April 2010

Air Video Free for iPhone/Touch/iPad App Review

Last week I was syncing my wife’s iPhone and she told me she wished a couple of movies would fit on her phone. I could fit a movie on the phone, but would have to delete some of her music which she did not want me to do. When our boys go to bed, she sits in their room while they doze off and plays on her phone so that is a perfect opportunity to watch some video. I immediately went to the app store and began to search for a solution and found Air Video Free. Air Video Free…

News

DeluxeComfort.com Girlfriend Body Pillow $9.95 at Sears!

Back in August of 2009 the Consumerist featured a New York Times article about a growing Japanese trend of single men carrying ‘2-D Girlfriends’ around everywhere with them. The rise of 2-D love can be attributed in part to the difficulty many young Japanese have in navigating modern romantic life. According to a government survey, more than a quarter of unmarried men and women between the ages of 30 and 34 are virgins; 50 percent of men and women in Japan said they were not “going out with anybody”. Now Sears.com is getting in on this new trend, featuring the…

Reviews

The Lenovo ThinkCentre A70z 1165 as a Digital Picture Frame With Benefits; Why Not?!

At the end of 2008 I bought my first digital picture frame, the Gigantor 15″ from Think Geek, which at the time was one of the largest available without getting into astronomical amounts of money. I paid about $200 for it, which I thought was a pretty good deal considering that many 10″ and under frames were selling in the ~$150 range. Everyone who comes into our house will generally stop dead in their tracks when they see the massive photo display; they want to know who people are, when photos were taken, and where they were taken. It’s as…

Reviews

WirelessGround Touch Screen Stylus Review: Reduces iPad Fingerprints

Fingerprints. It’s perhaps my biggest pet peeve about the iPad’s glorious screen. It’s one gigantic fingerprint magnet. Unless you plan on joining the Men In Black (they remove your fingerprints) it’s something you just have to deal with. Unless of course you find some other way to use your iPad without touching the screen with your finger. Enter the WirelessGround Touch Screen Stylus Pen. The stylus, which is available in Black, Purple, Blue or Pink, features a soft tip which gives your more precise control when tapping on your screen and allows you to do so with using your finger….

News

1Password for Windows Beta Now Available

(Image courtesy of Agile Web Solutions) With more people creating a variety of online accounts and putting more information online and with the increase in the number of hacks trying to get into accounts, having a password manager is worth looking into. One of my favorite password managers, 1Password, has been available on the Mac platform for years and works seamlessly with a variety of browsers. 1Password is also available on the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. Well, imagine my surprise to see that Agile Web Solutions has released a beta of 1Password for Windows! While it does not yet have…

How to Do It Yourself!

Step by Step Android/iPhone Dual Boot Instructions

When the video of the original iPhone dual-booting Android first appeared, I was intrigued about giving it a shot. Unfortunately, I’m not super savvy on command-line activities, and I was lost about 1/3 of the way through the first how-to I found. Luckily, the sharp-eyed folks at Android Central came across more user-friendly instructions over at Redmond Pie. While it still looks like a long, time-consuming process, at least now it’s easier to understand! If you’re a visual learner, check out the above video, or hit up Redmond Pie for the text instructions if you prefer those. This weekend got…

eBooks, Editorials

The Case for eBook Readers

It’s been a big week for dedicated ebook readers! Sure, everyone wants to talk about the iPad, but the Kindle, nook, and their comrades have been generating some headlines of their own this week. Barnes and Noble nook: The nook has had a busy, busy week. First, it hit Best Buy shelves, so if you have a craving for an ebook reader but an aversion to bookstores, you’re all set. To go along with this new retail takeover, B&N is airing a series of commercials about the nook during primetime. It’s actually a very effective commercial and plays on the…

Editorials

“Ode To The LP” or… Why iTunes Is Killing The Musical Experience

Last night I encountered the most elusive of musical creatures… the perfect album. That’s right, last night I listened to an album and when all eleven tracks were done playing I realized that I had not been tempted to skip a single song. I liked every single one… hence… the perfect album. I won’t even bother to mention the particular album since “likes” and “dislikes”, let alone “perfect”, are highly subjective with it comes to musical taste, but it did get me thinking about the state of the musical experience. More accurately, it made me realize what a shame it…

Reviews

PDAir Luxury Silicone Case for Nexus One Review

I like lots of different kinds of cases and switch depending on what I need at a given moment. For quite a few years, I was really into aluminum cases (Rhinoskin, anyone?), then slip cases, pouch cases, play-through cases… you name it. More recently, I’ve preferred to put as little on my devices as possible. With my iPhone, I’ve settled into using just a screen protector and an Incipio Feather case much of the time to protect it from scratches. So when I picked up a Nexus One, I started looking for ways to protect it, but with minimal weight…

News

Avatar DRM Make Blu-Ray Watching Na’vi Cry

Image courtesy of ActFourScreenplays The big DVD news this week – well aside from watching Peter Jackson continue his spiral into mediocrity with The Lovely Bones – is the mega-release of the wonderful but over-hyped Avatar on DVD & Blu-Ray. This should be a good thing – I know my kids are looking forward to seeing the amazing visual spectacle again in our home theater. But – there was a problem! According to a post at the Consumerist, many folks are unable to watch the Blu-Ray version due to DRM that Fox has on the disc. They reference an animated…

Reviews

Waterfield Muzetto Portable – Review (Conclusion- Perfect For Carrying An iPad)

One of the things that is perhaps most fun about reviewing technology and being an iPhone user is the opportunity to compare and test various iPhone cases. Fortunately there are plenty of nice ones out there from which to choose, and boy have we had a chance to look at many. One of the more striking things about the iPad, now that I have been using it for three weeks, is that while Larry and I will often talk about the latest iPhone case one or the other of us have tried, when it comes to the iPad we have…

eBooks, Reviews

Jetbook Lite Ebook Reader Review

Earlier in the month I did a tour of the Jetbook Lite’s hardware. Now it’s time to delve into the software side, and really get to know this little ebook reader! Upon booting the Jetbook Lite, you have three choices; ebooks, pictures and settings. Pictures is nice, but only if you desperately love showing off your photos in black and white. Otherwise, you’re more likely headed into either settings or ebooks. Settings offers the usual complement of options, from font changes to serial numbers. You can also adjust settings within the book by accessing the contextual menu. Adding books is…

Game Diary, Reviews

Don’t Trust That Label!: The Netbook Gamer

Image courtesy of GameSpot There are two paths I take when working on games to review for the Netbook Gamer: on the one hand I love to dig up classic PC games from the late 90’s that will still run on WIndows XP. On the other hand – particularly recently – I have been pushing the boundaries of what a standard netbook is capable of doing. Sometimes – like in the recent Tron review – things go very well. Sometimes – like in the Thief Deadly Shadows review – they work at a level that is barely acceptable. Sometimes I…

Reviews

Shanghai Mahjong for iPad

Mahjong is one of those games that has always fascinated me – both the solitaire version that most PC gamers are familiar with and the competitive version of mahjong (sometimes called the “real” mahjong). Shanghai Majong is one of the former – the solitaire version of the game. For those who have never been exposed to the game, the idea is simple – a number of tiles are places in a stacked pattern on the board and you need to find open (free on one side) pairs in order to remove the pairs from the board. The goal is to remove all of the…

Reviews

Calorie Counter by FatSecret for iPhone/Touch/iPad

As I explained in a recent review, about six years ago I lost a large amount of weight and began getting back into shape. I have kept up a strenuous workout routine until just recently. The stresses of work, kids, bills and most of all graduate school caused me to begin to slack on my workouts. I was still jogging or lifting weights, but only a couple days a week at best rather than my six days of disciplined workouts. During that time, I briefly tried a few apps on my phone to help count calories but my heart, energy…

News

Popular Science Puts Entire Archive Online … for Free!

Apparently this happened last month, but since there is 137 YEARS of content … I don’t think it will get old for a while! For my first search I looked up an area of interest in my current work: Multivariate. Here is what I found: I really hadn’t expected much, as multivariate statistical analysis isn’t exactly in PopSci’s wheelhouse … but the reference to the Journal of Irreproducible Results was priceless – and a complete time-sink! In fact, there was something linked off the front page that I just have to share: Anyway … Check out the Popular Science…

Reviews

WiebeTech ToughTech Mini pocket drives: Functional portability

For many, portability is a key determiner when considering new technology, and functional portability is an absolute priority. Myself, I chose to ditch the behemoth desktop computing system years ago in favor of a highly capable new generation of laptops. And as has been the case for my workstation at home, I am ladened with many “extensions” in my portable workspace as well. These days that includes an external hard disk drive. I never thought I would fill the internal drive of my latest laptop when I purchased it but that ship has sailed. Enter WiebeTech and their new ToughTech…

Reviews

Gear Diary Deal or Dud #3: Wonder Hangers

Have you run out of hanging space in your closets? The As Seen on TV Wonder Hangers promise to triple the amount of closet space you get without any fancy or costly custom alterations. A set of 8 Wonder Hangers sells for only $9.99. I recently picked some up at a local home store and decided to put them through the Gear Diary Deal or Dud test. How did the hangers perform? Are the Wonder Hangers a Deal or Dud? Watch the video below to find out. You can learn more about the Wonder Hanger by visiting their official web site.

Game Diary, Reviews

Dragon Age Origins: PC/XBOX360/PS3 Game Review

The other night I was watching VH1’s ‘100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80’s’, and was thinking about Bioware and the whole ’spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate 2? thing surrounding Dragon Age: Origins. Baldur’s Gate 2 is the 2000 classic PC RPG that is not just one of the best RPGs ever but one of the greatest games in video game history. Not only that, it is one of those rare sequels that is better than the original – and the original itself is always on the ‘best video games ever’ lists! Put into that context, it is hard…

eBooks, Editorials

Is Fictionwise About to Walk the Plank?

Teleread has an interesting editorial about the future of Fictionwise/eReader (or lack thereof). Yes, there’s the elimination of the buywise program, and there’s the slow death of the PDB format in favor of ePUB. The really bad news: There’s no intention to release an iPad-specific version of eReader. So your choices are either blow the app up to 2x size or skip making use of the gorgeous iPad screen. Or, of course, just buy your books through Barnes and Noble instead. It’s a shame, really. Many, many ebook fans started their reading on Peanut Press, which turned into eReader and…

Reviews

Go800 Connects SMS to 800 Numbers.

Ok I am still trying to figure out why this is a good idea. Go800corp.com has started a service that is kind of neat, but then kind of makes me ask why. What it does is supposedly makes it easier to contact companies with 800 numbers on your cellphone. You basically text a keyword to 46800 and then your phone will ring and be connected to the 800 number the keyword belongs too. They call this a Voice Keyword, and yet you can’t just call them and use your voice to establish the call? Plus since smart phones are becoming…

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