Jim Lynch: Off the Top of My Head…

I was pleased to get this email from Apple this morning. I’d been wondering if I’d have to apply for it, I guess not.
Thanks, Apple.
Dear Apple Customer,
Apple recently announced that iPhone 4 customers who purchased an iPhone 4 Bumper are eligible for a full refund.
As of today, we have automatically processed your refund.
Thank you [...]

Ars has a very detailed review of the Motorola Droid X. I’d considered getting one, but ultimately went with an iPhone 4. I’m still glad to see that Ars’ take on it is positive, I want Apple to have strong competition.
Motorola’s Droid X is an impressive new contender in the emerging category of large form-factor [...]

Wow. This looks great.
StarCraft II continues the epic saga of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg. These three distinct and powerful races will clash once again in the fast-paced real-time strategy sequel to the legendary original, StarCraft. Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for [...]

Excellent roundup of open source financial software. Who knew all of this was out there? Wow.
Whether you just want to balance your checkbook or you need to track the finances of a large global corporation, you can find open source software to do the job. For our list of open source financial tools, we cast [...]

Here’s something fun for the programmers out there. GIMP is a great application for something like this.
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is a robust application for editing and manipulating digital images. Because it’s open source software, any developer is allowed to modify and extend it with even more features. In this article, you will [...]

Computer World has a head to head match up between the two mobile operating systems.
Which is the better mobile OS: Apple’s iOS 4 or Google’s Android OS 2.2? The InfoWorld Test Center decided to find out, based on the capabilities of interest to business and professional users. This deathmatch compares the operating systems, not specific [...]

A scathing take on Windows Phone 7 from Infoworld.
There’s no kind way to say it: Windows Phone 7 will be a failure. Announced to much bravado in February as the platform that would breathe life into Microsoft’s mobile ambitions, Windows Phone 7 looked based on very early previews as if it might bring something new [...]

Kindle for Android is now available. Great news for Android users. I love Kindle on my iPhone.
Read Kindle books on your Android phone
Get the best reading experience available on your Android phone. No Kindle required
Access your Kindle books even if you don’t have your Kindle with you
Automatically synchronizes your last page read [...]

Download a copy of the new version of VLC, if you haven’t already.
What’s new?
Ready for HD
GPU decoding on Windows Vista and 7, using DxVA2 for H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2
GPU decoding on GNU/Linux, using VAAPI for H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2
DSP decoding using OpenMax IL, for compatible embedded devices
Improved support for MKV HD, including seeking fixes, and [...]

Check out this great comparison between iPhone 4 and iOS versus Android. It covers hardware, desktop and cloud services. Excellent for those trying to decide whether to buy an iPhone or an Android based phone.
iPhone 4 Versus Android: Hardware
With the fourth generation of Apple’s smartphone nearing release later this week, some buyers might be curious [...]

Some excellent extensions if you really want to improve Chrome’s security.
Google Chrome is fast becoming the browser of choice for many. With its ever increasing user base, the safety concerns related to this comparatively new browser is also increasing. Here, we enlist the 6 most useful extensions/plugins for a much safer browsing experience with Google [...]

Here are some instructions on how to use your iPhone or iPod Touch with Linux. This is great info for those who enjoy Apple’s mobile devices but who prefer Linux on their desktop.
For quite some time, using your iPhone or iPod Touch on Linux was a challenge. There were two options – jailbreak it, and [...]

SJVN notes that somebody is trying to keep KDE 3.5 alive. I’m not a KDE guy, I usually use GNOME. But I like the idea of keeping KDE 3.5 viable, at least for a while.
I love it. KDE 3.x, which has always remained my favorite Linux desktop interface, is making a come back. A tiny [...]

Another cool game available via Steam. I bought it yesterday but haven’t had a chance to play it yet.
The No. 1 online action game in the world, Counter-Strike: Source, is now available for Mac OS X via Valve’s Steam distribution platform, and is free for those who already own it on Windows.
“CSS is a Steam [...]

Cool, iMovie is out for the iPhone. You can download iMovie here. It’s not free though, it’ll cost you $4.99. That’s a great price for such a cool app though.
I got my iPhone 4 yesterday, so I’ll be grabbing this shortly. Should be a lot of fun, I like the video on my iPhone 4 [...]

IOS 4 has been released for iPhone and iPod Touch. You can download it in iTunes;  the file is about 292MB. I’m downloading it right now. The download rate isn’t particularly fast, I suspect the iTunes store is already getting hammered for this update.
What’s in iOS 4? Here’s what you can expect.

And here’s Computer World’s [...]

Here’s an excellent, detailed overview of iOS4’s features. Highly recommended. For hardware, see the iPhone 4 preview.
iOS 4 (previously iPhone OS 4 or iPhone 4.0) continues Apple’s relentless yearly mobile OS update cycle. If 2007 was the mainstreaming of the multitouch user interface, 2008 all about the App Store, and 2009 was filling in the [...]

This guy modded his iPad so he could use it on Verizon’s network instead of AT&T’s. Not a bad idea, if you don’t mind your warranty being voided. He might have also used something like MyWi and simply used his iPhone as a wifi hot spot for the iPad.
There is one major flaw with the [...]

This looks pretty good to me, actually. I’ve had my fingers crossed that iPhone 4 wouldn’t be a disappointment.
The biggest reason why I decided to upgrade my aging iPhone 3G was that I’m tired of carrying around a separate camera. I really want a decent camera in my phone. It makes it so much easier [...]

The Register has a good look at multimedia applications that are suitable replacements for iTunes, for Ubuntu users. This article is a great primer for those coming to Linux from Mac OS X or Windows. It introduces some final alternatives to iTunes.
This article is the first in a series that looks at Linux applications – [...]