The AnandTech Podcast: Episode 9
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 7, 2012 1:51 PM ESTThis past month has been insane thanks to many of our travel schedules. With things finally settling down I was able to get together with Brian and Vivek to record a mobile-update podcast going over all of the announcements we've been covering on the site lately. This is a long one, we go over all of the new Microsoft releases (Surface, Windows 8/RT, Windows Phone 8), the new Google releases (Chromebook, Nexus 4/10) and the new Apple releases (iPad mini, iPad 4, 13-inch rMBP), and more.
The AnandTech Podcast - Episode 9
featuring Anand Shimpi, Brian Klug, Vivek Gowri
iTunes
RSS - mp3, m4a
Direct Links - mp3, m4a
Total Time: 2 hours 8 minutes
Outline - hh:mm
Windows R/RT - 00:00
Surface - 00:05
Samsung Ativ Smart PC - 00:10
Windows Phone 8 - 00:24
Windows Phone 8X by HTC - 00:39
New Chromebook - 00:42
Nexus 4/10 Performance - 00:49
Nexus 10 - 00:52
Nexus 4 - 1:01
Android 4.2 - 1:24
iPad mini - 1:29
iPad 4 - 1:41
13-inch rMBP - 1:47
Element Case - 1:53
Base Station Emulator - 2:00
As always, comments are welcome and appreciated.
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MrCromulent - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
http://www.anandtech.com/tag/podcast :)dishayu - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
- Do one episode on SSDs please.- Maybe you can open it up to us people for buying suggestions? And since you'll get a big load of them, you can cherry pick an interesting one or one that might relate to a lot of people and then discuss/argue about that? I think 15 minutes towards the end could be a fair amount of time for this. People not interested can just stop at that point.
- How about getting charlie as a guest on an episode? The guy has some extreme viewpoints but it would be quite interesting (entertaining). I noticed that Anand and Charlie have been quite chatty on twitter lately. ;)
MFK - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
Also, is there a review for the Optimus G forthcoming?I'm guessing that phone will be a part of a lot of peoples shortslists owing to its hardware similarity to the Nexus and the fact that it comes with 32GB (every variant except the AT&T).
Other sites have their reviews up but none do as thorough of a job as you guys so I'm waiting for your take on it.
Any word on whether you guys plan on reviewing the device?
Spivonious - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
I really don't get the Windows Phone hate. If you want a Dropbox app, tell Dropbox to make one. This is not MS's fault.The criticism of messaging is also an odd one. What about the Facebook integration throughout the OS on WP? Apple is just now putting that in with iOS 6.
WP8 will be very popular, especially with people who have bought Windows 8/RT PCs and tablets. Their "three screens and a cloud" vision will finally come together, as the phones, tablets, PCs, and next Xbox all share a common platform.
jeffkibuule - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
Seems like Brian actually likes Windows Phone, but there are still issues that prevent him from saying "I don't need any other phone to function."And honestly, it is kinda sad when major 3rd party developers do not take a platform seriously. It's not about having an app access a service, it's about the lack of a 1st party app that cares about a platform, because we all know that 3rd parties will never get the same API access the actual company does (just see Twitter).
I also think most of the startups never bothered hiring any .net developers. Most learned iOS because that's where all the money is and pretty much everyone is taught Java in college. Though I'd argue that Java is close enough to C# that any competent programmer can pick it up, that still doesn't mean a Windows Phone or Windows 8 app will be made by the company.
However, this is where the important of Windows 8 cannot be understated. Windows 8 is too large a platform for any major developer to ignore. As such, the skills to make a Windows 8 app directly translate to Windows Phone 8. That's where I hope we'll see some cross pollination, if not direct transfer of code between platforms for most apps.
QuesoLoco - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
You can thank Mathais Duarte for that one!Palm Hardware / Software = Android 4.0+ Nexus 4/7/10
Krysto - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
How can you say Windows RT is as good as Android and iOS now, when you're also saying it needs at least Cortex A15 to run well? Android still runs on 600 Mhz ARM11 processors. Let's see Windows RT do that.I also think you bought too much into the Windows RT ads. I love how the other guy said "especially when using Office" - as if there's anything else that exists in desktop mode right now. How exactly is Windows RT any more productive than Android and iOS other than using a keyboard, which the other 2 can use, too? Name a few ways in which it's more productive and you can't do the same on iOS or Android. I'm tired of vague statements that have nothing to back them up.
And speaking of big.Little and A15. I don't know how you run your benchmarks, but if you're maximizing the CPU utilization for the devices, that may not be the PROPER way to benchmark a big.Little chip. The big.Little set-up is configured that way because in 80% of the tasks, it can use the A7 chip. But if your benchmarks are designed to use only the maximum performance, then it will just use A15, and will end up showing much lower battery life than it should - that won't be very relevant to how a normal person will use the phone. Again, I don't know exactly what tests you're doing, so I mean this just as a warning before you start reviewing big.Little devices, so you don't end up benchmarking just the A15 part of big.Little without realizing it.
QuesoLoco - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
I think you may have bought too much into the Windows RT hate.How about automatic side-by-side applications (Samsung's new Touch Wiz only can do some stock). How about actual driver support in mouse/keyboards as well as printers.
How about not having to root a ton of stuff to get down to the low level, as well as getting almost all of Windows 8's features. It's a powerful system.
VivekGowri - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
I actually wasn't even aware of the Windows RT marketing campaign, since most typical avenues of advertising don't factor into my world unless I specifically go looking for them.Windows RT is like having Windows 7 on a tablet device, except that when I want to use it as a slate I don't get screwed on the UX side. It's really the only one that offers multiwindow use as a built-in capability (except for the Galaxy Note 10), with both Windows UI Snap as well as the ability to put side by side windows in desktop mode. Bam, productivity. Multitasking at its core - using your device to do multiple things at once.
Other thoughts: having direct access to a file system in the Windows shell is phenomenal. Command prompt. Control panel offers far more power over device settings than you can get anywhere in iOS (or the Windows Settings app). Real, full versions of Office (or close enough). And no, current mobile office suites do not cut it. You cannot replicate the experience on iOS at all, even when you jailbreak it, and it takes far too much work to get close with an Android tablet.
With that said, I think the Clovertrail Windows 8 tablets are probably a better bet than the Tegra 3 based RT tablets, but the OS is the exact same thing. You obviously can't install x86 apps on the ARM tablets, but you'd never want to use them in tablet mode anyways (unless secretly you really loved the Tablet PC). Other than that, it's literally the same UI/UX. I don't understand all the kvetching.
phillyry - Monday, November 12, 2012 - link
Lol.Good reply Vivek.
It always irks me the way there's people who are ready to get their back up over everything when it's obvious you guys are just trying to tell it how it is.
Well rebuked.
Also good to squash all the squabbles. There are so many intelligent people in this forum, it's a waste for people to be yammering on with reactionary comments and flame wars.