2009 | Gear Diary

Coghlan’s Camper’s Kit Review

It’s May, which means it’s off to camp soon for my son and me as we had to Camp Pilgrim Hills with my son’s class for an adventure in Nature’s Classroom. We always pick up water bottles, ponchos, and a new first aid kit because we usually have lost or broken the water bottle, torn the poncho, and used the first aid kit. Coghlan’s has developed a unique package that lets me pick up some of the stuff I need in one shot; I am talking about Coghlan’s Camper’s Kit in a Bottle.

News & Features

Roman (birthday) Candles show your age in a classy manner

This pack of 8 Roman (birthday) Candles (3 “I”, “V”, 3 “X” and l – good for ages 1 to 89) make for a fun cake decorating experience. Simply line them up (you do know your Roman numerals, right?) and let the partygoers decipher the birthday boy or girl’s age. As noted, this candle set works for anyone up to 89 years of age. Amazon

Reviews

Uniea Omniverse Universal and Omniverse Hard Drive Case Review

Netbooks are all the rage, but protecting a netbook as you carry it isn’t always easy thanks to their small size. Regular laptop cases are too large for most netbooks, and most sleeves that come with netbooks (if they are even included!) are cheap and provide very little by way of protection. The end result… it’s difficult to just throw your netbook in a bag. All this makes a sleeve or case that offers real protection an essential purchase when buying a netbook. Uniea sent me their latest Universal Case for 10.2 inch netbooks; let’s take a look.

Reviews

Emergency Radio for iPhone and iPod Touch Review

Currently number 2 on the list of the iTunes App Store’s top paid applications, Emergency Radio allows you easily follow the action of over 900 police, fire, EMS and other emergency frequencies. Whether you want to keep tabs on what’s going on in your own backyard or listen in to the happenings on the other side of the country Emergency Radio streams a a variety of emergency services feeds right to your iPhone. Time to put that old Radio Shack scanner on Ebay.

Reviews

JAVOScreen Review: Ultra-Clear Screen Protector for Amazon Kindle 2

Chances are if you own a device with a LCD screen you fall into one of two camps: Those who protect and those who don’t. It only takes one scuff or scrape to forever scar the beautiful screen of that new device. A good quality screen protector can go a long way in helping to keep your screen looking like it did the day you unboxed it. If you don’t currently use a screen protector on your phone or PDA you might want to think about adding one. JAVOedge makes a variety of accessories for a variety of devices. One…

Reviews

Memopal Online Backup and Storage Review

I reviewed Diino last week and while I thought that it had potential, I couldn’t really recommend using it as a primary online backup solution. I was trying out two other services at the same time, so here’s Part II of the trilogy. Memopal is a year-old start up based in Italy, providing online backup and storage services. They have two plans for consumers: a $49 plan with 150 GBs of combined space for backups and file storage, and a $99 plan with 250 GBs.

Reviews

CatGenie Self-Flushing Self-Washing Cat Box Review

Cats make great pets because they don’t require a lot of attention like dogs do. Just give them a bowl of food and a pan of litter, and they can pretty much take care of themselves. The only downside to having an indoor kitty is that we humans have to clean their ‘toilet’ for them. Not fun…

Reviews

Nextar Ribbit Review

After seeing the Nextar Ribbit and showing it to my son, I literally jumped at the chance to look at this fun little MP3 player with him. This MP3 player is SMALL. So small, that not long after Luke had it, he had misplaced it. Luckily, it doesn’t cost that much to replace this cute little frog head.

Reviews

JAVOedge Lumberjack Back Cover for iPhone 3G Review

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the making of this case. Really! Although it might look like wood from the outside, the Lumberjack Back Cover from JAVOedge is actually made from pressed cork. Looking for an eco-friendly and stylish case for your iPhone 3G that doesn’t add much bulk? This might be the one for you.

eBooks, News & Features

Dan Brown’s new book: The Lost Symbol

Doubleday is now promoting Dan Brown’s new book The Lost Symbol. If you didn’t already realize it, Dan Brown is the author of the insanely popular bestseller The Da Vinci Code. Mention this book in polite company, and 10 people will give you 25 opinions. Or just ask the Gear Diary contributors and watch your inbox get flooded with responses. So why is this big news for Gear Diary?

Reviews

Patek Philippe has Arrived!

“You never really own a Patek Philippe, you merely take care of it for the next generation,” or so we are meant to believe. Rubbish! Buy one for yourself and if you are lucky enough to have a son who understands and appreciates it, you can then not concern yourself to its whereabouts beyond your earthly presence.

Reviews

The HTC S740 (Rose) Windows Mobile Standard Phone Review

[This is a joint review between Doug Goldring of JAMM and Judie Lipsett of Gear Diary; it will appear simultaneously on both sites. Doug’s comments are in black, and Judie’s are blue italics] The last time I used a non-touch screen version of Windows Mobile was the Motorola Q. It ran Windows Mobile 5, and I quickly learned that the interface was nothing short of terrible. That phone lasted about a week before I declared the phone completely unusable and gave it away to a friend. That was then. This is now: Windows Mobile 6.1. And a lot has changed….

Reviews

SplashPhoto for iPhone makes easy work of photo uploads and organization

I’ve been testing out SplashPhoto for iPhone for the last few weeks. Until this application I’d been emailing all my photos to Flickr which generally works ok except that the process can be a cumbersome one. SplashPhoto makes the management of your photos especially easy for anyone who uses either Flickr or Picasa (the two web photo management sites supported) because you can upload multiple photos at one time instead of the cumbersome one-by-one process that email demands.

Reviews

Philips Norelco arcitec 1090 Electric Shaver Review

Wet or dry? That’s the question men have faced since the invention of the electric shaver. For years, I used Braun electric shavers, but they weren’t waterproof and I got tired of buying refills for the cleaning base, so I switched to the vibrating Gillettes a year ago. They’re good, reliable shavers – but they’re also a little… boring. I thought about getting a new, waterproof Braun, or a Panasonic, but I saw the Philips Norelco RQ1090 in the Virgin Atlantic inflight catalogue, and made yet another impulse purchase.

News & Features

Phony blood bag cell phone charm is sure to bring the decontamination team running

Something tells me the teachers at your school won’t see the humor in this phony blood bag cell phone charm. The charm resembles a very tiny hospital blood donor bag complete with a tube to simulate connecting to your body. For added realism the bags are available in type o, type a, type ab and type b labeling. Cost is only $6.21, one emergency response from your local police department and three days in detention. Blood Drip Phone Strap

Reviews

JAVOedge Fiber Cases for the Amazon Kindle 2 Review

It’s a common occurrence. One of shock and disbelief. One experienced by many first time Kindle 2 owners. Here’s how it goes…. They open the package. Unpack all the included items. And then, scratching their head in shock and wonder, they begin rifling through the contents of the box once again looking for it. What is it they’re looking for you ask? The included case of course. It’s only then that they realize that the Amazon Kindle 2 comes with no case. Although perhaps surprising to some, probably not necessarily a bad thing. After all, how many of us actually…

News & Features

Soothe Your Colossal Sweet Tooth with Prezzybox Giant Cupcake Tins

Do you crave something really sweet? Forget those wimpy pre-made cakes in your local grocer’s aisle — you want one of the extreme Giant Cupcake Tins from Prezzybox at your next party.

Editorials

Earphone Specifications Explained

Many people buy some sort of portable hearing device. By this I am referring to earbuds (like the iPods have bundled), in-ear earphones (like Apple’s In-Ear), over-the-ear headphones (like Sennheiser’s PX series) or large cans (something like the Sennheiser HD series). For the sake of simplicity, I’ll just refer to these as “earpieces.” When you’re buying a new one, whether you’ve lost your iPod earbuds or you’ve frayed your last pair, you will almost always see, technical specifications. Most of you will gloss over these, ignore them, or — at best — glance at them and shrug your shoulders because…

Reviews

Flip UltraHD Review

Yesterday we posted on the two new video camera’s from Pure Digital. The new Flip Ultra and UltraHD. Today a review unit arrived. 🙂 It is a definite step up from the Flip units I have used before, and yet it retains the small size, ease of use and reasonable price. Let’s take a look.

News & Features

70% of Kindle Owners are Over 40 … how about YOU!?!

Anyone who hangs around discussion forums for just about anything has run into the ‘How Old Are You?’ poll / question. Evidently there was a similar thread called “Average Kindle Owner’s Age” in the Amazon Kindle Forums. None of this is surprising. The amazing thing is that someone took the time to compile all of the data presented in these posts and do some analysis! Stephen Peters of Kindle Culture is writing a book called, unsurprisingly, Kindle Culture, and they went though all 1700 posts and compiled all of the data. So what does it all say?

Reviews

The Goatee Saver Review

If you have a goatee, chances are it has happened to you. You wake up from a less than stellar night of slumber, drag yourself in front in front of the mirror, lather your face up with shaving cream and begin to shave. Then it happens. You notice a slight irregularity in the shape of your goatee and decide it needs fixing. Except when you try to even it out it just becomes worse. Now you decide you’ll have to fix the other side. The process repeats itself until you end up with a freshly shaven face because you were…