Tag Archives: iPod

My iPhone 3gs External Battery – review

Posted on December 4, 2009 | 1 comment

The iPhone eats battery power. The more you use it the more it eats. As a result, the more you use it the unhappier you get when it dies.

Maximal Power External Battery for i-Phone, i-Phone 3G, and Ipods (Black) Maximal PowerSo I picked up this 1900mAh external battery and it was a great investment.

I keep it in my bag and it’s great when I need it. It’s not just powering your phone, it’s charging it! So once you remove it from the phone, it’s been charging your phone in the meantime.

Honestly, it doesn’t snap on very well, so it’ll fall off if you place it in a jacket or suit pocket and aren’t careful, but it won’t fall off if you’re using it for most non-gaming applications. It seems to fits well with my Seidio case (review).

For $14 (at Amazon), this is the best stocking stuffer you could get the iPhone enthusiast in your life (or iPod Touch or any iPod device I guess); if only it came in colors!

It always seems to have a charge whenever I need it. Although it’s rare more than a few weeks go by when I need it.

It you plug in the battery into a charger and the iPhone into the battery it’ll charge both. This brings me to my biggest complaint: I wish that when it was on the phone and plugged into the sync cable it’d charge both devices and pass through the data so I could sync at the same time.

This works with the current Amazon bonus of $5 worth of MP3 downloads with purchase (I think this is good only once per cart, not for multiple items in the same cart).

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Scosche Charging Adapter for iPhones and iPods (later generations)

Posted on September 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

So if you have any older iPod or iPhone accessories or chargers many of they don’t charge properly. I’m not sure what they changed but it’s a pain when it’s a nice speaker dock or your car stereo won’t charge our battery (and instead drains the battery).

Enter the Scosche Charging Adapter for iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 2G and iPod nano 4G! This device plugs in between the cable and you iPod of iPhone. I plug my iPhone into the adaptor and then into the cable in the car and now I can listen and charge my iPhone. So I can actually stream audio over the air (network) and pipe it straight into my stereo in my car, it’s awesome!

I’ve picked up the adaptor for $24.99 at Amazon. They also make an adaptor that plugs into some docks/stands that does the same type of thing (available in black or white).

It was well worth it for me, I think my car stereo is less than 18 months old so I didn’t need a new one and they’d probably have charged me at least $50 labor just to run a new cable (assuming Alpine even makes one for my stereo, which I couldn’t find). So this was a no-brainer.

If it’s a short ride and I’m just listening to the iPhone via the iPod application then I don’t use the adaptor so that I’m not just charging for only few minutes. I try not to charge my phone (or any device) if I’m really not going to need it, the iPhone is probably only good for a certain amount of charges so I try not to waste the number of charges.

FYI – In my experience plugging the Scosche adaptor into the iPhone first before the other device works better; otherwise (at least my car stereo) sees it as 1/2 an iPhone and gets confused.

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Why I hate my iPod Touch!

Posted on April 6, 2009 | 1 comment

Apple iPod touch 16 GB (2nd Generation) Apple ComputerOverall, I really love my iPod iTouch. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s an iPhone without the phone, GPS or camera, but without the monthly prices! And while I love it I’ve got a few complaints:
1) Why isn’t it called an iTouch? It’s the obvious name, I will continue to call it that even though it’s wrong.
2) The music playing isn’t iPod-ish enough. I’ll be playing an audio file and I can’t see how long it is or how far I am into it (or have to go). It’s got more than enough room on the screen. And I need a better way for fast forwarding and rewinding, I should be able to drag a slider across the screen, not the old-fashioned hold and press on the virtual button. Give me a virtual scroll wheel in the middle of the screen or some configuration changes in the options…
4) I need a better way to manage the applications screens. I know you can drag them but it’s a pain. Any new applications just get dumped in the first free space. Let me create some categories and sort them hierarchically (like my music) but I need to put some items in multiple categories (or at least a category and a “favorites”).
3) No cut and paste! I’ve type my name, zip, and e-mail about a million times in the last week. I know they are adding it this summer but it too two years! They really need another button next to “cut, copy, paste” that says “shortcuts” where I can put the stuff I type all the time.
5) Needs some more applications for viewing info off-line. Mail works great, a few work decent, the rest require a connection.
6) No built-in microphone.
7) This thing really sucks the power! It really needs an easier way to turn the WiFi off (how about clicking the WiFi icon on the screen!).

I’m sure I’ll add some more basic complaints and I will be praising this (and applications) in future posts.

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Cool iPod Touch ad on-line

Posted on December 14, 2008 | Leave a comment

I really like the way Apple did this iPod Touch ad.

I couldn’t see it when I went to http://games.yahoo.com/, I assume I need to be running Windows? I tried Safari and Firefox.

Here’s the direct link. I found this at MacRumors.

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iPod vending machine…

Posted on November 10, 2008 | 1 comment

So if you buy one of these at the airport is there any music on it? Is it even fully charged?

They should come with a sampler? or an audiobook! That’d make for a good impulse buy…

 

‘iPod vending machine…‘ uploaded by garylapointe

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New Apple Macintosh Notebooks

Posted on October 12, 2008 | 2 comments

I really don’t care what my laptop physically looks like (I want my display to look nice though). I want it functional and preferably small, light and durable. I want features at a good price. If it’s sexy too, that’s a bonus.

I’m dying to see the specs on the new Apple MacBooks next Tuesday (Oct. 14, 2008) but I’m really hoping for more features at a great price (we need more converts). I’m not even in the market for a new laptop but I can’t wait to see. A twelve or eleven inch MacBook might change my mind though; the same goes for a touchscreen (but I’m not expecting that). Continue reading →

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Trism for the iPhone

Posted on September 18, 2008 | 1 comment

So I saw this preview for Trism a few months ago, it looks like a cool game and shows where some games are going with motion sensors in the game unit itself.

Looks like a fun smart thinking game, I’d probably buy it if I had an iPhone or iPod Touch, it’s only $4.99.

But that’s old news, why am I bringing it up today? Because Steve just tweeted that since July 11th (10 weeks ago) he’s made $250,000 from the iPhone Apps Store!!! I’m assuming that’s before Apple’s cut, which I think is 30%, but that shows that innovation (and fun) sells. Plus, the Apps Store make it easy to sell your product and also makes it hard to steal your product (you can only download and install from the store). (Robert Scoble pointed that tweet out in his feed)

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How I’m doing on my 101 in 1001 list…

Posted on August 17, 2008 | 1 comment

I’m about 17 days from needing to complete my 101 in 1001 list, I haven’t been working on it much so it’s time to revisit and cross a few things off. I’ve only completed 52 of my items. Looks like I’ll complete about 6 more. As resolutions go I’m still above average as I’ll have done more than 18 items a year :)

So I love my 101 list but some things just didn’t get done. I thought I’d have done better. Things I could have done to ensure I accomplished more:

  • Don’t pick bands to make an effort to go see if they might not actually tour.
  • Don’t pick a location to travel to when your interests might change (instead say “visit a country overseas that you haven’t been to before”)
  • Don’t pick something to go to (like SXSW or Burning Man) that doesn’t ever fit the schedule of the job you have.
  • Some items should really be two or three items.
  • Don’t have too many items dependent on other items.
  • Don’t make them too much work and not fun (I think I created some to just fill the list)
  • Don’t pick so many vacation items, you might want to go somewhere else (especially when you consider I’ve gone to Costa Rica 4 times in the same period).
  • Don’t pick such complicated items (do ______ once a year) that should have been separate items

    If I would avoided the above I probably could have easily accomplished anther 20. Some were just are impossible to do based on the items I picked.

    A few items I’ve just recently finally crossed off (but I might have actually done them months ago)
    Take Mom to England
    Get something for my car to integrate my iPod better
    Move somewhere else local?
    Go one week without using any cash
    Change all exterior bulbs in my car

    I’ve got a few that I did make some progress in the right direction so I’ll credit myself a few points. But I’ve got a bunch that didn’t get touched.

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