2011 March

Archive | March, 2011

News March 29, 2011

Tablet Accessory News: VOGELS “Ringo Mounting System” for iPad, iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab

We’ve seen a lot of cases for the iPad and Galaxy Tab. We’ve seen and reviewed numerous stand as well. We’ve looked at wall mounts and we have even taken a look at a few options for mounting the tablets in a car. Vogels’ new Ringo System does something we have only seen once or [...]

Amazon Announces New Cloud Drive and Cloud Player Products With 5GB Free Storage

Amazon has had its own music store offering, Amazon MP3, for several years. It has been well-received, in part due to its cheaper pricing compared to the Apple iTunes Music Store. But Amazon has wanted to broaden its reach, and it released the Amazon MP3 application for Android. This allowed you to purchase music and [...]

GD Quickie: Flashback to Grad School or “I Wrote My Thesis With That?”

Kayla’s rant about iPads and her description of college tech was striking to me. She ASSUMED (accurately) that anyone going to college these days has a computer. Yup, access to a computer isn’t a luxury for students these days, it is a necessity. (As she then goes on to point out, iPads, on the other [...]

iPad Accessory Review: XtremeMac Tuffwrap Shine for iPad 2

I’m loving my iPad 2. Thanks to its thinner design and slightly lighter weight I find even easier to use than its predecessor. And the speed, well the speed is amazing. My biggest frustration with the iPad 2 is that the protective back shells I have for the original iPad don’t work due to the [...]

Random Cool Flowchart: How to Have a Rational Discussion

If you put on any so-called ‘discussion’ show over the last decade or so you would have heard a level of discourse that sounds like you put two people with opposing views in recording chambers and told them to state their case without supporting data other than the other side are idiots, pretend to listen [...]

Gear Diary on Campus: Kayla on … iPads

We are pleased to introduce Kayla. Kayla is a college student. Kayla is wicked smart. Kayla has strong opinions. And this is Kayla’s take on iPads.

Music Diary Songs of Note: Happy Birthday to Sassy Sarah Vaughan

Sunday would have been the 87th birthday of legendary singer Sarah Vaughan, who died in 1990. She is generally considered one of the great vocalists of the 20th century, and you can see that in the two videos I selected. I was fortunate to see Sarah Vaughan at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1984, where [...]

iPad Accessory Video Review: Waterfield’s iPad Travel Express

The other day we brought word that Waterfield had just released their latest iPad accessory, the Travel Express. The Travel Express is larger than the company’s iPad sleeves (reviewed here) but smaller than their iPad Wallet (reviewed here). It looked great and the company was kind enough to send one over so we might take [...]

iOS 5.0 Release Pushed Back to Fall? Just Proves Apple Still “Thinks Different”

The blogosphere was buzzing yesterday when word came that Apple might hold off on releasing iOS 5.0 until the fall. What does this mean? Why would Apple break such a long tradition that goes all the way to… January 9, 2007. Okay so maybe it is not such a long-standing tradition, but you know what [...]

Amazon Now Offering Wireless Delivery of Audible Audiobooks Via WiFi

When Amazon bought Audible.com in 2008, I wasn’t sure what the impact would be for Audible as a company, and for me as a loyal customer since 2001. I hoped that Amazon would just bring more scale to Audible’s existing service, and help them to increase the number of audiobooks available on Audible.com. Luckily, this [...]

Amazon Appstore: Is Choice Good for Android Users?

Competition is always a good thing, right? I mean, the iPhone was the first true innovation in the smartphone market for years. And along came Android, which accelerated healthy competition and made all smartphones better, and therefore better for users. So why am I not very happy with the Amazon Appstore, at least at the [...]

Whither Goeth the Newspaper?

I grew up in Northern Virginia right in the middle of the Nixon/Watergate madness. Both my parents were big readers, and growing up then, and there, turned me into a big newspaper reader. A big newspaper reader. When I went to college, I made sure my dorm subscribed to a paper; when I moved into [...]

Android Device Review: Motorola Atrix, Laptop Dock and Media Dock

It was my last day at CES 2011 and we had already had quite a full morning. I was exhausted, but Francis just kept pushing. “I want to go see Motorola. I want to go see Motorola.” And he kept whining, “I want to go see what Motorola is offering and I want to go [...]

Music Diary Reviews: You Don’t Know Them … But You Should!

Welcome to another edition of Music Diary Reviews! I had assumed that things would slow down after the ‘embarrassment of riches’ we got in 2010, but I am already swamped with loads of great new music releases! I am continuing the trend I started of separating reviews into logical chunks such as new releases or [...]