Editorials | Gear Diary

Which Automated Cat Litter Box Is Better? CatGenie vs Litter-Robot

I’ve reviewed both the Litter-Robot and the CatGenie, two automated Cat Litter Boxes here on Gear Diary, and I’ve had several years to test each extensively. On top of that, when I started using the CatGenie, and it became evident that it would work out for me, I gave the Litter-Robot to my friends Steven and June; they have been using it since early 2009. Since reviewing both, I’ve received questions about how the two stacked up to each other, but none covered as many issues as a recent letter from Danielle.

eBooks, Editorials

State of the eBook: The Return!

Hello and welcome back to State of the eBook! The series had a bit of a summer vacation, but the news is slowly picking back up! So pull yourself away from your new Kindle/nook app/iBooks and check out what’s been going on in the ebook world! Fuzzy Math A few bits of creative and flexible number reporting first. The Bookseller claims iBooks is “more popular than Facebook and Twitter”. Yes, they phrased it exactly like that. As one commenter on their post pointed out, iBooks is the default PDF reader on the iPad and iPhone, so that explains a big…

Editorials, Game Diary

EA on DLC Sales and ‘Project $10’: Apparently People DON’T Mind Our Hands In Their Wallets

OK, so maybe that isn’t an exact quote … but it is more or less what they said at GamesIndustry.biz. Basically it comes down to this: while publishers like EA might still be concerned about used game sales, for sports games they are seeing a 60% conversion based on Project $10 license sales, and the high-profit DLC business is just continuing to pour money onto the bottom line! On DLC sales as a major revenue source: “FIFA 10 generated just over $30m in gross DLC sales – so that’d be above and beyond the revenue that we made just selling…

Editorials, Game Diary

Sony Blames Price for PSP Go Failure – Here are MY Thoughts!

Image courtesy of Geeky Gadgets OK, we are approaching the one-year anniversary of the release of the PSP Go. Can we all PLEASE just admit now that the PSP Go is a unmitigated failure? I mean, personally it is my all-time favorite handheld gaming system due to the small size, solid build, short load-times, and so on. Yet I consider it one of the great failures in all of gaming history. Why? It has nothing to do with the hardware – and everything to do with Sony. Here are a couple of quotes from the MCV interview that every other…

Editorials, Game Diary

Hate Seeing In-game Advertising? Well … Then STOP Buying That Stuff!

The relationship between brand advertising and games is not new – many pinball game I remember from my youth had blatant branding and tie-ins, and then in the late 70s and early 80’s companies such as Atari and Intellivision used tie-ins with popular products to boost sales. And as a reminder, the video game arcade industry in the early 80’s was estimated as being the size of the movie industry and all of Nevada’s casinos … combined! So obviously brands wanted a piece of that action – but most efforts in those early years were not all that successful, generally…

Editorials

Backups and Recovery Are Your Friends: A Cautionary Tale!

A few weeks ago I made a really dumb mistake. One of those, “I have been a geek for far too long to forget this” kind of mistakes. The easy to avoid, harder to fix kind…what happened? Read on and find out. It all started during a discussion in the “back room” here at Gear Diary, regarding Linux on netbooks and whether the OS really matters anymore. Joel and Doug were arguing OS is less important these days, while Michael and I were of the opinion the learning curve and unfamiliar quirks would drive users into the loving arms of…

Editorials

Of Tootsie Pops and nanos…

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? According to this classic TV ad, it’s three. How many steps does it take to walk around the larger of the two lakes up here in Pennsylvania? Thanks to the a nifty but under-appreciated feature of the new iPod nano, I now know it is… … 4802. That’s how many of my steps it took while walking, according to the built-in pedometer on the nano. Sure the new nano is stripped down compared to its predecessor, but the more I use the diminutive music player the more I…

eBooks, Editorials

Kindle Is Headed to Best Buy, the New eBook Battleground

Just the other day I was commenting on how I didn’t see the Kindle heading to Best Buy for a head to head against the nook, but clearly, I was wrong. According to MobileRead, Amazon and Best Buy have announced that the big yellow tag will be stocking Kindles for the holidays, so whether you’re shopping for a B&N fan or an Amazon acolyte you’re all set. Unless, of course, you’re Sony. Why is this such bad news for Sony? There are a few reasons. One, look at Sony’s prices compared to the nook and the Kindle. You can buy…

Editorials

Gear Chat #16- New iPods Coming… New Gear Chat Already Here…

Larry and Dan serve up Gear Chat 16… In this podcast we talked about Apple’s September 1 announcement hits and misses, the new Kindle, iPhone and iPad apps and a new iPhone case company that understands good customer service… Intro Music- Lean On Me- Sounds From the Ground Solarstone’s Chill Out Remix…

Editorials

Default Case: A “Case” Of Good Customer Service

A few of the iPhone case manufacturers could learn a thing or two from Default Case. Just a few days ago I told you about Default Case. The new iPhone case company has decided rather than spend a ton of money on advertising they’d instead offer up their entire line of cases for both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G/3Gs for only a penny (plus a small shipping fee.) I went ahead and ordered one. I mean at only a penny why not? My case arrived today and I couldn’t help but notice the similarity between it and a case…

Editorials

The Best Buy Experience – One Geek’s Perspective

Last night, my wife and I went to Best Buy to get her a new computer. Her netbook had had it, and she needed something that would be capable of working well or her longer than a year or so. While perusing the laptops, another customer and I both noticed and commented upon several machines that the techs had “tweaked”. What they had done, I am not sure, but I suspect that if you want the least amount of hassle, you should pick a machine that doesn’t say it was prepared by the Geek Squad. Odds are, there will be extra…

Editorials, Game Diary

Sony Keeps Showing PSP Go Users They Hate Us!

I know what you’re thinking … blah, blah, blah, keeping beating the ‘I hate Sony’ drum, yeah, sure, whatever. In fact I’ve gotten more than one comment that says almost exactly as much. But hear me out … If you look at the history of the Sony PSP, there are several games that stand out – Dissidia: Final Fantasy, God of War: Chains of Olympus, the first two Grand Theft Auto games, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Jeanne d’Arc, Resistance: Retribution, Patapon, Loco Roco … and not much else. In 2010 we’ve had some solid releases such as Persona 3…

Editorials, Music Diary

Music Industry Says Sales Still Lousy, Still Blaming Piracy, Still Trying to Raise Prices and Force Album-Only Sales Model

There is a great Veggie Tales song The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, where they are supposed to be singing about ‘piratey stuff’ but Larry is singing about … nonsense. At the end they conclude ‘you just don’t get it’. And THAT is exactly what I was thinking when I read the news about the sorry state of album sales at NPR. Here is the video, just in case you don’t know the song: From the article: The month of August — like, basically, every month for the past 10 years — has not been kind to the music industry….

eBooks, Editorials

An Open Letter to Amazon Regarding the Kindle 3

The about this time last year I wrote a series of posts about the Amazon Kindle. One of the posts was entitled “An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos”. It discussed some of my concerns with their DRM scheme and the issues that I was having with it. I wasn’t pleased with some of the apparent limitations of the DRM, and I was totally disappointed with the customer service people I spoke with. A year later I want to write another open letter to Amazon. This one I’m going to title, “An Open Letter to Amazon Regarding the Kindle 3” Yes,…

eBooks, Editorials

Awesome Barnes & Noble Coupon Features, But Excludes Nook & eBooks!

Like millions of Barnes & Noble customers, I awoke this morning to a new B&N coupon in my email – this one touting that I can get up to 50% off at checkout! I am getting close to finishing my current book on the nook reader on my iPad, so I figured I would see what great new ebook I could add to the family library. I mean, after all, the coupon has the nook featured prominently in the upper right corner, and lists ebooks along with DVDs and music and so on along the menu. But before I start…

Editorials

Man Uses iPhone To Stop Thieves From Miles Away

Image courtesy of ABC News. The other day Gizmodo posted a story about how via an iPhone Photobomb, a user was able to track down a purse nabbing thief. ‘m not sure if the story below trumps that one but it’s cool nonetheless. Check out the video below! Vince Hunter, a Dallas resident, was on vacation hundreds of miles away in Connecticut. Vince had recently installed web cams throughout his home and using an iPhone application he was alerted via a text message that motion had been detected inside his house. He logged into the iPhone app and discovered that…

Editorials, News & Features

All the iPad vs Vaporware Nonsense is Growing Tiring…

In a recent interview Acer’s Chairman JT Wang predicted that the iPad’s near-100% market share in the tablet space would drop to between 20 and 30 percent. Now PC World has posted an article entitled “Five Reasons to Pick an HP Tablet Over an iPad”. So I thought I would add my voice into the mix and offer up Five Reasons They Should SHUT IT! No, actually I only need ONE! Neither Acer nor HP has actually released a device and until they do there is NOTHING to talk about. Nothing! I mean, when we were at CES we saw…

Editorials

Facebook, Places and Privacy… a Few Thoughts

(via posterart.com) Facebook has entered into the next phase of its social network evolution with the addition of Facebook Places, a location-based social sharing feature. Facebook Places allows users to share with friends their current location, tag important places (“where I made my first text message”), and perhaps meet others who are near by. This feature leverages the current technology of “Check-Ins” by using the GPS location on the user’s phone. These location-based tools were previously only available on applications like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Twitter and Yelp! But having Facebook enter this location-based app market raises potential privacy and safety…

Editorials

Apple’s Upcoming iTV “Changes Everything”? I Think Not

I love Apple’s products. I really do. And as more and more of my family and friends are making the move to Apple’s offerings they too are realizing how great they are. I was chatting with a good friend last night. He and his wife both swapped their Windows boxes for MacBook Pros in the last month. I asked if they could see going back to Windows and both immediately offered a “NO!” loud enough to wake their four kids. Apple’s products are great! They are a pleasure to look at. They are a pleasure to use. BUT PLEASE, enough…

Editorials

Larry and Dan Serve Up Gear Chat #15

In Gear Chat #15 Larry and Dan talk about their experience with the Magic Trackpad (one kept it, one sent it back), chat about the current Apple hardware rumors and more… Elements app for Dropbox ($4.99) Get it HERE. Fastever ($1.99) Get it HERE. TextExpander Touch ($4.99) Get it HERE. Train Conductor 2 ($.99) Get it HERE. Intro Music- Lean On Me- Sounds From the Ground Solarstone’s Chill Out Remix… (http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chillout-a-nettwerk-escape/id258464413)

eBooks, Editorials

Geek Squad Tackles eBooks

Best Buy’s Geek Squad offers a whole litany of services, and now they’re offering to set up your ebook reader for $29.99. While some might balk at paying almost 20% more for an ebook reader+setup, I think this brilliant and could lead to more ebook marketshare. One of the big obstacles, as I have said before, is simply getting the average person comfortable with ebooks. Turning on a nook or a Kindle and downloading books over the air is relatively easy, but what about adding your own documents? Or if you have a device that supports Adobe DRM, sideloading books?…