Alex Kidman

Monday kicks off with another opinion column/blog and another review.

First up, my regular Geekspeak column casts an eye over what it is we’ve been spending our tech dollars on in the past quarter:

Geekspeak: What are you spending your tech dollars on? “The theory goes that we’re not going out to restaurants or clubs anywhere near as much, but instead concentrating our limited budgets on bigger TVs, more internet connected devices and items that might hold a little more value than a bowl of pasta or glass of beer.”

Then at MacTheReviews, the latest in a long line of promising-the-world Homeplug devices gets plugged in:

Belkin Powerline HD Dual Pack: “Cheaper than tearing up the floorboards to put in dedicated wiring and more reliable than wireless. The only thing not to like about the Powerline HD product is the size of the plugs and the price.”

Isn’t that standard fashion advice? I technically shouldn’t know, having the apparent fashion sense of a three weak dead weasel.

Unless decaying weasel corpses are “in” right now. It’s so hard to tell, really. While I ponder whether I should invest in a new wardrobe* you could check out my rather exhaustive (and exhausting) roundup of 18 different iPad accessories at CNET.com.au:

Best iPad Accessories: “So, you’ve just dropped north of 600 bucks on a shiny new iPad. You’ve taken it out of its case and admired just how shiny it is. Keeping it shiny isn’t going to be an easy matter, and there’s no end of vendors offering up all kinds of accessories to improve your iPad experience. How good are they? We grabbed as many as we could and put them through iPad boot camp to separate the loser products from the heroes.”

*Never! Muppet T-Shirts always were, and always will be, cool. Although I could probably use some new ones…

Don’t worry, the subject line will make sense shortly. Trust me. I’m a journalist.

Another round of articles hits the virtual presses. First up, at PC Authority, a bit of an early peek at the wireless broadband guide in the issue that’s still on sale now, looking at Vodafone’s offering:

Vodafone isn’t the fastest, but it’s the value wireless broadband to buy: “Vodafone wireless broadband is an excellent value prospect as long as ‘fast’ isn’t on your horizon. See why it fares so well against Telstra, Optus, Three and Virgin.”

Then at CNET.com.au, a pair of reviews across familiar territory: 802.11n WiFi routers and PVRs:

Topfield TRF7160: “A PVR that performs the essential PVR functions, but without much in the way of grace.”

Belkin Double N+ Wireless Router F6D6230au4: “Belkin’s latest router performs adequately, but not quite well enough to justify its asking price.”

Before finishing up at MacTheMag with an article whose title was inspired by perhaps the cheesiest of cheesy 80s pop hits. Embedded below for your aural… erm… pleasure. While Apple never says anything about anything it’s planning to do, I’m confident this won’t be the advertising theme song for the iPad.

MacTheBlog: Touch Me: “So the rumours go, all sorts of features of iPhone OS are going to leak over into Mac OS X 10.7…”

And now a little something to get stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Insert evil laughter here.

“A war’s not been fought this badly since Olaf the Hairy, High Chief of all the Vikings, accidentally ordered 80,000 battle helmets with the horns on the inside…”

Nothing like a good Blackadder quote to round out the day. And it’s in context of me promoting my latest batch of reviews, too! No, really. CNET.com.au has this:

iiNet BoB: “iiNet customers who yearn for a simple networking life will do well out of BoB, although like most routers it’s not without its quirks.”

and if you can’t make a Blackadder Bob joke, what can you do?

CNET’s also got this:

DualSIM Mini: “The DualSIM Mini is tiny in form factor, price and attractive features.”

OK, the DualSIM/Blackadder connection is a bit tenuous. Some might even say non-existent.

And you know what? They’d be right.

No, it’s just my lungs trying to escape my body, same as usual for this week.

Being sick sucks. Especially when you no longer get sick leave, so you just have to keep working…

Speaking of working, here’s some reviews at CNET.com.au. Enjoy. I’m going back to the hacking and wheezing, if you’ll excuse me…

Samsung PL50: “We were struck by how this was, to put it gently, a big fat lie…”

Engin oneHub ST790: “Engin’s oneHub benefits from simplicity, but also suffers from it in comparison to other all-in-one router/VoIP solutions…”

Belkin N+ Wireless Storage Router: “Belkin’s approach to routers has, in the recent past, been less focused on things that look like routers, and more on objects that wouldn’t look all that out of place on the set of Star Trek — or at least on the set of a cheap fan-produced Star Trek homage, anyway…”

“Ale?”

“No, tea.”

Future generations will probably puzzle over the exact relevance of that quote to today’s published review, live at CNET.com.au:

Belkin TuneCast Auto With ClearScan: “In essence, it’s a length of cable that just happens to have a car cigarette charger at one end, iPod dock at the other and controls in the middle…”

To be frank, I’m not even sure that I remember why I chose that quote. I must be getting old, or something…