MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Jul 01, 09 - 01:49 pm Comment from: Mac Daddy

3G and Samsung Omnia in a tie? Bah.

yeah, Mac Daddy, it must have gotten sympathy points! I'm not sure how other device can be as close as they say.

Jul 01, 09 - 02:18 pm Comment from: deepdish

What do you mean the 3GS scared a 73. Yikes, tough grading methodology.

CU usually indicates that a few points difference in score are not significant. So the 3GS scores 73 and the fourth place Pre a 67, so they're almost equal. Anyone believe that? Heck if the 3GS - the best smartphone ever - only merits a 73, what would it take to score a 99? Teleportation?

Jul 01, 09 - 02:34 pm Comment from: MacAdvocate

9 times out of 10‚ I'd back CR and say MDN got it wrong by slagging them.

But not with consumer tech - ESPECIALLY cell phones.

They're awful. By this time they have to know it.

Hey, my lexus is also tie with the Yugo and the ford K.

@trot
And my Porshe cayene score the best in the world with a score of 53, then the sturn with a score of 52.

Jul 01, 09 - 02:45 pm Comment from: ken1w

Doesn't really matter in this case. Most consumers (who care about smart phones) already know that the "iPhone" (whether it's old or new) is the best. They don't need some magazine to confirm it. The only time CR is helpful, is when you are trying to compare something mundane, like refrigerators or microwave ovens.

Jul 01, 09 - 02:48 pm Comment from: qka

I subscribed to CR for many years. However, their inept technology coverage was the main reason I let my subscription lapse.

I rather trust the internet for my purchase decisions anyway.

Nothing beats volume and lack of censorship.

Jul 01, 09 - 03:10 pm Comment from: bkire

I chuckle at the concept that the "iPhone" is put in the smartphone category. Perhaps it's as good as any category for now. However, I predict Apple's bigger innovative vision. I have for a long time considered the iPhone to be not just, "an iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator", but more of a pocket computer with audio chat capabilities. The concept and design of this device I feel is only the beginning of a bigger picture. Look at the evidence so far. For example, Snow Leopard is basically the start of an OS that will be able to run not just on desktops and laptops, but on palmtops too! The iPhone OS already has many technologies that are yet to appear on our Macs. So called "tablets" are going to come, only when Apple is satisfied with the foundation and technologies needed to make the upcoming innovative products a great experience. Apple has all the great ideas. The revenues to be gained from these gems is just a byproduct. As mentioned in other articles, Apple's sight on money is necessary as a business, but the overall goal is innovation and great product experiences. I see exciting products from Apple ahead, the iPhone is just the beginning of a bigger vision. I also feel this will always be true at Apple whether Steve is there or not. His vision, as his employees understand it, will live on.

Jul 01, 09 - 03:53 pm Comment from: Renderdog

@qka

Ditto. Their inept tech coverage led me to question their other reports; why should we expect their refrigerator reviews to be any more accurate? Reliability ratings, based on their customer ratings, are worthwhile. I check those out at the library now.

Jul 01, 09 - 04:08 pm Comment from: alansky

Consumer Reports should stick to washing machines.

I used to work in the Bicycle business and I can tell you from that experience how useless Consumer's Reports is.

I remember one time they evaluated 10 different bikes to see which one was best. The top scoring bike and the one they slammed at placed in 9th or 10th place were the exact same bikes. As in they were build with the same components on the same line and the only difference was the stickers appied.

Jul 01, 09 - 09:52 pm Comment from: KingMel

CR does a pretty good job with a wide range of standard products - paint, hand tools, power tools, appliances, etc. You do have to consider their weighting factors and apply your personal correction to their results, because the things that are most important to me are often different. Often I feel that CR puts too much emphasis on cost over value.

In the many years that I have subscribed to CR I have generally found their coverage of electronics technology (computers, cell phones, etc.) to be of little value to me. There are some isolated situations, such as their cell phone service coverage and performance surveys, that are useful. But CR's hardware/software reviews are too superficial and too dated, in my opinion, to be of much help. There are numerous other sources on the web that are more useful. I will give CR some credit in *attempting* to provide even-handed coverage of Macs over the years. But CR staffers really don't seem to understand Macs very well and, other than the customer satisfaction data, CR's review process generally makes Macs look bad in comparison to PCs. The selected Mac and PC products are often not very comparable, making price comparisons appear highly skewed, and their segregated approach to rating Macs and PCs makes far less sense today than it did several years ago because of the flexibility of Intel-based Macs. They also seem to put too much emphasis on expandability and such. Most people never do more than add some memory and plug in a printer and an external hard drive.

I agree with kingmel. CR is clueless about Macs. A year or so I read one of their Mac reviews that said that Macs " do not include word processing software." Hello? TextEdit happens to be a very capable word processor that has been included in OS X since the beginning. They've been off on other things as well. The Hunter original ceiling fan is 50 pounds of old style overdesign with a lifespan measured in decades. And yet, this fine example of quality and durability was given only a mediocre rating. These people are clueless dimwits and I recently cancelled my subscription.

You are spot on, JBT! The only thing--the ONLY thing--Consumer Reports is good for is believing the exact opposite of what they say. Giving the iPhone GS a "73" just shows that they know absolutely NOTHING about consumer electronics.

They, like almost all generally distributed media, are clueless.

CR impartiality test products against other products. They don't let manufacturers skew the results and they're not afraid to say a product is crap. No review system is perfect, but mindlessly claiming they're clueless imbeciles because they don't give Apple a free ride isn't logical.

They rated the 3GS TOP and you're STILL frothing at the mouth because they didn't sing its praises loud enough?!

Well ok, you may not agree with them but CR is good for reliability ratings at least. And in that, Apple almost always is ahead of everyone else (though not by the margin I would like sometimes).

You have to keep a broad range of opinions in mind, and ignore the obvious anti-Mac clowns like Patrick Norton.

Maybe CR isn't the most tech-savvy, but their opinion and their readers' opinions of Apple products have gone up year after year. And while I might know more about Macs than they do, they still know how to test a refrigerator and a dishwasher better than anyone I know.

Jul 03, 09 - 09:05 pm Comment from: quietly, please

I stopped reading CR when they specifically complemented the flexibility of the tone controls" on the Crown SL-2 preamplifier. The "SL" stands for "straight line" - there's a volume knob, a power button, and that's pretty much it. A tone control is anathema to the concept of a straight line preamplifier design.

I don't know what they were smoking, but they went out of their way to include a phenomenally glaring error in a review of high-end audio equipment.

This review dates from what has to be about 30 years ago now, but I keep hearing stories that reinforce my belief that they don't know what they're talking about.