Monthly Archives: September 2011

Counting down

How did I not post anything here when Apple finally sent out invitations to the press earlier this week for the October 4 iPhone event? That was the most squee-worthy event this week (the Amazon Fire announcement was nice but not quite squee-worthy.)

Anyway, I’m very excited to finally have this event nailed down so we can put the iPhone 4S/5 rumors to bed with some real details soon. Then we’ll at least get a few weeks of blessed peace before people start up with iPhone 6 rumors, right? I know. That’s not going to happen, is it? Well, a girl can dream.

Today BGR pointed out a homemade aluminum and glass iPhone 5 mock-up that makes me drool. Literally. If the iPhone 5 looks like this, I will be in fangirl heaven, I tell you. You can find the original post and more pictures here.

iPhone 5 mock-up from BenM.at

Amazon is on Fire

Amazon announced the new Kindle Fire ereader/tablet today for the stunning price of $199. It features a 7-inch color IPS touchscreen, Wi-Fi, and runs an Android-based operating system. It will be able to access a plethora of Amazon media, including ebooks, music and streaming movies and TV shows as well as (selected) Android apps.

Naturally many, including me, are seeing the Fire as an iPad competitor, even though it lacks a camera, 3G connectivity, Bluetooth or GPS and it has only 8GB of internal storage (though Amazon offers unlimited cloud storage with it). Despite all of this, it has generally the same core abilities as the iPad to play games, read ebooks, watch movies, listen to music and browse the web. And the demo videos available so far show that it has a responsive interface focused on making accessing media easy. Amazon seems poised to give Apple a run for its money in the tablet space with the Fire.

While the Fire isn’t incredible enough to make me ditch my iPad 2, I can see it as a tempting device for someone who wants an ebook reader/portable media consumption device for less than $499, the price of the cheapest iPad. It has enough features and is priced so aggressively that it makes me regret getting the Kindle Keyboard (the new name for the previous-generation Kindle) for my husband last Christmas, for which I paid $139.

For a user like my husband, who isn’t nearly as excited about the wonders of iOS devices as I am, the Fire is a great iPad-alternative to give him the ebook reading and occasional game playing he seems to do the most (he currently plays Minesweeper so much on his Kindle Keyboard that he’s worn the lettering off the A, Z and D-pad buttons). I wonder how long it will take my husband to ask me to get him one for Christmas and sell his current Kindle? Since he recently commandeered my iPad to play through Machinarium, a neat and endearing adventure/puzzle game, I’ll be inclined to get him one so he’ll keep his grubby mitts off my tablet.

I’d still buy an iPhone 4S

There have been a few rumors lately that Apple will not be releasing a new iPhone model this year but will instead only put out a spec-bumped iPhone 4, dubbed the iPhone 4S like the iPhone 3GS that followed the iPhone 3G. While I don’t believe this (I find it mind-explodingly impossible that Apple’s iPhone hardware team would have nothing to show for their efforts since the iPhone 4′s release more than a year ago now), I’d still buy the 4S if that’s the only iPhone model Apple releases this year. Why?

• A spec bump would still mean a better camera. My iPhone is my default camera for almost every occasion – it’s the only camera I have on me almost everywhere I go.
• While my iPhone 4 isn’t slow, it isn’t perfectly responsive to every input and a faster processor is always welcome.
• A spec bump might mean more capacity. And I’m almost out of space on my 32 GB iPhone 4 as it is. More space would mean that I could pack on even more apps (for testing for work), movies to watch while doing cardio at the gym, and I wouldn’t have to sacrifice loading some photo albums on my iPhone from time to time when I need the space for other things.

• Minor or no changes to the overall size and design of the iPhone 4S would mean that most, if not all, of my current iPhone 4 accessories would still work with it. And that just means I’ll have more money to spend on music and apps
• I’m an admitted Apple fangirl. Duh.

Would I be disappointed if, somehow, Apple didn’t release a brand new iPhone model this year? Of course. But, again, I don’t believe that this will happen. How on earth could Apple go for two years (if a new iPhone model were held for release until 2012 with the last iPhone model released in 2010) without updating its flagship iOS device? I’ll believe that when pigs fly. If need be, I’ll dodge those airborne swines on my way to buy the iPhone 4S next month.

Apple collectibles: The Lunchbox

I picked this up at Apple’s corporate store in Cupertino a few years ago and it remains one of my favorite collectibles to this day. No, I’ve never actually used it (and have no plans to in order to keep it in flawless condition).

It’s prominently displayed on a bookshelf in my home office.
Every now and then I need to slap the tiny hands of visiting children away from it, but it sits there in peace most of the time.

On my To Buy list: Quirky’s ‘Vamp’ iPhone case/clutch

Despite my rant yesterday against all things pink, there are products targeted at women that I do like. Products that are useful, reasonably-priced and tastefully designed are the kind that catch my eye and Quirky is taking pre-orders now for one that meets all of these criteria.

When I go out, particularly when the destination is a bar or club, I don’t like lug a purse around with me. While I think I have good taste in purses, I don’t want to carry one onto the dance floor or worry about where to put it when I’m sitting in a crowded bar. So, I have a small collection of wristlets that are just large enough to hold my iPhone, credit cards, cash and lip gloss. But inventor Tanya John has created a small clutch that looks like it will suit my needs even better.

The Vamp is a small, leather clutch with two different straps that will let you carry it as a wristlet or across the body. It has a special section just for the iPhone along with a cut-out for the camera so you don’t need to remove it in order to take a picture. It has space for a couple of credit cards and cash and a built-in mirror.

Thankfully, it’s not pink.

While the pictures Quirky have posted are of a prototype, it looks like it will be available in a nice, discreet black. I’ve pre-ordered one and hope it will get enough pre-orders to go into production. You can help it by pre-ordering one now at Quirky’s online store – you won’t be charged until the pre-order threshold of 1500 units is met. As I write this post, there are only 278 pre-orders for the Vamp, so it’s got a long ways to go.

Of course, I plan to review it if/when I receive mine.

Dear Manufacturers: I hate pink. Don’t make pink stuff.

Dear Manufacturers,

I realize that if you were raised in a western culture, you were indoctrinated from a young age with the idea that genders are color-coded: pink for girls and blue for boys. This was reinforced in many ways, starting with the clothing and toys your parents selected for you as a child through to adulthood where these color themes come into play even when choosing a mundane tool like a disposable razor.

Again, I can understand this. But you should know that this gender color-coding is not instinctive. Girls don’t naturally gravitate toward the color pink and boys don’t automatically like the color blue. There was even a scientific study that tried to prove that these color preferences were gender-inherent, but it was debunked as bad science. It turns out that it’s probably all cultural.

Review: Quirky PowerCurl – a power cord organizer for your Mac laptop

While I admire the split design of the power cord for Apple’s portable computers, they’re not the easiest to wind up neatly when you’re using both of the included cords. I find myself carrying and using both of them when I’m about and about so that I can reach power outlets that are more than 5 feet away from me and to avoid blocking an outlet that could be used by someone else with the power brick.

To solve this problem, designer Jeff Scholen created the PowerCurl, a product idea that was submitted to, refined, and created through Quirky. I helped influence the PowerCurl (a tiny, tiny bit) during the design phase and purchased one when they became available for retail sale and it has been a staple in my gear bag ever since. Read on for my review and a video overview of it in action.

Um, yay?

What we have here is a failure to communicate

I posted a review of Push 4.0, an iOS push notification app, this week at AppShopper. What I didn’t mention in that review is what drove me to find it to begin with, which was ultimately a lack of support and responsiveness from the first push notification app I’d tried, Boxcar.

Granted, there aren’t many push notification apps in the App Store right now and Boxcar is arguably the most popular one. But Boxcar stopped working for the most important RSS feeds I like to stay on top of and nothing in their troubleshooting tips helped, so I turned to their support forum. I found another user with the same problem and posted in his thread here to add my voice. That was back in May. Fast forward to July and there was still no update from Boxcar though others had chimed in to say they have the same problem.

I even pinged Boxcar on Twitter a couple of times and received no response there either.

everythingiCafe: the show “Cheese Whiz”

Chris Meinck and I recorded episode 37 of the everythingiCafe podcast this week and it is now available for download through iTunes. As always, you can use the embedded audio player here (unless you’re on an iPad or iPhone) to listen to it if you’d rather not go all the way to iTunes to get it.

We talked about a lot of iOS 5 and iPhone 5 rumors, which all point to releases in October for the latest version of Apple’s mobile device operating system and the new iPhone model. I don’t know about you, but I am more than ready for a new iPhone model – although I’m still pretty happy with my iPhone 4, I’d really like to get past the never-ending rumors and get to real news. Hopefully Apple will announce its press event to unveil the iPhone 5 soon.

We also talked about a funny observation made by the acting president of HTC’s American division who doesn’t believe that iPhones are “cool” anymore following a visit to his daughter’s college.

Chris’s Teh Awesome earned him a little teasing from me since he selected a flashlight app for his iPhone 4. Surpax Technology’s Flashlight saved his bacon during the power outage caused by Irene a couple of weeks ago.

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

My Teh Awesome was the SAS Survival Guide app for the iPhone. I have some paranoid leanings, particularly related to any Zombie Apocalypse (and any t-shirts referencing said apocalypse) that may occur, and the SAS Survival Guide provides a ton of information on how to survive in a variety of environments should all hell break loose and civilization shudder to grinding halt in the face of a catastrophic event. If you’ve ever wanted instructions on how to trap and kill wild game, field dress their carcasses, and use every last bit of meat, bone, and fur to help you survive in the wilderness, this is the app for you.

(For the record, I’m also getting a survival guide in paper form since I’m quite sure that electricity to power my iPhone will be scarce during the Zombie Apocalypse.)

We usually record the podcast every week on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. ET though our schedule for the next few weeks is a bit tentative at this point. See this thread in the everythingicafe.com forum or the site’s Twitter feed to get the most up-to-date information about our recording schedule.