2009

Hercules XPS 2.1 40 Slim Speakers - Review

Reviews

Hercules XPS 2.1 40 Slim Speakers – Review

I tend to use my iMac for everything from music to tv to movies when I am in my home study. And why not? After all, the 24″ screen is great for TV and movies. (And the 27″ will be even better!!) There are, however, a few things that make the experience quite a bit better. First off, the SRS iWOW plug in adds both depth and a high level of sound configurability. Second, while the iMac’s speakers do “well enough”, a pair of external speaks make a HUGE difference! I’ve been using the Hercules XPS 2.1 40 Slim speakers…

Is GPS Becoming Information Overload?

News

Is GPS Becoming Information Overload?

Do you have a GPS in your car? I do, and sometimes it gets to be too much in traffic; between stop and go, lights, construction, and the sound of my GPS droning away, it can become a bit overwhelming. I’ve even been known to threaten to throw the yappy thing out the window a few times when it all becomes too much. According to a Tech.view column in the Economist, it might not be me. Apparently, we can only process so much information at once, and beyond that, the brain simply cannot take it all in clearly. So as…

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Reviews

Agile Partners Updates Star 6 For iPhone: Get To Mixing!

Agile Partners, creators of some wonderful music apps, have just significantly updated their beat mixing application Star6.  I recently reviewed two of their apps for guitarists that have become some of my most use apps.  Check out the reviews for Guitar ToolKit and Tab ToolKit. Star6 is a music mixer that utilizes the accelerometer and touch interface to create a truly unique musical experience.  I am a musician, but have never done hip hop style beat mixes, so I was unsure if the app would even work in my hands.  As you will see, it is quite easy to use!

OnStar Connects Children to Santa with the Push of a Button

News

OnStar Connects Children to Santa with the Push of a Button

NORAD partnership provides location information for subscribers; Santa’s sleigh gets fitted with OnStar technology DETROIT –Santa Claus is getting a technology upgrade this Christmas season. This Christmas Eve for the first time, OnStar subscribers will have the ability to follow Santa’s journey around the world using their OnStar system thanks to a new partnership with The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Starting at 6:00 a.m. EST on December 24, drivers with an active OnStar subscription will be able to press the blue OnStar button in their vehicles and request a “Santa Update.” From there, an OnStar advisor will share…

Stephen Covey Strikes an Exclusive eBook Deal: What Does This Mean for Authors and Royalties?

eBooks, News

Stephen Covey Strikes an Exclusive eBook Deal: What Does This Mean for Authors and Royalties?

Stephen Covey is proving one of the habits of highly successful people is playing hardball; he’s struck a deal with Amazon to make them the exclusive providers of his eBooks, in exchange for at least 50% of the sales revenue. Amazon will also be promoting his books heavily. What does this mean for publishers, authors, and the concept of royalties in the digital age? We convened a Gear Diary chat session to hash it all out!

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Game Diary, Reviews

Traffic Rush for iPhone/Touch App Review

We are all feeling the financial pinch!    Blue Plate Special is a weekly review of bargain apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Nothing over $.99. Anyone who drives in the city knows the frustrations of a busy intersection.  How great would it be to get rid of the stop light and control the traffic on your own?  Take control over a busy intersection from above with the addictive game Traffic Rush.  The game is currently the top ranked free app in iTunes and will provide some traffic relieving fun for the passing gamer. The object of Traffic Rush is…

Apple Wins a Permanent Injunction Against Psystar

News

Apple Wins a Permanent Injunction Against Psystar

It looks like Apple has won a permanent injunction against Psystar. The judge has ordered Psystar to comply with the injunction by December 31st. The injunction specifically calls on Psystar to stop: * Copying, selling, offering to sell, distributing or creating derivative works of Mac OS X without authorization from Apple. * Intentionally inducing, aiding, assisting, abetting or encouraging any other person or entity to infringe Apple’s copyrighted Mac OS X software. * Circumventing any technological measure that effectively controls access Mac OS X, including, but not limited to, the technological measure used by Apple to prevent unauthorized copying of…

A Low Tech Suggestion to Protect Yourself from Internet and Credit Card Scammers

How to Do It Yourself!

A Low Tech Suggestion to Protect Yourself from Internet and Credit Card Scammers

Ah yes… the holidays. Times for family, food, drink… and scammers! Elana received an email from her aunt last night that included the above credit card scam “transcript”. It has been checked out by Snopes and looks to be legitimate. Even if it is not legit, Snopes points out that the elements of it certainly are and “anyone who holds a credit card is a potential victim of this type of fraud”. The scary thing about this scam is just HOW much information the scammers have. They have your name. They have your address. They have your credit card number……

Richard Solo rs1800 for iPhone Review

Reviews

Richard Solo rs1800 for iPhone Review

There’s no hiding Gear Diary’s love of the Mophie Juice Pack Air.  All the editors own one for their iPhones, and we just gave one away to a lucky Facebook friend. There’s also no hiding the lackluster performance of the iPhone’s battery.  For power users, like us, it’s often times impossible to get through a single day without having to “plug-in” at least once. Anyone who knows me knows I have a love of cases for the iPhone.  If there’s one single thing that bothers me about the Mophie Juice Pack air it’s the fact that it’s a case.  Yeah,…

The Polaris Ranger EV Is Quiet Fun

Gear Bits

The Polaris Ranger EV Is Quiet Fun

My friend Steven showed up with his latest “toy” a couple of days ago — the a 2010 Polaris 4×4 Ranger EV. I’ve got a tricked out red 2009 Ranger XP 700 EFI (complete with CD player and Sirius Satellite radio, heh). Mine may beat his in a race, but his has a feature that leaves mine in the dust – it’s electric and nearly noiseless. I thought his buggy was neat enough that I should share.

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News

Cliffs Notes of 2009 Movies

This video is awesome. It’s a mashup of the trailers from the last year or so, stitched together to make them look like one movie. See? Gear Diary just saved you the trouble of digging your way out from underneath your overstuffed Netflix queue! via Seattleist

Quick Review: Festive Tones for iPhone

Reviews

Quick Review: Festive Tones for iPhone

Mail Tones from Electric Pocket is a nifty iPhone application that allows you to assign different ringtone alerts to each of the contacts in your address book.  This way you’ll know who’s emailing you without ever having to turn the phone on. Dan reviewed the application here, and I’ve been using it faithfully ever since.  Since the iPhone lacks any sort of real repeating notification system, I rely on Mail Tones quite heavily.  I know, from the sound of the alert, if an e-mail that’s arrived is important or not. For the holiday season, Electric Pocket has released a Christmas…

The Synaptics Fuse Mobile Phone Concept is Squeezalicious

Events

The Synaptics Fuse Mobile Phone Concept is Squeezalicious

Go ahead … give the Fuse’s rubbery-looking case a squeeze as you prepare to experience its multiple interface technologies, namely “multi-touch capacitive sensing, haptic feedback, 3-D graphics, and force, grip, and proximity sensing.” I think that it’s amazing how you can tilt the Fuse to scroll, squeeze it to stop, and do other touch-based actions to make it respond. Bear in mind that this isn’t a retail item yet, but it shows the technology that is coming to retail devices … maybe sooner than you think! The best way to get a sense of it is to watch the video,…

Barnes and Noble Moves to ePUB

eBooks, News

Barnes and Noble Moves to ePUB

Teleread received a tip from one of their readers that books downloaded from the Barnes and Noble eBook store are coming in ePUB now, instead of the legacy PDB format used by eReader/Fictionwise. It also seems that Teleread is jumping on the “eReader is generic” bandwagon, since they point out that even Barnes and Noble can’t keep them straight.

The Barnes & Noble nook; or how I managed to completely waste my Saturday on a piece of over-hyped hardware

eBooks, Reviews

The Barnes & Noble nook; or how I managed to completely waste my Saturday on a piece of over-hyped hardware

The Barnes & Noble nook eBook Reader has been touted by some as a Kindle-killer, and after what seemed like a ridiculously long wait, when mine finally showed up today I was ready to be wowed. It’s not that I don’t already enjoy reading eBooks on my Kindle DX (Kevin is using the Kindle2) and on my iPhone, it’s just that the nook was the “next new big thing”, and I allowed myself to be caught up in the excitement. I was perhaps a week later ordering mine than many were, because I found out that American Express Rewards offers…

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eBooks, News

Do-It-Yourself Book Scanning

Do you have a library of books that are not available in eBook form? Do you love combining power tools with classic novels? Then give this DIY book scanner a shot! Apparently it can scan up to 1200 pages an hour, depending on how fast you can manually turn the pages. I highly recommend watching the video, as not only does it explain the reasons why the inventor created his book scanner, but he also gives a succinct, persuasive argument for the proliferation of eBooks over paper books. Plus it’s always worth watching when the instructions for how to build…

Christmas Sudoku for the iPhone/iPod Touch Review

Reviews

Christmas Sudoku for the iPhone/iPod Touch Review

I love to play Sudoku. There’s something about the challenge of getting all those pieces of the puzzle into the right combination that appeals to my inner geek. Keeping with the season (if you celebrate Christmas, that is), I felt compelled to check out the release of Christmas Sudoku from 99 Games. 99 Games was nice enough to give me a copy to check out!

Review: The treasures of Montezuma 2 for the iPhone/iPod Touch

Reviews

Review: The treasures of Montezuma 2 for the iPhone/iPod Touch

I’ll admit it. I really like playing games on the iPhone.  This time around, Alawar Games sent me a copy of Montezuma 2 to take a look at. So again, I’ll make an a small admission and mention that I never played the original Montezuma, but I have played many of these match-three type of games like “Bejeweled” or “Alchemize”. So let’s take a look at this one!