"Mighty Minis": The WIRED Factor

In this month's issue of Wired magazine (APR 2007, Issue 15.04), on page 104 is their "Test" feature from the "Play" section of the magazine where they test out (duh) current technology and/or other cool gadgets or products currently on the market. This month's feature? Ultralight laptops. Article headline? "Mighty Minis."

What's wrong with the picture is that absent from the stack of laptops in the picture is an offering from Apple! Very odd, to say the least. At the top is the aforementioned HP Pavilion tx1000, and following it in sequential order are the: Toshiba Portege R400, Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet, and (not surprisingly, since most VAIOs are always in this category) Sony VAIO VGN-SZ230P.

All were given a score from a possible of 10 dots and were ranked from highest to lowest, the reason for the order above. The HP earned 8 dots.

The HP laptop got rave reviews for having a wide LCD screen and having, "...awesome audio for such a small system." The downfalls, which they label as tired, are its AMD processors which "lacks oomph," and a "pathetic 78-minute battery life." They have a $39 extended battery, but don't say how long the extension lasts.

Second in line was the Toshiba Portege (yes, correct spelling minus the accent marks) which Wired compares to an Apple machine. "Its striking case could cause this laptop to be mistaken for a Mac." Problem is, it runs Vista. (Which may be the reason, in hindsight).

So these are all things Apple should be paying attention to-- Can you hear me now? Steve, can you hear me now? Though Cingular/AT&T isn't the owner of that famous tagline used in a commercial, so sorry. (Hey, I'm a long-time Sprint customer myself so I'm breaking all the loyalty ties here... I should've quoted something from Sprint instead).

Maybe that's what Apple Inc. should be calling their next ultra, sorry, totally super ultra-portable: the Mighty Mac mini.

Advancing the Art is Apple's Claim to Fame

Rob Enderle, touted on the Enderle Group's website as, "...one of the industry's most influential and most quoted analysts" and "one of the world's most sought-after technology pundits"--ironically--writes a column for the website Technology Pundits and the other week, wrote a review of this HP tx1000. (I got the link to it from HP, since they quote him in their e-mail).

"The HP TX1000 is for the person who doesn't like to compromise, who wants great portability and great performance, entertainment and productivity, and who wants one of the first products to blaze the path to the next generation of notebook computers."

If HP is blazing the path, then they better look behind them because Apple's surely going to trample all over them. I can't wait to see how Rob will review the rumored next-gen Apple portable when and if it finally comes out this year. (Or whenever).

At least Enderle pays homage to the leader of innovation, the real advancer of the art.

"Like Apple, HP has a massive focus on design now and it shows in the quality and beauty of this offering," says Enderle in his review. (Note how he says "now" like after Apple has done all of this already... now, not, has always continued to, or has been been doing all along).

He corroborates this fact when at the end of the page, he says, "But most important, this further shows a return to a time when design was important and it... will help take the industry to a time when pride in a product was more important than price."

"This is a place where Apple users have almost lived exclusively and it's nice to see companies finally give Apple some competition in the area of attractively built products," Enderle says.

[For the full review without comments by me--yours pundit, um, yours truly, click here]

That's why I can't wait to see what Apple will come up with next and hope that, as I said, they're looking at all the "flaws" of HP's machine so that they don't copy it and transfer it into their designs. (On the link to the product from the previous page, look at the 360-degree views).

Not that I think for a moment that Apple would goof up their product, but if you read some of my past articles, I've balanced out my affinity for the Mac-maker by pointing out some of those flaws and inconsistencies in their designs and decision-making over the last few years.

go to: 1 | 2 | next page