The Gadgets Page

I checked the tracking. Last night, it was in Kentucky. Overnight, it boarded a plane, had a layover in Colorado and then hopped another plane to Salt Lake City. By the time I was awake, it was on a UPS truck and “In Transit.” It required a signature, so I put a sign on the door so the UPS driver wouldn’t leave before we could get to the door.

I didn’t need the sign, however. I waited at the window until the UPS truck pulled up and even met the guy at the porch when he walked up with my delivery.

“I was worried that I might miss you, so I’ve been waiting here all morning. It’s an iPad. I’m REALLY excited.”

The UPS driver nodded. I expected him to act like I was crazy instead of perfectly normal.

“Yeah, everybody’s pretty excited,” he replied nonchalantly.

I was surprised at his answer. “Have you had a lot of deliveries this morning?”

“About 28 just in this neighborhood.” I gasp with shock and curse openly. The clean cut Mormon tried to ignore my vulgarity and continued. “I delivered the stock to the Gateway store. They got over a thousand.” Then he rushed back to his truck to deliver more iPads to my neighbors.

We’ve been using our Konnet iCrado to dock and charge the iPad and it’s working great!

I’ve been in search of a kid friendly timer for a while now. I needed something that was accurate and my kids wouldn’t break on Day One. I had tried the traditional egg timers but they were inaccurate and broke easily.

While at CES in Las Vegas I walked by a booth for Datexx and did a double take. Sitting on the counter was a cube with large numbers. I stopped and discovered “The Miracle Cube Timer”. I had to try it out and purchased one that day. This has been the best timer. It is easy to use, keeps reliable time and has lasted so far (even after being dropped).

This timer is very easy to use – you turn it on pick the time you want and set it down with that time face up. The cube has four different preset time amounts: 5min, 15 min, 30 min, and 60 min. It also has a small screen which shows how much time is remaining, and a blinking red light to show that it is on. It is powered off 2 AAA batteries which have also lasted (I thought for sure we would be going through batteries but we are still on our first set).

The only problem with this timer is if you want a different amount of time then 4 choices it gives you, you might have to set it multiple times, and the alarm at the end is loud (which can be good or bad, depending on what you are doing with it).

We use the timer so my kids know when their allotted computer or Wii time is up. But it could also be used for cooking, games, naps, exercising or a number of other activities. If you need a timer that can stand up to the abuse that kids can dish out, the Datexx Cube Timer is the best I’ve found.

The email came some time in the evening.

My iPad has been shipped. I won’t be waiting in line at the Apple store for it, despite the fun that can be had from that experience. My pre-ordered iPad will arrive at my house with a flurry of fur from my dog, who is certain that every delivery is a bomb or rabid animal.

I have three days to sytematically reload the tracking number into the system over and over, watching its progress from where it is to where it should be.

My behavior is beyond my own comprehension and I wonder whether my excitement is unwarranted.

• @arghgame There is a bug with the game. My photos of captured ghosts always look like this. http://twitpic.com/1bod3p #

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At CES 2010, Konnet showed off their Shine iPhone Cases. I loved these cases because they are so very shiny.

Each case comes with a matching shiny screen protector.

The screen was so shiny that I could check out my hair and makeup in its reflection, so I was pretty worried that it would interfere with the screen, but when the iPhone was turned on, the screen showed through sharp and clear.

The case itself is slightly translucent.

If you’re looking for an iPhone case that will really get noticed, the Shine Metal case from Konnet is a real attention-getter.

The news in the air is that Palm is dead. They created the Palm Pilot and STARTED the palm computing revolution a decade ago, but what are they doing lately? With their stock plummeting, there are people out there saying that Palm is dead. Even Joy of Tech commented on it:

• The Joy of Tech comic… Desert Palm.

Considering that Palm was at CES for only one day, didn’t have a booth on the convention floor and only a suite at the Venetian, I’m not surprised by the lackluster earnings. They MUST have known that they were hurting for funds and that’s why they skimped on CES this year.

Here are Kevin Rose’s thoughts on this subject:

Palm IS dead, but they have been dead for a LONG time. It just took the tech world nearly three years to NOTICE their decaying corpse. I knew they were dead when I wrote this entry about putting video on the Treo.

• Gadgets Page » How To Put Your DVD on Your iPod or Treo

It took me a LONG time to just figure out how to convert a movie file and put it on my Treo. If you look at my face in that video, you can just SEE the frustration and exhaustion from dealing with this issue. Instead of an easy way that just worked, I had to jump through hoops, search for software and even write a whole tutorial so I would remember how to do it again.

When Apple released the iPhone and I was able to just download a movie and immediately put it on my phone, I heard the death rattle of Palm from across the country. I imagined all those years of being betrayed by Palm. They made machines that had the capability of playing music and video, but made it so convoluted, complicated and inconvenient that I was never able to get it to work consistently.

That was in JULY of 2007! Palm died a long time ago, folks. It just took you guys three years to notice the smell.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Swatch Watches. I’ve written about them many times (even when I’m not writing about watches):

• Gadgets Page – Search Results – Swatch

I originally fell in love with Swatch during the Eighties, so you can imagine my delight when the newest collection for Spring 2010 harkens back to those days. Here’s a commercial showing them off.

The models in this commercial look a lot like an old Benneton advert. The photo to the right was the closest I could find in my old advertisement collections. I didn’t realize how much I missed that sort of experimentation and daring with makeup and color until I saw it again in these Swatch ads. After years of bland neutrals, these exciting colors are enough to make me want to experiment with makeup again!

I heard about these Swatches back in February and I immediately wanted them:

• I am SO excited about the new Swatch Colour Codes Collection! When can I buy them?! DO WANT!! http://tinyurl.com/ybpdhas #

I had to wait a full month before I was able to get my butt to Vegas and buy as many as I had saved up money for. Here are some photos after the break: (Continue Reading…)

• How to print booklets with a Mac. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-to-create-physical-booklets-with-a-mac/ #

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My iPad is pre-ordered and I’m eagerly awaiting its arrival. So much so that I created a papercraft iPad to test my Konnet iCrado dock. It looks like my new gadget will work with the iCrado perfectly! I’m so glad that the high back will be enough support for my iPad.

The nice people at Konnet gave me an iCrado while we were at CES this year to test and review. I have been using it for the last three months and I have to honestly say that it’s my favorite iPhone/iPod/iPad dock I have ever used.

It comes in a wide variety of colors and they had them all on display at CES. Because there are so many colors to choose from I literally locked up and couldn’t choose on my own, so they chose a yellow one for me.

What I like best about the iCrado is the way it connects to the computer. Instead of including the highly changeable and proprietary Apple Dock Connector, it has an open space to insert your own. I REALLY like this feature because if Apple suddenly decides to change how their gadgets accept dock connectors (like they did with the iPhone 3GS), then I can just change out the cord.

One note on choosing cords to use with the iCrado. Make sure you use a cord that doesn’t “lock” in place. You know, the kind where you have to press the sides to release the phone. Since the cord is housed in the iCrado, you won’t be able to press those buttons, so make sure you use a connector that doesn’t lock (like the one pictured above).

I have thoroughly enjoyed the iCrado for the last three months and I’m eagerly awaiting my chance to sync my iPad with it.

Update 04-03-10:

We just received our iPad and are so pleased with how it works with the iCrado. Since the official iPad dock isn’t available yet, the iCrado is the best dock out there. Here are a couple pictures.

• Super sick. I might be out of commission for a while. #

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