When I reviewed Mary Halvorson’s ‘Illusionary Sea’ (which made my Top Music of 2013) I noted that there was a trade-off of intimacy for the larger ideas that are only possible with the broader palette of a septet. Now Halvorson is back leading the trio Thumbscrew in their self-titled debut recording, and it is simply amazing.
I noticed the smell before I saw the smoke: I looked to my right, and that’s where I saw the problem — tiny sparks and a rapidly melting sheath near the end of the Apple cable that was charging my iPhone 5S. I immediately unplugged it before flames took over; crisis averted, but why did it happen?
Look at the Skooba Design website, and you’ll see an assortment of high-quality east-west bags — meaning they are wider than they are high, and they hold laptops in landscape orientation. The north-south Skooba Design iPad/Tablet Courier V.3 is a departure from tradition, and it’s an impressive addition to the Skooba lineup; we’ve been using one and we’re impressed.
When my son was born, he was pretty portable. When we went out, he slept in his infant car seat. At home, he could hang out in his rock ‘n play. Unfortunately, he quickly outgrew many of these, and when traveling for the holidays we needed someplace safe and portable. Luckily, I stumbled across the Kidco GoPod!
If you are looking for a speaker that offers big, bold, impressive sound… Stop reading and move to the next article here on Gear Diary. If, however, you want something simple, inexpensive and easy to use, the Nude Audio Move S Wired portable wired speaker may be the perfect speaker or speakers for you.
Element Case may have begun as an iPhone case company but they have steadily expanded their offerings. Judie recently reviewed two of their Samsung GALAXY S4 cases and was impressed. We’ve got one of their Soft-Tec Wallet for Apple iPad Mini cases in hand as well. Thanks to its simple but elegant styling it too has won us over.
I do a great deal of my blogging for Gear Diary on my iPad. It’s partly a convenience thing, as I can work on posts from wherever I am, and it’s partly that I have my system down so well with iOS that anything else just throws a wrench in my workflow.
If you use 123456 or password as your secure password – it’s time to stop (and change passwords). According to analysis of compromised password lists by Splashid password software these are the 25 worst passwords. Some are obvious – 00000000 anyone? – others are a little more obtuse – monkey?
We’ve seen helmet cams in football, in NASCAR in-car videos, and as point of view from other sports, but never bowling. Bowling is harder to video this way, as the bowler usually doesn’t wear headgear; with Google Glass this is now possible. PBA’s Jason Belmonte recorded rolling a 297 in the Tournament of Champions qualifier while wearing Glass.
There’s been a lot of discussion about a recent decision to allow Google+ users to send Gmail directly to another Google+ user via their online profile. This new feature allows strangers to send a single email to any Google+ user (provided they have not disabled the option) without knowing that user’s email address.
This December 2013 YouTube video of skiers at Utah’s Alta ski resort shows the importance of skiing with a buddy within avalanche prone areas – and proceeding downhill separately. This GoPro footage shows a skier spotting his brother becoming engulfed in an avalanche leaving him buried to the very top of his ski helmet. All caught on video.
I planned on keeping the Element Case Sector 5 Black Ops Elite case on my iPhone for just a few days during my review process. That was almost a month ago and I don’t see taking it off any time soon. Yup, this $220 case system is that awesome. It looks great, protects well and is pure Element Case.
We recently took a look at the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive. It is a great accessory but one that is not without its flaws. The good news is that its big brother, the SanDisk Connect Wireless Media Drive, answers many of those shortcomings. It is a simple way to add 32 or 64GB of storage on the go!
Our friends at Skooba Design and Saddlebck Leather both go the extra mile to create bags that last and last. Creating durable, long-lasting products isn’t necessarily great for business since it cuts down on repeat and replacement purchases. Knockoffs however, that’s where the real money is. In this video Saddleback Leather shows you how to get started.
2013 is over, and it was an amazing year in music – cool new pop, a rap album from Kanye West I actually liked, Daft Punk returned and more. But my main area of interest is jazz … and there was TONS of great jazz! So I wanted to detail some of the best stuff I heard all year.
A post on Reddit titled “What’s the Most WTF Thing You Can Find On Street View” caught my eye. I was not quite sure what to expect though the top post caught my eye. It’s a pre and post street view of Kissam Ave in Staten Island, New York which was devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
2K and Bethesda will offer duo packs for players who missed Borderlands 2 and Dishonored or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and BioShock Infinite for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. These treasures will cost $29.99 each (North America only) and include the base games without any downloadable content (DLC). This special team-up team will release February 11, 2014.
If you’re a casual web user of Rdio or Spotify, chances are you’ve hit against their limits on occasion. Aside from not getting to do ‘on demand’ listening, you get ads and time limits as well as some other minor limits. This week both services set aside limits for web users and now offer unlimited use of their radio services.
This morning I opened my Mac for the first time in … a while, since I mostly use my iPad. I had a series of birthday and holiday alerts I needed to dismiss before moving on. A bit later Dan asked how to get notifications in Mavericks to automatically go away. So I took a look, and it’s very easy!
Having a simple but functional tablet or phone stand with you all the time is a great way to get the most out of your mobile device. And at under $20 for a two-pack, the Kanex Foldable iDevice is an inexpensive way to make that happen. Small, inexpensive, and highly functional it is a great little gadget.
I recently purchased a new case with a bluetooth keyboard for my Nexus 7. After a while, I really started to like using the keyboard. There will be a full review of the case coming but I wondered: Could I use it to write posts here on Gear Diary? The answer is yes! However, it does have some quirks.