Ooh, these Star Wars inspired glasses are pretty cool! They’re designed by Aigan and retail for $500. Can you guess which character was the inspiration for each of them?
I’m sure you all guessed right (we’re all geeks around here), but just in case, here are the answers: 1) Darth Vader 2) R2-D2 3) Luke Skywalker 4) Boba Fett and 5) a Stormtrooper.
Via Geeky Hostess
I hadn’t mentioned it on the blog yet, but I finally got myself an iPhone! For the past few years I’ve been using the iPod Touch + Mifi + cheap ass phone combo, but with the release of the iPhone 5 I thought it was finally time to switch to a proper phone. And I’m so so happy with it! I’ve had it for 2 weeks now and I notice just how much more connected I am: I’m reading and responding to more tweets, taking and sharing more photos and just generally using it to organize my life. It also helps that Cristiano and I now have exactly the same phone; it’s so easy now to have shared calendars, lists and photos.
One of my first priorities was to find a handy and pretty iPhone case that suited me. I straightaway thought of Knomo, cause I’d already been using one of their Slim cases for my iPod Touch the past year. For the iPhone 5, Knomo has released 5 different cases, each designed to suit different preferences.
For the past 2 weeks I got to try out 2 of Knomo’s cases: the Leather Slim in Teaberry Pink and the Moulded Open Case in Burnt Ochre. I was mainly looking forward to trying out the bright pink Slim case, while Cristiano pretty quickly snapped up the other one.
The Leather Slim case is basically a mini sleeve for your iPhone; it’s lined with a soft, scratch-proof microfibre, allowing your iPhone to easily glide in and out of the cover. You can get it on the Knomo website for £25, and comes in 3 colors: Teaberry Pink, Burnt Ochre and Black.
The case fits quite snuggly around your iPhone. The first few times I struggled with sliding the iPhone out of the case, but after a while it loosens up a bit and becomes much more easier (but not so easy that your phone will slip and fall out. I can put it upside down and it still want slide out). You also still have easy access to the silent switch, or if you use it upside-down have access to the headphone jack (I rarely need access to both of them at the same time). I wasn’t too sure about the color of this sleeve: it’s so so pink! It’s grown on me the past few days though and I love how vibrant it is.
I had a similar case for my iPod Touch, so I was expecting this case to really suit me as well. Surprisingly I found it didn’t. With this case each time you want to use your gadget, you need to pull it out of the case, and hold the case, while using your gadget. Now with the iPod Touch I didn’t really mind that: with the iPhone though I find it becomes slightly more annoying. For instance, with the iPod I would only take it out when I wanted to look at it and when I had the time and free hands to look at it, while with the iPhone I need to respond quite quickly to phone calls, etc. That extra bit of time of pulling it out the case and having to use both hands to pull it out, becomes a bit of a pain with the iPhone, especially if you’re moving and only actually have 1 hand free. I also don’t feel as comfortable using the iPhone “naked” in my hands; I’m so scared I’ll drop it (which I didn’t have with the iPod).
It’s mainly me noticing how I use the iPod and iPhone differently and how I now expect something different from a case. It is a gorgeous case though and if you’re looking for a sleeve-like case that will protect your iPhone, it definitely does that job.
The Moulded Open Case is a plastic and leather case that snaps around your iPhone. The main casing is made of a shock-resistant Polycarbonate plastic, while the entire back is made of smooth genuine leather. The Moulded Open Case is available on the Knomo website for £35 and comes in two colours: Burnt Ochre/Black and Black/Green.
The plastic casing is flexible, yet sturdy, and really feels as if it’s protecting your iPhone. The leather on the back is super smooth, and feels so nice each time you hold it. It’s also the least bulky iPhone case I’ve seen so far: it adds about 2 (maybe 3) millimeters to each side of the iPhone. I hate it when you come across cases that are clearly shouting at you “ME CASE! ME PROTECT IPHONE!”. The Moulded Open case is slick enough for you to completely forget you’re using a case.
The Silent switch on the side and the headphone jack, speakers, Lightning port on the bottom remain reachable with gaps made in the casing to access them. The main on/off button on the top and the volume controls on the side are covered, with plastic moulded in the right shape. I initially didn’t notice they were covered (just look in the photo above at the volume controls) until I tried to press them. I struggled a lot with the volume control buttons; I really need to press hard for them to respond. The on/off button went slightly easier, but still took me a couple of days to get the hang of.
With this case the front of the iPhone is completely exposed. Which may or may not be a good thing depending on how you use your iPhone. I like how your entire screen is accessible: the main button isn’t covered or obstructed with annoying covers and it’s what makes this case so inconspicuous. For me though personally I really need something that protects the front of my iPhone as well. I’ll usually have it in my bag with a ton of other stuff, and I don’t want the screen accidentally bumping into other things.
I really liked this iPhone case. It’s looks super sleek, feels comfortable in my hand and protects my iPhone. Cristiano loves this case and it suits him perfectly (and he’ll be getting one, once I send these review copies back). The only reason why this isn’t the case for me is that I want the front to be protected as well. Knomo however have three more cases, two of which are moulded cases with flip covers… I might need to give those two a try to find my perfect iPhone case.
The Leather Slim iPhone 5 Case and the Moulded Open Case are both available on Knomo’s website. Knomo provided me with review copies for the purpose of this review.
Last night I finally managed to watch the midseason final of Doctor Who (after trying to avoid spoilers for more than 24 hours, quite tricky). If you haven’t seen it yet, why the hell not yet?!? Also: you’d better not scroll beyond the video… spoilers, sweetie!
The episode featured the Ponds for the very last time and they made a cool behind-the-scenes featurette about the final days of shooting:
So what did you guys all think of the Ponds final episode? I really enjoyed watching it and thought it was a nice, sweet and sad goodbye. Later on though after it sank in a bit better I realized I’m quite disappointed in how messy the plot feels. Why exactly couldn’t the Doctor go back and find them? I understand that he couldn’t find them and bring them back to their own time, but that didn’t stop him from visiting them, right? And River clearly was able to visit them, cause that’s how Amy got to write the final page. It just all feels a bit flimsy to me.
Also I’m pretty sure that for the past episodes we’ve been following the Pond’s timeline, not the Doctor’s (just pay attention to the clothes the Ponds are wearing in Pond Life and each episode). I kind of expected that to finally reveal itself this episode. Plus we’re no closer to finding out who exactly the new companion is and how she relates to Oswin Oswald. Or what the flickering lights mean. Or what the references to Christmas are.
What about you guys? Similar thoughts?
I love Threadless t-shirts. I’ve got so many of them now that I’ve forced myself to stop buying them, especially cause I don’t actually tend to wear t-shirts that often anymore. I still love their designs though, and these new Disney Villains ones are gorgeous enough to make me want to break my non-buying ban!
In June/July of this year Threadless held a design challenge for people to design a tee based on the Disney Villains. Just like the Disney Princesses these don’t contain all the villains that appear in the Disney movies, just the most prominent ones (hmmm, maybe not even the most prominent ones, I’d say the ones that are most obviously “evil”). Threadless has now published the results of that challenge, and they’ll be selling 15 (!!) tees based on some awesome designs.
I haven’t completely gotten the hang of Pinterest yet; it’s great to discover cool new things, but I find it a bit messy to see what you’ve viewed already. Still it’s interesting to see how different companies are using it and pinning their own stuff. The Les Misérables movie is using it in a pretty interesting way. They’ve got their own Les Misérables Movie account with 5 different boards: Official Stills, Les Mis-inspired Recipes, Les Mis-inspired Fashion, Behind the Scenes and Historic France.
The latest pin on the Official Stills board is the new poster for the movie. It looks gorgeous (and of course harks back to the musical’s poster):
It’s a lot of fun browsing around on the other boards. I like how they haven’t stuck to only stuff directly linked to the movie, but are also pinning things that are inspired by it. For instance, I love this military jacket that they pinned (“For the Inspector Javert in you”):
I can’t wait till the Les Mis movie comes out. Everything I’ve seen from it so far looks great and I think it’s going to be an awesome adaption. Here’s a small confession though: I’ve never actually seen the musical… should I go watch it before the movie is released?
I realized this week that I’ve been a gamer now for more than 20 years… Yep, I got my first console (a NES) when I was 8 and haven’t stopped playing games since. Despite that though I’m not a very social person when it comes to video games; just like when I’m reading a book or watching a TV show, with a game I want to step away from reality and that includes not having to interact with people. Meaning: I tend to avoid online multiplayers.
It’s only this year though with Mass Effect 3 that I’ve started playing online and now realize that having a good headset makes life so much easier, especially when there’s another person in the exact same game playing one room away from you. I’ve been using a crappy cheap headset for the past few months, so when I got the chance to try out Turtle Beach’s X32 headset, I was really curious to see how it turned out.
The X32 is a wireless gaming headset that uses Dual Band WiFi radio technology to “eliminate wireless interference”. It comes with big over-the-ear speakers, adjustable swivel microphone and built-in equalizer. It also provides an auxiliary input, so that you can listen to your own music while playing games.
Connecting the wireless receiver wasn’t as straightforward as I was wanted it to be. I was hoping it would work out-of-the-box: that I could just open the box up and hook it all up in one go, but it turns out that wasn’t the case. Turtle Beach’s recommended way of connecting it all is to use the Xbox 360 Audio Adapter cable, but that isn’t included in the pack. I didn’t need it in the end (I got it working by ordering a simple audio jack), but I still was a little annoyed that it wasn’t included or mentioned on the packaging.
The first thing you notice when you put the X32 on is how sturdy and well made it is. The headset feels great in your hands and the design quality is of a high standard. The ear cups are soft and comfy, and fit nicely over your ears. Often with over-the-ear headphones my head is too small for even the lowest headband setting and the headphones will be too loose for me. These ones though were pretty well adjustable and fit me great. I lasted about 2-3 hours with them; after that the area around my ears would start hurting and I had to take them off.
I tried the X32 with a couple of different games and also with a couple of TV shows. The main problem was that during all of them, there was a consistent buzz in my left ear. If you put the volume loud enough, you could mask it, but it was still very annoying during quiet scenes. Besides that though, I really liked the quality of the sound, everything sounded crystal clear.
If you want voice chat to work, you still need to connect a cable between the X32 and your controller. The sound isn’t straightaway great though. It requires quite some playing around with the different volume levels (the volume of the chat and of the game are separate of each other), but once you get the balance between the game sound and chat sound right it sounds pretty okay. Seeing as your ears are completely closed off and you can’t hear your actual voice when you have the headset on, the headset repeats your own voice in your ear, which took me a while to get used to.
Overall, I’m quite divided about the X32. I loved the design of the headset; it feels sturdy and comfortable. The sound that you get out of it is great. What I’m not convinced by is the wireless aspect. I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle and price to invest in it yet: there was a consistent buzz in the left ear, you still have to finick around with wires to get it all working and you’re almost paying twice as much as the wired version (£75 on Amazon versus £40 for the wired one, so 1.875 as much if you want to get pedantic). They’ve come along way with wireless headsets, but I don’t have a feeling they’re quite there yet.
I always like it when artists give their own spin to a something: these Western re-imagined Justice League members from deviantart artist denism79 are just awesome!
I always like coming across sci-fi short movies; this one about a mercenary stuck on a desert planet is pretty cool (sidenote: I almost wrote “dessert planet” there… now that would be an interesting movie).
It turns out though that this short movie is based on an “upcoming” feature film called Arrowhead, which is currently being crowd-funded on Pozible. The creators made this short for only $600 to show the world they want to create; they need $40,000 to create the actual movie. They’ve only got $8,658 at the time I’m writing this, so if you like it, head on over and help them out!
This Water Tribe Hoodie from The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra looks so warm and comfy! I love this design from etsy store RaritysBoutique; it looks awesome. Sadly though Viacom (which owns Nickelodeon) made them take down the Avatar hoodies, so you can’t order one anymore.
On the back is the water element symbol, while on the shoulder you can find the water nation symbol.
The shop also did hoodies for the other elements (Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation and Air Nomad), but those have also been pulled. They still sell a very large range of My Little Pony ones though which also look great (if you My Little Pony).
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