Gravitational Pull: A blog about tech and other stuff.

  • New AppleTV may be great but it solves nothing

    “I, for one, do not think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf.” Steve Jobs gives great gadget and he was in fine form on Wednesday…

  • Find the best Blu-Ray movies ’cause some don’t look so good

    As the super-duper-hyper-amazing home theater plan moves into high-gear, I’m discovering an unfortunate side-effect from high-definition television. Lots and lots of shows and movies don’t look any better in high-def and, in fact, many look worse. We have a couple of sources of HD programming including HD shows on our Verizon Fios cable, HD downloads…

  • New Doctor Who is a throwback to greatest old Doctor Who

    When the BBC revived Doctor Who, one of my TV staples growing up in the 70s, a few years ago I checked it out a couple of times. But I just didn’t click with the actors they’d chosen to play the Doctor, Christopher Eccleston for a year and David Tennant after that. Nothing against those…

  • Using a new HDMI Mac Mini with my TV: Early days

    This will be the first in a continuing series of posts about using a brand new Mac Mini with an HDMI port (purchased in June 2010) connected to a high-definition television. To read all of our adventures jumping through hoops, losing remotes and forgetting the password to bypass parental controls, see this page with all…

  • What Steve Jobs actually said about iBooks market share

    There’s been a bit of controversy about what Steve Jobs said yesterday (video here) in regard to the market share of the new iBookstore. To recall, Apple opened a new front in the electronic book wars when it introduced iBooks alongside the iPad two months ago. iBooks, sold in a proprietary DRM-locked format only at…

  • True report: AT&T just doubled mobile data prices

    (Updated 6/3) As I’m sure you’ve read all over today, AT&T announced major changes to its wireless data plans. But, I think because AT&T’s iPhone plan differed from other plans it offered, the reporting of these changes has been a little wacky. AT&T may have eliminated its “unlimited” data plan for the iPhone but it…

  • Out, damn’d spot – Reviewing iPad’s great Shakespeare app

    There are already a lot of very nifty iPad apps, from Entertainment Weekly‘s cool, interactive “Must List” to the show-me-the-radar greatness of Weatherbug to Amazon’s simple yet invaluable Kindle app. But so far, only one app has blown my mind: Shakespeare Pro (iTunes web link). It cost $19.99 but it’s probably worth $199.99 if you…

  • Insane eBook rip-offs — I tried to warn you

    Back when the major book publishers joined with Apple to go to war against Amazon and ebook consumers, there was some serious p.r. spin coming from the publishers’ camp and their toadies. In this bizzaro world, Amazon was hurting consumers by “forcing” an inflexible maximum ebook price of $9.99. If only publishers could get control…

  • Sexting, your lack of privacy and the iPad: a perfect storm?

    Stick with me as I circle around widely on this one…I’ll start with a Supreme Court case that should be of interest to everyone in techdom (SEXTING reaches the high court for the first time!) including a brief digression defending the chief justice from charges of gadget ignorance. Then I will ramble on about why…

  • Early impressions and mini-review of Sprint’s 4G Overdrive hotspot

    In my continuing quest to keep up with the latest and greatest mobile Internet stuff, I’m trying out the new Sprint 3G/4G Overdrive, pictured above. Made by Sierra Wireless and slightly more portly than first generation mobile hotspots like my Verizon Mifi 2200, the Overdrive retains the same basic yet great feature set of its…

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