2010

NOX Audio Specialist Headphones Works For Gamers and Office Workers

I found almost the perfect headset for both gamers and office workers. What am I talking about? The NOX Audio Specialist headphones that’s what! Let’s go over the basics. First, the NOX Audio headphones comes in a great case that has some structure to it. This is great for those who just want to protect their headphones while they are in their backpack. Opening the case reveals the headphones themselves. They fold so they can fit in the case and the cable itself is detachable and can be secured in the case. The cable looks like a microusb on one…

News & Features

Fring + iPhone 3GS + Mirror??? = Two-Way Video Chat

Yes it is a bit buggy, but Fring’s iPhone app does let you make video calls over 3G, and that’s something you just can’t do with FaceTime. No, the quality isn’t nearly as good, but it DOES WORK! How do I know? Because Larry and I just video chatted, and there isn’t a stitch of WiFi where he is at the beach. After making a video call iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over 3G we decided to see what would happen if he installed Fring on the 3GS. He did… and it worked. There was just one problem… because the…

Editorials

Adventures in Customer Service FAIL … Jott Edition

A few months ago I canceled my subscription to Jott. Between Reqall’s powerful voice-to-text memory system and Dragon Dictation I found that I wasn’t using it all that much. After a time however, I found that I missed being able to Jott new appointments to my Google Calendar and new tasks to Toodledo so I signed back up. This time I opted for the plan that lets you record just 15 seconds. It is much cheaper and would work fine since I only planned to use Jott for quick tasks and appointments only. But there was a problem… Jott stopped…

Editorials, Game Diary

nVidia Optimus – Not Ready for (Gaming) Prime Time

It was supposed to be a great day … I had written first impressions about the original Alienware m11x and about how I was ordering the new one as soon as it became available. And while I was away on vacation my order shipped and arrived, so it was waiting for me upon my return. I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to get busy with it. After all, I loved so much about the original Alienware m11x (now called R1), including: – Near-netbook portability. – Better than netbook battery life (on integrated graphics) – True gaming laptop performance. – Better…

News & Features

Would You Eat a Canned Sandwich? How About Investing Your Retirement in Them?

How would you feel if you and a group of other investors had contributed a total of $145 million into what you thought were real estate investments, only to later find out that instead a huge portion of that money had been put into the development of “Candwiches” and other equally odd and questionable products? That’s exactly what happened to a group of investors in Utah after Travis L. Wright offered them returns of up to 24% on real estate investments. Obviously promised returns that high should have been their first clue that something was fishy, but evidently Utah investors are known to be näive…

Reviews

ShirtsMyWay – Custom Shirts Designed and Ordered From Home Review

A few years ago I lost a good bit of weight thanks to the South Beach Diet. From a health perspective it was good. From a wardrobe perspective however… well that was a different story. Suddenly none of my suits fit. It was the same story with my dress shirts, and replacing them was going to be an expensive proposition. I happened to mention my need to go shopping to a co-worker, and she told me that her father gets all of his clothes custom-made and often for far less than he would if he were shopping “off the rack”….

News & Features

Suffering ‘Product Recall Overload’? There’s An App For That!

The other day we were watching the news and there were three product recalls in a row and my wife mentioned hearing on the radio a report about ‘recall overload’, how so much stuff is being recalled so frequently that we become numb to it all. In fact, this week there are reports on various news sources about the issue. Well, apparently the government agencies issuing these recalls are aware of this, and have launched a mobile app called ‘Recall.gov’. It brings together data from the relevant agencies – Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Food and…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

How to complete your Ram Heavy Duty fashion statement? Accessorize!

This past winter I ran my first review of the new-for-2010 Ram Heavy Duty pickup line. (Notice I did not say “Dodge Ram” as the vehicle brand. Remember, Chrysler has chosen to spin its truck division apart from the Dodge world and simply call it “Ram.”) It was a Ram 3500 Crew Cab duallie 4×4 in SLT trim. Since then my driveway has been blessed with two additional Ram HD test models, each sporting some nifty accessories to help consumers further personalize their individual vehicles.

Editorials

Tech Infrastructure and Monopolies

When I was a kid, phone design was still pretty much in its infancy–the “Princess” phone was pretty much the height of technology then. It wasn’t bolted to the wall! The dial lit up! It came in colors other than black or beige! Eventually, it even had buttons instead of a dial! In those prehistoric days, everything ran across copper, and 99% or more of the traffic was voice–ARPANET was just getting going, and all we primitive creatures did was make one-to-one phone calls. (The concept of a many-to-many phone call–a “party call”–was almost insanely exotic to me.) So worry…

Music Diary, News & Features

Prince Sez No Digital Tunes 4 U!

For many people, digital music stopped being a revolution – or even something to debate – a long time ago. Apple’s iTunes is the largest music retailer, and more and more sites seek a piece of the ever-growing digital music pie. But not THIS guy: Prince, in an interview with the UK paper the Daily Mirror said: “The internet’s completely over,” Prince told the paper. “I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.” Ah ……

eBooks, Editorials

Is Borders Destined for Failure?

Oh Borders. I don’t want to wish failure on any entity, especially a company that taught me a great deal, but sadly, the Borders eBook strategy is going to fail. Spectacularly. I just don’t see how they’ll overcome the Amazon/B&N/Apple juggernauts with such scattered, messy, and honestly lackluster set of offerings. Head over to Borders’ site, and check out their ebook readers page. Be sure to look at their ebook comparison chart. In case Borders caught on to how bad it is and has removed it, here’s a screenshot: Hint to Borders-If your “comparison chart” illustrates how much better spec’d…

News & Features

Speakal’s New iPom Brings Apples, Flowers and Speakers Together In A Unique Package

Tired of your iPod speakers looking like speakers? Want something that looks a bit different but still delivers great sound? If so the iPom might be just the thing you are looking for. The iPom is– a floral themed speaker solution boasts a apple-shaped subwoofer with two removable flower speakers. It plays music from USB drives, SD cards, and any other sound source with a 3.5mm output. The specs of the iPom include… • 2.1 Stereo Speaker System • Plays music from USB Memory stick or SD card or any other music device that has a 3.5mm output, such as…

Reviews

Wordlock Locks- Choose Your Word, Secure Your Stuff – Review

This is my shed… This is my shed’s lock… This is me forgetting the lock’s combination for the 700th time… There has to be a better way… and thanks to Wordlock there is. Wordlock offers a variety of different combination locks that include padlocks, bike locks, luggage locks and more. What makes Wordlocks locks different is that they don’t use hard to remember number combinations to secure your property. Instead they use words combinations. Better still, to help insure that you don’t forget the combination you get to choose the combination and can change it at will….

Reviews

Mezzi LUXslim Laptop Case Review: Strong Enough for Everyday Protection, Classy Enough for 007

When it comes to protection for my gadgets, I spare no expense and tend to get a little OCD about it. It’s pretty common here on GearDiary to see reviews and postings about cases, screen protectors and bags for our gear. When Mezzi contacted us about reviewing an aluminum laptop case I was pretty excited. If I’m not using one of my many soft cases to transport my laptop then I’m using my Pelican hard plastic case to for maximum protection. The Pelican case is big and bulky, so I was excited to get my hands on a Mezzi LUXslim…

Reviews

Ultrasonic Distance Measurer With Laser Pointer Review

I am a do-it-yourselfer (although not always a good one!) and also a gadget freak, so anytime the two can be brought together I am a happy man. There are many times when a room or area needs to be measured quickly for reference and nobody is around to hold the end of a tape measure, or the area is simply too difficult to reach — like a ceiling. In these situations, the Ultrasonic Distance Measurer from EFO is the perfect solution. This handy little gadget allows the user to quickly and accurately measure from 2 to 60 feet between…

Music Diary, Reviews

More Quickie Jazz Reviews: A Few New, and a Few That Slipped Through

Image Courtesy TheLastMiles.com Recently I wrote a rather large article full of ‘quickie reviews’ for recent Jazz music releases – and the response I have gotten has been amazing! I have heard from musicians, jazz lovers, general music fans and folks who simply wanted to express appreciation that I was supporting the ‘indie’ movement even thought they had no interest in the music. Even as that article was published, I had a couple of new releases I was listening to, a couple new recordings that were about to release … and a couple that should have been in the article…

News & Features

Beware of Counterfeit Vibram Five Fingers!

Image courtesy Birthday Shoes It isn’t just ebook scammers you have to watch for on the internet! If you’ve been paying attention to Judie and Larry’s Couch to 5k Series, you may have caught that Judie runs in Vibram Five Finger Sprints. Recently I picked up a pair of Vibram Five Finger KSO’s at my local EMS, and I think Larry has a pair too…so we’re clearly big fans of toe-shoes here at Gear Diary. Now, if you’ve looked into ordering VFF’s recently, you may have noticed many sizes and styles are backordered. Vibram has had a hard time keeping…

Reviews

The Orbino Padova Case for the Apple iPad Review

Dan: There are iPad cases and then… there are iPad cases. The Orbino Padova for iPad is an iPad case: It is made of premium leather, it has a premium design, and it carries a premium price tag. Judie: Orbino has been making leather accessories for PDAs since at least 2001, when I can remember Julie reviewing their Palm V Series case on The Gadgeteer. In more recent years they have “gone Mac”, creating Luxury cases for iPhones, iPods, MacBook Pros … and now the iPad. Dan discovered the Padova case when it was first announced; available in “premium bark…

News & Features

Palm’s Legacy

By now you’ve probably heard the news that PALM is officially part of Hewlett-Packard. If you, like many of us, started with a Palm OS device before moving on to smartphones, it’s a bittersweet ending. On the one hand, no one wanted to see Palm die, even after their slow circling of the drain for years. On the other hand, it’s an open question how Palm will do as part of HP, and whether WebOS will resurface or be absorbed into an HP Printer. One of the original Palm-people, Donna Dubinsky, wants to remind people there’s always been something special…

Reviews

Air Display App Review

When I’m not using my iPad I’m doing most of my writing on a 13″ MacBook Pro this summer. The notebook works beautifully but after using a 27″ iMac for the last few months it can feel awfully cramped. That’s where the iPad app Air Display comes in. Let’s take a look and then give a few copies away… Developed by Avatron Software, the same company that created the amazing Air Sharing app, Air Display… …lets you position your iPad next to your computer, drag windows onto it, and interact with those windows as you would on any other computer…

eBooks, News & Features

Falling eBook Reader Prices!

Think Amazon and Barnes and Noble are the only ones slashing prices? Well, it looks like a few players in the ebook market have caught up with the new paradigm, though it’s debatable what changes will actually help them. Here are a few of the big drops we’ve seen so far: Sony Readers: Pocket Edition: From $169 to $149 Touch Edition: From $199 to $169 Daily Edition: From $349 to $299 Pocketbook Series: Pocketbook 360: From $239 to $199 Pocketbook 301: From $279 to $219 Pocketbook 302: From $339 to $279 Just for comparison, again, here are the prices on…

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