2012

iPhone 4 Cases Get Patriotic With Griffin’s New “Nations” Lineup

July 4th is long gone, but before you put away your flags and USA-themed partyware, check out Griffin Technology’s latest case line for iPhone 4 / 4S. Arriving just in time for the 2012 Olympics, this protective gear will keep your smartphone looking festive and patriotic. As a company known for their innovations in the world of electronic accessories, Griffin builds sturdy, well-designed cases to keep your i-baby safe from harm. “The Nations Cases are not only festive, but they deflect everyday bumps and scratches, without hindering your access to the Multi-Touch display, controls and connectors,” said Todd Word, Sales…


Skooba Design Laptop Weekender V.3 Review (Spoiler- You Want This!)

 Hi, my name is Dan and I am the poster child for Over-packers Anonymous. It’s true. I have a packing problem. When I go anywhere I fill whatever bags I am bringing to overflowing and then I add a bit more. And that holds true for my cloths, my electronics and my incidentals. The result? When I went to Aruba last December I brought three times as much as I needed. When I went to Vegas for CES I brought twice as much as I needed. And when I went to Dearborn for GoFurther with Ford last month I had…


New York City’s High Line Park is a Raised Treasure

Charles Harvey demonstrating his elevated railroad design on Greenwich Street in 1867, source In the 1930s and 1940s, New York’s elevated High Line ran between factories and warehouses delivering milk, meat, produce, and raw and manufactured goods without creating congestion on the streets below. Rather than run above the streets of the businesses it serviced, the High Line ran through buildings, which was the city’s attempt to “avoid creating the negative conditions associated with elevated subways.” In 1980, the last train ran on the High Line pulling three carloads of frozen turkeys. In the mid-1980s, area property owners began lobbying…


LunaTik Touch Pen Video Review, Kickstart This!

Project Title: LunaTik Touch Pen: The Evolution of the Stylus Status: Funded, Backer Rewards Received, New Orders Being Taken Closing Date for Funding: February 10, 2012 URL of the Project: Find it here. From the Creatives: Thank you for checking out our LunaTik Touch Pen project. Ever since we launched the TikTok+LunaTik Watch Kits on Kickstarter last year we have been constantly asked when we were going to do another project. Well, we have been working on a variety of ideas which we plan to launch in the near future. One of the first ideas is a simple and obvious…


Hands-On Video Review of Google Nexus 7 and My ‘7-Day Nexus Challenge’

By now, anyone who tracks mobile technology has heard something about the ASUS-made Google Nexus 7. We’ve already heard it alternately described as a ‘Kindle Fire Killer’, an ‘iPad Killer’, or “just another 7″ tablet to toss on the pile”. Let’s take a quick look at the Nexus 7, and the challenge I am undertaking! The Hype: For a limited time, includes $25 of credit to spend in the Play store, as well as some great free content like your own copy of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. THIN, LIGHT AND PORTABLE: Nexus 7 is a no compromise Android tablet that’s designed to…


NOOK Goes Web Based

Good news, if you care deeply about reading ebooks on every possible device-B&N has released a web version of the NOOK platform. This is one of those features that every ebook store has felt compelled to offer but frankly, it’s a bit of a yawner. It’s helpful if you want to read on a computer and you can’t install software, but is that a common occurrence? Is it something we really want? Or need? From the press release: NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today introduced NOOK for…


Hands-On Video Review of Google Nexus 7 Gaming Experience

When it was announced that the Google Nexus 7 was going to have the nVidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and a multi-core high-performance GPU, I had a very simple thought go through my mind: mmmmmmmm Games … Now that I have the Nexus 7, I was able to put it through the gaming paces – and within a few hours I noted performance good enough that I decided to do a separate look at several games rather than just embed it into my overall review. Here are the games I looked at along with links to Google Play: – ShadowGun…


GearFest GearChat #2, All About iPad Apps

In Part 2 of our GearFest Gear Chat we take a look at some of the apps we use and love. Check the bottom of the post for links to each Gmail Get it. Documents to Go Get it. Blogsy Get it. Bento 4 Get it. Type on PDF Get it. Pages Get it. IA Writer Get it. Elements Get it. Scanner Pro Get it. TouchRetouch HD Get it! And since we mention how much more we are now using our iPads to take pictures… here are some of my favorite camera apps! Photogene Get it! ColorSplash for iPad Get…


TouchFire Screen-Top Keyboard for iPad, Some Kickstarter Projects Just Don’t Make the Grade

Project Title: TouchFire: The Screen-Top Keyboard for iPad Status: Funded and my backer reward arrived Closing Date for Funding: December 13, 2011 URL of the Project: Find it here. From the Creatives: TouchFire makes your iPad feel like a normal keyboard! TouchFire puts the “touch” back into typing on an iPad. You can now feel where the keys are and rest your fingers on the home row, so you can type as fast and accurately as you can on a laptop. You can even type without looking at the screen. TouchFire cushions your fingers as you type, something both touch-typists and…


ThinkTank Retrospective 7 Camera Bag Review

A few weeks back I wrote an initial post about upping my photographic game. After much thought and discussion I purchased a Canon G3i DSLR with an extra lens, and I have been accumulating additional accessories to go with it. (As a result there are a good many reviews on the way!!) Of course, I need a convenient and protective way to carry the camera. I shared an initial look at three different bags from ThinkTank Photo (check it out here). This post is the first of three in-depth looks at them. The Retrospective 7 is the smallest of the ThinkTank…


Rock Radio Returns To New York!

Almost exactly one year ago, 101.9RXP went off the air, leaving NYC without a decent rock radio station. I was more than a bit sad about this, and while Pandora has partially filled that void I really missed listening to the radio. That is why I was thrilled when I saw on Facebook yesterday that 101.9 was back to good old rock music! I tuned in this morning on my way to work. The selection seems excellent so far. There was no DJ, and I didn’t hear any commercials. Instead, there was an occasional station identification of “101.9 NYC Rock…


Think Tank Photo Lets You “Test Drive” Your Next Camera Bag

I’m enjoying the process of using and reviewing a number of different camera bags from Think Tank Photo. As we have previously noted, the bags are impressive in their design and flexibility. You can read and see our overview here. Think Tank just let us know that they have launched a new program- The Think Tank Test Drive. The Think Tank Test Drive program, which runs through the end of August, means you can try one of their Sling-O-Matic sling bags for free for 30 days. (This program is in place of the free gift Gear Diary readers get with Think…



Name that Propaganda … is the US Olympic Uniform Stance ‘Anti-Olympic’?

If you missed out on the whole kerfuffle around the Olympic Uniforms let me sum it up quickly. Basically, like pretty every other garment you can buy in stores in the US, designer Ralph Lauren produced the uniforms in China. In an election year play politicians saw a chance to show their patriotism and commitment to home-grown jobs by making elaborate demands that future Olympic uniforms be manufactured in the US. Personally looking at the image above I am more taken aback at the authoritarian pose in the picture. Rather than serving as a tribute to our Olympians, the pose reminds me of political/military…


POP – The Intersection of Charging and Design, Kickstart This!

Project Title: POP – The Intersection of Charging and Design Status: Raised $5261 of $50,000 goal Closing Date for Funding: September 1, 2012 URL of the Project: Find it here. From the Creatives: The batteries in our mobile devices have not been able to keep up with the increased usage. As a result, we often find ourselves looking for places to charge. But many times, convenience and charging do not go hand in hand. At the Edison Junior Design Laboratory, we developed the perfect solution to this problem. POP, aka “Portable Power”, is a rechargeable portable battery with retractable cord…


Google Nexus 7 Unbox – Not As Bad As You’ve Heard, and Setup is Pretty Good as Well!

I have heard a bunch of negative reports of people struggling to get the tablet out of the box … so I was really intrigued at the possibility of capturing my frustration on video! Perhaps it is the years of wrestling with so many over-packaged toys for my kids, but it was no big deal. In the video I compare the unboxing experience to that of the Griffin MIDIConnect. But as I say the unbox wasn’t a problem, so then I got it started up and linked to Google services. While we will go into more details for our full…


GearFest GearChat #1, Tablet or Notebook? Which One When?

While together this past weekend the editors took some time out to talk tech. We’ll share the conversation/s over the next few days. Each of us brought a tablet, a notebook and at least one smartphone along with us. Two used the tablet almost exclusively while the others traded off between them fairly evenly. In this first one we talk about when and how we choose to use one or the other. Has your tablet become a primary productivity tool for you? Let us know in the comments.


New Synthetic Polymer Helps Solve ‘Sticky’ Chewing Gum Messes

When was the last time you were walking on a beautiful paved path, sitting on a bench, walking through a school or shopping area … and you DIDN’T see wads of used chewing gum dropped on the ground, stuck to walls and doors and desks and so on? Or watched a teen blow a massive bubble that popped and got residual gum all over their face and clothes that took hours to clean out? IT IS ONE OF THE GREAT PROBLEMS OF OUR TIME! OK, so perhaps not. But compounding the general annoyance and ‘yuckiness’ are two REAL problems: health…


Mustache Pacifier Can Help Make Junior’s Escapades All the More Snidely Whiplash-ish

Infants and early toddlers… like kittens and puppies… they’re oh-so-cute, aren’t they? Typically gifted with a cherubic countenance that hides their true mischievous nature, there’s always so much more just beneath the surface. The folks at Gadgets and Gear are offering a most clever device that reveals the truth.. the Mustache Pacifier. Why a Mustache Pacifier, you ask? Some might argue this pacifier will make junior look like a mini-Ron Swanson or at least a number of years older, creating a more “mature look”. I don’t think that is quite it. No, I think the true function of this device…


Nokia of America Exec Says ‘Plenty of Life Left’ for Lumia 900, Do You Agree?

One thing we discussed at GearFest was the state of Windows Phone. There was quite a bit of enthusiasm when the Mango update arrived and breathed new life into the OS. Then came the partnership with Nokia, and it started to feel like Microsoft would see reasonable success – and the release of the Lumia 710 and 900 phones in particular just added to the feelings of excitement for the future of the platform. Then came the announcement that Windows Phone 8 wouldn’t support ANY device currently available – including the brand new flagship Lumia 900. For many who recommended…


Are You Tough Enough For Badwater?

(image courtesy rpmbold) The Northeast USA today “issued” an “excessive heat warning”. That can only mean one thing… everyone is complaining about how hot it is outside. Some people thrive on the heat and enjoy running in it. They might want to start prepping now for the ultimate race goal: Badwater. What’s a Badwater, you ask? It is a short 135 mile race through Death Valley. Think of it as a nice afternoon stroll… if your idea of a nice afternoon stroll is taking a walk in or around your oven! It is an easy course. As you can see…