May 2010

SureFit Debuts “Auto Friends” Line of Products

I have a very large dog who loves car rides. He also enjoys rolling around in mud, swimming and refusing to sit still to be dried off, and of course, shedding the equivalent of 4 dogs worth of fur in an afternoon. So my backseat is constantly in a state of slight messiness. Then, of course, there was the time he ate a bag of mint Hershey’s kisses and decided they didn’t agree with his stomach as we were en route to the emergency vet. Trust me, the conversation you never, ever want to have with your partner is “Does…

Reviews

Review: Math Ninja For iPhone/Touch

Today’s gadgets are often a great source of wasting time, especially for kids. Many complain that all of these games and mindless fun keep the youth from learning the important things. Who wants to study math flash cards when an iPhone or iPod Touch is sitting there loaded with games? As an educator, I love to see games that build knowledge especially in children. I remember the pain I felt when my parents forced me to sit down and memorize my flash cards. I also remember the joy I felt when my friend’s parents would let us play Math Blaster…

Game Diary, Reviews

Eschalon Book 2 RPG First Impressions

A few weeks ago I noted the upcoming release of the sequel to the indie game Eschalon Book 2. As noted, the release was May 12th – same as Steam for Mac … so I’ve been quite busy with all of these new gaming opportunities! I’ve only had a couple of hours to get started, but wanted to give some early thoughts. If you played Eschalon Book 1, the new game will immediately feel familiar. Which is a wonderful thing for me. As background, I thoroughly enjoyed Basilisk Games Eschalon Book I (in fact, if you look on the link…

News

Bill Maher’s “Modest Proposal”- Let Steve Jobs Take A Crack At Fixing America

Bill Maher ended Real Time with a great bit on how we can’t seem to fix anything in America. He pointed out that a penny now costs two cents and a nickel costs nine cents, but a proposal to use some cheaper material could not even get the vending machine. Then he offered a solution… Apple. Yes, his suggestion was that we let Apple step in and reinvent America. Hey… it worked for the music player, the phone and now… the computer. Enjoy

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

MINI Cooper John Cooper Works convertible – Oliver Twist finally gets his wish

All photos by the Author The tide has turned on large, mobile real estate-hogging vehicles here in the U.S. and the new trend is small – OK, mini. And one of my favorite vehicles of the past decade has been the MINI Cooper. It was love at first sight (and drive) when the millennial Cooper hit U.S. shores in 2000. Built by BMW, this is one of my favorite overall vehicles and they offer one of the most enjoyable driving experiences – of any sized car. MINIs are available in hardtop, convertible, supercharged, Clubman and, coming soon, full four-door Countryman…

Reviews

C25K: Week 1

Larry: In case you missed my post from last week, I’ve started the Couch to 5K running plan. Or as a few of us at Gear Diary have turned to calling it, the “Blogger’s Chair to 5K” running plan. This running program helps you get from doing little or no exercise to running a full 3.1 miles in 9 weeks. Each week I’ll be updating the site with a post about the program, how the week went, some of the gear I used and more. Surprise #1: After I posted my initial article I got messages from both Dan and…

Game Diary, Reviews

Steam on Mac First Impressions (also Portal and Torchlight)

At long last Steam has officially arrived for the Mac – and rather than just announce it, I figured I’d give you some quick impressions after using it to download and play a few games. For those who are not aware, Steam is a digital download, automated patch management, and multiplayer matchmaking service … and more. From Valve’s ‘About Steam’: Steam, the world’s largest online gaming platform. Steam turns any PC (and soon any Mac) into a gaming powerhouse by providing instant access to a huge library of titles, and by automatically keeping a user’s games completely up to date….

Editorials

Happy 50th Birthday Laser…

Via cnet news. A post over on cnet News caught my eye this morning because it celebrated the 50th birthday of the LASER. The article begins Fifty years ago Saturday, a Hughes Labs researcher named Theodore Maiman changed the world. That day, Maiman became the first person on Earth to build a working laser, something that colleagues at a number of other companies and institutions had been feverishly trying to do for months or even years.? That’s right, it was just 50 years ago this Saturday that the Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation? or LASER was invented. That is a…

News

MacCase Ready To Jump Into The iPad Accessory Market

MacCase makes some gorgeous bags and cases for carrying your MacBook or other Apple products. They offers a line of sleeves that start at $39.95 and a Premium leather line that includes the Premium Leather Flight Jacket for all sizes of Apple Laptops with prices starting at $189.95. As you add the $20 backpack straps and a $30 shoulder pad the price increases to over $200. That’s a bit of an investment but then again, the case looks awesome and will likely outlive your next five notebooks. A while back the company recently began asking for input from potential customers…

Editorials

Some Thoughts on the Sprint EVO 4G … From an iPhone User

I had the opportunity to spend the last evening at Sprint’s special EVO event in Manhattan. The event formally introduced Sprint’s new powerhouse smartphone the EVO 4G. I also had a chance to get a good close look at the phone, play with it for a little while, and see some of their marketing people do a number of different demonstrations with it. The short version of this post — I’m pretty impressed by everything that this Android powered device can do. Sprint’s Dan Hesse kicked off the evening by introducing the EVO 4G and… in the process… took a…

Reviews

ID Vault for iPhone/Touch/iPad App Review

One thing that has come to annoy me on the iPhone is logging into sites. Whether it be a website for shopping or a forum, for some reason logging in seems to be a task I try to avoid. Clicking on the small log in screen boxes is not always easy and sometimes formatting issues makes the experience not very iPhone like. How about an app that can do all of this for you while keeping all of that log in information as well as credit card numbers secure? ID Vault proves to solve this issue with a one tap…

Editorials

Why Won’t iWork Work With iWork?

Image from YouTube After getting my iPad, one of the first things I did was to buy the three components of the iWork suite – Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. They cost $9.99 each on the App Store, and I honestly went into the purchase expecting that these apps would integrate nicely with the Mac desktop suite. I mean, $30 for the iPad version isn’t too much less than the $79 Apple charges for the full desktop version. I knew there would be compromises, to be sure. Printing would be gone, as would direct transfers of files and so on. I…

News

If You Need a Breathalyzer on Your Keyring, It Probably Means You Shouldn’t Be Driving (DUH!)

Judie: I have personally always thought that unless you were buying something like this as a joke, buying a breathalyzer — especially an $11.50 one for your keyring — means you are already going to be drinking too damn much, and someone else needs to drive. 😛 Carly: Agreed…plus Wired did an awesome article on these a month or two ago. Essentially the cheap ones vary so much they are useless. Now that would be a fun chat with a cop. “Honestly, Ocifer, my breathalyzer said I was ooooooookay….!” Judie: Right! I mean, I could see some sleaze at the…

Editorials, Game Diary

Does the iPad FINALLY Give Apple a Viable Gaming Platform?

Wait … WHAT?!?! I know what you’re saying: what about the 150 trillion games in the App Store? What about the massive growth in the sales of games for the iPod Touch that I talked about here? I know about all of that, but I still believe this: the iPod Touch business model as it exists today is not one that is sustainable for the game industry, and therefore the iPod Touch will NEVER be a viable ‘major tent-post platform’ based on that business model. OK, you have probably noticed I’m already starting to nuance my phrases in the first…

News

Need Help Finding The Right Father’s Day Gift For Your Music-loving Dad? How About These…

Does dad love music? Do you love dad? Well Father’s Day is coming up, and if dad likes to get his groove on here are a few items you might want to consider getting him (or yourself for that matter…) Dad’s not wicked (we hope), but these noise isolating ear-buds from Wicked Audio are… Wicked Audio’s Wicked Little Buds are Design-forward, noise isolating earbuds that provide an edgy look and great sound. They are available at: EmpireBrandsInc.com, Amazon.com, Fry’s Electronics, Airport Wireless, and other select international retailers MSRP: $29.99 If you music-loving dad has discovered the Internet, let him…

Editorials

Kigo Footwear Takes Customer Service to Web 2.0

Every job I’ve had has been sales or customer oriented in some capacity, so I always geek out a bit at innovative ways to improve customer service. Today I came across a company that used Twitter very effectively to reach out and interact with me as a customer, and I wanted to share that story. I found out about Kigo Footwear on the Runner’s World forums and thought their “Kigo Shel” shoes sounded really cool. So I poked around their website and learned the company is as interesting as their shoes. They use recycled materials, and their whole business model is…

News

American Foundation for the Blind Looks at Smartphone Accessibility

Smartphones have become nearly indispensable productivity tools. Businesses issue them to employees, and people use them constantly to keep up with their personal lives. But what do you if you are blind or visually impaired? Tiny keyboards and 3-4 inch screens aren’t always great if your eyesight is wonderful, let alone if you have vision issues. Luckily, the American Foundation for the Blind puts out an online magazine called AccessWorld, and several articles this month covered smartphones and visual impairment. For the corporate-types, they looked at an app called Oratio for Blackberries. This is what’s called a “screen reader”, or…

Reviews

The Logitech Squeezebox Radio Review

Judie: Last year Julie Strietelmeier and I took a look at the Logitech Squeezebox Boom, both here and on The Gadgeteer, and our general consensus was that we both enjoyed using it. As a matter of fact, I liked using mine so much that I eventually sprung for a streaming Sirius subscription as well as a Pandora Premium membership. I wrote about the Logitech Squeezebox Radio when it was first announced, mentioning its compact size, a 2.4″ color display, Facebook connectivity, and a seven-day alarm clock. Although I put in a request for a review unit, I didn’t hear anything…

Reviews

Jabra EXTREME Bluetooth Headset Review

My first Bluetooth came from Jabra. Because the phone didn’t have Bluetooth, I needed to use an additional Bluetooth dongle that connected to it via the 3.5 mm jack. The was the “traditional” design that Jabra used for many years. It wrapped around the ear and stayed completely stable no matter what you were doing. Yes, you looked like a bit of a dork while wearing the headset, but it stayed in place and was super comfortable. In addition, it had a boom mike that brought the microphone close to your mouth for better sound quality. That didn’t much matter…

Reviews

ToDo for iPad- iPad Application Review

I have long been a fan of Appigo’s iPhone apps. The company makes apps like ToDo and Notebook, and they’ve recently released an interesting cork-board app called Corkulous. Appigo’s apps are polished, full-featured and constantly getting better. Better still, as deep and complex as some of their apps are, everyone of them have worked perfectly from the day of their first release. Their apps are that good… seriously. I was curious what Appigo would do with their apps given the iPad’s larger screen; I knew they wouldn’t simply blow the apps up to fill the screen, as that’s not how they…

News

Google and Verizon to Bring out the Ultimate Android Tablet?

(Image courtesy Laptop Mag) Looks like Verizon’s love affair with Android isn’t ending so fast. Boy Genius Report says that Google is teaming up with Verizon to bring out an Android tablet. Personally, I think this is awesome news, and Google needs this tablet out ASAP. There are a few reasons why this has the potential to be a huge win for Google. For starters, it helps slow the dilution of the Android tablet market. If you think the phones are fractured, just look at the tablets. There’s a veritable army of current and rumored tablets, from Archos to MSI…

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