One of the best iPhone accessories that I have reviewed and gotten the most use out of has been the original Mophie Juice Pack. It is the perfect companion on long trips such as flights and car rides. My main issue with it was it did not totally cover the iPhone 3G causing it to ruin the aesthetic appearance of Apple’s sleek phone and it was bulky. Thankfully Mophie resolved that issue by housing a rechargeable 1200mAh lithium polymer battery inside of a form fitting iPhone 3G case. With the release of the Mophie Juice Pack Air the user is able to carry a spare battery and a case all in one.

The earlier Juice Pack was on all the time, for this newer model Mophie also included an on/off switch for the battery; so you are not left wondering if the iPhone is being charged. The four LED charge status lights found on the original Juice Pack are still found on the back of the Mophie Juice Pack Air. Now you can carry an iPhone 3G with three times the battery capacity, all in a protective hard shell case.

Like the previous version for earlier iPhones, the Juice Pack Air for iPhone 4 comes with a USB-to-micro USB cable that is used for syncing and charging the case. The four LEDs that are used to indicate the amount of charge in the battery pack are still there, but have moved to the bottom of the case from the back — I’m speculating that this was done to make the case thinner.

The older Juice Pack seemed somewhat flimsy to me, but the iPhone 4 edition seems to have been designed with more strength in mind. The case has a silver-colored band around the side to mimic the iPhone 4′s stainless steel antenna, and comes in either black, red or white plastic. Installing the case is a cinch: you slide off the top of the case, slide in the iPhone 4 dock connector first, and then slide the top of the case onto the top of the iPhone. The weight of my “naked” iPhone 4 is 4.9 ounces (139 grams); the Juice Pack Air brought the total weight up to 7.3 ounces (207 grams).

Apple has been in the line of fire lately. It’s an unusual place for the company, which has found itself on the positive end of things for quite a while. In fact, for a string of years, it seemed as if Apple could do no wrong. The iPhone 3G and 3GS were huge hits, as was the new “unibody” MacBook design. And then there was the iPad, which shocked many by selling over 3 million units in a matter of months and proving once and for all that there was an untapped tablet PC market in the world just waiting to be served.

At first sight, the Magic Trackpad’s minimalism can almost be off-putting. You’ll find no icons, logos, or buttons–just a smooth, edge-to-edge pad with a thin seam at the top delineating the end of the glass trackpad surface. The Magic Trackpad rests simply at an elevated angle, just like Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard that is prepackaged with all iMacs. Side by side, the keyboard and trackpad line up flush to look like a single keyboard-and-trackpad unit. There’s also plenty of room for anyone’s fingers; it’s 80 percent larger than the already-spacious MacBook Pro trackpad. Laid out on a desk, the Trackpad cuts a very attractive and clean profile.

The Magic Trackpad pairs the same way that other Bluetooth Apple devices do, although a trackpad-specific software update is required to enable full multitouch support and customization. Though the wording on the box claims a Mac is necessary, we successfully paired the Magic Trackpad with a Windows PC. Unfortunately, Windows functionality is limited to single-touch and click functions only–we couldn’t get multitouch settings such as pinch-to-zoom and tap-to-click to work on the Magic Trackpad. A Windows support download from Apple wouldn’t install on a Windows PC, and is intended for Boot Camp users running Windows on their Macs.

Despite its large size, the Magic Trackpad doesn’t function as a drawing tablet out of the box. However, Ten One Design says that its $25 Inklet utility will add that functionality to the Magic Trackpad shortly. If you’re looking for an input device that acts as both a Multi-Touch trackpad and a drawing tablet right out of the box, you should consider Wacom’s Bamboo Fun and Bamboo Pen & Touch. There’s also a Bamboo Touch model that lacks tablet features, making it an interesting alternative to the Magic Trackpad for those who prefer dedicated buttons—the Bamboo Touch has four large ones.

The Magic Trackpad, which costs an uncharacteristically reasonable £59.99 requires batteries to run and as such has prompted Apple to release a branded battery charger complete with impressive word invention Vampire power draw. Whilst we are not sure entirely what this is, we have been led to believe it is some sort of power saving goodness

The Mac mini has long been the oddball child of the Mac family: it’s the only consumer-level machine from Apple that isn’t a fully-integrated experience, and it’s the only Mac to have had a sub-$1,000 sticker price in some time. But people love this little weirdo, and they love to do weirdly awesome things with it — we’ve seen Mac minis stuffed into everything from old G4 Cube shells to volleyball-playing robots to pianos to… DeLoreans. Yes, DeLoreans. And, of course, people have longed been connecting Mac minis to HDTVs and using ‘em as a media players — it’s small, quiet, relatively powerful, and it’s a real computer, so it can play virtually any video file you throw at it.

And now it’s gotten even more attractive as a home theater PC, since Apple’s given the newest Mac mini a striking unibody makeover, NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, and — a first for any Mac — an HDMI port, making it a dead-simple addition to your HDTV. On the flip side, the base price of the only stock consumer configuration has gone up to $699, and to be blunt, much cheaper PCs have had HDMI ports forever. So is the mini worth the premium? Is it the ultimate small PC for the living room — and beyond? Read on to find out.

Five years ago I reviewed my third Mac, the very first Mac mini. In this pre-hackintosh world, Apple was enough of a curiosity that a $499 Mac made a lot of sense. It wasn’t fast, but with a 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 it was quick enough for most of what you needed to do with a Mac back then. Like many Macs, all it really needed was a memory upgrade.

Interest in Apple has obviously gone up since then. Apple’s resurgence coincided with the shift from desktop to notebook computers and thus the preferred entry platform for many into the Mac world were the PowerBook G4, MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Listening to music is probably our favourite activity on the go, and it’s fair to say that many people reading this site own an MP3 player. But no matter what you use to listen to your tunes, be it an MP3 player, phone or even portable CD-player, if it has an on-board speaker in the first place it’s not likely to be very good.

Even most notebook speakers, with the notable exception of Toshiba’s Qosmio range, hardly do justice to anything but the audio basics. And while in many situations headphones are the ideal solution, sometimes you want to share the sound. Enter Altec Lansing’s latest revision of its Orbit portable speaker range, the iMT237. According to the box, this is a “mighty little speaker”, so let’s find out if this claim holds up.

Despite keeping the circular design and 3xAAA power source the new Orbit – the Altec Lansing iMT237 has had a significant make over from the iM207 that reviewed this time last year. For a start it’s bigger. The diameter of the unit is about the same however an additional 15mm has been added to the height and the tapered cone like appearance is replaced with a squat cylinder.

My main criticism of the original orbit was the lack of feedback to know that the unit was powered up – there was none. The result being that on very many occasions the Orbit was left powered up when not in use resulting on flat battery when required. I’m very pleased to see this rectified in the new Orbit, with a very obvious and bright LED.

Product Features

Technical Details

Product type: Portable speaker: Dimensions: (W x D x H) 14 x 8.7 x 15.3 centimeters:Weight 100 grams: Enclosure colour: silver & black:Sound range: 360 degrees: Warranty: 1 year, required: MP3, Laptop, Music compatible mobile phone, iPod, iPhone.

The Altec Lansing inMotion IM9 is the latest in Altec Lansing’s now enormous line of iPod speakers. Dubbed the SUV of the line, this ruggedized iPod speaker/dock runs off of AC power or four C batteries. The perfect shape to toss into a backpack, it has enough oomph in the low end to avoid sounding tinny outside.

It’s also powerful enough for nearby listening outdoors and in small rooms indoors, though it does tend to distort the closer you get to maximum volume. The accessory bundle includes a pretty hip-looking mini backpack that has a few pockets for extra stuff. Given its price, however, I would have liked more responsive controls and less distortion when you get near top volume.

Measuring 7.8 by 11 by 3 inches (HWD) and weighing about 4 pounds without batteries, this rectangular-shaped speaker/dock consists of two tweeters and two woofers covered by a sturdy metal grille. The ruggedized black shell is made of a combination of plastic and hard rubber, which protects against bumps and scrapes (though keep in mind that the speaker drivers can still be damaged by excessive jarring motions). An eject button on the top of the unit releases a carriage that holds any iPod equipped with a dock connector. Several adapters for different iPod models are included. There’s also the same ratchet mechanism that the Altec Lansing inMotion IM7 has for ensuring a snug fit, though the iPod nano adapter didn’t quite keep my nano from moving around a bit. Other buttons along the top include power and volume controls. The volume controls don’t give you any tactile feedback and aren’t as responsive as they should be, but for the most part the speaker is very easy to operate.

The first thing you notice about the iM9 is its design. Instead of the gloss-white or gloss-black plastic of other inMotion models, the iM9 has a thick, matte-black plastic black, a black metal speaker grill on the front, and—most significant—thick rubber all the way around the sides, top, and bottom. Silver trim provides accents. Altec Lansing says the iM9 is “shock-resistant,” and that seems like an apt description; with the exception of Sonic Impact’s iFusion, which is built into a water-resistant, rigid case, the iM9 feels sturdier than any iPod speaker system we’ve tested.

Although smaller than Altec Lansing’s award-winning inMotion iM7 (a $250 system that’s more “transportable” than portable), the iM9 is still quite large as portable speaker systems go: a chunky 11 inches wide by almost 8 inches high by 3 inches deep. And at approximately 4 pounds with batteries, the iM9 adds some heft to a suitcase or carry-on. Perhaps recognizing this, Altec Lansing includes a custom-fitting sling backpack with the iM9. The pack holds the iM9 and a book or similar cargo in its main pocket; your iPod, the system’s AC adapter, and a few cables in a smaller front pocket; and a water bottle in a mesh side pocket. The bag also has a handle on top and a mobile-phone pocket on its shoulder strap. And although the iM9 itself doesn’t have a true handle, an indentation on the top-rear of the iM9 makes it easy enough to pick up.