Review: $80 Logitech Mini Boombox—the diminutive wireless speaker with huge sound and battery
Last month, I put the full-sized Logitech Boombox up against the Jawbone Jambox in a $150 Bluetooth Speaker battle. I liked both devices, but they had separate strengths and weaknesses and were best suited to different tasks. For instance, I liked the portability of the Jambox, its speakerphone capability, and charging via USB. I liked the sound and simplicity of the Logitech Boombox, but I did not like the proprietary AC adapter.
After the review, Logitech got ahold of me and said if I liked the Jambox and the Boombox, they made another product that I would love called the “Mini Boombox.” Unlike Logitech’s full-size Bluetooth speakers, the Mini charges via Mini-USB, can fit in the palm of your hand (or cargo pants pockets), and it acts as a speakerphone for an iPhone. This one retails for $100, but it can be found for $79.99 at both Amazon (with $30 of MP3s) and Best Buy.
How did it stack up against the two $150 Bluetooth speakers mentioned earlier?
Coda 2 and Diet Coda for iPad bring a new level of web development to Apple developers (May 24)
CommentTip: Bring Siri’s voice to your Mac with Samantha downloadable Voice for Lion
Since the introduction of Nuance speech technology in OS X Lion, which provides several new voice options in system preferences for the System Voice, many have compared the voice of Nuance-powered Siri on iPhone 4S to the improved text-to-speech included as free downloads within Lion. As noted by Reddit user Moosehadley, what you might not have realized is the downloadable “Samantha” voice for Lion is the same as Siri’s in the United States. Here is how to download it:
Open System Preferences> Speech> Text to Speech>System Voice> Customize> and select “Samantha” from the list. Apple will ask you to confirm the 469MB install.
That’s not a defibrillator, it’s OWC’s DIY SSD kit for 2011 iMacs
iFixit introduced its iMac Mid 2011 Dual Hard Drive Kit ($69.95) last month for adding an SSD to both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch models. Meanwhile, OWC Macsales made its own kit available today for 2011 iMac users, which allows you to install any 2.5-inch Serial ATA SSD. The kit will work with most compatible SSDs, but OWC recommends its $99.97 OWC Mercury 6G SSD (up to 480GB) shown in the installation video below. As for the kit itself, it is now available through Macsales for $44.99. Here is what you will get:
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How to create a live-updating Photo Stream folder on your Mac, bypass iPhoto
With iCloud’s Photo Stream feature, photos taken on a iOS device and photos imported to your computer are automatically sent to all your devices including Mac, iOS devices, Apple TV, and PC. On iOS, the photos are stored in the Photos.app and on Mac through iPhoto or Aperture. Understandably, launching iPhoto or Aperture just to pull a screenshot off an iOS device can be cumbersome. Most users would typically opt for Dropbox or email, which also requires several steps.
One way to avoid these steps is to create an auto-updating folder on your dock that allows access to Photo Stream images stored in the cloud. In this scenario, you will be able to instantly access photos on your Mac without having to use Dropbox or a similar solution. The Iconmaster (via LifeHacker) pointed us to an easy trick that allows you to save a search for PNG screenshots and filter them based on resolution and the type of image. The trick could also be used to access Photo Stream files depending on your search criteria.
After enabling Photo Stream on your devices, The Iconmaster walked us through how it works:
Apple TV OS 5.0 Jailbroken (tethered), fireCore ready for Last.fm, web/media browsing, NitoTV, weather, more…
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FireCore announced today that it successfully jailbroke the Apple TV 2 (not the new Apple TV 1080P that released earlier this month). The jailbreak is tethered, which requires the Apple TV to be connected to a Mac/PC when first powering it on (only once). You also have to pay fireCore $30, but it has been plenty good about updating.
What’s new in the 5.0 AppleTV software? Should I update?
- New interface: – Fast, visual access to all content choices
- Movie purchases in iCloud: Support for buying movies on Apple TV and playing back purchased movies from iCloud
- Genius Recommendations: Recommendations for content on the iTunes Store based on previous rentals and purchases
- Screensaver photos: New National Geographic photos built-in for screensaver
- On-device sign-up: On-device sign up for content partners on Apple TV using your Apple ID
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One More Thing Conference, May 25-26th in Melbourne, Australia -making a living developing software for the iPhone and iPad
Wow. Solid lineup of developer/presenters:
This year we have an awesome speaker line-up, including cool dudes like Loren Brichter (Tweetie/ex-Twitter), Neven Mrgan (Panic), Karl von Randow (Camera+), Raphael Schaad (Flipboard), Matt Rix (Trainyard), Shaun Inman (Last Rocket) and many more.The full line-up and other details like the date and location can be found on our website, www.onemorething.com.au – videos from the 2011 event can be found on Vimeo:http://vimeopro.com/omtconf/2011 and we even have a podcast where we interview all the 2012 speakers up on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/one-more-thing-ios-conference/id511706732
This is a great excuse to visit a world-class city. Read more
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