I’ll be posting some video updates over the next day or so of cool things I’m checking out here at Macworld Expo. I’m going to start with a product I’ve been meaning to review here. It’s the Joby Gorillapod SLR. Although this is a great portable, travel tripod for your Digital SLR, I found out today that it has some other cool uses. Check it out!
Live Coverage of the 2009 Macworld Expo Keynote
Today is Apple’s last Macworld Expo! I’m here live getting ready for the Apple/Phil Shiller Keynote at Macworld Expo. I’m going to attempt live updates from the keynote just like last year. If all goes well you’ll get a blow-by-blow on what’s being announced.
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So if you don’t see the updates above, Click Here to follow the Live Blog starting at 9:00AM PST.
UPDATE: Apple has posted the Keynote Video – Watch it here.
Lastolite Triflector MkII
Although I’m not big on getting gifts on holidays, I did get one very cool gift. I got the Lastolite Triflector MkII. This handy compact unit comes with two adjustable side arms and three reversible (white/silver) panels that easily and quickly attach. Once setup (less than 5 minutes) the whole thing sits on a light stand (not included).
Why use a tri-flector?
If you do any type of beauty or fashion photography, a tri-flector gives the ability to light your subject from underneath and from the sides without the need for additional lights. It also provides some very distinctive catch lights in the eyes. By putting it on a light stand you can adjust the hight to your taste. Your subject/model can either stand or sit depending on your needs. In my setup above I used the Nikon D300, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens (shot 125th/sec f/8.0), Elinchrom 600RX (triggered with their awesome Skyport system) with a midi-octa softbox and the Lastolite Triflector MkII on a small light stand.
I used the above setup to produce this shot:
The interesting thing about the Lastolite Triflector is that it’s not easy to find. I never saw it at any of my usual sources for photography gear. However, it is available here at Adorama. Oddly enough Adorama doesn’t show the included stand or carrying case. However, I did a search for their SKU# LSTLPKWS (which is on my packing slip) and that’s the one that comes up. Pay no attention to the picture. It’s the right one. If you shoot portraits, beauty or fashion, you’re gonna want one of these!
Makeup by Renata.
My Top 10 Favorite iPhone Apps of 2008
While it’s certainly no secret that I’m a fan of the iPhone, I’m starting to become even more of a fan of the amazing 3rd party apps out there for the iPhone (and in most cases for the iPod touch). I currently have 69 3rd party apps installed. I’ve actually downloaded/purchased more than that. However, the 69 ones that I have currently installed are the ones that are my favorites and that I use on a regular basis. Each week I get exposed to more and more new apps and my favorites are always changing. So out of those 69, which are my absolute favorites? Which ones can’t I live without? If the iPhone was suddenly limited to only 10 3rd party apps, which would I keep? Here are my Top 10 Favorite iPhone Apps of 2008:
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#1 i.TV
FREE
Although this was already a great app when I first reviewed it, it just keeps getting better. The latest update practically eliminated two other apps I was using and added a feature that I’ve been waiting for since day one and that’s the ability to remotely schedule my TiVo HD to record shows from anywhere I happen to be. i.TV is a TV listing, Movie listing, Netflix queue manager (search for a movie and you can either see the show times for it or add it to your Netflix queue), and now TiVo scheduler all it one! It’s an amazing app and it’s FREE (yes, it does display ads).Â
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#2 Remote
FREE
Remote is one of Apple’s apps. This App turns your iPhone/iPod touch into a Wi-Fi remote for iTunes running on your Mac or PC and your Apple TV. Change songs, switch playlists, control which Airtunes speakers the music will play from and even use the iPhone’s keyboard when you need to type things on the Apple TV like passwords, searches, etc. Very well done and definitely one of my favorites.
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#3 Say Who-Dialer
FREE
I’ve tried to use various voice recognition technology through the years and most of it has been a disaster when it comes to recognizing MY voice. However, Say Who-Dialer does an amazing job in letting me say the name of the person I want to dial AND the particular number for that contact I want. ie. “Bruce Mandel Mobile”. It’s gets it right 99% of the time for me.
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#4 AroundMe
FREE
I’m not sure how I missed this one earlier. AroundMe is one of those location based apps that tells you (by category) what’s near your current location. Need the closest coffee shop, bank, gas station, etc. While that’s not really too amazing, this one does one thing that I haven’t seen in the rest. It actually has a feature that I’m shocked Apple hasn’t done yet as a separate app. It will tell you where your closest Apple Store is. This is a GREAT app for travelers!
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#5 Accuweather
FREE
If you’ve been following my “iPhone App of the Week” posts each Friday, then you know that this was last week’s pick. It is by far the best weather App I’ve used to date! I’ve even moved it to the main Home screen in place of Apple’s Weather App.
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#6 Â Mobile Banking
FREE
If you’re a Bank of America customer, then this app is a MUST HAVE. Not only does it let me check my balances of all my BOA accounts, but it lets me transfer funds and even find the closest BOA ATM or branch. I hate paying ATM fees!
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#7 ToDo
$9.99
I’ve tried the free ones and others that cost too and my favorite task manager is “ToDo”. I like it because the UI is simple, yet powerful. It has all the features I want in a task manager without being overly complex. It works the way I do. I rely on this app all the time.
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#8 SuperBall 2
$1.99
I have a few games on my iPhone and it was really a toss up between this one and my Blackjack game. However, SuperBall 2 for me has been the most addictive and once I finished the free version, I had to have more! With this game, I’m never bored when I have to stand in a line or have some time to kill.
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#9 Facebook
FREE
I’ve been dabbling in social networking this year and have settled on Facebook to keep tabs on friends and family. So having a native Facebook app on my iPhone is very nice. This app now in its second major release has been great. There is one major thing missing though. While it’s easy to see photos, upload photos, see/write on your friend’s wall(s), etc., the one thing that seems to be missing is the ability to send a friend request right from the iPhone. I find this to be odd. I can accept friend requests, but can’t initiate them. On more than one occasion I have been standing with friends only to discover that they are on Facebook and have to wait to I get back to my computer to add them. Otherwise, it’s a great app and if you use Facebook, it’s a must!
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#10 BigTipper
$1.99
A tip calculator? Is this really necessary and wow, it cost money? Necessary? probably not. However, I just love the way that this one is designed. I’m a sucker for a well thought out UI and on those occasions when I’m not going to tip 20%, it’s great to have. I use this all the time. It’s the best one I’ve seen to date.
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Missing in Action!
We saw a lot of progress in less than 6 months time! Although I have a lot of favorite iPhone apps, there was one that I was hoping for that we didn’t see in 2008 and that was a native Slingbox App for the iPhone. Nor did we see a native Sirius/XM radio app. Of course I’d like to see the iPhone itself updated with Cut/Copy/Paste, Flash, MMS messaging, video recording and more. Hopefully we’ll see these things and more in 2009! Happy New Year!
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Also be sure to check out Time Magazine’s Top 10 iPhone apps of 2008. We clearly have different tastes 🙂
TSA makes me go huh?
I’m traveling today for a family visit and once again I decided to use the new option at Northwest Airlines that allows me to have the boarding pass sent to my phone instead of printing one out. See my earlier blog post on it here. However, today things didn’t go as smoothly. I got to the TSA security desk and for some reason the scanner wouldn’t scan the barcode on my screen. They said that it hadn’t worked all day.
So I was wondering what would happen next? You guessed it, they made me go back to the ticket counter (or in my case the electronic kiosk) and print a boarding pass. Luckily I had plenty of time and the airport was not crowded today. Once I returned to the TSA desk, they looked at my “printed” boarding pass, initialed it and I was on my way.
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No big deal right?
This got me thinking, why did I need the paper? If you think about it, you can print a boarding pass at home right? You could even fake one (don’t! it’s against the law!). So what was different about a piece of paper vs. my iPhone screen. Granted the scanner, scans the barcode on my iPhone and then displays my name which will match my ID and even says which flight I’m on, but the paper never gets scanned. They just look at it. They spend more time scrutinizing your ID. So couldn’t they just look at my phone? Or wouldn’t it make more sense just to use your ID and have a computer there that says which flight your on? The funny thing was that when I got to my gate, I asked if the scanner was working with phones and they said yes and instead of using the paper boarding pass, I used the electronic one on my iPhone and got on the plane no problem.
I continue to be amazed by the lack of thought that goes into this whole airport “security” thing!
My Top 10 Gadget Picks for 2008
It’s that time to look back on 2008 and pick my absolute favorite gadgets of 2008. These are the gadgets that either have brought me the most joy or benefited me the most. These are also the gadgets that if something were to happen to, I’d replace with another one just like it immediately. I go through a lot of gadgets in a year, so it’s really hard to narrow it down to just 10, but here goes:
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My #1 Favorite Gadget of 2008 is the iPhone 3g
Now with over 10,000 3rd party apps available, this is the gadget that just keeps getting better. I use my iPhone 3g more than any other gadget I own.
Here are my other 9 picks:
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For those who are having trouble seeing the widget above:
TiVo HD
Logitech Harmony One
Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray Player
Garmin nuvi 765T
Apple TV
Nikon D700
Nkon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens
Apple MacBook Pro 15.4in Late 2008 model
Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080p projector
Honorable Mention
Another Gadget that I’ve used quite a bit in 2008 is my di-Pro GPS for my Nikon DSLRs.
So what’d you get?
I’ve been reviewing my favorite gadgets, services and apps all year long. Now it’s your turn! Tell us what you got this holiday season (tech wise) that you’re excited about? Use the comments section below. Tell us what it is, why you like it and provide links if you can? Did you get or give anything from my holiday gift guide?
iPhone App of the Week – AccuWeather
Another weather app? What’s my obsession with weather apps?
With all the bad weather we’ve been having this week I’m using my NEW favorite weather app more than ever. Yes it wasn’t long ago that I named MyWeather Mobile as the iPhone App of the Week. After that I got hooked on The Weather Channel app. Now I’m absolutely in love with Accuweather.
Why AccuWeather?
Why not just use the built-in Weather App that’s already included with the iPhone and iPod touch. Anyone that lives or travels near/to snow will identify with what I’m about to say. The built-in Weather App is simply inadequate. Sure it will give the the expected high and low tempurature for the day and even tell me that it’s going to snow or rain, etc. However, what it doesn’t tell me is WHEN? and HOW MUCH? Simply seeing a little icon for Saturday that shows snow is meaningless. I need to know if it’s going to be 1 inch or 12 inches. I travel often, so up to the minute winter weather issue is critical! Now, if you live in, let’s say Florida or Hawaii where the weather is pretty constant, then you probably don’t need this level of information.
AccuWeather is a full featured weather app. In my opinion it’s got the best UI (user interface) of all the ones I’ve tried to date including the one that I paid for (MyWeather Mobile). AccuWeather not only can give me a much more detailed forecast including hourly forecasts, but it can even show me a video of the most recent weather report for my area. Very slick! Very very slick indeed! Of course it’s location based like the others and you can save your favorite locations. You can also see an animated radar weather map. The Risk screen shows you exactly what’s likely to happen whether it be Thunder Storms, Rain, Snow, Ice, Wind, or Fog.Â
AccuWeather starts off with a very well designed display of the current conditions. This also includes a nice background photo representing what it’s doing outside right now. Cloudy, Clear, Raining, etc. I not only get to see the current temperature, but also the wind chill factor (feels like).Â
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The Bottom Line
There are several weather apps out there. Some are free, some cost $, however, AccuWeather is by far the best designed one and most stable one I’ve seen and used to date. Best of all it’s FREE! You can download AccuWeather for the iPhone and iPod touch here from the App Store.
Be sure to check back next Friday for my “Top 10 iPhone Apps of 2008”. Of course I think you already know what one of them will be. 🙂 Some come back and see the other 9.
Santa needs a bailout :)
Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays!
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