First let me back up a bit.

This guy is the same guy I talked about before, who bought an iPhone when it launched and had problems getting it activated and ended up using his old sim card (and it worked). Once Apple dropped the price and offered the $100 bucks back to people who bought the iPhone at launch, I told him about it and he called to see if they can send him the $100 bucks. Of coarse they told him that the money was a credit, not a cash back offer. He had to use it for something dealing with his account. So he has never used it.

Now back to the current story.

He went to buy a second iPhone for his wife and panned to use the $100 bucks credit to help pay for it. When he went to purchase the phone, and mentioned the $100 credit, he was told that Apple isn’t giving out that credit anymore. Of coarse he was upset and decided not to get the phone. That was the first thing that really didn’t sit right with me. I didn’t get the credit cause I bought my phone and the lowered price, so I never looked too much into the credit. I don’t know if there was an expiration date to that credit. So I was like "You shouldve used it back when they first offered it"

The second thing, and I haven’t heard any word on how this is handled. After my friend decided to not get the new 3g iPhone, he started talking about his iPhone and the warranty plan that he bought when he bought the iPhone. He was asking what was covered and they ran off a list of items that was covered under the warranty. In that list of items was battery failure. He then asked them about changing out the battery and what do they do if the battery fail, or stop charging. He was told , if the battery fails, they will replace his iPhone with a refurbished iPhone. I’m not sure how I feel about that. If this is true, in a few years when people start having battery problems with their iPhone they will all be getting refurbs? I dont know about you, but I would rather just get a new battery.

The first time I had problems was playing Wii Sports baseball. Sometimes the guy will swing the bat when I’m on the backswing, sometimes he will be on his backswing as I am swinging forward. Then in Boxing, my guy will sometimes just stop throwing all right punches. Then games like Boom Blox or other shooting gallery style games, it seems to always be an extra unwritten game between you and the motion sensor.

I’m curious to know if its just me, or my Wii or is this common but people just aren’t talking about it.

One evening I went on a massive web search looking for the item he had and I think I found it, or something close to it. Its made by Poly science and its called The Smoking Gun. The concept is pretty simple. You put a small piece of your favorite smoking wood in a little bowl and light it, then there’s a tube that will pump the smoke onto whatever food you are trying to smoke. The way Richard used it on the show is putting a piece of fish or meat in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap then putting the tube from the Smoking Gun under the plastic so that the smoke will flow into the bowl. Then let the bowl sit, covered with the smoke flavoring the food.

The bad thing is that I still haven’t found anywhere to buy this product online but I think you can make a phonecall at this site and have one sent to you. It cost $49.99

I ran across the Pizza Dome a month or so ago, and started to blog about it, but changed my mind for some reason. Since then, Ive looked at it a dozen times. Right now I have found the perfect use for it in my house, and am about ready to make that purchase.

What is the Pizza Dome you ask? Its quite fun looking actually. Its a table top pizza cooker that you and your friends or family can sit around and fix miniature pizza’s.  I guess what it does isn’t the thing that interest me, its the social aspect of this little cooker. You can gather the kids around and have all the ingredients on the table and everyone make their own pizza with their own choice of toppings. You can trade them and compare or just make the one you like and don’t have to worry about your wife’s love of garlic in your pizza.

In the box you get everything you need minus food. The Pizza Dome itself, 6 spatulas, a cookbook and dough cutters. All you have to do is add the ingredients and you got your very own fun social snack time waiting. You can get the Pizza Dome from the website $149.99 or Amazon for about $129.99

What is Magic Jack?

The concept is pretty cool. Magic Jack is a USB device, a little larger than a USB thumb drive that has a regular telephone jack on one end. You plug the Magic Jack into your PC’s USB slot then a regular phone into the phone jack and it allows you to make and receive regular phone calls (via the web). Of coarse you need a broadband connection and it works with Macs and PC’s. It includes all of the normal features of any phone line, Caller id, voicemail, call waiting etc.

Install?

I must’ve been a little misunderstood about how the product worked. I assumed that you plug the device in, and the software would load and you can start making your phone calls. It isn’t completely that simple but close. There is a small setup and install that you have to go through. During the setup, you have to register the device, put in your info, and pick your number. It was all pretty quick and easy. I however had to use their "MagicFix" program to get it to work correctly. I don’t know what that did to my PC but it was still quick and painless and I was connected.

One thing I was a little upset about was that they didn’t have my area code. I live in Hampton VA, which all of the cities near me has a 757 area code. I ended up having to get an area code that was still in VA but in northern VA. If anyone in my city want to call me, it will be a long distant call for them. Not a big deal, I will only use something like this to make phone calls, not to use as my main phone.

The second thing that I was a little disappointed about was the install. There is a Magic jack software interface that is installed on your PC. I was thinking I could swap back and forth between my laptop and desktop, take to a friends house or where ever. You can do that, but it leaves the software on every PC that you decide to use the Magic Jack. The problem with that, the Magic Jack software has you’re phone book, call history, and other info. And the fact that if I decide to make a call using Magic Jack, from a friends house, I have to install something on their PC. Not a big deal, but I just wish that everything started and ended when the Magic jack was plugged in and removed.

General Use and Call Quality

To make calls, you can dial straight from your phone, or use the software to dial the numbers, or pick from your phone book. You can listen to your voicemail by dialing the voicemail number or listen on your PC. Overall usage was pretty easy and straight forward. You have to have your PC on to use, which is a no brainer being that it is a USB device. And other than the initial install, everything seem to just work. I use mine with a cordless phone and that works out perfectly being that my PC is in a different room than I usually hang out when not using the PC.

One thing I was really impressed with was the call quality. Ive used skype VOIP, and Vonage in the early days and the quality of the Magic Jack is better than anything Ive tried before. With Vonage, I got random disconnects that I didn’t know happened until I realize the person I was talking to wasn’t responding anymore. All of the calls I made with the magic jack was just clear and no disconnects. Most people I talked to said they couldn’t tell a difference between me using the Magic jack, and me using my iPhone with Jawbone headset. There were times when people heard an echo, or my voice was coming in a little low but that was when I was also streaming media around my network. Looks like it is a delicate as Vonage was on my network, if Im doing anything else along with using Magic jack, it had an impact on calls (which is expected, but companies need to figure out a way around it).

Conclusion

I really like the Magic Jack, but I have to say, I haven’t found a VOIP service that I would permanently replace a landline or cell phone for just yet. The Magic Jack is no different. Its good for a second or alternate phone choice, and if you are in a situation where the Magic Jack is all you have, it works fine. The price of the magic jack is $39.99 and includes the first year phone service (all calls are free to the US and Canada). Each additional year is $19.99 and  when you go through the initial setup, you can pay for several years in advance so that you don’t risk the price going up on you when you go to pay for the next year.

Would I recommend this device? A much as I would recommend any VOIP device. it works pretty well but its not a "home Phone" replacement

Looking at the picture, I do like the design a little better, I never really had a problem with the design of the old one, but it could stand to be a little smaller, which it looks like the new version has done. My biggest complaint about the headset is how it sit on your ear. it seems like there was just no good way to make it fit on my head. After carefully bending the earloop, I did get a way that work. They have changed the earloop also. The loop itself still looks like it will be a pain, but they did something else that may make it better. The actual ear cushion looks to be modeled differently. looks like it should sit in you ear like a in ear earbud (for your iPod).

I may just buy the new Jawbone instead of buying new earloops for my current one. (demo video below)

I wish WiFi was supported, but it isn’t and you have to keep a PC running if you want to use the internet related features. The cordless (landline) phone features include most of the usual’s: speaker phone, caller ID, 50 entry phone book storage and selectable ringtones. This phone is from Vtech’s DECT 6 line, which should mean better sound quality. Don’t know about that, but who cares about sound quality when your texting your buds…Actually I do. The Vtech IS6110 is available now, retailing for $99 bucks.

What about the media? Just like the Popcorn Hour player, it plays almost every file format you can think of (yes Xvid, no MKV). Rip your DVDs, it’ll play them also. Music? no problem the MG-450HD got it covered. Photo’s? Yep that too. Yea, I know there are a few very enticing features of the Popcorn Hour player that the Mediagate’s offering is lacking, like the built in Bittorrent client and the ability to stream from internet video sites (Hulu.com anyone?). Weighing in at about $229 (check monoprice), the MG-450HD is a little more than the Popcorn Hour player but some of the added features may justify the extra cost.

ATI IS BACK!!!

Dont get me wrong, thier new cards arent tops, but they are right up there with the big boys, even beating out Nvidia’s $600+ dollar GTX 280 on some benchmarks. that is saying a lot, especially since this new card from ATI (or should I be saying AMD) is about $300 bucks cheaper. When you look at price vrs performance, ATI’s 48XX series of cards looks to be the video card to get.

Right now, in the 48XX series, you have the HD 4850 (available now) which sells or $199, and the soon to be released HD 4870 for $299. As far as specs, heres a snippit I got from Anandtech.

Now that you know what you are working with, here is a quick little benchmark chart (one of many) also from Anandtech. (click here for the full Anandtech review)