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
Today, I held aniPhone 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.
We have been doing more and more trade shows/presentations and the likes these days and in many cases we have to either cart around our own fairly large speaker configurations or arrange to have some speakers provided for us. When a set of speakers is provided for you, you just don’t always know how they are going to perform? In some cases the speakers were overkill and in a booth situation we don’t want the attention on the speakers we want the attention on our product. Even too much bass is distracting as all we really need is for the message to cut through and if there’s lots of bass then often things can get a bit muddy!
Our requirements where a set of compact stereo speakers that had enough volume to cut through a noisy environment and a sound quality that would produce accurate sounding voice. We wanted the fewest possible cables so as not clutter up our table.
Motorola MotoRokr SD9-HD Bluetooth Headphones Review
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.
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!
Paul and I recently made a trip out to Ohio which is a bit of trek for us as we traveled from Canada across the boarder to Seattle and then started our air portion of the trip which took us from Seattle to Chicago and then to Ohio. All in all this took us the entire day to accomplish much of which was in the air or sitting around waiting to get into the air.
That said we were fairly iPhone dependent to keep us connected and entertained along the way. The iPhone battery is great for regular day to day activities, especially when you have a home charger or car charger handy but we soon realized this would not be the case in this situation.
If you have an iPhone 3GS and you enjoy shooting video on it then you should take a look at the ReelDirector iPhone Appby 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.
I have been using an OtterBox Defender case for about a year now and it’s an amazing case for the iPhone 3G series. My iPhone even took a bath in a glass of Crown & Coke and came out unscathed while wearing the OtterBox Defender case!
About the only downside to the OtterBox Defender case is its size, it does add a bit of bulk to your iPhone but when you factor in the $1000 price tag of a non-contract 32GB iPhone 3Gs, the added size and protection are well worth it especially if you are hard on phones in general.
The only other complaint I have for the OtterBox iPhone Defender Case is that it is nearly impossible to get rid of the little screen bubbles that get trapped between your iPhone screen and the OtterBox Defender screen.
Thats was until I saw this video on YouTube, a little baby powder is all you need! Check it out.
(Posted by Mike)
It Snowed at my house last night
When I say it “Snowed” I mean “Snow Leopard”! OK there are tons of reviews online including the ones we already posted links to so I will give you some interesting tid-bits I noticed about the Snow Leopard install that I just went through.
- First off, the install was so fast, about 45 minutes for me and when my Mac came back on line it was almost as if nothing had actually happened, this is a good thing!
- During the first boot-up, the finder seemed really sluggish at first but I am pretty sure this is because Snow Leopard is re-indexing all the finder file and icon information. Once it got through this the finder seemed maybe a bit faster.(My MacBook Pro 13 is already so fast it’s hard to tell?)
Early Mac OS X Snow Leopard reviews weigh in positive!
From the early reviews I’ve read online via Engadget and Walt Mossburg, Mac OS X Snow Leopard seems to be getting positive feedback, mainly due to a few new GUI (graphic user interface) tweaks, smaller installation, increased speed, and refreshingly low upgrade price ($29).
I tend to like New York Time’s Technology Columnist David Pogue’s review of Snow Leopard best. He does a great job of comparing Operating Systems to building blocks. That may sound a little strange, but when you watch his video, it all makes sense.
Another interesting thing to note: A number of websites are reporting that Mac OS X Tiger users are also successfully upgrading their Macs to Snow Leopard with the $29 disc without having to buy the $169 boxset as stated by Apple. Keep in mind though, that you’ll need an Intel Mac if you want to run it. That means, a Mac that was purchased no longer than about 2006. Sorry Bondi Blue iMac; you’re plain out of luck!
