July 2012

In a Summer of Pricey Concerts, Madonna’s 45-Minute Mediocre Show Costs the Most

Imagine that you have paid $400 for a concert ticket and … wait, WHAT?!?! I can’t even get past THAT! Last year both of my sons wanted to go to concerts so I went along – and tickets were $55 for Kid Cudi and $25 for Skrillex. Bruno Mars was part of our NY State Fair package, and my last show was the $40 per ticket for Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion tour. But looking at the image above courtesy of DigitalMusicNews shows that what I paid for 4 Metheny tickets wouldn’t gain admission for ONE of us to many shows this…

Music Diary, News, Reviews

Griffin MIDIConnect for iPad Hands-On Review

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the release at Summer NAMM of the Griffin MIDIConnect, and that the great folks at Griffin sent me one to evaluate. I have had a chance to put it through its paces and found it did the job perfectly, and even offered some other reasons to check it out. Read on and find out! The Hype: Now you can plug your MIDI keyboards and other devices into your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad. Use MIDIConnect’s MIDI IN port to play your MIDI-capable instruments and controllers into GarageBand or other MIDI apps. Download…

Gear Bits

NBC Skipped One of the Best Parts of the Opening Ceremonies

I don’t know about you, but every couple of years I watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, trying to get through the rather drawn-out and sometimes boring affair interspersed with way too many commercials and inane ‘up close and personal’ interviews. Last night we got to hear about the nicknames of a couple of gymnasts and about whether or not Michael Phelps is afraid of Ryan Lochte. But what we DIDN’T see was a moving tribute that many think was in honor of victims of the 7/7 London bombings that happened just days after the city was awarded the…

Editorials

How to Guarantee That You Won’t Get the Reaction or Results That You Want

There are very few “sure things” in life, but here are a few things about which you can be certain … 1. How to Guarantee that We Won’t Review Your Product You can pretty much guarantee we won’t review your product if you introduce it to us by lying. Here’s a good case in point. The first email was just fine. Name: jon How does one go about having a product reviewed by your staff? We have created a awesome new product called EarSkinz that have been designed to help stabilize the apple earbuds. We not only achieved stability, we…

News

Have a Nexus 7? Waterfield Design Has You Covered

If you got one of Google’s already-popular Nexus 7 tablets no doubt you want a way to keep it protected. Waterfield has options… lots of options. In fact, WaterField offers so many different options that they are calling it a “line of Nexus 7 cases“. What’s in the line? There the Nexus 7 Smart Case, the Nexus 7 Ultimate SleeveCase, the Nexus 7 Slip Case, the Nexus 7 Suede Jacket, and the Nexus 7 Travel Express. As WaterField Designs owner, Gary Waterfield put it, With the Google Nexus 7 flying off shelves and the 16GB version delayed, many eager early adopters…

Gear Bits

“Cinderfella” Reimagines Disney Princess Stories

Like just about every kid in America, I grew up watching Disney movies. Of course, most girls don’t cast themselves as Prince Charming, but that should have been an early clue for me that maybe I wasn’t like the other kids. Apparently I wasn’t the only one rewriting fairy tales! Todrick Hall, who apparently was on American Idol (I don’t follow the show) has put together an adorable mash up of Disney princess tales and pop songs. He casts himself as “Cinderfella”, and he yearns to head to the ball to find his Prince Charming. The whole video is cute,…

Outdoors

News Roundup on the Cusp of the Olympics!

Less than 24 hours until the start of the Summer Olympics! Hopefully, you aren’t too burned out on Olympics stories so far, there’s a long month of feel-good tales and endless shots of crowds ahead of you. Meanwhile, we have a quick roundup of apps and news to carry you through to the Opening Ceremonies! First, NBC has two apps to help you stick with the Olympics on the go. One is an aggregation of news and prepackaged articles and photos, and the other is for live coverage during the games themselves. So far, my personal experience has been a…

Gear Bits

Why Cable Companies Should Be Afraid of Airplay

Despite the fact that the operating system was released just a few days ago and there have been some issues with getting redemption codes and downloads, an amazing number of Mac users have already upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion. Having used it since shortly after the OS was released I can honestly say that it is, by far, the best update I’ve seen to OS X. I love the integration with iOS, the features of the new Safari and, of course, I am thrilled to have the, admittedly limited, ability to globally use voice recognition by simply pressing the…

Vehicles & Gear

The EV Life, One Year Later

In the summer of 2011 I penned an article centered around my daily struggles driving (and living with) an electric vehicle. I was testing a Chevrolet Volt Extended-Range Electric Vehicle and if you recall, I could not find anywhere to recharge my test unit but, in less than a year, my how things have changed. I still don’t have a home charging station but there are four public spots at the office building I frequent, two at the nearby shopping village, and I see so many popping up all over the area now. And next to those EV spaces at…

Gear Bits

Happiness is a Maple Bacon Donut: Happy SysAdmin Day!

Yesterday Twitter had a pretty major outage. Even though it wasn’t the best moment for the SysAdmins who work for Twitter, it’s something I appreciate when I see the hard work they do. I am also a SysAdmin and today someone did for me what I think is the best thing ever. They bought our team donuts. Why did they do that today? Well today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. Today is the day that you should set aside at least a few minutes to appreciate all the hard work that your SysAdmin does to keep your system or favorite…

Reviews

The ePool Smart System Swimming Pool Wireless Monitoring System Review

One of the things that makes living in West Texas bearable during the “hot months” — you know, mid-April to early September (when the temperatures consistently hover around 100º) — is having a pool or favorite watering hole that you can use to cool down in. We have a freestanding 30’x6′ concrete stock tank not far from our back door. While the primary function of this tank is to hold water which pipes to a trough our livestock drink from, we have also outfitted it with a regular pool filtration system so we can enjoy algae-free swimming; it’s pretty much awesome, and we…

Gear Bits

First Trailer for ‘Life of Pi’ Hits!

Published in 2001, Yann Martel’s ‘Life of Pi’ is a highly acclaimed novel that is deep with allegory and allusion and heart-wrenching storytelling. I found it a captivating read and it quickly passed through my family and out to family and friends through the years. It was recently featured as a ‘Kindle Deal of the Day’, so I was able to start reading it again – and it still strikes a chord with me. I vaguely recall hearing that there were plans in place to make a film version, but now we have the trailer! Here is the synopsis: Director…

Reviews, Travel

Lowepro Urban Photo Sling 150 Review

If all you need to bring with you is your DSLR camera, a few accessories and an iPad you certainly don’t want to carry some big, heavy, and bulky bag. At the same time, carrying your camera and your iPad means that you have some rather expensive equipment along with you for the day so you DO want it protected. One option is the Urban Photo Sling from Lowepro. This sling style bag comes in two sizes – the 150 and the 250 – and I’ve been using the 150, the smaller of the two, for the last few weeks. As…

Reviews

Acase Concept Hard Shell Case Folio for New iPad Review

Sometimes simple is better. That’s the situation with this iPad case from Acase. It offers a slim, formfitting back for your new iPad and a leather case that wraps from the back to the front. In addition, it has a magnet for sleep and awake that does a good job keeping the cover closed when not being used. A tab on the back turns it into a stand and a loop is there as well if you use a stylus. It’s not the most exciting iPad case we’ve seen, but it does the job and does so in a nicely…

Gear Bits

Turkey Dubstep Animation Is Awesome

Whether you like dubstep or not, there is no denying the cuteness of two turkeys spitting it out. The video short was so popular that not only has it earned a sequel … Turkeys + Dubstep + a little bit of success = Selling out … it has also earned several YouTube remixes, including one that lasts a ridiculous 10 hours. I’m looking forward to seeing what Will Anderson, the artist behind White Robot, shows the turkeys doing next. 😉

Gear Bits

US Cellular HTC Flyer Honeycomb Update – Do It the Same … But Slower!

Just as it seemed we might be seeing some critical mass in the move towards updating Android devices to ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ almost nine months after release, ‘Jelly Bean’ arrived and threw things back into a fragmented turmoil where the overwhelming majority of devices are TWO VERSIONS BEHIND. Oh well, at least we continue to see updates rolling out on pretty much a weekly basis. The HTC Flyer was an intriguing 7″ tablet that combined excellent performance from a single core chip with a full HTC Sense-ified Android 2.3 Gingerbread interface. Late in 2011 OS updates were initiated by HTC…

News

With Dragon 12 Voice Recognition Gets Smarter… and Faster

The global voice recognition in Apple’s new Mountain Lion operating system is already by far my favorite feature. It is incredibly fast, quite accurate (when I speak slowly and clearly in a quiet room), and it’s so easily accessed (you hit Fn twice) that it makes voice recognition something you don’t even need to think about before you start using it. No matter what you are doing it’s right there (so long as you have a data connection). It is not perfect, however, and if you need something more powerful than simple, small pieces of voice-to-text recognition, then you will…

Music Diary, News, Reviews

If You Want to Get ‘Real’, Get SampleTank! My Hands-On Review

When I did my hands-on quickie review of the iRig MIDI hardware and software, my iPad was sitting on top of one of the classic powerhouse synthesizers of the 90s, the Kurzweil K2000R. Aside from the powerful synthesis capabilities in the VAST engine, the system also featured a tremendous sample-playback capability. It cost thousands of dollars 20 years ago, and will still set you back at least a few hundred dollars on eBay now. Now there is software on my iPad that can replicate the vast majority of that experience for a fraction of what I paid for the Analog…

News

With Mountain Lion, Global Voice Recognition Comes to OS X and It Is Awesome

If you read the site you know how much I like, use and rely upon voice recognition. I use Siri on my iPhone more for voice recognition than for the actual “power” of Siri. I use global voice recognition on my iPad ALL THE TIME. And on my Mac I use Dragon Dictation and Dragon Express all the time. With Mountain Lion Apple is bringing global voice recognition to the Mac. Sure, it has some of the same limitation as iOS voice recognition in that is requires a data connection and there is a limitation on how long you can…

Gear Bits

The Whole Samsung vs. Apple Legal Debate Summed Up in One Image

OK, so the title really isn’t true – there are so many multi-faceted elements interwoven in the international legal cases between smartphone makers that summing them up simply would be impossible. But when you look at phones from Samsung and HTC and others … this one picture tells a singular and undeniable truth: all current popular smartphone designs lead back to Cupertino and the original iPhone. Source: Cult of Mac

Music Diary, News

American Public Media Launches New Interactive Stations on Slacker Radio

Back when I lived near Boston I had a long commute, and in the evenings I would occasionally end up stuck in traffic long enough to catch Marketplace on NPR radio. It was a mixed feeling – on the one hand I have always loved the show, on the other hand it meant I was late getting home. Today American Public Media (home of Marketplace and others) has teamed up with Slacker to launch public radio programming on all of Slacker’s clients. As I type this I am listening to Marketplace talk about the impact of Sally Ride on women…

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