When I reviewed Mary Halvorson’s ‘Illusionary Sea’ (which made my Top Music of 2013) I noted that there was a trade-off of intimacy for the larger ideas that are only possible with the broader palette of a septet. Now Halvorson is back leading the trio Thumbscrew in their self-titled debut recording, and it is simply amazing.
Look at the Skooba Design website, and you’ll see an assortment of high-quality east-west bags — meaning they are wider than they are high, and they hold laptops in landscape orientation. The north-south Skooba Design iPad/Tablet Courier V.3 is a departure from tradition, and it’s an impressive addition to the Skooba lineup; we’ve been using one and we’re impressed.
When my son was born, he was pretty portable. When we went out, he slept in his infant car seat. At home, he could hang out in his rock ‘n play. Unfortunately, he quickly outgrew many of these, and when traveling for the holidays we needed someplace safe and portable. Luckily, I stumbled across the Kidco GoPod!
If you are looking for a speaker that offers big, bold, impressive sound… Stop reading and move to the next article here on Gear Diary. If, however, you want something simple, inexpensive and easy to use, the Nude Audio Move S Wired portable wired speaker may be the perfect speaker or speakers for you.
Element Case may have begun as an iPhone case company but they have steadily expanded their offerings. Judie recently reviewed two of their Samsung GALAXY S4 cases and was impressed. We’ve got one of their Soft-Tec Wallet for Apple iPad Mini cases in hand as well. Thanks to its simple but elegant styling it too has won us over.
I planned on keeping the Element Case Sector 5 Black Ops Elite case on my iPhone for just a few days during my review process. That was almost a month ago and I don’t see taking it off any time soon. Yup, this $220 case system is that awesome. It looks great, protects well and is pure Element Case.
We recently took a look at the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive. It is a great accessory but one that is not without its flaws. The good news is that its big brother, the SanDisk Connect Wireless Media Drive, answers many of those shortcomings. It is a simple way to add 32 or 64GB of storage on the go!
2013 is over, and it was an amazing year in music – cool new pop, a rap album from Kanye West I actually liked, Daft Punk returned and more. But my main area of interest is jazz … and there was TONS of great jazz! So I wanted to detail some of the best stuff I heard all year.
My iPhone-shopping brother-in-law wrote, “I think I know the answer, but is 32GB enough capacity for normal users? I do not have tremendous amounts of data and generally don’t store much in the way of videos.” iPhone storage capacity is a potential issue, but it is one that’s easily resolved thanks to the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive.
I visited the Cambridge Audio suite during CES 2014. I put on headphones. I listened. The sound stinked. I put a Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS USB DAC / Headphone Amp between the headphones and laptop. The sound was amazing — you might even say magical! The recording was fine. It was the laptop amp and the DacMagic that made all the difference. It turns out the audio amp on a laptop is an amazingly cheap component of most computers. It is fine for notifications and the like, but when it comes to listening to music the amps fall short. They…
Gamers love tower defense games, and fantasy action-combat games. Bardbarian has all of this and more. Based around the hero Brad and his Axe guitar, this light-hearted romp has you summoning companions and special attacks as you work to fend off the invaders and protect your village. For a bargain price you will get loads of fun!
One of the things I love about CES is that it gives me an opportunity to wander aisles filled with products from companies that I might never have discovered otherwise. Tucked in an out of the way area that we almost didn’t explore, Dan and I found iFace; they make some of the best-looking protective cases available.
Escort’s Passport Max is the best radar detector I have ever used. It looks great, sounds good, and works extremely well — signaling only if there’s a real issue. (Read my review, and keep an eye out for Judie’s “second look” post!) I was, however, missing the active real-time connection with traffic information. The Escort SmartCord Live! fixes that.
G5 Entertainment and Artifex Mundi has a great recent track-record of hidden object puzzle adventure games, and they continue with the release of 9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek for iPad and iPhone. The game tells the story of a reporter lost in a mysterious town in the 1950s and the friend who investigates!
One of Elana’s most oft-used phrases is, “You get what you pay for.” In the case of the pricey FLOTE m2 Floor Stand tablet stand that is indeed true. What you’ll pay for is the best tablet stand I have ever used, and I suspect that will remain true for quite some time.
Sometimes, no matter how resolute I am in my intentions or intent I am in my resolutions, I just can’t drag my butt out of the house to exercise on a cold morning. I may have found the answer to this dilemma with the XSPIN from Pafers.com and their apps Cycle Rush and Cycle on Earth.
I loved playing with Nanodots when I reviewed them a few years ago. They were a great fidget toy when you are concentrating on something at work. Their new magnetic Gyro Duo product is another example of a great desktop fidget toy; they are also not as easy to lose, since they are much bigger than Nanodots.
Remember when we used to call them “mobile phones?” Now, they’re only as mobile as you are. So if you’re an avid cyclist or just a commuter, unless you have a good sturdy and convenient mount, your phone probably stays in your pocket or bag.The Bar Fly from Optrix looks to change that.
We’ve covered plenty of Element Cases on Gear Diary, but the Ronin Bamboo is by the far their most refined yet. Composed of hand-finished bamboo and machined aircraft grade aluminum, the Ronin is one incredibly light, protective, and beautiful iPhone 5 case.
One of the things I love about the new Nokia Windows Phones is that they can utilize inductive charging. Being able to lay my phone on a Qi enabled charging pad throughout the day without plugging in any cables is too convenient; having a charging pad that looks as stylish as the $69.99 TYLT VU is pretty cool, too.
Just over a year ago I reviewed iRig Keys, the 37-note multi-platform mini-key controller. It remains in constant use by either myself or my son! Now IK Multimedia is has released iRig Keys Pro, featuring 37 full-size velocity sensitive keys, Lightning, 30-pin and USB cables, for universal compatibility with all models of iPhone, iPad, and Mac/PC.