Tag: Reviews

As some that read this blog know, I’m still in the pursuit of a good stand for my iPhones. While I do most of my iOS development using the simulator, there are times when I need to test on an actual device, a stand comes in handy. I’ve backed a number of Kickstarter projects for stands, but have generally not been pleased. The last project I backed was the Une Bobine. This “stand” is a flexible iPhone cable wrapped in a metal coil that retains it shape.

When I first saw this, I thought it was a great way to be able to position the iPhone and have it connected to my computer. When it arrived, I was quite pleased with the workmanship and the utility. It allows my iPhone to sit at a decent height and makes it easy to access all the controls.

It is a unique design where the only thing that holds up the iPhone is the connector at the bottom. This, however, is what I consider its design flaw. The bottom connector wasn’t designed to take stress. The Une Bobine could put a significant amount of stress on the internal parts of the iPhone dock connector. At this point, I’m not too concerned with this as I use it with my test iPhones and if the connector happens to break, I can take it apart and not worry about it.

Pros

• Unique design.
• Very flexible.

Cons

• Connector could cause extra stress on the dock connector.
• Only works with the dock connector (doesn’t work with the iPhone 5 except with some wacky plastic that they now sell).
• A bit expensive.

Summary

While this “stand” is going to work for me for development purposes, I’m not sure I’d buy it again. If the bottom connector somehow cradled the phone to reduce stress and possibly allowed the use of the Lightning connector, I might reconsider. I’m still in the pursuit of a decent cradle and having seen some of my co-workers cradles, I’m going to investigate much simpler stands that are already on the market so that I can read reviews before making a purchase.

A number of years ago, I installed a whole house audio system and used the Squeezebox series of devices as audio sources. When we moved into a rental six months ago, we pretty much stopped listening to music in the house as it just wasn’t convenient. I had seen the Squeezebox Radio come across on Slickdeals for an open box, but I didn’t act on it in time. About a month ago, I saw on Slickdeals that Office Depot was closing out the boxes, so I acted quickly and purchased the last one at the local Office Depot.

I setup the radio for my wife and she took to it almost immediately. I thought is was interesting enough that I bought a second one (I had to goto another Office Depot) to use as a clock. Unfortunately, this one had a problem with WiFi. I asked my wife if I should just return it or find another one. She said to get as many as I could as it was cool; I didn’t need any additional encouragement, so I found another Office Depot with 2 more units (a poster on Office Depot was nice enough to post a link to an inventory checker).

We now have 3 radios connected to our Squeezebox server that has all our music on it; I already had a Mac mini running the server from before we moved, so setup was a breeze. The interface on the boxes is easy to use and produces decent music (it has a mono speaker). We’re listening to more music and we have one as a clock where we can listen to soothing sounds to put us to sleep.

In our house, sometimes my wife is slow to adopt technology, but in this case, it took no time for her to embrace it. My 5 year old son also has learned to use it and find his music. I purchased batteries for 2 of the units so that they didn’t have to be plugged in; this is huge as my son can take one in the mornings and listen to music so we can sleep a little longer.

The only odd part of the radio is that its alarm clock functionality is controlled by the server. In order to reduce power usage, my server turns off at night and turns on in the morning. When the server is off, the alarm clock won’t work. I could, however, point the radio to the My Squeezebox service and set alarms there, but it would make things harder for my son in the morning. (The radio can point to a local server or the My Squeezebox service; this can make things confusing as alarms could be in both places, but the alarms only work when the radio is pointed to the right place.)

Pros

• Easy to setup.
• Portable.
• Easy to use.
• Decent sound quality.
• Can play local music, Pandora or Slacker.

Cons

• No longer available. (There is a replacement, but Logitech seems to be moving away from the local Squeezebox Server.)
• Alarms don’t work when the server is turned off.
• Mono speaker.

Summary

The Logitech Squeezebox Radio is a great product for us as music is a part of our daily lives. For anyone that already has a Squeezebox setup, it is a worthwhile addition if you can still find the radios for a decent price. I might have gone overboard getting 3 of them, but they are integrating well into our life and making it more tolerable to live in a rental. Once we do find our perfect house, I’ll put in a whole house audio and while the radios will have less utility, we’ll still have a use for them.

Today, a 27″ Apple Thunderbolt Display showed up on my doorstep and while I’ve only used it for a few hours, there are a few things that make it a dream display.

First off, it’s 27 inches (diagonal)! This is huge; my last display was 24 inches and the first TV I bought myself was 27 inches and I watched that at 10 feet away. The resolution is 2560×1440 which is a lot more than the 1920×1200 I had before. It may not seem like a lot, but the extra real estate (especially vertical) lets me use the iPhone simulator for the iPhone 5 without scaling. This alone, makes it worth getting a huge display.

Second, the Thunderbolt connector means that I’ve gone from plugging in power, display, Ethernet, FireWire 800, and USB down to power and Thunderbolt as I plug Ethernet into the display as well as USB and FireWire 800. This is effectively the docking station that Apple hasn’t made since the Duo Dock (I’ve wanted a dock since I started using a laptop as my primary machine many years ago).

Third, I had my machine connected to my old display using a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI connector which handled audio as well as video. The problem was that in this configuration, the sound can only be controlled via the display and the display controls were pretty awful. Now, I can use the keyboard volume controls (and mute). I can also control the brightness with the keyboard.

So far the only downside appears to be power consumption. We’re in an old house with very few circuits in the house (pretty much everything is on one circuit). The display and part of my office is plugged into one outlet; I keep hearing my UPS cycle and I think that this is due to a slight voltage drop. Previously I’ve only heard this when I turned on the printer. Hopefully it won’t be too annoying and I don’t go insane before we move! Also, the display is quite warm and for awhile this afternoon, I could feel the heat a few inches away from it.

While I was hoping for an updated display with USB 3.0, the only thing that would have gained me is faster backups to my Voyager Q. I can still hold out hope that Newer Technology adds Thunderbolt to the product.

If I get around to it, I’ll post a longer review in the future.

As I’ve mentioned here before, I do my part to conserve energy not just to help the environment, but also to try to save a little money. Several years ago, I started turning off surge strips at night and then last year I bought some APC Power Saving SurgeArrest powerstrips that automatically turned on and off.

This, however, didn’t solve my needs for my desk where I come in every morning, turn on the powerstrip work all day and then turn off the strip. While this is a simple task, when we moved, the strip that I attached under my desk was no longer a good fit, so I placed it on the floor. For the last 4 months, I’ve been getting on the floor and turning the strip on each morning and repeating at night, except for the nights that I forget. I had seen some of Belkin’s new surge protectors and due to my laziness, I decided to pick up a Belkin Conserve Surge Protector with Timer.

The Belkin powerstrip is pretty much like every other powerstrip in that it has some outlets and a few spots for bulky power adapters. However, it had a wired button that I could put on my desk. Turning on the powerstrip became as simple as pressing the button; same goes for turning it off. If I forgot to turn it off, there was a timer that automatically turned it off after 11 hours which turns out works well for me. I turn it on in the morning and it goes off at night.

There isn’t a whole lot more to say about this except that it makes shutting off vampire power supplies a bit easier than having to press the switch on the strip.

Pros

• Easy to use.
• Timer helps the forgetful.
• Has 2 outlets for always on devices.
• Has 2 outlets for bulky power adapters.

Cons

• A little pricey.
• Timer isn’t configurable.

Summary

While it isn’t going to pay for itself anytime soon, I’m pretty pleased with the product. It makes it so much easier for me to turn things on and when I walk away from my computer, I can easily turn things off to save even more energy. I’d love to see more people using products like these (or just shutting off powers trips when not using them) as we could cut a lot of energy usage that is simply wasted.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the MobileMount and how it worked well for the iPad, but not the iPhone. After using if for the iPad for over a week, the suction cup stopped sticking and my iPad kept falling. So it looked like another failed KickStarter project (I’m a sucker for trying new things). I did like using it with my iPad as it was convenient to have my iPad easily accessible on my desk.

I started searching for an iPad stand and there are a huge number of options out there, so picking one was going to be hard. I liked being able to rotate the screen easily, so the book stand options weren’t attractive. There are cheap ones and expensive ones. After much searching, I went to Monoprice.com, one of my favorite places to get cables and connectors. I saw that they had a decent selection of stands, so I picked the Aluminum X-Form Rotatable Desktop Stand.

When I opened up the stand, it looked pretty substantial for a $13 product. I put my iPad in it and started rotating the screen to see how well the connector worked holding the base to the frame. The movement is quite fluid and holds my iPad well. The stand is extremely adjustable and can be titled to many angles. The only thing it seems to be lacking is a height adjustment, but that seems minor. I’ve read other reviews indicating that the screws get loose over time, but that is easily rectified.

I’m quite surprised that such an inexpensive product seems so well built and so functional. As I’m working on an iPad project right now, this is really going to come in handy.

Pros

• Inexpensive (< $20 with shipping).
• Allows easy rotation.
• Angle adjustments.
• Fits my iPad 3.

Cons

• Not height adjustable.
• There is a little slop in the corners where the iPad fits into the slots.

Summary

For the price, this stand is well worth it. Monoprice seems to deliver decent products for a reasonable price. If you’re looking for an iPad stand, I’d definitely check this one out. While I hate to say that things are disposable, for $20, I don’t think you have much to lose. While you’re shopping around Monoprice.com, check out their other items as they have a lot of things you wouldn’t even have thought that you need.

Everyday my son comes in first thing and asks “what is the weather going to be?”. He wants to know so that he can pick his clothes. Granted, we live in San Diego, so the weather doesn’t change drastically one day to the next, but I always answer him. We were in Costco several weeks ago and I saw an inexpensive weather station, so I picked it up and decided to give it a try.

I setup it up and put it on my desk. The temperature for both indoor and outdoor seemed accurate enough, but the forecast was pretty far off. The box said that the forecast was 70-75% accurate based on the relative humidity. That may be true in other places, but we live about a mile from Mission Bay and tend to have some moisture in the air at least in the mornings. The station said about half the time that it was going to rain. It hasn’t rained in months, so either it knew something I didn’t or it was useless.

After a week or so of getting annoyed at it because it had rain clouds on the display when it was perfectly sunny out, I took it back to Costco. I love the concept of a weather station, but I think the next one I look for will only give me readings and not try to predict. I investigated some Internet connected ones, but the reviews were pretty bad, so I haven’t done anything.

Pros

• Nice display.
• Works as an alarm clock.
• USB charging port on back.
• Displays indoor and outdoor temperatures.
• Easy to setup.

Cons

• Forecast is completely inaccurate.

Summary

Don’t waste your money on this; I think the cheap weather stations do a terrible job predicting weather at least here in San Diego. If you want the readings for the weather, get a device that lacks the forecasting feature as it is just annoying because it is so inaccurate.

I’ve been looking for the perfect way to hold my iPhone on my desk while I work so that it is in reach and screen is visible. A lot of times, I need to test on a device, so this is crucial. There have been a number of stands on Kickstarter and I’ve back a few. I wrote about the poorly designed Oona which I threw out and then about The Jack I’ve been using because the Oona was a waste. While The Jack works well, I was looking for something adjustable and came across the MobileMount on Kickstarter. It looked well designed and the twist lock to push the extra air out of the suction cup seemed like a great idea as it works well on my RAM mount in my car.

After many delays, I finally received the MobileMount (it was a learning experience for the person behind the MobileMount as he never dealt with manufacturing before and didn’t know how long it would take. In addition, he seemed very meticulous about making sure the suction cups were to his satisfaction). Since my main goal was to use it with my iPhone, I attached it to my iPhone and the other end to the base of my monitor which has a nice, shiny surface. The mount stuck to the base very well, but the iPhone kept sliding off it after awhile. The mount came with 4 clear stickers to help deal with devices that have a matte finish like the iPad; I didn’t want to put one on my iPhone.

I thought that I was going to give up on it and chalk it up to another experience, but then I started doing some iPad work. I put the clear stickers on my iPad (I put 3 on it so I could orient the iPad in different ways), stuck on the MobileMount and it is working incredibly well. I have my iPad at just the right angle at my desk and the iPad hasn’t slipped off, yet.

One really great thing about the MobileMount vs the Smart Cover is that I can position the angle of the iPad; the Smart Cover angle (when folded up) just doesn’t work for me.

Pros

• Strong suction cups.
• Can be adjusted to many positions.

Cons

• Didn’t work well for me on my iPhone.
• In order to stick well on my iPad, I had to put clear stickers on it.
• A little pricey (it was $25 on Kickstarter; it is now $40).

Summary

There are lots of different holders for the iPad and iPhone out there. The MobileMount didn’t work well for my iPhone, but is working well for my iPad. If I were looking for an iPad mount (which I wasn’t), I’d look elsewhere first. In particular, I’d look for a stand that the iPad set into and was adjustable.

Many years ago, I had no desire to get cable TV, so I suffered with various antennas trying to tune in a picture. Of course, I never had a great signal and was always fiddling with the antenna to watch TV. At some point, I got tired of this game and subscribed to local basic cable which was the over-the-air channels, but delivered to a cable. My hassles of trying to get a clear picture were over. However, this convenience cost me about $15 per month.

When the digital TV transition happened, I started thinking about antennas again. I’d either get channels or not; there would be no more fuzzy pictures. A few times, I was tempted to get an antenna, but due to where we lived, I would have had to mount the antenna on the roof or in the attic and that required effort!

Now that we moved, it’s been on the back of my mind to try again. A few weeks ago, I saw the Winegard FlatWave Antenna at Costco, so I decided to give it a try.

When I got it home, I plugged it in, scanned the channels and it picked up all the channels we watched. I was completely amazed as I just put it on the window and it wasn’t line of sight to any broadcast tower. I was all set to cancel cable when I decided to actually watch TV and see the performance. The picture was crystal clear, but instead of a fuzzy picture, we saw the picture stutter and drop frames. I tried to adjust the antenna and finally gave up. The antenna (or maybe a more powerful antenna) has a lot of promise now that we have all digital signals.

I can’t fault the antenna as I simply placed it in a westerly facing window. According to AntennaWeb, I should have aimed the antenna northwest and southwest to get the channels I want. (I suspect that since the signals were basically opposite, I received some signal.)

So when we move and purchase a house, I’m going to look into an attic antenna or an outdoor antenna; I suspect I would need a large one given the decent results with this very small antenna.

Pros

• Small footprint.
• Easily to install.
• Long cable.
• Low price.

Cons

• Design of antenna may only work in some situations.

Summary

If you only watch the basic channels, giving this antenna a try is worth your time. However, I’d purchase it from some place that has a return policy. Your mileage is going to vary based on physical location.

I’ve been pretty cheap when buying laptop bags over the years never spending more than $35 on a bag and usually getting one at Fry’s or even Ross. That is, until recently.

My previous laptop bag was a Belkin Backpack and held up pretty well for several years. In the last few months, I noticed that the material on the handle was starting to come off. Considering I don’t use the backpack all that often (I only use when I travel and I go on less than 10 trips a year), I was a bit disappointed. So I started a cursory search for a new bag. Nothing really caught my eye and it wasn’t high on my priority list.

On my last return trip from Portland, I went through the usual pat down at security (I always opt out of the full body scanners due to lack of concrete, non-biased evidence about them) and when the TSA officer grabbed my stuff, he piled my container with my shoes and junk on top of the container with my laptop. This had been done before, so I wasn’t concerned. After my groping, I mean, pat down, I put my shoes on, emptied the top bucket and when I picked up my backpack it felt kind of like. It was only then that I noticed I hadn’t lifted up the bucket and grabbed my laptop. While it wasn’t a truly close call, it was enough for me to speed up my search for a bag that would allow me to leave my laptop in it; I had read about butterfly style/X-ray friendly bags so that is what I wanted to so I didn’t almost make that mistake again.

The choices for this type of backpack were pretty minimal, so I kept searching and comparing styles and weights of backpacks. I came across the Brenthaven MetroLite BP XF Backpack. I had always considered Brenthaven backpacks expensive as I had only previously spent up to about $35 on a bag. I found the backpack on Amazon for $70 and ordered it. I was very excited to get it (don’t ask me why a backpack got me excited as I have no idea). The backpack arrived and I loaded it up with my standard gear. It seemed a little tight, but I realized that was because my last bag was pretty much a pit where I just shoved stuff. My standard gear consists of a 15″ MacBook Pro, an iPad, a power supply, an Energizer XP18000 external battery, some iPhone cables, a cable for the battery, iPhone and iPad charger, noise canceling headphones, and an extra pair of headphones (with microphone). It is a lot of stuff, but I always have what I need for any trip.

Now that everything was in the bag, I was ready to travel. I just got back from another trip to Portland were I used the backpack and didn’t have to take my laptop out at both ends of the trip; I just unzipped the center zippers, unfolded the bag and put it on the conveyer belt. Perfect, it worked as designed.

I did a little bit of walking in Portland to get to the office and my hotel and the backpack was quite comfortable despite the 2.6 lbs for the backpack, 6 lbs for the laptop, and then whatever the rest of the components weighed.

So far, I’m quite pleased with the backpack. It is carrying all that I need, was easy to use at the airport, and was pretty comfortable. With the Brenthaven guarantee for life, this could be the last bag I purchase. I am extremely pleased with the backpack and should have spent the extra money on it a long time ago.

Pros

• X-Ray friendly.
• Adequate storage for power supply, iPad, charger, etc.
• Lots of padding for a 15″ MacBook Pro.
• Comfortable straps.
• Lifetime guarantee.
• Non-fabric covered handle won’t wear down.

Cons

• A little heavy. The weight without gear is 2.6 lbs; I would like to have had it around 2 lbs. The extra zippers and some of the pockets add a little weight.
• Slightly more expensive than the run of the mill backpack.

Summary

I’m not sure why I waited so long to spend a few extra dollars to get a quality product. I am, however, happy that I waited for a version that makes it easier to go through security at an airport as that is one of the reasons I put my laptop in a backpack. There is lots of padding and enough storage to hold all my gear. If you like backpacks and travel even a few times a year, I’d definitely consider this bag. Luckily there weren’t more choices out there or I may not have found such a good back (I would have been cheap and not spent the money on it).

In the last 2 years that I’ve had an iPhone 4 and now an iPhone 4S, I’ve never been able to heavily use it when I travel and have it last all day. I have external batteries that I’ve had to put in my pocket to charge it which is awkward and not convenient. Last month, I decided to do some research and see about buying a battery case for my iPhone. Of course, this has the major disadvantage that when the iPhone form factor changes, I have to get a new case.

After reading some reviews, I decided to go with the Mophie Juice Pack Plus as it got pretty good reviews, has a large battery and offers some case protection. The next hard part was trying to figure out where to get it. On Amazon the price was about half of everywhere else. However, a bunch of the reviews were mixed and after pouring through pages and pages of reviews, I determined the issue. Some of the vendors are selling counterfeit cases and it seemed like a risk to get one and have no idea if it was real. Instead, I found a coupon for a company called outfitYOURS.com. After the coupon, I got it for $80 including shipping and it arrived quickly.

I’ve now used the battery on 2 trips; one a week long in San Francisco and a 3 day trip in Portland. During both trips, by late afternoon of each day, my iPhone was down to about 20% charge and I flipped on the Mophie and it started charging the iPhone which let me make it to the end of the day. The case does what it is advertised to do and doesn’t add too much bulk to my phone, however, when switching back to my normal case, I am able to feel the difference in the thickness. The case appears to be well made and my phone easily slips into it.

The case charges via MicroUSB and charges my iPhone as well; I had no problems with the charging. My only issues with the case is that one day after I flipped the case on to charge my iPhone, my iPhone shutoff a few hours later once the Mophie’s battery had depleted. I’m not sure if this was related to the Mophie or not; however, I’m now more careful and when the iPhone reaches 100% charge, I turn off the Mophie.

So far it has done exactly what it was intended to do and I’m going to take it on all my trips.

Pros

• Provides enough extra juice to last an entire day.
• Case adds some level of protection.
• Charges iPhone and case simultaneously.

Cons

• It uses a MicroUSB plug for charging; while I realize that this was done because of space, I dislike MicroUSB as it is hard to get the plug in.
• It adds some bulk to the phone.
• A little expensive.

Summary

If you find that your iPhone doesn’t last an entire day, the Mophie Juice Pack Plus is definitely a good solution. If you decide to buy from Amazon, be careful that you don’t get a knock off. I’d hope that the iPhone could last a day, but if cell coverage is notoriously bad (like San Francisco) or you get a lot of email (push especially), then a battery like this isn’t a luxury, but a necessity.