Jun 25

Things I Like: June 2012 Edition

Macbook Pro with Retina Display

Apple @ WWDC – Tim Cook can deliver. Despite an extremely high price tag, the new Macbook Pro with Retina Display is definitely Steve Jobs-level drool-worthy. In terms of iOS 6 I’m not totally sold on their new Maps app (please Google, make a new iOS version of yours), but the notifications and sleep modes definitely look great.

Microsoft Surface – Interesting device and really looking forward to checking it out in person. If they took one thing away from Apple however it probably should have been “instant availability.” Despite years of playing the budget game Microsoft appears to be ceding that market to Google and focusing on higher end devices like Apple (of course price TBA).

Fab – Ordered the Gunnar sunglasses I previously InstaReview‘d from here. Interesting concept, but browsing the site can be a challenge at times. It can be annoying to see an item you want to buy and it not being on sale yet (yay social shopping). They obviously want you to keep coming back to the site, but only offering certain items for sale seems like a bit of a tease at times.

Fancy – Been using Fancy a fair amount recently and really love the single column design compared to Pinterest’s scatter shot approach. They also have so far appeared to avoid the overabundance of meme images that have taken over Pinterest. They also take the Fab approach of being able to sell items, which is usually a plus but can result in some bait and switch tactics of the image not matching the product.

Song Pop – Completely and totally addicting game. The new Draw Something for music.

Amazon Cloud Player for iPhone – I can’t believe this is finally real. I have been waiting for something like it for well over a year. While my entire collection isn’t on Cloud Player yet, it is a huge benefit to be able to listen to music I have purchased from Amazon MP3 right away on my device without syncing. It also helps that Amazon doesn’t put restrictions on the size of your library like Apple and Google. That makes them pretty much the only cloud music service I can use, but I have no complaints.

Wreck-It Ralph – Wasn’t sure about this movie (and still not 100%) but looks too clever to pass-up.

 

So long June…

Jun 24

Gunnar Sunglasses – InstaReview

Gunnar Groove Sunglasses

I had seen normal Gunnar “yellow” glasses at various events like PAX for awhile now, but never really messed around with them. The original versions were really only meant for indoors, particularly to prevent headache and fatigue from extended gaming or computer-viewing sessions. Recently they introduced a sunglass version that is supposed to provide the same screen-viewing benefits with the addition of blocking excess sun rays. Apparently those benefits don’t come cheap though, as these normally go for a slightly spendy $100+ price tag. I was able to score a pretty good deal on a pair of the ‘Groove’ model with ‘ash gray’ lenses from Fab.com however, despite not having much experience with Gunnar beforehand. I really have no need for dedicated gaming glasses, but I use electronics out in the sun often enough that I was intrigued by the idea of glasses that could make screens easier to read.

More after the break. Continue reading