Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

Best Backup Battery for iPhone

If you’ve noticed your iPhone’s battery just isn’t cutting it you might be considering a backup battery. These are compact devices, some cases too, that connect to your phone’s dock connector and charge it on-the-go.

There’s actually a surprisingly wide selection out there, and these are some details you should pay attention to when looking for a backup / external battery for your phone.

  • Capacity: iPhone’s have about 1200 mAh capacity, so bear in mind how many times you mind want to charge your phone.
  • Size/shape: For this to be useful you’ll have to carry it with you. Pick a battery that fits in your bag, case or purse.
  • Price: Prices range from about $9-$60. More expensive batteries aren’t necessarily any better. Read on for my suggestion.

I chose the Monoprice iPhone Battery Pack (1900mAh). Its holds enough to charge my phone 1 and 1/2 times, its small enough to slip in my bag and it was super-cheap! $9 + $2 shipping to Canada got this to my door in just under two weeks.

Monoprice is an excellent company; in my experience their products are exceptionally high quality and very reasonably priced. The backup battery was no different-it does exactly waht its supposed to. You charge it with your iPhone cable or dock and pack it away for when its needed. Then when you’re running low on power just plug it in the bottom and the phone starts charging immediatley.

So if you’re thinking about getting the Monoprice device, or any backup battery, go for it. You won’t regret having the security.

Incase Hardshell for MacBook Pro

TV326Why must Apple build products that are easy on the eyes, but even easier to mar? Not even the aluminum of the MacBook Pro is immune to scuffs and scratches.

So when I got my 15″ Unibody MacBook Pro I decided to get a hardshell case along with it. I travelled to a few local Mac resellers, the Apple Store and various websites, considering what options were available along the way. I asked a couple questions that helped me make a decision:

  1. How well does this fit and will it make use difficult?
  2. How effective is it at actually protecting my Mac?
  3. What’s it going to cost me?
  4. Will it make my sleek computer look dorky?

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Haier Portable Air Conditioner

Haier Portable Air ConditionerThanks to global warming, summers probably aren’t going to get any more bearable. Here in Vancouver home air conditioners aren’t all that popular, but I’d wager that’s about to change as heat waves start happening more often and lasting longer. That’s why I decided to order up a portable air conditioner for my home office.

My criteria was pretty simple: its gotta be cold, its gotta be cheap, and it had better not break one week in. So after considering about half a dozen different models, I settled on the Haier Commercial Cool 7000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner (CPRB07XC7).
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Canon 55-250mm Lens

I recently purchased a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens. What a mouth full. There’s a lot in that name, and all will be explained in a moment. I purchased this lens because I was looking for a telephoto lens with reasonable reach, price and stabilization. So far its been a great experience and I love working with this lens.

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MobileMe Without the MassiveFee

Want to sync to your address book, calendar, and bookmarks? Don’t want to pay $100 a year? Doh. That’s the answer of yesterday, because I’ve got some news for you. Now you can sync your stuff seamlessly and for FREE. That’s right, after waiting on a little or no cost solution for years; someone has finally stepped up to the plate. Fruux is an amazing service available to us Mac OS X users at literally no cost (in dollars, mental anguish or otherwise).

fruux is a lightweight and convenient system preference pane, that syncs your Address Book, Calendars, Tasks and Bookmarks between different Macs.

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