iPad Gift Guide – The Best Gifts for iPad Owners!
Our four favorite gifts for iPad users!
Artisan iPad Skins – These high quality skins allow you to truly personalize your iPad with free matching wallpapers! Each skin is covered with a clear laminate layer (in gloss or matter finish) to protect the design and the device from minor scratches and abuse. DecalGirl has skins available for both 1st and 2nd gen iPads. – $19.99
iPad Solar Charger – This USB based solar charger works with all kinds of gadgets, although it was specifically designed for the iPad. 6 inter-linked solar panels fold and unfold for ultimate portability. – $179
DODO Case – A hand made, book-bound iPad case made in America. Made from black Moroccan cloth and constructed using traditional bookbinding techniques. $59 – $89
Virgin Mobile MiFi – It’s prepaid 3G internet for your iPad, but it works with up to four other wifi devices as well. The MiFi itself runs $149, and plans start at just $10 for 10 days and goes up to $50 for one month unlimited service.
Macally intros new devices. BTkey and BTmouse
I have owned many Macally products in my life and I have never been disappointed. All of there hardware is well designed and durable. Macally has recently introduced a few new gadget and I thought it would be nice to give them a quick once over. I have found that Macally products fit just a little more comfortably in my hand.
First up; The BTkey Bluetooth keyboard. The Macally BTKey is a stylish wireless bluetooth extended keyboard. Low profile Scissor keys reduce key stroke travel distances and eases pressure on your finger tips.
It features:
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- The latest Bluetooth 2.0 technology
- 108 key ultra slim Bluetooth keyboard
- Enhanced Scissor-Key-Switches for thin keycaps with sensitive and responsive touch
- Caps Lock, Pairing and Low battery indicator LEDs
- Quick access keys for CD Eject, Mute, Volume up and down
- On/Off switch for energy saving
- Two AAA batteries (included)
And now the BTmouse. The Macally Bluetooth Mouse has the following features:
- 3 button interface (programmable on mac)
- Scroll Wheel
- 800 dpi precision Laser sensor
- Uses 2 AA batteries (Included)
- pair and on/off buttons.
High Quality Visuals.
Everyone needs a great monitor. Whether it be for video/photo editing, Graphics Design, Movie Watching, or Gaming. All monitors are not created equally. Shopping around and paying a little extra is often worth it in this field. Simply calibrating your monitor can often achieve better looking images and video. But that can only take you so far. If your looking for the best viewing experience possible, you may need a new monitor. Today monitors are advancing by leaps and bounds.
I have rounded up three of the better monitors that come pretty close to giving you what you pay for.
- 2ms Response Time
- 20,000:1 Contrast Ratio
- VGA,DVI, and HDMI inputs
- 160 Degree Viewing angle
- 2ms Response Time
- 50,000:1 Contrast Ratio
- DVI-D and VGA
- 170 Degree Viewing Angle
3.) 23″ HD Apple Cinema Display. – $250
- The Specs of this monitor fail to give it justice. It is said to have some of the most accurate color reproduction to date and is still in high demand. It was released in 2002 and it still goes for over $250
- It features a 1920×1200 Resolution and has a 170 Degree viewing angle.
- Be careful though, it’s ADC (Apple Display Connector) Only. ADC to DVI adapters run around $80
The BT-1. A Wireless Webcam for your Mac.
The BT-1 is a Bluetooth Webcam produced by Ecamm and marketed towards mac users. It offers native H.264 video streaming and AAC audio, Two great codecs which should hopefully compensate for its lackluster 640×480 resolution. (Really? 640×480? maybe I’m missing something, and maybe it has something to do with streaming rate limitations from using Bluetooth (300KBps), but 640×480 seems a little out of date.)
Other then the relatively low video resolution, the BT-1 does have a few nice features. The thing itself can run for 4 hours before needing to be plugged in again for recharging. I don’t know anyone who would wanna video chat longer then that anyways.
It also comes with a nice mini-tripod that makes it easy to setup just about anywhere.
While I still can’t exactly think of a situation where a wireless webcam would be overly useful, I’m sure it serves its purpose well.
Purchase and find more details here.
Do you have a great idea for using this wireless webcam? Let us know in the comments below!
Expanding your Mac.
The Western Digital HD Media Player Set-top box!
Pirated copy of Planet Earth, meet huge HD LCD TV!
The Western Digital HD Media center is essentially a gateway for your digital entertainment files.
Whether it be photos, music, or videos, the WD TV will deliver in up 1080p goodness. It features both HDMI and SPDIF out for true HD sound and video. The part of this product that really makes it stand out from the rest is its likable list of supported audio and video formats:
Video
- MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264),
MTS, TP, TS (If your curious, almost all HD downloads use some form of H.264 and/or .MKV)
Audio
- MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
All you have to do is connect an external USB hard drive or thumbdrive. The slick and elegant user interface will help you navigate your drive in order to find your media.
You can pick on up to day for as little as $89.99 Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player
Top 3 battery backups for iPhone/iPod Touch
Your iPhone/iPod touch is designed to be an on the go gadget. You take it with you to work, school, and everywhere else you go. You use it stay connected and to get things done when you are on the go. So when you pull it out expecting to get some quick work done, only to find out that the battery is dead, you better have a backup plan. A backup plan in this case is a battery backup designed for your iPhone/iPod Touch.
Mophie’s Juice Pack – Coming in at $99.95, it’s the king of battery backups. It offers an extra 6 hours of talk time and an extra 8 hours of video playback. If the price is a
little bit rich for your blood, try using code juice09 at checkout to get an extra %5 off.- Kensington’s Mini Battery Pack – Listed at $49.99, it’s half the price of our previous option. Even at half the price it still offers some pretty good results. 3 hours of extra talk time and 6 hours of additional video playback. The Mini Battery Pack, like its name implies is also much smaller then the Juice Pack.
Macally Powerlink – Priced at $49.99 the Macally Powerlink is in essence, a digital multi-tool. Not only can it provide emergency power to your iPhone/iPod, but it also functions as a 2GB flash drive and sync cable.
To me it seems like the Kensington is the best deal and I’m sure if you were to shop arround abit you may even be able to snag a better deal. The Macally Powerlink is a nifty little gadget as well, while its battery power is minimal, it can still be very useful.
3 must have Expresscard accessories for your mac.
Owning a Macbook Pro probably means you do a lot of work on the go, or at least you want to appear like you do alot of work on the go. Nevertheless, here are three Expresscards that will increase the productivity and usability of your MacBook Pro.
- Lexar 16GB Expresscard
:Not only is this a good way to increase your internal storage, it is also a great way to keep and transport secure files that you don’t want to leave on your laptop all the time. cost:$58
- 21IN1 Multimedia Reader/writer with SDHC support
:Apple’s decision to exclude a built in card reader is an unpopular one, but easily remedied. For $27 you can pick up this card reader and forget the problem ever existed.
- 2 Port eSATA Expresscard
:The lack of an eSATA port on your MBP is nothing to get down about. This $40 Expresscard adds 2, 3Gbp/s eSATA ports to your MacBook Pro in just seconds. A must for people dealing with frequent and large file transfers.
If I could convince you to get only one, I would recommend the SSD Expresscard. The ability to keep secure backups of all your data on a removable internal card is feature worth forking over some cash.
By the way, these all make great gifts for people who own a MacBook Pro. They will be more then impressed when they open your gift to find something incredibly thoughtful, and useful.