It’s no secret that we here at Gear Diary have enjoyed PDAir cases for many of our devices. You can see some of our past reviews here, here, and here. Oh, and here, too. PDAir recently released several leather cases for the Zune HD and offered Gear Diary a chance to review a sample. The new Zune HD styles include flip type, book type, sleeve type, and both vertical and horizontal pouch types. I was sent a horizontal pouch case for review.
Sometimes applications are big and splashy and exciting. Sometimes they are quite, unassuming, and just do what they do very well. But it’s not often you run into applications that don’t even really present you with a startup splash screen before going into the actual program. Memorize Words for Spanish isn’t flashy, it goes right into the program with out announcing itself via a title screen, and its name isn’t particularly flashy or clever, but it clearly speaks to the thing that this application does – it helps you memorize Spanish words. I’ve looked at a lot of different language applications over the past…
Considering that I tend to be a very linear person, it is interesting that in terms of role-playing games pre-2004 I tended to play them all ‘out of order’. For example, after enjoying Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic, I asked around and was recommended to seek out Gothic 2 and Baldur’s Gate 2. I played and loved both of those and then sought out the original games in the series. The same was true with games based on White Wolf’s Vampire the Masquerade tabletop RPG – I played the 2004 Troika game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines through…
… and as Alienware claims, this is NOT a netbook! Sitting side-by-side with my Lenovo s10 the Alienware m11x seems large, and given that it weighs twice as much as the Lenovo it also FEELS much bigger. But compared to my 15″ Macbook Pro or the HP Compaq 15″ laptop I use at work, it looks and feels quite small. That is exactly what Alienware was going for – a high performance system in a portable package. So while I have only had a short time with the system, here are a few initial thoughts about the m11x as a…
A few years back, I was a big fan of OnCourse Navigator version 5 running on Windows Mobile PDAs. The interesting things here is that OCN5 was really just the name for the North American release of Navigon MobileNavigator. And although OCN 5 wasn’t terribly stable, it was one of the best-looking navigators out there at the time. So then they disappeared from the North American market. OCN 6 was actually a rebadged iGo 6, not a Navigon product anymore. So now, on the heels of a successful iPhone product, Navigon have reentered the market with MobileNavigator for Windows Phones. So where did they go? What happened? More important,…
An ongoing problem these days is simply how to keep up with everything and everyone? You’ve got email, Twitter, Facebook, Instant Messaging (or IM’ing as the kids simply abbreviate it these days). Don’t forget SMS texting. Unless you’re out on Mount Kilimanjaro you better get used to the expectation of being connected — and reachable — by at least ten different communication methods. And they’ll all be used before you even get a phone call. With this onslaught of communication overload, how are you going to manage? Are you going to ball up in the fetal position and cry yourself…
The iPhone and the iPod touch have the potential to be among the greatest innovations in the educational process ever. As more and more educational apps are developed that take advantage of the computing power and the touchscreen of the iPhone and the iPod touch are released they are reaching a critical mass as a tool for learning. They’re great for secular education but they can also be a huge addition to religious education as well. I carry two different versions of the Bible on my iPhone and enjoy having the ability to reference them with ease. I have an…
When someone introduces a new game for a new platform by a new developer in a totally unrelated genre with a familiar name, most fans of the original feel that it is likely someone is trying to cash in by attaching a familiar name to a mediocre game. The Might & Magic franchise has seen both sides of this: the most recent addition to the Heroes of Might & Magic franchise is the best in years, but the promising but mediocre action game ‘Dark Messiah Might & Magic’ from 2006 had no reason for a franchise attachment. Might & Magic…
One of the local Philadelphia news channels has a weekly segment called “Deal or Dud” where they put a product or service to the test to see if it actually lives up to its claims. A few weeks ago they featured the “Turbo Snake.” What is the Turbo Snake? Straight from the manufacturer: Introducing Turbo Snake™ – the quick & easy way to clear slow-moving or clogged drains! Simply glide Turbo Snake™ down the drain, twirl, then pull out – Turbo Snake’s™ specially designed head grabs & locks onto hair clogs to remove and free the drain instantly! It’s that…
For those who do not know what a GPS Data Logger is, it essentially is a GPS that usually has a sole purpose: to keep track not of where you are, but where you have been. Qstarz has been hard at work trying to improve upon the BT-Q1000x and has brought out the BT-Q1000eX Xtreme Recorder. What is different about this GPS logger and what makes it Xtreme? Let’s find out.
As more and more of my students get iPhones, they become a greater source of apps. At first, they asked me about games and apps they should get but now they are slowly beginning to share their findings with me. Last week I walked into my second period American History class with four students standing at my desk. They excitedly told me I must download Torect Free on my phone. They explained that all of them were highly addicted to the puzzle game. One of the young men handed me his phone and said he was stumped. I solved the…
Photo courtesy of The Purse Hook website Over the past few years, I have fallen in love with higher-end leather goods, specifically pretty (and functional!) purses and bags. I’ve always been a bit of a purse girl, but I eventually realized that buying one or two nice leather bags a year makes much more sense for me than buying a lot of bags that fall apart on me within 3 to 6 months of carrying them every day. I started collecting Coach bags one Christmas when I got a particularly nice bonus from work, and it all slid downhill from…
Some companies continue to try to find a way to replace audio CD’s in brick and mortar stores like Wal-Mart. For most of the Gear Diary staff, digital downloads via iTunes Music store, Amazon MP3 Store or the Zune store have all but replaced audio CD’s. What could be easier than downloading a MP3 and putting it on your player? SanDisk is trying again to do this with SlotRadio+. SlotRadio+ is basically very similar to SlotRadio, but not only has 1000 music tracks on it, it also has 4 Gigs of storage for your own music. This sounds pretty cool…
So you bought a shiny new Android phone or tablet, and now it’s on to the important stuff: How can you read your books on it? Admittedly, there aren’t the same number of ebook options for Android as there are for the iPhone, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a decent selection of options! Rather than review each one individually, I thought it might be best to do a roundup/quick overview of the major readers available. There are several ePUB readers, and several apps use the same or overlapping sources for the books you can download in-app, so I’m…
Often times case manufacturers work hard at creating cases that look great but in doing so sacrifice how the cases feels when held in your hand. Ergonomics play a key role in keeping you comfortable while sitting at your desk, on your computer. The Module SmartCase from Dacha Works seeks to create the same level of comfort for your hand while it’s using your iPhone. Dacha Works claims the Module SmartCase is the first all-purpose iPhone case to proactively augment the iPhone form factor to greatly improve the user experience. How did it work out for me? Click on through…
After going to many conferences for my day job, one thing I have always stuffed in my bag has been a power strip. As any geek knows, there is rarely enough outlets in the hotel room where you need them. Plus most power strips have all the outlets arranged such that you can’t plug to wall warts side by side. Well, Outlets to Go from Monster Cable is something I’ve always wanted. It gives you a power strip with built-in cord management. Plus a little surprise I will get to later.
Sometimes a product does not have to be complex to be great. Little nifty things like the 3 beads on the Zagg Smartbuds Dan just reviewed. It seems so simple, but makes a world of difference in its use. Is the Wii Pedestal Base one of these products? Let’s find out.
Android does not come with even a basic notes application. Luckily there are services like Evernote available, but sometimes you need a local notes application (rather than a cloud based one). That’s where Easy Note+Todo steps up. Can it replace a notes app and a to-do list? Read on and find out!
Yesterday, I showed off the HP USB 2.0 Docking Station. It’s great for easily connecting your computer to all those peripherals (printer, external monitor, etc). Today, I’m taking a close look at the Display Link USB 2.0 display adapter. So “What’s a display adapter?” you ask. If you need to share your monitor through multiple displays, or you find yourself not needing a docking station but simply a way to put your netbook or laptop’s screen on a larger monitor, then I’d say the Display link adapter is for you. What’s great about this little device is that it supports…
A few months ago I found myself a little bit short in the headphones department. I had given away most of the headphones I had used and reviewed and one of the two pair that I tended to use on a daily basis broke. I mentioned this to Judie and she was kind enough to send me a pair of ZAGG Z.buds that she had reviewed some time ago. When the headphones arrived I was rather impressed. The design was excellent. The heavy-duty, tangle free cord was longer than normal. It included an inline microphone and a volume control and…
After several years of mobile device designs trending toward smooth, curving lines and symmetrical shapes, the Motorola Droid stands out. Sure, you’ll see lots of non-geeks carrying it, but from the angular design of the device itself to the style of the commercials Verizon developed to sell it, it’s clear that the Droid is intended to appeal to the technologically inclined. So, how does one take a geeky device like the Droid and amp the geek factor? You slap a metal case on it, that’s how.