Eli Milchman - page 5

I’ve been playing with the 5s for about the last two hours, and I can’t remember the last time I was so stubbornly wrong about, gee, anything really — as much as I was wrong about the iPhone 5s. And not just the 5s, but also iOS 7, which I hated when I first launched it on my iPad last night; but man, is it ever beyond perfect on the 5s.

I know, my iPhone 5s and I have just begun our honeymoon phase, but here’s the first-impression verdict in a nutshell: The iOS 7 / iPhone 5s pairing is phenomenal. I’m so in love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncyN-LTKTMw&feature=youtu.be

Just after CES wound down back in January, I was part of a (relatively) small group of journalists and bloggers present at the Disney media event that revealed Disney’s Infinity game universe to the world. Problem was, I had no clue why I’d been invited, as all the hoopla was about the console game. Toward the end, I bumped into Bill Roper, Disney’s product development chief, and asked why I was there as I gulped down a delicious, miniature milkshake.

His answer was cryptic. But the reason I’d been invited has just made its entrance onto the app store today — it’s the Disney Infinity: Toy Box iPad app, a virtual sandbox mashup that allows anyone with an iPad to take a variety of Disney characters and play with them in different Disney worlds. And it’s free — for now.

Perhaps best known for their bag-making skills, Aussie-based STM Bags is no slouch when it comes to iPhone and iPad armor. This week saw the introduction of a new STM iPhone 5/s wallet case — and two new cases they’ve already prepped for the iPhone 5c.

Did they receive 5c specs from Apple? Nah mate, they say the bonzer new cases are the result of good planning and a lot of hard yakka. Fair dinkum!

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Ever tried using an iPhone or Android phone to navigate with GPS through crowded streets? It’s pretty difficult, even for a veteran cyclist like me, to split my focus between the road and tiny symbols on the phone’s tiny screen.

Plugging in to a headset to hear turn-by-turn directions sometimes works, but cycling with headphones can also be a pain (not to mention illegal in places under certain conditions).

The answer, of course, is a heads-up display like Google Glass; but until it’s ready, there’s the Hammerhead, a light-powered navigation aid with some other cool tricks up its sleeve.

Days of Wonder‘s Small World was the first ever cardboard-and-plastic board game to jump the digital chasm and become an iPad board game; the game actually made its debut the same day the iPad went on sale, over three years ago.

In the intervening years, Days of Wonder has neglected the digital version of Small World somewhat, and instead concentrated heavily on its best-known title, the massively popular Ticket to Ride (of which there is now a bewildering assortment of variations — both physical and digital — available for play).

But now, finally, the indy game company has come back to the game that started it all and released Small World 2 on the iPad — a huge, socially rich sequel that should make board-game fans very happy once the sticker shock has abated.

The news from Sony this week was dominated by its stunning new iDevice-compatible QX lenses (and the blogger leaks that revealed the lenses before Sony wanted the lenses revealed).

But there’s also news from Sony’s audio corner; it’s evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but still exciting: Three new models have been added to the company’s midrange MDR-10 line of headphones, including one with what looks like class-busting noise-canceling abilities and another equipped with Bluetooth and NFC.

The success of the LifeProof cases are really nothing short of a marketing phenomenon — one that’s predictably spawned a parade of imitators. This isn’t a bad thing though, as most of the newcomers are priced more competitively than the $80 and $90 LifeProof pair.

But the latest challenger — Outdoor Tech’s rubberized Safe5 — is just $50, miles below pretty much anyone else.

The best, obvious financial solution is one that automatically performs accounting tasks as funds are spent without the need for human input. But until such a system exists that actually works, we’re stuck with having to record our spending habits manually.

Still, it could be worse; at least there are solutions out there like the iOS and Mac MoneyWiz app pair to make the task somewhat less odious. Heck, sometimes it almost feels like fun.

Pyle is definitely making some waves out in the waterproof-gadget space with their hydrophobic earphones and speakers.

We’re venturing out into deeper water with this next Pyle gadget, though, as it’s pretty unusual: The Surf Sound Talk is a waterproof Bluetooth hybrid handset-speakerphone capable of taking calls, if not actually underwater (due to the inability to conduct a conversation with one’s mouth full of water) then at least while splashing around a pool, in the drink or under a shower.

Half the country is perhaps unaware of this, but out in places like Tennessee, where Griffin is based, the camouflage color scheme is a pretty big deal. Obviously there are camo shirts, pants and gun cases. But there’s also a good selection of camo bedding, camo welding helmets and of course, camo lingerie (don’t worry, link is more or less SFW).

So it makes perfect sense that Griffin’s tough-as-nails Survivor case is now available in camouflage.

It’s been a while since a mouse had me licking my MacBook’s screen with gadget lust, but a few seconds after first looking at Logitech’s new Bluetooth-powered Ultrathin Touch Mouse T630 and my rMBP’s glossy panel was covered with a thick coat of saliva. (Seriously, doesn’t anyone else lick their screen? Am I the only one?*)

The dizzying pace of iblazr‘s evolution has been difficult to keep up with over the last month.

It started out as an iDevice flash with four Cree-made LEDs that plugs into the 3.5mm jack. Then it gained a diffuser, and a short while later its designers added a reflective backing and redesigned the lens over the LEDs.

Now, the little flash has a cold-shoe adapter that’ll allow it to be mounted onto a DSLR.

You can thank Bluetooth technology for making cycling safer. “How’s that,” you ask, as you wolf down a Lemon Sublime Gu? The answer lies with the growing number of Bluetooth speakers designed to be mounted a bicycle; listening to music from a speaker obviates the dangerous (and often illegal) temptation to wear earphones on the bike.

The latest is Outdoor Tech’s Buckshot, a tiny, ruggedized (to IPX-5) shotgun shell-shaped speaker with a rubber mount for attaching it to a handlebar; it even doubles as a speakerphone. What separates the Buckshot from most other bike-friendly Bluetooth speakers is its diminutive size, and its price — the Buckshot is just $50.

Source: Outdoor Tech

Jabra made a big show of introducing their Sport Bluetooth music/phone earbuds at CES this year, even bringing in triathlete celeb and Ironman champ Craig Alexander to flaunt the buds while he sweat away the miles on a stationary bike. Unfortunately, the Sport has been plagued by reports of abysmal Bluetooth connectivity (possibly due to range) and poor fit ever since it shipped.

Jabra’s response is their new Sport Wireless+, the successor to the Sport, which Jabra says has made everything better.

At this point, 2K Games is the most hotly anticipated iOS game publisher in existence. They’ve done huge things on the iPad, like bringing a full-on console game to the iPad with XCOM: Enemy Unknown and helping develop legend Sid Meier’s latest strategy game, Ace Patrol — which just happens to be iPad-only. Now it looks like they’re set to take the whole iPad auto-racing genre and blow it out of the water with their latest project, 2K Drive, developed by Lucid Games.

Take a look at the latest developer’s diary teaser clip (above), with its crazy soccer ball-dribbling driving, Bonneville Salt Flats land-speed record car and a Mazda Miata driving on what looks like a wooden roller-coaster platform, and you’ll see what I mean.

I remember the crushing fetish we all had for Titanium back when I entered the cycling fraternity. (It’s fallen out of vogue now, of course — most likely thanks in part to the rise of carbon fiber, or perhaps something to do with the economics of materials I don’t fully understand.)

It’s an exotic material, with accompanying exotic pricing, thanks to the difficulty and expense of processing it. Still, we’ll pay an exorbitant surcharge for things made out of the magic metal because it’s so near-unbreakable, corrosion-resistant — and just plain wicked.

Which brings me to Tuls. David Laituri — you may or may not remember him as the man behind Vers and their super-green, handcrafted audio toys — has laser-cut tools, iPhone stands and other thoughtful solutions out of slivers of Titanium.

One of the more intriguing digital media platforms is Narr8, a Moscow-based startup that offers a platform with which to publish or enjoy multimedia creations crafted with a hodgepodge of animation, text, images and sound; think motion comics with added audio punch.

The app has been available for a while on the iPad, but has just now been given Universal App treatment, making it available on the iPhone too — though how the app’s experience translates onto the iPhone’s smaller screen is an interesting question.

There’s a bewildering array of iPhone 5 cases to choose from — waterproof cases, cases that double as stands and even cases that carry business cards. But how many can double as a business card?

Findables Flex cases can, because they have QR codes stamped on the back that link to your contact or social media details.

Designs from California bag outfitter Booq tend toward the highly unorthodox and original; the last time I wrote about one of their bags I even made a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the company’s gear was designed by folks from outer space.

But with its square-jawed, establishment lines and pockets that open conventionally, Booq’s new $150 Boa brief laptop bag seems like it would look much more at home on the set of Mad Men than it would on the set of Battlestar Galactica.

Raise a glass, oenophiles — today there’s a new app that’ll let your fuzzy head easily remember that fantastic last glass of wine you had was actually from a bottle of “Emrich-Schönleber Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling trocken.”

The Keizus Quadrapod device mount looks remarkably like a human form without a head; it’s also similar in form and function to the Joby GorillaPod, leading to inevitable forthcoming comparisons between ape and man whenever the Quadrapod is mentioned.

Speaker design seems to be drifting further toward the minimalist end of things, at least aesthetically. If that’s true, brand-new San Francisco-based NudeAudio has walked pretty far down this path, as evidenced by their just-introduced, four-model speaker lineup.

While there’s no dearth of choice when it comes to picking a security cam that can viewed over an iPhone, finding one with the ability to pan and zoom remotely is a trickier proposition. And finding one with pan-and-zoom for under $100 is even rarer.

But that’s exactly what D-Link’s new DCS-5010L is: a pan-and-zoom, app-paired security camera, with all the fixings, for $100.

One of the most hopeful promises of augmented reality is that it will eventually help us understand the world immediately around us. I’ve always thought one of the best uses of AR technology in this respect was its application to cars: Pan your phone or tablet across an engine bay, for instance, and an AR app will tell you where to put oil or coolant, or which bolts to remove in order to access the battery.

Audi brought us a little closer to this (augmented) reality today with the release of an AR companion app, using technology from German-based AR powerhouse Metaio, for its entry-level A3 that explains features in the cabin and engine bay.

Maybe Distil Union’s ultra-minimal Wally iPhone “case” was a little too minimal for some, because the design outfit has come out with a more conventional case-wallet.