On the basis of a ton of good reviews from reputable audiophiles, I recommended a set of Audioengine 2 (A2) Premium Powered Desktop Speakers. These are simple, self-powered desktop speakers that will connect to just about anything. They come with all the cables you’ll need to hook them up to your desktop computer, TV, game console, or iPod. (One of the guys on the Audioengine team was formerly with Apple, and their products show an Apple-like attention to detail. That connection also helped me make the sale to my colleague, who is a major Apple fanboy.)

Audioengine also makes a larger, bookshelf speaker, the 5, which has more power. But the 2’s are getting even better reviews for their sound than the 5’s. Both systems can be used with a sub if you want more bottom end. But they sound great right out of the box. Also, my colleague is an iPhone user, and unshielded speakers tend to buzz in proximity to his phone. We didn’t experience this issue with the 2’s.

At $199, the 2’s are a bargain. They sound large. The sound seems to come from beyond the speakers, creating a “soundstage” with more width and depth than the physical space they occupy. They’re also attractive, with hand-polished wood cabinets. I was impressed! If you’re looking for realistic, uncolored sound, look no further.

• How much more space do you need?
• What will you use it for?
• Who needs access?
• Does this data need to be available online?
• Where will any new devices go?
• How do you want them connected?

Working out a plan for storing and backing up files is complicated by the wide range of choices available these days. But I found an article at Macworld.com that helps sort out one section of the puzzle—online storage. It’s a side-by-side comparison of seven online storage solutions.

CrashPlan, one of Macworld’s favorite picks for online storage

The article points out some of the obvious benefits of online storage: protection against data loss from a fire, natural disaster, theft, or hard‑drive failure. The solutions Macworld.com reviewed will let you restore files from anywhere through a web browser.

But there’s some potential downside. What happens to your data if your online storage provider goes out of business? And what about privacy and legal issues? Unless the backup site provides a personal encryption option, your data may be more vulnerable than it is behind your own firewall. (My advice: If your data is sensitive, don’t back it up online! Keep a local or secure off‑site backup instead.)

Enough scare tactics! For plain old work files, family photos, music, and so on, online storage is great. You’ll need a fast internet connection, but the best solutions are rated as pretty easy to use. You can schedule your backups to take place while you sleep, then have peace of mind that your data is safe out there in the ether.

Macworld’s favorite online storage/backup solutions? CrashPlan and Jungle Disk. Read the article to find out more.

“2.1” means that this system includes left and right speakers plus a subwoofer. In the ProMedia system, the subwoofer contains the power supply for the other two speakers. The simple installation begins with setting up the left and right speakers wherever you want within the 30-foot range of where you’ll use your laptop or desktop computer. Connect them to the subwoofer, and plug it into a power outlet. Then plug the transmitter—a tiny device that looks like a thumb drive—into one of the USB ports on your computer.

Once you’re all hooked up, launch iTunes—or Pandora, or another source of your choosing—and play some music. If you have an iPod Touch or an iPhone, you can also install Apple’s Remote app to turn your handheld device into a remote control for iTunes.

Wireless, really?

For those of you who can’t forget the disastrous early attempts at wireless sound, keep in mind that Apple has been doing it well for years now through the audio‑out port on the Airport Express. Wireless sound has come a long way; it’s done digitally now, like good 2.4-GHz cordless phones, so it works well and sounds terrific.

Go give these a listen, and tell me what you think. (My bet: you’ll want to leave the store with a set of them.) And for those of you on a tight budget, I’ve found the non-wifi version of the same system for under $115.

Enjoy!

There are already lots of reviews talking about the iPad’s features, so I want to start mine by addressing the most common criticism: that the iPad is just a great big iPhone. Even if that were all it is, I think detractors have forgotten how radically the iPhone changed the world of mobile computing. Many tasks are easier to accomplish on the iPhone than on a desktop or laptop computer. For example, perusing music is quicker—and more fun, really—using my iPhone as a remote control for iTunes or just listening in iPod mode. (It’s like using a jukebox; remember how much fun that was?)

Sites like Facebook offer much cleaner interfaces on the iPhone. Web browsing in general is made richer and more intuitive by the Multi-Touch™ capability of the iPhone/iPod Touch platform. You can double-tap to zoom in on a column or use pinching movements to open and close or zoom in and out.

Many iPhone apps, such as Yelp and AroundMe, are location-aware, which means that the iPhone can not only tell you where you are, but it can supply information tailored to your location. The Safari browser, for example, in combination with Google’s location awareness, customizes your Google searches to your location.

The iPhone’s touch screen and accelerometers created entirely new ways of interacting with a mobile device. Among other innovations, these features have led to some ingenious new games. One of my favorites is Spider. Check it out.

New devices and new features often lead to entirely new ways to interact. I, for one, want to see more!

Now back to the iPad itself. At $499, I think it’s a game-changer. It’s an e‑book reader, a web browser, a photo frame, a jukebox, a movie player, and a remote control. And that’s just at launch time. Wait until developers get hold of it! Imagine it as an interface for your security system, your home theater, your new car. Imagine new features for magazines, newspapers, or textbooks. Apple has a track record of creating beautiful, elegant devices and giving developers great tools, which they then use to innovate all sorts of wonderful things that the rest of us haven’t even dreamed of yet.

Compare the Amazon’s Kindle: it sells for $489, and all that gets you is e‑books on a black-and-white screen. The iPad offers full color on a great screen with terrific off-axis viewing, plus audio, video, and more interaction. Imagine downloading updated content for your e‑book in the form of an interview with the author! Don’t get me wrong, the Kindle is a nice device that will have a place in the market—after they cut the price. But the iPad is going to offer a lot more function.

The interface is a version of the iPhone OS, a sort of hybrid between the iPhone and Mac OS X. Like an iPhone, there’s no file structure or navigating. If you’re familiar with the iPhone or iPod Touch, you’ll already know how to use the iPad. And nearly all of your current iPhone apps will work on the iPad—just super-sized, if you like. (That’s a real plus for older eyes who find the iPhone screen too small—and you know who you are.)

But as vendors update their apps to accommodate the larger screen, they’ll add more functions to the main screens. And new apps. And entirely new ways of putting this exciting device to work. We’ll have to wait and see.

The Jabra Cruiser is a good mid‑priced car speakerphone that retails for about $70.

Laws against talking on hand-held cell phones and driving-while-texting are going on the books all over the place—and I’ll go on record as supporting such laws! A lot of newer cars have built-in Bluetooth so that you can make and receive calls hands-free. When you link your phone to these devices, most of them download your phonebook so that the car can display who’s calling.

But not too many of my clients are driving new cars. So I went looking for some speakerphone solutions for older cars, and I found lots of options.

One solution is Bluetooth headsets. I’m not fond of them. They’re so small that I tend to lose them. One day, I’ll realize I haven’t seen my headset in a week. I turn my office and car upside down to find it, and then the cycle repeats. But at around $20, Bluetooth headsets are pretty close to disposable, so if you like them, they’re not a bad option.

A better answer, though, is a speakerphone that attaches to your car’s visor. These also connect via Bluetooth. If your budget allows, get one with a caller ID display with dedicated buttons for specific functions. These models tend to cost more than models with no display and only a single call/end button.

There are lots of car speakerphones on the market. My advice is to stick to reputable name brands, like Jabra, Parrot, Motorola, or Nokia. At the low end, you can find models starting around $40. Closer to the $100 price point, you’ll find models with displays and more function buttons.

One advantage of all of these solutions, by the way, is portability. You can take your Bluetooth headset or car speakerphone with you wherever you go: your rental car, your friend’s car, the city bus…. Take that, new‑car drivers!

There are a lot of software products available to help you organize information, but Circus Ponies™ Software’s NoteBook is one of the most powerful tools we’ve encountered. It uses the visual metaphor of a notebook, complete with ruled pages, tabbed dividers, and a wire spiral, among many other options, to collect and manage notes and materials for a task, a class, a trip, or any other kind of project you need to organize. Its feature-rich interface can be customized with outlines, drawings, sticky notes, flags, to-do lists, and custom toolbars. Note pages can include text, photos, audio and video clips, URLs, or just about any other kind of content you’re likely to run into.

But the real power of NoteBook is in the way it makes use of the Mac OS’s indexing and Services features. Every NoteBook file contains a Multidex™, an interactive index of all the text, links, keywords, highlighted words, capitalized words, numbers, etc., in the file. The Multidex is created automatically, updated on the fly whenever you add content to the file, and is Spotlight-searchable.

Another powerful feature is NoteBook’s use of Mac Services: set up a clipping service inside your NoteBook file, and then you can “clip” data from any other Services-aware application on your Mac directly into the NoteBook file with one menu click, even when the NoteBook app isn’t open. With this feature, you can set up a NoteBook file for each of your ongoing projects, then collect relevant e-mails, web pages, text, graphics, or other information whenever and wherever you find it.

NoteBook has too many cool features to cover in a brief review, but Circus Ponies’ web site has a terrific set of short video overviews to introduce you to the product. NoteBook sells for $49.95 and is also available in a discounted family pack and an academic license.

Starting with a well-designed system of computer hardware and software is essential to running an efficient, productive office, whether you’re launching a new business or expanding or replacing your old system. You have the talent and the passion to succeed—now you need the right equipment for the job: enough processing power, storage space, and memory—and the software and peripherals to support the work you do. You’ll save time, stress, and money by putting some planning into your purchasing and setup decisions.

markCTO can be your partner in the system design process. We have extensive experience with the whole array of products from Apple, as well as familiarity with third-party software and equipment. We constantly research product upgrades and new releases so we can supply our clients with the latest, best information. We can help you design a system that fits your technical needs, your workstyle, and your budget.

Call 713-569-3845 or send us e-mail to find out more about how markCTO can design the right system for you.

EPUB support is big news because Google has made a million titles available for free in the EPUB format, and the Kindle—until now the market leader in the product category—can’t natively read EPUBs. (Google’s offerings are classics and public-domain titles.) Sony reader users will also be able to “check out” books for free from libraries that offer lending in the EPUB format.

Sony rounds out their reader line with the soon-to-be-available Reader Daily Edition, featuring a 7″ wide screen and 3G wireless, which gives users instant access to newspapers and magazines, as well as all the usual books. Like the Touch Edition, the Daily Edition includes a touch screen.

Read a full review at CNET.