Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iDevice Accessories , Macintosh / Apple Hardware , Laptops , Peripherals , Reviews Provides: Extended battery life Developer: HyperMac Minimum Requirements: MacBook or iDevice needing enhanced battery life Price: $199.95 Availability: Now What’s worse than seeing your MacBook’s battery dip below 10%? Seeing it hit zero? Okay, fair enough. But if this happens to you often, you need a solution. HyperMac has an entire line of batteries just for this purpose. And yes, they come with MagSafe connections. But even if you just have an iPhone or iPad, the HyperMac MBP-060 has you more than covered. Actually, if you need an external battery for a MacBook with MagSafe connector, HyperMac is still your only choice. The MagSafe connector, that magnetic thing that charges your MacBook, is proprietary to Apple (read, they won’t sell the connection by itself to anyone for any purpose).  Basically, HyperMac is the only company willing to buy Apple MacBook power adapters and hack off the ends simply for the cable. Is it a waste? Maybe, but it’s not HyperMac’s fault, it’s Apple’s for not licensing the connection. Anyway, back to the review. They have numerous options, but the best option with both price and portability in mind is the smallest external battery aimed at notebooks, the MBP-060.  It’s ideal for when you need extra power on the go for a single day.  For most users, that’s enough.  And it’s not limited to just your MacBook.  You can also use it to power any of your USB gadgets, which makes it a perfect accessory for the iPad.  While Apple claims 10+ hours of battery life, in practice, that may be different.  And even if it is correct, there are times when you just don’t have access to a power outlet for an extended period of time.  This battery will keep you going. Now a quick word of warning; while this battery can, and will charge a 15.4 or 17 inch MacBook Pro, it doesn’t do so efficiently.  These models draw more watts than this model of battery is most efficient at providing.  They say the this may reduce the charging abilities of this battery for these models of MacBook Pros to 70%.  That’s still pretty useful, though, and not an issue for any MacBook with a smaller screen.  It’s also not a concern of the iPad.  Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. This battery is a bit different from the larger capacity batteries offered by HyperMac.  Its design is a bit more sleek, and since it’s targeted towards MacBook Air users, it has the MacBook Air connector as the default option.  Mind you, the Air MagSafe connector will work just fine with other MacBooks, even larger Pros.  And honestly, it looks nicer

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Sources from within Apple are claiming that the iPad will be in stores starting March 10, if a recent Examiner post is to be believed. Examiner’s report claims that the tablet devices will be hitting Apple retail stores early in order to give employees and employees only , plenty of time to get up-to-speed with using the new tablet device, ahead of its official launch. The iPad is expected to arrive before the month is out, with many blogs increasingly hinting at a March 26 launch date . Examiner sources, which allegedly include an anonymous “Apple Store manager in Southern California,” also claimed that the iPad’s advertisement campaign will kick off around the 15th of this month. The advertisement campaign is said to be focusing heavily on the iBookstore and e-book capabilities of the upcoming device, no doubt with an intent to take some steam out of the Kindle’s successes. Finally, the Examiner report also hinted that individuals who set up camp ahead of the launch, in order to become one of the first to get their hands on an iPad, will be rewarded. Just what this Apple related reward may be is unknown.

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Sources from within Apple are claiming that the iPad will be in stores starting March 10, if a recent Examiner post is to be believed. Examiner’s report claims that the tablet devices will be hitting Apple retail stores early in order to give employees and employees only , plenty of time to get up-to-speed with using the new tablet device, ahead of its official launch. The iPad is expected to arrive before the month is out, with many blogs increasingly hinting at a March 26 launch date . Examiner sources, which allegedly include an anonymous “Apple Store manager in Southern California,” also claimed that the iPad’s advertisement campaign will kick off around the 15th of this month. The advertisement campaign is said to be focusing heavily on the iBookstore and e-book capabilities of the upcoming device, no doubt with an intent to take some steam out of the Kindle’s successes. Finally, the Examiner report also hinted that individuals who set up camp ahead of the launch, in order to become one of the first to get their hands on an iPad, will be rewarded. Just what this Apple related reward may be is unknown.

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Just like my fascination with the bulbous iMac G3 series, I tend to be fascinated by the shapes of gadgets, and in my explorations at the local Berlin flea market, I have a habit of picking up delightfully non-conformist pieces of obscure and obsolete retro technology, never quite knowing what I’m going to do with

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Apple has produced two new television commercials aimed at disputing rival claims the smartphone cannot accomplish everyday tasks. The two commercials – On Hold and First Steps – attempt to show consumers the iPhone and the AT&T wireless network are up to the job. In On Hold, an iPhone owner receives an electric bill by email.

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Section: iPhone , iPhone , Mac + Computers , Peripherals , Keyboards Blogger Phil Gyford recently decided he’d stop wondering which text input device is best for him and put them to the test. So, he gathered up six gadgets with different types of input and from different generations. To undergo his test, he decided upon a 221 word passage that he would type on each device and time the amount of time it took him to complete the passage. As you can see from the chart below, the results, while interesting, aren’t really surprising. It makes sense that the keyboard would be the quickest, yet I’m also not surprised the iPhone, with its superior predictive text, is right behind it. He also offers some fascinating analysis of each input method based upon how many corrections he found himself making while entering the passage. Obviously, the more mistakes you make, the longer it takes. Therefore, the better the device is as finding these mistakes itself, such as with the iPhone, the more painless it’s going to be to use. For those interested, the passage he typed was: I have enough faith in my fellow creatures in Great Britain to believe that when they have got over the delirium of the television, when they realize that their new homes that they have been put into are mortgaged to the hilt, when they realize that the moneylender has been elevated to the highest position in the land, when they realize that the refinements for which they should look are not there, that it is a vulgar society of which no decent person could be proud, when they realize all those things, when the years go by and they see the challenge of modern society not being met by the Tories who can consolidate their political powers only on the basis of national mediocrity, who are unable to exploit the resources of their scientists because they are prevented by the greed of their capitalism from doing so, when they realize that the flower of our youth goes abroad today because they are not being given opportunities of using their skill and their knowledge properly at home, when they realize that all the tides of history are flowing in our direction, that we are not beaten, that we represent the future: then, when we say it and mean it, then we shall lead our people to where they deserve to be led! Be sure to head over to Mr.

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Lower the pitchforks, everyone. A mere day after everyone’s favorite hirsute, technosexual bear became widely vilified on Mac blogs for claiming that the HTC Nexus One was his new favorite gadget, the Woz has clarified matters to Gizmodo: Actually, everyone got it wrong. My favorite phones are my iPhones. When asked what my favorite gadgets were

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LAS VEGAS — Powermat is a wireless charging pad for powering up gadgets without plugging them into their chargers. I’ve been testing a competing product from Pure Energy Solutions for several months, and found that wireless chargers really change your charging habits. My wife and kids, for example, who never charge their cell phones/iPods, have

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Filed under: Hardware , iPod Family , OS , Apple , MacBook , iPhone Our friends over at Engadget have selected their top 10 gadgets of the last decade (the naughts, as I like to call them), and Apple has come up big: four out of the ten choices are made by the company from Cupertino. The iPhone is on the list (of course), as is the iPod. The original Titanium PowerBook fills a spot for its “category-shaping design” and its influence on laptops since its release in 2001. Perhaps most interesting, Mac OS X is on the list right alongside Windows XP as a co-gadget of the decade. Engadget says that both operating systems provided fresh and clean restarts for their respective companies, and that while OS X took a little while to “become a usable daily OS” (ouch), it still helped to “set a new standard for computing.” Being the Apple weblog that we are, we might argue that Windows XP provided a solid update to Windows 98, while OS X offered up some actual innovation in the operating system market (and Apple still carries the banner on commercial UI innovation today). But we’re nitpicking on that one — 40% of their gadgets that shaped the decade were made by one company, and that’s good enough for us. Apple nabs four of Engadget’s 10 gadgets of the decade originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST.

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Geeks can be a fickle bunch. Sure, we love Star Wars toys, but don’t get near us with those Jar Jar Binks action figures. While one group loves the new Doctor Who, others still pine for the days of yore. To help you wade through the dos and don’ts of geek toy purchasing we compiled a list of 10 toys sure to do a SUDO command in your geeks heart. NERF N-Strike Maverick Where would we be without the squishy power of Nerf? We can tell you one thing, we’d probably have more bruises and scars. The Nerf Maverick fires six soft Nerf bullets at unsuspecting friends or mortal enemies.   Trebuchet Wood Kits In the 13th century the trebuchet was ultimate weapon. Well the trebuchet and the ability to to cook a meal without giving half the army diarrhea. Now you can build your very own small-scale trebuchet for your desk battles

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