March 2010

These Cufflinks Will Open That Beer for You

Nothing says classy like a set of cufflinks, and nothing says Redneck more than drinking your beer out of a bottle at a formal occasion. There’s no need to confirm that Redneck stereotype when a bottle opener isn’t handy by  slamming your bottle’s lid on a table edge, using the top of your Skoal can, or worse – prying the bottle cap off with your teeth. Leave the other guests guessing by wearing these bottle opener cufflinks from CuffLinks.com. They’re made of stainless steel so they’ll keep their shape through thousands of cap removals, and you can get them for…


Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes Nintendo DS Game Review

When someone introduces a new game for a new platform by a new developer in a totally unrelated genre with a familiar name, most fans of the original feel that it is likely someone is trying to cash in by attaching a familiar name to a mediocre game. The Might & Magic franchise has seen both sides of this: the most recent addition to the Heroes of Might & Magic franchise is the best in years, but the promising but mediocre action game ‘Dark Messiah Might & Magic’ from 2006 had no reason for a franchise attachment. Might & Magic…


The Turbo Snake: Gear Diary’s Own Deal or Dud

One of the local Philadelphia news channels has a weekly segment called “Deal or Dud” where they put a product or service to the test to see if it actually lives up to its claims. A few weeks ago they featured the “Turbo Snake.” What is the Turbo Snake? Straight from the manufacturer: Introducing Turbo Snake™ – the quick & easy way to clear slow-moving or clogged drains! Simply glide Turbo Snake™ down the drain, twirl, then pull out – Turbo Snake’s™ specially designed head grabs & locks onto hair clogs to remove and free the drain instantly! It’s that…


Review: Qstarz BT-Q1000eX Xtreme Recorder

For those who do not know what a GPS Data Logger is, it essentially is a GPS that usually has a sole purpose: to keep track not of where you are, but where you have been.  Qstarz has been hard at work trying to improve upon the BT-Q1000x and has brought out the BT-Q1000eX Xtreme Recorder.  What is different about this GPS logger and what makes it Xtreme?  Let’s find out.


Torect Free for iPhone/Touch

As more and more of my students get iPhones, they become a greater source of apps.  At first, they asked me about games and apps they should get but now they are slowly beginning to share their findings with me.  Last week I walked into my second period American History class with four students standing at my desk.  They excitedly told me I must download Torect Free on my phone.  They explained that all of them were highly addicted to the puzzle game.  One of the young men handed me his phone and said he was stumped.  I solved the…


Corsair Introduces High Speed, Monster Capacity Flash Drives

How would you like a USB flash memory thumb drive that could back up your netbook’s entire 120GB hard drive? If you’ve got $460 to spare, then the Corsair Voyager GTR 128 can take care of that task for you … and get it done quickly. The quad-channel architecture employed by the Flash Voyager GTR series delivers read speeds up to 34MB/s and write speeds up to 28MB/s, approaching the maximum transfer rates supported by the USB 2.0 interface.  The outstanding performance numbers translate into genuine, real-world results.  In the Corsair Labs, using a typical Windows 7-based PC, the Flash…


Hookette with a Twist Purse Hook Review

Photo courtesy of The Purse Hook website Over the past few years, I have fallen in love with higher-end leather goods, specifically pretty (and functional!) purses and bags.  I’ve always been a bit of a purse girl, but I eventually realized that buying one or two nice leather bags a year makes much more sense for me than buying a lot of bags that fall apart on me within 3 to 6 months of carrying them every day.  I started collecting Coach bags one Christmas when I got a particularly nice bonus from work, and it all slid downhill from…


Review: Sandisk SlotRadio+ Billboard Hits

Some companies continue to try to find a way to replace audio CD’s in brick and mortar stores like Wal-Mart.  For most of the Gear Diary staff, digital downloads via iTunes Music store, Amazon MP3 Store or the Zune store have all but replaced audio CD’s.  What could be easier than downloading a MP3 and putting it on your player? SanDisk is trying again to do this with  SlotRadio+. SlotRadio+ is basically very similar to SlotRadio, but not only has 1000 music tracks on it, it also has 4 Gigs of storage for your own music.  This sounds pretty cool…


eBook Reading Options for Android

So you bought a shiny new Android phone or tablet, and now it’s on to the important stuff: How can you read your books on it? Admittedly, there aren’t the same number of ebook options for Android as there are for the iPhone, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a decent selection of options! Rather than review each one individually, I thought it might be best to do a roundup/quick overview of the major readers available. There are several ePUB readers, and several apps use the same or overlapping sources for the books you can download in-app, so I’m…