Review by Jordan Trimas

Let’s face it, with the smörgåsbord of gadgets that most of us use these days, having a few different bags to accommodate and protect our cherished portables is paramount. Despite a few minor drawbacks, the Tenba Messenger Large Photo/Laptop Bag ($110), may be good enough to replace a couple of your bags, backpacks or cases — especially if you’re a photography professional/enthusiast or techie with a DSLR and a laptop.

Apple’s newest editing software, Final Cut Pro X, has received an update in the Mac App Store. Version 10.0.2 brings several bug and compatibility fixes.

We all remember the infamous Camera+ fiasco. The popular photography app was updated with the ability to let users take pictures with the iPhone’s physical volume button, but Apple hadn’t approved that kind of hardware integration in the App Store at that time.

Mimicking the iPhone’s virtual shutter button, Camera+ let users type a URL scheme into Mobile Safari that enabled the hidden feature. Apple didn’t like Camera+ after the hack was made available, and the app was promptly pulled from the App Store last year.

After receiving Apple’s message loud and clear, Camera+ 2.0 was re-submitted to the App Store and made available with a host of new features. After the release of iOS 5 and the ability to natively take pictures with the iPhone’s volume button, Camera+ has re-added the feature to its app, too.

Fanhattan is absolutely the required guide for TV/Movie junkies who frequently view titles on the iPhone. Just like on the iPad version, the app acts as a gateway to entertainment — it gathers a heap of information about shows or movies that can be watched on the iPhone, then serves up that information in a super-cool, easy-to-navigate interface (that looks absolutely stunning on the iPhone 4).

https://vimeo.com/31513704

Ticket to Ride began as a hugely successful, massively award-winning board game, then jumped to the iPad and rocked the gaming world all over again as a shining example of what a board game should be on the iPad. Today, it’s set to take the mobile gaming world by storm again as it emerges on the iPhone — and it’s going to go through the roof.

Developer Jean-Christophe Naour has released an app for the iPad called Poly. Inspired by mathematician Boris Delaunay, Poly lets users create intriguing, colorful self-portraits with the iPad 2’s front-facing camera.

Poly creates geometric images that are complied by averaging color data within triangular fields that you trace with your hand. The artistically inclined will undoubtedly find Poly mesmerizing, while the rest of us should be content to just sit there and create shapes out of our faces on the iPad’s screen.

Evernote has announced “Clearly,” a new browser extension that mimics other enhanced reading services, like Instapaper and Readability. Clearly is available for Google Chrome now, with support coming for other browser in the near future.

While Evernote already lets you save webpages, take notes, archive memories and more, Clearly has one simple, clear (pardon the pun) focus: distraction-free reading.

AOL has completely redesigned its popular messaging service, AIM, from the ground up with a beautiful, new look for the iPhone, Mac, Windows, Android, and web.

The new apps look absolutely stunning, and several compelling features have been added. AIM’s free apps integrate with popular social networks, like Facebook and Instagram. There is support for Facebook Chat and Google Talk. Users can video chat and group chat. Conversations are synced across apps, and messages sent offline are saved for sending when connectivity is restored.

The Notification Center that ships with iOS 5 is nice. By default, it displays a stock ticker, weather, mail, and calendar entries. It all looks great, but behind the eye candy are some useful secrets. Today, we’ll take a look at the weather widget.

After a rather thorny relationship with the corporate class, Apple is getting downright chummy with businesses buying thousands of iPhones and iPads. The Cupertino, Calif. company now has access to the boardrooms co-founder Steve Jobs once rejected.

(Photo by Adam Riggall, used with thanks under Creative Commons license)

Former Englishman-in-New-York Sting has been speaking to journalists to plug his solo career retrospective album, the 25 Years box set. And in his opinion, the music industry is facing another big change. The CD is dead. And its replacement is apps.

We’ve been burned on Google’s official Gmail app for iOS before, but after having been pulled mere hours after its initial release for being completely broken, it is now back with fixed push support.

Don’t expect any other new features though: there’s no multi-account functionality or anything else, just a simple app wrapper around the HTML5 interface. Google swears more features are coming, but at this point, we’re taking any of Google’s promises with a grain of salt.

Looking for a nice Christmas gift for the Apple diehard in your life? Brooklyn-based Pop Chart Lab’s latest print, The Insanely Great History of Apple, gorgeously maps out the complete history of Apple products over the course of the last thirty years: from the original Apple I to the MacBook Air, from the Newton to the iPhone 4S.

Printed on 100 lb. archival stock certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, the first 500 copies are signed by the artists. Even better, the price is right: The Insanely Great History of Apple is a hell of a deal at just $20 a print.

You can grab the poster over at PopChart Lab, where you can also see a blown-up, zoomed-in version of the design. Want.

Steve Jobs had a life-long fixation on LSD, and often ended up asking potential Apple employees during interviews how many times they had dropped acid to throw them off guard. Steve Jobs personally considered doing LSD to be one of the formative experiences in his life, and was insistent that others should do it, too.

With such a famous advocate working for free, it’s not a surprise that the man who invented LSD eventually contacted Steve Jobs. What is surprising, though, is how long he waited to get in touch… until he was 101 years old!

Still having battery life issues on your iPhone 4S under iOS 5.0.1? We’ve already proven the issue is a software problem, not a hardware problem, which means Apple should be able to fix the iPhone 4S’s electric arterial spray… but when?

Real soon, as it happens. In fact, one Apple software engineer says the iOS 5.0.2 update is coming next week. In addition, Apple’s working on its first big point release of iOS 5, which will bring new extensions and abilities to Siri!

The sound from my iMac is actually pretty good, but for parties, I’ve long wanted a better speaker system that can really blast my iTunes tracks across the house, vaporizing any plaster that stands in the way. There are plenty of good options around, but I don’t like how they would disrupt the minimalist, contained aesthetic of my office.

The Tango Bar looks like just what I might want. It’s a USB powered sound bar that contains six, perfectly self-contained speakers, and looks great sitting beneath an iMac, matching its clean lines. And you can even use the build in 3.5mm jack to amplify your iPhone or iPad in a pinch.

Gorgeous, and not too pricey at just $100. Someone add this to my Christmas list.

We’re unabashed fans of Mojang’s Minecraft, and we’ve been waiting forever for the popular block-based exploration game to hit the iPad. Now it’s just twelve or so hours away from being here, but for those of us hoping for the full Minecraft experience, think again.

Multitouch is so 2011. The future of computer interaction is gestures. Instead of swiping a finger, say analysts, we’ll be waving our hand. And in one of those ‘back to the future moments,’ Microsoft, which Apple passed in a blur, could be leading the ‘gestures’ movement thanks to its gaming interface Kinect.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer recently revealed the company’s intentions to launch a revolutionary new television before Apple, and according to The Wall Street Journal, it will be a web-based alternative to the traditional set that will allow users to avoid the cable companies.

Apple and several Chinese environmentalists met Tuesday to clear the air on disputes over pollution they claim comes from factories supplying the tech giant with much sought-after iPhones and iPads. Following the Beijing meeting, one environmentalist questioned Apple’s sincerity.

Do you prefer to do your typing on a real keyboard with your iPhone or iPad? iOS already allows you devices with a Bluetooth keyboard, but what if you don’t have a spare one handy? Let’s say, for example, that your Apple Bluetooth Keyboard is already paired to your Mac, or you’re on the go and only have your MacBook Air handy. What then?

Enter Type2Phone, a great new app that allows you to make your Mac show up as a Bluetooth keyboard to iOS 3.2 or above. Now you don’t need a dedicated keyboard to type on your iPhone or iPad… your Mac can do it for you.

Telltale games have created some of my favorite games for the iPad, most notably their recent series of Back to the Future titles. But having finished with Marty McFly, the team have turned their focus to building another iPad adventure inspired by a fantastic film.

The first episode in a series of Jurassic Park games is now available to purchase from the App Store.

It’s going to be four months until Samsung can get patent infringement claims against Apple’s iPhone 4S before an Australian court. The nation’s federal court announced it will take up the charges in March, earlier than the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant wanted, but providing several months before any sales ban can go into effect.

It seems early iPhone 4S adopters the world over have discovered a new issue with Apple’s latest handset. No, it has nothing to do with poor battery life, but rather a complete loss of signal for no apparent reason. To be clear, this isn’t a new “antennagate” — the issue does not occur while holding the device in a certain position — it’s a new problem that causes the device to lose its signal randomly. Users report they can be enjoying a full five-bar signal one minute, then be greeted by that frustrating “No Service” status the next.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been blunt about Cupertino’s plans for adopting LTE: they’d love to, but they’re waiting on next-gen LTE chipsets that aren’t so power-thirsty they’ll turn your iPhone’s battery pack into a desiccated husk within seconds of flipping the 4G radio on.

Well, Qualcomm may have just announced the next-gen LTE chipset that might finally allow Apple to roll out 4G speeds to iDevices in 2012.