The Gadgets Page

When I got my Acer Aspire, I immediately wanted to make it look unique. Fortunately, there were a ton of skins made specifically for it from Decalgirl. I bought a bunch of different ones, but I really love this one. It’s called, aptly enough, Laurie’s Garden for the Acer Aspire.

I really like how the skin is made specifically for my laptop. They even cut out holes for the little indicator lights.

I also bought the Laurie’s Garden skin for my iPhone.

Each iPhone skin comes with a code to allow me to download a wallpaper to put on my iPhone to match up with the skin. I was worried that the Laurie’s Garden skin might look weird on my white iPhone, but it turns out that there is plenty of white in the design to make it look good.

You can see all the photos here:

• Decalgirl Skins: Laurie’s Garden – a set on Flickr

Whenever I get a new gadget, I want to make it MINE. Putting a skin on my iPhone and laptop is a great way to mark my toys as mine and fulfill my matching disease in one fail swoop.

I’ve only recently started watching House M.D. After watching the episode with Felicia Day earlier this season, I immediately went back to the beginning and watched the show from start to present. A few years ago, Wilson got kicked out of his house by his now-ex-wife. For a short time, he was living with House. The two of them were perusing his Tivo recordings and this flashed on the screen.

I laughed out loud and paused the video. Wilson was asking House about all the episodes of New Yankee Workshop, but tucked toward the end of the list hides a recording of Blackadder.

The actor who plays House, Hugh Laurie, starred in Blackadder alongside Rowan Atkinson. It’s little inside jokes like that in television shows that make me LOVE them.

House and Wilson LOVE their Tivos. I watched this episode the other day:

I just laughed when I heard the familiar blip-bleep of Wilson’s Tivo.

House: “What is El Fuego del Amor and why do you need ten of them?”

Wilson: “It’s a telenovella. I’m learning Spanish.”

House: “Well, say adios!”

Wilson: “Are you erasing my Tivo?! House! Not the season finale!”

Honestly, Tivo has been the savior of television for me. I used to think that it was just a glorified VCR, but it has surprised me. After less than a year of training, Tivo KNOWS exactly what I want to watch. It can tell that I like House M.D., but I don’t like CSI or Grey’s Anatomy. It can tell that I would love to watch Legally Blonde again, but I have no desire to watch the latest Lifetime television special.

Before we connected our Tivo to our television, my TV watching had dwindled down to nothing. I would download a show or two on iTunes, but I had no desire to watch shows on my very EXCELLENT television. The VCR had become more of a burden than an asset, so I just stopped watching.

It’s nice to see that the writers of House M.D. know how important my Tivo is. I love to see the characters on television just as worried about losing an episode of El Fuego del Amor as I am about losing an episode of House.

A while back, I wrote about an iPhone stand that you can make yourself using binder clips.

• Gadgets Page » Binder Clip iPhone Stand

It looks like there is a sleeker way to make your iPhone sit up on your nightstand. It’s called Ultra Thin MobileRiser. It’s a little stand that sticks onto the back of your iPhone (or other device) with 3M adhesive that folds up flat when you don’t need it. You can see it in action here:

I like to have a cute decal on my iPhone, so the idea of sticking the MobileRiser on the back of my phone isn’t appealing, especially when I can just have a binder clip stand by my bed to use when I’m sleeping. For only five bucks, however, this might be the perfect option for someone who isn’t obsessed with making his iPhone cute.

There are lots of games available for the iPhone, but one that I’ve downloaded and really enjoyed is Electronic Arts’ Sudoku. You can see it here:

• Electronic Arts: Sudoku – iTunes Link

At only $4.99, it’s a reasonably priced application for the iPhone and it beats all of the free versions out there. It’s easier to use than any other version and I rarely press the wrong number with their user interface.

My only problem with this game is the splash screen. I can turn off the music and sound effects in the game, but EVERY time I load the game, it plays a LOUD flute tune while loading. I don’t mind the fact that it takes a while to load. I don’t mind the hubris and vanity of Electronic Arts and the visual graphics while the game loads, but the music is SO LOUD that I can’t just pull out my iPhone and play a little Sudoku in public places.

Just imagine being in church. You’re bored out of your mind because Sister Christiansen is bearing her testimony AGAIN about the way genealogy work has brought her closer to Jesus. You KNOW she’s going to be talking for at least fifteen minutes before they will be able to wrestle the microphone out of her hands. Time to check out with a little Sudoku, right? NO! Don’t do it! The second the splash screen plays that flute music on FULL volume, the entire congregation is going to turn around and look at YOU! You can’t even disable the noise by turning off the ringer on your iPhone. NOTHING STOPS IT!

It’s not like the game hasn’t had multiple updates, but each one has failed to give me the option to TURN OFF the audio on the splash screen. I can turn off the audio while the game is playing, but I can’t load up the game without EVERYONE getting an earful of Asian flutes.

Until EA realizes that we need to be able to discreetly load up their games on our iPhones and play them when no one is noticing, they are going to FAIL in the casual gaming market.