Reviews

Runaway A Twist of Fate for iPad Review

Several years ago the point and click adventure genre had a resurgence on the PC, and it felt like I played and reviewed just about every one for a few different sites. One of the games I played was called Runaway: A Road Adventure, which centers around Brian Basco and Gina Timmons. The pair is back in the third entry originally released for PC in 2010, so lets take a look at Runaway A Twist of Fate for iPad. Type of app: Adventure game Platform/where to buy: Universal iPad/iPhone; available in the iTunes App Store Developer: Pendulo Studios / BulkyPix…


RHA SA950i Wired Headphones Review

Hey everyone, listen up!  See what I did there?  Anyway, corny jokes aside, these headphones pump some serious tunes.  The $60 RHA SA950i is a set of wired on-ear headphones that also include an in-line remote and microphone on the fabric braided cable.  The Glasgow-based company has found a great balance between price point and sound quality with this set.  The RHA SA950i wired headphones boast professional grade 40mm titanium coated mylar drivers, adjustable headband with padding, along with a detachable cable with in-line remote and microphone. These headphones deliver excellent sound quality through the 40mm titanium coated mylar speakers. …


Pat Metheny Orchestrion Project Review

Pat Metheny is one of my favorite artists, and I am pretty much guaranteed to buy whatever he releases, and have been thrilled with the quality of work in recent years (he lost me for a while in the late 80s / early 90s). I truly enjoyed his Orchestrion release, and the live performance I took my family to see. Last year he released a DVD of the project which I enjoyed, and now we get the full set of music from the DVD. One could ask ‘where is the line crossing into over-milking a project’, and it is a…


My Macbook Case MacBook Pro Rubberized Case Review

 Currently, I’m sporting a brand new Lifeproof case for my iPhone 5 and a Smart Case cover for my iPad, but unfortunately, I’ve neglected by MacBook Pro…until now!  When I first received a My Macbook Case MacBook Pro Rubberized Case, I was very pleased with the shade of blue and the overall look of the case. The packaging was very simplistic, as both the top and the bottom cases were wrapped in a thin plastic bag.  Once I removed the plastic, I noticed that the case itself was extremely lightweight.  While I was happy that the case would not add…


Chevy Volt at SXSWi Review

Chevy Volt, loaned to me for the week of South by Southwest Interactive for review purposes When it comes to car reviews, Gear Diary has some experienced people to check things out for you. But this time, neither our intrepid (and superlative) car reviewer David Goodspeed — and how excellent is that a name for a car reviewer, right? “Goodspeed”? Awesome! — nor our fearless lead editor, Judie (who has done car reviews before as well), could attend South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) this year. On the other hand, ol’ Doug lives in Austin. So I got the chance, for the…


Travaso Fine Wine Decanters Make Something Good Even Better

Let’s talk about decanting. I think that most people who enjoy wine are familiar with the process of decanting, introducing air to a liquid by pouring it from one container into another. This serves two major purposes. First, if you’ve stored your wine correctly with the neck slightly below parallel to keep the cork wet so that it doesn’t dry out and crack (you do that, right?), then any sediment in the wine will settle into the wider bottom of the bottle. Thanks to the large dimple in the bottom of the bottle, called the “punt,” (see, you learn something…


Psychic Chasms Games Review

Deep within the murky depths of alternative medicine lies the field of dream interpretation, the discipline of assigning poignant meaning to our subconscious, slumbering thoughts. Not only do professionals exist in this area, they claim grounding in Freudian psychology. A main tenet held by such specialists (as verified on LinkedIn), is that dreams, while often confusing and disparate, hold coherent meaning within their surreal borders. Analgesic Productions’ latest work, Anodyne, explores the nature of dreams in a similar way, but often forgets that abstraction isn’t as simple as ambiguity. At its humblest, Anodyne draws heavily from the top-down Zelda era of the nineties. The creators…


Eton Blackout Buddy Should Be in Every Home

The television show Revolution made its return to Prime Time last night. When it first aired in the fall, the show about a world without power struck a bit too close to home; a few episodes into it, SuperStorm Sandy plunged much of the East Coast into darkness. I’m not sure if it was art imitating life, or life imitating art, but either way there was a good bit of irony in the juxtaposition of the two events. After spending that week without power, water or telephone, I’ve slowly been equipping the house with the items that will make the…


PhoneSuit Lightplay Media Projector with Android Review, Part 1

This is part one of a two-part review of the PhoneSuit Lightplay Media Projector.In this post we’ll look at the actual hardware included in the PhoneSuit Lightplay Media Projector box. In the second post we’ll delve more deeply into the actual functionality of the PhoneSuit Lightplay Media Projector . About here and a half ago, Judie and I used the BenQ GP2 Projector. We were amazed that something so small and light could push out such a large, clear image. Watch our videos… Bringing the BenQ Joybee GP2 to Aruba? Why Not! Benq Joybee GP2 Saves the Day When Rain…


Spotlite 2.0 GPS Pet Tracker Review

Pets are part of the family; we want them safe, happy, and healthy. Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever owned a dog can attest, you can’t really have a reasoned conversation with them about why it’s important to stay in the yard, why they shouldn’t go harass the neighbors, why there is no wandering near the street…and they certainly can’t call home if they do disobey those wishes and they get lost! Securus has a solution, the Spotlite 2.0, a GPS tracker that attaches to your pet’s collar and lets you track their location, receive alerts if they leave the…


Oregon Scientific ATC Chameleon Action Camera Review

If I had a dollar for every time I said “Dude, you had to have been there, that stunt was epic!,” I’d have, well, about $1, because let’s face it, I’m not very adventurous.  However, if I were one of those adrenaline seekers, there would be only one camera on my wishlist.  I recently had the opportunity to take the Oregon Scientific ATC Chameleon action camera out for a spin. This unique camera has two, count ’em, two lenses.  You’re able to film a first-person view as well as a secondary angle.  Each lens shoots in 720p and has a…


Spigen SGP Leinwand Leather Case for Apple iPad mini Review

The Spigen SGP Leinwand Leather Case for Apple iPad mini is the company’s high-end case for the iPad mini. Made from gorgeous full grain leather, it is constructed without any sewing, it is handmade, and it has a soft microfiber interior to keep your iPad mini safe and secure. The Spigen SGP Leinwand Leather Case for Apple iPad mini comes in three colors, and has an MSRP of under $75. Let’s take a close look at the case in both pictures and on video so you can decide if this is the best case for your iPad mini. The full…


Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet Review

Yesterday I posted the first in a series of posts on the “Aftermarket Smart Home”. In this series of posts we will look at some of the current offerings that let you add smart home functionality to your abode without hard-wiring permanent solutions into the walls. In this post we’ll look at an item that, while not a smart home product, does help your home become a bit “smarter”. This is especially important since anything that goes into an aftermarket smart home may not require hard-wiring, but it will require power. The focus of today’s review — the Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB…


Twelve South BookArc for iPad and iPad Mini Video Review

Twelve South’s tagline is “We’re not just Mac friendly– we’re Mac only!”. They mean it. Each and every one of their products is designed to work with a specific product or family of products from Cupertino. That, in turn, means that each and every time Apple releases a new product line, you can expect to see new products added to Twelve South’s ever-growing portfolio. Case in point — the iPad mini. The release of the iPad mini meant the company began offering scaled-down versions of their iPad products. That’s why they released the BookBook for iPad mini, and it is why…


Miles Davis Quintet Live In Europe 1969 The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 Review

I have already complained about Sony for releasing so much posthumous Miles Davis material, but it is really a joke: because what they have been giving us isn’t gratuitous, but rather restored and wonderfully packaged discoveries or items previously only found on low-quality bootlegs. That was true of the 1967 Bootleg Volume 1, which made my ‘best of 2011’ list. And it is every bit as true of their latest release, Miles Davis Quintet Live In Europe 1969 The Bootleg Series Vol. 2. Let’s take a look! Musical Genre: Jazz Where to buy: Amazon MP3 Store Artist: Miles Davis Quintet…


Google Keep Review – Neat Freaks Need Not Apply

Yesterday Google launched a new service called Google Keep.  After playing around with it a bit last night, I have a much better idea of what it can and can’t do, and what it really is.   Will it be good enough to replace Evernote?  Is it even close?  In a word, no. Google Keep Phone Interface The phone interface is reminiscent of the Google Now interface; each note appears as a card.  There’s a Multi-column view and a single column view.  Across the top is the bar you interact with to add notes.  tap the note to create a note, the…


HEX Cabana Sonic Backpack Review – Lets You Carry Your Gear in Style

A few weeks ago we looked at the HEX Cabana Messenger Bag. (Read the review.) It offered an unusual pocket for accessing your iPad on the go, and it mixed purposeful gear transportation with casual style. It was a nice bag that, while not my style, I could see many others enjoy using. (Keep an eye out for our upcoming “bag-a-day giveaway”; the HEX Cabana Messenger Bag will be one of the bags we offer up!) This time out, we are looking at another member of the HEX Cabana Collection. The HEX Cabana Sonic Backpack is a light, casual backpack…


Twelve South PlugBug World Review

It’s become a yearly occasion that in late February I’ll attend Mobile World Congress, and as a result I now have a yearly ritual of assessing my charger and adapter stockpile about a month before leaving. This year I traveled with a new tool in my arsenal, the Twelve South PlugBug World. What sets this charger/adapter apart from all of the others I own is that it plugs into the stock MacBook Pro power block, and it includes a built-in high-power USB charger that is perfect for quickly topping off my iPad mini. The fact that it can be configured…


Jabra Vox Earbuds Review

Last week we reviewed Jabra’s new Revo Wireless Headphones. (Read the review.) These on-the-ear headphones are comfortable, durable and sound terrific. Jabra is also releasing a corded version of the Revo headphones as well as the upcoming Jabra Vox in-ear corded earphones. For those who prefer headphones that sit in your ear rather than on or around them, the Jabra Vox earbuds may be a terrific option. Let’s take a closer look. The Jabra Vox earbuds come in a yellow and black box, which presents the Jabra Vox earbuds in a nice, albeit not terribly high-end, manner. Inside the box…


Targus Touch Pen for Windows 8 Review

Let’s face it, most of us who have become adept at using smartphones and tablets have become quite accustomed to using our fingers as the primary input devices. Microsoft took note of this and enveloped Windows 8 in something of a hybrid interface to permit this on touch-capable devices. Right now I’m running Windows 8 Pro on a 16″ Dell XPS 1640 laptop I configured back in 2009. In my position as one of my company’s two IT admins and software tester, I need to keep abreast of the latest OS technologies, so I took the plunge and put Windows…


PowerSkin Battery Case for iPhone 5

We’ve looked at a few battery cases for the iPhone 5 in the past few weeks and today we’re putting the PowerSkin Battery Case for iPhone 5 to the test. The very fact that so many battery cases are available for the iPhone 5 is a good indication of the ongoing issue created by battery technology not keeping pace with the power and screens on today’s smartphones. Yes, for any of us who make serious use of our smartphones an external battery or battery case is a must. So lets jump in and take a look at the PowerSkin Battery Case…