2011 | Gear Diary

Today Only — Buy a Book, Save a Kid from Malaria!

Looking for a good book on leadership? How about a way to help prevent malaria in Africa? Today only (September 7th), you can combine them and do both! If you buy a copy of “End Malaria” from Amazon, $20 of the proceeds will benefit “End Malaria Day”. And you get a great business book! Win! Here’s what marketing guru Seth Godin had to say about this promotion: Six weeks ago, at midnight, I found myself awake but wiped out from jet lag. I was in a lumpy bed, in the dark, in an obscure, $20 a night, John-Waters’-esque former country…

News & Features

Evernote for Android Updated: “Skitch-ified” and Better Than Ever

Want to get the most out of Evernote? The other day we brought word of the downloadable book, Evernote Essentials. It is a good resource for anyone who is new to Evernote or wants to maximize their Evernote usage. Evernote has been on a roll lately. They bought Skitch, rolled out new versions of their software and are opening a presence in Texas. Now word comes that Evernote has updated their Android app and included some neat new trick including even tighter integration with Skitch. We’ll let the Evernote blog post explain… Today’s Evernote for Android update (3.2) gets a bunch of really…

Editorials

iOS 5.0 Voice-to-Text Cometh??

As a general rule we don’t cover rumors here on the site. Every now and then however there is a bit of juicy information that is so deeply rooted in fact that taking the leap toward believing the rumor is pretty easy. This is one of those cases and, truth be told, I have a hard time seeing this NOT come to pass. We’ve all been hearing about ongoing negotiations between Apple and Nuance with regard to incorporating Nuance’s voice-to-text technology deeply in the next version of iOS. We’ve even see screen shots of the keyboard trigger for it. Now…

Game Diary, Reviews

PC/XBOX360 Game Review: Portal 2

Back in 2007 Valve release The Orange Box, which collected up the 2004 PC game Half-Life 2 along with the ‘Episode’ expansions for release on the XBOX360 (and later PS3), and added two new games: Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Team Fortress 2 was the big news of the collection … but the little two hour physics FPP (first person puzzler) called Portal was the break-out star. I thoroughly enjoyed it and reviewed the Orange Box back in 2007 and showed my kids, but it was only this past year that my younger son got interested in the game again….

Reviews

Sennheiser MM450 Bluetooth Headphones Review

As I have been reviewing more and more audio equipment one thing has become clear to me: you get what you pay for in the sound department. True, every now and then a lower-end audio product may surprise you but, as a general rule, the more you pay the more features and audio-quality you are going to find. Sure, this holds true in most areas, but I tend to find it is more apparent in the audio department than in other places. That noted, I never imagine I would lust after a pair of headphones that cost just south of…

Reviews

SigNote Adds Interest and Personalization to Your Pics Review

It has been a while since an iOS photo app caught my attention but SigNote did just that! It is a relatively simple app that lets you add personalization to your photos in just a few simple steps. It takes seconds to learn and can be tons of fun. Let’s take a quick look via a walk-through of editing a picture and then tell you how you can enter to win a free promo code. Here’s what it says about the app in the iTunes Apps Store: Ever thought about turning your photos into a piece of art? SigNote arms…

eBooks

Celebrating 20 Years of the Revitalization of Star Wars

It is hard for some to believe, but after Return of the Jedi, the Star Wars franchise faded into the backdrop as other franchises such as Indiana Jones, Back to the Future and Revenge of the Nerds took center stage. When was Star Wars reborn into the massive iconic force that it remains? If you are thinking 1999 with the launch of the Jar Jar Juggernaut, think again! Back in 1991, author Timothy Zahn created a work of popular fiction called ‘Heir to the Empire’. It took us back to the universe just five years after Return of the Jedi,…

Reviews

Review: Acer Iconia Tab A100 7″ with Android Honeycomb – Everything Right & Wrong with Android Tablets

Recently the Acer Iconia A100 Android tablet went on sale, and I have had a couple of weeks to play around with one and formulate some opinions. Dan also grabbed one, and we had been chatting about the Iconia back and forth until he returned his. Even before I got the A100 there were a few things I had read about it that were troubling, and other things that had me quite excited! I wanted to document some of the great things about the tablet and latest version of the Android OS … and some things that make the moniker…

Reviews

ZAZOO KiDS Digital Photo Clock Review

ZAZOO KiDS™ Digital Photo Clock provides multiple media functions designed for simple interface and displays beginning with little tykes and transitioning into the teenage years.

Reviews, Travel

The Aligata Nude Beauty Big Weekend Travel Bag Review

When I travel by plane, I use a virtually indestructible LuggageWorks rolling carry-on. It’s great for getting through airports and attaching my other bags to, and I never have to worry about it being damaged when gate-checked because it’s extremely durable and already ugly as sin. Did I mention that it’s also ridiculously heavy? LuggageWorks bags have a metal frame around their bottoms and backs which is part of why they last virtually forever, but it means that the 22″ version I have weighs 15 pounds when empty and can weigh 30+ pounds when fully packed. Although it is just fine for airport…

Editorials

GMail to the Rescue!

I have been a GMail user since their early beta days, but three times this week I was reminded of how dead simple and useful their archiving and saving functions can be! First, a bit of background. My best friend is getting married next week, and so I have been wracking my brain putting together a toast for her and her fiancée. I had some fun anecdotes about her, as well as stories from when the two of them started dating, but I was looking for something more to add. Thinking maybe old emails would help, I typed her name…

Game Diary, Reviews

L.A. Noire PlayStation 3 Game Review

Authentic chronicles, engaging investigations, and expertly captured characterizations combine into an impressive array in Rockstar’s L.A. Noire crime-themed action game.

Reviews

Review: Microsoft Releases Windows Phone Mac Connector Update on Mac App Store

Much has been written about how the biggest winner in two recent events – HP dumping webOS and the success of patent infringement cases against Android handset makers by Apple and Microsoft – is Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. For me, one of the issues I have had with Windows Phone 7 is connectivity. You need the Zune desktop software to do pretty much anything. With my Android phone I can just plug it in and mount the drive – and since I have all of my music through iTunes (like ~78% of the world) anyway THAT requirement isn’t an issue….

Reviews

Satellite Navigation GPS Review: Navigon 40 Plus

The increasing reach of smartphones has called into question the usefulness of many dedicated devices, from music and video players, to compact cameras, and of course the ever-useful GPS. With GPS and turn-by-turn navigation almost standard equipment on Android devices, and the prevalence of iPhones, one could be forgiven for retiring their trusty nav and leaving their destination in the care of their phone. Realising this, several of the top navigation device companies have put their eggs in several baskets, with versions of their software and maps available for smartphones across the globe. A personal favourite of mine is Navigon’s…

News & Features

Would You Like an Invite to BlackBerry’s New BB Music Service?

image courtesy of BlackBerry Smartphones Week If you live in North America or the UK, and if you have a BlackBerry, you have no doubt heard about the new BlackBerry Music service that we mentioned earlier this week. $5 per month gets you 50 songs that you can share with your friends … but only if you own a BlackBerry and they own one, too. And this service is not available to the general BlackBerry population yet. According to Digital Music News, the plan details are: (1) $5 a month. (2) User chooses 50 songs to access anytime, on-demand. (3) User then invites…

Editorials

When Is an Android Device Not an Android Device?

When the Grid 10 was announced by the ever-reliable Chandra Rathakrishnan last month, it was said to run Android apps but not be an Android device. This was later clarified to mean that it is actually an Android kernel running the show, but thoroughly skinned and possibly even forked to a version of Android incompatible with future Google-backed updates. We’ll see someday, maybe. Now TechCrunch is reporting that Amazon’s long-rumored tablet will be hitting the market in a couple months, running a completely forked Android kernel. This one is apparently pre-2.2 (how far pre is undefined) and has been so modified…

Reviews

iOS-Enabled Gear Review: iHelicopter Remote Controlled Helicopter

A week before Griffin announced their new Help TC iOS remote-controlled helicopter, I saw the iHelicopter being advertised. For $59 I figured I would order one. It came yesterday and… well… it is fun. As the product page explains, The iHelicopter makes it possible to use your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch as a remote control for a RC Helicopter! Plug the transmitter in the audio jack, download the free controller App and you are ready to fly! The gyro in the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch can be used to control the tilt of the iHelicopter. Tilt your iPhone…

Editorials

So … When WILL It Be Enough? 4 Year Old With Fake Boobs and Butt on ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’

I have always been appalled by ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’, the ‘reality show’ of the awful and mentally twisted parents and over-indulged babies who are dressed like 18 year old beauty pageant entrants and strutted around on stages. If this is truly where our country is headed, let me off at the next stop! As if it couldn’t get any worse, today in the Daily Mail we hear about a little girl named Maddie: Barely out of nappies, four-year-old Maddy Jackson is already on the road to womanhood. Sporting fake C cup breasts and padding on her bottom, she is the…

Editorials

I Reviewed It and Still Use It: Flipside 2X Wallet Edition (News, Too!!)

We reviewed the Flipside 2X wallet last fall. It is an unusual wallet that is made from hard plastic, offers limited storage and has RFID shielding so the evil people trying to steal your information right from your credit cards without even touching them. Our conclusion? What I Like: Keeps you organized; keeps cards in place until you want them; opens with the tap of a button; cards slide out easily; prevents “wallet creep”; offers RFID theft protect What Needs Improvement: Nothing really comes to mind other than the fact that it would be great if they offered two models…

Gear Bits

Denny’s Embraces Indulgence, Ignores Health Risks with the ‘Let’s Get Cheesy’ Menu

What would you like for lunch today? How about a full days worth of calories and two days worth of fat? Oh, I know you can easily get that in any ‘glutton burger’ you’ll find around in burger joints looking for a moment of fame on one of the Travel or Cooking network shows … but how about as one of the featured items on Denny’s ‘Let’s Get Cheesy’ campaign? Here is part of the press release: Cheese enthusiasts across the nation are set to rejoice with the launch of Denny’s “Let’s Get Cheesy!” menu. Showing some serious cheese love,…

Reviews

Tablet Accessory Review: Adonit Jot and Jot Pro Stylus

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad the tagline might well have been, “Stylus? Stylus? We don’t need no stink in’ stylus.” Yes, Apple’s goal with the iPad was a truly touch-friendly tablet. For the most part, they have succeeded. Still, there ARE times when you want to use a stylus and, thankfully, there are a host of options these days. I just got a close, hands on look at one of the newest options and it awesome. More accurately, THEY are since there are two versions. The Jot and the Jot Pro from Adonit are an unusual take on the…