Category: Reviews

As a long-time Apple nerd, I was more than a little nervous when I heard about the Jobs movie for the first time.

It wasn’t just that I was afraid it’d be some sort of Kelso Builds Computers, either. While everyone knows who Steve Jobs was, the true nerd heroes — guys like Woz, Jef Raskin, Burrell Smith and Andy Hertzfeld — aren’t household names. Having the Apple story told in movie theaters across the globe is a rare chance that people like me have to see our interests be placed on a huge platform.

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Screen’s really nice

My iPad mini’s looks bad

Android: still subpar

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There are lots of ways to gather and organize files and information on the Mac. For photos and images, however, there’s not a great option. Dropbox is great for files, but Finder is Dropbox’s UI, which isn’t always the best option. Evernote is well-liked, but can be overkill for some.

Now there’s Ember.

Ember is a digital scrapbook. Like a real scrapbook, it’s easy to add photos and images, but because it’s digital, the data can be organized easily and quickly. There are tags and collections, as well as metadata and smart folders. There are some great built-in editing and annotation tools, as well.

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While I spoke on Bionic this week at great length about it, I wanted to share some photos and thoughts about the BlackBerry Z10 here, too.

It’s important to note that I’ve never been a BlackBerry user. While I know of the company’s history and deep ties in the enterprise, I’ve approached this phone like I do others that I review: as someone who has used iOS and Android extensively. For example, I didn’t spend any time with the security settings or the phone’s ability to separate work and home data.

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Just shy of a year ago, a Kickstarter project was launched that would take the nerd world by storm. In five weeks, the group raised $10,266,845, even though they needed only $100,000 to launch. The Pebble was born.

A year later,I’m sitting at my dining room table with the smartwatch next to my MacBook Pro. I’ve had it for a couple of days, and have collected my thoughts on this new-to-me product category.

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I’m a huge weather nerd. In high school, I got certified via Skywarn. Some buddies and I almost got killed one night chasing a tornado an hour or so east of Memphis. (That’s a story for a different time.)

That said, I’ve never been really happy with a weather app on my iPhone until I came across the simply-named Check the Weather.

The app uses GPS (or pre-saved locations) to pull up the correct weather information. The main screen shows the current state of things, with a look ahead at the day, as well as the next three days.

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In my Nike+ Fuelband review, I wrote:

Over the last few months, I’ve seemed to fallen out of love with the FuelBand. It’s a little too bulky for my taste, and it’s rather limited in what it captures, not to mention it doesn’t seem to be holding up well.

I closed my review saying I had pre-ordered the Fitbit One.

They are very different devices, the Fuelband and Fitbit One. Here are my thoughts.

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It’s become a familiar cycle, these things. First, we see a single rumor, then photos of camera cables leak from China, then a Best Buy employee sends a screenshot to 9to5Mac with price points. Back housings and screens pop up, and before we know it, someone’s assembled a product that hasn’t been announced.

Then, Apple gets on stage, announcing the very thing we all know is coming, leaving some people underwhelmed and disappointed at the lack of anything surprising.

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I’m in pretty decent shape. Like most nerds who spend all day in front of a computer, I could stand to lose a few pounds, but I try my best to stay active.

Back in July, I ordered a Nike+ FuelBand. after reading several reviews online. I thought that if I could gamify being active, I would be more prone to get up and move through out the day.

Hardware

The FuelBand is a plain black bracelet, with a silver clasp. Coming in three sizes with two additional “links”, it’s not hard to get a FuelBand to fit comfortably. That said, it’s a little clunky for my taste, but I wear a very thin watch.

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A year ago, I reviewed the $79 Kindle. Here’s what I said:

The $79 Kindle is very much a contender in the e-ink reader space. While it might not be as fancy as the new Kindle Touch or as large as the Kindle DX, its low price and high build-quality are a tough combination to beat. I’m thrilled with my purchase.

In the 12 months sense, I’ve used the heck of my Kindle. I ended up buying the Amazon case with the built-in light to read more at night, in bed, after my wife is asleep.

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I’m an over-the-ear kinda guy — my Sennheiser HD–280 PRO headphones are never far away.

The older Apple earbuds simply don’t fit well in my ears, leaving me with a distaste for earbuds in general. When I do use earbuds, I use a pair of the original high-end Apple ones, with the smallest fitting.

I might have girly inner-ears. Don’t judge.

The EarPods are a huge improvement for me. They are comfortable and fit in my ears quite comfortably. Sound-wise, they seem on-par with my nice Apple ‘buds, and a good bit better than Apple’s previous built-ins. Mids and bass sound far more distinct than before, and highs sound less tinny.

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Intro

The new version of OS X from Apple — dubbed Mountain Lion — is now ready for download from the Mac App Store for $19.99.

Lion, the OS it replaces, was in many ways a new chapter when it comes to OS X versions. Lion was the first version to be available as a digital download. Requiring 10.6 Snow Leopard to be installed, Lion was a $29 download from the Mac App Store.

(Apple did offer Lion on a USB key in-stores for $69, but I digress.)

Notably, Lion brought many iOS features “back to the Mac,” as Apple claimed. Features such as Launchpad, the App Store, full-screen mode, gestures and more made the Mac feel more like home to the legions of iOS users considering Apple’s desktop platform for the first time.

(For kicks, check out my Lion review from last year over on Macgasm.)

So, does 10.8 carry that theme forward? Or does Mountain Lion back away from the “iOS-ification” of OS X?

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