I’ve never been a huge backpack fan. Instead, I have always been partial to messenger-type bags such as the Acme Courier Judie and I both reviewed a few months ago. The H.A.L. Backpack from Timbuk2 may just change that. It is versatile, well-designed and pretty impressive! Let’s take a look.
As promised the new version of NetNewsWire for iPhone and iPod Touch is now out and available for download. Will it be my new RSS reader of choice? Read on in this first look…
There are a lot of options for listening to your iPod sans headphones but this is one of the more interesting and useful designs in my option. The Scosche soundSCREEN wraps around the your iPod like a picture frame (it is particularly good with the iPod touch which is a perfect fit) and lets you watch or listen to music, video and more hands-free. Let’s take a look…
The new Unibody MacBook Pros are gorgeous. They are sleek, refined and… well they just look awesome. And while it is a shame to cover up those good looks, there is a lot to be said for keeping the beauties pristine… especially if, like many of us on the site, you tend to cycle through devices frequently and therefore rely on keeping resale value as high as possible. So if you ARE going to hide the unibody MacBook behind a protective shell, the least you can do is hide it behind an awesome looking one. On this front Case-Mate has…
If you have to send large numbers of snail-mail, a dedicated label printer may be just the thing for you. If you want speed and flexibility in your label printer, then the Dymo 450 Twin Turbo is definitely worth a look. While having a dedicated label printer with two different bays that hold two different sizes and types of labels may sound like overkill, it isn’t. In fact, it makes life even simpler by allowing a degree of flexibility that can save the time of switching from one type of label to another. For example, one side can have address…
The 3rd generation iPod touch is something special. With plentiful storage, awesome speed, a speaker and hardware volume control it is hard to remember how limited original version of the touch that was released just two short years ago was. While this new version of the touch LOOKS the same as the model it replaces, just a few short minutes with it immediately tells you that this is an entirely different animal. The original touch was an iPod with a touch screen. The 2nd generation touch was, on many levels, “an iPhone lite”. This new touch is being billed as…
qTweeter is one of the best reasons to jailbreak. Once installed via Cydia all you do is draw your finger down from the top of the screen and an input window appears and allows you to quickly update your Twitter or Facebook status. Now the app has been approved by Apple and released in the App Store for $.99. That’s the good news. The bad news?? The key drop down functionality that lets you launch the app from the status bar is missing.
As Larry just posted, Apple actually approved the Rhapsody app for streaming music if you have a RhapsodyTo Go account. So now we have RhapsodyToGo available in the US and Spotify available in much of Europe. That’s awesome, and a bit of a surprise but still… I don’t quite get it. Rhapsody to Go is $15 a month. That comes down to $180 a year or $360 over the contract-life of the iPhone. (As if iPhone ownership weren’t costly enough already.) Worst of all at the end of that year you own NOTHING! Contrast that to the Simplify Music app…
Yesterday Larry took a look at the Case-Mate Smooth for iPhone 3G/3GS. I would say he liked it! I too have long been a fan of Case-Mate’s products. In fact, a Case-Mate case was the very first cases I got for my original iPhone. The company doesn’t limit itself to iPhones however. They offer solutions for protecting a wide variety of handhelds including, as luck would have it, the Blackberry Bold I began carrying last week. I always tend to prefer a minimalist approach to protecting my devices. I like a “real” case so invisible skins don’t do it for…
Let me tell you about Elana’s radio. (Yup, that’s it in the clip.) Elana cooks… a lot! and when she does she listens to the radio. Sometimes she listens to music, but often she chooses talk radio. And she listens to it on an old-style Sony radio. The thing hasn’t changed since I was a kid. It has one speaker and sounds… well… it sounds horrible. I have asked Elana if she wanted me to set it up so her MacBook could drive speakers in the kitchen, but she didn’t want the hassle or expense. So for YEARS I have…
If you are going to go jogging, nothing beats using the current generation iPod shuffle. It is small, light, has a built-in clip and holds a good amount of music. It works great. Sometimes, though, you just don’t want to use any device other than your iPhone or iPod touch. Sure, it is rather sizable and weighs a whole heck of a lot more than a shuffle. But then again, the shuffle won’t let you make calls or listen to internet radio the way you can from your iPhone, or carry 32GB of music or podcasts the way you can…
I read a post on jkontherun the other day about the trend away from Bluetooth headsets. As luck would have it, I had recently come across the Plantronics Voyager 855 I reviewed for Just Another Mobile Monday last summer and had started using them again. The experience was/is… well… awesome. The headset is comfortable, sounds great and offers a degree of flexibility that is all too rare. Even though I reviewed them a year ago the Voyager 855 remain in Plantronics’ catalog. There is, however, a major difference now… Amazon has the $150 headset for under $35. That makes it a…
After a time most iPhone cases start looking alike. There are, in fact, a relatively small number of styles from which to choose and all cases take a different approach to one style or the other. Precision HSD Holster For iPhone 3G and 3GS falls into the belt-holster style but definitely brings its own unique aspects to it. Let’s take a look and see if this is the next case you should grab.
Kids, don’t try this at home. No, not because the awesome, amazing super-useful Gorillamobile might release and send you precious iPhone crashing to the ground, odds are it won’t, but you never know when you didn’t tighten the suction cup on the back of the case just right. But isn’t it fun to know you COULD hang your iPhone upside down? The folks at Joby have been kind enough to let me take a close look at both their Gorillamobile and Gorillapod mobile device stands, and I’m impressed. Both the Gorillapod and the Gorillamobile are device stands that, unlike traditional…
Here is a great little accessory to make using your iPhone and iPod touch and even better experience. Agent18’s StandHere is a compact holder that let’s you go handsfree while watching video. Small enough to throw in your gadget bag, it allows you to choose the right viewing angle. In addition, a 3.5mm headphone jack lets you plug in your favorite set of speaker for an even better experience. At $24.95 it is a great accessory to keep with you all the time. I know I will…
This quick tip may be obvious to many but it is easy to forget (as I did) so I thought I might share it with everyone. It is especially useful for iPhone 3G and 3GS users but really applies to anyone using a data connected phone and living on the edge… of a 3G signal. Here’s the story…
Using The iPhone To Get And Stay Organized – Part 2- Jott In part one of “Using The iPhone To Get And Stay Organized” I did a full review of reQall. While I love its powerful features and low price… it is always good to have choices. And Jott, well let’s just say Jott has a few neat tricks of its own. Yesterday Larry and I were emailing back and forth a bit… but neither of us were doing much typing. No, instead we were using Jott. With Jott you can select someone as a “Favorite”, tap their name, speak for up…
I have become increasingly disenchanted due to the nonsense being pulled by Apple and AT&T with regard to the iPhone and applications for it. Time and again they have actively limited the device reaching its potential by intentionally crippling or rejecting apps that make it more useful. When the Google Voice apps were pulled from the App Store — and Google’s own app rejected — I started looking around to see what other device options might be available. Ultimately, the HTC Hero seemed to be the best option. Sure, it lacks the US 3G but then again, I spend the…
If you send a lot of emails from your iPhone or iPod touch this app is for you. Short Hand is a small utility that let’s you create and use macros in the same way that you with an application such as TextExpander on a Mac. While it takes a bit of time to set it up the time is well worth it considering the time and effort it can save. Let’s take a quick look…
When Apple first released its current generation iPod shuffle, I complained about the impact of its design on the ability to use third-party earbuds. Sure, the shuffle has a sleek design and the voiceover feature is really neat, but the fact that it lacks physical controls ties the user to the stock earbuds. After using high quality buds such as those from Etymotic it was a bitter pill… too bitter in fact and I initially returned my shuffle to Apple. Well it’s a few months later and Belkin has released an adapter that lets you use any headphones with the…
Everything goes better with Bluetooth… or so you would think with the proliferation of Bluetooth enabled devices. One of the more innovative uses of the technology isn’t a headset but it does extend your cell phone. . Here’s the scenario- you don’t have your phone in your pocket and can’t be seen holding it in your important meeting. Unfortunately you also are expecting an important phone call. What are you to do? Well, with the Bluetooth Bracelet from LM Technologies you can slip on the bracelet and, so long as you are no more than 30 feet from your phone, you will…