Articles by Joel McLaughlin

CES 2012: Digital Innovations Releases Universal Speaker Dock for Android

Android people have long been without a great speaker dock solution. Usually you ended up just plugging your phone into desktop speakers and pressing play on the phone. Remote control? No way. Gear Diary’s own Bryan lamented about this lack of accessories just a few weeks ago! Well at CES 2012, Digital Innovations has brought out their Universal Speaker dock for Android! Android users rejoice as you can pause and alter the volume of the music from across the room with a remote just like iPhone users have been able to do for quite some time now. What is even…

News

CES 2012: Ubuntu to Unveil Ubuntu TV

When the rumors came across last week of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu coming to CES, I thought ‘Why?’. What could they be introducing that could be worthy of a booth at CES? Well all across the internet today Canonical has introduced their new Ubuntu TV product. Ubuntu TV, based on the new Unity interface is what Canonical wants TV makers and content providers to consider for integration in their TV’s. They also promise apps for Android, iOS and Ubuntu itself for interfacing with your Ubuntu TV. While it really looks nice, I am not so sure how this will…

News

Android’s New Holo Theme to Help Speed Updates; Potential to End Themes?

According to Droid Life and the Android developers blog the Holo theme included in Android 4.0 is a requirement on a devices that ship the Android Marketplace with 4.0. This promises to fix is the amount of time it takes manufacturers to produce updates to the OS. They do this by making Holo a requirement and allowing a DeviceDefault skin as well. Adam Powell of Google says: Formally separating these theme families will also make future merges easier for manufacturers updating to a new platform version, helping more devices update more quickly. Also, developers can specify DeviceDefault or Holo. Since…

News

10 Important Desktop Open Source Projects for 2012

In the spirit of Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier’s post over on Linux.com, I thought I would craft my list of 10 important open source desktop applications of the last year. Now I know that not every Gear Diary reader is a huge Open Source fan or follower, but these are projects to watch in the coming year. Some of this software works on Windows and Mac OS X as well so you may want to check them out if going full bore into Linux isn’t in the cards right now. Most of this software is software I use on Linux every…

News

HP Open Sources WebOS

HP has put up a press release regarding the fate of WebOS. WebOS has been given to the open source community. HP will engage the open source community to help define the charter of the open source project under a set of operating principles: The goal of the project is to accelerate the open development of the webOS platform HP will be an active participant and investor in the project Good, transparent and inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation Software will be provided as a pure open source project This is probably the best thing that HP could have done with…

Editorials

The Power of Viral Marketing: Companies Need to Account for It!

Recently there’s been several stories across the net about people in the real world that have underestimated the viral nature of the internet with regards to business promotions. Sometimes it comes from official channels like GroupOn. However, sometimes this can come from places that the store simply cannot account for. The picture above is the toy aisle at my local Kroger. No they are not going out of business but it sure looks like it in the picture above. The above picture is the result of a promotion that has gone horribly wrong. The promotion? Well, from October through the…

Reviews

Digital Innovations AllTerrain Wired 3-Button Mouse Review

Mice seem to be ubiquitous. Everyone has one. Not many people even consider buying one that didn’t come with their computer while some are fanatical about the mice they use. I tend to be one of the former. As long as it has a scroll wheel I am usually happy, but now I have a new favorite wired mouse in the Digital Innovations AllTerrain Wired 3-Button Mouse. What makes this mouse All Terrain? Well anyone who has used an optical mouse and tried to use it on a glass surfaces knows that they usually will not work on glass table top…

Gear Bits

Amazon: It May Be Easy, but It’s a Risk

Now that Amazon is shipping the Kindle Fire, I got to thinking: what if you gift the Fire or any other Kindle? Well, if you do, make sure you do what Laptopmag.com says in their post and keep YOUR Kindle account safe. After I read this, I did some more thinking: What if someone stole your shiny new Kindle off of your porch? If this happens, then that thief has access to ALL of your books and can purchase books on your account. This is bad. This is very bad. Gear Diary’s own Michael Anderson and Dan Cohen are both trying out the Kindle Fire,…

Reviews

Book Review: Tweeting Linux

It’s not often I do book reviews. In fact, I’ve only done one other book review, and that was for Cooking for Geeks which wrapped my love of tech with my love of food. In that book, there was a chef who shared recipes via Twitter. In this book, by Don R. Crawley, we take sharing on Twitter to a new subject: Linux. The full title of the book is Tweeting Linux: 140 Linux Configuration Commands Explained in 140 Characters or less. This book explores one of the things that, once you go beyond just installing Linux, you come to realize is…

Reviews

Review: Asus EeePad Transformer

The tech press has maligned Android tablets. There just hasn’t been one that has caught the up to the iPad according to many people. That may soon change with tablets like the one I have, the Asus’s EeePad Transformer. Hardware Much of the hardware on the Android tablet front has eerily similar specs. Like most Android tablets that have a version of Honeycomb, the Transformer has an Nvidia Tegra 2, 1 GB of ram, 16 or 32 GB of Flash (mine has 16), WiFi (B,G and N supported), Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, HDMI out, MicroSD Slot, a 5 megapixel camera on the back and a…

Editorials

Let the iPhone 6 Rumors Begin… WE Already Have the “Proof”

I was reading through my feeds today and a story on Droid Life cropped up about some pictures appearing on Picasa that were tagged as being taken by a Droid RAZR and the Galaxy Nexus. Both phones are all but confirmed, with tons of evidence throughout the web, but these pics are being labeled as evidence as the phone being out real soon now. They may actually be out, but posting pictures that purportedly came from the devices is hardly evidence. Why do I say that? I will show you. The above picture was taken with my Droid 2. Yeah…

Reviews

The Sansa Clip Zip MP3 Player Review

I love Sandisk’s Sansa line because they are cheap, use standard connectors and work on just about any OS. So when they offered to send me the new Clip Zip to review for Gear Diary I jumped at the chance. Will it be as nice as their past devices? Let’s find out. The Clip Zip is the next version of the Clip. My friends in the Linux community have much love for the Clip. It’s cheap, supports Ogg Vorbis codecs, and it connects to your computer as conveniently as any flash drive. That means you can us any OS that…

Reviews

Review: iFrogz Legion Earbuds and iFrogz Split

Sometimes all you need is a set of headphones. No microphone integrated and no bells and whistles except great looks. The Legion ear buds from iFrogz fit the bill really nicely. By the way, the name Legion comes from the X-men character. Will the earbuds fit the name? Let’s find out. When I first saw these, the look of them reminded me of a turbine or something you might find on the death star. I loved the look of these buds with the chrome and light blue coloring being eye-catching without being in your face. They are also available in…

News, Reviews

Review: iFrogz Vertex Headphones with Mic

The folks at iFrogz were kind enough to send me a set of their brand new Vertex line of headphones to check out. Will they sounds as good as they look? Follow along for a detailed look at all the features of the Vertex Headphones. It used to be that if you wanted a wired set of headphones with a mic, you were stuck using in ear or ear bud designs. Several manufactures have started adding a microphone to headphones that are not ear buds now that it’s far more common to use your phone as a music device. The…

News

The Return of Layaway?

About five years ago Wal-mart decided it was no longer going to offer layaway plans. What is layaway? Layaway works by you walking in to the store, picking what you want and going back to a layaway counter and putting a down payment on it. You then have a certain amount of time to pay it off then take it home. If you don’t pay it off, it goes back on the sales floor and you get your money refunded minus a service charge. The great ting is you don’t pay any interest like you do with credit cards….

News

Review: iFrogz Timbrepro Headphones with Mic

I have always loved iFrogz unique headphone designs. They are always eye-catching and usually sound pretty good to boot. They aren’t top of the line, but they are far from the worst I have ever tried. That’s why I jumped at the chance to get a set of the new iFrogz Timbrepro Headphones sent to me for a review. The general design of these is very much like some of the other headphones iFrogz has in their line that include the inline microphone for iPhone, Android and any phone that accepts a 3.5 mm jack. Where they differ are in two different design points….

Editorials, Reviews

How I Chose the Tablet for Me

Tablet computing is all the rage now. Microsoft coined it, Apple popularized it and there are many others including Microsoft itself that are vying for a piece of the large pie that Apple already owns. It isn’t the death of the PC, but I am convinced it’s a device almost everyone will eventually own. Some may replace their computer entirely with a tablet device, while others will just use it to augment the laptop or desktop they use. Either way, it’s the future and I’ve decided I need to look at getting one. Follow me along the journey of selecting my…

News

SanDisk Brings Out the Sansa Clip Zip

While I do like iPods, I still love other MP3 players as well. One of my favorites is the Sansa Fuze+ after the latest firmware update. Sandisk also has made many other Sansas, and one of the Linux community’s favorite ones has been the Sansa Clip. Just when I didn’t think the Clip could get any better, Sandisk brings out the Clip Zip, which adds some nice things to the Clip’s form factor. Stylish, Feature-Rich Player Delivers Affordable On-The-Go Music Experience · Packed with features, including a larger color screen, compatibility with all major music formats, a stopwatch, an…

Reviews

The SanDisk Ultra 8GB USB Flash Drive Review

I collect thumb drives. At least it seems that way, as I have a whole bag of them. One of these days I’d like to replace all of the smaller ones with one larger one or a few larger ones. This 8 GB SanDisk Ultra flash drive is my second 8 GB flash drive and one of my favorites. Let’s take a look at its features. Speedy – Faster file transfer speeds Stylish – Attractive slider design houses your data in style Secure – Store your private files in a password-protected and encrypted vault on the USB flash drive Added Protection…

News

Cobra Tag Helps You Find Anything Including Your Phone

Are you the type that misplaces things like keys, your car remote or your purse? Then the Cobra Tag may be for you. Cobra Tag is a Bluetooth device that works in conjunction with your phone. Once set up, if you walk away from the item your phone will alert you that you forgot your keys. What if that item is your phone? Cobra Tag has that covered too. If you walk away from your phone AND have the tag, then the tag itself will alert you that you left your phone behind. The app works on Blackberry and Android devices. No…

News

iFrogz Introduces Some New Headphones and Accessories

I work at a college and one of the things you see in almost every set of ears on campus is a set of headphones. Our bookstore sells them all the time when students destroy their favorite pair of buds which is why they carry many different brands of headphones including some from iFrogz as well. Today iFrogz has brought out a new line of headphones in the new iFrogz Audio brand. They will also be bringing two more sets of headphones in the Ear Pollution line of headphones. The first set is a set of on ear headphones called…

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