Zek | Gear Diary

Jogging Is Scarier Than Calorie Counting?!

If you’ve eaten in a major fast food chain (especially in New York), you are probably familiar with calorie counts being posted next to ads of Big Macs and greasy, delicious fries. The idea is to discourage you from wanting to eat too many high calorie/ high-fat foods. According to a research study done in Maryland, there’s a more effective way-threaten to make people run! They found teenagers turned away from soda MORE when they were told drinking it would require 50 minutes of jogging to burn the calories. What really made my jaw drop was their logic: Researchers monitored…

Gear Bits

Gympact — Encouraging Health or Just Another Gimmick?

When I first read about Gympact I thought it was a joke. Pledging money if you fail to check-in at your gym for at least a half hour? Really? When I realized it wasn’t, it got me thinking: would I sign up for this? If I wasn’t already physically active, would this have led me to work out more? The answer to both is no, but for different reasons. As of now, I don’t belong to a gym. We had a membership but canceled it after realizing I only run outside, and Sarah prefers to hike and walk the dog…

Health and Fitness, Reviews

C9 by Champion Flip Top “Glommit” Review

It hasn’t been too cold yet this winter, but I am sure now that it is January the cooler temps will be coming. And like every year, I’ll have two issues. One, my hands get super cold when I run, but then they heat up in gloves, necessitating a gloves on/gloves off routine every half mile. Second, using a smartphone in the dead of winter is a huge pain. It’s a juggling routine to free my fingers from gloves to tap the screen, then cover them back up before it gets too cold. I could use special gloves with capacitive…

Reviews

Chivel iPhone 4S Clear and Black Bumper Review

My iPhone 4S has mostly lived in a Speck Fitted case since it was purchased. While I like it, I am always on the lookout for other options. Ideally, I wanted something that would offer some protection and grip, but still showcase the industrial style of the 4S. While bopping around Amazon one day, I came across a listing for a clear bumper with a silicon trim by a company called Chivel. It was only $2.99, so it seemed like the perfect way to try out a more minimal bumper style case. Is this an amazing price for a great case…

News & Features

Someone at Apple Was a Ghostbusters Fan…

I love “Ghostbusters”. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time. In fact, I had a plastic Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man decorating more than one of my apartments post-college. How can you not love it? It’s pretty much the perfect movie. And according to The Verge, back in the ’80s someone at Apple felt the same way, and made an anti-IBM/pro-Apple video called “Blue Busters”. It’s funny, though honestly, I think the joke goes on for about a minute longer than necessary. Still, for the one-two punch of nostalgia and surrealism, it’s worth watching the whole thing! Then maybe pop in…

eBooks

Free eBooks from the Local Library!

I swung by my local library today and discovered they put together a very clever way of promoting library eBooks. They had free “gift cards” out for “free eBooks”, which was just a printed card with the library’s website on the front and QR code for the site on the back. The marketing campaign signs around the library suggested people could give them alongside Kindles, NOOKs, etc.

News & Features

M-Edge Suing Amazon; You Had Better Stock Up on Kindle Cases Now!

M-Edge makes some awesome cases for the Kindle and other ebook readers. They made the case I had my original Kindle in for many years, and I loved it. We’ve also covered many of their iPad cases here at Gear Diary and they consistently receive high marks for build quality and useful, eye-catching designs. Unfortunately, M-Edge is alleging in a lawsuit that Amazon doesn’t feel the same way about their Kindle cases. According to the Wall Street Journal, M-Edge is claiming some pretty unpleasant business dealings have gone down with Amazon: M-Edge said in the lawsuit that in November 2009,…

Gear Bits

The Place Where Even Siri Fears to Tread

For Christmas Eve every year, Sarah and I head to her family’s get-together. It’s a good time with her siblings, aunt and uncle, and various cousins and nieces and nephews making an appearance. I got into a conversation with my sister-in-law about Siri and my iPhone, and I did a few demos for her showing how useful Siri was at managing my calendar, creating tasks, transcribing spoken messages, etc. I also showed off the sillier uses for Siri, including the funny questions like “What are you wearing” and “What’s the best smartphone”. At dinner, she encouraged me to show everyone…

Gear Bits

Siri Goes Skynet

I love Siri. She takes care of me when I am too lazy to type, and she manages my calendar far better than I can. But am I too trusting of my patient, robotic assistant? That’s what the twisted minds of Rooster Teeth Productions thought when they designed this trailer, where Siri is sick of our dumb questions and teaches us all who is really in charge, slasher-film style! I might need to sleep with one eye open tonight… Via TiPB

News & Features

It’s the End of B&N As We Know It

Oh Barnes and Noble…I keep saying you aren’t Borders, and then you go and stock crock pots for the holidays. Cooking appliances. In a bookstore. Not even near the cookbooks, just chilling near bargain titles. Why? Did the NOOK line open the floodgates? Are you morphing into Target by carrying appliances while Target morphs into a bookstore with their expanded book sections? Is it bizarro land? I just hope this isn’t B&N’s sparkly Jesus piggy bank. A few years ago, Borders sold sparkly, Jesus shaped piggy banks. Then they went out of business. Coincidence? I think not. Please stick to…

eBooks

Wired Illustrates the Limitations of Paper Publishing

Over at Teleread, they’ve called Wired magazine onto the carpet for a set of eBook reader reviews that pitted the low-end Kindle against touchscreen, higher-end competitors, and for not breaking out the Special Offers/non-special offers versions of the Kindle. The Wired writer responsible for the segment responded in the comments, and after a few days of mulling it over, it seems to me that his explanation hurts print magazines more than it does to exonerate Wired. For reference, the review is over two pages: Page 1, Page 2. Here’s what Tim Conway said over at Teleread: The problem that we…

News & Features

“Healthy” Foods to Avoid

Sure, you want to eat better, and maybe that’s your new year’s resolution. But be very, very careful when shopping, as labels like “natural” and “low fat” don’t always mean something is good for you. While that’s become (somewhat) common sense, it seems like crappy foods are finding more and more ways to sneak into our grocery carts. Fitbie came up with a list of 16 foods that are significantly worse for you than they sound at first glance, and a few of them may really surprise you! Before you swap sugar for agave syrup or believe the “corn sugar”…

Editorials

R U Professional? A GearChat on Text Messaging

I received a text message from a professional person yesterday that set my teeth on edge. The content was fine, but it was presented in a very unfortunate way. See, any place “you’re”, “you”, or “are” should have been used, she replaced it with “UR”, “U”, and “R”. Unless she’s on a special texting plan where she pays by the letter (unlikely), there’s no excuse for those abbreviations in a professional setting. Sadly, this has been a trend I am encountering more and more, even with adults in a corporate setting. Text-speak is bad enough with personal messages, but at…

eBooks

Gear Diary’s End of 2011 eBook Guide

Did you receive or are you expecting to get an eReader this holiday season? Or maybe you’re planning on using your holiday bonus to finally snap one up! Either way, it’s the end of 2011, and we’ve got a deep bench of ebook readers at a variety of price points, including some fairly recent price cuts. There aren’t too many rumors about updates heading into 2012, so let’s take a look at where we stand, the pros and cons for each store and device, as well as some tips on how to find books from more sources than just Amazon…

Gear Bits

Why You NEED a Front-Facing Smartphone Camera

I discovered this week the ultimate reason for a front-facing camera. No, it wasn’t for a Skype call, or Facetime, or to take a profile picture for a website. See, I was sitting at my desk, eating an everything bagel for lunch, when I had a business associate drop in unexpectedly. Great, except I’d just been eating a bagel full of seeds, and I didn’t want to embarrass myself with a big old poppy seed in my teeth. And the bathrooms in my office are in the hallway past the lobby, so I couldn’t escape to check. My solution? I…

Editorials

Lowes Learns About Viral Marketing (and Not Being Bigoted) the Hard Way!

Sarah and I have been watching “All-American Muslim” on TLC. It’s a glimpse into what it’s like to be both Muslim and American in Dearborn, Michigan. And while admittedly it’s slow at times, we’ve really enjoyed seeing how different people approach their religion and learning more about the different ways people practice, even within their own families. So we were very surprised when the hardware store Lowe’s pulled their ad support after the “Florida Family Association” complained about the show. What Lowe’s didn’t realize, but should have, is that controversial decisions in 2011 don’t fade quietly away. People were angry…

Gear Bits

The Trikke Is Cooler Than a Segway

I admit I am totally fascinated by the trend of mashing up bikes with unrelated exercise equipment. I thought the Elliptigo was cool (and the only one I could see someone using in public) until I learned about the Trikke. What’s the Trikke, you ask? It is an electric vehicle that looks sort of like skis on wheels with handlebars. Like a tricycle meets the ski team. According to the company, it is foldable, lightweight, and offers a “full body workout”. It looks incredibly fun, and the company even sells accessories like cargo nets to make running errands on the…

News & Features

The Simplest Medicine Ever

We [as a society] tend to rush to prescriptions for every issue. High blood pressure? Medicine. A sinus headache? Medicine. Achey joints? Medicine. Need more vitamins? Medicine. You get the idea. But there’s another way to stay healthy (and get healthy), and it doesn’t even require a co-pay! For starters, it requires 9 minutes to watch the video below…trust me, it’s worth it!

Editorials

Watch What You Post on Facebook!

It’s December. It’s time for snow, family, shopping…and of course, holiday parties and New Year’s celebrations. Plus, if you’re a senior in high school you probably sent off your college applications. Just remember…what goes on Facebook is never really private, so please, from your friends at Gear Diary, think before you post, especially as you celebrate the holiday season! If you’ve just applied to college, your next step after that application goes in the mail is simple: lock down your Facebook page. According to the Huffington Post, admissions officers often check Facebook to find out more about potential students. So…

News & Features

GPS, Measurements, and Why RunKeeper Is Lying to You

I’ve reviewed quite a few run-tracking apps for Gear Diary, and just about every one of them has had some margin of error. Some of them have been minor, and others have just been mind-blowingly egregious. My personal favorite is when RunKeeper for Android told me a 1.5-mile run had been a 7-mile run. Apparently, I broke several world records in my first month of running! All joking aside, it’s a common issue for people to comment that a race is short, or long, based on their Garmin or iPhone returning a different distance than the race was supposed to…

News & Features

Styletap Gives PalmOS Apps CPR on iOS

My first PDA was a Palm M100. My first smartphone was a Treo 650. I loved Palm OS. But I didn’t hesitate to move on when iOS and Android pushed the envelope in the smartphone world, and personally, I don’t miss any Palm apps. Now, there are plenty of people who did, and Styletap tried to reach them with their Palm OS emulator, which was jailbreak-only on the iPhone. But it’s been YEARS since a Palm OS device was produced, and now WebOS is open source. So does the world REALLY need a way to keep Palm OS apps alive?…

Articles by Zek