This evening Sylvia received her Christmas gift. The gift happened to be a black 8 Gig iPod Nano. She had been talking about getting one for months. I had already made all of the proper preparations. iTunes was installed, her music was synced up, and the application was hidden in a system folder on her netbook. All she had to do was open it and ask any questions. Or so I thought.

I decided, to make things easier, I would demo the things that she needed to know to use the iPod fully. We went over navigation, the video camera, and iTunes syncing. I was confident that she knew what she was doing.

As I was walking to bed I heard “Andrew, how do I play a song on here?” I knew that she had the iPod plugged into the computer, so I walked in to help. She was using the iPod as a kind of remote to try and play music in iTunes. I asked where she actually wanted the music to come out and she decided she wanted to listen on the iPod. At this point, she was getting frustrated and I was trying not to burst out laughing. I told her to get as far through each menu as she could, and then I would help her. She made it to the songs menu, and then tried to scroll by what I can only describe as gently caressing the select button. I then showed her how to scroll and asked myself how on Earth she got this far. She scrolled through and selected the song. Finally, the song began to play. I said goodnight and began to walk to bed.

The song was coming out pretty loud. For those of you that don’t know, the iPod Nano now has an on-board speaker. When she mentioned the song volume, I made the mistake of asking if she had her headphones plugged in. She said yes, and that they had been plugged in the whole time. I told her to use the scroll wheel to change the volume. At this point, the volume increased to a level too high for even the greatest headphones, much less iPod headphones. I walked back in and found that her headphones were plugged into her netbook. I told her to plug them into the iPod and that they were in the wrong device. She laughed at that one. As I looked over, she was trying to insert the headphone plug into the poor iPod’s camera lens. I then demonstrated the proper headphone jack, only after freaking out because she almost destroyed the camera’s lens.

As I walked out of the room again, she said that she wasn’t a good night learner and that we may have to go over it again tomorrow. I am sure that tomorrow will bring new abuse for this poor iPod, seeing as we haven’t even looked into the radio feature. I guess we shall see. Wish me luck!

The second thing that is happening is that I am going to California with our amazing neighbors to visit my equally amazing aunt! This is equally exciting because the last time I went, it was one of the best experiences of my life! This time I will be staying with my aunt in Carmel. I think it will be great and I will be SURE to get some great shots along with some great video along the way.

But, another cool thing! I will be visiting the lovely Jackie Danicki at the Qik offices in Redwood City. I cannot wait simply because Qik is one of my favorite video sharing websites (Although I do not use it nearly enough). This will be another experience with a lot of Photo and Video taken. :D Then there is the fact that I will be visiting Apple HQ (With no special clearance though. :()

Finally, I will be visiting my Dad in West Virginia and my Godparents in Kentucky. These, as always, will be fun visits and I even enjoy the trips to get there *usually*. I will be continuing my radio show, but only when I am at home. ie: Not a lot. But, that is okay because I think that this will be the best Summer ever!

Wow, it has been a long time since I received these earbuds and that long time comes with a long story. You know me! But, I will skip the story and get straight to the product review!

These earbuds have some of the best sound I have ever heard as far as in-ear earbuds go and I love them. At least to a certain extent. I received them in the mail and was thrilled. I wanted a set of earbuds that I could control my iPhone’s iPod with, and take calls on. These filled that need.

The earbuds are awesome as far as looks go. The are metal plated on the entire speaker unit, and the cord is metal covered in flexible plastic. The plug is also metal plated. These features all come together to give these earbuds a classy and overall great look!

Now we come to the sound aspect. I have yet to hear such good bass distinction in this price group. The higher notes are occasionally missed, although this is with MP3 format. When I got them I was thrilled with the sound. As time went by I would occasionally notice the right side crackle a little and even stop working. This became more common as I used the earbuds. Now it is to the point where If I do not put just the right amount of pressure on the right bud when I put it in it is distinctively muffled and not really worth using. I was highly disappointed with this factor.

I still use these earbuds, but am looking for another pair because the precision with which I have to put the right bud in my ear is not worth it. Another note though, the left side sounds magnificent.

Would I suggest these to a friend? I would, but only if this problem has not happened to other people.
Are they worth the price? This really depends. At $79 they will not be worth it to some people. I don’t consider myself an audiophile but still think the price is worth it.
Overall Opinion? Good earbuds but not necessarily overly sturdy. Be careful with them!

Tweetie for iPhone has already been called the best Twitter iPhone app by most of the blogosphere, but I am going to put in my two cents worth. Tweetie is an all around good app, and is very stable and sleek.

In my opinion the interface is airy but still packs a punch as far as functionality. One of the coolest features not including its Twitter capabilities, is the fact that it is integrated with instapaper. This is a great feature even though I have not yet used it.

I really enjoy the fact that I can view TwitPic images without going to the webpage. This makes viewing them a lot less distracting. Not to mention the fact that it still has its own browser built in!

Since it has its own browser built in, I can view webpages within the app and not lose my place within the Twitter stream. But, I cannot just skip over the main feature, Twitter itself. Tweeting from this app even seems simpler than with other Twitter apps out there. Not only can you retweet, but you can also tweet in the landscap keyboard mode!

These compliments are quite mixed and given in no specific form, but they are the best things about the app.

I would most definitely suggest this to anyone looking for a good Twitter app for the iPhone. Check it out. It is most definitely worth your $3. And, with three themes to choose from and multiple ways to share tweets, you will never get bored!

I was recently given the ifrogz iPhone 3G case as a gift from a family member, and was thrilled with it as soon as I opened it. Of course, it was black and orange so what do you expect?! The first thing I noticed was that it was very sturdy. I previously had been using a rubber cover, mainly to avoid scratches. This was decent also but that is for another review.

The sturdiness worried me at first. I don’t want a case to make my phone look bulky. I really like the look of the iPhone without a case, and in fact preferred it that way. The case was in two pieces, the larger one being orange. The bottom was black. The two pieces slide onto the phone and interlock, giving it a very secure but not damaging fit. This was yet another thing that I liked.

The previous rubber case would pick up lint from my pocket, causing dust buildup inside the case. This actually caused scratching on the phone’s corners. I did NOT want this to happen again. Thinking about this I hesitated to put the case on my phone. Finally I broke down and put it on.

In the next few days I noticed that the phone didn’t slip out of may hand anymore. This would obviously extend the life of the phone. I was beginning to love the case.

Something like a month later I decided to remove the case and see the damage. There wasn’t any! No dust had made its way into the case. Better, yet there were no scratches on the back whatsoever. Great case!

In summary:
I would suggest this case to anyone who asks about it.
It protected my phone in an exceptional manner.
It is so cool looking you won’t want to take it off.
And finally, It is a great buy for the price! (In my opinion.)

1. A Large Screen version of iPod Touch

2. Steve’s departure from the company (Sell your stocks now. Seriously, stop reading and sell!!!)

3. Updates to Macbook Pro (a 17″ model) and Mac Mini line

4. An update to iLife and possibly iWork

5. Push Notifications for iPhone *Crosses fingers*

6. Snow Leopard

7. No sign of Steve whatsoever. Apple has already confirmed this, however there are still people out there that think he will show up “Cameo” style. Not gonna happen. Press release said it all.

Of these, I am most convinced that the first one will happen, and praying that two does not.