December 2012

Bike Baron on iOS Gets an Update and a Sale Price!

Remember my Minigore 2: Zombies post where I told you that Bike Baron is one of my favorite games on iOS, ever? Well, it was just updated to version 3.0 and it got even better! Bike Baron is in the “physics motorcycle race” genre. Did I just make that up? There are four buttons: Left, Right, Stop, Go. You lean back and forth and use the gas and brakes to make your way through over 100 different levels and 300 challenges. The premise is simple, the game itself, is not. Once you get into the Hard and Extreme levels, the…

News

New Wheel of Fortune App for iOS and Android Launched to Help Celebrate 30th Wheel of Fortune Season!

“WHEEL…OF…FORTUNE!” Whenever I hear that phrase, I start to salivate a bit. Yes, I’m sure there are a lot of brows creasing as they read that second sentence, but bear with me, as it was the result of inadvertent Pavlovian conditioning. Back in the late 20th century, when I was but a college student, the local radio station would play an NPR segment followed by the audio broadcast of Wheel of Fortune from a local TV station. Due to my schedule proctoring organic chemistry labs, the timing of these two broadcasts generally coincided with my dinner. I’d often eat in…

Gear Bits

What Makes Bluebird from American Express and Walmart Different?

????? ‘Tis The Season to Spend Money, fah lah lah lah, lah lah lah lah… ????? The other day we brought word about Bluebird, a new joint initiative between American Express and Walmart. Bluebird lets you make direct deposits, pay bills online, deposit checks with your iPhone or Android device, set up Sub-Accounts, and more. As I noted in that first post, we were invited to open an account and try out the service. This is a sponsored series of posts, but the observations and experiences I’ll be documenting in the coming weeks are mine and mine alone. In this…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

BenchtopPRO Parts Washer Review – a Safe, Green Alternative

Machines fascinate a great deal of us and many love to “get your hands dirty” by tinkering and performing our own repair and maintenance work. For decades this meant utilizing some form of hazardous fluid for cleaning and parts washing. ChemFree Corporation offers a safe and “green” alternative with its new BenchtopPRO bioremediating bench-top parts washing system that is designed for the home garage or small repair shop. The BenchtopPRO system utilizes a pH neutral mixture of emulsifiers and surfactants to offers a safe and healthy approach to parts cleaning. It contains none of the solvents mechanics have come to…

Editorials

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Regarding FedEx Smartpost and UPS Surepost

If you have ever bought something on the internet that didn’t ship solely via USPS, then using either FedEx Smartpost or UPS Surepost was likely an option; they are both shipping options that use the United States Postal Service for the final leg. In other words, UPS or FedEx will deliver the packages to your local Post Office, and the Postal Service will handle the actual delivery. The concept sounds good, but in practice it can be anything but. The Good For the e-tailers, it’s a really good deal. They setup the contract with UPS or FedEx, and they get…

Gear Bits, Outdoors

Caching in on Fun

Has anyone ever told you to go take a hike? Have you considered actually doing it? Do you enjoy scavenger hunts? If you answered yes to these questions, then geocaching is for you! Geocaching is a scavenger hunt appropriate for adults or anyone who can follow a GPS. The basic premise is that somewhere out in the woods, someone hid a treasure chest (or geocache), and in that chest is a collection of random goods including anything ranging from a heart necklace to a plastic stegosaurus. The GPS coordinates will help you get to the area, and then it’s your…

Gear Bits, News

Apple Releases iOS 6.0.2 Software Update to Fix iPhone 5, iPad Mini WiFi Bug

I wrote here about the iOS 6 WiFi bug that seemed particularly bad on the iPad Mini. Well, things haven’t improved, and many folks have been struggling with WiFi on their iPad Mini and iPhone 5 since release. For me, I managed to work around everything, but then last week suddenly I couldn’t connect to my home WiFi network but the rest of my vast sea of devices were fine. A couple of calls and the iPad Mini was in a box headed back to Apple … now I wonder if all I needed was this update. For the sake…

Reviews

Bodyguardz Armor for 7th Generation iPod nano Review

I love my iPhone and iPad, but I also wanted something small and convenient that simply played music. The 7th Generation iPod nano fit the bill perfectly and, thanks to the inclusion of Bluetooth, it is more flexible as a musical source than ever. And while this is one small, tough little music player, it does need protection. I opted for the thinnest, lightest option possible; I bought Bodyguardz Armor, and it is all the protection I need. Here’s a quick look. We’ve written extensively about the Bodyguardz Armor series. It is my default scratch protection on everything from my…

eBooks

Are eTextbooks Fully Baked Yet?

Digital textbooks always sound like a great idea on paper. They save money! And children don’t struggle under the weight of giant books! What’s not to like? Well, there’s the medium for reading on them for starters. Kindles crashed and burned on the college level, and while iPads are great, they are also expensive and far more fragile than a spiral bound notebook. Some schools have managed to have pilot iPad and computer based textbook programs successfully, but it still leads to many questions: who pays for the iPads? Do you upgrade them yearly? What about textbook licenses, are they…

Vehicles & Gear

2013 Infiniti FX37 AWD in the Grinding Gears Garage

Most vehicles I have tested do little for my visual senses while sitting behind the wheel. Sure, many of them are appealing to my eye as I walk up to them, but once behind the wheel there is little more. The idea is to keep your eyes on the road, right? Well, Infiniti has this “Essence” design influence that finds its way into production vehicles, and the latest FX luxury crossover is no exception. After climbing behind the wheel of the FX37 we recently tested, my eyes were immediately drawn to the hoodlines laid out before me; to be perfectly…

Reviews

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Movie Review

Director and Sir Peter Jackson returns again for the beginning epic adventure in The Hobbit film trilogy – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which leads into The Lord of the Rings film trilogy – one of the best, most complete film series in history winning 17 Academy Awards. Set in Middle-earth, Jackson uses camera shots full of depth and detail, especially when filming the elf characters, which compensates for their small sizes. Enhanced special effects and film speeds (a photo-realistic 48 frames per second) get high commendations for accurate details in the special effects such as realistically constructed creatures and…

Gear Bits

American Express and Walmart Team Up to Create Bluebird

????? ‘Tis The Season to Spend Money, fah lah lah lah, lah lah lah lah… ????? What could be better than an entire season dedicated to separating you from your money? I’m kidding but still, this is the season when money seems to flow more heavily than usual. Having a safe, convenient and secure way to spend can be a huge help. It turns out that American Express and Walmart have teamed up to offer a way to do just that – Bluebird. Bluebird lets you make direct deposits, pay bills online, deposit checks with your iPhone or Android device,…

Reviews

Kanex DoubleUp Dual USB Charger Review

Two years ago, I left for CES carrying my iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy Tab. I thought I was packing efficiently because instead of bringing each device’s USB wall charger, I brought a single wall charger that had dual USB ports. So of course it was on that trip, when I needed my gear the most, that I found out that just because a charger plugs into the wall and has two USB ports, it won’t necessarily be powerful enough to charge even one of your devices — especially when one of them is a tablet. To add insult to…

News

The iPad Smart Case – Smart Protection for Your iPad Tablet

Photo courtesy of Apple.com The iPad Smart Case is a great way to protect your iPad without the added weight and bulk of other cases. Similar to the original iPad Smart Cover, the iPad Smart Case contains a magnet that automatically wakes the iPad upon opening and puts it to sleep when closing, helping to preserve your battery power. It can be configured to hold the iPad low to the desk to write emails or work on presentations or more upright to view movies and video clips. Transforming the cover into the stand takes some practice, as the flaps don’t…

Reviews

Spigen SGP iPad Mini Hardbook Case Review

My iPad mini goes pretty much everywhere with me these days. And while it is true that I had my 9.7″ iPad with me much of the time previously, thanks to its smaller size and reduced weight I don’t think I have left the iPad mini behind a single time since it arrived. Yeah, I like it that much. That, however, means the iPad mini is seeing a lot of use. And THAT means it is more important than ever to keep my tablet well-protected. Thusfar I’ve been using the Bodyguardz Sentinel as my go-to case. (Read the review.) It…

News

Could This Be the Alternative to CAPTCHA That You Never Knew You Wanted?

You know those human verification challenges that pop up when you try to buy a ticket on Ticketmaster or complete some sort of online registration form? The ones that show you the image of scrambled text and you have to decipher the secret code in order to continue. They are all over the web, and they can be seriously annoying. Sometimes, the code is impossible to figure out because the image is too blurred. Sometimes, the challenge includes a character that doesn’t even exist on your keyboard! They often take multiple attempts and it’s been said that these challenges can…

Reviews

iLuv ReF Deep Base On-Ear Headphones Review

Billy Crystal famously said “It’s better to look good than to feel good”, and it was a terrific SNL bit that still makes me smile. Of course the statement is simply wrong. Looks are important, but they are secondary to feeling and functioning well. As my grandmother famously NEVER said, “So long as you have your health, everything will be fine.” (She never said it because she was far too negative a person to have made such a positive comment. That, however is an entirely different story.) This also applies to such items as headphones, which have now become fashion statements…

Reviews

Just Mobile HeadStand Review

So you’ve got a pair of big, beautiful, great sounding headphones like the SMS STREET by 50 DJ over-the-ear headphones I reviewed last month. Sure, you could store them in the included football-shaped case,heretofore referred to as the “fbcase”, but that quickly becomes pain if you use them on a regular basis. I mean, do you really want to have to unzip the “fbcase”, remove the headphones and attach the cord each and every time you want to listen to music without disturbing the other people in the house? And that doesn’t take into account having to disconnect the cord,…

Game Diary, Gear Bits

First Dishonored DLC Released, Dunwall City Trials

Dunwall City Trials, the first official add-on pack for Dishonored, is available for download for $4.99 on PlayStation 3 and PC, and 400 Microsoft points on Xbox 360. This Dishonored DLC includes 10 challenge maps (normal difficulty) that will test and track action, stealth, puzzle and mobility skills. Players can also unlock six expert difficulty maps. Player performance is rated on a three star system where each star earned unlocks artwork in the gallery (44 total). Players can also check out their performance on online leaderboards or view the credits of the hard-working folks who created the DLC. New trophies and…

Gear Bits

Best Buy Tech Service Gone Awry; a GM’s Customer Service Saves the Day

I came home a few weeks ago to find my almost four year old Gateway desktop rig powered completely off. I tried turning it back on, only to find out that it had decided that it didn’t want to at all. That could only mean the power supply, since it had been on and working just fine a few hours before. Annoying yes, but fortunately, not insurmountable. It took me a couple of weeks to scrounge up the dough for the new power supply, since I wanted to get it directly from Gateway; I figured that I could probably follow…

Gear Bits

Truly Dedicated Christmas Decorations!

One of my favorite childhood traditions was when my family would drive around and check out Christmas lights. Being Jewish, we didn’t decorate our house with sparkly lights and blow up Santas, but we loved looking at all the houses that did. We would go out for a family dinner, and then instead of just heading home, we would drive around and debate the best and worst displays. I was all excited to get Sarah hooked on this tradition, and she informed me at dinner tonight that a shortcut to her office had yielded the mother lode. She promised the…

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