Over the Christmas break I got a chance to play with the Azend Zippy BT-500 bluetooth keyboard. I went through a series of emotions about this little thing. Initially, I was not too impressed with how cheap it felt in my hands (like a dollar store toy for my daughter). Mainly, that was just because the bottom looked very toy-like to me. Then after flipping it over, I was a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff on the keys. I know it can do a lot of things but I dunno, it doesn’t really ALL need to be printed on the keys, does it? It connected extremely easily to both my iPhone & iPad and also only took a second to connect to my Mac so that was pretty cool. The bluetooth switching is what I thought was super impressive. You can connect the keyboard up to six different devices and with a quick key combo (seen in the picture above), switch back and forth between them. That’s pretty sweet!

Additionally, I know this is suppose to be an ultra lightweight, compact keyboard and that it surely is. I guess maybe my fingers are a little fat for it though as I kept hitting 2 keys at a time and missing. Other people I had try it didn’t have as many issues as I did so I’ll just chalk that one up to me. All in all, I like the keyboard but just wish it was SLIGHTLY bigger and not so plastic. It fits in my back pocket and I feel like I’m going to break it. But that’s probably just me.

I was poking around the internet today and added a few interesting things to my wish list. I thought you might find them interesting too. Here’s what I found:

GRID-IT! Organizer Case

MiLi Pico Projector

Wacom Inkling

Perpetual Calendar

The Magic Charger

Resonant Decor

Solar Window Charger

That’s just a few

Last night I noticed that my MacBook Pro was acting a little strange so I decided to take it in to the Apple store for a check up. I started to go about the traditional method of booking a genius bar appointment.

> Go to Apple.com… <wait> <wait> <wait>

> Go to APPLE.COM!!

At that point I realized that my Internet was completely down, how convenient! Then I remembered that there was an Apple Store app for the iPhone. After a few seconds, I downloaded the app and was browsing for my store. In a few more seconds, I had booked my appointment and was packing up the MBP for it’s ride in the car. As I was pulling in to the parking lot of the Apple store, I got a notification asking me if I wanted to check in for my appointment. Cool! I checked in and was notified that there was 1 person in front of me (all before I even walked in the door). Once inside, I walked up to the genius bar and was promptly greeted by one of the geniuses asking “Are you Brent?” again… COOL!

We worked through several things on the MBP which turned out to be small minor issues and I was off with a much healthier Mac. Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed by the Apple Store App. It does a lot more than just what I used it for but that was just a great user experience. Here’s what Apple is saying about it:

It’s the easiest way to get an iPhone 4S – right from your current iPhone.* Wherever you are, you can research and buy products, read reviews, make Genius Bar and One to One appointments, view in-store events, and more. And when you’re in an Apple Retail Store, you can request help, meet up with a Specialist, and more.??Here’s what you can do with the Apple Store app:

• Research and buy the latest Apple products, accessories, and software and get them shipped to your door.
• When at an Apple Retail Store, request help, check in for reservations, meet up with a Specialist or Trainer.
• Make Genius Bar and One to One reservations and sign up for workshops and events.
• Get free iPad and iPod engraving and signature gift wrapping for select Apple products.
• Custom-configure a new Mac with the options you want, including larger drives and more memory.
• Reserve iPhone and other select products for pickup at an Apple Retail Store.

*Rate plans for AT&T and Verizon Wireless are available through the Apple Store app. To purchase iPhone with a Sprint plan, visit the Apple Online Store or an Apple Retail Store.

As many of you know as of this writing, there is no iPhone 5. There is only the iPhone 4S. There is only an A5 chip only twice as fast as the one in the iPhone 4. There is only the voice-activated texting and reminder recording. And what shall we do with the old way of storing the photos in our 2010 Macs and iPhone 4s? We now have to bear down and float the cloud computing wave of unlimited storage and 1080p HD video and eight megapixel photos, not seven or six — oh, my Lord!

How oh how will we survive? I don’t know, but… I once went a week without my YouTube service on my iPod touch. Hang on, folks!

Get used to the new 4S because actually it’s AWESOME! )

Have a look: http://www.apple.com/iphone/

The iPhone app, Siri is now a full part of iOS 5. This is a pretty cool addition. I have played with the app previous to it being pulled from the app store today and I was very impressed at how much it could do. I thought at the time that the only way for the app to get better would for it to be more integrated in to the phone via the OS. Well, that’s the case as Apple announced today. Siri is here to stay and I can’t wait to try it. Unfortunately, for those of us who want to play, we have to buy the new iPhone that comes out on the 14th. So… I don’t have any idea if I really want to buy the new phone. Seems like a bunch of cool stuff but I’m still on the fence. (I probably will buy it though. LOL)

It understands what you say.

Talk to Siri as you would to a person. Say something like “Tell my wife I’m running late.” “Remind me to call the vet.” “Any good burger joints around here?” And Siri answers you. It does what you say and finds the information you need. And then it hits you. You’re actually having a conversation with your iPhone.

• Live filters
• Four new filters
• Instant tilt-shift
• High-resolution photos
• Borders now optional
• One-click rotation
• New logo

So far I love just about everything. Did they remove the blur depth control for tilt-shift? I’m not seeing it. I really do miss that as I would adjust the depth quite a bit in the previous version. Small price to pay for instant previews, I guess?

Here’s my first pic with 2.0 and the new screens:

I discovered LiveView by Nicholas Zambetti. This little (free) app pairs your desktop with your iDevice of choice. By placing a little window on your desktop (zip file), you can use the app (iTunes link) to connect to your Mac and see what it will look like on the iDevice screen in (fairly) real time. It refreshes pretty quickly and even supports some touch response on your iDevice back to your Mac kinda like a mouse. So… As you can guess, this came in super handy laying over the top of my Photoshop window while I designed the interface screens and mockups. Thanks Nicholas!

Note: Mac OS X 10.5 and iOS 3.1 Required

Oops! Did Case-Mate just leak the iPhone 5 (4s) design? Noticed this morning was the above image on their site. Only to be pulled offline quickly and replaced with the placeholder page they have up now. No one is totally sure if this is an actual look at the iPhone 5 or a “planned by Apple in California” leak but it does give us a look at a possibly thinner yet slightly wider, rounded iPhone with the mute switch moved to the other side of the phone. Could this be it? Only time will tell.

My guess: Semi-brilliant marketing ploy to get people to the landing page, but that’s just me.