Posted by Scott Mahan on Aug 26, 2009 in
Reviews,
Technology,
iPhone After much coveting of this unique bluetooth stereo headset, Amazon’s recent price drop has allowed me to purchase it. And I am way impressed.
This is a unique headset. It starts as a standard bluetooth earpiece. 
And for phone calls it does a great job. It has adaptive noise reduction and multipoint technology to connect to multiple phones. 7 hours of talk time and 160 hours of standby.
Where this product shines is its ability to stream audio via the A2DP protocol. When connected to my iPhone 3GS, I can listen to podcasts and music through the single earpiece. This is extremely convenient when you want to keep an open ear to hear your environment.
But it gets better. Attach the secondary earbud, drape the light, cloth cable around the back of your neck and you’ve converted this earpiece into a full stereo headset. There is a fit kit with 3 sizes of earpieces. For me, the medium gels fit great and provide good sound isolation. Since the secondary earbud and cable are so light, you can pop it out temporarily to hear your environment.
While this isn’t a full review, it covers the highlights. Here comes the pros and cons.
Pros:
- Ultralight
- Versatile – A2DP in either mono or stereo
- Audio Quality – On par with my current favorite, the Motorola S9HD
- Inexpensive – I was able to purchase this headset for under $35 ($120 retail)
Cons:
- No hard case – Only a soft pouch (which doesn’t fit the charger)
- Micro USB Charger – Everything else I have uses Mini USB
- Doesn’t include a travel charger – Since it is Micro USB, I need to purchase one separately
That’s it for now. If you have any questions, leave a comment.
Tags: Bluetooth, iPhone, Review, Stereo
Posted by Scott Mahan on Mar 4, 2009 in
Technology 
Last night, Amazon released the much rumored Kindle for iPhone application. Kindle for iPhone is a free application and is available now via the iTunes store. The app utilizes Whispersync to keep your library, bookmarks, and current location in sync between your Kindle and iPhone. Without digging too deep into the app, here is my quick take:
Pros:
- Large library of eBooks available from Amazon
- Whispersync – Stay in sync with your Kindle device
- Read first chapters of any book for free before you buy
- Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle device
Cons:
- Currently does not support newspapers or magazine subscriptions
- Cannot purchase books directly from the app, but must purchase on Amazon.com (from PC, Mac or iPhone) or a Kindle
- Does not support non-Amazon eBooks
Tags: Amazon, eBooks, iPhone, iTunes
Posted by Scott Mahan on Jul 31, 2008 in
iPhone 
… or what has to change to make the iPhone/iPod Touch a viable platform.
Dasme wrote an interestering article over on Nukoda.com about gaming on the iPhone. Here’s an excerpt:
I like many of you out there with a brand new iPhone 2.0 have been in love with the App Store. I’ve downloaded my fair share of both free and paid games, and have been amazed at the quality of the launch software. Like all things however, it hasn’t been a perfect experience.
I’ve collected my thoughts and gripes into one long post that I’m hoping iPhone/iPod Touch game developers will see and take to heart. While it’s likely that this won’t be seen by many, I want to speak my peace mainly so I can stop all my bitching to friends. Below you’ll find my three top gripes, and my solutions that would make iPhone/iPod Touch gaming a wonderful experience to be had by all… in a perfect world at least.
Read more here
Tags: Games, iPhone
Posted by Scott Mahan on Jul 31, 2008 in
iPhone 
I can’t be the only one having this problem. Here’s the scenario. I listen to my iPhone 3G in my car via a dock that is attached to a cigarette lighter adapter. If I leave it in the car, as soon as I re-start the car, it goes into landscape mode and won’t come out no matter how I twirl it. I am forced to shut-down and restart the iPhone 3G (out of the dock).
If you’ve experienced this problem, let me know. I’m going to go check the discussion forums at Apple and see if this is common or even a known bug.
EDIT: Nothing on this over at the Apple Forums. I’m going to try and recreate this scenario at home with a standard charger and dock. Check back tomorrow for an update.
Tags: iPhone, iPhone 3G
Posted by Scott Mahan on Jul 30, 2008 in
General I finally upgraded my WordPress blog (mostly so I could use the new WordPress iPhone application). Whew, that was painfull. I lost all my categories and had to do some fun MySQL work.
Now that I can update to blog from my iPhone, it is time to start blogging again. Right after I find a good 3-Column theme that supports tag (or I modify this one, Pride, with the new WP 2.6 enhancements). I am also thinking about converting my personal site from iWeb back to WP. I’ll do a little testing here with the WP iPhone app before I tackle that one.
More to come tomorrow!
Tags: iPhone, WordPress
