September 2010

For the Swankest Party Pad, Just Add the Spyra Glowing LED Bar Table

Gadgets and Gear’s Spyra Glowing LED Bar Table looks like it would be right at home in an Austin Powers’ movie, and I mean that in the best possible way! At 42″ tall with a 23″ round top, the Spyra will hold your drinks and give you some pretty groovy mood lighting. The multi-colored LEDs hidden in the table phase between red, blue and green, giving the table its one-of-a-kind glowing edges. The table is made of clear acrylic with visible etching when off or in the daylight. At this price you could get a few to scatter around your basement gameroom…

News

Happy Days ‘Jump the Shark’ Writer Suprised the Phrase ‘Still Has Bite’

Even for those not alive in the late 70’s, the phrase ‘jump the shark’ has an immediate contextual meaning: the moment you can look upon as when an otherwise enjoyable and/or high quality show started a downward spiral into oblivion. Every writer / actor / director would love the thought of having a great show and going out on top, leaving everyone with high quality episodes that simply have you wanting more. But the networks want to ride their high-rating shows as long as possible, and end up throwing more and more money at the show to keep people on-board….

News

Can I Get You a Soda … er … Pop … er … ?!?!

Being from suburban Boston, I was surprised when I went to school in upstate NY and befriended some kids from outside of Pittsburgh PA and found that not everyone wanted a ‘soda’ … some wanted a ‘pop’. Later on, when traveling to the deep south for my first job I was asked if I wanted a ‘coke’ (or sweet tea, of course), to which I asked if they had Diet Coke. I was told they had all sorts of coke, including Pepsi, Orange, Root Beer … you get the picture. Fact is, where you are from will determine what generic…

News

Want to Make a Facetime Call From an iPod touch to an iPhone? Then You Had Better…

Here’s a quick tip to all of you who are going to be getting a new iPod touch… if you want to make a Facetime call to someone using an iPhone they need to be running iOS 4.1. What that means right now is that Facetime from a touch to a jailbroken iPhone is… not going to happen. Let’s hope a solution is found… or Larry decides to relock his iPhone and update it to 4.1!

Game Diary, Reviews

PC/Mac Game Review: Plants vs. Zombies Game of the Year

While I might be the main ‘gaming person’ here at Gear Diary, let’s be clear about one thing – Plants vs. Zombies is a shared addiction / love affair / necessity of life for MOST of the staff. Earlier this year I reviewed the iPhone version of the game, and while all of us with iPads also love THAT version there just wasn’t enough new stuff to merit a new look. But now the combined Mac & PC ‘Game of the Year’ version has been released on Steam, and therefore I couldn’t resist playing it some more … let’s see…

News

Random Cool Video: Star Wars Prequels in 6 Minutes to the Tune of Bohemian Rhapsody

For many, the Star Wars prequels are something to be treated like a knight you over-indulged and wish could just be forgotten. For others they are the realization of the awesomeness of Jedi powers and lightsaber battles. But for everyone with a sense of humor and some attachment to the franchise, this video is loads of fun. It walks you through the entire prequel trilogy in just over 6 minutes, showing the highlights in a light narration. Personally, while I have been told that as someone who used my own money to see ‘Star Wars’ a dozen times in theaters…

Reviews

iPad Accessory Review: ElementCase Joule iPad Stand

Let’s get this out of the way right up front… at $129 ($139 for Black and Anodized Silver) the ElementCase Joule is an expensive stand for your iPad. It has a simple design, consists of just two pieces, and it serves one and only one purpose… it holds your iPad in either landscape or portrait. So is it worth the money? Read on to find out… From ElementCase: Introducing the new “Joule” work stand for your iPad. Its stable solid base has a simple, clean, and elegant design that enhances your iPad and makes it easier to use. Unlike most…

News

Google’s Cute BuckyBall Doodle: Bad News for the Earth!

On Saturday Joel reported that the latest Google Doodle was a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Buckyball. It was a great looking interactive element that focused attention on an area of scientific research that is critical to advances that even now impact all of our lives. Since my wife has been teaching a full-day class on Nanotechnology to middle school kids funded by the NISE part of the NSF, this was definitely something I wanted to show her! While for the most part the actual usefulness of the Buckyball is still theoretical, the recent discovery of Buckyballs in space…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

First Drive: 2011 HD trucks from General Motors

This past winter we got our first experience with the new Heavy Duty trucks from Ram. Spring brought a new Super Duty from Ford (along with more HD Rams) and finally, summer 2010 put us in the driver seat of the newest big rigs from General Motors, wearing Silverado and Sierra badging. Along the way I noticed one thing different about the way marketing folks presented information from their colleagues pitching cars and SUVs – customer conquests. It seems truck buyers, especially heavy duty truck buyers, remain very brand loyal. Three-quarter- and one-ton pickups account for about 30 percent of…

Reviews

Review: PocketAmp For iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

An exciting new thing is happening in the world of IOS devices! App developers are beginning to utilize the power and UI of Apple products and turning them into electric guitar effects and outputs. I have never hid my love for playing the guitar, and the fact that we can now combine that love with my tech and gadget addiction makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I recently reviewed two hardware adapters that allow the guitar to be played through an iPhone or iPad, and each come with application solutions for the guitar. You can read them…

Reviews

Review: Beat The Heat With The Arctic Breeze Pro And Arctic Breeze Mobile

I am not sure where you live, but here in South Texas the heat has been brutal lately! We began football season with 2-a-day workouts on August 2 so I have spent countless hours outside in the scorching sun and heat. In fact, last Tuesday the temperature was 104 degrees with high humidity at 4:00 when we hit the field for practice. At this rate, most of us Texans are looking for any way to cool off. Being a geek means gadgets are always a possibility to alleviate the miserable feeling of being too dang hot. I recently checked out…

News

Happy Labor Day!

photo credit: chrismar Whether you celebrate it because it signifies the end of the summer or because it also designates the beginning of the NFL and college football seasons, the first Monday of September is Labor Day in the United States. This is a holiday traditionally spent with friends, cooking out in the back yard while enjoying ice-cold adult beverages. But obviously, there is a deeper history and meaning behind it … If you are in the US and celebrating Labor Day today, we hope you have a fun, safe & enjoyable day off!

Reviews

Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile Review: After a Week Out of the Box

Samsung has been making phones for a long time, but until recently fell quite short of a worthy phone to run the Android OS. The Behold II and Moment never really took off in the eyes of the consumer and certainly not with developement. The Moment was not too bad, with some decent specs landing somewhere in between the G1 and Droid. Both have since pretty much been abandoned by the community, and for me Samsung was almost written off. With the US launch of the Galaxy S series, Samsung really was pushing hard to gain back some lost followers…

Editorials

Gear Chat #16- New iPods Coming… New Gear Chat Already Here…

Larry and Dan serve up Gear Chat 16… In this podcast we talked about Apple’s September 1 announcement hits and misses, the new Kindle, iPhone and iPad apps and a new iPhone case company that understands good customer service… Intro Music- Lean On Me- Sounds From the Ground Solarstone’s Chill Out Remix…

Game Diary, Reviews

PSP Game Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (RPG, 2010)

One thing I love about the PSP and DS is that they allow me – a long-time PC/Mac laptop gamer who is not a fan of couch-based console gaming – to get a glimpse into the console gaming world on my own terms. By this I mean that since my tendency is towards gaming on the go, handheld systems like the PSP are very much in line with that. The Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series of RPGs are a classic Playstation franchise, making their second entry on the PSP. How does it work? Read on and find out! The Hype:…

Editorials

Default Case: A “Case” Of Good Customer Service

A few of the iPhone case manufacturers could learn a thing or two from Default Case. Just a few days ago I told you about Default Case. The new iPhone case company has decided rather than spend a ton of money on advertising they’d instead offer up their entire line of cases for both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G/3Gs for only a penny (plus a small shipping fee.) I went ahead and ordered one. I mean at only a penny why not? My case arrived today and I couldn’t help but notice the similarity between it and a case…

Reviews

DryPaks Review: Protect Your Gear for That Last Summer Beach Fling

Alas, this weekend brings the end of Summer for those of us in the U.S. Like many others, I’m trying to cram in three days of beach fun into this Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately, duty still often calls and I still need to be ‘connected’ for work even while trying to grab some relaxation with friends and family. Unlike last summer’s shenanigans, I made a point to take precautions and bring extra protection. See, last summer a good friend found their phone, iPod touch and digital camera claimed by the angry sea while boating (OK, maybe it was merely the…

News

Save Money On Your Electric Bill With Hamster Power!

This is a pretty brilliant idea. I don’t have a hamster, and if I did I think my dog would treat it much like he does his stuffed hamsters, so this wouldn’t last long in my house. However, imagine the possibilities…if you had several hamsters, could you power a MacBook? Has anyone checked in with PETA? Most importantly, would you try this with your hamster?

Reviews

Android App Review: Instant Heart Rate

You can use your smartphone in many ways to track your health; to keep an eye on what you eat, how far you run, how often you work out, etc. And now, you can also use your phone camera to track your heart rate! I don’t know much about medicine, but according to the app, it works “similar way [sic] as a medical pulse oximeter but without a dedicated light source.” Now, to paraphrase Dr. McCoy, Dammit I’m a geek, not a doctor…so I consulted my good buddy Wikipedia: A blood-oxygen monitor displays the percentage of arterial hemoglobin in the…

Music Diary, Reviews

CD Retrospective: 40 Years Later, Miles Davis Bitches Brew STILL Polarizes Jazz Fans

In every medium, every genre, there are transitions from one period to the next, silent to ‘talkies’ to color films, baroque to classical to romantic in classical music, and so on. But seldom is there a singular musical even that forms such a clear demarcation in a genre as Miles Davis 1970 Bitches Brew does for Jazz music. As stated on the Miles-Beyond blog, everything in Jazz comes down to ‘before’ or ‘after’ Bitches Brew. It is interesting to look back and realize that in spite of being one of the clear stars of jazz from the 1940’s until his…

Editorials

The Best Buy Experience – One Geek’s Perspective

Last night, my wife and I went to Best Buy to get her a new computer. Her netbook had had it, and she needed something that would be capable of working well or her longer than a year or so. While perusing the laptops, another customer and I both noticed and commented upon several machines that the techs had “tweaked”. What they had done, I am not sure, but I suspect that if you want the least amount of hassle, you should pick a machine that doesn’t say it was prepared by the Geek Squad. Odds are, there will be extra…

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