Eli Milchman - page 21

I’ve had one particular conversation with Windows blockheads far too often; you know, the one where the blockhead says something like “Macs are overpriced marketing gimmicks created to sell nothing but empty fashion to upscale fops!” (only it’s usually expressed as an eloquent “Macs are stupid!”) Which, of course, is nonsense — and so you confidently and patiently ladle responses over the blockhead’s statement like thick gravy, watching his ego deflate further and further…until the blockhead’s eyes light up as his addled brain finally digs up the winning phrase: “But gaming sucks on the Mac!” And all you can do is begin to protest by muttering something about Civilization or Borderlands, and then slowly hang your head in shame.

Unless you know about OnLive — in which case he’s toast. Oh, and you might want to mention the iPad app as well.

It’s difficult to find stuff made on U.S. soil these days. Heck, sometimes it seems like nothing is made here. But that’s not true of the elite, exo-skeletal Rockform Rokbed iPhone 4 case ($80), intricately machined from a solid block of aluminum: It’s designed and manufactured in the good ol’ U.S.A. (and it’s not shy about saying so), in Orange County, California by one of the most unlikely outfits to make an iPhone case — the motorcycle fanatics at Two Brothers Racing.

Aviiq’s Portable Laptop Stand ($60) is very similar to the manufacturer’s other stand we reviewed a few weeks ago, the Portable Quick Stand. The big difference? You can actually use this one on your lap, and it’ll even work with an iPad. It’s also considerably more expensive.

There’re absolutely zero reasons not to get this incredibly slick, fly-by-the-seat-of-you-pants remake of the 90’s classic racing shooter Death Rally iOS game unless you hate fun or you’re dead.

About a week ago I spent $2 on Penultimate, an iPad app that lets you scribble notes on the screen and save them in notebooks. Maybe I didn’t have to though, because tablet-maker Wacom has recently released their own free iPad app, Bamboo Paper, that does basically the same thing. Almost.

Here’s an interesting idea: Take a thoughtfully designed, well-rounded, high-tech Bluetooth headset and mate it to a dedicated iPhone app (called EarPrint) with a boatload of mostly useful functions, and — voila, the dazzling result would look exactly like the Sound ID 510 Bluetooth headset ($129).

We haven’t seen too many manufacturers come out with a weather-resistant iPhone bicycle mount (what, no iPhone users ride bicycles in Seattle? C’mon, people). Luckily, Bracketron just announced their All-Weather Soft Case Bike Mount. In this case, the name literally says it all.

Back in May when we reported excitedly from the launch presser for Pioneer’s new AppRadio car audio deck, we were told it’d hit store shelves by late June, and cost in the vicinity of $500. Well, it’s arrived, and Pioneer has added a few features to the free AppRadio app. Oh, and they’ve lopped $100 off the price — it’s now $399. Aren’t surprises great?

The race to the cloud just heated up today: Cloud Engines, most known for their white, instant-server-in-a-brick Pogoplug network-attached storage device, launches two software-only versions that turn your Mac into a home-based server.

I’m willing to bet that more than a few of our readers already saunter around in Apple-logo t-shirts in their homes, sit down on barstools by sprawling, stark pine desks and work on setups almost identical to those neatly arranged stations at the local Apple Store.  Which is, y’know, cool. But do they have one of these?

This is what the iPhone was made for. INK: Tattoo Simulator will save your ass (literally) from desecration by a massive tattoo of an obscure Star Wars character, the name of the girl you just met in your freshman college biology class and want to spend the rest of your life with, a portrait of Newt Gingrich or whatever kooky longing for ink your drunk mind might come up with.

Although BlueAnt focuses exclusively on Bluetooth communication gadgets (and now earphones), they aren’t as well recognized as some of the other names coming up in our review, and they don’t proffer up a ton of offerings. In fact, they currently only offer five; with the BlueAnt Q2 Headset ($100) positioned as their marquis headset.

I always had a heck of a time figuring out what to get my dad for Father’s Day; he never wore ties, didn’t have patience for gadgets and wasn’t a big sports fan. I might have sent him one of these, though (and if he had ever read his email, he might have received it).

Life doesn’t get any better than lining up tracks at a party, armed with an iPad and DJ tools like Griffin’s iRig and StompBox. Oh wait — it does!

Anyone playing around with an iPhone 4 for any length of time will have realized that its compactness, decent sensor-processor combo and the huge selection of editing apps available make the darn thing is a superb platform for making both films and still photographs — if you can work around some of the gadget’s limitations. In this case, Habbycam, a small Southern Camifornia-based company that supplies all manner of rigs to the film industry, came up with the Habbycam iGrip ($140) as a better way to hold and position the iPhone for extended shooting. We think it needs work.

We think it’s a little odd for a company that only makes Apple—related products to label one of said products with the words “Apple Edition.” But that’s what they’re calling the new, slightly different version of their marquis Juice Pack Air iPhone 4 backpack battery.

Deals — that’s what we want. No doubt about it. Combine our love of cuisine with our zeal for deals and a website like BiteHunter becomes a well-worn destination. And now, they’ve got an iPhone app.

We raved about how cool the new hard button for shooting stills using the Camera app is, and we’ve even shown you how to use it. But guess what — it works with video too.

That’s right, in iOS 5, you’ll be able to start and stop shooting video just by tapping the volume up button,  the same one used for shooting stills.

Since Apple started popping out the first mouse to be packaged with a personal computer with the Macintosh back in 1984, designers have been trying to find alternatives to the ubiquitous rodent. Apple itself seems to be out front in terms of interesting creations, experimenting on their mice with intriguing, if not always satisfying results. In this case, Smartfish, with their Whirl Mini laptop mouse ($50), have focused on perfecting the ergonomics of the mouse instead of trying to reinvent it. Did they pull it off?

We met some amazingly fantastic people at our first-ever shindig (at San Francisco’s Il Pirata) and gave out a smorgasbord of smashing raffle prizes.

Road Warriors are people, not simply animatronic robots — if you prick us, do we not bleed? If you lose our luggage, do we not get pissy? And people need tunage. That’s where Logitech’s S715i rechargeable speaker dock ($150) comes in. Sling it in a bag and it’ll provide the party out on the road while you’re furiously tapping at that TPS report or chilling post-deadline — and it’ll look hot doing it. Just don’t expect much when the party goes ballistic, because the bass simply can’t keep up.

I’m not exactly sure why this thing works so damn well. The idea is pretty simple: Use Aviiq’s Portable Quick Stand ($40) to prop your laptop up (in this case, Aviiq has settled on a 12-degree angle) and suddenly the screen is closer to eye level, and the keyboard is tilted. And man, does it make a huge difference.

Remember last year, when Energizer debuted its iPhone 4 backpack battery at CTIA? It was actually made by PowerSkin, and it was the less-powerful cousin to the dual (Verizon and AT&T) compatible PowerSkin case just released.

Man, does this tee snag eyeballs. And comments.

“Whoa, that’s so cool!” Right?

“I love Macs!” Me too, bro.

“You know what that means, don’t you?” Yeah, it means I’m wearing a cool t-shirt and I love Macs.

The Cult of Mac MILF tee is made in the U.S.A. (like the original Mac it celebrates) from 100 percent cotton, by Seattle-based MightTees. There aren’t many of these guys floating around and they’re selling out. Snag one at $18 before they’re gone for good.

Warning: Not recommended for the Midwest.

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a famous photographer say something like “it’s not your equipment, it’s how you use it”; but they love to trot out that phrase like a dog breeder trotting out a prize poodle. And of course, they’re right. In fact, one of the most important — if not the most important — feature is that the camera is actually around for you to take the shot with — or you’ll miss the moment.  The second? That the damn thing doesn’t require much fumbling around with to operate.

The iPhone has never had any problem with the first one. And today, bam — Apple has just taken care of the second. In fact, the camera tweaks in iOS 5 should make the iPhone the most-used camera ever. Here’re the much-needed improvements, in order of grooviness.