Articles by Dan Cohen

Cisco’s Valet Makes Wireless Network Setup Easy, New Survey Shows Just How Important That Is

A survey just out shows that 73 percent of adults plan to use a computer or Wi-Fi-connected device while traveling this summer. No surprise there. It goes on to note that nearly half of those vacationers plan to access the Internet through their host’s home network! This according to a consumer survey conducted by Opinion Research for Cisco’s Consumer Products group. Here are the survey results… * 59 percent of adults plan to use a computer or Wi-Fi device while visiting family and friends this summer, and 37 percent said they will tap into their host’s wireless network to access…

News

Apple Launches the Magic Trackpad

At long last Apple has released a standalone trackpad that brings the MacBook Pro controller to your iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro but goes one better by almost doubling the size of the trackpad. As the Apple store notes- Magic Trackpad gives you a whole new way to control what’s on your Mac desktop computer. When you perform gestures, you actually interact with what’s on your screen. You feel closer to your content, and moving around feels completely natural. Swiping through pages on screen is just like flipping through pages in a magazine, and inertial scrolling senses the momentum…

News

Gadget Review – The Joby Gorillatorch Flare

The other day I needed to make some adjustments behind my television. I needed both hands but I also need a light illuminating the right spot where the cable connections we. So I grabbed a small flashlight, stuck it between my teeth, and did what I needed to do. It dropped on the ground three times and… well you know what they say about the “right tool for the right job”?? This wasn’t it. Obviously there’s a better, more dentally-respectful way to do this and that comes in the form of… the Joby Gorillatorch Flare. I’ve been evaluating one of…

Editorials, Music Diary

The Democratization of Music in an iTunes Era

Say what you will about iTunes and the electronic age’s impact on music and the music industry but one thing is clear — they have been great about is giving talented people exposure long before they might come to the attention of agents, scouts and record labels. That’s the case with Applegirl, who caught the world’s attention with her rendition of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face performed with nothing more than a number of iPhones. Over three million views later she has a contract with a record company. Pretty neat. Then there is Ben, one of my students and an aspiring musician….

Reviews

iPad Accessory Review: TwelveSouth Compass Mobile Stand for iPad

Here is an early draft of the email I sent to Apple accessory-maker TwelveSouth yesterday after opening their new Compass Mobile Stand for the Apple iPad. My name is Dan Cohen and I am one of Gear Diary’s Editors. I just bought a Compass and will be reviewing soon. It is by far one of, if not the, best accessories I have bought/received for my iPad. Beautifully built, thoughtfully designed and a great price-point. Well done. Dan Cohen Sent from my iPhone It kinda says it all… but why not read the rest of this review anyway? From TwelveSouth: Compass…

News

Pocket Informant HD for iPad Now Available

We had a sneak peek of Pocket Informant HD for iPad back in June. It… is… awesome! At the time we thought the app would be released within a week or so but it took a while longer. Well it is finally live in the App Store and right now it is 1/2 price. That’s means it is just $6.99. Grab it HERE. Seriously, I’ve had it for over a month and it rocks! Thanks for the heads up Travis (Now, stop bugging me about when it is coming!) 🙂

News

Zoom’s H1 Handy Recorder Available for Pre-order

Zoom’s H1 Handy Recorder is small. How small? Here’s a picture of it in hand… In fact it is small enough to mount right on a camera. Despite its size the H1 records big sound. As the company explains… Like all Zoom recorders, the H1’s onboard microphones are configured in an X/Y pattern, for stunning stereo imaging. Because both mics are arranged on the same axis, they are equidistant from the sound source for perfect localization and no phase shifting. The result is great stereo recordings with natural depth and accurate imaging. The Zoom H1 has an MSRP of $159.99…

News

From the “Now Why Didn’t I Think of This?” Files- Antennaids For iPhone 4

Come on, admit it, somewhere along the line you thought for a fleeting moment “You know, a thin, strategically placed band-aid might fix the iPhone 4’s woes!” But then you didn’t do anything with the idea. Well someone has acted on it and you can now fix up to six iPhone 4’s for just $4.99. That’s right, for just $4.99 you can get six of these cute, Bandaid-looking strips that, when placed just right, might help eliminate the antennuation problem some are encountering with the iPhone 4. Personally I kind of prefer the subtle black of the skin I recently…

eBooks, Editorials

Amazon Kindle DX Makes Difference In Centenarian’s Life

Here’s a great story about technology making a real difference in one person’s quality of life… My mom just turned 100 in June of this year. She says she has the mind of a 50 year old and the body of a 100 year old and in truth she certainly doesn’t look 100. But she is 100 (and has the Happy Birthday letter from the President to prove it) and, as a result, she has some physical limitations. Among them, she has macular degeneration. According to her eye specialist she won’t go blind but her vision has gotten so bad…

Reviews

Speck PixelSkin HD – Review

My search for the “perfect” iPhone 4 case that strikes just the right balance between protecting my iPhone, reducing the chance of an antenna issue and maintaining the thin design of the handset has brought me to check out Speck’s new PixelSkin HD. Designed with their well-received PixelSkin cases in mind, the PixelSkin HD uses smaller “DPI” (read- smaller boxes in the design) and is made from a significantly harder material. From Speck- Patterns and textures can turn “plain” into absolutely fabulous. PixelSkin HD has a shiny polished back with matte pixel overlay, creating an eye catching, sophisticated, and modern…

Reviews

Speck PixelSkin for iPad – Review

The folks at Speck keep rolling out new cases for the Apple iPad. This time around they sent a review unit of a case that uses their increasingly familiar pixel design and brings it to a skin that wraps the iPad in a thick protective layer shielding everything but the screen. Let’s take a look. From Speck: The tactile pixel texture and perfect amount of “squish” is what makes this rubberized iPad case so grippy in-hand and famously protective. Works great with our ShieldView screen films. When I first opened the case and took a look at it I talked…

News

Steve Jobs- “There Is No Antennagate…”

Steve Jobs took the stage this afternoon to address the growing perception that the iPhone 4 has a fundamental flaw that can only be remedied by a recall. He took a multi-pronged approach and, in the process, turned lemons into some delicious lemonade. First he showed real examples of other smartphones displaying the same phenomena as the iPhone 4. Wrapping up he said that phones aren’t perfect and this is a flaw in many phones. It is just that the iPhone 4 marked the spot externally thanks to the thin black line separating the antennas. Then he used something that…

News

An iPhone 4 Jingle That Offers… Perspective

We’ll all be watching later today to see what Jobs and company have to say about the iPhone 4 antenna issue. (Quick recap for those living under a rock… if you take your iPhone 4 out of the case that you ought to be keeping it in and touch it in just the right spot or squeeze it hard you MAY see the signal drop off.) So what will Apple say today? Your bet is as good as ours but at least we’ll know in a few hours. Throughout this entire episode Larry has made one consistent point. Time and…

Reviews

Ooma Telo, Handsets and Advanced Services- Review

I love my Ooma. I know, I know; when you hear the name you think of Letterman- “Oprah-Uma, Uma-Oprah”, but Ooma isn’t a comedy bit. No, Ooma is a phone service that lets you buy hardware once and then get unlimited calls within the US and low cost calls internationally for the life of the unit. I’ve written about Ooma before, and while at CES in January, I previewed some of their upcoming services. Now I’ve had a chance to use the Ooma Telo and new features in my own home, so let’s take a look. But be warned… there’s…

News

Gear Chat- The Apple Boycott Edition

In today’s podcast Larry and Dan ponder, “What devices would we use if we were on an Apple boycott?” Other topics on GearChat 13 include the ongoing iPhone 4 controversy and Evernote’s new Evernote Trunk. A Content Note- How quickly things move. We recorded this podcast late in the afternoon on Wednesday, July 14. At one point Dan laments Apple’s silence on the iPhone 4 reception issue only to find out an hour later that Apple had called a press conference for tomorrow Friday, July 16. Go figure…

News

Men, Women and Cars- New Survey Reveals What’s Similar and What’s Not

photo credit: PDXdj New national survey data gives an interesting, and at times frightening, picture of the driving habits of the genders. On the good side of things, 89% of women and 83% of men report having a clean driving record for the past two years. On a more neutral front while 25% of women report not trusting their sense of direction only 9% of men do. Interestingly less women use GPS to find their way (58% of men vs 48% of women). Then there is the truly frightening statistic. While both sexes agree that texting while driving should be…

Reviews

Case-Mate Venture Case/Stand for iPad – Review

The other day we brought word that Case-Mate was rolling out a new case/stand for the iPad. The $89.99 case looks to combine real protection, style and function. The case was just announced last Friday but is already shipping. We now have one in hand so let’s take a look… From Case-Mate: Introducing the Venture case, where form meets function. The beautiful Venture case comes with stand built into it. Simply unsnap the cover and it folds back under itself to create a stand that will prop your iPad up. So you no longer have to awkwardly try to hold…

Editorials

Apple Picking iPhone Reception Issues- A Gear Chat

Dan: The drama surrounding iPhone 4 reception issues moved up a few notches yesterday when Consumer Reports announced that they were reversing position and announced that they could not recommend the iPhone 4 due to a design flaw in their external antenna. Bear in mind that they seem to love every other aspect of the phone and give it a score of 76 out of 100 with the next highest ranked phones, the iPhone 3GS and the HTC Sprint Evo each getting a 74, but the particular antenna issue is, for them, a deal breaker. As the day went on,…

News

Something New Coming from Evernote Tomorrow… You’ll Know What It is When We Do…

I love Evernote. I live in Evernote. Evernote is killing me… Evernote has been teasing about something new coming for some time. They have blog posts up about it, are running a contest about it, and have reached out directly about it. But try as I might (and I HAVE TRIED) I can’t get a clue about what they are about to unveil. The only thing I do know is that it must be something pretty major. How do I know that? Simple… I’ve been following the company and using Evernote since the current iteration of the service was in…

Reviews

The Speck PixelSkin for iPhone 4 Review

There’s no question the iPhone 4 needs a case most of the time. The glass is more delicate than we were initially led to believe, and then there is the antenna issue that continues to dominate online tech chatting. Thankfully a host of cases for the newest iPhone have been rolling out. One of the latest is a new version of an old favorite, Speck’s PixelSkin. Let’s take a look. From Speck: The tactile pixel texture and perfect amount of “squish” is what makes this rubberized iPhone 4 case so grippy in-hand and famously protective. There are rubberized touch-thru button…

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