I’ve been rockin’ my LunaTik watch band since learning about it through it’s kickstarter program last year and I’ve been loving it. But after about a year, I can say that I’m a little sick of the two watch faces that Apple offers on their awesome little Nano. I have my choice of white or black with red accents, or blue if you choose the white over black setting. They’re cool and all but how about some options Apple?
Well it looks like Apple listened. Last week’s Nano software update added not one but 16 new watch faces … and boy did they go all out. And adding digital faces wasn’t enough, they’ve added chronograph styles, LED faces and even Mickey Mouse and the Muppets Kermits and Animal.
I hope this is just a taste of what’s to come but these faces should keep me happy … at least for the next year or so.
To check out the faces on watches, head over to Apple’s Nano page and scroll down.
I’m a mac addict. If Apple makes it, I need it. Ok, I might not need it but I sure do want it. I work on a G5 tower both at work and at home, my wife has a MacBook, we both have iPhones, I actually use my AppleTV and my iPad and I are inseparable. But when Apple unveiled their new iPod Nano, I brushed it off. I mean, it’s a cool little gadget but I already carry around two devices that trump it. But when I found out it could double as a watch, I wanted the hell out of it.
Soon after the watch feature was announced a ton of watch bands and straps began to flood the market, but none more impressive than the TikTok and the LunaTik. But adding a $70 LunaTik band to an already $150 iPod meant I had a lot of saving to do. Since the LunaTiks aren’t shipping until late January, 2011, I figured I’d start saving and could possibly swing one by my birthday in March. But luckily, I didn’t have to wait that long.
With our precious, first baby just being born in October, Christmas morning meant just one gift a piece for my wife and I. But with the new baby, who cares about gifts right? So my beautiful wife, knowing my abnormal addiction to watches and all things Apple, surprised me with a silver iPod Nano. I couldn’t believe it. Only thing now left to do, is find a band that would work as a stop-gap until the LunaTiks ship next year.
I’d heard about the canvas straps from County Comm from several gadget blogs and decided that the Maratac 22mm, Zulu Coast Guard Orange would be the band for me. But with it being $17 and $8 shipping, I figured I could beat that price. A quick trip to eBay led me to Top Spec US out of Jacksonville who was selling the exact same strap for $12 plus $3 shipping. And being in Tallahassee, I got my strap in two days. Not bad.
This might not be the last watch I buy, I do have my eye on a Ziiiro, but this is a fantastic marriage of two of my loves. And it looks good while doing it too. Thanks sweet for the awesome Christmas gift.
As I posted on our baby blog, we decided to pick up a small camera to take with us to the hospital to document our little one’s arrival but when I get to buy new gadgets, I go all out. I wasn’t satisfied with just getting the camera, I had to make sure that this would be a big-budget production.
We decided on the Flip Ultra HD 8GB model. A newer, thinner model just arrived so we were able to score last year’s model for less than $140 at Amazon. We’ve put it through the paces at our last baby shower and we are pretty pleased with the results. I love the 720p at 60fps and my wife digs how easy it is to use.
While researching the camera, I’d come across a couple of DIY vids on Youtube where people were SuperGluing wide angle lenses onto their Flips. Luckily theflip.com offers official, Bower Magnetic .45 Wide Angle lenses, compatible with all their cameras, for $50. And while the lenses are still listed as “coming in october”, Amazon already has them in stock for only $39. And it’s worth it because (and why they don’t tell you this anywhere in the description is beyond me) but it’s actually two lenses in one. Not only do you get a wide angle but you get a macro lens as well. I’ve been able to go out and shoot some comparison samples, one of which I posted on Youtube, which you can find here. In the video you will notice the rounding edges of the lens in the upper left and right corners, that’s not always visible, it was my first time trying the lens out and I didn’t have it lined up properly. Sorry.
The last part of this set is the Joby Gorillapod Video. This tiny wonder only stands 7” tall and well worth the $30, which of course, you can find on Amazon here. As standard with any Gorillapod, you get the uber-articulated legs and magnetic feet, but with the Video version you get the 360º ball-joint head and pan/tilt arm which even collapses down for a smaller fit in your bag.
All in you’re looking at about $200 but I think you get your money’s worth considering you’re getting 720p, 60fps video that as easy to download as it is to shoot, .45 wide angle and macro lenses, a tripod that’s small enough to carry everywhere, sticks anywhere and the entire setup weighs less than 10 oz.! Not bad. So get ready, with this little setup with me all the time, I’ll be posting a lot of videos. Wonder what I can find to shoot this weekend?
Apple Just Makes my Life Better
I got my AppleTV setup up and running over the weekend and it couldn’t have been easier. Setup consists of unboxing it, plugging it in and turning on ‘home sharing’ in iTunes. That’s it.
AppleTV basically offers three major services to users. First and foremost, Apple wants to push their movie and TV rentals so this box does just that. But the second major service this little box delivers, Netflix integration, pretty much negates any chance of me paying Apple to rent anything. But seeing as how both my Xbox 360 and PS3 (and even my Wii) has Netflix streaming, this is not a new service in our house. But because the AppleTV lives in our bedroom and the gaming systems reside in the living room and because my wife needs as few steps as necessary to access Netflix, having this feature available on our bedroom TV at the click of a button made the AppleTV a pretty easy sell with her.
The third and final major service the little, black box provides, is access to my iTunes library. While I let Netflix have all my rental business, I’m eager to see if Apple will begin stealing my entertainment purchases away from Amazon. Having the ability to buy a new movie from iTunes at half the price of a Blu-ray from Amazon was my main reason for picking up the AppleTV.
I was eager to put this to the test. I wanted to pick up ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ from Amazon on Blu-ray for $23 with free shipping (I have an Amazon Prime account). Seeing as how this is not a movie that I would want to delve deeper into with all the special features and such, I could settle for stripping that all away and download it from iTunes for $15, saving $8.
Now while I will not be switching to iTunes for bigger releases like ‘Avatar the Director’s Cut’ and ‘Inception’, smaller movies are ideal for saving me some cash and shelf space which both went a long way with my wife too. As far as filling up my iTunes library with content, that was already taken care of by all the DVDs and Blu-rays that have included digital copies that I’ve been slowly stock-piling over the past year or so. I’ve already got a digital library of about 20 movies that I’ve never watched.
And while the tiny, aluminum remote is nice, the coolest way to control the AppleTV is with the free Remote app for the iPad. Simply tap the app, turn on home sharing and you’re ready to swipe through your library and control playback right from your iPad and yes, the Remote app is available on the iPhone too. So if ever lose that tiny, silver remote, I won’t even bother looking for it.
So I’ve ordered an AppleTV and for some sort of practical reasons too. We are about to have our first child in just over 4 weeks. And right now, anything that can be considered “for the baby” is deemed necessary. So what does a baby need with an AppleTV you ask? Nothing. It’s for mommy. Mommy will be home for the next three months and a good portion of that time at home will be spent in or around our bed. We have a modest 30” flat-screen in our room that only pushes 720p so I’m pulling out our receiver, which we never use in there anyway, and replacing it with Apple’s little Netflix on-demand box. And also having it wirelessly linked to my iTunes account and the 20 or so films I have on there is a bonus too. I wonder how much it will get used compared to our Direct TV receiver. At this point, I just hope that Apple just does software updates for next year instead of dropping a new box. $99 wasn’t a big sell for my wife, but buying a new one every year is another thing altogether. Oh, and just to let potential buyers know, AppleTV orders are currently backed up about three weeks. I placed my order two days ago and it’s scheduled to ship on October 22, about one week before are little one is scheduled to arrive.
