Reviews

B&W Music Club Review

Reviews

B&W Music Club Review

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,…

Review: The Agent18 MacBook Air Shield

Reviews

Review: The Agent18 MacBook Air Shield

The MacBook Air is a beautiful piece of electronics. It is sleek, stylish and… well, just plain cool. But while its aluminum construction is certainly more durable than, say, the current (and soon to be phased out) version of the MacBook, without too much difficulty the Air can get pretty banged up and scuffed. Within a short period of time “beautiful” can become “beat up”. And that is a problem on a device like the MBA. On the one hand you want to protect it while on the other, while on the other you don’t want to lose the sleek…

The WowWee Alive Lion Cub Review

Reviews

The WowWee Alive Lion Cub Review

When I was a child, I absolutely loved stuffed animals; I had such a massive collection residing on my bed that they threatened to push me off should I stretch out or roll over in the middle of the night. One of my fondest wishes at that time was that some of my favorite stuffed animals could be more life-like and animated. Granted, this was in the 70s, and the closest things we had to robotic toys back then were those obnoxious stuffed dogs that came with a wired battery pack so that they could walk a few steps, bark,…

Pas Deux: The Vertu Ascent Ti Experience

Reviews

Pas Deux: The Vertu Ascent Ti Experience

[Note from Judie: This is Drew’s follow-up to his original letter about his first week with the Vertu Ascent Ti. If you haven’t already read that, then you might want to check it out.] I had an opportunity to take a bit of a deeper dive with the Ascent Ti this weekend and tried out some of these other features: 1. Fortress (the over the air backup utility) 2. The camera 3. The music player 4. Software upgrade process One of the big selling features is the ability to back up your personal information to the Fortress, a military shelter…

(Why) I Hate to Date (Online)

Reviews

(Why) I Hate to Date (Online)

(Why) I Hate to Date (Online) is a new publication from MaryAnna Donovan which outlines her 5 years of online dating. I thought it might be fun to look at this book since Judie had just finished writing a series about online dating in July. In the book MaryAnna provides commentary about a few of the men she met as well as the online dating sites themselves. The book summarizes the online dating experience very accurately and provides excellent points about the world of online dating. If you’re thinking of online dating – could you benefit from the book?

Jetart Coolstand 3 (NC 6000) NoteBook Cooler and Stand Review

Reviews

Jetart Coolstand 3 (NC 6000) NoteBook Cooler and Stand Review

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,…

Mommy Toolbox's Carabean Review

Reviews

Mommy Toolbox’s Carabean Review

Every mom carries around a basic toolbox, whether it be stowed in her diaper bag or purse. The child’s age will dictate what gear must be carried, whether it’s bottles, binkies and rattles, or tissues, snack money and aspirin. The cleverly named company, Mommy Toolbox, has created a line of products meant to make mom’s (and dad’s) lives easier; their first product is the Carabean, a lead-free rubbery paint coated aluminum clip that can function as a much needed third or fourth hand. Packaged in pairs, I was sent a set in black licorice; they are also available in buttercup…

Balanzza digital airline luggage scale reviewed

Reviews

Balanzza digital airline luggage scale reviewed

Prior to using the Balanzza digital luggage scale I had an awkward way of weighing my luggage before leaving on a trip. In order to meet airline weight limits (typically 50 pounds) I’d try to position my fat suitcase on the bathroom scale. This was an imperfect method because it was nearly impossible to read the weight without shifting the suitcase around on the scale which in turn produced inaccurate readings. When I found the Balanzza luggage scale I had to give it a try to see whether it was a better method than the old bathroom scale.

Oppo DV-981HD Upconvert DVD Player

Reviews

Oppo DV-981HD Upconvert DVD Player

I have a large DVD collection.  I am not yet all that excited about investing in Blu-ray where I get to pay twice as much for each new title.  Although many HD televisions perform certain image upconvert functions (to improve the way standard TV and DVD images appear on the higher-resolution HD display), they don’t necessarily perform that function very well.  Enter the Oppo DV-981HD DVD Player.  The 981HD was introduced a while back with some state of the art features for the time at a moderate price.  I recently got the opportunity to work with this player and put…

E-TEN V900 WM Pro 6.1 Mobile Device Unboxing

Reviews

E-TEN V900 WM Pro 6.1 Mobile Device Unboxing

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!

Sony Cybershot DSC-W120 Review: A Million Smiling Faces Can't Be Wrong

Reviews

Sony Cybershot DSC-W120 Review: A Million Smiling Faces Can’t Be Wrong

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…

Restoring and Beautifying Photos the Photofiddle Way

Reviews

Restoring and Beautifying Photos the Photofiddle Way

One of my favorite hobbies is working on my family’s genealogy; because it was also my uncle’s and grandmother’s hobby before me, I have access to a treasure trove of photographs, historical documents, family charts and other paraphernalia that they and others had collected. What’s not in my personal files is kept at the Angelo State University library in their canvas wrapped on stretchers, where it is easily shared with me and any other interested familial historians. I guess because I have always had such a relatively easy time collecting and accessing some of (what I consider to be) the…

Revolabs xTag Wireless Microphone Review

Reviews

Revolabs xTag Wireless Microphone Review

I’ve been using voice recognition software for a number of years. Back in my Windows days I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking Speaking. I started with Version 8 and the accuracy improved through my use of Version 9.5. (Version 10 has just been released and it promises to be even better!) When I made the move to Mac a little bit over a year ago I went searching for voice recognition software. I found and purchased iListen from MacSpeech. It worked well enough but was a far cry from the power and accuracy of Dragon. A few months ago MacSpeech updated iListen,…

Urbantool Sportholster - extra pockets during workouts

Reviews

Urbantool Sportholster – extra pockets during workouts

I am in the midst of a 6 month training to complete my first half marathon. When I began my more serious training in the spring I was often faced with a few logistical issues; such as where to put my keys, my phone and iPod? If I was running in my neighborhood the keys weren’t an issue, but I often travel to different parks and cities to keep me from getting bored and give me a good reason to see places I have not seen before. I have tried “hiding” my key on my tire, tying it to my…

MOO Business Cards: MOO MiniCards Grow Up

Reviews

MOO Business Cards: MOO MiniCards Grow Up

Remember when MOO MiniCards hit the scene in late 2006? Everyone on the internet thought they were the cutest thing since…I don’t know what, and many of us ordered sets to keep, trade, or even use as business cards. The deal was that you could access your Flickr account and use up to 100 different photos to decorate the back of each custom card, although another option was that you could also go with just a single favorite photo or multiples of different photos. The front could hold traditional business card information, although you certainly didn’t have to be so…

We take the iStik magnetic 3G Nano case out for 26 miles of road testing

Reviews

We take the iStik magnetic 3G Nano case out for 26 miles of road testing

When the people from iStik contacted us to test a new magnetic iPod Nano cases I was intrigued. They claim it holds your Nano tightly to your clothes via a set of four magnets that attach through your clothing. I was a little skeptical. Would these magnets really hold an iPod Nano 3G with all the jolting that occurs during a run? Even worse, if the magnets didn’t hold the case – you’d be left carrying an iPod during a lengthy exercise session. Since I’m not a runner, I had to rely on two eager volunteers. First up – my…

Brunton Solaris 26 Foldable Solar Array and Solo Portable Power Pack Review: Al Gore Will Love You for This One

Reviews

Brunton Solaris 26 Foldable Solar Array and Solo Portable Power Pack Review: Al Gore Will Love You for This One

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…

Review- CellRanger Redux From "Signal-Challenged" NJ

Reviews

Review- CellRanger Redux From “Signal-Challenged” NJ

I used to love watching late night commercials. You know the ones where the product was too good to be true at a too low to believe price. “It dices, it slices and it will stay sharp for one thousand years or your money back! Order now and we’ll throw in five more sets at no additional cost. All this for the low price of just $7.99” or “The Weblo Cooker makes a five course meal in just three minutes! That’s right, from freezer to table in minutes AND the meal will rival the finest restaurant. Best of all is…