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.
2011
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…
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…
Random Cool Technology: LifeLens Smartphone Microscope
We have seen novelty telescope attachments for smartphones in the past, but how about a different kind of attachment – one that works as a microscope and serves as a research and education tool to allow the viewing of the Malaria virus when there is no laboratory available. According to Smartplanet: After smearing a drop of blood from a small finger prick on the microscope lens, the app magnifies and analyzes the sample – taking a photo of it, detecting malarial parasites and ruptured blood cells, conducting blood cell counts for anemia, and quantifying how infected the sample is. “It…
Google Takes First Steps Towards Attacking Amazon
Looks like Google Books is taking some tentative steps towards being more than just a hobby. The folks at Google have fired a shot across the bow of Amazon, B&N, and Kobo by partnering with iRiver to offer an ebook reader with integrated Google Books access. According to the Google Blog: We built the Google eBooks platform to be open to all publishers, retailers and manufacturers. Manufacturers like iRiver can use Google Books APIs and services to connect their devices to the full Google eBooks catalog for out-of-the-box access to a complete ebookstore. You can also store your personal ebooks…
My ‘Hardcore Gaming’ Test: VAIO S-Series ‘Unplugged for a Day’
In this article, I test out my ‘Gaming Mode’ scenario – that is just what it sounds like: I set everything to maximum and crank up some game time! One of the big claims of the new VAIO S-series laptop is that not only does it deliver great performance in a svelte package, but combined with the sheet battery can deliver up to 15 hours of usage between charges. That requires certain settings, and while I definitely plan to put it to the test very soon, I have also had the opportunity to test the VAIO S-series in other usage…
First Impressions: U.S. Cellular HTC 7 Pro Windows Phone 7 Smartphone
I am very fortunate to have landed a review HTC 7 Pro unit from U.S. Cellular. A month or so ago I wrote about the 7 Pro launching as the first Windows Phone 7 device on U. S. Cellular. I will be doing a full review in the coming weeks, but wanted to give a few first impressions on (a) the phone, (b) the operating system, (c) the apps and (d) the service based on several hours of use this weekend. The Carrier – U. S. Cellular It probably would have made sense for me to check out the…
Get Ready for the Finale With Harry Potter – A Look Back!
My family went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 last year, and we were all so exhausted that we said ‘never again’. But as we get more and more excited for the final film, my wife said “are you guys up for another show” and we all said YEAH! Early reviews are saying the finale is excellent, which makes us even more pumped to see it – not that it would matter at this point! I thought that by now all of the pre-show hype would settle down, but apparently Warner Brothers has…
Office Gear Review: Sennheiser OfficeRunner Headset
I spend a lot of time on the phone and have long thought about getting a good headset to use. I was close to buying the OfficeRunner some time back but did not. Why? In part because I read a fairly scathing review of it.The “review” that turned me off to a great extent and prompted me to not purchase the headset talked about the fact that this headset doesn’t work with cordless phones and that the volume that was so low that the person on the other end couldn’t hear the conversation. Both criticisms were, as I discovered, unfair. (I…
Review: MusicSkins Music, Style, Protection
Phones, mp3 players, laptops, cameras, hard drives, headphones. We all have so many gadgets that may have a splash of color or chrome, but basically are simply black, white or silver products that may not be exactly custom or a representation of the owner. For many, these plain, boring gadgets need something colorful and stylish to make them their own. It could be even better if these customizations could also provide some protection. MusicSkins allows users to decorate their products with musicians, cartoons, artwork or even their own photos while also protecting the devices. MusicSkins sent me a few of…
Google Maps’ Unfortunate Mistake
Google Maps is not infallible. It’s been known to give wonky directions, as Sarah and I learned on Sunday when Google Maps mistakenly thought McCarren Park in Brooklyn was in Manhattan. Luckily we caught the mistake before we got completely lost. However, that’s nothing compared to the Google Maps fail for one NJ neighborhood, where they’ve mistakenly indicated the state park entrance is someone’s driveway. According to NJ.com: Since 1987, Gneiding and her husband Michael Brady have lived in one of three log homes found at the end of a quarter-mile long driveway in Clinton Township. The homes back Round…
Red Bull “Creation” Event — the Official Gear Diary Report
If the apocalypse comes, I want to spend it with the teams who competed in the Red Bull Creation event. They were given 72 hours and a pile of junk, along with the mission to illustrate “Energy in Motion”. Any scraps were fair game, from metal to electronics to slabs of wood, and the creations were just astounding. What they created was absolute brilliance, from hamster wheels to see-saws, and did I mention they did it in 3 days? If you left me in a room with a pile of junk and Red Bull, you’d come back to find a…
Enjoy Being ‘King of the Road’ with the Magellan RoadMate Pro 9165T
What good is spending $200K on a land yacht if you end up RVing down a scary rut road that winds through the middle of Deliverance country? Sure, you could buy one of those huge atlases that they sell at every truck stop on the interstate, but this is the middle of 2011! Any self-respecting captain should have the finest navigation tools at his fingertips! And as much as we all love convergence, that doesn’t mean placing your smartphone on a mount in the middle of your 7′ wide x 5′ tall windshield — squinting at its 4″ screen —…
Review: Stem TimeCommand Clock-Dock
I’ve become a big fan of not having to physically dock my iPhone, iPod or iPad in order to get audio from it. That’s why I love using the Sonos system I reviewed a few weeks ago. At the same time, there is a lot to be said for a bedside dock/alarm clock. Sure, the Sonos system lets you set alarms, but it doesn’t have a clock nor does it charge your power-hungry iOS device. That needs to be covered by something else — something like a clock-dock (yeah, I wrote “clock-dock”!). The problem is, too often the available clock-dock…
Music Diary Notes: Spotify Launch Next Week? Also, No Warner Music Deal (?) and Launch Notes Leaked!
I have written about Spotify’s plans to launch soon, including a sign-up page. However, there were even more interesting developments this week! First, as indicated in the title it seems that Spotify is looking for a launch between the 11th and 18th of July, if we believe a report from the Wall Street Journal: Spotify AB has told record label executives that it is aiming to launch its music-streaming service in the U.S. as early as the middle of next week, according to people familiar with the matter. Next, in spite of the imminent launch, it appears that the deal…
Unboxing the Toshiba Thrive Android 3.1 Tablet
Yeah, I did it. I picked up the new Toshiba Thrive Android 3.1 Honeycomb Tablet. I’m just starting to check it out, but here is a quick unboxing video. More later…
Mac Quick Tip: Use Faces to Find People and Organize Out of Control iPhoto Libraries
Sometimes it is the little features in a program that can make the biggest differences. iPhoto’s facial recognition is one example of this. I knew the feature was there in the ’11 version of the software but never used it. Last week Elana’s grandma Pearl died. It was and is sad, but at 87 she had led a long, good life and is remembered fondly by many. We should all be lucky enough to have the same said about us when we are gone. I wanted to put together a montage of pictures to share with Elana and her family,…
Google Needs a “Parents” Button
My parents are reasonably technologically competent. They’re not big geeks, but my dad has an iPhone and my mom has both a Blackberry and an iPad, so they generally are self-sufficient when it comes to computers. However, what should have been a simple installation of Google Earth on their aging Dell set off a chain of unexpected consequences, all because they’ve been conditioned to trust Google and not question instructions. Apparently, when you install Google Earth on a Windows PC, Google asks to install Chrome as well. No biggie, except that in her “just click-through because Google said it…
Gear Games Retrospective: Quake (1996, FPS) Celebrates 15 Years
A few weeks ago I looked back at Duke Nukem 3D in anticipation of the arrival of Duke Nukem Forever, which I subsequently reviewed as well. However, Duke Nukem 3D wasn’t the only shooter released in the first half of 1996 – on June 22nd 1996 a whole new era in first person shooter gaming was born with the release of Quake! In celebration of that milestone I take a look back at this legendary FPS game from id software. The Hype Rage through 32 single player levels and 6 deathmatch levels of sheer terror and fully immersive sound and…
2011 Land Rover LR4 Proves ‘Disco’ is not Dead
DNA testing of the new Land Rover LR4 would reveal that there is still a good bit of Big Blue Oval pulsing through its veins. The brand’s latest mid-size SUV may receive corporate mail from an Indian postmark but development of the LR4 in current form began back when Dearborn, Michigan was a frequent destination for Land Rover hierarchy. The new LR4, as with its predecessor LR3, is a US-market designation. The platform is known globally (and previously here) as the Discovery Series, or Disco for short. And thanks to Ford, DISCO IS NOT DEAD! (Sorry, I have been waiting…
The Space Shuttle: A Retrospective
For most of my life I have lived watching the space shuttle program from afar. As a youth, I thought I would have the opportunity to fly on the shuttle. Of course that didn’t happen but I still will miss the shuttle in many ways. Take a walk through my childhood memories of the Space Transportation System. STS-1, the very first shuttle mission was a huge memory for me. When it launched on April 12, 1981, I remember getting out of bed early so we could see the launch together. The memory of seeing this launch on TV with my family is…