1Password 3 Hands on Review.

Downloading and installing 1Password is a cinch. As with any mac application, you download the .dmg, open it and drag the icon to your applications folder. Job done. 1Password is no different here and the install is complete within moments. However, 1Password is a little different here in that the app looks gorgeous. We really do get spoiled as mac users – surrounded by so much awesome app design of which 1Password is one of the top.

Once installed, and we’ve entered our license info, everything is ready to go!

First step is to click on “New Data File”. The next screen allows us to enter our master password. It also features a beautifully intricate icon of a safe.

Obviously, we wont show you what we put here. This password will be used to access your data file, so make sure you remember it!

Next up, we need to install browser extensions. These give 1Password access to the application or service you want it to remember the password for.

Add-ons are available for:

• Safari
• Firefox
• Camino
• Omniweb
• WebKit
• NetNewsWire
• DEVONagent
• Fluid
• Flock
• iCab

And that’s it! You just need to enter in your identities (so you can sign-up to new sites and services with 1click!).

1Password looks awesome and makes you feel like a spy or hacker from the movies when using it. Genius!

Features

Once your in you can really appreciate the app. Its very, very easy to use.

You have the option to store log-ins for sites, accounts (such as those for MobileMe or emails), Identities (which offer up address and contact details storage), secure notes, software licenses and Financial passwords e.t.c)

Security

Of Course, if your like me, you want to know if all this data is secure. Here’s what 1Password say about the matter:

Passwords Are Encrypted Using Your Master Password

When you run 1Password for the first time, you create a Master Password that is used to encrypt your data. No one will be able to view your passwords or other confidential information without knowing the password.

All you need to do to stay secure is to pick one strong password and commit it to memory. Since it is only a single password, you can make it long and secure. A password nine characters or longer that is not based on a dictionary word or phrase will protect you from even the toughest criminals.

For the real techno-geeks, here’s some info about the actual encryption method used.

How Strong is 1Password’s Encryption?

The short answer is that it is very strong.

The slightly longer answer is that your data is encrypted using AES, the same state-of-the-art encryption algorithm used as the national standard in the United States. 1Password uses 128-bit keys for encryption, which means that it would take millions of years for a criminal to decrypt your data using a brute force attack.

For the really long answer, full technical details on the encryption algorithm, key generation, and FIPS compliance, please see the Agile Keychain Design document.

Over your head? Rest-assured this app is pretty darn secure.

Test

Now it’s time to give this app a whirl. I enter my twitter account information.

Hey, stop peeking!

Now with the browser bar, I can shoot on over to twitter, and….

I’m logged in. It’s that easy!

Some of the features I found most useful was the ability to make boring, ordinary credit card purchases into one-click actions. Like most of the mac community, I have a fair few Macs. You can sync between the 2 (or more) by using an app like DropBox. The user guide has a tutorial on how to do so.

agile.ws/products/1Password/user_guide

We should also note that the 1Password Firefox and Safari manager automatically gives you a pop up box when you fill in a new form, asking if you would like to save a new identity. This is the most helpful and easiest way to just ‘set it and forget it’ for your passwords. As long as you backup with Dropbox (or MobileMe) you should be pretty much good to go. One of the team members here at Apple Reviews has been using 1Password for around 2.5 years, with MobileMe sync, from a Mac Pro to a Macbook Air, with no problems at all, even after a hard drive fail, since data is in 3 places at once, it easily syncs back.

1Password is available for the jaw-droppingly good value of $39! Your going to make that money back within a week of not having to fill out forms and logins anymore! You should check out the 1Password site here.

Giveaway

As promised, we have 2 copies of 1Password (worth $39 each) to giveaway. To get your hands on one of them, all you need to do is follow our twitter account @applereviews and tweet the following message. Big thanks to the guys at 1Password for providing us with the copies. Winners will be announced on Wednesday 2nd December.

follow @AppleReviews to win a copy of 1Password by @1Password http://bit.ly/R2StS

EDITORS NOTE:   We are currently doing a full hands on review of the iPad. We are currently finishing testing the 4G in Vancouver and San Fransisco, as well as testing for over-heating issues. The full review will come in the next couple days. We have not experienced any over-heating issues at all with our demo model. Overall, it is almost perfect. Just add two speakers in better locations, make it a little lighter, and it is perfect.

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If you’re debating whether to upgrade from your iPad 2 or, now seemingly ancient, iPad, here are some reasons you might opt for the switch.

The Display

Just like on the iPhone 4S, the breakthrough retina display makes everything look that much better. With all your images on the screen crisper than ever before, and far more lifelike, each razor-sharp text and image will bring forth those colors that deserve to be there. The screen is home to 3.1 million pixels that are powered by a new A5X chip, with every bit so perfectly detailed. It has a 2048 by 1536 resolution, which also has a 44 perfect greater color saturation. With four times the number of pixels than the iPad2 and a million more than an HDTV, your eyes can hardly even fathom it. The technology used for this is the first of its kind, and Apple engineers specially elevated each pixel from its signal so quality is the highest possible.

The A5X chip has quad-core graphics, driving super power to the pixels with a quick response time. Fast and reliable, it’s always ready at your fingertips.

The Battery Life

Despite all of the speed and improvements in the display, don’t fret about the battery life. Users will still get up to ten hours of use on the new iPad.

The Camera

The new iPad has a much-improved camera, featuring 5 megapixels with advanced optics, a backside illumination sensor, auto white balance, face detection, and more. You can also record 1080p HD video. The iSight camera’s backside illumination sensor creates autofocused exposure regardless of the lighting. The video has an automatic stabilization feature, so recording is clear and crisp. The camera uses advanced optics with an f/2.4 aperture and five element lens, and delivers a sharp, clean image.

The Speed

The new iPad is equipped with the next-generation wireless technology, letting users connect to fast data networks, up to 4G LTE. It is specially designed with celluar antennas that have access to a larger frequently spectrum, meaning pretty much anywhere you are, you’re connected. Because it supports these everywhere, you can surf the web, download, and get work done at quick, efficient speeds. It is compatible with GSM/UMTS, as well as HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSDPA, with downlink speeds up to 42 Mbps and 21.1 Mbps.

Even better, the new iPad is a personal hotspot, so users can share their data connection for up to five devices, including your iPod touch, iPad, iPhone, Macbook Air, Macbook, and more, all over WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB.

So what do we think? We think it’s pretty awesome, and a great upgrade, especially if you have an iPad first generation or (!) no iPad at all. It still is home to the iOS that we love so dearly, and is connected to iCloud for easy access to all of your content on all of your devices.

Stay tuned as we review it more, along with apps, in the next couple weeks.

Pixelmator has to be one of the best looking applications for the mac. The interface, the icon and even the sales site show how much the developers consider and care about design.

It’s quite inspiring!

First thoughts and tools

Now, I could compare Pixelmator with Photoshop. But, I’m not going to. Yes, it does have alot of the tools Photoshop has, but this app is $59. Photoshop is not, so already Pixelmator is heads above Adobe’s image editor.

Just a few of the Pixelmator tools available, they are Marquee tool, Polygonal Lasso, Freeform lasso, magic wan, pen, brush, eraser and paint bucket respectively.

Recently, Pixelmator integrated a ‘Save for Web’ feature (think image optimization for the web, aswell as the ability to slice), which is very handy. Pixelmator also supports Snow Leopard.

Before we give you a list of all the tools available, let us just say one thing. Each tool works perfectly and the range available means quite often you can forgo booting up a more expensive image editing program, because Pixelmator is feature-rich. Another thing I like is that the devs could have gone over the top, adding features to bloat out the app. But they haven’t. It has a refreshing simplistic feel and interface.

Features:

• Use over 20 tools for selecting, cropping, painting, retouching, typing, measuring and navigation
• Selection tools
  • Rectangular Marquee
  • Elliptical Marquee
  • Polygonal Lasso
  • Lasso
  • Magic Wand
  • Move
  • Modify selection
    • Smooth
    • Feather
    • Size
  • Inverse selection
  • Load selection from layer
  • Save selection as Mask
  • Edit selection in Quick Mask mode
• Crop tool
• Slice tool
• Painting tools
  • Brush
  • Pencil
  • Gradient
  • Paint Bucket
  • Specify blend mode, opacity, brush for painting tool
• Retouching tools
  • Clone Stamp
  • Eraser
  • Magic Eraser
  • Blur
  • Sharpen
  • Specify strength, brush. Specify blending mode, brush, opacity for Clone Stamp tool.
• Type tool
  • Creates editable type layer
• Measuring and navigation tools

• Eyedropper
• Hand
• Zoom

Remember, this app is $59. Not $590 or $1590. $59! The developers quite rightly boast “The application has everything you need to create, edit, and enhance images.”

The above list doesn’t include all the Filters (of which there are 130+) and color correction tools, as well as Automator support for actions (such as re-size e.t.c).

Feature wise then Pixelmator is way up there. We tested ours on a 2.4Ghz iMac with 4GB ram, and there was no delay what-so-ever! Performance is great. Pixelmator works so intuitively (alot of effects are generated real time on your actual image as opposed to some small thumbnail or preview).

Test

Now we couldn’t review an image editor without showing you some of the images we made with it could we?

This image was generated in about a minute using some filters. Looks pretty cool (love the floor filter!)

This image has been auto-enhance on the right. Note the increased contrast (less washout) and general more vividness. Note, the image was taken on an iPhone 3G.

Testing out the blur tool and Clone tool.

One final little play with our test image, using a built in filter. We could spend hours playing around.

Interface

I really love the interface! It’s very Photoshop-esque, however, I think that’s because it works well. You have tools on the left, layers top right, tool options bottom left and brush settings / swatches to the lower right. And the image taking pride of place in the middle. The icons are great, very self explanatory, and everything is linked to a shortcut key (such as CMD + Shift + N for a new layer), so getting around is very easy.

Final verdict

We may just have to re-visit Pixelmator in the future to give you further impressions. We really love the app. It’s fast, easy to use and good value. What more could you want? If your looking for a lightweight, no thrills but hard-working image editor look elsewhere. Pixelmator is a thrill-full powerhouse. The price alone makes it a serious consideration for any mac user who needs a clean application to work with images. If my Granddad ever gets a Mac, and needs to edit his photo’s, Pixelmator will suit him fine. Its so easy to pick-up. However, if a power-user friend is looking for an app that keenly focuses on quick and easy image editing, I’ll recommend it to him too! An app for the masses!

Pixelmator is well worth the $59 the developers charge for it! My only minor qualm is that I’d like some sort of Vector tool. Apparently, trawling through their site it appears as though they could be doing something about that. Great!

Pixelmator is available from http://www.pixelmator.com/. For more information about the application and its features click here. For more examples of the application in use, including tutorials by the likes of Abuzeedo, you should click here.

A tidy package arrived in our office a few hours ago. The little package from FedEx was duly opened, and neatly nestled inside, we found THE most beautiful hard drive ever. Find out what we think to the brand new 2TB G-Drive in today’s review.

What a piece of kit! This is quite easily the most beautiful mac accessory ever! The machining and build is second to one. I’m not an expert on CNC machining, however I do see that the finish is absolutely flawless. This product is Apple-level quality. The case comprises of an outer shell wrapped around an inner cage, with small air holes that add a real classy finish and presumably aid cooling and ventilation.

Spacing and fitting around the hard drive is uniform and only adds to the high-caliber finish. It looks right at home on my desk next to the iMac – finally a hard drive I am proud to show off! Every detail serves a function as well as looking fantastic, somewhat similar to Apples own memorandum. The G-technology guys have put some serious thought and design into this product. Its easy to see that whilst visually pleasing, each element of the hard-drive serves a functional purpose. Each detail is carefully perfected and the finished product reflects this. The whole case has a lovely, mottled effect, similar to the iMac finish but slightly more pro-found. Even the G logo on the front looks amazing, with a grooved effect to the logo, mounted on an acrylic / polycarbonate plate that lights up white when the hard drive is active. The case is very sturdy, with a heavy feel to it, which adds to the quality.

The whole item weighs 2.6lbs – this is a monster of a hard drive. It’s compatible with both OSX and Windows 2000 / XP / Vista. As you can see from the pictures we’ve included, the hard drive has to be seen to be believed. Even the under-side has been carefully crafted, with a large heat sink placed on the bottom designed to keep the heat down.

Set-up

Setting up the massive 2tb hard drive is a doddle. Simply plug it in to your mac using one of the supplied cables, and power up the drive. We were supplied with a US fitting plug, fortunately we had an AC / DC adapter from another external hard drive (that was made by the same company too) and within minutes we had a huge back-up hard drive up and running. We chose to use the Fire-wire 400 port in our mac. The whole thing looks very neat, with only 2 wires entering the drive.

I was very pleased by the amount of cables included in the package. Normally, I’d expect a USB cable to be included, and I’d be pretty happy if that was all. However, the hard drive also ships with:

1x 3Gbit, eSATA
2x FireWire 800 (9-pin)
1x USB2.0
(FireWire 400 via 800 to 400 cable – which we used to connect to our 2008 iMac test model)

These aren’t little 1 foot long cables either, included to save money. No, these are 1.6, 1.8 and 0.6 meter long cables respectively, meaning you can have your hard drive placed up to 5 foot away from your workstation if needed.

On your desk

Upon powering up, the G Drive took perhaps 10 seconds to register as a drive to the Mac. Shortly it would be time to test it, but we wanted to talk about how the devices works in terms of noise, size e.t.c

On your desk the hard drive sits pretty right next to your mac. It runs with a pleasant sound – its pretty quiet and has a Macbook Pro sort of sound to it. As with other drives, expect the occasional whizz and whir as the platters spin round, but in general the hard drive is no noisier (or annoying) than your average clock or colleague.

The hard drive is a reasonable sized piece of kit, it’s not huge, it’s not small, its just about the right size. it fits snugly under my Dell 24″ monitor, but I have chosen to place it further away to allow air to access the awesome looking heat-sink on the lower-side. To sum up, if you buy this hard drive, everyone knows you mean business, it transforms any desk to look like something out of Star Trek Enterprise (TNG).

Performance

Now for the fun bit. The hard drive looks mean and purposeful, but can it live up to performance tests? Running a few tests, transferring 1-3GB files, we found the drive to be blisteringly fast. The disk runs at 7,200 RPM, with up to 32MB of cache. I expected the transfer of one file, which contained 3.75GB of data to take around 20 minutes (perhaps even 30 minutes) as I had become accustomed to my slower, cheaper previous external drive. After 1 minute we’d transferred close to 1GB of data. I couldn’t believe it!

The OSX data transfer windows tells me at 2.2GB there’s a minute left In all the whole operation took 3 minutes 48 seconds.Very quick indeed! A result I am thoroughly happy with.

As a back-up drive for a designer or developer, the G-Drive will be asked to do a lot of work. But, from our tests I can tell you its going to take everything you throw at it. This is like a marine of the hard drive world.

Transfer speeds could be even faster, if we had a Firewire 800 port, we could expect speeds of 75MBps writing and 55mbps writing.

With Esata this is even more impressive, 113mbps reading speeds, with similar writing speeds. This drive is pretty future proof.

The drive knows how to keep cool too! It’s been running now for about an hour or two non-stop. To the touch its not even warm, a push to even call it tepid. I haven’t given it an easy time, it’s backed up half my computer now! The design of the case surely helps this, as the drive stands on what look like 4 legs, squat like a rhino. The benefit of this means the underside is open to cooling air. its large 4 x 2 inch heat sink is completely exposed. The aluminium cover also helps to keep things cool, dissipating any heat generated. It’s not got that much of an easy environment to work in either. Currently its about 22 degrees indoors. It’s winter here, and outside is chilly to say the least. We have the heating on, leaving the office rather toasty so we don’t freeze our little fingers. Consequently, the hard drive is dealing with that extra heat too.

The underside heat-sink. Just out of frame are the rubber pads that grip the drive to your desk, and cushion the metal from scratching.

Verdict

I’m not traditionally a very easy to person to please. Even the great Apple iMac has a few niggles that bug me. But this drive is probably the first ever product I say I’m 100% happy with. There’s nothing that could be done to make this drive better. It looks great, performs insanely fast and is a pleasure to use. Nothing major stands out and that really demonstrates the work and effort that has gone into creating the perfect hard drive for video and web professionals alike. The speeds of the hard drive are impressive and the G-Drive packs some horsepower under its beautifully crafted hood.We had the 2TB model to test, that’s a lot of storage! But thanks to the G-Drive we know we can restore back-ups at blistering speeds and more importantly, reliably. A great hard-drive, and the best product I’ve tested all year clean room data recovery locations.

If your on the look-out for an external back-up or network storage drive, this device should be the only one on your list. Forget about wasting your money on anything else! Get a G-Drive, and you’ll love it!

The G-Drive is available in 500GB – 2TB configurations, and ranges from $149.99 (500GB) to $349.99 for the top spec, 2TB drive we had. The drive is literally worth every penny. I have no intention of ever switching to another drive manufacturer and will be highly recommending G-Technology products to my peers and contacts. The G-Drive isn’t the only G-Tech product though! They have all kinds of drives and RAID devices. You should head on over to the G-Technology website, where you can find out more about their awesome products: http://www.g-technology.com/index.cfm

The product is extremely well built. It feels solid and strong in the hand, which makes a change from some of the other aftermarket parts available – matching Apple’s build quality. The Hypermac battery is designed to extend your portable work life, if your on the go and your battery goes flat, the Hypermac can extend battery life by several hours, giving a combined run time of up to 12 hours.

Features

• Use your MacBook for up to 12 hours without recharging
• Power your MacBook and recharge the internal battery at the same time
• Uses original Apple MagSafe power connector for maximum compatibility
• Compatible with all models of Apple MacBook / MacBook Pro / MacBook Air
• Additional USB port powers any USB device (e.g. iPhone) simultaneously
• High capacity 60-Watt-hour (compared to MacBook Air 37Wh battery)
• Military grade lithium ion cells, rechargeable up to 1000 times
• Advanced safety protection circuitry
• Beautiful aluminum housing color matched to complement the MacBook
• Laser engraved logo and all-white accessories
• Optional car charger powers your MacBook safely and efficiently on the road
• ONE year warranty

The size of the battery means it will fit in any bag or notebook sleeve which has storage for peripherals. Size-wise its certainly very small, we think appropriate to the extra-battery performance it affords and equally as light, weighing at only 0.8 pounds. Sitting in your notebook sleeve its hardly noticeable, no more than carrying a few moleskines or your iPhone and a camera.

The battery itself is a Lithium ION type, providing good reliability and up to 1000 charge cycles, meaning this battery should last you many a trip away from the desk. Charging the battery takes around 2 to 3 hours, no more than a fully discharged iPhone or Macbook takes.

The battery itself looks great next to the new unibody Macbooks, though its noted that this particular model doesn’t suit the 15″ and 17″ Macbook Pro models. It’s also possible to charge your iPhone of these batteries, and larger capacity, more powerful versions are available for the larger Macbook Pros.

Included in box

• HyperMac External Battery
• 1 x MacBook charging cable with MagSafe connector
• AC power supply 100-240V (for charging HyperMac)
• Printed documentation

You get everything you need to start charging your Mac or iPhone on the go straight from the box. Hypermac also offer an optional in car charger, for the ultimate portable charging toolkit! A highly impressive product indeed! 100% recommended and with prices starting from $199, can you afford not to increase the time you get to spend on the road without worrying about finding a power outlet?

Hypermac is available from the Hyperstore, with prices starting from $199.95 for the base model battery.

It is by far the best car stand we’ve tested. It offers great strength, flexibility and durability. The Xtand Go has many intelligent features, which we’ll cover in our review below…

Features

As usual, we’ll start with specs. The Xtand Go on paper looks like a competent and flexible stand. It offers up additional pads that can be used to secure the Xtand Go to a dashboard, or a generic device. Because these pads are universal in fitting (either as a dashboard or gadget mount) you get 4 or 5 in the pack. That’s a brilliant idea, as it allows you to use the stand in several cars or on a TomTom, an iPhone and Blackberry as you wish.

• Flexible mounting system

• X-mount for iPhone 3GS/ iPhone 3G
• Go Button mount for smart phones and sat-navs
• Pocket-sized and portable

The Xtand is made from a tough, durable plastic. At the top, you have an iPhone holder. This fits the iPhone perfectly – the phone is held very securely in place, ideal when you start hitting more bumpy roads. Not that it’s so strong you’ll never be able to release your iPhone from it’s grip, a molded tab situated on one car means removal of the iPhone is very simple and practical. In the above picture, you can see one of the Xtand’s mounting blocks. These slot into the stands base, but can easily be removed by pressing the small clips on the base.

The instructions have very easy to follow diagrams, rather than wordy directions.

The windscreen sucker. This is by the far the best qyality sucker I’ve tried by any aftermarket company. Most other designs usually fall off at least 3 times before they stick permently. Because the Xtand’s base is removable, it’s easily fit to the windscreen – with the sucker providing good even pressure. Application works the first time every time! Removing from your windsheild is a synch! Just twist the base ring anti clockwise a little, and peel off using the tab on the suckers surface!

The base is made of 3 separate blocks. Each block pivots from one edge, but also rotates 360 degrees. That means you’ll be bale to fit this stand pretty much anywhere and configure it to suit you and your vehicle. Even when the 3 blocks are fanned out , the base is still very sturdy with minimal wobble whilst traveling.

The 3 block system in action. Note the articulation in each segment. On the right most block, you can see on of the clips that facilitates quick release of either the stand from your car, or the device on the other end from the base.

The fully assembled stand, stands at around 3 or 4 inch tall with the top block tilted).

Here you can see the Xtand secured to a windshield. The sucker on the bottom works faultlessly. In this configuration there is literally zero movement whilst traveling on even the roughest roads. Note the suckers removal tab.

You can physically see the connection made here, it’s almost rock solid. The darker areas indicate where the rubber has sealed to the glass. It would probably secure more if we’d have applied a little pressure and cleaned our windscreen – but we wanted to give it a real world test, which it handled effortlessly.

Here we have TomTom iPhone edition at work, held perfectly in the corner of our windscreen. You can position the Xtand almost anywhere (as you’ll see shortly) so you can affix it in a location that suits your driving style and car. We like it to be well out of our line of view, close to our speedometer and rev counter. The top left tab is visible in this photo.

Positioned  in a non-distracting, safe manner. This sits well below the level of our steering wheel hump.

Here we see one of the stand mounts. These have an adhesive backing, and can be attached to generic devices, your dashboard, roof lining – anywhere they’ll stick. These can also be attached to your favorite case for super speedy iPhone placement.

In a preferable position on our dash. We love it placed here, as it’s in no way obstructing the drivers line of sight and can be quickly referenced without taking ones attention away from the road. We plan to mount it on the dash across several cars, and the pads are ideal for this as the mount is always in place.

Drivers eye view

We also prefer the dash mount for security reasons, it doesn’t leave that tell tale sucker mark on the window for thieves to see. Rather, you’re left with a discreet and uninteresting block on the dashboard.

Conclusion

The Xtand Go by Just Mobile is one serious piece of kit! If you ever use Sat Nav or your iPod in your car, this is an absolute must, but forget any other car stand – it has to be the Xtand Go. Available from a large number of stockists worldwide. Visit JustMobile for more information

The Mophie Juice Pack Air in action

Checking your emails, playing some light games and playing films suck your iPhone’s battery quicker than you can say “Oh, where’s my charger?”. You might consider purchasing an external, top-up mobile charger for your iPhone or even a car charger. But the external battery is just another thing for you to carry or to lose. You’re not always with your car, and not everyone has one.

The Mophie is well protected in it’s packaging…

The instructions are pretty handy…

With that in mind, we review the Mophie Juice Pack Air.

The Juice Pack Air is a combined case / iPhone external battery. Mophie claim the device will virtually double your 3G or 3Gs’ talk, surf or rock time.

The Mophie has been officially certified by Apple, as a “Works with iPhone 3G(S)” product and provides both protection and extended life for your phone. Let’s take a closer look at the Juice Pack Air.

The Juice Pack consists of 2 ‘halves’ – a short top that envelops the leading edge of the iPhone – with cut-outs for the camera, power & silence buttons and the headphone jack.

The 2 halves of the Mophie

The bottom half has an iPhone dock, 2 moulded dimples that open up the speaker and mic that would other wise be covered. On the bottom edge, where the normal dock would be, is a mini-usb port for charging the Mophie and a small rocker switch to toggle charging modes.

The part fitted Juice Pack Air!

Finally on the rear you’ll find 4 small blue LED lights that indicate the power level of the Mophie’s internal battery.

The LED’s indicate battery level

The whole case is finished in a high gloss finish and is available in either black (like our review sample), white, purple or a new soft-touch finish red.

As a case, the Mophie is impressive. It’s made of a very tough plastic and the case follows the iPhone contours and buttons closely – minimizing dirt and dust ingress.

Ergonomically, the case is very good. In the hand, it feels chunky but not uncomfortable. Mophie have done well to keep this case as thin as it is, thanks to the clever design and lightweight battery. Once fitted you really don’t notice the Mophie one bit – that is until you need to top up your iPhone.

Iphone profile vs the Mophie

Picture the scenario. Your in town, on the move on your way to a very important annual meeting. You simply must not lose contact with the office as all calls are been forwarded to your iPhone. But what’s this? You’re incredibly forgetful, and you haven’t charged your iPhone this morning. Fortunately, you have your Mophie Juice Pack fitted, and that is fully charged thanks to it’s stand-by mode that conserves the Mophie’s battery level.

So, you flick the switch – and your iPhone is heading out of the red – and should see you double the iPhone battery level.

The Mophie is a real life saver.

The Juice Pack air saving your life

To give you an idea of double, here’s how the 3G and 3GS currently stand on time:

3GS:

• Standby Time: Up to 270 hours
• Talk Time: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G | Up to 10 hours on 2G
• Internet Use: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G | Up to 8 hours on Wi-Fi
• Audio Playback: Up to 27 hours
• Video Playback: Up to 9 hours

iPhone 3G:

• Standby Time: Up to 270 hours
• Talk Time: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G | Up to 9 hours on 2G
• Internet Use: Up to 4.5 hours on 3G | Up to 5.4 hours on Wi-Fi
• Audio Playback: Up to 20 hours
• Video Playback: Up to 6 hours

Battery

Now it’s time to talk tech.

The Mophie has a built in LiPo battery rated at 1200mAh. LiPo’s are very light batteries and relatively small in form factor – meaning the Mophie adds little to the iPhone in weight or bulk. The battery has built in overcharge, short-circuit and temperature protection – which is always nice.

Charging the iPhone is super simple – simply connect your iPhone to your Mac and you can still charge (both the iPhone and the Mophie simultaneously) and sync the phone using the ‘pass-though’ usb – remember, there’s a dock connector built into the Mophie.

Using Intelligent Power Distribution, the Mophie always tells the iPhone to run off the Mophie power over it’s own battery – so when the Mophie runs out, you still have a fully charged iPhone.

Verdict

The Mophie get’s a huge thumbs up from us, giving it the Apple Reviews seal of approval

To conclude, the Mophie Juice Pack Air is the product I want to take on my next trip – thanks to it’s unique case / battery concept. Other batteries we’ve tried only clog up your luggage – whereas the Mophie is right there on your phone all your time. It’s very comfortable too, adds little weight and size to the phone – and it looks good.

This is THE external battery you’ll want to buy for quick-out-and-about topping up of your iPhone’s battery.

You can purchase the Juice Pack Air directly from Mophie for $79.99.

Simply click here: http://www.mophie.com/product-p/1059_jpa-ip3g-blk.htm

Check out Part I of our tips, Part II, and keep reading for more…

Automatic Trash Emptying

Though you would think that Automator can empty your trash automatically, considering it can move items there automatically, it actually doesn’t. However, savvy users can create an AppleScript that accomplishes this task. To do this, launch Automator, then choose the kind of workflow you want to create. In the next window, choose Utilities and drag the AppleScript to the workflow area. Highlight the text and enter the following:

tell application “Finder”
empty the trash
end tell

Save this workflow to the desktop, and put something in the trash, and double click the workflow. It should empty.

Using Stickies to their potential

Most folks love Stickies, and they definitely give you a lot to be organized with. But here are a couple more things that’ll make you love it even more. One is using the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-Y, which automatically creates a new note with text that you have just highlighted. The other approach is highlighting your information, then dragging it to the Stickies icon on your Dock. A new note will appear. Excellent.

Built-in Reminders for iOS 5

Apple’s built-in reminders tool can give you more than just storing simple lists. When you launch it, a blank list  appears. Here you can crate mulitple reminders and assign lists to each of them. To add a new list, tap the Edit button, then Create New List. Title it, tap Done, and edit when necessary. Other than lists, you can also create tasks, which are basically reminders.

There are two ways to add them. You can tap the [+] button at the top, or the top blank space on the “paper”.

Type the task, then either tap the Return key on the keyboard or tap Done. You can schedule this at a specific time or location. Tap the entry, go to Details, and tap Remind Me button to schedule a time. If you want it to alert you at a specific location, slide the Location slider to On, and you  schedule your alert to sound when you arrive at or depart from the destination. By default it is your address, but you can choose any in your address book. If you don’t have it in there, go to Contacts, tap [+], put the location, click done, and there it is.

Simplifying with Siri

An addendum to the Reminders above, Siri works really well with these. If you use an iPhone 4S, just hold down the Home button so Siri is activated and instruct her with the words “Remind me” (IE “Remind me to get eggs from the grocery store”). Follow her prompts to set the reminder for when you need it.

Other ways to use DropBox

I love to use DropBox to integrate between all my devices, but also with co-workers, family, and friends. Here are some of our other ways to use it:

• Keep current projects in there so you can access them anywhere
• Share a file with your family to easily send photos
• Work easily with your coworkers to send and adapt files to each other
• Build your music library and share along your with your family members
• Store encrypted files for extra privacy
• Use as your sole “Documents” folder to keep everything in one place

Everyone will find this program useful in some form.

Built within the app are sections for:

• Drawing
• Brainstorming
• Organizational Charts
• Space Planning

Pre-defined templates

Drawing

OGP is provided with pre-installed maps, furniture and all kinds of fun web design stencils. However, there are free (and some paid) 3rd party stencils available.

This stencil by Koingi is available for free, and allows you to quickly begin developing wire frames with OGP.

Or even an iPhone UI kit: http://graffletopia.com/stencils/413

Brainstorming

Brainstorming / Navigation planning works great with OGP! The interface includes a slick, subtle animation effect when adding elements to charts.

Space Planning

A bizarre room design, but this diagram demonstrates the space planning feature, along with extensive furniture and appliance objects.

From the range of available stencils, I can see OGP is highly flexible but produces some impressive (and quick) results every time.

Verdict

This application is absolutely phenomenal! Highly recommended for anyone who ever needs to create Charts, Wireframes and Diagrams of any sort. The add-ons available are great, opening up the app to even UI designers. Creating diagrams is super quick. Everything about the app is perfect. My only slight concern is using it on a 13″ screen over the 44inch desktop set-up we have felt a little cramped. Nothing major. Most programs do….

To sum-up, if your after a highly professional, affordable and easy to use Diagram and Interface Editing power-house OmniGraffle Pro is for you! This app could have been completely bloated, like a 200foot blue whale been carted around by a Donkey. But the finished product is elegant and unbelievably easy to work with. Well done to the dev and interface teams!

The Pro license is avaialble for $199.99 here, The Standard version is available for $99 but lacks features such as Visio Export and presentation mode.

All you need to do to enter is follow us on twitter and leave us some comments, and await further updates on entering the comp. We’re in the process of putting the finishing touches to our competition site, and we hope to announce more details about products on offer in the next week or so. We know you are excited as we are, so stay tuned to AppleReviews and be ready to win some seriously great Apple tech. For the best Data Recovery for Mac.

If you’d like to offer up prizes for the competition, contact our Editor, Justin Heartland, and he will talk you through the exact plans of the comp, and offer you a sneak peak of the site design. Companies who provide products for the giveaway will get some great exposure and traffic. We have some great advertising packages up on offer as well.

For those of you can’t wait that long, we are doing weekly giveaways starting last week, we just announced the winners of full copies of CSSEdit, and Espresso from MacRabit on Twitter.

We can’t wait to start doing some really amazing Apple Deals in the coming weeks, we have some amazing things lined up!

Cheers,

Justin Heartland, Editor, Apple Reviews.