Articles by Joel McLaughlin

NOX Audio’s Scout Headset

When I last looked at a product from NOX it was their gamer oriented Specialist set of headphones which I liked really well. However, most of the time I have been preferring earbuds. Well NOX sent me a set of their new Scout earbuds to check out. Are they as good as the Specialist? Let’s find out. The Scout headset is of the type that fits in your ears with adjustable silicon cushions. While some might not like this style I really like how they feel in my ears plus with the different cushion sizes they tend to stay put in your ears when…

Reviews

Review: Roll-able Bluetooth Keyboard from EFO Gadget Shop

Sometimes I would love to just travel with my Droid 2 or a small tablet sized device but the built in keyboard on my Droid 2 isn’t that conducive to typing big e-mails. So when I saw this keyboard, I thought let’s try this as a way to make a extremely mobile setup for blogging or e-mailing. EFO Gadget Shop sent one to me to review. Will it be as useful as I thought? Well today we will find out. This keyboard is an extremely portable bluetooth keyboard. It is many times smaller than a Apple Bluetooth keyboard and even…

Editorials

Android and Netflix: a Gear Chat

Was reading through the articles on Netflix late arrival to Android and came across this post over on ZDnet. The author’s headline sates that Netflix is not out for Android because of the dreaded platform fragmentation. We had a gear chat about it, but first let’s include a quote from the official Netflix blog post: We regard Android as an exciting technology that drives a range of great devices that our members could use to instantly watch TV shows and movies from Netflix. We are eager to launch on these devices and are disappointed that we haven’t been able to…

Reviews

Review: Cgear Sand-Free Multimat for Camping

Let’s face it: The outdoors can be dirty and dusty. You go to the beach and try to lay a towel out and end up getting sand all over it. You go for a swim and then get sand in your eyes when you dry off. Not fun. How do you cure this? Cgear’s Sand-Free Multimat! That’s how! The Multimat is made from a special technological material similar to what the military uses a to keep dust down when landing helicopters in dusty environments. This also works wonderfully to keep the sand and dust on the ground where it belongs…

Reviews

ZaReason Terra HD Netbook Linux Netbook Review

It’s been a couple of years since I reviewed a laptop from ZaReason, the UltraLap SR. Now I’m reviewing something a bit smaller — the ZaReason Terra HD. ZaReason is a different type computer company; every single computer they sell runs Linux, and they only ship Linux (or no operating system at all) on all of their machines. They care about this to the point where they even include a screwdriver in the box of every machine they sell. That is because any system you buy is your system, and they feel that you have every right to look at what makes…

Reviews

Review: StarXscape Lite

Gaming is starting to come to the Android platform in earnest as representative of the amount of downloads of the recently released Angry Birds. Games are really starting to hit Android en-mass. Just before Angry Birds came out, MHill System let us know about an interesting game for Android called StarXscape. Your mission in StarXscape , if you choose to accept it, is to free the stars that are held captive by the evil Octramon. You along with your faithful sidekick Krudo will travel galaxy by galaxy freeing the stars held in octacages. What does that mean as far as game…

Reviews

Review: Sandisk Sansa Fuze+ Media Player

Sandisk has long produced the Fuze line of mp3 players and while they aren’t nearly as popular as Apple’s products, they do indeed have a following within certain communities. Since Sandisk has long had compatibility with open codecs such as Ogg Vorbis , the Linux and Open Source community loves them. Many of my friends have them and I purchased the last generation Fuze for my wife. I was impressed with what Sandisk had done with the device as well as with its price. Sandisk was nice enough to send me the new Fuze+ to review. Did it improve upon the…

Reviews

Review: Pelican 1015 Laptop Overnight Case

Some of my favorite movies over the years have been movies like Spies Like Us, WarGames, True Lies, Under Siege and the 007 Movies. In some of those movies, you’d see the hero or the antagonist slam a case on the counter and unlock it, flip open some heavy-duty double throw latches and open up a watertight, dust proof container and get a computer or some other equipment out. These are the images that came to mind as I opened Pelican’s 1015 Laptop Overnight Case or the 1015 LOC. Pelican is synonymous with robust and strong cases of all sorts for storing and…

Reviews

Review: Hello Kitty Mimobot USB Flash Drives

I don’t normally go for USB flash drives that are shaped as pretty much anything. I am just as happy with a Sandisk as I am with a Lexar or even a no-name brand flash drive. Unless you have specific needs, they all pretty much work the same and the looks have been secondary to the amount of storage. That was until I came along the cuteness of a flash drive that looked like a Hello Kitty character . Mimoco sent me a 2 GBflash drive that looked like Badtz Maru, the little black penguin with pointy hair. The one thing that…

Events

Ohio Linuxfest 2010: Here’s to the Hall Track

Another Ohio LinuxFest has come and gone. The friends of the penguin gathered at the Greater Columbus Convention Center for yet another year of great sessions, networking and lots of fun and merriment as friends meet to discuss what is new and interesting in Free and Open Source Software. This is my second year working the booth with fellow members of the Linux Link Tech Show, and this year was a special one as we celebrated the relaunch of our website and the recording of Episode 366 which marks the start of season two. In this show, we talked to…

Editorials

The Best Buy Experience – One Geek’s Perspective

Last night, my wife and I went to Best Buy to get her a new computer. Her netbook had had it, and she needed something that would be capable of working well or her longer than a year or so. While perusing the laptops, another customer and I both noticed and commented upon several machines that the techs had “tweaked”. What they had done, I am not sure, but I suspect that if you want the least amount of hassle, you should pick a machine that doesn’t say it was prepared by the Geek Squad. Odds are, there will be extra…

Reviews

Kensington Pocket Battery for Smartphones Review

Smartphones are all the rage these days. Everyone uses them as more then just a plain old phone. We browse the web, stream media, play our music, check our e-mail, take pictures, check social networks and oh, yeah, use it as a phone. Battery technology in these phones have not really progressed to the point where you can make it the whole day. Especially if you are using it as something other then just a plain phone. If you are away from an outlet at anytime, well, you will likely run out of juice at any time unless you have…

Reviews

Android Mobile Phone Review: Motorola Droid 2

Just a short time ago Motorola appeared to be on the ropes. That all changed when Motorola found Android. Less than a year ago Motorola released and sold millions of their first Android device, the Droid on the Verizon network. Since then, they have brought out the Cliq, Cliq XT, The Flip and the Droid X. Today I am reviewing the sequel to the Droid, the Droid 2. Hardware The Droid 2 has similar looks to the original Droid. It is a little less blocky, but it’s almost identical to the original Droid in size, weight and thickness. The front…

eBooks, Reviews

Book Review: Cooking for Geeks

I’ve long been the cook in our family. My wife admittedly cannot cook and so she let’s me handle most of the cooking duties in the house. Being a Geek, I have always had a love for science as well as cooking. I always strive to find a better way not only to cook the things I love, but in everything I do. Cooking for Geeks, by Jeff Porter is exactly the book for people who love to cook who are also geeks. The book has recipes, of course, but it fills you in on the whys behind almost every cooking…

Reviews

Review: Bluw’s Mini Mixer

I have always wanted the ability to have 2 devices connected to my headphones or speakers at the same time. In the past, you literally had to have a DJ setup or a stereo and neither is very portable. Bluw has a Mini Mixer that is just a tiny bit bigger than an iPod and is just as pocket-able. Now you can mix that funky music almost anywhere. The mini mixer comes with 3 cables which are all double ended 1/8 inch stereo headphone plugs. Plug 2 cables into 2 mp3 players or phones with the other end being plugged into the mixer. The mixer has a…

Editorials

Verizon, Why Are You Asking for Email Passwords?

I recently purchased a Droid 2 on Verizon to replace my aging G1 on T-Mobile. Overall, the experience was good, and my number ported quickly and the phone was already working properly by the time I walked out of the store. However, one thing about the experience concerned me. The Verizon rep was going to set up the e-mail on the phone for me, and she asked for my Google credentials. While at face value that may seem like a considerate or helpful gesture, it’s really not something Verizon should be requesting. Like anyone else, I have e-mail in my…

Reviews

EFO’s Solar Toys are Fun and Educational

Solar power has been a promise since I was my son’s age. In the future. we were all supposed to have roofs covered in solar cells and not having to use ugly power lines to power our lives. We were barely able to get to the point of powering calculators. Fast forward 20 years and while there have been advances, we still don’t drive solar cars and we still have to have power lines run to our homes. Thankfully, there are more things run by solar cells than back when I was 11 and some of them are fun too….

Reviews

Gear Review: Icon’s Solo and Link LED Flashlights

I loved Icon’s Rogue 2 Flashlight. It was the most durable flashlight I have ever had the opportunity to use. It was bright and well designed and will last many years. Paul Kim, the designer of the Icon line of flashlights is a genius at designing flashlights that are not only very good-looking, but very functional. That’s why I jumped at the chance to review flashlights of another shape and size. Icon sent me a Link and a Solo LED Flashlight and they are the smallest lights that Icon makes. First up is the rugged and handy Link. The Link…

Editorials

Droid X Gets the Lockdown: Does it Matter?

There’s been a bunch of stuff going around the web about the Droid X and the fact that it likely will not be able to run custom ROMS and may even be hard to root. I’ll try to describe, in layman’s terms, what this may mean to a prospective Droid X buyer. What is this root and custom rom thing? First, having root is like having the Administrator user password on a Windows machine or the root password on a Mac OS X machine or Linux machine. It essentially gives you the right to modify anything on the phone. You…

Reviews

NOX Audio Specialist Headphones Works For Gamers and Office Workers

I found almost the perfect headset for both gamers and office workers. What am I talking about? The NOX Audio Specialist headphones that’s what! Let’s go over the basics. First, the NOX Audio headphones comes in a great case that has some structure to it. This is great for those who just want to protect their headphones while they are in their backpack. Opening the case reveals the headphones themselves. They fold so they can fit in the case and the cable itself is detachable and can be secured in the case. The cable looks like a microusb on one…

Reviews

Nanodots are Addicting Dots of Magnetic Fun

Magnetic spheres must be really becoming popular. There are at least three brands of them out on the market with Buckyballs, Neocube and Nanodots. I was received a set of Nanodots to play with. Nanodots look a lot like ball bearings. However, each of the 236 balls are very magnetic. I actually took one dot and had it hold up a piece of paper on the metal side of my cubical; they are that strong. Because of this, you do need to be very careful when playing with these as you could pinch your skin, and these are definitely not…

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