The other day I came home to find that our router was blown. For some that might not be a big deal, but for me it was no small issue since it meant no television, no phone service, and no internet connection; I was in my car and on the way to buy a new [...]
Who Wins and Who Loses with Apple’s iTunes Radio Announcement?
At the WWDC keynote, Apple announced the revamped music player app for iOS 7 and along with it iTunes Radio. While you can check out the press release for the full details, suffice to say that this is more of an ‘internet radio’ like Pandora than an ‘on demand’ service such as Spotify. Obviously there [...]
Clean Up iTunes with ‘Show EXACT Duplicate Items’ Command
If you are like me, and you have been dumping music into iTunes for over a decade across multiple computers and mobile devices, chances are you have imported the same music more than once. And perhaps you did it once from CD and another time from a backup after altering MP3 tags (I used to [...]
WWDC 2013 Opens the Door to Apple’s Future
Apple WWDC Developer Conference is THE media event of the spring for Apple fanboys and girls everywhere. It is usually the place we get our first look at the next versions of iOS and OS X but, more than that, it is the event that reveals Apple’s overall direction for their products. At times [...]
Apple Listens to Suggestions! (Wish Fulfillment Edition)
So a few weeks ago, my daughter Maggie got all hot and heavy into Dr. Who. (I think for her it boils down to “David Tennant is hot!”, but for a nerd Dad, any excuse to get into something like Dr. Who is a good one!) Because not all the old episodes are available on NetFlix [...]
iTunes Music Store Turns 10, Look Back at the Launch Event!
Over the years, there have been Luddites like has-been rocker Jon Bon Jovi who claimed Steve Jobs was ‘personally responsible for killing the music business’, but there have been even more people — most of them with data and arguments that make sense — talk about how Jobs and Apple saved and even revolutionized the music [...]
iTunes, the Cloud, and Forced New purchase Downloads
As more and more information storage moves into “the cloud” — that is to say, you aren’t necessarily storing all those movies, TV shows, books, and whatever else locally on your system, but pulling them in from the Internet at need instead, using other people’s storage instead of your own hardware — it’s interesting to [...]
AC/DC Finally Comes to iTunes, Posts Big Sales in First Week
I remember that with the rock band I played with in high school, one of the first songs we learned was the (new at the time) Highway to Hell by AC/DC. The following year AC/DC really exploded with their greatest album – Back In Black, with a load of classic rock songs that most people [...]
Thankfully, Apple Delays iTunes 11 Until Mid-Late November
Let me be blunt – I agree with those who have been increasingly critical of the state of Apple’s software releases in terms of readiness. iOS 5 was patched almost instantly for some awful bugs, iTunes Match stumbled out of the gate late and feeling like it should have been later, Siri was beta at [...]
Libratone Zipp AirPlay Speaker Review
Last week I offered a first look and video of the Libratone Zipp. The airplay speaker fuses European aesthetics with Cupertinian technology. The round speaker works fine at home, but it also runs on battery power so you can take it on the go. Libratone, who already offered two different speakers designed for home use has [...]
Libratone Zipp Wireless AirPlay Speaker, First Look
Every now and then a product comes along that not only meets your expectations but actually exceeds them. That’s the case so far with the Libratone Zipp AirPlay Wireless Speaker. Sure, it has a cool, unique look. And sure, the fact that you can change the wool covers then, in seconds, have a speaker that looks [...]
The Libratone Zipp Airplay Speaker Is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
With Apple changing their dock connector this year, I’ve finally moved to a portable Bluetooth streaming speaker system in my work space; and while it works well enough, it’s an oddly shaped gray plastic box. I keep it hidden at the bottom of our television stand; that way we can hear it, but no one has to [...]
Join Us for the Apple iPhone 5 Press Event!
Are you ready to see the end of all the rumors and speculation regarding the newest iPhone? We are, too! Let’s get something straight, although we do our best not to report on rumors, it doesn’t mean we don’t read them. We have, and we’ve gotten more and more excited. Sure it does seem like [...]
Gear Diary’s Best Apps for…Photography
With so many apps in the iTunes App Store it has become all but impossible to find the best of the best. To help you find the best apps we are beginning a series of posts highlighting some of the apps we personally use and rely upon. Our process is completely unscientific. We ask the [...]


















