review: iMainGo X Speaker Case for iPhone and iPod

by Bill Palmer

On the heels of the iMainGo 2 release just a few months back, here comes the iMainGo X. And while Droid users may be feeling like that naming convention is a little too familiar, the iMainGo is actually a speaker-case for iPhone and iPod. It’s far from a new concept, as the original iMainGo launched four or five years ago. The idea is that you put your device into an oversized zippered case which just happens to be oversized because it’s got speakers built into the back of it. And while plenty of these products have come to market over the years which didn’t sound very good, the iMainGo products have stood out in that they do in fact sound very good – almost stunningly good, considering what you’d expect from such a product just by looking at it (and by looking at its price). Now comes the big test for the iMainGo, as the new iMainGo X raises the price level from $49 to $69 and justifies it by packing in a number of improvements and new features.

The most vital upgrade is the fact that the iMainGo X runs on a built in lithium battery, rechargeable by plugging the entire unit into a wall socket, a big improvement over the AA batteries the iMainGo 2 ran on. In terms of new features, the X includes a pair of audio-out ports on the outside, which means that if you suddenly want to switch over to using earbuds or headphones, you can do so without having to remove your iPhone or iPod from the iMainGo. That’ll come in handy if you’ve got your music blasting away and someone joins you in the room, for instance. And thanks to a larger device bay, you should be able to get your iPhone or iPod to fit into the X with having to remove a skin or a thin case, although you’d be out of luck with larger cases.

All of the above is all good news. The lithium battery alone is probably worth the extra twenty dollars. Unfortunately, the iMainGo X solves neither of my minor gripes left over from the iMainGo 2: operating the touchscreen of your iPhone or iPod touch through the clear plastic cover isn’t quite as easy as it should be. And even with the lithium battery there’s still no method for keeping your device charged up while it’s inside the iMainGo, leaving you potentially with a suddenly dead iPhone battery and no phone. If iMainGo could somehow figure out how to squeeze a dock connector port into the product so iPhones and iPods could charge while playing, that would really hit it out of the park. But even as it stands, the iMainGo X is a nice product at $69. And for those looking for a less expensive option, the iMainGo 2 is still around, now reduced to $39 from its original $49. Either way, my recommend hasn’t changed: If you want a speaker case for your iPhone or iPod, go with iMainGo.

rating: four stars out of five • price: $69 • iMainGo.com

review: Lift Audio Icon in-ear earbuds

by Bill Palmer

Even the most inexpensive of in-ear earbuds nearly always offer an improvement in audio quality over the earbuds which come bundled with the iPod, and the new Icon earbuds from Lift Audio attempt to prove that with a price tag of a mere $29. Icon is also intriguing due to the fact that the buds are tiny and so lightweight as to feel essentially weightless. Black with silver chrome trim, they’ve got a styling that’s understated yet fancier looking than I’ve come to expect at this price point.

Of course the real test of any earbuds, even (perhaps especially) with inexpensive ones, is how they sound. Someone who’s accustomed to using $100 in-ear earbuds would describe the Icon’s sound as being comparatively dry, lacking any real expansiveness in the audio experience. But someone who’s only ever known the iPod’s bundled earbuds, and who doesn’t have the budget to invest in $100 or even $50 earbuds, will be impressed with the the Icon, particularly in that they sound good in both the high and low ranges, whereas so many cheap in-ear earbuds offer either no bass or bad bass.

The catch here, and it’s a dealbreaker for plenty of iPod and probably all iPhone users, is that Lift Audio hasn’t included any on-board controls at all. No mic, no play-pause button, no volume buttons. You can’t take phone calls, and all music control has to be done directly on the device itself. And that’s a shame, because I’ve tested at even half this price which come with a simple built-in mic and button. But if you don’t care about on-board controls anyway and you’ve got $29 to invest in improving your iPod’s audio experience, the Lift Audio Icon is a nice way to go – made even nicer by the fact that you can currently get them for $25 on Amazon.

price: $29 • Amazon.com

Conan O’Brien guest George Lopez yells “shit” and gets away with it

Even as Conan O’Brien has subtly tested the basic cable censors on his new TBS show, his guest and network-mate George Lopez dropped by the set of Conan and immediately set the censors ablaze. In listing the benefits of doing a late night talk show on cable instead of a major network, Lopez quipped “Basic cable gives you the freedom to say ‘shit.’ That’s beautiful. Shit!” to which Conan half-seriously replied “No one told me that.”

While word “shit” is apparently allowable on TBS and other basic cable networks, it never would have gotten past the censors at Conan’s old home NBC. No word yet on whether Conan plans to begin talking shit himself, literally speaking, now that he’s aware he can get away with it.

As geeks bail on iPhone 4, rest of user base is better off for it

by Bill Palmer

Another day, another headline about a prominent technology journalist or pundit bailing on the iPhone 4 in favor of one competing smartphone or another. One time it’s in favor of the Android, and it’s Windows Phone 7 the next. The words chosen by way of explaining the iPhone defection are different each time, but the theme is always the same: the iPhone 4 isn’t “open” enough. What they mean, of course, is that it isn’t hackable enough or tinkerable enough. The iPhone 4 is too much of a product, too little of a toy, which in their minds makes the iPhone 4 a mere toy. And I say not to worry. Let them go. The iPhone platform is better off without them.

These people, these geeks, simply view technology differently than the rest of us do. With the iPhone 4, we the mainstream are looking for something that’s equal parts functional and understandable, with an emphasis on features being usable moreso than being theoretically infinite in number. We’d rather break rocks all day than break open our iPhone to play around with either its internal components or its internal programming. The trouble is, geeks want the exact opposite, at least in terms of priorities. Sure, they want a smartphone they can make phone calls on and check their email on just like anyone else. But if they find an aspect of their iPhone they don’t like, and they can’t easily mutilate its internal programming on the spot to turn it into a fundamentally different device more to their liking, then they’re never going to be happy with it. Which begs the question of why a geek would ever have misguidedly bought a mainstream-oriented, anti-geek product like the iPhone in the first place.

That answer is one for Freud to chew on. Geeks have poo-pooed every mobile Apple product that’s come to market, predicting that the iPod would fail because it was too straightforward of a music player, saying that the iPhone would fail because it wasn’t hackable enough, and all but publicly begging for the iPad to fail for the same reason. And yet because all of the competing products are more or less fundamentally crap, geeks have long struggled to figure out what to do. Should they go with an inferior competing product that’s infinitely more hackable, or should they go with the superior iPhone and learn to live with the fact that it’s an anti-geek product?

Plenty of geeks have gone the latter route, but with a caveat: from day one they’ve banded together in an almost cult-like capacity in which they spent significant portions of their day working on hacking every single new version of the iPhone’s iOS operating system on every iPhone model which is released, so they can have a hacked, tinker-friendly iPhone experience. And that would be fine if they’d have just kept to themselves. But like any cult they desired numbers, so they came up with the propaganda term “jailbreaking” in an attempt to convince any iPhone user that they’re “in jail” if they don’t also hack their iPhone. And most “jailbreakers” harass every iPhone user they come into contact with in the name of trying to get them to mutilate their iPhone in the same capacity. And that’s a bad, bad thing when it comes to mainstream iPhone users essentially being tricked into allowing some geek to “jailbreak” their iPhone on their behalf, leaving them with something which in the hands of a non-geek is closer to being a brick than an iPhone.

And there have been troubles with the iPhone hacker community. Most notably in the iPhone’s first year, when Apple was working on launching an official App Store, iPhone hackers were busy running their own counterfeit app stores, which forced Apple to launch the official App Store before the accompanying iPhone OS 2 operating system was ready, just to keep the hackers from gaining ground. As a result, mainstream iPhone users were stuck running a buggy operating system as an indirect result of the hackers and their insistence that the concept of jailbreaking must be spread to all iPhone users as if it were their quest in life. And having encountered enough of these types, had conversations with them, even had lunch with them, I promise you I’m not exaggerating their desperation to see all iPhone users turned into hackers in the slightest.

I could go on with other examples, but the bottom line is that if you’re a mainstream iPhone 4 user, the existence of the iPhone hacking community has done you no favors, whether you’ve even been aware of its existence up until now or not. And rest assured that any time you hear about some prominent technology geek bailing on the iPhone 4, there’s nothing to worry about. After all, geeks never belonged within a million miles of the iPhone in the first place. They’ve never contributed anything to the iPhone platform but trouble, and their departure can only be a good thing for the other ninety-nine percent of iPhone users who aren’t geeks.

review: Speck Fitted ArtsProjekt Case for iPhone 4

by Christine Chan

Speck has some of the coolest and trendiest cases out there for your iDevices, and the Artsprojekt Fitted case is no exception.

We covered the Fitted case before, but in case you didn’t get a chance to check it out, we’ll talk about it again.

The Fitted is a two-piece snap-on case for your iPhone 4 with a backing made with cloth fabric. The sides of the case (as well as the interior) have a matte appearance and feels silky smooth in the hand. The back is cloth, but comes in various patterns. In the case of the Artsprojekt series, the backs feature artistic designs from various artists looking to get their work out there.

Once the case is on, it’s a secure fit and will survive practically all drops that can happen during the day. The ringer toggle and volume buttons are left exposed, as well as the headphone port and power button. The camera and flash get a nice cutout that is non-intrusive on your phot ographs, and the bottom is left wide open for compatibility with older cables.

The only problem I have with the Fitted case is that it can be a bit of a nuisance to take off if you don’t already know how. It is secure, a little too secure, and the only way to get it off is to pry open the top right corner and then lift the edges from the screen and pull the top half while pushing the phone away from the piece. Yes, apologies if that sounded confusing, but any other attempt to remove the case probably won’t work.

I found this hassle with removing the case to be a bit irksome, and haven’t found much liking for the Fitted cases after that. And you’re going to have to remove the case quite often because dust seems to collect quite frequently around the edges of the screen, from what I’ve noticed.

This case is good for protection, but can be a bit irksome if you plan to keep your device clean or want to change cases eventually. Unless you can master the art of taking it off in the first try, you’re going to have a hard time with it. But if you like to have unique designs that can’t be found from anyone else, then the Artsprojekt Fitted from Speck is the way to go. Just be wary of the potential headache that can arise when trying to get it off.

rating: three stars out of five • price: $39 • SpeckProducts.com

review: Woodees Vintage earbuds for iPhone and iPod

by Bill Palmer

Wooden earbuds, once a rare novelty, are becoming more popular and with good reason: they have a noticeably more natural sound to them than standard earbuds housings do. The latest spin on wooden earbuds comes from the appropriately named Woodees Vintage which – surprise – comes with three buttons and a microphone, rare for its $69 price point.

But before you even get to listening to them, the Woodees Vintage jumps out due to their obviously wooden styling, which includes a gold-orange-brown-black gradient on the buds and keeps the earth tone theme intact with its gold cabling and black trim throughout. They’re the kind of earbuds you hope will sound good, because otherwise the awesome styling would be a waste. But as it turns out, these are the clearest-sounding wooden earbuds I’ve ever tested. Of course their original $99 price tag would have made them the most expensive wooden earbuds I’ve ever tested, but their new $69 price makes them less expensive than the competing Thinksound TS02+ wooden earbuds, which I already very much like the sound of. Except the Woodees Vintage sounds better.

If you want wooden earbuds, the Woodees Vintage are the ones to go for. Audio quality, styling, price, and the fact that they have three-button controls for playback and volume for iPhone and iPod.

Just to be clear, there are $99 earbuds on the market (not wooden ones, mind you) which offer overall superior audio quality. But at $69, the Woodees Vintage is a steal, and the natural wooden kick in the audio is just a bonus.

rating: 4.5 stars out of five • price: $69 • Woodees.com

review: Griffin iTrip DualConnect FM and AUX-in charger for iPhone and iPod

by Bill Palmer

Griffin’s iTrip, which allows an iPod’s music to be broadcast to a car’s FM radio, is nearly as old as the iPod itself. But FM transmission is not always the answer, particularly if you live in an urban or even suburban area, and more recently cars have begun to come with line-in ports for connecting iPods and iPhones with a much greater degree of audio quality. Accordingly, Griffin launched the AutoPilot, a line-in product with a built-in charger along with playback controls on the charging head. But with the new iTrip DualConnect, Griffin is dipping its chocolate into the proverbial peanut butter to see if these two disparate products are meant to go together. And the results are, to say the least, intriguing.

The obvious first question is why you’d want an FM transmitter at all if your car has a line-in port. But setting that aside for the moment, the DualConnect is a nice solid product in terms of what it offers. Its charging head controls are a sleeker design than was the case with the AutoPilot, replacing the hard plastic buttons with a nice satiny feel. And interestingly enough, you could actually use the DualConnect with your own cassette adapter if you want, thanks to the fact that the included line-in cable is detachable instead of built-in.

As far as the FM transmitter aspect of the DualConnect, it’s a mixed verdict. iPhone and iPod touch users will love the fact that fine-tuning the FM radio station you’re going to broadcast on is now done through a well-designed App Store app, whereas years ago this process was done with a manual knob, as odd as that sounds here in 2010. But even with the long time popularity of the iTrip, Griffin’s FM signal strength has only ever been merely okay, with competitors like Monster, Belkin, and Kensington having offered FM transmitters with a stronger signal at various times over the years, and that trend continues with the DualConnect. To be clear, the audio itself sounds fine. But using an FM transmitter is a battle to find a completely dead-silent station on your local FM dial, and residents of the big city and the suburbs know there’s no such thing in their neck of the woods. It’s why FM transmitters in general are only recommendable if you can’t use either a line-in or a cassette adapter, unless you live in a town of four hundred people where there only a few FM radio stations on the dial to begin with.

So far the DualConnect scores for a nice hardware design, a great FM transmitter interface, but only an okay FM transmitter signal strength. That brings us back to the question of just whom this product is for. The most obvious candidate is a family with more than one car, only one of which has line-in functionality, and the family wants to be able to move the DualConnect back and forth between vehicles. Another option is a traveler who frequently rents cars and doesn’t know what they’re in for. In fact when I know I’ll be renting a car on a trip, I travel with an FM transmitter just in case it ends up being my only option.

All that said, the audience for the iTrip DualConnect doesn’t feel particularly large. It’s one of those products which by virtue of being so versatile and theoretically usable by so many people, it oxymoronically limits its practical audience to only those people who need all of its features. And for that particular niche of people, it’s worth its $59 price tag. But don’t buy this product if you don’t plan to use both its FM transmitter functionality and its line-in functionality at one point or another.

rating: four stars out of five • price: $59 • GriffinTechnology.com

Verizon only one not using iPhone in TV ads as Sprint, T-Mobile do

Here’s how you know the iPhone is still the center of attention even amidst all the left field Android hype: every U.S. cellphone carrier except Verizon is currently mentioning the iPhone in its TV ads, and that’s probably only because Verizon isn’t allowed to talk about it. First there’s T-Mobile, whose in-your-face ads aren’t clear as to what they’re up in your face about, praising the iPhone 4 (by name) and its features (by name) before attacking iPhone carrier AT&T. T-Mobile is either telegraphing the fact that it expects to offer the iPhone 4 soon, or doing a bizarre job of unwittingly doing free advertising for a phone it doesn’t plan to offer. Then there’s Sprint, whose ads don’t actually speak the word “iPhone” but instead display a quote from a reviewer who says Sprint’s new phone gives the iPhone a run for its money. And while AT&T’s ads of late have been dedicated to every iPhone competitor under the sun, there is the new iPhone 4 battery life ad which appears to be some kind of joint venture between Apple and AT&T, with both logos appearing at the end.

That leaves Verizon as the only one of the four major U.S. cellular carriers who’s not talking iPhone in a good, bad, ugly, or confusing manner in its TV ads. Verizon is, of course, running ads specifically centered around the iPad. Those ads have only added fuel to the fire surrounding all the independent confirmation that Verizon is in fact getting the iPhone early next year. Which makes it odd, to say the least, that the only carrier confirmed to be soon offering the iPhone is the only one not talking about the iPhone. But what’s the old saying? Those who speak don’t know, and those who know don’t speak. Maybe the 2010 version should be that those carriers who speak about the iPhone don’t think they’re about to get their hands on it, and those that know they are about to get the iPhone don’t speak.

If nothing else, the iPhone-focused Sprint and T-Mobile ads, Verizon’s impending iPhone offerings, and the fact that AT&T is having a public meltdown over its impending loss of iPhone exclusivity, when combined, make it clear that the focus of the industry – and that of the public – is still very much on the iPhone in 2010, more so than any other phone on the market.

review: Kensington PowerBolt Duo Car Charger for iPad iPhone and iPod

by Bill Palmer

Kensington’s original PowerBolt car charger for iPhone and iPod was a breakthrough in that the charging unit was so tiny it almost recessed itself entirely within your car’s charging port, sticking out by only millimeters. And now Kensington unleashes the PowerBolt Duo which, as its name suggests, applies that miniaturization concept to a car charger which can support two devices simultaneously. As expected, the Duo isn’t as microscopic as the original, although the Duo is smaller than most single-device car chargers were a year or two ago. But the real twist here is that unlike many car chargers from a year or two ago, the Duo offers enough amperage to charge an iPad.

The Duo sports two USB ports, one whose amperage is more than twice that of the other. As it turned out in my tests, either port can charge an iPad using the included cable. But as the product’s packaging proclaims, the top port can charge an iPad about twice as fast as the bottom one, which is good news seeing just how long it can take to fully charge an iPad. The implication, then, is clear: charge your iPad in the high power USB port while you’re charging your iPhone or iPod in the lower power port. And I found that it works exactly as advertised (and yes, the included cable does work with the iPad).

I have only one quibble: the PowerBolt Duo is clearly intended to be used to charge two devices (otherwise you’d by the regular PowerBolt), so why does it only come with one cable? At the competitive price of $29, I’m not saying a second cable should necessarily be included with the Duo at that price. But from a hassle standpoint, buying this product means getting your hands on an extra cable, whether that be carrying your iPad’s bundled cable back and forth from your house to your car (which doesn’t match stylistically with the Duo’s all-black styling), or buying another cable elsewhere. I’d just like to have also seen another PowerBolt Duo option with two bundled cables for, say, $34. Perhaps Kensington will consider it.

But for those who aren’t concerned about there only being one cable in the box, the PowerBolt Duo is a nice svelte way to keep your iPad and your iPhone/iPod charged up simultaneously, without having to wait forever for your iPad to charge, easily recommendable.

Price: $29 • Kensington.com

review: Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N700

by Bill Palmer

The days of using a “laptop” computer on your lap are falling by the wayside thanks to the increased processing power of today’s laptops and the resulting heat which gets applied directly to your lap if you’re not careful. Logitech’s Lapdesk N700 attempts to resolve that and in fact goes whole hog with additional features. The product is close to two feet wide, with a hard plastic top surface and upholstered on bottom, designed to sit over your knees. It’s as large as it is because of what it’s also got built in.

Attempting to correct another widespread laptop deficiency in the form of cruddy built-in speakers, the Lapdesk has speakers built into it, which are powered by your laptop via a built-in USB cable, no electrical outlet involved. The speakers sound pretty good, significantly better than any built-in Mac or PC laptop speakers I’ve heard. They don’t measure up to the best $79 standalone computer speakers on the market, but that’s to be expected considering the nature of the product. On board volume controls allow you to adjust the volume of the speakers independent of your laptop’s volume. That’s redundant if your laptop has easily accessible volume controls of its own, but no harm done in that case.

Also built into the Lapdesk is a fan, which is nice because I found it to be completely silent with my laptop sitting on top of it, and it prevented my laptop’s own built-in fans from coming on, which do make noise when they run. The fan can be toggled on or off.

The verdict? From a usability standpoint, it’s a fairly comfy product. It is on the large side, however (there’s also a smaller model, the N550, not tested). Basically, you’ve got to be looking to take advantage of the speakers for the product’s size or price tag to be worth it, as otherwise there are plenty of lapdesks out there that are less bulky and less expensive that don’t have speakers built in. But if the feature set of the Logitech Lapdesk N700 meets your needs, you could get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it.

Price: $69 • Logitech.com

Angry Birds the rare app which works as well at 10 inches as at three

Addicts and pop psychologists can debate all day what it is that makes Angry Birds for iPhone and iPad so darned popular, but it’s the fact that it’s so popular on both devices that makes it something of a unique phenomenon. Angry Birds is far from the first game to offer both a three inch and a ten inch version of itself in the App Store. But while Apple’s own apps such as Mail go out of their way to take advantage of the larger real estate on the iPad and conversely to slim things down on the Mail app so they work well within the confines of the iPhone and iPod touch, far too many third party apps are simply the same app on either size screen – and since any singular design is going to work better at one size screen or another, it means that the app will be more suited for either the iPad or the iPhone, and thusly more popular on one or the other. Angry Birds, however, is number one on the App Store charts on both the iPhone and iPad sides of the fence.

So is Angry Birds legitimately different enough on the iPad vs the iPhone to warrant both versions being so popular, or is it just that the phenomenon is so heightened right now that addicts want to play it on any device they can? Different users will have different answers to that question, based on their own experiences with the game. The iPad version currently carrying a price tag five times that of the iPhone version tells you that its developers would certainly like to think so. Regardless of pricing, the overwhelming popularity of both versions says that Angry Birds must work sufficiently well on both sized screens or else there would be nonstop griping from those same iPad and iPhone users who are so addicted to it in the first place.

Saturday Night: SNL not live tonight as Kanye, host Cranston repeat

Saturday Night Live is understandably taking the night off, as SNL drops into a repeat tonight of the episode from earlier this season starring host Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Malcolm in the Middle) and musical guest Kanye West (who would surely declare this to be the greatest SNL repeat of all time). There’s been a mild amount of rumbling so far this season, as factual or not, it feels like SNL has been a repeat as often as it’s been live since the current season began on NBC. But this being Thanksgiving week, it feels like we can give the Saturday Night Live cast and crew a break this time around, even if they’re once again not “Live” as their name proclaims.

Justin Bieber lashes at YouTube, Vevo over “Pray” video copyright fail

Justin Bieber has publicly lashed out at YouTube, Vevo, and by extension his own record label group UMG, as his attempt to premiere the music video for his new single “Pray” was blocked by YouTube over copyright issues, instead inserting the message “This video contains content from UMG, who has blocked it on copyright grounds” in place of Bieber’s video. Justin then took to Twitter to ask YouTube the obvious question “how u gonna block my own song?” and referring to it as an “epic fail” before opting to load the video to his Facebook fan page instead – where it has, as of this moment, not been yanked by anyone and is playable, after which Bieber quipped that “no one keeps my music from my fans. nobody.”

In his public criticism of YouTube, Bieber pointed to new YouTube partner Vevo as being part of the problem, as Vevo (no one really seems to even know what it is) is often responsible for posting YouTube content which can only be viewed in one region of the world but not others, using the familiar copyright grounds refrain, even when the artist in question is the one attempting to get the content aired worldwide.

In his parting shot at YouTube, Bieber signed off in this manner: “dear youtube…we started this journey and now u r cheatin on me with this vevo chica…i see how it is…i will be over here with facebook.” Shortly thereafter, the phrase “dear youtube” entered Twitter’s trending topics (along with “UMG”) as fans on Twitter discussed and retweeted the situation.

The song Pray, whose video was at the center of the controversy, is from Justin Bieber’s new album My Worlds Acoustic.

Black Friday: Sara Bareilles Kaleidoscope Heart for $1.99 on AmazonMP3

Sara Bareilles probably doesn’t need to be practically giving away her new album, as it already debuted at number one on the Billboard charts back in September. But she’s doing just that, or at least Amazon is, as Kaleidoscope Heart is currently available online through AmazonMP3 for a mere $1.99 as part of the online retailer’s Black Friday efforts. While Amazon hasn’t come close to competing with rival iTunes in terms of digital music sales marketshare, it’s generally regarded as the only mainstream competitor that’s actually succeeding on any level, and that’s most often credited to bargain bonanza prices on popular releases such as this.

Sara Bareilles is, of course, she of the cover of Beatweek Magazine’s 83rd issue, and you can find our full interview with Sara right here.

The downside to buying Sara’s chart topping followup to her first album Little Voice? Amazon MP3 music is full compatible with iTunes but it’s a pain in the you know what to not only shop via Amazon’s clunky digital music interface, but then have to shuttle those purchases into iTunes – and Amazon is still inexplicably selling music in the fully obsolete MP3 format, which is still playable in iTunes but doesn’t sound as longtime standard AAC, which iTunes has been using since 2003. The upside: you get to put eight bucks back into your pocket, as Kaleidoscope Heart sells for ten bucks through iTunes.

The official Sara Bareilles quote regarding her deeply discounted album: “That’s turkey for ya.” You can find Kaleidoscope Heart, which includes hit single King of Anything and forthcoming single Uncharted, right here for $1.99.

Black Friday sales for iPhone iPad apps: Scrabble, Toy Story, more

Here’s an extra special post for the holiday! The holiday being Black Friday! Below are some apps that I thought were a great bargain for Black Friday sales. Happy app shopping!

Scrabble – word game addicts, get this before the price goes up! It’s Hasbro’s classic word game right on your iPhone. Play against the computer, your friend next to you, or even your Facebook friends. Add up points and aim to get the triple letters and triple words all across the board. The person with the most points at the end wins! But hurry, this sale won’t last long! You can play the free version as a Facebook app. iPhone/iPod Touch Version (99 cents) | iPad Version ($4.99)

Toy Story Mania – Come one, come all. Step right up and play the Disney-inspired game called Toy Story Mania! Just like the theme park ride, you’re taken to mini-games that are represented by their respective characters. Instead of pulling a string on a cannon, you swipe, shoot, flick, pop, and toss things at targets and gain points. There are 5 mini games which include: Hammin’ Eggs, Buzz Lightyears’ Flying Tossers, Bo Pee’s Baaa-loon Pop, Green Army Men Shoot Camp, and Woody’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Shootin’ Gallery. iPhone/iPod Touch Version (99 cents) | Full Review..

Shrek Forever After – Relive the fairy tale of Shrek! Here’s an adventure game based on the original movie. Shrek heads into the forest to retrieve all the kids birthday presents that Donkey dropped. He gets attacked by Robinhood and his merry men. Punch your way through to reach the next level where Rumpelstiltskin awaits! It’s a face moving game with beautiful graphics. A definite buy for any Shrek fan. Hurry, it’s only 99 cents today so get it soon!
iPad Version (99 cents) | iPhone/iPod Touch Version ($4.99)

Alice in Wonderland – if you’re an Alice fan, this is a must. This adventure puzzle game was inspired by Tim Burton’s film. Help Alice get through various mazes, finding all of her looking-glass friends. Collect shards of mirror pieces and help her get back home. Normally $4.99. iPhone/iPod Touch Version (99 cents) | iPhone/iPod Touch Lite Version (Free)

The Simpsons Arcade – If you enjoy the Simpsons, get this one and help lead Homer to the donuts! He beats up the entire neighbor for them! The game is optimized for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but I really enjoy playing it on the iPad in 2x mode. The graphics look great and the controls are even easier to use. Get it now since it’s on sale for 99 cents! It’s normally $2.99 iPhone/iPod Touch Version ($0.99) | iPhone/iPod Touch Lite Version (Free)

Sketchbook Pro – This is an amazing tool for artists. Keep a sketchbook of all your drawings right on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. It’s a professional-grade paint and drawing app. Plenty of sketching and painting tools, including several brushes, an array of colors, and layers. Normally $7.99, the iPad version is now on sale for 99 cents. iPad Version (99 cents) | iPhone / iPod Touch Version (99 cents) | iPhone / iPod Touch Lite Version (Free)

Navigon – This is one of the best GPS apps to hit the iTunes app store! Doing a little holiday travel? Get directions to your next destination quickly and easily with Navigon. Included are beautiful offline maps, so no need to worry about not having phone signal in a specific location. Select apps are on sale. iPhone Versions: USA ($29.99) | US East Region ($19.99) | US West Region ($19.99) | US Central Region ($19.99)

Ranch Rush 2 – The sequel to the popular time management is finally out! And it’s gone tropical! Sara’s back with a whole new adventure. Help Sara launch a new tropical farming division. Game-Center ready for the iPad. Normally $6.99, it’s on sale for 99 cents today only.
iPad Version (99 cents)

Tetris – Who doesn’t know how to play Tetris? It’s a classic! Geometric pieces drop down and you need to rotate and move them to fit in rows below. Get four rows at once and you got a super powerful Tetis! The updated graphics and colors are beautiful! It’s currently on sale for both the iPhone and iPad at its lowest price ever this weekend. So get it before it’s gone! Apps are normally $2.99 and $7.99 for the iPhone and iPad, respectively.
iPhone Version (99 cents) | iPad Version ($2.99)

Game of Life – Any idea what your future holds? Why not play the Game of Life? Just like the classic board game, but much more fun! Roll the dice and see if you own a house, have a few kids, or have a career change. Earn money as you go. Player with the most wins!
iPhone/iPod Touch Version (99 cents)

Mystic Emporium – Here’s a bewitching time management game for you! You have a little shop, The Mystic Emporium, where you brew potions, sell artifacts and grow pocus berries. As your customers come in — you’ll definitely meet withches, vampries, wizards, and more — give them what they ask for and you’ll be nicely rewarded. Both iPhone and iPad versions are on sale for Black Friday for just 99 cents! They’re both Game-Center ready so compete with your friends for the achievement points. iPhone/iPod Touch Version (99 cents) | iPad Version (99 cents)

Price Check by Amazon – If you’re out shopping already, you may want to use this app to scan products you’re thinking about buying! Scan the barcode of an item and it’ll return you all the prices it’s selling for. Compare and see if you’re getting the best deal. It’s the perfect app for the holiday shopping season! iPhone Version (Free)

Refurbished iPads and iPhones closest thing to a Black Friday deal

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is that time of year when eager holiday shoppers learn the hard way that there’s no such thing as a “deal” on an Apple product like the iPad or iPhone. After wasting time fighting early morning crowds at the local WalMart, Best Buy, and Target this Friday morning in search of an iPad for less than $499 or an iPhone 4 for less than $199, would-be gift givers will only then realize that Apple simply doesn’t allow retailers to sell its products at less than the official price, both because none of Apple’s consumer-level products are dragging badly enough in sales to need to be discounted, and for fear on Apple’s part of cheapening the brand. But there’s one way out of this, although it’s not perfect: Apple offers refurbished units through its website at discounts that are often worth taking advantage of.

What does “refurbished” mean? Someone else bought the product and either returned it because they didn’t want it, or it broke and they got it swapped out under warranty. Apple was then able to get the unit back to perfect new condition and is selling it to you for a fraction less; the $499 iPad, for instance, sells refurbished for $449. The upside is the recipient of your gift probably won’t even know the difference, and it comes with the same warranty as if it were new. The downside is you don’t know where that iPad was been. Then again, we generally only advise against buying something factory-refurbished if it’s a hard drive based product such as a laptop or an iPad classic, because in those cases neither you nor the people doing the refurbishing know how many times it’s been dropped by the original buyer and how much impact that hard drive has absorbed. But with the iPad and iPhone and iPod touch being flash-based devices instead, it’s a different story.

The kicker, though? This year Apple isn’t offering any refurbished iPhone 4 models. Come to think of it, that kind of makes you wonder where they’re all going. But in the case of the iPhone in 2010, the best way to get a “deal” is to simply buy the iPhone 3GS for $99 instead. Sure, it’s last year’s model, and your recipient will certainly notice the difference. But it is half the price, if it’s all you can afford to spend.

Conan O’Brien testing TBS language and profanity censors, succeeding

After spending the first few weeks of his new TBS show acting as if NBC’s censors were still in the audience, you had to figure Conan O’Brien would begin to test the profanity waters before too long. And it turns out he’s chosen the night before Thanksgiving to begin dropping some phrases which, while not strictly censored on major networks, are quite rarely heard on them nonetheless. In his opening monologue, one of Conan’s punchlines was quoting someone as saying “you’re god damn right.” While “damn” is heard on network television all hours of the day, its use with “god” typically sees the “god” part bleeped out. Then later in the show, while bantering with sidekick Andy Richter, Conan joked that one of his poses was a “way to look like a real dick.”

Again, it’s nothing you haven’t probably heard on NBC’s own Saturday Night Live, but these aren’t phrases you would have ever heard on either Conan’s version of the Tonight Show or Conan’s previous NBC show which aired well after midnight. It’s not clear whether he could have gotten away with such profanities back then, but it’s notable that he’s not only trying to get away with it now on TBS, but thus far succeeding. If Conan is already talking about looking like a dick in week three, imagine the censor boundaries he’ll be quietly testing by February sweeps.

Cloud era puts iOS 4.3 and MacOS X Lion front and center

It’s been suggested that the cloud era, if and when such a thing ever arrives in a future where our wireless infrastructure can support it, will be the end of the operating system as we know it, making Apple’s standout operating systems like the forthcoming iOS 4.3 and MacOS X Lion irrelevant. I say that depends on how the OS is being defined. When it comes to the aspect of the OS the most users actually deal with and care about, the cloud era actually makes the interface level of the OS more vital than ever, putting the recognizable aspects of MacOS X and iOS even more in the spotlight.

Ultimately it depends on whether you’re defining OS as the under the hood stuff that end users don’t see or care about anyway, or defining OS as the interface-level stuff that end-users deal with. If it’s the latter, then putting user data, apps, and even the entire OS code into the cloud still has no effect on the interface-level OS that the user deals with.

Even on the internet, where every webpage is in the cloud, the user still uses a Mac or Windows style web browser window, Mac or Windows menus, a Mac or Windows dock for changing to the next app. If the internet has done nothing to change the nature of the OS from an interface-level standpoint, how will the cloud be any different?

iOS, again from an interface level, is just a shift from one OS interface (Mac or Windows, depending on the user) to a new OS interface. As it is, the iPad is already almost a proto-cloud-based device, with the “cloud” being the user’s Mac or PC. Although the user data and apps on an iPad, it’s all just there temporarily until the next sync. But that still doesn’t change the fact that the interface level of iOS is to my mind the main reason the iPad is succeeding and other tablets have failed.

If anything, by the time it’s all said and done, the user interface may be all that’s left of the OS in the cloud era. But I still don’t see how that affects end-users except those who care about what’s under the hood to begin with. For the rest of us, as the interfaces of today effectively become the operating systems of the future, we should be watching upcoming releases like iOS 4.3 and MacOS X Lion as clues to what that future holds.

review: Speck Holiday CandyShell Cases for iPhone 4

The holidays are among us, and what better way to celebrate than by decking out your iPhone 4 in some festive holiday cheer? Speck has released some holiday themed CandyShell cases, available exclusively at AT&T stores nationwide!

The Speck CandyShell is exactly what it sounds like – a hard polycarbonate exterior, but soft, rubbery interior. The rubber interior is soft but also adds a shock absorbing layer to protect the iPhone from drops and impact.

The holiday versions come in two different choices: a blue plastic and red rubber theme decorated with snowmen on the back, and a light green/red theme with a Santa on the back lower half. Both designs are cute and festive for the holiday season.

The iPhone simply goes in the case by sliding the bottom in first, then pushing the rest into the rubbery material. Once the phone is in the case, you’re left with a sense of protection and no longer have to w orry about dropping your phone!

The soft rubbery material forms a lip around the front of the phone to help keep dust and dirt away from the inside. It also adds a lot of lift to the screen so that way the glass will never touch a flat surface!

The volume and power buttons get covered up in the rubber material so that they are fully protected. The toggle switch gets a little space that may be a little hard to access for those with bigger hands, but the headphone port is fully accessible. There are perfectly shaped cutouts for the camera/flash, bottom mic and speaker, as well as a fitted opening for the connector port. Even though the opening may not look like enough, I had no problem using older cables and car chargers with the holiday CandyShell on.

My only problem with the case is that the back starts to get a bit oily after holding it for a while, but that’s easily fixed by wiping it down on clothes or a cl eaning cloth. The CandyShell does add a bit of thickness to your iPhone, but it feels really well-protected.

If you’re looking for a case to dress your iPhone up for the holiday season, then look no further than these adorable CandyShell holiday cases from Speck! Look for them at your local AT&T stores for $29.99.

review by Christine Chan

rating: 4.5 stars out of five • SpeckProducts.com

Cookie Monster hosting SNL would draw Betty White-level ratings

Cookie Monster wants to host Saturday Night Live, according to a four minute video he’s released which includes a mockup of him performing in various SNL-esque sketches. And the folks at NBC might do well to listen, as the Sesame Street character could bring in the highest SNL ratings since Betty White hosted the show last season.

Sure, Cookie Monster’s a one-note gag: he likes cookies. We get it. But his cookie-themed take on SNL mainstay MacGruber was funnier than any actual MacGruber sketch that’s ever aired. And if a one-noter like MacGruber could be stretched out to a full length movie, then Cookie’s jokes should easily be good for ninety minutes on TV. And if only out of pure curiosity over how’d they’d pull it off, a Cookie-hosted SNL episode would attract more interest than anyone who’s hosted this season.

As an interesting side note, The Muppets (although not Sesame Street) were regulars on the first season of SNL back in the seventies.

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