Brian Barrett's discussions

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Brian Barrett
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Welcome to Gizmodo's holiday site!

You are paying for the software and OS, both of which I talk about extensively in the review. And yes, it's much better. But not THAT much better, based on having used all three. Read more

Sure, how about the 15-inch rMBP? You can get it spec'd out almost identically for about the same without making all of the performance sacrifices. Read more

It's heading back that direction, but it wasn't for a while! The original iPad, the new MacBook Air, those were price leaders, believe it or not. iPad mini and this retina MBP are heading back to the era of an Apple Premium, though. Not encouraging. Read more

Yes. I've used all three, a lot, and they do some things better and some things worse. You know, equivalents. Read more

I still don't buy the argument that if you're not used to retina you won't notice the difference. The iPad mini costs 65% more than the Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7. To pay that much more for an inferior display sounds insane to me, whether you'll notice it or not. As I mentioned in my review, you'd think Wendy's Read more

I mean, everyone has a choice whether or not to spend HUNDREDS of dollars on a silly tablet. And it's not like a $330 iPad mini is some sort of huge bargain for people with stretched budgets. It's a hugely expensive toy that's barely better than much cheaper equivalent toys. Read more

That's simply not true. Apple publishes sales figures for EVERY device, all the time. Read more

Sorry, have to chime in here again. I think the "three million sold" story is the one you're referring to, in terms of "bias"? Instead of just regurgitating the press release (like so many other sites did), I bothered to notice that for the first time in a long time Apple didn't break out specific product sales, and Read more

Maybe, but that could also be because lately Apple's been doing more stupid things? I just calls 'em like I sees 'em. Read more

That argument also makes zero sense to me. Do you think really people would have bought the 900 more if it had been twice as expensive? Read more

Nokia and Windows Phone's image problem is that people don't know that they exist. Being the affordable option is exactly how you fix that, at least for now, just to build name recognition. Read more

Ah rats, I had high hopes! My topographical situation isn't much better; lots of hills, no clear shot to the broadcast antennas. Read more

I've said this before to Sam but I'll say it again here: this argument makes no sense to me. Nokia (and Microsoft) need these phones to get in as many people's hands as possible. No one knows what Windows Phone is. Why in god's name would you take a $200 flyer on something you're unfamiliar with when the iPhone costs Read more

I'm really curious to see how the built-in antenna on the Boxee TV does. If it's even remotely solid, that's going way high up on my want list. Read more

Maybe! Jalop's are a bit more extreme, though, since they involve very expensive trips. In this instance, I woke up at 3am to buy an iPad mini when it went on sale, waited for it to come to my door for a week, played with it for a week, and am returning it tonight after work. Read more

Pick up one, then pick up the other. It's a big difference. Read more

Any specific inaccuracies you're referring to? Would be happy to correct anything I've said here that's not factual, or reconsider any opinions based on falsities. Read more