Bamboo, meet iPad 3rd gen

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Case makers who aren't "invited" by Apple ahead of time are scrambling to put forth and market their latest protection for Apple's third generation iPad. Within the last two years, bamboo has come out and become one of the most sought out materials to form, mold and be perfected. From bicycles to cases, it's life has changed dramatically and has been creatively sculpted to fit our needs. Here, in the video below, we see the latest by Grove. Check out the awesomeness!

Grove Bamboo Case for the new iPad from Grove on Vimeo.

The Grove Bamboo Case (iPad 3) is priced at a statement $139. Conceived and made in America from 100% solid Moso bamboo (meet the team here), some will admit that it's a steal. On a side note, a $20 discount is available through the end of March so by now and you'll be toting Apple's latest and great with the sense of environmental friendliness. Be responsible and be at peace. I'll admit that it does seem a little steep, but these guys from Portland are top notch! They even give you the peace of mind that what the use "is not the bamboo that pandas eat."

Disclaimer: No, I haven't ordered one yet but I'm really thinking about it. For now, I have a Zagg Folio in "carbon fiber inspire design" heading my way. The keyboard was a closer on this deal.

Withings Smart Baby Monitor

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Temperature and humidty monitor, high resolution video with night time mode, 4x zoom, pan & tilt camera, active sound warnings, two way microphones so that you can talk or sing to you baby, and even an interactive color changing night light!!!  Withings has introduced a truly amazing "MacGuyver" monitor but I'll admit, $299 isn't that peachy. It actually puts it at the top of the baby monitors in terms of price. Yes you can argue that this feature set is second to none, but let me ask, are you willing to pay for this? I want to think that I am, but it's not the spontaneous purchase that I thought it would be. At $199, I'm all in! Peep the sample video below and tell me what you think.

There is one disturbing feature that I read on the Withings website though and it talks about the ability to monitor outside the network. It beings up the question, are you streaming to their server? Why would I have to pay to connect to my home network? Here's the exact text below.

The Smart Baby Monitor allows you to monitor your baby everywhere with an unlimited range and for an unlimited time. When you are outisde of home Wi-Fi network, audio/video streaming is free for 15 minutes a day. We propose services upgrades so that you can buy 100 minutes of audio/video streaming for 4.99 euros (in-app purchase by Apple).

Apple Key, Splat & Swedish Campground

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Sometimes, the interesting things are already spoken about, read and filtered.  Sometimes, you run into interesting things that are worthy of an individual post and are lazy.  Every now and then, you might find yourself energized with an idea but then get lost in the writing.  So, I decided to start here.

For those with an Apple computer, i.e., Macintosh, you may have now noticed the Apple Key down on your keyboard to the right or left of the spacebar.  Look for it.  If you don't have it, then you probably bought into the Apple side of things post 2007 when the keyboard was redesigned without it.  In place, "command" was written.  But that little symbol accompanying either the former or the latter, what the heck do we call it?  Enter a story found on folklore.org, "Swedish Campground"

Finally she came across a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground. She rendered a 16 x 16 bitmap of the little symbol and showed it to the rest of the team, and everybody liked it. Twenty years later, even in OS X, the Macintosh still has a little bit of a Swedish campground in it.  -Andy Hertzfeld

In another story, a famous blogger named Dan Frommer launched his adeptly named blog "Splat Eff" back in July 2011 further enlightening readers about the symbol.  Check out what he says here on, What does SplatF mean?

Did you learn something?

Remote Control Jets

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Ever since the Chinese perfected the manufacturing of foam / electric turbo aired jets, the price of owning and flying a remote control plane have reached acceptable levels. Not necessarily levels to where you can set it, forget and not land smoothly, but enough where it wouldn't make you cry if you crash landed. If you've ever flown the little RC helicopters at the mall, this is that much more gratifying. Yes, the flight time is kept to a minimum due to battery capacities but 5-10 minutes of flying an awesome 70m F-86 Sabre...you can't beat that!

Unboxing Grado's SR125i

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In all it's glory, I present to you Grado SR125i Headphones. I bought these from Stereo Design in Clairemont, San Diego, California where the service is above and beyond exceptional. They setup a listening station for me and I was able to sample the SR60i, SR80i, SR125i, and RS2i along with the Grado Headphone Amp and a Wadia 171 iTransport. An amazing setup for those with digital music. Check them out sometime, drop by and say that Elijah recommended ya! This is a picture of "my" listening station. You can always help support this blog by clicking this Grado Prestige Series SR125i Headphones or of course the Grado Mini Adaptor Cable - 1/4 Inch to 1/8 Inch Plug.

RE: Techmeme Redesign

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Throughout the day, I find myself on my iPhone, MacBook Air or on whatever device with the first instinct to pull up Techmeme.  It has become my go to for tech news replacing almost everything else in the last year helping me navigate the junk around the web.  Today, they launch a redesign of their website and I'll be up front.  The margin for the main body stinks.  It's no longer my home page and I refuse to visit it now on my laptop's browser.  Count me in as a mobile reader only. This is their new design.

This is the old design layout where they compare it side by side with Drudge Report but if you take a look, there is far more room for the headlines rather than the "sponsored posts."  Also, if you take a look at Mediagazer (their sister site), they have yet to implement the new look.  Which design do you prefer?

Kickstarter: Hidden Radio & BlueTooth Speaker

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Who would have ever imagined that we'd be paying upwards of $199 for Jawbone's Jambox or $299 for Bose's Soundlink Wireless!?  Forget the days of "docking as both these devices offer Bluetooth connectivity.  I personally think it's a must these days are wires have become the bane of the electornic frontier. I had the opportunity to try out both the Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker and the Jawbone JAMBOX over this holiday season.  Admittingly, the sound that they produced was great.  You can't really go wrong with either one.  The Jambox doesn't "fill" a room with it's sounds presence as much as the Bose and while the Bose offers better bass, the Jambox does undercut the competition by offering itself as a bluetooth speakerphone handy for conference calls and also comes in at a $100 less.

Forget those two and take a peek at this Kickstarter offering!  The Hidden Radio & BlueTooth Speaker, which will normally retail for $175 is being offered for an introductory $119 for those willing to "kickstart" the duo.  They have some great features and sound is "touted" to being on par.  From what I can tell in their introductory video, they compare it directly to the Jawbone Jambox.

Here is a FAQ taken directly off of the website:

Q/ How long will the batteries last? A/ The rechargeable batteries last over 30 hours.

Q/ How will I know it will support my phone, tablet or computer? A/ Bluetooth is a global standard designed to work on any device.

Q/ How loud is the sound? A/ We’ve tested it over 80dB, basically it will easily fill the space of a large apartment.

Q/ Is shipping included? A/ We are offering free global shipping only for Kickstarter backers!

Q/ When will you start to manufacture? A/ Once we get to 1000 units we’ll begin production immediately. I hope you can help us bring this great product to market.

Kickstarter: Twine - Listen to your world, talk to the Internet

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Have you ever wanted your laundry machine to tweet or text you when it's done? Or maybe when a door opens of if the temperature drops, you'd want some type of alert? These guys from the MIT Media Labs have developed a device that communicates in a simple language and setup that you and I can configure. Check out the video! You have approximately 30 minutes left to get in and "back" their project! Afterwards, you'll have to wait and adopt their technology for a higher retail price. But why not and "angel" invest!

Update: If you weren't able to catch the Twine Kickstarter before their fundraising period ended, they sent out a thank you and a "you can still buy me" update. Here it is:

Kickstarter backers — you guys are amazing. When we started this 6 weeks ago, our expectations were modest, other than making a product that we wanted and that others would find useful, too. John and I cannot believe that you pushed Twine past 550K, making it one of the most successful crowd-funded projects ever! We are going to take good care of you. Twine will be that much more polished and ready to rock because of your support.

Missed the Kickstarter? Not to worry. You can still join the thousands of other awesome Twine owners by pre-ordering at the Supermechanical site. It's the next best thing to being an original backer!

35F in San Diego?!

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With temperatures approaching records lows, San Diego is lining itself up for a "wintery" December. In fact, as I'm typing this post, my fingertips are beginning to become numb as the doors are still open yet I remain too stubborn to get up and close the door. I'm sure most of you know by now that if it gets below 50F, the parkas, long johns, hot coco and space heaters fly off the shelves! Next thing you know, you're shivering in the morning and don't want to get out of that semi-warm cozy bed.

Here lies the question: $59.99 for a space heater or take it up a notch (maybe overkill) and go for the gold; the Dyson Hot.

I'll say that it's safer for children as there is no visible heating element and because of that, the exposure to the smell of burning dust remains absent. Having a thermostat built in, as magnetic remote control and the option to have it function as a regular Air Multiplier just really tout it's abilities.

For a short explanation video, check this out:

If you want to see more, click here as C|NET dives into their preview and explanation of the latest household gadget.  Fast forward to the 24:15 mark.

Amazon Kindle Fire [Video Review]

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This is a really really rough cut of my first video review which happens to be on Amazon's Kindle Fire. Watch the short video, tell me what you think. You are a fan? Do you plan on buying one?

For a great and very thorough review, check out Joshua Topolsky's review on The Verge!

How do you Program an App?

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If you've been having trouble realeasing your first iPhone app or any iOS app for that matter, grab some inspiration from this guy! Watch in awe how sixth grader Thomas Suarez presents at TEDxManhattanBeach about how he first started developing iPhone applications. What have you done today!?

AT&T vs. Sprint iPhone 4S

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Here it is, my 32GB White iPhone 4S on AT&T vs. my mother-in-law's 16GB White iPhone 4S on Sprint. The location is San Diego and the video is crappy (so sorry). I rushed this to the internet and will try to upload better quality videos later. This was shot on my Canon S90 in low light.

Testing the new iPhones in San Diego, California, I have two brand new iPhone 4S working on their perspective networks, AT&T and Sprint. Both caches, cookies and histories were erased and I loaded up Briam Lam's The Wirecutter and from there navigated to various parts of the site (MacBook Air Review) as well as load up a link to Jason Snell's MacWorld Review.

Garmin's new Triathlete Watch: 910XT

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Garmin just released a video showing their latest device for triathletes calling it the 910XT. I've been waiting for Garmin to replace their Forerunner 310XT for sometime, but now, I'm not so sure that I'd be all for spending $399. If it was exactly like my Garmin Edge 500, then I'd be all for it but it's missing a temperature sensor. Yea, small things like that matter to me and I don't see why they couldn't have included it. We'll see. At least it works with Garmin's footpod where the Edge 500 doesn't which would help me track my indoor running at the hotels I stay.

Peep commercial video is down below, but if you have sometime (read: 15-30 minutes), check out Ray Maker's In-Depth Review. There is no other review like it!

Unboxing of Amazon's Newest Kindle ($79 No Touch)

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Immediately after watching Jeff Bezos introduce the latest addition to the Kindle Family, I took to Amazon.com and bought the latest and least expensive Kindle e-Reader with Wi-Fi for $79 (with ads). There was an option for one day shipping only costing an extra $3.99 and said to myself, "Why not?" Waking up early this morning, the shipment came in around noon and viola! Here's the unboxing of the latest and greatest, did I mention cheapest, from Amazon!!!

Why I Love My Air

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Seven months ago, I made my first big electronic purchase EVER, a new MacBook Air. After years of hand-me-downs from my husband (1 custom desktop, 1 HP dv1000 laptop, and an IBM T43) I was definitely overdue for a new computer. The last laptop I was used was the world’s heaviest and bulkiest laptop that did the job, just not fast enough. I didn't know what flash storage was, unibody construction and all that fancy mumbo-jumbo but I knew that it was pretty. Note: I was only familiar with Mac OS X from using my husband's MacBook Pro or his previous Titanium.

I love that my Air is so lightweight, fast and of course, pretty! My laptop is portable enough to slip it into my work bag with room for everything else I need. It's so fast that I can just open it up and pick up right where I left off. And you can’t mess with the overall look of the Air. It’s so modern and sleek, but still maintains a classic look with a full sized keyboard & Apple's Multi-Touch Trackpad.

As far as my transition from the PC world to the Mac, it was pretty smooth. Being a forever student and knowing papers had to be done, I didn’t know how I would fare with Apple’s version of their word processor names Pages. After a few frustrated calls to my husband, I was able to get through a few documents and familiarize myself with the general layout. Although I still prefer Microsoft Word, Pages is quite intuitive and user friendly.

My MacBook Air was definitely a smart purchase and has officially converted me to becoming an avid Mac user. Now I hear that they are going to update it already? Boo.

My specs of the one I bought are: 13" 2.13 Intel 4GB RAM 256GB flash storage. The highest model in the bunch and I love it!

You can watch my unboxing here!

How do you wake up?!

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Most people, read: myself and my wife, have annoying ring tones or music that helps us wake up in the morning. Of course, with that annoying tone comes the dragging of feet and impolite curses, but it's all in a morning right? We'll call it the rude awakening.

Now, with this new "Acoustic Alarm by Jamie McMahon," you can set the tone and have it strum back to reality. Check out the video below! You can also check out Jamie McMahon's website here.

the Legendary White iPhone 4 Case Giveaway

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After nine excruciating months, Apple has finally gotten the right mix of materials in order and has released the once mythological, almost classified as vaporware, white iPhone 4! To think that I almost waited this long for the white version?! Yes, I still want the white iPhone 4 so I'm also willing to say that I'll trade anyone with buyers remorse for my 32GB black iPhone 4 so just drop me a line but back to the facts. Selling for the same price as the black iPhone 4, you'll get the same device albeit with some minor changes to the proximity sensor as well as a purported minor increase in thickness?! Although not mentioned or re-specified by Apple, these new white Apple iPhone 4s should fit all cases alike and in celebration, we're going to give away two brand new awesome iPhone 4 cases!

From left to right, check out the Scosche bandEDGE g4 or the Casemate Horizontal Hipster with Black Lining both made for the iPhone 4 GSM. I believe that they should also fit the Verizon / CDMA variant but unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that it will. Any who, why not just enter cause it's a freaking free giveaway?

No you don't have to own the white iPhone 4 to be elegible or even own an iPhone 4. All you have to do to enter is to tweet this website and mention the giveaway, leave a comment or post / writing a blog that leads back to this post. If you do all three, you receive three entries! (I loved the method that Ray Maker uses on his DCRainMaker Blog that I thought I'd incorporate the same methodology so here it is!) Just make sure to tell me how how many entries you've entered in the comments below and I'll be sure to give you all the credit. Entires are required to be in by Saturday May 7th, 2011 at 11:59PM Pacific and goodluck!

Apple iPad 2 Available for Pre-Order: ships in 3-5 days

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The title says it all. As of this morning, March 11, 2011, you can order either the black Apple iPad 2 (ships within 3-5 days) or the white Apple iPad 2 (ships in 5-7 days) along with Apple's Smart Cover and free engraving on http://www.apple.com. While you're at it, pick up AppleCare for $79.00, add-on the Apple Digital A/V Adapter for another $39.00, and why not add in the digital camera connection kit for $29. Checking out, my cart easily shot up to $815.00 for a 32GB Wi-Fi + leather Smart Cover, and the rest I spoke of above! You give it a shot and tell me how you did.