Articles by Gear Diary Staff

T-Mobile Working Hard (At Apple Stores) To Fight Lack of iPhone

Gear Bits October 23, 2011

T-Mobile Working Hard (At Apple Stores) To Fight Lack of iPhone

Poor T-Mobile. They are now the only major mobile carrier in the US not carrying the iPhone. With the release of the iPhone 4S, now AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint have the iPhone 4 and 4S. Which leaves T-Mobile as the odd man out. But T-Mobile is trying to fight back. First, they issued a press release stating that they would love to carry the iPhone, but it is up to Apple. In the same press release, they explain reasons they feel their network is superior. Don’t get me wrong – I really love T-Mobile, as does Francis. Their “4G” network…

iOS 5 Tip: Am I Sending an iMessage or SMS (Text) Message?

Gear Bits October 23, 2011

iOS 5 Tip: Am I Sending an iMessage or SMS (Text) Message?

There are several new features in Apple’s iOS 5. One of my favorites is the updated Messages application. Previously, Messages only allowed sending of SMS and MMS messages. As part of iOS 5, though, Messages can now send SMS and Text messages to phone numbers (as it always could), but can also send iMessages over a network connection, bypassing your text message plan. How do you tell which one you’re using? Well, turns out Apple made it easy to tell when you are sending each message type, visually. They use two visual cues: color and the message in the input…

Deus Ex: Human Revolution PlayStation 3 Review

Game Diary, Reviews October 17, 2011

Deus Ex: Human Revolution PlayStation 3 Review

The Deus Ex game series continues with engaging themes involving modified, or “augmented” humans in a futuristic world, set in 2027, amid various international settings, amazing musical score, and “choose-your-own-adventure”-type decision making format.

Siri's Predecessor, and "Good Friend"

Gear Bits October 15, 2011

Siri’s Predecessor, and “Good Friend”

I think it’s safe to say that most iPhone 4S users have toyed around with Siri’s capabilities and limits. We’re all telling her that we love her, asking her absurdly subjective questions, and the developers anticipated all of it. While I was making a fool of myself with Siri last night (did you know that she can’t –or just chooses not to– hear certain four letter swear words?) I found myself uttering a mysterious question that rose up from some murky place in my id: “Do you know Eliza?” What? Where did that come from? I then remembered the world’s…

AT&T Lets Us Down Again

Gear Bits October 14, 2011

AT&T Lets Us Down Again

Ah, AT&T. So, I’m sitting here staring at my shiny new iPhone 4S. It’s unusable right now, thanks to AT&T’s lack of preparedness. They’ve had several years to figure out how to handle the spike in the load on their servers that accompanies the launch of a new iPhone model. Yet they still manage to hack up a hairball when it comes time to process orders and activate phones. Apparently, I’m not the only one, either. Several blogs are reporting AT&T customers are experiencing widespread problems with activations. When AT&T carried the iPhone exclusively, I could at least understand that…

The Synology DS211+ Review: A Pint Sized 2-Bay NAS with some Really Big Features

Reviews September 28, 2011

The Synology DS211+ Review: A Pint Sized 2-Bay NAS with some Really Big Features

Image courtesy of Synology You can’t be too cautious these days about backing up your data. Time and time again friends, family and co-workers come to me about trying to recover pictures, music and documents on a failed or virus ridden drive. Some even have their small business data lost when the main computer goes down. My first advice to anyone is that they should get themselves some sort of backup device, whether it be Desktop Attached Storage or Network Attached Storage and some good software to automate the backups. I have wanted to upgrade my 2TB external drive to…

FaceTime and iOS Impresses Halfway Across the Globe

Gear Bits, Travel September 21, 2011

FaceTime and iOS Impresses Halfway Across the Globe

(Image courtesy of Apple) The world is a big place. At the turn of the century trying to visit loved ones who lived halfway across the world took months. Now, we can fly from one side of the globe to the other in less than a day. And even when we aren’t physically technology enables us to feel as if we are. I was reminded of this when FaceTime and iOS brought me closer to my wife AND saved us money in the process. My wife and I live in the midwest, but she is from Thailand. She is visiting her…

Movin' to a Mac

Editorials September 19, 2011

Movin’ to a Mac

Recently, I was laid off from my day job.  As a result, for the first time in my life (literally!), my main system will be an Apple system, specifically 15″ MacBook Pro running OS X “Snow Leopard”.  And as I’ve made the move, copying my iTunes library over, setting up a backup disk, and all the other nonsense in which one must engage when one makes a big move of this type, I’ve noticed a few things.  If you’re someone who is considering making the jump, but has been hesitating for one reason or another, maybe my experiences here will…

mSecure 3.0 Puts a Blowfish in the Cloud

News & Features September 17, 2011

mSecure 3.0 Puts a Blowfish in the Cloud

Largely because I tend to switch devices and platforms regularly, I keep coming back to the same password manager – who for now shall remain nameless – because it is available for Blackberry, Android, and iOS devices, as well as having desktop applications for both Windows and Mac OSX. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing software from my perspective, but it works well enough. Syncing my mobile devices does require that I sync with the same computer, but I can’t sync between computers. Cloud syncing isn’t an option. I may have to consider switching now, however, as mSeven Software’s mSecure…

I Don't *Want* to Buy Retail, Media Companies!

Editorials September 17, 2011

I Don’t *Want* to Buy Retail, Media Companies!

Look, Big Media Companies:  I don’t want to buy physical objects retail. Your humble GD crew has opined on many occasions that we think that the BMC’s “strategies” for releasing their content electronically doesn’t make sense, that it doesn’t discourage piracy, and that it’s just plain nonsensical.  Today:  a perfect example. Consider the movie X-Men: First Class. As of  last Friday, it was available on both DVD SD and Blu-ray. Not available on iTunes until Tuesday, but that’s okay–that’s the way it always works on iTunes. No big deal. But here’s the thing with the iTunes version:   you can’t buy an…

ZAZOO KiDS Digital Photo Clock Review

Reviews September 5, 2011

ZAZOO KiDS Digital Photo Clock Review

ZAZOO KiDS™ Digital Photo Clock provides multiple media functions designed for simple interface and displays beginning with little tykes and transitioning into the teenage years.

Two older tablets or slates

Editorials September 2, 2011

When Is an Android Device Not an Android Device?

When the Grid 10 was announced by the ever-reliable Chandra Rathakrishnan last month, it was said to run Android apps but not be an Android device. This was later clarified to mean that it is actually an Android kernel running the show, but thoroughly skinned and possibly even forked to a version of Android incompatible with future Google-backed updates. We’ll see someday, maybe. Now TechCrunch is reporting that Amazon’s long-rumored tablet will be hitting the market in a couple months, running a completely forked Android kernel. This one is apparently pre-2.2 (how far pre is undefined) and has been so modified…

To iPad or Not to iPad?

Editorials August 31, 2011

To iPad or Not to iPad?

It’s simply the latest variation of that popular topic:  is your [thing] better than my [thing], or is it the other way ’round?  Wine, or beer?  Ford or GM?   Tastes great, or less filling?  Mac or PC?  “Firefly” or “Buffy”?  (“Firefly”, dammit!) Yesterday, your faithful Gear Diary team was hashing over the topic of iPad, or Android tablet.  As you might expect with a collection of Appleheads, PC mavens, UNIX and Linux folks, and all the rest, it got heated, involved, and nerdly. It started with a friendly discussion between Francis and Joel as to which device Joel might…

Wacom Inkling Digital Sketch Pen Is New Spin on Digital Analog Technology

News & Features August 30, 2011

Wacom Inkling Digital Sketch Pen Is New Spin on Digital Analog Technology

(Image courtesy of Wacom) While the iPad has become synonymous with the term “tablet”, there has been other digital tablet technology, such as the Tablet PC and the Livescribe Pulse Pen which came out before and is surviving, albeit in more of a niche market. So it is rare for me to see any new devices, especially in the analog-to-digital space. While I love handwriting recognition on the Tablet PC and touch typing on the iPad, there has always been an appeal to writing on actual paper. The Livescribe handles this well, but requires the use of their special (Anoto-based) paper…

Designing a Good eBook Reader

eBooks, Editorials August 18, 2011

Designing a Good eBook Reader

Winnie the Pooh iBook on the iPad–not bad, but could be soooo much better With the explosive growth of the eBook market, one would think that the design of eBook reader apps would, by now, be well-advanced.  Lots of cool options, good readability, and all kinds of thought put into their design. One would be wrong. Initial background info:  I have been writing information to be distributed online for nearly 20 years now–since 1992, to be exact.  This is my life, my work, my calling–it is more than an avocation.  I think about the best way to deliver information online all…