Video Teaser: Tom's Hardware's Apple iPad 3 Review

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ddan49

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[citation][nom]dirtyferret[/nom]wow, toms is that desperate for eyeballs that they stooped to using a stupid model? she can barely read the telestrator. toms slides down the desperate scale even further. I'll go to anandtech & techspot for my ipad review, at least they still have their legitimacy. stick to straight reviews toms, other sites on the internet show T&A better then you and more of it. people will go there when they want to see it.[/citation]

How do you know that she doesn't know what's going on? What basis do you have to... base that on? Are you implying that someone can't be "smart" (although you don't have to be in order to report on hardware) and attractive at the same time? Just because you think you're smart and ugly doesn't mean everyone is...
 
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She's not a geek. She struggles to utter the numbers as if she didn't know the hell what they mean.
 

ddan49

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[citation][nom]dirtyferret[/nom]simple; she can barely read the lines and I work in TV advertising. I have worked with plenty of talent to know what a professional sounds like regardless of their looks. I actually write the scripts and choose the talent for many a promo. I also never stated she looked attractive or made comments on her intelligence, you did. I think she looks rather plain for talent and reads even worse. I also never stated anything about my looks, seems like you have issues with yours though. My current and previous girlfriends never seemed to have issue with my looks so I guess I look good enough for them and for myself. You on the other hand, seems Freud would have a field day with your slips and lack of self esteem.[/citation]

First of all...
"On the other hand, it seems that Freud would have a field day with your slip-ups and lack of self esteem". Had to do that. Sounded terrible. Anyway...

Why so worked up? :)
By the way, blind girlfriends don't count... is that statement still true? ;)
Who said I have issues with my looks? I like the fact that I have four legs and hooves...

Anyway, isn't the information the same? I don't care if a potato tells me the review... it'll still be the same information. By the way, flinging up flimsy defenses (like "I work in TV advertising"... how convenient, and "My current and previous girlfriends...") in order to prove that you are somehow better than I am (isn't that what you're trying to do?) isn't a good strategy.

I'll have you know I'm the president of Greenland, I command an army that's hidden on the dark side of the moon, I have several thousand girlfriends and one turtlefriend (it's complicated), and it seems Aristotle would have a field day with your PURE EVIL!


 

Spanky Deluxe

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Can't help but think this is a little too late to the party - most sites have had their iPad 3 video reviews up for about a month now. I'm guessing this is more of an experiment into further video based articles as the site progresses though, which is a great idea.

In terms of the video itself, I'd rather have one of the big guys at Tom's be the host. Secondly, while the swipes on the iPad's screen for shifting between segments could be a nice touch, it is very frustrating to watch as the swipes don't line up with the movement of the video - the onscreen video swipes across far far slower than the finger slides which just makes it look sluggish.
 

gilbertfh

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To all the trolls bitchin about a hot chick giving a review... Get over it. She is definitely not going to be put up for any awards for her performance but I think the same thing every time I see G4. No matter how you slice it, cute girls and hot tech go good together. In my opinion it is a lot like apple pie and vanilla ice cream.
 

ik242

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what happened with high res? i mean sure she was cute, but wouldn't it be better to see her in better quality video?
 

ismaeljrp

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[citation][nom]ddan49[/nom]Why aren't there any geeks as attractive as her where I live?[/citation]

cuz she's not a qeek, just paid to read a script.
 
--- "feel free to weigh in with any comments you might have about this new video format." ---

Well, I think it's a bad idea.

Some of us have caps, some times brutal (e.g. 25 GB/month) on Internet usage, and videos consume a lot more bandwidth than text + images.

Some of us read these articles at work, when they really should be working. You can read an article with text + images without being obvious. If you have to put headphones on, it becomes obvious.

Also, some of us reading these articles at work may not have a sound card at all in the computer, or it may be very low quality (e.g. I couldn't really hear what the model was saying).

And finally, I personally prefer to read a page of text in a few seconds rather than wait for a model to read it for me in a few minutes. OK, if she's really pretty, I might spend the few minutes, but I can't afford to do that too much so I'll end up reading fewer articles. You will get fewer page hits that way.

In conclusion, go ahead and use the videos, but add the text there as well.
 
wow tom's... that was pretty rough.

1) simplicity is best. Seriously, go look at anandtech's video reviews. It is a guy, behind a desk, talking intelligently with a few product closeups when needed. The fake pad, the dumb background taking ~60% of the screen, the charts/graphics, and the flying hand cuing the transitions are all distracting, and unnecessary. It makes it look like a highschooler threw it together.

2) Honestly I do prefer to look at/listen to a woman, but above gender I would rather listen to someone who speaks intelligently and authoritatively rather than someone who over enunciates and (due to ignorance or stage fright) does not seem to know what they are talking about.

3) Frame rate issues. Be sure to match your video and digital content frame rates. It made for some shotty/jumpy transitions. Best just to do a simple video feed with the occasional informational overlay instead of trying to do what you did.

4) Visual theme. You need a set that is unique to your site that borrows from the long standing motifs that your site uses (like the hammer, perhaps a red/black/white block theme to match the website) so that when people see your video (perhaps in a different context like on youtube) then they know that the video is from you. Having a different theme based around the product reviewed for each video is both time consuming, and difficult to brand.

5) player. It is hard to find a good player, but generally something small/out of the way is best so that it focuses the viewer on the content instead of the player itself. Not a huge issue, but your player looks a little old, and is oddly tall for a wide screen format. Look into jwplayer or the youtube player as good examples to aim for.

6) Audio is 9/10ths of video. A little background music, or at least an intro theme would spice things up a bit. It does not need to play throughout the video, just an auditory cue to 'pay attention' at the beginning and end would be fine, and add a little polish. Also, her voice sounded a bit thin on my laptop. It may be different on some real speakers, but finding someone with a fuller/more interesting voice may be a good way to go. Or doing an EQ on her voice, or using a better mic could also help with that, but too much audio editing can make things sound unnatural and distracting from the content presented.

7) Header/footer. While some people find headers and footers annoying it does help with branding your material. A simple 2-5sec intro (look at newegg as a perfect example) is a great thing to do. this also serves a purpose of letting people tab back to the page if their internet or your server is running slow so that they know that the video is done loading. The footer is more just for credits and pointing people to other resources, but can also be useful.

All in all I am a big fan of moving to video reviews as they feel much more interactive, but it is going to need a little work if you are going to make a habit of doing this. Videos have not exactly been your strong point in the past either.
 

cookoy

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Yup, she pretty sums up what the iPad3 is all about - higher resolution and better display, more powerful graphics, more battery capacity to compensate for more power usage and heavier. See, i'm watching and listening too.
 
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