Category: review

  • In-depth review of updated Nokia web pad raves

    (Updated 1/25 with additional review) Mike Arrington’s little blog neighborhood is growing, as I noticed today that in addition to the gadget-focused blog added back in the summer (CrunchGear) and his original Web 2.0-ish site (TechCrunch), there’s now one about mobile stuff, too. It’s named — wait for it — MobileCrunch. In any event, blogger…

  • WriteRoom getting better

    Version 2.0 of the retro word processor WriteRoom is out today (tip o’ the cap to MacMinute.com) with some nifty new features. I’ve been messing around with the initial release because it helps me to concentrate on writing and avoid getting sucked in to answering email or making new iTunes playlists or anything else. Essentially,…

  • Phew, that’s a mighty back up

    The year is rapidly drawing to a close, prompting the usual rush to get those last tax deductions in order, clean out the closets and, of course, update my off-site back up. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a thing about backups after having experienced hefty data losses several times, including the time when my…

  • Belkin’s nifty iPod recorder — finally

    Seems like its been since, oh, forever, that I’ve been looking for a voice recorder to attach to my fifth-generation iPod but its only been a year. When last we checked in on the wait in March, there were two contenders: XtremeMac’s MicroMemo (which looked cool but was kind of pricey) and Griffin Technology’s iTalk…

  • Short-tailed Sony reader needs a much longer one

    Sony’s new e-book Reader certainly seems like a marvel of technology but it’s also an example of a company forgetting to ask the most basic question of new product development: what is the customer benefit over existing products? With a nod to Chris Anderson and his much discussed long tail thesis, the real direction for…

  • Everbody’s thinking about S3 for backup

    I can see today that I’m hardly the only one messing around with Amazon’s super-cheap S3 online storage system as a possible off-site backup strategy. Jeremy Zawodny, whose has been wanting/predicting solid online backup for a while, says he’s experimenting with S3, but doesn’t give all the details yet (like what software is he using,…

  • Speedy blogs, speedily updated on VoIP

    Once upon a time, I kept stacks of computer magazines on hand just in case I was suddenly in the market for some gadget reviewed months earlier. Now a days, of course, the Internet has completely subsumed that role and it’s usually not the web sites of big magazines that even run the best reviews.…

  • You don’t actually need an Expresscard/34

    There’s a great review over at Barefeats.com of Verizon’s new mobile broadband card (you know — the one that actually fits in the Macbook Pro’s Expresscard/34 slot). But the more interesting bit is that using a USB cable and a Motorola Razr phone, they were able to achieve the same broadband performance. You still need…

  • New page of stuff I’m messing with

    I’m adding a new permanent page to my link list down the side today. It’s intended to fill the gap between blog entries and my existing lists of hardware and software that I use regularly. Really, it’s just stuff I’m messing with and I’ll use it to keep a running list of products that I’m…

  • Sony’s promising Mylo gets a poor review

    I was intrigued by Sony’s announcement of a $350 mini portable device, Mylo, that could browse the web and play multimedia files. But the first review is in, by Tim Onosko, on Dave Farber’s Interesting People list and couldn’t be more negative: “Mylo, in my opinion, is a classic case of overpromising and underdelivering. It…