Best Christmas Gift This Year, 2014

Derailment

Tweeting right now: 16 cars from Canadian Pacific freight train derailed west of Banff, Alberta, railway says; cars were carrying grain, concrete; no injuries, no dangerous goods - @CBCAlerts 

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A Note to the Granddaughters

About every four or five years I "luck out" and find the perfect gift for my wife. This was one of those years.

My wife has the iPhone 6. For the first time in her many years of having iPods and iPhones she went to iTunes and bought all the songs she wanted to put together her "perfect playlist." She says she now has her perfect playlist.

Unfortunately, she doesn't like buds or even over-the-ear headphones. I had been looking at the Dr Dre/Beats Pill speaker for quite some time.

Two days before Christmas, while she was somewhere else in the mall, I stopped in the Apple store, and after a few minutes of looking, once again, at the Beats Pill speaker, I pulled one off the wall. In passing I asked one of the Apply employees if the sound was as good as advertised. I really was not asking for information; it was more of a way of small talk, conversation, whatever, and perhaps reassurance I was doing the right thing.

He said the Pill was very, very good, but he himself preferred the UE (Ultimate Ears) speaker. He noted the Beats speaker was on sale and UE was full price. Something about his demeanor and his reply suggested he was an audiophile and knew what he was talking about. I put the Pill back and bought the UE at full price.

Wow, I can't believe how incredible it was. I'm always leery of setting up new technology, but when he said it was easy to set up, he wasn't kidding. It came with almost no paperwork, no instructions to speak of, except Step 1: push the ON button. Fortunately, a graphic showed where the ON button was. As it was, I had to go through a 10-second tutorial to find the volume controls.

Once it was set up, my wife began her playlist -- I think it started about 2:30 p.m. -- just before the first guests arrived for Christmas dinner -- and it played continuously until 10:30  p.m.  My wife asked me to charge it overnight but I suggested we wait until the red light comes on indicating that charging is soon to be required. The Apple audiophile said the speaker would last 8 hours on a single charge; the graphic that came with the box said 15 hours. So, we'll see.

Below are some internet reviews of the Beats Pill and the UE. Both have a suggested retail price of $199, but it appears one can find locations (Amazon, for example) where one can get these for as much as $30 off, maybe more. My hunch is that by the end of 2015, the price will come down.

UE Boom

http://www.cnet.com/products/logitech-ue-boom/

Shaped like an energy drink and named like one, the Ultimate Ears Boom has some kick to it -- and that kick lasts all day long.

This rugged wireless Bluetooth speaker is being touted as a more powerful and durable version of the Jawbone Jambox and has a special "acoustic skin with plasma coating" that makes it water- and stain-resistant. That means you can wash it should it get dirty, and UE is marketing it as a speaker you take with you everywhere you go –- indoors and outdoors. At 1.2 pounds, it's not heavy, but it's also not light and has a little bit of heft to it.

What's interesting about the speaker is that using it indoors I was initially a tad underwhelmed. Yeah, it delivers good sound for a speaker its size, but at $200, it's pricier than competitors such as the JBL's cylindrical Flip and Charge, so I was expecting a little more, particularly in the bass department.

Somewhat pricey; while the sound quality is very good for a speaker this size, the bass could be fuller.

The Bottom Line: the $200 UE Boom is a versatile and durable wireless Bluetooth speaker that plays loud and is great for on-the-go use.

Beats Pill
http://www.cnet.com/products/beats-pill/

In recent months I've reviewed several compact, portable Bluetooth speakers and the list of Jawbone Jambox competitors just keeps growing. One of the higher-profile entries in the field is the $199 Beats by Dr. Dre Pill, which, needless to say, looks like a pill -- the capsule kind, anyway.

While it wasn't without a few glitches, its striking design, strong sound for its size, and some extra features, such as tap-to-pair NFC (for smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S3 that support near-field communication), an audio output, and Apt-X technology, help set it apart, though it is overpriced.

The Pill is somewhat pricey, and Apple iOS 6 users may encounter an unacceptable amount of Bluetooth hiccuping. The speaker doesn't acquit itself terribly well with big bass tracks from artists like Dr. Dre.

The Bottom Line: The Beats Pill outperforms the Jawbone Jambox and has a couple of intriguing extra features, but the speaker is overpriced at $199.

A guide to NFC speakers: http://www.what4k.com/top-5-nfc-speakers/

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Another Note to the Grandduaghters

My best Christmas gift this year? Brenda James, Henry Neville and the Shakespeare Code, 2008. This is a follow-up to Brenda James 2007 The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare.

I have looked at this book in Barnes and Nobel over the past several years, wondering whether I wanted a copy. Finally, this year, I ordered it from Amazon, gave it to my wife to wrap for me for my Christmas present, and yesterday morning, unwrapped it.

Wow, it is really good. I have just started reading it. It reads like a journal, or a memoir, or a diary, explaining how a woman finally cracked the code (no pun intended, but it sure fits). 

Ms James was fourteen years old when she first realized "that one could lead out from the [Shakespeare] texts, becoming a kind of historical detective -- and [her] favourite novels had always been detective stories."

She was born a half-hour's journey from Stratford upon Avon and had grown up among the Shakespearean fantasy. Her uncle had written an article on the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

For those unfamiliar with these two books, I would not read the 2008 book until after reading her 2007 book on Shakespeare.

[After reading the first chapter of the 2008 book for the first time a couple of years ago, I found it too much of a stretch, and that's why I delayed buying the book. However, now after reading that first chapter much more closely, I have a much better impression of this book. If one takes Ms James at her word, and I do, it is absolutely amazing how she discovered the "real" Shakespeare.]