I’d like to point out in advance that Kensington does not have a history of making good laptop cases, mostly because it hasn’t at all until recently. I’ll have to say that I’m very pleased with their most recent offering, the Contour Active Vertical Messenger bag. The one that Kensington sent me is for 15″ lappies, so I immediately unpacked my MacBook Pro from my trusty BrentHaven Messenger (reviewed late 2006) and went to town.

I knew up front that the Contour Active wouldn’t hold everything that I could carry in the Brenthaven, so I pared down my mobile stash. I’m pleased to report that I’m now able to carry at least 90% of what I carried in the previous bag in the Contour. The only capabilities I now miss are the ability to carry a second lappy (yes, I’m a glutton for pain) and the Brenthaven’s neato expanding bag trick. I’m amazed a what a simple design change will offer in return, though. Continue reading »

written by Tyler Regas

If you’ve been seeking real GPS on your iPhone (not the fakey mobile tower triangulation method), your wait is over. Okay, at least in February, and that’s if PartFoundry can actually get the unit actually shipping. If it does, the US$89 unit will snap into the iPhone port and imbue your little electronic friend with actual GPS capabilities. There appears, however, to be a catch of sorts. I don’t have any direct experience with the iPhone, much less with a JailBroken one, but apparently the dongle only works if your iPal is cracked. Hmm. Maybe someone can explain that to me?

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: gps, iphone, news

UnWiredView has dug up FCC pics from Toshiba’s apparently upcoming Portege E910 and E920 smartphones based on Windows Mobile 6. There’s really not a lot to tell about it, but its certainly big. This also doesn’t mean that Toshiba will announce these devices for the US market. Only time will tell.

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: mobile, rumor, wm6

Beta testers and developers know that RTM means Release To Manufacturing. This means that Microsoft has released Office 2008 for the Mac to be localized, duplicated, packed and shipped to be available worldwide by January 15th, 2008. This version adds Universal Binary support, the new file formats from Office 2007 for Windows, and brings a new Entourage which is supposed to be function identical to Outlook 2007 and have full Exchange support. I’ll have a more complete rundown closer to the MacWorld Expo.

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: 2008, business, mac, news, office

First thing you should know is that you probably can’t buy it. There’s only one, after all. What is it? Its a Nintendo SNES which some engineer reworked, stuffed into a custom-made wooden case, and made it rechargeable. This gadget is very cool. My daughter has a Nintendo DS, and she wanted one. That’s quite the endorsement. Check out the video which shows it running StarFox. Neato! [Source: Tech E Blog]

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: gadgets, nintendo, portable, retro

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. PodCastingNews has published its annual list of iCrap, a list of the worst in iPod accessories. Heed the list well when choosing gifts for the holidays. Also keep in mind that some of the items are not for younger audiences. For some more questionable product griping, also take a look at Popular Mechanics list of the 10 worst gadgets of 2007. They’re both a real hoot.

UPDATE: Engadget found an abusive little device you can use to torture your fish with an iPod. I can’t even begin to imagine.

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: fun, ipod, news

Well, we’ve pushed through another week of news. Obama is gaining in the polls thanks to a little shove from Oprah, Ike Turner died after having finally winning another Grammy for his last album of traditional Blues songs, Waterboarding has been declared illegal, the iPhone is Time Magazine’s technology of the year, and Nintendo is instituting a “Raincheck” program to mitigate Wii shortages.

What about NBC moving its shows over to SanDisk’s new Fanfare service which works with their new TakeTV device. Personally, I don’t understand SanDisk’s market. Sure, they have the second largest chunk of the DAP market behind Apple’s 75%, but that’s only 11%, and so what if they make taking your TV shows with you easy. Ever heard of TiVoToGo or SlingBox?

Toshiba has announced their new Super Charge battery technology, dubbed SCiB for Super Charge Ion Battery, which they say can recover 90% of its capacity in 5 minutes. Wow! The problem is that its currently only for industrial use, but Toshiba says that they are eyeing the electrical car and portable computer markets.

written by Tyler Regas

There are some games which are just plain fun like Solitaire, Checkers, and Asteroids. There are others which are deeply disturbing or earnestly frightening like most of Rock Star’s games, most of IDs games, or the Half-Life series. There are few, however, which can bridge the gap, but tiny Mac games developer Freeverse, likely best known for Jared and Burning Monkey Solitaire, has done it.

Witness the advent of SimStapler Arena, the long awaited update to the original, non-networkable SimStapler. Marvel at its extraordinary depth and grace as you staple wantonly and without regard to human safety. SimStapler Arena brings more than personal satisfaction to the table, as it now incorporates an online component which allows you to bring the stapling beatdown to those of lesser quality and lacking in multi-page finishing capabilities. Continue reading »

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: games, news, social

Hey all. I just activated a new default theme. Its based on Mac OS X and looks quite nice, at least to me. The old theme is still available via the theme selector if you prefer that, or you can geek out with our Classic Mac theme. Anyway, enjoy the new collapsible, re-positionable sidebar widgets! Just click the button or drag them around. Pretty slick, eh!

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: news