A few months ago, I had the opportunity to play with a Toshiba Satellite U925t, one of the new breed of Windows 8 convertible Ultrabooks. This time around, I was able to spend some quality time with a new Google …
Continue ReadingTraktor DJ, from professional music software maker Native Instruments, is a new iPad app that throws out all the old skeuomorphic design of other DJ apps and lets you interact directly with the waveforms of your music.
Continue ReadingWith the latest round of super thin iMacs it introduced last year, Apple did away with optical drives in its all-in-one desktop PCs. Good riddance, so far as I’m concerned. In my experience, the optical drive is often the first …
Continue ReadingIt’s no real secret that I’m a Mac guy, although I try not to be biased. I use just about everything and move back and forth between Macs and PCs with little fuss. I only switched over to the iPhone …
Continue ReadingIf you own a tablet, your kids probably own it more. Here’s a solution for keeping them from fast app switching into something inappropriate.
Continue ReadingSkylanders Giants Wii U not only improves visuals but offers new ways to play the game — both collaboratively and strategically.
Continue ReadingFoldify is a fun new app for the iPad that lets you create your own 3D paper toys by drawing on a flat template then printing it out and assembling it.
Continue ReadingMade in Me brings its BAFTA nominated educational game, The Land of Me, to the iPad with three apps, one based around storytelling, one dealing with songs and rhyming and the third adding a little dose of physics fun into …
Continue ReadingArtkive is a new app that helps you digitize and store all of your children’s artwork safely in the clould, and share it with your friends and family.
Continue ReadingTawkon is an app that was designed to take the guesswork out of cellphone radiation levels under different conditions, different usage levels and for different devices.
Continue ReadingWe test out the new iPics2go photo, slide and negative scanner from Ion, a gizmo that you slot your iPhone into which allows you to take digital photos of your old printed photos and slides/negatives.
Continue ReadingI see all of these benchmarks as knobs to turn and adjust to maximize the effectiveness of MindGear. In reality though I don’t know ahead of time where these knobs should be set. The data I’ve collected gives me some …
Continue ReadingMost of the iPhone cases I receive are intended to offer a combination of protection and style. Adequate protection to minimize damage if the iPhone is inadvertently dropped, while minimizing bulk so the device still retains some of it stylish …
Continue ReadingSo far, out of everything I’ve reviewed, I’d recommend Urbanears and the Wicked Audio X-Ray Zulu headphones pictured above for kids, especially younger ones. The two main reasons are durability and price. The Urbanears is going strong after about six …
Continue ReadingHaving been a long time user of various iRig iPhone products I jumped at the chance to try out their new gadget, the iRig MIC Cast. This is a compact microphone on a mini-jack plugs directly into the iPhone to …
Continue ReadingKids seem to have an endless supply of creativity. Drawing, painting, writing, building, colouring, storytelling – anything can spark it off and it can lead to hours of fun. And stacks and stacks of art of all forms decorating your …
Continue ReadingMy music lessons at school were a little uninspiring, and at home my Bontempi keyboard failed to inspire me — even with its seven preset voices. I was slightly skeptical when I stumbled across the DJ Rig app for iPhone …
Continue ReadingI love music. I love having music on all over the house. In the “old” days, you could tune a radio in each room to the same radio station, and experience whole home audio – with advertisements, and people talking …
Continue ReadingMuch has been made about the Retina display on the new iPad, so much so that it’s easy to dismiss all of the talk as hyperbole. But looking at these new screens from Ticket to Ride, perhaps the new display …
Continue ReadingA couple of months back I reviewed Algoriddim’s Djay software for the Mac and found it to be a fantastic app with an intuitive interface and powerful effects and tools that made it simple for anyone to use and start …
Continue ReadingTangled was one of the first Disney movies made after the buyout of Pixar and I think it’s safe to say it was one of the best to come from the house of mouse in a long time, thanks in …
Continue ReadingI spent the first five years of my life unaware that my bedroom had what we used to proudly call in the ’80s a “popcorn ceiling” — a plaster spray treatment that could be quickly applied and hide all those …
Continue ReadingMy daughter (9) came running into our bedroom this morning very excited. She held in her hand my iPad 2 and was waving it around exuberantly. “It’s so much better dad, I love it. When did you get it?” Having …
Continue ReadingSure, iPads are expensive, but when you consider them as a replacement for some of the other gaming hand-helds they beg for, the economics might just make sense.
Continue ReadingSo the new un-numbered iPad release is wowing people everywhere with its gorgeous “Retina” display, and there’s little doubt it will continue to sell well from now until whenever the next version is announced. But that awesome new screen has …
Continue ReadingApple’s iPad has been in the news recently in Canada, and not just over rumors about retina displays and 4G LTE capabilities. The Toronto Zoo has been shortlisted by Apps for Apes, a program that repurposes donated iPads for orangutan …
Continue ReadingWhen you’re laying out hundreds of dollars apiece for iPads, iPhones and other iOS devices, keeping them intact is an investment in itself. All the more so if kids are involved. Cases and skins offer differing degrees of protection — …
Continue ReadingAs I’m writing this post, I pretty much don’t have to worry about doing a word count — or more accurately a character count. That’s because I’m writing it using a soon-to-be released Das Keyboard Model S Professional for Mac …
Continue ReadingFollowing the success I had with upgrading my MacBook Pro’s hard drive with a SSD (solid state drive), I decided to to try the same thing with my MacBook Air. This is a first generation model, pretty pokey and with …
Continue ReadingI think it’s the geek in me that wants to improve, customize and accessorize my favorite gadgets. Having finally purchased an iPhone 4S, I found myself trawling the internet for the weird, wonderful and sometimes useful iPhone accessories. Some of …
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