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Review: Dry Case

What is the DryCASE? The DryCASE was developed by Dry Corp. The DryCASE is a waterproof case that can be used to protect your phone, camera, iPod, and more from water. The DryCASE has many uses, such as for listening to music by connecting waterproof headphones to the headphone jack or for taking pictures with your camera underwater. Before we get into the details, let’s first break it down a bit:

Summary

  • Name: DryCASE
  • Brand: Dry Corp
  • Price: $39.99
  • Warranty: One year warranty

Point – Scaled Grading

Style: 1-25 Given: 19

Price: 1-15 Given: 13

Quality materials: 1-15 Given: 12

Brand name: 1-10 Given: 5

Modern technologies: 1-15 Given: 13

Compatibility: 1-15 Given: 12

Ease of use: 1-5 Given: 4

OVERALL: 78/100 C+

Evaluation

  • Style: It is designed with the purpose to keep water out, which it definitely accomplishes, but the style is sacrificed in order to keep the electronic devices dry.
  • Price: The DryCASE is aggressively priced. Most waterproof cases range from $25-$50, and the DryCASE offers a unique style. Do you really want to use your electronics near water? If so, the DryCASE should be taken into consideration.
  • Quality materials: The DryCASE is not a case for normal use. The materials are suitable for keeping the water out and away from your electronic devices. The materials feel very cheap and fragile, yet the product still works effectively. Just make sure you don’t drop your device, because the case will not protect it.
  • Brand name: Dry Corp is not one of the more popular Apple case makers. However, in terms of waterproof technologies, they have a solid reputation.
  • Modern technologies: The case itself is a fairly new idea. The DryCASE gives you the ability to use the headphone jack — but remember to use waterproof headphones.
  • Compatibility: The case is very universal. The downfall is that it is a “one size fits all” type of case, which doesn’t allow for some devices to fit. Dry Corp also sells the DryCASE Folio, which is made for the iPad, Kindle, and other tablets.
  • Ease of use: The DryCASE is easy to use — it’s pretty simple. The contents include a small paper containing the instructions. The instructions tell you how to use the case, but they don’t tell you how to put on the armband that is included other than putting it in the slot on the back of the case — we would have liked to see more clearer instructions.

Final Thoughts

The DryCASE is a case that can provide waterproof protections to your portable electronic devices. I would recommend putting a small piece of paper in the case and testing the case out before using it, so you don’t have to put your electronics in jeopardy if the case fails to work. The case itself is only useful if you are planning to use it for the purpose of keeping the water away from your electronics. If you are constantly near water and using your electronics, such as at the beach or near the swimming pool, you should buy this product. So go ahead and “Get Your Tech Wet”.

Feel free to leave a comment.

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Time to Change That Wallpaper

“Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.” -Oscar Wilde

Customization goes hand-in-hand with the iPad. One of the easiest changes to make is your wallpaper. The iPad ships with 30 wallpaper images. Your photo library can also act as a wallpaper library, but unless your library is full of abstract art or fancy nature photos, your pictures wouldn’t come close to the packaged wallpapers.

Lucky for you that there are a host of websites available for downloading iPad wallpaper. For free. Even luckier for you, I took a gander at five of them to help you find that perfect wallpaper.

1. iPad Wallpapers HD By far this site has the largest selection. They have a huge bank of Apple logo images, illustrations, and photography. They also have a large selection of “women wallpapers.” You can register with the site if you want to give your own hand at making wallpapers.

2. iPad Wallpapers This site has a good selection of pictures to choose from, though the  page looks cluttered with its wallpaper selection jumbled in with ads. They even have a link to some apps, though none of them have anything to do with wallpaper, nor do they look interesting. Make sure to click the link on the left menu for the wallpapers, and not on the top (more ads).

2. iPad Wallpaper.org The categories here range from 3D to Sports. The site has some Apple logo wallpapers, as well as some cool nature pictures.

4. noupe This site had a blog entry that included the “55 Beautiful Apple iPad Wallpapers.” Certainly a tall claim, but they seem to live up to it. They have awesome pics of Iron Man and Thor.

5. Designrfix You thought the best 55 wallpapers was great? How about the top 70+? Kind of makes you wonder why they can’t just do the top 100, but meh. Anyways, the majority of the graphics will blow your eyes away.

Once you’ve downloaded that perfect picture to your iPad, setting it as your wallpaper is simple:

  1. Click on the Settings app, and select Brightness and Wallpaper.
  2. Select Wallpaper and then choose Saved Photos.
  3. Once you choose your picture, it will show as a full screen preview.
  4. Finally, select whether you would like the wallpaper to be for the Lock Screen, the Home Screen, or both.

Whether you want to pay homage to Apple with a cool logo design, admire a picturesque nature scene, or stare at a bikini model, there are many options out there for you.

Of course, if you’re as much a fanboy as I am, you’ll most likely drift back to the packaged wallpapers once the novelty wears off.

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App Review: AppStart

Recently got an iPad 2? Been to the game for a while with the first gen iPad and thought you’ve exhausted every HD app out there? To quote Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

AppStart by the folks at AppAdvice is an in-depth look at every kind of iPad app for use by power users or casual users.

With over 350,000 apps out there, finding the right one for your needs can be stymying. AppStart sets you in the right direction with its review of apps in different categories from turning your iPad into a laptop, to their game recommendations (gamers and non-gamers). Each category lists cherry-picked apps, along with a blurb describing them and even more importantly, their price. You’re given a good spread of free and paid apps to choose from. There is even a hardware review to help find the right iPad accessories.

The app’s layout alone is a marvel. Four pages long, each one is packed with the different categories and visually appealing clip art to go with them. Swiping down will scroll from page to page, and horizontal swiping will return you from the articles. The pages are so chocked-full of information that I find something new every time. AppStart truly takes advantage of how a digital magazine should be.

AppStart is free, but if you become smitten with it and want to get more (and why wouldn’t you), the AppAdvice app ($1.99) is updated every day.

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Crossover Review

Having a Mac has ups and downs, it’s awesome for music, business, and school. One thing Mac is definitely lacking are games. All those awesome titles like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and others are usually only on Windows and occasionally iOS, but there is always an answer and in this case it is called CrossOver. CrossOver brings all those great applications made for Windows to your Mac and even Linux. It comes in three different versions to fit your needs: CrossOver Standard, CrossOver Games, and CrossOver Professional. Here is a quick summary of how it works. It emulates windows, but there is no dealing with virtual machines or full reboots. CrossOver simulates a reboot within the application if one is needed. CrossOver beats virtualizing games on your Mac in VMware Fusion or Parallels by not having to run unnecessary processes.

It also works with Wine, which pretty much ports or brings over the important files from Windows and allows your Mac to run the applications in CrossOver. It works very well with CrossTie games, but I have found that games that are not supported by CrossTie directly have a slight amount of lag, but for gaming on a Mac, the graphics and speed are on par. However, you also need to take into account that the lag might not be from the application, but the hardware of the Mac.

Above I talked about CrossTie, which helps you by supporting certain games that can be found on the CodeWeavers website’s compatibility page. CrossTie has everything you need, and downloads everything you need. Even if your software isn’t supported, almost all the time you can get your software to work. Also, if your software isn’t supported by CrossTie you can pledge for it, and get it supported by CrossTie.

My final thoughts of CrossOver are that it works extremely well when you think of all that CrossOver is doing. It is very fast, and being an avid game, I have found that games are just amazing on the Mac thanks to CrossOver.

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Making Searching your Computer Faster

A lot of people think simplicity is bliss, and I am definitely one of those people.  Today I am going to be showing you two awesome applications that help to replace Spotlight. The first is called Quicksilver (QS). Quicksilver, for me, was sort of difficult to get used to at first, but with time it became a very useful tool.  For me, it really did not shorten my time of searching with it instead of Spotlight.  However, if you are looking for something new that looks very sleek you should check out Quicksilver.  Quicksilver, also sports the ability of an extremely customizable interface and there are many different themes and plugins to add to Quicksilver – just check Google!

The next computer search is called Google Quick Search Box.  The reason why this is a little better in my opinion is the fact that is that it searches your computer and it also gives you the option to search on Google.  It actually has helped save some time when I want to search something on Google, but when searching around the computer, I have not found any significant differences in time saving.

Google Quick Search Box:

Quicksilver:

Sources: [QSB Source, QS]