Apple... Think different???

Seriously Apple? Is that really going to be your motto? Let's take a look at this...



There are currently over 64 different Android devices on the market available through a dozen different service providers running dozens of different launchers and roms. There are also on the market today a dozen different tablet devices running android software. All of these have the features of the iPad and MORE! More like USB plugs, SD Card Slots, quad core processors, twice the RAM, and better keyboard interfaces. That is just to start. All Android devices will also charge off any computer through a USB port. I can't even charge my iPad unless it is plugged into the wall or a Mac.

So is Apple different? Mmmmm... maybe four years ago they were. Now they are just the same ole same ole. Even their last iPhone launch and recent iPad launch was just more of the same. Nothing new and nothing driving people to buy it other than man fanaticism toward the brand. I can't take anyone seriously who uses an iPhone for anything other than a phone and media player. The iPad isn't terrible, but there are so many better options out there which are so much more user friendly. If I could justify spending the money then I would absolutely be rocking an Android tablet right now. I don't even bring the iPad with me to work anymore. I just don't get as much use out of it due to the limitations of the device that I wouldn't have with say, an Asus Eee Pad Transformer.

So enjoy standing in lines to get the latest remake of the last iOS product and keep telling yourself that you are thinking differently. All you are really doing is thinking just like Apple, and that isn't different at all. When everybody thinks differently and yet all the thoughts are the same, that is called something else. I think it is the opposite of 'originality'.

Definitely going in my kids' cars

Cell phones and driving make a dangerous – and sometimes deadly – combination. Laws against talking or texting while driving don’t seem to make much of a difference in keeping people from picking up their phones while driving. This device from Scosche could help, though. It’s called the cellCONTROL, and it blocks phone signals inside a moving car.

The device plugs into the OBD-II port (standard on all cars produced in or after 1996) and jams the signal to and from cell phones whenever the car is in motion. All cell phone activity is blocked, including talking, texting and web browsing. The cellCONTROL isn’t just a dumb little gadget that does one simple thing, though. It’s smart enough to know when the car is moving and allows signals to go through when the car is motionless. It also knows when you’ve plugged a hands-free device into the phone and lets your signal operate normally in that case.

But maybe smartest of all is the fact that the cellCONTROL sends a message to the owner/administrator of the device if it’s disabled or unplugged. So if you plug it into your teen’s car to keep her from chatting herself into a wreck, you’ll know when she tries to outsmart you. The cellControl is available for around $130, which is pretty reasonable when you compare it to the multiple costs of cell phone-related car accidents.

Evil music robots...

You know the musical scores that accompany movies, amplifying the mood of each scene? These musical accompaniments used to be performed live in the movie theater by a band of talented musicians. As of 1927 and the release of the movie The Jazz Singer – in which synchronized sound was used for the first time – the bands’ services were no longer required.

Rather than sitting back and watching their livelihood disappear, the former theater musicians decided to take a stand against the changes happening in their industry.

In 1930, according to The Smithsonian, the American Federation of Musicians came together to form the Music Defense League. The new organization’s goal was to defend the careers of musicians who would be displaced by the “robot music” being played to accompany movies.

The organization spent a staggering (for 1930, anyway) $500,000 on an ad campaign imploring the American public to refuse the “robot music” and insist on real, live humans on stages and in movie theaters.

The ads featured a robot as the representation of recorded music. In various pictures the evil robot seeks to wrestle music culture away from real artists, seduce an innocent young girl, and physically harm human musicians.

According to the Music Defense League, this shift from live music to recorded music would only erode the country’s love of “real” art. The musicians strongly believed that this first step would lead humans away from their enjoyment of live music and usher in an era of “canned music.”

They were right, of course, to a certain point. After that time pre-recorded music slowly began to surpass live music in popularity. But today in our technology-loving society, we see this as a good thing because it allows more people access to a greater variety of music.

As the Music Defense League predicted, there is now a relatively small pool of musicians who provide scores for motion pictures. But luckily for us, our modern recording methods have allowed us to hear music from all over the world.

Over the past decade or two, Adobe’s Photoshop image editing software has become a staple in the world of graphics and media. The program’s primary function is to take an image and alter it in such a way that the final image is cleaner, crisper, and – for lack of a better word – better. In fact, Photoshop’s popularity and usage is so widespread that the word “photoshop” has become a colloquial verb meaning to edit and touch up an image, not unlike how the word “google” can now be used interchangeably with the term “search”.

Unfortunately, not every image that is put through Photoshop turns out well. Mistakes are made, errors are overlooked, and the final product can be catastrophically bad. Here are some of the absolute worst Photoshop blunders of all time.

#10 – Color Confused Cereal

Let me start off by saying that I don’t have anything against breakfast cereal. In fact, a tasty bowl of healthy morning goodness is a fantastic way to start the day. But there’s something about race-changing cereal that I just can’t make myself endorse…

#9 – Missing Belly Button

Playboy ran this ad sometime in the past and instantly knocked many readers back to the genesis of humankind. Where is this woman’s belly button? One explanation is that a careless photo artist accidentally airbrushed it away. Personally, I think we’ve found Eve of Eden.

#8 – Wrong Reflection

There’s a tiny chance that this was intentional, but even then it would be terrible. Creating a text reflection is one of the most basic image editing procedures to perform. So basic, in fact, that there are websites that will automatically generate image reflections for you. There’s no excuse for this one.

#7 – Lazy Stock Image

The designer for this video game decided to save a few bucks on the cover, essentially ripping the image from iStockphoto without paying for it. Unfortunately, he was too inattentive to notice the watermarks. That, or just really ballsy.

#6 – Headless Athlete

It’s amazing how a print publication as large and prolific as Sports Illustrated managed to let a mistake like this pass under their radar. It’s hard to tell what exactly they were trying to photoshop, but they forgot to put this guy’s head back on.

#5 – Mismatched Reflection

It’s hard to put any trust into a company that fails this badly. Were they deliberately trying to fool the consumer? Or was it simply human error? Either way, Lexar comes out bottom as dishonest or incompetent.

#4 – Fake Cheque

Speaking of dishonesty, how about an image that blatantly lies to your face? This guy has two massive Photoshop mistakes in this picture. For one, the image quality of the fake cheque is abysmal – it might fool someone who is computer illiterate, but that’s about it. For another, the cheque appears to be a vampire cheque. Vampires don’t have shadows, right? It is missing in the reflection in the paint of the vehicle too.

#3 – Copy & Pasted Audience

Not really sure what to say here. Did the image editor really think nobody would notice?

#2 – Really Smart Redhead

Alright, so here’s the thing: in order to achieve this effect, the image artist had to voluntarily and consciously slice this poor woman’s forehead and manually move it up a few hundred pixels… and during that entire process, it never crossed the artist’s mind that the result of such an operation would be unnatural, to say the least. It boggles the mind.

#1 – Legless Beauty

Here we have the absolute worst Photoshop mistake of all time. Now, I am by no means a Photoshop expert, but at what point does a woman’s leg disappear? And even afterwards, how is it that nobody on staff noticed an entire thigh missing?

Love that Mio Energy stuff

REVIEW: MiO Energy Liquid Water Enhancer (Black Cherry and Green Thunder)

Written by Marvo | January 5, 2012

Topics: 7 Rating, MiO, Water

NOTE: Click here for our regular MiO Liquid Water Enhancer review

The new Black Cherry and Green Thunder MiO Energy Liquid Water Enhancers are kind of like NyQuil. They both have camel case names, both come in a cherry flavor and some weird green flavor, and they both make me grimace when I consume them straight out of their containers.

However, while NyQuil contains antihistamines and alcohol to make one sleepy, MiO Energy contains caffeine and B vitamins to make me hold back Mr. Sandman for a while.

Because of the caffeine they contain, the MiO Energy bottles have a warning that states they’re not for children and should not be added to alcoholic drinks. I also thought they didn’t have any warnings about squirting it straight into your mouth instead of a glass of water, but on the opposite side of the children and alcoholic beverages warning, the bottle says, “Always dilute concentrate.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t read that until after I squirted some Black Cherry and Green Thunder MiO Liquid Water Enhancer down my gullet, so my heart could’ve exploded. Thankfully, it didn’t.

When a 1/2 teaspoon of MiO Energy is squirted into eight ounces of water, the mixture provides 60 milligrams of sweet, sweet caffeine, which is 20 less milligrams than a Red Bull. MiO Energy is also cheaper than a Red Bull. For the price of one bottle of MiO ($4.99 regular price), which can make 18 servings, you can only buy two 10-ounce cans of Red Bull, or if you’re at a bar, half a can of Red Bull.

When mixed with water, both MiO Energy flavors have a slight medicinal flavor, which will probably be off-putting to many drinkers. At first, I didn’t care for the Black Cherry flavor because it kind of reminded me of watered down cough syrup. But it’s grown on me and now I think it tastes more like a cherry Tootsie Pop. Green Thunder tastes like an energy drink. If you’re someone who likes to try all kinds of energy drinks, it tastes like one of those cheap energy drinks that tries to copy the flavor of Red Bull, except without any carbonation. For those of you who don’t like to try all kinds of energy drinks, it has a pleasant sweet and tart flavor. Although, as I mentioned earlier, it’s also slightly medicinal. I like both flavors, but if I had to pick a favorite, I’d choose Green Thunder, but not by much.

As for its ability as an energy booster, I think it did a pretty good job, providing me with a jolt of energy that lasted a few hours. To be honest, I was surprised by how well it worked since it has less caffeine than I’m used to consuming.

MiO Energy costs the same and comes in the same 1.62-ounce size as regular MiO. However, a bottle of MiO Energy makes only 18 servings, which is 25 percent fewer servings than a bottle of regular MiO.

But who cares about that, besides cost-conscious people? I certainly don’t because MiO Energy has sweet, sweet caffeine, and that’s all that matters to me and my tired ass.

(Nutrition Facts – 1/2 tsp – 0 calories, 0 grams of fat, 10 milligrams of sodium, 0 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of sugar, 0 grams of protein, 10% niacin, 10% vitamin B6, and 10% vitamin B12.)

Other MiO Energy reviews:
Foodette Reviews
Drinkable Review
Drink What
Caffeine King

Item: MiO Energy Liquid Water Enhancer (Black Cherry and Green Thunder)
Price: $3.50 (on sale)
Size: 1.62 ounces
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Black Cherry)
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Green Thunder)
Pros: Contains sweet, sweet caffeine. Black Cherry tastes like a cherry Tootsie Pop. Green Thunder taste like an non-carbonated energy drink. Good energy booster. Easy to make.
Cons: Makes less serving than regular MiO. Slightly medicinal flavor might be off-putting. Contains a pitiful amount of B vitamins. Squirting MiO straight into my mouth.

Great post from MakeUseOf.com

5 Cool Gadget Buying Help Tools You Can Go To For Geek Gift Ideas

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 11:01 AM PST

Just what do you gift a geek? He may not have everything but he is certainly isn’t the guy who will appreciate a toaster when all he wants is to go hands on with the latest Kindle. When it comes to gifting a geek something for the season, be ultra-careful because these guys can be totally finicky.

How you select a gift for the geek in your life of course shows how much you care for him (or her). You can go trawling across the shops in your neibourhood or sit back in your armchair and let these (and many more) online shopping and recommendation sites help you out.

Presented below are five sites that offer a mixed bag of ways to search for the perfect geeky gift. From a Q&A site to a ‘crazy gifts’ one.

gdgt

gdgt takes the question-answer route to help you get to the best reviewed products out there. Gdgt uses crowd-wisdom to give you the inside dope from people who actually own and use the gadget you are searching for. The site follows the Wikipedia principle – that is, all products are reviewed and rated by its community. On gdgt, you can make lists where you can organize all the gadgets you have, want, used to have, or just want to keep an eye on. You can use gdgt lists as a starting point for asking question and triggering discussions. Gdgt has more than 8000 gadgets in its database. (Directory mention)

Uncrate

It’s a mix of geeky, cool, and offbeat…a digital magazine for guys who love stuff. Uncrate posts five “awesome” things each day and you can use them as hints to buy things. Expect to get stuff like the $13 ‘Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale’ (listed under Vices) to the $75,000 Orvis Timeless Airstream trailer for the guy who likes to hit the road. Uncrate is styled as a blog, and it’s a fun read if you are shopping for really offbeat ideas.

Giftmeister

If you are searching for technology gifts Giftmeister is a must-use tool. The search tool gives you two ways to search for the perfect tech gift – select age, gender, lifestyle, and budget; alternatively, search by keyword—brand, product number or type of device. Try out the turns on the lifestyle wheel – you get all sorts of options like the ‘Game Nut’, ‘Techno-Geek’, ‘Fotog’ etc. Giftmeister showcases featured gifts as well as deals for the day. The Price Drop Notification alert is really useful especially when discounts and deals start going out around the holiday season.

ReviewGist

ReviewGist touts itself as a comprehensive gadget review website. It helps you avoid going to multiple gadget sites in search of the best products as it scans the best review sources like (CNET, PC World etc.) across the internet and aggregates them together under the ReviewGist Score and ReviewGist Ranking. ReviewGist also helps you decide the best by giving you a face-off comparison tool to look at two products and their features. The ‘Find The Best’ lists are straight shortcuts to look at the best from the rest if you are running short of time. (Directory mention)

Genie Gadgets

Well, I just had to include this U.K. website because it features some of the crazy stuff geeks just might love. If the Appblaster iPhone gun is your idea of a gift or the clock that goes backwards, do give this site a browse. I could do with something more useful like the USB cup warmer or the Find It Keyfinder. You can use the Gift Genie to filter gifts for ‘Him’ or ‘Her’ according to budget and lifestyle. Then there’s the ‘Who Are You Shopping For’ gift selector tool to get just the right gift for the kid bro or the super mum.

Then again, you can leave these five sites alone and go through the gadget and gift ideas we have regularly posted at MakeUseOf.com. Here’s a selection which starts with the

• 12 Sites To Spot Cool Daily Gadgets
• The 5 Hottest Electronic Gadgets to Buy This Season
• 6 Of The Best Shopping Sites For The Coolest Gadgets
• 5 Websites To Buy Strange & Unique Tech Gifts For A Student
• 7 Blogs For Your Daily Dose Of Trends & Gadgets