Articles by Zek

Confessions of a Doctor Who Newbie

I am trying to rectify a big hole in my Sci-Fi viewing history, and finally giving “Doctor Who” a shot. I knew it had a huge cult following, I knew it was from the BBC and it involved a time machine, but otherwise, I was pretty much entirely in the dark about the show. A few friends on Facebook gave me some important tips, and I’ve learned a few things from the first six episodes, so I thought I would share my limited understanding with any other Doctor Who newbies out there! Things I have learned that have surprised me:…

Gear Bits

The Gear Diary Guide to Infographics

Spend enough time on the Internet, and you’ll find an infographic. These are “educational” graphics that distill bits of information into pretty pictures and at-a-glance factoids. As a concept, they aren’t terrible, but only if they’re used as a summary for a full report. Unfortunately, lately they’ve become flashy vehicles for marketers with an agenda. Here at Gear Diary, we want to make sure we properly educate our readers to understand infographics, and the best way to do this is clearly to fight fire with fire, so we’ve helpfully put together this “Anatomy of an Infographic”! What triggered us to…

News

Re-Timer Offers Portable Light Therapy for the Sleep Deprived

During the waning months of my career at Borders, I worked two weeks of overnights during a store remodel. Actually working in the middle of the night wasn’t the hard part, what was tough was going to bed when it was broad daylight and waking up as the sun was setting. I bought a sleep mask, which helped, and I had very considerate roommates who tiptoed around and kept it quiet near my room. In any case, the experience left me with a lot of respect for the people who work third shift and other odd hours. There are many…

Gear Bits

Amazon Is Looking for Feedback on Their New Television Pilots

Looking for an idea of what to watch this week? Amazon is following in Netflix’s footsteps and gearing up to launch their own original content, but they’ve crowd-sourced their choices. They have twelve original pilots, from kid-friendly to decidedly adult. You can offer Amazon feedback on what you liked best, which they will use in their determinations of which gets greenlit. We watched two tonight — Alpha Dogs and Onion News Network, and I have to say that we were impressed with the quality of both shows! Alpha Dogs was the better show by far. The concept was a bit…

Reviews

AnyList for iPhone Grocery List Manager Review

I am always on the lookout for a good app to make grocery shopping go more smoothly. Ideally, I’d prefer that we get all our groceries in one day of running around, since it eliminates that “Oh crap we forgot ____” mad rush to the store mid-recipe. I’ve used to-do apps, as well as simple list apps, but over the weekend I stumbled on an app that has two features which make it hands down my new favorite. What’s so great about AnyList? Read on for the highlights! One, and the quest that led to finding AnyList, was that you…

eBooks, News

Reader Rocket Aims to Easily Compare eBook Readers

Despite many predictions to the contrary, eBook readers are still going strong. They may not be as flashy as tablets, but they are great devices with long battery lives, clear readable screens, and lightweight both in size and on your wallet. Most people tend to pick an eBook reader based on their bookstore preferences, what their friends and family use, and similar criteria. But if you’re the type looking for lots of statistics and specifications to compare and contrast, it can be tougher to find truly technical reviews of eBook readers. That’s where Reader Rocket, a newly launched site, thinks…

News

Moxtra Parters with Salesforce.com, Evernote, and Kaffeine for Easy Group Collaborations

Have you heard of Moxtra yet? Don’t worry, it’s not a large insect about to attack — Mothra. Moxtra is a collaborative platform that lets you take all the different kinds of content around the web, from videos to notes to pictures, and stick them in a collaborative “binder”, making group work fast and efficient. They’ve been growing like crazy since their launch, and today they are getting an even bigger boost by integrating with Salesforce.com, Evernote, and Kaffiene! The Evernote integration is a pretty great concept. Evernote lets you share notebooks, but this makes it a bit cleaner, since all…

News

Telenav Looks to Shape Ads Based on GPS Data

I don’t always pay close attention to ads and location services, but when I do I tend to notice the same issue continually happening: the ad has no idea where I actually am. Oh, it knows if I am in New Jersey, and it might even sort-of know that I am home. But it doesn’t always know that the business it’s suggesting may be 4 miles away but a 10 minute drive. I’d pass three comparable businesses that were far closer and easier to reach first! Worse, if I am in North Jersey my phone becomes convinced I would be…

News

Verizon’s New 24-Month Subsidy and the Handcuffs of Strong Network Performance

I am due for a new phone upgrade on Verizon in June. I keep track of these things awfully closely, because 20 months is a long time for me to stick with one phone, and I am usually chomping at the bit for a new one by the time my new subsidy is up! So I was, to say the least, absolutely dismayed to see the news that Verizon is moving to a 24-month cycle between subsidies. I sent a lamenting email to my fellow editors, and this set off a discussion about cell phones, subsidy strategies, and why we…

News

Packing Light for Telenav’s Waypoint

I’m heading to Telenav’s annual Waypoint conference next week. Since this is a fairly short trip, I’m looking to keep my baggage fairly light. I’d like to minimize my time lugging items around the airport, and with some careful planning, I think I can cut way back on my tendency to turn every trip into “my backpack is a mobile Radio Shack.” What’s on my packing list? Read on…

eBooks

Barnes & Noble Has Forgotten What Makes the NOOK Interesting

Hey, want to buy a NOOK? Barnes & Noble would very much like it if you did. That’s not surprising — they’re fighting hard for marketshare in an increasingly crowded market. But hot on the heels of their “buy a tablet, get an eBook reader!” bizarre promotion, they’ve been reminding everyone of another reason to buy a NOOK: They’ll pay you in NOOK credits. Essentially, they want to handcuff you to the NOOK ecosystem one way or another! But are there better ways to market the NOOK family of products? First, let’s look at the promotions. If you want an…

Reviews

Jurassic Park 3D Review

Jurassic Park is one of my favorite movies. I have very fond memories of seeing it as a kid with my dad, and I even had the soundtrack (on cassette tape!) So of course, I had tickets to see Jurassic Park 3D this weekend. This was a 20 year old movie, updated for 3D … would it hold up against more modern standards? Admittedly, I am biased because I loved the original, but it surprisingly did hold up quite well. The special effects still looked quite good, and there weren’t any cringe-worthy moments where the blue screen or CGI looked dated….

News

The Bluths Are Back on May 26th with More Arrested Development!

I have made no secret of the fact that I am a huge “Arrested Development” fan. I have watched every episode multiple times, own them all on DVD, and I keep them in my Netflix queue. This may seem like overkill, but you can never run the risk that connectivity may separate you from the Bluth Family. While Fox cut Arrested Development short, Netflix resurrected it, and the official date is here: May 26th! Netflix is working really hard to break free from just streaming licensed content, and Arrested Development is their second original content show after “House of Cards”….

Gear Bits

NBC Promotes Smarter Passwords in “The More You Know” Spot

A few weeks ago, there was a lot of buzz about vulnerabilities in Apple’s security — and as a result, they rolled out two-step password verification — I tried to encourage my dad to enroll his Apple ID in it as well as my mom’s. I might as well have been speaking a foreign language, because he stared vacantly at me, shrugged, and said: “I’m sure it will be fine.” If he won’t listen to me about using smarter passwords for better password safety, then hopefully he was watching NBC, because tonight I saw a “The More You Know” PSA…

Reviews

SmartStick TV Accessory Review

When we were shopping for an HDTV, I briefly considered whether we needed a “smart TV”. Eventually, I decided we probably didn’t, but I was very excited to take a look at the SmartStick TV accessory, as it turns my decidedly not-smart HDTV into a smart version running Android. Unfortunately, it isn’t without its drawbacks, and it has left me wondering if the benefits are worth the quirks. Read on to find out my take! Physically, the SmartStick is extremely compact. It’s just a little bit bigger than a stick of gum, and it uses HDMI to connect to the…

eBooks, News

Amazon Buys Goodreads, but Is It a Good Deal?

Amazon announced today that they’re buying Goodreads, a social book site that lets you review books you’ve read, and look for recommendations based on your reading list and the books your friends are reading. Needless to say, this is a slam dunk match for Amazon and Goodreads, as they really can complement each other nicely. There are a lot of reasons why this is good for everyone (Amazon, the Goodreads team, Goodreads users and Amazon Kindle users), but it does strike me that Goodreads being off the market is a potential loss for a few other big ebook players…let’s look a little…

Crowdfunding

John-E-Reader Makes Your Bathroom Safe for Kindles

Sarah and I are getting settled into our new home and are quite pleased. It’s really great…there’s just one minor issue. See, the first floor has a bathroom (which is great) but the sink doesn’t have much of a lip to rest items like reading material. So the John-E-Reader at Kickstarter caught my eye! The John-E-Reader was invented to address the exact issue we have in our house: how do you bring an expensive device into a water and tile filled trap safely? Their solution was to create a small pouch that hangs on your toilet paper holder, leaving your…

News

Careful, Google Is Listening

I had two very odd encounters with Google ads yesterday. It’s common for Google to push ads based on emails, as Microsoft helpfully pointed out in their “Scroogled” campaign. But usually those ads appear because of something in your email or search history. That doesn’t explain the ads I saw yesterday, as they were dead-on accurate to conversations I had held over iMessage and in person … not through Google. First, Sarah went out of town this weekend and left me a list of to-dos around the house. One of them was to straighten the large area rug in the…

Reviews

Spotlite 2.0 GPS Pet Tracker Review

Pets are part of the family; we want them safe, happy, and healthy. Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever owned a dog can attest, you can’t really have a reasoned conversation with them about why it’s important to stay in the yard, why they shouldn’t go harass the neighbors, why there is no wandering near the street…and they certainly can’t call home if they do disobey those wishes and they get lost! Securus has a solution, the Spotlite 2.0, a GPS tracker that attaches to your pet’s collar and lets you track their location, receive alerts if they leave the…

News

MightyMega Launches to Share All the Best in Sci Fi and Geekery

I am a self-professed sci-fi geek. Sarah is … not. She tries for my sake to be supportive of my favorite shows, but she just doesn’t understand it. And there have been many road trips where I’ve droned on and on about Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek, and Sarah has nearly driven off the road in frustration and boredom. So I need an outlet for all my geekery. Luckily for me, MightyMega has launched as a repository of all things awesome and sci-fi on the Internet! MightyMega is from the same folks that bring you The Awesomer and Technabob, so…

eBooks, Editorials

Is an eBook a Book, or Is It Something Else?

The fine folks at Forbes raised an interesting question this week: are eBooks really books? Their take is that eBooks are more like software, due to their digital nature. And yes, they are looking specifically at the education markets. But this touches on a larger debate, one that comes up quite often. Opponents of eBooks argue that they are not really books because the book experience is not the same. Now, I rarely get to dust off my philosophy degree, but this seems like the sort of debate that lends itself quite well to a simple analysis of the identity…

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