May 2011

iPad Case Review: PixelSkin HD Wrap for iPad 2

So you got yourself a shiny new iPad 2. (Finally!) How are you going to protect it? Think about it: you want a case that protects the iPad as much as possible but you also do not want to lose the nice curves and the thinner design it offers over its predecessor. Speck has started rolling out their offerings and we are going to take a look at a few of them. First up is the Speck PixelSkin HD Wrap case for iPad 2. The PixelSkin HD Wrap case for iPad 2 builds on the company’s familiar Pixel Hd design and…


Review: Belkin Conserve Valet

As time goes on I seem to gain more and more devices that charge off of a USB port.  My phone, my iPod, Bluetooth Headphones, Kindle and even the Zi8 that  I recently reviewed all charge off of a USB port.  So it just makes sense to start to see devices like the Super Travel A/C USB Wall Charger I reviewed a while back.  That’s fine for travel and works well.  However, it sure would be nice to actually have a place to manage the cables as well as to hold the devices as they charge.  That’s why I was…


iPhone Case Review: Speck ToughSkin Case for iPhone 4

klutz noun \?kl?ts\ Definition of KLUTZ : a clumsy person Are you a klutz? Do you have a tendency to not look where you are going and trip over the smallest of things? Do you drop your iPhone more than your iPhone drops calls? (Okay, we know THAT’S not possible but still…) If you answered yes to any or all of these questions this is the iPhone 4 case for you. Yes, Speck has produced an iPhone case for the klutzes among us. It offers amazing protection and a good bit of varied use scenarios. Here’s a close look at the Speck…


GarageBand for iPad Review

GarageBand is part of Apple’s iLife suite, originally envisioned as a sort of musical ‘scratch pad’ with a limited tool set but plenty of software sound capabilities. Several years and iterations later it offers a fairly robust solution for musicians … to the point that any musician working with a Mac absolutely owes it to themselves to have a copy. When GarageBand for the iPad was announced it looked cool … but does it perform? The Hype: GarageBand turns your iPad into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you…


GD QuickRant: Healthy Kids vs. Junk Food: This is America, so Obviously Junk Food Wins

Apparently the Revolution WON’T Be Televised … Last week I wrote about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and while I took some issue with his cost models and plans for implementation, I agreed with his core point: our country is rapidly becoming ‘the land of the morbidly obese’, and rather than worrying about ‘long form birth certificates’ or who won celebrity whatever, we should get up off our butts and DO something about it! So what should we do about it? Apparently the answer is that school districts will learn to shut Oliver out, and his response to the lock-out will…


Music Diary Notes: If Subscriptions Are the Rage, Why is Internet Radio Paying More?

I just wrote a huge article about Rdio and MOG, and have covered Spotify quite a bit. When you look at the 9 million Spotify users in the EU as well as the great interest in the service in the US, you might think that there is a huge amount of money in this rapidly growing sector. You would be wrong. Spotify is doing everything possible to force more than the less-than-10% (i.e. under 1 million) of users who actually pay for the service to abandon the free version, and estimates peg the US subscription market between 1.5 and 2…


Choosing Not to Share in a World of Over-Sharing, the President Takes the Lead

This photograph of the President and his staff watching the assault that eventually led to the death of bin Laden in real-time, is on track to be the most viewed image in Flickr’s history. The emotion on their faces, Secretary of State Clinton’s hand over her mouth and the laser focus of the President Obama’s eyes on the screen say pretty much everything that needs to be said about the importance of the moment. Since Sunday night there has been great speculation about whether or not an image of the terrorist’s body would be released. The debate has raged and…


Music Diary Songs of Note: Beginning of the End

2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the release of ‘Face Dances’ by The Who, the first studio release after the death of drummer Keith Moon. If there was any real doubt that the band would never recover from the loss, that tepid release with overly constrained Kenny Jones on drums was a pretty clear sign that the magic was gone – though it took the even-worse ‘It’s Hard’ the following year to REALLY kill the band. But even before the release of ‘Face Dances’ there were three signs that the remaining members of the band were headed in different directions:…


Review: Applecore Cable Management in Action!

The other day I e-mailed Judie and asked, “How do you keep all your various charging and syncing cables organized?” Her answer was short, to the point, and said everything that needed to be said. “What makes you think that my cords and cables are organized in any way shape or form?” Yes, if you have multiple devices, cable overwhelm can be a bit of an issue. So how does one deal with it? I have tried a host of different solutions which include everything from having specific cables taped underneath my desk and available if I simply reach for…


Production on Judie’s One-of-a-Kind Orbino Padova Case for the iPad 2 Begins

Last month we wished Judie happy birthday with the promise of a very special gift — a one of a kind Orbino Padova case for her iPad 2. Thanks to the generosity of Orbino’s owner Michael Ventre, we were able to make arrangements to get Judie a significantly discounted case made of the leather of her choice. Judie’s choice? No surprise … Crocodile! The MSRP on this unique case is $689, and that’s for the “standard” handmade by Italian artists, crocodile skin version. Judie’s birthday case is not the standard case. This case is being made especially for her, and she…


Craig Turner Solves the Cat Pee Problem (and Yes, There IS a Problem)

I love my two (fixed) female cats, but for a while we had a third — a stray we named Bobby because when he showed up more than 3/4 of his tail was missing.  That’s him in the picture above. Cute little guy, right? Unfortunately, something else wasn’t missing; he was still a fully intact male. We never leave our windows down, so we didn’t discover his disgusting habit of peeing in people’s cars until he had done it to my friend Lisa’s jeep and my cousin Dusty’s work truck. Bad kitteh. I don’t know about you, but there are…


May the Fourth Be With You! Star Wars Blu-Ray Details Revealed!

Today is May 4th, which several years ago became Star Wars day. According to the Star Wars blog: Happy Star Wars Day! Every year on May 4th, fans everywhere celebrate Star Wars online and in person. While every day is Star Wars Day for many hardcore fans, this is the best time to remind everyone else that the Force is everywhere. The site also features links to many sites with special features to celebrate the day. For me, it always reminds me of a Dilbert joke (“I am THOR!” … “take an aspirin”), but it is worth observing since today…


Doing Good One App at a Time: Make a Wish Makes an App Wish Come True

The Make a Wish Foundation does some pretty amazing things for some pretty sick kids. Here’s one that brings kindness and tech together. 9 year-old Owain Weinert has pre-B Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. After his diagnosis he reached out to the Make A Wish Foundation who, in turn, reach out to PopCap Games. One thing led to another and before you know it PopCap was working with Owain to create the iOS game Allied Star Police. The game should be available soon. Seriously, how neat is that??? Personally, I don’t care whether I ever play the game, I’m buying as soon…


Olympus’ New LS-20M Linear PCM Recorder Aims to Unite High-Definition Video and PCM Audio

  Don’t be intimidated if you don’t know what PCM Audio means, because I wasn’t sure either (and I had to look it up). PCM stands for Pulse Code Modulation, and it is a “means by which standard audio signals (which are represented by waveforms) are converted to digital audio signals (which are represented by 1’s and 0’s – much like computer data) with little, or no, compression. The method of audio conversion is used on most digital audio formats, including CDs and DVD-Audio, and is also used to some extent in Blu-ray and HD-DVD applications. The PCM signal is…


Music Diary Quickie: Word of Mouth STILL Reigns Supreme

Over the last decade the ways of finding and sharing music have exploded – there are web forums, social music sites, subscription services, recommendations on music sites like tunes, Twitter, Facebook, and on and on. But guess what? There is still no better way to find something than a recommendation from a trusted friend – and better still, direct sharing that leads to a purchase. My brother came to visit us over Easter for the weekend, and on Sunday morning I put on Jason Parker’s Five Leaves Left. My brother grabbed his iPhone after a couple of songs and asked…


Pop Goes the Music Diary: Um … How About Requesting a Different Song

Every story starts somewhere … this one starts last Friday night after my kids got home from their middle school dance. They both had a great time with friends and overall had fun. The next morning my younger son said he was a bit disappointed, and when we asked why he said it was because he requested a song that didn’t get played. My older son reminded him that it wasn’t exactly ‘mainstream’, but agreed it would have been a great song for the dance. It reminded me of something I’ve written about before – my tastes in music tend…


BlackBerry World 2011: Is RIM Knocking It Out of the Park or Lobbing Soft Balls?

[image via Yahoo News] This week’s BlackBerry World Conference is meant to show off the latest and greatest BlackBerry products and software offerings — as well as give a sneak peek into what RIM, the makers of the popular BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablet — have planned.    Unlike many prior years (where the conference was branded as the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, or WES for short), there is a sense that RIM is struggling with the challenge of reinventing its brand and platform. Recent announcements such as the new crop of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook updates are…to be blunt, falling…


Geocachers: A Secret Society Stalking Your Streets

There’s a secret society stalking your streets, peering behind bushes and rummaging through parks. They work in the dead of night, or boldly move at high noon. These stealthy denizens are known to leave suspicious packages around public parks and quiet neighborhoods, and yet nobody tries to stop them. Using the latest in GPS and smartphone technology, they track hundreds of locations in nearly ever county of the USA. Their secret stashes are tracked on cryptic websites, and they’ve even made inroads into Canada and Europe. Their nefarious websites include listings for thousands of mobile treasures or “hitchhikers” which are shuffled from…


Undo the Damage Inflicted on Marine Life with Recycled Carpet and Bottles? You Bet!

  It is hard to believe but thanks to recycled carpet and water bottles marine areas that are currently “dead zones” can be brought back to life. Bruce Kania, CEO of Floating Island International has developed a way to create artificial islands from the garbage and, in the process bring life back to aquatic areas that would otherwise remain dead zones. Kania’s company takes the debris and uses it to create a “loofah-like mesh of plastic”. They then add soil and seeds and set it afloat. Nature takes over from there. The seeds bloom and grow and, as a post over…


Apple Updates iMac All-In-One With FaceTime HD, Thunderbolt and more

As expected Apple introduced new iMacs this morning. While they look the same they have some nice upgrades under the hood. Among the changes are quad-core processors across the line, graphics that are up to 3x faster, Thunderbolt for super-fast data transfer, and a FaceTime HD camera. The 21.5″ model starts at $1,199.00 with the 27″ starting at $500 more. The upper end of the “ready to ship” models line has a 3.1 GHz Quad-Core and costs $1999.99. If I wasn’t so pleased using my 13″ MacBook Air I would be pretty tempted right now. Must… Resist…


‘Be Consecrated to Me with This Ring’ (Or Is It ‘With This Coin’?)

Within my tradition, a couple is officially married when one partner gives the other something of easily assessed value; which is probably the original reason why Jewish wedding bands don’t usually have stones — the addition of the gems makes easily assessing the value impossible. The result is that while we usually use a ring in a wedding, it doesn’t HAVE to be a ring. Yup, the object used in the ceremony CAN be a ring or it could be something like a watch or a coin; you name it. So long as you can easily determine the value, you…