A touch here, a touch there, and you’ll find out everything you want to know about a certain style of beer.

I absolutely love it, and for those of you with an iPhone/iPod Touch, the same program works on those as well – you don’t have to buy another copy.

More info:  Beer Judge Certification Program website and BJCP Styles on Apples App Store.

One of the apps that I’ve come to enjoy using on a daily basis is Today In History by Down-Shift Interactive. The History Channel is what originally made me a fan of history, but since I’ve stopped watching TV this is one of the things I’ve missed. Now, right here on my iPad, I have all of history in concise Twitter-sized spoonfuls. I actually look forward to my new daily ritual of sitting in my big comfy chair, cracking open the iPad like I would a book, and touching the icon for this program.

Up pops the historic events that happened on this day. Not just a few, and not just recent ones, but notable events in all of history are at your fingertips. Also are lists of who was born today, who died, and what significant calendar events — including holidays — are happening around the globe.

You don’t have to be online to enjoy it, as all the data is cached locally, but if you do happen to be online — and an item of interest compels you to share — you can, directly from the app, via email, Facebook, or Twitter. That in itself is pretty cool, but add to that, this app has it’s own built in social network where you can actually comment on each historic event and read what others have commented. You can friend these other commenters and have entire discussions with them.

All right there in the app. Seriously, this is something I never would have thought of, and never would have thought I’d enjoy — but I do. I mean, really, talk about “history coming alive…”

– Post From My iPad

Because they don’t, and because there’s a high demand for longer use between recharges, we have the option of iPhone cases that come with extra power built into them.  They do the trick, but at the cost of increasing the iPhone’s size and weight, and also – in many cases – reducing the signal strength.

This one from Tekkeon, however, does not suffer from loss of signal strength.  I can attest to that personally, as I’ve been using it for about two weeks now.  Signal strength actually seems to be better – probably because the iPhone thinks it’s plugged into external power (which in a way it is) and so doesn’t tone down signal strength as a power saving method.

(This is just a guess, based on my impression of using it.)

They have two versions, one made of faux leather (shown here) and one made from the real thing.  PETA-sympathizers will probably opt for the former, which is just as well because it’s less expensive but gives you the same capabilities.

Let me tell you, having the battery meter show full all day long is awesome.  To me it’s worth the extra size and weight.  Totally.  I use this phone constantly for just about everything, and now I can finally go all day without worrying about running out of power.

The case also doubles as a dock, and comes with a standard mini-USB cable that can be used to charge or data-connect the iPhone.  That in itself is really handy when you’re out and about and want to hook your iPhone up to a USB port but don’t have an Apple cable with you.  Your standard mini-USB cable that comes with some cameras and external hard drives works just fine.

The only control interface on the case is a single light, which changes color depending on what’s going on.  It’s simplistic but it works fine.  Green means your fully charged and ready.  Red means you’re drawing power from the battery, or that it is currently charging.  Dark means the case’s battery is dead and you’re running from the iPhone’s battery.

That’s another cool thing about this case – while the iPhone is running off the case battery, it’s bypassing the iPhone battery.  What typically happens to me is I run all day long, and just at about 5-6 PM the case’s power is depleted and it switches to the iPhone battery, which is still fully charged.

Since getting this case, I have not run my iPhone out of power, even with almost continuous use.

What people do have to keep in mind about the iPhone is that it’s not really a phone.  It’s a powerful miniature computer with telephony built into it.  The device has a powerful processor and a large screen.  It’s going to suck juice, and there’s no way around that.  So you either make it twice as big, which will turn a lot of people off, or you make it esthetically pleasing and then let third-party companies fill the gap.

This gizmo, which I hereby officially proclaim as very groovy, fills that gap perfectly.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s now permanently part of my iPhone.

Now instead of costing hundreds of dollars for something that will fly apart if you just look at it wrong, they’re only $30-$60 dollars, are relatively hardy, and you can even fly them around in your house.

Here’s two that I’ve been playing with for the last few weeks:

Think Geek’s Dark Blade ($29):

Air Hogs Havoc Heli ($29):

Basically we’ve arrived at a time where, if you’ve ever secretly lusted after those cool flying R/C toys you’ve seen the serious hobbyists playing with, you now have no excuse not to get one and indulge yourself.

What, you think you’re too old?  That since you’re an adult, you can’t do this?

Stop right there and rethink that.  If you’re not playing, you’re dying.

Let me say that one more time:  If you’re not playing, you’re dying.  It’s a fact that stress is one of the leading root causes of death in this modern world.  You need to unwind, relax, and not take everything so seriously.  And one good way to do that is to release your inner child and buy yourself a toy.

ThinkGeek.com has some of the most advanced designs, but — as I’ve found — the actual quality of the products are somewhat shoddy and if you have a problem with it, their customer service is lacking.

On the other hand, mainstream toy maker Spin Master, who produces the Air Hogs line of R/C toys, has pushed the price point incredibly low while still producing very high quality, durable, and innovative designs you can purchase at your local stores.  The Havoc Heli featured in the above video came from Toys R Us, and I’ve been seriously looking at their other designs in the Target right across the street from where I live.

The lightweight, powerful Li-Po rechargeable batteries and space-age construction materials are what have made these toys possible.  A twenty minute charge will give you about 10 minutes of flying time.  And each 10 minutes of flying will probably add another month to your lifespan, just by the pure fun it gives you.

I have one I fly around my corporate office environment, and while some may roll their eyes at me, most of them grin like a kid and their fingers itch to grab the controls.

I hand it over upon request.

Everyone deserves some fun.

What sold me on the Nikon D5000 was that — right there in the store, standing in a Costco in Warrenville, Illinois — I took test photos with just about every camera they had on display.  All showed nice, crisp photos, some better than others, and then I picked up this bad boy.  Took a shot – the same shot I was taking with all the others – and looked at the screen to see how it turned out.

I exclaimed, out loud in that store, with enough emphasis to startle people standing next to me:  “Whoa!”

I took a couple other pictures with the same reaction, then compared them with the two Canon DSLRs I’d been playing with.

Wow.  The depth of color, the crispness, the sense of presence, it’s unmatched.  The test photos weren’t only better, they were all a whole other level of better.

See for yourself.  Here’s a few examples of what I’ve taken since then:

I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of all the features.  I’ve found that when you put it into black and white mode, you get by default a very nice, high contrast shot – as opposed to the washed out B&W shots I’ve gotten with my other digital cameras, which you then have to photoshop afterwards.

Un-retouched black and white image direct from camera:

Other things I’ve found (but have yet to use) include an intervalometer setting that will allow you to take time lapse shots (which you can put together to make time-lapse movies, or even animation) and a stealth mode that makes the camera very, very quiet.  Couple that quiet feature with the fact that the screen opens and swivels, and allows you to take photos from around corners, and it’s perfect for spies, paparazzi, or perhaps even war correspondents.

For an in depth review of all the features, check it out here:  Nikon D5000 Review at Digital Photography Review

What it boils down to is that Nikon took the guts of their D90 professional camera (the outstanding image sensor and much of the features) and put them in this high-entry-level package.  The disadvantage of this camera is that you must use lenses that have the various motors for the auto-focus and anti-vibration control built into the lens itself, whereas if you go with the pro D90 model, the motors are built into the camera body.  Having them in the camera body gives you a much wider selection of lenses.

This is actually the second Nikon D5000 I’ve had.  Unfortunately there was a recall, and the serial number of my original camera fell into the recall range.  But instead of sending it in to a Nikon repair center, I took advantage of Costco’s 90-day no-questions-asked return policy, got my money back, and bought another one (for $100 less – they were on sale!) and the serial number of the new one was not on the recall list.

That was a happy day.

And, recall or not, this is one groovy camera.

It’s a horn.

That’s right, a horn.  Ancient technology, right?  Channeling and amplifying sound with nothing more than a shaped chamber.  It’s so beautiful an idea they actually made it translucent so that you could see the internal workings for yourself.  Pop your uber-high tech iPhone into this ancient-tech AirCurve acoustic amplifying horn and gain a full 10 decibels from the existing speaker at the bottom of the device, channeled artfully in a curve and out through the trumpet-like opening at the front.

Kudos to Griffin for coming up with something so foolproof that you can’t possibly screw it up without, say, running it over with your car.  And kudos to Griffin for it to actually work and sound good.

It comes with two different soft form-fitting cradles and will accept your existing charge/sync plug through a artful hole in the bottom.

This is one of the grooviest gizmos I’ve seen so far this year.  Here is something that applies the KISS principal perfectly.

So I’ll be working on a novel, or an article, or a short story, and then get this trilling sound from TweetDeck announcing a new message.  It gives me a little jolt of pleasure, and I alt-tab over to see who is doing what.  And since it’s usually 140 characters or less, I absorb it in an instant, then happily alt-tab back to what I was doing.

I live alone now, in a new place.  I don’t know many people here yet.  Occasionally I feel lonely.

When TweetDeck is up and running, though, I don’t.

This would probably be interesting fodder for some University psych study.  I can’t be the only one who finds companionship in TweetDeck.  When it’s running I don’t feel alone.

Case in point:  The trill just sounded.  I alt-tabbed over.  My cousin Traci, who was one of my dearest childhood companions, is going to see Aerosmith and ZZ Top tonight.

For some reason, just knowing that makes me happy.

I use TweetDeck on both my computer and my iPhone.  It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  It’s free.  And it’s hereby officially proclaimed groovy.

I am very sorry I shoveled so much ire on Windows Vista over the last few years, both privately and publically.  I approach with hat in hand and offer an apology.

Recently I decided to buy a new computer.  Because of being such a raving fan of my iPhone, I thought I would switch to a Mac.  Mac computers are very elegant.  Macs are beautiful.

But for me, ultimately, a Mac didn’t make any sense.  Not after I saw, and fell in love with, an HP Quad Core desktop machine with 8 gigs of RAM, and a huge and beautiful 23 inch wide screen monitor … for 2/3 the price of a Mac which, by tech specs alone, was only half the computer.

The only drawback, I thought, was that the HP came preloaded with Windows Vista.  Every experience I’ve had with Vista has been negative.  But, I thought, I’ll just uninstall it, put XP on it, and then upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out.

That’s not what happened, though.  It turns out with a powerful computer, 64-bit Windows Vista rocks.  It rocks hard.  Software I thought had been buggy (Firefox 3, which I had all but given up on) and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate (don’t try and say that with only one breath) both of them are rock solid on Vista.

On this computer, Vista runs effortlessly, and it multitasks like a supercomputer of yore.

It’s beautiful, elegant, and solid.  The operating system I thought I would hate, I have found I actually love.  Sure, it may suck on a lesser computer.  On hardware that is not worthy.  But on this machine?  Dare I say it?  It’s downright sexy.

And my apologies to Steve Jobs and Apple, and all the Apple fans out there, but this HP desktop kicks ass.  Vista kicks ass.

AND, something that people don’t figure in until it’s too late, I didn’t have to re-purchase all my software for the Mac platform.  That was really the nail in the coffin when I was teetering between choosing a Mac and a PC.  I have a significant investment in software.

So once again, Mr. Gates I am sorry for the loads of ire.  That is in the past.

And take heart Mr. Jobs, you still get a chunk of my money, as I pick up my new iPhone 3Gs tomorrow.

Here’s a lesson I’ve learned, not just in this instance but in many instances, and it holds true.  Brand loyalty is stupid.  It fosters complacency.  It even harms the companies you love, because what drives companies to continuously improve is competition.  If you’ve become a brand-loyal cash cow to your favorite company, you’re undermining the system of competition – and that actually ends up hurting the company you support.

I still like Apple better than I do Microsoft, and certainly more than I like HP (and I used to work for HP), but Mac computers are too expensive and too underpowered.  I don’t care how elegant they are.

Vista is pretty damn elegant if you give it a chance.  And I can’t wait to put Windows 7 on this thing.

But, I’ve decided, only after Windows 7 gets its SP1.

Fast, more stable that both IE 8 and the current buggy Firefox (seriously, I love Firefox, but it crashes so often now I’m ready to abandon it entirely), and it protects you, too.  Neither IE8 or Firefox warned me that this site hosted malware … and even if it turns out to be a false alarm, I don’t care.  Better safe than sorry.