November 2012

Volvo Testing New Fast Charging System for EVs

Those of you disappointed with how long it takes to recharge your new electric or plug-in vehicle, relief may be right around the corner. The Volvo Car Corporation has announced it is testing a new “fast-charger” for electric cars that will significantly cut recharging times to a stunning 1.5 hours, some six times faster than units currently in use in EVs on the road today. The new charger is going to be installed and tested on a number of Volvo C30 electrics and utilizes a three-phase outlet with 32A to charge fully in the 90 minutes or deliver 80 km…

Reviews

Battle of the 7″ Tablets – iPad Mini vs Kindle Fire HD vs Nexus 7

In our Gear Chat, I said to Dan that the iPad Mini was the ‘best small format tablet I have ever touched’. So what does that mean in context? Well, aside from the Mini, I have had a couple of Samsung 7″ tablets, one each from ASUS and Acer, HTC Flyer, original Kindle Fire, and most recently the Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. Those last two are currently very popular, so I wanted to take a hands-on look at all three and compare them across a number of criteria. Here are the comparison points I used: 1. Size…

G5 Hosting Doomsday Preppers Caption Contest

Game Diary, Reviews

Doomsday Preppers (NatGeo Show Tie-In) for iPad Review

Type of app: Building Management game Platform/where to buy: iPad/iPhone; available in the App Store Developer: National Geographic Games / G5 Entertainment Description: 135 floors to build – how deep will you go? Six types of floors: Shelter, Security, Food and Water, Science, Workshop and Recreation Over 300 products to prep and store Over 150 male and female customizable avatars to choose from Regular game updates to keep you plotting and planning Play with other preppers, including your Facebook friends Major features: I have to confess that I have never seen Doomsday Preppers, which starts its second season on November…

Reviews

HSTI Wireless Media Stick Review

As time goes by, I have seen USB ports appearing in places that one would not normally expect to find them; from the car to our televisions, USB ports have been incorporated into many devices. So picture this scenario: you have a computer at home that has media on it that you’d like to get on your TV, Stereo or any other place you might have a USB port. You could copy the music to a thumb drive and use that, but then what happens when you want to add more music or change it out? You’d need to retrieve the thumb drive,…

News

Verizon Snags the HTC DROID DNA

Just in case you had any illusions that phones weren’t headed solidly into phablet territory, here comes the latest fully loaded 5″ device to challenge your phone-carrying pockets. note the spiffy red racing strip on the DNA’s side Today the DROID DNA by HTC was announced, and it will be available before the end of the month. The DROID DNA by HTC features a vibrant 5-inch Full HD 1080p super LCD 3 screen that rivals traditional HDTV’s. At 440 PPI, the screen packs the highest pixel density available on a smartphone. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core 1.5GHz processor…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

“Ask a Network Head” Answers Why MTV No Longer Plays Music Videos (Parody, NFSW-Language)

It is a common mantra, the irony of MTV standing for MUSIC television despite no longer being a music video (or even music-oriented) network. In this mock-Q&A session the basic question is answered “Why Doesn’t MTV Play Videos Any More?” Check it out, but be warned there are some NSFW-ish elements:

Gear Bits

Microsoft Surface 2012 Sales Set to Disappoint, According to Reports

Last week Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that initial sales of the Surface tablet have been ‘modest’, though Microsoft quickly spun that to be about other stuff such as their approach and so on and focused more on the ‘Pro’ version. At the same time, just after the initial release of the Surface complaints started coming in about build quality and fraying of the cover material and other issues. Further clarifications have shown that what Ballmer said was simply poorly worded and really was about their approach … but for many the image of ‘modest sales’ remains. This, along with…

Editorials

The Blurring of Advertising and Entertainment Continues With #GiftOfRevenge

In my post about the parody video about MTV and music videos, there was actually a fair amount of factual stuff in that video – including that the product shots of smartphones from Apple/Samsung/Nokia are about the only reasons those videos get funding. Product placement is nothing new, and we expect to see things like all-things-Apple on Grimm, hear our radio hosts talk up AT&T 4G service, see randomly placed Pepsi and Dunkin’ Donuts on pretty much every show and movie and so on. But this week on the show Revenge, Target and Neiman Marcus teamed up with the shows…

Reviews

Gear Chat – the ‘Mike Wasn’t Getting an iPad Mini’ Episode

OK, so just a few weeks ago I made some bold declarations about how I would not be getting an iPad Mini, stating it in our last Gear Chat, then taking a bold stance on the ‘Five Reasons I Won’t Be Getting the ‘iPad Mini’’ (which Dan rebutted with a single reason). Since release although I didn’t explicitly post a review or anything else declaring that I had gotten the Mini, I did mention it in my post about iOS 6 WiFi problems, a game review, and then my continuing ‘iPad as my 99% Computer series’. So yeah … I…

Gear Bits, Health and Fitness

Virtual Runner iPad App Lets You Experience Great Race Locations From Your Treadmill!

While I have not been so thrilled at the number of sub-freezing morning runs these past couple of weeks, and I have truly relished the couple of warm shorts & t-shirt runs these past couple of days … I cannot ever see myself exercising inside again, unless injury or extreme weather demanded it. But for many, including a good friend at work for whom joint issues derailed her running habit, each morning includes some time on the treadmill. Now imagine that instead of watching CNN or reading a book, your treadmill time could include heading up Heartbreak Hill on the…

Editorials

Election Maps – “Why Is the Map All Red if Obama Won?”

This isn’t in any way a political post, it is just a reflection on how the visual display of information impacts out perception. Look at the image above; it might seem inaccurate to say, based on the image, that ‘most of the country voted for Romney’. But that image is based on land mass, and since our country isn’t uniformly populated, that graph doesn’t really serve the intended informational purpose. Some people might only care about the basic result, such as this one from the New York Times: Others are looking for more, such as the margin of victory for…

Events, News

Libratone Zipp Named a CES Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Award Honoree

The Libratone Zipp a CES Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Award Honoree In that arena of “cool gear”, one of the biggest surprises for me this year has been the Libratone Zipp. When it arrived, I was struck by its unusual appearance; it is a cylindrical column. I was also taken by its design flexibility thanks to the interchangeable wool covers. Yes, the Zipp can be “dressed” to match pretty much any decor. But it wasn’t until I went to listen to the Zipp, that I was blown away. The speaker is rather small, but it pumps out huge, excellent…

Events, News

Ten One Design Pogo Connect is a CES Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Award Honoree

Ten One Design Named CES Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Award Honoree For Pogo Connect If a product adds functionality to my iPad I’m interested. That’s exactly what Ten One Design’s Pogo Connect promises. It is …the world’s first pressure-sensitive Bluetooth 4.0 stylus for the new iPad. Currently supported by numerous compatible apps, Pogo Connect offers full pressure sensitivity, palm rejection capabilities and more. The stylus’s Crescendo Sensor technology makes the tip highly responsive to pressure, recognizes even the slightest touch and works at any angle. While I’m not all too interested in the pressure-sensitive aspect of this pen —…

Music Diary, Reviews

Stereo Sound Test Review – Kindle Fire HD vs iPad Mini

We now know that the iPad Mini is the first iDevice with stereo speakers. But they are located on either side of the downscaled Lightning connector port. I have also touted the excellent sound and stereo separation of the Kindle Fire HD. Now that I have both tablets … let’s put them to the test! The first thing I did was a series of basic stereo separation tests, some of which you can find here. The results? The Kindle Fire HD shows much more dramatic stereo separation and better ‘sound location’, which makes it very immersive when watching a video…

Reviews

Twelve South HiRise for MacBook Review

At present my only computer is a 15″ MacBook Pro with Retina display. I love it. Similarly, Elana’s only computer is an 11″ MacBook air. She loves it. When Elana works on her MBA, she always does so with the computer sitting atop the Rain Design mStand for MacBook I reviewed back in December of 2010. After a full two years of use, it still looks brand new. (Read the review.) Elana loves the fact that the stand lets her raise the screen closer to eye level. And, thanks to a keyboard and mouse, she effectively has a desktop that…

News

How Memory Prices Have Changed Through the Years

When Dan and I were discussing the iPad Mini, one item of contention for both of us was that while others (Amazon Kindle Fire HD, for example) have moved to a $50 differential from 16GB to 32GB, Apple has held steady with the $100 increment. I stated that my understanding was that at $50 Amazon was getting at least $28 (probably more like $38) … meaning that for Apple there is at least $78 more profit in the 32GB version and $156 more profit in the 64GB version. Dan asked me what changes have happened in memory pricing since the…

Reviews

JBL Micro 2 Rechargeable Portable Speaker Review

Your iPhone’s speaker stinks, and so does your iPad’s; even the iPad mini’s stereo speakers, a first for an iOS device, are crappy. And your Android devices? They don’t really do much better. Yes, for a quick YouTube video or conversation the speaker on your mobile device is certainly adequate but it’s not going to win any audiophile prizes. And while you could keep a larger speaker such as the JawBone in your gear bag, that takes up space and adds weight. That’s where this diminutive speaker from JBL comes in. The JBL Micro 2 is small, light, and can…

Reviews

Extreme Road Trip 2 for iPhone Review

When I game on my iPhone, it must be a quick experience that can be played in short period of times without the need to beat long levels. I particularly enjoy games that utilize a well-built physics engine and include some speed and destruction. While recently searching the App Store, I found a category of recommendations that are utilized for use on the iPhone 5. I chose to take a look at Road Trip 2 and have been addicted ever since! Let’s take a quick look. Your gas pedal is stuck AGAIN! Do stunts to get nitro boost and SLAM…

Reviews

Belkin Car Charger with Lightning Connector for iPhone 5 Review

Those of us who use Apple’s mobile products have entered into a transitional period. The devices we had prior to this fall all use the company’s 30-pin dock connector but, as you likely know, all of their new products use a much smaller, and thankfully reversible, connector. If you have old cables, it means you either need to buy new ones or get one of Apple’s pricey adapters if you want to charge on the go. Thankfully Belkin has been first to step in and release new products that use the updated connector. They sent me one of their Car…

Vehicles & Gear

Grinding Gears Garage tests the 2013 GMC Terrain Denali

Crossover utility vehicles are to the new millennium what minivans were to the late ‘80s and early ‘90s – all the rage. It seems, however, that many of their designs blend together, especially when friends get together and try to describe one they don’t know the name or brand of. “It’s that one with the round face and kind of rounded roofline, you know, the one that looks like an over-inflated sport hatchback…” or something like that. GMC’s latest – the Terrain – sought to step apart from that confusing landscape. The GMC Terrain is another core ingredient to GM’s…

Reviews

SMS STREET by 50 DJ Over-the-Ear Headphones Review

Back in June we reviewed the SMS Audio Street by 50 Wired Headphones. (Read the review.) I was impressed by both the comfort and the sound. I summarized them with “What I Like: Well-made; Stay in the ear nicely; In-line controller; Flat, tangle-free cable; Sound great”. Since then SMS Audio has greatly expanded their offerings which now include their SMS STREET by 50 DJ over-the-ear headphones. They are big, bold and make a statement. I’ve been using a pair for the last few weeks, so let’s take a look. I’m usually a fan of in-ear or on-ear headphones more than…

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