Making aliyah is exciting for every member of the family. The new home, the Jewish environment, the Shabbat atmosphere, learning Hebrew – it’s a time of excitement for parents and kids alike.
But there’s one member of the family who may be less than thrilled – your laptop. That’s because it knows that if anything goes wrong, it may have trouble getting itself fixed in a land where “international warranty” doesn’t always translate properly.
Over the years, I’ve gotten emails from readers on all sorts of topics, but one of the most …

There’s a whole new raft of iPods out there, smaller, prettier, and sharper sounding than ever. On the other hand, there’s a small, nascent backlash out there against iPods, and Apple products in general. Recently, for the first time, Sony Walkman devices outsold iPods in Japan, and internet chatter against Apple seems to be at an all-time high. And then there’s  http://anythingbutipod.com/, which purports to be a rallying point for the anti-iPod crowd.
But whether you use an iPod or a “Brand X” device to listen to music – or just …

With the announcement of the latest round of iPods by Apple, music listening has again become the in thing. With touch screens and no buttons, a built in FM-tuner, better battery life and a slew of other features, the new iPods have generated a lot of excitement. There were a couple of other small announcements too – such as the one about Apple TV, an easier and cheaper way to stream video from a computer to a TV set, and AirPlay, an easier way to stream music to speakers around …

There’s a conspiracy afoot – to keep us awake! TV, iPods, the barrage of e-mail, cell phone calls and messaging – they’ve all got “important messages” for us, information we can’t do without. Or so we believe. Either way, most of us can’t sleep knowing that there’s something we need to know, but don’t. Hence the late nights spent reading messages, looking at web sites, and checking out cute cat videos on Youtube that our friends tell us are “the funniest” things they ever saw. The result? We chuckle at …

Once there were “boomboxes,” those quaint suitcase-sized stereos that turned heads – and created headaches – whenever they were in the vicinity. Then music went “private,” as Walkmans and iPods provided walkers, runners, and bus and train riders with hours of musical enjoyment.
And now that we’re in the age of the “digital device,” the music player of choice for a new generation is – the cellphone! It’s all about “convergence,” using a single device for data, messaging, internet use, and of course, playing music and video. And because they’re …