Author: Jonathan

  • iDon’tCloud

    The recent update of iOS and OS X brought along Apple’s new cash grab photo organizing scheme framework.  To be honest though, it is very slick.  It makes photo storage and access very secure and ubiquitous.  You don’t need to worry about where your photos are and you (probably) don’t need to worry about having…

  • Clone a Clone

    So I had yet another WD MyBook die on me a couple of days ago.  And I still went out and bought another one (what was Einstein’s definition of insanity, again?)… This one was only two years old but these things are still quite cheap and very convenient to get.  Maybe someday when I have more…

  • Swype and iOS keyboards

    I have experimented with replacement keyboards on Android from time to time.  Though I had SwiftKey installed for a year, I mostly used it as a regular keyboard. So it wasn’t a real thrill for me when Apple announced third-party keyboards on iOS 8.   I found the iOS keyboard quite good, the design was really…

  • Pebbled

    When the Apple Watch was released, I was highly intrigued. I’m an on-again off-again watch wearer. I tend to lean to analog watches, though, something about the “liquid” display of time is very interesting to me. My last watch was a cool analog Timex chronograph. It had the capability to work as a stopwatch but…

  • Maglite Solitaire LED Conversion

    I got a Maglite Solitaire LED flashlight this summer, but I already had two regular incandescent ones.  Once you get used to the LED one, the incandescent one is so… dim… and yellow.  It’s really really convenient, though, and I’d hate to just drawer it, or worse yet, junk it. I got a cool little…

  • MacDVDRipper Pro 5

    I was a fan of RipIt and DVDRemaster a couple of years ago, I had a nice workflow going where I could convert my DVD TV series discs into MP4s for the Apple TV  (We have a lot of discs).  I discovered MDRP since then, and I have been very happy with it, just a…

  • Freemium Free

    It began with an outright refusal to pay extra to play more of a game. Freemium games are now dead to me. I should define more early what I mean. In this context I don’t mean a full game or app with add-ins, like extra levels or “pro” functionality. I figure each level is very…

  • Apple Pay

    The third punch in the Apple show was the biggest, in my opinion.  Again, on the surface it appears to be catch-up but this is much more significant. The competition liked to throw in an NFC antenna and then claim it was a feature, but without deep integration all it is is more hardware.  Yes…

  • Apple Watch

    I, like others, was drooling when Apple introduced their new wearable.  They made the competition look horrendous.  (As a side note, when I first saw the Galaxy Gear S in pictures, I was excited – it too looked great, and not Android… until I saw the actual size.  It’s absurd.) They pitched this at everyone.…

  • BIG PHONES

    Apple’s done it.  “They’ve kneeled to the pressure from Android”.  Haven’t they?  Let me think. One day to a few hours before the event I saw a fair number of tweets where people expressed that they didn’t really want a bigger phone.  The iPhone 5 size is wonderfully compact and ideal for daily use (but lets talk about…