Articles by Dan Cohen

GD Quickie Review- Atomic9 RumbleBuds

When I was asked if I would take a look at the Atomic9 RumbleBuds I was intrigued. I’ve had the opportunity to check out a wide range of different kinds of earbuds but these were the first that claimed to be “gaming” earbuds that give you a “totally immersive, deep-reaching soundscape you love about your games and music.” Let’s take a look GD Quickie-style… From the Company- Just because you’re on the go doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice that totally immersive, deep-reaching soundscape you love about your games and music. Feel the good vibrations of subwoofer-style bass wherever you…


Turn Your iPhone/iPad Into a Grandfather Clock; SBSH Launches Cuckoo for iOS

SBSH Mobile Software has released Cuckoo. Cuckoo has been available for S60 phones and now it is available for iOS devices. In fact, in the first few months it was available on the S60 platform it was downloaded by more than half a million people. The idea of Cuckoo is rather simple – it gets your iPhone/iPad to chime hourly. It runs in the background and, like a grandfather clock, lets you know when another hour has passed. Here’s the App Store description… Keep track of time with Cuckoo! Turn your iPhone or iPad into a grandfather clock or electronic…


iPad Case Review: iSkin Aura for iPad

I have a new favorite case and it comes from iSkin. It has the familiar (and personally favored) folio styling. It looks good and feels great in the hand. Its styling is conservative enough for using the iPad in a business setting yet stylish enough that it is anything but boring. And, despite its seemingly simple design, it offers tremendous flexibility with regard to use. Yes, iSkin’s aura for iPad has it all… Including a high price tag. So is it worth it? Read on and decide for yourself. Bear in mind however; “I have a new favorite case and…


Guns Don’t Save Lives; Skin Guns Save Lives

Now THIS is an amazing use of technology for good. Did you know that the current method of helping burn victims through skin grafts takes weeks or months to heal but that can be brought down to literally an hour? It’s true and a National Geographic program will focus on the innovation that makes it possible. The “Skin Gun” takes stem cells from a burn victim’s healthy skin (not the controversial kind) and mixes them with a solution that then allows doctors to literally spray new skin on. Apparently it is LITERALLY like spray painting but with a far more…


This Chair is More Comfortable Than a Barrel of Monkeys

What do you do when an old whiskey barrel has served it’s purpose and come to the end of life? Why, give it a new life of course. And that’s what the wine barrel chair. Over 99% of the chair comes from recycled/reused wine barrels. In fact, they even use the barrel straps in construction. How cool is that? As the designers explain, a work of art, each piece of the planet rooth barrelly made it line of furnishings is made by hand, by working artisians. every work of art is signed and numbered. Yes, for just $985 this chair CAN…


iPhone App Quickie: DropVox Lets You Record Voice Notes and Auto-Save to DropBox

I’m always searching for new ways to use my iPhone to create voice notes and turn them into text. I have found a number of good solutions — primary among them Dragon Dictation. But I’ve always wanted to be able to record a long voice note on the iPhone (Dragon is limited to just 60 seconds at a time) and then 0nce I’m back at my desk, apply the application MacSpeech Scribe to transcribe a long audio recording. The problem I’ve always run into is the fact that many voice note applications don’t record with a quality or a format…


GD Quickie: Why Fax When You Can iPad?

Last week was my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. We wanted to send them into Manhattan for a weekend filled with the symphony, good food and a great hotel with a view of Central Park. It all came together at the last minute and we ran into a bit of a problem trying to prepay everything that they would be doing. The hotel and both restaurants (one for dinner and one for brunch) required us to sign a number of papers and fax them back so that our credit card could be charged. The problem was, we were up in the…


Review: Epson Artisan 725 All-In-One Printer

I’m a huge fan of Epson’s printers. I find they work well, offer a huge range of excellent features and are priced competitively. A while back I had the chance to review their Epson Workforce 600 all-in-one printer/fax/copier. I was impressed and continued to use it until my father needed a printer. I gave it to him and he used it until a friend broke it while trying to replace the printer cartridge. (Don’t ask!) When I asked my father what he wanted to replace it he replied, “The exact same one.” That says it all. Over the past few…


iPad and iPhone Accessory Review: i.Sound Power View Pro

I have an iPad, an iPhone and a nano. Each of them gets a serious amount of use and, at times, they all need to be charged at the same time. Up until recently I either had a number of different charging cords strewn across my desk or I used the IDAPT i4 we reviewed a few months ago. The iDAPT works great but I have always had a bit of concern regarding placing the iPhone on the adapter since it doesn’t have much support keeping the device vertical. There’s no ISSUE but I always worry that if I bump…


Jabra’s Lineup: an Overview and a Review of the Stone2

Football mania is in high gear, and it seems that Jabra’s Bluetooth headsets and speakerphones have recently become favorites of three NFL players – Jake Long, Brian Orakpo and Michael Griffin. As a recent press release notes, Whether they’re rocking out to tunes after practice, kicking back at night with video games, or passing the time watching Hulu or YouTube on the weekends, Jabra’s headsets and speakerphones offer wireless connectivity in-style – and with a 30 foot operating range. Jabra’s catalog is extensive, but there are 5 key products in the current Jabra lineup that stand out. Among them —…


Review: Kensington PowerLift Back-Up Battery, Dock and Stand

One of the small, but impressive, accessories we say at CES was the Kensington PowerLift Back-Up Battery, Dock and Stand. The diminutive accessory serves a dual purpose by letting you use your iPhone (or iPod touch) hands free AND giving you just enough extra battery power to help you avoid running out of juice mid-day. Here’s a look… From Kensington: Converts for in-hand use The Kensington PowerLift™ Back-Up Battery, Dock and Stand gives your iPhone hours of extra power, converts for in-hand use and offers a hands-free stand. The 1200 mAh battery pack provides rapid charging while the kickstand flips…


Gear vs Gear- Flip Camcorder vs… Flip Camcorder

When the iPhone first gained the ability to shoot video I thought it was all over for the Flip camcorder. When the iPhone began shooting HD video I knew it was all over. I was wrong on both counts. Turns out there is still a huge market for relatively inexpensive dedicated camcorders. They often do a better job recording sound, they are specifically designed to shoot video and, in a world where battery technology is still way behind, they let you shoot video without burning through your phone’s charge. Flip recently updated a number of their camcorders. They can now…


Review: i.Sound Portable Power Max 16000 mAh External Battery

Our mobile devices have become more powerful. The screens have become brighter and crisper. Our reliance on such devices has exploded. And battery technology seems to have hardly improved. Often times the best you can do to get longer battery life is to just increase the size and capacity of the battery. It is not a great option but it is what it is. Battery life was a huge issue at CES once again this year. As a result, since getting home we have gone in search of large, high-capacity batteries that would have kept our devices juiced with ease….


GD Quickie: Yurbuds Gets Another Convert…

I wanted to do a quick follow-up post on my post-CES piece on Yurbuds because the company just gained themselves a new fan. The Yurbuds are special earbuds that stay in your ears during exercise and although they are priced below $50 sound like earbuds costing much much more. So here is the thing, my wife Elana hates wearing ear buds. She finds them uncomfortable and, at times, even painful and hates them coming out all the time. As a result she won’t wear them. This poses a problem for her since she works out all the time and would love…


Gear vs Gear: iPod nano Watchbands

No less than Steve Jobs himself quipped that the new iPod nano would make a great watch. From that moment, people have been thinking about way to use the recently shrunk iPod as a piece of wearable jewelry. Well, since the beginning of January I have gone from having zero iPod nano watch bands to having a choice of three different ones. Each take a slightly different approach to making the nano wearable and each brings with it its own sense of style, or lack there-of. So let’s take a look at each of them and ask, “Which nano watch band…


Boom Your Music and Bam! Your Mac’s Sound Will Be Awesome!

Just yesterday I was speaking with a friend who commented that she was continually surprised by the weak volume coming from most MacBooks. “Sure,” she said, “the sound isn’t all that great to begin with but what’s worse is that they just don’t get very loud.” Well that’s not longer an issue thanks to a small utility called Boom. As the product page explains, Boom is a simple volume booster that lets you boost the volume of your Mac and your music files. Using Boom is simple. You know the ways to change the volume of your Mac. Boom provides…


CardMunch Is Now Part of LinkedIn, and It’s Free

One of the tools Judie and I made big use of during CES was the iPhone app CardMunch. CardMunch let us quickly snap images of business cards and then added all the pertinent information to either its own address book or the iPhone’s built-in one. The transcription accuracy of the returned information was amazing thanks to the “human factor”. That’s right, the service employed people to help in the process and, as a result, CardMunch was not only quick but also reliable. It also, as a result, was a bit more expensive than the totally automated approaches. Well CardMunch shared…


Timing is Everything

How cool is this? While having my morning coffee I read a post that it was one year ago today that the iPad was first introduced. That’s right, one year ago today all the speculation about an Apple tablet ended, the computer world was turned on its head, and my all-time favorite gadget was announced. It was a huge day that will rightly be seen as a watershed moment in computing when people look back years from now. Then I saw a second post entitled, TV Hit the Public 85 Years Ago Today. So let me get this straight. 84…


Updating Your Home’s Furnishings? AUTUM Designs Has a Couch That Is “To Die For”

Apparently Dracula didn’t get the memo… Sleeping in a coffin is passe; it is old school and looks a bit silly. Seriously, in 2011 no self-respecting vampire would be caught alive sleeping in a coffin. Sitting in a coffin while you read, watch TV or chat with company however … now THAT is an entirely different story. Our friends at AUTUM, yes the same design outlet that brought us the AUTUM Straight Jacket sleeve for the iPad and the new MacBook Air, are doing a limited production run of what has to be the most unusual couch we have ever…


iPad Accessory Review: Amzer Foldo Stand Up

There are a ton of different stands now available for the iPad. They come in different shapes, sizes and materials and all make using the tablet an even better experience. Some of the stands we have reviewed have been a bit pricy. For example, the Jadu Skadoosh stand has an MSRP of $69.99, and the ElementCase Joule has an MSRP that STARTS at over $100. Both are fantastic but both are pricy. So what are you to do if you want a good stand for your iPad but are on a tight budget? That’s where the Amzer Foldo Stand Up…


Valentine’s Day Gift Idea: Stylish Flip Video CamCorder

Even in a sea of sea of HD-recording smartphones the Flip line of video cameras still reigns supreme as the easy-to-use, affordable pocket camcorder. The cameras shoot high quality video, make editing easy and, perhaps best of all, let you capture memories without running down your phone’s battery. Over the last few years the Flip line of cameras has added something else: STYLE. You can now get the cameras with a variety of designs… All of which makes them a great gift for the person you love this coming Valentines Day. It gets even better though. You can now give…