2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB RAM
320 GB hard drive
$699

or the “server class” Mac Mini:

2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB RAM
Dual 500 GB hard drive
$999

Additionally, the new Mac Mini sports HDMI and an SD card. The new Mac Mini could fit comfortably instead of your current DVR. Could we expect HDMI to come in future updates? Also, unlike previous generations, the RAM is now more easily accessible. Twist the panel from the bottom of the Mac Mini and your good to go.

What can you do with a Powermat? Well, the Powermat enables charging of your technology devices simple and easy. To charge your iPhone or device, set your device on the magnetic surface of the Powermat. The Powermat iPhone case is somewhat bulky, but provides protection for your phone. If you prefer not to use a specific case, use the universal receiver, which has a myriad of interfaces from LG to micro usb. Additionally, if you own more than one iPod or someone decided they needed to use your charger, the Powermat proves to be a helping hand. In a few flavors of the Powermat, it permits up to 4 devices to be charged simultaneously. Use the sleek iPod dock to charge your iPod and set your Blackberry in for a charge. I was glad to find that Powermat does provide support for the iPad through the receiver dock for iPod and iPhone.

In order for the Powermat to charge your device, your device must have a specific backend, case, or use the magical universal receiver. Some phone manufactures, such as Apple and RIM (Research in Motion), Powermat makes unique cases that can be used in lieu of the universal receiver. The Powermat case on the iPhone makes the phone bulky. But, if you own a Blackberry, you can replace the existing the back cover with a Powermat cover for charging-Slick! However, the ‘slick’ privilege may set you back $30-40. Unfortunately, Powermat only includes one universal receiver in the box. However, later this year, Powermat will be releasing a product that will enable more phones to be more conveniently charged through the Powermat. This product enables the ability to replace the battery door with one that will charge directly to the Powermat.

At the end of the day, the Powermat is awesome. Personally, using the Powermat is more convenient than plugging a cord to my devices any day. Powermat is increasingly innovating their line. Over the next few months, Powermat’s products will help better your charging lifestyle. If you are willing to make the investment, charging will be easier than ever. The case on the iPhone has drawbacks, but if you are a protective of your iPhone, you may not mind. Bottom line, I love the convenience of the Powermat, but a little expensive for a charger.

Now new hires are given the option of Apple’s Macintosh or to lead the way open source with Linux and its multitude of flavors. Some at Google may be saddened by the news, but others were already headed towards the Mac for security concerns. Other rumors are circulating that Google will run its Chrome OS, but it may not happen soon.

Unlike other large companies, Google has let their employees choose the OS of their choice. Should companies ban Windows because of the security risks they cause? Has Windows proven to be more of a hassle than help? Will other companies begin to eliminate Windows, or are does Windows control critical services unavailable on the Mac?

Let us know, leave a comment!

Most sales can be accounted for in the U.S. Market, as the iPad was released to certain international countries four days ago. Apple did not report  how many iPads sold internationally accounted for the two million figure.

“Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”

Earlier, Apple reported difficulty in producing enough iPads to meet the demand, but Apple appears to be meeting demands.

It appears that people actually want a gigantic iPod Touch!

-Brand: Bang and Olufsen (B&O) Website

-Name: Form 2

-Price: $100.00

- Warranty: 3 years

- Weight: 2.4 oz

-Color: Aluminum/Black

-Materials: Brushed Aluminum and Soft-Touch Rubber Coating

-Size: 4 foot cord

- Connector Type: 1 x Headphones ( Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm )

The design of the Bang & Olufsen Form 2 headphones is attractive. The Form 2 demands attention from first look, but does not give the same attention as an all gold pair of headphones. The frame of the Form 2s have a black matte finish with the speakers inside, which are adjustable through metal slides; clever!

Again, the sound of the headphones is impeccable. While testing the Form 2s, the performance was superb, but only  par when listening to hard rock, metal, and rap. The Form 2s lack the bass that are expected when listening to hard rock, metal, and rap. Although, on classical, light rock, and jazz, the Form 2s performed well.

One of the disadvantages of the Form 2 I have found is their inability to fold into itself, making carrying the Form 2 a bit of a pain. Additionally, I believe the Form 2s should have been provided with a case, as the B&O EarSet 3 are provided with them-granted a $100 price difference. If a case was provided, the Form 2 would be more convenient to carry around.

In addition to the Form 2′s slick design, it also proves to be comfortable. Through I did not wear the headphones for more than 2 hours at once, the they are definitely very comfortable. Weighing in at 2.4 ounces, the Form 2s can be easily forgotten at times: Throughout testing them, I would occasionally forget I was wearing them.

Overall, the Form 2 is a great buy if you are looking for an attractive, great sounding, and light pair of headphones. Through there may be a few cons of the Form 2s, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Bottom line: They are a great buy if you are willing to spend $100 on attractive, light, and quality headphones.

In my opinion, the SE310′s appear to look similar to the average pair of black headphones. From holding the SE310′s they feel extremely lightweight and are capable of being folded into your pocket. A luxury of purchasing the SE310′s is the Shure protective case that comes along. The protective case fits well in traveling bags.

When hearing the word Shure, one of the thoughts that many come to mind maybe impeccable sound. In the Shure SE310′s, the legacy does not fail. From listening to headphones while writing this review, I have enjoyed the sound as well as the comfortability when listening.

I would recommend the Shure SE310′s to anyone who is looking for a great pair of headphones and willing to pay the high price. Though the price may not be attractive, the quality of headphones outweigh the cost of the headphones.

[Source: Daylife]

If you read the article posted a little while ago entitled, “J.A.R.V.I.S. I.S. H.E.R.E.!” much excitement and awe must have went through your brain. Chad Barraford, the creator behind his digital life assistant, or more commonly called, ‘Jarvis’ was kind enough to spend ten minutes of his time and talk about Project Jarvis. Project Jarvis has emerged from a simple concept after the movie, “Iron Man” to something Barraford depends on and uses on a daily basis. Want to read our interview with Barraford, see below.

I understand you are a Mac enthusiast, how did it start?

I was originally a PC fan, like a lot of Mac Users, and I got job working for Campuses of Design when I was at UMass Dartmouth maintaining a large-scale banner printer and that was when I was first exposed with the Mac and fell in love with it.  When I first got out of College, I started working at Apple as one of their Mac Geniuses at their Burlington, Massachusetts Store. I got more in love with the Mac and I have been following ever since.

How did Project Jarvis start?

Project Jarvis started from an inspiration from the movie, “Iron Man.” When I first saw the film, like I think other people though of in terms of a very similar of “I love the idea of the Jarvis character, but I probably won’t see that in my house until I’m eighty years old.” As time when on, I kind of though to myself that I could do some of the Jarvis System that was portrayed in the film. It started off as a simple idea of, “What if my apartment or house had it’s own twitter account?” What would it ‘tweet’, what would it ‘talk’ about, what would it let you know and how would you communicate with it? It started off with just a Twitter concept and it just grew and grew and grew to voice, IM, SMS. Expanding its capabilities from just simple Netflix, package tracking, and home automation to tracking my GPS coordinates and more advanced things.

How is Jarvis powered?

He is powered by a four-year-old Mac Mini with 1.3GHz of processing power, and one gig of ram and an eighty gig hard drive. It’s pretty old, pretty slow, but thankfully what he does, does not require a lot of processing power or memory. What really does require a lot of ram and processing power is the speech recognition software of him.

How do you “talk” to Jarvis

I bought an xTag Repo microphone and I hooked it into Mac Speech Dictate and so that when I speech to Mac Speech Dictate, which the command is “Jarvis”, it basically takes speech I give it and puts it to text and converts it to a command for Jarvis to be interpreted and executed.

What other ways do you ‘speak’ to Jarvis?

Twitter, IM, SMS, Command Line, RFID Tag, and Email. I think I built about eight or nine means of communication depending on the situation I am in. I found that I needed to find the most efficient means of communication whether I’m: in my bed, on the bus, in a movie theater, or what. I found that over time I would build more ways of communicating.

Can you explain more about RFID Tag and how it works with Jarvis?

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, it’s been around for quite some time and we are seeing a lot more where people’s company card and you swipe it to your company and it is essentially the same thing. I thought what if I could build my own RFID tag reader using an Arduino as the micro controller and the parallax reader and developed my own design as well as programmed it.

What do you find most useful about Jarvis?

I spend less time on Facebook, Netflix, packing tracking sites and other web services anymore, because when ever something happens that I want to know about, it is portrayed to me in live time either through his voice or private Twiter account. It is really convenient for me because instead of me looking for the content, the content comes to me. So, I am more connected than I was before and more informed.

What is future plans for Jarvis?

Yea, there really is no limitation. It is a gigantic industry, if the industry really does start on a mainstream scale. Some ideas I have, are through the GPS coordination. Right know Jarvis knows my GPS location at all time and right know I’ve only integrated that into the weather. So, when I ask him for the weather he will respond upon relative to where I am on the planet. There is a lot more that you can do with that. Maybe he can send me text messages when items happen relative to me from Google News. For example, a fire or a car accident or an event that occurs I can be aware of it almost instantaneously as soon as Google finds out about it. Another is through biosensors, to sense my heart rate like when I am getting to stressed out and to relax a little bit-that can be helpful. There are no limitations it is really your imagination, you can accomplish just about anything. About everything in the world is Web 2.0 there are so many great APIs, RSS feeds, KML feeds it really makes it easy. There are so many databases and sources that it is really amazing what you can do.

Are you planning or have you already purchased an iPad?

There is a slight chance that my work will be able to get me one, but I am going to wait for version two. I can almost guarantee that version two be a lot cheaper. Probably cheaper by two hundred dollars in price, and probably include a built in webcam for iChat video conferences. I think you will be able to see some pretty remarkable things like college students will be able to purchase their books online. They might have had to spend eighty bucks but they can spend about fifteen bucks and have them on your iPad. I think it will be remarkable to see where it heads in the next six months to a year.

I know you were a former Mac Genius, what would you say to any aspiring Mac Geniuses?

The Mac Genius job is an excellent experience. I really enjoyed my time there; I learned massive amounts of information. Meet great people and spending time in Cupertino, California to get my certification and training was one of my best experiences of my life. I really appreciate my time there, but it is a very difficult job. You’re really pushing and have to deal with some difficult people. It definitely has pros and definitely has and cons. If you’re real big in buying Mac gear, the discount definitely helps in that area.

I want to personally thank Chad for taking time out of his schedule to talk with us about Project Jarvis. It was a pleasure to converse with him.