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):

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.

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.

This Week's Top Story: PSN Fiasco

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

Your iPhone's tracking you. Your game network just surrendered all your personal data. And your mom is posting your potty-training videos on Facebook. Like many of us, you're laboring under the delusion that privacy matters--that there's such a thing as too much (public) information. It's time to get over it! Soon we'll all recognize the positives of exposing every aspect of our lives. What a relief it will be when we've finally revealed everything and have nothing left to hide. Herewith, the potential benefits of our upcoming, privacy-free utopia:

• Better security, plus entertainment, 24/7: Tune into the airport security "Grope-cam" channel.

I get the value proposition--how useful and space-efficient it is to own a single device that can function as a phone, a messaging appliance, a browser, a camera, a videocam, an e-reader, an MP3 player, a GPS unit, a tape recorder, a stopwatch, and so on. Today's smartphone is the last word in convergence devices, the electronic equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife before you've misplaced the tweezers and toothpick.

As if to underscore our headlong dash down the road toward all-in-oneness, Cisco last week suddenly (and rather stunningly) announced its decision to pull the plug on the Flip videocam--the category-defining handheld that launched a million YouTube videos.

CES 2011 is now in the rear-view mirror, and there's plenty left to talk about. 4G wireless, a rash of new tablets, and a fresh batch of Android phones dominated the headlines from the show. But we also saw a massive improvement in 3D technology, both for TVs and for cameras to capture your own 3D images and videos at home. Join the editors of PCWorld as they recap the hottest announcements from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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What tech treats top our holiday wish lists? Join PCWorld editors Robert Strohmeyer, Steve Fox, Ed Albro, and Jason Cross as they run down their most coveted technology items for 2010. From digital cameras to smartphones, tablets to flying cars, there's bound to be something on our lists that you'll love, too.

PCWorld's Robert Strohmeyer (left) checks out the interior of the Skycar with inventor Paul Moller.