When I got the request to pick up some iFrogz Ear Pollution CS40′s at Macworld to check to them out for cutegeek; I was excited. As you may know I punctured my ear drum by a random q-tip incident a couple weeks ago therefore I am now fascinated with the iFrogz Ear Pollution CS40′s headphones. Though I love my JBL ear buds I realized it may be time to make the big switch to headphones. When I first put them on I thought to myself that these earphones feel like giant marshmallows or pillows on my ears.  I realized I look like a huge geek walking down the block but then again I am a cutegeek.  I also realized that people with headphones similar to mine give each other the eye contact high five in the city.

I decided to first try them on a plane trip out of SFO. Nothing says “do not bug me at an airport” like a set of headphones and after being on a flight with a crying baby I was lucky I got these iFrogz  Ear Pollution CS40′s headphones.  The sound almost canceled out the 2 babies in my row plus the sound quality is amazing. I have to be careful though because my ear is still ringing so even though my marsh mellow headphones have all the power to drown them out I had to keep it in the low.

Another ingenious thought (because I have so many…ha!); instead of ear buds the iFrogz Ear Pollution CS40′s headphone set clearly states I cannot hear you while walking my dog DT San Fran (laugh if you will but I get annoyed by folks who think I can hear them when I clearly am listening to my shuffle and walking Chloe the cutegeek Chihuahua).  The iFrogz Ear Pollution CS40′s headphone come in 5 colors: Pink, Bold Blue, Black, White (which is what I got), and red. They are light in weight and ultra portable as per my pixs below! They fold up pretty small which was impressive since I am use to tiny ear buds. My shuffle and I now have a mad love affair with the iFrogz Ear Pollution CS40′s and also my HP Ipaq Glisten has a 3.5mm audio jack so I use them as well (I have some music on my phone).

I have only had the iFrogz Ear Pollution CS40′s for about 2 weeks but so far they remain durable, portable, comfortable and stylish with the color personalization! They retail for 39.99 and can be used with any device with a 3.5 mm audio jack…Let’s hope the hold up to the Nina challenge!

Related Posts

No related posts.

By mid-day I realized I should have ate; dumn mistake and should have known that from previous E3′s and CES’s.  Admittedly I was a tad grumpy however I was not ready for this.  At every show as a women blogger some dude is going to either think we don’t know our products (women make up over 60% of household decision making) or they are just sexest. I ran into one of those booths that will remain un-named. It’s sad that women in technology still get treated this way.

After that bad taste in my mouth I decided I should visit a fun booth; ie Hard Candy…Surely these folks would be sweeter; I mean the word candy is in the product name! When I walked up to Hard Candy Cases I got a big smile on my face; the booth was  ran by all women at the time! Their product line was bold but durable; everything a women now-a-days needs!  These cases do not scratch and if they by chance do it’s an easy buff out. They also had cases for the iPad and showcased a new all rubber case for Macbooks which felt kind cool. I am looking forward to checking out  Hard Candy’s Cases  and how these will work with my Macbook.

My next meeting was with Iqua; a Finnish communications company that specializes in bluetooth headsets and portable speaker phones plus some are solar powered. How cool is that? How many times have you lost a call because you forgot to charge your bluetooth? One my favorites from this booth was the Iqua 603 Sun which was not only light in weight plus solar powered but the price point was impressive.  Iqua took being “Green” to the next level as they also showcased several other solared powered products as well.

As I started walking around looking for other booths I wanted to check out I saw the Blue booth; USB powered microphones with studio quality. I know…WHAT?!  Truth be told I use to be a singer as a kid and in my house in Texas I had a music room. If it’s not obvious I love music! I checked out the Yeti and talk about a beautiful microphone; I have to test it out…How can something that looks so good perform so well with a USB?!

I then got a demo of the Mikey; a microphone for your iPhone.  Every time I go to a concert and attempt to record just one song of proof that I was indeed there it turns out like crap. Blue’s Mikey attaches easily as a plug and play unit to your iPhone and the sound quality is amazing.

Another booth that had allot of attention to a point that I could not get a personal demo was Macspeech. Part of me wonders; have we truly gotten to a point where our society is so lazy we cannot even type? Apparently with Macspeech you can use your voice to input text; rather than clicking your mouse and just speak commands. Interesting…I actually want to test this out and possibly after a glass of wine at night to see if the slur impacts the text (for the art of testing products right?).

While constantly on my feet at Macworld (at which now hurt), I HAD to stop by the Monster booth. I love Dr. Dre the branding of Beat’sand now they had Lady Gaga earbuds; who would pass up that demo?! I tried out Dr. Dre’s Beats Spin headphone at the beginning (after all the first Rap song I learned in entirety was “It’s like Dis and like Dat.”). First off the headphones come with a brief pause button on the headphones and the cable can disconnect from the headphones.  At this point I learned why you need to have a cable that can disconnect to your headphones. Apparently most people will brake a perfectly great pair of headphones by clumsy mistakes, like the cable catches. I learned it is much easier to replace the cable since it’s inexpensive versus buying all new headphones.

I then checked out the Lady Gaga Heartbeats earbuds (which I am testing in the first picture); I have to say she did a good job on the design.  I loved that she did not want pink instead a bold red hue. Lady Gaga you’re so right; there are enough products out there that are pink for women but bold colors and styles not so much. The design of these Heartbeatsare versitle (like her audience) and strong!

After Monster I went to the Mophie Booth where I found my one of my favorite products; the Mophie Marketplace. The Mophie Marketplace is a magnetic strip reader for your iPhone 3G and 3GS. At first I thought whoa I am in trouble if I get one of those and secondly how does this product work (or does it really work)? I waited my turn for a demo and sure enough this product works and it’s a winner. This is a HUGE score for small business owners; not even my corner store (which annoys me) takes credit cards. Mophie Marketplace was one of the most impressive gadgets for your iPhone.

On my Macworld booth trajectory I found another booth for headphones from Shure. I think I have a small problem with head gear; or maybe just headphones.  We recently got a turn table (stay tuned for a review) and am fascinated with headphones (even though it’s just one turn table and I have a whole 5 records plus its not really for true DJs…just the inner DJ in the Nina). I loved these Shure headphones and yes I did blast them to the MAX! I should be getting a pair of these to test out my inner DJ and will be posting a review shortly as well:-).

My next stop was something I typically would not stop by however my curiosity got the best of me. It was the Trik/Eleven booth and apparently Eleven says its wireless technology is better than the bluetooth solution for music. I am interested to test out this technology though to be fair I have no idea how they created this alternative solution from bluetooth.

My last stop was at the Telltale gaming booth which creates games for Mac users. I do have a Macbook but I rarely use it as I still can’t let go of my Dell (solely b/c it has all my photo’s/ videos and NOT because it’s the best). After playing Tales from Monkey Island I realized it is time to maybe put all my videos/ pictures on a WD portable HD and bust out my Macbook. The PR manager (Chris) I met was probably one of the most enthusiastic person I met; he truly believed and loved his product (are you guys hiring?!). I probably sat in this booth the longest playing Tales from Monkey Island; the game truly captivates you and you do not want to end the game. Tales from Monkey Island was almost like a gaming soap opera; it’s the only way I can describe it. I actually got a free test drive but apparently I messed it up while trying to download it. Sigh! I am hooked now though…

Well this finally wraps up my Macworld experience! I hope you enjoyed my recap and try out some of these new and innovative products!

Related Posts

No related posts.

 This year was my first year at Macworld  as a cutegeek blogger and of course Apple didn’t even have a booth…however that didn’t stop the masses to attend the show. When I first told my friends I was going I got the immediate question; “Why are you going since Apple won’t be there?” Another friend sarcastically said “What is MacWorld without Apple…just World?” I had no idea what to expect after all my pals banter…What was MacWorld without Apple?  And where is Mr. Job’s?

My questions were answered as soon as I walked into the masses…Software, Games, and Accessories!

Anytime you walk into these shows it’s sensory overload. Each booth trying to be louder or more hip to the competing booths. What was I thinking trying to accomplish 6 meetings plus 10 booth visits in one day?!  As I walked into the Moscone Convention Center I saw the long lines and thought “Damn I am so smooth for registering early and picking up my badge early,” and breezed on past all those suckers.

My first meeting was with Atlona Technologies  where I met with Marketing Manager, Joshua (don’t we look great in this photo?).

 Atlona  is a Silicon Valley company that provides solutions typically missing in most AV systems and their product line consists of switchers, cabling, extenders, converters, and spliters/amplifyers. The product I checked out and thought was the coolest was the HDAiR which is based on UWB technology that allows users to extend high resolution content up to 30ft away. The HDAir acts as an external video card, which allows you to connect to VGA or HDMI monitors and HD TVs. The HDAir also has dual video (HDMI and VGA) and dual Audio (HDMI-Audio and 1/4″ mini stereo) outputs.  I hope to test this out in the near future though sadly my condo is not 30 feet wide/long.

Next I saw this AWESOME booth by efilliate/Bone which specilizes in an assortment of Mac accessories that I thought were perfect for Mac users and females. The item that caught my eye was the Bone collection flash drives that were encased in a soft one-piece removable water-resistant silicone shell shaped like either cute animals, doggy bones, mammals, or I believe dinosaurs. What I found interesting is that even though they were a fashionable USB key/ flash drive they remain durable per the PR manager. Apparently you do not have to worry about these breaking regardless of how frequently they are used. Aren’t they so cute?!

 After that I went to iFrogz  to pick up some CS40s head phones to test out for cutegeek (stay tuned for a review). iFrogz specializes in Apple iPod™, MP3 player, and digital media accessories. I use to be an earbuds girl till I accidentially punctured my ear drum so I was ready to embrace trying out some headphones. I loved that all the styles came in different colors plus a cord that I have yet to tangle…yet that is. I also tested out some other iFrogz  styles of headphones at the booth and decided I liked the DJ Style headphones the best (the inner hip hop girl in me).

My next stop was Western Digital where I met a female executive who knew her stuff about external portable storage and backing up your Macs/ PCs. I just love it when I run into fellow female geeks (stay tuned for a Brilliant Women of Technology interview). She explained all the external portable storage products after which I decided I liked the bold blue Passport Elite the best. The Passport Elite is a ultra-portable drive and features automatic, continuous backup, an illuminated capacity gauge, and a USB dock. You can also get cases for these so they remain shock proof but not in as many colors.  I also thought the Passport Essential  was awesome with 1 TB of storage; while I have no idea if I could find a TB worth of files having the option is nice.

She next showed me the WD TV Live HD Media Player that allows you to connect to sites like YouTube, Flickr, Live365 or stream content from your home network which you can then view on the HD TV.  The WD TV Live HD  Media Player also has full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation, can play a variety of file formats, access media files on your home network, and its WiFi ready. I was intrigued by this product and hope to test it out in the near future.

Two products that caught my eye especially after working from home was made from Fujitsu.  They had 2 scanners they demo’d for me one portable (ScanSnap s1300) and one for your desktop (ScanSnap S1500M). I have been under the belief a scanner is a scanner; anytime you make a copy of anything their is always room for error (hence why I will never be cloned). HOWEVER these little scanners from Fujitsu actually may have solved one of my biggest pet peeves of scanning; the crocked scan. As I watched the demo I was amazed; you can put the page or receipts in the scanner at any direction and it auto formats it to the correct page setup (landscape or portrait) and makes it completely straight.

The most amusing part of the show was of course the Q&A with Kevin Smith; he was hilarious BUT I think some of the questions were even more outragious. For an hour he got hit on by 2 gay guys and this girl asked for a hug (see youtube here)…Strangely not much was said about technology besides the fact that anyone can now make/edit films due to the vast array of inexpensive recording technology and social media. Unfortunately I had to leave early to make it to my next meeting but when I was walking out I noticed the room was jam packed!

After laughing my ass off at Kevin Smith’s Q&A I had a meeting with HP. I know most people are wondering…HUH? HP at MacWorld but indeed their printing and imaging department was in full effect and showcasing some new printers along with 6 new HP applications that you can use on your iphone. I met with another female executive who I also hope to interview for Brilliant Women in Technology.  

The printer that stood out to me was for the Officejet 4500 Wireless AIO  and priced inexpensively (in this economy we all need it). It can print anything from broshures to pictures plus it scans and fax plus it prints borderless.  I am anxious to test this out as I have reviewed a few HP printers and have never been disapointed.

Well this wraps up the first part of my day so stay tuned for Macworld Recap- Part 2 and also more product reviews from cutegeek!

Related Posts

No related posts.

That’s right folks I, Nina, from cutegeek will be going to MacWorld for the very first time in my life!  I am super excited for this new adventure and all I have to do is walk two blocks to get to the Moscone Convention center! Unfortunately the only day I can go is Thursday so calling all cutegeek fans and readers give me your opinions on which booth you want me to check out.  Here is a link for MacWorld; just click on exhibitors list and pick what your interested in for this cutegeek  to check out!

http://www.macworldexpo.com/expo

Related Posts

1. What do you want Cutegeek to check out at E3?!
2. CuteGeek.com Goes live @ 8PM EST Sunday March 1st
3. Innex Skins! A Nina CUTEGEEK fan GIVE AWAY!!