Horween Leather for Your Brand New iPhone 7 / 7 Plus →

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If you haven't already gotten the e-mail or checked it out, Nomad (one of my favorite anything Apple accessories purveyor) just announced an update to their Horween Leather Case. Now available for pre-order and shipping on October 31, it's by far one of the most beautiful and handcrafted cases I've been privy to own, and to tell you the truth, I'm probably on the train for this one too! =) Get yours for $39.95 for the iPhone 7 or $44.95 for the iPhone 7 Plus.

sidenote: one differentiator I can see consumers having is that the new Apple iPhone 7 Leather Case showcases "machined aluminum buttons that match the finish of your iPhone case." If you want to pay for it, Apple's variation on the leather case will cost you exactly $5 more than Nomad's offerings but it's not Horween, it's "European" but I say, to each his own.

Horween Leather offers an unparalleled blend of quality, consistency, responsiveness, and innovation. Through the years, we have cultivated our experience to offer dynamic lines of leathers. Our products include traditional, old world tannages and techniques, carefully updated with modern applications. Today, our leathers are still made by hand, the same way as generations ago.

 
Beautiful! 

Beautiful! 

 

The iPad Pro →

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The iPad Pro is without question faster than the new one-port MacBook or the latest MacBook Airs. I’ve looked at several of my favorite benchmarks — Geekbench 3, Mozilla’s Kraken, and Google’s Octane 2 — and the iPad Pro is a race car. It’s only a hair slower than my year-old 13-inch MacBook Pro in single-core measurements. Graphics-wise, testing with GFXBench, it blows my MacBook Pro away. A one-year-old maxed-out MacBook Pro, rivaled by an iPad in performance benchmarks. Just think about that. According to Geekbench’s online results, the iPad Pro is faster in single-core testing than Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 4 with a Core-i5 processor. The Core-i7 version of the Surface Pro 4 isn’t shipping until December — that model will almost certainly test faster than the iPad Pro. But that’s a $1599 machine with an Intel x86 CPU. The iPad Pro starts at $799 and runs an ARM CPU — Apple’s A9X. There is no more trade-off. You don’t have to choose between the performance of x86 and the battery life of ARM.

It's getting to the point that Apple is indeed paving the way for a faster and better experience. If they up the game with iOS X (or whatever they are going to call it) and make it a more viable operating system for the notebook replacement, I can see them conquering the $1200 and lower market segment.

The only thing that sets me back on making this a replacement laptop is that sometimes, Mac OS X has more to offer in terms of shortcuts and various other apps that are NOT for mobile. Jon Gruber also points out a few short comings on using a keyboard without a trackpad. Funny though, I see my daughter (3 years old) try and manipulate my laptop and her little fingerprints are all over my screen. After some frustrations has set, she turns to me confused. 

Austin Mann Reviews the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus →

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Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) for video is hands down the most significant improvement in the iPhone 6s Plus camera upgrade. The 6 Plus has OIS for stills (mainly helpful with low-light photos), but it wasn’t active when shooting a video or time-lapse. Now, with the 6s Plus only (not the 6s), we have active stabilization of all video and time-lapse content and the improvement is dramatic.

The time-lapse piece at the top utilized the Optical Image Stabilization significantly. The ability to create stable time-lapses anywhere, anytime, opens up so many doors. I can't wait to see what everyone creates with this.

If you had any doubts about going with the iPhone 6s Plus, they should all be absolved with Austin Mann's thorough review.

PSA: PhotoBulk is 30% off!

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Right now PhotoBulk but Eltima Software is on sale for $6.99 down from $9.99 on the Mac App Store and it's probably some of the best money that I've spent on any app on my Mac. If you like editing and adding watermarks to your photos, check this awesomeness out! Other features include: Resizing, bulk renaming, optimzing and renaming, it also supports JPGs, GIFs, PNGs, BMPs and TIFF. Of course this wonderful app is available on Windows too. There's also a free version available at the Eltima website. Cheers!

The NEW Kindle Paperwhite is the One to Buy! →

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I spent much of the past week repeatedly forgetting that I was supposed to evaluate the Paperwhite as a gadget. Whether I was reading Paula Hawkins’ “The Girl on the Train” while sitting by the pool or lying in bed with the lights off, the hardware simply disappeared, leaving me alone with the words on the page.

Most of the technology that enables that is in the new 6-inch E Ink touchscreen, which now has the same high-resolution 300 pixels per inch as Amazon’s elite $200 Kindle Voyage.

This is what reading on a device should be. And at $119 with special offers count me in!

 
 

Steve Huff is "Wowed" by Leica's New Q! →

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While only having this camera for a whopping three days, I managed to take it with me EVERYWHERE I went over those three days as I wanted to get as much use with it as possible so I could write this review after having 72 hours with the Q, and wow, for the 1st time in years I am truly “wowed” by a Leica camera that is not an M version! This is good, for all of us and for Leica.

Steve Huff does another great mini review on Leica's latest all-in-one offering. Priced at $4,250, it's around $1,000 than Sony's full frame fixed lens mini, but it's German and yes, I want it!

The Bullseye on a Good Wine isn't it's Cost →

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I went to a friend's dinner party and as always, personal taste and manners have always prevented me from showing up empty handed. So, off to the local wine store I went. Upon entering, lost in a sea of labels, I asked for a pair of great $25 bottles of wine thinking that sum would quanitfy my being but also provide an adequate pairing. Yea I know what you're thinking. As if I could have told you the difference between them and a $5 bottle I was just going to get taken by the owner. But, just because I couldn't taste the difference, there could have been that one wino that would have been judging / eye glaring at the labels I showed up with.

Essentitally, I didn't want to feel cheap, nor look cheap. I entered the party holding my head mid-level knowing that I went half the distance towards a good bottle and contributed to the drinks' table. Then I stumble onto this Slate article back from 2011.

There are plenty of reasons to go back to our 1990s habits, and to start using 15 bucks to buy four or five bottles instead of just one. Ernest Gallo, who, along with his brother Julio, popularized wine among the American masses, understood the psychology of wine better than anyone. He used to pour two glasses of wine for potential buyers, telling them that one sold for 5 cents, and the other for 10. According to Gallo, his guinea pigs invariably chose the more expensive option. What they didn’t know was that the two wines were exactly the same. Researchers have recently reproduced Gallo’s results, proving that our appreciation of a wine depends on how much we think it costs. If you can break yourself of this psychological quirk—or have your spouse lie to you about the cost of your wine—you’ll save a small fortune.

If hints of cassis, subtle earthiness, and jammy notes don’t interest you, you are not a lesser person. Wine is not art. There’s no reason to believe that aligning your tastes with those of a self-appointed elite will enrich your life, or make you more insightful or sensitive. If wine critics want to spend lavishly on the wine they like, that’s great. Leave them to their fun. Be grateful that you can gain just as much pleasure, if not more, without bankrupting yourself.

Hello $3 bottles!!! Now I know why my crashpad consistently stocks Charles Shaw! ^_^

"Discard Any Clothing That No Longer Sparks Joy"

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From The New Yorkers' "Shopping at Anthropologies with Marie Kondo.

Discard any clothing that no longer sparks joy.

Passing a display of denim jeans and dark-blue chambray shirts, Kondo touched almost nothing. She said that she rarely wears pants because several years ago they stopped bringing her joy.

Maybe we’ll start seeing a decline in the shopping habits of women? Ya… right… A husband can wish ^_^

I'm currently finishing up her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing on my Kindle and I'll admit, I'm SUPER inspiried. Only 50% in, I'm giving this book a 10 our of 10! Go grab yourself a copy and tell me what you think.

 
 

My Choice For Portable Battery Chargers

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When you find yourself in and out of subway stations and out and about in the city of New York, I bet that your smart phone quickly runs out of battery. Mine sure does and for that, I highly recommend carrying a lipstick size battery pack. The exact one is from Anker called the Astro Mini 3200mAh. It packs a powerful punch and is almost unnoticeable in your jacket pocket. It's also the #1 rater on Amazon for Camera Flash Battery Packs.

Pair that with a NomadKey Lightning to USB and you have yourself a perfect little pocket charging device. Take my word, you'll thank me later. For the Android or Windows Mobile folds, there's also a USB Mini variant of the NomadKey. I have both! =)

 

Brenthaven Collins Tech Pack 60% off!

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For a cool $19.95 (down from $49.95) go grab a stylistic pack / satchel / murse or man bag to hold all your goods whilst traveling to the local coffee shop for a flat white. Brenthaven just slashed the price of their Collins Tech Pack by 60% and that makes it a wonderful steal!

The construction is beautiful and is sure to hold your Moleskine, pens and protect your iPad using their "High Density Foam Protection System"! Oh yeah, did I forget about Brenthaven's lifetime guarantee too! If this sale doesn't suit you, there are a few iPad cases and iPhone cases as well marked down by over 75%!

SNL Does Serial Right!

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It's been a while since I've actually laughed at an SNL skit but I think that they did a wonderful Christmas spoof off of NPR's latest and greatest Serial Podcast.  

I just finished the podcast yesterday and will post my thoughts on another day. Did I enjoy it, yes. I also loved listening to it using Overcast.

Fragmentation and Instagram's Hyperlapse

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There's a reason for the sanity developers posses in releasing an app on iOS first. Take Instagram's latest.

Hyperlapse from Instagram features built-in stabilization technology that lets you create moving, handheld time lapses that result in a cinematic look, quality and feel—a feat that has previously only been possible with expensive equipment.

If a developer were to design an app for iOS, they have a choice of supporting only a few select devices. In this case, Hyperlapse was created to be compatible with a 2-year old device (iPhone 5) and up running iOS 7. Simple as that. You can bet that with the adoption rate that 90%, that users with at least an iPhone 5 will be downloading or have the ability to try out this fantastic app. Wired has even compared the app to a "$15,000 video setup in your hand."

From a developer standpoint, that's a huge audience! Think about it!

Now comes in Android. There isn't an app yet and here's why... in bold: FRAGMENTATION.

android fragmentation

The article from Open Signal clearly highlights the flaws and the obstacles that developers have when creating apps for Android. From different flavors of Android, to various hardware and sensor kits, screen sizes and adoption rates / operating system update delays from manufacturers, it's not the ideal launch vehicle. Hell, it even took Instagram a two years before they released their Android app and only after more than 30 million people join via iOS.

If you've been following me, I've been an Android 4.4 user since my Samsung Galaxy S5 trial and am still not satisfied with the experience. I've even lost precious moments due to the camera locking up or phone not responding. It's just a mess especially with all of Samsung's included bloatware on top of AT&T's mesh of products. I can't wait until November 15 for when I can go back to iOS. Of course, when September 9, comes around, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'm pre-ordering the iPhone 6 on T-Mobile.

For now, enjoy the sample video of Instagram's Hyperlapse or better yet, go out there and make your own! You can also follow me on Instagram: elijahnicolas