2011 | Gear Diary

Things That Make You Go “Hmmm”: iPads on Airplanes Edition

I just landed in Boston on my way to Martha’s Vineyard for a wedding tomorrow. Of course I brought my iPad with me. (It’s how I took this picture and wrote this post during a flight that was shorter than the time it took for me to get to the airport and through security.) It was a 38 minute flight. For the first ten minutes I could not use the iPad. For the last ten minutes I was told to turn it off as well. That left 18 minutes or so that the iPad was “legit” and usable. This has…

Game Diary, Reviews

iPad Game Review: Stand O’Food 3

G5 Games is one of the big publishers of so-called casual games, and my favorite publisher of those games for iOS devices. They have found a sweet spot of hidden object, puzzle and time-management games that play well and present an excellent value on those platforms. Some of these games – such as Treasure Seekers and Supermarket Mania – have spawned full franchises that carry from one game to the next and bring the audience right with them! Now the next entry in another time-management favorite has arrived – Stand O’Food 3! Let’s take a look. The Hype: The most…

News & Features

Using a Tablet as In-Car Entertainment? Make Sure It Is Crash Tested with ProClip USA

I made a strategic error a few months ago. My iPad-loving father-in-law was looking for a new stand for his iPad, and I let him try the ProClip MultiStand I reviewed here. I never got it back. ProClip [affiliate link] makes some of the most impressive stands and mounts for a host of devices. Among the tablets they design for: the Apple iPad 1 & 2, the Motorola Xoom, the BlackBerry PlayBook, the Samsung Galaxy Tab and more. Now they just got better. If you are thinking about using an iPad for in-car ProClip USA has a new product for you,…

News & Features

mSecure 3.0 Puts a Blowfish in the Cloud

Largely because I tend to switch devices and platforms regularly, I keep coming back to the same password manager – who for now shall remain nameless – because it is available for Blackberry, Android, and iOS devices, as well as having desktop applications for both Windows and Mac OSX. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing software from my perspective, but it works well enough. Syncing my mobile devices does require that I sync with the same computer, but I can’t sync between computers. Cloud syncing isn’t an option. I may have to consider switching now, however, as mSeven Software’s mSecure…

Editorials

I Don’t Want to Buy Retail, Media Companies!

Look, Big Media Companies: I don’t want to buy physical objects retail. Your humble GD crew has opined on many occasions that we think that the BMC’s “strategies” for releasing their content electronically doesn’t make sense, that it doesn’t discourage piracy, and that it’s just plain nonsensical. Today: a perfect example. Consider the movie X-Men: First Class. As of last Friday, it was available on both DVD SD and Blu-ray. Not available on iTunes until Tuesday, but that’s okay–that’s the way it always works on iTunes. No big deal. But here’s the thing with the iTunes version: you can’t buy an…

Gear Bits

Not Suitable For Children — Nature’s Porn-y Veggies

A friend sent me this, and it was too awesome not to share. Basically, these are all naturally occurring vegetable shapes, that just, uh, happen to be NSFW. Sarah and I joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) earlier this year, and we’ve really loved getting a box of fresh produce once a week, but now I feel robbed! I honestly don’t think I can include most of the pictures here, so you’ll have to head to Organic Authority to see them all. Just make sure your boss isn’t watching!

Game Diary, Reviews

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron PlayStation 3 Game Review

This Biblical inspired one player adventure game follows the adventures of Enoch and his God-given quest to return seven fallen angels to heaven.

Music Diary

Pop Goes the Music Diary: In Which Dubstep Meets Social Awareness

Daft Punk has been a popular techno act for years, but after scoring the underwhelming Tron:Legacy (my family all find the soundtrack the best part) and with the rise of dubstep and techno-house artists like Skrillex and Deadmau5 they seem to be having a resurgence in popularity amongst kids too young to have caught them before. Their song ‘Prime Time of Your Life’ is a great example – released as a single in 2006 from the 2005 recording ‘Human After All’, the song – like the album – was deemed ‘too repetitive’ and lacking development, and pretty much ignored until…

Editorials

Faceglat – Sadly, It’s Not Something “The Onion” Invented

There are times when the virtual world seems very real. I know that I consider my fellow writers on Gear Diary my friends, even though all of us have not met in person. But there’s a difference between real and virtual friendships, and I recognize the difference. Apparently, for some very orthodox Jews, there is no difference, and that’s what Faceglat is for. Effectively, it’s a Facebook-style website, but it’s gender-separated. Women and men maintain separate Faceglat areas, just as they would in a real-life gathering. On the surface, it’s not that weird, but if you stop and really think…

News & Features

Belkin’s Cooking with iPad Kitchen Accessories

I’ve written it before and I’ll write it again, the iPhone and the iPad are like eRorschachs; the device and what it can do changes depending upon what app you are using. Want a school device? It is one. Want a good GPS? It can handle it. And the list goes on and on. And as the iPad becomes useful in more and more settings the accessories that make it even better matter more and more. Belkin understands that the iPad is a great device for the kitchen at Pepcom’s Holiday Extravaganza I got a first hand look at three…

Editorials

1825 Days Since We Began, and We’re Just Getting Started!

Gear Diary v1.0 circa 2006, courtesy of the WayBack Machine Five years ago, I stepped off a virtual precipice and left the safety of my regular writing gig at The Gadgeteer to start my own personal blog, an idea that was born while riding on the back of an elephant in Thailand. With the help of Joel Evans, formerly of Geek.com and now with CronkSoftware.com, I learned how to work with WordPress, a relatively new blogging platform that was totally different from the “Ruby on Rails” system I was used to. My first Hello World post on Gear Diary ran late at…

Reviews

Review: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Instant PDF Document Scanner

As I have moved further and further away from using paper and pen and more and more into eEverything having a good, high-speed scanner has become increasingly important. My Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 is my workhorse. It handles up to 50 sheets of paper at a time and does duplex scanning. When I am “covering” a book to an eVersion (a laborious process that starts with me cutting the binding off of it) this is the tool for the job. The NeatDesk Desktop Scanner (reviewed here) is perfect when I have a few pages or receipts to scan. When I am…

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes: MOG Introduces FreePlay!

One of the reasons that Spotify became so popular was … well, because it was FREE. From a PC, with some ads, you could listen to just about anything you wanted to hear. Of course, over the last couple of years Spotify has dramatically trimmed their offerings for free users and put on ever-increasing restrictions to move them to paid subscribers. Now MOG has introduced a free model called ‘FreePlay’, that isn’t just better than anything Spotify has offered, it is simply a brilliant way to deal with a free usage model! Here is the announcement and details from their…

eBooks, Editorials

Amazon’s Proposed eBook Subscription Service — a Round Peg in a Square Hole?

The Wall Street Journal weighed in over the weekend with a very interesting and surprising rumor. Supposedly, Amazon has been shopping an “ebook subscription service” around to publishers, in an effort to bundle ebooks with Prime membership. Sort of like Netflix for eBooks. The closest analog to this is the old “Book of the Month Club” type deals, but this is definitely a step up. It benefits consumers, but does it actually benefit the business of selling books? First, let’s look at the specifics, as far as they’re known right now according to the Journal: Amazon.com Inc. is talking with book…

News & Features

Ooma Updates and Gets Even Better

One of the standout piece of consumer electronics I have discovered over the past few years is the Ooma phone system. The system brings an unusual business model to the business of phone service. Instead of charging a monthly fee Ooma sells the hardware that connects to your high-speed internet service and then lets you have your phone service for free. Sure they sell a number of useful accessories and there are some value-adding services to which you can subscribe (Ooma Premier is one of them and is totally worth the price) but you don’t HAVE to do so to…

News & Features

Lenovo Gets Down to Business with the ThinkPad Tablet

One of the big surprises for me tonight at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular! (we’ll have much more from this event over the next few days) was the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet. The ThinkPad Tablet is the first tablet specifically designed for business settings. It has some great features, feels great in the hand and it has one more KILLER FEATURE that I’ll reveal at the end of the post. First, here’s what Lenovo has to say about their latest and greatest offering. ThinkPad Tablet Brings Android to Business: The ThinkPad Tablet combines the superior media and entertainment experience of the IdeaPad Tablet…

News & Features

Do You Have a 30 Pint Goldstar or Comfort-Aire Dehumidifier in Your Home? If So, Then Read This!

Do you have a dehumidifier in your basement? If so, you probably put it there to protect your home from water damage, right? Well, if you own a Goldstar or Comfort-Aire dehumidifier, you need to check your model number, because you may have put yourself at risk for something even worse — fire damage. The recalled dehumidifiers were sold at The Home Depot, Walmart, Ace Hardware, Do It Best, Orgill Inc., and other retailers nationwide from January 2007 through June 2008 for between $140 and $150. They were manufactured in China. The dehumidifiers were first recalled in December 2009 following eleven incidents,…

News & Features

Should I Just Etch That On A Stone Tablet For You?

Look, I’ve been using a digital calendar exclusively since I bought the HP95LX back more than 20 years ago. I was never the type to carry a DayRunner or other planner, but I had great multi-purpose cases for my Newton, HP200LX, and Palm/Pocket PC devices. So I was bemused at my answer when Dan came to the Gear Diary crew and asked: Do any of you know ANYONE who uses a paper calendar? I ask because my amexcard wrote to offer me a “free” desk and pocket calendar and before I rant I wanted to check if i am offbase….

Gear Bits

iPads In Action — Wedding Band Edition

At my friend’s wedding on Friday night, Sarah spotted something different about the live band. They had stands for their sheet music, but no paper sheets…instead each member of the 9-piece band was rocking iPads! I didn’t get the chance to quiz them on their iPad use (they were a bit busy, what with playing music and all), though they did comment offhand that they really liked being so “technologically advanced” and that the iPads helped them immensely. What’s really cool is that this band is an incredibly diverse group of musicians. You can check out some of their bios…

News & Features

Watch Samsung Rip Off Apple AGAIN In New Galaxy S II Ad!

Have you seen the commercials for the Droid Bionic? As my kids put it “it doesn’t make me want the phone, but it sure is cool’! And the Verizon Wireless iPad commercial? Yawn! It there anyone who can make a commercial for a smartphone that is as interesting and compelling as Apple? Turns out their supplier/competitor/collaborator/arch-rival Samsung is doing a pretty good job. The new commercial is called “The Way We’re Wired” Unlike Apple, there is loads of mentions of tech specs, capabilities, and so on. But similar to Apple the point is to evoke positive feelings and then link…

Editorials, Travel

Lessons Learned from a Week of Road Tripping

Sarah and I have had a busy summer, but the big finale was definitely this past week. We started out Labor Day weekend, where we headed to Virginia, before returning to New Jersey for a day and then heading to Maine for a friend’s wedding. Lots of travel, lots of packing, lots of gear. What did we learn? Read on to see our hard-earned lessons and tips! Technology: Let’s start with travel gear. I opted to travel light to VA since we were driving to Richmond, then Virginia Beach for a race, then back to Richmond and then finally home….