January 2010

Apple Releases Mobile Me Gallery to App Store

I must have missed this in all the post-CES catch-up, but late last week Apple introduced a free app that allows Mobile Me subscribers to access and share their Gallery from their iPhone / iPod Touch. Apple released a new app today that allows MobileMe subscribers to view their uploaded photo galleries. The app also allows MobileMe users to share links to their galleries with others via email and view the galleries of other MobileMe members. Features — View your entire gallery including password protected and hidden albums — Flick through photos and pinch to zoom in for more detail…

Reviews

Neverwinter Nights Premium Modules PC Game Module Reviews:

“Bioware gives us more reasons to pay for Neverwinter Nights Premium Modules while still grabbing tons of great free ones!” That is what I said when I initially wrote this back in 2005 and still held true when I updated it in 2006 for a now defunct site. Since then Atari and Bioware are no longer connected by the D&D license, and due to contractual reasons Bioware has had to stop selling the Premium Modules on their store, but fortunately their master server will still authenticate the modules and let you play. Other than that note I’m leaving the article…

Reviews

Jaybird Sportsband Review

Jaybird has brought out some good stuff in the last year. The last two things I checked out were the Tigereyes and Endorphin Rush wired headphones. I liked them a lot. This time, Jaybird sent me their new Bluetooth headset, the Sportsband. Is it as good as their original headset? In a word, no.

Game Diary, Reviews

Dark Nebula for iPhone/Touch Review

Labyrinth style games are nothing new to the iPhone. You know the games where a ball or marble rolls on the screen and is controlled by tilting the phone like it is a table. This style of games are fun, but are usually the same. Move the ball around avoiding the holes and reach the end of the maze. Dark Nebula takes this idea, puts a fresh, futuristic style and adds a new class of obstacles. As the developer puts it, “it’s like a labyrinth game but on steroids.” Check out the review after the break.

News

Haiti Relief ‘Bad Value’ Alert – Hilton’s Point-Shaving Deal

Many folks continue to look for ways to help the millions of already impoverished folks in Haiti deal with the awful impact of last week’s quake. We have posted about sending relief help by cell phone, efforts in the mobile community, Gear Diary’s three ways to help, and even scam warnings. Many, many places are trying to help consumers find a way to help out, and we applaud those efforts. However, when they start taking a significant overhead to make the donation, it stops being magnanimous and becomes self-serving – and a bad deal for consumers! Latest entry to this…

How to Do It Yourself!

Having Problems Connecting to 3G on Your Nexus One? Here’s A Possible Fix!

So you’ve just gotten your shiny new Nexus One, but you’ve been plagued by some of the problems that quite a few other proud owners of the smartphone have run into over the past few weeks? If you’re using T-Mobile’s network, maybe you’ve been frustrated by frequent 3G connectivity drops (if you’re able to get full 3G speeds at all). Kevin Tofel found a workaround that may get you surfing at full mobile broadband speeds. The best part? It’s not a complicated “hack” or OS update. It’s merely a few simple changes to your Nexus One settings that could make…

News

Keep Those Games Safe With New Security Lockers

Do you have problems with your games and accessories getting borrowed because you live in a dorm or fraternity house and your ‘friends’ never seem to remember to return anything? Well, newPCgadgets has a great idea to help with that – the Security Locker for the XBOX360 and Wii! According to the Official Site: Adults can use the Security Locker as a parental control device by simply locking up controllers and games. Prevents friends and siblings from using your Xbox 360 without permission. By putting a padlock on the locker, you send a clear ‘hands off’ message, keeping your favorite…

Reviews

Mariner Paperless – Review

I am a huge user of Evernote for saving, storing and accessing my documents. I find that it works remarkably well. I especially love the fact that, thanks to the ability of it to apply OCR to documents and images that are put into the system, it lets me search for information using just a few keywords. I have a Fujitsu highspeed scanner and find that it works quite well in conjunction with Evernote. I have many friends however who are not all that comfortable with storing data “in the cloud”, even when local copies can be kept as well….

Reviews

Speck SeeThru Satin Soft-Touch on a Hard Shell Case – Review

Speck offers a wide range of ways to protect your devices. In recent months they’ve kicked things up a few notches in the style department. One of the newer cases that they’re offering is the SeeThru Satin shell for the MacBook Pro. I’ve been using one for a week now and am quite fond of it. Let’s take a look …

News

This is how you do a Nexus One unboxing!

This is for all of you who have already received your Google Nexus Ones, and also for those of us who haven’t … yet. Enjoy! Thanks Helena!

Reviews

Speck Fitted Case for iPhone Review: Explodes with Choices

While at CES 2010 we spent a good deal of time hanging out in one of our favorite accessory manufacturers’ booth, Speck. Okay truth be told they had free beer, but we would have been there regardless, that’s how much we like the stuff Speck has to offer. One of their first cases for the iPhone, the Fitted Case, started out with only two designs but has since been blown out with all new styles. We had the chance to preview some of the new designs and Speck was kind enough to send us home with some samples to review…

News

Resolutions for the Gaming New Year

Are you feeling hung over from some bad gaming purchases in 2009? Let me share some thoughts on how to apply principles and resolutions to fill your 2010 full of smart gaming choices! Every New Years, many people make resolutions of things they will do that year to make themselves better people. I do this each year, typically with a single thing I want to work on in my personal life (and typically either better health or communications!). With the very busy Fall release season coming to a close, it is a good time to reflect on the decisions made…

Reviews

Bandshell sound amplifying case for iPhone Review

While it’s true CES is made up of a lot of exciting electronic type gadgets including TVs, stereos, gaming consoles, and other large ticket items sometimes cool things are also found in small packages. Walking the show floor one day I came across the Bandshell booth. The Bandshell case is simple in design yet wonderful in function. Not only does the case amplifiy the sound emitted by your iPhone’s speaker it also doubles as a video stand placing your phone and the proper angle for watching content. I left the show with a few samples of the Bandshell for review…

Reviews

Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion, a GearChat Review

Judie: I was recently offered the chance to review Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion, and figuring that I probably wasn’t the only female on the Gear Diary staff who was going through weather-related skin issues, I requested extra samples so that Carly, Jessica and Amy could also give it a try. Since we all have different skin types, and we all have different issues, I thought that it would be good to gather notes from all of us based on our experience with the product. For those of you with absolutely no concern for softer skin without smelling like a…

Reviews

SplashNotes for iPhone and Desktop Review

I like lists. Probably a little too much, actually. I practically have lists to organize my lists. So when someone offers to show me software that allows me to make more lists, I just can’t resist taking a look at it. When SplashData asked if I’d like to take a look at SplashNotes, I was definitely interested. I have been using other programs from SplashData for quite a few years, starting with their password keeper program, SplashID, and find that their software tends to have a nice, consistent aesthetic. SplashNotes is a no-frills note taker with outline capabilities. You can…

News

Green Ronin Brings Dragon Age: Origins to TableTop RPG Gaming

It was an interesting choice for Bioware to abandon the Dungeons and Dragons license and create their own rule system for Dragon Age, but now they are turning the tables and have licensed their gaming system to Green Ronin to develop a tabletop game. The game system follows typical standards by having a low level adventure coming first, followed later by further adventures eventually taking the player to level 20. DAGR was developed around Green Ronin’s in-house system, AGE (Adventure Gaming Engine). Yet, while DAGR fortunately holds true to the Dragon Age setting, it has avoided the obvious pit-trap of…

eBooks, News

Txtr Brings ePUB to the iPhone

Earlier in the week, I ranted about my frustration with the lack of commercial ebookstores on Android. Chief among my frustrations was a lack of ePUB readers that could handle DRM, the one complaint that overlapped with the otherwise better stocked iPhone. Now the iPhone has gone and beaten Android on all ebook fronts, as txtr’s new app reads ePUBs with Adobe Digital Rights Management. Why does ePUB matter, specifically the kind linked to an AdobeID? Because it is fast becoming the dominant format for any non-Kindle ebooks. Barnes and Noble quietly switched to ePUB about a month ago (though…

Reviews

Switch Easy Torrent for iPhone 3G/3Gs Review

SwitchEasy has quickly become my favorite manufacturers of cases for the iPhone 3G/3GS. They’re super stylish designs fit the phone as well as any case on the market and always come with that little box of goodies that switch easy includes in every case. The SwitchEasy Neo, for iPhone, was one of the first cases I ever reviewed on my YouTube channel. Admittedly I wasn’t a huge fan of it but since then I’ve learned from my mistakes and now consider Switch Easy one of the premier case companies. The Torrent case is one of SwitchEasy’s newest offerings. Born from…

Vehicles & Gear

Mercedes E Coupe and Honda Insight

I am going to wrap a pair of vehicles into this Grinding Gears entry. As we head down the 2010 highway I need to do a bit of housekeeping left over from the last decade. This time around I offer a coupe from across the Atlantic and a hybrid from across the Pacific.

News

eMusic Gets New Brothers – Warner Bros., That Is

I’ve been a long-time user of eMusic’s subscription service. One of the early online music services (selling DRM-free MP3 downloads since 1998), eMusic was the first of which I was aware to offer a subscription-based music sales model. They offer several different monthly packages for which you receive credits that can be used for purchasing individual tracks or whole albums. The cost per track ranges from $0.54 for an eMusic Lite monthly subscription to $0.36 for an eMusic Plus annual subscription. Many albums are available for 12 credits – or roughly $6, depending on your subscription level. Until the middle…

Reviews

Active Media Wink USB Drive Review

One of the things I like to do when attending shows like CES is collect flash memory press kit thumbdrives to use again once I get home. In years past, it was considered a huge score if I was given a drive larger than 1GB, and this year I actually got several which were 2GB – along with a single 4GB drive, but alas … the thrill was almost gone, because at home I had a 16GB flash drive which was smaller and cuter than anything I was handed at CES.

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