Category: Tech news

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg joining Google+ was at a major media event, with everyone from Forbes to The Daily Mail covering the fact that the founder established a Google+ profile, building Circles that include former Facebooker Dustin Moskovitz and current Facebook CTO Bret Taylor.

While many were doubtful that the real Zuckerberg would join a competing social service, tech blogger Robert Scoble texted Zuckerberg himself to confirm, tweeting out “Name drop moment. Zuckerberg just texted me back. Says “Why are people so surprised that I’d have a Google account?”

In case anyone is still doubting that it is the real Zuck on there, Scoble tells me that Zuckerberg indeed meant Google+ account when he referred to Google account. But the real question is, why are people so surprised that Zuckerberg would chose to be on Google+?

Perhaps the answer lies in the precedent set by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who seem to have shied away from interacting on Facebook as themselves. (According to Steven Levy, Brin is actually on Facebook as a pseudonym. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is also rumored to be on the service, independently of when Mike impersonated him).

Page’s and Brin’s behavior aside, plenty of other founders (Myspace Tom for example) have shown that it’s perfectly normal to partake and enjoy competitive services, and that it shouldn’t necessarily be considered an act of espionage. I for one just hope Zuckerberg is more prolific on Google+ than he is on Twitter.

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Robert Scoble

Name drop moment. Zuckerberg just texted me back. Says "Why are people so surprised that I'd have a Google account?"

July 2, 2011 5:45 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

As Bre Pettis continues his conversation with Founder Stories host, Chris Dixon, the two discuss the challenges of running a business that literally requires nuts and bolts assembly. In this situation, scaling brings a whole new set of challenges unfamiliar to many software start-ups.

Hardware is just a different game.  For example, as Pettis tells it, “we ran out of motors, we bought all of them in the world, we went to buy more and they were like you’ve got them all. And so we had to figure out how to like get motors manufactured and custom made for us. So in terms of hardware that’s kind of been a bunch of the challenges.”

Dixon admits, sometimes it is “hard for us software people to grok how different it is.”  (Disclosure: Dixon is an investor in Makerbot through Founder Collective).

And when the times get tough, the tough go to China.  Make sure to listen to the entire exchange as Pettis also talks about the importance of face-to-face interaction as a greaser for getting stuff done.

Below, Pettis talks about how Makerbot got off the ground.  ”We started with 3 guys, a laser cutter, and a dream,” he says.

Dixon inquires about copycats who might take on the MakerBot concept and in doing so turn MakerBot into a shadow of its former self.  Pettis seems anything but concerned and partially responds by saying, “we’ve got a brand, I don’t know exactly how to quantify that, but you know, when you think about 3D printing, you’re makerbotting, and that’s powerful.”

The two go on and discuss Makerbot’s open source platform, hacking on the site and the flow of cash coming into the company.

Make sure to watch Part I here and past Founder Stories episodes here.

<div><div><script src=”http://www.crunchbase.com/javascripts/widget.js” type=”text/javascript”></script><div><a href=”http://www.crunchbase.com/” rel=”nofollow”>CrunchBase Information</a></div></div><div><div><a href=”http://www.crunchbase.com/company/makerbot”>MakerBot</a></div><div><script src=”http://www.crunchbase.com/cbw/company/makerbot.js” type=”text/javascript”></script></div><div><a href=”http://www.crunchbase.com/person/bre-pettis”>Bre Pettis</a></div><div><script src=”http://www.crunchbase.com/cbw/person/bre-pettis.js” type=”text/javascript”></script></div><div><a href=”http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chris-dixon”>Chris Dixon</a></div><div><script src=”http://www.crunchbase.com/cbw/person/chris-dixon.js” type=”text/javascript”></script></div><div>Information provided by <a href=”http://www.crunchbase.com/” rel=”nofollow”>CrunchBase</a></div></div></div>

Editor’s note: This post was written by Alex Rampell, the CEO of TrialPay. Rampell is a regular contributor to TechCrunch – see his previous guest posts here.

What makes email, Facebook, and Google so valuable? Answer: Visiting them is largely unprompted, notwithstanding the synapses that fire in your brain that make you check your email, your Facebook feed, or decide to research something on Google. In other words, people pull content themselves, rather than having that content be pushed — or foisted — upon them.

The best way of looking at consumer web applications is as a complex stack of “pulls” and “pushes.” Lest these terms be confused with an earlier generation of push: a “pull” is an unsolicited action by a consumer, whereas a “push” is a solicitation by a seller/producer.  The consumer ultimately “pulls” from a mobile phone or computer. Everything else is “pushed” to the consumer, through ads, e-mails or other marketing efforts from companies eager to get business and traffic.

The greatest trick that Facebook ever “pulled” was transforming itself from a push platform (dependent on email to woo users back) into a de facto pull platform.  Facebook touts that 50%+ of its users log-in every day, and my guess is that the vast majority do so with no prompting. Push is still valuable but simply complements the massive pull that Facebook has developed.

Why is Pull so essential for a web company? The intersecting forces of human psychology and economics.

First, psychology: consider how most people hate being “sold” to. “Being sold to” is a form of push. Consumers get hundreds of unsolicited offers and emails pushed to them every week. They learn to tune these solicitations out, especially if they are not in a buying mindset. Relevance is a function of offer-consumer fit paramaterized by time.

Second, economics: A pull platform doesn’t need to spend any money to reach or acquire customers; a push platform does. Facebook’s marketing spend per user has to be the lowest of any company known to man. Granted, Facebook is intrinsically viral and laden with network effects, but the unprompted pull phenomenon has been crucial to Facebook’s dominance.

The value of pull is not just for consumer companies. Any Business-to-Business company knows the value of “demand generation”: catalyzing a “pull” by customers. The quickest and cheapest sales cycles start with a pull by the prospective customer.

For any web company, fostering Pull is essential to creating value and engagement.  There is no shortage of great applications and amazing technologies which stagnate due to a lack of pull.  But the greatest economic achievement of being a “pull” platform is in becoming the mechanism by which “push” companies must engage with audiences, paying handsomely to do so. This expectation is why a company like Twitter can be valued in the billions with minimal revenue.

Here are some ways of thinking about fostering pull:

Plan Around Events

Groupon Now is Groupon’s attempt to add Pull to its traditionally Push service. I want to eat, where do I go? Groupon. Every human desire has a natural pull tendency. Being the “first responder” to a human desire is incredibly valuable.

Find Offline Analogies

Most forms of pull fit a predefined social pattern, per the comment on “human desire” above. Before Google, people used phone books (unprompted) to find services. Before email, people would check their postal mailbox, generally at a given time (after the mail was delivered).

Answer Recurring Questions

There are certain types of content that consumers will invariably pull (or want pushed to them). These types of content generally answer recurring questions of a consumer. How much did I spend Receipts, bank websites)?  Where am I going (Google Maps)?  How do I get there (Kayak)? What’s wrong with me (webMD)?

Build Brand and Familiarity

Once one of the above is satisfied, brand and credential storage foster pull. A frictionless and “known” experience catalyze pull for transactional activities. While Amazon, as the largest spender on Google, does a fair amount of push, they also benefit from a tremendous amount of pull when consumers decide to shop. This is a combination of the brand but also their accumulation of user/payment credentials.

There is no substitute for pull in establishing success for a web company; the key is producing something sufficiently valuable in repeat interactions. Reid Hoffman has noted that “social networks do best when they tap into one of the seven deadly sins.” It’s no coincidence that people have, unprompted, “pulled” those sins since the dawn of humanity.

Image: thisisboss

Yikes. Users of fitness and calorie tracker Fitbit may need to be more careful when creating a profile on the site. The sexual activity of many of the users of the company’s tracker and online platform can be found in Google Search results, meaning that these users’ profiles are public and searchable. You can click here to access these results. The Next Web reported this earlier this morning.

As you may know, the Fitbit Tracker is an compact wearable device that clips onto clothing or slips into a pocket and captures, through accelerometer technology, information about daily health activities, such as steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, exercise intensity levels and sleep quality. Users can also log nutrition, weight, additional activities (including sexual activity) and other health information on the site in order to gain a complete picture of their health.

So why are Fitbit users’ profiles able to be searchable in Google? It’s not really Fitbit’s fault. When you create a profile, the default privacy setting allows profiles to be found in search results (Google, Bing, etc). If you don’t unclick this setting, it will obviously make your profile public for anyone to find.

So these users may be unwittingly sharing their most intimate details (i.e. kissing, hugging and more) when recording their sexual activity to calculate how many calories they have burned in a given period of time.

Of course, sex does count as exercise, but you might want to think twice before recording it on Fitbit and making your profile open to the public (TMI, anyone?). And to mitigate this issue, perhaps Fitbit should change its privacy defaults.

Thanks to Andy Baio for the tip.

Editor’s note: Guest contributor Semil Shah is an entrepreneur interested in digital media, consumer internet, and social networks. He is based in Palo Alto and you can follow him on twitter @semilshah.

While the tech world is buzzing about the launch and implications of Google’s new social network, Google+, it’s worth noting that Google isn’t just in a war with Facebook, it’s at war with multiple companies across multiple industries. In fact, Google is fighting a multi-front war with a host of tech giants for control over some of the most valuable pieces of real estate in technology. Whether it’s social, mobile, browsing, local, enterprise, or even search, Google is being attacked from all angles.  And make no mistake about it, they are fighting back and fighting back, hard. Entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Ben Horowitz laid the groundwork for this in his post Peacetime CEO / Wartime CEO, saying Larry Page “seems to have determined that Google is moving into war and he clearly intends to be a wartime CEO. This will be a profound change for Google and the entire high-tech industry.” Horowitz is exactly right.

Before I investigate each battle front in the war, it’s important to highlight the fact that perhaps no other tech company right now could withstand such a multifaceted attack, let alone be able to retaliate efficiently. Sure, Apple might get pushed around by Facebook, so it integrated Twitter into iOS5, and sure, Amazon and Apple have their own tussles over digital media and payments, but at the end of the day, Google is in this unique and potentially highly vulnerable position that will test the company’s mettle and ability to not only reinvent itself, but also to perhaps strengthen its core. Let’s take a quick look into the GooglePlex, which may now resemble more of a military complex, plotting out strategies and tactics for this war. Google must battle on at least six fronts simultaneously.

The Browser Front: Users have a choice between Internet Explorer (Microsoft), Firefox (Mozilla), Safari (Apple), and Google’s offering, Chrome. The speculation is that Facebook is interested in a browser, too, since Mozilla co-founder Blake Ross is an employee, but that hasn’t happened yet. More recently, the social browser RockMelt has captured some peoples’ interests, and last week secured $30M in financing, adding Facebook board members Jim Breyer and Marc Andreessen to its board. Andreessen obviously knows a thing or two about browsers. Though most browsers enable users to power their search by Google as an option, Googe’s Chrome offering isn’t the lead browser by market share, and not even in second place.

The Mobile Front: Apple’s iOS took the mobile world by storm in 2007 with the first iPhone. Then Google’s Android operating system roared alongside it, turning into a freight train of downloads, as Bill Gurley said, only recently to be slowed by Apple’s release of a phone with Verizon. While Android may have more installs, they don’t have the developer community to build killer apps because the Android marketplace (both for hardware and firmware) is highly fragmented, whereas iOS is about symphonic convergence. All the along, there’s been ample speculation about whether Facebook was building its own mobile phone device, or as the company has publicly hinted, how it would integrate social layers into different mobile operating systems and platforms.

The Search Front: Whether we’re on the desktop/laptop, a tablet, or a phone, Google wants to be powering our search, and this is where they dominate, though Microsoft’s Bing has been able to acquire an impressive number of clicks. While everything is fine today, there are some troubling warning signs. On desktops and laptops, people will continue to use a variety of browsers, though they end up spending a lot of time on Facebook, which scares Google because of the trend of people moving slowly from search to discovery. This, however, won’t shift overnight. For mobile devices, it’s trickier. Most iOS users navigate the web either through Apple’s own browser, Safari, and can have it search by Google. On Android-powered tablets and phones, Google controls more of the user-experience, including search, navigation, and application integration. While this is going on, users are trying their hand at realtime search on Twitter or BackType, looking for content directly within Quora, or using Blekko’s hashtags to better cut through and sort the web.

The Local Front: When users search for things on Google and click through, Google gets a little cut of that click. It knows how to drive traffic online and be paid handsomely for it. Driving and directing traffic that originates online into the real world, however, is a different story. As Steve Cheney elegantly stated, when we search online for places to go and then end up there in real life, the place itself does not have a clear sense of what drove them there. This is why the Daily Deals space is so red-hot and competitive, as it helps to close this major, valuable loop. If you search for a restaurant via OpenTable and make a reservation, the merchant knows exactly what drove you to the door. That’s why Yelp, which only used to provide reviews, offered the ability to check-in for credit after Foursquare built up a head of steam. The opportunity here is so complex yet fragmented that it drove Google to offer $6B for Groupon just six months ago. In local, Google is competing against Groupon, but also Amazon (which has a stake in LivingSocial), and a host of smaller (Loopt) and forthcoming deals companies will continue to roll out. This is just the beginning.

The Social Front: Yes, again, Google is fighting a war with Facebook. That much is obvious. What’s less obvious is how other social networks have been able to capture bits and pieces of our identities, leaving Google without any information of who we are. Users have been pumping personal content into blogs like Tumblr, networks like LinkedIn, and even asking search-related questions on Quora. Although we may all predominantly search via Google, the company is struggling in the social field. That is why Larry Page stepped in as CEO, why he tied bonuses to social, and why Google+ is their social sword and shield to fight back and capture user data, despite it being late in the game. Strategically speaking, even if Google+ doesn’t hold or catch fire, it will probably cause its rivals to pause for a moment and consider a range of short- and long-term implications.

The Enterprise Front: If you think the browser, mobile, social, local, and search isn’t enough, check out Google’s combatants in enterprise—just some names like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and VMware, among others. Google’s App Engine could go up against AWS, though that doesn’t seem likely. Google competes with IBM and Oracle on enterprise search (such as OmniFind) and email and work collaboration tools (Lotus). Google’s Chromebooks are seen as a potential entry point into enterprise computing, going up against hardware giants like HP, Dell, and Lenovo. Furthermore, Google may be trying to push Android into the enterprise, which would apply even more pressure on Research in Motion. There’s VMware, which offers Zimbra, PaaS, and presentation tools, to name a few. And, of course, there’s Microsoft, which competes with Google for a wide range of productivity applications. For all of Google’s consumer-facing brands and applications, its strength in enterprise sometimes is underestimated despite the fact that they currently hold many excellent positions.

It’s easy to pile on Google given their size, their wallet, and their global influence and impact. They are the goliath, and have been for many years, and are now facing many challenging tests, all at the same time. And while it’s a fun parlor game to sit around and pontificate about how Google’s reign might be over or how slow GMail loads, the reality is that no other company could compete legitimately on so many different battlefronts against so many different competitors. There’s no way Google can win each battle, and they must know that, but they will win some, and it will be fascinating to see how the company both adapts and stays the course along the way. Google is not going to go down without a fight, and it could take another decade for all of these battles to play out. The company has some of the world’s brightest engineers, a stockpile of cash, and incredible consumer Internet mind share, worldwide. Sit tight.

Photo credit: Flickr/hellosputnik

With the car packed and revved in readiness for a weekend of 100-plus degree outdoor schvitz-tivities in the desert, I eagerly awaited the FedEx man’s arrival. He was bringing me a new Olympus PEN E-P3, which I would be testing in the field.

When the first digital PEN took a bow nearly two years ago it was a bit of a show pony. One of the first Micro Four Thirds system cameras, it had the flowing gorgeous tactile throwback styling of the original film-firing PEN of the 1960s, but it was a flashless, slow-focusing piece of design-award-winning aspirational engineering. It took a lot of stones on the part of Olympus to put it out there like that and the manufacturer has taken a few knocks for it.

We’re two PENs downstream today, and even though the look of the latest iteration is nigh on the same, Olympus claims this one’s hopped up under the hood — it has double True Pic VI image processors for more speed, a zippier autofocus, better LCD, overhauled user interface and a Santa’s bag full of other feature goodies. We’ll see, I thought.

A few ticks past 10 a.m., the rumble of the white, purple and orange trunk pierced my caffeine-laced reverie. A scrawled signature later, I climbed into the car and my driver peeled out while I peeled the box open. Slapping the battery in the body’s compartment (there’s always a bit of a charge right out of the box), I fired up the PEN 3 and started shooting while riding shotgun.

It didn’t take more than a minute or two for me to realize that Olympus had, indeed, seriously upgraded the guts. The most immediately apparent improvement is the cheetah-like autofocus, with, get this, an AF illuminator light. The Olympus mouthpiece later told me that in the company’s own testing, it’s the world’s fastest single-AF focusing camera. I’ve no way to confirm their claim, but in a week’s worth of shooting, I’d have to say, if it’s not, then it’s pretty damn close.

The second revelation is the screen. It’s a bit larger than PEN 2, but more significantly, it’s a tack-sharp 3-inch touchscreen OLED. I was instantly caught off guard by the touchscreen capability when I accidentally tapped it and the camera instantaneously focused and fired. My subsequent sonic emanation of joyous surprise nearly sent us into the guardrail. Once the helm was safely recovered, for safety’s sake I decided to stop shooting and dig into the nitty gritty.

Another improvement is the software. Where previous PENs were saddled with a deep and circuitous menu system — a spelunker’s dream — the 3 has been given a streamlined and considered one.

The final obvious feature that literally jumped out at me was the pop-up flash. When you first look at the camera you may miss it entirely because it’s built flush to the top line of the body so it won’t disturb the aesthetic. In action, the little strobe is powerful enough for a solid daylight fill and predictably illuminates night-time scenes and portraits.

Once out on the cactus trail, I spun the exposure mode dial to Art and played around. Olympus has expanded the Art Filters — there are now 10 — and added a few sub-features like vignetting, fuzzy frames and starlight effects.

If you’re both ambitious and have trouble deciding which filter you like, just tell the camera you want it to apply all the filters at once and it will make 10 editions of each frame so you can see all effects at once. This feature slows the processing speed, but take your time, it’s pretty fun.

Upon returning to the cooler confines of the studio, images were scrutinized. Overall, the PEN 3’s results are fairly predictable and mostly pleasing. The color is a touch punchy straight out of the box, a default most general users would seem to happy to have. White balance is consistent and, given the fact this PEN has a carryover 12-megapixel Live MOS sensor, the noise reduction and higher ISO tightness is still just above average like its immediate predecessor. The PEN 4 will almost surely get a new image sensor to address these issues.

The PEN 3’s standard kit glass is a 14-42mm f3.5-5.6. It’s a very serviceable lens, but the Olympus primes are the real ticket if you’re interested in sharp shooting. The manufacturer provided the 12mm f2 lens (which you can see in my pictures above) and that’s actually what I shot with most of the time.

Solid and bright, it toggles between AF and manual focus with a snap of the focusing ring. Just pull it back toward the body and you’re into manual, snap it forward and the camera transitions back to autofocus. No menu digging required. Olympus also introduced a 45mm f1.8 portrait lens, a compact flash that swivels for bounce or close-ups and can be used wirelessly to add shape to your images.

I can’t test everything this camera has to offer in just a week, so stay tuned, we may revisit the PEN 3 with a deeper dive. But the bottom line on the PEN 3 is it’s a real shooter’s camera, not just a designer’s desktop paperweight. It’s an easy-to-use, fast focuser and shooter that’s got a steamer trunk full of fun, functional features, lenses and accessories.

WIRED Lightning autofocus with bumped-up focus points from 11 to 35. Built-in flash. A dedicated video button. Full HD 1080i video at 60fps in AVCHD. 12mm f2 prime lens is the bomb. Shadow tone-adjustment feature adds latitude to images.

TIRED Would benefit from a new, improved sensor. All that metal means it’s no lightweight. It’s got so many features and options you might spend more time figuring it out than shooting. What happened to 24fps video?

Photos by Jackson Lynch/Wired

Purists will tell you the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid is not a true Porsche. It is an affront to all that is sacred, the continued desecration of an icon by heathens. They will barely contain their piety as they catalog the heretic’s sins: It is big. It is heavy. And not only is it an SUV, it’s a freakin’ hybrid.

But the most un-Porsche of Porsches is very much a Porsche. Which is to say, it is remarkably fast, exquisitely engineered and a joy to drive. Whatever its sins, the Cayenne S Hybrid nicely balances performance and frugality in a sporty package that’s fun to drive.

It’s a remarkable accomplishment. Just about everyone is meeting tightening fuel economy and emissions regulations by slapping an electric motor into something. But too often high-end hybrids feel like half-hearted attempts to squeeze a few more miles from a gallon of gas and a lot more money from customers.

Not so with the gas-electric version of Porsche’s best-selling model. The all-wheel-drive Cayenne hybrid performs almost as admirably as its V8 sibling while getting an EPA-certified 20 mpg city and 24 mpg highway. I averaged 21.6 during a week of Bay Area commuting, putting the Cayenne hybrid within striking distance of the four-cylinder Honda CR-V.

But the Cayenne is oh so much more fun.

The parallel hybrid features a corker of an engine. It’s the same 3.0-liter supercharged V6 you’ll find in the brilliant Audi S4, with a 34-kilowatt motor bolted to it. All that hardware is good for 380 horsepower and an impressive 428 pound-feet of torque.

Most of that grunt is yours at 1,000 RPM, providing locomotive-like pull if you so much as glare at the accelerator. Stomp on it and 60 mph arrives in 6.1 seconds. That’s half a sec behind the 400-hp V8 Cayenne S. Keep it floored and you’ll see 150 mph. Impressive numbers for a car one keg of hefeweizen short of 5,000 pounds.

The Cayenne hybrid’s frugality is equally impressive. Federal fuel economy figures aside, my personal best was 25 mpg during a day of city and highway driving. I undoubtedly would have done better had I not wantonly relished the kick in the pants all that torque provides. Greater self-restraint probably would have yielded 27 mpg — but not nearly as much fun.

The Cayenne hybrid features a slick decoupling clutch that disengages the engine from the drivetrain so the electric motor isn’t fighting the mechanical drag. Cooler still, back off the throttle while cruising at up to 97 mph and the car coasts — Porsche calls it “sailing” — vastly boosting fuel economy. Hit the gas and the engine comes to life in a heartbeat. Stop-start tech shuts off the engine when you stop moving, further saving fuel.

It’s all mind-bogglingly complex but works smoothly, seamlessly and almost silently. You’d never know what’s happening under the hood if weren’t for a dashboard display telling you when you’re using gasoline, electricity or some combination of the two.

You can tool around on electricity alone at up to 37 mph, but it requires a light touch to avoid waking the V6. If you just have to roll on electricity, pushing the “E Power” button rejiggers the throttle map to buy you more time on the juice. Still, the 1.7 kilowatt-hour nickel-metal hydride battery has a range of just 1.5 miles, so you aren’t going far. Regenerative braking and the engine keep it charged.

Drive the Cayenne like a car and the gasoline engine provides most of the propulsion. Drive it like a Porsche, though, and the engine and motor work together, providing optimal acceleration. The “Sport Mode” button — Porsche loves buttons — stacks the deck in favor of maximum performance. The result is a hybrid that is — dare I say it — fun to drive.

The Cayenne S Hybrid is faster and more nimble than anything this big should be. Hustling 2.5 tons through twisting tarmac is always a workout, especially when the steering is a bit light and the suspension a bit soft, but Porsche’s sporting heritage is evident. The brakes are excellent, if you remember that anything this big needs lots of room to slow down. The eight-speed gearbox is always in the right gear, though shifts were a bit slow using the steering-wheel-mounted buttons.

That steering wheel, like everything else about the interior, is wonderful. Whoever designed the seats deserves a raise. The gorgeous center console looks like it was pulled from a jet and has almost as many buttons, and some are wee little things. Still, even the smallest switch has heft to it, and everything feels like it was milled from blocks of aluminum. Nothing about this car feels cheap.

That’s appropriate, because the Cayenne S Hybrid starts at $68,675 and goes stratospheric when you start adding options. Ours came in at $86,110 with, among other things, leather, 19-inch wheels, 14-way adjustable seats, adjustable suspension and a trailer hitch. Yes, a trailer hitch. That was a purist you heard screaming.

Let him scream. The Cayenne S Hybrid is a hybrid worthy of the name Porsche.

WIRED It’s the Prius of Porsches — at least until the Panamera S Hybrid arrives. More comfortable than your favorite jeans. Sailing feature lets you pulse-and-glide, Porsche-style.

TIRED Anything this big should come with a backup camera. Navigating the navi/infotainment system takes patience and practice. Pricey.

The best home theaters are the ones that make you scoff at the very notion of going to an actual theater.

The key ingredient: a pro-grade projector, something that bathes the dark end of your living room in such jaw-dropping color and clarity, you’ll routinely find neighbors at your door holding popcorn and candy.

The M-Vision Cine 230 is among the few projectors to accomplish that without the need for a second mortgage. Digital Vision’s big, homely black box relies on a single chip, so it costs significantly less than most three-chip models. But you’d never know that from the eye-drenching colors it splashes on the screen.

The big screen, that is. The Cine 230 pairs nicely with 10-footers — its bundled 1.85-2.40 lens offers plenty of zoom variety to help with placement. The company also offers substitute lenses if you need shorter or longer throws.

Your installer will especially appreciate the ample horizontal and vertical lens shift, which is adjusted manually using a special wrench. You probably won’t need to fiddle with these settings more than once, but obviously it would be easier if you could control them using a remote rather than an easily misplaced tool.

The 1080p, 1,000-lumen Cine 230 has all the connectivity basics covered, though it comes with just two HDMI ports. This is a potential problem if you plan to venture beyond, say, your TiVo and Xbox. Sure, you could always hook up an overpriced switch box, but this projector’s hulking shell could easily have accommodated two or three more ports.

Just for kicks, I paired the projector with a cheapie Insignia Blu-ray player and a not-so-cheap ZVOX Z-Base 575 for audio. Watching Toy Story 3 with this setup was enough to make me weep — and not just because Andy turned out to be such a great kid. The color saturation was spot-on enough to please a Pixar animator.

Other demo movies, including Inglourious Basterds and Star Trek, looked equally bedazzling, though the latter revealed the Cine 230’s only real shortcoming: even with a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, it can’t do really deep blacks. The void of outer space looked more like the void of outer dark-gray.

Only the most persnickety videophiles will care or even notice. For everyone else, the Cine 230 offers cinema-quality images for a matinee price.

WIRED Costs thousands less than comparable pro-grade projectors. Razor-sharp 1080p images. Near-perfect color saturation. Logical, easy-to-navigate on-screen menu system. Backlit remote glows a futuristic red.

TIRED Blacks could be blacker, an important consideration for fans of space operas. Not as bright as you’d expect, meaning you’ll need to pull the shades for optimum results. Lens-shift mechanicals require top-side access, which could be a problem depending on how the projector is mounted. Zero aesthetic value.

Photo courtesy of Digital Projection

With the car packed and revved in readiness for a weekend of 100-plus degree outdoor schvitz-tivities in the desert, I eagerly awaited the FedEx man’s arrival. He was bringing me a new Olympus PEN E-P3, which I would be testing in the field.

When the first digital PEN took a bow nearly two years ago it was a bit of a show pony. One of the first Micro Four Thirds system cameras, it had the flowing gorgeous tactile throwback styling of the original film-firing PEN of the 1960s, but it was a flashless, slow-focusing piece of design-award-winning aspirational engineering. It took a lot of stones on the part of Olympus to put it out there like that and the manufacturer has taken a few knocks for it.

We’re two PENs downstream today, and even though the look of the latest iteration is nigh on the same, Olympus claims this one’s hopped up under the hood — it has double True Pic VI image processors for more speed, a zippier autofocus, better LCD, overhauled user interface and a Santa’s bag full of other feature goodies. We’ll see, I thought.

A few ticks past 10 a.m., the rumble of the white, purple and orange trunk pierced my caffeine-laced reverie. A scrawled signature later, I climbed into the car and my driver peeled out while I peeled the box open. Slapping the battery in the body’s compartment (there’s always a bit of a charge right out of the box), I fired up the PEN 3 and started shooting while riding shotgun.

It didn’t take more than a minute or two for me to realize that Olympus had, indeed, seriously upgraded the guts. The most immediately apparent improvement is the cheetah-like autofocus, with, get this, an AF illuminator light. The Olympus mouthpiece later told me that in the company’s own testing, it’s the world’s fastest single-AF focusing camera. I’ve no way to confirm their claim, but in a week’s worth of shooting, I’d have to say, if it’s not, then it’s pretty damn close.

The second revelation is the screen. It’s a bit larger than PEN 2, but more significantly, it’s a tack-sharp 3-inch touchscreen OLED. I was instantly caught off guard by the touchscreen capability when I accidentally tapped it and the camera instantaneously focused and fired. My subsequent sonic emanation of joyous surprise nearly sent us into the guardrail. Once the helm was safely recovered, for safety’s sake I decided to stop shooting and dig into the nitty gritty.

Another improvement is the software. Where previous PENs were saddled with a deep and circuitous menu system — a spelunker’s dream — the 3 has been given a streamlined and considered one.

The final obvious feature that literally jumped out at me was the pop-up flash. When you first look at the camera you may miss it entirely because it’s built flush to the top line of the body so it won’t disturb the aesthetic. In action, the little strobe is powerful enough for a solid daylight fill and predictably illuminates night-time scenes and portraits.

Once out on the cactus trail, I spun the exposure mode dial to Art and played around. Olympus has expanded the Art Filters — there are now 10 — and added a few sub-features like vignetting, fuzzy frames and starlight effects.

If you’re both ambitious and have trouble deciding which filter you like, just tell the camera you want it to apply all the filters at once and it will make 10 editions of each frame so you can see all effects at once. This feature slows the processing speed, but take your time, it’s pretty fun.

Upon returning to the cooler confines of the studio, images were scrutinized. Overall, the PEN 3’s results are fairly predictable and mostly pleasing. The color is a touch punchy straight out of the box, a default most general users would seem to happy to have. White balance is consistent and, given the fact this PEN has a carryover 12-megapixel Live MOS sensor, the noise reduction and higher ISO tightness is still just above average like its immediate predecessor. The PEN 4 will almost surely get a new image sensor to address these issues.

The PEN 3’s standard kit glass is a 14-42mm f3.5-5.6. It’s a very serviceable lens, but the Olympus primes are the real ticket if you’re interested in sharp shooting. The manufacturer provided the 12mm f2 lens (which you can see in my pictures above) and that’s actually what I shot with most of the time.

Solid and bright, it toggles between AF and manual focus with a snap of the focusing ring. Just pull it back toward the body and you’re into manual, snap it forward and the camera transitions back to autofocus. No menu digging required. Olympus also introduced a 45mm f1.8 portrait lens, a compact flash that swivels for bounce or close-ups and can be used wirelessly to add shape to your images.

I can’t test everything this camera has to offer in just a week, so stay tuned, we may revisit the PEN 3 with a deeper dive. But the bottom line on the PEN 3 is it’s a real shooter’s camera, not just a designer’s desktop paperweight. It’s an easy-to-use, fast focuser and shooter that’s got a steamer trunk full of fun, functional features, lenses and accessories.

WIRED Lightning autofocus with bumped-up focus points from 11 to 35. Built-in flash. A dedicated video button. Full HD 1080i video at 60fps in AVCHD. 12mm f2 prime lens is the bomb. Shadow tone-adjustment feature adds latitude to images.

TIRED Would benefit from a new, improved sensor. All that metal means it’s no lightweight. It’s got so many features and options you might spend more time figuring it out than shooting. What happened to 24fps video?

Photos by Jackson Lynch/Wired

With the car packed and revved in readiness for a weekend of 100-plus degree outdoor schvitz-tivities in the desert, I eagerly awaited the FedEx man’s arrival. He was bringing me a new Olympus PEN E-P3, which I would be testing in the field.

When the first digital PEN took a bow nearly two years ago it was a bit of a show pony. One of the first Micro Four Thirds system cameras, it had the flowing gorgeous tactile throwback styling of the original film-firing PEN of the 1960s, but it was a flashless, slow-focusing piece of design-award-winning aspirational engineering. It took a lot of stones on the part of Olympus to put it out there like that and the manufacturer has taken a few knocks for it.

We’re two PENs downstream today, and even though the look of the latest iteration is nigh on the same, Olympus claims this one’s hopped up under the hood — it has double True Pic VI image processors for more speed, a zippier autofocus, better LCD, overhauled user interface and a Santa’s bag full of other feature goodies. We’ll see, I thought.

A few ticks past 10 a.m., the rumble of the white, purple and orange trunk pierced my caffeine-laced reverie. A scrawled signature later, I climbed into the car and my driver peeled out while I peeled the box open. Slapping the battery in the body’s compartment (there’s always a bit of a charge right out of the box), I fired up the PEN 3 and started shooting while riding shotgun.

It didn’t take more than a minute or two for me to realize that Olympus had, indeed, seriously upgraded the guts. The most immediately apparent improvement is the cheetah-like autofocus, with, get this, an AF illuminator light. The Olympus mouthpiece later told me that in the company’s own testing, it’s the world’s fastest single-AF focusing camera. I’ve no way to confirm their claim, but in a week’s worth of shooting, I’d have to say, if it’s not, then it’s pretty damn close.

The second revelation is the screen. It’s a bit larger than PEN 2, but more significantly, it’s a tack-sharp 3-inch touchscreen OLED. I was instantly caught off guard by the touchscreen capability when I accidentally tapped it and the camera instantaneously focused and fired. My subsequent sonic emanation of joyous surprise nearly sent us into the guardrail. Once the helm was safely recovered, for safety’s sake I decided to stop shooting and dig into the nitty gritty.

Another improvement is the software. Where previous PENs were saddled with a deep and circuitous menu system — a spelunker’s dream — the 3 has been given a streamlined and considered one.

The final obvious feature that literally jumped out at me was the pop-up flash. When you first look at the camera you may miss it entirely because it’s built flush to the top line of the body so it won’t disturb the aesthetic. In action, the little strobe is powerful enough for a solid daylight fill and predictably illuminates night-time scenes and portraits.

Once out on the cactus trail, I spun the exposure mode dial to Art and played around. Olympus has expanded the Art Filters — there are now 10 — and added a few sub-features like vignetting, fuzzy frames and starlight effects.

If you’re both ambitious and have trouble deciding which filter you like, just tell the camera you want it to apply all the filters at once and it will make 10 editions of each frame so you can see all effects at once. This feature slows the processing speed, but take your time, it’s pretty fun.

Upon returning to the cooler confines of the studio, images were scrutinized. Overall, the PEN 3’s results are fairly predictable and mostly pleasing. The color is a touch punchy straight out of the box, a default most general users would seem to happy to have. White balance is consistent and, given the fact this PEN has a carryover 12-megapixel Live MOS sensor, the noise reduction and higher ISO tightness is still just above average like its immediate predecessor. The PEN 4 will almost surely get a new image sensor to address these issues.

The PEN 3’s standard kit glass is a 14-42mm f3.5-5.6. It’s a very serviceable lens, but the Olympus primes are the real ticket if you’re interested in sharp shooting. The manufacturer provided the 12mm f2 lens (which you can see in my pictures above) and that’s actually what I shot with most of the time.

Solid and bright, it toggles between AF and manual focus with a snap of the focusing ring. Just pull it back toward the body and you’re into manual, snap it forward and the camera transitions back to autofocus. No menu digging required. Olympus also introduced a 45mm f1.8 portrait lens, a compact flash that swivels for bounce or close-ups and can be used wirelessly to add shape to your images.

I can’t test everything this camera has to offer in just a week, so stay tuned, we may revisit the PEN 3 with a deeper dive. But the bottom line on the PEN 3 is it’s a real shooter’s camera, not just a designer’s desktop paperweight. It’s an easy-to-use, fast focuser and shooter that’s got a steamer trunk full of fun, functional features, lenses and accessories.

WIRED Lightning autofocus with bumped-up focus points from 11 to 35. Built-in flash. A dedicated video button. Full HD 1080i video at 60fps in AVCHD. 12mm f2 prime lens is the bomb. Shadow tone-adjustment feature adds latitude to images.

TIRED Would benefit from a new, improved sensor. All that metal means it’s no lightweight. It’s got so many features and options you might spend more time figuring it out than shooting. What happened to 24fps video?

Photos by Jackson Lynch/Wired

When the chips are down and the cards have been dealt, do you go big or go home?

With the debut of its TouchPad tablet, HP’s answer is clear: “We’re all in, baby.”

As a hardware device, it’s competitive and solid. The software is impressive — it sports webOS, the company’s proprietary mobile platform. But the real question is, when drawing down against other tablets, does HP have a winning hand?

First things first: In the tablet market, hardware specs alone don’t win the war. Tablets from all of the major contenders — Apple, Motorola, RIM, Samsung — boast similar stats. Things like dual-core processors, front-facing cameras, and brilliant, hi-res touch displays aren’t bragging points. At this point in the game, they’re table stakes.

Thankfully, the TouchPad’s hardware doesn’t stray far from the pack. It sports a 1.2-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip backed by a gig of RAM, more than enough to let me zip through menu screens and open applications with relative ease. With Bluetooth compatibility, a 9.7-inch display and a slick-yet-durable plastic exterior shell, the TouchPad’s specs stand up to competitors.

It isn’t exactly easy on the arms. Similar to Motorola’s Xoom at 1.6 pounds and a little over half an inch thick, the TouchPad is the antithesis of skinny, airy tablets like the iPad 2 or the Galaxy Tab 10.1. This isn’t as much of a problem while I’m on the couch with an arm rest. But if you’re casually browsing or reading during, say, a 30-minute commute on the subway, you’ll start to feel that extra heft.

The TouchPad plays well with other HP mobile hardware, too. If you’re a Palm/HP loyalist with one of the new Veer smartphones, or the forthcoming Pre 3, you’ll soon have the option of pairing the phone to the tablet via Bluetooth — after an OTA update, that is. When paired, any calls or texts received will show up on the TouchPad, which you can then use to respond.

There’s also “Touch to Share,” a new feature that lets your TouchPad send an open web page to your HP smartphone. Wave the phone in front of the tablet, and the same browser window pops up on your phone. Ideally, it’s for when you want to leave the tablet at home while taking your web content with you to read later.

The system isn’t fully baked. I tested Touch to Share with a preproduction Pre 3 phone, and it took multiple waves and awkward angling for the TouchPad to send a page to the phone. Also, you’re supposed to be able to send an open page on your phone back to the tablet with another wave of the phone, but I wasn’t able to do this.

One more problem: you’ll need a new phone to do any of this. Older Palm devices like the Pre and the Pixie aren’t capable of Touch to Share — only the Veer (after an unspecified future software update), the Pre 3 and whatever phones HP releases in the future.

For media consumption, it’s about average. The sound on the external speakers is fine enough, but quality isn’t the problem — it’s the placement. The stereo speakers are along the bottom and behind the screen, which means all sound is pushed out away from your face. It’s a problem that plagues audio on tablets as a whole. Aside from the BlackBerry PlayBook, which has fantastic audio because of front-facing speakers, listening to most anything on a tablet without headphones isn’t very enjoyable.

Boasting a “full web” experience, the TouchPad is capable of playing Adobe Flash content on the 10.3 beta version of Flash Player. And just like our past experiences with Flash on tablets, it’s nowhere near perfection. It took me forever to load content on PopCapGames.com, a popular Flash gaming web site. When I finally did get a game up and running, performance was choppy at best, a gaming experience punctuated with pauses and stuttering. YouTube videos ran somewhat better, but it wasn’t exactly what I’d call reliable.

Battery life is on par with most other Android tablets currently available. Under heavy use — including continuous browsing and lots of Flash movie viewing — I wore the battery down close to zero in about 7.5 to 8 hours. If you use it casually and intermittently, add another hour or two to that lifespan.

HP’s ace in the hole isn’t Flash, battery life or even Touch to Share. It’s the operating system.

First introduced in 2009, webOS was the “secret sauce” to Palm’s then-new Pre, Pre Plus and Pixie smartphones. (HP acquired Palm in 2010, scooping up webOS with it.)

Along with a sexy user interface, webOS brought users two fantastic new features — multitasking and Synergy.

With multitasking, open applications are sorted on the desktop as “cards,” all of which are able to run simultaneously in the background. A simple swipe of your finger from the bottom of the screen brings up the open applications in your hand, as it were. Shuffling between your open apps is as easy as swiping from side to side.

I’ve loved multitasking since the Palm Pre first appeared, and the increased screen real estate of the TouchPad does the interface justice. Switching between cards is effortless.

Synergy is nifty, too. It does away with the idea of updating and syncing personal data through a central PC hub. Instead, updates across your disparate accounts come wirelessly, whether you’re making the change to your data on your TouchPad or your desktop.

Example: After entering my Facebook and Gmail account info into the TouchPad, my Facebook events and Google Calendar appointments automatically showed up in HP’s calendar app (color-coded, even). And if you’re paired to an HP Veer or Pre 3 smartphone via Bluetooth, SMS text conversations with a friend will show up in the messaging application in one long thread, alongside of any Google Talk chatting you’ve done.

There’s just one big problem with the webOS platform: Nobody freaking uses it.

As of May 2011, Android is on 36 percent of all U.S. smartphones, while iOS runs on 26 percent, according to Nielsen research data. WebOS is at 2 percent.

This is a huge issue. As a rule, the fewer devices there are running an operating system, the less developers will want to create apps for it. Consider the app ecosystems of the two market giants: Android currently hosts over 200,000 apps in its Market, and as of late May, Apple boasts half a million. When the TouchPad hits shelves on July 1, HP says there will be about 6,200 apps available for webOS phones, which the tablet can run, and another 300 apps optimized specifically for the TouchPad. How can HP ever hope to catch up to those numbers?

Essentially, they’re not even going to try (at least, not immediately). Instead, HP is taking a curated approach with “Pivot,” a monthly e-publication that features articles on select webOS applications and the developers behind them. It’s an effort to lure in developers with the promise of exposure, more than an app would get after being buried in the sprawling Android or Apple markets. That means more apps for the webOS platform, and more sales for the small-time developer. In theory, at least.

To be fair, the TouchPad launches with more tablet-specific apps than both the Apple and Android tablet launches combined. And fast-paced growth is certainly possible: It took Android around four months to break the 200 tablet apps mark, and a little over a year for Apple to host tens of thousands. With the right support, the app ecosystem on webOS can grow.

There is, of course, the problem of the mobile music service. In and of itself, the TouchPad’s music app is fine. It functions well, and the user interface is unobtrusive. (Read: not fugly.) But consider what the others are offering: Google’s Music Beta allows wireless streaming to any device running Android version 2.2 and above, free of local storage. Apple’s upcoming iCloud requires that you store your files locally, but you can wirelessly sync any iTunes data you already own to your iOS devices from its cloud servers, though it doesn’t do this automatically. Getting music onto your TouchPad is USB-only, and an HP-backed cloud service isn’t exactly in the cards for the near future.

To be fair, if you’ve got a Google Music invite, you can access it through a browser window on the TouchPad. And perhaps HP will coax Amazon into bundling its Cloud Player music app with the TouchPad at some point.

But it speaks to a larger question that HP still hasn’t answered: What’s the major draw HP offers that I can’t get in Android or iOS — two established competitors with more customers, more apps and more time in the market?

I’m not saying HP is betting on a weak hand with the TouchPad itself. It’s well-built, easy on the eyes and I dig the card-based OS running on a tablet even more than I had anticipated.

The problem is, it’s squaring off against some expert gamblers.

WIRED One of the first platforms to have a tablet-optimized Facebook app — take that, Apple. Pair with a Pre 3 or Veer smartphone to receive texts or calls on the tablet itself. JustType navigation bar allows for quick device search from the home screen.

TIRED No back-facing camera means no awkward tablet picture-taking, for better or for worse. Beta version of Flash runs like an alpha version of Flash. No SD card slot means no room for easy expansion. Bundled QuickOffice app has difficulty displaying Google Docs. No tabbed browsing? For shame.

Photos by Jon Snyder/Wired

With the car packed and revved in readiness for a weekend of 100-plus degree outdoor schvitz-tivities in the desert, I eagerly awaited the FedEx man’s arrival. He was bringing me a new Olympus PEN E-P3, which I would be testing in the field.

When the first digital PEN took a bow nearly two years ago it was a bit of a show pony. One of the first Micro Four Thirds system cameras, it had the flowing gorgeous tactile throwback styling of the original film-firing PEN of the 1960s, but it was a flashless, slow-focusing piece of design-award-winning aspirational engineering. It took a lot of stones on the part of Olympus to put it out there like that and the manufacturer has taken a few knocks for it.

We’re two PENs downstream today, and even though the look of the latest iteration is nigh on the same, Olympus claims this one’s hopped up under the hood — it has double True Pic VI image processors for more speed, a zippier autofocus, better LCD, overhauled user interface and a Santa’s bag full of other feature goodies. We’ll see, I thought.

A few ticks past 10 a.m., the rumble of the white, purple and orange trunk pierced my caffeine-laced reverie. A scrawled signature later, I climbed into the car and my driver peeled out while I peeled the box open. Slapping the battery in the body’s compartment (there’s always a bit of a charge right out of the box), I fired up the PEN 3 and started shooting while riding shotgun.

It didn’t take more than a minute or two for me to realize that Olympus had, indeed, seriously upgraded the guts. The most immediately apparent improvement is the cheetah-like autofocus, with, get this, an AF illuminator light. The Olympus mouthpiece later told me that in the company’s own testing, it’s the world’s fastest single-AF focusing camera. I’ve no way to confirm their claim, but in a week’s worth of shooting, I’d have to say, if it’s not, then it’s pretty damn close.

The second revelation is the screen. It’s a bit larger than PEN 2, but more significantly, it’s a tack-sharp 3-inch touchscreen OLED. I was instantly caught off guard by the touchscreen capability when I accidentally tapped it and the camera instantaneously focused and fired. My subsequent sonic emanation of joyous surprise nearly sent us into the guardrail. Once the helm was safely recovered, for safety’s sake I decided to stop shooting and dig into the nitty gritty.

Another improvement is the software. Where previous PENs were saddled with a deep and circuitous menu system — a spelunker’s dream — the 3 has been given a streamlined and considered one.

The final obvious feature that literally jumped out at me was the pop-up flash. When you first look at the camera you may miss it entirely because it’s built flush to the top line of the body so it won’t disturb the aesthetic. In action, the little strobe is powerful enough for a solid daylight fill and predictably illuminates night-time scenes and portraits.

Once out on the cactus trail, I spun the exposure mode dial to Art and played around. Olympus has expanded the Art Filters — there are now 10 — and added a few sub-features like vignetting, fuzzy frames and starlight effects.

If you’re both ambitious and have trouble deciding which filter you like, just tell the camera you want it to apply all the filters at once and it will make 10 editions of each frame so you can see all effects at once. This feature slows the processing speed, but take your time, it’s pretty fun.

Upon returning to the cooler confines of the studio, images were scrutinized. Overall, the PEN 3’s results are fairly predictable and mostly pleasing. The color is a touch punchy straight out of the box, a default most general users would seem to happy to have. White balance is consistent and, given the fact this PEN has a carryover 12-megapixel Live MOS sensor, the noise reduction and higher ISO tightness is still just above average like its immediate predecessor. The PEN 4 will almost surely get a new image sensor to address these issues.

The PEN 3’s standard kit glass is a 14-42mm f3.5-5.6. It’s a very serviceable lens, but the Olympus primes are the real ticket if you’re interested in sharp shooting. The manufacturer provided the 12mm f2 lens (which you can see in my pictures above) and that’s actually what I shot with most of the time.

Solid and bright, it toggles between AF and manual focus with a snap of the focusing ring. Just pull it back toward the body and you’re into manual, snap it forward and the camera transitions back to autofocus. No menu digging required. Olympus also introduced a 45mm f1.8 portrait lens, a compact flash that swivels for bounce or close-ups and can be used wirelessly to add shape to your images.

I can’t test everything this camera has to offer in just a week, so stay tuned, we may revisit the PEN 3 with a deeper dive. But the bottom line on the PEN 3 is it’s a real shooter’s camera, not just a designer’s desktop paperweight. It’s an easy-to-use, fast focuser and shooter that’s got a steamer trunk full of fun, functional features, lenses and accessories.

WIRED Lightning autofocus with bumped-up focus points from 11 to 35. Built-in flash. A dedicated video button. Full HD 1080i video at 60fps in AVCHD. 12mm f2 prime lens is the bomb. Shadow tone-adjustment feature adds latitude to images.

TIRED Would benefit from a new, improved sensor. All that metal means it’s no lightweight. It’s got so many features and options you might spend more time figuring it out than shooting. What happened to 24fps video?

Photos by Jackson Lynch/Wired

While most shoe companies are chasing the minimalist craze and removing the bottoms of their shoes, Mizuno is going against the trend by doing away with the middle.

There’s a big hole right where the cushioning should be on Mizuno’s Wave Prophecy road shoe. In lieu of the usual EVA foam midsole — usually the first part of running shoes to break down — Mizuno has substituted the Wave Infinity Plate, a system of the company’s own design that consists of two TPU plates connected at ten points along the shoe by rubber baffles. In addition to potentially lasting longer than traditional soles, the plate is meant to provide better cushioning and a more responsive stride for a variety of different running styles. And for $200 a pair, these shoes had certainly better knock one’s socks off.

I wasn’t convinced at first. Initially, the shoe’s firm ride was a little off-putting. But it wasn’t long before I started appreciating the tough love. The foamless sole acts kind of like a leaf spring, compressing with the impact of each strike, and it adapted to a variety of strikes. I felt supported and cushioned whether I ran with my usual forefoot strike or the plodding heelstrike that I devolve into after mile ten or so. But I was able to pull double-digit miles without feeling like my feet were getting beaten up.

I felt quicker in the shoes, too. On the toe-off end of the footstrike, the plate bends to about 15 degrees, then becomes rigid and snaps back just in time to add a bit of “oomph” to every step. During my runs, this helped me maintain a high turnover rate, making the shoe feel a lot lighter than the 15 ounces my size 11s weigh in at.

With all the craziness going on under the foot, it can be easy to overlook the Wave Prophecy’s upper. The main component is a stretchy, mesh fabric — Mizuno calls it Dynamotion Fit — which is designed to mimic the foot’s skin, stretching and compressing with it during a run. The fabric is light and airy, and it gives the shoe’s upper a comfortable, sock-like feel. On hot-weather runs, the upper’s mesh construction let heat escape and prevented moisture from building up within the shoe.

A few weeks after running in the Wave Prophecys, I went back to my old running shoes with the EVA cushioning. I thought I’d appreciate the extra padding, but the old shoes felt too soft. I felt as if I was getting less distance out of every step, sort of like running in mud.

After getting used to the responsiveness of the Prophecys, my feet were begging to go back. It was like driving a Porsche, then suddenly being asked to swap it for a crappy old minivan. I’ll stick with the Porsche.

WIRED Stiff, dual-plate midsole system gives a subtle snap to every step. Responsive, comfortable upper. Potentially the most durable running shoe ever.

TIRED May be too firm for some runners. Potentially the most expensive running shoe ever.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired

Purists will tell you the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid is not a true Porsche. It is an affront to all that is sacred, the continued desecration of an icon by heathens. They will barely contain their piety as they catalog the heretic’s sins: It is big. It is heavy. And not only is it an SUV, it’s a freakin’ hybrid.

But the most un-Porsche of Porsches is very much a Porsche. Which is to say, it is remarkably fast, exquisitely engineered and a joy to drive. Whatever its sins, the Cayenne S Hybrid nicely balances performance and frugality in a sporty package that’s fun to drive.

It’s a remarkable accomplishment. Just about everyone is meeting tightening fuel economy and emissions regulations by slapping an electric motor into something. But too often high-end hybrids feel like half-hearted attempts to squeeze a few more miles from a gallon of gas and a lot more money from customers.

Not so with the gas-electric version of Porsche’s best-selling model. The all-wheel-drive Cayenne hybrid performs almost as admirably as its V8 sibling while getting an EPA-certified 20 mpg city and 24 mpg highway. I averaged 21.6 during a week of Bay Area commuting, putting the Cayenne hybrid within striking distance of the four-cylinder Honda CR-V.

But the Cayenne is oh so much more fun.

The parallel hybrid features a corker of an engine. It’s the same 3.0-liter supercharged V6 you’ll find in the brilliant Audi S4, with a 34-kilowatt motor bolted to it. All that hardware is good for 380 horsepower and an impressive 428 pound-feet of torque.

Most of that grunt is yours at 1,000 RPM, providing locomotive-like pull if you so much as glare at the accelerator. Stomp on it and 60 mph arrives in 6.1 seconds. That’s half a sec behind the 400-hp V8 Cayenne S. Keep it floored and you’ll see 150 mph. Impressive numbers for a car one keg of hefeweizen short of 5,000 pounds.

The Cayenne hybrid’s frugality is equally impressive. Federal fuel economy figures aside, my personal best was 25 mpg during a day of city and highway driving. I undoubtedly would have done better had I not wantonly relished the kick in the pants all that torque provides. Greater self-restraint probably would have yielded 27 mpg — but not nearly as much fun.

The Cayenne hybrid features a slick decoupling clutch that disengages the engine from the drivetrain so the electric motor isn’t fighting the mechanical drag. Cooler still, back off the throttle while cruising at up to 97 mph and the car coasts — Porsche calls it “sailing” — vastly boosting fuel economy. Hit the gas and the engine comes to life in a heartbeat. Stop-start tech shuts off the engine when you stop moving, further saving fuel.

It’s all mind-bogglingly complex but works smoothly, seamlessly and almost silently. You’d never know what’s happening under the hood if weren’t for a dashboard display telling you when you’re using gasoline, electricity or some combination of the two.

You can tool around on electricity alone at up to 37 mph, but it requires a light touch to avoid waking the V6. If you just have to roll on electricity, pushing the “E Power” button rejiggers the throttle map to buy you more time on the juice. Still, the 1.7 kilowatt-hour nickel-metal hydride battery has a range of just 1.5 miles, so you aren’t going far. Regenerative braking and the engine keep it charged.

Drive the Cayenne like a car and the gasoline engine provides most of the propulsion. Drive it like a Porsche, though, and the engine and motor work together, providing optimal acceleration. The “Sport Mode” button — Porsche loves buttons — stacks the deck in favor of maximum performance. The result is a hybrid that is — dare I say it — fun to drive.

The Cayenne S Hybrid is faster and more nimble than anything this big should be. Hustling 2.5 tons through twisting tarmac is always a workout, especially when the steering is a bit light and the suspension a bit soft, but Porsche’s sporting heritage is evident. The brakes are excellent, if you remember that anything this big needs lots of room to slow down. The eight-speed gearbox is always in the right gear, though shifts were a bit slow using the steering-wheel-mounted buttons.

That steering wheel, like everything else about the interior, is wonderful. Whoever designed the seats deserves a raise. The gorgeous center console looks like it was pulled from a jet and has almost as many buttons, and some are wee little things. Still, even the smallest switch has heft to it, and everything feels like it was milled from blocks of aluminum. Nothing about this car feels cheap.

That’s appropriate, because the Cayenne S Hybrid starts at $68,675 and goes stratospheric when you start adding options. Ours came in at $86,110 with, among other things, leather, 19-inch wheels, 14-way adjustable seats, adjustable suspension and a trailer hitch. Yes, a trailer hitch. That was a purist you heard screaming.

Let him scream. The Cayenne S Hybrid is a hybrid worthy of the name Porsche.

WIRED It’s the Prius of Porsches — at least until the Panamera S Hybrid arrives. More comfortable than your favorite jeans. Sailing feature lets you pulse-and-glide, Porsche-style.

TIRED Anything this big should come with a backup camera. Navigating the navi/infotainment system takes patience and practice. Pricey.

Purists will tell you the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid is not a true Porsche. It is an affront to all that is sacred, the continued desecration of an icon by heathens. They will barely contain their piety as they catalog the heretic’s sins: It is big. It is heavy. And not only is it an SUV, it’s a freakin’ hybrid.

But the most un-Porsche of Porsches is very much a Porsche. Which is to say, it is remarkably fast, exquisitely engineered and a joy to drive. Whatever its sins, the Cayenne S Hybrid nicely balances performance and frugality in a sporty package that’s fun to drive.

It’s a remarkable accomplishment. Just about everyone is meeting tightening fuel economy and emissions regulations by slapping an electric motor into something. But too often high-end hybrids feel like half-hearted attempts to squeeze a few more miles from a gallon of gas and a lot more money from customers.

Not so with the gas-electric version of Porsche’s best-selling model. The all-wheel-drive Cayenne hybrid performs almost as admirably as its V8 sibling while getting an EPA-certified 20 mpg city and 24 mpg highway. I averaged 21.6 during a week of Bay Area commuting, putting the Cayenne hybrid within striking distance of the four-cylinder Honda CR-V.

But the Cayenne is oh so much more fun.

The parallel hybrid features a corker of an engine. It’s the same 3.0-liter supercharged V6 you’ll find in the brilliant Audi S4, with a 34-kilowatt motor bolted to it. All that hardware is good for 380 horsepower and an impressive 428 pound-feet of torque.

Most of that grunt is yours at 1,000 RPM, providing locomotive-like pull if you so much as glare at the accelerator. Stomp on it and 60 mph arrives in 6.1 seconds. That’s half a sec behind the 400-hp V8 Cayenne S. Keep it floored and you’ll see 150 mph. Impressive numbers for a car one keg of hefeweizen short of 5,000 pounds.

The Cayenne hybrid’s frugality is equally impressive. Federal fuel economy figures aside, my personal best was 25 mpg during a day of city and highway driving. I undoubtedly would have done better had I not wantonly relished the kick in the pants all that torque provides. Greater self-restraint probably would have yielded 27 mpg — but not nearly as much fun.

The Cayenne hybrid features a slick decoupling clutch that disengages the engine from the drivetrain so the electric motor isn’t fighting the mechanical drag. Cooler still, back off the throttle while cruising at up to 97 mph and the car coasts — Porsche calls it “sailing” — vastly boosting fuel economy. Hit the gas and the engine comes to life in a heartbeat. Stop-start tech shuts off the engine when you stop moving, further saving fuel.

It’s all mind-bogglingly complex but works smoothly, seamlessly and almost silently. You’d never know what’s happening under the hood if weren’t for a dashboard display telling you when you’re using gasoline, electricity or some combination of the two.

You can tool around on electricity alone at up to 37 mph, but it requires a light touch to avoid waking the V6. If you just have to roll on electricity, pushing the “E Power” button rejiggers the throttle map to buy you more time on the juice. Still, the 1.7 kilowatt-hour nickel-metal hydride battery has a range of just 1.5 miles, so you aren’t going far. Regenerative braking and the engine keep it charged.

Drive the Cayenne like a car and the gasoline engine provides most of the propulsion. Drive it like a Porsche, though, and the engine and motor work together, providing optimal acceleration. The “Sport Mode” button — Porsche loves buttons — stacks the deck in favor of maximum performance. The result is a hybrid that is — dare I say it — fun to drive.

The Cayenne S Hybrid is faster and more nimble than anything this big should be. Hustling 2.5 tons through twisting tarmac is always a workout, especially when the steering is a bit light and the suspension a bit soft, but Porsche’s sporting heritage is evident. The brakes are excellent, if you remember that anything this big needs lots of room to slow down. The eight-speed gearbox is always in the right gear, though shifts were a bit slow using the steering-wheel-mounted buttons.

That steering wheel, like everything else about the interior, is wonderful. Whoever designed the seats deserves a raise. The gorgeous center console looks like it was pulled from a jet and has almost as many buttons, and some are wee little things. Still, even the smallest switch has heft to it, and everything feels like it was milled from blocks of aluminum. Nothing about this car feels cheap.

That’s appropriate, because the Cayenne S Hybrid starts at $68,675 and goes stratospheric when you start adding options. Ours came in at $86,110 with, among other things, leather, 19-inch wheels, 14-way adjustable seats, adjustable suspension and a trailer hitch. Yes, a trailer hitch. That was a purist you heard screaming.

Let him scream. The Cayenne S Hybrid is a hybrid worthy of the name Porsche.

WIRED It’s the Prius of Porsches — at least until the Panamera S Hybrid arrives. More comfortable than your favorite jeans. Sailing feature lets you pulse-and-glide, Porsche-style.

TIRED Anything this big should come with a backup camera. Navigating the navi/infotainment system takes patience and practice. Pricey.