Watching my son deal with audio recording issues as he completed his portfolio film project for film school applications (in at NYU, yay!), I got a new appreciation of the value of a quality microphone for even the most seemingly simple applications. The iPhone is great for capturing video, but the addition of the iRig Mic Field makes it better!
The way we choose to illuminate our spaces has changed dramatically in our lifetime. As a young adult my life seemed divided between the harsh fluorescent office lights and warm incandescent lights of home. The last couple of decades have seen rapid changes in the type, efficiency and flexibility of lighting, getting ‘smart’ lighting solutions such as Bolt light bulb from Misfit.
Puzzle games are like art or jokes in some ways – you either get it or you don’t, if you do it is addictive and if you don’t there is no sense trying to explain. Indie developer Moon Kid is preparing to launch Satellina, a simple color matching game that is anything but simple because it is a ‘puzzle in motion’.
We already reported on the new additions to Garmin’s vivo line-up, the vivofit 2 and vivoactive, which round up Garmin‘s consumer wearable line. But they also added to their higher end products with the Epix and Fenix 3. The Fenix 3 is the latest in the company’s multi-sport category, and Epix is intended as a wearable GPS for outdoor enthusiasts.
Let’s be honest – I have been harshly critical of Android as a non-functional platform for making music. And while Android as a whole isn’t suddenly becoming a viable music platform, the programming hooks for low-latency audio are finally being fully exploited by developers! At NAMM later this month IK Multimedia will be demonstrating zero latency audio apps for Android.
I’ve always been a fan of Garmin products, considering them the ‘gold standard’ for running GPS watches. Their leap into fitness trackers in 2014 with the vivoFit and more recently the vivoSmart were highly successful and each is on a wrist in my household. Now they are announcing the ViVoActive Smart Fitness Watch that pretty much does it all!
Back in 2010 IK Multimedia introduced the first guitar/bass interface for iOS, iRig. Paired with Amplitube, the first amplifier & effects simulator for iOS, iRig provided a portable solution that turned iOS into a portable solution for all musicians. Since then they released the iRig HD, and now they’re back with the iRig 2, filled with improvements and new capabilities!
I have professed my unabashed love for the Magellan Echo before, because of how it perfectly melds GPS watch capability while using your smartphone as the engine. I reviewed the Echo almost a year ago, and still use it regularly – because it just plain works. Now Magellan has introduced the follow-up Echo Fit at CES 2015!
I wrote about Wellograph when it was first announced in September, and have had one since they were first available. The rate of improvements has been incredible, so when I heard about the new stuff announced at CES, I thought ‘of course’, without surprise. The new functionality is definitely worth noting if you have considered buying a Wellograph.
We all know that proper hydration is critical, especially when being active. When we’re away from home we bring water bottles or other hydration sources, but there are risks such as hyponatremia or weaker muscles or bones from too much acidic fluid intake. DYLN contains a VitaBead diffuser that generates alkaline water for maximum benefits.
I have been a LiveScribe fan since I first saw (and immediately bought) the Pulse, and today my LiveScribe 3 smartpen and notebook are with me everywhere I go. When I switched phones back to Android last year I sorely missed the LiveScribe 3 support, so it is great news that LiveScribe Android support is coming this spring!
The first car I owned had an AM/FM radio with two knobs and six buttons … now new cars come with wireless audio systems that detect and sync your phone and autoplay content with home stereo system quality. Many of us are trapped in between these extremes, so Griffin helps with new iTrip AUX Bluetooth and AutoPilot connection systems.
2014 was an incredible year to be a PC or Mac gamer, and even better if you are a fan of classic RPGs. I am both, so I got to enjoy one of the best years of gaming I can recall since before Microsoft entered the console wars! If you love PC or Mac gaming, you must check these out!
We just passed the start of winter, but in some areas it feels like we’ve been mid-winter for a while. We’ve had some sub-zero wind chill days and it felt more like February than November at times! As things settled down in December, I had to break out more variety of gear and remind myself of my running weather breakpoints!
One of my first posts at Gear Diary was the review of the Nintendo DS game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a game I considered ‘essential and ‘my favorite game of the franchise’, and which remains the best-reviewed DS game. In 2010 I reviewed the game on iPhone and later iPad, and now it is out for Android!
I have enjoyed survival simulation games from G5 such as The Island: Castaway in the past, which was pretty much what I assumed Survivors: The Quest would be like. But it is much more – it is a story-driven, quest-focused adventure-survival game with RPG elements. And within minutes of starting the game I was hooked.
Mahjong is the classic tile-matching game that seems to have existed since the earliest handheld systems, at least since the Newton MessagePad. G5 has released two great Mahjong games in the past, which I reviewed here and here. Now they are back with a free-to play Mahjong game that takes you on a journey through Asia solving puzzle after puzzle.
Think about this – interactive ‘build your own adventure’ storybook plugged into a role-playing adventure, based on the classic Jules Verne story ‘Around the World in 80 Days‘. Seems like a lot – but when put in the hands of Inkle Studios, the result is an amazing game that recently topped Time’s ‘Top 10 Video Games of 2014’!
Mobile web browsers have a unique challenge – delivering an experience optimized for a smaller screen, has less available memory, but also delivers the full content of a desktop browser. The result is browsers that seem to constantly reload tabs, fill up with ads and provide a scaled-down experience. Enter Opera Coast 4.0, the latest from the innovative browser developer.
For a ‘free’ sport – you don’t need any special equipment not already in your house – running can get expensive really fast! From expensive shoes to GPS devices, to smartphone apps, to special clothes, and gels and hydration and so on – it really adds up. Worse yet you need to replace it all frequently!
If you were to guess what percentage of the world’s population had less annual income than you, what would you guess? Maybe 10%? Well, you’ll likely be surprised to find out that if you live in the US and eat regularly, you fall in the top 1% of the world’s wealthiest people, and more likely you are well under 0.5%!