Zek | Gear Diary

Binders Full of Women, Bic Pens For Her, and Satire Product Reviews

Satire is probably my favorite form of humor. Everything and everyone are fair game, from products to Presidents. And with the speed at which social media and the Internet can move, it doesn’t take long for a Tumblr meme or Facebook page to get rolling. The latest trend: fake product reviews on Amazon.com. It started with Bic Pens, and now has spread to binders thanks to Governor Romney’s “Binders full of women” comment. But should Amazon let these spoofs stay live on the product pages? Context is key here. First, let’s look at the “BIC Pen For Her” reviews. Bic…

Editorials, Health and Fitness

Cheater or Sympathetic Character? It Depends upon Who You Ask.

So much of a story is about perception. Present someone’s tale as one of woe, with the right keywords and attitude, and you can make a sympathetic figure. Present it differently, and the sympathetic victim becomes the villain. Today the running news has been buzzing with the tale of Christian Hesch, an elite runner who confessed to blood doping and is facing a ban from the USADA as a result. What really fascinates and appalls me though, is the wide disparity in how it is being presented, made worse by a major newspaper whose coverage blatantly manipulates the facts. Here’s…

Reviews

Zillow.com iPhone App Review

Type of app: Real estate search Platform/where to buy: iOS, Android Developer: Zillow Description: #1 Real Estate App on iTunes and “Best Real Estate App” by O’Reilly Media Major features: The app lets you search by address or town, and you can filter by price, number of bedrooms, for sale and for rent, etc. In addition, you can look up the transaction history of properties, find out how long they’ve been listed on the market, and even get a “zestimate” of what Zillow thinks the property is worth based on similar homes in the area.Ease of use/Overall performance: Theoretically this app…

News & Features

SNL Takes On Tech Bloggers!

Saturday Night Live has had some ups and downs over the years, but this year the combination of the presidential election and new cast members has reinvigorated the show. It’s not ‘appointment TV’ in my house, but thanks to the DVR we catch up over Sunday morning breakfast…and this week had one of the best sketches they’ve done in a long time. See, they decided to spoof tech blogs, specifically the nitpicks and criticisms that give rise to jokes about “first world problems”. They also manage to more deftly comment on the abysmal manufacturing conditions than any concerned five minute…

eBooks

Amazon’s Brilliant Kindle Credit Email

If you purchased any eBooks published by a major publishing house in the last few years, you probably received an email from Amazon, or will receive one from your bookstore of choice shortly. As a result of the Department of Justice ruling on Agency Pricing, the publishers who agreed to the settlement owe us all some money. The exact formula isn’t clear, but according to the email from Amazon it’s safe to expect $0.30-$1.32 per book: We have good news. You are entitled to a credit for some of your past e-book purchases as a result of legal settlements between…

News & Features

The Telikin Brings Computers to the Masses

Before I tell you about the Telikin computer system, I need to tell you about my grandma. See, my grandma was always on the cutting edge. She was an early adopter, from microwaves to VCRs and DVD players. We used to joke that if she were still driving and needed a cell phone in 2007, she would have been first in line for an iPhone. So needless to say, my grandma had to have a computer. However, setting someone in their late 80s up with a computer was not that simple. The entire process of interacting with a computer was…

Editorials

The Need for Training Wheels on Twitter

I have a coworker who often complains about our limited abilities to discuss work over social media. He claims it is a draconian and old-fashioned approach. Most of the time I let it roll past me, but more and more I think that it’s not strict or unreasonable, but in fact extremely smart. For some reason, Twitter seems to trigger the worst in public tweeters, from celebrities to companies. Don’t believe me? Lets look at some of the worst offenders. Just this week, there were two tweets that ignited a firestorm of criticism. First, KitchenAid tweeted this: Obamas gma even…

Editorials, Gear Bits

No CW for Cablevision Subscribers!

If a network goes off the air and no one notices, do the shows still go on? Apparently my cable company is in a fight with the CW, and we haven’t been receiving it since August! I only noticed because <sob> I can’t record the premier of The Vampire Diaries if they don’t come to an agreement by next week! What caused this dispute? Money, of course. Cablevision’s statement is very clear on this: BETHPAGE, N.Y., Aug. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Cablevision Systems Corp., (NYSE: CVC) today released the following statement related to the blackout of WPIX and other Tribune…

eBooks

Fastpencil Joins The Local Library

Here’s a question: when’s the last time you went to your local library? Maybe you dropped by and saw they had a promotion about ebooks. Or you stop by once in a while for audiobooks. The last few years, it seems like libraries have been playing catch up as books, movies, and media in general have gone digital. However, a new partnership with Fastpencil and Auto-Graphics is bringing a whole new option to libraries: self-publishing resources and content! I had the chance to talk today with Steve Wilson of Fastpencil and Robert Brown of Auto-Graphics. Fastpencil is a huge self…

Gear Bits

Blockbuster Lives?

A few weeks ago as part of our “clean out the house” initiative, I came across an old school Netflix ad-3 DVDs at a time for $19.99 a month! Sadly, Sarah didn’t know I wanted to hang onto it as a memento of the days when Netflix WANTED you to rent DVDs, and it headed out to the curb on the last recycling day. However, the universe clearly sensed my disappointment, and sent me a Blockbuster flyer offering me DVD rentals by mail! After checking my phone to make sure it was still a 4S and not the Treo 650…

Gear Bits

Beer Goes Political

I love beer. Personally, my go-to choices are anything Sam Adams and Guinness. But really, if it’s not Budweiser or Coors, I will happily drink it. And while I have had many political conversations OVER beer, I have never politicized beer…but leave it to analysts to put together a graphic overlaying democrats/republicans/voting involvement and beer choice. Of course, this isn’t 100% accurate. After all, as I said above, I love Guinness and Sam Adams, which indicates I have a split political personality. The whole analysis is pretty neat, so be sure to check out the full article at National Journal….

Health and Fitness

Is It More Expensive to Eat Better?

We have been pounding the drum of eating better for your health for a while here at Gear Diary. But Dan brought up an interesting point last week, one that gets tossed around as an excuse often: is it really cheaper to eat processed food options over fresh food you prepare yourself? I decided to do some comparison shopping this weekend, buying food for a typical day and comparing the prices for a pre-made, processed substitute meal. The results were …. read on to find out! Here was my “fresh” menu: Breakfast: Two eggs ($.22), one slice Canadian bacon($.36), and…

eBooks

Why Did the NOOK HD Get Such a Quiet Announcement?

Barnes and Noble have been busy this week. First they quietly announce NOOK Video, surprising everyone, and then quietly, in the dead of night, they announced the NOOK HD and NOOK HD+, two extremely well specc’d competitors to the Kindle Fire HD and Fire HD 8.9″. In fact, the hands on reports of the hardware and software indicate both devices are just as good, if not better than, the Fire HD and Nexus 7. So why bury the announcement in the middle of the night, with no fanfare? The only explanation I can think of is NewCo (the NOOK/B&N…

eBooks, News & Features

Barnes and Noble Goes Hollywood

Barnes and Noble needed something big to compete against the Kindle Fire, and today they announced one part of what that might be: NOOK Video. Details are light, but it sounds like this will be a streaming and pay for download service. In fact, it sounds an awful lot like Amazon Prime Streaming… The big question here is software and price. B&N says they plan to offer NOOK Video to PCs, smartphones and tablets, so this sounds more like a whole new spinoff of NOOK offerings than a one-off designed to add value to the NOOK Tablet lines. Amazon Prime…

Gear Bits

The ’90s Live on … in My Attic

We have been cleaning out our attic, and found this piece of “once-cutting edge technology”. Yes, Sarah’s ruggedized CD player was her prized possession in the ’90’s…and while it was no doubt super-cool at the time, it’s amazing that we once carried these around happily. Even old school cassette players were less cumbersome! The next time a phone, or a rugged case, feels too big…just remember how big an old school portable CD player used to be…that will make your Otterbox Defender look downright svelte in comparison! We found some other cool stuff in our attic, including a Sega Genesis…

Editorials

Is iOS 6 Setting Your World on Fire?

We were all super excited here at Gear Diary to download iOS 6! Some of it has been exciting, but on the whole we have some mixed feelings about how exciting this is … read on for our thoughts! Douglas Moran: Downloaded and installed iOS 6 onto my iPhone 4S. Not much to report so far–although THANK GOD Bluetooth is now on the top-level in Settings!–but I’ve noticed that *every time* I tap the “Genius” button in the App Store, uh, app, it crashes the app. Every time. Tried rebooting my iPhone, and no joy. Anyone else seeing this? Did a…

Reviews

Bling My Thing iPhone 4S Case Review

For some people the iPhone is a tool, a way to do business and keep in touch. For others, it doubles as both a tool and a fashion statement. The choice of a case isn’t utilitarian, it’s a way to express your style. That’s where “Bling My Thing” comes in with a Swarovski elements studded clear case, and as a coworker of mine exclaimed “This isn’t a case, it’s a work of art!” Physically, the Bling My Thing case is very similar to most minimal shell cases. It’s actually just a hair thicker than my Incipio Feather case, with the…

News & Features

Vote For Brandeis To Host The “Today Show”

In my house, there’s a loose rivalry between Syracuse and Brandeis. They hardly compete head to head in anything, but since I went to Brandeis and my brother Andrew went to Syracuse, there’s a good natured sibling rivalry. It doesn’t help that we have older cousins who attended Brandeis and Syracuse, so the unofficial competition spans generations. Now Brandeis finally has the chance to pull ahead here, but I need your help! See, the “Today Show” is running a contest where they will film their fourth hour the week of October 12th at one of six schools: Brandeis, Ohio State…

Reviews

ShopShop for iOS Review

Type of app: iOS, Universal for iPad and iPhone Platform/where to buy: iTunes, App Store Developer: Nikolaj Schumacher Description (from the App Store): A shopping list. Simple. Free. Major features: This is a straightforward shopping list. It keeps a master list of items you add regularly, making it easy to rebuild shopping lists each week. It also lets you create multiple lists for different stores, offers Dropbox sync, and has a setting that prevents screen timeout (for those times you are shopping and referencing the phone repeatedly) Ease of use/Overall performance: This has a surprising number of features for a…

eBooks

When Book People Move

My wife Sarah and I are likely moving in a few months. As a result, we are in a hardcore “kick out the junk” phase, and that means finally dealing with the sheer number of books in our attic. So. Many. Books. My back is less than happy about all the carrying and sorting we did today! The thing about books is that they are really hard to give up. Not just emotionally, but literally. No one wants our books. I called three libraries, and the best answer I received was that the library could take books written less than…

Reviews

Feeddler RSS Reader for iOS Review

Type of app: RSS Reader/News Aggregator Platform/where to buy: iPad and iPhone (universal app); available in the App Store Developer: C.B. Liu Description: Feeddler is a fast and highly customizable Google Reader client that stays perfectly synced with Google and presents RSS stories in an easy-to-read interface. Major features: Feeddler is great if you want a fast and simple RSS reader. You don’t get flashy Flipboard or Pulse style navigation, but you get all your news in one place with a clean user interface. It also offers a whole slew of options to share news via social media or push…

Articles by Zek