July 2011

Music Diary Review: Yes – ‘Fly From Here’ (2011, Rock)

Yes – ‘Fly From Here’ My son had a couple of tag lines all ready for this one based on the terrible Asia recording “Omega” from last year: – Just Say No to Yes – Fly From This Record The bad news is he didn’t get to use them. The GOOD news is that means this is actually a good album! Let’s take a look at the first new Yes release in a decade! Summary: While reading the Bill Bruford autobiography early this year I ended up reloading music from Bruford, King Crimson and Yes on my iPod and going…

Vehicles & Gear

2011 Dodge Durango More Than Merely ‘Best Yet’

To say the 2011 Dodge Durango is the best yet is an understatement. Previous versions were a bit overweight and somewhat unrefined so improving the SUV would not take much. For this makeover Dodge engineers went above and beyond. Choosing to begin with a clean slate, they tapped an architecture already in the pipeline from the days of corporate partnership with Daimler. The new Durango, as with the latest Grand Cherokee from Jeep, rides on the platform designed for the next Mercedes-Benz M-Class crossovers and boy do they benefit from it. While retaining rear-wheel drive design the new platform sheds…

Editorials, Gear Bits

Gear Talk: iPad 2 Case Roundup

We’ve long been talking about starting a Gear Diary Video Podcast and saw this weekend as a great opportunity to kick it off. In this first “episode” we talk iPad 2 cases. Below the video you’ll find links to our reviews of most of the cases we discuss. Powis iCase for iPad 2 booqpad iPad 2 Agenda for iPad 2 Aviiq SmartCase for iPad 2 The Joy Factory SmartGrip 2 The Joy Factory SmartSuit 2 for iPad 2 Yoobao Executive Genuine Leather Case for iPad 2 XtremeMac TuffWrap Shine for iPad 2 The Orbino Padova for iPad 2

Gear Bits, News

Scientists Create Implantable Memory, or the Dollhouse Cometh

I recently came across a brief news item about “memory jello”, essentially electronic components that can be placed in the human brain. Hopefully, these have non-nefarious uses, such as assisting people with brain injuries to recover, but if you watched the short-lived “Dollhouse” series, you would likely walk away with a different impression. Dollhouse was a show that took the concept of implantable memory to a whole new level. In it, “Actives” were people whose brains had been wiped clean, and could be “rented” by someone with the right amount of money. The rented “Active” had memories implanted to fit…

Events

Sony Tries to Get in Shape for Selling Tablets, but Will You Buy its New Bod?

When Sony provided a sneak peek last week of the two new tablets it plans to launch later this year, it also offered a glimpse into the unspoken imperative it faces: Because it’s late to the game, trailing Apple by, um, years, and others, like Samsung, by months, its biggest hope to gain a toehold in the ever crowded field of similar devices is to do something different — really different. And different it’s done, as least so far as the second of its tablets is concerned — the one code-named Sony Tablet S2, a dual-screen clamshell device that bears…

Gear Bits

OS X Lion’s AirDrop- First Experience with it Explains Why it Rocks

One of the features that will arrive with OS X Lion later this week is AirDrop. AirDrop makes it possible to quickly and simply share files with someone on your local network. Personally I didn’t see much of the point… until just now. Judie and I are both working on our Macbook Airs here in NJ. My 13″ has an SD slot while her 11″ Air doesn’t. (And boy oh boy has she been complaining whining about that fact!) She took some pictures for a review and wanted to get them on her computer. At first we were going to…

Gear Bits, News

Androids in SPAAAAAACE!

image courtesy Brighthand When the alien invaders arrive, they’ll no doubt swing by the International Space Station for a quick rest stop before invading Earth. Let’s hope they’re fans of open source software and not iOS fans since they’ll find Samsung Nexus S phones powering several satellites there. According to Brighthand: SPHERES were created by a group of undergraduate students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in conjunction with the Department of Defense and NASA, in 1999. Present on the International Space Station since 2006, SPHERES are individual satellites self-contained with propulsion, power, navigation and computing. Each SPHERE was designed with an…

eBooks, News

Dual-Boot Your Nook Color the Easy Way

Maybe you’ve heard here on Gear Diary that the NOOKcolor makes an excellent Android tablet. If you’re feeling confined by the stock operating system on the nook, even with its new app offerings, there’s always the option of trying a full Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) installation. However, this requires not only a bit of time and patience but a level of comfort with creating either a bootable SD card or <gulp> reflashing the internal NOOK memory. If you go with plan B, well, you’re a brave soul who doesn’t need B&N’s NOOK interface at all. But the stock NOOK reader is…

Reviews

Judie’s Orbino Padova for iPad 2 Has Arrived: Here’s a First Look

With help from Michael Ventre, Orbino’s owner, we ordered a very special Padova case for her iPad 2. Judie’s case is hand-made from crocodile and it is… oh just take a look… You can check out all of Orbino’s cases on the company website. Prices start at $209, and they go up from there … as you’ll see.

News

Random Cool Video: The More You Nerd – Slave Leia PSA

Actress Kaley Cuoco is best known for her role on Big Bang Theory, but has had loads of memorable parts including being ‘the teenage daughter’ on John Ritter’s comedy “8 Simple Rules… for Dating My Teenage Daughter”. Part of her appeal is that her impeccable comic timing and charm allow her to simultaneously be ‘the hot chick’ on the show while also endearing and fitting in with a group of asocial nerds. As such she has a tremendous following and high regard from those who identify with the Big Bang Theory characters. She has now stepped up on behalf of…

Events

Intel’s “Upgrade Your Life” Event

Along with 12 other site owners, I was invited to attend the Intel “Upgrade Your Life” experience in Santa Clara, California on July 13th. I went into this event with no itinerary and no idea of what we were going to see, but I figured it had to be more than “just” processor chips. Sure enough, I was in for an eye-opening day … After a greeting by Intel’s Social Media guru Alison Wesley and an ice-breaking game of ‘guess the tweet’ game, we were on to the first speaker … Suzanne Fallender – Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and…

Editorials

Positive Comment Doesn’t Make You A Shill, Good Customer Service Doesn’t Mean You’re Right

Over the past couple of weeks I have posted several articles related to products made by Sony – involving gaming, music and computers. I have gotten messages that have alternately called me a corporate shill and a screeching troll. And while I will definitely agree that my passion for gaming, music and technology in general comes through in my posts here, I found it amusing being called both an apologist and basher of THE SAME COMPANY! This week Dan did an unboxing on the new Toshiba Thrive tablet, and was immediately taken to task for bias. On a RPG discussion…

Reviews

Production on Judie’s One-of-a-Kind Orbino Padova Case for the iPad 2 Finishing Up

It seems like quite some time since we we wished Judie happy birthday with the promise of a very special gift — a one of a kind Orbino Padova case for her iPad 2. Thanks to the generosity of Orbino’s owner Michael Ventre, we were able to make arrangements to get Judie a case made of the leather of her choice. Judie’s choice? No surprise … Crocodile! The MSRP on this unique case is $689, and that’s for the “standard” handmade by Italian artists, crocodile skin version. It has been a while since production on the case first began, but…

News

Pop Goes the Music Diary: C’Mon, Admit You Love Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’!

I was never a big fan of Amy Winehouse, finding that her touted ‘Back to Black’ recording had a backing track that sounded sloppy rather than loose and with a vocal that had a ‘blues sound’ rather than sounding bluesy. In other words I found the entire thing contrived. So when British singer Adele appeared a couple of years ago touted as ‘the next Amy Winehouse’ … I was unimpressed and never gave a listen. Now she has stormed the charts with her new album 21, powered by the mega-hit “Rolling in the Deep”. It is a huge success, and…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Notes: The Four Reasons I Chose MOG Over Rdio

As I mentioned in my review of Rdio and MOG, both are excellent services and each provides plenty of value for the $10 monthly fee. Yet when it comes down to it, I really only need a single ‘on demand’ service – so I needed to make a choice. As a reminder, both MOG and Rdio offer on-demand listening on millions of songs from all of the major music labels. Each has a web player, as well as apps to run on Android, iPhone, and at least some amount of set-top entertainment devices like Roku, but neither has an iPad…

Music Diary

Music Diary Songs of Note: Steely Dan and Wayne Shorter Converge on Epic ‘Aja’

By 1977 Wayne Shorter was already a jazz legend. He started with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and quickly became music director, had some commercially and critically successful Blue Note followed by several years with Miles Davis in one of the greatest bands in recorded music history (jazz or otherwise), then went on to form Weather Report with Joe Zawinal – which along with Return to Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra produced some of the most creative post-Bitches Brew modern jazz/rock fusion music and dominated the 70’s jazz scene. Steely Dan had already released five popular and critically successful albums before recording…

Editorials

RIP Rock Radio in NYC!

It’s a sad day for rock fans in the New York/New Jersey area. 101.9RXP, the only rock station in the area, is going off-air as of tonight. They’ll still exist in website form, but that doesn’t do much good for those of us who relied on RXP to control road rage during rush hour. I’m bitterly disappointed. Honestly, I am not a huge music person, and mainly listen when I’m in the car driving to and from work. However, I really, really, really hate pop music. The only genre I generally enjoy is rock and left to my own devices…

Gear Bits, News

Sonos + Spotify = Even More Music Throughout the House

Despite using MOG quite a bit recently (It replaced RDIO for me.) I’m still a huge Slacker Radio fan. I like the interface, the customization and the catalogue. And now that you can cache music AND selectively grab tracks or albums it is just awesome. Unfortunately it still doesn’t integrate with my Sonos audio system so, at home at least, it is either MOG or Pandora. Hopefully I’ll have yet another choice before the day is out. Spotify went live in the US this morning and I’m waiting for my invite to arrive so I can try out the long-awaited…

Game Diary, Reviews

NCAA Football 12 PlayStation 3 Game Review

EA Sports blends the college football experience with several new feature, high quality graphics, and individual role-playing elements in NCAA Football 12.

Editorials

Netflix Changes Pricing Model–Are You Outraged, or Resigned?

Image courtesy of Gawker.com I guess it’s like the old truism: it depends on how you look at it. Yesterday, Netflix announcing a new pricing plan. Here’s how the Netflix marketing folks put it to me in an email: We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both. Your current $17.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs (including Blu-ray access) will be split into 2 distinct plans: Plan…

News

Looking for George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Dance With Dragons’ ebook? Forget Comparison Shopping!

It seems like ages ago I wrote about the lunacy of ebook pricing … but things haven’t gotten much better! Today is the release of the fifth book in the critically acclaimed ‘Game of Thrones’ series that has been 15 years in the making, and the first book in six years! I have only recently started reading the mammoth series so I find myself in the position of not needing to rush out and buy the latest book. But that didn’t stop me from looking! And what I found was that although the ebook is at least ~$4 LESS than…

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