They say good things come in small packages. Well, after checking out the Super Talent Pico Thumb Drive, I am here to tell you that it is not so much good things, but great things that come in small packages. As in great big things. Like the 8GB of storage found in this tiny, 31.3 mm (yes that is millimeter) drive. How can this be? Read on to find out!
If there’s one thing that I know about all of the mobile electronics I’ve got, its that power is a problem. I’ve got more device holders and power cords in my car than I know what to do with, AND I have so many that I had to get a goo-jam that increased the number of power sockets in my car from 1 to 3. Yeah…I’ve got gadgets. Now about powering them…yeah, that’s a problem too. Over the past year or so, I’ve bumped into problems where I’ve run out of power at the most inconvenient times and places. So…
[Note: This is a joint article being written by Doug, Lauren, and Sue. Doug’s comments will appear in normal typeface, Lauren’s in bold, and Sue’s will be italicized. We are also simultaneously posting it on both JAMM and Gear Diary.] Doug: I had a nice surprise in the mail the other day when I tore open a Fed Ex envelope to find the HTC Touch Pro. By coincidence, as you may have noticed, Lauren and Sue (for you Gear Diary readers, they are both contributors at JAMM) both also picked up the HTC Touch Pro earlier this month. So, we…
I have been around computers, almost from the start. My first computer was the wildly successful Apple II+ (does anyone else remember the Bank Street Writer,) which was my main computer for close to ten years (including all of high school.) In the time since those early days, one thing has always been apparent: no matter what level of sophistication computers may reach, someone is always going to be waiting to exploit the technology and cause harm in some way or another. Back in those early days, most of the threats amounted to blunt objects, hurled at your disconnected desktop…
I’ve been very fortunate to have a wonderful working relationship with the folks over at E-TEN, now part of the Acer family. The folks associated with the Glofiish mobile devices have been wonderful to work with, and have been very generous. Over the years, they have been kind enough to send me a number of devices to review. Recently, we reviewed the Glofiish X800, Glofiish X650, and we gave away the X800. It was all very exciting. Recently, Acer sent us the Glofiish V900. I’ve been using it for a while and its been an interesting go. How interesting..? Let’s…
I’ve been a portable computer advocate for YEARS. In fact, until my most recent job, every computer that I’ve used for work AND personal use over the last 12 years has been a laptop. Personally, aside from a cost perspective and justification, I don’t know why corporations continue to buy desktop computers. Laptop/portable computers tend to make a workforce more productive, and more efficient. When I got my MacBook Pro in 2006, the one big problem that I thought I saw with it was the lack of a docking station for it. While its nice that its pretty much a…
My wife calls it the silver bullet. I think from behind, it looks like a twisted alien face, staring out at you. In reality, however, it is one of the most unique speakers I have ever used. Modeled after the Zeppelin flying machine, if this speaker sounds half as good as it looks, then I think we will have a real winner here. Hit the jump and listen along…
I am a real lover of good music. I was a radio DJ in college, and through that, I developed an admiration for good music and talented musicians…regardless of the genre. When I heard that Bowers & Wilkins, the makers of some extremely nice iPod speakers (watch for my review of their speakers coming soon) had begun a new kind of music club, I knew I would have to check it out. And boy am I glad I did. The B&W Music Club is unlike any music club I have seen. Many of you are probably thinking, as I did,…
When I bought my laptop a few years ago, I proudly brought it home, tore open the box, and set it up on my desk. I was so excited to give it a try. With a crack of my knuckles, I sat in the chair and reached for the keyboard, which sat flat on my desk. I had to slouch a bit and sloop my shoulders inward in order to reach. I then craned my neck to view the screen, which was below my eye level and slightly askew. While this setup did result in many fantastic articles and reviews,…
I am very fortunate to have such a wonderful working relationship with the folks over at E-TEN, now officially a part of the Acer family! I received a wonderful surprise the other day. E-TEN (now Acer, now that the merger between the two has completed) sent me the V900 WM Pro 6.1 mobile device!
Digital cameras seem to be everywhere these days, and I am pretty sure you are all familiar with the basic premises of composing a photo on them. Set subjects in place, aim camera, scream “everyone smile!” point, and shoot as everyone smiles or says cheese, or whatever other instruction you gave them. Pretty simple. Simple, that is, if you are not trying to take pictures of children. My six year old and three year old are a mile a minute. They rarely sit still, let alone, smile on command. And even if one does listen, it is almost impossible for…
With all the news lately about the price of oil, and our oil addiction, it is nice to be able to do a review that not only involves a very cool piece of technology, but is also environmentally conscious. I actually got the idea for a review like this one a few months back when I was having trouble with my laptop battery. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if I could just slap a solar cell on my laptop and continually charge my battery with the power of the sun. Of course, it was not that easy, but the…
Check out this tiny, portable gadget I got not too long ago. It is a very nice flip-style gadget. It is about the same size as the Sprint Mogul, though maybe a bit boxier. It is not a phone, though. Or a PDA. When we unfold it, we find…a flashlight?? Oh, trust me. You are going to want to click through the jump for the rest of this one.
When I was in college, it seems like someone was always throwing a house party. For those of you who are not familiar, it is a pretty basic concept. You throw open the front door of your house, condo, apartment, dorm room, or wherever you live; set out some refreshments; crank the music and wait for the people to show up…and they will. It is kind of like The Field of Dreams. If you throw a party, they will come. The problem, back in those days of the early 1990’s was the sound system. Most of us had music centered…
There’s been a big push by Microsoft to get everyone to cross over to the 64bit version of Vista. Are you and your hardware ready for it? I’ve got a MacBook Pro. I purchased the notebook in December of 2006. It’s the low end unit, with a 2.16 GHz C2D processor, 4GB of RAM (yes, Leopard will see and use all 4GB of RAM, despite what you might think, or are told), and a 120GB hard drive. It’s not a bad unit; and has treated me well in the almost 20 months that I’ve been using it. The biggest problem…
When I bought my MacBook Pro back in 2006, I was all over needing a case for it. I tried regular notebook cases, and those didn’t work for me. I tried a backpack case, and that seemed to work ok, but I couldn’t help but feel that my baby was still a bit on the naked side. When Judie offered me the opportunity to review the Spire Edge 15 Laptop sleeve, I jumped at the chance. The last thing I wanted was another ding on my MBP (see the last picture, after the break) Front of the Spire Edge 15…
I remember back in the day, the only tool that I knew of that actually had a defrag tool of any real value was Norton Utilities. In fact, I believe that Stacker, a drive compression tool that provided real time, data compression and decompression (effectively doubling the size of your drive…) of data on your drive ended up using an embedded version of Norton’s defrag utility. Point being, I loved that utility. It did everything that I needed it to do, including consolidating my directories, without having to boot to a command prompt; but alas, those days are long gone….
I have a laptop that I use for most of my software testing and review writing. It is about a year and half old, and lately I have been noticing an interesting phenomenon. When I bought it, about 18 months ago, it was blazing fast. Even after I loaded Vista, I was still impressed by how fast it ran. Over time, however, I’ve noticed a significant decrease in speed. In short, my hare has become a tortoise. And I don’t care what they say about racing, in computers, slow and steady gets tossed out the window. As you can imagine,…
You know you have a good product on your hands when the next morning, my kids jump out of bed and ask to play with it before they even get dressed. Well, that is exactly what I saw with the Crayola Digital Camera from Sakar. My boys (6 and 3) love to imitate what they see me doing. And one thing I do a lot around our house is take digital pictures. As a result, they are always begging to let them see my camera. Which is no big deal when you have a cheap $100 camera, but I am…
Is the LifeCam the webcam to end all webcams? I went into this review wondering what Microsoft would try to do to set its webcam apart from the countless others on the market.
Every summer, outdoor chefs in neighborhoods are firing up their charcoal, propane, or natural gas outdoor grill. Roll down the car window on any weekend evening in towns across America and most likely the smell of hamburgers, steaks or BBQ ribs will arouse the saliva glands. Whether you are having a neighborhood get-together, summer party or cooking outdoors to avoid heating up the kitchen, undercooked or overcooked food is always a grill master’s challenge. If you cut the meat, the flavor of the juices run out; raising the lid on the grill loses the temperature, and worse, serving undercooked meat…