April 2010

My Tracks for Android Review

When I head out for a run, a long walk, or a bike ride, I try to bring my phone with me. It’s less so I can take calls as I’m huffing and puffing, and more for safety reasons. It seems logical that as a smartphone with GPS, my phone should be pulling double duty tracking my workout. I tried a few different ones on Android, but hands down my favorite is My Tracks by Google. My Tracks is very simple to use. When you’re gearing up to run, hike, walk or bike, turn on the GPS in your device…

Reviews

The Clipa Instant Handbag Hanger Review

Any time I go out to eat, the first order of business after being seated is finding a safe place to stow my purse. If I’m lucky, I can set my bag on an empty seat next to me; if the seats are large enough, my bag goes right next to me. If there is no better spot to place it, then my bag goes on my lap … and if that’s impractical, my bag goes on the floor. Quelle horreur! Placing my bag on the floor is always accompanied by much anxiety on my part, as restaurant floors can…

Reviews

iPad + Dragon Dictation + Apple iPad Case = Mobile Desktop

When the Apple iPad case arrived a little while ago, I was not initially impressed. It is rather thin, gets in the way of docking the device, and the edges are a bit on the sharp side. Moreover, I am not in love with the overall “feel” of the material they used. That noted, I didn’t immediately box it up for return because it is nice to finally have a way to protect the device a bit. Then I tried the case propped up in landscape mode. I was impressed. The case holds it at a perfect angle for typing….

News

Morning Chicness Bags … Making Vomiting Stylish!

My wife always says that stuff available for pregnant women these days is much more stylish than when she was pregnant. Now I’m not a pregnant woman, nor do I play one on TV, but after the many difficult pregnancies that eventually resulted in our two wonderful boys … I can’t think of anything that would making the vomiting associated with morning sickness stylish. Less Nasty? Perhaps … and in that case, these bags just might do the trick! Check out the amazing selection of bags: So what do you think – is the next big trend just waiting to…

eBooks, Editorials

GearChat: Are iBooks a NY Times Bestseller, or a Publisher Reject?

image courtesy CNET Here at Gear Diary, we love ebooks. We also love to debate all manner of gadgetry, so of course, we had to share our thoughts on what Apple’s foray into ebooks would mean for the world… Doug: I’m wondering how much shaking out we’re going to see in the next 6 months or so. Carly, do you think Apple is going to yank the non-Apple eBook readers? Carly: No. What’s the point? iBooks seems like a “oh yea, let’s get in on this too” project, rather than a serious effort. Unless they have a plan for coordinated…

Game Diary, Reviews

Hearts of Iron III: Mac Game Review

Strategy games have become entrenched as a core genre for PC gamers in recent years, which has caused the genre to adapt to the expanding audience. For some this has allowed entry to the massive world of RTS games for the first time, but veterans of the genre sometimes feel that their hardcore grognard needs are being ignored – particularly those who choose to play games on a Mac. Don’t worry, guys, Paradox has your back – Hearts of Iron III is a game with a steep learning curve that will reward the investment of tons of hours learning the…

Editorials, Game Diary

2009 Portable Game Sales Numbers – What Does It Mean for the iPad?

Back in September of 2009, when Apple launched the 3rd generation iPod Touch and touted the gaming capabilities of the system, I expressed concerns about what this new ‘everything under $10’ business model might mean to the $30 – $60 gaming industry. While we don’t have any long term results yet, analysts at Flurry have tried to piece together some sort of story about what trends we can get from comparing 2009 sales to 2008. And put simply, what is good news for Apple’s gaming aspirations is bad news for Sony’s beleaguered handheld and a shot across the bow of…

News

An Amazing iPad Video Unboxing

No, there aren’t any Ninjas as we saw with the Nexus One unboxing posted not too long ago; instead there is sthttp://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/05/found-footage-self-unboxing-ipad/ark simplicity, great music, and amazing animation as the iPad sheds itself of its retail confines … seemingly without any human assistance. Enjoy! iPad – Unboxing Video from Brian Stark on Vimeo via TUAW.

eBooks, Editorials

The “Ethics” of Book Piracy

How do you know that ebooks have hit the mainstream? Check out the New York Times “The Ethicist” column this week. In it, a letter was received from someone inquiring about the ethics of downloading an illegal copy of an ebook if the downloader already owned the paper copy. Specifically, the inquirer needed to know: I bought an e-reader for travel and was eager to begin “Under the Dome,” the new Stephen King novel. Unfortunately, the electronic version was not yet available. The publisher apparently withheld it to encourage people to buy the more expensive hardcover. So I did, all…

Editorials

HP Offers A Slate/Tablet Option That Doesn’t Begin With the Letter “i”

Image courtesy of laptopmag If you follow any kind a social networking than you probably heard already of the announcement of HP’s new slate. They have been teasing us with video snippets over the past few months after a quick preview at the Microsoft CES keynote. Engadget mysteriously happened to get their hands on some HP company documents just in time to take some of the fire out of Apple’s new iPad. Unfortunately, the specs would say otherwise. The slate looks like they took the internals out of an HP netbook and put them all back together in a sleeker…

News

Got A New iPad? Sock It.

Remember those funny colored socks that Apple sold for older iPod models? Remember how they did a good job of protecting your device from scratches without adding bulk? Remember how for $30 you could get 6 of them, but at least 3 of them were in colors you wouldn’t use? Well, now there is a similar option for your new iPad from iPadSock.net. Like their smaller cousins, these will protect your iPad from scratches without adding bulk. Even better, you get to pick from a range of color combinations, so you will get a color that you’ll actually use. Order them…

Reviews

Review: Dell Vostro 3700 with Core i5

With the plethora of netbooks on the market today sporting 9, 10 and 11” screens, is easy to forget notebooks weren’t always so small. Meet the Dell Vostro 3700, a huge 17.3” desktop replacement powered by Intel’s new Core i3, i5 and i7 range of processors. The 3700 is part of Dell’s Vostro refresh which includes the 3300 (13”), 3400 (14”) and the 3500 (15”). Out of the box there is no getting around the fact this is a very large laptop. While it is not overly thick, it makes its presence known with that big screen. It feels heavier…

eBooks, Editorials

Why Monthly Periodicals Still Have an Uphill Battle

This isn’t another post about Zinio on the iPad. No, this is a post about why certain types of magazines will continue to have an uphill battle in an always- connected world. All the magazines I looked at on my iPad since the Zinio app was released look great. The colors a brilliant, the navigation is simple. And there is no lag when moving from page to page or from magazine give to text view. It is a gorgeous way to read eMags. But it has one fatal flaw. Let me explain… Last a week, March 31st to be precise, I was notified…

News

Can You Hear Me Now? Dan’s NPR Debut

Dan got a chance to call into NPR today; the discussion was quite lively, and he had a good time explaining why he disagreed with their “expert”. Watch for him at the 6:50 mark. Dan and Gear Diary on NPR Some notes that Dan sent after the fact … In all seriousness I’m a little bit surprised to hear so-called experts still making claims that the iPad is simply a media consumption device. The whole point of the iPad is that it’s pretty much a blank slate (sorry for the pun). The device is going to be what you make…

eBooks, Reviews

Zinio For iPad – Review

Over the last week I have written a few times about the upcoming Zinio app for the iPad. The reason for my enthusiasm was two-fold. First I had been using Zinio as long as I have been using Tablet PCs. Since moving to the Mac I had used it less — not because it doesn’t work well on the Mac, but because it really lends itself to the tablet format. When the iPhone app came out my enthusiasm was once again peaked; on the larger iPad the promise of eMags was hopefully going to be fulfilled. In addition, my attempt…

Reviews

Unboxing the Vertu Constellation Ayxta

Vertu, the high-end Nokia luxury handset company, released a flip version of their phone towards the end of 2009 and I finally got my hands on one! So this is the unboxing view, and I’ll come back in a few weeks and do a proper review of the phone whilst in use. I purchased the unit from one of the jewellery stores here in Sydney after much haggling, and carried my plain brown box through the city back to the train stop. I found it a bit odd to carry a large shopping bag from a fine jewellery store through…

Game Diary, Reviews

Korg DS-10 Plus Nintendo DS App Review

I adamantly refuse to call Korg DS-10 Plus a ‘game’, despite it being a cartridge for the Nintendo DS. Read on to find out why! The Hype: KORG DS-10 Plus is an enhanced version of the revolutionary KORG DS-10 synthesizer software that was released to critical and retail acclaim for Nintendo DS in late 2008. In this new release the original KORG DS-10 music-creation software, which combined the superior interface of the Nintendo DS with the functionality of the famous MS-10 synthesizer, has been optimized to essentially double the power of the original when used with the Nintendo DSi. *…

Reviews

Snaptic Notes: The Company to Watch

(check out Snaptic at SXSW) Talk cloud-based notes on a smartphone, and everyone thinks Evernote. But there’s another competitor in that space, Snaptic, and they are quickly becoming a strong presence. Snaptic recently passed 2 million+ downloads of their 3Banana Android application! Their goal is to help your brain along, connecting all the pieces so you don’t have to. Specifically, they work to bridge your notes with context-aware items, using hash tags (#), pictures, even bar code scanners. The concept is that your notes should be available everywhere, in the cloud, on your device, and interconnected with apps you use…

Reviews

Browser Duo- iPad App Review

It will come as no surprise that the more I use the iPad the more I like it. It is powerful, gorgeous, and just a lot of fun to use. I do see it replacing a notebook for much of my day-to-day needs. At the same time, however, a few imitations have emerged. Well, to be accurate, a number of limitations that I knew to expect have clearly shown themselves to be limitations that hopefully will change sometime in the near future. First and foremost on that list — the ability to run multiple applications at the same time. Not…

News

Who Says The iPad Cannot Be Used As A Phone?!?

A great deal has been made about the inability to use the iPad as a phone. The argument is, who wants to use something this big as a phone? Well to be honest, me. The fact of the matter is to be able to make a phone call using the iPad as a speakerphone would be a great thing so I decided that I would try it out. First I loaded the Skype application. It’s currently only available in the iPhone version but, as you know, iPhone applications work on the iPad. I tried it out and discovered that it…

Reviews

SpiderOak Cloud Backup Review

Backing your data up to the cloud and living out of the cloud is all the rage. SpiderOak cloud backup has a lot of features that I have been looking for in an online backup solution. First, to get started with SpiderOak, you need to download the software for Windows, Mac or Linux and install it. The version delivered for Ubuntu works on pretty much any version of Ubuntu. You can install it with standard dpkg commands or double-click on it and us the graphical package manager, GDebi package installer. Click on install, enter your system password and it installs….

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