Saturday, October 11, 2008

Review: the iFold - a stand with flair


Official product homepage


Intro

If you read some of my other reviews you will notice that there were quite some few reviews about notebook stands. Today another stand will join the reviews. It's the iFold manufactured by Matias Corporation.

Design

The design of the iFold is very unique to say the least. It's a portable stand that will lift your Macbook quite a bit and its construction/design is something I haven't seen yet. Usually a stand is either very portable and doesn't lift your Macbook that much or it does lift the Macbook to considerable height but is not really portable. With the iFold though the creators managed to combine both aspects by having a very smart mechanism that literally folds the stand to portable size.

Everyday use


I have been testing the iFold for almost 3 weeks now and I must admit that I am very surprised how much more comfortable it makes me work with my Macbook. At home it raises the Macbook to a perfect height so if you are an external monitor user it will make it more comfortable to work with both monitors (external, Macbook display). Despite the look the stand is very stable and the rubber pads on the iFold will prevent your Macbook from falling off the stand. The iFold also had a nice side effect on my desk which was more space. Since with the iFold you have a lot of free space between the Macbook and the desk I now just put my external HDs under my Macbook and when I'm finished working I can also put my external keyboard under it to free up my desk. If you are someone that uses the Macbook a lot on the road you can also use the iFold while sitting in the bus or train. Just use it in the folded state as a "protector from burns caused by your Macbook". It's pretty comfortable to have the iFold on your legs and than the Macbook on it than just the Macbook (the Macbook can get rather hot at the bottom enclosure).


My thoughts on the iFold

So what is my final verdict on this product? I'd say this is one of the most beautiful stands design wise. The black shiny frame with the steel parts looks very exclusive and shows how much Matias cares about using good materials. The manufacturing on this stand is superb also. After three weeks of heavy use (folding and unfolding the stand) I can safely say that this stand won't fall apart that easily. What I liked most about this stand was the following aspect: it lifts the Macbook to a very comfortable height and in doing so also provides more space to store stuff (e.g. external HDs, keyboard, mouse, tablet, etc.). You can compared to other stands store a lot of gadgets under the Macbook when you don't use them and clean up your desk from clutter. It's also usable when you are on the road but in my opinion the strength of this stand lies in home use. If you are looking for a unique stand that gives your desk and Macbook setup more flair you definitely should try this stand.


MB-switcher

Monday, May 26, 2008

iSkin Giveaway winners: Announcement

Now to the announcement of the winners of the iSkin duo giveaway.

First winner is Timo: blue iSkin duo

Second winner is BigTez: pink iSkin duo

To the winners please send me an email to macbookblog_at_gmail_dot_com with your shipping address and the shipping method desired and I will send you an email how to transfer the shipping costs (paypal or bank transfer). Once the shipping costs are recieved I will send out the skins via the desired shipping method.

Thank you for participating in this giveaway and I hope that you will like the iSkin duo skins as much as I do. Once you recieve them I'd truly appreciate a picture or two of them with your iPod but this is purely optional.

Hopefully, I will be able to host another giveaway on my blog soon so keep watching and reading...I do have some giveaways already planned :)

MB-switcher

Monday, May 19, 2008

iSkin duo Giveaway ends tomorrow: Last Chance!

Just a little reminder that the iSkin duo (for iPod nano 3rd gen.) ends tomorrow!
So if you are an iPod owner and in need of one of the best cases around check out the giveaway here and participate.

iSkin GIVEAWAY


MB-switcher

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Yahoo acquires Inquisitor!

I was a bit surprised about this blog entry on the Yahoo! Search Blog but very pleased to read that the plugin is still free and now finally free of those affiliate links that our beloved DW has put in which caused quite some stir up in the past.
In fact I downloaded the plugin and installed it once again after trashing it for those shady methods DW has used in the past.
Let's hope that it will stay that way.

MB-switcher

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Pimp your Quicksilver!

Are you a Quicksilver user?
If yes, are you tired of the standard interfaces that come with it?
Well, Julius Eckert has some awesome Quicksilver interfaces that will pimp up your Quicksilver and make the experience even better.

Here are the three very slick looking interfaces.
Click on image to get to the page.


MB-switcher

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

A Giveaway (it's been too long): Two iSkin duo for iPod nano




Deadline is the 20th May 2008

Well, it's been too long since we had a giveaway on Days of our Macbooks so today I have a great giveaway to announce. Thanks to the people at iSkin I am in the position to giveaway two iSkin duo cases for the iPod nano 3rd generation. The colors are pink and blue. You can check them out in my review if you haven't read them yet. Participating is easy. Just comment or send me an email that you want to win.
All I ask from the winners is maybe a pic of you and your iPod with the skin and the shipping rate in case you win. Good luck to everyone.

iSkin duo review

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Endlich wieder ein Gewinnspiel werden sich einige denken.
Heute bin ich in der glücklichen Lage zwei iSkin duos für den iPod 3. Gen. zu verlosen, dank der netten Leute bei iSkin. Farben der Skins sind pink und blau. Alles was ihr tun müsst um teilzunehmen ist einen Comment hier hinterlassen oder mir eine Email schicken.
Vom Gewinner würde ich gerne ein Foto des iPods mit dem Skin haben (aber nicht verpflichtend). Die Versandkosten trägt der Gewinner. Bilder der zu verlosenden Skins könnt ihr in meinem Testbericht sehen.

iSkin duo Testbericht

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今回の抽選の賞品はiSkin duo no ケースです。今回は、iPod nano 3rd genの持ち主の為の抽選です。
まだレビューを読んでいない方がいれば是非レビューを読んでみて下さい
いつものように、コメントを記入していただくだけで参加出来ます。メールでも結構です。iSkin duoの色はピンクとブルーがあります。勝者は送料金を払っていただければうれしいです。

iSkin duo レビュー

MB-switcher

Monday, May 5, 2008

mozy.com - online backups for mac users also


So I have read a few blog entries about the online backup service mozy and that it got updated for Mac users also. Since it seems to be a very good service and it gets hyped in various places on the net I decided to give it a spin. I have signed up for a free account that gives you a storage of 2GB and downloaded the software also. I am still a bit skeptical to upload private things to an online backup service so I just selected some folders with random files in it to test out the software and the speed of mozy's online backup service. First of all the software that you need will be running in the menubar and it is very easy to select the stuff that you want mozy to backup (there are quite a lot of predefined backup rules in mozy which makes backing up a lot easier). Then there is another section where you can select custom folders that you want to be backupped also.

I have already selected what I wanted to be backupped this weekend but had trouble connecting to the servers. But today I was able to connect to the mozy servers and am currently trying my first backup. Currently, I am backing up about 250 MB of random data and according to the software it will take a bit over an hour till the process will be finished.

I guess I will post about the backup once it is finished.
Up till now I am very impressed about the simplicity that mozy offers.
If you are interested you should check out their site and try out the free storage of 2GB first and if you are satisfied you can opt for different plans.

Mozy Online Backup Homepage


MB-switcher