Articles by Zek

Reviews August 13, 2012

How Nokia Wants to Create the Perfect Smartphone for Women (and Everyone Else!)

Several years ago, I owned the worst phone in the world, the Samsung Epix. Seriously, it was an evil, possessed phone. After sending one Epix after another back to AT&T because of all the issues, they finally relented and let me exchange it for a different phone. I ended up with a Nokia E71x, and while the AT&T “adjustments” to the software were less than welcome, I adored the hardware. Nokia may have had their ups and downs, but they know how to make an amazing phone. Nokia has now thrown their support behind Windows Phone, and I had an…

Health and Fitness August 12, 2012

Introducing “Gear Diary Health And Fitness Tips”

You may have noticed over the last year or so that we have sprinkled an increasing number of fitness related posts and tips throughout Gear Diary. All of us have an interest and have taken active steps toward becoming healthier, and we want to share more of these experiences with our readers. Too often, people say it is too expensive or complicated to get, and stay, healthy. The truth is, if you know where to shop, what steps to take, and what ingredients to keep on hand it really isn’t. In fact, it is not only easy, but eating and…

Health and Fitness August 11, 2012

The Narrative of the Olympics Is What the Media Wants It to Be

The fascinating part of the Olympics to me isn’t just how badly NBC manages to screw everyone. It isn’t even the athletic achievements. What really catches my attention is the way certain stories are presented. We get fed storylines by the media to make us feel sympathetic towards one athlete, or disdainful towards another. It’s amazing how perspective on someone’s story makes a huge difference. Let’s look at the story of athlete A. There were major expectations placed on this athlete in Beijing, and she sadly failed to deliver. In the four years since, she’s suffered some ups and downs,…

News & Features August 9, 2012

Maybe the Athletes Are Making Water Balloons?

Have you heard about the latest Olympic scandal? No, it’s not more doping accusations. And no one else threw a badminton game. But it is hitting the Olympics where it hurts- their pocketbook. See, the Olympics have sponsors for everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. So the organizers were quite unhappy to discover that non-Durex condoms were being distributed to athletes! According to the Guardian: London 2012 are investigating how a bucket of unofficial condoms found its way into the athletes’ village without official consent. The Australian BMX cyclist Caroline Buchanan tweeted a photograph of the bucket, which featured a sign…

eBooks August 8, 2012

Storybundle Brings Indie eBooks, Readers, and “Pay What You Want” Bundles Together

When I was a kid I was a voracious reader. Obviously I still am, but when I was 11 my parents had a harder time keeping up with my reading habits. I distinctly remember being over the moon with excitement the day my mom signed me up for “The Science Fiction Book Club”, a discount mail order service that got me several free books as gifts with membership, plus a new book each month! In fact, I think I still have some of those books in a box in my parent’s basement. Anyway, I can’t help but consider the legacy…

Health and Fitness, Reviews August 7, 2012

Nom Nom Paleo Recipe App Review

Sarah and I are attempting to improve our eating habits, and a big part of that is adapting a more “Paleo” style of eating. This means cutting out grains, sugar, legumes, and focusing heavily on protein, fat, fruit, and vegetables. We can come up with some basic recipes on our own, but we would get bored quickly eating the same few dishes. One of my friends has been advocating the Paleo diet and recommended the “Nom Nom Paleo” app for the iPad, and I am thrilled that he did! The app itself is visually stunning. You can flip through recipes…

Gear Bits, Outdoors August 4, 2012

Fun Facts About the Olympic Marathons in History

It is track and field time at the Olympics, and that means it’s time for the men’s and women’s marathons! All of the running events are fun to watch if you are a runner, but the Olympic marathon is special. Since the women’s marathon is Sunday, Runners World has an awesome list of nine big moments in Olympic history. All of these will come in handy at your next quiz night, but my personal favorite is the story of Emil Zatopek: As the 1952 helsinki olympics drew to a close, Czech-oslovakia’s Emil Zatopek, 29, had already won the 5000 meters…

Editorials, Gear Bits August 4, 2012

NBC’s Olympic Coverage Punishes Broadcast TV Watchers

There’s been plenty of ink spilled about how NBC is mishandling the Olympics. But Sarah and I are watching them tonight, and she just went on quite the rant that I hadn’t considered. See, NBC ran a whole special on the 1996 Women’s Gymnastics game, and Kerri Strug’s inspirational vault to seal the gold medal. It was followed up by an interview with Bela Karolyi. Both were nice to watch, but they highlighted a huge fail of NBC’s coverage: for so-called “prime time” Olympics, it was 8:30 before any current sports were shown! Yes, NBC has apps. And there are…

Outdoors August 1, 2012

Rule 40, #NoBlackout, and Why Olympic Sponsorship is Broken

(the major Olympic sponsors, courtesy Puttles.com) If you follow any track and field athletes on social media, you may have noticed them tweeting with hash tags like #noblackout. Or maybe you saw a flurry of activity a few weeks ago where they frantically sent “one last thanks” to various sponsors. The International Olympic Committee has a blackout on athletes promoting sponsors during the Olympics, which isn’t unreasonable. However, if your sponsor is Nike or Adidas, there is no blackout. In other words, athletes not sponsored by one of these two companies cannot thank the businesses that supported them and brought…

eBooks July 30, 2012

In Apple’s World, “Amazon” Might As Well Be a Four Letter World

Someone at Apple needs to keep their finger off the big red button. No, not the nuclear codes, the one that rejects anything related to Amazon. Yes, Apple has been relatively quiet lately, but they once again angered the ebook world with another head scratcher of a rejection, this time for a guide to self-publishing. Pretty hard to discuss self publishing and NOT discuss Amazon, but that’s how Apple’s reviewers wanted it handled. According to Teleread and Holly Lisle, the self publishing writer whose work was rejected: Lesson 6 includes my “Amazon River” technique, in which I show students how…

Gear Bits, Outdoors July 29, 2012

Stuffa Jacket Holds ALL Your Stuff

(image courtesy Stuffa) The folks at Gizmodo have stumbled upon a fascinating new clothing line, called the “Stuffa” jacket. It’s a jacket with pockets designed to hold several day’s worth of clothing. What an original concept. I wonder where they got the idea from… Actually, all sarcasm aside, the creator says he had the idea while watching people get creamed by baggage fees: I flew home late April with the remaining staff. It was at Geneva airport that the fun of checking in started and the idea for Stuffa first came to me. Everyone was having to pay the excess…

Gear Bits July 27, 2012

“Cinderfella” Reimagines Disney Princess Stories

Like just about every kid in America, I grew up watching Disney movies. Of course, most girls don’t cast themselves as Prince Charming, but that should have been an early clue for me that maybe I wasn’t like the other kids. Apparently I wasn’t the only one rewriting fairy tales! Todrick Hall, who apparently was on American Idol (I don’t follow the show) has put together an adorable mash up of Disney princess tales and pop songs. He casts himself as “Cinderfella”, and he yearns to head to the ball to find his Prince Charming. The whole video is cute,…

Outdoors July 27, 2012

News Roundup on the Cusp of the Olympics!

Less than 24 hours until the start of the Summer Olympics! Hopefully, you aren’t too burned out on Olympics stories so far, there’s a long month of feel-good tales and endless shots of crowds ahead of you. Meanwhile, we have a quick roundup of apps and news to carry you through to the Opening Ceremonies! First, NBC has two apps to help you stick with the Olympics on the go. One is an aggregation of news and prepackaged articles and photos, and the other is for live coverage during the games themselves. So far, my personal experience has been a…

Outdoors July 21, 2012

Getting Fit with Gear Diary!

(image courtesy indulgy) There’s more to life than just electronics, at least some of the time. And here at Gear Diary, we live to serve, so we’re pulling together a new weekly series focused around health, fitness, and the world outside the glowing screens. This week we’re looking at cool running gear, body image, superhuman races, and healthy snacks. Ready? Read on for more! Earlier in the week we showed you how to enter the Badwater Ultramarathon, and now that the race is winding down, here’s an idea of how the competition did: Mike Morton won in 22:52:55! That is…

Reviews July 21, 2012

2012 Kia Optima Hybrid Review

“Wow, nice car! “Whoa, what car is this?” “Holy crap, THIS is a Kia?” These are the questions I have gotten repeatedly over the last week, because I have had a Kia Optima Hybrid to review. To say this is a nice car is an understatement. It’s an amazing car. The Optima was a pleasure to drive, and had every feature and luxury you could ever imagine or want in a high-end sedan. What made it such a standout vehicle? Read on to find out! First, let’s talk aesthetics. The Optima is a gorgeous car. It has some very sporty…

eBooks, News & Features July 18, 2012

NOOK Goes Web Based

Good news, if you care deeply about reading ebooks on every possible device-B&N has released a web version of the NOOK platform. This is one of those features that every ebook store has felt compelled to offer but frankly, it’s a bit of a yawner. It’s helpful if you want to read on a computer and you can’t install software, but is that a common occurrence? Is it something we really want? Or need? From the press release: NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today introduced NOOK for…

Gear Bits, News & Features July 18, 2012

Rock Radio Returns To New York!

Almost exactly one year ago, 101.9RXP went off the air, leaving NYC without a decent rock radio station. I was more than a bit sad about this, and while Pandora has partially filled that void I really missed listening to the radio. That is why I was thrilled when I saw on Facebook yesterday that 101.9 was back to good old rock music! I tuned in this morning on my way to work. The selection seems excellent so far. There was no DJ, and I didn’t hear any commercials. Instead, there was an occasional station identification of “101.9 NYC Rock…

Health and Fitness, Outdoors July 17, 2012

Are You Tough Enough For Badwater?

(image courtesy rpmbold) The Northeast USA today “issued” an “excessive heat warning”. That can only mean one thing… everyone is complaining about how hot it is outside. Some people thrive on the heat and enjoy running in it. They might want to start prepping now for the ultimate race goal: Badwater. What’s a Badwater, you ask? It is a short 135 mile race through Death Valley. Think of it as a nice afternoon stroll… if your idea of a nice afternoon stroll is taking a walk in or around your oven! It is an easy course. As you can see…

Gear Bits July 15, 2012

Was the Spiderman Reboot Because Disney Owns Marvel?

(image courtesy buzz sugar) Here at GearFest we have been chatting about all manner of gear issues, and last night we were debating the merits of the “Spiderman” reboot. It seemed like Spiderman 3 had just come out, and none of us could get too excited about watching Peter Parker start all over again, no matter how awesome Emma Stone is! The discussion did lodge a random tidbit from my brain, though, regarding who owns the rights to Spiderman and who wants to own him… See, several years ago Marvel licensed the rights to their superheroes to other studios. X-Men…

Gear Bits July 15, 2012

How Well Are Farm Workers Compensated?

(image courtesy trek earth) I try to be aware of the path food takes from origin to my plate. I just finished reading The American Way of Eating, by Tracie McMillan, where the author went undercover in the food supply chain, working in grocery retail, as a restaurant employee, and as a worker picking fruits and vegetables in the fields. That last job really fascinated me, because not only are fruits and veggies integral to my diet, but sadly the treatment and wages of those workers are ripe for abuse. Coincidentally, one of my favorite blogs, Meals and Miles, was…

Gear Bits July 12, 2012

Two Weeks Until the Olympics!

(image courtesy London 2012) There are only 15 days until the Summer Olympics! Are you excited yet? Of course, until the opening ceremonies all we have are the trickle of bits and pieces of trivia and news on the coverage, but it’s better than nothing! First of all, NBC and Facebook will be working together to promote the games. Apparently it’s a better deal if you plan to watch through the BBC, since you can stream right from Facebook there, but if you are watching on NBC there will be some synergy at least. Even better, the New York Times…

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