Bose Companion 3 Series II Speakers - Review

Bose speakers have an excellent reputation for sound quality and range, and this set is an excellent way to bring that sound to your computer, portable device or home media center.  The Companion 3 set includes a sub-woofer, known as the "Acoustimass Module", two compact full-range speakers and a "Multi-Function Control Pod".

Setup is a snap connect the remote and speakers to the Acoustimass Module, and a standard mini-jack cable to your computer or other audio source, plug in the power and you are ready to go.  The sound is incredible, with deep bass and clear mid and high-range - it really fills the room.  There is no comparison to standard computer speakers - these are definitely Bose.

BookBook Case for iPad and iPad 2 - Hands On Review

The BookBook Case for the iPad and iPad 2 has the exterior look of a vintage hardcover book, but safely conceals your iPad within.

I was lucky to receive the BookBook case as a gift from my brother (Thanks, John!).  I have been using it for a few weeks now and have been very happy with it.  With an exterior of distressed leather, it is light and does not add much weight to the iPad, and has a soft, but sturdy design that nestles the iPad in, well, iPadding.  It's night and day from the ClamCase, another iPad case I recently reviewed.

Clamcase - iPad Case and Keyboard Hands-on Review

After a ridiculously long two month wait, I finally received my ClamCase Bluetooth iPad keyboard and case.

After living with it for a couple of days, I have decided I like it, but there were some negatives to get used to.

SoundNote - iPad App of the Week

SoundNote is an outstanding note-taking app for the iPad. It has a similar, intuitive interface to Apple's Journal App, but adds many capabilities.

As the name implies, one of SoundNote's greatest features is to capture audio as you are taking notes. It also syncs your written notes to the audio, so that when you review your notes, you can select the audio portion that goes along with each written note. This is extremely powerful, and useful for meeting notes and minutes, recording lectures, and capturing presentations. It is ideal for interviews, as well.

SoundNote also adds the ability to make simple sketches within notes, and the complete note, audio and sketches can be e-mailed or sync to your desktop.

Like Journal, each note page has a title, and you can scroll through these. There is also a search function which is very useful.

SoundHound is available from the Apple App Store for a very reasonable $4.99 - you'll have your money's worth after just a couple of uses. Give it a try!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/soundnote/id364789577

OneNote for the iPhone and iPad at Last!

If there is one application I can't live without, it's Microsoft OneNote.  I started using it on the Tablet PC, and it has become a central repository for my meeting notes, to-do lists, reference materials, and any other information that I want to collect.  The search functions make it easy to find things, and the tagging system allows tasks to be categorized and associated with events in Outlook.  Everything was great in OneNote Land until I got my iPad.

There is no more natural application for the iPad than OneNote, and for my first couple of weeks with the iPad, I looked everywhere for a substitute.  While a lot of people love EverNote, the interface just didn't click with me.  MobileNoter allowed the viewing of OneNote content, but entry and syncing just wasn't there the way I wanted it.  A couple of weeks ago, with no warning, Microsoft released this app and I found my prayers answered.

OneNote for IOS is mainly a OneNote viewer, but you can create new notes and to-do lists, update existing ones and organize your notebooks on Windows Live.  Some new features have been added - you can add pictures from your camera roll (or screenshots).  It's the closest thing yet to the full OneNote experience on an Apple device.

There are a couple of catches.  First off, it's an iPhone App, which could be seen as an advantage since it works on both platforms, but the display when zoomed in to fill the iPad screen is a little pixelated.  Also, you are required to publish your OneNote notebooks to Windows Live in order to access them.  Again, this could be seen as a positive, having your information available in the cloud, on your iPhone, your iPad and through Microsoft Office Live's web interface.  There are a few limitations on content - embedded files cannnot be accessed, although images show up fine.  There is no handwriting interface, one of OneNote's key features on the PC, but the iPhone and iPad aren't built for a pen interface, so this is to be expected.  I would love to see an iPad specific version which uses the full resolution available and maybe even lets you doodle or sketch.

If you use OneNote on the PC - you need this app.  If you don't use OneNote, you need to start!

If you are not sold already - it's FREE for a "limited time"!  Get it at the App Store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onenote/id410395246?mt=8