Sounds about right, Microsoft plans to release Windows 7 on October 22 and Apple’s going to try stealing their thunder with a product update. At least that’s the currently held assumption by some of the tech industries’ top analysts.
It only makes sense right? Apple didn’t blow our doors off at the 09/09/09 event, so that must mean they’re holding off to steal some light from Microsoft. Surely, new MacBooks and iMac hardware would absolutely destroy some operating system announcements.
The Apple Blog seems to think it’s worth announcing, along with every other Apple-related site on the planet, so it must mean there’s some validity to it.
We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t let you know about the rumor, but we’re not too sure if it’s smart to put a lot of stock in it, that being said, New iMacs and MacBook lines would be hot, hot, hot.
Hey, I’ve never owned a Blackberry or anything, but I’m pretty sure a large majority of “old school” Blackberry users cringe at the site of the iPhones keyboard. I’m not sure about the rest of you guys, but I’m pretty damn efficient with my iPhone keyboard (I’d like to duel a Blackberry user).
Well, for all you crotchety RIM users, you can now make the switch to an iPhone, but be warned, we’re all gonna laugh at you. The iTwinge is a nice little contraption that slides over your iPhone and gives you a fully functional keyboard. It sounds great in “theory”, but when you factor in all the other digital crap you have to carry around with you, I’m pretty sure a keyboard is low on the totem pole of necessity.
Sometimes titles write themselves, what can I say.
Anyway, Dikk, is a relatively new application that lets you send a screenshot to a number of users across your network using the bonjour protocol. It might sound a little overkill, but how much time did you waste standing around a colleagues desk looking at funny Kanye parodies today? I mean, with Dikk all you have to do is hit F1 and the screen capture gets blasted across your network to him. Pretty great if you ask me. Obvious downside is the complete lack of Dikk jokes while you’re looking at said Kanye pics.
Moonlights ($1.99) is a brilliantly-made tower physics puzzle. The object is to build towers based on available nodes that point to the moonlights and that stay there for at least three seconds without toppling over. Sometimes you may have to delete existing nodes; other times, you may have to work with gravity, tilting your screen to ensure that you reach your goal.
If you’re uncertain, there are often demos for beginner levels to help you get on your way, but note: these are hints and cheats, and you only should try a demo if you’re really stuck! Demos also help you understand the goals of the game, so if you’re brand new to the experience, they’ll help you get on your way.
Moonlights boasts 91 extensive levels (and I’m sure there will be more), making this a fun game for a long time. The iPhone/iPod touch is a fantastic platform for this game, and it runs perfectly. You’ll have a ton of tun playing Moonlights; it’s one of those games that is simple, yet complex, and is clearly addictive.
I was pretty surprised at a lot of the features in iMovie that go untalked about by the tech community. I mean, I know we can all be snobby, and we all flock to final cut, but iMovie is a power house for typical users.
I was a bit skeptical at first about getting into some book reviews for the site, but the first portable genius book I thumbed through changed that up pretty quickly. The thing about the Internet is that it’s hard to find something if you don’t know what you’re looking for, but with a book you can skim a table of contents and right away realize if there’s new information in it or not.
Guy Hart-Davis did an excellent job in compiling the book, and he’s managed to keep a nice balance with the information, between beginners and the intermediate crowd, this book has something for everyone. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in iMovie ’09, but never really realized a lot of features existed. Key Example, green screen capabilities. I had absolutely no idea that you could work with a green screen in iMovie.
If you want to take advantage of your iLife bundle, or you’re just looking for a quick way to work with some video footage you have archived, but have no idea where to start, this is a great first step.
I’m hoping to get my hands on a couple more portable genius books, but I have to say the first one is quite good, and definitely encourages me to check out the others.
We love awaken, well not so much the waking up part, but definitely knowing that we will wake up on time to something more pleasant than that god awful alarm clock sitting next to the bed.
Well, good news for all of us who cuddle our iPhone and Touches while we sleep, as well as those of us who have out grown sleeping next to our computers.
It has a fullscreen clock, an alarm, a sleep timer, and a flash light, all for the glorious price of 1.99.
So the next time you need a flash light for your trip to the washroom, where you’ll be checking the time, setting a sleep timer to skip your coffee in the morning, and ensuring your alarm is set so you don’t miss the big TPS meeting you’ll know where to turn.
We’ll test it out for you and report back. If you don’t hear from us again it’s because the app didn’t work, we missed a meeting, got fired, and had to find a lame job.
What does breaking the chain mean? Well I think about banks with this phrase. You walk into a bank and they have pens at each teller window. Those pens are chained down keeping you from moving freely. A lot of people feel that way about the iPhone charging. We plug it in, and it is stuck to the wall, or our computers. Thats where the Palm Pre started looking good to a lot of people. Palm offered a way of charging with out having to plug the phone in. Well now, you can do the same with your iPhone.
WildCharge provides a great technology to wirelessly charge your iPhone or even iPod Touch. Ok, there is a wire involved, but this isn’t a wire you plug into your iPhone. All you have to do is plug in your WildCharge pad into the wall, and put your adapter skin on your iPhone and you are set to go. The skin that goes on your iPhone has the iPod connector built into it. This then runs through the skin going to 4 metal dots on the back of the case. When you set your iPhone down on the charging pad, the iPhone immediately begins to charge. It is magic! I have had the pleasure to have one of these in my possession for the past couple of weeks and using it every day to test.
My biggest complaint from the whole thing is the lack of ability to sync the iPhone with it in this case. This could be solved with either some kind of hardware update by WildCharge or by an iPhone firmware update to allow us to sync wirelessly through bluetooth. I would rather it be the firmware update myself. But besides that one draw back, this is a great device. My iPhone has never stayed more charged. I come home from work and set my phone down on the pad at my desk. If I need to use my iPhone or go some where, I don’t need to mess with unplugging any thing just to do what I need to do.
This is definitely a must have in my book and it is super affordable! You can pick up the WildCharge Bundle, which includes the Charging pad and the iPhone Skin for $79.99. After a while if the skin starts to wear out like skins do, you can replace just the skin and not have to buy a whole kit again. Well worth it in my book.
You can find out more about WildCharge at http://www.wildcharge.com
Sounds about right, Microsoft plans to release Windows 7 on October 22 and Apple’s going to try stealing their thunder with a product update. At least that’s the currently held assumption by some of the tech industries’ top analysts.
September 16, 2009
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