significant improvements are possible by changing the electrolytes from those used in the current crop of lithium-ion batteries. Patel’s approach has drawn significant interest, including a $20 million Series B investment round being announced on Wednesday. New Enterprise Associates is leading the new funding round, which also includes new money from the company’s existing investors Lightspeed Ventures, Sigma Partners and Walden Capital.

NEA partner Ron Bernal, who is joining Leyden’s board, said he has been tracking the company for about 18 months and is pleased with the progress it has made.

“A year ago when they were out, they hadn’t quite delivered everything,” Bernal said. At this point, however, Bernal said he is convinced that the company is on the right track and will be able to deliver on the big gains it is promising. “With what they’ve shown and delivered, it’s pretty compelling.”

Leyden started back in 2007 and now has 30 employees.

“We went in with one single premise, which is how we could make batteries better,” Patel told AllThingsD. The company is aiming to see its batteries power everything from consumer electronics to electric vehicles.

Although the company is in volume production, it has thus far publicly announced only one deal — an agreement with a Canadian after-market firm called Dr. Battery. Patel said it should also have some deals with tablet companies to talk about in the coming months. In addition, the company has nearly $3 million in grants from the California Energy Commission to produce electric vehicle batteries.

“For a relatively small company we have done amazing things,” he said. “We’ve been fast to commercialize our product.”

The challenge, clearly, will be getting to greater scale, something Patel said the new funding should help with.

“We always had commercialization in mind,” he said. “We didn’t just want to innovate for the sake of innovation.”

The company is relying on an unspecified manufacturer in Asia to make its actual products, which are designed using Leyden’s process.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110803/leyden-energy-raises-20-million-to-build-a-better-battery/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110727/lion-with-office/ http://allthingsd.com/20110727/lion-with-office/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 01:02:29 +0000 Walt Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=103542 Q:

I have been warned on the Web that Microsoft Office won’t work on Apple’s new Mac operating system, Lion. Is this true?

A:

In my tests, and also according to Microsoft, Office for the Mac does work in Lion, though some relatively minor features won’t work right. Also, you must be using one of the two latest versions of Office.

In my tests, using the current version, Office 2011, all features I tested worked fine, though of course I wasn’t able to test every one of the thousands of features. I even wrote my entire Lion review in Word 2011 on a Lion-equipped Mac. According to Microsoft, the 2008 version also works, though the 2004 version doesn’t.

However, Microsoft hasn’t updated Office for Mac to take advantage of Lion’s new features. More information on Mac Office compatibility with Lion is here and here.

Q:

Can you point me in the right direction for a purchase of a tablet? I am a home inspector and presently use a Toshiba Satellite laptop with a special Windows software program for my job. I need a tablet with a screen size of 12 inches or more. USB ports would be essential.

I am willing to spend up to $3,000. I need it to be visible in daylight, because I must walk around the property.

A:

You may have trouble finding a tablet that meets all your criteria. If you need to run special Windows software on a tablet with a USB port, you might consider one of the Windows 7 models, aimed mainly at businesses. A good example is the $1200 Asus Eee Slate EP121. I haven’t tested it, but it has a 12″ screen, dual USB ports, and works with either finger or stylus input. The only problem is that it uses a backlit, laptop-type screen, and these aren’t typically great for viewing in direct sunlight.

Q:

An Apple store employee told us that each Apple mobile device battery should be depleted to 0% once per month to keep its battery healthy. Is this necessary?

A:

That’s correct. Here’s part of the company’s advice on iPhone batteries: “For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).”

In its advice on laptop batteries, the company states, in part: “Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time.” It adds that, if you don’t drain and recharge your Mac laptop in the course of normal usage, “Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month.”

Email mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110727/lion-with-office/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110713/tablet-strives-to-plug-into-laptops-port-abilities/ http://allthingsd.com/20110713/tablet-strives-to-plug-into-laptops-port-abilities/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 01:03:55 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=97920 While Microsoft and Apple are working to bring aspects of tablet computing to the next versions of their computer operating systems, one big computer maker, Toshiba, is going the other way: It is introducing a tablet that emulates a laptop in some key respects.

Unlike other well-known tablets on the market, the new Toshiba Thrive, a 10-inch Android model available this month, sports a full-sized USB port that works with a wide variety of devices and files; a removable battery; and a file manager application like those on PCs. It also includes a full-sized SD slot for flash memory cards and a full-sized connector, called an HDMI port, that can use a standard cable for linking to a high-definition TV.

Some tablets, such as Acer’s Iconia, have a few of these features, but I haven’t previously tested a tablet with all of them. And they aren’t built into the tablet that dominates the market, Apple’s iPad.

Like Acer, Toshiba is trying to differentiate the Thrive from the iPad with a lower price. The base model of the Thrive will cost $430, which is $69 less than the entry-level iPad 2. However, there’s a catch: It only has half the memory, 8 gigabytes, versus the base $499 iPad 2′s 16 gigabytes. A Thrive model with 16 gigabytes of memory will cost $480, or just $19 less than the comparable iPad 2.

This first tablet from Toshiba is Wi-Fi only. But the company plans a model with cellular connectivity in the fourth quarter.

I’ve been testing the Thrive for about a week, and found it to be a mixed bag. Its laptop-like features, especially the USB port, worked very well and will be welcomed by users who have yearned for an easier, more standard way of getting files into and out of a tablet.

Like many laptops, the Thrive, above, has full-size USB and HDMI ports.

Like most tablets introduced this year, it is thick and heavy compared with the iPad. Like all Android tablets, it offers only a tiny fraction of the tablet-optimized apps available for the iPad, which claims 100,000 such programs.

And in my standard tablet battery test, its performance was weak, only a bit more than half of the iPad 2′s.

Design

The Thrive, which has rounded edges, weighs in at 1.6 pounds. It’s 0.62 inch thick, and about 11″ long by 7″ wide—shaped to optimize viewing of widescreen videos. That means it’s best used in landscape mode. Its back, which is rubbery and ribbed, feels comfortable, and snaps off, to provide access to the removable battery.

Extra batteries cost $80 each, and the company offers a variety of colorful replacement backs for $20 each.

The edges offer an array of switches and ports—some hidden behind little covers—including a mini-USB port for connecting to a PC or Mac. There’s a proprietary connector for attaching the Thrive to two optional docks. The device includes front and rear cameras.

The standard case, above, is very bulky.

There are also a couple of optional cases. I found the standard case to be very bulky. Also very bulky is the included AC adapter, for charging the Thrive, that’s the size of a small laptop charger.

USB

I focused a lot of my testing on the USB port, which worked very well. In my tests, I was able to successfully connect a variety of small flash drives and access their files, or copy them to the internal memory, using the File Manager app. Toshiba also includes a Media Player, which handles music, photos and videos, regardless of whether they are in internal memory or external storage.

I was also able to easily connect a variety of other devices to the USB port, including a camera, a wired keyboard and mouse. The USB port handled an external hard drive as well, once I converted it on a computer to the only hard-disk format the Thrive recognizes, which is called exFAT.

I was even able to simultaneously use a flash drive and a wired mouse with the Thrive by plugging in a small USB hub—a gadget that’s like a power strip for USB devices.

SD Card and HDMI Port

The Thrive can handle SD cards up to 128 gigabytes in capacity—though the largest of these currently cost around $300. In fact, Toshiba justifies the low internal memory on its base model Thrive by noting that users can add memory via SD cards. In my tests of several SD cards, all worked fine.

I connected my HDTV to the Thrive via a plain-vanilla HDMI cable and it played videos, photos and music through the TV without any problems.

Battery Life

The Thrive fared poorly in my standard tablet battery test, in which I set the screen brightness at 75%, leave the Wi-Fi connected and collecting emails in the background, and play videos back to back until the juice is gone. It managed just 5½ hours before shutting down, compared with slightly over 10 hours for the iPad 2 during the same test.

Toshiba claims the Thrive’s battery will last up to 11 hours in more general and varied use, and, while I couldn’t test such a vague claim, I was able to go a couple of days between charges while doing intermittent Web surfing, emails, social networking, book reading and game playing. But the screen— which sucks power on all tablets—was off for hours at a time during this period.

Performance

In general, the Thrive performed crisply, handling almost everything I tried and running numerous programs at once.

However, it crashed multiple times. The tablet spontaneously rebooted once when I removed a flash drive and the popular game “Words With Friends” crashed twice. Several other apps also crashed.

Unlike the iPad, the Thrive will play Adobe Flash videos and websites, but, as with other Android tablets, this capability varies unpredictably. Some Flash videos played well, others poorly or not at all. A couple crashed the browser. And the beautiful Picnik photo-editing website, which depends on Flash, wouldn’t work at all.

Cameras and Sound

Both cameras worked OK for stills and videos. But the sound, which Toshiba says is superior to that on other tablets, was tinny on several songs compared with the sound on the iPad.

Trial Software

One more similarity, alas, that the Thrive has to laptops is that it comes pre-loaded with craplets, limited or trial apps you may not want. Its bundled version of QuickOffice, a productivity program for viewing and editing Microsoft Office documents, can only view files, not edit them. A security program works only for 30 days before you must pay for it. A printing program will only print five pages before payment is required.

Bottom Line

The Thrive is a good alternative to the iPad for people who place high value on having standard ports, especially a USB port, and a removable battery. While it suffers from many of the downsides of other non-Apple tablets, it is closer to a laptop, and that will please people looking for laptop features in a tablet.

Email mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110713/tablet-strives-to-plug-into-laptops-port-abilities/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110706/the-satellite-extra-storage-for-tablets-on-the-go/ http://allthingsd.com/20110706/the-satellite-extra-storage-for-tablets-on-the-go/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 01:04:17 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=95198 Tablet computers generally do a good job of playing videos and music, and displaying photos and documents. But they have limited capacity to store all these files, so you typically can carry only a fraction of your PC’s data on them.

You can get apps that allow tablets to access files you’ve stored in the cloud on services like Dropbox or SugarSync, but these require an Internet connection and can be slow.

Now, two companies are coming out with small, portable, companion hard disks that massively increase the storage capacity of tablets. And because most tablets lack USB connectors, these external hard disks stream their content to the tablets over a special, local Wi-Fi network they create. No Internet access is required. The content remains on the external device, though you can download files to the tablet’s own memory for permanent storage there.

I’ve been testing the first of these gadgets to emerge. It’s from Seagate Technology, the big hard-disk company, and is called the GoFlex Satellite. It costs $200, and holds 500 gigabytes of data, far more than the 64 gigabytes that is the maximum on typical current tablets.

It was initially designed for use with Apple’s iPad, though it also works on Android tablets, as well as on iPhones and Android smartphones. It works best with a special iPad or iPhone app you install, though it will operate through the Web browser on Apple and Android devices.

In my tests, the Satellite basically did its job, smoothly and rapidly streaming movies, songs, pictures and documents to an iPad and other devices. It is battery-powered, so you can carry it around with your iPad, or leave it plugged in for longer use, as long as the iPad remains within about 150 feet. It isn’t tiny—about 5 by 3.5 by 1.25 inches, and just over half a pound—but it’s quite portable. It can stream different content to up to three devices simultaneously.

The portable GoFlex Satellite can stream different content to up to three devices.

However, the Satellite has some drawbacks and trade-offs. The main trade-off is that, while you are connected to it via Wi-Fi for streaming, your iPad or other device can’t access the Internet, so you’re cut off from things like email, Web browsing and social networks. If you launch the Web browser while connected wirelessly to the Satellite, it just brings up the Satellite’s menu of files, regardless of what website you type in.

In addition, both the companion app and the Web-browser-interface display, while attractive and simple, can be clumsy to use. It is awkward to play photo slideshows or to listen to multiple songs in a row. And the Wi-Fi connection dropped several times, even when the iPad and the Satellite were located very near each other.

The GoFlex Satellite

For me, the battery life fell short of the company’s five-hour claim.

The Satellite’s main competitor, due out later this month, is called the G-Connect, from Hitachi. Like the Seagate offering, it costs $200, holds 500 gigabytes of content, and is initially designed for the iPad and iPhone. Unlike the Satellite, it has no internal battery, though it will accept external batteries made for the iPad.

Also, unlike the Satellite, it allows simultaneous media streaming to an iPad and Internet connectivity, though only when the G-Connect is hooked up to a wired Internet connection via its Ethernet jack. I wasn’t able to test the G-Connect, so I can’t say how well it will work.

A third contender in this category, the Wi-Drive from Kingston Technology, is a bit different. While it has an internal battery and uses Wi-Fi to stream content, it has no hard disk and uses only memory chips. Thus, it has much less capacity than the other two, and doesn’t add much storage to a tablet—only up to 32 gigabytes extra. It isn’t yet available, according to the company’s website, which also lists no prices, and I didn’t test it.

So, how do you get content into the Satellite so you can use it on your iPad or other tablet?

First you plug it into a USB port on your PC or Mac. Then, you have two choices. You can either drag whatever files you want manually to the drive. Or, you can use free software that syncs music, video and photos. This software can be set to fetch only content that is playable on your particular device.

Using both methods, I moved 55 videos (including two feature films), more than 2,000 photos, about 1,700 songs and nearly 200 Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF documents to the Satellite, some from a Mac and some from a Windows machine. Using the sync software, the process was surprisingly fast, and this content took up less than 20% of the drive’s capacity.

All the content showed up as promised on my iPad in both the special app and in the Web browser. I also tested it on an iPhone, where both the app and browser display also gave me access to the content via wireless streaming.

I tried it on two different Android tablets, where the content showed up and played fine via the browser. In addition, I tested a pre-release version of the Android app—almost identical to the iPad app—and it, too, worked as promised.

However, while the Satellite’s app and browser display are clean and well-organized, I found them annoying in some respects.

For one thing, they lack simple slideshow, playlist and album features. While playing a group of multiple photos or songs, I couldn’t manually skip or go back.

In addition, the computer-sync software doesn’t allow you to easily select only certain files or to eliminate small files like record album covers or icons, or special, hidden files your computer creates that look like videos, but aren’t. So your file list gets cluttered with dozens of unplayable or unwanted items.

The Satellite’s battery supposedly lasts five hours when continuously streaming videos to one device. But in my tests, I only got about four hours.

Overall, the GoFlex Satellite might be a useful device for iPad or other tablet owners with large media collections. But it needs work.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com.

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