vytas's Reviews

The best laptop on the market gets better.

Overall

Rated 4 out of 5

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been four years since I made the switch to a Mac. My first Mac was an Apple MacBook Pro 15 Core 2 Duo (read my review here) and it served me well. Recently I was given the opportunity to upgrade my hardware to the latest and greatest version of the Apple MacBook Pro 15” Unibody and I took it.So how does an already great laptop become even better?The most obvious improvement is processor speed, but that can be said about any laptop. Yes my new laptop is graced with a 3.06 GHz dual core Intel processor, but more importantly, the latest generation of MacBook Pros support 8GB of RAM. My recommendation for anyone running Mac OSX is t...

Sear, stir fry, boil, coddle and simmer with abandon

Overall

Rated 5 out of 5

Over a year ago, we completed an addition and renovation of our home. Part of the work was a brand new kitchen. After spending countless hours online researching cooktops, followed up by numerous visits to appliance stores to see the top picks in person, we chose the Miele KM3474 Natural Gas Cooktop (it also comes in a model for LP gas).

There were several criteria that I had when I began my search for our cooktop:

New convert to the Apple iPhone fold

Overall

Rated 5 out of 5

 I've been eyeing the Apple iPhone ever since it was introduced over a year and a half ago. The first generation iPhone was just too expensive and its connection was too slow.

That changed on July 11th (2008) when the Apple iPhone 3G was officially released into the wild. The second generation Apple iPhone boasts 3G connectivity (which according to Apple is twice as fast as an EDGE connection - AT&Ts older data protocol), built in GPS, push email and more. Also Apple and AT&T slashed the initial price of the handset in half, bringing it down to $199 for the 8GB version of the Apple iPhone 3G.

Another big change is the migration of Apple's .Mac service to a re-branded Mobi...

Beautiful, Brawny, Blissful Computing Experience

Overall

Rated 5 out of 5

The family computer (a six year old Dell desktop) refused to boot. Microsoft Windows XP decided to take a permanent holiday. My family was starting to grumble about the lack of a computer in our home. What was I to do?A year ago I started using a Apple MacBook Pro at work and had bid Microsoft Windows adieu. This seemed like the perfect moment to switch over to a Mac at home. I considered the Apple Mac Mini since I did have the screen, keyboard and mouse from the Dell, but evaluating what hardware (processor, video card, web cam, speakers, hard drive, RAM, etc.) you got with the iMac, I decided that it was actually a better deal to go with the iMac instead of t...

Has kept me connected for years

Overall

Rated 4 out of 5

The Sony Ericsson T610 has been a faithful friend for almost four years now. That's the longest serving cellphone I've ever had - and it's still going strong.

The size is slightly wider than a Mars chocolate bar, but the thickness and length are about the same. It has all the features one would expect on a cellphone these days. The camera is one of the weak points - to put it simply - it's crappy. The photos are very fuzzy and of low resolution. At best you need strong daylight to make anything out. But that is not the primary function of the camera - the call quality is decent (I use T Mobile primarily in the Chicagoland area),though I can't say that I've ever been complete...

Chew, swallow, grimace

Overall

Rated 2 out of 5

I know some people who live by these Honey Nut Milk'n Cereal bars. They eat them every day with gusto. So I tried one. Can't say I was impressed. Can't say I would eat one again. Can't say I would even remotely recommend them to anyone. I guess it's a matter for your palette to decide.

Any other fruit or granola bar is a far better choice than these General Mills Milk'n Cereal Bars.

Thumbs down for this one. The only reason it got above one star is supposedly there is some nutritional value to the bar.

Infinite possiblities for a happy baby and happy parent

Overall

Rated 5 out of 5

This is a product that one would expect a mother to review, but being a father of three young kids, I have to say that the** Maya Wrap** exceeded all of my expectations. When I first saw this "long piece of cloth with two sizable metal rings at one end" I was skeptical. Being a tech geek, I tend to gravitate to more contemporary solutions to age old problems - surely the Baby Bjorn type carriers (we did own a carrier from Medela - but did not find it as useful or comfortable) are more comfortable and practical than a simple piece of cloth from ages past. I was flat wrong!

After watching the video that came with the wrap, and some help from my wife, I was carrying our baby in ...

Clean, silent and deadly - best dishwasher I've owned!

Overall

Rated 5 out of 5

Every so often you come across a product that exceeds your expectations—yes even in the lowly dishwasher category—and the **Siemens hiDefinition™ Dishwasher **does exactly that.

We recently rebuilt our kitchen and ended up with a space for the dishwasher that came up just a hair under the required 24" width (even after valiant efforts by the carpenters to eke out whatever space they could from the surrounding cabinetry). After doing some research, I discovered that European made dishwashers are built about 1/2" narrower than their North American counterparts. Problem solved!

This dishwasher is the quietest one I've ever heard (yes, every so often you hear a gentle swish ...

A sonic nest for your iPod

Overall

Rated 3 out of 5

A few years back when I was looking for some external speakers for my iPod, I looked high and low for a compact set that would not take up too much space on my nightstand. The JBL OnStage iPod Speakers fit the bill. They are relatively small with a low profile, recharge my 4th gen Apple iPod and had great reviews all over the web. I was not looking for roomfilling sound, which the JBL OnStage does not deliver (noise - yes, great sound - no), but as bedside speakers, they work just fine. I even use my iPod as an alarm clock!

I should note that being a dad with small children, I was looking for a unit where the speakers were protected from probing curious fingers. The JBL OnStage fi...

The sound is fine when properly fitted

Overall

Rated 3 out of 5

This is the third set of headphones that I've used with my Apple iPod (4th gen 40GB).

Overall the sound is fine but not fantastic. For the price that I paid (over a $100) - I expected a quite a bit more.

The single biggest factor that affects the performance of the Shure E3c headphones are the sleeves that you choose to use. It comes with three different types: soft gray flexible sleeves (three sizes: S|M|L), hard clear plastic sleeves (three sizes: S|M|L) and universal fit yellow foam ...

Best laptop on the market

Overall

Rated 4 out of 5

After using MS Windows for over 15 years, I switched to a Mac—and I'm not going back. OSX is fantastic. The MacBook Pro comes with a host of extras: lit keyboard, built in video camera, video card that can drive a 30" display, fast processor, and easily upgradable memory. The 15" form factor is pretty much perfect for a work laptop - just enough screen real estate for screen hog programs such as Dreamweaver or Photoshop but small enough not to be bulky to carry around (I think the 17" Macbook Pro tips the scale on the too bulky side).

The glide pad is the best of any laptop computer I've used (IBM ThinkPad T41, Dell Latitude, Toshiba Satellite). One worry that I had was losing the u...