The company: Lenspen has been a long time around with their simple goal to make products that remove fingerprints. They have been around long enough to provide their famous Lenspen, used for removing the grimy fingerprints from the front of lenses of DSLRs and the likes, for companies like Nikon, Canon, and Nasa.

 

Design: Its small functional design and reliability make the Lenspen quite the portable tool.  This becomes extremely important for the everyday photographer who needs something they can fit into their pocket or camera case. For myself, the Lenspen has truly become a savior for my 50mm and has earned its spot in my compact DSLR case.

 

Durability: Even after several years, the Lenspen continues to work brilliantly, and has never missed a spot. There are signs of wear on the front, but the Lenspen cleaning solution has managed to keep up. The cleaning solution itself is constructed out of a type of carbon cleaner, similar to old school window cleaning with newspapers.

 

Recommended for any photographer

 

4.5/5 Apples

 

Price (Lenspen): $15

 

I was also able to get my hands on one of their other bestsellers, the SideKick. The SideKick uses a large pad that uses LensPen cleaning compound in order to gently remove oils from glass                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             screen. It comes in a travel friendly folding package and is rated for 150 cleanings per pad (Refills are available).

 

The SideKick does not seem to have as much durability as the Lenspen due to the amount of surface area of screens that it must cover. For that reason, I would recommend getting several refills if you plan on getting the SideKick.

 

 

Price (Sidekick): $20

Refills (2): $15

 

3.5/5

Photo USA offers products ranging from iPhone cases to Christmas ornaments, all of which can be customized with your own photos. The good news is that these cases come at a reasonable price especially when customization is factored in. Although the images are high quality, the cases themselves are not. The iPhone cases are made fully of thin, factory plastic and simply snap on to the back of the iPhone with small hinges.

 

If you are looking for customization, you may have stumbled across a goldmine. If you are looking for protection, you may want to look elsewhere.

Let me preface this article by saying that I am by no means an expert in finance, risk calculation, or the current state of the stock market. That said, I think there has been a lot of jumbled advice being thrown around about Apple (AAPL) in the past few weeks, and I mean to throw in my two cents about the company with a little bit more resolve. Take it how you please.

Apple Stock 2009 to 2013

As most investors know, for the last 4 years Apple has been an incredibly profitable company to invest in, provided you invested correctly.  The stock was at a 52-week low in 2009 at about $90, shooting up to a high of $705 in 2012. However, since 2012, the stock price has plummeted to what seems an improbable low of around $450 for what once was the most valuable company in the world. Provided you bought apple in 2009 and sold in 2012, you would have made 780% of your initial investment. But what caused Apple to shed over 35% of its value over the last few months? That is the most important step to figuring out what to do with the stock.

I’d like you to picture Apple in 10 years. Go ahead; close your eyes and picture where you see the white knight in the year 2023.

For some, Apple is dead. Crushed under the weight of behemoth companies such as Samsung in a rivalry for market share, without its captain of creativity, Steve Jobs, at the vanguard – unable to compete in an increasingly competitive market. For others, whom I like to call the ‘dreamers,’ Apple has regained its near monopoly in the gadget market, despite no longer being the clear leader for high tech niche products.

I am currently sided with the former opinion in the long-run, as much as I’d like to be a dreamer. However, in the short- to-medium run (the next few months), I’m actually quite optimistic about Apple. Provided Apple doesn’t throw a curveball at investors, I see Apple rising moderately through these unstable times. From March 13th to March 22nd, Apple consistently beat out companies such as Google (GOOG) and Dell (DELL) and made gains on bearish days where almost every tech company fell in value. Popular opinion has Apple at a ‘tentative buy,’ and other sources advocate a vehement avoidance of the company. Why am I buying Apple?

Well, we should look to two reasons: trends and context.

Trend-wise, Apple looks good. The company has fallen from it’s previous high but looks to be on track for some serious gains. Context-wise, Apple has been facing serious rivalry from Samsung, but I believe the current overwhelming popularity of the iPhone in countries such as China is not adequately reflected in its stock price. Therefore, I believe the company is undervalued, and is a “buy.”

However, I’d like to remind you that I’m talking short-run to medium-run here, meaning over the next month or two, I expect Apple’s stock to reach  500 to 550 dollars a share, which is when I will sell, ceteris paribus.

After that, I likely won’t be touching the company with a 50-foot pole, depending on the exact circumstances of the company’s outlook.

 

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of Therealmacgenius.com. However, we encourage you to take caution with your investments and therefore we hold no liability in losses. Material taken from this article is to be cited as from Therealmacgenius.com. Stock graph extracted from Yahoo! Finance 2013.

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Having trouble sleeping at night? One problem might be that you are using your computer before you goto bed. Instead of going into the complex science of eye stimulation (which I do not quite understand myself), I will give you the brief over view. On f.lux’s website they explain it to us that the blue lights that your computer emit can keep you up late at night, so the purpose of f.lux was to eliminate these blue lights. They have done this by making your computers screen adapt to the time of the day. For example, on there website they state: “When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again.” Overall, f.lux has personally been a great help with my tendency to work late into the night. So for all of you people out there like me I would recommend downloading f.lux. For more information behind the science of f.lux click here.

For all the MacBook Pro and Air Users out there, GRIFITI has introduced Palm Pads Made with silicone bases. These pads are not only easily repositionable, but they are also easily removable when needed.  The palm pads definitely increase the comfort level while typing, and are sleek enough to not obstruct the screen on the MacBook Pro from closing. I did however test them on the MacBook Air, and while it did close to the point of shutting off the screen, I found them to be more of a hassle because of the relative thickness compared to the thinness of the Macbook Air.

 

For around 10 dollars, I recommend any MacBook Pro users looking for an easy way to have transportable comfort to check these out. They also offer wrist pads (12 inch and 17 inch) for those looking for even more support.