Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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Review: Just Mobile AluCube + AluPen

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If you couldn’t already tell, I have a bit of a thing for styli. One of the first styli I acquired last year was the Just Mobile AluPen, a chunky stylus reminiscent of the fat Crayola crayons I used as a child. To go along with this stylus, Just Mobile has created a desk stand called the AluCube to store the AluPen in ready position while matching your other Apple products at the same time.

Just Mobile has been lauded for its product designs before and the AluCube + AluPen combination appears to be no exception when it comes to sleek minimalism. Read on my for my review to see if this package is a worthy addition to your desk. [Read more…]

Review: Just Mobile’s Lazy Couch keeps your laptop cool

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I have a Rev. B (late 2008) MacBook Air. While I love it, it runs a bit warm, as the early MacBook Airs were known to do. From what I understand, it doesn’t get as toasty as the first-generation MacBook Airs, but its temperature does get up there. I’ve used Just Mobile’s Cooling Bar (see my review of it here) as both a passive cooling method and ergonomic accessory for some time now, which has worked quite well for me. But I’ve just found something better thanks to the kind folks at Just Mobile.

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

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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.

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Review: Adonit’s Jot Pro Stylus for the iPad

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Image courtesy of Adonit

I’ve now spent a couple of weeks with the Jot Pro stylus and like it a lot – enough to get rid of the other styli I’ve collected over the past year and a half or so since the iPad first came out. It offers more precision than the other rounded-rubber-thing tipped styli currently on the market. And it has an ingenious hidden feature: a magnet that lets you attach it temporarily to your iPad 2 to prevent it from rolling way if you need to take a break from writing for a few moments.

The Jot Pro’s tip is metal with a clear plastic disc over it. You can see where you’re writing more easily and it writes very smoothly, feeling almost like you’re using a pen on paper.

My detailed review is now up on YouTube – it’s embedded here after the break.

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Review: Mas Design Replacement Titanium Back for the iPhone 4

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If you listen to the everythingiCafe podcast that I co-host or have caught a few of my blog posts here, you know that I think Apple’s decision to make the back of the iPhone 4 glass was a stupid one. I mean, really? An eminently-droppable portable device that costs at least $200 with a carrier subsidy made mostly out of glass? How was that a good decision, design aesthetics aside?
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At any rate, I’ve been trying out metal replacement backs for my iPhone 4 almost as soon as they were available, starting with a very nice beveled one from cnn.cn that I still love. However, I found some new ones recently produced by Mas Design made out of durable and exotic titanium and simply had to try one out. Read the rest of my review after the break.

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