2012 | Gear Diary

Hilariously Effective Nike ‘I Would Run to You’ Commercial

How often do you see a full 2.5-minute commercial that even as it is obviously selling a brand, makes you stop and fully engage in the story? Well, this new commercial for Nike featuring two lovers who find themselves across the country and missing one another is cute, endearing, and hilarious. It is a great story … and well worth watching and sharing! Here is the description: Nike and W+K Portland put a romantic twist on running, with this 2:30 video about two lovers running across to country to see each other, directed by Rattling Stick’s Ringan Ledwidge. Promoting the…

Reviews

Just Mobile Xtand Go Car Mount Review

When I got a new car last fall, I made sure I chose one that would eliminate the need for a lot of the “after market” accessories I had been using. The built-in navigation system meant I didn’t need to have a GPS or use my iPhone as a navigation system any longer. The built-in Bluetooth speakerphone meant I didn’t have to use an after market Bluetooth speaker attached to my advisor. Not only did I get added convenience, but I also got a far better sounding system in the process. Built-in Bluetooth audio streaming meant I no longer needed…

eBooks, Editorials

What’s Next for eBooks after the DoJ Settlement?

Today was a big, big day for eBook fans! The Department of Justice agreed with everyone who has been screaming for three years that the “agency model” was unfair, anti-competitive and anti-consumer. They settled with several publishers, though Apple and Macmillan are still fighting the DoJ in court. So, what did the settlement today do? And how will it impact the future of ebooks? Read on for my thoughts! The Settlement: I am going to defer to Wired here, as they quickly had an excellent breakdown of what the settlement states: Terminate its current contracts with Apple within seven days…

Editorials

iPhone 4S vs Galaxy Nexus: Which Will I Pick?

Those who have been following me on Gear Diary know that I was an early Android lover. I had the very first Android phone, the G1. While it was not without its foibles, I loved the phone even with it’s Jay Leno chin and chunkiness. About 18 months ago, I replaced my beloved G1 with a Droid 2 and switched from T-Mobile to Verizon. Early on, I was extremely satisfied with my Droid 2. It was easily faster than my G1 ever was. I was able to run applications my G1 would choke on and I never had an issue…

eBooks

Department of Justice Sues Apple and Several Publishers over eBook Prices

Huge ebook news this morning! The US Department of Justice has officially filed anti-trust lawsuits against Apple and Hachette Books, as well as some sort of legal action against MacMillan, Harper Collins, and Penguin. All of these charges are related to the Agency Model, where prices are set by the publisher and discounts at the retail level are disallowed. I am not surprised that it has come to this. All the publishers were very insistent they did not do anything wrong, and that it was purely coincidence that all of them developed the same exact pricing plan at the same…

News & Features

Bracketron Universal USB Power Dock Pro Flex Now Available

Where to set my phone when I drive? That seems to be a problem I often have. Lately, I tend to just lay it in my lap which usually sends it crashing to the floor board after each stop. If I am not connected to the auxiliary cord, it often goes forgotten and crashes to the pavement when I hop out of the vehicle. I have tried setting my phone in the cup holder and in other places but just cannot seem to find anywhere that works well. A flexible dock that keeps my phone in a convenient position to…

News & Features

Nokia Lumia 900 Free for AT&T Customers After $100 Rebate

When I first picked up my Nokia Lumia 900 Monday morning, both the AT&T store reps and I were perplexed why my phone could initially make phone calls but data functionality was, well, nonfunctional for a few hours. We eventually swapped out a SIM card and later the phone was able to function normally, so we initially thought it might just be a registration issue with the new device on AT&T’s network. However, news began to circulate that many users were experiencing a similar problem. Now, just two days after the semi-official (well, it was supposed to launch on Easter…

Outdoors, Reviews

Thermacell Mosquito Repellent Review: A Hunter’s Best Friend

Spring turkey season has been in full swing for several weeks. My buddies and I have been spending countless hours in our pop up blinds on the weekends, both morning and nights. Mother nature has blessed south Texas with some much-needed rain this spring, making the land green and wildflowers colorful.

Gear Bits

Frank Warren’s TED Talk on Half a Million Secrets

There is not a Sunday morning that goes by where I don’t check out the latest offerings from PostSecret, a project started after its creator, Frank Warren, had a dream while visiting Paris in 2003. The idea behind the site is that people send in their secrets anonymously, on 4×6 postcards that they have created themselves. Senders are told to “Reveal anything – as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.” The beauty of Frank’s project is that sometimes the secrets shared are secrets that could be yours, or they are secrets that will relate…

Reviews

Turn Your Mobile Device into an Awesome Desk-Phone with Native Union’s Curve Twin

Thanks to services like Line2, my iPad makes for a great phone. Seriously, so long as I have a good data connection, the tablet offers a huge screen for dialing and an excellent noise-canceling microphone for making speakerphone calls. But what if I want to use my iPad, or my iPhone, or my iPod touch or, shockingly, a device running an OS other than iOS as a VoIP phone AND have the calls be private? That’s where Native Union’s amusingly functional line of handsets come in. Many of the designs simply connect to the 3.5mm headphone jack on my handsets…

News & Features

Casellet iPhone Case Is Both a Case and a Wallet

I absolutely hate carrying items in my pockets. This probably stems from the fact that I spend most of my time on sports fields and courts, but keys and wallets are usually not with me while I work. Unfortunately, I am connected to my iPhone like a vital organ, so I have become used to always carrying it with me. This habit finds me in situations where I forget to grab some cash or my debit card, and I get stuck borrowing a few bucks or waiting until I get back to my wallet. There are solutions that turn an…

Editorials

Developers, Please Finish Your Apps Prior to Release!

Last week, Nokia ran an ad campaign that welcomed people to the end of smartphone Beta-testing thanks to the release of the Nokia Lumia 900. I criticized them for the initial ad, which tried to focus solely on the iPhone and some of its limitations and bumps encountered along the way, pointing out that there are better ways to make your case than to attack other products. This is especially so when the product you are attacking continues to gain momentum, adoption and favorable user-reviews. The final ad was more general and focused on the whole smartphone experience, labeling the…

Editorials, News & Features

Nokia Lumia 900 Has Botched Retail Launch, Yet Still Hits #1 on Amazon!

This past Sunday, my brother was visiting; he and my wife and I went for a long bike ride, taking a path around the local mall along the way … and noting that everything was closed. Because it was Easter. It just also happened to be the launch day of the Nokia Lumia 900, the de facto flagship phone of the entire Windows Phone line-up. There have been articles questioning the wisdom of an Easter launch, but none more pointed than the one from the New York Times: AT&T said last month that when Nokia’s new Lumia 900 phone went…

Gear Bits, How to Do It Yourself!

Got a Weird Icon in Your Android Notification Area? Here’s How to Remove It

I have only had this happen twice, and it has annoyed me to no end until I figured out what was causing it. What I am talking about are two different issues caused by the same piece of adware; one issue is a weird icon appearing in your Android notification area. Another is an icon just showing up out of the blue on your main Android home screen. What causes this is an app called Airpush. Airpush is an evil adware app that does this to help fund application developers. Airpush is not an app in and of itself, but can…

Editorials

Need Proof Optical Media is Dead? Look at My Wife.

If ever you wondered if optical media (CDs and DVDs) is dead and gone this brief interaction from last night should make the point with utter clarity. A bit of background before the “blow by blow” Elana is not a techie. She’s not anti-technology either. As she often puts it, “I think this stuff is amazing and I appreciate what it can do but that is where it ends for me. I just can’t get excited about it the way you do.” But when it comes to the 11″ MacBook air she has been using for the past year and…

Music Diary, News & Features

Madonna Finds an (Unfortunate) Way To Prove She is Better than Gaga in All Ways!

Lady Gaga has made quite a career as a Madonna clone, something that the Queen of Pop was fine to tolerate until she decided it was time to kick-start her music career again this year. At that point, emboldened by a general opinion that Gaga was a similar but lesser product than her, Madonna earlier this year referred to Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ as ‘reductive’ – an accurate but nonetheless scathing term … especially in an age where computers with sophisticated software can dissect songs so easily to show their origins and similarities. Now, just one week after claiming the…

Editorials

Ashley Judd Eviscerates the Gossip Industry

Gossip can be a very cruel phenomenon. There is reality, and then there is the truth according to viral videos, Facebook, Us Weekly, and the E! Network. Just this past weekend Sarah and I were in the grocery store, and she commented that the headlines screaming from the checkout magazines were just out of control and invasive. Did it really matter whether Kim Kardashian cheated on her (soon to be ex) husband? Do we really need to know the second Prince William and his wife get pregnant? So it makes me very happy to see a different kind of article…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Final Reminder to Support Dan on Zinio and Help Foundation Beyond Belief Charity!

As you might have read here, Dan is entered into the ‘Biggest Influencer’ contest at Zinio. Each day (well, 24 hour period) you can enter a new vote at Zinio and help him win the vote and by doing so gain a $2500 donation to the Foundation Beyond Belief Charity! Great cause, great way to help out – and all you need to do is click a link! And now we are into the final week – so this is a reminder to hop on to Zinio every day this week and support Dan! Here are his details: Here Is…

Reviews, Travel

Normincie’s Revolutionary Laptop Bag Review

I’m not much of a shopper, usually. When it comes to clothes, the quicker I can get in and out of a store, the better, so far as I’m concerned. Same with shoes, or cars, or appliances, or pretty much anything, really. Although Judie has made some headway over the years in helping me to see the beauty of quality accoutrements for my gear. Nice laptop bags. Vaja cases for my iPhone. Things like that. But usually, I’m pretty immune. However, when I wrote up the news item for Finnish company Normincie’s new high-end laptop bags, I must admit I…

News & Features

Facebook Buys Instagram for $1 Billion!

Soon after launching the Android version of the ultra-popular social photo sharing site, Instagram has just sold to Facebook for a cool $1 billion! Here are some details from the New York Times: Facebook has acquired Instagram, the popular photo-sharing application, for about $1 billion in cash and stock, the company said Monday. In a Facebook post, the company’s chief, Mark Zuckerberg, said he planned to build Instagram independently from the social network, allowing users to post on other social networks, follow users not on Facebook and opt out of sharing on Facebook. And from Instagram the following statement: When…

Vehicles & Gear

Jaguar XKR-S Convertible: The Big Cat Daddy in the Texas Hill Country

It’s been no secret that the convertible hot rod coupes from Jaguar have been some of my favorite cars to drive. Most recently I spent a week behind the wheel of the newest, baddest cat on the block, the XKR-S Convertible. Jaguar released the R-S series to stand above the already improved “R”-designate cars and I would volunteer that the “S” implies spectacular as that is what I found my driving experience in the big kitty to be. While the supercharged 550hp XKR-S in coupe form begs for track time, our tester convertible screamed “Road Trip” – and that is…