gadgets

  • December 31, 2010

    Favorites of 2010

    Happy New Years Eve! As tradition for the last couple of years, here is a list of my favorites from 2010.

    • Favorite Tech Toy: Amazon Kindle. Competition was pretty stiff this year with all of the new gadgets I got- an iPad, a new Macbook Pro, and most recently, the HTC Incredible. I also broke from choosing my cell phone as my favorite tech toy. I got the Kindle for Christmas last year and love it. I’m including it in the 2010 running because most of the use came in 2010. The reading experience is superior to the iPad, the book selection is huge, it’s lightweight and very portable, and I love that you can make notes and annotations on it. I feel like I read more in 2010 because of the Kindle.
    • App/Website: Dropbox. This is another thing I had in 2009 but didn’t start really using until 2010. Dropbox makes it amazingly easy to sync across all of my devices (Mac, PC, iPad, Android Phone). I’m considering upgrading so I can try some of the neat advanced things you can do.
    • Favorite Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. My friend Katie recommended it, and even though it’s a fairly long book, it’s a quick read because of the fast pace of the story. I highly recommending it. I’ll be starting the next one soon!
    • TV Show: Dexter. I was lucky enough to start a series this year that I’ve been missing out on. Dexter is an awesome show about a good guy who’s also serial killer. The show is thrilling and intellectually stimulating, and the acting is rock solid. I highly recommend it if you’ve never watched it.
    • Movie: Inception. Leo DiCaprio had a great 2010. For a while, I though Shutter Island would be the best movie of the year. Then Inception came out and blew my mind. Cause for a lot of discussion and speculation, it’s a movie that keeps on giving, and an original idea at that.
    • Music: The Gaslight Anthem. My brother Phil and friend Danny told me about them in August/September and I’ve been listening to them daily since. I love their classic alternative rock sound (non of this new-alternative Nickelback crap) and the lead singer’s vocals are awesome. I highly recommend them. As far as new in 2010, Mumford and Sons is pretty awesome. You should check them out too.

  • December 30, 2010

    Why iTunes Proves Apple is Only in it to Make Money

    I know what you’re going to say; “All companies want to make money.”  As a red-blooded, meat-eating, American capitalist, I think that’s a good thing. But there seems to be a thought among computer nerds (and most Apple product users) that Apple is the white light to Microsoft’s Eye of Sauron (sorry…I recently watched Lord of the Rings). That simply isn’t true, and iTunes proves it.  It also proves that you don’t need to have the best, you just need to market it the right way.

    Let’s take a look at a few reasons why iTunes is the bay window looking into what Apple really cares about most (hint: it’s money).

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  • December 16, 2010

    Verizon LTE: Upgrade Now or Wait?

    At the beginning of this month, Verizon announced their brand-new “4G” LTE network, boasting speeds of up to 12mbps, or about 12x faster than their 3G network. This sounds awesome for us bandwidth hogs, but there is a bit of a trade-off. Before the announcement I was considering holding off on my end of December upgrade if it meant I’d get a shinny new LTE capable phone. Here’s why I am waiting.

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  • December 5, 2010

    Links Round Up for 12/5/10

  • November 26, 2010

    Great Tech Gifts 2010

    This is something I’ve wanted to become more consistent with, as I usually post these lists sporadically and at poor times. I figure Black Friday is a good day to settle on this type of post, since it is the official start of Holiday Shopping.

    Amazon Kindle: This is number one on my list of recommendations. E-Readers have been around for a few years now and I think the Kindle has proven king. It’s a great way to read books (it’s a lot like reading a real book), it’s easy on the eyes, and with apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, you can keep your books with you and synced at all times. Plus, they are also offering a very affordable Wifi Only version. I truly love mine, which I got last Christmas. ($189 for 3G + Wifi, $139 for Wifi only)

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  • November 21, 2010

    Links Round Up for 11/21/10

  • November 7, 2010

    Links Round Up for 11/7/10

    • Introducing Chalk (by 37signals): Awesome example of the power of HTML5 (and of circumventing the App Store approval process)
    • Study of Facebook Users Connects Narcissism  & Low Self Esteem: Since 500 Million people are on Facebook, you can pretty much do a study using Facebook that proves anything. Coming next week: My study using Facebook proves that you believe everything you read on the Internet.
    • The 4G Forgery: I saw someone a couple of weeks ago advertising “4G Internet…for your computer!” It’s a shame that companies are flat out lying to their customers.
    • Throwback Thursday: Tiger’s Talkboy: I definitely had one of these. I definitely miss being a kid.
    • Ironic Deaths: None of these are ironic. Their article about the “Wine Rack,” a bra that holds wine, is. See wine racks hold wine, and rack is a way to refer to boobs. That’s ironic.
    • Real Examples of Irony: Oh hey. Bad Life Decisions tells us some real examples of irony. Hint: 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife isn’t one of them.
    • The Class I’d Like to Teach: This is actually pretty interesting. In many classes we are forced into a page requirement and get very good and stretching 3 pages in 6 or 8 or 10. Here he’s asking us to do the exact opposite, and make us keep only what’s important.
    • Reset Your [iPhone/iPad/iPod] Alarm for Daylight Savings Time: If you haven’t done this already I suggest you do, lest you be late to work on Monday.

    I officially started the Christmas Season (I celebrate Christmas, and will refer to the season as such) by adding my Deals Twitter List to Tweetdeck. You can check it out here. I also started and subsequently beat Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II this week. It’s as fun as it is short (very). The Challenges help extend game play a little, and I’m usually up for ruthless destruction on easier levels now that I beat the game. If you’re looking for a quick play, I’d recommend it.

  • November 5, 2010

    USA Today, WSJ, and NYT iPad Apps

    Earlier in the week I said the iPad is best for consuming information, so it only makes sense that I’d mention the top three news apps for it: USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and NY Times. I haven’t used all of  them extensively though I did want to compare some of the basic features of each. I’ll cover: how intuitive the apps are to use, how much content they make available, and how well they integrate the ability to share stores on Facebook & Twitter.

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  • November 3, 2010

    My Review on the iPad

    A couple of weeks ago I picked up the 16GB 3G iPad as sort of a birthday gift from me to me. It’s something I’ve been contemplating for a while and finally pulled the trigged. I promised quite a few people a review on the device now that I own it and while I didn’t do rigorous testing, I used it in the most common testing environments- my house, other offices, the train, meetings, and using it for travel instead of my laptop. You can see my thoughts after the jump.

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  • October 31, 2010

    Links Round Up for 10/31/10