ZachHonig
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IRL: Pioneer Kuro PDP-6010FD, Tonium Pacemaker and the Samsung Galaxy Note
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. For those of you who think all we do in IRL is wax nostalgic about gadgets we've owned for years, you'd be... mostly right. Indeed, this week we've got Mr. Ben Drawbaugh talking up the HDTV he owns (as opposed to the one he wants), and James is here to break down the limitations of his discontinued Tonium Pacemaker. We've got one happy new gadget owner, though, and that would be Zach Honig, who recently traded his iPhone 4 for a Samsung Galaxy Note. So how's that S-Pen working out for him? Head past the break to find out.
IRL: Google Voice, FastMac's U Socket and returning the iPhone 4S
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Hi there, folks. Happy almost-four-day-weekend to you too. As you'd expect, we're not the types to waste an opportunity to tie IRL into a national eating orgy, so this week's edition is appropriately about giving thanks. Terrence appreciates Google Voice, even if it slips some incomprehensible one-liners into his transcriptions. Zach, meanwhile, is mighty happy about his U Socket purchase (because wall-mounted USB ports are a beautiful, beautiful thing). And Joe -- actually, he's none too grateful for the two iPhone 4S' he returned, though he is glad Google hurried up and released Ice Cream Sandwich. What's his problem, anyway? Meet us after the break to find out.
IRL: Kingston Wi-Drive, Dyson DC35 and being an Ubuntu fanboy
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. The lively comments in yesterday's Nest thermostat post got us thinking: for all our talk of smartphones and Ultrabooks, it's the mundane, not-glamorous stuff that we're spending most of our money on. Take Brad, for instance, who had to make room in his iTunes library for the Aladdin soundtrack and had to get creative after maxing out his iPhone's (non-expandable) storage. Or Zach, who felt not one, but two vacuum cleaners were necessary in his bachelor pad. And at least one of us avoids paying anything by choosing to tinker around in Ubuntu. How'd Brad make do with his 16GB of fixed storage? Why is Zach such a compulsive cleaner? And who's the Linux fanboy on staff? Meet us after the break to find out.
Growing Up Geek: Zach Honig
Growing up in the 80's, many kids used their Little Tikes easels to sketch their homes, or their families, or a football or two. Mine was littered with pictures of ceiling fans. But not just the ceiling fan mounted above my playroom -- no, these fans were upside-down (like a model I saw in New Orleans), daisy-chained (seen at a local arcade), and connected to a gas-powered motor (as I once noticed at an Amish farm). My obsession with ceiling fans, and really any motor-powered gadget, ran deep. At one point, shortly after I took my first steps, I began refusing to eat in restaurants that didn't have fans. And when a particular establishment was sophisticated enough to have installed that ever-so-necessary exposed air circulator, you better believe that it needed to be running, and at full speed. My seemingly bizarre obsession with powered devices didn't stop there. I also had an unlikely fascination with vacuum cleaners. Not with their ability to pick up dirt -- I don't believe I had any interest in what they were actually used for, much to the chagrin of my mother -- but with the loud motor that sprung to life when I flipped the power switch, and the uncannily bright headlight that lit the way. Sure, vacuums today feature quiet motors and highly maneuverable ball designs, and even though life was simpler two decades ago, that mesmerizing loud hum, and bright, guiding light would be all it took to get a two-year-old me hooked. But electricity became more than a casual curiosity. My most prized possession was a wood-mounted set of outlets paired with matching switches -- one was fixed, and one dimmed. My grandfather helped me build it after one of our weekend trips to the hardware store.
MacBook and MacBookPro suffer performance anxiety once the battery is removed
Are you one of those thrifty-types who's always looking for an angle, always trying to stretch every last penny? You know who we're talking about: Montel Williams bases whole episodes around you, the kind of person who reuses tea bags and separates sheets of triple-ply paper towels. Unfortunately, it now looks like you now have one less trick at your disposal. According to Zach Honig over at Gearlog, running your MacBook or MacBookPro without its battery (trying to squeeze out an extra month or two of battery life) will cause a significant performance decrease: we're talking upwards of 40 percent. When he checked Apple's knowledgebase, it turns out that this is by design -- processor speed is reduced when the machine detects that its relying solely on A/C to prevent it from demanding more power than the adapter alone can provide (and any nasty shutdowns that would result). We don't know if we buy this line of reasoning, but one thing is certain: if you know what's good for you, you'll leave that battery where it belongs.
