Section: Audio, Video, Communications, Computers, Features, Originals, Columns .JPG)
It’s funny: when you write about gadgets nearly every day, you become aware of just how many there are out there and how many you don’t have. When asked to write about what I’ve managed to buy, the list seems quite small. Thankfully, I have a Mrs. Mason to remind me just how many of these “stupid gadgets” I have. Here’s a day in the life of a blogger superstar (oh, sorry, he couldn’t do this week, so you just get my life): Early I awake to the Crowded House station on Pandora on my Chumby. You see Crowded House was a band in the 80s and oh, never mind. I love Chumby. The company may hate to hear this, but it is the best alarm clock ever. As it tosses me from my sleep with music, I get weather, Facebook updates, the latest silly face my kids made (they love playing with Chumby) and news. It’s simple, does what it is supposed to and we can’t go back to a dumb alarm clock. I love that it proves connected devices make the experience better. The old dumb alarm clock only woke me to a static-laden Latin station that just wasn’t my cup of tea. From there is down to a cup of coffee and my Dell laptop. The thing is so thin and tiny (the laptop - not the coffee), it’s the perfect size for me in the morning as I move from living room to breakfast table. It’s small enough yet does enough. This is the laptop I travel with. I even seem to get along with Windows 7. My teen daughter texts me from the bus stop (it’s on a main road and Fathers get nervous). Buying that unlimited family texting plan was probably the smartest thing I ever did. Work Can you call Google Voice a gadget? I am . I give out my GV number as my cell phone to customers. The reason? I can shut it off. I don’t work in a life-saving field so lives don’t hang in the balance if I miss a weekend call or call after 7pm. Shut it down. My workstation is filled with Logitech equipment. The diNovo Edge Bluetooth Keyboard makes working on my work laptop a much better experience. I’ve had it for a few years now and still love it. The MX1100 mouse is the best I’ve used yet. Logitech stuff just works for me. Part of my must-have list is external storage. For that, I’ve got a Buffalo 500GB Drivestation that does the job admirably. Always there when I need it and it’s USB compatiblity means I can move it around if I need to. I’ve got it plugged into a StarTech USB dock as the Dell laptop has just one USB port. Lunch I’ll typically hit the road on my Country Road Bob bike for a quick loop or try to advance my boxing career on the nostalgic Punch-Out on Wii. I am not much of a gamer (forced retirement - remind me sometime to tell you about the week of college I missed playing Batman), I keep serious gaming at arms length now (gambling for the same reason). Evening My TiVo HD box is, in opinion, the best thing since sliced bread. From the Season Pass or Netflix streaming to YouTube (painful but it works), it gives me all I think I want for now. One day I’ll upgrade to the latest but it works fine for now. That leaves just one other gadget to talk about, my iPhone 4. As I was trained back in the PDA days (hat tip to Handspring), I keep it by my side at all times. It sits on my nightstand since we got rid of the landline. It’s beside me at breakfast so I can dig deeper into a WSJ article if I please. And for work, the Comcast Digital Voice app is tops (Google Voice stuff just gets emailed to me). I find I use the camera more and more for work stills and video it’s that good (and I am not a pro photographer…). For play, it’s even more valuable. I use Navionics, a very capable marine navigation program every time I leave the dock. It’s handy, fast and surprisingly accurate. AT&T Navigation, courtesy of TeleNav handles my land-based GPS navigation with aplomb - it never lets me down. I also dabble in some geocaching from time to time. The iPhone is my main gaming device. And my kids main gaming device. Despite using it all day, I only seem to be able to get down to about 35% battery life during a typical day. That’s way better than my old 3G iPhone. Pandora, Facebook, Weather Channel, Liverider, Runkeeper, Netflix, and iMovie round out my favorite apps of the day. For games, I am still hooked on Angry Birds and BJ Run lite (simple but addictive). In all, that’s pretty much me - gadgetwise. Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Computers, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack 
What's the most common phrase heard around the Gadgetell newsroom? Is it "I love Apple?", "that's cool!" or "sweet!"? Answer: none of them, it's "they are on crack." This week we take a look back at the things that made us chuckle in the tech world. This week, it seems there were more folks on dope than not. Lets get to this week’s accused: Apple goes off meds
OMG - they were real planes
Google <3's hunters and peckers 
Apple changes developers world, again. A statement this week from Apple loosened a few developer restrictions and laid out guidelines for App Store review. The Guidelines themselves were very un-Apple, from preamble: - ” If it sounds like we're control freaks, well, maybe it's because we're so committed to our users and making sure they have a quality experience with our products. Just like almost all of you are too.”
- ”...so know that we are keeping an eye out for the kids.”
- “We have lots of serious developers who don’t want their quality Apps to be surrounded by amateur hour.”
- “We don’t need any more Fart apps.”
Has anyone seen Ashton Kutcher lately, because this feels like we’re being punked. It will be a sober weekend for anyone looking for crack in the Cupertino area, as Apple seems to have cornered the market. I mean instead of the normal secretive, tight-lipped bunch that has us all guessing, we get some humor and something that suggest they are human? Are we sure Apple didn’t make it April 1 somehow? What’s more the rule changing looks really positive. Heck, even Adobe is excited (silly Adobe, see Flash on Droid-ugh). Even the most jaded users that fled to Android, are excited. Take our burn-me-3-times and I’m leaving, editor Robert Nelson; even he is excited: “Personally I purchased it (Google Voice app) three times already, once before it was approved as a jailbroken app, then when it hit the official App Store and then back from Cydia after it was removed and relaunched as GV Mobile +. Either way, I am keeping my fingers crossed.” Crack. Lots and lots of crack. Perhaps industrial grade crack. 
Be very careful playing Flight Control App You’ve heard of the Flight Control App right? It seems Gadgetell has uncovered a bit of a twist. In his post, “Flight Control app safely lands over 2 billion planes” our Aaron Thacker reports, “since launch in 2009, Firemint has reported users successfully landing over 2 billion planes, 2 billion.” Hold up, it’s real? The “game” chronicles landing scenarios at various sized airports. It would seem, according to Mr. Thacker, that the FAA is outsourcing ATA (air traffic area) duties to folks who have 10 minutes to kill in line at the bank, or in the loo. Perhaps it’s time we stopped playing this game drunk or when we are half-watching TV. In the words of Apple, perhaps it’s time we “keep an eye out for the kids.” Mr. Thacker shamefully does not speak of how many unsuccessful landings Firemint users have caused. Just how many mid-air collisions does there need to be before this game is stopped? How many planes have been brought down by someone showing off the crashes? I suspect the number is quite large; as must be the conspiracy to cover it up. If it were an election year, I suggest this conspiracy goes to the top levels of our government. Moving funding away from the FAA to stimulus and healthcare may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but then, so did Windows Mobile 5. This time, Washington DC’s mayor isn’t the only one doing crack. 
Google <3's hunters and peckers Google showed us they care this week by revealing just how much they love some of us. And by “us”, I really mean them. You know them. They sit down in front of their computer and try to recreate the problem while you patiently watch over their shoulder. Only they have no clue how to type. Every other keystroke is followed by, “now where is that damn J?” All you can think of is, “get out of the way dinosaur.” Google loves these dinosaurs that hunt and peck for keys (hence the moniker “hunters and peckers”). Google crafted a search engine just for them called Google Instant. Our Aaron Thacker explains, “This next step in search actively predicts what are you going to type and scan the web right in front of your eyes. If you haven yet to try it out, venture over to Google.com come and simply type "W" into the search bar, results will likely display weather in your area. Not what you're looking for, add one more letter and Google with continue to play the "I know what you're thinking game." What’s worse? Google says these might-as-well-be-computer-illiterate numskulls will save 350 million search hours per year. Wha? You mean these !@#$ tossers were wasting that much time just because they can’t frickin’ type? These chimps who spell like my 7-year-old son, “A” um, “P”, “is there one or two in Apple?”, “P”... We should be paid a lot more for running circles around these mouth-breathers, but no, Google just find a way to make them more competitive. Thanks Google. See something our drug-smelling dog team missed? Let us know in the comments. Who’s on Crack in tech is a mostly weekly column, see you next week. Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation, Web, Google Google has rolled out the latest update for the Maps application on Android. This brings the app up to version 4.5 and with the new number comes some new features. Now included will be Walking Navigation and Street View Smart Navigation as well as a new Google Maps search bar. Of course, the one warning comes in with the Walking Navigation portion of the update—this one is still listed as being in beta—which really means that you should be prepared to make a judgment call as to where Google has you walking. In other words, don’t follow blindly and find yourself walking down a major highway. Otherwise, the Google Maps app is available for download by way of the Android Market and can be found by anyone running Android 1.6 or later. Read [Google Mobile Blog]  Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile Verizon rolled out the webOS 1.4.5 software update for Palm Pixi Plus users a short while back, and since then Pre Plus users have been left waiting. Well, as of today we have a bit of news, though unfortunately it is not saying that anything is ready for download. According to Verizon; “The update you are requesting will be available within the next couple of weeks.”
And there you have it, Verizon will be rolling out webOS update 1.4.5 for Palm Pre Plus users in a few weeks. Like I said, not the best news, especially since Verizon users seem to be last at getting it and still have several weeks to wait. But at the same time, at least we can now see that it will be coming. Via [webOSroundup] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Apple, Communications, Smartphones, VoIP, Mobile, Web, Google The Google Voice app, GV Mobile was pulled from the App Store back in late-July of last year and since then it had seemed like it would never make a return. That ultimately left iPhone users either without the app or having to jailbreak to get it. Then yesterday Apple changed the rules a bit and offered up some new guidelines in terms of app development guidelines—and low and behold the once removed GV Mobile seems to have meet all of the guidelines. The news is far from official at this point, but does appear to be good news for Google Voice users still sporting an iPhone. Personally, this was one of the reasons that pushed me so hard to go Android. But that aside, the word is coming direct from Sean Kovacs, who is the GV Mobile app developer. According to posts on his Twitter stream; “Since GV Mobile complies with all 110+ guidelines newly posted by Apple, it should get approved?”
Based on that it would appear as if the GV Mobile app should be approved, but it gets a little better yet. Sean went on to tweet a message that sounded real promising; “Good news: I did get confirmation back from Apple that it will most likely get back in once I resubmit.”
With that, it is “likely” that it will get approved, which is far from a guarantee. That said, it is still better than nothing at this point. And finally, as to make sure the users are taken care of, Sean went on to let everyone know that the app would be made free for a day that way users would not have to make another purchase to get it back. Personally I purchased it three times already, once before it was approved as a jailbroken app, then when it hit the official App Store and then back from Cydia after it was removed and relaunched as GV Mobile +. Either way, I am keeping my fingers crossed. Read [Twitter @seankovacs] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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