Technology & Gadget Blog

A review of three iPhone cases by guest blogger Jen Melo. Follow Jen on her journey to adopt healthier eating habits in her ‘I will eat better’ diary at homemakers.com.

When I became the proud owner of an iPhone 3GS, I was instantly smitten — and instantly protective of my new baby. So I immediately went to work to find the very best case to keep my phone looking like new. I learned that finding the perfect iPhone case is largely a matter of personal preference, but there’s nothing like testing a few options and naturally finding what works best for you. The following three cases are my favourites. What’s yours?

1 Most loved iPhone case
How do I love my Sena Corsa case for iPhone 3G/3GS? Let me count the ways! I love it most of all because it protects my precious phone from keys, coins and other perils that live in my purse. I love its pretty silk ribbon that’s functional and stylish as it serves as a “pull” cord to eject the phone from its protective enclosure. I love its soft velvet lining that wraps my phone in a snug, luxurious hug. I love its handcrafted Italian leather finish that’s durable and easy to clean. I love its turquoise exterior that makes it easy to find among my purse’s black lining, too. I love it, I love it, I really, really do!
Available at: senacases.com, $39.99

2 A shimmering beauty
There’s no denying that I admire Sena’s UltraSlim case in a rather becoming pewter colour. Just like the Corsa case I mentioned above, it’s made of alluring handcrafted Italian leather but, unlike the Corsa, it lacks a pull strap so you have to give your phone a little pinch at the base to push it out of its case. Its super slim profile keeps your sexy iPhone 3G looking sleek and its metallic hue preserves a modern esthetic, all while doing what it does best: protecting your phone from scratches and nicks.
Available at: senacases.com, $29.99

3 A decorative skin
Looking for a fun way to personalize and protect your iPhone 3G or 3GS? Try a skin with a decorative element, such as the Solo FX Special Edition for iPhone 3G/3GS — ya gotta love the pink polka dots! Its rubbery covering minimizes impact from bumps and it comes with a protective film to keep your phone’s screen free from dust and safe from scratches. This film actually doubles as a mirror. Personally, I believe the greatest virtue of the iPhone is the tactile nature of its lovely touch screen, so I like to keep that screen bare when I’m using the phone. So I like to use this skin solely as a decorative accessory when I’m at home with my phone. When I’m on the go, I switch to my Corsa case that offers more protection from those menacing metal keys.
Available at: iskin.com: $34.99

The holidays are on their way and the Apple App Store has everything you need to throw a fabulous Christmas bash. While styleathome.com has all of your party planning, decorating and tabletop ideas covered, these 4 apps are ideal for getting the best food and drink recipes at your fingertips.

1 Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals ($7.99)
He’s British, he’s cute and now he’s gone mobile. With 50 brand new recipes and over 1000 hi-res step-by-step photos, this app doesn’t mess around. It also includes a shopping list for each recipe that you can cross off once you’ve purchased. Even better? Once it’s downloaded onto your Phone or iPod Touch there’s no internet connection needed to access the recipes.

2 Canadian Living Mobile (free)
Finally, the great recipes that our nation’s own food mag produce every month are now available in mobile format. Follow their holiday countdown or check in daily for the featured ‘Recipe of the Day’. Plus, check out tips on entertaining, holiday and style and bookmark recipes and articles that you want to keep close at hand.

3 Mixologist: Drink Recipes ($0.99)
A party isn’t a party without a great selection of mixed drinks. This app literally has every combination you can think of — over 7,900 drink recipes, to be exact. You can browse recipes, search by what’s in your liquor cabinet and also by category (Jello shots, anyone?). Definitely a must-have app for discovering your party’s signature drink.

4 All Recipes Dinner Spinner (free)
From the net’s best user-contributed recipe website comes an equally wonderful free app. With thousands of recipes to choose from, it may seem overwhelming at first, but the Dinner Spinner portion makes it easy as pie. Just choose the dish type, ingredients and ‘ready in’ time amount and the app selects all the recipes that fall under those categories. Need something that’s gluten-free? When using the recipe search function, you can filter what you’re looking for, whether it’s a variety of vegan dishes or meals with no wheat or milk.

Much like what you wear is a reflection of your style, so are your personal tech goods, in my opinion. You won’t catch me with an ugly laptop sleeve, iPhone case or mousepad. Which is why I L-O-V-E these wallpaper options for your PDA’s, by top designer Jonathan Adler.

Simply stunning and sized perfectly for 6 different smartphones (iPhone, Palm Pre, and an array of Blackberry’s), these wallpapers will guarantee you nods of approval from stylish techies and design lovers alike.

To view the whole collection, visit jonathanadler.com

Just the mention of IKEA makes me all warm and happy inside.Their designs are modern, super affordable and they go to great lengths to keep things eco-freindly. Basically, IKEA rules.

However, if I were to nit-pick, I do find the task of writing down aisles and bins and trying to find all the products in the warehouse a little tedious. I’m more of a ‘I see, I like, I pick-up’ kind of gal.

The iPhone app store has come through once again, this time with an awesome application called SwedeShop, where you can track the IKEA items you want for easy finding at the end of your trip.

5 cool features:

1 Record items you see in the showrooms and organize by section (cooking, textiles, etc.)

2 Add details to items like the name, quantity you need, price, and priority on your shopping list

3 Take pictures of items for reference and add to the item’s folder

4 Differentiate if the item is self-serve (i.e. in the warehouse) or in housewares (IKEA Marketplace)

5 List items you will need to order from the store

To purchase for $0.99, visit the iTunes App Store.

Those who know me well know about my iPhone obsession. I’ve blogged about it, dreamed about it, wrote about it in the magazine. Basically, we’re in love.

But … I think I’ve cheated on my dear iPhone.

I recently played around with the HTC Dream, and is it ever dreamy. Available in white or black (obviously the white is très chic), this phone comes with a touch screen and a fold-out QWERTY keyboard, for people like my boyfriend whose fingertips just mash the tiny touch keypad of the iPhone. And this dual punchpad phone doesn’t just slide up — the top screen glides to the side in a semi-circle motion. Very sexy.

“But what about my super cool App Store?’ my iPhone contested. Well, the HTC Dream is on your tail. With the Android Market, users can add thousands of apps or songs and also it features a barcode scanner so you can scan items in stores and get all the product details.

Even though it’s been out for several months now, I can’t help but daydream of this Dream … even when I’m spending time with my iPhone.

Contact your wireless provider for pricing details; htc.com

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As much as I love iPhone apps, I get bummed out when they cost more than $1.99 (I did buy The New York Times Crossword app for $10, but that took several days of convincing myself).

Style at Home assistant editor Jenn Houlihan just forwarded me a link to the absolute coolest app I’ve seen in awhile. Best thing about it? It’s 100% free! It’s Benjamin Moore’s Ben Color Capture app, and it basically lets you take a pic of anything you want, tap on any colour in that image, then shows you the Benjamin Moore paint swatches that most closely match your colour. Brilliant!

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I’m a TiVo fanatic. Ever since I brought the wonderful little box into my apartment, I’ve been hooked. How did I enjoy life before the magic of digital TV recording? I just don’t know. Whether it’s to watch junk reality shows like MTV’s The Real World, or record my fave movie that is inconveniently airing at 4am, my TiVo has become a reliable pal.

Well, TiVo has just made my life even easier. When I was away in Boston this past weekend, my little video buddy recorded a plethora of programs and I’m having a hard time trying to watch them all. And now, I’ve just found out this fascinating little program: iTiVo. That’s right, folks. You can now transfer your recorded programs from your video box to your iTunes account on your Mac computer. From there, you can upload the content onto your iPod or iPhone. How cool is that? Now there’s no reason for you to fall behind on your fave TV shows, even when you’re on the road.

Check out the details here, as well as instructions on how to download the instruction manual.

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It’s a fight to the finish line – at least, in my head it is. Who will win the coveted award of downloading the billionth Apple iPhone/iPod application? The stakes are high with this one, as the winner gets a $10,000 US iTunes giftcard, an iPod Touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro. With swag like that up for grabs, I am determined to win, and have been downloading apps like crazy for the past few days. The internet is abuzz with dates on when the tally will hit a billion, the favourite being April 23rd (follow the countdown on the Apple website).

To get you on the road to the grand prize, here are a few of my fave apps:

Tweetie: One of the most popular Twitter apps. Allows you to use all of the conveniences of web-based Twitter on your iPhone/iPod Touch. ($2.99)

Camera Zoom: The answer to your iPhone camera’s prayers. This app is only $.99 and gives yo 4x digital zoom on your phone’s camera. When zooming, it looks a bit blurry, but focuses automatically when you hit the capture button.

Urbanspoon: Not sure where to go for dinner? Let this app decide. Your device’s GPS finds your location and Urbanspoon will randomly suggest a place to eat and give you contact details. You can also manually search within their database.

Remote: I love this app for those lazy Sundays when I don’t want to get off the couch to change the music on my iMac. Remote allows you to control your iTunes music and playlists on your computer directly from your iPhone or iPod touch. Best part? It’s free!

Who Has The Biggest Brain?: This is my fave game to play while riding the subway in the morning. The perfect way to exercise the brain, this game tests your skills in 4 segments (analytics, math, memory, visual processing) and analyzes your brain size based on how well you scored combined with how fast you worked. ($.99)

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There are many things that I love about Apple products, but one of them is definitely the aesthetic appeal; so, you can imagine how fast my jaw dropped when I heard of a company that one-ups the Apple design. I’ve blogged before about cases and ways to dress up your gadgets, but nothing quite compares to the ultra-luxe/incredibly over-the-top custom work shown here. Computer Choppers is an American company that will actually gold-plate your Apple products. Seriously. Think along the same vein as MTV’s Pimp My Ride, but for the tech geek within you.

Not only will they gold-plate your laptop, iMac, iPhone (you name it!), but they do other finishes as well, like platinum or a gorgeous rose gold. If you’re looking for something a little less extravagant, they also do colour anodizing (see the Mac Minis to the right). And if you just love to show off that little Apple logo, well, Computer Choppers have you covered there, too — they will encrust your device’s logo with diamonds. Real, glittery, girl’s-best-friend diamonds. It just oozes glam.
If this is exactly the life of luxury you’re looking for, visit the Computer Choppers site to check out all the services and get a quote on customizing the Apple product nearest and dearest to your heart. But don’t expect it to be cheap — colour anodizing for the new itty-bitty iPod shuffle starts at $129 US, while the gold-plated Macbooks start at a whopping $5,500 US. It pays to look this good.

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I know, I know — we’ve already discussed how amazing the Apple iPhone is. But this being a brand new year with brand new resolutions, I thought I’d resurrect the discussion and focus on the fabulous applications available for iPhone users (and for the iTouch as well!).

Pretty much every year, I resolve to organize — my home, my workspace, my life in general. And pretty much every year, I fall short of this task… UNTIL now. This year, I have begun to digitally organize my life on my iPhone through the cool applications you can purchase, and some you can get for free. I find digitally organizing to be much more efficient because everything is neatly available at your fingertips and many of the applications offer alerts that pop up to remind you of things you’ve logged.

Here’s a list of my top 5 ‘organizational’ applications:

1) IWantItBack: Never again will you forget who borrowed your Waterford Wedgwood casserole dish. This neat little app lets you compile a list of items that you’ve lent to people, when it was lent, who you lent it to and when you expect it back. Little icons let you organize the items into categories, like CDs, money, clothes, etc. ($1.99, iTunes)

2) Spend: I don’t think any of us want to be reminded of our dismal economy, but this app will help you stay on top of budgeting your cash. You can create daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and yearly budgets — then, whenever you dip into that budget, enter it into the category (i.e. ‘groceries’) and the app subtracts it from your allotted budget amount. ($.99, iTunes; free version also available)

3) Shopper: While some may be budgeting, others may be shopping. I LOVE Shopper. It basically creates shopping lists for you, but in a fail-proof way. You can create templates for further grocery trips, and you never have to worry about forgetting where you saw that gorgeous houndstooth throw because you can take a photo and add it to the list. My fave part, though, is that you can create a list of the items in your shopping cart as you’re walking around a store, punch in the prices, and Shopper will add up the cost and calculate Canadian sales tax. Brilliant! ($.99, iTunes)

4) Calendar: Okay, so this one is a freebie that already comes on your iPhone or iTouch, but trust me when I say it’s the best calendar you’ll ever use. Sleek in design and allowing you to view different calendar layouts (daily, monthly, list form), it also lets you sync it with your calendar on your home or work computer. You can set alerts and organize for a second alert if you’re the super forgetful type. With this digital calendar, you’ll never forget an appointment, birthday, or bill payment (even if you want to). (FREE!, included in software)

5) My Stuff: This application is just one big, organizational mecca. It allows you to create lists of, well, your stuff — but all organized in one place on your Apple device. If you’re a bookworm (like myself), you can create a list of the books you’ve read, then reference it when you’re at the bookstore. Need to store the warranty information of your new laptop? Just organize it in My Stuff. This app is a fantastic way to backup all your information and have it available no matter where you are. ($4.99, iTunes)

** For ideas on how to organize your living space, check out styleathome.com/organizing/