Image via Gizmodo

For the sake of full disclosure let me point out that I drank deeply from the well last year and have become an avid Mac/iPhone-Fanboy. That noted…

I usually get pretty excited when brand new devices finally get released. This is true whether I am looking to actually get the device or not. For some reason though…this upcoming Android phone… not so much.

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The MacBook Air is a beautiful piece of electronics. It is sleek, stylish and… well, just plain cool. But while its aluminum construction is certainly more durable than, say, the current (and soon to be phased out) version of the MacBook, without too much difficulty the Air can get pretty banged up and scuffed. Within a short period of time “beautiful” can become “beat up”.

And that is a problem on a device like the MBA.

On the one hand you want to protect it while on the other, while on the other you don’t want to lose the sleek beauty that drew you to the MBA in the first place.

That’s where Agent18’s amazing Shield comes in.

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I love Pandora!

Their iPhone app is one of the few apps to have a 4 1/2 star rating from a massive 3100 comments over on iTunes. The words used to describe it include- “Wow”, “Amazing“, ”Flawless”, “One of the top reasons to get an iPhone”, “Jaw dropped” and the list goes on and on and on.

Pandora works over Edge, brings amazing music to your iPhone or Touch and is just fantastic! In the two months I have been using Pandora I have listened to hours and hours of music, been introduced to dozens of new artists and have become an increasingly huge fan of the whole “Pandora Experience”.

I LOVE Pandora! So the fact that Pandora may well have to close down operations makes me more than a bit sad. Sure there are some nice alternatives like LastFM, AOL Radio and the new iTunes Genius playlists but none of them are PANDORA!!! Continue Reading

The FedEx man stopped by a bit ago with my new iPod Touch (thanks Michael!).

Set up was incredibly quick in large part due to my having formatted and rebuilt both my iPhone and 1st Generation Touch so many times over the past few weeks. Initial thoughts- nice but not a huge leap forward.

Unboxing pictures can be found HERE.

Some initial thoughts can be found over on WhatsOniPhone HERE.

I’ve been loving Ilium’s eWallet for iPhone since the day it was released. Its interface is clean, and the app is both easy to use and incredibly powerful. As I’ve written about over on WhatsOniPhone, eWallet has allowed me to begin carrying far fewer credit and membership cards than ever before. The only thing missing… the ability to sync with a desktop version.

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I’ve been using voice recognition software for a number of years. Back in my Windows days I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking Speaking. I started with Version 8 and the accuracy improved through my use of Version 9.5. (Version 10 has just been released and it promises to be even better!) When I made the move to Mac a little bit over a year ago I went searching for voice recognition software. I found and purchased iListen from MacSpeech. It worked well enough but was a far cry from the power and accuracy of Dragon. A few months ago MacSpeech updated iListen, (or more actually reinvented the software) and introduced MacSpeech Dictate. This was a giant leap forward, particularly because the new software employs the same voice recognition engine as Dragon. It works quite well.

There are two main components that impact the accuracy of creating text to voice.
The first is the quality of your speech. If you speak in a smooth, consistent manner, using, as the software suggests “a newscaster’s voice” you will have much better results than if you speak the way you would to a friend.

The second, and perhaps more important, is the quality of the microphone. A better microphone will cancel background noise and significantly improve your results.The best option I found was my Fujitsu Stylistic Tablet PC. It had array mics built in which filtered out noise quite well. As a result I was able to sit with the tablet on my lap and simply speak in order to write with tremendous accuracy. When I was using a desktop or laptop, however, the lack of a dual array mic meant that I needed to use a headset. My headset of choice was a noise canceling Andrea USB headset. For about $90 it worked incredibly well. It was, however, cumbersome, slightly uncomfortable, more than slightly inconvenient, and it made me look like a phone operator. But it worked.

A few months ago I noticed that a new wireless microphone had been released by Revolabs. The ex-tag microphone, while rather pricey at $250, promised excellent accuracy while cutting the cord. Mine came today and it is a small wonder. Continue Reading

I used to love watching late night commercials. You know the ones where the product was too good to be true at a too low to believe price.

“It dices, it slices and it will stay sharp for one thousand years or your money back! Order now and we’ll throw in five more sets at no additional cost. All this for the low price of just $7.99″

or

“The Weblo Cooker makes a five course meal in just three minutes! That’s right, from freezer to table in minutes AND the meal will rival the finest restaurant. Best of all is it yours for just 3 easy payments of $9! But wait… there’s more…”

Yeah! Right! I’m overstating it but not by much and, after getting burned a few times (I never said I was a quick study) I realized- if it is too good to be true… it isn’t true.

So each time I have seen advertisements for cellphone reception boosters I passed. The problem is- I really need one.

A few years ago we moved. It was a good trade- more land, nicer house but unfortunately in the process we went from great to marginal (at best) reception. It is a problem since I live and work off my cell phone. As a result, for the past few years I have stopped down the street as I came home each night and forwarded my cell to the home number. (Can you say “annoying”?)

So when Wayne asked is any of us might be interested in a CellRanger Signal booster he had just reviewed I figured, “Why not?” The promises are lofty- increased data speeds and “over 200% increase in signal stregnth”! I was skeptical.

It came two days later. (Thanks Wayne!!) I plugged it into my iMac (it uses the usb for power) and I turned it on. My expectation were rather low.

Set up was a breeze but did it work? Take a look–

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For the last month or so both my wife, Elana, and I have both been using MacBook Pros almost exclusively. What amazing machines they are.

As strong as their aluminum cases are, however, they are still delicate electronic devices that require gentle handling and a good case for transport. New notebooks… new search for the right bags.

For the last couple of weeks we’ve both been using bags by Ice Red. Read on for our thoughts…

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Out of the ashes of the recently defunct ceased publication Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine comes iPhone Life. Contributing mightily to the publication is our very own iPhone Guru, resident expert on almost every iPhone application and co-creator of whatsoniphone - Dan Cohen. This new magazine is scheduled to hit subscriber mailboxes on a quarterly basis beginning now. Dan authored the articles “Some of the Best Thing In Life Are Free”, “The Power of Web Applications” and Profile of iPhone user - “A Rabbi’s Mobile Assistant”. He received help from Patrick Jordan of JustAnotheriPhoneBlog who co-authored “Great Software Available Now At the App Store” and “An IT Guy With An iPhone”. See the subscription link below to claim your subscription.

iPhone Life

I got an email from team member Dan saying that he has a problem; a good problem, but a problem nonetheless. His site What’s On iPhone has taken off like a bottle rocket!

As Dan says, “in the last two weeks we popped and are getting double the traffic we were getting and are continuing to grow. We even got listed in the top spot by one site in a list of four app review sites. The problem is - I’m getting crushed!”

Hey, we like Dan, and we wouldn’t want that to happen! I told him to put together a blurb - a Help Wanted Ad, if you will - so we could post about it on Gear Diary…

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