Gadget Love: the mophie juice pack powerstation

Posted on November 30, 2011

after being an FAndroid for over a year, i’ve just recently switched back to an iPhone 4S. one of the major adjustments was battery. not only was my Android far more battery-efficient, but i was able to purchase an extra batter pack, so if i was low on juice, i could pop out the battery and put a fresh one in. BOOM!

on the iPhone – not so much, since the battery is a permanent part of the device. unfortunately, for a girl like me who is always on-the-go + addicted to her phone, this posed a problem.

the more popular option: the mophie juice pack air. it’s received nothing but rave reviews from everyone i know, but the one major issue: i have a real issue with how bulky it makes the phone.

(photo from intash.com)

enter the mophie juice pack powerstation. what is it? a portable, external battery that can charge any iOS device. so not only is it great for iPhone, but for iPad as well. then i read this rave review from The Next Web and I was sold!

SIZE: size is great – compact, about what I reckon an old-school iPod was. extremely lightweight. it also has this great, rubberized texture to it.

there are two ports: a micro-USB + iDevice port. and it also has a “power on” button – standard to all mophie devices, which is what will start charging the device, once plugged in.

GRIPES: gripes about this — it only comes with a USB-microUSB cable to charge the powerstation, so no outlet plug-in. it also doesn’t come with a Apple Dock Connector, which is a bit of a pain.

PERFORMANCE: great! i can fully charge my iPhone from around 10% battery to 100% THREE times before having to re-charge the power station! for a person like me who is rarely sedentary…it’s perfection.

highly recommend this for anyone who is on the go! well worth the price!

mophie juice pack powerstation, $79.95

which photo-sharing service is best?

Posted on January 7, 2011

i’m all for choices, but sometimes…enough’s enough! in the advent of the digital age, we are now met with a HOST of options when it comes to sharing our digital photography handiwork.

my personal goal is simple: to have one consolidated place that can house ALL my photos, funky-fresh effects and all. but i’m having a hard time discerning which one to use…and stick with.

which has lasting power? what makes is seamless between all of your social properties??

HELP!

Twitter (Twitpic, Plixi, yfrog, Twitgoo, Moby…) (2 votes)
Blog (Tumblr, Posterous) (1 vote)
Flickr (the ORIGINAL photo-sharing service), SmugMug (5 votes)
Instagram or PicPlz (1 vote)
ye Old Facebook (albums) (2 votes)

Foursquare Protocol: can you say “hi” without being a social media stalker?

Posted on May 14, 2010

True story.

Last night, I checked into Papatzul after my event. Naturally, I check in on Foursquare. Lo and behold…a “H” had just checked in minutes before I had.
Now, this “H” character is friends with several of my friends. I know him via Twitter. I’ve been told several times that we should meet each other. But we’d actually never met IRL.
HOW DOES ONE GO ABOUT THIS??? What is proper Foursquare protocol?
Do I walk up to him and say

“HI. I’m not a stalking sociopath or anything, but I follow you on Twitter, and I’m friends with your friends…and then I noticed you checked in on Foursquare, so I thought I’d scour the restaurant to say HI.”

Awkward!!
Anyhow, after several badly timed @replies, about each other’s descriptions, my homegirl @lesleykat was the good social media samaritan and did a lap around the restaurant for me to look for him — but by that time, he had already left.
SUCH a close encounter!! Oh well…until next time, “H”!
What would YOU have done???

Do you experience “SMS”? Social Media “Settling”

Posted on April 28, 2010

Over the fast few months, when hanging out with like-minded social mediaheads, I’ve noticed a phenomenon unfolding.
Say we go out to eat, or grab a drink. For the first 5 mins, a silence descends the group, as everyone is actively checking in on Foursquare, or Tweeting something funny they heard, or uploading a photo to Foodspotting.

I’d like to call this phenomenon: Social Media “Settling”…SMS, if you will.
Of course, “SMS” is even more noticeable when you are NOT with like-minded social mediaheads — when you’re with regular civilians. Then, that social media silence…turns awkward very fast!
Dear Civilians — don’t take it personal. We just love stroking our gadgets and our geekiness. It’s not that we’d rather play with our “online” friends more than enjoy your company. We just like to GEEK OUT! :)

Another ode to Twittelator Pro

Posted on March 14, 2010

For some reason, rainy Sunday mornings seem to equate to Geeking Out Time for me.
I’ve been a long time fan of Twittelator Pro since the beginning. Yes, I’ve strayed to try Tweetie 2.0, and I’ve occasionally dabbled in Echofon Pro, but in my experience, nothing compares to the powerful functionality of Twittelator Pro.
I’m hardly ever at home and I’m also a high-volume Twitterer, so I’m looking for a highly functional app that’s powerful enough to handle me!
ENTER: Twittelator Pro. It is the single most powerful, functional iPhone app I’ve ever found.
The KEY: you can customize EVERYTHING. Never underestimate the power of CHOICE. You can customize services, layout, appearance, sounds…EVERYthing.
Twittelator Pro does everything a standard desktop Twitter app offers, but in a mobile platform.
Here are some of my fave features that Twittelator Pro offers:
→

bit.ly URL shortening: When 140-characters is all you got, every letter counts. This is a standard feature for most desktop apps, but never found on apps. Also, Twittelator Pro offers an array of URL shortening services: bit.ly, piurl, href.in, is.gd… it’s endless!

photo service uploader selection: You name it, they offer it! Tweetphoto, Twitpic, Pikchur, Moby…it’s the single most extensive list of photo uploading services I’ve ever seen in one place. I really appreciate the choices.

RT OPTIONS!! You have the power of choosing HOW you’d prefer to Re-Tweet. Editable or Not? How would you like it to be quoted? You can choose! (for me, this is where Tweetie 2 fails MISERABLY. And even with their recent update, they STILL haven’t addressed it)

“Address Book” Function: I love how Twittelator Pro populates your Follower list, for easy @replies. This is an essential function I can’t live without. Other Twitter apps offer this also, BUT one way that Twittelator Pro does it better: it has a “Recent” section on the top, with people you’ve recently @replied to for easy access. Genius.

At $5, perfection doesn’t come cheap, but it’s WELL-Worth it. Twittelator constantly makes updates and improvements. They’re clearly committed to delivering quality.
CLICK to BUY TWITTELATOR PRO!

Droid who? Drooling over the HTC Passion

Posted on November 22, 2009

The beauty of Twitter is the sharing of information. Immediately after my Droid post, @The_Borg wised me up to the new HTC Passion that is rumored to be announced on Verizon in mid-December.

Check out PhoneArena for some detailed info on the specs, but some highlights that make this sucker attractive are:

1 GHz Snapdragon processor
large WVGA-resolution screen with multitouch
HTC Sense overlay
Android 2.0 OS
5 MP camera w/ auto focus & digital zoom

If this is like other HTC handsets, there is no slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but immediately, the design of the device is far more attractive than the square brick-of-a-Motorla-Droid.
THE ONE MYSTERY: What’s that round button on the bottom? Is it a Sleep Button?
Rumors are, Verizon will be announcing this device in mid-December.
I guess the lesson with technology: it’s nearly impossible to keep up! Just when you think you have the latest, there will always be another new lust-worthy device on the horizon.

To Droid? Or Not to Droid? That is the question…

Posted on November 18, 2009

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageously bad AT&T reception on my iPhone?…
It’s no secret that I have a love/hate relationship with my iPhone 3G: I love the device, I hate the poor service with AT&T in NYC. I still have my gripes with the iPhone, too (the lag in responsiveness in between screens, poor battery life), but overall the good outweighs the bad:

seamless synchronization with my MobileMe account
music, calendar, email and contacts all in one device
great apps, and lots of them!
easy UI, sleek & solid design

Lately, the AT&T coverage in NYC seems to be getting worse and worse. Last night, I had 3 dropped calls within the span of 2 minutes. No bueno.
Verizon launched the Motorola Droid on Friday, November 6th. It’s rumored to be the 1st of many Droid devices coming out on Verizon. The Gadget Girl in me is very tempted to add this new shiny toy to my phone arsenal. I’ve been frequenting the local Verizon Wireless store to play with the Droid for the past week (so much so, all the employees know I’m there just to play with it).

No doubt, it’s positioned as a sexy device. Just reading about the features makes me drool:

Android 2.0 software
RELIABLE Verizon coverage
VERY responsive to touch
big, bright & beautiful screen
Notifications drop-down keeps all your alerts conveniently in one place
Great apps (not as many options as iPhone, but they are not far behind)
slide out full QWERTY keyboard with D-Pad
2 touchscreen QWERTY keyboards: vertical & horizontal
5 MP camera
Verizon’s über reliable, fast network

But I admit I’m hesitant. The same features that make the Droid attractive are also its greatest vices. Here are my personal reasons, based on my limited playtime:

Dual-band, CDMA: CDMA gives great Verizon coverage in the States, but the Droid is a dual-band phone. Unfortunately, this is crippling to any international jet-setter or traveler (I am neither). The rest of the world typically runs on a GSM/SIM-card system. You’ll be virtually unable to use the Droid in Europe and Asia.
Clunky design: Yes, the Droid has a very “solid” feel to it. No one wants to feel like their phone is made of plastic (even if it really is). But for a newly launched phone, the design of the Motorola Droid seems square & clunky. No rounded edges.
Slide out keyboard: The full QWERTY keyboard — while it’s definitely handy — seems to be more of a handicap than a help. The keys lay directly adjacent to each other, with no topography — I really like raised keys so you get a sense of differentiation between the letters. It’s easy to make typos and difficult to discern between keys. Also, I don’t have gigantic thumbs, but this keyboard feels very Lilliputian…
D-Pad: This is a great little tactile cursor-navigator, but compared to the size of the mini-keyboard, it’s HUMONGOUS. I would trade a smaller D-Pad for a better QWERTY keyboard.
Touch-screen keyboard: In addition to the slider keyboard, the Droid offers 2 touch-screen QWERTY keyboard options: vertical & horizontal. Both are very sensitive, which is good & bad (I wish there was some way to adjust the touch-sensitivity). The horizontal is decent, but the vertical one is more difficult to use. Even though the width of the Droid screen size is comparable to the iPhone, the vertical touch-screen keyboard on the iPhone seems easier to use.
5 MP Camera: 5MP is pretty great for a camera phone. Yet, somehow the auto-focus on the Droid seems to botch this up. It’s hard to time perfectly and seems to take an eternity to snap an in-focus shot.
It’s gotten slower: In the week that I’ve gone to the store and played with the device, its responsiveness has gotten significantly slower. Granted, it’s probably been man-handled by hundreds of people, but it doesn’t bode well to say it’s slowed so much over the course of one week.

CONCLUSION:
SO…Despite my inner gadget fiend, I’ve suppressed my Droid desire, and resisted buying it because of the above. Also Verizon’s newly-implemented $350 ETF is not attractive. For a gal who hates commitment, that’s a hefty fee to break up with Verizon.
(I’m also trying to be a sensible adult, and not buy every new gadget that pops up on the market).
I think I’m going to wait and see what the next Droid device will be. Hopefully they’ll update it accordingly with some of the consumer feedback — particularly with the keyboards.
Do you have a Droid? If so, do you love it?

LUST CAUTION: The Barnes & Noble Nook

Posted on October 21, 2009

I never thought I’d ever utter these words, but: I have e-Book Reader ENVY!
This past July, my parents were generous enough to buy me the Amazon Kindle for my birthday. Since I have a 45-minute subway commute to work, and I travel a lot for my job, a Kindle was the perfect gift. I read more books on there in 2 months, than I did ALL of last year.
Then, last night, my friend @brooklynbum had to go and spoil my contentment by showing me this story on Gizmodo about the new Barnes & Noble e-Reader, Nook.

←DROOL
Just from everything I’ve read online, here’s what I can gather about these 2 devices.
Of course, the Nook boasts a lot of the SAME standard features the Kindle offers:

e-Ink Screen
Sample e-Books
Free Wi-Fi or 3G to download books
2MB of built-in Memory
Built-in Dictionary
Page Mark-Up ability
Kindle & Nooks both have FREE versions for BBs, Handhelds and iPhone

How is the Nook BETTER than the Kindle?

Touch Screen (sexy!)
Color Book Cover preview window (extra sexy!)
Memory Slot Card for expandable memory: you can carry your entire bookshelf on 1 memory card!
MP3 Music listening capabilities
No Keyboard (I think this is an advantage, because I don’t often use mine and I’d rather devote the space to an enlarged screen)
e-Lend Program: Ability to “Lend” a book to a friend for 2-weeks. Very much like an old-school library system. Books can be shared & read on any B&N e-Reader platform: on a PC, Mac, iPhone or Blackberry. Sharing is caring. (extra EXTRA sexy!)
No International version…yet.

How is the Nook is NOT better than the Kindle?

Limited Wi-Fi book-browsing: at least for the launch, you can only access the free Wi-Fi and browse books in their entirety AT Barnes & Noble store.
Limited Title Offering: Amazon will offer a more extensive title offering, so if you are looking for obscure books, you still need to buy an “old-fashioned” paper version.
e-Book prices are slightly higher on B&N.com than Amazon.com

Honestly, I’m kicking myself a little for copping the Kindle in July. I’m a sucker for all gadgets, shiny & new. I’m sure there will be kinks/bugs that will need to be worked out – as with any new device. But the initial specs look very promising.
Very drool-worthy!
You can place a pre-order for your Nook on the B&N Site. Expected ship date November 2009.
What do you think about the new Nook? Are you going to get one?

Cheaters never prosper…but they CAN on Foursquare

Posted on October 13, 2009

Being the “social media gal” at MAC…I’ve decided to commit to understanding the GPS-app craze. I’ve been trying out both Foursquare and Gowalla like crazy. I’ve even been elevated to “Superuser – Level 1″ on Foursquare – go hard, or go home!
So far, between Gowalla and Foursquare, I’ve found Foursquare to be more “user-friendly”. But there is ONE thing that gets to me – on an ETHICAL level.

I remember as a child, being told “Cheaters never prosper!” But they can on Foursquare:

Creating a “New Spot” Whenever you enter in deets for a New Spot, you get +5 points, rather than the +1 you get for checking in to an existing spot. Hypothetically, you can rack up more points just by creating multiple “new” spots. This lends to multiples of the same location on the Foursquare database.
No GPS Checks & Balances For being a GPS social network…there’s no system of GPS checks & balances. Right now, I could do a search for my office on the Foursquare iPhone app and could technically “Check In” to my Office in NYC, even though I’m snuggling with Syd Vicious on my couch in Astoria. IMO, there should be some way of “detecting” whether you are actually even CLOSE to the place you’re checking into.

Like I said – so far, I still prefer Foursquare. Really digging the business-related Special Offers they’ve been implementing. But I really hope they add some security measures so we can all Foursquare fairly.

Perhaps I spoke too soon: Tweetie 2 = wow, but do you really need another $3?

Posted on October 10, 2009

Earlier this week, I wrote a long, rambling post about how I love Twittelator PRO as my Twitter iApp of choice.
OF COURSE, in a cruel turn of events, Tweetie 2 was just released this week.

My first thought: “I have to shell out another $2.99 again?!”
It’s not that $3 is really THAT much money. Truthfully, I’m happy to pay it – especially because Tweetie 2 seems like such an incredible application.
It’s more because with Paid Apps, upgrades are usually free. Also, if you paid for an app MONTHS ago but deleted it from your iPhone…then changed your mind and wanted to get it back again – it’s STILL free to re-upload it onto your iPhone.
But these smart Tweetie 2 MoFos: instead of offering an upgrade, they introduce it as Tweetie 2.0 – so it’s as if it’s a brand new application. Ya gotta pay $2.99 all over again.
Given that the 1st gen Tweetie was the #1 paid Twitter app, it’s no surprise that nothing – not even a measly $3 – is going to come between the new Tweetie 2.
Full review of the app to come: need more time to play with it. But so far, it’s SO SLICK! I think Twittelator PRO might have been dethroned.
To download the new Tweetie 2, click here!

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Category Archives: For the Love of Geek