These Versihold stands are ‘versatile’ (see what I did there) and can be used on any standard tripod stands. I have one on mini GorillaPod and it lets me put my iPhone just about anywhere I want. The tripod(s) it comes with is just fine on it’s own, but use your own to make it a whole other tool.

For those of you wealthy individuals that are having your butler read blogs like TweakOSX.com to you (come on, you don’t think those people actually read for themselves do you?!), you’re in luck. Camaél London has an offering you’re sure to find enticing for all that not so hard earned money you have lining your pockets. It’s a Solid Gold iPad.

You have your choice of a number of solid gold choices to choose from, and can even further customize your iPad with additional gems for the extra special feel. The company’s courier service will personally deliver your iPad to you in a custom made presentation box along with a certificate of authenticity. The cost, just £89,999, or about $150,000.

Let’s do a little comparison for the rest of us lower rent district citizens:

Solid Gold iPad or a Porsche 911 Turbo S

Solid Gold iPad or 300 regular iPads

Solid Gold iPad or a reasonably nice house in most parts of the country

Solid Gold iPad or 3061 iPod Shuffles

Solid Gold iPad or 6 2011 Toyota Prius cars

Solid Gold iPad or 5 Mac Pros, 10 Apple 27″ LED Monitors, 5 15″ MacBook Pros, 10 11″ MacBook Airs, 10 13″ MacBook Airs, 5 17″ MacBook Pros, 20 iPod Shuffles, 15 iPod Nanos, 25 iPod Classics, 15 iPod Touches, 10 iPad 2′s, and 36 iMac 27″ers

What’s interesting is they’re modifying the original iPad instead of the iPad 2 model. Seems like a behind the times offering.

I have to wonder how many of these they’ll actual sell, or how many they even project to sell.

[Image & Source: LuxuryLaunches]

Steve Jobs, in the “Back to the Mac” press conference held at Apple headquarters on Wednesday, mentioned AutoCAD is finally coming to the Mac. Now all the architects and designers in the world have an option other than the Windows platform for their main workstations.

Up until recently, AutoCAD was only available natively on the Windows platform. Apple fans have been crying out for the professional application to come to the Mac for years now. Even Steve Jobs admitted to wanting the app on the Mac platform for some time.

“AutoCAD is coming to the mac — we’ve coveted this for a long time,” said Jobs during the presentation.

Autodesk, the makers of AutoCAD already have a Mac version available for download as a trial on their web site. You can find it here: AutoCAD for Mac.

Today, one company has done just that in my book. Echospin.

It all started with pre-ordering the new Sugarland CD, The Incredible Machine. Yes, I’m a country music fan, but not a hard core one. I’m into the more pop-type, crossover stuff. My daughter and I are huge Sugarland fans. A side note, if you ever have the chance to see them live, you won’t be disappointed. I’ve been to a LOT of concerts in my life including all different genres of music and Sugarland is still at the top in terms of performance value.

So I pre-ordered the CD online a few weeks ago, but interestingly enough, it wasn’t through iTunes as it wasn’t available there. It was through the Sugarland fan site. No biggie. I can expand my horizons to include other music services.

This morning, I get an email that the CD is ready for download. Sweet! I hop online, figure out it’s through a company named Echospin. Echospin it turns out, is a media delivery company for the likes of giants such as Epic, Universal Music Group, Atlantic and EMI. Not a small time gig for them.

The first issue I had was with their requiring a download application to get the CD in it’s entirety through a single link. I absolutely HATE that. I hate that Adobe does it. I hate that Microsoft does it. And now I hate that Echospin does it. BUT, again, I give it a shot thinking I need to be more open minded.

The download starts, but times out at something like 77MB out of 350MB or so. CRAP. I have to take off for a meeting, so I close things down and realize I’m not going to be able to enjoy the CD on the drive over.

I wrap up my meeting and sit down to try again. After half a dozen more attempts to use the download application, it still reports an error. No progress. So I go to the manual download option. Not the world’s end, but a pain having to do each song individually.

Guess what? Yep, TIMED OUT! Multiple times. Where does that leave me? With not even half of the download completed and NO songs from the CD to listen to. What the HECK???!!!

In a world that offers services like Amazon S3 and CDNs (Content Delivery Networks in case that’s a new term for some of you) for these VERY situations, why in the world can’t a service like Echospin get it right…the FIRST time? Makes no sense. Heck, even a guy or gal like you or I could set up a media delivery method that could handle any of these initiatives right from our living room with no out of pocket money to get it going. Yet a company like this can’t even do that? Come on.

My advice after a frustrating morning with the Echospin “service” (and you’d be hard pressed to include any positive connotations to the usage of that word) is if you end up with the opportunity to buy a CD and they’re delivering it, don’t do it. Save yourself a ton of hassle and wait for the physical CD or a more reputable and reliable service like Amazon or iTunes has it for sale.

Hope that saves some of you some frustration down the road.

I’ve always been a bigger is better kind of guy. The biggest hard drive, biggest laptop screen, biggest monitor on my desktop, etc. It really has no end. What’s funny about me, though, is every 6 months or so I go through this big life cleaning thing and start downsizing everything. I suppose it’s some kind of self-preservation mechanism that keeps me from getting overrun by too much crap in my life.

Recently, on the tail end of a big declutter phase, I decided it would be very handy to have two 24″ monitors on my desk. Let me pause to say my dream system is a MacPro with dual 30″ Apple Display monitors connected to it. Some day, I’m going to get this setup. Course the $7,000 to $8,000 price tag to go with such a setup will definitely require me to be in a different tax bracket before I can even consider it.

Needless to say, I wanted dual monitors, which I happened to have at my disposal. The only problem is I sold both of my MacPro machines a couple of “declutter” cycles ago. I’ve got a new MacBook Pro that I use for everything. So I set out to see if I could somehow drive 2 external displays from the Mini DisplayPort on the MacBook Pro 15″.

To my surprise, it’s not only doable, it’s darn easy. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Matrox Dual Head 2 Go DP Edition (here’s a link to it on Amazon.com: Matrox Dual Head 2 Go DP Edition)
• DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort Cable
• 2 DisplayPort to DVI Cables

That’s it. That setup will let you connect two monitors of all different sizes to your single MacBook, MacBook Pro or Mac Mini display port connection.

Setup of the device and monitors is pretty easy and straightforward. Once you unpack the Matrox DualHead2Go device, you plug in the cables and your hardware is ready to go. No power cable needed since it will pull power from the USB port on your laptop.

Next you install the Matrox PowerDesk software. This allows you to control settings across the monitors and handles a single stretched image across both monitors. I didn’t run the laptop display alongside the dual monitors. I just used the 2 external Dell 24″ displays and was very pleased. The picture was gorgeous and it was just like other dual monitor setups I’d used on desktop machines in the past. Here are a couple of pictures of where I placed the Matrox and MBP under my desk:

There were, however, a few wrinkles. First, your Mac won’t see the external displays as separate devices. Instead it sees it as one monster monitor. My displays were each running at 1920×1200, but as far as the Mac was concerned, it was just one device. This kills the ability to dock applications or other windows onto a particular display. You have to manually move things around most times. Also, the dock, which I typically have centered at the bottom was in the middle…..of the one monster display. This means it was half on one monitor and half on the other. Moving it to the left-hand side fixed that though.

The other problem I’ve run in to is some weird issue where my MacBook Pro loses the ability to display to the monitors. I have to go through a painful unplugging, plugging in and sometimes restart process to get things working again. Of course it comes at the worst times too. I finally broke down and called tech support (which I HATE doing) because I thought there might be an issue with the Matrox device itself. Turns out DisplayPort connections are some of the most finicky. Didn’t really get that problem solved.

Overall, this was a cool experiment, but not a realistic long term setup. If you’re desperate, give it a try, but keep your expectations realistic. It’s not without it’s faults.

Also, there are different Matrox devices for analog, DVI and even a triple display device.

The typical Verizon customer, I believe, is there because of call quality and network coverage. Plain and simple, Verizon is the best in both of those camps. I don’t know that anyone other than hardcore sales people for other providers would argue those facts. 49% of Verizon’s customers were “very Satisfied” with the service. Compare this to 23% for AT&T.

I have both a Verizon phone and an iPhone on AT&T and I would agree. Despite disliking AT&T’s coverage, I just can’t give up the iPhone, yet it’s not solid enough to replace my Verizon phone completely. My biggest complaint is dropped calls and call quality. Seems like both of those things have been getting worse over the past year. Initially I thought it was a problem with the iPhone. Other phones on AT&T don’t appear to have the same problems as us iPhone users. However, I’m now wondering if it’s just AT&T in general. Check out this graph of dropped calls over a recent 90 day period:

Sure different phones have different reception strengths and weaknesses, and the iPhone certainly could be one of the worse devices. There just seems to be more reception problems lately. I’ve also noticed data getting spotty service overall. Yesterday, for example, I was at my kids’ track meet, out in the wide open with 4 bars and data was dead. The iPhone was even reporting 3G service. That’s becoming a common occurrence for me.

All that to say, I personally think it’s time for the iPhone to make a move to Verizon. Verizon has always been behind the curve on cool devices. We’ve lived with the boring phones for years now, but they DO work well. I bet that Verizon stands to gain a huge boost in new customers if it finally releases a cool device like the iPhone on their network.

The sad part is, people are starting to question if it will happen this year. One analyst with BroadPoint AmTech says it won’t happen until the first quarter of next year. Here’s for hoping he’s wrong. I’m ready to go back to carrying one cell phone!

Read the entire ZDNet blog post here: Majority of Verizon customers want iPhone, but analyst says not this year.

I’m not sure whether to think this is creepy or cool. Starbucks announced last week that you can now pay for that Mocha Soy Latte with an app you can download onto your iPhone or iPod Touch. It’s called the Starbucks Card Mobile App and basically will function as your Starbucks Card once you plug your card number into the app.

Right now the only stores accepting the digital payment are select stores in Seattle and the Silicon Valley. Strangely, you can also use it in all US Target Starbucks Stores. That’s odd to me because those “leech” type stores always seem to be behind the times in Starbucks technology.

Feels a bit strange to me overall. Sure it’s convenient to pay for everything with your phone, and I know it’s just a matter of time before every Tom, Dick and Harry follows suit. I also know micropayments via a cell phone are all the rage in Japan. Still seems futuristic and kind of like technology is taking over my life (as if it hasn’t already). Maybe I just need to get with the times.

Anyone try this app out yet?

iPad 16GB version – $259.60 ($236.40 profit for Apple)

iPad 32GB version – $289.10 ($309.90 profit for Apple)

iPad 64GB version – $348.10 ($350.90 profit for Apple)

Roughly a 50% margin, give or take. I don’t believe that includes assembly or getting the devices to the States, as well as other charges involved with product marketing, store shipments, etc. Still not bad given that prices on hardware will continue to decline over the life of the product giving Apple even more margin over time.

Interestingly enough, more than 40% of the iPad’s costs are consumed with components powering the touchscreen display and user interface of the device. Here’s what I gathered for individual component costs for those interested:

Touchscreen Display – $95.00

Processor/Main Chip – $26.80

Flash Memory Chips – $29.50 (16GB); $59.00 (32GB); $118 (64GB)

Broadcom Chip for Bluetooth & Wi-Fi – $8.05

Texas Instruments Chip to help control touchscreen – $1.80

2 Additional Chips used to control touchscreen – $3.70

Ciruss Logic Audio Chip – $1.20

Aluminum Casing on Device Back – $10.50

For as expensive as everyone complains Apple hardware has always been, a 50% gross margin doesn’t seem out of line by any stretch. They make great devices that I’ve always felt last longer than their counterparts.

[Source BusinessWeek.com]

I tried two different Apple Stores, both of which were either out or almost out. I tried several Best Buys. No luck. Then…JACKPOT!!! What I assumed to be the busiest Apple Store in Portland reported having all three models in stock with barely a line. They closed at 8:00pm and I got there at around 7:30pm. After less than 5 minutes in line, not even enough time to partake in the snacks they had out for customers waiting to get into the store, I was introduced to my Apple sales guru and ushered into iPad-land.

I opted to skip all of the hands on fluff and just buy. I was out of the store, iPad in hand, less than 10 minutes later. Don’t know if it’s true, but a couple of the store employees mentioned the iPad allotment to their store was based on the number of pre-orders that were to be received in the same location. They had a counter full of iPads left when I walked out at near the end of the day on Saturday.

So, why did I break down and get an iPad on Saturday? There were 3 big things that swung me to accelerated purchasing:

1. New Apple Toy Envy – This is probably why I buy just about anything new Apple comes out with. They just make sweet gear. Having something THE DAY it comes out from Apple is like going to see a highly anticipated movie at midnight on the day of it’s release. It’s just plain fun and all your friends envy you.

2. Wifi/Non-3G Version – After committing to the 3G version, I decided that that WiFi version of the iPad actually made more sense. I already have a Sprint Overdrive that gives me both 3G and 4G service (on Clear’s network), so in most areas I’ll use an iPad, I will actually have faster service than if I had the built in 3G service from AT&T. Not to mention I won’t be saddled with another $30/mo in fees. The Overdrive fits in a pocket, is a no brainer to use and acts a personal hot spot, so it will be only slightly less handy than having the service built into the iPad. Also, it’s just rare anymore that I’m not in a spot with WiFi of some sort.

3. Cost Savings – The WiFi version is cheaper and I’m now saving $30/month on service fees. How often can you be an early adopter and actually SAVE money?! Hey, I didn’t say all 3 reasons for impulse buying were solid.

In the end, I really have no complaints. Even when my wife said, “So what exactly are you going to do with it?” That’s actually part of the fun of the iPad in my opinion…figuring out what you’re going to do with it.

Well, I haven’t stepped up to the plate and snagged an iPad yet (although other team members have, so hopefully we’ll get some good hands on here soon) but there’s nothing like a good Will It Blend episode with a new Apple product at the heart of it.

Enough rambling, check out the video.