Category: Tech news

Update: Google App Engine is back up. They just issued a statement:

Google App Engine has now been restored and users should see service returning to normal. Our team is still continuing to investigate and determine the root cause of the issue. We know that many of our customers rely on App Engine for their mission critical applications. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this outage and we appreciate our customers’ patience.

A Google spokesperson said an “event” occurred this morning,  which caused the load balancing issue.  They are still looking into the root cause. They plan to post an incidence report.

 Google App Engine is down with a major service disruption affecting thousands of customers around the world that use the platform-as-a-service.

The Google  Engine team posted the following update:

At approximately 7:30am Pacific time this morning, Google began experiencing slow performance and dropped connections from one of the components of App Engine.  The symptoms that service users would experience include slow response and an inability to connect to services.  We currently show that a majority of App Engine users and services are affected.  Google engineering teams are investigating a number of options for restoring service as quickly as possible, and we will provide another update as information changes, or within 60 minutes.

Dropbox and Tumblr also reported outages, pointing to a potential much larger issue across the web.

On Hacker News, comments on the outage point to the Internet Traffic Report, which shows significant packet loss in the past 24 hours as well as traffic disruptions. The Next Web has a good chronicle of the issues facing the different services.

Nimsoft reports the outage is affecting users around the world, with particular issues in Europe. France is pretty much out entirely. In South America, Chile is entirely down. The United States and Canada are hovering around 70% performance.

Here’s the status page from Google:

My mom always said that the most dangerous lies are the ones mixed with truth. That’s why the internet, namely Twitter, can be such a spurious environment. We sometimes forget that with the real-time, viral benefits of the short-winded social network come the same negative effects. Truth can spread like wildfire, and so can lies.

Today, the Bieber nation has learned that lesson. Behold, dear readers, the horror.

The story goes that Entertainment Weekly’s verified Twitter account tweeted out the following:

“Pop Star Justin Bieber was diagnosed with cancer earlier this morning. Bieber fans are shaving their heads to show their support.”

Justin apparently responded back saying thanks for the support, and a picture of the Twitter conversation along with two images of bald Bieber fans started making its way on the internet.

In reality, 4chan was trolling Beliebers. There were no tweets to begin with, and there definitely isn’t any cancer. 4chan peeps simply photoshopped together an image and sent it out into the world.

Unfortunately now, there are likely dozens of bald tweenage girls crying in their bathrooms. And it’s perhaps even more insane that most members of the Bieber nation still believe that Justin has cancer, and are pouring sympathy, condolences, and heartfelt love into the #baldforbeiber hashtag, despite the fact that the other half of that Twitter conversation is lawling over the hoax.

We’ve seen this type of Twitter misuse cause problems before. Morgan Freeman and his delicious voice were rumored to be dead, and that NJ girl scared the crap out of everyone when she said there was an invader in her house on Twitter. (Really, she just was running away from home.)

In any case, this should serve as an excellent reminder to all of us. Just because you read it on Twitter, doesn’t mean it’s true.

[via Gather.com]

Last month we wrote about DevelopersAuction, a company that lets startups “bid” on developers who are looking for work. During the first two-week long auction companies made $30 million worth of offers from companies like Quora and Dropbox. Our first story on the company garnered plenty of skepticism in the comments, but the most recent auction hit $78 million worth of bids according to co-founder Matt Mickiewicz.

And now the company is expanding beyond New York City, Boston and San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Not that DevelopersAuction has been sticking too closely to its original parameters anyway. Ostensibly the company solicits developers who are graduates of Stanford or MIT and/or have worked for companies like Google, Facebook or Apple. But at least one Chicago based developer was accepted even though he didn’t match those criteria.

Blaine Schanfeldt tells me he’s a high school and college dropout. His main experience comes from a computer consulting business he started when he was 17 and a cloud computing startup he founded after meeting some fellow entrepreneurs at Startup Weekend. That actually doesn’t sound unlike Mickiewicz’s own background — he started Sitepoint.com, the development and design resource publisher, when he was 14.

Schanfeldt says the companies that bid on him definitely knew that they weren’t bidding on an Ivy Leaguer from an A-list web giant. In fact they viewed his resume and many were actually attracted to his entrepreneur spirit — 15 companies to be exact. Mostly in the Bay Area but a couple from New York City and one in Chicago. He also says that the types of companies varied from brand new startups looking to hire employee number one, to more established small companies looking to hire employee number 101.

He hasn’t accepted an offer yet — no developer is required to accept the highest bid. Companies are supposed to make good on their promises — assuming they still want to hire a developer after an in-person interview. In other words, neither party is guaranteed anything at the end of the auction. Schanfeldt is planning a trip to the Bay area for a round of interviews.

He doesn’t come off as a hot-shot programmer. He says he was really surprised how much attention his resume attracted. “I was really excited when the first offer came in,” he says. He likes that the process has put him in touch with more companies faster than he would have on been in contact with on his own. He also liked being able to get a sense of salary perks before the interview.

Commenters raised various potential problems last time around, but one thing I wonder about is how well it scale supply of developers to customer demand. Right now it has pool of early adopters, supposedly hand-picked. DeveloperAuction screens both job seekers and startups. How well will it be able to manage quality control as it grows?

Schanfeldt had interesting experience (it’s up to employers looking at his work to decide if he’s a decent coder), but the fact that he passed the entrance criteria suggests that companies are eager to hire developers even if they don’t have the sort of pedigree associated with Google engineers. If the developers shortage doesn’t let up soon — and who knows, it could — then perhaps we’ll see some sort of mashup of this auction model and LivingSocial’s Hungry Academy experiment in which it paid several non-developers to learn Ruby.

And if it’s able to meet the demands on both sides, will this drive developer salaries up or down? Mickiewicz was also the co-founder of 99 Designs a company known for disrupting — not necessarily in a good way — the design business.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

Sennheiser’s new headphones are more than just good-looking, they’re downright sexy. Maybe it’s all the brown leather, but the Momentums seem to be steeped in that same, oddly masculine brand of cool that hovers like a halo over the best gear from 30 or 40 years ago. Pair them with two fingers of Lagavulin 21-year for your next listening session in the den, and you’ll catch the vibe.

The Momentums represent Sennheiser’s attempt at a “fashion” headphone, a product with mass appeal priced for high-rolling consumers. It’s a little weird to see one of the biggest, most revered names in high-fidelity audio jumping into a such trend-driven market. But the sound lives up to the Sennheiser name, and we can be thankful for the company’s distinctly German take on “fashion,” which has more to do with mature, restrained style than shiny black plastic.

The materials are lavish. The leather on the earpads — supplied by Pittards and sourced from sheep raised among the verdant hills of Somerset, England — is extremely soft and supple. I’m also a big fan of the headband design: a thin strip of stainless steel with finely stitched leather padding at the crown.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

Unlike the more common three-piece headband design, the Momentums use the retro approach of a one-piece band with tracks cut into it. So, rather than adjusting the size of the band itself to put the fixed earcups into the proper position, you simply slide the earcups up and down inside the tracks. This design feels more sturdy, and it allows for a thinner band. The cups themselves articulate slightly to give you a nice seal without too much clamp.

And of course, once they’re on, the real party starts.

The Momentum headphones sound phenomenally sweet. They have exactly the sound profile you’d expect from something in the fancier end of Sennheiser’s consumer lineup — natural richness, sparkling clarity, expertly rendered mids, and smooth highs. To my ears, there’s a bit of a bass boost, but they’re otherwise well-balanced. Overall, they sound excellent, exerting just enough character and personality to bring out a pleasant liveliness in the music. Sonically, they certainly deliver on the expectations set by the $350 price tag.

The new Start Screen replaces the desktop as the default view. Tap a tile to launch an app.

The new version of Windows, which is available Friday, sees Microsoft tucking the old, desktop-focused Windows skin into its back pocket, and instead donning a colorful, touch-friendly suit of tiles. It’s such a grand departure from Redmond’s legacy Windows software that most users won’t recognize it as Windows at all. And that’s a beautiful thing.

I’ve been testing Windows 8 over the last few months, and I’ve come to really enjoy using it. Yes, it took a lot of re-learning and adjustment. Yes, I felt lost and baffled at first. And sure, I was a bit sad to see the Start Menu vanish. (There are others who feel the same way and have solutions.) Several small annoyances remain for Microsoft to work out. But if you’re willing to put in a little bit of initial effort to learn the ropes, Windows 8 is definitely worth the upgrade.

The learning curve isn’t too steep. The operating system is fun to use right out of the box, and it doesn’t skimp on the key functionality you expect from the Windows brand. If you’re buying a new computer this fall, or upgrading a recently purchased PC by installing Windows 8, you should expect something equal parts drastically new and comfortingly familiar.

Microsoft has two key goals for Windows 8. First, the company wants to regain its cool. Windows has long been synonymous with a mundane experience centered on “productivity.” While Apple offers a visually slick, intuitive, user-friendly experience on the desktop, Microsoft has stuck to the Windows Way. For over a decade, it’s been serving scoops of vanilla to compete with Apple’s waffle cones of mint chocolate chip with rainbow sprinkles. This strategy has helped Microsoft maintain its stronghold on the PC market, especially among business customers reliant on legacy apps and the host of OEM partners who crank out the devices for their consumption. But Apple simply has more mojo. Walk into any college dorm, tech startup, or big-city coffee shop, and you’ll see an ocean of MacBooks, all running OS X. Younger users and creative types favor Apple’s computing environment. It’s undeniable.

The other thing Microsoft needs to do — desperately — is catch up in mobile computing. Its Windows Phone OS for smartphones is lagging, but it’s expected to gain more traction as better devices and apps are released. The bigger worry here is tablets.

As we move further into the “post-PC era,” the iPad is still held up as the gold standard for mobile computing, and Android is the scrappy alternative. Windows 7 was a total bust on tablets. It just didn’t translate well to the touchscreen world. Redmond’s plan for Windows 8, therefore, is to develop a fun and colorful OS that straddles the PC and the post-PC worlds. Windows 8 can run both on tablets and on traditional computers, it can be fully controlled with touches, swipes and gestures, and it still gives users full access to all the good old Microsoft stuff: docs, spreadsheets, and the myriad legacy apps they use every day. With Surface, it’s even diving into tablet hardware to prove how well its dual-use approach can work.

My Windows 8 testing took place on both on a touch tablet and a non-touch notebook. I’ll often connect a keyboard and mouse or touchpad to the tablet in order to mimic the “convertible” experience. While I definitely prefer Windows 8 in a touch environment, it’s almost as easy and pleasant to use with a gesture-enabled trackpad. By far, my least favorite method of using Windows 8 is touchless, with only a standard mouse and keyboard. But even then, it’s not a bad experience.

The main factor for such varying experiences lies in the new Start Screen. The gorgeous spread of colorful tiles makes total sense with touch, and will look familiar to anyone who has used a Windows Phone device, as Microsoft’s new mobile OS sports the same interface. We’ve covered the new environment thoroughly in our hands-ons of the Consumer Preview, Release Review and Release to Manufacturer versions of Windows 8.

If you’re a veteran Windows user, the new Start Screen will definitely take some getting used to. But the familiar Windows desktop of yore remains, and is easily accessible as a tile (just like any other app) on the Start Screen. Microsoft is taking a significant risk here, since users who have been loyal to Windows might get very confused or feel betrayed until they find that magic button to take them to the desktop. Whether these people can adjust to Windows 8 will depend heavily on Microsoft’s messaging and instructions. If that goes wrong, Windows 8 could fail entirely.

LifeProof’s iPhone case. Image courtesy of LifeProof

Next time you go spelunking, make sure your iPhone’s prepared for a dunking. All of these waterproof cases are available for iPhone 4 and 4S, and two of the three are available for iPhone 5. All three companies also make sealed cases for iPads and iPods. And although the iPhone 5 cases probably won’t be ready for a few more weeks, you can pre-order them today.

Also, we wanted to test Otter’s new iPhone cases, but they weren’t ready yet. We’ll give those a full review soon. But for now, let’s start with the best of the bunch.

LifeProof iPhone Case

LifeProof’s case ($80, iPhone 4/4S, iPhone 5, iPad and iPod) has the lowest profile of the three iPhone cases we tested, and it’s the only one of the three that works as an everyday case. The Lifeproof case also has the highest waterproof rating. It has an IP-68 rating, which means it’s been tested in a lab where it proved to be dust-proof and provide full protection against long-term submersion under water. I confirmed this claim by submerging my iPhone 4 inside it for an hour without any leakage.

When the case is on, you can use the iPhone with almost no restrictions. The touchscreen is very responsive, and you can still access all the ports and buttons. You can take it just about anywhere with you, too — LifeProof makes a slew of accessories, including a floating lifejacket, and an armband with a quick-release function for when you want to pop off a quick picture. On a sunrise trail run in Whiskeytown National Park, I was able to stop, disengage the case from the armband, then take a picture all in a matter of seconds. There’s also a case add-on that integrates with any and all GoPro mounts, meaning you can lock it onto your bike or helmet and use it as an action cam.

WIRED Certified waterproof, including full submersion. Full access to ports and buttons. Protection against dust, drops, shocks. Great accessory integration. Low-profile. Responsive touchscreen.

TIRED Ports are too small for some inputs. Pricey. Headphone port plug is ridiculously easy to lose.

SealLine’s iPhone case — it’s way better than a plastic baggie. Photo by Peter McCollough/Wired

SealLine iSeries iPhone Case

SealLine’s iCase ($35 and up, for iPhone 4/4S, iPod and iPad) is easily the lightest case of the three we tested. Plus, the fact that it folds up means you can just stuff it in a pocket when you’re heading to the river, then stick your iPhone in it when you get in the boat. The integrated headphone jack on the iPhone-specific model allows for phone calls and tunes, and the clear polyurethane window provides a seamless response from the iPhone’s touchscreen.

It has lash points, so you can tie it down to your kayak or lash it to your wrist if you need to take a call while climbing down a waterfall. (Hey, it happens.) The only real issue I had with the iCase’s performance is the inconsistency of the polyurethane sleeve — on a stand-up paddleboard trip in Catalina, many of my pictures came out cloudy when the interior fogged up.

WIRED Easy to remove/insert iPhone. Stows away easily when not in use. Headphone port is a bonus. Nice touchscreen action.

TIRED Pictures come out distorted. Too wide to slip into your pocket. You’ll have to remove your phone’s everyday case to squeeze it into the iCase.

Outdoor Tech’s iPhone case. Photo by Peter McCollough/Wired

Outdoor Technology OT Waterproof iPhone Case

Outdoor Technology’s waterproof iPhone case ($35 for iPhone 4/4S, iPhone 5 coming soon) sports a clear plastic shell that is held shut by some industrial-quality fastening mechanisms. Three flathead screws lock up the clamshell-style case tightly, protecting your phone against splashes, dunks, and the occasional drop in the urinal. (I’m not the only one, right?) It survived a 45-minute submersion test with no leakage, which is impressive considering its IP-X7 rating, which says it can only handle a 3-foot dunk for up to 30 minutes. Incidentally, that rating also means it’s not dust-proof.

While I appreciated the screw-shut security when I was out on the water, I didn’t dig it so much when I wanted to get the phone out to make a call. Unless you’ve got some change or your keys on you, your phone is locked up, and without any access to the ports or the sleep/wake button, you’re phone’s on lockdown as well. And when I answered a call, the person on the other end of the line complained that it was difficult to hear me through the case’s shell.

The camera can still shoot good pictures through the shell, and it lets out a decent amount of sound when the iPhone’s speakers are engaged, but if you want to use headphones or make a hands-free call, you’re out of luck.

WIRED Screw-shut case provides security. Hard shell provides drop protection. Lets you shoot clear photos. Tie-down strap loop for watersports.

TIRED Heavy. Touchscreen performance lags. No port access. Can’t access the sleep/wake button. Muddy phone output.

Billy Brown lives, works, and leaps from various tall objects in Northern California. Follow him on Twitter: @trektechblog.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

Earlier this year, Denon announced it was in the process of completely revamping its headphone line-up. The Japanese manufacturer — which has been in the audio equipment business since 1910 — has since emerged from its cocoon with an entirely new collection of headphones designed for at-home and mobile listening.

One of the fruits of this brand revitalization is the AH-D600 headphone, which falls under the company’s “Music Maniac” banner — headphones for audiophiles who do most of their listening in controlled environments. They’re too bulky to qualify as commute-worthy travel headphones, but they are an excellent choice for working at your desk, relaxing on the couch, or — using Denon’s companion apps for Android and iOS — spending quality time with your tablet.

Let’s set expectations: They ain’t pretty and they ain’t cheap. The closed, over-the-ear design is bulbous, and the styling is gaudy, with lots of plastic. And they will set you back between $400 and $500, which isn’t that expensive for audiophile-grade headphones, but still too expensive for the masses.

They score low points for visual flair and thrift, but they make up for it where it counts: the sound, which is excellent, and the comfort, which is phenomenal.

The AH-D600 are relatively flat and uncolored overall. The middle frequencies are dialed in just about perfectly. The bass isn’t over-represented, which surprised me, given the 50-millimeter drivers and the abundant cavity space in the earcups.

If there’s one place where some coloring is evident, it’s in the highs, which aren’t super-detailed. This also goes against expectations — headphones branded as “audiophile,” as these are, usually have crystal-clear highs. But too much high end can cause ear fatigue, making the headphone a chore to listen to for long periods of time. So, I actually found myself preferring the mellower high frequencies these Denons offer. There’s still plenty of shimmer, but they’re rolled off pretty hard in the upper-upper regions. I especially noticed this when listening to 320k MP3 rips, since those faint whiffs of lossy compression in the high end that would drive me nuts in a more clinical reference headphone are reduced or eliminated here.

I don’t think it’s Denon’s intention to sell you a headphone that’s been dumbed-down, just one that’s been slightly tuned to be more accessible. I see this as a good thing.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

Another big win for accessibility: the fit. They may not look it, but the D600s are ridiculously cushy. The leather-covered, memory-foam earpads are pentagon-shaped, which lets them fully envelop your ears without putting pressure on your jaw. They feel heavy and bulky if you’re moving around, but if you’re sitting still, they feel splendid. The leather-covered headband doesn’t have a lot of clamping force, and again, that’s something you only notice if you’re walking around a lot. When testing them at my desk, I wore them for hours and hours at a time, sometimes all day. They never made me tired, and my ears never got swampy. Walking around the neighborhood, I was making tiny adjustments every few minutes.

They’re made for the home, so of course they sounded best plugged into an amp (I used an Apex Butte, my new favorite compact headphone amp). But they also excelled on mobile devices. These are fully modern headphones — they’re not super thirsty (25 ohms), so they work just fine plugged directly into a phone; they have a mic/remote assembly on the cord for taking calls, though I could only get the remote to work on my iPhone, not on a Galaxy Nexus. There’s also a companion Denon Audio app, which acts as an alternative to the built-in music players in iOS and Android. It plays all the tracks stored on your mobile, and it supports TuneIn, so it doubles as an internet radio tuner.

The coolest bit, though, is the real-time spectrum analyzer. You can apply a variety of EQ settings, then adjust the curves visually by dragging the points around on top of the animated graph. You can save your favorite preset curves, and even share them, provided you have friends who get excited about EQ curves. (Nnerrds!) The app is free, and you don’t need to own Denon’s headphones to use it — though it will periodically show a pop-up ad reminding you that Denon does in fact sell headphones. Annoying.

While the AH-D600s may not be the best headphones you can buy for $500 (I’d give that honor to the Sennheiser HD 650s or Senny’s new Momentum, which are around $100 less) they do have enough going for them that I can recommend them. They’re very comfortable, the closed-back design makes them perfect for the office or some other environment where open-air headphones aren’t practical, and they sound great plugged right into your phone.

WIRED Great sound from the 50-millimeter nanofiber driver. Oversized, fully articulated earcups with pentagonal, stitched-leather pads offer supreme comfort and noise isolation. Cables detach, and you get two in the box: one 3-footer with the 3-button mic, one 10-footer without.

TIRED They aren’t as bright as other audiophile headphones, which makes them seem less lively. Not enough clamping force to walking around — these ‘phones are for a-sittin’. You have to flip a lot of burgers to save up $500. Only a one-year warranty.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

What comes to mind when my thoughts turn to Sweden? The midnight sun. Psychedelic rock. Lingonberry jam on knäckebröd. Bergman, Forsberg, IKEA. Killer earbuds.

Ja, killer buds. For reals.

Nocs, a Swedish company you’ve never heard of, has been pumping out a line of high-performance earbuds over the last few years. I first became aware of the company when it sent us a pair of its NS400 Titanium in-ears. I’ve been using them for a few months, and I like everything about them: the minimal styling, the fit, the tight and accurate sound, and especially the price tag — between $80 and $90, which is a great deal for headphones as nice as these.

Nocs has employed titanium inside and out. The housing is crafted from finely machined metal, and the 8-millimeter driver inside utilizes a titanium-coated diaphragm. There’s a tiny hole at the end of the teardrop-shaped enclosure, presumably to act as a port.

The cabling is top quality, too: a kevlar-reinforced polymer that’s not too gummy and doesn’t produce too much noticeable cable noise. The inline remote adjusts the volume and can be used to take calls on an iPhone (but only sorta works on the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S III, sorry). A bunch of tips come tumbling out when you open the box (just rubber, no foam), along with a collar clip. Finding a good seal is easy, as is keeping it — the remarkably light buds stay put.

And the sound is just great. There’s plenty of nuance in the mids and intricate detail in the highs, all without that grating, harsh tinniness you get from some overly detailed in-ears. I especially like how fast the bass is. Kick drums in rock music and drum machine hits in dance and IDM tracks sound huge and satisfying, but they don’t stick around. They come on strong and then snap out of there, just as they should.

Sometimes, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes a particular headset shine. Everyone’s ears perceive things like detail, “warmth” and “naturalness” differently. But the Nocs are easy to get a bead on: They’re just really comfortable. And I mean that in both senses of the word — they are lightweight with a great fit, and also, it’s pleasurable to listen to music through them for long periods of time. I know I’ve got a serious, quality headphone when I’m OK with wearing them for hours on end. I reach for these when I know I’ll be spending many hours on airplanes, which tells you something.

In the $80 to $100 range, these definitely stand out. I think there are other in-ear headphones that sound a little better — the NuForce NE-700s are less prone to distortion at high volumes, and the Etymotic mc5s offer more clinical, pristine audio — but these are still an excellent choice, especially if you prefer Nocs’ zupacool Euro styling.

One failure: the mic on the three-button remote. It’s a joke. I made some calls outside in the wind, and in a quiet room. In both cases, the mic was practically useless.

It’s a small stumble in an otherwise excellent product. I’m eager to see where Nocs goes from here. The company has recently sent over a pair of $150 in-ears tuned for electronic music, which I’ll be testing next. It’s also just come out with a pair of $100 on-the-ear headphones as well as a pair of $200 balanced armature in-ear monitors. I’m prepping my playlists right now.

WIRED Excellent audio, great for every different type of music. Suuuuper comfortable. Lightweight titanium construction. Sleek looks are hotter than a kettle of glögg. Variety of tips to get the right fit.

TIRED Not the best performance at higher volumes. Mic is a waste of plastic. Comes in black or white, but the white ones are often mistaken for cheapo Apple earbuds, which is totally infuriating.

Surface, Microsoft’s new tablet. Photo by Ariel Zambelich/Wired

Nobody asked me about my Surface. I tried flashing it all over the place. But despite my best efforts, no one seemed curious.

At Victrola Coffee Roasters in Seattle, I sat in the front window, with a hot pink Touch Cover attached, intentionally conspicuous. Nobody mentioned it. At the airport, I broke it out at the large open-air counter of a crowded bar. I sat in a seat at the gate, facing the walkway, pounding away at its keys on my lap. On a Virgin America flight, crowded with techies, I sat up front and kept it on my tray table the entire time, swiping from app to app. On San Francisco’s Muni transit system, I tentatively typed in my seat, afraid it may be snatched on the crowded train. But no one said a word.

The only person to comment on it was a TSA agent at the Seattle airport, who told me I didn’t need to take my iPad out of my bag.

That’s too bad. Although nobody asked, Microsoft’s new tablet is an altogether curious device. It’s something completely new and different. It is, in some ways, better than an iPad. In some ways, worse. It’s brilliant, and yet it can be puzzling as well. Confoundingly so at times. It’s a tablet of both compromises and confusion. It is a true hybrid — neither fully a desktop nor mobile device. That’s reflected in all sorts of ways. It is Wi-Fi only, but won’t run traditional Windows applications. It has a full-featured keyboard and runs Microsoft Office — but it’s certainly meant to be touched and swiped and tapped.

It’s different.

Let’s at least get this out of the way: This is one of the most exciting pieces of hardware I’ve ever used. It is extremely well-designed; meticulous even.

The backside kickstand can serve as a metaphor for the entire device. Close it, and it sits flush with the back of the tablet. It’s so tightly integrated, if you didn’t know it was there, you’d think it was just a seam for the battery compartment. It has three hinges — one of which is just to give it a satisfying sound when opening or closing. (Snap!) It’s designed to be like a car door. It’s designed to make you use it.

And it’s quite sturdy, to boot. In Microsoft’s lab, we saw Surfaces that had been opened and closed hundreds of thousands of times. They still snapped open and shut like they were new. We wanted to see how easy it was to break one. It’s very possible, but you have to really try. We did manage to break off the kickstand by gradually leaning onto it, but I had to put nearly my full weight onto the tablet before the kickstand snapped off.

People will break the hinge, but I don’t think as often or predictably as, say, the glass rear panel of an iPhone 4 or 4S. One other nitpick? The kickstand has a small fingerhold to make it easy to open. But this is on the left-hand side of the device. Most people are right-handed.

And then there is the 3-millimeter-thin Touch Cover keyboard. Ever since Microsoft first unveiled the Surface, this has been a big question mark. Does it really snap on and off so easily? Is it usable? Does it even work? Yes. To everything. It’s actually quite fantastic. On this miniature keyboard, that has no actual physical keys, keystrokes fire as fast as you can type them. There is no lag. There is, however, a learning curve.

I struggled mightily with typos and finger placement for the first 24 hours. My left wrist hurt like hell. The pinkie and ring finger on my left hand were cramped. But by day three, my hands began to relax and I was typing quickly and, for the most part, accurately. After a week, I powered along at 90 words per minute. It’s not the same speed I hit on a full size keyboard, and I still have typos galore (though far fewer) but given how much I’ve improved in a week, it’s impressive.

Oddly, it is perhaps less effective as a cover than a keyboard. It folds over nicely, but doesn’t stay closed as well as I’d like. Several times, I opened my bag to a glow, like something out of Pulp Fiction, to find the Surface had lit up as the Touch Cover came open inside.

The Touch Cover, a $120 accessory that comes bundled with the two higher-priced Surface tablets. Photo by Ariel Zambelich/Wired

The Type Cover ($130, sold separately), which has actual keys, performs even more poorly as a cover, but it’s a spectacular keyboard. I could hammer away on it at approximately normal speed from the get-go, and made fewer typos.

One issue I did have with the Type Cover was the accidental pressing of a key. Apparently, at some point I pressed the Shift key for eight seconds, which launched a Filter Keys setting — an accessibility feature meant for users with palsy and other disabilities that may cause them to inadvertently press keys. From that moment on, the keyboard basically did not work. And because Windows 8 and Windows RT are so cloud-connected, this setting propagated itself across all my other Windows devices. It was an easy fix, and Microsoft says a software update that prevents this from happening is on the way. But I thought it spoke to how easy it can be to inadvertently do bad things with the Type Cover.

The 720p HD cameras — front and rear — are junk. There’s no other way to put it. The camera has a significant lag time when you’re taking shots, and the image quality looks about like the last photo you snapped with your Razr V3. It should be, however, fine for Skype. Just don’t expect Nana and Papa to be able to see their little grunions clearly.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

If the Dell XPS 12‘s design looks familiar, that’s because you’ve probably seen it before. Dell pioneered the unique swiveling screen in 2010 as the Inspiron Duo, a hybrid Windows 7 laptop and tablet. The twist: Rather than rotate horizontally through a monster hinge on the base, Dell’s hybrid screen is designed to flip 180 degrees vertically through a central axis within the frame of the lid, letting the LCD face either forward toward the keyboard or away from it. (At the risk of sounding glib, the photo makes this much clearer than words can explain it.)

The Duo was a flop, as most Windows 7 tablets of the era were, but the verdict never really came in on the practicality of the twisty-flippy screen design. Now that Windows 8 is here, Dell is giving this system a second go.

The swivel screen notwithstanding, as a laptop, the XPS 12 is unusual from the start. The 12.5-inch capacitive touchscreen LCD is fantastically bright, and the 1920 x 1080 resolution is unheard of in a screen of this size. Under the hood, specs are typical of an ultrabook: 1.7GHz Core i5, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD drive. Peripheral connectivity is limited to two USB 3.0 ports and a mini-DisplayPort jack. Performance on general apps is very good and in line with other SSD-equipped ultrabooks, but graphics capabilities are nonexistent, of course, given the machine’s integrated GPU.

This all sounds fine and good, and as a laptop the XPS 12 is largely a capable machine. My only complaint when using it in this mode relates to the touchpad. It tracks well but it doesn’t register taps appropriately. Double-tapping is (bizarrely) virtually nonfunctional on the device; 9 times out of 10, you’ll have to depress the pad fully to physically double-click. The keyboard, however, is quite well made. It’s backlit (though leaky), and the island-style keys have a gentle concavity to them, making touch typing fairly easy.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

The problems really kick in when you flip the screen around and start using the XPS 12 as a tablet. At 3.4 pounds, it’s a hefty slab of computer to be carrying around like an iPad, outweighing many competing ultrabooks by nearly a pound, even those with larger screens. It is also loud. Not the speakers (which are adequate), but the fan. Play even a rudimentary videogame and the fan kicks in, drowning out the audio track.

It is also hot. The underside of the XPS 12 features a long ridge that runs the length of the chassis. This ridge is studded with exhaust vents that shoot out copious volumes of hot air. The problem: This ridge is clearly molded in such a way as to make it easier to hold the device in hand in tablet mode, but it shoots that scorching air right onto your fingertips. It’s the most painful tablet I’ve encountered to date.

As a final insult, the battery life is also poor. I got less than four hours with a simple video playback and considerably less than that when playing casual games in tablet mode.

As a laptop, I have no real complaint with the XPS 12. But, tragically, it’s largely unusable as a tablet. This is a real problem given the $1,200 starting price tag. In a world of $800 ultrabooks with similar configurations, you’re paying a hefty markup for a really, really nice touchscreen. That’s a tough sell, no matter how pretty it is to look at.

WIRED Incredible screen resolution and brightness, particularly at this size. Kids think the swivel screen is “really cool.”

TIRED Can’t use touchscreen while wearing the required oven mitts. Dreadful touchpad. Heavy, hot, loud, and power-hungry as a tablet — a deadly combination. No memory card slot.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

Apple announced a new iPad at its event on Tuesday, one that wasn’t mini, and one that wasn’t presented as a a stop-gap or mid-cycle replacement. The fourth generation iPad, as it’s called, was pitched as a full-fledged successor to the “new iPad” introduced in March 2012, which has some people understandably confused and frustrated. So why the change, why now, and what does it mean for Apple’s iPad upgrade cycle going forward?

Here’s the main issue that is likely causing some iPad 3 owners a lot of grief: The iPad has, until now, enjoyed a fairly regular upgrade rhythm, with new models coming out once annually. That means you can feel relatively secure when you buy an iPad that it will be current, or “best” for at least another 12 months. Knowing that feels good. It provides a sense of justification to big ticket purchases, a relief that you’re good for another year.

When Apple updates products earlier than they usually do, as they did with this iPad, that complicates things. Even though there’s no actual agreement that Apple will keep things stable for at least another calendar year, people feel a tacit contract has been breached.

Of course, when you’re talking tech, obsolescence is the one certainty. No matter what users may feel is guaranteed, the truth is that the only guarantee is that they’ll feel outdated at some point or another. Changing the iPad now may bug some customers, but it also helps Apple get all its devices onboard the lightning train, and expand LTE coverage to more worldwide markets, both of which have real, long-term bottom line benefits.

This iPad update isn’t even a particularly bad case. Based on my brief hands-on experience with it, it feels functionally the same as the iPad it replaces: I didn’t even think it merited a hands-on post, since essentially I’d just have one sentence to say about the Lightning dock connector. Will the A6X eventually become a factor, as developers create more processor-intensive apps and games for it? Maybe, but even that’s still a question mark.

So while I, like others, am actually personally feeling the pain of having an old device I thought would be current for at least another few months, I suspect we’ll all get over it pretty quickly. And then the more exciting question takes center stage: How does Apple update the iPad going forward?

Does it stick to a new October annual refresh, in time for the holidays? That seems unlikely, since it bunches up Apple’s top sellers in pretty close proximity on the fiscal calendar, and could make for a revenue lull during the summer months. So does it instead release another update this spring, with more dramatic changes? That’s certainly a possibility. Or we could see the iPad become the new marquee device for WWDC keynotes, taking the iPhone’s place and providing an early summer spike in consumer excitement.

In the end, this adds a bit of the unknown back into Apple’s relatively predictable routine, and that’s more interesting than sulking over buyer’s remorse for a product that’s still near enough the top of the tablet game.

..@esbarr_ Yes. Where are you?

—
Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) October 24, 2012

It’s a cliche to say that Twitter allows the everyman to connect with the movers and shakers of the media and entertainment industries. But it’s so true! Today’s case in point: the humble Edward Barr, investor and WSJ reader from Lexington, Kentucky, uses the communication tool to put in a complaint about the poor WSJ paper delivery service in his neighborhood. And he takes it right to the top, on Twitter.

“second time in one month no WSJ at my door,” Barr tweets at @rupertmurdoch, “In today’s world that is beyond inexcusable#especially@$438peryear. a great product that I miss when not there on timely basis#thanksforthepromptreply.”

Other than having a pretty wacky understanding of how to use hashtags, this print WSJ customer is 100% right on the money about how to get the mogul’s attention, “Yes. Where are you?” Ol’ Rupey replies, to which Barr gives his location and zip code.

It’s been about 45 minutes since this exchange, and I am left wondering whether Rupert has abandoned his computer to get down to Kentucky and personally deliver the paper or is sending people to hack into this dude’s mailbox or mailing him a free subscription or what. It would be hilarious if he tweeted back that Barr could also read the paper online (for free if you Google specific article URLs), but that’s not going to happen.

This exchange is also pretty amazing because you’d think the 106th-richest person in the world would have more pressing tasks to attend to, but I guess good customer service really does begin with the CEO. The WSJ’s holding company NewsCorp is set to fork into two different companies by next June, splitting into a more profitable, less tainted entertainment division and a media company slated to be run by Dow Jones EIC Robert Thomson.

We can only hope Thomson’s social media habits are just as enthralling as Murdoch’s.

@rupertmurdoch Lexington, KY 40502, a great product that I miss when not there on timely basis#thanksforthepromptreply

—
Edward Barr (@esbarr_) October 24, 2012

Update: Barr confirms that he actually did read the WSJ online, “but [it was] not the same experience.” Betcha Rupe’s happy to hear that one.

@alexia So, post tweet I did read it online, but not the same experience.

—
Edward Barr (@esbarr_) October 24, 2012

I love streaming music and I’m an avid user of Spotify for this purpose. I was pretty delighted when I saw that Taylor Swift’s new album “Red” was available for listening when I opened up the app. I listened to the whole album, and I gotta tell ya…it’s pretty damn good. But then something happened, it disappeared. And then it came back. Then went away again.

Apparently, Taylor Swift doesn’t want us listening to her new album on any subscription service, according to Billboard.

Here’s what Billboard reported on the subject:

Red is not likely to be available at subscription services until Swift’s next album is released, according to a source familiar with the label’s strategy with her previous releases. Instead, the focus for Red is a mountain of retail campaigns and promotions at both well-known CD sellers and non-traditional retailers.

Well that’s just flat out stupid, Ms. Swift. I know that you’re a celebrity-super-star who can sell billions of albums with the flick of a wrist, but you are seriously missing out on a music model that is literally changing the way that the business is done. There are so many reasons why I can rip apart the argument that you shouldn’t give your music away for “free”, which is completely invalid. So let’s do that quickly, shall we?

Distribution…In a new way

Look, I like the new album by Swift, so much so that I started sharing a track on Twitter…and Facebook…and SMS. Like a lot. People were shocked that I liked this new album, and that’s the type of distribution that every artist needs. I’m not stealing her music, I pay for a service and I stream the songs on my mobile and desktop devices. That’s it. And I dug the music…so I shared it.

What’s so wrong with that? A lot apparently, because artists don’t want to play along.

#NowPlaying I Knew You Were Trouble. by Taylor Swift on #Spotify open.spotify.com/track/0ciHz919…

—
drew olanoff (@thatdrew) October 23, 2012

What I did above is “stealing” according to Swift, basically. I’m apparently taking big money away from her and her new album release. Yeah, not really. Sure, Swift doesn’t need my distribution:

Red sold 262,000 units at iTunes on Monday — that’s more than most albums sell in all formats at all retailers in an entire week — and is projected to top a million in first-week sales.

But does it really hurt? No.

Being Cool

Nobody likes a wet napkin, and this is what artists who are against streaming look like. I don’t use Napster anymore, and I don’t even know if it is alive, but If it was hypothetically, I would probably download “Red”, hypothetically, for nothing. Just out of spite. But I won’t. Maybe. But not.

Seriously though, since the album is so good, it makes me want to share it, and maybe, just maybe, catch one of her upcoming shows. It’s that good. But not now. Why would I shell out a bunch of bucks to see an artist that doesn’t want to connect with me and her other would-be fans? Does she have enough fans? Nobody ever has enough fans, since we’ve all seen the rise and fall of many artists.

What does it hurt to be cool and share a bit? Nobody is stealing. I mean, check out the stuff that I share on the daily:

Have you ever heard of Joe Purdy before? Probably not, but you should listen, he’s awesome…and cool.

The tide is already turning

The iTunes model will probably be around for a long time, but Apple is already getting nervous. In fact, Facebook and Spotify are Apple’s worst nightmare, as I’ve said before.

People will indeed pay for music, they’ll even drop $100 to see artists live, but when it comes to accessibility, fans are starting to get smarter. They want their music on demand, they want to listen to it on all devices, and services like Spotify allow for that. Why so serious, Taylor Swift? Have you ever even used Spotify? It’s pretty great, take a look.

Things need to change, because people want to stream. If you don’t believe what I’m saying, or disagree, check out this solid piece by BuzzFeed on the state of the music industry. Shit, I’ll even show you this infographic, and we all know how correct they are:

Think about it Ms. Swift. I’ll be waiting. On Spotify.

[Photo credit: Hunter Walk]

Apple knows how to launch and promote new products better than any company in the world. Yesterday’s 73 minute special event, introducing the iPad mini, new MacBook Pro, Mac Mini and iMac was, in Apple’s words amazing, great, the best, incredible, tremendous, fantastic, incredible, gorgeous and much much more. While some potential buyers might be interested in the detailed specs, check out this short video I put together that contains everything you need to know.

As you listen to it, you might wonder whether they are describing new hardware products or a new lover. Thanks to Apple’s amazing, great, fantastic Final Cut Pro for help editing this video.

As a man who is interested in independent films, I find that sourcing soundtracks for these projects is difficult. That’s why there’s StereoBot.com, a new service that allows filmmakers, students, app designers, and presenters to buy licenses to innocuous-sounding music for use in projects.

The central interface is the search system. To find a song or snippet, you enter a topic – love, war, happiness, jazz, my mom – and you get a list of potential songs. The site offers previews of each song as well as a very rich tagging system. You then pay a hundred or so dollars for the rights to the track.

The service is based in Cyprus and founded by Tasos Frantzolas. Tasos began by running SoundSnap, a special effect sound market. I mean check this stuff out.

“This follows the 5 years of success with Soundsnap.com, which is the most high trafficked website for sound effects worldwide,” Tasos said. They have 700,000 customers including folks from the BBC, Pixar, Disney, Blizzard, and Zynga.

The site is live now and you can sign up to download songs to go with your apps, games, and (in my case) a black and white historical semi-autobiographical film noir romance based on the story of the hand jive craze in 1950s London (to be released on 2021 starring myself and Lucy Liu (pending contract)).