On this week’s episode, Will gets hard boiled, Norm shows his full frame, Brad has questions, and Gary orders a new iPad. All that, plus the latest on the new iPad, the new Apple TV, Canon’s 5D Mark 2, and another episode of fake outtakes.
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Adam embarks on one of his most ambitious builds yet: fulfil…
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Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…
Making
Viewers often ask to see Adam working in real-time, so this …
One Day Builds
Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…
One Day Builds
One of the ways Adam has been getting through lockdown has b…
Making
Adam unboxes and performs a quick test of this novel new hel…
Making
When Adam visited Weta Workshop early last year, he stopped …
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Adam tackles a shop shelf build that he's been putting off f…
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Time for a model kit build! This steampunk-inspired mechanic…
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Adam reveals his surprise Christmas present for his wife--a …
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Tested
“Resolutionary” is so dumb.
Brad podcasts are the best podcasts!
I bet all those manufacturers are kicking themselves for not exploiting that faux word into their marketing strategy.
You know, on the German Apple website, they use “sehvolutionär”. It would translate to seevolutionary. I think that’s actually magnitudes more stupid than resolutionary.
Not looking forward to Apple talks
Will still listen at least twice ofcuz
I don’t think it’s that bad. It’s catchy wordplay that gets the job done and targets mainstream consumers. Totally typical of Apple.
Chan: “It’s only assisted GPS, not full GPS”
Damn you Norman Chan, what in the hell is “full GPS”? Something you invented to justify your slandering of the awesome Assisted GPS, no doubt.
The greatest trick the ninjas ever pulled was convincing the world they didn’t exist.
The thing is, Apple podcasts lead to really good discussions because they all use the products, are interested in them, and no one is zoning out or annoyed with the conversation. Now if only they would talk about everything like that! 🙂
I mean no disrespect.
It is your podcast, and by all means you should discuss what suits you’re area of focus, which certainly does include Apple products, as well as you’re listeners interests, and Apple products are definitely of interest to the majority of people. I just felt inclined to express my feelings on the chosen subject matter.
I apologize if my earlier posts came across as curt, I do very much enjoy the majority of tested’s content and the personalities that provide that content. Tested.com was a significant part of the reason I chose to become a subscriber to the Whiskey Media sites.
I do hope my thoughts haven’t distracted you from providing the content we all come to this site to enjoy.
I don’t see what the fuss is about. Apple is the leader in the current technology market, therefore, people who talk about the tech market will most likely talk about Apple.
Besides, I don’t care much for the latest technology. I like Tested.com and the podcast because of the staff interaction and discussion, not necessarily because of the products being discussed.
I pre-ordered my 16gb ipad in black yesterday. I had the 64gb ipad in cart than stopped to think about how many apps I actually have on my iphone 4 and decided to get the 16gb ipad.
I don’t watch video on mobile devices and will not be putting any music on my ipad. If I want to watch a movie I will do so in a comfortable environment, if I want to listen to music I have my iphone and ipod. I already don’t play many games or have many apps on my iphone 4, I can’t imagine me filling up the ipad with 16gb worth of pictures and apps.
If anything I can take my 32gb hp touchpad as a second tablet dedicated to video, right now it remains my constantly on bedside alarm clock.
Jesus H Christ, when was the ipad ever fucking “revolutionary”? It was a big ass shinier iphone that had barebones features to begin with. If anything, the specs on this model seem a hell of a lot more enticing then the previous two models released. Fucking scumbags.
If I were more into Apple products, I would be fucking ecstatic for this episode.
It would be really easy for valve to provide mouse game support with a trackball mouse controller.
wow, the sense of persecution coming off some of these comments is pretty goddam repulsive.
I don’t think he was talking about actual operation mostly the install process. I’ve found the install process on alot of IDEs to be a big pain in the ass. I remember the first time I installed TextPad it took me a few hours to get up and running. Changing system variables and getting it configured just right.
I don’t knock him for it.
EDIT: Yes I’m aware that textpad isn’t really an IDE.
If I listened to the Tested podcast for technology news, I’d be disappointed that Will apparently had no idea of the Google Play thing. I didn’t either, but I don’t listen to Tested for tech news.
I say just put up the notice and embrace the fact you guys all lap up Apple and what they do. It’s honestly not an issue. If you just tell everyone, “Hey, we love Apple because of the great products they make and spend most of our show talking about it” I don’t think the droves of people would come in as massive as they do.
On that note, I don’t consider the Whiskey family journalists, they seem more akin to commentators and hosts rather than people who are supposed to be reporting on things. A lot of people call you guys journalists, but reading actual news sites makes it apparent that Tested is not really a news source, the news seems more tacked on with the commentary and topics the personnel care about take precedence.
News-wise, there’s actually a lot more from the Android camp than Apple because of the multitude of products out there and the different companies making things for it. Apple “news” is mostly just projections or rumors, and yes it’s true, Tested talks about Apple more than anything else, and once everyone accepts Apple fans are who run the site, the better off everyone will be.
The writers like Wesley and the others are the journalists: Will, Norm, and Gary are commentators. Tested isn’t about keeping the coverage of technology 50/50, more like technology they are fans of. All of this should encourage you Android fans or Apple haters to start up your own podcast, news site, blog or whatever, that takes after the Tested formula but without the Apple spin. Totally feasible, and the market is there.
Tested is basically for Apple enthusiasts in disguise, and I don’t think there’s a problem with that. They make great things that are easy to get attached to.
If Android adopts the formula of ease and integration like Apple does, the tides might shift some, but Apple is so engrained in everything that I think the era of them being anything less than the top is over. Think Japan with cars, it’s hard to top that no matter how good American cars are or can be.
111 episodes of This Is Only a Test, people should stop complaining about the decadence that runs with the Apple products. If it were more sporadic, I would understand, but this is every week. Tested is in deep, and if that’s a problem, going somewhere else might be the best solution for everyone.
I will say that from a standpoint of topic coverage and legitimate journalism, the Bombcast is one of the more stellar podcasts out there, not even just in the Whiskey family, but period. What makes This Is Only a Test so good to listen to is the chemistry of the hosts and the banter with them. They know what they’re talking about, even if the topics at hand are sometimes only going in one direction (Apple). For breaking news and tech talk in general, this is not the place to be.
You should know, though, that they aren’t fanboys for Apple just because of the branding, because they are all Xbox-minded, which is Microsoft, and in direct opposition to Apple. They like both companies because they make great experiences. So this should tell you guys that cry foul about it, that in the end they are fans of what company makes the best technology experience, not simply the branding itself.
The Tested guys talk about what they want, and they are perfectly reasonable for doing so.
In what sense is the XBOX in direct opposition to Apple? Apple don’t have a console.
That’s exactly right. Tested is honestly my favorite website on the internet because of the personalities that run the site. Where else can I watch grown men build LEGO, do dumb shit, occasionally have serious discussions and talk about tech? If I want 100% serious tech coverage of every piece of technology that comes out then there are hundreds of sites better suited for that. No other tech site has had discussions about shaving your balls (as far as I know) on their podcast. I love it!
I wish they would do a few more reviews because I really like their review style, and I don’t care about App of the Day (most apps aren’t that good – App of the Week was enough) but overall I’m really happy with the site. Do people feel like they have to agree with everything Will, Norm and Gary say all the time? That must be exhausting.
I’m sure this is a great episode. But my brain can only take so much Apple talk.
Edit: Oh my, a lot of spite in the comments this week. Just wanted to say, talk about what you think is important. You’re doing a mighty fine job.
This podcast was on exactly the topic I expected, handled in the way I expected, and I was glad to have it in this form. Perhaps a broader range of discussion post-iPad would have been good, but I got the sense that Gary had to bail.
Also, the vehemence with which you argued that Apple would not keep the iPad 2 around despite them doing the exact same thing with iPhone 3GS and then 4 at the iPhone 4 and 4S launches absolutely earned you the second egg, even though Gary was wrong about Siri.
i dont own any apple products, and i dont typically go looking on the internet for rumors on them.
personally though, i dont mind the tested crew talking about them at all. i dont think i ever have wanted them to skip a topic actually.
does you pc really chug down 1200 watts at full load?
i mean, my i7 920 paired with a 7970 can draw about 450 watts if i floor it.
i get your point about trying to cram all those pixels into a battery powered ipad though.
This podcast should follow the Bombcast’s example and talk about whatever the hell they want to talk about. It’s what makes the podcast fun. When the guys are constantly worried about turning off the Android fans because there isn’t enough Android talk, or turning off the Windows fans because there isn’t enough Windows talk, the podcast suffers.
I support this.
Oh god, I could smell the egg through my headphones.
Will thought setting up Eclipse was hard? I disagree, setting up Eclipse, ADT and the SDK took me about an hour and most of that was waiting for things to download. It’s pretty straight forward and after that you are good to go. iOS tools may be better but setting up Eclipse isn’t exactly rocket science.
I don’t know what people are complaining about with the podcast, isn’t the iPad the biggest news of the week? Why wouldn’t they talk about it? If you don’t like it why not just skip through the Apple stuff or just skip the podcast altogether.
Woo, Bradcast! Fun episode, though the egg eating was somewhat odd for us audio listeners. Also, anyone who was genuinely upset by any behaviour during Bricked is just dumb.
Isn’t that chicken and egg though? The constant undertone of the podcast and the site is that you guys think Android is shit which probably drives Android fans away. The coverage is half hearted too, it’s almost impossible to look at the Android market roundup blog unless you catch it on the front page for example. Unless I am missing something obvious, the only way to see it is to type “market roundup” into the search bar then manually scroll through every individual post starting back from May 2010. To get to the posts from last week or last month takes so long that people probably just dont bother.
I always assume you are a guy who takes a keen interest in a good user experience. Is that a good experience?
That’s unfortunate. Is it not possible to just flip the way the dates are displayed though, so we see the newest posts first rather than old stuff from two years ago? It’s a great feature on podcast/video threads and would be appreciated elsewhere on the site.
It’s great that you take the time to talk to the users, even though some don’t deserve it. Jesus Christ some people are negative.
Yeah reading some of these comments is a little depressing, people can be real dicks. I love Apple products and love hearing you talk about them and Apple in general, hell I’m writing this on an iPad right now, and this was a big week with the new iPad announcement but maybe cut back from the iPad/Apple talk by like 15-20 minutes. Again not trying to sound mean because I enjoy the podcast and Apple discussion but I also enjoy hearing you guys talk about weird tech stuff or other tech news because often times I discover cool new things through researching about products or technology you talk about. Just my two cents, keep up the great work Will.
Rabble Rabble Rabble.
As has been said, after 2 years you should know what you are getting when coming here. Though this weeks podcast felt pretty antagonistic with baiting from Garry with relishing the forum reactions to some of the comments by Will & himself.
If your really into Apple then Tested.com could be your go to tech website but wanting Tested to be like The Verge or Engadget with equal amounts of coverage for all devices isn’t going to happen anytime soon so just chill out and take all the Apple talk on the chin.
Sent from my Asus Transformer 😛
Will should not bother with trying to explain why he uses and likes Apple products. He has explained it many times before and I bet it must be tiring to constantly repeat yourself when people still insist on calling you a fanboy. Some people just have an irrational hate for Apple and anyone who enjoys and/or supports their products.
I concur. Thanks, Will.
Way to be a complete dick about it, dude.
It’s all personal preference. Nintendo and Apple have a lot of the same blood in them, but Nintendo often does not deliver on a quality experience (see: online, and how they are always one generation behind the standard). Apple has pushed the standards for innovation.
Sure, Apple is like Nintendo, but more like Nintendo in the SNES generation.
You make some good points, but ultimately it comes down to what they prefer to discuss and use. I think people just want a simpler experience when it comes to accessing entertainment and technology on the go, which isn’t the same as an experience where you’re planted in front of a TV with a controller in your hand. There’s less room for tinkering with mobile devices, because time just isn’t allotted for it in this day and age.
I won’t disagree that your phone feels further ahead than the iPhone. What makes the iPhone so good is not just the features, but how it’s all presented and supported. Tech-wise, Apple has never really been at the top echelon, but it’s all about the total experience of the hardware and software, not the specs.
I agree that it would be good for the Tested guys to acknowledge some other stuff outside of Apple phones, operating systems, and tablets, but when it’s all said and done, they are going to discuss what they feel is best suited for their soapbox.
The “market leader” talk Will said was a bit of a stretch in my eyes, they should talk about things regardless of their status in the mainstream and not snub it off and be like “who cares?”.
Will told me he would use other devices that are superior to Apple if they came out, and I truly believe it. But they need to be able to follow the devices and news out there if they wish to even find something that does that. I have no doubts devices out there exist, but they might not be easily found because of the sheer number of Android devices out there.
But to just go on and say it, I don’t care what they talk about. It’s their show, it’s what makes them happy, and we’re all along for the ride. I see both sides of the argument being valid, but I don’t want extremes being said on either end.
Let them be as they are, in other words.
I know Will has gone on record to say he doesn’t like Linux because of reasons related to difficulty or lack of support from program developers. Sorry I’m getting this wrong Will, but I do remember something like it coming up before. I thought it’d get some more coverage because of Raspberry Pi, but apparently not.
I think Tested is more of a site for technology consumers than technology fanatics. Will and Norm have the knowledge to learn how to do such things, but they settle in more to a backseat role rather than being being in the forefront for how to manipulate the tech to work for them in more advanced software. They’re consumers more than educators/listeners more than creators/reviewers more than journalists, examples like this.
Had to skip more then an hour of the content, and I usually listen to the podcast at least 2 or 3 times a week.
could someone time frame the ”
Brad has questions” question part? I like his point of view in tech
Welcome to This is Only a Test – the official podcast of Apple.com -_-
To be honest, I don’t want to visit this site anymore.
Meh. The Apple talk went really long, but I don’t mind as much as it was a big apple product announcement after all. They’ve given Android and MS their time whenever they have a big announcement so I think there’s been ample coverage all around.
Wow, what a bunch of babies.
Which is a point that they’ve driven home time, and time, again. It’s just that the majority of android phones are outfitted with a custom skin, which from my experience with it are uniformly not as good as vanilla ice cream sandwich or iOS.
Seeing that this site and podcast is more focused on products at a more mainstream consumer level, I don’t really see a problem with it. Not everyone is going to know how to root a phone or install custom roms.
Also do you really want to fight bias with your own bias? Just seems like a neverending war to me.
You know what fuck the haters.I don’t like apple just for the fact that everyone is up apple’s ass about evrything, but at the same time I still enjoy what you, have to say. It expands my mind on what I know/don’t know and that’s why I love coming to this website.
I want to take you to task about one big issue with this podcast. I haven’t heard yell fuck off in weeks. I’m actually more pissed off that your podcast has been so biased against Gary and his fuck offs. I think this is where all the arguing comes from.
It is, to some extent, Philosophy. The masses come here to hear you try to keep the podcast on point (represents order), to be on his iPad and all the while trying to keep up with the conversation (represents the silent majority) and a British accent to yell fuck off at most of what comes out of your mouth (represents the everyday man’s inner anarchist and frustration at said order). People will naturally be against you Will, you’re the “order”. When Gary became the order (the podcast he hosted) it turned the balance on its head. It’s about feng shui.
You messed up this delicate balance by getting sick.
Less Kumbaya, more “Fuck off” in 2012!
Fix it or I walk.
/schtick (or whatever you call it – sarcasm?).
Even I think this is too much shit being thrown at the crew.
I’ve given Will more than my fair share of crap about not bringing up Apple competitors when appropriate, or not covering stuff other than what Apple puts out. I’ve copped to having selective hearing, and he’s of course corrected me when I’ve been a dumbass. Maybe it’s my selective hearing, but I’m definitely noticing more that Will and Norm (and even Gary at times) will bring up Microsoft and Google stuff when it fits into a discussion. Part of that might be them being more conscious about bringing them up, but I also think that it’s because Apple’s competitors are finally starting to do stuff worth paying attention to, even for the average person.
Lets face it, whether you like it or not, Apple is the only one putting out the best overall products at this very moment. The best products deserve the most coverage.
Well said.
It’s nice at least responds and has some back and forth with the users which is nice to see. I think a lot of the enthusiasm is due to the fact that the Tested crew is heavily invested in to the Apple infrastructure. Where the features and additions are useful. I personally can’t see the use in Airplay since the only Apple product I own is an ipod touch. But each to his own. I would appreciate more coverage of the Android products in the future if possible but do understand the focus for now.
I think Jeff said it best in a Jar time. Need to have a think skin about this kinda stuff.
I can agree with you mostly but a lot of everything else was breezed over in about a 10 minute window when the other 85/90 minutes was all Apple rant and on Jobs as a presenter. I know the new iPad is somewhat big news but when it boils down to it, same product slightly upgraded innards and a better display. There are many stories posted on the site that are non-apple that don’t even get mentioned or breezed over. Mostly I would just like to hear more of what else is going on. That’s just my 2 cents.
If specs don’t matter, then why all the gushing over an Apple device that basically does what Android has been doing for the better part of a year? The 3rd gen iPad is merely adequate in this regard.
And, ICS tablets are already out in the wild – for example, both Transformers now have it. And updates come pretty fast on these devices, so it’s not like you’re waiting for months. I haven’t tried it myself, but I have several friends online who have them, and they say ICS is a pretty big step up from Honeycomb. As for reasons to purchase one of these over an iPad:
– You want a physical keyboard that’s actually part of the device, and gives you a USB port to attach things like gamepads, trackballs, and other input devices
– You want a tablet that supports Flash
– If you are deep into the Google ecosystem, an Android tablet is obviously going to be a better choice in this regard. (And let’s face it – Google Hangouts > Facetime)
– You want to get your retrogaming on with MAME, Dosbox, etc
– You want HDMI out without having to buy a stupidly expensive adapter
– You want to watch widescreen videos in a proper aspect ratio vs the iPad’s 4:3
– You want an infinitely more customizable OS
– You want something other than 10″, and other options like a replaceable battery
Does that mean it’s for everyone? Of course not, but it clearly has its advantages, which, if you weren’t completely biased, you would point out to people, rather than this whole ‘fuck Android’ mentality you seem to have going on
And I don’t think the app situation is as bad as you make it out to be, esp on phones. My two biggest ‘killer apps’ on a phone is the turn-by-turn navigation and Google Voice, both of which are done better on Android. On tablets, you’ve got perfectly capable apps for things like web, email, RSS, ebooks, music, videos, Google+, Facebook, etc. They may not always be as pretty as the iOS versions, but I think its a tradeoff some would gladly make for the other advantages that Android offers.
Now, don’t get me wrong… I still think iPads are better tablets OVERALL – I just think that Android deserves more props than you guys seem willing to give it.
I can totally agree with Will on the specs argument. Apple proves this all the time and I believe so does Google with the Nexus line at least from what I see. At the end of the day it is all about user experience. Open the box and i works. I can’t talk for android tablets but I really have had great out of the box experiences with both Gingerbread and ICS phones out of the box (I’m talking about the Nexus brands). It is harder to talk about android as a whole because of everyone else leaving their fingerprints on the product.
Customization is why I like Android phones better, and I am not talking about rooting and booting Roms. I can change my home screen with different widgets, live backgrounds among some of the things with little effort and with ICS it makes it even better. After going Stock OS with the Nexus line I will probably never go back to other Android phones with their lame “Enhancements”.
I believe if we see a honest Nexus Tablet things would look better for them.
Lest you forget, I own an iPad myself 🙂 Obviously, we both agree that this is the better tablet overall, but one size does not fit all, and Android DOES work better for some people. For example, in my last post, I listed several ways (not just one) that Android is superior to iOS, and I’m sure you knew all of that already, but wouldn’t acknowledge it on the show. Why?
I mean, it would have been different if you had just evaluated the iPad and never bothered to bring up Android, but you did bring up Android, and made sure to list all the ways that it sucks on a tablet, but didn’t bother to mention any of its strengths. You know, like having a tablet that can actually browse the entire web? 😛 As such, those who don’t really know any better (which is apparently your target audience) would assume Android is shit and good for nothing, and dismiss it outright.
So why does this matter to me? Because if you had told the WHOLE story, that might’ve convinced some people to give Android a serious looking over. And the more people that do that and decide to buy an Android tablet, the more users there are, and the more there’s a chance I can get a few key apps ported over to Android, so I can get rid of this toy iPad and get a real tablet 🙂
All I’m saying is had you said, ‘Well, here are the things that Android still does better than iOS and why you might consider an Android tablet, but I would still personally recommend an iPad because …’, I would never have posted here.
BTW: When talking about Android on phones, you usually recommend that people go for a Nexus phone, which I think is excellent advice.
Honestly, I think Will interacts with us too much. Who gives a shit what we think?
Honestly the way community is handled with Will directly engaging in the audience is amazing. Total props for that!
I still believe the format is fine and everyone is allowed to have an opinion on what they feel is the best product to recommend people and lets face it ‘iProducts’ are made for the average consumer hence why its doing well (well that and app support). Android and MS do have a lot to prove obviously but there was an article recently going on about how much in a year android tablets have caught up to apple which shows they are also doing something right and hell competition is something apple really needs as Will has stated in the show.
But all that said having 3 people dog pile anything is a real shame more so when the products are being exaggerated through an apple lens to how bad they are. Honestly i take issue with people saying outside of apple products the experience just doesn’t work and no normal person would have a good experience with it seems short sighted and well fanboyish.
At work I’m constantly running into issues with integration of iPads and we have been doing a lot of rebuilds simply because somehow people keep screwing them up, mail being a one that seems to break often.So i wouldn’t say its an infallible experience and don’t get me started on data migration between iOS and anything else.
Edit: And i would hope they care what the fans think! well the reasonable ones.
I find it astounding that Apple doesn’t invite you to their events. They could not have any bigger fans.
http://media.tested.com/podcast/thisisonlyatest-112-210120315.mp3