Repurposing Old Tablets and Smart Devices

While I'm on the subject of iPods, I thought I'd share a few tips on repurposing old smart tech. I have a ton of older devices; tablets, e-readers, mobile devices, you name it, I have it, and I find they can come in handy around the house. You can trade them in when you're upgrading, but you're usually lucky to get 20 bucks for them, and if they're in reasonable shape, that's a bad deal.

 You're much better served repurposing them to play a role in your IoT (Internet of Things), or "smart house". Old iPads and tablets are a great addition to your kitchen or family room and can serve as calendars, notepads, cookbooks, security camera monitors, music players, or all of the above. My old iPad Air is still in great condition and is an invaluable addition to our kitchen counter. Look up a recipe, quickly respond to a text, check your calendar while you're on the phone and add or update an appointment, you can even see who's creepin' 'round your back door. So many uses. You can mount them on a wall, or just use them in a free-standing cradle, there are a plethora of tablet mounts and cradles on the market, something for every situation.

Same with old mobile phones or iPod Touch devices, they make fantastic smart remotes for your TV's and entertainment centers. My iPod Touch is the primary controller for my Man Town A/V setup. It has my provider's app on it which has a Cable TV remote function, interactive program guide and access to my DVR library. It also has an Apple TV remote app, my iTunes library, and it connects to my A/V receiver via Bluetooth, so my complete music library is always available through my big boy stereo. Plus, it's got a keypad and Siri, which makes searching the guide grids a piece of cake. It also has internet access via Wi-Fi so I can keep track of news and scores. Forget those pricey universal remotes, this puppy does it all. Pro tip: you can also use old mobile phones for the same purpose as long as they have Wi-Fi. Just cuz they no longer have dial tone does not make them useless; they'll still upgrade and be capable of downloading apps via Wi-Fi.

Old iPods or MP3 players can be useful as well, paired with non-smart music systems. I have a Sony HD table radio and a Bose Wave that are both still excellent sounding devices, but both lack any smart features. Rather than upgrade them and trash a perfectly good music system, I use my old 3rd gen nano with them. From an aesthetic and haptic point of view, the 3rd gen Nano, or iPod fatty, as I call it, is my favorite iPod; what it lacks in functionality it more than makes up for in rizz. It's got that old school click wheel and iconic early iPod chrome backplate, it's a sexy little beast. Unfortunately, it no longer holds a charge for sh!t, but it works just fine nestled in a 30-pin dock, which both radios have. It expands the radios functionality, and it's a design statement; it says, "Music lives here". It also says, "We're old", but meh, I could care less. I wear that like a badge of honor.

Anyways, the possibilities are endless, you're limited only by your imagination. Plus, you're keeping it green by keeping things out of our ever-growing electronic waste piles, or the land fill. Double bonus.

So, repurpose those old devices when you can, old tech needs love too.

Apple Needs To Bring Back the iPod

I jumped on the iPod bandwagon early and rode that baby all the way to the end of the line, and it was a sweet ride. The iPod revolutionized the personal music player market. No more big devices to carry around, and more importantly, your portable music library was no longer limited to the number of cassettes or CD's you could lug around with you. Your whole music library, available all the time, right in the palm of your hand. Heady stuff, Jetson-esque stuff, and it still is. Digital data opened up a whole new world for us. Then the iPhone came along, a natural progression, and eventually phased out the iPod completely.

There's still a need for them, though. I love my iPhone, but it's not the right tool for every situation. If I'm going to be anywhere near whirling blades or water hazards, I don't want my iPhone in the vicinity. I also don't want to be constantly draining its battery; I want it charged and ready for when I need it. My iPod Nano is my go-to device for things like yard work, or long walks off a short pier. It's small, sleek, and functional. No dial tone, no annoying spam, no data stealing apps, just a good standalone music player, cuz sometimes that's all you need.

Apple had really hit the sweet spot with the Nano, and the 7th gen was their best device in my opinion, from both a size and functionality standpoint. It has Bluetooth, an FM tuner, a moderate amount of storage, and relatively little else, but it does the trick. If Apple built a new model based off of the 7th gen design with a beefed-up storage capacity, say 64 or 128GB, I'd be first in line to buy one. I'd even grudgingly accept Wi-Fi for ease of syncing, just as long as it didn't increase the size and battery drain by too much and they limit the apps that run on it. No mail, no texts, I want none of it. I'm sure they'd wedge their Apple Music streaming app on there, it's not something I need or want, but I could live with it as well.

I know there are other DAP's (Digital Audio Players) out there on the market, some with incredible specs like the high end A&K's and the Sony's, but they're all very pricey and Android based, and would entail duplicating my iTunes library or just outright converting my iTunes library into an app that works for both Apple and Android devices, but that's a hassle and entails subscription costs. My library is huge at this point with extensive playlists, so that ship has sailed for me. I'm pretty much locked into the iTunes world, warts and all, but I'm okay with that; it's free, familiar and relatively uncomplicated.

Uncomplicated, that pretty much sums up this whole argument. These days people are craving a "do not disturb" kind of device, it's not just nostalgia. There's most definitely a large market for it, and a new iPod is just the ticket. So, give us a new iPod, Apple, I'm begging you. My batteries are slowly giving up the ghost, its time, so let's get cracking.

Not Such Deep Thoughts – Freaky February Edition

Blackouts, Whiteouts, Pope-outs, asteroids and meteors, this has been one special February so far. Lots to talk about, so let’s get this party started.

Super Bowl XLVII was notable on a lot of levels, but will probably be best remembered for the second half blackout. In the first half, the Ravens romped, and it looked like the game was going to be a boring blowout. At halftime, Beyonce bounced, and that amped things back up a little, at least it did for me… but then the second half opened up with a Ravens’ runback and I started picking up and getting ready for the rack. Not being a Ravens fan, I had little desire to watch further. Then the lights went out, and everything changed. First off, it silenced Phil Simms for a while, and that was awesome in and of itself, but it also gave the shell shocked 49ers time to gather themselves a bit, and when the lights came back on, they made a game of it. An exciting one, no less, that came down to the final possession. In the end, the Niners came up a little short, but it was a valiant effort, and not without a bit of officiating controversy. Non calls aside, the 49ers lost the game by not showing up in the first half, and the Ravens won by hanging tough for the full sixty minutes. Gotta give them credit, no matter how much it kills me.

Note to football players; God does not decide sporting events. You win because you outplay the other team, period.

Note to conspiracy theorists; if I was getting ready to turn off the TV, how many others were? Is it possible that CBS and the NFL, fearing financial disaster, had a hand in the blackout? Faux News is said to be working on an expose piece and claims to have footage of Roger Goodell entering the control room just moments before the lights went out, carrying a huge bucket of Gatorade.

Just when I thought we might squeak through with another mild winter, bam, we get clobbered by a record breaking blizzard. High winds, whiteouts, bone chilling temperatures and over two feet of fine powdery snow; yikes, what a mess. The whole region came to a screeching stop, which is a good thing. The driving ban prevented people from getting caught on the roads, and it really helped out with the massive cleanup efforts. Some people were outraged by the ban, felt it was infringing on their personal freedoms, to those people I say; STFU. If you’re not a doctor, a cop, a fireman or a plow driver, you don’t belong out clogging up the driving lanes, putting people’s lives in danger to save your sorry butt.

The 2013 Farmers’ Almanac called the recent weather in the Northeast almost to a tee, by the way. Here’s part of their Zone 1 Northeast February prediction: 8th to 11th, unsettled; light snow and flurries. 12th to 15th, a major Northeast snowstorm develops, accumulations could exceed one foot with strong winds causing blowing and drifting of snow. 16th to 19th, lingering snow showers and flurries. Dead on, but just a couple of days late on the blizzard, it actually happened on the 9th and 10th. Still an amazing feat of prognostication though, considering it was written several years in advance. How the heck do they do that, you ask? Well, it’s complicated. I’ll let them explain; “The Farmers’ Almanac weather predictions are based on a secret mathematical and astronomical formula. Developed in 1818 by David Young, the Almanac‘s first editor, this formula takes many factors into consideration, including sunspot activity, moon phases, tidal action, and more. This carefully guarded formula has been passed along from calculator to calculator and has never been revealed.” However they do it, I’m impressed.

Note to all; the Almanac has also red flagged February 24th to 28th and March 20th to 23rd for major coastal storms along the Atlantic Seaboard. The February 24th to 28th storm was predicted to just brush the Northeast as it heads out to sea, and that seems to be the case so far, but the March 20th to 23rd storm promises strong winds and heavy precipitation. Methinks March will not go lamb-like into that good night.

Extreme weather is becoming a bit of a trend these days. I don’t know if it’s global warming or just a normal planetary cycle, but I do know this for a fact; never in the history of this beautiful little planet has there ever been as many people or as much industry. Never. Ever. Does it make a difference in the delicate balance of life? Well, I’m not a climatologist, nor do I play one on TV, but it’s hard not to think so. Manufacturing waste, vehicle exhaust, billions of humans and bovines breathing, belching and farting, it all adds up people, and it worries me a little.

Note to self; never, ever, buy ocean front property.

We got yet another February surprise when the Pope resigned without warning last week. The last time a Pope resigned was in 1415, almost 600 years ago, so you can see why it's caused such a stir, and just to make matters more interesting, there was a purported lightning strike on the Vatican the same day. Hmmm… Lightning has long been associated with the fortunes of Rome. From about 300 B.C. until 400 A.D., a group known as the College of Augurs looked to the skies for signs of Jupiter’s will in the form of birds, lightning and meteors. So, we’ve got the lightning, and we’ve got the meteors (I’ll get to those in a second), if something freaky happens with birds soon, I’m heading for the hills. All kidding aside, I think what the Pope is doing is a good thing. The church is in turmoil, and for once someone is saying “Hey, we need someone at the helm who has the strength to tack against the wind.” The time has come to stop leaning on tradition, and the fact that the Pope can make such a decision gives me great hope. Imagine the strength it took for him to do this; to give up the most coveted position he could ever imagine, I think that alone is a sign from God, a sign of hope.

On the 15th we had a very close encounter with asteroid 2012 DA14, a 45 meter, 130,000 ton space rock. It didn’t just pass between the Earth and Moon, it passed between the Earth and our geosynchronous satellites. That’s a pretty close shave, and as if to emphasize how vulnerable to this sort of thing we actually are, it was both preceded and followed by 2 unrelated meteor strikes. The Chelyabinsk meteor, a “smaller” 10,000 ton space rock, streaked across Russian skies on the morning of the 15th, exploding in an airburst over Chelyabinsk. The force of the explosion was equal to 500 kilotons of TNT, and the resulting shock wave injured 1500 people and damaged 4300 buildings. There was also a meteor sighting in the San Francisco area later that day. No impact was recorded, just an impressive light show. To put things in their proper perspective, if the 10,000 ton Chelyabinsk meteor did so much damage, imagine what a direct hit on a populated area by a 130,000 ton rock like DA14 would do. Can you say nuclear winter?

All right, enough weirdness, let’s talk tech. Here’s a quick update to my last post; My Love/Hate Relationship With Apple. We finally got our Snow Leapord disc delivered and successfully upgraded the iMAC’s OS, as well as iTunes and VirtualBox. I also added 4GB of RAM while I was at it. I didn’t continue on to the latest OS, Mountain Lion, thank goodness. I found out (just in time) that Mountain Lion breaks older versions of Microsoft Office, so we saved ourselves from another heavy dose of collateral damage. Phew… Anyway, now the little pink nano is set up, sync’d, and fully functional, and it is a pretty slick little device, but as I said in the previous post; this was way too much hassle just to set up a simple music player. Way too much.

While we’re on the subject of Apple, upgrades and collateral damage, I also upgraded my Apple TV’s firmware and guess what? Now my wired desktop no longer shows up in the connected devices/available iTunes library list. My laptop, my Touch and my wife’s wired iMac all do, but not my desktop. I’m not sure if it was my latest iTunes upgrade (10.7) or the upgrade of the Apple TV device to version 5 that messed things up, but it’s a real pain. When I’m streaming my iTunes music I have the Apple TV screen saver set to use the contents of the My Pictures folder so there’s a constant stream of our Kodak moments on the big screen, and the desktop is where the bulk of my pictures live. My suspicion is that although the iMac has a wired connection, it also has built in Wi-Fi, and Apple TV firmware has been modified to only look for devices that have their own built in Wi-Fi, and no longer looks for wired devices that are accessible via an external Wi-Fi connection such as a router. You’re killing me here, Apple…

Note to Apple; the short life span of your products (ie: new models or major software revs every 5 to 7 months) will be your undoing, we are not all Apple Fanboys.

OK, last thing, promise. Spring Training is cranking up, and the question on all good Sox fan’s minds is; can they pull their nards out of the fire? The team has pretty much self imploded and it appears that things can’t get much worse, so that’s something to hang your hat on. But how they fare in the standings this year is of less importance to me than how they act and play. As long as they give it 100%, I’m behind them. Any less and I’ll be turning them off.

Note to Red Sox; forget the fancy demographic studies and bringing in high paid mercenaries. If you want a successful and embraceable team, start with the basics; hard working players with integrity and a love of the game, add in a little inspirational leadership, mix well and bake for approximately 180 days. It’s a no fail recipe.

That is all.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Apple

My wife got a shiny new 7th gen iPod nano in her stocking this Christmas, a pink one no less, and it put a huge smile on her face. The new nano is a nicely thought out little device and the perfect workout accessory; it holds a ton of music, has Bluetooth for wireless headphones, a built in pedometer, and it has the Nike+ personal trainer app, which is pretty slick.

She has an iMac and she’s had a couple of iPods and an iPad, so Santa felt pretty comfortable with this particular gifting. The only requirement for the new 7th gen nano is that it needs iTunes 10.7 or higher. Piece of cake, thought Santa.

His confidence was based on the fact that he has iTunes 10.7 running on both an XP and a Windows 7 machine back at the North Pole, both ends of the technology spectrum in the Windows world, plus the iMac in question already has iTunes 10.5 loaded on it, so upgrading from 10.5 to 10.7 on a fairly new iMac shouldn’t present any problems. iTunes 11 might be a problem, but 10.7 is just a simple rev bump.

That was his thinking, anyway, but Santa was wrong, way wrong.

First my wife tried to upgrade to iTunes 10.7. The download went fine, but her iMac balked on installation, informing her that she was running OSX 10.5 (Leopard) for an operating system, and iTunes 10.7 could only be installed on machines with the newest version of OSX, Mountain Lion (10.7).

So, Apple has a version of iTunes 10.7 for XP, Vista and Windows 7, both the 32 and 64 bit versions, but for their own platform there’s only 1 version, and that’s for their latest and greatest OS only. Nice.

Oh well, no big deal, we thought. Mountain Lion is available as a download on the Apple website, for a fee of course ($29.99). Wrong again…

To upgrade from Leopard (OSX 10.5), you first have to upgrade to Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6), and Snow Leopard is not available as a download. You have to buy the disc set from Apple, again for a fee, load it, and then you can download Mountain Lion.

Rather than order Snow Leopard online and wait impatiently, we decided to head out to the closest Apple store and pick up a copy. Seemed like a good idea at the time, we just wanted to wrap things up and move on at this point, but we were wrong yet again.

When we got there we were told that the brick and mortar stores don’t carry copies of the operating system, you can only order them online. Of course, they were very nice about it, even reminding us that we’d be able to download Mountain Lion once we ordered and installed Snow Leopard. It was small compensation though, and we trudged back home, extremely frustrated, and placed our order for the Snow Leopard disc set.

Now we sit and wait, knowing that once we get the software delivered, we have to do two OS upgrades and then an iTunes upgrade, plus we’ll need to fix the collateral damage; upgrading other programs so that they’re compatible with Mountain Lion. The collateral damage is the main reason we hadn’t updated the iMac yet. Our current version of VirtualBox, the program that allows us to load a second operating system, XP in this case, won’t run on Mountain Lion, and without it, my wife can’t work from home. So once we finish the OS and iTunes upgrades, we’ll need to do the VirtualBox upgrade.

Meanwhile, the pretty pink nano sits there next to the Mac, gleaming in its little acrylic box, unused and unloved, silently mocking me.

“Great present”, it whispers.

*sigh*

I take solace in the fact that with gifts, it’s the thought that counts, and none of these upgrades are a bad thing in any way. Matter of fact, they we’re way overdue, but it shouldn’t be this hard to set up a simple music player.

If Apple can make a version of iTunes for every Windows OS, they certainly could do the same for their own, so why don’t they? Well, they have to cater to Windows users, they make up the lions share of their customers, and it’s not their OS, so they can’t force change. Ah, but Mac users, they’re the cash cow. They can get them coming and going; new iPod, new OS (or two!), sometimes even a new system. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

Apple has released 3 OS upgrades since we bought the iMac in 2010, and countless versions of iTunes software and iPod firmware. Ideally, you always want to have your computers and gadgets up to date, it unlocks new functions and features, and can ultimately make a big difference in your device’s performance, but it gets very hard to keep up with, plus you have that old “collateral damage” problem.

The iPad, iPhone and Touch all have Wi-Fi and can sync to your iTunes account via the cloud, so you’re not as much of a slave to change as you are with devices like the nano that need to be physically connected to a system to sync and operate, but you can still get bitten, so beware.

The lesson here is; do your homework before buying any kind of software or hardware, especially when it’s for someone else. The last thing you want is to be raising stress levels instead of bringing joy and delight.

Oh yeah, and do your upgrades in a timely fashion, don’t be a slouch like me.

That is all.

Last Minute Tips for a Very Geeky Christmas

Still struggling with your Christmas shopping? Well, you’ve come to the right place; our annual last minute gift guide will help you get over the goal line. There’s something here for every budget, and all items are readily available and guaranteed to please that special geek in your life.


Apple iPad mini

The hot gift for 2012, nuff said. $329 and up at Apple Stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, basically everywhere. Comes with the new Lightning to USB cable and a USB power adaptor.


Apple 7th gen iPod nano

As it says on their website, it’s been completely renanoed. The widescreen and video are back after a failure to report for duty in the 6th Gen version. Bluetooth, Nike + support and a pedometer function have been added. It’s got a touch screen, FM radio with live pause, 16GB of storage for your music, videos, photos and contacts, and it comes in a plethora of colors. I think this is their best version yet.

$149 at Apple stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, basically everywhere, best selection of colors is the Apple Store. Comes with a set of the new Apple EarPods and a Lightning to USB cable.


Belkin YourType Bluetooth Keyboard/Folio for iPad

Touch screens are amazing, but sometimes you just need a keyboard. There’s a bunch of them on the market this year, but I like Belkin’s best. It has a responsive, well designed removable keyboard with 60 hour active battery life, and the folio adjusts for multiple landscape and portrait iPad viewing angles. Comes with a micro USB cable for recharging.

$79 to $99 at Target, Walmart, Best Buy


Logitech Harmony® 650 Remote

Love the Harmony remotes, hate the prices. The top end models go for $250 to $350; too rich for my blood, but the 650 can be found for as low as $50. It’s got a color screen, controls up to 5 devices, and supports over 5000 brands. Connect it to your PC via USB cable and let Logitech’s online software walk you through configuring it for one click activities, and their constantly updated database ensures this remote will be able to keep up with your component changes for quite a while.

$49.99 to $79.99 at Best Buy, Home Depot


Bluetooth Speaker Systems

Forget the docks and cables; you can wirelessly stream music from your Bluetooth enabled phone, iPod or laptop to a wide variety of Bluetooth speakers and receivers available in every price range. From the HDMX Jam at $44, to my favorite, the Bose Soundlink II at $299, there’s a lot of options here.

$44 to $299 at Apple stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, these things are everywhere this year.


iTunes Cards

Every Christmas we pick up a couple of 3 packs of the $10 iTunes cards, they make great stocking stuffers and they’re good to have on hand for emergency gifting. Available everywhere. $10 and up.


Google Play Cards

Finally, prepaid gift cards for Android users, what a concept! Available at Target, Walmart, Staples and Radio Shack. $10 and up.


That’s it, there’s something here for every budget, and they’re all “swoop in and grab” kinda presents. It will take you longer to find a parking spot than to find and purchase any of these items, so get it in gear and let’s wrap this thing up!

Samsung Galaxy S III

The Samsung Galaxy S III is a great phone, and currently the best selling smartphone in the world, outselling the iPhone 4s and all other comers. The figures aren’t in yet on head to head sales with the new iPhone 5, and that may change things, but I don’t see it giving up much ground once they are.

It’s got a huge 4.8” HD screen, and yet it’s easy to grip and surprisingly light at 4.7 Ounces. It’s a real head turner too, with lines more reminiscent of the iPod Touch, as opposed to the iPhones of late. The casing has a nice feel to it, slick and sleek without being slippery; it really feels comfortable in your hand.

This phone isn’t just another pretty face, though. With a 1.5 GHz dual core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM on board, and the Android 4.1 OS (Jelly Bean), it’s a fast and responsive device preloaded with Android Apps that rival Apple’s best, and blazing fast 4G connectivity (4G LTE and HSPA+ 4G/3G, depending on the carrier).

It transfers files with other devices wirelessly via Android Beam and S Beam (NFC based features) just by touching the devices together, and the DLNA function (WiFi Direct) allows you to display photos and videos on a Samsung Smart TV, which is pretty cool.

It also has a Smart Tag feature, which uses facial recognition to match faces in photos to faces in your contacts list, and then it automatically displays the contact’s latest social media status updates for you.

It has both front (1.9 Megapixal, 720p video) and rear (8 Megapixel, 1080p video) facing cameras that are very good, comparable to some point and shoots, and it uses the front facing camera for Smart Stay and Face Unlock, two more features that take advantage of the facial recognition software. With Smart Stay on, the phone looks back at you every once in a while, and if it can’t see your eyes, it puts the display to sleep, extending battery life. Face Unlock matches the user to their contact photo and wakes the phone up.

S-voice (think Siri without the dry wit), Custom Call EQ (the phone plays a series of high and low tones, you tell it which ones you hear, and presto, custom call EQ), the list goes on and on. For me though, the real selling points are; Micro USB connectivity, drag and drop file transfer, an external memory slot that holds up to a 64GB microSD card, and a removable battery.

I’m an iPod guy, love ‘em, have ‘em all, I’m like Gollum when I’ve got one in my hot little hands, so I was a little leery of going with an Android phone, but the ability to load files without connecting to a specific iTunes library, use a cable that isn’t proprietary, pop in an SD card and replace my own battery has totally won me over, and the newest Android OS (4.1) is clean and routine, a pleasure to use.

Samsung’s ad campaign that’s set outside of an Apple store on release day is great, a guy with an S III holding a spot in line for his parents, then sharing play lists with his buddy by touching phones as he leaves, it says it all; It’s not an iPhone, but it has everything you hoped the iPhone 5 would bring to the party.

Brilliant marketing, brilliant phone.

The Ultimate App for Pats Fans

Whether you’re on the move, camped out in the man cave, or at the game, you need the Patriot’s smartphone app to stay in the know.

The smartphone app runs on both the iOS and Android platforms and provides you with a wealth of information. Pats news and videos, team and league stats and scores, photos, blogs, schedules, you name it, they’ve got it. My favorite feature though, is the Gameday section.

Gameday has a tab for up to the minute Play By Play action, another for a Live Blog with PFW Editor-in-Chief Fred Kirsch, so you can kibitz during the game, a Game Stats tab that breaks it all down by team, player and drive, and a Scores Tab that keeps you up to date on all of the games that week.

Not only is this app a must have if you’re away from both TV and radio on game day, it’s also indispensible when you’re actually watching the game. Let’s face it, we all need the occasional bio break or snack run, and you inevitably return to your seat saying “WTF just happened? How did they end up with the ball, and how did they score so quickly?”

I keep the app open to the play by play tab on my Touch when I’m home, or on my phone when I’m out, and if I miss anything, there’s a detailed play by play description of the action constantly updating on my device. “Ah, Big Vince with the fumble recovery, now it makes sense…”

Nice.

You can get the app at both the iTunes store and Google Play, or you can just go here, to the Patriots Media Center, where there’s a link to both. There’s also a Patriots Football Weekly app available for the iPad, and a link to the Patriots Mobile Site so you can browse a mobile version of the Official New England Patriots site on your portable devices.

The Pat’s have done a fantastic job on both the apps and their websites, but I'd expect no less from the franchise that's been at the forefront of the NFL’s foray into cyberspace since day one. You’ve gotta love the Kraft family, always on the cutting edge.

That is all.

Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker

I teased you in my last post that I’d been playing around with some pretty neat technology this summer, it’s time I got down to business. Let’s start off with my favorite new audio accessory, the Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker.

Forget about docks and cords, wireless accessories are where it’s at these days, and the Bose SoundLink is my personal favorite in the wireless speaker category. It’s small and compact, with a solid feel and a sleek look, and it has pretty good overall volume and sound reproduction for a device of its size and portability.

It pairs with and remembers up to 6 Bluetooth devices. After 6, every new device you pair it with bumps an old one out of its memory. I currently have it paired with my laptop, iPod touch and my Smartphone, all were a snap to pair, and all reconnect to it instantly after initial setup. Its sound is warm and impressive with nice full bass, not sonically perfect, but nice, and it has enough volume and clarity to use outdoors.

The controls are simple, just a few buttons on the top of the device for power, volume, mute and Bluetooth pairing. No remote, but that’s fine with me. The paired device performs that function quite nicely. It also has a built in cover with a magnetic latch that does triple duty. It protects the speaker when it’s closed, acts as a stand when it’s open, and turns the unit off when you close it again.

Like most Bose music systems, speaker placement is key to maximizing its sound; you want to have a solid surface a few feet behind it to reflect the bass, especially when you’re using it outdoors or at a large party. The SoundLink’s range is at least 30’, which gives you a lot of options in the placement department.

I’ve actually had the device for a few months now, but have been holding off on a review until I’d really put it through its paces, and this baby passed my summer torture test with flying colors. The only problem is, I waited so long that Bose has just released a second generation device, the SoundLink II, and a software update for the original device. The SoundLink II has been sonically improved, and now comes in 2 flavors, Bluetooth or AirPlay (Apple’s proprietary Wi-Fi).

The sonic improvements come in the form of new transducers and better digital signal processing, and the addition of an AirPlay version gives the device even more flexibility when paired with an iOS device or iTunes.

The software update for the original model is easy to install, the SoundLink has a micro USB port on the back labeled service, and it’s great to know that the device is upgradeable, seeing as the electronic landscape seems to change every nanosecond these days.

Bottom line, there are other Bluetooth sound systems out there, and most are a lot cheaper than the SoundLink, but for my money the SoundLink has just the right mix of sound, portability, function and form. Small and sturdy enough to travel with, perfect as an add-on speaker for your laptop, iPod or Smartphone, powerful enough to use as a boom box at your next party, and it pulls it all off with style.

That is all.

Last Minute Gift Ideas

Still struggling with your Christmas shopping? Here are a few hot items guaranteed to please. All are available locally, and there’s something for every budget.

Let’s get right to it, because you are running out of time, my friend. We'll start high end and work our way down:

iPad 2 $499 to $829
The ultimate coffee table accessory of the new millennium. Available at Apple Stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Radio Shack.

Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Wireless Speaker System $299.95
Get that sweet Bose sound from your MP3 player or phone without the hassle of docking. Available at Bose Stores, Apple Stores, Target.

iPod Touch $199 to $399
The device of the decade. nuff said. Available at Apple Stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Radio Shack.

Cuisinart SS-700 Coffee Maker, Single Serve Brewing System $199
Coffee and tea and the java and me, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup. Just like the Keurig system, only the coffee is actually hot. Available at Kohls, Macys.

Canon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS $149
The ultimate point and shoot, now at an even lower price point. Available at Hunts, Best Buy.

Good Earbuds $79 to $117
Dump the lackluster iPod standards for something that sounds great without breaking the bank. Go for the Bose for a natural sound, or the Klipsch for heavy base and noise isolation.
Huh..? Did you say something? Available at the Apple Store, Bose Store, Target.

Bose MIE2i Mobile Headset $117 (with mic)

Bose IE2 audio headphones $89 (without mic)

Klipsch Image S4i $99 (with mic)

Klipsch IMAGE S4 $79 (without mic)


Apple TV $99
Because streaming is where it’s at. Available at Apple Stores, Best Buy, Target, Radio Shack.

iTunes Cards $15 to $100
Official coin of the realm for geeks everywhere. Every Christmas I pick up a couple of 3 packs of the $10 cards. They make great stocking stuffers and they’re good to have on hand in case your Cousin Marvin shows up unannounced bearing gifts. Available everywhere.

That’s it. As I said, something for every budget, and I’ve actually seen and laid hands on all of these options just this week, so you're officially out of excuses. Now get out there and wrap things up, you slackers.

Apple TV

I think Santa reads my blog. Last week I mentioned that both the Roku and Apple TV boxes were great tech gifts for under $100, and sure enough, there was an Apple TV under the tree on Christmas morning. Thanks Santa!

I’ve had a week to play with it now, and it’s a great little device. It’s small and sleek, not much bigger than an iPod dock, and it has both Wi-Fi and a wired Ethernet port for network connectivity. For outputs, it has an HDMI and an Optical Audio port, which is key if you plan on sending the audio signal to a separate sound system.

Apple TV delivers up to a 720p video signal and Dolby 7.1 surround to your devices, and it automatically seeks out any iTunes libraries on your network that have home sharing enabled. This allows you to use iTunes through your TV and home theater audio system, as well as to see the contents of your My Pictures folder (note; you need to be running iTunes 10 and have configured the picture sharing tab to use this feature). I’ve set my pictures to be the Apple TV default screen saver, so while I’m listening to music they appear as a slide show on the TV screen.

Performance is great. I have full functionality in iTunes; playlists, shuffle, cover flow, and the quality of both my pictures and the video is stunning, even running wirelessly. No hesitation or jerkiness, just smooth high quality video, and as well as having access to all your own media, and everything the iTunes store offers, you can also connect to Netflix or YouTube. An added bonus is using the iTunes internet radio feature through the stereo. Crystal clear reception from any station in the world! And if that's not enough to sell you, there's also an app available for your touch, iPhone or iPad that turns it into a remote!

Looks like old Santa knew what (s)he was doing. Although the Roku can deliver a 1080p video signal and 7.1 surround, the ability to integrate your iTunes libraries with Apple TV makes it hard to beat, especially if you’re already firmly entrenched in the iTunes camp.

Apple Revamps iPods... again

The buttons are back on the shuffle, and gone from the nano, replaced by a touch screen that allows it to be half the size of the last gen. Its kind of become a baby touch, and speaking of the touch, its gotten thinner and they've added both front and rear facing cameras.

They've taken the best features from their current star performer, the touch, and integrated them into the nano, and shifted some of the nano's features, the camera and the FM tuner, to the touch. Very nice.

The nano appears to be morphing into the shuffle of the future, as the smaller size and the built in clip make it a lot more functional for on the go activities. My wife loves her little pink 2nd gen shuffle for her walkabouts, but I could never get used to a device without a screen, I just don't like flying blind. My nano is my portable of choice, and if there was one thing I'd change about it, it would be to add a secure way to fasten it to my clothes.

The improvements to the touch, while great, are way overdue. The cameras and the tuner should have been added to the 3rd gen touch. The 3rd gen was basically a fix. When they released OS3, they turned on the hidden Bluetooth functionality of the 2nd gen touch, and quickly realized that it wasn't quite up to the task of supporting Bluetooth and running the new OS. It became a flakey battery hog, hence the new processor in the 3rd gen, but why did they stop there? A Wi-Fi device as slick and powerful as the touch cried out for a camera, skype anyone?, and not integrating a tuner was one of those mysterious Apple tics that you just can't understand. My theory is that at some early design review Steve Jobs said "Radio is dead.", and from that point on, talk of incorporating a tuner became a taboo subject.

So, with these latest changes, the touch and the nano are finally dressed properly for the occasion, so to speak, and the shuffle has reverted back to it's most popular form. All of the devices have become more functional in their particular niche, and that's a good thing. I give Apple a solid B for this new crop, I just wish they'd slow down a little.

Check out the video below for a "first look" at all the new iPods, plus a preview of iTunes 10 and the current top apps:

Reloading An App, Revisited

Here’s an update on the post I did a couple of weeks ago about troubleshooting an app on my iPod touch. To Apple’s credit, someone from the iTunes Store Customer Support Team finally responded to me and was very helpful. Their first suggestion was to do exactly what I had planned on doing after I read their knowledge base, delete and reload the app.

I followed Apple’s directions, and even went a few steps further. I backed up iTunes, and then sync'd my nano and touch. Fresh copies all around! Speaking of copies, I made sure I had a copy of the old iTunes 8.0.20 installer, which I did, just in case. Next I backed up my PC to an external drive, and then I upgraded to the latest version of iTunes (9.2.1.5).

Surprisingly, all went well. When iTunes 9 was finished installing, I rebooted the PC and then tried resyncing my ipods. Everything worked fine.

Next, I deleted the app in question from both my Touch and iTunes. Then I went to the app store and repurchased it. iTunes recognized that I had already purchased the app and allowed me to download it for free, nice, and then a dialog box popped up that said:

"You must authorize this computer to download this application. There are also other applications on your Computer that are not authorized and will be removed if you don't choose to authorize now."

Not nice. So of course, I reauthorized the computer that I've been using to handle my account without interruption for at least 3 years. Very strange, but what's worse is the next message:

"You now have 5 of 5 possible computers authorized to use this account."

Why iTunes decided that the system I've been using for so long is suddenly not on the list is a total mystery. It's been authorized for 5 years, and it's been at least 3 years since I've replaced any components in it. Is it possible that iTunes 9 does a more thorough consistency check then iTunes 8, and just noticed the work I did 3 years ago? Regardless, at some point in the near future I’m going to need to deauthorize all the computers on my account and start fresh, but that’s for another time.

Anyways, the app appeared to download correctly, so I resynced my touch and tried to start the new copy of the app, and got the same error as before; a brief black screen followed by getting dumped back at the desktop.

bummer : (

I tried rebooting the PC and the iPod and then resyncing again, just in case, but the app still didn't work.

So, there I sat, broken hearted. Paid 5 bucks for an app that farted.

My bet at this point is that this latest version of Raging Thunder 2 just doesn't run on OS 2.2 as advertised. Polarbit still hasn't responded, but when I reported back to the iTunes support team that it failed again, they quickly offered to credit my account, which I quickly, and gratefully, accepted.

I can’t say enough good things about the iTunes Store’s customer service, and I’m glad I finally have all the computers upgraded to iTunes 9, even though to do it safely is a bit of a chore…The Sharing feature is the nards.

My only fear in all of this, is that my beautiful, shiny, fast as lightening 2nd gen touch is rapidly being painted into that inevitable high tech corner, obsolescence, at least in the available app department. I’m sure it won’t be long before all new apps are iOS4 specific, and I’ve seen the results of upgrading the OS on a 2nd gen touch. Poor battery life and general flakiness.

Hopefully, the good people of Apple will have come up with a tweak or two by the time that becomes necessary. In the meantime, I’m going to continue enjoying its current functionality, and that’s spinning tunes and eating downtime. I’ve become obsessed with trying to beat my wife at Five Dice. We play whenever we’re waiting in line, and it makes the wait go by in a flash. Passing the device back and forth is part of the fun, it makes it a much more interactive experience. Problem is, she always beats me. I think the tally stands at about 20 to 2 right now, advantage; wife. The fact that she’s constantly taking my first roll, and sometimes follows this by logging the score in a totally inappropriate box, isn’t helping my cause any.

Hey, you don’t think she’s doing it on purpose, do you? Maybe I should call her on it.

iPod Tip Of The Day: How To Troubleshoot An App

I’ve always been happy with my music purchases from iTunes, and up til now, with my App purchases also. About a month ago I purchased and downloaded Raging Thunder 2, a racing game for my Touch. I had searched long and hard for games that would work on a 2nd gen touch running 2.2, as a large percentage of the games and Apps available in iTunes these days are designed for devices running OS 3 or later. I’ve been tempted to upgrade, but I’m of the mind that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

My fear is that both the 2nd gen Touch and the Apps I currently have were all developed for OS 2. There's been a lot of hardware upgrades to the Touch since the 2nd gen, and both OS 3 and 4 were developed essentially for a different device. Why should I take the risk of having a buggy, flakey iPod when it already performs like a champ? Nah, I've been burnt to many times by their upgrades. When OS 3 first came out there were all sorts of posts about Wi-Fi strength and battery life going down on 2nd gens that had been upgraded. Seemed the processor just wasn’t up to all the new tasks, which is probably why they replaced it in the 3rd gen devices.

OS 2.2 has been a solid version, and I’ve been quite happy with my Touch just the way it is. Sure, I’d like to unlock the Bluetooth capabilities, and also be able to play games head to head without having to pass the iPod back and forth, but these are small things I can live without, so for now I just look for Apps that are rated to run on 2.2, but they’re getting harder and harder to find. I saw on the product description for Raging Thunder 2 that it ran on devices running 2.2 or later, so I paid the 5 dollars and downloaded it.

It appeared to load correctly, but once installed, it wouldn't start. Just a brief black screen, and then I’m dumped back at the desktop. Since purchasing it, I’ve sent 2 messages to the manufacturer, reported the problem to Apple by clicking the report a problem link in my receipt, plus every time I try to open the App, the Touch wants to know if I'd like a bug report sent to Apple. The message says that someone from Apple will look it over and get right back to me. No sir, not true. It's now been a month and I haven't had a single response from either Polarbit or Apple. Guess I'm out 5 bucks, but it's not the monetary loss that bugs me the most, it's the lack of response. The App store and the manufacturer should at least acknowledge my complaints. My emails have been very polite and chock full of details, plus they have the bug reports, so I’m sure they know exactly what the issue is. Instead, I have to scour their knowledge base, and then try a long list of “maybe this will fix it” solutions. Oh joy.

There’s a 90% chance that my problem is either a bad download or a bad install, and Apple does let you download things again that you’ve already paid for. You just need to delete the App from your iPod, and also from iTunes, then you go to the App store and select it for purchase again. iTunes will prompt you that you already own it, and ask you if you’d like a replacement copy for free. Click here for the full procedure for troubleshooting/reloading an App.

The instructions also say that you should upgrade to the latest version of iTunes and the latest OS before you try to download it again. As I said before, I’m not interested in OS 4, but I am going to upgrade iTunes from 8.02.20 to 9.2.1. We have version 9 on both my laptop and my wife’s iMac, so I know its stable, plus 9 has a nice sharing feature. Once all of our machines are running 9 we’ll be able to move purchases between all authorized computers, which will save a lot of hassle.

Of course, before you upgrade, you should always sync your iPods and do an iTunes backup, just in case…

Man, this is turning into a huge project! It would be soooo much better if either Apple or Polarbit would confirm what I need to do, but it’s a self service world these days, so I better get started. I’ll let you know how I make out.

MP3 Jukebox CD’s

It’s Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer, and it’s time for road trips, pool parties and backyard barbeque's. Are you prepared? Are you ready to rock the house, or the car?

I am, and I’m gonna show you a no fuss way that you can be, too, using just a single CD.

It’s an easy thing to dock your iPod and fire up a playlist, so you’re probably saying; Meh.., who needs CD’s? Well, here’s the rub; sometimes you just don’t want the added hassle of connecting and protecting your iPod. You’re in a rush to be on the road and you don’t want to have to deal with the connecting, fiddling, disconnecting and stashing of your MP3 player. Or maybe you’re bringing music to a friend’s backyard bash. You know someone will end up messing with your iPod as the night goes on, plus you may be way ready to leave long before the party is over, and there’s no bigger buzz kill than turning off the tunes mid-song at a party so that you don’t have to leave your iPod behind, plus there’s no way to slide out unobtrusively in this scenario, and we’ve all needed to do that once in a while…

The answer is to create an MP3 Jukebox CD. You can fit approximately 160 songs in MP3 format on a 700MB CD-R disc and have 10+ hours of uninterrupted music. Most of today’s auto and home CD players are now capable of at least MP3 and WMA playback, and some of the higher end models support additional formats. All you need to do to create one is to copy your MP3 files to a blank CD-R in data format. Most burning software will actually have an MP3 Jukebox option. Sonic, Nero, iTunes, all have it built right in. With iTunes, you’ve probably got your favorite playlists already created, so it’s a piece o’ cake. The burning process only takes about 15 minutes to boot. At any given time, I’ve usually got a couple ready to go, and they’re custom tailored for all situations. The ever evolving “Party Mix”, the more sedate “Don’t Harsh My Mellow Mix”, you get the idea. The possibilities are endless.

One thing to remember when using iTunes to make your CD is that none of your iTunes purchased music is downloaded in MP3 format. The MP3 Jukebox function will still work, it will just skip over any M4p/M4a/AAC files in your playlist. You can either let it, or you can convert the file formats to MP3. If you’re gonna convert, ALWAYS make a copy of the original first, because what you strip out in the conversion process can’t be put back. When I rip music from CD’s into iTunes, I always select the MP3 format just for this reason, and when I purchase songs from the iTunes store, I always create a standard audio CD backup of them, and that’s what I use to create the MP3 copies. I usually close iTunes and rip the songs back in as MP3’s to a different folder using Media Player, that way my iTunes library isn’t bloated with repeats.

The other thing to note is that different players read and organize the folders on data CD’s in different ways. When I burn a playlist to CD in iTunes, my Bose Wave presents and plays them back in alphabetical order ie: AC DC, Allman Brothers, etc. When I pop the same CD into one of our car players, they play back in the original playlist order, which is what I prefer as sometimes I put a lot of effort into the mood and pace of a playlist. Not a huge problem though. If the device starts playing back alphabetically and that’s not what you’re in the mood for, you just hit the mode button on your player and select shuffle disc.

So, it’s an easy and painless way to have your music for the ride, the party, and as an added bonus, you can leave the CD behind as a little thank you gift for your host’s hospitality when you do finally bug out.

Linksys WRE54G Wireless - G Range Expander

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

I recently installed a Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander, the WRE54G, and I have to say its working better then I expected.

I got a call a while back from the manager at our vacation time share. Seems the wireless, which was spotty at best, had stopped working altogether. Another owner had donated a couple of Linksys Range Expanders, and she was wondering if I might be able to come down for the weekend and see if I could get the WiFi up and running again, and maybe install the Range Expanders while I was there.

I was all over it, mainly because:

A. We love the place, and the people who run it.

B. It would benefit me greatly to have better coverage when I’m there. All my gadgets would work!

C. The fix/install would be a cakewalk and we’d be free to enjoy the rest of the weekend. Bonus!

Well, the fix/install wasn’t as easy as I had hoped, but it wasn’t bad either. We still had plenty of time left over for a little off season R&R.

Upon arriving, I set up in the office and immediately noticed that I was getting two 5 bar WiFi signals. Different SSID’s, but I was receiving both like they were broadcasting from the same room. Probably because they were.

Originally someone had plugged a Linksys WRT160 wireless router into one of the LAN ports on the office’s Verizon router. This had worked OK, but mostly just provided coverage in the lobby area. When I tried to log in to the Linksys router wirelessly using its default IP, I found myself connected to the Verizon box instead. I double checked the notes that the original installer had left and I was using the right address, so I tried again. Same result.

That’s when the light went on, and I got down on my hands and knees. To crawl under the desk, that is, so I could take a gander at the provider’s router that was hiding under there. Just as I thought, it had a little WiFi light on it, and it was merrily blinking away. AHA!

Seems Verizon had come in over the winter and upgraded their router. Once their new WiFi router was up and running, they very nicely plugged the Linksys WiFi router back into it. Problem is, both devices had the same address, and they were within a few feet of each other. There was a major IP conflict going on, and the dueling radio signals were wreaking havoc on each other. Easy fix. I just shut off the Linksys, re-cabled the office PC’s with longer cords, and moved the Verizon box up on the shelf where the Linksys had been. A quick reboot of everything after the Verizon router was back up, and we were cookin’ again. Nice.

Now it was time to tackle the Range Expanders. I had read quite a few reviews that indicated that they could be a bear to set up, but initially I had no problems. First I did a quick signal check to find the initial coverage boundaries. The building is a large 3 story C shaped structure and previously only the first floor rooms adjacent to the lobby had coverage. I found that the signal was much stronger now and I could connect from all of the second floor rooms in the main hallway. I would lose signal when I turned the corner onto either of the wings, but hey, it was a start.

I went back down to the office and plugged the first Extender into a switch port on the router. Don’t use the included setup CD that comes with it, just plug it directly into your router and log into it through your browser using the default IP address. It’s much easier and cleaner this way. If you feel that you just have to use the CD, then use it as a drink coaster. You’ll be much better served.

Setup was a breeze. I configured it with the Verizon box’s SSID and security settings, shut it down, unplugged the Ethernet cable from the switch port, and then powered it back up. It immediately found the WiFi signal and connected, indicated by the idiot lights turning from flashing red to steady blue. I popped its address into my browser and connected to it wirelessly, good to go.

I shut it down again, removed the power cord and replaced it with the included wall mount plug (think nightlight), moved it up to the second floor and plugged it into a wall outlet that was just inside my coverage zone. Once again, red to blue and I’m good to go. After another signal check I decided the next one needed to go up on the third floor.

I logged into the first one again, changed its default address so it wouldn’t conflict with the new one during setup, and it came right back up. Next I brought the second extender into the office and repeated the setup process. Perfect. Switched the back plate, brought the unit up to the third floor and plugged it in. This is where the fun began. After two power cycles, I finally got the desired blue lights, but upon returning to the office I found that the wired desktops had lost all connectivity. WTF…

A reboot of the router cured things, but now one of the extenders wasn’t showing up on the network. Once again it took two reboots of the extender to get it back in the blue, but wouldn’t you know it, the router was only passing wireless traffic again. Hmmm.

I tried all kinds of stuff, to no avail. It seems that a second extender connecting back to the router through an existing extender slaps the Verizon box with the goofy stick (technical term…). Both work fine when they’re in close proximity to the device, they both show up as registered on the router, and I can log into either wirelessly. When they’re both remote they still show up on the router device list, but one always shows a disconnected icon, and the Verizon box eventually takes leave of its senses.

I finally gave up on getting the second one up. I could have tried turning WiFi off on the Verizon router and hooking the Linksys router back up to it, things might have worked better Linksys device to Linksys device, but it was getting late and I was leaving the next day. You never want to mess with the provider’s gear if you’re not going to be around to pick up the pieces should things malfunction later.

Coverage was much better with the new setup and the single extender (third floor now!), and we’re actually better served with just the one. A little known fact about extenders is that you only average about half of the speed of the original connection when you connect through one. If it connects back to the router at 54Mbps, it will pass along 22Mbps connections. Daisy chain another to it and you're now passing along 11Mbps, and that's before you factor in competing with other traffic, signal interference, etc. While some connectivity is better than none, some isn’t, and you’d be approaching the “isn’t” range with a second unit.

The right thing to do in a case like this is to pull Cat5 cable to your locations from the main router, and then hardwire WAPs to the network. WAPs are Wireless Access Points. You can purchase dedicated WAPs, or you can just dumb down any old wireless router and use it as a WAP. Take a WiFi router, turn its routing capabilities off in the setup, and it becomes a switch slaved to the main router.

We left it that the cable pulls would be targets of opportunity. Next time they need to open up a wall or ceiling, pull some cable. We can install the Linksys WRT160 that I took out of the equation on this last trip once the first cable is in place. A simple and cheap plan of action, my favorite kind!

So, bottom line, the WRE54G is a great product if you’re trying to boost the signal in your home, but it’s not the right solution for a large installation in a hotel or office.

Oh yeah, and you get great service when you visit places in the off season.

That is all.

iPad 2.0?

As I mentioned in a post last week, the new Apple iPad is a thing of beauty, with a boatload of potential, but it falls a little short in the value and function department, and it’s recent unveiling was met with a plethora of lukewarm, “If Only”, reviews.

Fear not, fellow geeksters, the tech world is already abuzz with rumors of an iPad 2.0 being in development, and possibly being released as soon as this coming June.

An authorized Apple repair shop, Mission Repair, has documented pictures of an iPad replacement frame that contains a berth that the webcam from a MacBook fits into perfectly, and TechCrunch is reporting that not only will the 2.0 sport a camera; it will also be slightly larger and will be running a version of OS X. Holy multitasking Batman, this could be the perfect tool!

We’ll see. At worst, this is just another good reason to look forward to spring.

The iPad: A Thing Of Beauty, But…

The new Apple iPad is a very slick device and it has the potential to be a real game changer. I say potential, because this version doesn’t have what it needs to appeal to the masses. I’m sure sales will be respectable, but it won’t be until the 2nd or 3rd gen of this device that we see it come into its own.

Basically it’s a Touch on steroids. I love my Touch, around the house it’s a fast and easy way for me to check my personal mail or look something up quickly on the web. Press the on switch and 20 seconds later you’re at the desktop and it’s downloading your mail. When I’m on the road, its all things for me; music, video and game player, repository of calendars and addresses, photo viewer, web browser and mail station. All that, and it fits in my pocket to boot.

Although I’ve often wished for a bigger screen, I really can’t see myself carting around a device the size of the iPad. I’ve already got my laptop that I have to lug around, and the iPad can’t replace that from a business standpoint, plus I’d never pay for a 3G plan for something like this. I don’t for my laptop, if I’m out of WiFi range, I just use my Blackberry. And speaking of Blackberries, could you see trying to use the iPad for a phone? Please…

I just don’t see it as a useful mobile device for me.

What I do see it as is the perfect coffee table companion. The ease of popping it on to show someone your photos, read the paper, check your calendar or just look something up on the web makes it a solid around the house network appliance. It puts the current offerings like Chumby to shame already, flesh this baby out a little with that function in mind, and I can see it becoming as ubiquitous in our lives as the iPod. Here’s what I think it needs to reach that status:

First and foremost, it needs a webcam. Picture this, you’re home watching the big game, and instead of twittering or texting your buds on your phone, you pick this bad baby up and have a face to face with them via Skype, all while remaining planted on the couch watching the game. Now we’re talking.

A built in memory card slot. If you want it to be a picture viewing device, it has to have a built in slot. I can’t see having to dock it to use the photo kit add on when somebody shows up with some fresh pics on a card, it defeats the whole purpose of it. If you’re gonna do that, you might as well just load them on your PC.

It also needs an IR port. Bluetooth is great, but can you imagine if it had an IR port and an app that would let you download the latest codes for your TV, cable box, DVD player and stereo components via WiFi? It's already capable of downloading the current TV listings. No more multiple remotes, no more ruining everyone else’s viewing experience by popping the onscreen guide. Bye-bye Harmony, you were good to me, but you’ll always be a one trick pony.

More onboard memory and better price points. It won’t be long for these two, remember the iPhone?

A lot of this stuff may already be in the works. Their first version of everything they make is always stripped down, probably so they won’t waste their time and money on features that no one wants. They listen to the buzz on release, and then add things that fit. Apple also has a penchant for putting the guts for new features in place ahead of time, so that they’re able to roll things out with just a firmware upgrade. Someone will be taking one apart as soon as they hit the stores, so we’ll know soon enough where their heading with this one.

I’m not ready to buy one just yet, but as I said earlier, this baby has serious potential. With a few tweaks and a price drop or two though, I'll be on board.

That is all.

Good Tunes For A Good Cause

iTunes is offering The Hope For Haiti Now live performance album and TV special at a great price, with 100% of the proceeds going to the relief effort.

The live and studio tracks are available for .99 each, or for just $7.99 you can download the entire album (20 tracks).

A Season Pass is also available for the TV special for $2.99. It includes the 2 videos now available, as well as free downloads of subsequent releases.

It's a great collection of performances, and a great way to show your support for the enormous humanitarian effort now underway in Haiti.

Here's the links:

Hope For Haiti Now Album

Hope For Haiti Now TV Special

Don't have iTunes? No Problem, here's the link to download version 9.0.2:

iTunes version 9.0.2

Remember, you don't need an iPod to enjoy iTunes music and videos. You can use it as a media player on your PC, and even burn music or mp3 jukebox CD's from your library.

I know times are tight, but don't cheap out. Buy the entire album and the TV season pass. You'll enjoy it, and you'll feel good about it.

Here's a little preview of the concert:

Happy Black Friday!

One of the best things about the Thanksgiving holiday for me is Black Friday, but not for the reasons you’d think.

I love it because it’s one of the few days each year when we have the day off and nothing pressing on our agendas. The day is usually ours to squander as we see fit, and that is a very rare commodity these days.

Our ideal Black Friday involves sleeping in, followed by lounging in our PJ’s, consuming mass quantities of coffee, and pondering the eternal question; “Is it too early to start on those leftover desserts?” The answer, my friends, is that it’s never too early.

What I don’t like about Black Friday is fighting the crowds at the malls and the big box stores in search of bargains. Been there, done that, have the T-shirt. Although there are some great bargains out there, the really good ones (like $179 laptops) are always in short supply, and you need to be in line on Thanksgiving Day just to be a contender when the store opens on Friday. No thanks.

It’s not worth it to me to miss out on Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family and the annual after Thanksgiving slouch fest, just to get a good deal on some material item. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I can afford to pass up any bargains, it’s just that we’ve found out that: A) The downtime is more important to us, and B) A lot of the deals are available online.

Last year we were in need of some Apple products for the holidays, so I thought I'd check out their Black Friday sale and maybe save a little coin. Apple loves to shroud their events in secrecy, and this one was no different. They sent out an email a few days before the holiday that said to check out their website on Friday morning for great deals, so when we awoke, fashionably late, we got on line and found that there was indeed a substantial savings on quite a few items.

Being as it was already late, I called our local Apple retail store to see if the lines were out the door. I found out that they weren’t, but I also found out that the Apple store won't give you a corporate discount along with the Black Friday sale price. That was a bit of a bummer, but the sale prices were still good enough to make us want to saddle up and head down there. That’s when the very helpful sales associate suggested that we log in to the Apple site through our discount program and see if we could get our discount and the sale price that way.

Guess what? We could!

I should have tried to purchase it online right from the get go, but I had some preconceived notion that the best deals could only be had in person. Boy, was I wrong. We ended up getting some great deals, plus the shipping was free. Major items coming directly from Apple (like Macs and iPods) arrive very quickly, usually in just 2-3 days, even if they need to be engraved. By the way, my iPod has “Stayed home on Black Friday and still got this cheaper than you!” on the back.

So, it seems that in this weakened economy Cyber Monday has now become Cyber Weekend for most online merchants, and that’s good with me. Don’t spread it around too much though, I still like to see those shots on the news of the people in line outside of the malls, wrapped up in parkas and trash bags, waiting for the hunt to begin. Now that’s entertainment.

Ooh, gotta go. The news is coming on again!

Gigaware In-line Control With HD Radio For iPhone

As soon as I pull the trigger on the Griffin Navigate I talked about in the previous post, I find this: the Gigaware In-line Control with HD radio for iPhone. It allows remote control of your iPhone or Touch, and when used in conjunction with the Gigaware HD Radio app it doubles as an HD tuner.

Sounds great in theory, but I’m cool with the Navigate for now. The Gigaware costs a whopping $79.99 and it doesn’t have an LCD screen like the lower priced Navigate. The app only works on devices running iPhone OS 3 to boot, and I still haven’t made that jump on my Touch. That also means that it wouldn’t work with my 3rd gen Nano, and that’s the device I like to carry around when I’m traveling light. Plus the few user reviews available list poor HD reception and noise distortion as major issues.

So, as nice as it would be to have HD Radio on my iPod, this isn’t the device for me, at least not yet. I’ll wait ‘til the reviews and the price get better.