Reviews

External iPhone Batteries: Tekkeon myPower for iPhone and Konnet PowerKZ

Reviews April 12, 2009

External iPhone Batteries: Tekkeon myPower for iPhone and Konnet PowerKZ

As much as I love my iPhone 3G I am the first to point out that it has some serious short-comings. The biggest for me, by far is battery-life. I use my iPhone a lot. I do use my Touch whenever possible so as to save the iPhone’s battery but even with that I never make it through the day without having to charge the 3G at least once. That makes having an external battery a neccessity. Quite frankly, I don’t leave home without one of my external batteries charged and waiting. Fortunately there are a growing number of battery…

Astro Sphere: 2D Puzzle Game for iPhone/iPod Touch Review

Reviews April 11, 2009

Astro Sphere: 2D Puzzle Game for iPhone/iPod Touch Review

Truth be told, my favorite style of game in the handheld genre is puzzle. At any given time I have at least five puzzle games loaded onto my iPhone. Astro Sphere is a challenging puzzle style game that’s available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game takes place in space and the goal is to guide your “ship” through a series of levels. To advance to the next level you must teleport your ship through a portal. You do this by bouncing the spherical ship of certain obstacles, each of which has a different effect, all the while trying…

Altec Lansing Backbeat Plus Mobile UHS206 Review

Reviews April 10, 2009

Altec Lansing Backbeat Plus Mobile UHS206 Review

After reviewing  the Backbeat 106 headphones, the folks at Altec Lansing sent out a version of the headphones designed for mobile phones. The Backbeat Plus Mobile UHS206  are virtually identical to the Backbeat 106 ear buds in my earlier review.  The  design is a little different, and the cables are  wrapped in the same tangle proof cloth covering. This is a nice extra which keeps the cables from kinking up and getting tangled while floating around in a pocket or in your gear bag.  Other than the extra ring for the mic, the mic itself and the call button, the…

Papershow Review

Reviews April 9, 2009

Papershow Review

In the old days I would print out handouts whenever I had a class I was going to teach or lecture I was going to give. Inevitably however, half of the packets were left on the seats or on the floor and ended up being wasted. About six months ago I decided to try a different approach. It was an experiment but it’s turned out rather well for me. Instead of handing out packets of information, I simply use my MacBook and Keynote with one of the flat-panel televisions that we’ve installed in our building. It works phenomenally well —…

La Crosse Technology Professional Weather Center Review

Reviews April 9, 2009

La Crosse Technology Professional Weather Center Review

Everybody knows a person who is obsessed with the weather; who knows, maybe you are one. That is how my family is. As far as they are concerned, the television could stay on weather news non stop. They call each other to find out how the weather is “there”, even if the other person is only a couple of miles away. Except for me that is. I can’t stand waiting around watching reports of areas that have no affect on where I am. Internet weather reports are better, and at least I can get the information instantly. The problem is…

Tap Tap Revenge, Coldplay Edition Review

Reviews April 9, 2009

Tap Tap Revenge, Coldplay Edition Review

Tapulous, maker of the Tap Tap Revenge games, has introduced another artist-exclusive special edition, this time featuring British rock band Coldplay. Built on the new Tap Tap Revenge 2 (TTR2) engine, the Coldplay edition offers several new features, including an in-game feed of Coldplay news and a unique look inspired by the band.

The Speck Products See Thru Slim Hard Shell Case for MacBook Air Review

Reviews April 8, 2009

The Speck Products See Thru Slim Hard Shell Case for MacBook Air Review

I usually keep my MacBook Air nekkid as a jaybird because I love its skinny form factor, but the scratches I’ve begun to notice appearing on its metal shell have been causing me a bit of consternation lately. In an effort to keep my svelte beauty’s skin unblemished, I agreed to give the Speck Products See Thru Slim Hard Shell Case for MacBook Air a try.

Zombie Invasion - iPhone Game Review

Reviews April 8, 2009

Zombie Invasion – iPhone Game Review

In my lighter moments and more adolescent male times, in other words all the time; I play games on my iPhone! Currently I have two games, Bejeweled 2 and Zombie Invasion.  By far its more fun to play Zombie Invasion and watch the zombies bite the dust!  Zombie Invasion is a classic shooter game with one shooter standing at the bottom of the screen shooting at the approaching zombies.  As the level increases there are more zombies and more weapons.

Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter Review

Reviews April 8, 2009

Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter Review

There was much outcry when Apple unveiled their new unibody MacBook and the new Mini DisplayPort. There was even more of an outcry when it became clear that it included —High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). As MacWorld explained at the time– HDCP is a digital rights management (DRM) specification developed by Intel to help content providers protect their content across DVI and HDMI connections. Like other forms of DRM, HDCP will not allow content to be played on non-authorized devices. And because purchased content on the iTunes Store—protected by Apple’s FairPlay DRM—is HDCP-enabled, owners of new MacBooks are finding they…

Macally BookShell Pro2 Review

Reviews April 8, 2009

Macally BookShell Pro2 Review

I’ve always been interested in protecting my baby MacBook Pro, but I didn’t like the look of the plastic hard cases, and I used an elastic neoprene sleeve for a while. I then searched the internet again, in the hopes of finding a cover for my MacBook Pro that was protective, and at the same time stylish. However, all I could find were really variants of the plastic case model. Until I stumbled across Macally.

Yahoo! iPhone App Review

Reviews April 7, 2009

Yahoo! iPhone App Review

Yahoo! has done a nice job of optimizing its mobile website and products for use on an iPhone, but until now hasn’t released a more robust application to compete with Google’s iPhone app.  That changed this past week with the introduction of Yahoo! for iPhone. Previous Yahoo! iPhone applications focused on specific functions such as social networking (OneConnect) or web searches (Inquisitor).  The new application – simply titled “Yahoo!” – is an attempt to pull together several of Yahoo!’s standard website products into one mobile software package, simulating some of the website’s primary features on your iPhone. It’s a nice…

No Picture

Reviews April 7, 2009

Garmin Nuvifone G60 demo from CTIA 2009

Garmin’s nuvifone G60 is a quad band phone (850/900/1800/1900) EDGE, HSDPA and Wi-Fi device running Linux. Naturally you’d expect a phone from Garmin to be heavy on GPS features and this won’t disappoint. The video gives a nice overview of the GPS heavy feature set. The bigger question on this phone – is it introduced too late and will people buy phones that are designed around GPS rather than phone functionality? nuvifone G60 via Nan Palmero

Resco Brain Games 2009 Review

Reviews April 7, 2009

Resco Brain Games 2009 Review

I’ve been a fan of brain training games for a while now.  I own a number of them for Windows Mobile, iPhone, and even my Nintendo DS.  What I like is that I can work with them in short time bursts – like in the gap between meetings, without a big time commitment, yet doing something fun and even personally productive. This time around, I’m taking a look at the latest brain training offering from Resco – Brain Games 2009.  Let’s take a look…

Sennheiser MM50 IP Headset for iPhone

Reviews April 7, 2009

Sennheiser MM50 IP Headset for iPhone

I’m always on the quest to find new headphones to use with my phones and as we all know the headphone set that comes with the iPhone are most inadequate to the task. In my own case, I couldn’t keep them in my ear!

BlackBerry EasyDialer brings relief (and unlimited calling) to some Google Voice users

Reviews April 6, 2009

BlackBerry EasyDialer brings relief (and unlimited calling) to some Google Voice users

My Grandcentral account was finally updated to Google Voice and I’ve spent some time notifying people who I regularly communicate with that they need to use a new number to reach me. I think the change to a Google Voice number will be worthwhile for a couple reasons. First, I have three cell phones and people were constantly guessing which number they should call me on. With Google Voice I get to specify which phones ring and my friends and family only need to know one number. Plus Google Voice now manages text messages by forwarding any sent to my…

The Good Nite Lite Review

Reviews April 3, 2009

The Good Nite Lite Review

I know that this has to have happened to you; see if you can picture the scene: You’re laying in bed, and you wake up absolutely positive that it is time to get up, but in reality it’s just the middle of the night. It’s not too big of a deal when this happens to us adults, because we’ll simply look at the alarm clock and immediately realize that we still have some quality sleeping time left before we have to get up. We gratefully roll over, and we go back to bed, right? Young kids on the other hand,…

Modern Gaming Like It's 1993!

Reviews April 3, 2009

Modern Gaming Like It’s 1993!

I usually put into context how long I’ve been a gamer by saying that I was anticipating the release of Wolfenstein 3D in 1993 and was already a fan of the franchise. Huh? You didn’t realize there was a Castle Wolfenstein franchise before the release of the seminal first person shooter (FPS)? And wait, how does this all relate to the ‘modern gaming’ promised in the title? Don’t worry … I’ll get there!

No Picture

Reviews April 2, 2009

Waterfield Netbook Sleeve for HP 2140 Review

Although it runs Windows, and I happen to be a Mac guy, I have been very happy with my HP 2140. It’s incredibly light, remarkably sturdy (thanks to its aluminum body), and it actually gets decent run time with the three cell battery and even better with the six cell. Since I swapped out the hard drive in favor of an SSD drive, the diminutive notebook has no moving parts and requires less care than most other notebooks. (Despite this I still tend to be exceptionally careful with my devices.) One of the problems with the HP Mini note is…

The Otterbox Defender - It might just save the life of your phone

Reviews April 1, 2009

The Otterbox Defender – It might just save the life of your phone

There are a lot of cases out there for the iPhone 3G.  Some are stylish, some functional, others appeal to different age groups, some are minimalistic while others big and bulky.  There isn’t one perfect case for all of us, and that’s a good thing.  This individuality has allowed an influx of case manufacturers to come to market with a variety of choices.  Those of of who can’t decide on just one case are able to own wide array of “outfits” for our phone. One thing is undeniable though.  No case out there offers the amount of protection that the…

Swingline 67 Electric Stapler Review

Reviews April 1, 2009

Swingline 67 Electric Stapler Review

One of the items taken for granted on a office desk is the manual stapler. Besides the pencil cup, ruler, paper clips and a tape dispenser, the manual stapler is a necessity for clerical workers to keep important papers organized. With the advances in in-office printing equipment, from fax machines and mimeograph machines to multicopy printing of 100 copies plus demand more stapling. Medical research indicate repetive motion of fastening multiple copies, particularly in large businesses producing TPS reports can actually be hazardous with low morale, stress disorders and anger management. Fortunately, there is a solution at hand.