Things I’ve Bought in 2011: A Retrospective Rundown
Things that have worked out beautifully:
The leather iPhone backing by Valentine Goods: Many months later, it still is holding up. Any other iPhone that I hold feels naked - having the back on it not only makes it look nicer but it also provides much needed grip, as well as impact absorption when the phone is set down. I love it.
The Griffin A-Frame iPad Stand: The iPad’s Smart Cover works great when you’re taking it places, but as an iPad-holder on your desk it’s rather inadequate. The Griffin A-Frame works wonderfully - it’s not the prettiest, but it’ll hold that thing upright in an earthquake, and there’s not only a convenient hole for the charger to orient it in portrait but there’s even a slot to keep the speakers unobstructed. Again, not the prettiest, but it’s a solid tool, and if that’s what you need then I would get it.
A Victorinox Swiss Army Rambler Knife: I can never find that huge (though awesome) pocket knife that I got a few years ago, so I got this little guy on the recommendation of Tools and Toys. It’s always there when I need it, which makes it a thousand times better than what I had before. It also looks cool, even if it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.
The Western Digital My Book Live: Wire it up, open a web browser, configure it quick, connect and dump in your files, and you’re good to go. What makes it really interesting, though, is that you can enable SSH into its Debian core and do some fun stuff with it. It’s simple, reasonably fast and very useful.
The a-JAYS Four headphones: Already reviewed them, but still awesome. I use them everywhere in place of those Sennheiser PX-100’s - they don’t sound better, but they’re much more fun to use.
The iPad 2: I’ve had some weeks where I never touched it (and was tempted to sell it), but other weeks it’s all I ever use. As of now I’m happy with it.
Things that have worked out as intended:
- A Roomba 530: It certainly does the job. It doesn’t do it quickly and it typically takes a few tries, and it has an annoying tendency to ram the futon at full steam and get stuck underneath it, but it’s all worth it for freeing up the 15 minutes I would have spent running around with a noisy vacuum myself.
Things that have sucked:
- Livescribe 2GB Smartpen: I loved the idea of it, but I hate ballpoint pens, and this one didn’t have any ink in it at all when I got it. There’s also no easy way to get refills. That said, the ability to create searchable, audio-tagged notes worked amazingly, and the second someone duct-tapes one of these onto a gel pen is when I switch back.
