Reviews for Regular People – The Energizer Induction Charge System for Wii
The title basically says it all, we’re doing a regular people review of the Energizer Induction Charging Station for the Wii. It may not sound super exciting, but after spending some time with this thing I am really glad I invested in it. I am trying to be a better citizen of the world and use rechargeable batteries as much as I can. At times it gets overwhelming to try to keep up with what has rechargeable batteries and making sure I keep them charged and at-the-ready. After all, what good are a dozen rechargeable batteries if none of them are charged. I’m sure many of you gamers and gadget lovers know what I mean. Captain Kirk was definitely right. We always need more power.
TVersity: Home multimedia sharing for the rest of us
Hi, my name is Alex, and I am a media junkie. This is a common issue for so many of us, we love our media. I love my music, movies, and pictures. I also really appreciate being able to easily access them from multiple locations. TVersity allows me to easily do that. Before, I had to take a CD and manually rip it to my Xbox or transfer movies to a USB drive so I could watch it on my Microsoft Xbox 360 or my Sony PS3.
The company describes their mission as: “…to empower individuals to organize and personalize their home and Internet multimedia collection (audio, video and images) and have universal access to it anywhere (at the home or on the go) anytime and from any device.” For my part, I can assure you this statement is very accurate. I have been using TVersity for some time and can attest that it works exactly as advertised.
Review: The best iPhone and iPod Touch games for the Sesame Street crowd
As you may know, if you follow me on Twitter (@GizmoAlex), I have a mini-dragon I like to call Erin. She is my beautiful 3 year old daughter, who has basically repossessed my iPod Touch. It is no longer loaded with my music. It has Disney Songs, Yo Gabba Gabba, and, most importantly for her, games. There are SO MANY games for the platform that it gets really hard to wade through the options. So I want to recommend some of her favorites (for tiny minds). Each of these have definitely helped us survive mini roadtrips without too many meltdowns.
Angry Birds for iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad
Android App Review: Swype for Android (How I got my typing mojo back)
I love my Android phone. When Android first launched I was in awe of it’s awesomeness (akward, but true). I had a long string of phones from your dumbest dumbphone to the BlackBerry, which was the king of the world (minus the standing at the front of the Titanic in the wind part).
Upon its initial release, Android was a fresh alternative in the smartphone market and looked poised to compete with the iPhone. Those were the good old days when you were either a Blackberry fanboy/fangirl or you were an iPhone super user. I finally replaced my Blackberry with the HTC Hero for Sprint and something sad happened. My typing speed went way down, and I felt my phone was no longer a good messaging phone like my Blackberry had proven itself to be over the years.
Security flaw inadvertently exposes iPad 3G user data
Yesterday, AT&T admitted that the personal data of Apple iPad 3G customers had been exposed due to a security flaw. The news was first reported by Gawker and was later confirmed by AT&T.
According to the company, the exposure of personal information was limited to the email addresses of iPad 3G customers, who will be notified formally of the data exposure. In an electronic statement, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said, “This issue was escalated to the highest levels of the company and was corrected by Tuesday; and we have essentially turned off the feature that provided the email addresses.”
The long-anticipated Sprint Evo 4G hits stores today
It’s June 4, 2010. That means the Evo 4G is officially on sale from Sprint’s online webstore. Preordering for the device began back on May 12th through Best Buy. For those who didn’t do it ahead of time, they can now purchase them online or at an authorized Sprint retail partner. The device is considered by some as a serious contender for the Apple iPhone and, in terms of coverage, speed, and customer service, AT&T, as well. Of course, being an Android 2.1 device with features like a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, 4.3-inch display, 8 megapixel camera, and two-way video calling don’t exactly hurt its chances of making it big.
HTC Evo 4G from Sprint
First Impressions: Android 2.1 on the Sprint HTC Hero
Yesterday, we reported the news that Sprint Hero users could finally visit the HTC support site to download and install Android 2.1 on their devices. As a Sprint customer and HTC Hero user, I was excited at the opportunity. Why? I knew there were features and apps that my version 1.5 device just wasn’t able to take advantage of. It wasn’t that I loved it any less, but I knew it could do more. So, without a moment’s hesitation, I downloaded the ROM, backed up my data (very important and must be done manually), and got to work.
After a five minute review of the instructions and getting everything set up, I was on my way. A short time later, the update process completed without a glitch. I was now the proud owner of an Android 2.1-powered Hero. I can tell you two things with 100% certainty. The first is that the instructions were expertly written. (Of course, you don’t need instructions, but you should follow them anyway.) The second is that the summary of the changes listed on the Sprint and HTC websites do not do the actual changes justice. From the first boot, Android 2.1 on the Hero is like entering a bigger and better universe.
Five Essential Firefox Add-ons for Internet Ninjas
When it comes to browsers, I have no loyalty. I am constantly hopping back and forth between Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Why? They’re both great browsers that have real advantages over competitors like Microsoft Internet Explorer and the Apple Safari browser. Google Chrome is a really clean and uncluttered browser that is stable and performs well. For its part, Firefox has a slew of great add-ons available to make your browsing experience a little better. Chrome is beginning to amass a pretty good collection of its own browser extensions, but, for now at least, Firefox still has them beat.
Currently, there are over 10,000 add-ons. Add-on categories include tools such as toolbars, social media, messaging, and those that allow for a customized, browser appearance. There are so many that it would be impossible to name every single add-on worthy of your bandwidth to download. If I were hard-pressed to name five of my current favorites, these are the ones I would tell you are must-haves.
Cooliris for Firefox
The 3D Effect: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future of TV, Movies, and Video Games
I love TV, movies, and video games. I have loved them for a long time and more than likely I will continue to love them for the rest of my days. Most geeks like myself are media junkies, and we always want to consume all the awesome geekiness around us (like Clovie from Cloverfield).With 3D growing in popularity, it seems we may be in the beginning stages of a transition to the next step of technology for both TV and theaters, High Definition 3D.
I remember when I was young I had my Nintendo hooked up to a 13-inch, black and white TV. Now playing Battletoads, Skate or Die, and Super Mario Bros. 3 on it was not a chore. I rather enjoyed it, but, little did I know, it was nothing compared to what was in store for me in the future. For Christmas, my parents bought me a new 19-inch color TV and Super Metroid for my SNES. That is my first memory of being blown away visually by what a game could look like. It was color and it was 16-bit instead of 8-bit. In truth, it was beautiful. Could I really expect it to get any better than that?
Mitsubishi 3D DLP HDTV: The future of Viewing and Gaming?
Schmaps: The Twitter Friendly, Sociable Alternative to Foursquare
I am a fan of Foursquare, in fact I think I have more Mayorships than anybody else in the small city in which I live. I’m also a member of Twitter who tweets on a frequent basis. As a result, I truly enjoy the many relationships I have with my Tweeps. Both Foursquare and Twitter are ways for me to connect to people. While Foursquare has allowed me to communicate my status, via Twitter, that has been pretty much the limit of its integration into the social media giant that is Twitter. As a result, they both remain completely separate tools, when I think of social networking. For me, there was a void in cleanly combining the two. Fortunately, for me and many other social networking-obsessed technophiles, Schamps has come to the rescue.
