Category: Peripherals

Posted on

Seeing More USB Power On The Road

delta_power
Delta Gate Area Charging Stations

As a frequent traveler with gadgets I’m always looking for opportunities to charge up. Anytime that I have more than a 15-minute wait in one spot I check my surroundings to see what power options are nearby. If nothing is around then I don’t worry about it, but if there’s an opportunity to juice up I’ll usually take it. I fly Delta 99% of the time and Delta has been doing a good job in equipping their gate areas with not only standard AC power, but also USB power. This means that you can easily just plug in your phone or tablet without having to plug in a power adapter/brick. This leaves the regular outlets for those that need to charge up other devices such as laptops.

delta_inflight_power
Delta in-flight power in First Class

While regular power outlets and USB powered outlets are a welcome sight in the gate area, I do wish that airlines and the rest of the transportation industry would move faster towards having power available at every seat on planes, trains, etc. Delta was one of the first if not the first to equip most of their entire fleet with WiFi! Yay! Gogo WiFi is great. However, it’s only as good as having enough juice to actually use it. Since I’m a top tier flyer on Delta (Diamond Medallion), I get upgraded a lot and more often than not there is power at the seats in First/Business Class. This is great, but it shouldn’t be limited to just one part of the cabin. What happens if I don’t get upgraded and I have a lot of work to do? Also even when I do have the benefit of having power at my seat, it doesn’t always work. It’s really hit or miss if the outlet will actually function and power my MacBook Pro.

hampton_inn_power
Hampton Inn power at the nightstand

Some hotels are starting to get the point. One of the fanciest hotels I’ve ever stayed in from a technology standpoint was the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas. However, it was one of the worst in terms of power! The only available outlet during my stay was at the desk across the room. Want to charge your phone next to to bed? Sorry. Yet, recently I stayed in a Hampton Inn in the middle of nowhere and they not only had multiple outlets on the nightstand, but it also was equipped with USB ports to boot.

Continue reading “Seeing More USB Power On The Road”

Posted on

Long and Short Lightning Cables

monoprice_black_lightning

Ever since I upgraded to the iPhone 5 and got an iPad mini I’ve been slowly but surely replacing my old 3o pin iDevice cables with newer Lightning cables. While the price of Apple’s Lightning cables are a bit on the expensive side, what bugs me more is being limited to a fixed 1m length. While 3rd party 30 pin iDevice cables are a dime a dozen and can be found in many different lengths and configurations, 3rd party Lightning cables are just now starting to become widely available. There were some really cheap knockoffs that appeared early on and as the saying goes you get what you pay for. I tried a few of the different cables and found that either they didn’t work at all, didn’t work reliably or stopped working after a while. One problem is that many of the cheap ones aren’t “reversible.” That’s one of the main benefits of Lighting cables is that there is no front/back up or down. You can plug it in either way and it just works. Many of the cheap ones only worked one way. I did find some 10 foot cheap 3rd party ones that worked properly. However, over time one by one they simply stopped working or started acting very flaky. I decided to wait until some of the trusted brands I’d used in the past. I wanted both shorter cables and longer ones than the 1m Lighting cables that Apple sells.

6 foot and 10 foot Lightning Cables

monoprice_lightningcables

One of my favorite sources for low price, quality cables and gear is Monoprice.com. Monoprice has listed both 6 foot and 10 foot Lightning cables for a while now, but they recently started shipping. Before these cables became available I was using USB extension cables to make my Apple cables longer, but I prefer to have a single cable that’s long enough. I bought a few of each length and as I expected they work perfectly. You can get them in either white or black here.

 

Very short Lightning Cables

LL-situational__34560_zoom

CableJive is known for selling a variety of different specialty cables and as I had hoped they just started selling pocket sized 12cm Lighting cables. This cables are short for a variety of different uses when you don’t want a long cable that you’d have to coil up. They are a bit pricey for the length, but they fit the bill for always having a Lightning cable for charging my devices, in my pocket.

Amazon has them here.

 

Lastly a lower priced 1m Lightning Cable

Amazon has their own brand of cables and they are offering a 1m Lighting Cable for less than Apple sells them for here. Monoprice also has some 1m cables cheaper too, here.

Posted on

Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock Review

belkin_thunderbolt_express_dock

For the last few years I’ve used a MacBook Pro as my primary computer. I even sold my Mac Pro tower a few months ago as I just couldn’t justify hanging on to it for the few times I used it to do heavy duty video rendering. Sure it was faster than my notebook, but I just found that I was using my notebook more often than heading over to the Mac Pro. Now that I’m on the MacBook Pro most of the time, when I’m at my desk I want to connect all my peripherals. I’ve got a Wacom Cintiq 24HD display, Gigabit Ethernet drop, a 7 port USB 3.0 hub with a Logitech C920 webcam, Rode Podcaster Mic, Bose Speakers, Apple Wireless Keyboard, wireless Magic Mouse and an occasional external hard drive to transfer data from here and there.

What is the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock?

belkin_thunderbolt_express_back

It’s an external piece of hardware that sits on your desk and connects to your Thunderbolt port on your computer. Once connected it adds 1 Gigabit Ethernet, 1 Firewire 800 port, an additional Thunderbolt port, an audio in and audio out port, and 3 high speed USB 3.o ports.

Before the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock I would have to plug in the power and four cables before waking my MacBook Pro up. The beauty of a dock is that it can give you not only the convenience of having all your peripherals plugged into one device so that you can just plug in one cable, but it also can give you ports that you didn’t have. For example, on the MacBook Pro 15″ Retina Display Apple has eliminated Firewire and Ethernet ports. While I have the Thunderbolt Adapters to add these ports back in, the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock has them built-in plus one that I don’t have an adapter for and that is a standard 3.5mm audio in jack.

The design of the dock is appealing to my eyes and it has all of the connections in the back with a pass through to the front for the Thunderbolt cable (which is not included). I was a little disappointed by the rather large power brick, but then I reminded myself that I won’t likely be traveling with this dock. It’s designed to sit on your desk with everything connected to it so that I just plug in the Thuderbolt cable to my MacBook Pro when I get to my office.

I’ve connected a couple of hard drives to it for testing and  noticed no difference in speed. The other ports seem to work as expected.

The Bottom Line

This dock has been a long time coming. For a MacBook Pro owner it’s nice to have. For a MacBook Air owner it becomes an even better accessory since MacBook Airs have even fewer ports built-in to them. I would have loved to have seen one more Thunderbolt port and for the price I feel that it should have included a Thunderbolt cable. Otherwise it’s a solid piece of gear that will make my MacBook Pro feel even more like a desktop computer when I’m at my desk.

You can get the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock here.

You can get the needed Thunderbolt Cable here.

Posted on

Why I Carry 3 Portable Hard Drives When I Travel

Solution-2-Elgato-Thunderbolt-SSD

People are always asking me about backup strategies and while I usually discuss my home/studio backups I rarely discuss my “on the road” backups. My MacBook Pro has a 768GB SSD internal drive. While SSDs tend to be more reliable than old school rotating platters, I’m still as paranoid as I’ve always been. I don’t back it up any less than I did before SSD. I’ve had two major data scares while traveling on business. The 1st was on a trip to Toronto several years ago to do a seminar. I was the main/only presenter and I had an audience of about 400 people. My presentation was going to start at 10AM and I was in the hotel connected to the event hall. I woke up that morning and did some work on my laptop before heading over to the hall. I closed my laptop and headed over giving myself just enough time to get there and plug in to the projector. I got there, plugged in and opened my laptop to a “blue screen”. I immediately thought “oh my God, if this thing doesn’t come up I’m screwed!” Although I had my files and fonts on a drive at the time and I could have used a colleague’s computer it would have taken no less than 30 minutes to get everything loaded and setup. It could have easily taken an hour or more if they didn’t have the right applications loaded. Luckily everything came back after a forced reboot. But what if it hadn’t?

Hard Drive #1: A Bootable Clone Backup

gdrive_1TB

A USB 3 and Firewire 800 Portable External Drive

After my experience above in Toronto I realized that simply having a backup of the data was not good enough. I need to be able to be up and running in 5 minutes or less in the event of a total drive failure. From that day forward I started carrying an external portable hard drive that was an exact clone of my internal drive. I update this clone before heading out on each trip. I use SuperDuper!, which is a fantastic utility to clone your drive from one to another. In the case of a blue screen or total drive failure I could plug in the clone backup drive and reboot directly from that drive. Since it’s a recent clone it would have all of my applications and demo/data files. Continue reading “Why I Carry 3 Portable Hard Drives When I Travel”

Posted on

Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard mini Review

logitech_ultrathin_mini_stand

If I think about my favorite iPad accessories, there’s no question that the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover is my favorite. The iPad is great and the on screen keyboard is fine for typing short messages or replies. However, when it comes to heavy text input or writing blog posts like this one, nothing beats a physical keyboard. The Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover is the best one on market IMHO. It attaches magnetically and works just like an Apple Smart Cover. Read my original review here.

 

A physical keyboard for the iPad mini?

logitech_ultrathin_mini

When I saw that Logitech introduced an Ultrathin Keyboard mini for the iPad mini, the first thing I thought was “no way! It’s going to be too small.” The thing I like best about the original Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for the full size iPads is that it doesn’t feel cramped. It feels like a full-sized keyboard. I figured that the iPad mini was just too small and that if someone made a keyboard, it probably wouldn’t be a good experience. Nevertheless I was tempted and had to try the new Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard mini. The first thing I did when I took it out of the box was put my fingers on the home row.

logitech_ultrathin_mini_my_hands

I was amazed! It felt fine. Sure it was a little smaller, but not bad at all. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Shift keys on both sides. Other keyboards I’ve tried for the 10″ iPads sometimes remove one of the Shift keys to make the layout fit better. I NEED BOTH SHIFT KEYS! However, Logitech did make a couple of compromises. The Caps Lock key shares the same key as the “A” key and you use the Function key to activate it. The Tab key also shares the same key as the letter “Q”. These were much smarter compromises than eliminating a Shift Key.

 

Great smart cover like design

logitech_ultrathin_mini_cover

Like the regular Ultrathin Keyboard Cover, the Ultrathin Keyboard mini works as a smart cover and a stand for your iPad mini. As you can see in the photo, it shows off finger prints quite well too. It also has a “home” key that works like the home button on your iPad. Not to mention other iPad specific keys like volume controls, find, slideshow and text selection buttons. The Ultrathin Keyboard mini connects via Bluetooth and has a built-in rechargeable battery that lasts about 3 months between charges assuming you’d use it 2 hours per day!

 

The Bottom Line

logitech_ultrathin_mini_stand_in_my_hand

Many will jump to tell me that “If you use an iPad there is no need for a physical keyboard or a stylus” and to those people I would say that you’re right. “Need” is a strong word, but I would also say that while the iPad and iPad mini work perfectly with your fingers, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t times where a physical keyboard wouldn’t make things easier. Not to mention that only the Sith deal in absolutes 😉 The Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard mini and Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover are great for those that want to travel with just an iPad/iPad mini and still get a lot of work done.

You can get the Logitech Ultrathin mini for iPad mini here in black or directly from Logitech in black or white.

You can get the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad 2 and higher here in black or white

Posted on

Your On Camera Flash Sucks Less With Lightscoop Deluxe

wpid11623-TLW4178_sm.jpg
Shot taken with the pop up flash on my Nikon D600 complete with a harsh shadow off the lens hood.

Usually the only time I pop up the flash on my DSLR is to use it as a Commander to control and fire my off camera Nikon Speedlight. If you ever see me using it to light a subject you can almost bet that it was an emergency, there was no other choice and I’m hating life in that moment. There are two ways to combat the horrific effects of on camera flash. Either bounce it or diffuse it. When it comes to my speedlights I’m a “diffuse it” kinda guy. However, for the tiny popup flash built-in to most cameras, the options to diffuse them are less. This is probably why you never (or hardly ever) see pros using the pop-up flashes on their cameras. Heck, my Nikon D4 doesn’t even have one. They probably figured if you’re a D4 customer, you know better.

Professor Kobre’s Lightscoop Products Aim to Make your On Camera Flash Suck Less

LightScoopMini
Nikon D600 Body with the Lightscoop Deluxe Attached

I reviewed their original Lightscoop way back in 2007. While it’s a great product, I rarely carried it because although it was small, it was still an odd shape that took up space in my bag and there just weren’t gonna be too many times that I’d be using it. Now they offer a Lightscoop Deluxe.

Continue reading “Your On Camera Flash Sucks Less With Lightscoop Deluxe”

Posted on

Two New Wacom Bamboo Styluses for Touch Screens

wacom_bamboo_stylus_iPad

In 2007 when the iPhone was introduced, I remember many of my colleagues and pundits saying things like “I just wish it had a stylus”. Of course Steve Jobs back then made fun of phones that required a stylus. Fast forward six years later and you definitely see people using most cellphones with their finger and NOT with styluses. Although I do use my finger with my iPhone and iPad there are times where a stylus is just better. The ones that come to mind are signing my signature and drawing/handwriting notes. My signature and handwriting are bad enough. I don’t need them to look any worse because I’m using my finger. I’ve been a fan of Wacom products for many years and felt that their Bamboo Stylus Solo was definitely one of the best! They’ve now added a couple more choices to the product line up.

The Bamboo Duo Stylus + Pen and the Bamboo Pocket Expandable Stylus

My favorite now is the New Bamboo Duo Stylus. Here you get two devices in one. You get a great stylus for your touch screens on one end and on the other end you get a regular ballpoint pen. GREAT! Fantastic and certainly the one that’s now always in my pocket. It also comes in different colors.

bamboo-duo

The next one is cool, just not my 1st choice. The Bamboo Pocket Stylus is actually retractable. Push it together or pull it to expand and you get a full sized stylus. It also has a cap that’d designed to plug-in to the headphone jack on your port as a way to carry it. I definitely couldn’t see doing this on my iPhone, but I could potentially see doing this with an iPad. I’d actually rather see a case that has a slot for a stylus. While it doesn’t come in different colors it does ship with silver, blue and red rings that you use to add a spice of color.

bamboo-pocket

The Bottom Line

There is no requirement to use a stylus with your smartphone or tablet. However, if you frustrated at times with the performance of your finger then you should probably invest in one. The Wacom Bamboo Styluses have a great feel to them both in hand on on screen.

You can get the Bamboo Duo Stylus + Pen here and the Bamboo Pocket Expandable Stylus here.

Posted on

Best USB 3.0 Hub

Now that I have a mix of USB 3.0 and 2.0 peripherals I began the search for the best USB 3.0 Hub. I was interested in a 7 port model and most of all it had to be able to mix both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices. What I mean by this is that USB 3.0 devices shouldn’t suffer slow downs when you plug USB 2.0 devices into the same hub. My search led me to the Uspeed USB 3.0 7 Port Hub.

Setup and testing

Setup was easy and straight forward. It came with a power supply that in my opinion has a relatively short cord. It didn’t reach my power strip under my desk that my previous hub’s power supply did. Otherwise it came with everything needed to set it up and plug it into my MacBook Pro Retina Display. I plugged in my USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices. However, before hand I ran a speed test on one of my hard drives plugged directly into my computer and then I ran the same test with the drive plugged into the hub while USB 2.0 devices were also plugged in and I got the exact same speed results. So it passed my biggest test/concern.

Design

All of the USB ports are on one side, which is both good and bad. It’s good for cable management since all the USB cables go in one side. However, the power cable and host USB cable are on the other side, so you’re going to have cables coming off both sides no matter what. There are blue LED lights that confirm if a port is in use or not.

The Bottom Line

While this may not be the prettiest design, it is very functional and meets my needs quite nicely. If you’re looking for a 7 port USB 3.0 hub to plug in both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices, then this is probably one of if not the best one on the market.

You can get the Uspeed USB 3.0 7 Port Hub here.

Posted on

Firewire 800 vs USB 3.0 – Which is Faster?

Now that both the MacBook Pro Retina Display and MacBook Air ship with USB 3 I was curious to find out which was actually faster? Going with my existing Firewire 800 drives and the Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter or USB 3 drives. I did searches online and really didn’t come up with much in the way of current data or test. Most of what I found was comparisons to USB 2 or tests done before Macs had USB 3 built-in. Since I couldn’t find the data I wanted, I decided to do my own tests.

Making it fair

I wanted this to be as fair as possible. That meant that I didn’t want to use two different drives. Ideally I would want to test the same drive that has both Firewire 800 and USB 3 built-in. That configuration isn’t as easy to find as you would think on a portable drive. I found two: LaCie’s Rugged 1TB (which I’ve used in the past with no issues) and the Oyen Digital Mini Pro. Since I was looking to have a smaller enclosure, I decided to give the Oyen Digital a shot. It was also a few bucks cheaper.

For the benchmarks I went with the Free App – BlackMagic Disk Speed Test.

Get it here .

I recorded my results in the video above.

Posted on

Innergie 3-in-1 Magic Cable: The only USB Cable You’ll Need In Your Bag

Because I travel for a living, I’m always looking for ways to consolidate and have smaller peripherals and gadgets. I carry a bunch of cables because I never know what I might need. This also includes a variety of USB cables. I carry iOS Device Sync/Charge Cables, USB Micro cables for charging things like my Jawbone BT headset and a USB mini cable for connecting hard drives.

The Innergie 3-in-1 Cable does it all

This one cable allows me to connect or charge the vast majority of devices that I carry. I can use it to charge/sync my iPhone or iPad. I can use it to connect a USB hard drive and I can use it to charge a variety of my USB peripherals such as my Logitech Ultrathin iPad Keyboard, Jawbone BT Era Headset or Jambox. The design is pretty cool. All 3 connectors are available by simply unplugging down to the one you need. If you need the iDevice 30 pin connector, then simply plug all 3 together. If you need one either the USB micro or mini just unplug the connector above it and pivot out the one you need.

My only complaint with this cable is that it’s very short (20cm). It’s fine for connecting to your computer, but if you’re going to plug something into a wall charger then you’re probably going to want it to be longer. You can use an extension cable like this one. The only other downside is that you can only use one type of connector at a time. This means that you’ll still need to carry multiple cables if you want to charge multiple devices at once.

I got a couple of these to keep in each of my bags. Now I know I’ll always have the right USB cable.

You can get the Innergie 3-in-1 Cable here.