Yep, I’m leaving Engadget

It’s true, my last day as Engadget’s editor-in-chief will be late next month (my official announcement is here).

Without question, this has been the hardest decision I’ve ever made, but I know it’s the right one. And as much as I’m looking forward to new challenges (and grateful they’re not Motorola-related), I’m also really excited to see Engadget continue its evolution with Josh at the helm, and as part of the AOL Tech network (where I’ll continue to play an advisory role as editor-at-large). Pete and I are both pretty happy with how things worked out, and are definitely looking ahead. (You’re following us on Twitter, right?)

As much as wish I could, for the time being I really can’t talk very much about the details of the new company (which does not yet have a name). I’m pretty stoked though — promise, you’ll hear more soon.

30-inches: too much screen?

I never thought I’d question it, but is 30-inches too much for one screen?

I’m a serious resolution and screen real estate hog, so I’ll let that sink in for a sec as I recount my week spent with a 30-incher I bought (and eventually sold) earlier this year. There’s no doubt that productivity goes up and stress goes down as you add more pixels to your desktop, and like many over the last ten years I’ve gone from 14 to 17 to 19-inch CRTs, to 20-inch LCDs, eventually to 24-inch, and more recently to 30-inches. I’m not going to get too into the Dell 3007WFP-HC itself — which is absolutely amazing, and has color rich enough to make your eyes ache (in a good way) — but I could barely believe it when I discovered a display size that was simply too large for me to use comfortably.

Oh sure, I could fill up that amount of resolution easily. And since I’m not a MacBook Air user, actually powering that many pixels wasn’t really a problem. It all came down to the six inch jump, which necessitated dramatic eye movements from distantly adjacent windows, and, eventually, constant neck adjustments to reduce the strain of said looking back and forth.

Part of me thinks I’m crazy though, because I’d love nothing more than a wall of 30-inchers to work on. Guess I’ll have to check out those new 27-inch models — too bad they only add size, and not pixels over the 24s.

Who would you rather sit next to on a bus?

Been pretty caught up over the last couple of weeks — especially in our iPhone 3G review and coverage — but one lasting memory I’m definitely going to take from 2008 is Bill’s last day at Microsoft. One Engadget commenter made a poignant remark that kind of brought it all home: Who would you rather sit next to on a bus, Bill or Steve?

That rumor going around today

Well, looks like my man Mike finally found occasion to write about me (little does he know, I’ve spent years plotting my way onto TechCrunch). Granted, I’m not commenting on that (or any) rumors about my career and future, but it’s never a bad thing to have people interested, right? It’s certainly a lot better than the alternative.

What I will say — and it’s the same thing I told Mike earlier today — is that, as I enter my fifth year at Engadget, I’m still totally focused on it, our team, and living up to the enormous level of trust our readers place in us day in and out. (As I’m sure Veronica would tell you, I’m probably actually too focused.) I can also say that I had no idea until today that I owned 39+ domain names, but that’s pretty awesome.

Veronica profiled in August issue of PlayStation Mag

Nice, Veronica was profiled in the August issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine! I don’t think it’s on newsstands yet, but I can’t wait to give it a read. Photo from V’s Flickr.

Maybe we’ll pay you, AP, if you pay us

Of all the AP quotation commentary floating around in the last week, I think possibly the most effective point came from [edit] a certain well-known conservative author [/edit] who, by the AP’s own scale, claims she’s “owed” some $130k for unauthorized quotes and excerpts from her blog. Clearly, if the AP wants to impose these totally arbitrary rules on others, it’d better be prepared to live by them itself. (And let’s not even get into the irony of the AP accepting free, in-the-field breaking news submissions from “citizen journalists.”)

It seems like life in the (rapidly shrinking) print bubble has severely distorted the AP’s outlook in the midst of an increasingly predominent all-digital media landscape. If I were them I’d be careful in the coming weeks and months — unlike the print pubs that syndicate their news, there isn’t any real need for the AP on the internet, and at this rate I’m not sure they’ll be missed.

Joystiq turns four!

Hard to believe Joystiq is four years old today! I remember the old days with Pete and Ben Zackheim (who’s actually still in the AOL Games family), working to get it off the ground, helping fill in stories for Joystiq between posts on Engadget. Four bits of Joystiq trivia:

• Joystiq’s first E3 (Engadget’s second) is where we all brainstormed with Cat Schwartz on the infamous DS vs. PSP video.
• The following E3, former co-editor Vlad Cole (now at Microsoft) was writing a book on all-Pizza diets. This, of course, meant Engadget and Joystiq editors all wound up eating basically only pizza. Not sure I’ve ever lost the weight.
• James Ransom-Wiley has been with Joystiq since early July 2004, making him the longest-tenured editor there. Go James!
• Contrary to popular belief, Kotaku actually started in October of 2004, seemingly as a response to Joystiq.

My favorite trade show of the year is usually E3 — partly because it means we get to regroup with Joystiq and do it up together. Looking forward to that next month, and happy birthday Joystiq!

Bonus trivia: Last E3 myself, Chris, and Pete were all ticketed for jaywalking — at a crosswalk. For some reason my ticket was withdrawn, but Pete and Chris still had to pay theirs. Pics or it didn’t happen, right? Here you go.

Leica’s pixel dog

If I had a dog, it would absolutely have to be this breed. [Via Core 77 and Comunicadores]

Biggest day ever

This is Engadget.

This is Engadget when Apple launches a new iPhone. Any questions?

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by today to read our coverage of the iPhone 3G launch — it’s always an extraordinary amount of fun and a real honor to be the go-to place for big news in the gadget world.

And yes, I was fortunate enough to play with it and definitely can’t wait to really put the spurs to one.

Page one!

Excuse me for a moment of self indulgence here, but I noticed my search referrers were going up for my first name — and as it turns out, I’ve gone from page two to page one (number ten, to be exact) for “ryan.” Okay, I know it’s nothing compared to Veronica, who claims the number one spot for her name, but watch your back, Ryan Adams, because number nine is only a matter of time now.