Gear Bits | Gear Diary

Apple’s New ‘All on the iPad’ Commercial Reminds Us Again It Is an iPad World

Depending on what market you are looking at, Apple controls ~68 – 72% of the tablet market. That is a level of singular dominance well beyond the monopoly of Google Search, as a comparison. And the funny thing is, I STILL don’t trust the Samsung numbers, so the iPad share might be higher! Of course, with the successful launch of the Google Nexus 7 (and countless tales of difficulties trying to return or exchange same), we can expect to see the numbers shift somewhat – though it is pretty clear that sales of the Nexus 7 will obliterate the Kindle…

Gear Bits, Travel

This Video of First Class on an Emerates Airlines A380 Will Have You Hating Coach More than Ever

I hate flying. Hate it. And I hate flying Coach even more. At 6′ 1 1/2″ the fact that he seats are getting closer and closer is not only annoying, it is downright uncomfortable. And when I’ve flown coach to Israel… ouch!!!! I have, thankfully, taken that long flight in Business First a few times and it made a huge difference. Regardless, even then I hated flying. What could make me like it more? Something like what Emerates Airlines offers in 1st Class on their A380. You know, it is the little things, like a fully stocked bar, gourmet food…

Gear Bits

iPad Mini Oh My Aching Wrists, Let It Be REAL!

I’m sitting outside reading and checking the site on my new iPad. (Okay, and I’m also playing through Kingdom Rush for the third time. They really NEED to come out with Kingdom Rush 2 already!!) And while I’m really loving my iPad, I am hoping the rumors about the iPad-mini are actually true. Sure, as we noted here, the smaller iPad makes sense from a market perspective. It would fill the gap that currently sits between the $199 iPod touch and the $399 iPad 2. And sure, it would let Apple compete with the likes of the Google Nexus 7…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Good Movies Actually Do Better at the Box Office

Conventional wisdom would say that movie-going crowds reward some of the worst movies with some of the highest box office grosses, particularly during the summer months. In fact, there are web sites devotes to that very premise. It is an interesting and amusing thought … but is it TRUE? That is what one person looked to answer, using available data and statistical analysis. Here is the setup: It is common to argue that there is a divide between critics and audiences. Critics prefer arthouse dramas, preferably in black-and-white; audiences like things that go boom. Thanks to countless explosions and few…

Gear Bits, Outdoors

Fun Facts About the Olympic Marathons in History

It is track and field time at the Olympics, and that means it’s time for the men’s and women’s marathons! All of the running events are fun to watch if you are a runner, but the Olympic marathon is special. Since the women’s marathon is Sunday, Runners World has an awesome list of nine big moments in Olympic history. All of these will come in handy at your next quiz night, but my personal favorite is the story of Emil Zatopek: As the 1952 helsinki olympics drew to a close, Czech-oslovakia’s Emil Zatopek, 29, had already won the 5000 meters…

Editorials, Gear Bits

NBC’s Olympic Coverage Punishes Broadcast TV Watchers

There’s been plenty of ink spilled about how NBC is mishandling the Olympics. But Sarah and I are watching them tonight, and she just went on quite the rant that I hadn’t considered. See, NBC ran a whole special on the 1996 Women’s Gymnastics game, and Kerri Strug’s inspirational vault to seal the gold medal. It was followed up by an interview with Bela Karolyi. Both were nice to watch, but they highlighted a huge fail of NBC’s coverage: for so-called “prime time” Olympics, it was 8:30 before any current sports were shown! Yes, NBC has apps. And there are…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Instant Business Card to Contacts Conversion with INTSIG’s CamCard App

If you’re a member of the professional world, you’re probably used to pocketing business cards like a pro. You slide them right into your pocket, only to fumble them out later for the information you need. It’s not a terrible system. If you’re a smart phone owner, however, you’ll know how time-consuming it is to manually enter business card information into your contacts. INTSIG’s CamCard app makes that process a lot faster and easier. Using your smartphone’s camera as a rudimentary scanner, the app targets the necessary information from the photo and converts it into your address book. The app,…

Gear Bits

Roamz Gives You ‘Social Goggles for the Real World’

If you are anything like me you, then are connected to numerous social networking accounts. When you have more than just a few services spitting information at you, it becomes difficult to keep them all straight. But even worse is the fact that all this information is available through the various social networking outlets and, well, and it is pretty much useless. Sure, Twitter and Facebook let me keep up with my friends and even see what some non-friends are doing. But there has to be some way to actually put all that information to use. That’s what Roamz seeks…

Gear Bits, Music Diary, News & Features

Dave Chisholm Releases ‘Bonus Track’ for Calligraphy

As 2011 ended I reviewed Dave Chisholm’s ‘Calligraphy’ and had this to say: ‘Calligraphy’ surprised me by how much I liked the entire thing. With Radioactive I enjoyed the album, but only truly fell in love with one song that has stuck with me for more than 18 months and countless new releases crossing my iPod. ‘Calligraphy’ has a uniform excellence in composition, playing, and overall execution that will keep it on my iPod and recommended listening list for a long time to come. I can’t wait to see what Dave comes up with next. The album impressed me enough…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Amazon Instant Video Comes to the iPad!

Yesterday when we talked about Hulu coming to Apple TV, my comment was that if Amazon Instant Video was also available, I would no longer have a need for the Roku. Guess what? Amazon Instant Video is now available! Here is the description: Watch thousands of titles available from Prime Instant Video at no additional cost with an Amazon Prime membership and over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store by installing the Amazon Instant Video app. Download purchased and rented videos from Your Video Library for offline viewing on airplanes, road trips, or any time a WiFi…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Non-News of the Day – Pop Music Getting Louder and Harmonically Bland

There has been loads of talk in recent years about the loss in dynamic range of music – the so-called ‘loudness wars’. Basically, to make the quick impression required by the short-attention span internet age listener, a song needs to ‘pop’ and has about 10-15 seconds to do it. The quick cure for that is simply to bring everything to the front in the mix and make the difference between the loudest and softest sounds smaller (i.e. reduce the dynamic range). Now a study noted at Reuters looks at this in further detail, as well as categorizing the ‘musical diversity’,…

Gear Bits

Mountain Lion Roars 3 Million Times, and Now It Is Time to “Read” the Manual

OS X Mountain Lion, the Apple’s updated desktop operating system, is already a big hit. Downloaded over 3 million times in less than a week, the OS looks pretty much the same as OS X Lion, but it adds some great features. Mountain Lion is, according to Apple’s Phil Schiller, “the most successful [operating system] release ever”. What Mountain Lion does is key for any of us who use an iPhone and/or an iPad; it gives Mac desktops and laptops the same tools already been available to us on mobile devices.In other words, it integrates the Apple-experience. iMessage, Notifications, Notes…

Gear Bits, Outdoors

Stuffa Jacket Holds ALL Your Stuff

(image courtesy Stuffa) The folks at Gizmodo have stumbled upon a fascinating new clothing line, called the “Stuffa” jacket. It’s a jacket with pockets designed to hold several day’s worth of clothing. What an original concept. I wonder where they got the idea from… Actually, all sarcasm aside, the creator says he had the idea while watching people get creamed by baggage fees: I flew home late April with the remaining staff. It was at Geneva airport that the fun of checking in started and the idea for Stuffa first came to me. Everyone was having to pay the excess…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

In a Summer of Pricey Concerts, Madonna’s 45-Minute Mediocre Show Costs the Most

Imagine that you have paid $400 for a concert ticket and … wait, WHAT?!?! I can’t even get past THAT! Last year both of my sons wanted to go to concerts so I went along – and tickets were $55 for Kid Cudi and $25 for Skrillex. Bruno Mars was part of our NY State Fair package, and my last show was the $40 per ticket for Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion tour. But looking at the image above courtesy of DigitalMusicNews shows that what I paid for 4 Metheny tickets wouldn’t gain admission for ONE of us to many shows this…

Gear Bits

NBC Skipped One of the Best Parts of the Opening Ceremonies

I don’t know about you, but every couple of years I watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, trying to get through the rather drawn-out and sometimes boring affair interspersed with way too many commercials and inane ‘up close and personal’ interviews. Last night we got to hear about the nicknames of a couple of gymnasts and about whether or not Michael Phelps is afraid of Ryan Lochte. But what we DIDN’T see was a moving tribute that many think was in honor of victims of the 7/7 London bombings that happened just days after the city was awarded the…

Gear Bits

“Cinderfella” Reimagines Disney Princess Stories

Like just about every kid in America, I grew up watching Disney movies. Of course, most girls don’t cast themselves as Prince Charming, but that should have been an early clue for me that maybe I wasn’t like the other kids. Apparently I wasn’t the only one rewriting fairy tales! Todrick Hall, who apparently was on American Idol (I don’t follow the show) has put together an adorable mash up of Disney princess tales and pop songs. He casts himself as “Cinderfella”, and he yearns to head to the ball to find his Prince Charming. The whole video is cute,…

Gear Bits

Why Cable Companies Should Be Afraid of Airplay

Despite the fact that the operating system was released just a few days ago and there have been some issues with getting redemption codes and downloads, an amazing number of Mac users have already upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion. Having used it since shortly after the OS was released I can honestly say that it is, by far, the best update I’ve seen to OS X. I love the integration with iOS, the features of the new Safari and, of course, I am thrilled to have the, admittedly limited, ability to globally use voice recognition by simply pressing the…

Gear Bits

Happiness is a Maple Bacon Donut: Happy SysAdmin Day!

Yesterday Twitter had a pretty major outage. Even though it wasn’t the best moment for the SysAdmins who work for Twitter, it’s something I appreciate when I see the hard work they do. I am also a SysAdmin and today someone did for me what I think is the best thing ever. They bought our team donuts. Why did they do that today? Well today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. Today is the day that you should set aside at least a few minutes to appreciate all the hard work that your SysAdmin does to keep your system or favorite…

Gear Bits

First Trailer for ‘Life of Pi’ Hits!

Published in 2001, Yann Martel’s ‘Life of Pi’ is a highly acclaimed novel that is deep with allegory and allusion and heart-wrenching storytelling. I found it a captivating read and it quickly passed through my family and out to family and friends through the years. It was recently featured as a ‘Kindle Deal of the Day’, so I was able to start reading it again – and it still strikes a chord with me. I vaguely recall hearing that there were plans in place to make a film version, but now we have the trailer! Here is the synopsis: Director…

Gear Bits

Turkey Dubstep Animation Is Awesome

Whether you like dubstep or not, there is no denying the cuteness of two turkeys spitting it out. The video short was so popular that not only has it earned a sequel … Turkeys + Dubstep + a little bit of success = Selling out … it has also earned several YouTube remixes, including one that lasts a ridiculous 10 hours. I’m looking forward to seeing what Will Anderson, the artist behind White Robot, shows the turkeys doing next. 😉

Gear Bits

US Cellular HTC Flyer Honeycomb Update – Do It the Same … But Slower!

Just as it seemed we might be seeing some critical mass in the move towards updating Android devices to ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ almost nine months after release, ‘Jelly Bean’ arrived and threw things back into a fragmented turmoil where the overwhelming majority of devices are TWO VERSIONS BEHIND. Oh well, at least we continue to see updates rolling out on pretty much a weekly basis. The HTC Flyer was an intriguing 7″ tablet that combined excellent performance from a single core chip with a full HTC Sense-ified Android 2.3 Gingerbread interface. Late in 2011 OS updates were initiated by HTC…