Reviews

iPad Game Review: Stand O’Food 3

Game Diary, Reviews September 17, 2011

iPad Game Review: Stand O’Food 3

G5 Games is one of the big publishers of so-called casual games, and my favorite publisher of those games for iOS devices. They have found a sweet spot of hidden object, puzzle and time-management games that play well and present an excellent value on those platforms. Some of these games – such as Treasure Seekers and Supermarket Mania – have spawned full franchises that carry from one game to the next and bring the audience right with them! Now the next entry in another time-management favorite has arrived – Stand O’Food 3! Let’s take a look. The Hype: The most…

Review: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Instant PDF Document Scanner

Reviews September 15, 2011

Review: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Instant PDF Document Scanner

As I have moved further and further away from using paper and pen and more and more into eEverything having a good, high-speed scanner has become increasingly important. My Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 is my workhorse. It handles up to 50 sheets of paper at a time and does duplex scanning. When I am “covering” a book to an eVersion (a laborious process that starts with me cutting the binding off of it) this is the tool for the job. The NeatDesk Desktop Scanner (reviewed here) is perfect when I have a few pages or receipts to scan. When I am…

iPad and Tablet Accessory Review: AluPen and AluCube

Reviews September 12, 2011

iPad and Tablet Accessory Review: AluPen and AluCube

Last year Judie reviewed JustMobile’s AluPen. She liked it a lot. Then, last spring, Just Mobile introduced a stand for the AluPen. The AluCube was just that, an aluminum cube that serves as a perfect stand for the AluPen. To my mind it didn’t make all that much sense to buy a separate stand for a tablet stylus but when I heard they had created a deluxe package and were selling the AluPen and AluCube together I was interested. Just Mobile was kind enough to send a review sample so lets take a closer look. From Just Mobile: AluPen and…

Magellan RoadMate 9055-LM GPS Review

Reviews September 12, 2011

Magellan RoadMate 9055-LM GPS Review

Smartphones and tablets are “category killers” that have decimated numerous standalone products. As I have written previously, from one perspective the iPhone and the iPad are like “Rorschach devices”. They are “blank slates” (pun totally intentional) that can take the form and function of a wide range of devices depending on whatever software they are currently running. That means that, with the right apps, they can double as a camera and do photo and video editing on the fly. The result has been the demise of the Flip camera and some serious “hurt” on the point-and-shoot camera market. (Once the…

iPad Accessory Video Review: The ZaggFolio and ZaggKeys Solo

Reviews September 10, 2011

iPad Accessory Video Review: The ZaggFolio and ZaggKeys Solo

ZAGG makes some great accessories and I was intrigued when they released a keyboard folio case for the iPad 2. I was even more intrigued when I heard that they would be releasing the ZAGGkeys Solo, the keyboard folio minus the folio since it meant you could buy a standalone iPad keyboard that has specialized shortcuts just for the iPad AND a built-in stand. When I reached out to Zagg I was told the ZAGGkeys solo would ship in a short while OR I could take a closer look at the ZAGGfolio and just focus more on the keyboard since…

iPad 2 Case Review: Griffin IntelliCase

Reviews September 8, 2011

iPad 2 Case Review: Griffin IntelliCase

How many different cases can there possibly be for the iPad 2 before reaching the saturation point? That’s one of the questions that needs to be asked at this point as the iPad 2 reaches the six month mark. The short answer, of course, is plenty since there seems to be no slowdown in sales of Apple’s second-generation tablet. Griffin has a nice assortment of cases available for the iPad and I’ve been checking one of them, the Griffin IntelliCase, out for the past week or so. How intelligent IS the $59.99 case? Let’s take a look and you can…

Notebook PC Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion dm1z Laptop

Reviews September 7, 2011

Notebook PC Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion dm1z Laptop

Last year I looked at the HP Mini 5103, which was a traditional netbook in many ways, but also came packing the nVidia ION chipset … and a $750 price tag. In many ways that system represented the death of the traditional netbook, which was followed by what many call ‘notbooks’ – computers that offer sub-12″ screens and easy portability with great battery life, but also with reasonably low-end notebook performance and a palatable price tag. The HP Pavilion dm1z laptop falls into that category, and I was thrilled with the opportunity to see what I could get from a…

Android Phone Review: Motorola Droid Pro

Reviews September 7, 2011

Android Phone Review: Motorola Droid Pro

Given how much I love my iPad and iPod Touch, and that I have constantly had a top-end Mac laptop as well as a PC laptop for nearly two decades, many people assume I would use an iPhone. I don’t – I have used an Android phone since I got the Motorola Droid as my first smartphone when it was released. Since then I have tried the HTC Touch Pro 2, Palm Pre Plus, Palm Pixi Plus, and Droid 2 before settling on the Droid Pro as my ‘go to’ device. The Droid Pro is nearly a year old yet…

Android Game Review: Virtual City HD

Game Diary, Reviews September 7, 2011

Android Game Review: Virtual City HD

Late last year I reviewed the iPhone and iPad versions of Virtual City, noting the huge addition of the sandbox mode in the iPad version and the huge playability increase in the larger screen version. Since then there have been updates made to the game, and now it has arrived on Android. Read on to find out what I thought! The Hype: Build the city of your dreams – a residential paradise or an industrial center. Build dwelling houses and industrial buildings. Produce goods and deliver them to the shopping malls. Setup mass-transit system to take your citizens to places…

PC/XBOX360 Game Review: Portal 2

Game Diary, Reviews September 6, 2011

PC/XBOX360 Game Review: Portal 2

Back in 2007 Valve release The Orange Box, which collected up the 2004 PC game Half-Life 2 along with the ‘Episode’ expansions for release on the XBOX360 (and later PS3), and added two new games: Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Team Fortress 2 was the big news of the collection … but the little two hour physics FPP (first person puzzler) called Portal was the break-out star. I thoroughly enjoyed it and reviewed the Orange Box back in 2007 and showed my kids, but it was only this past year that my younger son got interested in the game again….

Sennheiser MM450 Bluetooth Headphones Review

Reviews September 6, 2011

Sennheiser MM450 Bluetooth Headphones Review

As I have been reviewing more and more audio equipment one thing has become clear to me: you get what you pay for in the sound department. True, every now and then a lower-end audio product may surprise you but, as a general rule, the more you pay the more features and audio-quality you are going to find. Sure, this holds true in most areas, but I tend to find it is more apparent in the audio department than in other places. That noted, I never imagine I would lust after a pair of headphones that cost just south of…

SigNote Adds Interest and Personalization to Your Pics Review

Reviews September 6, 2011

SigNote Adds Interest and Personalization to Your Pics Review

It has been a while since an iOS photo app caught my attention but SigNote did just that! It is a relatively simple app that lets you add personalization to your photos in just a few simple steps. It takes seconds to learn and can be tons of fun. Let’s take a quick look via a walk-through of editing a picture and then tell you how you can enter to win a free promo code. Here’s what it says about the app in the iTunes Apps Store: Ever thought about turning your photos into a piece of art? SigNote arms…

Review: Acer Iconia Tab A100 7" with Android Honeycomb - Everything Right & Wrong with Android Tablets

Reviews September 5, 2011

Review: Acer Iconia Tab A100 7″ with Android Honeycomb – Everything Right & Wrong with Android Tablets

Recently the Acer Iconia A100 Android tablet went on sale, and I have had a couple of weeks to play around with one and formulate some opinions. Dan also grabbed one, and we had been chatting about the Iconia back and forth until he returned his. Even before I got the A100 there were a few things I had read about it that were troubling, and other things that had me quite excited! I wanted to document some of the great things about the tablet and latest version of the Android OS … and some things that make the moniker…

ZAZOO KiDS Digital Photo Clock Review

Reviews September 5, 2011

ZAZOO KiDS Digital Photo Clock Review

ZAZOO KiDS™ Digital Photo Clock provides multiple media functions designed for simple interface and displays beginning with little tykes and transitioning into the teenage years.

The Aligata Nude Beauty Big Weekend Travel Bag Review

Reviews, Travel September 4, 2011

The Aligata Nude Beauty Big Weekend Travel Bag Review

  When I travel by plane, I use a virtually indestructible LuggageWorks rolling carry-on. It’s great for getting through airports and attaching my other bags to, and I never have to worry about it being damaged when gate-checked because it’s extremely durable and already ugly as sin. Did I mention that it’s also ridiculously heavy? LuggageWorks bags have a metal frame around their bottoms and backs which is part of why they last virtually forever, but it means that the 22″ version I have weighs 15 pounds when empty and can weigh 30+ pounds when fully packed. Although it is just fine for airport…

Review: Microsoft Releases Windows Phone Mac Connector Update on Mac App Store

Reviews September 4, 2011

Review: Microsoft Releases Windows Phone Mac Connector Update on Mac App Store

Much has been written about how the biggest winner in two recent events – HP dumping webOS and the success of patent infringement cases against Android handset makers by Apple and Microsoft – is Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. For me, one of the issues I have had with Windows Phone 7 is connectivity. You need the Zune desktop software to do pretty much anything. With my Android phone I can just plug it in and mount the drive – and since I have all of my music through iTunes (like ~78% of the world) anyway THAT requirement isn’t an issue….

Satellite Navigation GPS Review: Navigon 40 Plus

Reviews September 3, 2011

Satellite Navigation GPS Review: Navigon 40 Plus

The increasing reach of smartphones has called into question the usefulness of many dedicated devices, from music and video players, to compact cameras, and of course the ever-useful GPS. With GPS and turn-by-turn navigation almost standard equipment on Android devices, and the prevalence of iPhones, one could be forgiven for retiring their trusty nav and leaving their destination in the care of their phone. Realising this, several of the top navigation device companies have put their eggs in several baskets, with versions of their software and maps available for smartphones across the globe. A personal favourite of mine is Navigon’s…

iOS-Enabled Gear Review: iHelicopter Remote Controlled Helicopter

Reviews September 2, 2011

iOS-Enabled Gear Review: iHelicopter Remote Controlled Helicopter

A week before Griffin announced their new Help TC iOS remote-controlled helicopter, I saw the iHelicopter being advertised. For $59 I figured I would order one. It came yesterday and… well… it is fun. As the product page explains, The iHelicopter makes it possible to use your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch as a remote control for a RC Helicopter! Plug the transmitter in the audio jack, download the free controller App and you are ready to fly! The gyro in the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch can be used to control the tilt of the iHelicopter. Tilt your iPhone…

Tablet Accessory Review: Adonit Jot and Jot Pro Stylus

Reviews September 2, 2011

Tablet Accessory Review: Adonit Jot and Jot Pro Stylus

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad the tagline might well have been, “Stylus? Stylus? We don’t need no stink in’ stylus.” Yes, Apple’s goal with the iPad was a truly touch-friendly tablet. For the most part, they have succeeded. Still, there ARE times when you want to use a stylus and, thankfully, there are a host of options these days. I just got a close, hands on look at one of the newest options and it awesome. More accurately, THEY are since there are two versions. The Jot and the Jot Pro from Adonit are an unusual take on the…