2008

EOS Wireless Speaker System Review

When I was in college, it seems like someone was always throwing a house party. For those of you who are not familiar, it is a pretty basic concept. You throw open the front door of your house, condo, apartment, dorm room, or wherever you live; set out some refreshments; crank the music and wait for the people to show up…and they will. It is kind of like The Field of Dreams. If you throw a party, they will come. The problem, back in those days of the early 1990’s was the sound system. Most of us had music centered…

Reviews

Review: Digital Foci Photo Safe II

It’s becoming more and more rare as the price of flash memory has come down, but it’s still possible to fill your flash cards when on vacation taking pictures. A lot of people, including myself, have taken to carrying a laptop with them on vacation. I am currently typing this on said laptop. But what if you fill your available cards and you’re not near your laptop? Then you’re out of luck. Enter the Digital Foci Photo Safe II.

Reviews

HTC Advantage X7510 Review Part 2

In the first part of my review of the HTC Advantage X7510, I covered the physical hardware of this new device that resides somewhere between Handheld PCs and Ultra Mobile PCs. If you haven’t had a chance to read the first part of the review, you can do so here and then pick up this review afterward. In this part of the review I will be covering the software aspects of the device now that I have received the final shipping ROM from HTC. I will start by covering Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, the Operating System of the X7510 and…

Editorials

Is 64bit Vista Ready for Prime Time?

There’s been a big push by Microsoft to get everyone to cross over to the 64bit version of Vista. Are you and your hardware ready for it? I’ve got a MacBook Pro. I purchased the notebook in December of 2006. It’s the low end unit, with a 2.16 GHz C2D processor, 4GB of RAM (yes, Leopard will see and use all 4GB of RAM, despite what you might think, or are told), and a 120GB hard drive. It’s not a bad unit; and has treated me well in the almost 20 months that I’ve been using it. The biggest problem…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

Wednesday Walkaround: 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR

This week’s Wednesday Walkaround takes a look at the hot little Evolution GSR from Mitsubishi, one of my favorite cars to drive. Here is my review: Some weeks it is difficult for me to determine just how well the latest automotive entry will be received by the general public. Other weeks I just count how many people stop by the house to see what is sitting in the driveway. The latter has been one of those weeks as I tested the newest Evolution rally racer from Mitsubishi. Built on the next-generation Lancer platform (of which we also drove the new…

Reviews

The DecoCases EcoDesign Case for MacBook Pro Review

I tote two different laptops between locations these days, switching them out (or sometimes bringing both) depending upon what my needs will be once I’ve arrived. For the most part, I’ve been content to slip my MacBook Air into a bag, a sleeve, or the Agent 18 shell that Dan recently forwarded to me, but I hadn’t yet found a similar slim and protective MacBook Pro shell. Bear in mind, the type of transport I usually do involves grabbing my laptop, throwing it into my Louis Vuitton Alto tote (along with a couple days’ worth of clothing), and then driving…

Reviews

Spire Edge 15 Computer Sleeve Review

When I bought my MacBook Pro back in 2006, I was all over needing a case for it. I tried regular notebook cases, and those didn’t work for me. I tried a backpack case, and that seemed to work ok, but I couldn’t help but feel that my baby was still a bit on the naked side. When Judie offered me the opportunity to review the Spire Edge 15 Laptop sleeve, I jumped at the chance. The last thing I wanted was another ding on my MBP (see the last picture, after the break) Front of the Spire Edge 15…

Reviews

Diskeeper’s Diskeeper Pro Premier 2008 Review

I remember back in the day, the only tool that I knew of that actually had a defrag tool of any real value was Norton Utilities. In fact, I believe that Stacker, a drive compression tool that provided real time, data compression and decompression (effectively doubling the size of your drive…) of data on your drive ended up using an embedded version of Norton’s defrag utility. Point being, I loved that utility. It did everything that I needed it to do, including consolidating my directories, without having to boot to a command prompt; but alas, those days are long gone….

Editorials

This Does Not Reassure Me – “Texas School District Will Let Teachers Carry Guns”

Wayne sent me this news story as an aside, and I have to admit that after reading it my first thought was how glad I was that I didn’t have any kids in Texas’ Harrold Independent School District. This isn’t exactly gadget news, and I’m not sure why it hit today as this policy change approval actually took place last October, but needless to say…I am flabbergasted and felt the need to share. Indulge me, please. Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect…

Gear Bits

TSA Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Bag Procedures, a Tutorial

We’ve mentioned some of the bags that will comply with their “Checkthrough” regulations the past, and now the TSA has finally posted the official procedures for getting through their checkpoints without actually removing your laptop; of course all will hinge on consumers purchasing the proper type of bag… TSA screens laptops to see if the electronics have been tampered with. TSOs know what the inside of a computer should look like, and can recognize irregularities. This is why they need an unobstructed view as the item moves through the X-ray machine. Purchasing one of these bags will not guarantee that…

Reviews

The Ultimate Receipt Organizer? A Review of The Neat Receipts Scanner

I travel. A lot. While I’m sure that some of you reading this travel more than I, by then end of 2008 I fully expect to have covered well over 75,000 airline miles this year. The fact that I’m writing this review from the comfort of my townhome is, well, rare? Most of the reviews that I write both for Gear Diary and Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! are written from hotel rooms… but I digress. You get the point. As you can imagine, with as much travel as I do, receipts – and more specifically receipt management – can be…

Reviews

The Sprint Palm Treo 800w WM6 Phone Review

During the spring of 2007, when I was still a 700wx user and a Sprint customer, I was more excited by the rumors of a possible “Palm 800” than I was about any other upcoming Windows Mobile device. Some of the reasons for my anticipation included that the Palm Treo candybar with front keyboard has always been one of my favorite form factors; Palm seems to be the single most adept OEM at utilizing the WM OS without speed sacrifices; the 800w was supposed to be the first Treo with WiFi; it would have a better (2 megapixel, anyway) camera;…

Editorials

Livescribe Pulse – Don’t Head Back to School Without It!

I’m a terrible note taker. Half the time I’m focussed so intensely on what the other person is saying that I forget to take notes for brief periods of time. Later when I get back to the office I rack my brain trying to remember what was said. Here’s a solution to fill in the blanks on those notes you forgot to take. It’s a regular sized pen with a built in audio recorder(1GB or 2GB of memory) – plus it digitizes your notes for upload to your computer or the web. This is a PERFECT back to school item…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

Wednesday Walkaround: 2008 Audi S8

This week we look at the 2008 Audi S8 luxury sport sedan in the backyard. Here is the full review: Audi S8 swimming in luxury, performance To best understand the Audi S8 luxury performance sedan, think Olympian Michael Phelps in a tuxedo. And despite the corporate logo having one fewer ring than the current quadrennial activities in Beijing, Audi is as fierce a German competitor as that female freestyle swimmer who took Dara Torres’ gold medal. S8 is the sport version of Audi’s flagship A8 luxury liner, a vehicle that offers the maximum performance and refinement in a large European…

Reviews

Purebuds earbuds one word review: Amazing

We get a lot of requests to review earbuds, headsets and earphones. Usually I can’t really tell the difference between one set and another. This time there were several things that made me sit up and take notice of the Purebuds earbuds. These promise to use something called “Reverse Sound Technology” to deliver safe and clean sound.

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

2008 Nissan Rogue

There are vehicles that are easy to drive and there are vehicles that are fun to drive, but so many times we see these two concepts fail to come together in one particular model. And then there is the Nissan Rogue.

Reviews

LED light bulb replaces your halogens – reduces room temperature from tropical to comfortable

Thomas Edison…It was nice knowing you, but the days of the incandescent light bulb are numbered! Ok, so here’s my scenario. I’m definitely not your classic Al Gore save the spotted clam type. So when I tell my friends about this purchase, at first they don’t get it. I often work out of a home office that is about 12 feet by 12 feet and is located in my basement. Due to that, it is a naturally cool area to work. We do have air conditioning that was piped in from the main system via a thermostatically controlled gate so…

Reviews

Review – iPWR Mobile Power For iPhone and iPod Touch

[This is a joint review between Dan and Doug. Dan’s comments are in normal font and Doug’s are in bold italics.] I’m liking a whole lot about the iPhone 3G I picked up the other day. It feels good in my hand and, even though it is a bit thicker, the curved sides make it feel smaller and lighter. I am liking the 3g speed a lot more than I expected. While home and work have WiFi, the 3G speeds make a much bigger difference than I expected when I am out and about. I’m pleasantly surprised how common 3G…

Reviews

PC Tune UP Review: Turn That Tortoise Back into a Hare in Four Easy Steps

I have a laptop that I use for most of my software testing and review writing. It is about a year and half old, and lately I have been noticing an interesting phenomenon. When I bought it, about 18 months ago, it was blazing fast. Even after I loaded Vista, I was still impressed by how fast it ran. Over time, however, I’ve noticed a significant decrease in speed. In short, my hare has become a tortoise. And I don’t care what they say about racing, in computers, slow and steady gets tossed out the window. As you can imagine,…

Reviews

The Vertu Ascent and the Vertu Constellation: A Pictorial

Some time ago, I wrote a semi-mocking post about a just announced Vertu phone which was encrusted with gemstones and that had a price tag in the $100,000 neighborhood; not only was this phone priced way out of my galaxy, it was priced out of my universe. In that post’s comments, Drew came in and mentioned that he had owned a few Vertus, and that they were in fact actually excellent phones – despite their astronomical price tag. He also said that it wasn’t necessary to get them encrusted in stones, and that there were some which were (relatively) reasonably…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

Grinding Gears Wednesday Walkaround – 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL550

UPDATED: Words added after the walkaround! Grinding Gears editor, David Goodspeed, with this week’s Wednesday Walkaround of the 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL550.

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