Monday - May 12, 2008
The Juice Pack iPhone battery extender provides an additional 250 hours of standby time, eight hours of talk time, six hours of Internet use, seven hours of video playback, and/or 24 hours of audio playback, according to Mophie. After using this puppy for close to a month, I can't confirm that those numbers are 100 percent accurate, but my gut feeling is that they're not far off the mark. Before I started using the Juice Pack, I had to recharge my iPhone every single night, and even then it occasionally ran out of "juice" before dinnertime or not long after.
[More...]
Saturday - May 10, 2008
There are some games that play well when you are alone, and there are some that beg for another player before any fun can be had. EA Mobile's "Scrabble" nicely falls into the former category, while its version of "Yahtzee" for the iPod is smack in the middle of the latter. In "Yahtzee," you roll five dice up to three times and attempt to match one of 13 scoring categories.
[More...]
Wednesday - May 7, 2008
One drawback to our portable-music revolution is space. At some point, even with a 160 gigabyte iPod, you run out. So, if you listen to a lot of music through headphones, as I do, there are times when you want fresh tunes. Now there's a new approach -- one I find appealing because it is customized to your musical tastes, and songs can be constantly refreshed.
[More...]
Saturday - April 26, 2008
Probably no figure in Silicon Valley history has inspired more curiosity or attained a greater mythical status than Steve Jobs, the icon behind Apple. For decades, journalists have toiled in vain to offer a peek behind the curtain of the Wizard of Cupertino, Calif. Not for lack of trying. Jobs has famously remained tight-lipped and cloistered in secrecy, offering interviews to few reporters.
[More...]
Wednesday - April 23, 2008
Soon after launching the set-top box known as "Apple TV" last year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously downgraded it from a major new business line to a "hobby." Jobs and company recently tinkered with the device, making it a whole lot more compelling. But the company has more work to do before Apple TV's a bona-fide hit.
[More...]
Tuesday - April 22, 2008
The new Adobe Media Player 1.0 is a good first step into territory the company hadn't before ventured. Yet it's clearly a 1.0 version that needs some tender loving care to bring it up to 1.5 or 2.0. I don't say this lightly -- I started the free download process from Adobe with high hopes that I'd find a media player that fills in the gaps left by the likes of iTunes and Hulu.
[More...]
Monday - April 21, 2008
While testing Ion Audio's new LP Dock -- a USB turntable and iPod dock -- I was quickly reminded why I hated LPs so much back in the day. Yes, the tactile feeling of holding a big record and album-cover art is cool. Yes, the analog sound might be "warmer" than today's digital ditties. And, well, blah, blah, blah. LPs are simply a pain.
[More...]
Monday - April 21, 2008
The Jensen Banshee JiSS-550 Docking Speaker Station for iPod sports several desirable features and sounds better than most iPod speaker systems in its price range. It's a two-piece system with the iPod dock in a separate cup. While its specifications aren't spectacular, its 25 watt amplifier and five small speakers provide surprisingly rich and satisfying sound at most frequencies.
[More...]
Saturday - April 19, 2008
Long ago and far away -- about 1982 or 1983 -- there was a database called "Nutshell" which used the simple metaphor of index cards to let you store and use information. I remember Nutshell fondly even if it and the MS-DOS platform that supported it are only fit for computer museums. A Macintosh version of Nutshell evolved into the successful software program FileMaker.
[More...]
Wednesday - April 16, 2008
I adore Apple's MacBook Air so much I'm starting to think I can live with its shortcomings. At 3 pounds and about as thick as a weekly magazine, this is the most endearing laptop I've ever used. But if you've read anything about this remarkably thin beauty, you know it achieved its fine figure because it lacks an optical disc drive and offers only one USB hub.
[More...]
Thursday - April 10, 2008
As you probably know, Microsoft released an upgraded, updated version of its venerable Office suite last January. I've been hard at work on a book about it, so for the past few months I've had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of quality time with it. Dubbed "Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac," it's still available in three versions, like its predecessor.
[More...]
See More Articles in Reviews Section >>
Sign Up for Business and Technology News Alerts
Headline Feeds
