March 2010

Manage Your Agenda on Android

The built-in Android calendar is ok, but has a few major limitations. One, the default calendar widget is awful. It’s small and doesn’t really share much beyond the upcoming appointment. Two, there is no task integration, so if you plot out your day based on tasks and appointments you have to move back and forth between two programs. While there’s no solution for a better native calendar app, there is a way to turn a portion of your homescreen into a Super Agenda view. All you need are two apps and some space on your homescreen. First, you need one…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

2011 Ford Super Duty the answer to the $64,000 question

Didn’t Ford just give us a new Super Duty, like, two years ago? Yes they did. So why a complete makeover for this segment? The government. Yes, lawmakers in our nation’s capitol have mandated stricter emissions guidelines for the (diesel-powered) heavy duty pickup segment for 2010 and automakers have hit the end of their “grace periods.” Ford (with GM to soon follow and Chrysler did theirs last year) gave its Super Duty pickup line not only a pair of totally new engines and transmission, but decided to address the entire vehicle with this model makeover. The result? The baddest big…

News

How to Get Your Free ‘Underground Guide to the iPhone’ and ‘Mac Manual’

Have I mentioned our TradePub affiliate store lately? It’s a place where you can sign up for magazine subscriptions and technical documents based on your profession … and assuming you qualify — you’ll get them all for FREE. Sounds good, right? Well to get you started, here are two new documents which might be of interest. The Underground Guide To The iPhone Read about the basic user interface and a ton of incredible iPhone features you would’ve otherwise missed. This guide explains in detail how to perform both the very simple and the most tedious tasks. Find out how to…

Reviews

Ten Things We Like About the HTC Google Nexus One, and Five Things We Don’t

Judie: When Dan, Larry, and I attended Digital Experience, a product showcase at CES, there was one particular device that caught our immediate attention. Unlike all of the other gadgets and electronic items we saw on display and which were currently available for purchase, the HTC Google Nexus One was the one that we gathered around, drooled over, and all immediately made plans to order. Dan and I purchased ours as soon as we got back to our rooms that evening to be delivered FedEx overnight to my hotel in Las Vegas by Friday afternoon. Our experience would later become…

Reviews

Spark Radio – iPhone Application Review

$6 for an Internet radio application? That’s crazy, right? That’s exactly what I thought when I went to check out the Spark Radio app. I thought the pricing on it was absolutely ridiculous. After all, you can get a host of different Internet radio applications for free. You can use Pandora or Slacker Radio without paying a penny. And the list goes on and on. So why is it that you should spend $6 up front to get this application? It’s actually quite reasonable question. And there is a reasonable answer… I was given a review copy of the application…

Reviews

Marvel Superheros Come to Gelaskins

Larry previously reviewed Gelaskins and we’ve recently posted about their release of National Geographic Gelaskins. However, just this week Gelaskins has gotten a lot more super! Marvel characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, Wolverine, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Daredevil, the Punisher, Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange and others are now available in various forms direct from Gelaskins. The company was kind enough to send me two of the Iron Man skins for netbooks and I decide to apply the skins showcasing Iron Man and War Machine. The skins went onto my netbook in a flash and looks…

Reviews

Review: Milk Crater For iPhone/Touch

Browsers have become a huge part of all of our computing lives. Internet, operating systems, phones, music players all use a browser. It is interesting that most browsing experiences are similar. Other than slight differences or innovations, they really stay the same. The same rings true with the iPod function on the iPhone/Touch. Nothing is wrong with the music browser, but what if you wanted something different or new? Milk Crater takes browsing to the future turning your iPod library into a visual field of cover art. Click through to find out more.

Game Diary, Reviews

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003, FPS): The Netbook Gamer

Continuing my love affair with the Jedi Knight series (see my Netbook Gamer reviews of the original Star Wars Jedi Knight, the Mysteries of the Sith expansion, and the Jedi Knight II sequel), I now move to the last game in the series, after which I will return to the first game (Dark Forces) to complete my look at the life and times of Kyle Katarn! For now, let’s look at Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.

Reviews

The Case-Mate Hug Wireless Charging System Review

While at CES 2010 one of the products which excited me most was the wireless charging system Case-Mate unveiled for the iPhone 3G/3Gs called The “Hug.” We at Gear Diary are huge fans of everything Case-Mate does both from their products to their customer service. They are one of the companies that simply get it. While there are a few companies making wireless charging systems for the iPhone the ones I’ve seen are flat out unattractive. What impressed both Dan and me about the Hug was the fact that it not only charged the iPhone wireless but it looked super…

Reviews

Clear Coat Review: the Clear Choice for Maximum Protection

There are plenty of choices when it comes to screen and body protection for your electronic devices and I think I’ve tried them all. Clear Coat might just be the best of the bunch. What is Clear Coat? Here’s how the company describes it. Simply put, Clear-Coat is the only protection you’ll need for your devices. Forget those awkward, ugly cases! Clear-Coat keeps your device scratch-free without adding bulk or changing the look of your device. Clear-Coat is meticulously designed in-house, and then custom cut for every device. So an iPhone Clear-Coat fits the iPhone perfectly, and a Blackberry Clear-Coat…

eBooks, Editorials

eBook Bundles, Interactions, and More!

I recently started re-reading one of my favorite books of all time: “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping“. It was my bible when I worked for Borders, and even on the consumer side of retail, I find it fascinating. The author, Paco Underhill, runs a company that studies how people shop. Everything from how much time people need to acclimate to entering a store to sightlines, signage, and spacing of aisles is scrutinized and tweaked for maximum impact based on Underhill’s team’s observations and suggestions. In this newer, updated version, he also touches on the internet and e-commerce. Somewhat…

News

24 Secret Restaurant Menus Revealed

A couple of months ago I highlighted the … um, interesting article from CouponSherpa that looked at ’41 Ways To Eat This Year’s Calories In A Single Sitting’. Well, they’re back with another intriguing look at the food world. Read on for more!

Reviews

PDAir Leather Case for Zune HD Review

It’s no secret that we here at Gear Diary have enjoyed PDAir cases for many of our devices. You can see some of our past reviews here, here, and here. Oh, and here, too. PDAir recently released several leather cases for the Zune HD and offered Gear Diary a chance to review a sample. The new Zune HD styles include flip type, book type, sleeve type, and both vertical and horizontal pouch types. I was sent a horizontal pouch case for review.

Reviews

Review: Memorize Words for Spanish for iPhone

Sometimes applications are big and splashy and exciting. Sometimes they are quite, unassuming, and just do what they do very well. But it’s not often you run into applications that don’t even really present you with a startup splash screen before going into the actual program. Memorize Words for Spanish isn’t flashy, it goes right into the program with out announcing itself via a title screen, and its name isn’t particularly flashy or clever, but it clearly speaks to the thing that this application does – it helps you memorize Spanish words. I’ve looked at a lot of different language applications over the past…

Game Diary, Reviews

Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption (2000, RPG): The Netbook Gamer

Considering that I tend to be a very linear person, it is interesting that in terms of role-playing games pre-2004 I tended to play them all ‘out of order’. For example, after enjoying Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic, I asked around and was recommended to seek out Gothic 2 and Baldur’s Gate 2. I played and loved both of those and then sought out the original games in the series. The same was true with games based on White Wolf’s Vampire the Masquerade tabletop RPG – I played the 2004 Troika game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines through…

Game Diary, Reviews

Alienware m11x Gaming Laptop: First Impressions

… and as Alienware claims, this is NOT a netbook! Sitting side-by-side with my Lenovo s10 the Alienware m11x seems large, and given that it weighs twice as much as the Lenovo it also FEELS much bigger. But compared to my 15″ Macbook Pro or the HP Compaq 15″ laptop I use at work, it looks and feels quite small. That is exactly what Alienware was going for – a high performance system in a portable package. So while I have only had a short time with the system, here are a few initial thoughts about the m11x as a…

News

SKTools Updated to 4.5.1.4!

SKTools, a popular system maintenance suite for Windows Mobile, has been updated to version 4.5.1.4. This update brings a new tool to SKTools, File Explorer. The newly implemented tool brings lots of functionality features such as Copy, Move, Rename and Delete as file operations, preview for certain file types, change attributes, create shortcuts, etc. Here’s the list of the latest changes: TuneUP!: added tweak “Enable/Disable Call Record menu item” (WM6.5+) “File Explorer”: set/clear file attributes for current item extendent tweaks definitions file format 4.4 -> 4.5 compatibility fixes I have been using SKTools for as long as I could remember,…

Reviews

Navigon MobileNavigator for Windows Phones Review

A few years back, I was a big fan of OnCourse Navigator version 5 running on Windows Mobile PDAs. The interesting things here is that OCN5 was really just the name for the North American release of Navigon MobileNavigator. And although OCN 5 wasn’t terribly stable, it was one of the best-looking navigators out there at the time. So then they disappeared from the North American market. OCN 6 was actually a rebadged iGo 6, not a Navigon product anymore. So now, on the heels of a successful iPhone product, Navigon have reentered the market with MobileNavigator for Windows Phones. So where did they go? What happened? More important,…

Reviews

IM+ Lite for BlackBerry Review

An ongoing problem these days is simply how to keep up with everything and everyone? You’ve got email, Twitter, Facebook, Instant Messaging (or IM’ing as the kids simply abbreviate it these days). Don’t forget SMS texting. Unless you’re out on Mount Kilimanjaro you better get used to the expectation of being connected — and reachable — by at least ten different communication methods. And they’ll all be used before you even get a phone call. With this onslaught of communication overload, how are you going to manage? Are you going to ball up in the fetal position and cry yourself…

Reviews

iMahNishtanah: An iPhone App to Prep for Passover

The iPhone and the iPod touch have the potential to be among the greatest innovations in the educational process ever. As more and more educational apps are developed that take advantage of the computing power and the touchscreen of the iPhone and the iPod touch are released they are reaching a critical mass as a tool for learning. They’re great for secular education but they can also be a huge addition to religious education as well. I carry two different versions of the Bible on my iPhone and enjoy having the ability to reference them with ease. I have an…

eBooks

Reading PDFs on Your Android Tablet or Phone

When I kicked off my “LCD vs eInk vs paper” smackdown, one of our readers emailed me asking about PDFs on the Camangi Webstation. I was slightly ashamed to admit that I hadn’t actually tried them yet! Reading ebooks on it had been such a great experience that I hadn’t branched out to PDFs yet, but that email gave me the impetus to try a few different options. Unfortunately, the Camangi does not come with access to the official Android Marketplace, so this limited my options slightly. I was able to download Documents to Go and unlock the PDF to…

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