Reviews

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Reviews

The HTC Star Trek / Qtek 8500 WM5 Smartphone Review

It’s been a little over a month since I received a Qtek 8500, HTC‘s first clamshell phone which runs the Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone operating system. Unlike some of the other Smartphone OS devices available, such as the Dash and the Q, which attempt to “be all and do all” without the benefit of a touch screen and the full Pocket PC operating system, this is one model that appears to be happy just being a smart phone. Phone first, PDA second, which is an interesting concept these days.

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Reviews

The Belkin Clamp-On Surge Protector Review

As you are a reader of Gear Diary, it’s pretty likely that your house is something like mine–an impossible flood of electronic gizmos, gadgets, and geegaws, both portable, and not, but all requiring a simply astonishing amount of plug-in space for wall current.? Around our stereo area it can get bad, sure; the receiver, TV, VCR, DVD, TiVo box, satellite box, etc; you need some hefty power strippage to deal with it. But for me where it gets really bad is my desk.? I work from home, so in addition to all the “usual” computer equipment that I have maintain…

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Reviews

The i.Tech Virtual Keyboard Unboxing

The i.Tech Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard has been on my list of must-try items ever since I first heard about it – which if I remember correctly was in 2003! The first time I saw pictures of a keyboard which worked by beaming a red laser display on any flat surface, my inner geek did a happy dance! This is a product that looks like came straight out of a Philip K. Dick novel, out of a Star Trek episode, out of a…you get the picture. 😉 Like many new technologies, the VKB had a few false-starts and took longer to…

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Reviews

The Skullcandy MFM MP3 Integrated Stereo Headphones Review

I’d be the first to admit that I have never been snowboarding. I’m such a klutz that it takes very little imagination to picture me lying flat on my face in the snow or worse – lying broken at a tree’s base. So would it make me a total poseur if I said that I am intrigued by much of the snowboarder’s gear I’ve seen on the web? Of all the sports, they seem to have the coolest musically integrated gear. Today I’ll take a look at one such piece of equipment, the Skullcandy Mark Frank Montoya MP3 Player, a…

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Reviews

The Vaja MiniSD x2 Case Review

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of reviewing a Vaja case for my O2 XDA Atom. As we often do, Judie and I were chatting online about Vaja’s cases, and she described them as “yummy” when it came to their deep leather scent. I laughed this off, but after experiencing their case’s wonderful aroma for myself, I can tell you that they indeed do smell yummy! It goes beyond the scent, though. These cases are just outstanding and really are a wonderful way to luxuriously protect your PDA, phone, or MP3 Player. Enamored by the scent and the…

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Reviews

All About the Treo 680

[Ed. note: This unboxing with comments was written and translated by Michael Lin (“puttingdog”) and posted on the Palm is Life Forum. The original Chinese version with larger pictures may be seen here. Gear Diary would like to thank Michael for making his pictures and commentary available to an English Speaking audience and Larry for obtaining Michael’s permission to re-post in English.] The Palm Treo 680… My first impression: why does it take so long just to turn on the machine! It takes almost 50 seconds, dude! Appearance I assumed the coating on the front side and the back are…

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Reviews

The High-Powered Green Laser 10mW Review

[Ed. Note: If you have one, be responsible when you play with your laser.] Powerful lasers, a thing that only used to be found in sci-fi movies and TV shows and in the arsenal of the military. Who would have known that in the early 21st century that ordinary citizens would be able to buy pocket sized powerful lasers capable of burning things and throwing a visible beam for great distances. Yes, the day has arrived that anyone can buy such lasers from internet vendors and have them delivered to your door. For almost a year I have been lusting…

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Reviews

The SkinIt Review

Not long ago I was asked if I would like to try SkinIt, a protective and colorful way to personalize many popular consumer electronic items with custom vinyl overlays. Of course I wanted to give them a try, but the art choices were almost overwhelming…and then there was the decision of which gadgets to skin. SkinIt makes overlays for mobile phones, digital musical players, laptops, gaming devices, and various other gear. In the end, I wound up choosing the Asterisk skin, and I included a .jpg of the Gear Diary logo to get a SkinIt custom design; a week or…

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Reviews

The ThinkGeek USB Snowbot Review

Oh the winter holidays are here again. I was feeling festive this year and was planning on buying one of them light up USB Snowmen from ThinkGeek to bring some holiday cheer to my computer workstation. What? was my reaction when searching the ThinkGeek website, no USB Snowman to be found. Oh well, maybe they will have them again soon. Then a couple of days later… on the front page of their website was revealed the ThinkGeek exclusive USB Snowbot! What they call a hybrid of robot and snowman. WOW, they created a “Cylon” snowman, LOL! As a sci-fi junkie,…

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Reviews

The Purosol Plasma Molecular Screen Cleaner Review

Have you got a filthy television or computer screen lurking somewhere in the house? I do, or rather, I did. While my laptop’s screen is usually kept as spotless as possible – because I am obsessive like that – Sarah’s looks like it has been pulling weekend duty in a public library. Those that hate fingerprinted screens might want to cover their eyes…this is a scary, scary sight… 😯 That’s why when I was approached about trying the new Purosol Plasma Molecular Screen Cleaner, I jumped at the chance. Can you blame me? So why hadn’t I just taken a…

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How to Do It Yourself!, Reviews

The Palm Treo 650 Speaker Fix

[Ed. note: Larry originally wrote this article for the Palm Is Life forum, but he has also translated it for posting here. To see this article in the original Chinese, click here. Happy Hacking!] When the Palm Treo 650 launched, it came with an earpiece issue; its speaker sound was too low for regular people to hear. How bad is it? Well, you could clearly hear the caller’s voice in a quiet room, but you probably couldn’t hear a honeybee flying around your ear while outdoors – even if you have turned your Treo 650 to the loudest level. Later…

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Reviews

The Palm Treo 700p Palm OS Smartphone Review

It didn’t hit home that the last Palm OS device I had owned was the Tapwave Zodiac, until Alison from Astraware asked if I would like to take a look at their new Palm OS game Cake Mania. But I couldn’t, because I had sold the Zod in 2005 and had never replaced it. D’oh! Seeing that I enjoy using a Windows Mobile 5 device as my main brain, I thought it would be a good idea to swap my Samsung A900 (a decidedly non-smart phone) with a Palm OS smart phone – specifically Sprint‘s Treo 700p. This device has…

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Reviews

Cowon A2 Unboxing

I recently got a “Thanks for all your good work!” bonus from one of my contracts as I was eased out the door, and couldn’t wait to spend it on something. So, being a gadget fiend, I had to spend some of it on a gadget, of course. As folks who read here regularly may know, I’m a totally obsessed fanatic about viewing movies on portable devices–Windows Mobile devices, Palm devices, what have you. Recently, there has been a lot of development in the portable media player (PMP) area, where the devices are getting more and more sophisticated, and there’s…

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Reviews

The Gomadic Sync and Charge Retractable Cable Review

Shortly after buying a Treo 700wx I decided to ditch the bulky power and USB cable set that came with the device. I wanted to trade them for something much more compact, and the obvious choice – since I already had a collection of Gomadic tips – was to try the Gomadic Sync and Charge Retractable Cable system. Knowing that this same gadget would work with any of the other tips I already owned was a major selling point. Measuring approximately 5″ when retracted, the body of the charger is made of glossy black plastic. The center compartment which houses…

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Reviews

The Atech Flash PROGear-G5 28-in-1 Card Reader Review

One of the downsides of trying almost every type gadget known to man is that they all seem to take different memory cards. Why is that? (A rhetorical question if there ever was one, I don’t really expect an answer. ;-)) As each new memory card format comes out, all I can do anymore is?be grateful that they come with SD adapters so that I can at least access the card’s contents from my laptop’s built-in reader. However there are plenty of cards that won’t play nicely with SD, either because they are too big or because they are too…

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Reviews

The Jornada 928 Pocket PC Phone Edition Revisited

Back in the day of the Jornada 568, I remembered reading about a similar PDA called the Jornada 928 which offered about the same features and form-factor as its non-wireless enabled brother. At the time I owned a Jornada 545 (which unfortunately passed away due me accidentally breaking the screen 🙁 ) and thought how great that it would be to have both a phone and a PDA in one, and be able to surf the web anywhere I wanted (at the time never considering the cost of GPRS 😛 ). I never expected to get one, because at the…

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Reviews

The Case Logic 6 Capacity USB Drive Shuttle Review

While I was at CompUSA one day… I came across the USB flash drive case made by Case Logic (model JDC6). Case Logic calls it the “Case Logic”. I thought what a neat idea. My USB flash drive collection is growing and carrying more than one is proving to be some what of a problem, so I bought the case. The case is 5.25″ x 3.75″ x 1″m and weighs in at 4 oz, which makes for easy carrying. As the product name implies, there are 6 pockets and are made of a mesh material with elastic edges to keep…

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Reviews

The Vaja I-volution For Palm Treo 700 Series Case Review

It wasn’t long after I received a Palm 700p review unit that I knew I would be buying either the Palm OS version or the WM5 version of the Treo to use as my mobile phone. Other than which OS to go with, my next decision was what case. I’ll admit it, I went right to the Vaja‘site, and I literally swooned when I saw the T7 Silver. However, reality eventually set in once I saw the price for that intricate piece of sterling silver accented leather-art. Luckily, there was a very similar case available with a more wallet-friendly price…

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Reviews

The Phantom EFX Reel Deal Casino High Roller Review

Reel Deal is a casino PC game. Specs include Windows 2000 or later, CD-Rom, 1.5 GB hard drive, DirectX 9.0b or later, DirectX compatible video card.? Money and VIP comp points are earned as you play slot machines, table games and enter tournaments.? The casino is easy to navigate and there is a menu board for the many games. I had to read the directions to get the game loaded and reinstall the second CD, but once it installed, it worked like a dream.? The graphics are good, animation flows well and it is a very enjoyable casino experience.? I…

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Reviews

The Datexx SuperBattery Rechargeable USB Power Bank Review

Datexx seems to have a power generator for just about every situation?in which?a user might find his or herself. Today I am going to take a look at their SuperBattery, which is billed as a rechargeable USB power bank that can be used to extend a device’s battery power or give a one-hour fast charge when a device’s battery gets low. It also includes a built-in LED flashlight, and it can be powered either by connecting to a wall charger or by using the built-in hand crank. Included in the package are the SuperBattery, four device tips, a wall charger,…

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Reviews

Zune-alicious: The Setup & Software

[Ed. note: If you haven’t already, then first read about the Zune unboxing here.] After removing the Zune from its box, it was time to begin the software installation. This process took about ten minutes total, but since I was working on other things while doing it, the time passed quickly. The following pictures are a series of screenshots captured during and after the setup process, including some screenshots of the Zune music store. All screenshots are thumbnails, so clicking on them will show them in full size. To get started, the CD must be inserted; the setup program will…