Wednesday, January 16, 2013 - 1:21pm
For the ridiculous price of $50, you get a manual toothbrush that monitors your oral hygiene and sends that data to a clunky smartphone app.
review stories
Monday, September 24, 2012 - 11:09am
Just as in politics, the vast majority of the smartphone universe is made up of iOSocrats and Androidicans (or, if you will, Androidicrats and iOSicans) with only a small sliver of undecided (or older BlackBerry users deciding to reject the useless protest third party candidate vote, and non-smartphone users finally willing to dive in).
Androdicans will buy only Android phones; iOSocrats will stick with whatever candidate Apple annually nominates. So any review of the new iPhone 5, such as this one, will appeal largely to current iPhone owners and the small slice of the feature phone undecided.
So the question then is this: should current iPhone owners move up to the iPhone 5?
Based on two fun-filled days playing with my new iPhone 5, I'd say this: Are you friggin' kidding me? You will love this new iPhone.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - 7:33am
It's long been every geek's dream to become a Jedi Knight and wield a lightsaber and manipulate the power of the Force to take down armies of evil-doers. A Star Wars experience that lets you literally wield a lightsaber with a clenched fist or summon up the Force by lifting up your palm has never been done before.
LucasArts' Kinect Star Wars (henceforth dubbed KSW) is not your typical story-driven Star Wars game. It's not as expansive as Bioware's seminal Knights of the Old Republic or its massively multiplayer successor, Star Wars: The Old Republic or as insidious as The Force Unleashed series. It's a Kinect game, and as one, it's limited to the hardware of Kinect's sometimes-but-not-always responsive skeletal tracking.
Motion gaming seemed the perfect answer to tackling the challenge of making lightsaber dueling feel more precise than any Star Wars game has ever been before, but sadly we'll have to wait a bit longer. Read on to find out why KSW falls short on being the ultimate Star Wars video game.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - 12:15pm
You'd be hard pressed to find a canister vacuum in American households. It's exceedingly rare, making up only one in nine full-size vacuum sales in 2011, according to NPD Group. In contrast, canisters are still a favorite in international markets. 98 percent of vacuum sales in France were canister models, for example. This leads me to wonder: Is there something wrong with the canister, or with the American perception of what makes a good vacuum?
In short, it's both.
Though they dominate European homes, canister vacuums are incredibly clumsy. They're awkward to store. They're bested by corners and furniture. They fall over. Bottom line: They're a hassle. It'd make sense that James Dyson — famous for his well-engineered, pricey eponymous machines — would introduce the iconic ball design found in his uprights to the canister. The popular design solves the steering problem, but has Dyson found a way to make this convenient for storage? Read on to find out if this is the canister vacuum for you.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 7:33am
Almost everything that can be said about the new third-generation iPad has already been said. Its 2048x1536 resolution Retina Display is crisp — and more advanced than even the largest and sharpest HDTVs. The 4G LTE is so fast that it's sometimes even speedier than Wi-Fi. Retina-ready apps look unbelievable — even better than printed paper — and the rear camera finally produces pictures that aren't horrible.
It's for all of those reasons that I (and the millions of people who waited in line outside Apple Stores) love the new iPad. I'm coming up from a first-gen iPad, myself. But I've been using the third-gen iPad for four straight days and "resolutionary" (Apple's copy, not mine) as the tablet is, there's always room for improvement and here we present the areas where the new iPad can still grow.
If you want to read a more positive take on the new iPad, you can check out Stewart's take on it from last Friday. Otherwise, get ready for some criticism on Apple's latest.
Friday, February 24, 2012 - 7:17am
Articles about losing weight often cite walking more as a great (and ridiculously easy) way to lose weight. Skip the subway and walk the twenty blocks to work, they say. (And I do.)
But most new pedometers these days do more than just count your steps with a built-in accelerometer; some reward you in virtual and real-world ways for each step you take. In addition, all of them allow you to track the data over time and see if you see spot habits or trends. Some of them have so many additional features besides counting steps, that it doesn't even sound right to call them a pedometer — they definitely, and pardon the pun, go the extra mile.
For this review, I wore the Striiv, the Fitbit Ultra and the iPod Nano. The first two on my belt just to the side of my pocket; the latter on my non-dominant left arm in a watch band. Keep reading to find out how they stack up.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - 7:29am
Building a tablet in today's climate is hard. You'll either be called out for being a copycat by consumers or officially called out by Apple — the leading tablet maker — for blatantly ripping off its vague design patents.
Since Apple set the precedent for what a modern tablet (not one of those bulky tablet PCs that Bill Gates dreamed up a decade ago), there's an expectation that a finger-friendly touchscreen tablet should be thin, light and start at $500 (or less if you're not an iPad).
And even though Samsung is still knee-deep in some lawsuits that span courtrooms around the globe with its larger Galaxy Tab 10.1, it still fired up the factories to pump out the smaller Galaxy Tab 8.9 to sell in the U.S.
To rival the iPad 2 is a tough task. Motorola's Xoom tried. RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tried. A sea of cheap Android tablets tried. The only one who seems prepared to bring the entire ecosystem of content and hardware is Amazon and its Kindle Fire next month.
Is the Galaxy 8.9 the tablet that finally gives the iPad 2 a run for its money? Maybe, maybe not.
Monday, October 24, 2011 - 7:48am
I have never been a morning person. Just ask my nutritionist — I quit breakfast for over 10 years just so I could sleep 10 minutes more in the morning. But as I continue my goal to be a healthier person, I need that valuable time in the morning before work for breakfast, maybe a run, etc.
With that in mind, I did what I always do when I want to improve my life: I turned to technology. I found I couldn't blame my bed anymore (especially now that I have a nice, cold pillow). So join me as I blame something else — and attempt to ditch — my conventional, obnoxious alarm clock and its daily blaring.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - 10:03am
While all eyes are on Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft to deliver the next-generation of gaming in portable and console form, one old-time friend is making a silent return. Atari is partnering with DiscoveryBay Games to launch the Atari Arcade — an iPad dock that enhances old-school arcade classics with the tactility of a joystick and four physical buttons.
Right off the bat, you're probably thinking the Atari Arcade is an iCade knock-off. It certainly seems so at a glance; the Atari Arcade is the second joystick dock for the iPad, but the similarities pretty much end there.
Read on to find out if the Atari Arcade is up to snuff to make you want to play games like Pong, Asteroids and Centipede all over again.
Thursday, August 25, 2011 - 11:29am
For as long as I can remember, I've desired a pillow that was always cold. I'm a pillow flipper, in that I tend to constantly flip my pillow every few minutes when trying to sleep, desperate to get to the "cool side." The solution? Well, something like what the PollarPillow promises.
If you're new to the world of self-cooling cushions, the key advantage of the PolarPillow over most other pillows that claim to always remain cool is you don't have to do anything. You don't have to plug it in, you don't have to add water, you don't have to refrigerate it — nothing.
Continue reading to find out how the PolarPillow stacks up.
