2009

KindleGate Blows Up In Amazon’s Face

UPDATE: The following update appeared on David Pogue’s Times column. EDITOR’S NOTE | 8:41 p.m. The Times published an article explaining that the Orwell books were unauthorized editions that Amazon removed from its Kindle store. However, Amazon said it would not automatically remove purchased copies of Kindle books if a similar situation arose in the future. My Note- It doesn’t change the core issues here! Just a few weeks ago I posted on a series of encounters I had with Amazon and their customer service. The first post raised questions about DRM. The second clarified some of the initial misinformation…


SplashTravel for iPhone Review

SplashData has been creating software for mobile devices since 2000, beginning with Palm software and the SplashWallet suite. As new platforms began to gain traction, SplashData expanded and began releasing software for them (BlackBerry, Series 60), and for a year now they’ve been releasing applications for the iPhone. One of their most recent releases is a version of their travel application, SplashTravel, for the iPhone.  SplashData provided Gear Diary with a copy for evaluation.


HTC Magic Review Part 2

It’s been  a month now since I posted my first impressions, and it’s time to fess up my thoughts on the HTC Magic. Truth be told, it has truly surprised me! User Interface The Android user interface is simple yet elegant, and was definitely designed with finger actions in mind. Unlike Windows Mobile, Android never makes you wish for a stylus. Icons are nicely sized, menus are large and the flicking motions to advance lists, web pages and menus become second nature as soon as you start using the phone. For some reason Android feels a lot nicer on the…


PocketMac Ringtone Studio 2 for iPhone – Video Review

I’m not a huge ringtone fan but my use of PocketMac’s RingtoneStudio 2 for iPhone may change all that. At $29.95 the application isn’t inexpensive, but after creating just 30 ringtones it will have paid for itself. Let’s take a look… A free trial is available. Get it from createiphoneringtones for $29.95


Fawski Feeder Review

There are close to a million choices when it comes to bowl feeders for your dog. Most are of the plain jane variety, either stainless steel or hard plastic. A few are ceramic and have painted designs on them. But what about those people who leave their dog’s bowls out all day and are interested in maintaining the overall look and design of their kitchen? Or those  just looking for a way to make easting easier on their dog? The Fawski feeder might be just what you’re looking for.


ArmPocket Sport 20 Review

Have you ever wanted to take your smartphone with you on a workout, but your workout shorts don’t have pockets and neither does your T-Shirt?  What would you do?  Well you could order a arm band for your prospective device, but one downside to this is you must buy a new one when you buy a device that doesn’t fit the arm band.  That’s where the ArmPocket Sport 20 comes in. The ArmPocket Sport 20 is essentially a universal arm band that is designed to work primarily with touch screen based devices like the iPhone, the T-Mobile G1, The T-Mobile…


Origami Instruction Toilet Paper: Too Much Time On Your Hands?

Check it out: you can buy toilet paper with easy to follow instructions so that you can create clever little origami paper creatures while you are otherwise occupied. What else are you going to do…catch up on your reading material? Baron Bob’s Origami Instruction Toilet Paper – At $4.95 for a 100′ roll, you’d better keep it hidden from the kids. 😉


2009 Cadillac Escalade Platinum Hybrid SUV

As General Motors enters its new generation, we are still testing vehicles designed and produced in its former life. The brand may have been resurrected, but much of what consumers will see over the next few years are the same products GM has been delivering – which is to say that while there are many bright spots in the lineup, there are still areas that need a bit of attention. We recently spent time in the new Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, and not just any old Escalade Hybrid but the new Platinum edition truck.


ColorSplash – iPhone App Review

Yesterday Larry posted about his favorite new iPhone Photography app Pix Remix. It made him go “Wow” and, after following his advice and purchasing it, I had to second his “Wow!” It has now been added to the collection of image editing apps I keep on my iPhone.


AppMiner Review

AppMiner lets you browse more of the top apps, gives you a better search, finds price drops, lets you customize your categories and much more. Best of all, we are offering this app for FREE, so get it before we come to our senses! With the App Store’s birthday here, the amount of apps available is overwhelming!  We all need a way to sort through the apps.  How do we find what is on sale?  How do we find what is new?  AppMiner is a place to start.  Basically this app is a way to monitor the app store for…


Mass Effect Galaxy for iPhone Review

There is a fine somewhere between cynicism and being an actively suspicious consumer … and when I heard about the release of a game called Mass Effect Galaxy on the iTunes App Store that would somehow tie into the upcoming Mass Effect 2 for the PC & XBOX360, I had a hard time deciding which of the two feelings was foremost in my mind. Because I felt that this was on the surface little different than Burger King having all of those cheap X360 games a few years ago as a big promo. Sure, they were games … but it…


The FroliCat BOLT Automatic Laser Light Review

There aren’t many things more amusing than watching a kitten chase a laser pointer’s dot. Kittties are playful and energetic to begin with, but giving them an impossible to catch “mouse” creates a game which never seems to tire them. My cat Avah is two years old, and while she no longer has quite the playful moves she used to impress me with, she still shows moments of friskiness when a moth gets in the house or a string is dangling. We’ve played the laser pointer game before with comedic results, so I figured that she would be the perfect…


PixRemix Review

Every once and a while an iPhone application comes along that makes you go WOW! Well for me PixRemix is one of those applications. WOW! In simple terms what PixRemix does is allow iPhone users to take a bunch of their pictures and turn them into a slideshow, complete with captions that you can then share via Facebook, Twitter, E-mail etc. The application allows you to create three different types of slide shows. Collage – which is an animated collage made up from as many photos as you select. Slideshow – which is a slide show of your photos. Pan…


Word Tower for iPhone/Touch Review

From the Developer: Word Tower: A challenging, fast-paced word play game for the iPhone/iTouch What do you get when you mix up Scrabble, Boggle and Tetris and add the flipping, shaking and sliding that only the iPhone/iTouch can do? WORD TOWER! In this one-of-a-kind word game, create words out of stacks of letters before they pile up and form a tower. But don’t look down too long; more letters are falling your way! Catch them on the way down to place them strategically. As you advance through levels, an array of special tiles will challenge your strategic skills and quick…


ScreenFlow Review – GD Must-Have Mac Applications

I made the leap to the Mac less than two years ago. When I first made the move I read a number of posts which describes some of the best Mac applications. Over the last 20 months I have found my collection of applications I swear by. Some are from those initial lists but most I stumbled upon along the way- often by accident. With so many of us here on the site using Macs these days I thought it would be worthwhile for us to begin sharing some of our favorite Mac applications. Hence our new “GD Must-Have Mac…


Taking Notes iPhone-Style – A GD How-To

So here was the dilemma… I was sitting outside in the sun rereading a book I purchased a number of years ago. (Yes, a dead tree book!) I remember some insights in it that might prove useful for some talks I need to be giving in a few weeks. So there I was on vacation reading it for the second or third time. And I was right, there was something worth noting on every other page. The problem was I didn’t have time and paper nearby and, quite honestly, I didn’t feel like sitting there and taking notes while reading in…


Slacker G2 Player Flash Review

Slacker is a web based music service that offers both a free and paid version. The Slacker clients stream music via the web as well as many smartphones. I’ve subscribed for about 6 months because the paid version of Slacker allows me to skip as many songs as I would like while listening to the service. What I really like about the paid version is that you can use a special Slacker MP3 player to store music for when you’re on the go and not connected to the web UPDATE: Both the free and paid versions allow you to connect…


Gear Games Review: Tradewinds 2 for iPhone

Striking the right balance in porting a PC franchise to a handheld gaming system is always tricky, as some games do it well (Anno 1701 and Sim City for the DS) while others struggle with the limitations of the platform (Dungeon Siege for the PSP and The Settlers for the DS). So while reading the press release for Tradewinds 2 got me intrigued about how it might play out, that excitement was tempered by the long history of mixed results bringing PC games to handheld gaming systems – not to mention the memory of playing the terribly mediocre Mass Effect…


Navigon (Lite) for iPhone with North America Maps

Other than AT&T Navigator, Navigon probably has more presence worldwide in GPS Navigation (especially through it’s stand alone products) than anything we’ve seen so far.  First they released their product for the European market a few weeks ago, and now they have released a “Lite” version sporting North American maps (full version coming soon). Let’s take a quick look at this offering from Navigon. Of the current iPhone navigation choices for the iPhone I’ve seen so far, this one has the most pleasing user interface yet.  The graphics are clean, sharp, and the color choices are pleasant.  That said, this…


HTC Touch Pro2 After Awhile

If you haven’t already, please read our Initial Thoughts on the HTC Touch Pro2. That’s where you’ll find a full gallery of Touch Pro2 pictures as well as our unboxing banter. So without further ado… Drew: The TP2 Rocks!  I haven’t been this excited about a WM phone since the Advantage came out and then I was mollified for quite some time with the TyTN II.  The gorgeous screen, super keyboard, and excellent phone/sound definitely make it a keeper if you are in the corporate world.


Create Podcasts On The Go With AudioBoo- A GD How-To

This began as a review of Audioboo, a relatively new service that allows you to create voice podcasts either on your computer or on the go using an iPhone, or an iPod touch in quickly and easily upload them to the net and share them with the world. In the process of creating this review I decided to make a brief podcast of my very first recording and realized that it actually might be more useful and, I hope, more interesting, if I did this post more as a “how-to” than a review. Step One — Visit the AudioBoo website…