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Category Archives: Electronics

Apple Bumper a rip-off – Best Cheap iPhone bumper/case

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Apple Bumper is expensive rip-offLike most new iPhone 4 buyers, I knew that I had to purchase a bumper to insure no antenna issues, and I wanted something to protect my fancy new purchase, especially since I have a tendency to drop small expensive items.  So, I told the sales guy to ring up a black bumper and I would be on my way. Imagine my surprise when I got home and realized I paid $29 for a shockingly small amount of rubber stretched around my iPhone!

At least I was happy with my new phone, and the bumper did perform as advertised, it kept my phone safe, provided a grippy handle, and masked any antenna problems.  However, after six months it finally started to fall apart.

Being cheap, I just found it very difficult to accept that I would need to budget $30 every six months to the gods at Cupertino.  So, while placing an order for live crickets or some such on Amazon, I decided to buy a couple different cases and try and figure out which I liked better.  And, as a bonus I would have the opportunity to share my findings  with the two other folks who read this blog.

The first up was the Apple iPhone 4 Semi-Hard Polymer Crystal Case – Smokey for a cool $3.49.  This one was a bit of surprise, as I was expecting a softer (semi-hard?) feel.  In fact, this was the sturdiest of the three I tested.  While I am confident that it would do a good job protecting the phone, and it feels solid when gripping, it was a bit too industrial for my tastes.  But, I would use this as a back-up in a pinch if needed, no doubt.


The Yellow and Black Premium Bumper Case for the Apple iPhone 4 for AT&T was a tasty $2.99.  Really, how could you go wrong at this price?  The bumper slipped on with no problems, all teh buttons worked perfectly.  But, it had a fatal flaw for me.  The iPhone connecter in my car would not fit through the opening in the bottom.  The newer iPhone cable fitted fine.  I am tempted to do some minor surgery to fix this over-sight.  When completed, I will post an update.  If you only use the standard iPhone cable, this bumper will do the job for you, and it is an order of magnitude cheaper than the Apple original.


The last case I tried as the most expensive (if you can call it that), and the one going into the test that I expected to win.  That case is the Incipio NGP for iPhone 4/4S in Matte Black at a still very affordable $12.55.  This case is solid all the way around.  It is actually a case rather then just a bumper, it features an enclosed back.  The unit is made out of a very tough plastic that still has a bit of a rubber feel.  I am really enjoying this case, and again, the price is right.

As always, I am a huge fan of Amazon Prime.  The fact that I can buy a quality bumper for under $3 and have it shipped to my door in two days is really a pretty amazing thing.  Each of these cases/bumpers is a good value, I think most folks would be happy with any one of them, and at the rock bottom prices, but one of each like I did and pick your favorite.  You can then use the other two as backups, or switch it up every now and then to give your phone a new feel.

Wrap your iPhone in a rubber bumper

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USA Spec PA15 – INFI iPhone/iPod interface for Infiniti G35x

Friday, January 13, 2012

Pretty girl next to her Infiniti G35x AWDI have a 2005 Infiniti G35x and have been wishing for years that the car had come with an AUX plug, or iPhone/iPod interface for almost the whole six years that I have owned it.  Several years back when looking for a solution, I found an interface that claimed to work, however it required the removal of the dash.  This was not an exercise that I was interested in undertaking, nor paying for. Removing the dash did not look like an easy task, not as simple as in many cars.

Fast forward a couple years…  A couple weeks ago I get my yearly XM radio renewal (another topic I will discuss in future post) and decided I needed to get my iPhone talking to my Infiniti pronto.   I quickly found out that several vendors now sold Infiniti/Nissan to iPhone/iPod interfaces.  Interestingly, USA-Spec was touting an interface that connected between the cars existing XM Radio and the in-dash stereo.  And, on the G35x sedan, the XM Radio was conveniently mounted in the trunk.  This unit also works with many other Nissan and Infiniti cars, but please take a look at the manual here to insure compatibility with your auto.

So, I purchased the unit from Amazon, and got it two days later (thank you Mr Prime).   In preparation, I cleaned out my trunk and did some searching for the XM tuner.  After popping the trunk, you will find a trim panel across the top of trunk.  Carefully remove several of the plastic pop-rivets using a blunt knife and lower the trim panel, it will still be attached to the piece that covers the rear-seats.  On the upper right-hand side you will find the XM tuner mounted in a rack on the bottom with the connecter located on the right side.  This connecter is removed and the connecter from the PA 15 – INFI is mounted in-between the two.

I simply snaked the control unit cable under the rear seats and up along the drive tunnel.  You can be ultra-clean and run under the carpets, or go ghetto and just thread it out the ski pole opening.  Once everything is connected, connect your iPhone and run through the simple setup instructions in the manual.  This will allow you to choose via playlist, artist, or song.  In addition you can run in direct mode, the cool part of this is it allows you to access any audio application on your iPhone, including Pandora!  Lastly, there is also an Aux interface that allows you to plug in any device that can connect via a 3.5mm AUX jack.

While the manual does a pretty good job walking through all the options, walking through playlists/artist/songs can be a bit tedious if you have large song collection, but a little bit of practice will help.   The audio quality is very good, the integration is surprisingly good considering USA Spec has basically just hacked the system to make your iThing look like a XM tuner or CD Changer.

In the end, USA Spec has a real winner.  As mentioned, I found the sound quality to be excellent, and installation was a breeze.  If you run into any issues, just leave me a message here and I will try to help out.

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Cold Fire on The Discovery Channel, Put a Hex on You!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Wow, the second season of Pitchmen aired last night on the Discovery Channel®, without Billy Mays (RIP).  This year the show will be hosted by Andrew “Sully” Sullivan, and the first two main products that got the spotlight were Cold Fire® and Hex Light®.

Cold Fire™ is an environmentally friendly fire extinguishing agent that puts out ANY fire faster, safer, with less water, less damage to property, and less risk to firefighters. Cold Fire cools 21 times faster than water, and works to remove heat and the fuel sources from the fire tetrahedron, preventing re-ignition.  The Cold Fire fire extinguisher was used on Sully, after he lit himself on fire, and as expected, Cold Fire worked to put the fire out on Sullivan.

During test marketing the product sold nearly 1 million units according to Pitchmen, so it certainly seems that people are excited about Cold Fire.  As the show explained, this is not really a new product, it is  just being pitched in a new way.

HexLight was the second product featured, it is a LED flashlight that is worn around the wrist or forearm, so that both of your hands can be free.  What you end up with is a battery operated hands free flashlight that ingeniously beams a surprising strong burst of light in the direction the wearers hand is pointing.

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Wireless Power Part II – Was Nikola Tesla Right?

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A couple weeks ago, I posted that a small company named PowerMat had created a mat that delivered power wirelessly to small appliances like cell phone, shavers, etc.  Because the device and the mat still needed to be in contact, I claimed that this was not true wireless power delivery, and declared myself the winner in a bet between myself and friend who we know as Tim.   He had claimed that we would soon have wireless power delivery, while I felt that sending power will-nilly through the air was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Well today, I came across a few new articles.  Ok, I did not come across them, Tim sent them to me after realizing that I had claimed victory.  Apparently some researchers at MIT lit a 60-watt light bulb by transferring energy through the air from the power delivery base to a device attached to the bulb.  The researchers have dubbed their invention, “WiTricity”.

Essentially they have extended induction’s reach by projecting a magnetic field from a length of coiled wire that has two ends almost touching, which forms a gap.   This gap forces electrons to travel back and forth through the coil, creating a magnetic field that oscillates at a specific frequency. The device attached to the light bulb has a similar gap with the exact same frequency, thereby allowing it to “pickup” the energy.

Backing my claim, theoretical physicist Douglas Stone of Yale University commented, “The big showstopper for this, would be if people, entities or devices that are not supposed to absorb the radiation do absorb it.”  In layman’s terms, that means if you got in the way of a couple hundred watts, you would feel like you stepped into a microwave oven.

Tim also cited several articles, including Pinpoint microwave resolution could lead to wireless power transfer and a Biography of Nikola Tesla which you can read at your leisure.  So what do you think, is Tim right and we will soon have wireless power delivery, or am I right and we should just stick to wires?

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Wireless Power to Electronic Devices

Monday, July 14, 2008

A friend and I have argued for quite some time about if we will ever have true wireless power, similar to how we have wireless Internet connectivity, Bluetooth, Infrared, etc.  I always tell him, if you start sending energy willy-nilly through the air, you will hit someone and kill them.

A company called Powermat has developed some pretty cool technology that creates an “almost” wireless power source.  It is called the powermat and utilizes the principles of magnetic induction to transmit electrical power via an ultra thin mat embedded in, or overlaid on, any surface or wall, to electronic devices placed randomly upon it.  While not truly wireless, it does seem like it could help de-clutter our cabled power world.

For now, I still think I have won the bet, as technically a device still needs to contact the powermat, but who knows, maybe true wireless power delivery will exist someday…

Take a look at it here.  They also have a witty blog here.

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Lotus Elise HID Upgrade

Saturday, July 5, 2008

I celebrated the Fourth of July by installing a set of HID lamps in my Lotus Elise.  I purchased these a few months back from DaBears2K when he was offering them as a group buy on LotusTalk.  The kit is from DDM, and is basically plug and play. 

In the Lotus, you have to jack the front end up, remove the wheel and wheel liners, remove headlight covers and headlight assembly.  After mounting the ballast, you just plug in the wires and reinstall everything.   The first side took about an hour and a half, but the second side only took about 30 minutes after I had all the proper tools laid out.

I was amazed at the difference, before HID, the Lotus was actually scary to drive at night, the stock headlights were pathetic.  Although Lucas, The Prince of Darkness, does not ride in the Lotus anymore, some things never change.

Thanks DaBears!

HID Group Buy – Dabears2k Performance

Example of HID with Lotus Elise

 

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