Droid vs. iPhone: A 10-round bout

[Update: See the author's response to commenters in his follow-up post: "Droid vs. iPhone: Them's fightin' words'" —Ed.]

The Motorola Droid, available today from Verizon for $200 after rebates, is the latest in series of phones, including the Blackberry Storm, T-Mobile G1, and Palm Pre, to be floated as a potential threat to Apple’s iPhone, the undefeated champion of the smart-phone world. Other media who’ve weighed in on the showdown include Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

I liked what I saw when I put a press sample of the Droid through its paces. (See the Droid review here.) Now, as our testers complete their extensive tests on the Droid, here’s my 10-round preliminary take on how the new Verizon smart phone fares against the iPhone 3G S, which remains—at least for now—the highest-rated smart phone in our Ratings (available to subscribers).

Ding ding:

Round 1. Touch screen. Advantage: iPhone. Both phones have highly responsive touch screens. But the iPhone's is multitouch for all functions, allowing you to zoom in and out of photos and Web pages by pinching or spreading your fingers. The Droid has such multitouch functionality only when running certain applications, according to Engadget.

Round 2. Interface. Advantage: Droid. A tough call, since both phones have a terrific icon-based interface that makes finding and launching their many features a snap. However the Droid, which employs the latest 2.0 version of Google’s Android operating system, allows a higher degree of personalization via widgets and other tools, and you put all of your e-mails from different accounts (except Gmail) under one view.

Extra Extra: Consumer Reports Electronics Buying Guide is on sale

(Click to enlarge.)

It may be a tad early to start your holiday shopping, but there’s a good chance you’ve at least been thinking about it. Maybe you’ve had a big-ticket gift—like a new TV or home theater—in mind for a while now, but are putting off the purchase till November or December. If it’s sales you’re waiting for, you probably know what you want and how much you’re willing to pay. On the other hand, you might just a teeny bit leery of throwing so much cash at something you know very little about. Which is better: a plasma or LCD TV? Should you upgrade to a Blu-ray player or stick with standard-def DVDs?

If you find yourself in need of expert advice, consider the newest edition of the Consumer Reports Electronics Buying Guide. Inside you’ll find a wealth of information on everything from televisions and computers to smart phones, GPS units, and much more. For each product, the Consumer Reports editors walk you through the basics, explaining what’s available, which features matter, brand profiles, and offering tried-and-true shopping tips.

In addition to product information, the guide offers advice on how to shop smarter, including:

• Netting the best deals online, and protecting yourself when you shop on the Web


• When to repair and when to replace a broken item


• How to haggle effectively


• Finding the best electronics retailer based on our comprehensive annual survey


• How to save—and what to be wary of—with refurbished or open-box products on store shelves


• Where to get free office software, free computer security programs, and more useful freeware

First Look: The Microsoft Zune HD

Microsoft Zune HD (Click to enlarge.)
[PHOTO: Courtesy of Microsoft]

This third-generation Zune is a significant, and largely successful, facelift of a media player that has ranked towards the middle of our Ratings of MP3 players, available to subscribers. The upgrade begins with its appearance; measuring 4 x 3.5 inches, the Zune HD is noticeably thinner and more elegant than the first, boxy, and drab-colored Zune models.

Available now, the Zune HD costs $220 in the 16GB version, $290 in the 32GB version.

We'll be adding the Zune HD to our Ratings in a few weeks. Meantime, here are our first impressions of the player:

The display is sharp. The 3.3-in. multi-touch-screen display was quite responsive. And with its 170-dot-per inch (dpi) resolution, it's about as sharp as the 160-dpi display on Apple’s iPod Touch, the closest counterpart to the Zune HD in Apple’s lineup.Colors on the Zune display, which uses organic light emitting diode technology, appeared vibrant.

The Zune HD also shares these other capabilities with the Touch: You can zoom in on photos by widening your fingers, or double-tap the screen to return them to original size. The screen reorients Web pages and photos when you tilt the player. And there’s a virtual keyboard to facilitate searches on its Web browser. Unlike the Touch and other players, however, the Zune HD doesn't support streaming video.

HD Radio is a plus. True to its moniker, the Zune HD is the first portable player with a built-in HD Radio. (Besides simulcasting their main signal digitally, with better sound quality than the analog broadcast, FM stations that broadcast HD Radio signals provide information on the music that’s playing and often offer additional programming through what’s called multicasting.) Like the new iPod Nano, the Zune allows you to tag songs you hear on its radio for later purchase. And, as promised, you can use the Zune’s Wi-Fi capability, a feature the Nano lacks, to download purchases directly to the player, or to wirelessly sync the player to your PC.

Navigation is fairly easy. The Zune HD's Quickplay menu makes it easy to find the music, videos, podcasts, and other content. It allows you to create shortcuts, called "pins," to any item in your collection and also displays your playback history and recent purchases additions. You can peck your way down the menu tree to find a song, album, video, etc. The display also duplicates the appearance of the Zune software on your PC desktop. But that trick can sometimes be a problem, we found, because some elements get squeezed or cut off on the display.

The music never stops. The Zune HD has a Smart DJ feature, akin to iTune's Genius, that creates an "endless playlist" of songs based on your tastes and how the songs are related musically. For $15 a month, you can add the Zune Pass service, which offers users unlimited access to many songs in the Zune Marketplace catalog.

The Zune HD packs a lot of smart, powerful features into a relatively small and sexy package, and may even turn some Zune mockers into admirers. Mac owners won’t be among them, however, since the Zune remains Windows-only, even in this new version.

Another drawback: Many of the Ssongs you buy on your Zune account can't be played on other players or unauthorized computers. And Microsoft's payment method remains batty. Instead of currency, you pay for things with "points," which you have to buy in $5 increments. And because the points don't match currency, its hard to tell how much you're spending. —Mike Gikas.

New iPod Nano: Video, radio, and features galore

Here's a First Look at Apple’s new, fifth-generation iPod Nano, the first iPod with an FM radio and the ability to take videos. It’s the same size and weight as the old Nano, though the display has been enlarged slightly, to 2.2 inches. Claimed playback time is five hours for video, 24 hours for music. The 8GB Nano costs only $149; the 16GB version costs $179.

"Smile, you're on Nanocam." Taking videos on the Nano is fun and fairly easy, as the video first look (at right) shows. The wide-angle lens gets in lots of background, convenient if you're in a tight space with lots of people. After synching with iTunes on your computer, you can easily e-mail your videos to friends, post them on Facebook and Youtube, or edit them in iPhoto.

You don't need to have iTunes running to see your videos. The Nano shows up as an additional drive on your computer, so you can just drag them off the Nano. However you manage content, you’ll need to ensure you leave sufficient capacity for shooting video after loading music and other content; as with other iPods, when you’re away from the computer, you can’t delete songs from the Nano to free up space for more video recordings.

In terms of quality, we found the Nano cam comparable to standard-definition pocket camcorders such as the Flip Ultra. That is, they’re fine for casual viewing and posting online but fall short of the quality you’ll get from a full-sized standard-def camcorder. Also like pocket camcorders, the Nano records only in mono. At normal sound levels, such as conversations, the sound quality was decent. But as our subject got louder, as in laughing and screaming, the audio became noticeably distorted.

Smart radio. The Nano is a latecomer to FM on MP3 players, but its Live Pause feature, also shown in the video, records the station you're listening to slightly ahead of the live broadcast, so when you hit the pause button, the program pauses. Hit play and it picks up from where you left off, or you can rewind up to 15 minutes, or fast-forward to catch up to the live broadcast. Another plus—you can see the name of the current song and artist on the display. On the downside, when in Live Pause mode, it’s nearly impossible to switch to another channel.

Tag, you're it. Another convenient feature is iTunes tagging, which allows you to tag a song that’s playing on the radio so you can order it later from iTunes. Great idea, but the station has to support iTunes tagging for the feature to work. And in our tests, we were only able to find one station that did—a local "lite FM” station.

Not-so-smart DJ. Music player updates include Genius Mixes, which scours your collection according to genre and makes up play lists that . Nice idea, but some mixes we ordered up weren’t that smart, as we also cover in the video. —Mike Gikas

New Microsoft Zune HD hits stores

Microsoft Zune HD (Click to enlarge.)
[PHOTO: Courtesy of Microsoft]

On the heels of the iPod Nano launched late last week (we plan to post a video review of it tomorrow), Microsoft today began selling its new version of its media player, the Zune HD.

Having bought the Zune HD today, we expect to report on our first impressions later in the week. It’s most akin in appearance and functionality to Apple’s Touch player. It boasts a 3.3- inch touchscreen display, in a widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) shape, and the ability to output high-definition (720p) video to a TV set. Like the Nano, with its innovative pause function, the new Zune has a radio with a plus: the ability to receive HD Radio—the digital signals offered by many radio stations that typically add extra programming and display information on the song being played.

The Zune HD promises more interconnectivity with other Windows devices than past Zunes. Those predecessors could wirelessly share content with other Zunes (albeit with many restrictions), as well as wirelessly sync with PCs. The HD preerves the Wi-fi connection to PCs but drops the sharing between Zunes.

It also takes advantage of the integration of Zune Marketplace, Microsoft's less-bountiful counterpart to Apple's iTunes Store, with Xbox Live Marketplace, which serves the company’s gaming consoles. That supposedly allows you to download and begin viewing a movie on your console, and then transfer it to your Zune HD to continue viewing on the go.

Apple updates iTunes and the iPhone OS

The updated iTunes sync screen. (Click to enlarge)
[PHOTO: Courtesy of Apple]

In addition to unveiling a new lineup of iPods, Apple today announced upgrades to its iTunes music-management software and store, along with making available a new version of the iPhone software for its smart phones and iPod Touch. All are available immediately.

iTunes version 9 adds the following key features to all iPods with displays:

iTunes LP. This includes expanded visual features to downloaded albums, such as live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, and album credits. But it's only available for a handful of albums from such artists as Norah Jones, the Grateful Dead, and Dave Matthews.

iTunes Extra. Similar to iTunes LP, this features documentaries, deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries you can download from iTunes. But, it too, is only available for a small number of titles, which include "Twilight," "Batman Begins," "WALL-E," "Iron Man" and "The Da Vinci Code."

Home Sharing. As the name implies, this lets you transfer music, movies, and TV shows among up to five authorized computers, allowing up to five iTunes libraries to be shared on a home network. It claims to filter out the portion of the shared libraries each user already has, and allows content to be imported directly to their libraries and for new purchases made at any computer on the network to be automatically added to all users libraries.

Genius Mixes. A DJ application that plays endless mixes of songs from your library that Genius thinks "go together." Just click on one of the mixes, and start playing it—and it will go on and on and on, like a radio station.

iPhone OS 3.1, available now for free, will allows iPhone and Touch users to organize their apps on their computer desktop, using iTunes, and to automatically appear on your iPhone with the same layout. It also adds the ability to sync music by artist and genre and sync photos by Events and Faces. [[The upgrade is free for iPhones, and $4.95 for Touches]]—Mike Gikas.

Apple announces a “Nanocam,” tweaks the other iPods

[UPDATE Sept. 16, 2009: We've posted a video review of the iPod Nano evaluating its new video and radio features. See New iPod Nano: Video, radio, and features galore. —Ed.]

Apple today announced its first iPod equipped with a camera and modestly upgraded the rest of the iPod line.

The camera-equipped iPod isn’t the Touch, as we and others had predicted, but the mid-level iPod Nano. Available immediately for $149 (8GB) and $179 (16GB), the new Nanos will now sport a standard-definition video camera—and seemingly only a video camera; Apple’s press materials do not mention still-photo capability.

Apple chairman Steve Jobs, in his first appearance as an Apple spokesman since a prolonged sick leave, claims the Nano provides the same video quality as bulkier, so-called pocket camcorders, like the Samsung Pure Digital's Flip. (Such camcorders yield middling video quality that’s fine for online or other casual use, according to our tests, available to subscribers.) The Nanos also have a microphone and speaker built in.

The new Nanos boast the same diminutive size and oblong shape as their predecessors, though the display has been enlarged slightly, to 2.2 inches. Claimed playback time is five hours for video, 24 hours for music.

The Nanos are also the first iPods with built-in FM radios—the absence of which has long been a drawback for some consumers to Apple’s music player—with some innovative features. FM broadcasts can be paused, much like MP3 selections, and songs heard on the radio can be tagged for the later purchase on iTunes.

The Nanos also have a built-in pedometer that supposedly tracks calories you burned and comes in silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, red, and pink.

Here are the modest changes to the other iPods:

Touch. Apple's flagship iPod, the iPhone without the phone, gets a subtle facelift, beginning with faster graphics (courtesy of support of a standard called OpenGL) and a doubling of maximum storage capacity to 64GB—for the same $399 price as the old 32GB model. There's also an 8GB Touch for $199, and 32GB model for $299.

Classic. Apple’s only hard drive player didn’t disappear, as we and others predicted, but was refreshed in a higher capacity, of 160GB. It costs $249, the same as the old 120GB model.

Shuffle. The tiniest MP3 player in our MP3-player Ratings, available to subscribers, the 4GB Shuffle remains unchanged and is available for the same price of $79. But it now has a lower-capacity (2GB) twin for $59. —Mike Gikas and Paul Reynolds.

New iPods expected from Apple's conference

[PHOTO: Courtesy of marco.ziero]

September is the time of year when Apple refreshes its iPod line, so it's fairly safe to assume the press conference Apple is holding Wednesday, starting at 10 am Pacific time, will include news on the company’s media players.

We'll report on the event later in the day. Meantime, here are my predictions on what those announcements will be:

Higher-capacity iPods. Probably double the capacity of what's available now, for about the same price. That means a 64-gigabyte (GB) Touch, 32GB Nano, and 8GB Shuffle.

A camera and GPS capability for the iPod Touch. Speculators have been disappointed before on this topic, but this time the stars are properly aligned for adding a camera to at least one iPod. The company’s iPod Touch, essentially an iPhone without the cell-phone carrier connection or camera, is the natural first candidate, especially given that the latest iPhone boasts a 3.0-megapixel camera with editing capability. Also, the multiple GPS apps now available for the iPhone, including one from TomTom, could work on the Touch, were it to add a GPS chip, which reads position via satellite without need for a cell network connection.

Goodbye hard-drive models. Except for some niche portable video players made by Archos and iRiver, hard-drive MP3 players have all but disappeared from the marketplace. (Microsoft is dropping hard-drive models from the refresh of its Zune line, scheduled for mid-September.) The demise of Apple’s 120-GB Classic iPod seems likely.

An update to iTunes. Apple often combines iPod announcements with updates to its music-management software. Back in July, the Financial Times reported that Apple was working with major record labels, whose CD sales have steadily slipped, to spice up album downloads with more compelling extras that include "interactive" album material. Look for an announcement of iTunes album downloads that will insert a digital booklet of photos, lyric sheets and liner notes.

There’s also been speculation that the Apple event, being the same day as the Beatles catalog is re-released in remastered form (more on that in another post), will include a long-awaited announcement that the Fab Four’s music is being added to the iTunes Store.

Anything’s possible tomorrow from Apple (including announcements unrelated to iPods or iTunes), but it’s worth noting that the invitations for the event include the line “It’s Only Rock and Roll But We Like It.” Borrowing from a Rolling Stones song to help in announcing a Beatles deal seems odd, to say the least. —Mike Gikas

Airport checkpoint tip: If in doubt, take gear out

If you want to get through airport checkpoints more quickly this vacation season, remove not only laptops but all other “major electronics” items from carry-on bags before they’re x-rayed.

That’s the upshot of several recent conversations with spokespeople for the Transportation Safety Administration. However, the agency doesn’t have an up-to-date list of what qualifies as “major electronics,” and its latest information on the topic specifies only laptops for removal.

That ambiguity can leave you guessing whether your device is “major” or among what the TSA characterizes as “small and portable electronic items that need not be removed.”

So I discovered when preparing to clear security at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on a recent trip. I dutifully removed a netbook from my briefcase, presuming the device would qualify as a laptop. (There’s an exception for laptops carried in one of the relatively new laptop bags that are TSA-approved to travel through security without removal.)

But I didn’t think to remove my Kindle DX e-book reader. But the device, with its 9.7-inch screen, attracted the attention of the agent manning the x-ray machine, who asked if it contained some “device with a screen.”

Getting a charge: Tips on keeping gear juiced on air trips

Powering high powered electronic devices on the go can be a headache. How do you handle it?

Summer travel season can easily create power struggles in airport terminals, as the gaggle of geeks seeking to recharge laptops, cell phones, and other gear outstrips the supply of working outlets.

I had first-hand experience of this last week when I was waylaid in Terminal C at Logan International Airport in Boston after a flight was canceled. Over four or so hours, in a terminal choked with travelers, I saw (and, I confess, perpetrated myself) some quasi-military tactics to take and hold functional, well-located outlets.

But I also witnessed some random acts of power-sharing kindness, and had time — plenty of time — to gather the following tips for energy-seeking air travelers:

Gather intelligence. During my delay, I was blessed by the company of many friendly Coloradans (we were all waiting for flights to Denver). They shared their knowledge about where outlets were and which actually worked (only about half, it seemed). There’s also the AirPower Wiki, which details outlet availability airport by airport – even terminal by terminal, in some cases.

Several devices to charge? Bring a multi-outlet wall adapter. Packing an adapter that allows you to plug several devices into a single outlet increases the chance of getting the power you need, and frees up extra outlets for others. A single outlet should have no problem handling the power demands of two portable-electronic devices. If you’re traveling abroad, you’ll likely need another adapter to handle differing voltage, plug design, or both. Sites like the World Electric Guide can be helpful.