Product Review

Product: Steller Phoenix Entourage Recovery v1.1
Company: Stellar Data Recovery
Web: www.macintosh-data-recovery.com
Contact: support@stellarinfo.com. Toll-free helpline (1-877-778-6087) does not work from Alaska
Price: $149.00 for download, $169.00 for CD and download. Free download allows you to try the software and preview what can be recovered.
Pros: Helpful tech support
Cons: Didn’t work for me. I can’t accurately evaluate the software because it didn’t work for me, but that’s not necessarily Stellar’s fault.

Product Rating: 4/5

by Susan Weston, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Stellar Data Recovery provided a free copy of Stellar Phoenix Entourage Recovery v. 1.1 to me for purposes of the review.

Review: A few days before the August AAUG meeting, I downloaded mail into Entourage and to my surprise, all of the messages except the first one were grayed out. Hmmm. Clicking on most messages made them visible so I could respond to them, but clicking on the second message shut Entourage down unexpectedly.

At the August AAUG meeting, I learned that Stellar Phoenix Entourage Repair v1.0 was available for review. It was developed to repair and restore corrupt Entourage databases. I’ve used Entourage since it first came out without a major problem and have not previously rebuilt the database, but something was clearly wrong and this product might help. I raced to the back and volunteered to try and review the product.

As soon as time allowed, I installed it. (Note: I use my Mac all day long every day, but don’t really understand how it works.)

Stellar Phoenix Entourage Repair defaults to the Entourage 2008 data file and the documentation says it only works with 2008, but when called the Tech Support people said should also work with earlier editions.

I have Office X, a much earlier edition. I navigated to the database using the Browse button and found my Office X Main Identity. The new software began scanning. After the scan appeared to be finished, time passed. After quite a bit of time, a message appeared, “The scanned file is either an invalid file or heavily damaged.” I tried rebuilding an earlier database from before the problem began. I got the same message.

At that point, I tried calling Stellar’s Tech Support for America (the company is based in India). The number on the website doesn’t work from this calling area. I e-mailed Tech Support and quickly received a response. Abdul called from India the following day and we went through the procedure again. He was very patient and helpful, but the same error message appeared. He was surprised. Eventually, he asked me to compress the database and e-mail it to them so they could locate the exact problem and/or rebuild the database manually for me. Several follow-up e-mails from Tech Support repeated that request.

Call me crazy, but I was uncomfortable sending my 3.85 GB database overseas. I don’t even do Facebook! I tried to approach my problem from another angle by updating Microsoft Office and contacting their tech support. That’s a long story you don’t want to hear but by the end nearly everything was recovered and readable in Entourage X. I was told that for Entourage 2004 to read an Entourage X database, it has to be in pristine condition, so I attempted again to rebuild the now working database with Stellar Phoenix Entourage Recovery.

I revisited their web site and discovered that version 1.1 was available. I uninstalled 1.0 and downloaded 1.1 for a fresh start. After scanning, this message appeared:

Your Entourage Database File has been successfully recovered. Stellar
Phoenix Entourage Repair was able to recover the following items:
Mails: 0
Contacts: 0
Calendars: 0
Notes: 0
Tasks: 0
You can browse through the recovered items. To save the file, choose
the save button.

Next, I tried to read the seemingly OK database with Entourage 2004. A message informed me the database had to be rebuilt. I rebuilt it as directed and it successfully imported into 2004 and from there to 2008.

As much as I’d like my first review for AAUG to be a rave review, this program did not work for me. There is a free download option on Stellar’s web site that allows you to evaluate the software and preview any of your lost files and folders that the program can recover. You can’t lose by giving that a try! If it works, buy the software to recover your data. But be aware that Entourage is being “retired” and replaced by Outlook in the 2010 edition of MS Office.

Product Review

Product: Tetris for iPad
Company: Electronic Arts
Web: http://www.ea.com/ipad
App Store link: Click here!
Price: $7.99
Pros: bright HD graphics, classic mode and others, new D controls
Cons: none

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Gary Miller, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Electronic Arts provided a free copy of Tetris for iPad to me for the purposes of the review.

I’m not a big game player, but Tetris was so much fun, and easy to get hooked on, hint, there’s a marathon Mode…

Tetris is Electronic Arts game that for so many has been a favorite, so it was a natural to port to the Apple iPad. It’s so easy to use with the new controls developed for the iPad that make it even more playful, if that’s possible. I started in Quick Play mode, for the beginner, and did venture into Magic mode, that incorporates many special features, but more on that shortly.

I used the touch screen, just easily dragging to left or right, and tapped on either side of the screen to rotate a shape in clockwise or anti-clockwise. The new D controls displays a D pad on the left side of the viewers screen, and the rotate buttons across from it on the right. There’s a new feature that allows one to Hold, a shape/cell, for I sometimes couldn’t get my shapes to go where I wanted them to go…

Magic Mode was a challenge, it takes you more levels, and has 5 tools – mines for blowing up, bubble wrap was fun in that it’d pop, also wrecking ball, minimizer, magic crayon, and smashdown. There’s new music for Tetris too. I didn’t try the multi-player mode. It was fun, pure and simple, even for a beginner…

Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.

Product Review

Book Title: Take Control of Apple Mail in Snow Leopard v1.0 eBook
Author: Joe Kissell
Company: TidBITS Publishing Inc., Take Control Books
Contact: www.takecontrolbooks.com
Price: $15
Pros: author tells you what sections you can skip if you are not a geek; eBook fabulously easy to use
Cons: familiarity with the menu bar in Apple Mail is helpful, in the beginning I was doing lots of searching

Product Rating: 5/5 Excellent

by Kathy Matsumoto, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: TidBITS Publishing, Inc. provided a free copy of Take Control of Apple Mail in Snow Leopard v1.0 to me for the purposes of the review.

I desperately needed this eBook. My old Windows machine had crashed and I had just been given a new iMac. Being totally unfamiliar with Apple Mail, I was unable to set up all my email accounts until I read this book. It really helped me. Having an electronic version made it easy to jump from reading material to working in Apple Mail all at the same time. Apple Mail now works for me – all of my email accounts are displayed in one screen. I’ve also set up all of the folders I need to organize my mail. And, I now understand the difference between POP and IMAP email protocols. Explanations by the author, Joe Kissell, were very helpful and informative. I believe experienced Apple Mail users would find helpful information in this eBook as well as novices.

I found the suggestions on setting preferences to be the most helpful. You can adjust how frequently your email is checked and the Apple Mail icon will show you how many unread message you have if that’s what you want.

I read through the entire eBook several times understanding more each time. The bookmarks and layouts as well as clickable links made this ebook easy to navigate. Sections about encryption and MobileMe don’t apply to me yet but you would probably find something here to help you. Take Control Books also offers alternative formats for use with electronic book readers. I admit, this is the first time I have used an electronic book and I loved it! On the cover of this book, there was a button to check for updates so I was sure I had the latest and greatest version. Wonderfully easy to use! I would recommend this book to any Apple Mail user.

Product Review

Product: Omniverse iPad Tote
Company: Uniea
Web: www.uniea.com
Price: $39.95
Pros: lightweight, protective, simple to use, repels rain
Cons: covered control buttons take a little to get used to, handle stitching coming apart

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Jeanne Fiske, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Disclosure statement: Uniea gave me a sample of this product to write a review

Even before I tried it with my new iPad, I enjoyed the feel and the way it looked…simple and clean. The iPad fit in snugly so it felt secure. When I tried to plug it in, I found I could do it easily if I pulled back the case slightly. But all the buttons were hidden. With just a little practice I learned how to easily push the start button. The volume is a little harder and I had to peel off the corner to set the screen lock. Since I seldom do that it is worth the secure fit. When I first used it, I was happy to see that it could stand on its own to prop up the iPad, rather like what I saw you could do with the case from Apple. The more I used it the softer it became so now it doesn’t stand as easily. I also have to remove it from the case to use the iPad dock.

Another feature I enjoy is the pocket arrangement. Although they were designed for the handles, they are nice to slip in a receipt, a few dollars or whatever I might need in a hurry that is small enough.

The biggest little thing I don’t like is the fraying around the Logo and the stitching coming undone on the handle. Trimming helps now but I am a little concerned about the wear issue in the future. Other than that, I am thinking of getting a red one as well. Our son came to visit and would like one like it for his MacBook Pro.

Product Review

eBook: Discover Italy 1 eBook
Author: Cristian Bonetto
Company: Lonely Planet
Web: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ebooks
Contact: 510 250 6400
Price: $14.95
Pros: Colorful images, works great in Apple’s iBook App, organized, over 3,000 links, good maps, 400 pages
Cons: none

Product Rating: 5/5 Excellent!

by Gary Miller, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Lonely Planet provided a free copy of Discover Italy 1 to me for the purposes of the review.

A colorful new eBook created for Apple’s ipad is Lonely Planet’s Discover Italy 1; I love it. I love my iPad for it’s visual ability and this new book series really takes advantage of colorful photos throughout. And if I don’t understand a word, up pops a dictionary to help, or a link to find more information is there too, so helpful.

As many have figured out, the future in books are eBooks. Lonely Planet has worked with Apple for over 10 years and it shows. The remarkable iBook App on the iPad and iPhone show off organizational searching effortlessly.
How you buy this book, is to go to Apple’s iTunes store, and order it for $14.95, then it quickly downloads right into iTunes, then I synced it, and it was on my iPad and iPhone. The cover is beautiful in the iBook reader library, with excellent graphics. The series has 5 tiles in the Discover series: France, Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, and Italy. They are priced cheaper than the print edition, and much easier to search for what you want to look at quickly, much appreciated. I like to read ahead of a trip to make sure not to miss must-sees, and create an itinerary, for this book has many ideas/approaches. Also being able to add notes from other reading or possible sights to see really helped. And the Bookmark feature was fabulous, no more tabbing with infinite color tabs wondering which one I was looking for…

Table of Contents includes:

• How to Use This Guide
• Italy Map
• Introducing Italy
• Italy’s Top 25 Experiences
• Italy’s Top Itineraries
• Planning Your Trip
• Calendar
• Rome
• Milan and the Northwest
• Venice and the Northeast
• Florence & central Italy
• Naples, Pompeii & Amalfi
• Sicily & the South
• Additional Information
• Italy in Focus
• Directory and Transport
• Glossary
• Map Index
• Angel of the North, England

I love Italy’s Top 25 Experiences. Since I was able to click, and immediately it went to # 1 The Duomo. I was able to make the background sepia in color, for ease of reading, and alter the font’s size/type style. I started reading, and found a word in green, Duomo, so I clicked it, and it took to a bigger description of Duomo. I wish I could have used a back button to get where I started, but the iPad so far doesn’t do that, so I used a bookmark. Another section I loved was Italy’s Top Itineraries, again linked areas within the text (only found in Lonely Planet’s eBooks), I could read it sideways or up and down.

I loved the in-depth maps that allow tapping to enlarge, really cool feature. It’s not as close as street view in Google maps, but easier to see. This is the future of travel books, it makes a book come alive and I love reading this way.

Product Review

Product: Jitterbug phone
Company: Jitterbug
Web: www.jitterbug.com
Contact: 800-918-8543
Price: $99 plus rate plan
Pros: big numbers, easier to hear
Cons: none

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Gary Miller, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Jitterbug provided a free loaner of a Jitterbug phone to me for the purposes of the review.

As we age, it seems we want simpler devices to use. Enter the new Jitterbug phone, it’s a mobile phone that has larger buttons that are backlit, good volume (will even work with hearing aids and no buzz), a flip phone, and they supply operators to handle everything…

Ok, imagine having a cell phone that adds a great feature of an operator being there at the push of a button, to dial a call for you, look up numbers in your address book of your phone(that they input or you can with access online). I know my mother in law had sight issues, and this would really help her keep in touch. I called their marketing number from their website: jitterbug.com, and found that rates are from a low of $14.95 for a use in emergency basis to a the $29.99 plan for 700 min of nationwide calling of 200 day, 500 night ( with unlimited carry over of minutes I didn’t use) and weekend minutes that also includes a helpful feature called Live Nurse. Here’s how that works. I clicked thru the larger type phone book on the phone to Live Nurse, clicked yes to dial. The first time I called, i waited on hold, got a call taker, who said he’d have a RN call me back within an hour, no call back, so I tried again. This time, I reached a live RN. She was courteous, smart, and helped me with my issue. She was in Illinois. She said if one calls in after doctor offices close, one waits, during the day, I’d have better access. She was surprised no one called me back, for she said they try 3 times, and will leave a message on voicemail (additional monthly charge of $3.00 for voicemail).

Another service I liked was calendar, again free on the $29.99 plan, I called into the free customer service number, that’s available 24/7, and they inputed the appointment I wanted. Then the phone lit up to show me a message was waiting for me. Great.

My World is a $4.00 a month service that delivered to my Jitterbug weather in my area for today and 2 days forward, sports news, trivia question, horoscope forecast, stock updates.

Another service was Daily Health Tips that was included, a simple message was sent to my phone as a text message. Wellness Call was free with the Simply 29 plan too, where you receive a 5 minute weekly call from Brian Alman, Ph.D. I called back to listen to his message, in this call he talked of health, and had questions that I responded to on the phone. Good talk and ideas shared. Once I answered the questions, he said on the next call, I would be offered a tip based on how I had responded.

When I called the Operator, I was asked my name. The Operator was polite, and asked my phone number of the Jitterbug phone. I could ask questions and the operators, I called more than once and at different times were nice. Operators are US based, so easier to understand.

An issue I didn’t like was that in calling the Operator @ Jitterbug, it cost me 5 minutes of my cell minutes to call in, plus the time on the phone, to check voicemail, again, more minutes to check activity or listen to messages. I think just listening to all the many services would take many minutes of what you paid for. When I called their marketing phone to ask about the services, I got a very directed, get the order, type of lady, she kept asking me to order the phone, versus just tell me about the phone and services. Too car sales oriented for me.

The phone is made by well respected manufacturer Samsung of Korea. I don’t imagine any issues with it. It is recommended you leave it on, and just plug it in when needed, but I noticed battery life was excellent. I forgot, that if you use more than the minutes of your plan, ever after you discover it, you can upgrade to the next higher plan without a penalty, that’s great. The phone comes in 3 color versions too, mine was gray, but the red one would be easier to find. Also offered was a BlueTooth head set @ $49.99, or Red Beaded Lanyard @ $14.99 or additional batter, color coded for $39.99 etc. Additional services I didn’t try were: Check in Calls by a person to make sure you’re ok ($5 a month), and Medication Reminders that keeps you on schedule of medications you take, reminds you of refill due dates ($10 a month).

I think the phone would be great for its intended user, someone that wants a basic mobile phone with the convenience of an Operator to help dial numbers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All of the personnel I talked with were easy to deal with, that’s important and welcome.

Product Review

Product: iPad (evaluated as an e-reader device)
Company: Apple, Inc.
Web: www.apple.com/ipad
Contact: (800) MY-APPLE
Price: $499 and up
Pros: This device holds tremendous potential as an electronic reader of books, magazines, newspapers, and periodicals
Cons: The various apps lack a consistent user interface, some are poorly designed, and others have limited content

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Scott Nations, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: the AAUG loaned me an iPad for 6 days for the purpose of this review.

As of May 3, 2010 there were 99 book related and 77 news related apps in the app store. Not all book apps are multi-content apps. For instance, some book apps are for a single book. Many news apps are for a one news organization such as the New York Times. However, some news apps access feeds from multiple news organizations.

For my review, I used the following book, magazine, or document readers: iBooks, Free Books, CloudReaders, Wikipanion, GoodReader, Kobo, and Zinio.

iBooks – This, in my opinion, is one of the best apps for reading books. It’s simple, provides tools for changing fonts, font sizes, and illumination and has search and bookmark capabilities. Any frustrations associated with using iBooks relates to how it makes obtaining pay-for content so much easier than free content. The iBooks app only allows reading of epub formatted documents. For other file formats, you need to use another app. Once a book is loaded, it is easy to create book marks, search for text, access the table of contents, access the dictionary, turn pages, and copy text. The iBooks Store is similar to the iTunes Store, only for books. There’s a navigation tool bar across the bottom giving access to “Featured, NYTimes Best Sellers, Top Charts, and Purchases” Featured gives 22 genres, NYT gives 46 books, Top Charts is organized into 2 categories “Top Paid” and “Top Free” with 100 books in each category. Obviously, there must be other books elsewhere. You must use the search tool to find other books. I searched for three books I already own hard copies of and they were all available. Interestingly, while Apple has advertised the availability of the free content at the Gutenberg.org library, I was not able to find all the Gutenberg books I’ve already downloaded on my Mac. However, I was able to transfer my epub books from the Mac to the iPad via iTunes. That process, however well-documented, is unnecessarily complicated.

Free Books – This is a pretty rudimentary book app. It can only be viewed in portrait mode and has none of the fancy bells and whistles of the iBooks app. It does provide another source of free reading materials.

Cloudreader – provides a tool to read pdf content like the Take Control series, nothing fancy but allows use in portrait and landscape modes

Wikipanion – allows access to Wikipedia, does not cache visited pages for later off-line use, offers a paid for upgrade to Wikipanion Plus, works in portrait and landscape modes (Wikipanion Plus allows caching of content for later reading)

Goodreader – another reader app, doesn’t recognize epub but does accept pages, doc, pdf, html, jpg, txt file formats. Other functions provide for editing of txt documents, portrait and landscape modes, and a bright and dim screen toggle control. This app is one of the best pdf/document readers because of all the accepted file formats. Goodreader can transfer files between mac and iPad via cable or wifi.

Kobo – the closest competitor to iBooks for quality of reading experience for the epub format. They advertise 1.8 million free ebooks, but I only found 220 on their website.

Zinio – provides access to magazines and periodicals. Zinio holds great promise for those interested in interactive magazines. The magazines appear as scans of the hard-copy. On the iPad’s screen, the text of many magazines is barely readable in portrait mode. One can zoom and pan, but that’s a pain. Ultimately, the magazine industry will need to consider reformatting their articles for the smaller screen as NYT and WSJ have done so admirably. The iPad screen is great. One can read smaller text on this than on most computer monitors but shrinking an 11 x 17 or even 8.5 x 11 down to 5.8 x 7.8 inch screen just doesn’t’ work in most cases. In portrait mode, smaller sized periodicals such as National Geographic are acceptable but since they often splash photos across both pages you end up with half a picture unless you like rotating the device back and forth to accommodate the content.

For news apps, I downloaded the following: NPR, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, BBC News, New York Times Editors’ Choice, AP News, Reuters News Pro, and Fluent News. There is some overlap and duplication of services with these. For instance, Fluent News provides feeds from many of the other news sources. Most, but not all, of these apps cache their content in the memory of the iPad so content can be accessed without internet connectivity. All news sites update content throughout the day. Quality and quantity of content and ease of navigation vary considerably.

As a general comment, some apps implement functionality for adjusting brightness, volume, font, and text size. For the apps that don’t, the user has to 1) exit the app, 2) start up “Settings,” 3) make adjustments, and 4) return to the original app. Hopefully, conscientious developers and the up-coming iPhone OS 4 will address this.

Most of the apps are intuitive to use and function without crashing. Some are not. Occasionally, I had to use the Home key to exit an app when I got stuck and could not go forward or back.

While multi-tasking is not implemented at this time on the iPad, the iPod app functionality seems to play well with most but not all apps. For example, I could listen to music while reading a book with iBook but with some apps the music stopped as soon as I started the app

Summary: I think the product is worthwhile for those who want to read news, books, and periodicals, browse the internet, read and compose brief e-mails. For me and other folks who are dexterously challenged, productive work should still be done on a laptop or desktop computer. That said, I think the product is reasonably priced for what you get.

Product Review

Product: iClear Shade case for iPod nano 5th generation
Company: Griffin Technology
Web: www.griffintechnology.com
Contact: (800) 208-5996
Price: $9.99 (Special), normally $24.99
Pros: perfect fit, easily snaps together or apart, protects
Cons: it’s polycarbonate, but i’m not sure how long the plastic will stand up

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Gary Miller, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Griffin Technology provided this item free to me for the purpose of the review.

Griffin Technology’s new iClear Shade case for my iPod Nano, 5th Generation or the current model, fits so well, looks very cool with it’s graduated shadow look/tint, and it’s fit is perfect, so the click wheel and all cut outs are right on the money. Yea.

The case is made of polycarbonate, which wikipedia says “Polycarbonate derived from BPA is a very durable material. Although it has high impact-resistance, it has low scratch-resistance and so a hard coating is applied to polycarbonate.”

I find using it easy, no slippery feel to it at all. I know my new iPod is protected too. I recommend it. So far no scratches or blemishes by it’s use. And did I say that it’s on special on the Griffin site for a low, low price of only $9.99, that’s 60% off normal retail price. GET ONE NOW…

Product Review

Product: Griffin Elan Passport wallet for iPhone 4
Company: Griffin Technology
Web: www.griffintechnology.com
Contact: (800) 208-5996
Price: $39.95, less on Amazon
AAUG Amazon Link: Click here to buy and support AAUG
Pros: attractive, sturdy, small but useful
Cons: difficult to tap icons at screen edges

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Kim Boyd Hummel, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Griffin provided a free unit to me for the purposes of this review.

I’ve been trying out the Elan Passport wallet from Griffin to hold my new iPhone 4. It’s made of black perforated leather with a soft anti-scratch suede interior. It holds my iPhone, has space for 2 credit cards/id and a flap where I can tuck a couple of 20 dollar bills. It opens like a small book, and has conveniently placed openings for all of the ports, speakers, and camera lens. I like the way the case protects my iphone from getting scratched, dirty, or damaged when it’s in my backpack or purse. The case feels nice in my hand and opens easily. I think it looks great so when I go out I can carry a few essentials in one small wallet and don’t have to take a purse. All in all I’ve found the case stylishly useful. One small problems has been that the leather frame that surrounds the front of the iPhone is a little too thick and wide, which makes it awkward to tap some of the icons sitting at the edges of the screen. I think that a future version of this wallet would be improved by thinning out the material that frames the iPhone screen.

Product Review

Product: Charge Converter
Company: Griffin Technology
Web: www.griffintechnology.com
Contact: (800) 208-5996
Price: $25, but discontinued according to website, no longer available (may be available through third party retailers)
Pros: small, light, functional
Cons: no piece for device support

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Ben Kerosky, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Griffin Technology provided a free unit for the purposes of the review.

The Charge Converter exists for a simple purpose. Recent iPods and iPhones charge using different pins in the 30-pin dock connector plug compared to older iPods and iPhones. That means that older chargers and accessories won’t charge new iPods & iPhones. I found myself in just this situation with Apple’s own iPod Hi-Fi speaker system, which will not charge my new iPhone or iPod nano. As I often rely on the Hi-Fi as a charging station, this was causing frustration. Enter the Charge Converter. It’s small, light, and does exactly what its name indicates. You snap it onto the bottom of your iPod or iPhone, and dock the joined gadgets just the same as you would have before, but now it charges! Hooray. I can think of only one complaint, and that is that the weight of the iPod or iPhone combined with the angle of a typical dock connector on speaker docks means that the iPhone or iPod tend to lean back, which looks to me like it puts stress on the dock connector. I could see (though I have no evidence of) long-term use causing weakened connection in the accessory (in my case the Hi-Fi). It would be nice if Griffin had included a plastic adapter or support piece to address this concern, as some competing Charge Converters do.

The Charge Converter requires a recent iPod or iPhone and older dock connector accessory (at least to be of any use).

Product Review

Title: The Best Little Grammar Book Ever
Author: Arlene Miller
Publisher: Big Words 101
Web: www.bigwords101.com
Contact: jazzzdiva@yahoo.com
Price: $11.95; $10.75 on Amazon
AAUG Amazon Link: Click here to buy and support AAUG
Pros: well organized, helpful approaches & a good reference book, fun author, she makes grammar cool! Yes, it has quizzes too.
Cons: None

Moose Rating: 5/5 Impressive

by Gary Miller, Alaskan Apple Users Group member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Big Words 101 provided a free copy of The Best Little Grammar Book Ever to me for the purposes of the review. This book is available in print or through the author as a PDF version; reviewed was PDF on Apple iPad.

At last, a book that makes choosing and using correct grammar easy. The newly written book, The Best Little Grammar Book Ever, works, and works well. Author Arlene Miller, a teacher, knows that we all have a tough time with who, whom, there, their, so she sets about and succeeds in guiding us, step by step. Yea.

I remember from my early school days, learning the parts of speech, diagramming, and having a time of it, my mom even hired a coach for me, that helped, and I went from a bad speller, to winning a spelling bee.

First off, was a very helpful How to User This Book, why don’t more books use this approach. Anyway, the book uses it’s first few chapters to give a grammar review, and it did a good job. You know, parts of speech, on to sentence structure, punctuation and capitals. From there, we get to the issues or problems we all have in speaking/writing. I like her approach, it is positive, and doesn’t ever talk down to the reader. She offers her personal email for comments or questions, again a big Yea. I highly recommend this book, keep it close to you at all times, and you’ll never utter a faux pas again.

Here’s the first 3 chapters ( and a quiz from Chapter 1 ) so you get a sense of what’s included:

Chapter 1
The Basics: Parts of Speech
1. Nouns 2. Pronouns 3. Verbs 4. Adjectives 5. Adverbs 6. Prepositions
7. Conjunctions 8. Interjections

How Much Do You Know

Chapter 1 Quiz: About the Parts of Speech?
Take this quiz before you read Chapter 1.
Match each word with its part of speech:
1. wow! ____ 2. bring ____ 3. purple ____ 4. beside ____ 5. but ____
6. children ____ 7. slowly ____ 8. he ____
a. noun b. pronoun c. verb d. adjective e. adverb f. preposition g. conjunction h. interjection

9. Which of the following words is a proper noun? ___ a. boys b. them c. family d. Boston

Name two coordinating conjunctions besides and: 10. _______________ 11. _______________

12. Which of these words is a collective noun? ____ a. girls b. family c. people d. James

13. Which of these words is a personal pronoun? ____ a. me b. animal c. Paris d. who

What parts of speech are gave and to in this sentence? I gave a book to him.
14. gave? _______________ 15. to? _______________

Chapter 2
The Basics: Sentence Structure
9. Subjects 10. Predicates 11. Objects 12. Phrases 13. Clauses
14. Types of Sentences 15. Not a Sentence: Fragments and Run-Ons 33 16. Sentence Variety Patterns

Chapter 3
The Basics: Punctuation and Capitalization

17. Periods and Other Ending Marks 18. Commas 19. Semicolons 20. Colons
21. Parentheses, Brackets, and Braces 22. Hyphens and Dashes 23. Italics 24. Quotation Marks 25. Capitalization

Product Review

Product: Mobile Mounting Solution IPM514 Slim-Grip w/mini suction and dashboard mount
Company: Arkon Resources, Inc.
Web: www.arkon.com
Contact: (800) 841-0884
Price: $17.95
Pros: It was very easy to assemble
Cons: Not sure how plastic will hold up in the cold** (See end of review for manufacturer response)

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Maryann Lisenby, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

I had just been looking for a product to put in my car to hold my iphone while driving. I wanted something that was inexpensive and simple to use. I wanted a product that made it easy to reach my phone and not have to tumble for it if it rang while driving. This product was very easy to assembly; I did it in the car on the way home. It was what I was looking for.

I have two (2) questions about the product. One, will the plastic that it is constructed with, hold up to cold weather for long periods of time? Meaning, can it handle 0 to -20 for 8 to 10 hours and not break. I’m also not to sure about the prongs that hold the iphone itself. The one prong on the top right seems to get in the way of the on/off button on the phone so if you are not careful you will be asked to power down your phone.

Otherwise, it’s a great product and I will use it daily.

Here is a YouTube Video on the device:

**
In response to reviewer’s question, the manufacturer submitted this comment:

I see the reviewer posed the question about whether the Arkon windshield suction pedestal would survive the cold elements over long periods of time. It’s a great question, and the answer is absolutely YES. However, it should be noted that we do offer 2 different types of suction.

Aaron Roth
VP, Marketing & Sales

Product Review

Title: Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers
Author: Martin Evening
Publisher: Focal Press
Web: www.focalpress.com
Price: $54.95
AAUG Amazon Link: Click here to buy and support AAUG
Pros: Thorough and well written, 760 pages, well illustrated, includes CD
Cons: Much to learn

Moose Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Paul Joslin, Alaskan Apple Users Group member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Focal Press provided a free copy of ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS5 FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS to me for the purposes of the review.

CS5 is Adobe Photoshop’s latest advanced professional software for both professional and serious amateur photographers. In a single package CS5 provides the most extensive array of menus and tools for bringing out the best in one’s photographs and preparing them for the web, print or other media.

Learning to utilize the program’s full potential requires a substantial learning curve. Martin Evening’s well written and fully illustrated 760 page textbook book on CS5 for photographers coupled with his in depth movies and other support materials in the accompanying CD provide an excellent opportunity to do just that.

The book is intended for both Mac and PC platform users. Whenever different keystrokes between the two platforms are called for each is highlighted in different colors. One of the first chapters also addresses how to configure on photoshop so as to ensure that one’s computer system has been optimized for image editing work.

Camera raw image processing has been given its own chapter, as well as referred to in many places in the book. Camera Raw 6 in Photoshop CS5 offers extensive image editing capabilities, replicating even more Photoshop applications than existed in earlier CS versions. The author strongly encourages photographers to use “Camera Raw as your first port of call when preparing any photographic image for editing in Photoshop”.

Sharpening and noise reduction is given its own chapter. In earlier books on the CS series by the author he found it necessary to go into much detail on how to use the unsharp mask filter and refinement techniques found in Photoshop. With the improvement of sharpening and noise reduction features in Camera Raw 6 the author now recommends carrying out these steps first in camera raw for both raw and scanned TIFF images.

There is a chapter on image editing essentials that focuses on the general Photoshop editing controls such as how to improve tone contrast, adjust color, select the right pixel resolution, work with curves and histograms, and much, much more.

Black and white photography is increasing in popularity thanks to improvements in image capture, better inkjet printing, and major advances in processing software. The author devotes a chapter to black and white photography explaining how to optimize digital conversions from color originals and how to reproduce traditional darkroom techniques. A section has also been included that discusses how to create split tone images using Camera Raw 6.

Photoshop has pioneered the field of image retouching. The author’s chapter on the subject reviews the basic cloning methods such as spot healing, cloning, upside-down cloning and the patch tool. He also discusses portrait retouching, the liquify filter and reconstructions. Included is a section on working with the new improved Refine Edge command as well as a look at the new Puppet Warp feature, an outstanding CS5 addition of particular interest to those who use Photoshop for retouching work.

Layers, selections and masking are a hallmark of Photoshop processing, and the author devotes nearly 80 pages to the subject. In it he describes the extensive variety of available tools that CS5 has to offer and how best to use them.

There is a chapter on extending high dynamic range (HDR) image editing. CS5 incorporates significantly improved Merge to HDR tools over those that existed in earlier versions.

To deal with managing the ever-growing collection of image files that photographers possess an entire chapter is devoted to describing how to effectively use Bridge, CS5‘s image browser program. The author also discusses some serious limitations imposed by Bridge, and the emergence of other digital photography workflow programs that are better designed for handling the cataloguing and management of large volumes of photos, such as Aperture, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. “I have now stopped using Bridge completely at the import stage”, says the author. He uses Lightroom. The book includes an introductory guide on working with Lightroom should readers wish to follow his example. (For a more in depth treatment see the author’s “The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book: The complete guide for photographers”).

There is a chapter on essential filters for photo editing. Photoshop has long supported plug-in filters, and a huge industry of third-party companies has grown up in response.
Photoshop incorporates an advanced feature called Smart Filters which the author describes how best to use. He also discusses the new improved Lens Correction in CS5.

Understanding how to color manage one’s photo digital output prior to printing is an essential step for most professional photographers. In his chapter on color management the author introduces the basic concepts of color management, how to calibrate one’s computer monitor, utilize the color management interface in Photoshop and apply the various color management settings.

Many photographers do their own printing. The author devotes a separate chapter aimed at giving an understanding of Photoshop Print and the system print dialog interfaces.

Photographers are increasingly dependent on the web as a way to output photos. While it is immediate, the author notes that there is a downside in that photographers have little or no control over the way images are viewed. To overcome some of these difficulties the author has written a chapter, Outputs for the Web, that reviews ways to best export files, select the appropriate format and control the size of images being exported,

Editing is time consuming. One of the ways to speed up the Photoshop process is to become familiar with the various keyboard shortcuts. Photoshop has a lot of them. Photoshop also provides the ability to shortcut repetitive tasks tailored to one’s individual needs with the aid of CS5’s Action panel. In the final chapter, Automating Photoshop, the author describes how to use these tools.

In summary I highly recommend this book for photographers looking for a good professional image editor’s guide to CS5

Product Review

Reviewer: Guy Okada
Product: iClear Sketch for iPod nano
Company: Griffin Technology
Web: www.griffintechnology.com
Contact: (800) 208-5996
Price: $9.99 (Special!)
Pros: Cool design that highlights the color of your iPod
Cons: Very smooth and slick in the hand

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Guy Okada, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Griffin Technology provided this item free to me for the purpose of the review.

Finding a case to protect your iPod or other Apple product can be a daunting task with the myriad choices of products in the market. My 5th generation iPod is a cool green color that I love so the iClear Sketch case caught my eye immediately because it is clear and the ghosted black pattern added a new dimension to it. iClear cases are just that: clear so that the color of your iPod shines through. There are a variety of patterns as you can see from the product photo.

Installation was a no-brainer. Just place your iPod in the case and snap it shut. I liked that the screen is also protected by the clear case. All the ports,
Video camera, switch and wheel are unblocked. The polycarbonate case is strong; I know because I’ve dropped it on a treadmill and it went flying a few feet with not even a scratch on the case!

The only downside is that the case is very smooth so it is slick. I don’t know how that could be avoided because of it’s clear polished surface but it does feel a bit slippery. Overall it is a great product and makes my iPod look different and stylish!

Product Review

Title: How to Cheat in Photoshop CS5, Sixth Ed.
Author: Steve Caplin
Publisher: Elsevier, Focal Press
Web: www.focalpress.com
Price: $44.95
Pros: This book is a good choice for someone who is familiar with Photoshop and wants to continue to learn the intricacies of Adobe Photoshop CS5
Cons: more detailed index

Moose Rating: 5/5 Excellent

by Kip Absher, Alaskan Apple Users Group member

I received this book free in exchange for the review.

Steve Caplin has again written a great book about CS5.
How to Cheat in Photoshop CS5 is a reference book with the accompanying DVD are well worth having in your library. The book is very usable as a stand alone; the DVD has great additional materials including practice sessions. The DVD is usable for both the Mac and the PC.

The book is well made using good paper with nice printing, though a soft cover, relates well to my liking of books along with the inclusion of a DVD which satisfies the ones and zeros in my latter addiction. In his text it is interesting to read about the different examples of photoshop tools used for the cover creation. There is no face better chosen than Bogart looking back at the viewer though it could be Steve Caplin. The book introduction reinforced my need to chink my CS5 foundations by really knowing how to use the basics.

When used with the enclosed disk it makes a very fine inclusive learning platform.

These chapters if studied will provide a firm foundation, which is necessary, for the advanced adjustments necessary for enabling the subtleties of your print. I believe it worth reading the forward where you will learn how the author Mr. Steve Caplin intends the book to be used, along with the back cover. Though the book is not hard bound it is of good quality having well reproduced photographs and quality paper.

The body of the book is handy to find specific questions which are listed in the table of context.

The examples are to the point with just the right number of words to fill the niche of a photographer familiar but needing additional information to solve a challenge the image has just produced. A new user of PS could use the book along with the included DVD to learn the program.

The book is well made pleasing my liking of books; it also includes a disk containing additional work-alongs, which satisfies my computer needs. If I have a choice when purchasing reference material I check the quality of the book along with the Table of Contents and the Appendix. How To Cheat in Photoshop CS5 does a good job helping to locate information directly.

The “How To’s” are written well. They are to the point, Steve adds important related material as a “Hot Tip”.

The first four sections of the book lists a review of the basics information, tool use and other CS5 foundations. A perusal of the remaining book shows how having a ready command eliminates looking up what will become familiar as you continue with CS5.

The Pen sections are excellent in both the book and the DVD. They include specific examples of Pen movement and free practice templates. I have never used the powerful Pen tool because its use wasn’t intuitive, now. The main book body includes many examples showing exactly how to create different effects.

Interspersed through the book are personal antidotes with situations that only an experienced user could have.

How To Cheat is a book well suited for me. It targets some one who has working knowledge of the PS program. I might need just a memory jog which is given on two opening pages. He did this on purpose so the book could be propped up in front of the computer. In most instances a more in-depth treaties can be found on the DVD. Examples are to the point. I would like the index to be more detailed.

Product Review

Title: Guardians of the Glacier
Author: Tim Saunders
Web: guardiansoftheglacier.tripod.com
Contact: Tim Saunders
Price: $24.95
Pros: a new book about a new universe of characters and environments
Cons: it had to end, but it’s part of a trilogy

Moose Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Gary Miller, Alaskan Apple Users Group member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Tim Saunders provided a free copy of Guardians of the Glacier to me for the purposes of the review.

A new book that will quickly involve all of your senses is out now by Tim Saunders. I like a book that captures you, sends your imagination to places you haven’t visited and makes you smile, this book, Guardians of the Glacier, does it, and does it fabulously.

The author loves to write, has worked as an electrician, wrote this book over a 10 year period, a labor of love and fantasy. He might be the next J.K. Rowling, and he’s working on children’s books too.

This first published book is a spiritual journey, an epic of discovery, an amazing array of characters, creatures, of youth and adult, he juxtaposes poetry and quotes and narrative well. He has a knack of being a good story teller, and in the first 50 pages, achieves a feat of making the book a page turner, a welcome adventure for the mind and soul.

Our hero, Jon, is a young boy, who is curious, fun, and we trust as we accompany him in the life under a glacier. I think all ages will enjoy this book, it’s written to entertain, and got me to think.

I know you will enjoy Guardians of the Glacier, book one of the Tirin Sages.

Here is Tim reading the first chapter, “Noises?”:

Product Review

Reviewer: Gary Miller
Product: Where To? v. 3 for iPhone
Company: FutureTap
Web: www.futuretap.com
App Store link: Click here!
Price: $2.99
Pros: works great with iPhone 4, retina display, saves time, big selection of places included.
Cons: some information dated

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Gary Miller, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: FutureTap provided a free copy of Where To? to me for the purposes of the review.

The recently updated Where To? App for iPhone (version 3) really takes advantage of the new retina display in the iPhone 4 while showing me where restaurants, banks, or a park, it quickly gives you options and shows on your maps. It allows you to add the contact information for later reference, very helpful. It works on other versions of the iPhone too

I got it from the iTunes store, and it easily downloaded, and when I synced, it installed. The first screen you see looks like a compass or circle. Around the circle are icons of 11 categories, such as food and drink, Emergency, Education, Government Offices, Health and Medical. Each of those has other sub categories. For example, I picked Art Galleries under Attractions, and showed them by distance to where I was by name, closest first. I clicked on Modern Dwellers Chocolate (which does occasional art shows, so I see why it’s in there), it showed me a map with all the galleries with a red pin, and my choice with a blue pin. If I tapped on the pin, then it magnified it for me. Or I could follow it’s arrow, and it showed a completed contact page in my Contacts book, most helpful! At the bottom, it offered Directions, Open Map, Add to Contacts, Share. I clicked Share, and it offered me Email, SMS, Twitter, FaceBook, Copy All. I clicked Email, and it opened up Mail, and showed a photo of the business, address, link to Google Maps. Excellent.

We all have favorites and so when I went to Botanical Gardens, I waited for it to display, nothing, so I searched for Alaska Botanical Garden, which has been there for over 10 years, it found it as a location, but no information, but I wondered why it hadn’t found it before. The company said they use Google as their source of data. I guess it’s like Google maps, which are a couple of years behind in showing where I live, still showing our condo as a vacant lot with trees.

Another feature I liked allows you to star or favorite something, and Recents, so you can go back easily. The Search feature is on the main page, so really makes it easy to use. I tried this in Anchorage where I live, in Homer last week while on vacation, both worked good. I just searched a favorite in Homer called Two Sisters Bakery, it showed it, and how far away, but the mileage was off, showed it as 130 miles, not the 210 it is.

With the new multi-tasking feature of iPhone 4 OS, this app utilizes it and that’s helpful. It doesn’t have a help feature on the app on the iPhone, but does have a FAQ on their website: http://www.futuretap.com/support/. Plus it has a clever and cute video on the site to show you how it works, with many examples, but really you don’t need any help, it’s very straight forward and fun. I use it all the time now. Thank You Future Tap!

Future Tap was founded in 2008 by Ortwin Gentz in Germany. Great first App! It won the Best App Ever in 2009, Best Feel like a Local App, and more.

Product Review

Reviewer: Garrett Rudisill
Product: Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Web: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/
Price: $59.99
Pros: Skill matching for multiplayer; Story of past Starcraft games in manual for players who missed pass games
Cons: Lacks LAN play

Product Rating: 5/5 Excellent!

by Garrett Rudisill, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Blizzard Entertainment provided a free copy of Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty to me for the purposes of the review.

Starcraft is 2010′s best selling PC/Mac Strategy game…for obvious reasons. This game is worth your hard earned cash, let my review show you why.

I myself have never been a serious fan of real time strategy games, but this game changed my opinion. To start out, even though you have to make an account and spend 20 minutes installing the game’s 12 gigabytes of data (you can play without the disc after installation), the game takes this time to explain the story, without lengthening the install time. This game was made for the Beginner and the Hardcore fan, which is now rarely seen in the gaming market. As soon as you are done installing, registering, and patching (done automatically) you are prompted to do the tutorials to explain everything. They took under 5 minutes, yet made perfect sense and taught working methods to win. No complications. The graphical settings should be checked under the options tab before playing. The settings will have a basic setting depending on your graphics card, but are slightly lowered in some areas to make sure that the game will run smoothly for sure on your first play session. The menu clearly explains the main parts of adjusting the settings and what component will be affected by the setting. For example, my settings for textures are based on graphics card installed were on low as default, but when I click the change button beside each setting (low,medium,high,and ultra in this case) low has 128 megabytes next to it, medium has 256 megabytes, and etc. My graphics card has 256 megabytes, so I picked medium. Most panels are like that. No madder how much you love to multitask, be forewarned, this game will heavily bog your processor, and all other apps should be shut down, and the game will not run as smoothly in windowed mode, ALWAYS use fullscreen.

As long as things are set right, everything is smooth sailing from there. Gameplay is a mix of action and resource management, filled with tactics and just plain fun. The story is very interesting too. The game is simplified at first, and then things slowly and steadily are added on. The game also relies on tactics for each different race. There are the Zerg which are great in numbers but lack individual strength and make up for it in speed. The Protoss are strongest, but are slow to battle, and the Terrans are the best of both, having medium strength and speed.The multiplayer online is very long,intense, and entertaining. Games I played online literally ended 2 hours later because of how intense it was. Others ended in less than 5 minutes because of the opponent’s skill (the online multiplayer gives you the option for the first 50 games to be unranked but not skill matched). The skill matching is very good and the AI in the story are very smart.The story has many twists and turns, especially as it adds critical story choices to the mix. I won’t spoil the story, but will just say the choices are very hard to make, but luckily you can save before that choice and make both to see what happens without playing throughout the whole game again. Minor issues are occasional lag spikes when starting a cutscene, loading a level, or quitting, but are perfectly normal. I also couldn’t get the in-game voice chat to work, but managed to run Skype in the background to talk to friends.This game looks brilliant even on low settings. There are better looking games, but they lack the scale and depth of Starcraft. The environments, enemies, and minor details are vividly detailed.

When you add all the stuff together, you have a really great game. It has huge community support, quick and precise matching for multiplayer, supported mods and mapmaking, well designed and balanced gameplay, and eloquent character design and beautiful environments. It’s a great game, and the boxed version includes two 10 day passes for World of Warcraft, and two seven hour demos to Starcraft 2 with full access to all features. The new online integration when logged also gives some great new content to add replay value. A must buy.

This game runs on:
Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7 and Mac OSX 10.5.8, 10.6.2 or newer. Requires 12 GB Hard drive space; Windows: 2.6 GHz processor Intel or AMD and Direct X 9.0; Mac: Intel only, no specific speed needed (runs fine on 2.1 GHz processor); Mac/PC: 2GB of RAM; Mac/PC: 1024X720 Minimum screen resolution; Mac/PC: At least 128MB Graphics card (Nvidia and ATI Recommended, Intel GMA’s are not specified whether they work or not, so assume not). Internet required for registration to play game.

Product Review

Reviewer: Josh Miller
Product: AstroDriller 3020
Company: Chronic Logic
Web: http://www.chroniclogic.com
Price: $9.95
Pros: It is inexpensive; runs on almost any system
Cons: It gets too hard later on as you play.

Product Rating: 3/5 Very good

by Josh Miller, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure:Chronic Logic provided a free copy of Astrodriller 3020 to me for the purposes of the review.

This game is a fun brain twisting game that makes you think fast. I have never really liked arcade games very much, but this game has totally changed my way of thinking about arcade games in a positive way. I like the way the game interacts with colors.

Many people, including myself will enjoy this product. I suggest that the company could make the game better by adding a story line of why the gamer is collecting precious gems besides for money. Also, you don’t need a disk to play the game.

This game is a fairly simple and entertaining. All you do is just try to grind the meteors into gems and draw lines in the correct angle in order to get the gems into the correct color tubes. If you get a wrong color in the wrong tube, you wont get as many points.

This game is full of strategic placement and angles of all sorts. There aren’t many commands that you have to use in order to play this game. Gradually, this game gets harder and harder. You must think fast and act quickly in order to pass the level. The bumper astroids help and give you a bonus. As you progress through the game it combines each of the different colors and the timing of which color comes out of the planet gets much more complicated.

It is kind of complicated trying to figure out which upgrade to choose though. I couldn’t decide whether to get more lines at one time, or to get longer duration of the line. I think that this game could be better if the upgrades varied more on the upgrade points. For example, instead of longer duration for the line costing 3 upgrade points, I think it should cost 5 points. The other upgrades should vary more instead of half of the choices all being 5 points. I think some should be 4 points, 6 points or 8 points. For the harder levels I think this game could be better if you extended the time for the level and for the sudden death at the end.

It is a good game that many people will enjoy and I hope you enjoy it if you buy it.

System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 or OSX 10.3, 1.0 GHz processor, 512 Megabytes RAM, OpenGL or DirectX compatible accelerated 3D video card.

Product Review

Reviewer: Gary Miller
Product: Reveal Etch graphite case for iPhone 4
Company: Griffin Technology
Web: www.griffintechnology.com
Contact: (800) 208-5996
Price: $29.99
Pros: sleek, hard backed, simple
Cons: None

Product Rating: 4/5 Impressive

by Gary Miller, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Griffin Technology provided a free case, Reveal Etch Graphite for the purposes of the review.

The new iPhone 4 is a work in progress. The antennae has issues, but Griffin Technology has come up with a stylish case that fix the issue and add safety for the owner. The Reveal Etch for iPhone 4 is graphite in color, has an interesting design on it’s hard backed polycarbonate, rubber sides that don’t hinder sliding into my pockets.

I like it’s fit, and it protects my iPhone. I dropped it, and no damage, yet, the 1.6mm thickness doesn’t make it bulky at all. Yea. The cut outs on the back for the camera and flash are perfect, that says much for Griffin, since many cases don’t really fit right. It’s easy to take off and it allows me to use a charger without taking the case off. I use Griffin’s Simplifi charger, but I also used Apple’s plug in and it worked fine too. It’s the same money as Apple’s bumper case, yet offers much more protection on the back. Better value in my eyes.

No issues at all. I like it’s design, simplicity, and feel in my hands. Get one.