Gear Bits

Elana and the Four Speck Cases for iPhone 4S

With sincerest apologies to “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. Once upon a time there were four Speck iPhone cases that arrived for review. One was a FabShell Burton, one was a FabShell, one was a CandyShell and the other was CandyShell Grip. Each had its own style and form. The timing was right, as Elana had finally broken down and made the move to the iPhone. The FabShell Burton was there with “fresh fabrics and hard-shell protection combine in a form-fitting one-piece case.” Fabulous fabric-backed Burton designs on a fiercely protective co-molded one-piece case from Speck! Custom patterns, extra protection and…

Gear Bits, Health and Fitness

Sugar, Salt, and Why We Love Junk Food

I love salt. A lot. My college friends still tease me about how I would salt my fries, then salt my ketchup for good measure. For the record, I don’t do that anymore, and not just because Sarah made me stop. We really do try to make an effort to eat “real food” (and yes, I recognize that the fried Oreos I had at the town carnival last night do not count), and this graphic shared by author Michael Pollan just further cemented that drive to eat better. I don’t know for certain that all of the claims are true,…

Gear Bits

Organize Your Seeds with a Seed Organizer Binder Kit

I collect seeds when I find interesting plants in the reproductive stage where seeds can be gathered. Usually I am pretty good at remembering what I collected (and why), but recently I stumped myself. I had gathered some seeds and put them in a bag, and at some point (months later, I’m sure) mislabeled them “Mexican Paradise Plant”. After the seeds began to grow, there was no doubt in my mind that the seedlings were something completely different. Obviously my organizational skills had failed. Kev and I spent hours trying to figure out what this odd five-leafed plant was, and through…

Gear Bits

Is Amazon Spying on Me?

I know I buy a great deal from Amazon, but I am starting to think they have hidden cameras in my house! You see, back in January, I ordered a box of KIND bars for our trip to Costa Rica. We figured with all the flights, layovers, and bus transfers in our travel schedule, we would need snacks. As it turned out, we didn’t eat all of them, and I unearthed a bag of leftover bars while cleaning out my suitcase over the weekend. I stuck them in the pantry and promptly forgot about them. Until Monday, when I returned…

Gear Bits, News

How Early Exposure to Dungeons & Dragons Impacts the Rest of Your Life

Were you playing tabletop Dungeons & Dragons as a child? Do you wonder how that might have impacted your life ever since? Now you can track your life through this flow chart! Head to The Uniblog for the full resolution version! Source: NY Times via The Uniblog

Gear Bits

How Much Gear Is too Much?

I have jury duty this week. My only other experience with jury duty was in Boston, and I remember sitting all day in a cramped room reading a book, and almost escaping being put on a jury. So I am anticipating a long day of “hurry up and wait” and have begun packing for the day accordingly. My original plan for what to bring was fairly extensive: iPad iPhone Computer (for logging into the office) Kindle Eers headphones Extra book Chargers iPhone iPod touch (for games) However, when I realized I was treating jury duty like I was going on…

Gear Bits

Antipodes Map Show Where that ‘Drill Through the Earth’ Dream Will Get You!

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you drilled straight through the earth? Chances are if you ever watched Bugs Bunny or were a child, the answer is yes! Now you can easily find out – head to Antipodesmap.com and locate yourself on the top map and see where you would end up! But one caveat – you will likely learn just how much of the planet is covered with water! Source: Buzzfeed

Gear Bits

SNL Parodies Amazon and the Kindle (NSFW!)

Sarah and I started watching “Saturday Night Live” again recently because one of our favorite sketch comedians, Kate McKinnon, joined the cast. Thank goodness for DVR, as it lets us skip the less entertaining sketches easily. It also allows us to re-watch the truly hysterical ones, like their flat-out brilliant parody of Amazon and “50 Shades of Gray“.

Gear Bits

The Avengers Gear Summary

Marvel’s Avengers fans can find plenty of related gear including comics, figures, various apparel, phone cases, wall decals, LEGO sets, mech toys, music, masks, NERF bows, and games.

Gear Bits

May the 4th Be With You as Donny & Marie Do Star Wars!

If you go back 35 years to the late 70’s, it seemed that everyone had a variety show – and one of the best things was that they were all live. I loved watching the Carol Burnett show, and one of the best parts was that Harvey Korman could never keep a straight face once Burnett and Tim Conway got going. Donny & Marie had an enormously popular variety show in the late 70’s based around their singing, dancing, charming personalities and wholesome images. They brought in a younger crowd than other shows and also provided an alternative to the…

Gear Bits, Travel

McSweeney’s Guide to Airline Passenger Profiling

You’ve heard about racial profiling, but how about pants profiling? Oh, you hadn’t heard of it? That’s okay, neither had I … until I found myself nodding and chuckling as I read the list of what to expect from other passengers on a flight — based on the type of pants they were wearing! Wool Suit Pants: Will board before you. Wool Hunting Pants: Will board after you. Pleated Dockers: Will loudly talk on cell phone about ROIs and vertical markets. Pajama Bottoms: Will be flying either to or from a city with a Señor Frog’s. Sweatpants with Dallas Mavericks Logo: Will clog one or…

Gear Bits

Want Fast Internet? Move to South Korea!

For nearly three decades I have worried about the connection speed to a remote network. Sure in the early days it was a 300baud modem hooked into a mainframe, but even then connectivity mattered. As the dial-up era matured we tried to squeeze every little bit of speed from those connections, and that effort continues into the DSL, Cable and LTE era. But ultimately all of these techniques are limited by infrastructure and bandwidth availability. For example, my local cable provider offers a speed boost solution at a monthly fee, but I already find that my overall speed can vary…

Game Diary, Gear Bits, News

With $99 XBOX Subscription Bundle, Microsoft REALLY Enters the Smartphone Gaming Era!

Image courtesy GamesLive OK, so maybe the title is more than a bit of a stretch, but look at it this way: what product costs more to make than what you pay to buy it, but that lowered cost is subsidized by a two-year monthly contract? A cell phone … and now an XBOX360 bundle including the Kinect according to a report from TheVerge. Check out the details (emphasis mine): Microsoft is planning to launch a $99 Xbox console package with a monthly subscription as early as next week, according to our sources. The software giant will offer the 4GB…

Gear Bits

They May Be Slackers, but They Sure Are a Class Act

Online services go down. That’s a fact of life. Heck, even we have had our share of downtime but thankfully, as of last night, much of it is a thing of the past. Well it turns out that Slacker Radio ran into a bump in the road last month. From Friday, April 13 until Saturday, April 14 some customers encountered a service disruption. Some! Not all or even most customers had an issue, and it only lasted for a day; it happens. I didn’t even notice the issue, so it wasn’t even an issue for me, but clearly it was an…

Gear Bits

Dark Knight Rises Final Trailer

It has become a common tactic for a film studio to attach a trailer for a hotly anticipated release to help bolster interest in another release. It was already widely known that the final trailer for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ was planned to show with ‘The Avengers’. But now that ‘The Avengers’ is breaking records in its international release and seem assured a tremendous box office, Warner Brothers has released the final trailer to YouTube! And based on the trailer … this might be the best entry into the Dark Knight series yet! Why wait for the Avengers … check…

Gear Bits

How Can Brick & Mortar Stores Get Better and Stay in Business?

Going through my feeds yesterday, I cam across a piece by Josh Smith on Gottabemobile.com on “3 Ways Retail Can Embrace Mobile to Profit and Thrive” and it got me thinking: Is that all there is? There has to be more and I thought up of a few more things that can not only make the shopping experience better by embracing mobile and technology but help the business too. Free WiFi Josh said in his article that Free WiFi would be cost prohibitive; yet I’ve seen many stores do this, and I think it’s a brilliant idea. Regional grocery change…

Gear Bits

That Classic High Schooler Summer Camp Job is Now Filled With a PhD Graduate

Anyone who thinks that economic woes are behind us needs to check out this recent article from the Atlantic. It talks about how many recent graduates are unable to find a suitable job based on their education. About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years. In 2000, the share was at a low of 41 percent, before the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields. Out of the 1.5 million who languished in…

Gear Bits

Amateur Radio Apps for Android

A mobile phone is a valuable tool that can be used for many things, even Amateur Radio. I thought I would provide a short over view of some of the apps that are available on Google Play. As there are always new apps, I will probably do another post as I come across them. If you have apps that I miss, let me know so I can check them out. EchoLink for Android In my post regarding on what kind of ham radio to buy, I briefly mentioned Echolink. Echolink is a internet based method for communicating on ham radio repeaters all…

eBooks, Gear Bits

“Book People Unite” Promotes Literacy with a Catchy Tune

Everyone has a favorite childhood book. From fairy tales to Narnia and everywhere in between. Want to help kids experience books in all their glory? Head over to BookPeopleUnite.org, a movement designed to promote literacy through the Reading Is Fundamental organization. They’ve put together an amazing video with a who’s who of artists including Chris Martin, Regina Spektor, Jack Black, and many others behind it.

Gear Bits

Gnome Canterwick Beautifully Repurposes Leather-Bound Classics as iPhone Charger Docks

Books have been hollowed out since the beginning of time to hide things, whether it be to disguise and hold adult beverages, money, guns or other “treasures” inside. But here’s a novel idea, rather than hollow out the book to hide something, why not display the book while it is being used to charge your mobile device? Many of your favorite books are here, repurposed to be a clever charging dock that holds your device and hides its cable. Gnome Canterwick says that customization requests for upgrades including “plug location, longer cords, wall adapters, etc.” are welcome. This new…

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