Geekfather.com

Reading with Reeder

If you aren't using an RSS reader, I have one question for you. Why not? They are a simple, free way to have articles about anything delivered to one place, so you don't have to check in with multiple websites everyday just to find out what's happening that interests you.

I use Google's Reader. It's simple enough, and because I like most things Google, it plays nicely with the other Google products I depend on, like it's Homepage.

Enter Reeder. It's a polished, yet simple platform to view your Google Reader content. The interface is straight forward and it has an awesome iPhone application, and just released for Mac, a beta version. 

Give Google Reader and Reeder a shot, let me know what you think. If you already have a method of scrubbing the wed via RSS that doesn't include either, tell me about it. 

Geekfather likes music

Really he does. He's old, but he likes good music. Right now the geekfather is enjoying Vampire Weekend.

Why? They're pretty awesome, that's why. They have this great African/punk/prep thing going on. If the Geekfather was 20 years younger, and paid attention during guitar lessons, he'd play this kind of music. 

What do you think about Vampire Weekend? 

Making surfaces speakers

Last monght the Consumer Electronics Show happened out in Las Vegas. As a geekfather, there is no way my wife would let me go out to sin city to play with tech toys, but I followed the latest and greatest unveilings by surfing sights like Engadget.

The geekfather lives on a budget, so I could only window shop for most items, no 3-d t.v. for me, but there was on item, under $100 that caught my eye and ear.

The Tunebug Vibe. It's a tiny device that turns things into speakers. For instance set it on a Kleenex box, and suddenly it's a speaker, put it on a wall, and it becomes a speaker. I have been looking for a tiny speaker system to use with my iPhone and laptop, and this seemed intriguing to me. So I ordered one from the company.

It comes with a tiny box, a charging cord, and a cord to extend to your music player. I tried it out, and it's definitely cool. The sound is good, not great. I use it mostly when tooling around the house or getting ready for work.

I found some surfaces, like hard counter tops, or a concrete floor, don't work well to conduct the sound, but hollow things, like tissue boxes, non-reinforced walls, even a laptop sound o.k. Check out the video to see it action.

iPad, iDon't know..

So every January and June I get excited, because that's typically when Apple rolls out it's latest, greatest gadget.

This January is no exception, on Wednesday, months of speculation ended when Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPad.

It's a cool gadget, no doubt. About 10 inches long, and 8 wide, and just a half-inch thick, it's sleek. From demonstrations I've seen it behaves like a giant iPhone, with more power and depending on the model you go with, more memory.

You can get on the internet through the built-in wi-fi, or get a model with a 3g radio, and you can get a data plan for a monthly fee.

It's a beautiful machine, but... in this economy, and with both an iPhone and Macbook in my arsenal, is it worth it?

It doesn't seem to offer anything that one of those other devices can't provide. Sure, it looks great, and it's really neat, but is it worth it?

Not for me right now. Make it more powerful, it could replace a laptop, smaller, it could replace the phone. But I'll pass, maybe they'll dream up something to make it really worthwhile in generation 2.

Some related stuff:
Jobs sets high bar but the verdict is mixed (Financial Times)
Debating the merits of Apple's iPad (cnet)
iPad apps will define the device, many not yet devised (Huffington Post)

Geekfather rides again

So I took some time off. Sue me. On second thought, please don't. After an extended absence, Geekfather is back. 

A refresher on what this site is and isn't. I'm a 30-something who likes his toys. Some call me a geek, hence Geekfather.com, but I think I'm just a dad who likes movies, computers, the iphone, and music. So I'll post about the latest and greatest tech toys I'm either playing with or would like to play with, and reviews about music and movies sometimes. Please feel free to comment, and if you're a like-minded geek dad or mom and you want to post something, let me know and we'll make it happen.

iTunes songs, not necessarily for a song

   I like to think I'm a fairy honest person. If you go through my extensive music library on my computer, you won't find any pirated songs. Really. I believe in playing by the book when it comes to downloading media.

There are 3 sources for most of my digital music purchases; eMusic, Amazon and iTunes.

By far my favorite method is Emusic. It's a flat monthly fee and for that I get 50 dowloads. It's extremely economical, but unless you have very diverse tastes, you may get frustrated with eMusic quickly because most artists are not mainstream. Though there are some that are, and for that reason I reccomend checking it out. I probably download 65-75% of my music from eMusic.

Next up is Amazon. I really like Amazon. It has a pretty good selection, about the same as iTunes, and they have bargains, and lots of free songs.

iTunes is the old standard. It's easy to use, great selection, but until yesterday, no bargains, and only a few freebies. It's big drawback was DRM protection. The stuff they spray on the file to make it tough to pirate also takes away sound quality. But yesterday Apple pretty much removed all the DRM, but is now allowing record companies to charge more if they choose. They have a new tiered pricing system; $1.29, .99, and .69 per song. I don't think this is necessarily a bad move. In fact, I like the idea of paying $.69 for some songs.

The point of this is, if you buy your music online, shop around.

iSoap?

iPhone soap? Yes, iPhone soap. Why? Why not I suppose.

Is it practical? No. Will it clean better than other soaps? Doubt it.

Do I want it? Sure.

Wii really want to play, but...

So it's a slow Sunday morning around the house. The wife's tending to some stuff and I'm looking after the kids. The boy, 3, seems fascinated with the Wii.

You see, we recently moved, and the Wii, along with most of my toys were in a separate part of the house, not accessible to him. But now it's there, calling to him.

So I said, sure son, let's race. I pop Mario Kart in the system and hand the steering wheel over to him, hoping finally someone in this house will play video games with me. He's excited at first. He sits in my lap and we steer for a bit, then I give him control and he's stuck. Loses interest. Alas, 3 is too young. And it gets me to thinking, should I even allow/encourage him to play? I shudder to think he'll be a rotund video game player, and not a fort-building, tree climbing boy who can't wait to hop on his bike after doing homework in a few years. This is the Geekfather's dilemna this week.

iPhone software 3.0

I am a proud (and somewhat obsessed) iPhone owner. The device is invaluable to me, I use it to read books, surf the internet, update my Facebook and Twitter account and even this site, and much, much more.

That said, it's lacking in a few rather obvious areas. But it looks like Apple is going to make good. Of the new features they announced today to be released by summer are; copy and paste, and MMS messaging.

Hopefully this new trend of Apple responding to customer concerns will continue!

The Geekfather returns

We've been busy here at Geekfather as we've been moving to our new headquarters at the beach. Of course our staff of 100's is happy with the new digs, unfortunately, I had to lay them all off as a result of Geekfather corporate cubacks.

But the good news is, the Geekfather is back and ready rock your world with more observations and information about all things tech and dad.