Michael Anderson | Gear Diary

So … When WILL It Be Enough? 4 Year Old With Fake Boobs and Butt on ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’

I have always been appalled by ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’, the ‘reality show’ of the awful and mentally twisted parents and over-indulged babies who are dressed like 18 year old beauty pageant entrants and strutted around on stages. If this is truly where our country is headed, let me off at the next stop! As if it couldn’t get any worse, today in the Daily Mail we hear about a little girl named Maddie: Barely out of nappies, four-year-old Maddy Jackson is already on the road to womanhood. Sporting fake C cup breasts and padding on her bottom, she is the…

Gear Bits

Denny’s Embraces Indulgence, Ignores Health Risks with the ‘Let’s Get Cheesy’ Menu

What would you like for lunch today? How about a full days worth of calories and two days worth of fat? Oh, I know you can easily get that in any ‘glutton burger’ you’ll find around in burger joints looking for a moment of fame on one of the Travel or Cooking network shows … but how about as one of the featured items on Denny’s ‘Let’s Get Cheesy’ campaign? Here is part of the press release: Cheese enthusiasts across the nation are set to rejoice with the launch of Denny’s “Let’s Get Cheesy!” menu. Showing some serious cheese love,…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Music Diary Songs of Note: Get Ready for a New Release from the Monster Trio of Tony Levin, David Torn & Alan White!

I have written about bassist and Chapman Stick player Tony Levin several times here at Gear Diary – regarding a 1984 concert recording, Bill Bruford’s autobiography, and in my review of Trey Gunn’s Modulator – yet his name has yet to appear in a headline. Today I finally remedy that! I have been a huge fan of Tony Levin since first hearing him on King Crimson’s Discipline and then seeing him live on the tour supporting that record – which was 30 years ago! He has remained a strong creative voice in instrumental music and a tremendous innovator on the…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: Rdio and MOG Offer Gift Cards, Rdio Introduces Family Plans

With the launch of Spotify crowding the relatively small on-demand music market, Rdio and MOG are working hard to maintain current members and to continue to grow their businesses. Rdio already has a great iPad app – the first one in the category – and MOG is working hard on one of their own. Loyal users recommend one service or the other to their friends. Now each has introduced ways for music fans to enjoy the services – MOG and Rdio now offer Gift Cards, and Rdio offers family subscriptions. Gift cards are a great way to give someone the…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Review: Nat Janoff – ‘Come Together Move Apart’ (2010, Jazz)

Nat Janoff – ‘Come Together Move Apart’ As I have said before, I have been thrilled and overwhelmed by how many great artists have contacted me as a result of my reviews here at Gear Diary. On the one hand it has meant discovering artists and music I would otherwise have missed … but on the other hand it becomes challenging to properly absorb all of the great music (I know, pity me right?). I still find myself discovering new things in recordings from last year, so it is great in many ways when the craziness of life and new…

Game Diary, Reviews

Gear Games Review: Everything You Need to Know About Madden 12 for iPhone/iPad in a Single Image

Late last night I spotted Madden 12 HD in the iTunes App Store, and like the impulsive fool I am … I bought it. I had planned to run through a full and thorough review of the game, but instead spent a few hours trying to be sure that I wasn’t actually still playing Madden 11! This afternoon I came across the review at TouchArcade … and it really sums things up perfectly. All they did was take their review from last year and make a few cross-outs and changes: ‘m kind of at a loss as to what to…

Reviews

Nook Touch Cover Review: Oberon Design Large and Small Sleeves

The Hype: For those that like to use their E Reader without a cover, we’ve designed the Oberon E Reader Sleeve with extreme portability in mind. Lighter and thinner than our E Reader Corner Cover, our sleeve fits easily into a purse, backpack or briefcase. Our sleeve is leather lined and our magnet closure ensures the security of your device. We designed our sleeve so that the magnetized strap is on the front of the cover and our signature Britannia pewter strap attachment is on the back to avoid any potential scratching of the E Reader screen. All of our…

Gear Bits

Saved by ‘Old’ Technology!

I have said it before and I’ll say it again – the iPod Touch is the worst iPod I have ever owned. Why do I say that? Because one of my main listening modes is in the car to and from work and between different offices, and changing anything requires you to look at the iPod Touch – and therefore away from whatever else you are doing! And as Carly mentioned here, that can be a very dangerous prospect. For a long time I used a second generation 4GB iPod Nano, but the screen slowly stopped functioning and then the…

Reviews

Nook Touch Cover Review: Oberon Design ‘Tree of Life’

I had written about my nifty new Nook Touch a couple of months ago, and it has really become my constant companion for ebook reading. My family got me a basic cover from Barnes & Noble that clips in the device and closes with a magnetic strip. It gets the job done, but not nearly as stylishly as the cover my wife and son have on their Nooks. So when I had the chance to check out the new covers specifically for the Nook Touch by Oberon Design, I jumped at the chance! Let’s see how the new cover in…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: No, The Irony of MTV Having a Video ‘Music’ Awards Show Was NOT Lost on Me!

I feel I need to make a few comments on the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). But before I get started, let me share the one opinion that many, many long-time music fans share, as told on Twitter by Adam Levine, front man for pop group Maroon 5: As I said, at this point MTV hosting the VMA show is much more a matter of tradition than one of them being at the vanguard of music videos … or even very much involved in them at all! There was an early moment of self-irony when they had the case of…

Music Diary

Music Diary Songs of Note: When Live is Better Than Studio

In pop and rock music, the benefits of seeing a live show are largely about the experience – either the artist has a great stage show, loads of energy, or just presents a great opportunity to share a love of music with other like-minded individuals. Seldom is what happens live better than the studio representation – and sometimes when the theatrics of the stage show are highlighted the live elements are enhanced with pre-recorded elements. Of course, there are many, many exceptions to this … but for every Frank Zappa or Bruce Springsteen there are a dozen Tom Pettys or…

News & Features

Gear Games News: EA Launches ‘The Sims Social’ on Facebook!

Are you one of the millions of fans of The Sims franchise? Do you like Facebook games? If so … rejoice, because The Sims Social has arrived! The game will be immediately familiar to anyone who has ever played a Sims game: you set up your character, then start doing some basic tasks, and slowly built a life for your Sim including interactions with others. The image below shows the basic starting point for a character. As with the other games in the franchise you have extensive tools to alter your appearance to your liking – or just to match…

Editorials, Game Diary

In Case You Had Forgotten WHY You Hate GameStop

I have made a rather big deal about the release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution this week, and in the few hours I have had to play it so far – it is clear we finally have a true follow-up to one of the greatest video games of all time. As I have gone to an ‘all digital’ gaming world, I had pre-ordered it through Green Man Gaming, and since the game is SteamWorks based I was able to add the game to my Steam account and have it fully pre-loaded when it was released! For those who bought the…

Game Diary, Reviews

Mac/PC Game Review: Din’s Curse: Demon War (PC/Mac RPG, 2011)

Nearly a year ago I reviewed Din’s Curse, praising it for offering loads of fun and tons of gameplay. I summed up as follows: Soldak has once again created a great RPG that encompasses many familiar things but brings us something new and challenging that lends itself to a fun and fresh gaming experience. The core of the game is wrapped around a dynamic world loaded with quests, and that in itself will be enough to keep you coming back for more. Now they are back with an expansion to Din’s Curse called ‘Demon War’. To put it simply, it…

Music Diary

Random Cool Video: Animated Sheet Music for Miles Davis’ So What

The advances in digital sheet music over the years have been stunning, including sheet music that ‘plays’ like a piano roll as the timer scrolls across the screen. But this is something different about this great piece of ‘live’ sheet music – it literally appears on the page as the music flows, adding a dynamic sense of adventure to the familiar ‘So What’ from Miles Davis Kind of Blue. According to Dan Cohen (not OUR Dan Cohen): I wasn’t going to go looking for the drum notations (sorry Jimmy Cobb), but I did find the sheet music for Miles Davis,…

Editorials, Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: RIM’s BBM Music Poses the Question: Perhaps Late is NOT Better than Never?

Imagine if back in 2006 someone told you that RIM was offering a music plan for the Blackberry that would allow you to get 50 songs per month, share them with all of your friends who also have a Blackberry, unlimited and on-demand. And that it would have cost $5 a month! You would likely have lamented that you couldn’t also get them on your PC or iPod … but would otherwise been pretty thrilled and signed up immediately! This was the time before the iPhone, before Spotify and Slacker, and when RIM ruled the enterprise phone market. This was…

Editorials

No Matter How You Slice It, HP/Palm are Three Time Losers …

Today on Google + I saw the following post from Francis: We’re writing to inform you that your order XXX-XXXXXX-XXXXX from onSale has been canceled because the item(s) you purchased were out of stock. Please return and place your order again at a later time. When I returned to my desk I checked my email … and of course I had the same thing waiting. The ‘item’, of course, was the HP TouchPad – recently discontinued and then put on fire sale clearance by HP for $99/$149 for the 16 & 32GB models. These emails are amongst the literally tens…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: Stream The Entire New Red Hot Chili Peppers Album for FREE on iTunes!

I have no idea how long this will last, so hop on it now! The Red Hot Chili Peppers have a new album coming out next week (August 30th). A tip from TUAW (via Dan) pointed to iTunes doing something unprecedented for the release – streaming the entire album for free! It is pretty basic – you click play and get the whole thing streaming without ability to choose songs or more back or forth: just play, pause and stop. Regardless, for fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers this is a great opportunity to check out the new release…

Music Diary

Pop Goes The Music Diary: No, This Does NOT Mean Katy Perry Is The Equal of Michael Jackson!

The big news in the pop music world was how yet another of Katy Perry’s mediocre-yet-catchy songs from her ‘Teenage Dream’ 2010 record has bought its way to the top of the pop charts. For some this is a sign that Perry is some ‘queen of pop’, in the same way they bought the way for Lady Gaga to sell a million records in her first week to demonstrate … something. Some are excited about it: Dream’s singles success could prompt a reassessment of Perry’s musical chops, says Joe Levy, chief content officer at Maxim. “This just proves she’s a…

Game Diary, Reviews

Gear Games Review: Rude GameWare Fierce 3500 Wireless Gaming Mouse

A few months ago I reviewed the Rude GameWare Fierce Gaming Mouse 2, declaring “It is perfectly weighted and balanced without feeling so game-specific to be useless in a business setting.” Now Rude GameWare is back with a wireless version called the Fierce 3500 Wireless Gaming Mouse. I will give a quick highlight of features, a summary of whether or not I liked it, but mostly focus on a video review. The Hype: Free yourself from the chains of wired gaming mice forever! The Fierce 3500 Wireless Gaming Mouse gives you the performance and features you demand without being tied…

Editorials

Invasion of the Super-Cookies!

A few weeks ago it came to light that Spotify was using a special type of tracking cookie. Of course, once caught with their hand in … um, the cookie jar (sorry!), Spotify said they would suspend the use of the Kissmetrics cookie technology. But as Digital Music News notes, it is a bit late for the tens of millions of users worldwide who have used Spotify already! Spotify is already managing this like a crisis. According to research just published by researchers at UC Berkeley, Spotify has been using a cookie that cannot be deleted, still tracks if the…

Articles by Michael Anderson