Yes, I admit it… I was one of those people that said “What do I need a giant iPad touch for?”, when I first learned about the iPad. And for weeks following, I kept reading about how people were amazed at this revolutionary “magical” device. I kept seeing apps appear for the app store that I already had on my iPhone, and thought “Why do I need a bigger version of that app?”

And then a few things caught my attention…

Sidebar: This is not a review of everything that the iPad is (there’s plenty of reviews on the web if you search for them) but this article is mainly “my reasons” for getting an iPad. BTW, I bought the iPad 64GB 3G model

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Today, I held an iPhone 4. It just so happened that I was in the U.S. today, and ventured into an AT&T store hoping to see one up close and personal. With my luck, there happened to be a rep in the store who let me play with hers for a while.

Warm Reception
The first thing that I had to try out was to try to duplicate the widely publicized reception issues I had been reading about all over the web. According to what I’ve read, if you hold the phone in your left hand, and block the lower-left corner of the phone with your palm (or almost any other part of your hand), you start losing reception to the point of the iPhone losing connection with the carrier (AT&T). I tried to recreate the problem firmly gripping the phone in my left hand. I did notice one or two bars disappear, but that was it. I then placed my thumb completely over the lower-left corner, the part where the two pieces of steel connect to each other. Again, from the reports I read, this was the most problematic area in terms of reception issues. To my surprise, I noticed nothing. No dramatic loss in reception, no drop of the carrier signal. When holding the iPhone (again in my left hand) as a normal person should/would, I notice nothing.

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In this post, I thought I’d give you my impressions using Motorola’s MotoRokr SD9-HD wireless bluetooth headphones with my iPhone 3G. I bought these headphones for a few different uses; I wanted something so I could listen to music when I’m at the gym, and headphone wires tend to get in the way when I’m working out. They sometimes get caught on my clothing or workout equipment. I also needed something to use while I’m driving, as it’s now against the law to hold on to/or use a portable device when driving that isn’t hands free!

Construction & Design
The headphones are made from a hard plastic and rubber construction. The rubber makes them easy to grip, and the hard plastic is quite durable. They easily slip over each ear in a sort of backward sunglasses type fashion, then around the back of your head. The headphones include these little rubber ear tips that fit over metal speaker housings, then fit into your ears. This design is quite comfortable for short periods, but not as good for longer listening sessions. I found that the rubber ear tips tend to come off (I already lost one), so you have to be a bit careful. Make sure you line up the tabs on the ear tips to the metal speaker housings when replacing them. Fortunately, you can buy replacement ear tips on-line on Motorola’s web site. 2 sets of different sizes are included with the SD9-HD. They also come with an AC charging unit, and a nice little soft carrying bag, to store them in when you’re not using them. Also, the battery time on the unit lasts impressively long at almost 6 hours between charges. Overall, I like this design and found that the behind the head design really didn’t annoy me too much unless I was trying to lay back on a pillow, while I was laying in bed.

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I wrote an Article a bit ago about how to remove the little screen bubbles from an OtterBox Defender Case, mainly because I have one of these robust cases and the one thing that bothered me the most about it was the screen bubbles… The only other real disadvantage to a case that is as protective as the OtterBox Defender Case is its size, it makes an iPhone just a tad thick but protection does come at a cost!

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This “Tip of theWeek” brought to you by S2M Computer Consulting

We all want to be as “green” as we can these days… It’s just the right thing to do and why not save some money while you do your part for the environment!

I find myself constantly printing things off like invoices, maps, addresses, and confirmation emails, maybe many of you also find yourself printing stuff like this too?

Do you also find that much of the time you think you’re only going to get one page but when all is said and done, out pops another couple pages of non-relevant info or even sometimes one line of print that renders that entire page useless for reuse.

Here’s what I do to get around this problem and save on paper and ink as well as overall printer usage and general waiting around.

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Apple released their highly anticipated tablet today called the iPad and as expected it’s crazy-mind blowing, the only question I have is, “who would benefit from a device like this?”

Without getting into all the specifications, you can get them here what does the iPad do best? The iPad seems to really shine when surfing the web, looking at photos, accessing your email, looking at information like your calendar, watching movies and even playing iPhone App based games. The iPad also has a seamless interface like the iPhone and iPod Touch that literally takes the learning curve out of using a product like this. These are all important things, but what about using it for other possible day to day operations like photo importing and editing, word processing, video editing, audio recording, graphics and web design, video conferencing and even more…

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This “Tip of theWeek” brought to you by S2M Computer Consulting

File Management
A common computer mistake, and not just on a Mac is file disorganization, or randomly placing anything and everything wherever the mood dictates. Sure you can always use Spotlight to find a file or email but why not just organize your Mac as you go and the next time you need to find something it will be right where you filed it. That said, there is no one way to organize your Mac’s files, you could do it alphabetically or maybe start off with a Personal and Business file system that branches off from there, the idea here is to make a filing plan and follow the plan.

A few key rules are not to mess with your iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand files or Libraries as these generally get managed by the Applications, automatically going in your Photos, Movies, and Music folders. The folder that you can mess about with is your Documents folder. Customize this as needed and create New Folders and Sub-folders for what-have-you. Think of your Documents folder like a real filing cabinet, how would you organize this if it was the real deal?

To create a new folder inside the documents folder make sure to first navigate to your Documents folder and once it is highlighted, all you need to do is simply go to the “Finder File Menu” and select “New Finder Window”. Pressing “Command-N” will do the same thing. The new Folder will be labeled “untitled folder” and will usually be highlighted meaning you can now type the name you want that folder to be. If you want to change the name of a folder later, select it by clicking on it once, wait a second and then click on the name of the folder till it highlights, now you can enter a new name for it.

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This “Tip of theWeek” brought to you by:

S2M Computer Consulting & Mac Video Training

If you have an iPhone 3GS and you enjoy shooting video on it then you should take a look at the ReelDirector iPhone App by nexvio. RealDirector allows you to actually edit video on your iPhone 3GS and then either save it to your video/photo roll. Once saved to your iPhone’s photo roll you then import it to your computer or send it directly to Mobile Me or YouTube (as long as it is not too big!).

I already love my iPhone 3GS and now with the addition of RealDirector, I find myself taking even more videos, just so I can edit them on my iPhone.

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This “Tip of theWeek” brought to you by S2M Computer Consulting

What Good is an AppleTV?
The AppleTV is a bit of a misunderstood piece of Apple gear. When I talk to someone who has never really heard of an AppleTV they often think I am referring to an Apple branded TV set, they often imagine a stylish iMac based TV. When I start explaining that the AppleTV is not a TV at all but more of a media distribution center, then the next comment goes something like… “So you can watch your cableTV shows and record programs on an AppleTV?” At this point I have to explain the AppleTV does not input cable or satellite broadcasting or act in any way like a PVR. The next comment is usually a question like, “Well what good is an AppleTV then?”

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