Hasta La Gadget!

The Verizon iPhone and AT&T iPhone have gone head-to-head in thousands of broadband tests, and the numbers tell the story you’d expect: AT&T’s network is much faster.

Ookla, creators of the Speedtest.net broadband test, compiled data from tests run by iPhone customers using the Speedtest.net app on both AT&T and Verizon. On average, the reported AT&T iPhone transfer rates were roughly two times faster than the Verizon iPhone’s.

The AT&T iPhone’s average download speed was 1,769 Kbps, and the average upload speed was 730 Kbps. By way of comparison, the Verizon iPhone’s average download speed was 848 Kbps, and the average upload speed was 506 Kbps.

The results come from 43,000 AT&T iPhones and 14,000 Verizon iPhones all over the United States. Most Speedtest.net app users ran the tests multiple times, totaling 106,000 results from AT&T iPhone users and 49,000 results from Verizon iPhone users.

The Speedtest.net results did not provide data on coverage reliability or dropped connections.

From my benchmarking of the Verizon iPhone versus the AT&T iPhone, I also found that the AT&T iPhone’s 3G transfer rates were much faster than Verizon’s. However, the AT&T iPhone sometimes could not complete tests because it did not have a connection, whereas the Verizon iPhone successfully completed every test. In short, I found the Verizon iPhone to be slower with network transfers but more reliable with coverage. Reviewers at other publications had the same results.

“I think that’s the story I expected to see,” said Doug Suttles, co-founder of Ookla. “Verizon has never talked up their speed, but they always talk up coverage and reliability…. I think the story is quality versus throughput: What are you after?”

Speedtest.net’s nationwide results back my verdict: You should get a Verizon iPhone if you really care about voice quality and calls, but the AT&T iPhone is better as a media-consumption device (Netflix movies, photo downloads and uploads, etc.) because of its faster speeds.

Speedtest.net download link [iTunes]

Twelve South’s MagicWand is a 16-inch strip of aluminum with a single purpose in life: to make your Apple keyboard and trackpad get along better. The Bluetooth aluminum keyboard and the Magic Trackpad slide into the c-section strip and are held together as one solid unit. You can use it on the desktop or on your lap.

I have had one to test for the past week or so and it is a typically solid accessory from Twelve South. The two peripherals snap into place by their battery bulges — the round bits that prop them up from the rear. Once snapped into the MagicWand, you slide an h-section plastic bar between them. This, along with a rubber t-section insert, keep the pad and board in line with each other. Once connected, they seem as one.

For me, using the unit on the desk isn’t so great. One stray touch on the now very nearby trackpad can send your cursor off to another part of your text and have you tying in the wrong place. This is more of a problem with my flailing typing style, though. The actual MagicWand is meant for a desk, and has rubber feet at the rear, just like the Apple originals.

On the lap, though, it’s better, forming a solid lap-top desk. You can sit back and control a media center Mac Mini, for example, or just lean back in your desk chair as I am now, taking a break from all that endless sitting up straight.

The MagicWand will cost $30. It works great, but I prefer to have my Magic Trackpads (I have two) out on either side of my keyboard, and pushed a little back. If you do fancy one, then go ahead. You won’t have a problem with build quality.

MagicWand product page [Twelve South. Thanks, Andrew!]

See Also:

• Apple's Magic Trackpad Brings Multi-Touch to the Desktop
• Apple's First 'Magic' Trackpad from 1997
• Backpack Adds Tidy Shelf to Back of Mac
• BookBook for MacBook Notebook

The latest report on the health of Apple head Steve Jobs comes from no less reputable a source than that bastion of journalistic integrity, The National Enquire. Yep, the CEO, who has been largely absent from the company after taking sick leave back in January, is right there on the cover, next to a story about an Elizabeth Taylor’s “Secret Heart Operation” and a think piece entitled “Hollywood Out of Control.”

The tabloid published some admittedly brutal shots of Jobs, who reportedly weighs around 130 pounds. Oh, also the testimonial of a doctor “with 40 years experience,”

He is terminal. What you are seeing is extreme muscle wasting from calorie deprivation, most likely caused by cancer. He has no muscle left in his buttocks, which is the last place to go. He definitely appears to be in the terminal stages of his life from these photos. I would be surprised if he weighed more than 130 lbs.

Steve Jobs took another medical leave of absence earlier this year with no estimated return date. The National Enquirer has now published some scary looking photos of Steve, which depict him looking thinner and perhaps more ill than ever. (Photos in the spread above by Nick Stern) More »

Online rentals and purchases of movies are still just a tiny fraction of the home video pie, but Warner’s latest effort to expand that is similar to Paramount’s recent efforts on Windows Phone 7 (Thanks SteveyAyo), offering its highest profile flicks as apps for iPhones and iPads. The Dark Knight and Inception are the first two releases out of the gate, offering free apps with some bonus content and the first five minutes of the movie, then charging $9.99 and $11.99, respectively to unlock the rest. According to Warner, it offers a different experience than simply purchasing the flick over iTunes because of the extras which include Twitter and Facebook integration among the extras, plus the ability to offer the digital version in countries where iTunes doesn’t sell movies yet, like China, Brazil and the Netherlands. There’s a video demo and press release after the break, but the downside of being locked to portable devices is keeping us from clicking the buy button for now, but if you could sprinkle some Ultraviolet on it, we might change our tune.

Continue reading Warner packages movies as iOS apps, starting with The Dark Knight and Inception

Warner packages movies as iOS apps, starting with The Dark Knight and Inception originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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