Mossberg gives MobileMe a dreaded "can't recommend"

Walt Mossberg, who often borders on fanboy in his reviews on Apple's products, gave a dreaded thumbs down to Apple's MobileMe service.  MobileMe, which has had un-Apple-like hiccups and false starts has put a dent in Apple's brand veneer.  Honestly, we'd like to see Apple get some help from Google in this area....it obviously isn't Apple's stong point.

credit - http://www.9to5mac.com/mossberg-mobileme

Gizmodo's iPhone 3G Review Matrix

How do you read three lengthy reviews at the same time, really really fast? You jump to our review matrix of the iPhone 3G, first judged exclusively by the Three Amigos of Appledom: Ed Baig of USA Today, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times.

If you need more gritty and less nitty, check out Chen's rundown of the reviews. Or, if you have some spare time, read the Three Amigos' own unexpurgated scribblings. [USA Today, WSJ/AllThingsD, NYT]

iPhone 3G Reviews Are In

The first iPhone 3G reviews have just hit, from Walt Mossberg of the WSJ and All Things D, Ed Baig from USA Today and David Pogue from the NYTimes. No one goes deep into the app store but here's what they think:

Walt Mossberg of the WSJ has been testing it "for a couple of weeks" and sees that surfing on the faster 3G is between three and five times the speed of the original iPhone. However, Moss found that browsing on the 3G network drained his battery much faster than browsing on the original. Externally, he says the speaker was "much louder" (YES!) for both music and speakerphone, but otherwise pretty much the same as the original. One bug/feature he ran into was that you can only sync your calendar and contacts with either Exchange or your personal accounts, not both.

In Mossberg's own battery tests, he got 4 hours and 27 minutes (short of 5 hours) of talk time, which is three hours less than his test on the original iPhone. Using 3G, he got 5 hours and 49 minutes, which is slightly better than Apple's own claim. He couldn't test any apps on his iPhone 3G, but did on his old iPhone—they worked pretty much as advertised. He concludes with pretty much what we've all known: it's slightly more expensive on AT&T due to the higher price plan, but satisfies people who really need that 3G speed. What's weird is that Mossberg didn't test the GPS functionality at all, so we're left wondering how that is. [All Things D]

Ed Baig of USA Today also tested the iPhone 3G and claims both that it was worth the wait, but still not perfect. His complaints of the first one—no video capture, no Bluetooth stereo and no voice dialing—are still there. Also, AT&T's 3G coverage was nonexistent in his New Jersey home, which kinda negates the whole "iPhone 3G" thing. He notes that the new plastic backing helps reception, and the new flush headphone jack is "a welcome development." Unlike Mossberg, Baig does have something to note on the GPS. He says he was quite impressed by its accuracy when searching for pizza places while driving, and hopes that there will be a third-party add-on for turn-by-turn live directions.

Baig also says that the speaker is improved, but notes strangely that you can't directly charge the new iPhone 3G in some old accessories, such as a Bose SoundDock or a Belkin car kit. There's actually an adapter coming that will enable charging on those. Weird. He finishes up with his wishes for the next generation: Flash, Java and WMV support, removable battery and an expandable memory slot. All in all, a pretty positive review. [USA Today]

David Pogue of the NYT says that the audio quality is much improved, and notes that both incoming and outgoing sound is better than before. "In fact, few cellphones sound this good." The curved back makes the phone feel better in your hand, which is a definite plus. However, he says, the missing "standard cellphone features" from the first generation are also missing from this one. He hopes that the third-party Apps from the iPhone App Store will help fill in the gaps, but some of the ones we've seen—finding parking spots, free phone calls at Wi-Fi hotspots, random restaurant recommender, expense tracker, Etch-a-Sketch and tip calculator—don't exactly make up for the missing MMS, video recording and cut and paste features. Pogue also noticed the GPS does not support turn-by-turn navigation.

Pogue doesn't have much else in the way of benchmarks or impressions, but comes off seeming like he really likes the phone because of the iPhone 2.0 software; something old iPhone owners will be able to get for free. [NYT]

Notes: We have to say that Mossberg's review was the best in terms of completeness (save for the GPS omission). Normally, Newsweek would have a review up for the iPhone along with these three guys, but both they and Wired don't have an early review. This, we think, is because Steven Levy (the old Newsweek guy) at Wired, and Fake Steve Jobs (who hasn't quite started at Newsweek) didn't get the nod from Apple. We had our own hands on with the phone back at WWDC, which covers a lot of the exterior hardware elements as well as some of the software details.

Kara Visits Dash!

Earlier this week, I visited Dash Navigation, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based car-navigation device start-up that is being backed to the tune of $42 million by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins.

There, I got a look at the new GPS device called the Dash Express that went on sale exclusively on Amazon (AMZN) today and was also reviewed by my esteemed colleague Walt Mossberg (Cliff Notes on that: he liked it a lot, but it’s not perfect, although he thinks the $400 Dash signifies a leap ahead in the arena).

A longtime user of such devices–make that a longtime disgruntled user–I have always been annoyed that car navigation has been so removed from the digital and connected revolution taking place everywhere else.

Being able to grab information from the Web and also send it to a device seems an obvious move, so I am glad someone has made it. I am also interested in Dash’s use of devices to help inform the whole system about traffic problems, which will presumably work better as more Dash devices are on the road.

In fact, I am in Los Angeles right now–the epicenter of traffic congestion–and I brought a Dash unit to see how well that works. And I also sent a map of the hot spots from the HBO series, “Entourage.” First stop for breakfast after avoiding traffic on Fairfax: Canter’s, the very funky deli the “boys” get food from.

My review: The knishes were delicious and I was not annoyed either, since I was not stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic getting to them.

Here’s a video I did while visiting Dash’s HQ earlier this week: