Articles by Zek

Kobo Wants to See Your Office

Actually, Kobo just wants to see you reading in your office. If you head over to Kobo’s Facebook page, and either post on their wall or add a picture of your office. That enters you in a drawing to win a Kobo eReader! They’re giving away 4 Kobo eReaders AND the Grand Prize winner also gets 10 ebooks too! I reviewed the Kobo WiFi Reader here, and found it to be a great little device! Again, if you missed The Office the other night, here’s a clip of Darryl checking out the Kobo reader:

Editorials

Tim Cook, AppleInsider and Boundaries

Dan: The conversation started early this morning when I read a post over on Apple Insider that just didn’t sit well with me. Apple Insider calls Tim Cook the most powerful gay man in Silicon Valley I wrote to the other editors This just offends me. Do we get articles that begin… “Most powerful heterosexual but currently celibate after his third nasty divorce” or “Most powerful 37 year-old virgin although we have no doubt she is straight”. ??? Who cares if he is straight or gay when it comes to running Apple… and who’s business is it anyhow? Judie: I…

eBooks, Gear Bits

Kobo eReader Gets Featured on the Office!

Tonight on The Office our friends at Kobo snuck in a great bit of product placement! I won’t spoil the whole scene, but it’s very amusing and manages to add in a pitch about how many books the Kobo Reader can hold! We’re working on getting a screenshot, but until then head over to the official Office site to catch the episode online!

News

The Ethics of Steve Jobs’ Medical Leave

By now you’ve probably seen every blog post out there about Steve Jobs and his medical leave. It’s been a complicated situation since being CEO brings with it obligations that a private individual doesn’t have. On the other hand, Steve Jobs is a private man and deserves the chance to hopefully recover in peace. We could debate this all day, but Businessweek’s resident ethics expert has stepped into the fray with a fantastic and clearly outlined explanation of both sets of obligations (that of a private individual as well as that of the leader of a major corporation who answers…

News

Astrological Signs Hit Their 5,000 Year Recalculation

I always thought of astrology as a fairly fixed field of “study”. If you were born between certain dates, then you were born under a certain sign. As it turns out, astrology is heavily influenced by astronomy, and therefore as the earth spins the astrological calculations may need adjustments. The upshot: every 5,000 years or so your sign may need changing! I wonder if there’s an astrological version of the oil change sticker; “Every 5,000 years or 35,000,000 earth rotations, please recalculate Astrological chart” If you’re wondering if you are now under a new constellation, here’s the breakdown: NEW ZODIAC…

News

Toe Salad, a Social and Review Site for Minimal Running!

It’s no secret that some of us at Gear Diary are big fans of shoes like Vibram Five Fingers. But VFFs are far from the only minimalist shoes available! These days it seems like every major running company has a minimal shoe in their lineup, and there are dozens of small shoemakers all trying to carve out a place in this new niche. Unfortunately, unless you’re lucky enough to live near a major city or a very progressive running store, you need to turn to the internet to figure out what shoe might work for your minimal running adventures. It…

Editorials, Events

Gear Diary at CES Brought to You by Google

We hope you enjoyed Gear Diary’s coverage of CES 2011! All of the editors of the site worked with various devices, but they all had one thing in common: Google. Yes, Gear Diary at CES was brought to you by various Google OSes and services. What were our favorite Google-y gadgets? Read on to find out! Carly My day job is fairly restricted, and so I don’t have access to anything behind the scenes at Gear Diary on my work PC. Thankfully, I have the CR-48 Chrome OS computer, and that made my life very easy all week while Dan,…

eBooks

The Future of Indie Authors and Publishing

Teleread shared some very interesting tidbits the other day about independent authors and their sales numbers. J. A. Konrath is often the voice of independent authors, as he famously broke free from his publisher and is now thriving through self-publishing and seeing his ebook sales fly through the roof. But he’s not alone. In fact, there are 25 authors listed who sold 2500+ ebooks in the month of December! Granted, these numbers are including the lucrative and extremely skewed Christmas season, but still — some of those authors sold 30k or even 100k in one month! Those are impressive sales…

News

Contour GPS Adds Bluetooth to Hands-Free Video

It’s an issue as old as Xtreme Sportz. You’ve strapped a video camera to your helmet, and you’re convinced it’s absolutely killer footage. Unfortunately, you taped the camera at the wrong angle, and instead of seeing your wicked skating set everyone sees the sky. Luckily, ContourGPS has a hands-free video camera that solves this issue by turning your phone into the viewfinder via Bluetooth. I can see where this would be helpful since without some sort of screen you don’t know that your camera is aimed properly. However, may I make a suggestion? If you’re going to be using this…

Reviews

Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark Review

Last night for Sarah’s birthday we went to see “Spider-Man: The Musical”. It was supposed to have officially debuted by now, but due to some unfortunate accidents they’ve pushed back the official debut, so what we saw was still the preview. However, it was still a fantastic experience, both for Sarah (as a theater geek) and me (the comic book geek)!

Events, News

Nike Introduces the Nike+ SportWatch

Garmin has been the undisputed leader of GPS running watches for several years. Timex and Polar have similar devices, but neither has captured running hearts quite like the Garmin Forerunner line. Nike has the “poor man’s Garmin” with their Nike+ system, and at CES they stepped it up with a new GPS-based Nike watch. According to Nike: Starting April 1st, get the extra push you need with the Nike+ SportWatch GPS powered by TomTom. Not only does it track what you do, it tracks how you do it, then makes you want to do it again and again. Here’s how:…

eBooks, News

“We’re Not Dead Yet!” Says Borders

(image courtesy Magnificent Vista) There’s a slight, baby, teeny-tiny glimmer of hope for Borders. Apparently, they’re not quite dead yet. Late breaking news today indicated Borders is making inroads on restructuring their debt, AND they aren’t hiring bankruptcy lawyers. According to Bloomberg news: Borders Group Inc., the second- largest U.S. bookstore chain, surged in after-hours trading on a report that Jefferies & Co. is helping the company restructure its debt. The investment bank is advising the Ann Arbor, Michigan- based chain on reworking its debt load, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing people familiar with the matter. Borders doesn’t have…

Events, News

AMD Makes Processors Sound Exciting!

I love corporate thrillers. One of my favorite books of all time is “Paranoia” by Joseph Finder, an awesome espionage/thriller with cool twists. However, despite being big geek words like “silicon” and “graphics chip” don’t really pique my interest. However, AMD has put together an AWESOME trailer for their newest chips, and if this doesn’t make you at least a little curious about their CES announcements, well, you’re clearly not an action fan!

eBooks, Editorials

Why Barnes and Noble Shouldn’t Buy Borders

Rich Adin has an editorial making the rounds of the ebook world today, where he argues that B&N should snap Borders up for several strategic reasons. His reasons aren’t bad, per se, but I think he underestimates much of the risks and pitfalls in his ideas, and they come from a more idealist view than a realistic business one. Let’s go through his ideas one by one and I’ll interject where I disagree: First, it can immediately close all the b&m stores that currently compete with its own brand. This would increase traffic to its own brand for those of…

eBooks

Google to Expand to Periodicals?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is looking to sell more than just books. Apparently, they also want to sell newspapers and magazines, probably as a way to offer more content to the slew of Android tablets coming out this year! According to the WSJ: Google has discussed its intentions with a range of publishers, including Time Warner Inc.’s Time Inc. unit, Condé Nast and Hearst Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. The three publishers declined to comment on any talks. In recent weeks, these people say, Google has told publishers it would take a smaller slice…

eBooks, Editorials

State of the eBook: 2010’s Legacy and 2011’s Future

It has been far too long since the last “State of the eBook” column, but life has been busy lately. However, my New Year’s resolution is to get back on track, and it seemed like a good way to start would be with a retrospective on 2010 and a look to what we might see in 2011! State of the eBook world at the end of 2010 Winners Kindle: It’s impossible not to include the Kindle on this list. Amazon has hung onto their marketshare and expanded onto Mac OS X, Blackberries and Android devices. Not to mention their existing…

eBooks, News

Welcome to the Death Spiral of Borders

It’s harsh but there’s no other way to put it. News broke this afternoon that Borders is delaying payments to vendors, and is concerned if their creditors do not help with a restructuring that they’re going to run into a “liquidity shortfall”. In other words, there’s no money in the bank to pay anyone. When you’re a person, it makes you a deadbeat. When you’re a large company, it makes you very, very nervous. According to the Wall Street Journal: The nation’s second-largest bookstore chain by revenue, behind Barnes & Noble Inc., said the delays were part of its efforts…

eBooks, News

Kobo’s Big End of Year Contest!

Kobo is running what they call a “Get-a-Gift” contest. Every day, you head to the site, sign in and scratch off your virtual entry card. You can win a Kobo eReader, coupons or a gift card! If you’re as hooked on lotto scratch-offs as I am, you’ll definitely like this contest! It goes from now until New Year’s Eve, so you have all week to win something. So far I’ve won 10% off one book; give it a shot and let us know in the comments if you win anything good! Check out Kobo’s full blog post and contest rules,…

Reviews

One Week with Chrome OS: A Mini-Review

It’s been just about a week since I received my CR-48 Chrome OS netbook. In that time I’ve turned on my Toshiba netbook (running Windows 7) twice, and only used my Macbook to check my email a few times. Otherwise all my home computer use has been on Chrome, including writing posts for Gear Diary. While it is still quite early in my Chrome experience, and the OS is very, very young, I thought I’d share my likes and dislikes thus far…think of it as a mini-review…a miniview! Likes: Getting started is dead easy. Once I did the initial setup…

eBooks, News

Amazon’s Kindle Sales Explode!

Trying to figure out how many Kindles Amazon has sold is like reading tea leaves. No one’s quite sure, though Amazon likes to give vague hints during their earnings calls and make boastful announcements without any actual numbers beyond “double last year!” But several financial analysts have debated and studied, and it seems like a few rumors are pointing to upwards of 8 MILLION KINDLES sold in 2010 alone! It’s not a shocker that the Kindle has had a great year. Between iOS, Android and Blackberry apps, plus the popularity of the Kindle 3 wifi and 3G, it’s been a…

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