PC World, Ramon G. McLeod, Steve Fox

Do you love your phone? Hate it? What about your carrier or your mobile operating system? We want to know your thoughts about the current state of the smartphone universe. So we've constructed a brief survey to elicit your feedback on the topic.

To make this survey work, though, we need your help. Here's the deal: If you'll give us a few minutes of your time, PCWorld's editors will use your input to craft stories that address the smartphone issues that you and your fellow readers tell us are most important to you. To help us out, please click the survey link here.

Apple doesn't play the discount game. The company focuses on creating products that people want and then sets the price high enough to assure itself of a healthy profit. Over the past several years, the strategy has worked spectacularly, as millions of consumers have willingly emptied their wallets to acquire pricey MacBook Air laptops, iPads, and the like. We wonder, though: Might the new iPad break Apple's winning streak? After all, the third-gen iPad, though lovely, represents more of an incremental improvement than a full-blown overhaul of its predecessor. Given that the top-of-the-line new iPad, equipped with 64GB and 4G LTE wireless, runs $829, Apple could be testing the resolve (and the budgets) of even its deepest-pocketed fans.

If you're itching to spend all that dough, we wouldn't want to discourage you; the recovering U.S. economy can use all the positive signs of consumer confidence it can get. We would, however, suggest that you weigh a few alternative purchases before whipping out your credit card. Here are some of the things you can buy for approximately $829 (tax not included):

LG introduced today today the Optimus Vu, a combo tablet-smartphone LTE device with a 5-inch display to support easier multimedia viewing and ebook reading.  

The Optimus Vu will be on display at the Mobile World Congress next week and will be introduced in Korea in March, LG representatives say; no global availability or pricing was disclosed.

Editor's Letter

As I write this, 2012 International CES--the Las Vegas-based tech mega-showcase formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show--is winding down. So ends four days of demos, meetings, presentations, parties, and bluster.

For journalists and civilians alike, CES offers a great way to monitor the state of technology. An event with piles of product introductions, interesting ideas, and out-of-left-field innovations suggests a healthy tech ecosystem, with plenty for consumers to get jazzed about in the coming year. A lackluster CES foretells a dreary tech landscape.

Humans are list-making animals. At no time is that impulse more prevalent than December, when we set ourselves the task of churning out year-end retrospectives. In the tech universe, those lists generally call out the best products, the splashiest debuts, and the most promising technologies of the year (see, for instance, PCWorld’s own “100 Best Products of 2011"). But there are tech losers each year, too--products, concepts, and services that kick the proverbial bucket. Some, like the vile Rustock botnet (taken down in March), we were glad to see go.

Other tech demises evoke genuine regret: good products lost in the ferocious market of 2011, tech initiatives that grew too expensive to retain their sponsor’s funding, even well-engineered gear that simply never caught on with the public. Herewith, my respects to 10 tech goners that we at PCWorld are truly going to miss.

Editor's Letter

All we wanted was to answer a simple question: Which U.S. airports are best at meeting travelers' tech needs?

The question was simple, but finding the answer (see "The 20 Best Airports for Tech Travelers") was anything but. In fact, it ended up being the most complex project in PCWorld's 30-year history, requiring two editors, one in-house researcher, 31 field researchers, four months of labor, hundreds of phone calls, the support of dozens of airline and airport personnel, and even the cooperation of the TSA.

Few tools of modern technology have become as prevalent as the cell phone, which allows you to be in touch (almost) all the time, (almost) anywhere. And you can do more than just talk--today's phones let you send and receive email and text messages, surf the Web, and play music and videos. Sifting through the sea of service plans and handsets can be difficult, but we'll walk you through what you need to know to get the phone and service plan that are right for you.

If you don't have to own the latest and greatest smartphone, there’s no time like the present to buy a new one. From the newest iPhone to an Android superphone to a business-friendly Windows Phone, you can find the right phone for you. Before you hit the stores, however, do a bit of research and read our guide so that you'll know exactly what to look for.

Last week we served up some highlights gleaned from the first six months of our recently concluded full year of tweeting at @PCWPluggedIn. Now we're back with our favorites from the second half of the year. As we noted last week, the goal of our Twitter feed is to amuse our followers and, secondarily, to link them to the serious and informative PCWorld.com articles that inspired our comments. But at PCW Plugged In, we leave the seriousness to others.

From the mysterious proliferation of fake Apple stores in China to the insecurity of Sony's PlayStation Network to the forgetfulness of barhopping engineers bearing prototype phones, we found many sources of mirth as the spring and summer unfolded. Fittingly, our half-year starting point falls on April 1.

We've been collaborating on the @PCWPluggedIn Twitter feed since September 27 of last year. Our mission: to find the humor in such fundamentally humorless tech-related phenomena as work, robots, vanishing privacy, online scams, patent infringement lawsuits, Steve Ballmer, and Steve Jobs.

Over the past year, we've posted some 1375 tweets on these and other tech subjects, tying each one to a story newly posted on PCWorld.com. Going through all of the entries is like reading a demented tech diary written by someone who has no attention span whatsoever. Still, certain recurring themes of 2010-2011 emerge: Facebook's privacy issues, the media's fascination with the white iPhone, the contested triumph of the tablet, the depredations of Anonymous, and endless tech industry litigation.

Here is the full text of Steve Jobs' resignation letter:

Wednesday August 24, 2011, 6:34 pm EDT

This Week's Top Story: PSN Fiasco

PlayStation Network lurches to life. Sony's slogan "make.believe" will no longer apply to network security.