You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
I still remember the comments on my welcome letter when I took over the site on a sunny day in early 2011. It was beautiful outside and here I was sweating bullets in a tiny NYC hotel room, watching the reaction in comments and elsewhere. Needless to say there was more than a little hate, but there was so much warmth and optimism and welcome it really powered me through what ultimately became a very long, very good day. That support carried me past more than two incredibly challenging, hugely rewarding years.
And so it's with heavy heart that I say that I'm stepping away. Those early days in 2011 were an incredible challenge, and if I'm frank it never really got any easier, with the dawn of new competition and an incredible evolution in the quality of tech journalism over the past few years. We've always had our work cut out for us at Engadget, and I'm hugely proud of how our team rose to the challenge, recently winning numerous awards for content, video and design and, most importantly, maintaining the respect of the Engadget brand.
It goes without saying that I had a great opportunity to shape Engadget and I always strove to turn it into a site that everyone, on both sides of the aisle, respected. Respect is the most important thing for me, and those who worked under me at Engadget have earned my eternal respect. I hope you'll give them the same. In the end, I look forward to reading all the comments that this post elicits. I won't be able to reply to them all, but do know that I am so incredibly thankful for your support over the years, even to the haters. Without your hard licks I, and the entire Engadget team, wouldn't have been as driven to exceed as we have always been.As for me? Well, I don't have any specific plans for the moment, but let's just say I'm looking forward to taking a little break before dealing the next hand. The sky's the limit.
You can find me on Twitter as @Tim_Stevens.
Filed under: Announcements
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.
Another week with Google Glass and, as I grow more accustomed to having it in my life, I find myself struggling more and more to come up with reasons to wear the thing. I'm still very happy to stop on the street and give people a demo, but if I'm being honest, I don't need that much attention from strangers in my life. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very excited about the potential here, but it's safe to say the novelty is running out.
Still, this week Glass did get a nice improvement. The XE5 update was released late Tuesday night and shipped with a series of small but important niceties, like notifications from Google+ and the ability to do a search from anywhere in the UI. Unfortunately, this update also changes things such that uploads will only occur from the headset when it's plugged in and on WiFi. That'll help battery life -- at a somewhat unfortunate cost to wireless functionality.
Filed under: Misc, Blackberry
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.
This week I'm writing from a special place: from the perspective of a Google Glass owner. Well, to be honest I'm not wearing them this exact moment -- I'm actually at 30,000 feet, making the most of a Gogo connection, and when your phone is in airplane mode there's not much point in wearing the headset. Unless, of course, you're looking for a conversation starter. In that role, the headset performs impeccably even when turned completely off.
It's been an interesting couple days wearing the headset around, days I'll continue to chronicle on the site because I know many of you are eager to know what Glass is like. I know this because I've had dozens of strangers come up to me and ask, "What's it like?" Suffice to say, Glass is very interesting and the potential is compelling, but right now the thing is somewhat frustrating in its limited functionality. That'll change real soon as more developers get to grips with the Mirror API.
Filed under: Apple, Samsung, Sony, Google, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Nintendo
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.
This week I'm writing from a special place: from the perspective of a Google Glass owner. Well, to be honest I'm not wearing them this exact moment -- I'm actually at 30,000 feet, making the most of a Gogo connection, and when your phone is in airplane mode there's not much point in wearing the headset. Unless, of course, you're looking for a conversation starter. In that role, the headset performs impeccably even when turned completely off.
It's been an interesting couple days wearing the headset around, days I'll continue to chronicle on the site because I know many of you are eager to know what Glass is like. I know this because I've had dozens of strangers come up to me and ask, "What's it like?" Suffice to say, Glass is very interesting and the potential is compelling, but right now the thing is somewhat frustrating in its limited functionality. That'll change real soon as more developers get to grips with the Mirror API.
Filed under: Apple, Samsung, Sony, Google, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Nintendo
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.
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.
Filed under: Samsung
Our own Tim Stevens (literally) rolled into Fort Mason this morning to kick off Expand and shortly after walked his way backstage to chat with Myriam Joire about -- you guessed it -- Expand. To find out more about where the event came from, where it is and where it's going, check out the full interview after the break.
Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here!