August 2010

Gear vs Gear- Zagg Z-Buds, Apple’s In-Ear headphones, and Etymotic HF2 headphones

Pictured from left to right; Apples white In Ear Headphones (IEH), red Zagg Z-Buds, and the blue Etymotic HF2 buds. I’ve owned a pair of Zagg Z-Buds for about 1.5 years now and they had been my earbud of choice until I won two new sets of buds from Gear Diary last winter. (Thanks so much, Gear Diary!) Now that I’ve had several months to use them all, I’m prepared to give you all a brief review of all 3; Zagg Z-Buds, Apple’s In-Ear headphones (IEH), and Etymotic HF2 headphones. All of these were tested for the first half of…

Reviews

iPad Accessory Review: The Aligata Nude Beauty Leather Envelope

I’ve made no secret about how much I love the look of natural, undyed, full grain leather, and now Aligata has introduced yet another iPad accessory to satisfy my craving. With no velcro, clips or snaps, the Aligata Nude Beauty iPad Leather Envelope is simplicity defined. This case is nothing but gorgeous raw leather — and just because I love the look — contrasting yellow stitching. When natural leather is left untreated and undyed like the Nude Beauty cases from Aligata (and the Black Espresso and Nippon leathers, for that matter), they will show every nick, stain, mark, scar or water drop that occurs;…

eBooks, News

Borders Makes an UnBEARable Decision

In about 5 seconds you’re all going to hate me for the terrible pun in the title. Borders (or, as it was known back in my day, “Borders Books, Music, Movies and Cafe”), has hit upon the solution to their customer and sales woes. Is it to improve their book side? Shape up ebooks into a fighting machine? Nope…they’ve thought waaaaaaaaay outside the box on this one. Borders has made the logical leap that people come to bookstores for books, sometimes a movie or a CD, a good cup of coffee…and a Build-a-Bear??? Yes, they are giving valuable floor space…

Editorials, Music Diary

Music Industry Says Sales Still Lousy, Still Blaming Piracy, Still Trying to Raise Prices and Force Album-Only Sales Model

There is a great Veggie Tales song The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, where they are supposed to be singing about ‘piratey stuff’ but Larry is singing about … nonsense. At the end they conclude ‘you just don’t get it’. And THAT is exactly what I was thinking when I read the news about the sorry state of album sales at NPR. Here is the video, just in case you don’t know the song: From the article: The month of August — like, basically, every month for the past 10 years — has not been kind to the music industry….

Reviews

Victorinox Swiss Army Dive Master 500M Watch Review

Anyone who knows me personally knows that long before I struck up a love affair with gadgets my heart belonged to watches. As early as junior high school I had a fascination with time pieces and started a blossoming collection. Back then I could only afford Swatches and Casios, but as I grew older and as my income increased I began to acquire more valuable pieces including Rolex, Cartier, Panerai, and more. I’ve sold off most of them because in this economy it’s just too hard to hold onto so many valuable things, but I have never lost my addiction….

News

Sena Keyboard Folio for iPad Coming Soon… Looks Awesome

I don’t carry my laptop much of the time anymore thanks to my iPad. Typing on the iPad’s virtual keyboard works well, but to make real use of the iPad as a work device requires a keyboard. As a result, I leave a Bluetooth keyboard on my desk at work, and I carry the keyboard dock with me if I think I am going to be doing a lot of typing on the go. It isn’t the most convenient thing in the world, but it works for me and certainly beats carrying a laptop. I sure would love to have…

Reviews

Gear vs Gear- Incipio Pearl Metal feather and the Incase Clear Snap Case for iPhone 4

Let me start off by saying, I usually love to carry my iPhone naked. (well always with a skin/screen protector on it…old habit from the stylus driven Windows Mobile and Pocket PC days). To me, one of the main reasons for getting the iPhone (any version) is that it is light, small, compact, awesome looking and feels great in the hand. Why would I want to hide all of Apple’s hard design work behind a case? Well I work outside quite a bit, and I get dirty … so sometimes I like to keep my phone protected. So to keep…

Music Diary

Celebrating Bird – Charlie Parker’s 90th Birthday, and 55 Years Since His Death

When most people think about creative musical geniuses who shone bright, lived fast, and died young, they most often think of rock music icons like Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain or Keith Moon. But the trend began LONG before the rock era. The classic film Amadeus highlighted the fast life and early death of Mozart, and there were many other influential composers and musicians of the pre-recorded music era such as Franz Schubert and Frederick Chopin who died while in the midst of amassing a library of great music that would influence musicians and composers centuries later. In the 20th…

News

iPhone Case First Look: Sena WalletSlim for iPhone 4

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I forget to bring my wallet or my keys … but I NEVER leave the house without my iPhone. That’s where Sena’s upcoming WalletSlim case for the iPhone 4 could come in handy. The WalletSlim isn’t out yet (it ships soon), but we have a pre-release look at the new case and it looks quite handy. The WalletSlim is a leather skin made in typical Sena fashion — that means high quality leather, good fit and finish and no loose threads. The case covers the back, the sides and the…

eBooks, News

New Study Reveals eBook Readers Buy More Books

Do you own a Kindle or a nook and feel like you’re reading more than usual? As it turns out, it’s not just in your head. A recent study has shown that 40% of ebook reader owners read more than before, while 58% read at least the same amount! No wonder ebooks are growing at triple-digit rates! There are some fascinating statistics cited in the Wall Street Journal regarding ebook readers. Apparently, some studies have shown that people reading ebooks on a Kindle or nook read SLOWER than readers of paper books. Even more interesting, there was a slowdown even…

News

The Urinal Sink: Ultra-Efficient, Eco-Friendly … But Do You Want It?

This weekend we were visiting my nephew before he started back to his senior year in college, and took him and his girlfriend out for lunch. He chose P. F. Changs in Albany, which was great for us as we lack quality Chinese food in the Corning area, but a rather odd choice for someone who had spent the entire summer working on a research project with his professor in China. But as we were finishing up and everyone hit the rest rooms before we went our separate ways. Despite their only being four men, we created a line in…

Reviews

Handy Runner GPS Fitness Tracker Android App Review

I’ve searched long and hard for a decent GPS tracking app when I run. Every app I liked had inconsistencies; Cardio Trainer offered great feedback but seemed to stop tracking roughly a mile into every run, RunKeeper overshot all my runs so 1.5 miles became 7.5, and BuddyRunner undercut all my runs by almost a 1/2 mile. However, I kept hunting, and I recently stumbled upon an app that interfaces with the RunningAHEAD training log. Not only does HandyRunner automatically update my log, but it’s also far more accurate than any program I’ve tried so far! HandyRunner is fairly simple…

Reviews

iPad Accessory Review- Lapworks’ iPad Space Dock

I have had the opportunity to look at, and review, a wide range of iPad stands and today we’ll take a look at yet another one. Lapwork’s iPad Space Dock (we reviewed their Recliner for iPad a few months ago) is one of the smallest and low profile stands we have seen. If it looks a bit familiar that might be because it looks strikingly similar to Element Cases’ Joule for iPad that Judie first posted on back in April. There are some notable differences and we’ll get to those in a bit. The Space Dock is so low-profile that…

Reviews

iPod/iPhone Accessory Review- Gear4’s StreetParty 4 Speaker System

There are lots and lots of speaker docks. Some are huge and offer big sound. Some have tons of bells an whistles. And some, like the StreetParty 4 I have been using for the last two weeks, make their mark by being small, easy to use and easy to carry. Sure, with such a small dock you give up something by way of full, rich sound but you more than make up for it in convenience. So if you are looking for a system that will replace your huge, expensive home system you can stop reading this review right now….

Reviews

Android Mobile Phone Review: Motorola Droid 2

Just a short time ago Motorola appeared to be on the ropes. That all changed when Motorola found Android. Less than a year ago Motorola released and sold millions of their first Android device, the Droid on the Verizon network. Since then, they have brought out the Cliq, Cliq XT, The Flip and the Droid X. Today I am reviewing the sequel to the Droid, the Droid 2. Hardware The Droid 2 has similar looks to the original Droid. It is a little less blocky, but it’s almost identical to the original Droid in size, weight and thickness. The front…

eBooks, Reviews

Amazon Kindle 3 Unboxing

Amazon‘s newest e-reader, the Kindle 3, just arrived on my door step. Rather than post a bunch of written text listing the specifications and what not I thought you’d enjoy a peak at the new device on video. Check out my quick unboxing and first impressions including a size comparison to the Kindle 2 from my YouTube channel below.

News

Griffin Party Dock Outed By FCC… Confuses Some, So Here’s the Deal With It

Apparently the FCC filing for Griffin’s new PartyDock got out before they were ready to totally share. Unsurprisingly, some of the information circulating about it based on that filing isn’t totally accurate. So thanks to Griffin, here’s the deal with the new dock. Games: You can play games designed specifically for PartyDock on it. Apparently up to four can play a mix of party and casual/family games from their iPad or iPhone right on their TV. PartyDock games will be available through iTunes and only games designed or adapted to the platform will work. (This makes sense since special functionality will…

eBooks, Editorials

An Open Letter to Amazon Regarding the Kindle 3

The about this time last year I wrote a series of posts about the Amazon Kindle. One of the posts was entitled “An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos”. It discussed some of my concerns with their DRM scheme and the issues that I was having with it. I wasn’t pleased with some of the apparent limitations of the DRM, and I was totally disappointed with the customer service people I spoke with. A year later I want to write another open letter to Amazon. This one I’m going to title, “An Open Letter to Amazon Regarding the Kindle 3” Yes,…

Reviews

iPhone Accessory Review- Just Mobile Gum Plus Battery for iPhone

There’s no question that the iPhone 4 serves me far better in the battery department than the iPhone 3GS ever did. Unfortunately, “better” isn’t “good” and I still find my charge running low by the middle or end of the day. As a result, having a backup battery with me at all times is a must. But here is the thing… there are backup batteries and there are BACKUP BATTERIES. The Gum Plus from IntoMobile is a BACKUP BATTERY. It’s big. It’s beefy. And it’s a new fixture in my gear bag. Let’s take a look… From JustMobile- The high-capacity,…

News

No, Despite What That Email Says, Mars Won’t Be Riding Down the Highway in White Ford Bronco!

Has it REALLY been seven years already? Back on August 27th of 2003, Mars came the closest it had to the earth in 60,000 years. It was an amazing astrological event and I watched through my telescope and had a wonderful time waking up my young kids and sharing it with them (and no, they don’t remember it anymore). But even back then misinformation was spread: the truth was that as Mars came ~56 million kilometers from Earth it would be approximately 1/75 the size of a full moon, so using a 75x telescope lens you would get a wonderful…

News

Celebrate Your XBOX Love with the Red Ring of Death … Ring?

There are few things that can scare a modern console gamer like the thoughts of the Red Rings of Death! That term itself has become ubiquitous in the current generation, indicating the failure light pattern when the XBOX360 has a fatal failure. OK, so this ring really isn’t meant to be a Red Ring of Death, but it looks like it! Here is the description from the ShinyLines: Red, the color of crimson determination. Fiery and bold, it commands with hot intention. This artisan hand-finished rhodium plated cast .925 solid sterling silver ring boasts the elegant look of platinum without…

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