Wednesday, September 1, 2010


This installment is because Genomic Repairman made some comment about wanting the iPod Touch so I thought that this would be my "Stuff Geeka Likes: the tech-toys edition".

1. My iphone (seriously, if you need me to link you to this...). I just got the iphone 4. Do I see any differences with dropped calls? No. However part of that is because I have had the phone for a month, and I have used 15 minutes. I don't really talk on the phone. I have almost used my max of the data/texting though, so that should count for something right?

I use mine for a lot of things. I ride the bus, so it's my musical entertainment. I listen to the BBC 1 morning show via the Sirius app. I also listen to local stations using the Pocket Radio app.

I do artsy picture things with the Hipstamatic app. I also have flickr installed too.

I obviously have facebook and twitter installed (the official apps). I also have a few 'productivity' things. I use the online weightwatchers application, which keeps me honest. I also use the google maps application for the bus system in my city. We also seem to have a lack of timers in lab, so I use mine to time stuff in lab, and everyone knows that when the duck quacks, it's time. :)

2. My Nabazatag. Ok, I know that it sounds like I sneezed there, but it's this kinda cool wireless-rabbit (not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter) online toy-type thing. It talks, it plays podcasts, it does ear yoga. I could get it to do all sorts of stuff, but I really don't have the patience to do it, and part of the stuff that it does is communicate to other rabbits (and I don't know anyone else that has one). The thing that I really love it for is the lights in it's belly. I'm a sucker for lights that give you information. So I have mine set up so that I know whether or not to take an umbrella in the morning. I used to have an ambient orb (see, told you I like lights), but the LEDs burnt out, and they wanted more than half of the price of a new one to replace them, which I thought was kind of crazy.
I would not recommend this item to buy. See, I ended up getting this for free through my credit card company. The first one I ordered didn't work at all, the second (this one) has something wrong with it too. I couldn't get any customer service from the company, so I complained to my credit card company, and they refunded me my money because I was able to prove that the company didn't want to fix/replace it. It's really cool for something free, it kinda sucks for something I would have paid for.

3. In theory, I really like my kindle (if I need to link you to this one, you probably should have stopped the last time I mentioned obvious links), I just don't read enough, and all of the things that I do want to read aren't on the e-store yet, so I end up buying a real copy of the book. Also, I'd much rather have an iPad than a kindle, but until I sell the kindle (if I decide to), I'm not getting an iPad.
I've been buying a lot of cookbooks lately, and I can't bring myself to use the kindle at the sink. I also don't particularly like reading .pdf's on it, so my whole idea of reading journal articles kind of went out of the window.
I will say that I do not get motion sick when reading on the bus with the kindle.

4. I just ordered the Fitbit, and am waiting for it to show up. It looks to be a great thing. I'm a data junkie (aren't we all?), so the ability to have this upload a bunch of measurements will be awesome. Also, I have some trouble sleeping (and if you follow me on twitter, you can read me sleep-tweet...I'm trying to keep the phone out of the bedroom).

5. Lastly, I wooted an eye-fi a few weeks ago. I finally got to play with it this weekend, and it worked pretty well. I have an old house with real plaster walls with the metal mesh in them, and while the reception wasn't great (I can't get more than 1 radio station in my house either) it did work on the first floor. If you are bad with the finding of the usb cords for your camera, I'd recommend this.