Monster today unveiled a trio of new, overpriced iPod accessories. The Shuffle charger looks cool, but only if it works to sync as well.

The other stuff is just overpriced versions of stuff you can get a lot cheaper elsewhere. Which is to say typical Monster. Seriously, does anyone even still buy Monster Cables? If you do, please comment so I can ridicule you (just kidding).

In any case, if you want to pay $80 for a car charger… head out to Best Buy and snag yours today.

Apple released new iMacs yesterday, but the big news for those of us who really don’t want an iMac is the introduction of two updates to the Apple software suites iLife and iWork.

Like every good Apple fanboy, I immediately and have been putting it through it’s paces. I’ve been an iWork user since I switched back to the Mac from the dark side, using Office 2004 only to open and interchange documents (and to use Excel, since there was no spreadsheet in iWork).

Now that I’ve got 24 hours of iWork ‘08 under my belt, I doubt I’ll need Office at all anymore (though I may keep it around as a safety net for a while).  Read on for an app-by-app mini-review.

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It sucks.

I wish I had better news to report, because the darn thing seems so promising. It offers military technology (supposedly). Maybe this military technology is the reason we can’t win the war in Iraq, because 10 out of the 10 people I talked to using this beast, only two said the sound quality was “passable” and the rest had varying levels of “I can’t understand what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks you’re trying to say”.

The noise reduction doesn’t work and the Jawbone actually has the distinction of being the noisiest Bluetooth headset I’ve ever tested (and I’ve tested a few in my day). It picks up wind noise better than my voice, to be honest. The demonstration on their site where the dude talks clearly while in a crowded, noisy room is either fake or my particular Jawbone is afflicted with noise retardation.

If the headset doesn’t work very well for… well, being a headset… it had better look good and be comfortable. The Jawbone is very good looking, if not a big on the hugemongous side, but it is in no way comfortable. It flops around on your head like you tied a freshly-caught trout to your ear. It’s heavy. I couldn’t find an earhook that didn’t feel like I was wearing an ill-fitting pair of specs. Not cool.

In short, it sucks. Mine went back to the Apple Store the same day it was purchased. Here’s hoping the Apple Bluetooth Headset works better, but for now I’m back to my trusty Plantronics Discovery 645.

For all you Halo freaks out there, XBox has has done it again. The new XBox 360 comes with some pretty nice stuff including:

• Halo 3 Special Edition Wireless Controller
• Halo 3 Special Edition Hard Drive
• Halo 3 Special Edition Wired Headset
• Halo 3 Special Edition Gamer Pics and Theme
• Component HD AV Cable (and HDMI port)
• Ethernet Cable
• Play & Charge Kit
• Xbox LIVE Silver Membership

What seems to be missing, oh yeah…..THE GAME….This 20 gig green monster should come with the game it’s designed around…this means war!

via Wired

I was just checking out one of my friend’s blogs and thought it was worth a mention:

MarketingPunk

If you’re in the mood for humor and crazy pictures…this is your blog.

This is an addition to Part 1 of my review found here:

I wanted to add a couple more pros and cons now that I have had the phone for a good 4 days:

Pros:

1. The map feature is really something. For example: If you type in “Circuit City” in the top text field the device will find all of your local stores on the map. You can then select the store you want, call them or store all of their info in your contacts. I found this real handy when running errands this morning.

Cons:

1. Browsing- When internet browsing all calls will go to voicemail. This is a limitation of AT&T , not the iPhone, but highly annoying none the less.

Important iPhone links:

Apple

Engadget iPhone Page

Wikipedia

iPhone Finder

I just picked up an iPhone…here’s the pros and cons:

Pros:

1. The UI is so slick that I had to run to the back of the “Apple Store” and shell out my AMEX card.

2. I avoided checking voicemails on my Treo because I hated going through all the prompts….Visual voicemail is the best solution I’ve seen. NO passwords, NO prompts, NO hassle.

3. The iPod inside the iPhone is great for impressing friends. The scrolling album interface is nothing short of amazing.

4. Connecting to a WiFi network is extremely easy. I am in Miami, FL where there is no shortage of networks to hop on. (I was at the gas station yesterday and hopped on the city WiFi network and grabbed email from all my POP email accounts in seconds.)

5. The “slimmness” of the device is remarkable and fits in the front pocket with no “bulkiness.”

6. The weather “widget” is really convenient…Yahoo even set up a nice local web portal linked to the weather page. The page contains all your local event, detailed weather, and important city links.

7. Mac sync ability…. The iPhone, as expected, syncs amazing with the mac…..No setting up email accounts, phone numbers…etc…

8. Decent phone.. The device detects when you have it to your ear and shuts the screen off. When you pull it away, it magically turns on again. I am pleased with the speakerphone, nice volume and clear voices.

Cons:

1. Email attachments- If someone sends you an email attachment in the form of a PDF file, it is impossible to zoom in on the file making it impossible to read and rendering the file completely useless.

2. Keyboard- I am getting use to the typing keyboard and I do like the auto correct feature BUT….women with nails will not be able to use it. (My wife said it “sucked”..) Also, typing passwords into the browser without an auto-save feature is a pain in the @#$@$#.

3. AT&T ONLY! This is annoying considering Verizon has a much faster network than AT&T in Florida (and many other places). YouTube is worthless unless your on a WiFi network. The internet browser is a little sluggish on the “EDGE” network.

4. Limited storage - 8 GB is not enough storage to completely replace my iPod..not even close. Hopefully Apple will come out with 30 and 60 GB iPhones in the future.

5. Audio jack- The audio jack on the top of the device has a “lip” on it. If you have headphones with an angled jack your out of luck. You can buy a $10 extender piece but it looks clumsy when installed.

I hope this helps with your decision making….I would recommend the device to all gadget freaks with short nails. Apple will likely release software updates to fix some of the shortcomings in the coming months. If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will answer it ASAP!

Harman/Kardon has announced (shipping in June… way to miss that buckos) the follow-up to their successful iPod-meets-car interface, the drive+play 2.  The new drive+play features nifties like a color screen, a revamped wireless control knob that more closely mimics the way the iPod clickwheel works, and integration with Sirius and Bluetooth carphone modules.

It appears they did a good job addressing the shortcomings of the original drive+play (which I own and really like, save a niggling annoyance or two).  The problem is the price.  At $400, the drive+play is double the cost of the original at launch and five times as expensive as the original drive+play’s current street price of $80.  It’s also at least $50 more than the iPod you’re hooking to it.

The drive+play 2 seems like a great way to get your iPod into your car in an integrated and attractive manner, but the price is going to turn a lot of people off.

iLounge Review

David Pogue reviews the iPhone for the New York Times and finds that surprisingly, it has a few negatives.  Chief among them is my personal favorite for “iPhone Achilles Heel”, the Cingular AT&T network.  He notes “average” call quality with bottom-rated signal strength (tested by Consumer Reports, but their conclusions seem to jibe with Pogue’s experiences).  Pogue also notes the horrendous EDGE performance when browsing the web.

 Read the full review (with video and images) here. 

As the proud owner of a Mac Pro, I’ve looked into all manners of ways to get it off of my desk. Sonnet Technologies has one solution to the problem, the MacCuff Pro.

The MacCuff (really dumb name Sonnet, really…) is basically a piece of heavy-duty steel plate that’s bent in such a way that it suspends your Mac Pro (or Power Mac G5) under your desk and off the floor. It also features a cable to lock your Mac Pro up (I guess this is the “cuff” part) and some cut-outs that they bill for cable management.

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