Cozip iPhone Case Review

When I purchased an iPhone one of my first thoughts was to go to Amazon and buy a case to preserve my heady cellular investment. And that is what I did.

I purchased a Cozip case for my iPhone. It was $19.97 including shipping. You can get the 1G version as seen to the right or the 3G version seen a bit lower.

The case basically a plastic exterior for the back of the iPhone. It provides some protection to the back of the phone and looks pretty awesome. Mine has a matte black finish and snaps neatly onto the phone. You can get the case in a variety of colors such as red or white. The fit and finish is very good. The case snapped on easily.

I have dropped my iPhone several times from at least 3 feet onto concrete or a hard surface with no ill effects. Needless to say, I am very pleased.

To look at the Cozip case on Amazon click here.

However, the case doesn't provide any protection to the front of the phone. If you want a full case for your iPhone I would suggest reading this article. It will give you an idea of the most popular cases.

Link to the top six iPhone cases.

Here are some reviews from other people who really liked the case.

I love the iPhone case. In my opinion the majority of phone cases look terrible. This case maintains a very low profile and looks cool. It slides in and out of my pocket with ease. The best part of the case is that the low profile look really does not diminish the cool factor of owning an iPhone. Last week I accidentally dropped my phone down a flight of stairs; without a doubt the case saved my phone. I would highly recommend this case to anyone that owns an iPhone, wants to protect it, and does not want to look ridiculous with some cheap phone cover.
- Daniel Erenberg

This product keeps with the true nature of the iphone, in the sense that it is elegant and works like a charm without much extra...It has a tactile rubber paint on it and is made out of plastic. I am careful with my phone and this provides just that extra protection from scratches and the rubber texture helps with the iphones proneness to slipping out of hand...
- A. Taghdis

The iPhone Earbud Debacle: What to get?

The Apple iPhone has disappointed many users including myself with the use of the proprietary headphone jack and the lack of canal earbuds. The stock earbuds that come with the iPhone have a hard time staying my ear as I go throughout my day. 

The concept of having your earbuds double as a handsfree unit is brilliant. But then Apple shoots themselves in the foot by using the proprietary jack and pathetic eat buds. 

So what to do? Here are your options:

1. Get your own pair of earbuds and shave down the adapter so that it fits in the iPhone jack. Don't cut off your finger. 

2. Buy an adapter from Amazonthat lets you plug in your standard earbuds into the iPhone. This should only cost a few bucks but you won't have the phone capability with your iPhone. 

3. Modify your iPhone hands free system to have your earbuds. Buy some acceptable canal earbuds that can be taken apart easily. You will need a soldering iron. Watch this movie for directions. 

4. Pay some one else to do the above (#3) for you for $40. Ultimate Ears will take your earbuds and work their magic if already have some Ultimate Ears buds. I swear I have seen a site doing these conversions but I have not been able to find it. 

5. Buy some after market earbuds that were designed for the iPhone. All the major earbud makers have them and some smaller companies focus exclusively on the iPhone market. Here is a list of great earbuds. Remember, the more you pay the better the earbuds are going to be. However, you also need the acoustic discernment to appreciate expensive earbuds. For most people a $100 pair of buds is just great. 

• Shure I2C-M $119
• V-Moda Vibe Duo $101
• Ultimate Ears Super Fi $149
• Griffin Technology's EarJams 2 $9.99

I don't recommend the cheap Griffin earbuds but if you don't care a lot about quality then they are probably your best bet for keeping your buds in your ears. 

Wanna discuss? Ask questions? Write your own review? Click here. 

Apple iPod Shuffle 1GB Review

The shuffle is great for all those activities that your MP3 player gets in the way of. I use my for bike riding, rock climbing, motorcycling, and all kinds of other sports. It's great as long as you like all the songs on the Shuffle. Otherwise you get tired of constantly changing songs. 

Click here to view the Shuffle from Amazon

Expect great battery life clocking in at about 12 hours. Sound quality is excellent. Obviously the stock earbuds can take significant improvement but if you are using the Shuffle for active stuff then you should already be familiar with canal ear buds. If you are not, here is a link. Don't worry, you won't regret it. I recommend Shure. 

Click here to view in-earbuds from Amazon

Another iPhone Review for the Pile

I suppose my little blurb about my new iPhone will go unnoticed in the blogosphere. Like a drop in the lake. But hey, maybe since my post has the words "iPhone" I will get mega hits?!?!

My story of iPhone acquisition is a unique one. You see, I ran over my other phone on accident. This left my boss frustrated that he couldn't call me. So he offers to buy me an iPhone, complete with the plan and everything. I suppressed my glee when I heard this and replied, "Sure, that sounds great." So I am going to be the test bed for integrating the iPhone into our business systems.

Ok. Narrative over.

The iPhone has a large initial wow factor. It's kind of overwhelming going from a phone that has buttons and requires a degree from MIT to utilize it to one that can be operated by a four year old and does 10 times more.

Here is a breakdown of what the phone is capable of:

• Email from a POP server (gmail, yahoo, msn, etc)
• Fully functional web browsing (if a little slow on the EDGE network)
• Certainly the best iPod the have created yet
• Calculator
• Youtube
• Stock tracker
• Photos
• Calendar
• 2 MP Camera
• Direct link to iTunes
• Fantastic hands free system

The saleslady at the AT&T store told us that you cannot access secure email from the phone. That is not exactly true. It's true that you can't get email directly from the secure server but you can get a web based email system to access that server with the appropriate settings and check that from your web based email. I will write more on this later.

Here's another list of the stuff I didn't like:

• Very difficult to use when driving. Now I know it's not a good idea to drive and work your phone but the iPhone is even worse. Usually you have buttons to feel around when driving so you don't have to look at your phone and you can keep your eyes on the road or whoever your prefer. Not so with the iPhone. It's hard to hit buttons that are securely behind a piece of polycarbonate plastic and an electric field. You have to look at the phone to use it. Scrolling through your contacts while on the highway is not advisable at all.
  

• The EDGE network is not the fastest man has ever seen. There are unsubstantiated reports of men growing old and having children while waiting for google.com to load. It't not really that bad but if you are in a hurry you might want to log onto a free Wi-Fi spot to get things moving.
  

• No 3rd party apps at this time. This really bugs me with Apple. Usually they have pretty good relationships with their users but this takes the cake for being stupid. If you do jailbreak your phone you do so at your own risk. Upgrading may turn your $400 phone into a nice paper weight.
  

• The earbuds are cheap. Instead of providing some decent earbuds that stay in your ear Apple provided stock earbuds. It doesn't seem like much of a stretch to provide some decent earbuds for a $400 phone. Does it?

• The camera is kinda iffy. It takes pictures fast. There is no delay but some resolution would be good. The photo's are blurry if you don't hold the camera perfectly still.
  

• The headphone jack is a piece of crap. For some reason Apple made it so that you have to have a straight headphone jack to plug in to the iPhone. If you have some expensive earbuds like me that have a bend in the jack then it won't work with the iPhone. So you are stuck using the crappy buds that come with the phone and fall out of your ear all the time. Frustrating for a $400 phone. It's not like Apple would make more money from doing that...

Despite my much larger rant on the fualts of the iPhone I do like it a lot. I really think it's the future of phones to be far more functional. Doing email, internet, and everything in between will get a lot easier and cheaper to.

Of course I could go on and on about the cool little features that Apple incorperated into the phone but that would be reinventing the wheel. Go here to watch the iPhone video by Apple.

I recommend the iPhone for someone who like have a very cool phone and some truly revolutionary abilities but is willing to put up with the quirks. I'm sure Apple will continue to make it better. I'm also sure that waiting for the 2nd gen iPhone would be wise. Perhaps they will fix all those mistakes and get on the 3G network?

Interesting Apple Trivia Facts

The recent release of the iPhone was preceded by 200 patents for the revolutionary phone. 21 of the patents are actually innovative.

The idea for the Macintosh computer was actually Jef Raskin’s (employee #31) idea for a low cost, easy to use computer. Steve Jobs and Steve Wazniak rejected most of his ideas (no mouse) so Jef left the project. Steve Jobs took over and shaped the Mac into what it is today.

The first Mac computer was born on April 1st, 1976 and sold for $666.66.

Before co-founding Apple, Steve Jobs worked for Atari.

Steve Wozniak worked for Hewlet Packard before Apple was founded.

The GUI that the first Mac used originated at Xerox.

The former president of Pepsi is the new president of Apple.

Steve Jobs was fired by the board from his own company but returned when his company, Pixar, was acquired by Apple.

Acording to Sophos, there are more than 60 viruses that affect Macs. 0.16% of Mac users have reported problems.

OS X 10.4 has more than 86,000,000 lines of code.

In Brief:

Apple iTunes has lowered it's price for DRM free iTunes Plus from $1.29 to $0.99. Most likely this is a response to Amazon's cheaper MP3s.

It's probable that Amazon is actively seizing market share from Apple. Competition is always healthy.

Leopard cometh, October 26th

Every time Apple announces the arrival of a new program or piece of hardware the Apple forums have double the posts (I actually just made that up, but it wouldn't suprise me). For good reason to. Apple produces innovative products at competitive prices.

Leopard is the big deal now. In ten days the OS I am running (10.4 Tiger) will be uncool, out of style, and somehow not as productive (mine as well get the new one eh?). $129 will get you a single license while a cool $199 will snag five.

The Advent of OS X Leopard 10.5 is heralded by the number 300. Apple boasts 300 new improvements of 10.4. These aren't just little patches like Windows users are used to either. Cool new interfaces and ideas are making their ways to our computers on October 26th.

According to the Countdown Timer, as I write this there are nine days, 23 hours, and 23 seconds till the release. Talk about hype!

There are some very interesting features in Leopard.

Finder can operate like coverflow in the iPod.

Quicklook allows you to preview any document, file, video, and many other types without opening an app.

Time Machine keeps your computer backed up automaticaly with an external HD.

iChat has some amazing background and sharing options. You can share anything on iChat that Quicklook can preview.

Spaces allows you to divide your monitor real estate more efficiently, reducing the need for multiple monitors or quadrupling productivity.

Boot Camp comes standard, all you need is your own version of Windows.

And Mail has cool email templates for the sentimental.

Check it out at Apple.com

I Bought a Mac, Why You Should Switch Also

This is one of those controversial posts that always gets Windows users blood running and the comments cooking off in the inbox. I would know. As of two weeks ago I would have been one of them. I would have marveled at how blind the Mac user was and think that they just need to learn how a computer works. I would ask myself who would buy a computer you can't upgrade, is expensive, looks weird (to some), and can't run the majority of software out there. What could possibly be dumber?

I could actually. All my marveling and wondering was for naught. I had never operated a Mac before. I didn't have a clue what I was thinking about. I felt I was superior in my choice of platform. I was proven dead wrong two weeks ago.

You can bluster all you want about how your PC runs great and you never have any problems but that is because you have not used a Mac. You just don't know what it is like to have no problems. You are not used to just having something work. When I had my Windows platform I was the same way (FYI: I have been a Windows user all my life, till now). I was used to troubleshooting my missing drivers, missing .dlls, cryptic error messages, random crashing, viruses, adware, constant maintenance, and consistent upgrades. I just considered it a challenge or even a necessary evil. After all, Macs were just not good enough for me, or so I thought.

When I used a Mac for the first time I expected to be introduced to an immature computer, a fancy looking expensive toy that couldn't really handle the stress of everyday work and play. Instead I got a smooth and fast load time into the OS, A very appealing fluidic display, and consistently fast load times for programs that more often then not exceeded the abilities of Windows applications.

Take Itunes for example. Any computer user can get it since it runs on Windows also. Look at the graphical user interface compared to Windows Media Player. It is simple when WMP is complex. The user in Itunes can access any music without wading through menus, a two year old could burn a CD, the main controls are in a central location with everything else, the player is well thought out. In WMP it took me 30 minutes to understand most of the features. I still don't know how to make the track slide out thingie in the Now Playing section come back.

Then there is the design of the Mac. Very few people that I have met think Macs look bad. At that, Apple products are all aesthetically pleasing to me. There seems to be a quality of design and a passion for not just user friendliness but also the cool look. A lot of Windows users scoff at this but I think it means Apple has not forgotten it's customers. Microsoft products are devoid of personality, cold, and business like. It seems to me that Microsoft is largely bureaucratic and has a hard time letting personality and creativity show. I am not saying Microsoft doesn't show creativity at all but it certainly could see a boost.

I just installed the Microsoft Zune on my Alienware M7700 to retrieve some music. What a nightmare. I do not exaggerate. I would never buy a Zune even for the low prices they are at now (low demand=low price). To use an IPod you connect it to your computer, load Itunes, and you should be ready to go. Simply drag the desired music into the IPod tab and the downloading initiates automatically. In the off chance that it needs an update it only takes a few moments to download and install the update. To get a Zune to connect to a computer you must first install new software for the Zune, Windows XP doesn't have the drivers,. The music player is confusing, awkward, and not at all intuitive. It took me 10 minutes to sync music to my PC. If you are unlucky enough to need a Zune update, prepare to spend an inordinate amount of time watching the update download, three minutes, transfer, one minute, install, two minutes, and apply, 30 seconds. It's ridiculous! I don't know why Microsoft doesn't make their products streamlined. I think the Zune is a great idea laden with too many features and gimmicks. To use a Zune you have to install separate music software. The Zune will not run off of WMP. WHY!?!?! Wouldn't it be so much easier if you just used WMP? I bought an IPod for it's ease of use and that is exactly what I got. There is a lot to be said about the simplicity of design in a Mac. The IPod needs competition to keep Apple innovative but Microsoft's attempt fell flat on it's face, as you can see here.

The Mac I bought was the Macbook. I think it's the best laptop for your money. My new Apple Macbook has a huge line of after market accessories that are easy to purchase at Amazon.com.

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