Articles by Zek

Gear Bits, Travel November 9, 2011

Quickie Experience — Groupon Getaways

Recently Groupon began expanding their deal offerings to include travel options. Bed and Breakfasts, hotels, and other resorts are offering significant discounts in off-season times for Groupon customers. Sarah and I took advantage of one deal over the summer, and this past weekend finally were able to use it for a long weekend in Cape Cod. Would we try this again, and recommend the experience to our friends? Read on to find out! On the Groupon side, the experience was as simple as it always is. The deal unlocked, and Sarah shot me an email with it, suggesting it would…

Editorials November 4, 2011

Dear B&N,Your Strategy Needs Some Work …

Dear B&N, I want you to succeed. Really, I do. I know it’s hard to believe, being the former Borders’ girl that I am. And sure, my personal library is pretty heavily Amazon-focused. But I like the competition. And I like bookstores. And you bring both. But come on, you need to step up your game, and it seems like you’re falling behind at exactly the wrong time. Let’s look at your main competition, Amazon. They have the Kindle Fire tablet coming out, and the “special sauce” is their ecosystem. Point for point they offer more value to a new…

Gear Bits November 2, 2011

Amazon’s Android Appstore — Same Legendary Amazon Service

I may have moved on to an iPhone, but I still have a hacked NOOKcolor running Android! Plus I have two years’ worth of Android apps between Google’s Marketplace and, more recently, Amazon’s Appstore. While it wasn’t an everyday ritual, I did try to grab Amazon’s free apps of the day if they looked halfway decent, figuring I might want to use them in the future. Now, I’m used to Amazon’s Kindle service, where they send me a nice email if a book is updated by the publisher with instructions on how to update it. But I’ve paid for those…

Reviews October 28, 2011

BeejiveIM for GTalk iOS App Review

When I switched from Android to iOS last week, my biggest concern was replacing key apps I use on a daily basis. Most services and apps I used on Android have iOS versions, so the process was fairly simple, so my biggest concern was replacing Google Talk. It’s the only instant message program I use, and I’m on it constantly “talking” to Sarah and our friends. I was worried I’d need a hefty multi-IM program to replace it, but then I discovered BeejiveIM for GTalk. All BeejiveGT does is GTalk and that’s exactly what I wanted. Would it be solid…

News & Features October 28, 2011

Redbox Raises Prices by 20%

Redbox has raised their prices, but it’s unlikely they’ll receive the ire from customers that Netflix did! First of all, prices are going from $1.00 to a $1.20. It just sounds more exciting to point out that it’s 20%. Second, Redbox is easing the price increase for existing customers with a grace period of $1.00 for the month of November. Sarah and I tried Redbox for the first time last weekend, and it was a smooth experience. We spontaneously decided to see if “Bridesmaids” was available at our local Redbox kiosk; I signed up online, and we tried to rent it…

News & Features October 25, 2011

Playmobil Teaches Kids About the Real World with “Security Checkpoint” and “Safe Crackers” Sets

Are you concerned kids toys coddle them too much? They’re all bright colors and happy people, but what’s the world REALLY like? Playmobil doesn’t want kids to just assume the world is all animal nurseries and magic princess castles — there’s a serious side too. So serious, in fact, that they want kids to play Security Checkpoint, just like mom and dad do at the airport! No, this isn’t a joke. It’s a real Playmobil set. Before you buy, though, be sure to check the reviews: 3.0 out of 5 stars Great lesson for the kids!, September 9, 2005 By loosenut (Seattle, WA)…

News & Features October 25, 2011

The ObiTalk Obi110 Review

Sarah and I didn’t have a landline for a long time. If people needed to reach us, they could call our cell phones. However, when we switched cable providers this summer, we found it was one of those “it’s cheaper to get the phone+WiFi+cable” bundle. Great, but we weren’t about to give away the new phone number to anyone since people knew to reach us on our cell phone numbers or my Google Voice number. But it was handy to have a dedicated handset…that’s where the ObiTalk Obi110 comes in. First, the ObiTalk service does a great deal more than…

News & Features October 23, 2011

Personalized iPhone Cases from iStylize

When my coworker was preordering his new iPhone 4S, we had a debate about colors. I was firmly on the side of black, and he said he was considering white because it stood out a bit more, and since most people have black iPhones, it eliminated that moment of “is this your phone or my phone” that happens when everyone has their iPhones on the table at the same time. Of course, you can solve this with a case, but who wants the same boring cases that everyone else picks up at the Apple store? Instead, you could snag an…

News & Features October 23, 2011

Results of the “What’s Your Primary eBookstore” Poll

The votes are in, and I know you’re all thrilled to learn the results of our “What’s your primary ebookstore” poll. As it turns out, Gear Diary readers break down fairly similar to what’s widely assumed about ebook demographics. Amazon’s Kindle was overwhelmingly first, with B&N pulling a solid second place, but far behind Kindle’s numbers. Meanwhile, iBooks and Kobo duked it out for the remaining share, with one vote for “Other”. So what does this mean? As I said, this was highly unscientific, and you could argue there’s a lot of factors skewing the results: our readers may be…

Editorials, Music Diary October 21, 2011

iTunes Takes Me Down Memory Lane

One of the benefits to reentering the iOS ecosystem is easy access to the music I have in iTunes. Yes, I could drag and drop albums onto the SD card in my Droid, and I did have a few albums on it, but one thing that iOS does far better is music sync. I’ve been enjoying just listening to tracks on random, especially things I haven’t listened to in some time. It made me realize there’s some stuff I still love from my high school days, as well as things I like but not nearly as much as I did…

Editorials October 20, 2011

Farewell, Android

As regular readers of Gear Diary may know, I used an original Droid for almost two years. In fact, up until a few months ago, I was totally convinced my next phone would be an Android device. But Android and I had a falling out, and I picked up an iPhone 4s on Friday. Why? And is the learning curve tough? Read on for my thoughts! First, there’s the “why”. A few things dragged me away from my little robot friends. One, Android is becoming increasingly fractured. It seems as though the only way to guarantee timely updates and continued…

Reviews October 17, 2011

The Fila Skeletoes 2.0 Review

To best describe Fila Skeletoes, you need a bit of background. When I started running last year, I became enamored with the barefoot running concept but found my feet just couldn’t adjust to it. So I tried Vibram Five Fingers, which were great for walking around but didn’t work well for me for running. After a great deal of experimenting with shoes, I finally settled on a lightweight pair of normal running shoes, paired with wearing Vibrams for casual use. It puts me in the odd position of being neither fish nor fowl; not really part of the “barefoot running”…

eBooks October 17, 2011

What’s Your Primary eBookstore?

Kobo is like the Rodney Dangerfield of eBookstores — they get no respect! Here they are, pumping out app after app for every smartphone platform, pushing the social envelope with “Reading Life”, created a touch-based ebook reader…yet they’re still an also-ran. As Nate over at The Digital Reader notes, Kobo never gets mentioned alongside B&N and Amazon, and his sources indicate Kobo has, at most, 5% of the ebook market. Still, for a tiny presence Kobo has a big voice. They promote themselves heavily, so they often get coverage on blogs, but in my conversations with everyday people I’ve only…

News & Features October 13, 2011

Watch out for Fake Netflix Apps

Here’s the dark side of Android fragmentation: if you have an Android device that’s not running 2.2 (or a device that doesn’t have the Android marketplace), you don’t have Netflix app access. So you conjure up some google-fu and find a copy of the Netflix app floating around, or maybe it’s an Android app store you’ve never used before. Be very, very careful before you download it. Apparently, there’s a fake version of Netflix floating around that steals your login data. As you can see from the image, it looks super similar. In fact, it looks EXACTLY like the login…

eBooks October 12, 2011

Simon and Schuster’s Missed Opportunity for Steve Jobs’ Biography

Sarah and I were eating dinner last night and discussing Steve Jobs and his legacy. She pointed out that it would have been fitting for Simon and Schuster to release Steve Jobs’ biography as an iBooks exclusive for a few days prior to street date release. Not only would this reward Apple fans, but it would also generate buzz for iBooks and stoke demand for the biography across all formats and platforms! Sadly, unless they’re planning something awesome last minute, it looks like there won’t be any special iBooks deal. However, you can preorder the biography now at both Amazon…

News & Features October 12, 2011

The Origins of Your Sweet ‘n Low!

I admit that I try to eat “real food” as much as possible, but I have certain weaknesses. For one, Pop Tarts. I have no idea why, since they have no flavor besides “overly sweet”, and I fully recognize they’re stamped out in a factory somewhere. Whenever I get really tempted by the siren song of rectangular strawberry-flavored goodness, I just remember the laundry list of chemicals and (usually) reach for real fruit instead. Luckily for me, iO9 has a very entertaining (and shudder-inducing!) list of the “10 Crazy Science Experiments That Wound Up In Your Kitchen“. I won’t spoil…

eBooks, Editorials October 10, 2011

B&N Pulls 100 DC Comics Titles in Protest of Kindle Fire

I want to root for B&N. They’re fighting for survival, and facing off against a seriously tough market. But their behavior this week makes me think the wheels are coming off a bit at B&N HQ, and that fear and stress, not strategy, are running the show right now. They’ve pulled 100 DC Comics titles from their physical stores (the titles are still available online), all over anger regarding DC’s exclusive deal with Amazon to bring the same 100 titles to the Kindle (Fire and tablet apps). Teleread picked up this report from Bleeding Cool about Amazon’s exclusivity: Well now…

eBooks October 7, 2011

Amazon Lets You Buy Out Your Special Orders Kindle; What’s Next?

(image courtesy The Digital Reader) There’s a fair amount of debate over the “Special Orders” Kindles. Most people find the ads unobtrusive, and even take advantage of the offers! On the other hand, if they’re driving you nuts, or if you bought an S.O. Kindle and didn’t realize it, Amazon does allow you to change your Kindle to a non-subsidized one. The only catch? You’ll need to pay up for the $30 subsidy difference. This is a pretty clever way to handle potentially upset customers. Maybe someone gets annoyed with the special offers or they don’t like targeted ads, so…

eBooks October 5, 2011

B&N Drops Support for Blackberries

Bad news for Blackberry and B&N fans; you’ll have to pick sides soon. B&N is notifying Blackberry users that effective January 1st, they’re dropping all support for their eReader app. Of course, if you want to go through contortions, you can always sideload your books via USB. Or you could switch to Kobo or Amazon, both of whom offer fully supported ebook apps for Blackberry. According to Crackberry, this is the email B&N has sent to affected users: We are writing to inform you about important changes being made to the BN eReader software for BlackBerry. Changes to the BN…

eBooks October 3, 2011

The eBook/Paper Book Conspiracy?

It’s human nature to get very focused on our personal niche areas of expertise. After a while, you become the proverbial hammer, and everything starts looking like a nail. I admit to having fallen into that trap before, and I fear Rich Adin fell into a similar trap with his latest column, “Is This The Next Sneak Attack on eBookers?” Basically, Rich’s issue is as follows (courtesy Teleread): I have enjoyed the “Safehold Series” of books by David Weber. Because Weber is one of my favorite authors, I buy his books in hardcover so I can read them and add them…

News & Features October 2, 2011

Arrested Development Lives!

Does hearing “Final Countdown” make you laugh uncontrollably? Do you see Mae Whitman on “Parenthood” and immediately ask “Her?” Can you explain the concept of a “never nude”? If you answered yes, you’re clearly a fan of the short-lived but brilliant “Arrested Development” tv show. If not…it’s on Hulu. Go stream it and then come back. You’re back! Great. So no doubt you’re bitter it only had 3 seasons of incest jokes, model homes, hook hands, and frozen bananas. There have been rumors for a long time about a potential “Arrested Development” movie, but nothing concrete. However, according to TMZ…

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