Wednesday, May 30, 2012

These speakers are good to go

The arrival of warmer weather means we'll be getting outside more to tackle those spring clean-up projects or just relax in the sun. And why not take along your favorite music or podcasts?

You don’t need a boom box or an expensive docking station to turn your cell phone, iPod or tablet computer into a mobile sound system. These battery-powered speakers will keep things rockin' while you organize the garage or clean up your flower gardens.

Read the full reviews at MyWell-Being.com
 

Monday, May 28, 2012

Get a grip on your tablet

We want our tablets and ebook readers to be thin and light, but that can also mean they're slippery and sometimes difficult to hold. If you've tried to hold a tablet in one hand while you're your other hand is typing or trying some exotic multi-finger gesture, then you know what I mean.

When Denver DJ Kevin "Prometheus" Trotsky couldn't find a device that would let him get a grip on his iPad, he invented one. It's called the Whale Tail and it lets you hold a tablet securely with one hand or prop up the device on almost any surface.

The gadget some in two pieces. The first is a black dome-shaped Vacuum Dock that sticks to the back of the your tablet like those suction cup brackets that mount your GPS on your car's windshield. But this one has a built-in pumping button that insures a tight fit on a plastic case or on the iPad's aluminum back.    

The dock is the perfect size for the palm of your hand. It gives you a solid hold on your device while your other hand is free to point, type or swipe. The other component is the tail, which snaps into place in the center of the dock. Now you have a stand as well as a gripper.

The tail is both sturdy and flexible. It can be attached and bent to hold the tablet at a variety of angles, in either portrait or landscape mode.

I usually keep my iPad in an X-Doria folio case, but I've found lots of uses for the Whale Tail. It was especially welcome when I did a presentation to a group and it finds just the right angle for iPadding in bed.

The Whale Tail cost $49.95 at Octa.com.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Razr MAXX: the phone for blabbermouths

Motorola made a splash last winter when it revived its Razr line of skinny mobile phones. The original Razr from 2004 was a flip phone, the new version an Android-based smart phone with a 4.3-inch screen, 4G network access and a case that's less than one-half inch thick.

For an encore, Moto kept all of the Razer's basic specs but added what could be the best battery in the business. While last year's Razr would last for about 10 hours, a pretty respectable performance, the MAXX can run for almost a full rotation of the Earth.

Motorola says the phone will last for 21 hours of talk time on a single charge. Independent tests have clocked it at about 19.5 hours. Either way, that's enough juice to keep the biggest blabbermouths in gear.

The Razr MAXX costs $199 with a two-year contract at verizonwireless.com.
  

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Moto and HTC devices slated for Android upgrades

HTC's Thunderbolt will get Android 4.0.
Summer is a great time to get an ice cream sandwich. That goes for people and for their mobile phones.

Both Motorola and HTC have announced their schedules for rolling Android 4.0, the new Google operating system that runs on handsets and tablets.

In the Motorola camp, the Droid Razr and Razr Maxx will get ICS by the end of June. So will Motorola's Xoom tablet.

Other devices will have to wait until the third quarter. That list includes the Droid Bionic, Atrix 2, Droid 4, and the Xyboard tablet.

No ice cream for the Droid 3 or Droid X2.

At HTC, phone slated for an upgrade in the second quarter include the Droid Incredible 2, the the EVO 3D, the Rezound; and the Thunderbolt.  HTC's Flyer tablet is among the devices that won't be getting an upgrade.


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Xoot past the gas pumps

My friend Charlie has an answer to city traffic jams and high gasoline prices. It's the Xootr, an adult-sized collapsible kick scooter that looks like a skateboard on a stick.

The Xooter costs less than a Vespa or a bicycle and it's a lot more portable. Charlie keeps his in the trunk of his car when he's commuting from Southern Indiana to his job in downtown Louisville. If the bridge across the Ohio River is backed up, he'll park on the Indiana side and scoot across the bridge. On days when he drives all the way to to work, he might get pumped for the day by doing a slalom run down from the upper floors of his parking garage.

When the Xootr is in his office, he sometimes uses it to get to an appointment or a lunch date downtown. Walking six or eight blocks typically takes about 12 minutes, he said. "On this thing, it's four minutes."

The Xootr has the same general design as the one you might have has as a kid. It's got a pair of wheels fore and aft on a low platform with handlebars on a vertical post at the bow.

But that's where the similarities end. The Xootr uses high-grade industrial materials, like magnesium for the lightweight deck, polyurethane for the tires, and wheels that glide along on ball bearings. There's a hand brake on the handlebars and a foot brake over the rear wheel. The deck is long and wide enough for two adult feet to stand comfortably and the front post can be adjusted for riders of different heights.

Xootr's kick scooters and a line of folding bikes are sold through the Xootr website where prices start at about $200. The scooters can be tricked out with accessories like a shoulder strap or a bike bag.

The Xooter's low center of gravity makes it surprisingly easy to ride. In my test runs, I was off and rolling from the first kick. I could push my way up a slight incline with just a couple of kicks and felt like Shaun White on the downhill return. After building a little more confidence, I got my dog to come with me. She trotted on the end of a leash while I rolled and we cruised for a couple of blocks without a mishap.

Charlie says he has to watch for sidewalk cracks and rocks bigger than a marble can be troublesome. He said his only tumbles have been self-inflicted, like the times when he tried to jump a curb like a skater dude.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

New iWow adapter brings big sound to more devices

A common lament about MP3s and other digital audio formats is that by compressing music to make it portable we lose the detail and richness of the original version. Last year SRS Labs delivered an attractive solution with the iWow adapter, a tiny dongle with a headphone plug that works with the Apple communication slot on iPods, iPhones and iPads.

Built into the dongle is SRS Labs' patented sound enhancement chip that restores depth and clarity to compressed music. When I wrote about the iWow adapter about a year ago, I said the effect was dramatic. "You immediate hear cleaner, richer and more detailed sound. Bass tracks have more definition, vocals are more separated from the music and high notes don't get clipped."

It wasn't long after that column appeared that I started hearing from readers asking if SRS had a version that worked with computers or with Android phones and tablets. Back then, the answer was no. Today it's yes.

The new adapter is called the iWow Universal and it works with any device that has an output for a standard 3.5mm stereo pin plug. That includes mobile phones, tablets, computers, game machines and any other device that has a headphone jack, including Apple gadgets.

I tried the U watching movies on my iPad and listening to music played from my computer. In both instances it delivered the same enhanced sound that I heard with the original iWow. One difference between the two devices: The iWow Universal can't draw power from the host device, so it has an internal battery that lasts for about six hours. It has a mini-USB port for refueling.

The Universal version costs about $70 from the SRS Labs website

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Lumia 900: The other smart phone


Walk into most mobile phone stores and you quickly get the idea that there are only two types of phones: Apple’s iPhone and those that use Google’s Android operating system. But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find the Lumia 900. For some people, it will be worth the effort. 

This is a phone for people who don’t believe that they need to carry a computer in their pocket. It’s attractive and easy to use, it performs the functions that most people want from their phones, and it’s less expensive than you might expect.

The Lumia 900 is the offspring of two tech giants. Nokia, the company that once ruled the mobile phone universe, built the hardware, and Microsoft created the operating system called Windows Phone 7. The phone has a 4.3-inch screen in a sleek black case with color accents. It looks as sharp and classy as any high-end handset and it feels solid in your hand.

And the operating system looks just as good. Unlike Android, Microsoft  did not set out to copy the iPhone. Instead of rows of little square icons, the home screen on the Lumia has a bold, colorful boxes that take you to each of the phone’s functions. There’s no squinting or fumbling to make a call, read a message, check for email, shoot a photo or open the web browser.

While the Lumia 900 might focus on the basics, it’s more than a basic phone. It plays music and movies using the software that Microsoft built for its Zune media player, which some critics liked more than Apple’s iPod. And it has a front-facing camera to use with video conferencing programs.

Nokia also has a library of third-party applications, a must for any smart phone that hopes to compete with Apple and Android. You won’t find everything that Apple and Android offer, but it covers all of the big names. There are apps for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, and Foursquare. You can install Amazon’s Kindle app, travel apps from Kayak and Trip Advisor plus news and weather apps from AP and Bloomberg.

Nokia’s game library includes Angry Birds, but not Words With Friends. You can find plenty of other time-wasters at Microsoft’s Xbox Live service which is integrated into the phone. The Lumia 900 is the first mobile phone to get the ESPN Hub app, which delivers news, videos and scores. And, as you might expect from a Microsoft product, the Windows Phone 7 system lets you easily view and edit Microsoft Office documents like Word or Excel files.

One more advantage to the Lumia 900: it costs just $99 with a service plan. That’s about half of what most phones with similar specs would cost. So far, it’s available only through AT&T.


Saturday, May 19, 2012

Crunch your headphone cable

The CordCruncher keeps your headphone cable out of your hear, your food, you bicycle handlebars - all those places that it seems to want to go.

The Cruncher is a flexible sleeve that wraps around the headphone cable and give you control over the cord's length. Pull on the earbuds and the cord expands out to 3 1/2 feet. Pull the ends of the sleeve and it collapses down to about 16 inches and ready for tangle-free storage.

The CordCruncher was developed by Jay Johnson who took his idea to this year's Consumer Electronics Show to look for financial backers. That led him to Kickstarter.com, a website that helps entrepreneurs get crowd-sourced funding for their projects.

Johnson hit his $20,000 target in April to start full production. CordCruncher in a variety of colors are scheduled to be available in June for $24.99 but you can pre-order one now for $19.99 at cordcruncher.com.

Here's a video that shows how the product works.


Friday, May 18, 2012

An iPad case made from . . . paper?

Put your iPad in a paper bag? Sounds like a crazy idea, and the Austrians who make the Papernomad cases would surely admit that they are a little, um, unconventional.

But they aren't fooling around. Their paper is a special composite that resists tearing and staining. They use multiple layers of paper and padding are stitched together to produce a case that's just as tough and protective as any poly plastic pouch.

The sleeves are finished with attractive borders and designs and there's a little hemp flap to seal the open end. The surface of the paper is dense enough that it won't get soggy when you spill coffee on it or carry it in the rain.

And here's the best part: you can make one uniquely yours. Draw a doodle or a cartoon on it. Write a poem, a phone number or a web address. Add a quote from Dilbert. After all, it's paper - it was made write on.

Papernomad makes sleeves in a variety of sizes for different portable devices. The iPad sleeve cost about $50 at papernomad.com.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

French fries without the grease

We sure love those French fries. Americans eat them four times a week, mostly from fast-foot restaurants.

And that's one of the problems with fries. Unless you don't mind having a vat of boiling oil in your kitchen, they're not easy to make at home. The other problem is that oil is loaded with saturated fats, which tend to collect on your waist and thighs.

T-Fal, the company that pioneered the nonstick frying pan, has a cooking gadget designed to solve both problems. The Actifry cooker lets you easily make tasty fries without all the fat. The device cooks food with a single tablespoon of oil, so you get fries with just 3 percent fat content rather than 16-18 percent for the deep-fried restaurant versions.

And I'm here to testify to the easy and tasty part.

My approach to cooking typically focuses on pushing a few buttons on the microwave oven. Tackling a recipe that involves fresh ingredients is usually way out of my league. But I can peel and slice a potato and that's about all the skill I needed to use the Actifry.

After cutting a couple of potatoes into pencil-sized stalks, I dumped them in the Actifry's bowl, added some seasoning salt and one tablespoon of olive oil. Then I closed the lid, set the machine's timer, and left to catch up on some TV.

The Actifry has a stirring paddle that rotates slowly on a center post. By tumbling the potato strips, it distributes the oil and seasoning. The food is cooked using dry heat pumped into the sealed chamber that holds the cooking bowl. There's no bubbling grease, no fumes and no icky residue. The only minor irritation is the noise caused by the rotating bowl and the heat pump.

Thirty minutes after the cooking started, I had a bowl of French fries that were brown and crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside. They were evenly cooked and seasoned with no greasy taste or feel. A couple of nights later, I made potato wedges with spicy paprika seasoning. My family pronounced them as good as any restaurant fries and crowned me the King of France. And with the nonstick surface on the Actify bowl, the king didn't mind clean-up chores.

Although pommes frites are the Actifry's pièce de résistance, the Actifry comes with recipes for a variety of other dishes such as chicken gumbo, salmon tandoori and cherry-pecan granola. Next up for us: chicken stir-fry.

The Actifry costs about $200 at Amazon and other online sources.


My alphabet addiction

My son ruined our family life. When he came home for the holidays, he brought with him a highly addictive drug that's cheap and easy to get anytime and anywhere. It consumes every minute of your life that you will give it, and then it wants for more.

The name of this scurrilous menace? It's called Words With Friends.

WWF is a compact version of Scrabble that was developed by Zynga, the same company that brought Farmville and other games to Facebook. If you're not already hooked, you've seen or heard about Words With Friends. About 20 million people play the game every month on Facebook and many more play on their smart phones or tablets.

Boomers and seniors are often attracted to word games because they will help keep their brains sharp. I've learned dozens of new words when an opponent drops words like HUNH or PEIN on me. And I've resurrected some old Scrabble favorites like QAT and GOX.

But Words With Friends can also have a dark side. Maybe you remember that story about Alec Baldwin getting kicked off a plane because he wouldn't turn off his phone. He was playing Words With Friends. And last month a teacher in Northern California was charged with having an improper relationship with a 14-year-old boy. Police said it started with text messaging and Words With Friends. At my house we've avoided trouble with the authorities, but we all seem to be all in with Words.

My wife and daughter each got a new Kindle Fire at Christmas, but doubt either one has finished an e-book. They're both too busy playing letters and fretting about the competition. Not that I have any room to be critical. At any given time, I have games in progress with three cousins in Chicago, my son and his girlfriend in California, my wife, her sister, my daughter, one of her friends, a couple of business associates, and a former high school girlfriend in Florida. We addicts do love company.

Like many other social games, Words With Friends will comb through your collection of Facebook friends and point out ones who are already hooked. Just click the "Invite" button and you'll have another one hooked. If you don't already have game-playing friends, the software will find some for you and hook you up with a random opponent. If they want, random players can get to know each other using a built-in chat feature. But be warned - there's danger there, too.

Around Valentine's Day, the Wall Street Journal published a story about people finding romance over their alphabet tiles. It featured a couple in Georgia who were married last November after a year-and-a-half romance that began when they each hit "random opponent." Another story reported on a man who moved to the U.S. from The Netherlands to marry a woman he met playing Words. And that's not all that unusual. A poll commissioned by Zynga found that 47 percent of players say they are "crushing" on someone they're competing with and one out of 10 players say they have hooked up with an opponent. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Cloud services make backups a breeze

Backing up your computer files is one of life's lessons that you have to learn the hard way. You start out thinking that your expensive new computer will be just as reliable as your TV or stereo. They've been humming along for 10 or 20 years, why should you expect the computer to break down?

Believe me, it will break. And it won't be pleasant. When it happened to me, I lost family photos, videos and documents that will never be replaced.

Now we have the option of making cloud backups, and that makes our excuses more flimsy than they ever were. Cloud backups are easy, inexpensive and painless. And, unlike an external hard drive, your files are safe if your computer and backup drive get stolen or or destroyed.

My article at MyWellBeing.com compares the two top cloud services for consumers: Moxy and Carbonite.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Vulkano slings your home TV

The NBA playoffs are in full swing, but might be out of reach of the TV channels that are showing your team's games. That can happen if you're at work or traveling and there's either no TV handy or it's not showing the game you want.

Times like that can earn Monsoon Multimedia's Vulkano an MVP award. The Vulkano uses the Internet to deliver live video from your home TV to a remote device. That device could be your office or portable computer, a smart phone or a tablet. 

The Vulkano's basic version, called the Flow, is a keyboard-sized slab that connects through cables to your home TV and, with a cable or Wi-Fi, to your home network. At the remote end, you can download a install a program on a Windows or Mac PC or an app on an Apple, Android or Blackberry phone or tablet. The Android apps are free but the Apple versions cost $12.99.

Once both ends can talk to each other, your remote device becomes an extension of your TV. Vulkano's channel guide or a pop-up remote control lets you find and select a channel. After a bit of buffering, you get live video with sound.

The picture quality will vary depending on the speed of your connection and the screen size of your device. It's quite good on a 4G phone but slightly rougher on a tablet, especially when there's action on the screen. Video is also better if it comes from a high-definition channel.

If your device has an option for HDMI output, you can route the picture to a monitor or digital TV, but be prepared for the picture quality to degrade on a larger display.

The Vulkano works much like the better-known Slingbox Solo. But the Vulkano Flow costs $99 compared to $179 for the Solo.  Monsoon also sells a $249 version called the Blast that incorporates a digital video recorder.

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