As of late, I’m all about saving money.  This year has been very hard on us as a family, and I am really looking forward to 2009 coming to a close; but unfortunately, we still have a ways to go yet.  Until that happens, I’m doing my best to save the shekels.

However, no one wants to be a miser at the expense of good tasting food and beverages.  If no one eats or drinks it, things that go to waste still waste money. So I have high hopes for something really cool that I just saw on the ‘net.

Enter the SodaStream Fountain Jet Starter Kit. It allows you to make your own soda from your own tap water.  I’m not entirely certain how well this is going to taste, or if you HAVE to use just their syrups (can I, for instance, put some fizz in my choice of orange juice or perhaps some Arizona (or my OWN iced) Tea?

We’ll have to wait and see. I’ve got a review sample whisking its way to my door, and I’ll have a review up shortly.  I’ve got plans to do a quick unboxing, and some video related taste tests between the pop we make, and some nationally available brands. Stay tuned.  The review should hit the site by the beginning of August!

One of the best things about being a technology writer is getting to look at some of the newest and best tech toys on the market.  Recently, my parents bought a June 2009 15” MacBook Pro (the one with the new SD slot) for my mother.

My mission (and I have no choice but to accept it…)  is to install all the software, configure the Boot Camp partition (with XP Pro), etc. for her.

I am also fixing my father’s Fall 2008 15” MacBook Pro, and it's in the process of whisking its way here from Houston.  I’ll be writing a comparative review of it, my mom’s June 2009 MBP and my 13” Unibody MacBook.

The specs for mom’s MBP include:

• 3.06gHz Core2Duo Processor
• 4GB RAM
• 500GB HDD
• Non-removable battery
• 8x Superdrive
• Bluetooth
• Wireless N

Mom also got a free 8GB 2G iPod Touch as part of the really sweet deal.  BUT without further ado, here’s the unboxing video. The Comparative Review will have detailed pics of all three Macs.

For those running Macs, you might want to check Software Update.  I noticed that Apple released a nice iPhoto update tonight, downloaded it and installed it.  However, in classic Apple tradition, there’s little to no information on this update.  Clicking the KB Link (noted in the Software Update dialog box) just says you need to update to iPhoto 8.0.4, with a link back to the KB Page. I do love circular references... However, it does make reference to a problem with sudden app quitting in version 8.0.3.

However, this should make the app more stable, so if you use iPhoto, then you definitely need to download and install this.