Right off the bat I would get the Griffin stand, it looks comfortable, solid, and simple to use. Griffin make quality accesseries for Apple products and this is no different, made out of Aluminum and a non-slip rubber surface to hold the iPad in vertical or horizontal mode, the charging point, speaker, and buttons are obstructed with this design. Overall for $50 is very nice.

GelASkin have some funky designs but out of them all this is my favorite, I really wanted something with the Japanese Flag for some reason. Its provides the right type of protection without making it bulky with an outer shell.

I have been reading a lot of the reviews about the iPad but the best one yet is done by the guys at UpTill1. For once a review that answers a lot of the questions about a product, you don’t just see the glitz of the product but what you can expect from it. After reading through it I know I want one, but at least you can keep a realistic point of view as to the uses of the machine and the current draw backs. Some of the Applications went too early to market because they are crashing a little too much but lets hope they fix that, overall its still looking good. For the full breakdown head over to UpTill1 to get all the details on it.

Link: UpTill1 iPad Review

Now this is a shocker, Sony Ericsson became synonymous with phones, I can only remember back in the late 90s and early 2000 when I had a few Ericsson phones then the joint venture took place and I don’t remember as anything else but Sony Ericsson. Its no secret that I’m a huge fan of Sony Ericsson, because they built quality phones which didn’t have too many software bugs and could survive a major beating. I switch from Nokia a little while back and loved the phone. Now this major surprise is a shock, they will cease operations in four months and all employees will be distributed between Sony and Ericsson. It seems the recession hit them hard as well and they couldn’t get out of it.

Sony Ericsson CEO, Bert Nordberg, says: “We truly did believe in the vision that was Sony Ericsson, we had an ambition to rise to the top, but sadly, our way towards there has been hampered in numerous ways during the past few years, both financially and strategically. We are saddened to announce that our parent companies, Sony and Ericsson have decided to quit the joint venture and put its reinstatement on hold indefinitely.”

Link: SEBlog

After one week with customs at last I managed to get my package all in one box, safe and sound. You can tell it was opened but nothing was tampered with, everything seemed to be sealed and in good condition. The only thing I really worried about was the hard drives since they were out of their boxes and probably moving around a little. I was very happy to have my package, and first thing I did was to test out the hard drives just in case if anything was wrong.

Package:

• Asus P6X58D Premium Mother Board
• OCZ 6 GB Ram 2000Mhz
• Intel i7 950
• SanDisk Compact Flash 32 GB
• 4 x Hitachi 2 TB Hard Drives
• Planet Hulk
• Dante’s Inferno
• Halo Legends
• Justice League – Crisis on Two Earths
• Macross – Super Dimension Fortress

For the last couple of days I think BBM has been acting up, at first I thought it was my phone since it has started to do strange things and I think my Blackberry Curve is probably at the end of its life at this rate. I have been getting delayed msgs from the same conversation, somebody would get a msg I sent a few hours later asking what I was talking about. Or I would get something someone sent a few hours earlier, again later in the day which is really really strange. I can’t imagine what could be wrong but these delayed messages are really confusing the hell out of me, a few throw me off as they are out of context of the conversations that I might be having. I don’t know if others are experiencing this as much but I hope this gets resolved soon.

TVs have made huge jumps in the last 20 years, even the last 5 years have been fantastic, but manufacturers think they milk the most they can out of normal TVs that they want to go 3D for the next big thing. My next purchase won’t be a 3D TV, I will be picking up the best TV which high contrast, large screen, thin depth and best High Definition possible. 3D is something I want to avoid for now but its the buzz word that is flying around from every manufacturer and media company, every movie being redone for 3D. I might see a 3D movie and enjoy it but 3D where I have to wear those bulky glasses the whole day or whenever I’m watching something on TV is just ridiculous. I can bear to wear those glasses for a few hours but it has to be a movie I really want to see not any movie as I get annoyed by those glasses. But now they are moving into PC gaming as well as production TVs are those 3D TVs, everyone is talking about being 3D compatible, A/V Receivers and more, I refuse for now to get on board, those things will give me a headache.

I’m not a fan of consumer laptops from Dell or HP, but I do like their business lines. They are heavy duty laptops which can take a beating while performing flawlessly. Now they have came out with the Latitude 13, which is part of the business line but had some of the design cues from the Dell Adamo which looked good but wasn’t successful. In this case this machine is thin and perfect size but packs a punch.

Specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo 1.3 GHz
• Windows 7 Pro 32 Bit or XP Professional Downgrade
• 13.3″ Widescreen HD LCD with anti-glare (1366×768)
• Camera 1.3MP
• 4GB DDR3 1066
• SSD or HD
• External Optical Drive
• Intel WiFi Link 5100 a/g/n
• Blue Tooth

Link: Dell

There are a lot of access points out on the market, and I have tried quite a few, been through 2 Netgear, 2 Linksys, 1 Belkin, and 3 D-Link. Out of all them I would avoid Belkin, probably the worst out of all the products, was horrible out of the box, worse support and I would avoid all their products period. Linksys are good but not what it used to be, I still prefer the older models then the new consumer models. Netgear is nice when its working but after a while it would hang, I would have to plug it and unplug it, and one of them just stopped working. Overall the best solid products with little nonsense and high features are D-Link products.

Models

• D-Link DAP 1160
• D-Link 2100 AP
• D-Link 7100 AP

What I like out of them is full security features, MAC Filter, DHCP control, simple setup, and reasonably priced.

I have been waiting years before purchasing this lens, its the peak of all the Canon lenses. This lens is what gives the Canon L Series Lenses that name of quality and amazing pictures. The Canon 70-200mm F/2.8 IS L is second to none in sharpness, contrast, and speed.

I have taken several shots, its fantastic for high speed shots, loved it for group photos and photos on the fly. You really capture a person’s details and concentrate on the subject in front of you.

The F4 is more expensive then the F2.8 but really worth it since nothing can increase the speed of lens then the F-stop. Then there is the normal model the IS model, I went for the IS model as I am shooting freehand consistently and it did a great job with a lot of my shots.

At the time I got the lens for $1600 which is a very good price, and I don’t regret a penny that I spent on it. Its an amazing lens which produces fantastic photos. This is the lens which takes it to the next level. (Sample Pictures Below)

I am a happy user of the Sonos Multiroom music system, and the best part is the consistent quality of music. I bought it when I had the larger CR100 remote which had a click wheel and wasn’t touch screen but extremely durable. Now with the CR200 Sonos has really made advancements in the remote technology and user interface is so much better then before and smoother to work with.

The best part of the new user interface is the new search functionality which makes it very easy to go through large collections of music. You can type in what your looking for and it does a smart filter of possible matches as you are typing. Sirius and other music services are fantastic to work with on this unit, better then even the desktop software. Its smooth and seamless and I get to access all my Sirius music without a hitch and changing between them is easy enough.

I have the Sonos application running on my iPod touch but the difference is that the Sonos CR200 runs on the Sonos mesh rather then the wifi, so if wifi doesn’t reach its working on the mesh network of the music units. The feel and quality of the unit is unsurpassed, very good feel with a solid build and high quality screen. This unit is worth every penny for something of this quality and experience.

Link: Amazon
Price: $349
Rating:

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