2012 | Gear Diary

News Roundup on the Cusp of the Olympics!

Less than 24 hours until the start of the Summer Olympics! Hopefully, you aren’t too burned out on Olympics stories so far, there’s a long month of feel-good tales and endless shots of crowds ahead of you. Meanwhile, we have a quick roundup of apps and news to carry you through to the Opening Ceremonies! First, NBC has two apps to help you stick with the Olympics on the go. One is an aggregation of news and prepackaged articles and photos, and the other is for live coverage during the games themselves. So far, my personal experience has been a…

Gear Bits

Why Cable Companies Should Be Afraid of Airplay

Despite the fact that the operating system was released just a few days ago and there have been some issues with getting redemption codes and downloads, an amazing number of Mac users have already upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion. Having used it since shortly after the OS was released I can honestly say that it is, by far, the best update I’ve seen to OS X. I love the integration with iOS, the features of the new Safari and, of course, I am thrilled to have the, admittedly limited, ability to globally use voice recognition by simply pressing the…

Vehicles & Gear

The EV Life, One Year Later

In the summer of 2011 I penned an article centered around my daily struggles driving (and living with) an electric vehicle. I was testing a Chevrolet Volt Extended-Range Electric Vehicle and if you recall, I could not find anywhere to recharge my test unit but, in less than a year, my how things have changed. I still don’t have a home charging station but there are four public spots at the office building I frequent, two at the nearby shopping village, and I see so many popping up all over the area now. And next to those EV spaces at…

Gear Bits

Happiness is a Maple Bacon Donut: Happy SysAdmin Day!

Yesterday Twitter had a pretty major outage. Even though it wasn’t the best moment for the SysAdmins who work for Twitter, it’s something I appreciate when I see the hard work they do. I am also a SysAdmin and today someone did for me what I think is the best thing ever. They bought our team donuts. Why did they do that today? Well today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. Today is the day that you should set aside at least a few minutes to appreciate all the hard work that your SysAdmin does to keep your system or favorite…

Reviews

The ePool Smart System Swimming Pool Wireless Monitoring System Review

One of the things that makes living in West Texas bearable during the “hot months” — you know, mid-April to early September (when the temperatures consistently hover around 100º) — is having a pool or favorite watering hole that you can use to cool down in. We have a freestanding 30’x6′ concrete stock tank not far from our back door. While the primary function of this tank is to hold water which pipes to a trough our livestock drink from, we have also outfitted it with a regular pool filtration system so we can enjoy algae-free swimming; it’s pretty much awesome, and we…

Gear Bits

First Trailer for ‘Life of Pi’ Hits!

Published in 2001, Yann Martel’s ‘Life of Pi’ is a highly acclaimed novel that is deep with allegory and allusion and heart-wrenching storytelling. I found it a captivating read and it quickly passed through my family and out to family and friends through the years. It was recently featured as a ‘Kindle Deal of the Day’, so I was able to start reading it again – and it still strikes a chord with me. I vaguely recall hearing that there were plans in place to make a film version, but now we have the trailer! Here is the synopsis: Director…

Reviews, Travel

Lowepro Urban Photo Sling 150 Review

If all you need to bring with you is your DSLR camera, a few accessories and an iPad you certainly don’t want to carry some big, heavy, and bulky bag. At the same time, carrying your camera and your iPad means that you have some rather expensive equipment along with you for the day so you DO want it protected. One option is the Urban Photo Sling from Lowepro. This sling style bag comes in two sizes – the 150 and the 250 – and I’ve been using the 150, the smaller of the two, for the last few weeks. As…

Reviews

Acase Concept Hard Shell Case Folio for New iPad Review

Sometimes simple is better. That’s the situation with this iPad case from Acase. It offers a slim, formfitting back for your new iPad and a leather case that wraps from the back to the front. In addition, it has a magnet for sleep and awake that does a good job keeping the cover closed when not being used. A tab on the back turns it into a stand and a loop is there as well if you use a stylus. It’s not the most exciting iPad case we’ve seen, but it does the job and does so in a nicely…

Gear Bits

Turkey Dubstep Animation Is Awesome

Whether you like dubstep or not, there is no denying the cuteness of two turkeys spitting it out. The video short was so popular that not only has it earned a sequel … Turkeys + Dubstep + a little bit of success = Selling out … it has also earned several YouTube remixes, including one that lasts a ridiculous 10 hours. I’m looking forward to seeing what Will Anderson, the artist behind White Robot, shows the turkeys doing next. 😉

Gear Bits

US Cellular HTC Flyer Honeycomb Update – Do It the Same … But Slower!

Just as it seemed we might be seeing some critical mass in the move towards updating Android devices to ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ almost nine months after release, ‘Jelly Bean’ arrived and threw things back into a fragmented turmoil where the overwhelming majority of devices are TWO VERSIONS BEHIND. Oh well, at least we continue to see updates rolling out on pretty much a weekly basis. The HTC Flyer was an intriguing 7″ tablet that combined excellent performance from a single core chip with a full HTC Sense-ified Android 2.3 Gingerbread interface. Late in 2011 OS updates were initiated by HTC…

News & Features

With Dragon 12 Voice Recognition Gets Smarter… and Faster

The global voice recognition in Apple’s new Mountain Lion operating system is already by far my favorite feature. It is incredibly fast, quite accurate (when I speak slowly and clearly in a quiet room), and it’s so easily accessed (you hit Fn twice) that it makes voice recognition something you don’t even need to think about before you start using it. No matter what you are doing it’s right there (so long as you have a data connection). It is not perfect, however, and if you need something more powerful than simple, small pieces of voice-to-text recognition, then you will…

Music Diary, News & Features, Reviews

If You Want to Get ‘Real’, Get SampleTank! My Hands-On Review

When I did my hands-on quickie review of the iRig MIDI hardware and software, my iPad was sitting on top of one of the classic powerhouse synthesizers of the 90s, the Kurzweil K2000R. Aside from the powerful synthesis capabilities in the VAST engine, the system also featured a tremendous sample-playback capability. It cost thousands of dollars 20 years ago, and will still set you back at least a few hundred dollars on eBay now. Now there is software on my iPad that can replicate the vast majority of that experience for a fraction of what I paid for the Analog…

News & Features

With Mountain Lion, Global Voice Recognition Comes to OS X and It Is Awesome

If you read the site you know how much I like, use and rely upon voice recognition. I use Siri on my iPhone more for voice recognition than for the actual “power” of Siri. I use global voice recognition on my iPad ALL THE TIME. And on my Mac I use Dragon Dictation and Dragon Express all the time. With Mountain Lion Apple is bringing global voice recognition to the Mac. Sure, it has some of the same limitation as iOS voice recognition in that is requires a data connection and there is a limitation on how long you can…

Gear Bits

The Whole Samsung vs. Apple Legal Debate Summed Up in One Image

OK, so the title really isn’t true – there are so many multi-faceted elements interwoven in the international legal cases between smartphone makers that summing them up simply would be impossible. But when you look at phones from Samsung and HTC and others … this one picture tells a singular and undeniable truth: all current popular smartphone designs lead back to Cupertino and the original iPhone. Source: Cult of Mac

Music Diary, News & Features

American Public Media Launches New Interactive Stations on Slacker Radio

Back when I lived near Boston I had a long commute, and in the evenings I would occasionally end up stuck in traffic long enough to catch Marketplace on NPR radio. It was a mixed feeling – on the one hand I have always loved the show, on the other hand it meant I was late getting home. Today American Public Media (home of Marketplace and others) has teamed up with Slacker to launch public radio programming on all of Slacker’s clients. As I type this I am listening to Marketplace talk about the impact of Sally Ride on women…

News & Features

International Supply’s iCircle Puts a Ring on Your iPad

We’ve seen a plethora of iPad cases that have plastic ringed cutouts covering the Apple logo on the iPad’s back; they usually work so that the plastic ring rotates in the rear cover to allow the iPad to be propped up in either landscape or portrait mode. While I like the general idea and function behind this type system, I haven’t yet seen a rotating ring case that I liked enough to use. The International Products iCircle, however, looks pretty promising. Judging by the photo and the way the cutouts are placed, I’d still be able to use my Miniot…

Events, News & Features

“Sound Matters” As DTS Completes Acquisition of SRS Labs

Sound Matters! That was the central message offered by DTS CEO John Kirchner during a Press call on DTS completing the acquisition of SRS Labs. This deal paves the way to offer “best in class” audio solutions. As he put it, We are very well positioned through a combination of the technologies in pre and post-processing to deliver the solutions that our customers want and need. This positioning is especially true in the areas of mobile, connected TV and automotive audio as there are “significant opportunities to enhance audio in those areas”. It is difficult to get quality, convenience and…

Reviews

WrapSol’s Protection Bundle for the MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review

When it comes to protecting our various devices, there are a few companies upon which we tend to rely. Of course there is the old standby Zagg, there is our newsletter underwriter Bodyguardz and there is Wrapsol. We reviewed various offerings from each company and have, for the most part, been impressed by all of them. Which you choose to use has a great deal to do with price, the application process, and the specific offerings for each device. We have upcoming reviews of two skins from Bodyguardz, but in this review we will look at Wrapsol’s Protection Bundle for…

News & Features

App Store Curation Means You Sometimes Need To… Wait

As much as possible, I get my apps through Apple’s Mac App Store. The free apps I got through a direct download have now been removed, and I have redownloaded the App Store versions through Apple. My reasoning is simple. Since I’m a Mac user, and expect that will not change, the Mac App Store lets me have all my apps in one place and gives me a simple way to download updates or redownload then whenever I move to a new computer. This does, however, put Apple in control of the process and that is not without its issues….

Gear Bits

GoodBye Shake-Weight, Hello Ace Power!

In terms of ideas that must have seemed great on paper but in reality is so totally sexually suggestive that it can never be taken seriously, it seemed difficult to replace the Shake Weight – which has a great prank video here, but really is perfectly hilarious in the actual TV ad. Well… apparently some folks in Korea have been hard at work, and have come up with a great new idea – something that simulates the great workout available through horse riding, as well as a number of other leg-hip-thigh exercise variation. Oh, and it totally looks like you…

Reviews

Griffin Stylus + Pen + Laser Pointer for Touchscreens, Review

We’ve seen a number of different styli for the iPad and other touchscreen tablets. Most recently we did a video review of the LunaTik Touch Pen. (Read and watch it here) Unlike initial tablet styli that were… styli, the Touch Pen doubles as both a stylus and an ink pen. Better still, it switches from one to the other with the click of a button. We liked it… a lot. This time out we are looking at a stylus with value-added thanks to Griffin. Their Stylus + Pen + Laser Pointer for Touchscreens gives you a stylus, an ink pen…