2013 | Gear Diary

Reader Rocket Aims to Easily Compare eBook Readers

Despite many predictions to the contrary, eBook readers are still going strong. They may not be as flashy as tablets, but they are great devices with long battery lives, clear readable screens, and lightweight both in size and on your wallet. Most people tend to pick an eBook reader based on their bookstore preferences, what their friends and family use, and similar criteria. But if you’re the type looking for lots of statistics and specifications to compare and contrast, it can be tougher to find truly technical reviews of eBook readers. That’s where Reader Rocket, a newly launched site, thinks…

Reviews

A First Look at the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0

Judie got a first look at the Samsung GALAXY Note 8.0 during Mobile World Congress, and I was immediately impressed from afar. I love the size of my iPad mini, but I still miss the ability to write on the screen without having to dal with all sorts of vectoring caused by other parts of my hand touching the screen. (I am, after all, left-handed, and it is an ongoing issue for many of us South Paws.) The Samsung GALAXY Note 8.0 has the S-Pen which lets you write on the screen to take notes, edit pictures and much more….

News & Features

White Tuxedo Monster DNA Headphones Review

In the realm of headphones the quip, “It’s better to look good than to feel good” might well be rendered as “It’s better to look good than to sound good.”. In both cases, the statement is obviously nonsense. Just ask anyone with chronic inflammatory arthritis… it doesn’t matter a bit what you look like if you feel awful. Similarly if headphones looks great but don’t sound good, then they really aren’t worth a thing. That was, honestly, my concern when we were asked to review and then give away a pair of the White Tuxedo Monster DNA headphones that…

Reviews

Turtle Shell Boombox, Is It the Bluetooth Speaker for You?

Bluetooth speakers are pretty much everywhere you look; there’s the granddaddy of them all — the rectangular JawBone JamBox. There’s the strikingly similar rectangular shaped Braven 600 speaker that adds an external battery for charging your devices. If you want the speaker that stands up tall rather than sitting low you might want to check out the SuperTooth Disco 2. If round is more important, then you’ll definitely want to check out the impressive and well-priced JBL Flip. If you want something that’s got more curves than the JamBox and is far tougher, then you’ll definitely want to check out the…

Editorials

Twitter Showed the Best and Worst of Brands During Boston Attacks

Some have called Twitter the ‘new police scanner’, an analogy which makes sense for those of us who had relatives with police scanners and CB radios back in the 70s when they were all the rage. This was very true during the attacks at the finish line of the Boston Marathon: I found myself with four tabs open on my laptop – three were local Boston stations WCVB, WHDH and Boston.com, and the other was Twitter. It did an amazing job of pulling in information because from a wide array of sources shared and retweeted by all of the folks…

Game Diary, News & Features

Strategy Game Machines at War 3 Launches!

I have to confess that it was my intention to have a full review of Machines at War 3 for today, but I really wanted to alert everyone to the release of Machines at War 3. This is a real-time strategy (RTS) game with a deep campaign mode, skirmish and full multiplayer modes – and it is a true indie effort! As a RTS, you are constantly working against time and building bases, doing tower defense, navigating stealth subs, commanding gigantic mega units, and researching new technologies. I have played through the tutorial and some of the campaign on both…

Music Diary, News & Features

Twitter Launches #Music Service and App, Check It Out!

Twitter has been rumored to have had a music service in the works for a while, but since we don’t dabble in rumors here at Gear Diary, we waited until it was released to cover it. Now it is out, and it isn’t as much of a ‘music service’ as it is a ‘music DISCOVERY service’, one that depends on artists being on Twitter and having their music mapped out on iTunes, Spotify or Rdio. Twitter describes the service as “A fresh approach to finding new music by using Tweets and follows to power discovery.” The service offers charts of…

Reviews

Nuu MiniKey Keyboard for iPhone 5 Review

I trace my history with portable digital devices back to the early days – I grabbed the HP95LX, the first real ‘handheld computer’ when it came out in 1991, and have had a myriad of devices including the Newton, as well as various Psion, Windows CE, Handheld PC, Palm, Pocket PC devices. More recently I have had a string of iPads as well as Android smartphone and tablet devices, and now I have an iPhone. For more than two decades there was one common characteristic on all of my favorite devices — a physical keyboard. I’ve had a few months…

Music Diary, Reviews

Ches Smith’s These Arches Hammered Review

Ches Smith caught my attention as drummer for Mary Halvorson in her various projects, so when I heard he was releasing a new album I knew I’d have to check it out. The project features familiar names as these artists often help each other out, but the instrumentation is non-standard and the songs and arrangements don’t necessarily suggest a drummer-led band. Let’s take a listen to Ches Smith’s These Arches Hammered! Musical Genre: Jazz Where to buy: Clean Feed Records (Currently CD only through the site) Artist: Ches Smith’s These Arches Description: While my knowledge of Ches Smith comes from…

Crowdfunding, Game Diary

Guns of Icarus Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Adventure Mode

The lengths that some developers will go to to see their vision realized amazes me, and with Guns of Icarus Online that was certainly true. They were almost bankrupted putting out the initial game, and have had a previous Kickstarter campaign to complete that effort. But they envisioned much more, including a Skirmish mode and a full Adventure. Skirmish was released as a separate game, but get ready as Guns of Icarus Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Adventure Mode! Project Title: Guns of Icarus Online—Adventure Mode (PC/Mac/Linux) Status: Active Closing Date for Funding: May 21, 2013 URL of the Project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/musegames/guns-of-icarus-onlineadventure-mode…

Editorials, Music Diary

Court Rules MP3 Resale Violates Copyright Law

Calling everything about digital rights management a land-mine or clusterf**k seems to be overstating things, but some of the rules that apply to digital goods compared to the rules for the same goods on physical media just seem out of touch with reality. For example, let’s look at the latest ruling regarding ‘used MP3 seller’ ReDigi as noted at HypeBot: “Courts have consistently held that the unauthorized duplication of digital music files over the Internet infringes a copyright owner’s exclusive right to reproduce,” Judge Sullivan wrote. “However, courts have not previously addressed whether the unauthorized transfer of a digital music…

News & Features

Moxtra Parters with Salesforce.com, Evernote, and Kaffeine for Easy Group Collaborations

Have you heard of Moxtra yet? Don’t worry, it’s not a large insect about to attack — Mothra. Moxtra is a collaborative platform that lets you take all the different kinds of content around the web, from videos to notes to pictures, and stick them in a collaborative “binder”, making group work fast and efficient. They’ve been growing like crazy since their launch, and today they are getting an even bigger boost by integrating with Salesforce.com, Evernote, and Kaffiene! The Evernote integration is a pretty great concept. Evernote lets you share notebooks, but this makes it a bit cleaner, since all…

News & Features, Reviews

Huawei Ascend Mate Australian Launch Review

Huawei is making a splash in Australia with the launch of the new Huawei Ascend Mate, a 6.1-inch “phablet” to take on the Samsung Galaxy Note II. At the launch today in Sydney Australia, Gear Diary was able to spend some one-on-one time with the phone that Huawei describes as “Designed for a multimedia experience”. There is no question the Ascend Mate is a large phone, with a 6.1” IPS+ display dwarfing even its obvious rival, the Samsung Galaxy Note II. Just as surprising is the price, AU$429 when it launches on April 20, 2013. To put that in perspective,…

Editorials

EXCLUSIVE – The HTC First Facebook Phone Comes Up Last

I watched the Facebook Press Conference during which Facebook Home and the HTC First Android Phone with Facebook Home launched two weeks ago with a bit of amusement. I’m not a huge Facebook user, but my amusement really wasn’t just about my lack of being a Facebook fanatic at play; the idea of Facebook being my welcome screen and launcher just didn’t seem like something I would ever want. Facebook Home takes one means of connection and makes it central to my entire mobile experience. Having it on a dedicated Facebook phone means that I would need to go THROUGH…

Editorials, Health and Fitness

5 Ways to Honor the Boston Marathon Tragedy Victims – A Monday Mile Special Edition

As someone who was born and spent more than forty years in the Boston area, my heart is heavy today. Although I am glad that the numbers didn’t continue climbing through the night in terms of those hurt, I am still having trouble wrapping my head around the horrific events that occurred at yesterday’s Boston Marathon. As I went for my run this morning, my mind was constantly thinking about the situation, and I posted that on my Facebook page. Since then, I have also been thinking about how we can best deal with the feeling of loss that every runner…

Reviews

Ronco Coffee Time Brew System Review

As you know, we at Gear Diary love our coffee. My Keurig is still a great system, but I love to make coffee pretty much any way I can; that also includes on ice. Quite some time ago, I was exposed to cold brew coffee by one of my local coffee shops. I only had a small sample, but what I tried was amazing. So I looked up devices like the Toddy T2N and other systems for making cold brew including tryin to make it in the brewers I already have. The Toddy was what I was planning on…

Vehicles & Gear

2013 Nissan Titan Pickup is Upgraded ‘Status Quo’

Despite much of its lineup receiving significant (and much needed) makeovers recently, Nissan boasts a vehicle that is perhaps the “longest in the tooth”, as it is still basically in its first iteration in the form of the Titan fullsize pickup. The Nissan Titan first appeared at the 2003 Detroit Auto Show, and later that fall as the first full half-ton pickup for the automaker. It arrived with very simple choices for the consumer in the fact it offered only one engine and one transmission on a chassis featuring king or crew cab compartments and two- or four-wheel drive. Since…

News & Features

Telenav Looks to Shape Ads Based on GPS Data

I don’t always pay close attention to ads and location services, but when I do I tend to notice the same issue continually happening: the ad has no idea where I actually am. Oh, it knows if I am in New Jersey, and it might even sort-of know that I am home. But it doesn’t always know that the business it’s suggesting may be 4 miles away but a 10 minute drive. I’d pass three comparable businesses that were far closer and easier to reach first! Worse, if I am in North Jersey my phone becomes convinced I would be…

Reviews

SPIGEN SGP Linear Blitz Phone 5 Case Review

SPIGEN SGP has done it again with their Linear Blitz for iPhone 5. Yes, the company has been on a roll with their iPhone 5 cases, and the SPIGEN SGP Linear Blitz for iPhone 5 is yet another case that brings qualities, plenty of “extras” and good protection at an impressive price. How impressive is the pricing on the Linear Blitz? For under $32 you get a case with a real aluminum back plate, a quality screen protector, a cleaning cloth and three Jelly Bean Home Buttons; I would say that is a remarkably good value! Here’s a video look at…

News & Features

Wind Up Your Car Trip with a Winding Cable Car Charger

A great bane of connected driving can often be pesky power cables snaking across the car’s dashboard console, looking for all the world like albino spaghetti for iPhone users. What to do if the cable in question is too long and bowing out dangerously close to your arm, just itching for a wayward hand or elbow to catch the cable? Just as equally important, when the car trip is over do you loosely wind up the cable, throw it in your glove compartment and hope for the best? Well our ever intrepid friends at USBFever.com have introduced their Car…

Editorials, How to Do It Yourself!, Outdoors

DIY Ice Chest Air Conditioner Project

Spring time in Texas is hot; we do not really have seasons, just hot and not so hot. We are deep into the spring turkey hunting season, and some days it is just unbearable. I hunt with a bow, so that is done in a pop up tent blind. Turkeys can see extremely well, so I wear a long sleeve black shirt and black ninja mask. Of course I always wear my snake boots and long pants. The blind is basically an oven. I recently heard about people turning ice chests into an air conditioner on the go and decided…