Alex Kidman

You get the idea.

A very busy week wound up with a review at CNET.com.au and a whole bunch more of Gizmodo posts. Normal, slightly quieter service resumes next week, but it’s still not going to be “quiet” by any reasonable measure.

Dell Inspiron N301: “Dell’s inexpensive Core i3 Inspiron isn’t incredibly inspiring, but it’s not intolerably insipid either.”

And then over at Gizmodo, a whole bunch of not-always-all-that-brief posts:

New iPods? We’re Going To Need New Cases

Breakfast Wrap: Best Of Wednesday Night

Aussie Apple TV Owners Get Short Shrift

ABC’s Mobile Division Cracks New Records

Hitachi Gets A New Life(Studio) Down Under

Buy An Avatar Or Headset, Make A Wish Come True

3D Glasses – Perhaps I Need A Smaller Head

Microsoft’s Home Of The Future Is Suspiciously Clean And Shiny

Breakfast Wrap: Best Of Friday Night

Hands On With Telstra’s Ultimate USB

An Appropriate Solution To Australia’s Election Woes

Am I The Only One Creeped Out By What’s Happening To This Flash Drive?

What’s The Oldest Gadget You Still Regularly Use?

You know that whole idea of a work/life balance? Right at the moment, mine’s so tilted it’s essentially a work/work balance with the life hanging onto an edge somewhere by the very tips of its fingers. In fact, I think I just heard it scream as it inevitably let go.

Inbetween running a household and running after three kids and supporting an overworked prac student (who happens to be the woman I love), I’m also writing. A lot.

From what could be called my regular assignments, there’s a MacTheMag blog entry:

MacTheBlog: A support issue: “It was at this point that I remembered the only other person I know of that readily identifies himself as a Genius. That would be Wile. E. Coyote, and I’m well aware of the success rate of his plans.”

At Geekspeak, musings on the use of a 1TB broadband plan:

Geekspeak: What can you do with 1TB of data? “What 1TB does buy you is a fair amount of security…”

At CNET.com.au, even more iPhone 4 cases have been tested:

30 best and worst iPhone 4 cases: “It’s raining iPhone cases around here, so we’ve added more to our original story, bumping up the case count from 25 to 30. More choice is good, right?”

And that’s not getting on to the other big writing task for the week as I take up a guest editor role at Gizmodo Australia. In just two days, I’ve written the following stories:

Breakfast Wrap: Best Of The Weekend
Vodafone/Three Pump Up Contract Data Caps
Telstra Unveils Ultimate Wireless USB
Get Your Kicks (On Your Wave) On Route 66
The Best Free WiFi Is Fast Free WiFi
Breakfast Wrap: Best Of Monday Night
Internode Fetches IPTV For Early Adopters
Even Apple’s Making The iPod Refresh Obvious Now
Confirmed: Xbox Live Price Increase Isn’t Coming Nov 1
Is This The Ugliest iPad Stand Ever?
Nice Power Brick. But Will It Fly?

And it’s still only Tuesday. The week is still young, even if I’m not.

Lazy little stinging sods. I mean, all they do is hang around pretty flowers all day, only stopping for a bit of a dance when they feel like it. Compared to which, I’m slaving away on all sorts of projects tirelessly. Except that I’m somehow really tired.

Right now, you can read my review of the Clickfree C2 at CNET.com.au:

Clickfree C2: “The Clickfree C2 offers simple backup for PC or Mac, although regrettably not both.”

And then next week… I’m going to be a very busy little freelancer indeed, as I drag out my editor’s hat from its dusty corner of the office. It’s been more than five years since I had any kind of title with “editor” in it (back when I used to be the editor at CNET, as distinct from a contributor to it), but next week, for a strictly limited season, I’m doing a guest editor gig at Gizmodo.com.au, while Nick Broughall is overseas. As such, I probably won’t update this blog all that much during that time.

And after that, it gets even busier. Sometimes, it might be easier being a bee.

Just send $10,000 in unmarked bills to…

No, it’s not that sort of scam. In fact, I’ve been so busy, I haven’t even had time to sort out what kind of scam I should run.

Instead, an article detailing some simple tips to get the most speed from your broadband connection, live now at CNET.com.au. Common sense to some, rare mystical wisdom to others.

How to speed up your internet connection: “How can you make the connection you’ve got right now work that little bit faster? We can’t provide a magic bullet, either software or hardware to make everyone’s connections quicker, but we can provide some tips that may help speed up individual connections.”

Although I do like the fact that somebody’s already added a step #11: “11. Go to Tasmania for some NBN goodness.”

If you have that jingle going through your head now, my evil work here is done.

Well, not quite. But it is quite apt to describe today’s output. First up, at Hydrapinion, a discussion about why GPS “voices” are so rubbish:

Hydrapinion: What’s so hard about being able to speak, proper, like? “Thirty years ago, mechanical voices were struggling to get to the enunciation level of Daleks, and it seems as though we haven’t progressed much from there.”

And then at CNET.com.au, a DAB+ review partially inspired by the B52′s:

Grundig Roam portable DAB+ radio: “As a portable DAB+ unit the Roam works well. Stop roaming and connect it up to speakers, however, and the story is quite different…”

Sometimes, you see, the subject lines speak for themselves. After much testing, snagging, dropping, bouncing and learning valuable lessons about screen protectors along the way, my comparative review of iPhone 4 cases is live at CNET.com.au:

25 best and worst iPhone 4 cases: “Apple can’t make iPhone 4 units fast enough to satisfy demand, even with woeful stories of antenna problems and the potential of a smashed phone. To get the most from your iPhone, it’s pretty clear you need to pop it into a case or protective screen of some sort.”

Pretty soon, these things are going to start turning up in cereal boxes. I wonder if it’s possible to enrich a router with niacin?

While you ponder that, I’ve reviewed another 3G WiFi Mobile Router over at CNET.com.au:

AximCom MR-102N: “AximCom’s unlocked mobile Wi-Fi router has a mix of good points and frustrating issues. If you’re after a decent performer it’s worth a look, but it’s stretching the definition of portable pretty badly.”

Another busy day on the horizon. While I work out today’s schedule, keep yourself busy with (what else?) yet more reviews.

First up, at MacTheMag, a review of a rather heavily hyped RTS title. If you’re a gamer, you’re quite possibly already playing this one.

MacTheReviews: StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty*: “Who said the Mac has no great games? StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty is engaging high speed strategy with addiction at its very core.”

Then over at CNET, a couple of laptop reviews, including one that could run StarCraft II rather well, although lifting it is another matter entirely.

Acer Aspire 8943G: “There’s a lot to the Aspire 8943G; a lot to pay and a lot to like.”

Fujitsu P770 LifeBook: “Fujitsu’s tiny Core i7 system is all business. Don’t expect flashy graphics performance or shiny case designs, but as a spreadsheet-crunching machine with good portability it’s highly suitable.”

*Am I the only one that thinks that “Wings Of Liberty” sounds like the marketing slogan for a line of feminine hygiene products?

A mix of opinion and reviews today for your reading pleasure.

Firstly, at MacTheBlog, an examination of the “It Just Works” Apple culture, and why I think it’s a very bad thing.

MacTheBlog: It Doesn’t Just Work: “You know what? Sometimes — more than most Mac fans would like to admit — it just doesn’t work.”

Then at CNET, two notebook reviews:

Dell Inspiron M501R: “The M501R is a capable desktop replacement as long as power is never far away at all.”

Acer Aspire TimelineX 5820TG: “Acer’s tag line for this notebook is “extreme”. It’s so extreme, it seems, that a simple X will suffice to convey just how extreme it actually is.”

And finally, the September 2010 issue of Australian PC User, which poked its nose through my letterbox today. I’ve got a fair bit of reviews content within, including reviews of eighteen different iPod Speaker docks, eleven different DAB+ Digital Radios and standalone reviews of the Dell 1130N Laser Printer, BigPond Elite Network Gateway, Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Legend, Belkin F8Z492AU Bluetooth Music Receiver, Cygnett Zooom, Kodak Playsport, Uniden ULP 100 and the rather excellent Super Mario Galaxy 2. It’s on sale now at both good newsagencies and those dedicated to evil, but I’d suggest going to the good ones. You never know what else they’ll try to up-sell you with at an evil newsagency.

A busy week here wraps up with Apple’s launch in Australia of the iPhone 4. I covered the queues overnight in Sydney for MacTheMag, and video blogged it as a result. It’s the first time I’ve bothered with a midnight opening, and the first time I’ve ever been pushed out of a venue by security. Apparently Optus didn’t want media coverage. Who knew?

MacTheBlog: iPhone 4 Arrival Events: “Alex Kidman and MJCP spent the evening flitting between the three telcos (and the hardy souls lined up outside the Apple Store despite the fact it wouldn’t be open until 8am) to check it out the launch of iPhone 4 in Australia.”

Keeping with an Apple theme, I also covered Ravon’s rather nice iPod Mini HiFi for CNET.com.au:

Ravon Fidelio Mini Hi-Fi: “This is an iPod Hi-Fi that eschews frills in favour of superior performance. It’s a striking pity it’s not shielded for iPhone use.”

At PC Authority, the last Vintage Tech for a while deals with a computer called Colleen:

Vintage Tech: Looking back at the Atari 400: “Like we said, this was back in the 1970s. Don’t throw your shoes at us.”

And finally, at Hydrapinion, I didn’t write (but did contribute) to Adam Turner’s guide to writing product roundups. It’s so good, frankly, that I’d link to it even if it didn’t contain some of my writing work:

Hydrapinion: The Golden Rules of writing tech “Round-Ups”: “Reviewing a dozen of anything at the same time is generally a nightmare. Tech journos might get to play with cool toys, but mostly the life of a product reviewer is far less glamorous than it might seem. Testing one product can be tricky enough, but testing a bunch of them can drive you mad – especially when you’re dealing with bleeding edge technology.”