Tag Archives: editorsletter

Editor’s Letter: The fiber fight for Austin’s future

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In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

DNP Editor's Letter The fiber fight for Austin's future

There comes a time in every modern geek's life when they seriously consider moving to Kansas City, simply to gain access to the wonder that is Google Fiber. This week, would-be bandwidth pilgrims gained another potential destination: Austin, Texas. Yes, the increasingly trendy SXSW locale has officially signed on with Google to start rolling out the connectivity in 2014. Sadly, we're told to not expect much in the way of access until the summer of next year, which seems like ages, but that should give you plenty of time to save up for a down payment. Austin housing rates are soaring of late.

Not wanting to be left out of the party, AT&T promptly announced its own initiative to bring high-speed fiber connectivity to Austin just hours after Google. Ma Bell is promising 1 Gbps speeds and the same sort of accessibility and contracts as Google's service, thus creating a very interesting battleground for high-speed connectivity. It's the sort of fiber-optic gluttony that we'd all like to indulge in some day, and if Google can keep pushing AT&T like this, perhaps some day we actually will.

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Editor’s Letter: The social smartphone

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In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

DNP Editor's Letter The social smartphone

There's a good chance 2011's HTC Status, with its portrait QWERTY layout and dedicated Facebook button, never found its way into your social network. That last attempt at the mythical Facebook phone failed to garner much praise, but if social networks gave up so easily, well, we'd all still be using MySpace. HTC and Facebook are at it again, this week launching the $99 First, exclusively on AT&T in the US.

Yes, it's a name every commenter could love (or hate).

Yes, it's a name every commenter could love (or hate), a title cheekily reminiscent of the HTC One. This, though, is a rather different device, aiming more toward the mid-range and relying on some serious social integration to make it stand out. It's the first phone running the Facebook Home interface, which will be available on many devices starting on April 12th. It delivers a far more comprehensive Facebook experience than the previous apps have managed, and intriguingly Zuckerberg himself said that Home is "the next version of Facebook." The end of the web? Stay tuned.

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Editor’s Letter: A not-so simple choice

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In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

DNP Editor's Letter A notso simple choice

At a rather vitriolic (and frequently profane) presentation given to a small group of frequently bemused journalists (myself included), T-Mobile CEO John Legere laid out the company's reinvention. In the interest of keeping things PG I won't repeat the colorful language, but Legere accused the other major carriers of being not only confusing, but also misleading -- ignoring the fact that his own company has, for years, enacted the very same policies. No more. It's time for the UnCarrier to step up.

But, it's important to note that you'll be paying full price, or near to it, for your smartphone.

First is a series of contract-free Simple Choice plans, which are similar to those the company offered before. It's $50 for "unlimited talk + text + web" -- though the data use is indeed limited to 500MB. Stepping up to truly unlimited everything is $20 more, which is a fair bit cheaper than the biggest plans from competing carriers. But, it's important to note that you'll be paying full price, or near to it, for your smartphone.

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Editors Letter: Who cares for the UNcarrier?

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DNP Editors Letter Who cares for the UNcarrier

It seems like a year ago already, but it's been only a few days since we wrapped up our inaugural Engadget Expand event. If you weren't able to join us in person, you missed a seriously good time. Attendees got to take a ride in a Tesla Model S, perform surgery using a da Vinci robotic surgery system and cruise around the show floor on the San Francisco Special edition of the electric ZBoard, which made its debut at the show.

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Editor’s Letter: The familiar 4

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In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

Editor's Letter BlackBerry takes over

Another week, another mega Android smartphone release! This time it's Samsung's eagerly awaited Galaxy S 4. Yes, we've lost the Roman numerals, as their marketing certainly hinted, but otherwise, not a lot has changed. In fact, even we experts, trained in the art of cellphone identification, are going to have a hard time telling the difference between this new Galaxy S and its predecessor from a distance.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy S 4 preview

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Editor’s Letter: Expand gets expanded

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In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

Editor's Letter BlackBerry takes over

Another week gone by and another week closer to the unveiling of the next Android superphone: the Samsung Galaxy S IV. We're days away from the event where it will debut to the world and, somewhat predictably, we're starting to see some leaks of bits and pieces about the phone's functionality -- though nothing as concrete as showing the thing itself just yet.

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Editors Letter: Sir Galaxy the Fourth

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In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

Editor's Letter BlackBerry takes over

After watching some of the life get sucked out of many of our favorite consumer electronics shows with major companies choosing to do their own thing in boutique events in fabulous cities around the world, we had our concerns about the 2013 iteration of Mobile World Congress. The HTC One got a showy New York City launch the week before the event and we already knew that Samsung was holding the Galaxy S IV until later. What's left to see in MWC, then? As it turns out, a heck of a lot.

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Editor’s Letter: PlayStation next

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In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

Editor's Letter BlackBerry takes over

We're not even through February yet, but already we're looking at a time where there are three major product unveilings in a single week! If anyone was wondering whether 2013 would see the private event trend continue, rest assured that we'll be jetting all over the damned place even more this year than we did the last. Not that we're complaining, mind you, especially when the events are prefaced by the kind of excitement that Sony built up ahead of its PlayStation 4 unveiling in New York City on Wednesday night.

As an unapologetic console gaming fiend, I was certainly looking forward to what Sony had to show. While I can't say that when the lights came up I was totally fulfilled -- the event was something of a big tease -- I did leave feeling generally enthused that Sony is actually making gaming a priority. I had serious concerns the PS4 would be more of a holistic media consumption device, gaming existing as just one of many, many facets. Indeed that may yet prove to be true, but for now the story was all about game developers and the cool stuff they're doing with the system. For that I am thankful.

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Editor’s Letter: Welcome back, gentlemen

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In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

Editor's Letter BlackBerry takes over

It's been a very, very good week for Engadget. On Wednesday, Aol announced it had purchased gdgt and, while we generally don't pay much heed to the acquisitional whims of our parent company, this one we're very, very excited about -- and you should be too. Gdgt is the creation of Engadget founder Peter Rojas and former editor-in-chief (and current editor emeritus) Ryan Block. They founded gdgt as a product-focused site in 2008 and, over the ensuing years, transformed it into a comprehensive database of the world's gadgetry, all that backed by an active community of people brought together by an innate love for the hottest in tech.

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Editor’s Letter: When the rubber hits the road

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In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

Editor's Letter BlackBerry takes over

The time for talk and for analysis has come to a close. The BlackBerry company's first phone hit the market in earnest and now we wait and see how the market reacts. According to BlackBerry itself, initial indications are just fine. While the company followed in the footsteps of Amazon and Microsoft and refused to give solid numbers (probably wisely), it did say that sales for the Canadian release were 50 percent stronger than any of the company's previous launches there. In the UK things looked even better, with sales 300 percent greater than any previous BlackBerry release.

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