I’m not sure what other people think about the Griffin 9785-PJLTRSV PowerJolt Reserve for iPhone & iPod, but I for one love it. This is a little cigarette lighter adapter for your car which allows you to plug in your standard iPhone USB charging cord to power-up your phone while on the road. But it also happens to have a built in rechargeable battery attached to it which you can either use in the car for wireless convenience – or take in your pocket for backup power when you go!

A few things you should know:

• It’s about $40. I got mine at a local WalMart.
• The battery connects to the charger magnetically. Yeah, it’s cool. You just grab it and pull it off. When you are done just get it near where it needs to be and the magnets pull it together.
• You can be charging one phone with the USB while another is charging off the battery.
• It charges an iPhone MUCH faster than other chargers in my opinion.
• The battery will bring an iPhone 3Gs up to about 50% charge.

Here are a few closeup photos from mine. I go nowhere without it.

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	BetterBizIdeas RT @johnpoz: Review: Griffin PowerJolt Reserve iPhone Charger and Battery - http://onemansblog.com/powerjolt
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Today it’s snowing in Dallas. Rare, but it happens. Even more often we get terrible ice storms. And there is nothing worse than trying to scrape ice off the windows of a car for like half an hour when its freezing outside. So guess what… You don’t have to do that!

If you have a vehicle that you can’t park in a garage, like my big ass Nissan Titan pickup truck, you can get a Windshield Cover and just put it over your window before the storm comes. Then, no matter how much ice comes down, when you are ready to go you just pull the cover off the window and there goes the mess with no scraping!

If you’d rather not spring for a $10 cover (or these $6 disposable ones – Frosty Fender Disposable Windshield Cover) you can just take a large garbage bag and split it down the sides – leaving it attached on the bottom – then when you spread it out lengthwise it should be wide enough to cover the whole window. Same thing with a little painters dropcloth from Lowes or Home Depot. Just find some plastic sheeting and cover the window and you’ll be all set.

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	johnpoz Stop Scraping Snow and Ice and Use A Windshield Cover! - http://onemansblog.com/windshield
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I’ve had 5 different people ask me for camera recommendations, as well as a couple of other folks asking me about camcorders, in the last week alone. Because it’s just that time of the year when people want to pick up a new camera to capture the holiday cheer.

Well, I’ve got two digital camera recommendations – depending on what you are looking for – and more importantly I’ve broken down exactly why these are the two cameras that you should get. (Jump right to the pocket sized Canon G11 or the SLR sized Canon T1i)

Of course, there are a LOT of cameras on the market, and I even own a few others, but for the vast majority of users I think these are the two best all-around cameras you can get. And I intend to make some video tutorials about how to take some really great photos with these cameras in the near future. So if you get one of these specific recommendations then you’ll be able to follow along when I put out the videos.
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	Zig7 RT @johnpoz: Camera Reviews: Canon Digital Rebel T1i SLR and the pocket sized Canon PowerShot G11 - http://onemansblog.com/cameras
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	V_Tsavdaridou RT @johnpoz:Camera Reviews: Canon Digital Rebel T1i SLR and the pocket sized Canon PowerShot G11 - http://onemansblog.com/cameras
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	johnpoz Camera Reviews: Canon Digital Rebel T1i SLR and the pocket sized Canon PowerShot G11 - http://onemansblog.com/cameras
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I purchased the BENRO TRAB069 Travel Angel TRAB a couple of months ago, and all in all I highly recommend the little tripod.

This Travel Angel tripod features individual leg angle adjustments, anti-rotation leg design, a reversible center column with spring loaded weight hook, anti dust and moisture rubber leg lock grips, and reversible 1/4″-20 to 3/8″ mounting threads. It has 5 leg sections and a maximum height of 54.3″ with a normal height of 47.8″ with the legs fully extended.

However, what makes it so special is that the folded height is a tiny 13.1″ while still maintaining a load capacity of 13.2 pounds! This makes it one of the most compact travel tripods around, while still being professional grade. Oh, and at just over $210, it competes with the Gitzo GT1541T Series 1 6X 4S G-Lock Traveler which is much bigger and costs $535!
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	johnpoz For those who've asked for my Review: Benro Travel Angel Tripod - The 13.1" Wonder! - http://onemansblog.com/benro
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I’ve got some really great photography gear, but I’ve decided that my hand-held shooting, even with a shoulder-pod and an image stabilized lens, is disappointing. I just can’t get the razor sharp images I want.

At the same time, I rarely have time to set up a tripod, even if I’m carrying my tiny little 2.5 pound Benro Travel Angel. So, I’m adding a Monopod setup to my photography arsenal. And the monopod setup I’ve chosen was recommended by professional photographer Yuri Arcurs (the world’s top selling stock photographer). The video that convinced me is below.

The main reason I am going with the Manfrotto 685B Neotec Monopod he recommends is because it’s the only one with a quick extension system. Watch and learn…
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Ok, I’m about to go on and on about how much I love the Brother MFC-9840CDW Color Laser Multifunction Center with Wireless Interface and Duplex, but before this turns into a giant love fest, let’s start with the bad news. Software installation is a bit of a nightmare.

Software Installation

I installed the printer to work on three different Windows machines and one MacBook laptop. The MacBook installation went best, but not without issues. However, the Windows installations were all three a nightmare.
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	johnpoz @strobist It's a color laser, and a tad large, but I LOVE mine if you can make room for it: http://onemansblog.com/MFC-9840
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Yeah, I got an iPhone a while back. Then I got one for my wife, talked my brother into getting one for himself and his wife, and have basically continued to propegate the spread of this piece of technology. And you know what? iPhone is getting a little too cocky!

Luckily, the boys over at College Humor were around when the other cell phones decided to get together and show the old iPhone exactly whose boss!
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So, I got a Casio High-Speed Exilim EX-FC100 camera which is capable of up to 1,000 frames per second of video capture for a specific project that I’m working on which you guys will see pretty soon… But in the meantime I took a couple of sample videos just testing it out so far.

The bottom line on this camera is that if you shoot video for just about any reason, you should pick one of these up so that you can add high-speed captures to your bag of tricks. It’s cheap and easy and the results are worth it. The normal stills from the camera are also good (not great) and the features are adequate for a highly portable point and shoot camera.
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I recently purchased the Thermaltake BlacX eSATA Hard Drive USB Docking Station from Amazon so that I could use an external hard drive for backups and /or disk recovery needs.

This particular device is capable of either USB connectivity or eSATA, meaning that it can be hooked to your PC at the same speed as an internal drive, making for radically increased performance!

Well, all I have to say is that the BlaX docking station works like a charm, and its good looking too! So if you are in need of a USB hard drive docking station, i highly recommend that you go pick one up. Amazon’s currently got them for $29.99 after rebate, so you’re not going to do any better than that. Enjoy!

Ok. This post is going to get me in big trouble with Greg Lewis. I still owe him a piece of art from like 2 years ago. Yet Cali Lewis (no relation to Greg) asks me if I could cut the GeekBrief logo out on the PlasmaCAM for her and I do it in like 48 hours. Well Greg, I only have one thing to say… when you’re as hot as Cali, I’ll finish your art in 48 hours too!

All kidding aside though, Cali and Neal have been waiting patiently for months since they first saw my machine sitting in the garage, and I finally got off my lazy butt and decided to cut the GeekBrief.TV logo out in celebration of their 500th show! So, if any of you would like to watch a little video about cutting things out of steel with a giant robot, here you go.
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I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I’m in the shower it seems like I’m always coming up with good ideas – or at least thinking of things that I need to do. The problem is, I’ll think of five things… but by the time I’m done I can only remember two!

Well, I was watching a show with some divers in it when one wrote on a notepad to communicate with another and it hit me! That is how we can make notes in the shower! So, I ordered a large underwater dive slate from Amazon and gave it a try. Guess what… it’s perfect!

You can just use a normal pencil and eraser on the pad, which works out very nicely. I would also advise purchasing a small suction cup with a hook on it so that you can attach it to your shower wall and leave it hanging there.

So if you have this same problem, now you’ve got a solution for under $10. Enjoy! Oh, and please let me know how it works out for you if you actually buy one…

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	johnpoz @Genuine http://onemansblog.com/showerpad
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You know, I’ve always been bothered by the fact that if I want to actually attach 10 sheets of paper together I need to spend like .001$ on a staple to make that happen. But now my dreams have been answered!

Someone has spent untold numbers of hours engineering this little plastic marvel which will apparently do away with all the inefficiency of an actual stapler and instead punch some sort of little slit out of a stack of pages and then fold it back over through it’s self. Surely this will save the environment, money, and probably mankind itself.

So long as you don’t need to attach more than about 6 pages. Then it’s right out. Here is a video that shows you exactly how it works. Enjoy.
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