Editorials | Gear Diary

Google Election Tool Helps You Map Out Your Voting Plans

In case you haven’t visited Facebook lately, Election Day is fast approaching, and things are getting increasingly bitter and partisan (and less truthful if what I am seeing is any indication). The reason for this is pretty clear: people feel this election is incredibly important for any number of reasons. And it is – in fact they ALL are. We focus on the huge national election, and yet things like the quality of your local schools are much more impacted by the choices of your state and local government. So a while ago as my wife and I were discussing…

Editorials

5 Reasons (Each) Why I Love the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD

I have been highly critical of Android tablets (shock, I know) for a number of reasons, and 7″ tablets in specific. But as has been pointed out, I also tout enjoying the Google Nexus 7 quite a bit for a number of reasons. I was also the last one holding on to my launch-day Kindle Fire from last year, and pre-ordered and have happily kept the Kindle Fire HD. All of that screams ‘cognitive dissonance’ to me, so I thought it was worth explaining – and what better way than to list a bunch of things I love about each…

Editorials

Keeping Trick or Treaters Away from Your Home while Scaring Your Kids in the Days of Yore!

What you see before you, gentle reader, is an instrument of torture, a 33 1/2 RPM record euphemistically titled “The language and music of the Wolves – narrated by Robert Redford”, circa 1971. Ostensibly a product of environmental awareness and respect for Nature, it was an excellent tool for acquainting modern America with wolves, which had been nearly hunted to extinction in the lower 48 states. Robert Redford explains and enlightens listeners about the wolf and its habits, raising awareness of the plight of these magnificent creatures. This is all well and good, except for one problem: there is a Side…

Editorials

Apple’s Announcements Are Amazon’s Gain

Immediately after the iPad Mini was announced, one of my coworkers asked me what I thought. I told her it seemed like a neat device, but the price came in higher than I had expected. She was a bit surprised at the price as well, and she basically said at that level she was more inclined to look at the Kindle Fire. Apparently she wasn’t the only one. According to The Verge, the Kindle Fire had its best sales day ever after the iPad Mini was announced. This doesn’t surprise me too much, as I think the iPad Mini was…

Editorials, Game Diary

Two Longest Running TV Shows Dedicated to Video Games to End

Enjoy watching “X-Play” and “Attack of the Show” while you can because the cable channel G4 will cancel them by the end of 2012. “X-Play, which began airing on April 28, 2003, and now airs on Weeknights at 6:30 p.m. EST with new episodes from Monday through Wednesday, and “Attack of the Show,” which began on March 28, 2005, and is now airing live on weeknights at 7 p.m. EST, will only have original episodes until the end of this year.

Editorials, Health and Fitness

Should Doping in Sports Be Considered Cheating?

I like to skim my news RSS feed every morning just to catch up on headlines, world events, etc. Most of the time I blow off CNN’s Opinion columnists, because frankly they tend to be either fluffy rehashes of public opinion or purposeful bear-poking statements. Today’s, though, has me outraged, as the author had the gall and ignorance to argue that performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDs, should be legalized in the wake of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal. Rather than just rant on my feelings regarding doping (spoiler alert: I think it’s cheating), let me go piece by piece through Prof…

Editorials, News & Features

Apple Jumps on the ‘Fast Obsolescence’ Train!

Not long ago, I took Android makers HTC and Motorola to task for how they handle their customers – they quickly roll out and refresh new products and seldom keep the prior models up to date with OS updates. In that post, I cited Apple (and more recently Samsung) as utilizing a more predictable annual refresh cycle that gave customers some comfort that they were getting a product that should be highly competitive for a year until the next version comes out (and honestly, it is only recently that the first generation iPad is showing its age around my house)….

Editorials

Whittling Down the ’50 Reasons Why the Galaxy S3 Is Better Than the iPhone 5′

This week I discovered a cool video over at PhoneBuff called ’50 Reasons Why The Galaxy S3 Is Better Than The iPhone 5′, which takes a look at a massive list of things they claim make the S3 better than the iPhone 5. Considering I have the Galaxy S3, it would seem I should agree … but I found the list lacking in many ways. Rather than making a separate list, I decided to go through their list an item at a time and give my perspective as a long-time Android user and current Galaxy S3 user. I will provide…

Editorials, Game Diary

New Kindle Fires Bring Android Fragmentation to Amazon!

Look at the image above, which is for VeggieTales: The League of Incredible Vegetables (Kindle Tablet Edition) from the Amazon App Store. Yes, I know with teenage boys I should be done with Veggie Tales, but I still enjoy them and with the $0.99 sale … just shaddup. Anyway, in the image you will see it is the ‘Kindle Tablet Edition’. Based on this I simply clicked ‘BUY’ and then later in the day I grabbed my Kindle Fire HD and went to install the app – but it wasn’t listed. It showed up when I searched the store from…

Editorials

Five Reasons I Won’t Be Getting the ‘iPad Mini’

Speculation is out of control about the October 23rd Apple event and the anticipated ‘iPad Mini’. During our last Gear Chat, Dan asked me about the iPad Mini, and I declared that I wouldn’t be getting one; to which he replied that ‘he’d believe it when he saw it’! I wanted to go on record based on what we know, suspect, conjecture, and/or know about Apple in general … and put together a video list of the five main reasons I won’t be pre-ordering/standing in line/getting an iPad Mini. Take a look, and chime in with your thoughts in the…

Editorials

My Experience with Tech21’s Impact Snap Case for iPhone 5

I met Tech21 at a recent product showcase, and I was impressed by what I saw. The company has taken a special material that absorbs shock and has found ways to incorporate it into iPhone cases that protect your precious device. Shortly after the event, the company sent me one of their Impact Snap Cases. This snap-on case is a simple design that protects the sides and back of the new iPhone; it has a colorful liner made from the special D30 impact material that promises extra protection. The cases came with the notation that it was created for “the…

Editorials

Binders Full of Women, Bic Pens For Her, and Satire Product Reviews

Satire is probably my favorite form of humor. Everything and everyone are fair game, from products to Presidents. And with the speed at which social media and the Internet can move, it doesn’t take long for a Tumblr meme or Facebook page to get rolling. The latest trend: fake product reviews on Amazon.com. It started with Bic Pens, and now has spread to binders thanks to Governor Romney’s “Binders full of women” comment. But should Amazon let these spoofs stay live on the product pages? Context is key here. First, let’s look at the “BIC Pen For Her” reviews. Bic…

Editorials

Welcome to OctoNovemCember

The other night we were watching something (or just as likely nothing) on TV, and suddenly a huge Christmas-themed ad for Target came on. I fumbled for my phone to grab an image but failed to snap in time. Fortunately, the Consumerist was on the job! My wife has been working selling fine jewelry since the economic downturn brutalized the tax base and forced schools to cut back on trivial extras such as ‘science’, so this will be her second year dealing with ‘Christmas before Halloween’. In fact, due to the focus of the store she works, there is not…

Editorials, Health and Fitness

Cheater or Sympathetic Character? It Depends upon Who You Ask.

So much of a story is about perception. Present someone’s tale as one of woe, with the right keywords and attitude, and you can make a sympathetic figure. Present it differently, and the sympathetic victim becomes the villain. Today the running news has been buzzing with the tale of Christian Hesch, an elite runner who confessed to blood doping and is facing a ban from the USADA as a result. What really fascinates and appalls me though, is the wide disparity in how it is being presented, made worse by a major newspaper whose coverage blatantly manipulates the facts. Here’s…

Editorials, News & Features

HTC and Motorola Remind Us that EVERY Android Sale is an ‘As Is’ Screw-Over

Apple is far from perfect, but if there is one thing they have demonstrated in the mobile space, it is how to ensure that nearly all users have the latest possible operating system revision as quickly as possible, and to keep updating those systems as long as the hardware is sustainable (obviously this is setting aside things like ‘Siri exclusivity’ and so on). Google and Android on the other hand seem to operate on a couple of different mantras – WYSIWYG and Caveat Emptor. In other words, do not ever expect anything except what you buy … and be careful…

Editorials, News & Features

Gear Diary Video Chat – Smartphone vs Smartphone Edition … and More!

For the last couple of Gear Chats, Dan and I have compared and contrasted things we both owned – the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD. But as I have been greatly enjoying the Samsung Galaxy S III the great folks at US Cellular have provided me for review, and Dan has had his iPhone 5 for a bit, it seemed like a great opportunity for us to discuss the things we thought about what are arguably the ‘twin flagships’ of the iOS and Android world. Of course, from there we veer off into discussions of other things…

Editorials, Game Diary

The Demise of the Once-Great Goozex Game Trading Site

No, they’re not dead … yet. I have written many times about the game trading site Goozex for one reason – it was a great idea put forth by some great guys for the benefit of gamers. Largely gamer-driven, the site used a combination of ‘tokens’ and ‘points’ for trades. To ‘buy’, you would use a token and a number of points related to the current value of a game – for example, a new game like Borderlands 2 would be ~1200 points (the maximum), whereas something like 2009’s Drakensang: The Dark Eye would be 100 points. And better still,…

Editorials

The Need for Training Wheels on Twitter

I have a coworker who often complains about our limited abilities to discuss work over social media. He claims it is a draconian and old-fashioned approach. Most of the time I let it roll past me, but more and more I think that it’s not strict or unreasonable, but in fact extremely smart. For some reason, Twitter seems to trigger the worst in public tweeters, from celebrities to companies. Don’t believe me? Lets look at some of the worst offenders. Just this week, there were two tweets that ignited a firestorm of criticism. First, KitchenAid tweeted this: Obamas gma even…

Editorials

My Journey to the Dark Side…er, Apple is Complete

A long time ago, in a service provider far, far away, I had joined the ranks of mobile phone users, sporting a Motorola Razr V3m back when it was de rigueur for mobile types. For a time I was content, and as technology evolved I migrated my mobile phones, ever searching for the trifecta of ease of use, reliability and variety of peripherals. Here is a representation of all the major phones I’ve owned and heavily used over the past seven years or so. Certainly a lot less than some Gear Diary members or readers out there, but a variety nonetheless….

Editorials, Gear Bits

No CW for Cablevision Subscribers!

If a network goes off the air and no one notices, do the shows still go on? Apparently my cable company is in a fight with the CW, and we haven’t been receiving it since August! I only noticed because <sob> I can’t record the premier of The Vampire Diaries if they don’t come to an agreement by next week! What caused this dispute? Money, of course. Cablevision’s statement is very clear on this: BETHPAGE, N.Y., Aug. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Cablevision Systems Corp., (NYSE: CVC) today released the following statement related to the blackout of WPIX and other Tribune…

Editorials

Week Number 1 of My iPad-Only Challenge!

Welcome to the first weekly report on my quest for the 99% computer! As noted my plan was to use my iPad for as much as I possibly could, and note whatever functions required me to use a ‘real’ computer. So let’s get to it! Setup Perhaps not surprisingly, there wasn’t much for me to do. I have had my iPad loaded up with email, web, productivity, statistics, music, games, utilities and so on … so there wasn’t much to do. And in fact, I decided NOT to do anything in specific – I really wanted to know how much…