Editorials


AutoworldDavid Turns 20!

A couple of notable anniversaries have come and gone quietly this past season, the first marking 10 years that I have been here at Gear Diary. The second commemorates the 20 years I have been involved in automotive journalism, and what a “ride” it has been.


Every Keyring Needs a Multitool

I’ve recently moved, and it taught me a very important lesson-never go anywhere without a small multitool. I used my cheap-y Craftsman 10-in-1 multitool for both normal and way out of the box solutions, and I don’t think I could have survived the moving process without it.


Teach Kids About Money with GoSave Smart Piggy Banks

There is a seemingly endless list of things to teach your kids as they go through life, such as how to show kindness to others, why it’s necessary to have discipline while tackling boring tasks and of course, how to be responsible with money. People have had piggy banks for generations to help with the last necessity.



Will Streaming Services Mean the End for Cable and Satellite TV?

Cable and satellite television companies have long had the practice of setting high rates for their services because they had no one to compete with. But now that online streaming services are growing swiftly in popularity, the situation is changing. These trends threaten the kingdom that cable companies have reigned over for decades.


Five Things to Help You Understand Net Neutrality

Chances are that by now you have heard the term ‘net neutrality‘ thrown around, probably alongside some apocalyptic predictions of ‘life after the free internet’. But after the FCC set aside the rules protecting ‘net neutrality’ last November, changes which have just gone into effect – you might see people online saying ‘I don’t see a difference’ and assuming there was no big deal to begin with.








Super Seducer Is a Super Creepy Game

I don’t normally cover video games for Gear Diary; they just aren’t on my radar. But this week we received a pitch for a video game that made me so angry, I’m pretty sure my women’s studies degree became sentient, broke out of the frame in my office, and is currently trying to escape the building to protest. I’m glad it can’t, though, because then the creator of the Super Seducer video game might hit on it.



HomePod Is Doomed Because Siri Is Dumb

Apple’s absence from the smart speaker market is being corrected in early February with the release of the HomePod, but it won’t improve their fortunes in that market. It isn’t because HomePod is too expensive, or too late to the market, it’s because HomePod is handicapped by Siri. Sweet, but painfully useless Siri.


What a Long, Strange 10 Years It’s Been

In January of 2008, I was invited to attend the big auto show in Detroit courtesy of General Motors. Thing is, I was invited along with a group of new online media professionals, AKA bloggers. This was a new thing, on new digital platforms, and even the terminology got much debate during that trip just 10 years ago.


At CES 2018, the Secret Word Is “Digital Assistant”

For those of you who don’t remember “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse”, one of the running gags involved a “secret word”. Basically, if anyone said the “secret word” everyone was supposed to scream. I would suggest playing that with CES 2018 and “digital assistant“, but we’d all lose our voices and our hearing within an hour.


Buyer Beware: Google Pixel Trade Value Remains Unreliable

  The Google online store appears to still be struggling with assessing and honoring trade-in values for their flagship Pixel device. I ordered a  Pixel 2 XL phone in mid-December 2017.  At the same time I “locked in” a trade value of $405 for my old Pixel XL 128 GB provided it was returned within 30 days. At least I thought I had a fixed price for the trade.


Loading… Net Neutrality: A Throttling Love Story

If you’ve been hidden under a rock for the past week or so, you might not know that a large portion of America has been fighting against Ajit Pai, who’s the culprit in the FCC’s Net Neutrality meeting early Thursday morning, with went in his favor of repealing what are essentially our internet privileges and freedoms.