Articles by Zek

The Line Between Writing as a Business and Writing as an Art

Publishing has had a rough year, and it’s only May! The Department of Justice lawsuit, Barnes and Noble is splitting digital and paper into different companies, and it seems like mainstream media has put a death clock on bookstores. Plus ebooks have hosed the “traditional” model of bookselling: what used to be a yearlong process of hardcover to paperback to mass market is now hardcover/eBook to paperback. The entire business model is in flux, and it’s impacting authors and publishers. Unfortunately, in an idea that must have been conceived in a boardroom and not during the creative process, authors are…


SlingShot Smartphone Accessory Review, Kickstart This!

We get a lot of gear sent to us in my household. Most of it disappears into my office/gear cave, and occasionally I ask Sarah for help with reviewing it. She rarely, if ever, comments on the items, but the SlingShot caught her attention. We used it on a few hikes to take video and photos, and today Sarah declared that it’s the first item I’ve ever reviewed that she would buy without hesitation. What triggered such high praise? Read on to find out more about this great Kickstarter project! Project title: SlingShot Status: In progress Closing date for funding:…


Sugar, Salt, and Why We Love Junk Food

I love salt. A lot. My college friends still tease me about how I would salt my fries, then salt my ketchup for good measure. For the record, I don’t do that anymore, and not just because Sarah made me stop. We really do try to make an effort to eat “real food” (and yes, I recognize that the fried Oreos I had at the town carnival last night do not count), and this graphic shared by author Michael Pollan just further cemented that drive to eat better. I don’t know for certain that all of the claims are true,…


Amazon to Offer the Entire Harry Potter Series Through PRIME Lending

Harry Potter arrived in ebook form earlier this year, which was exciting all by itself. At the same time, if you already purchased the HP series in book form, it can be hard to pony up again for the ebooks. Amazon has come up with a solution, by offering the entire series through their Kindle Prime Lending Library! From the press release: Read all of J.K. Rowling’s iconic Harry Potter series for free on your Kindle Kindle Owners’ Lending Library now includes more than 145,000 books, including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May. 10,…


Is Amazon Spying on Me?

I know I buy a great deal from Amazon, but I am starting to think they have hidden cameras in my house! You see, back in January, I ordered a box of KIND bars for our trip to Costa Rica. We figured with all the flights, layovers, and bus transfers in our travel schedule, we would need snacks. As it turned out, we didn’t eat all of them, and I unearthed a bag of leftover bars while cleaning out my suitcase over the weekend. I stuck them in the pantry and promptly forgot about them. Until Monday, when I returned…


How Much Gear Is too Much?

I have jury duty this week. My only other experience with jury duty was in Boston, and I remember sitting all day in a cramped room reading a book, and almost escaping being put on a jury. So I am anticipating a long day of “hurry up and wait” and have begun packing for the day accordingly. My original plan for what to bring was fairly extensive: iPad iPhone Computer (for logging into the office) Kindle Eers headphones Extra book Chargers iPhone iPod touch (for games) However, when I realized I was treating jury duty like I was going on…


How Dangerous Is Football?

I played rugby for several years, both in college and post-college. Just about every person who heard I played rugby had the following comment: “Rugby? Isn’t that dangerous?” Yes, rugby is a rough sport, and I can’t deny that (especially with two screws in my knee from a rugby practice-related injury). But I always tell people that I feel rugby is safer than American Football, which has always struck me as a dangerous and chaotic sport. There’s been quite a bit of debate about concussions and football lately, and according to Forbes, even former football player Kurt Warner doesn’t want…


Are Publishers Fair to Authors?

At Gear Diary, we often cover eBooks and the upheaval of the publishing system from the viewpoint of the consumer. But what about authors? The “traditional” path to becoming a published author usually heads through publishing companies, agents, editors, and other gatekeepers. But ebooks make self-publishing easier, and more critically, appear to make it simpler and more lucrative. And if Kristine Rusch’s report over at The Digital Reader is a typical experience, it sounds like traditional publishing isn’t giving authors much incentive to maintain the status quo! Here were a few areas that made my jaw drop with shock. If…


SNL Parodies Amazon and the Kindle (NSFW!)

Sarah and I started watching “Saturday Night Live” again recently because one of our favorite sketch comedians, Kate McKinnon, joined the cast. Thank goodness for DVR, as it lets us skip the less entertaining sketches easily. It also allows us to re-watch the truly hysterical ones, like their flat-out brilliant parody of Amazon and “50 Shades of Gray“.


CrazyOnDigital Rotating Stand iPad Case Review

When I finally joined the ranks of the iPad masses, the first thing I did was start researching cases. While I was peripherally aware of the general price points for cases, I was surprised at how expensive many of them were! I began to wonder if this was because demand drove up prices, or if you really do get what you paid for. When CrazyOnDigital offered me the chance to review their 360 Degree Folio Case, which retails for $49.99, but sells on Amazon for the jaw-dropping price of $15.99, I was excited to give it a shot! The case…


Barnes & Noble NOOK with Glowlight Breaks into Television

Now that it is May, and we are in the Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/Graduation season, Barnes and Noble is unleashing a huge ad campaign to promote the NOOK Simple Touch With Glowlight. They’ve put together a cute video that highlights the benefits of being able to read in bed with the lights off, but still have the benefits of an eInk device. The video is below, and B&N already has spots running in prime time. I know this because I sat down to read Barnes and Noble’s press release and clicked on the YouTube video roughly 2.5 seconds before the commercial…


Target Ends Their Kindle Chapter

  Amazon and Target used to be good buddies. Amazon helped run Target’s website, Target was the first place outside of Amazon.com to sell Kindles. It looks like that friendship is over, as Target has announced rather abruptly that mid-May they will be dropping the entire Kindle line from Target stores due to a “conflict of interest”. However, arch-rival NOOK will be still be carried by Target, making it clear this is specific to Amazon. So what changed? Target isn’t saying, and neither is Amazon, but it isn’t hard to read between the lines here. Amazon was the big winner…


Eers PCS-150 Custom Fitted Earbuds Review

I am not much of an audiophile. When I grab headphones, it is usually to walk the dog or run on a treadmill, and for the last several years my headphone rotation has been between whichever pair of apple earbuds are lying around, and a pair of wraparound headphones I am pretty sure I paid $9.99 for…in 2008. So it has been quite the eye-opening experience testing the Eers PCS-150, a pair of high-end headphones with a special twist. What makes the Eers so special is that these are no ordinary earbuds. Instead, you use a special kit called the…


“Book People Unite” Promotes Literacy with a Catchy Tune

Everyone has a favorite childhood book. From fairy tales to Narnia and everywhere in between. Want to help kids experience books in all their glory? Head over to BookPeopleUnite.org, a movement designed to promote literacy through the Reading Is Fundamental organization. They’ve put together an amazing video with a who’s who of artists including Chris Martin, Regina Spektor, Jack Black, and many others behind it.


Are eInk Holding’s Earnings a Sign of a Non-Tablet Reader Slowdown?

Here’s some news to file under the “maybe a concern” category. It looks like eInk Holdings, the company that makes those beautiful eInk screens for NOOKs and Kindles, had a bad quarter. According to DigiTimes, this was their first set of poor earnings in over two years, and the company is saying it was due to “inventory adjustments”, aka they had fewer orders for new screens. This isn’t good news, but I wouldn’t hold a funeral for eInk just yet. Yes, we are coming off a holiday season where the hot items were the NOOK Color and Tablet and the…


An Open Letter to the PR Rep Pitching Political Books to Gear Diary

At Gear Diary, we get a lot of press releases and product pitches. Most of them are tech or gear related, and sometimes they are not. Most of the time these pitches are quickly processed, and we’ll quickly decide to either post on them or not. Yesterday we got an email that begged for a direct answer rather than a quick delete, which is why I am sharing my open letter to the pr person who thought that Gear Diary would be interested in the book “Restore The Future”. Fair warning: this will get political, so if you aren’t interested…


Tor Goes DRM-Free, but Does It Change Anything for eBooks?

The big news in ebooks this week is that Tor, a division of Macmillan, is going DRM-free on their whole catalog (including books sold at Amazon and B&N). Needless to say, everyone who follows ebooks is very excited, and for good reason. This is a big step in chipping away at the “walled garden” style eBookstores we have now, where B&N books have different DRM than Kindle books, etc. But who really benefits here? Obviously, we as consumers win here. If this succeeds, ebook libraries will become portable. You won’t need to stress about picking a Kindle and missing out…


Rock ‘n Roll Marathon’s New “Mascot” Proves to Be Divisive

I have run a few Rock n Roll sponsored races, and I don’t view them with the same enmity that some runners do. Yes, they are big, commercial parties, but they also (mostly) organize well-done races. I gave them a pass on their disastrous Rock n Roll Las Vegas race; they really ran that into the ground, but a few months later at Rock n Roll DC, I was extremely impressed with how smoothly everything went. However, I really have to question their judgment with their new Facebook mascot/campaign. As you can tell from the graphic above, their new campaign…


GoPano Micro Review

Everyone knows the iPhone has an amazing camera. You can take some amazing videos right out of the box with it. But one of the great things about the combination of a solid camera and a popular phone is that aftermarket case and accessory makers create ways to make the camera features even better. That’s the goal of the GoPano Micro, a case and lens combination that lets you take 360-degree panoramic video. Does it succeed? Read on to find out! The GoPano system has two parts, a case and a snap on lens. The case is a simple slider…


When Did Bed Shopping Get So Complex?

Sarah and I just bought a new mattress. This would not normally be news, but it was quite the shocker to discover just how complex buying a mattress has become. The last time I had to shop for a bed, I called 1-800-Mattress and bought the cheapest one they could quickly deliver. It was quick and it was simple. No longer. Now there are mattresses in every possible firmness, material, and price — except cheap. Honestly, I wanted to avoid the whole thing as long as possible, but Friday night our old bed struck back. I rolled over, and then…


Buying an iPhone, Despite Verizon’s Best Efforts!

Dan’s wife Elana was not the only Gear Diary spouse to give in to the iPhone pressure this weekend-Sarah replaced her HTC Incredible with a 16GB 4S! However, the Verizon salesman betrayed his Android fanboy colors during our sales experience. You see, the salesman approached us and asked Sarah what she was looking to purchase. She said she was looking to replace her phone with an iPhone, and when he found out she was moving from Android to iOS, he proceeded to give her the hard sell. First, he informed her in a very condescending tone that “Android is different…