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Jump Rope Review

I have rediscovered the cardio power of jumping rope over the last few months. Forget the treadmill. Forget the stationary bicycle. If you want to get the most pulmonary, and cardio, bang for your workout minute — pick up a rope and start jumping!

What you see below is my favorite — and most expensive, at $88 — jump rope. This beautiful Infinity Rope from Crossrope arrived with a set of weighted ropes, and the handles action is so smooth there’s no excuse not to jump rope ten times a day. Some “weighted ropes” only have heavy handles — you want a weighted rope where the weight is actually in the rope. Sure, you can get fancy, and do crossovers, and double-unders, and around-the-worlds, but just a simple, two-footed, single jump, per whip cycle, is plenty good enough to get your entire body moving — and heaving for air! Start slow. Build up your stamina over time, and you’ll be feeling stronger, and more powerful, before you know what whipped you. Your chest will also begin to get excellent definition that no other exercise scheme can carve so quickly, and so fluidly. Remember, you get what you pay for, and getting quality in your hands, and a weighted rope your heart, is worth more than the money you spend. This Infinity Rope is not adjustable. You order the right size for you, and it arrives pre-cut and measured. You want that. You want your rope to be three feet taller than you, so make sure you know your height.

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Best Bedroom Amp Review: Orange Rocker 15 and Henriksen Bud

It’s been awhile since I posted a “Boles Blues” review of guitars, guitar amps and other musical gear. Two things were conspiring against me over that time. One, I injured my left wrist. That’s my “fretting” hand, so playing was difficult. The second conspiracy came in two parts, a couple of years apart: Floods! The first flood that hit my apartment came from three flights above and ruined half of my guitar collection. The second flood, two years later, arrived from the same burst pipe in the same apartment on the third floor, and ruined every single guitar amp I owned. The water damage ruined my musical collection and — because I pay for my own gear — I knew it was going to take awhile to get musically re-established.


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The MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) and Dell UltraSharp 27 Ultra HD 5K Monitor UP2715K and Apple Watch Reviews!

The title of this article — “The MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) and Dell UltraSharp 27 Ultra HD 5K Monitor UP2715K and Apple Watch Reviews!” — is ridiculously long, and that was intentional because I believe all three of those things belong together in the same review. The MacBook Pro lives in the Dell 5K display and the Apple Watch sort of ties together the netherworld of the current Apple universe.

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The David Boles Blogs Verizon Wireless Apple iPhone 6 Plus Review

Our Verizon Wireless iPhone 6 Plus phones arrived early this morning via FedEx, and here’s the quick David Boles Blogs review of our experience with the new iPhones.  After our initial ship date of 9/19 changed to 10/14 and then 10/7 and then back to 9/19, all in the span of three hours yesterday, seeing our FedEx guy show up with both iPhones in hand — one had shipped from Pennsylvania, the other From Tennessee — was a delight.

My FedEx guy told us he had thousands of iPhones to deliver today and that he was called in early this morning at 5:00am to start loading his truck; and then they held him an extra 90 minutes after his usual departure time to keep loading him up.  He also said the FedEx hub in Moonachie, New Jersey had the most iPhone deliveries today of any FedEx hub in the USA.  I reasoned the answer was likely because so many people who work in New York City live 50% cheaper right across the river in New Jersey — and they can better afford to buy a new iPhone every year!

The iPhone 6 Plus camera is improved from the 5S as you can see in this image.  The shot was taken in a darkened room with the light from the iPhone as the main source of seeing.  I used the bundled Camera App to claim the shot and did a “finger focus” on the screen to tap direct the source of important light.

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The Western Digital My Cloud Review, 4 TB Edition

I’ve purchased a lot of external storage devices over the last 30 years, and the one brand I keep turning back to for future purchases is Western Digital. I’ve had rotten experiences with LaCie and Iomega in the past and, to date, I have yet to experience any sort of hardware failure — or glitch, or even momentary pause — with a Western Digital drive, and I’m hard on my storage devices.  In fact, I’ve never NOT had a LaCie drive either be dead-on-arrive or die within two weeks of setting up the device. I run my HDDs 24/7/365 and I not only expect them to work, but to thrive in all hostile environments.

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Apple iPad Airs Have Landed in Our Hands and Taken Off Again in Our Hearts

Our two iPad Airs arrived via FedEx Air this morning — straight up at 10:00am — and I haven’t been able to put down either of them ever since they landed in my hands.

Yes, the iPads Airs are incredibly thin and light.  I thought a mistake had been made and we were instead sent the new retina iPad Minis — I can’t imagine I’d want an iPad that was any smaller than the Air.  It’s just the perfect size, filled with magic and mysticism from the first touch out of the box.

Replacing our old iPad 3s with our new iPad Airs in my Verizon Wireless online account was dead simple.  Enter the new IMEIs.  Enter the SIM card numbers.  Boom!  Done.  Running.  We have 4G LTE liftoff!  I want all my iPads to be on Verizon LTE. Hurricane Sandy taught me that hard lesson against WiFi-only devices. Stay safe. Stay ultra-connected via many tethers back to the real world.

The first thing I did after updating my iPad via my iCloud backup account — talk about ease and transparency, thy name is iCloud — was to set up my iPad as a hotspot and run my MacBook Air through the connection for internet service.

Here’s the Xfinity report card:  13.8 MB down and 0.30 up.  Down is excellent and up is awful — is that news? — but it’s all workable and doable together for the way 99% of us will use these sorts of short-life hotspots.

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Apple iPhone 5S Space Gray Review

My Space Gray iPhone 5S arrived early this morning from Apple in China, and upon first opening the box, I was amazed to see how much longer, and lighter weight this 5S phone is compared to my 2.5 year old iPhone 4s.  Janna’s new iPhone will arrive tomorrow.  We’re both on the 4G Verizon network.

The first thing I noticed is that the Space Gray iPhone 5S would not turn on at all!  I was perplexed. Then I did the traditional “hard boot” by holding down the “on” button and the Home button at the same time until the phone turned on with the White Apple logo.  I picked Space Gray because it has a black face.  I prefer a neutral black on a smartphone.  A white face is just too aesthetically jarring.

The phone started and already had a 91% battery charge.  After setting up and restoring the phone, I was immediately prompted to download an 7.01 iOS 7 update.

As you can see in the screenshot below, I have a whole “extra row” for four more App icons in my Home screen!  That is a delightful and welcome change from the 4s.

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