Gear Bits

Kno, Cengage, and Why Digital Textbooks Are Failing

eBooks, Gear Bits

Kno, Cengage, and Why Digital Textbooks Are Failing

Digital textbooks are a bit like alchemy. Everyone wants to find the magic formula, but the experiments just come out as useless lumps, rather than shiny bits of gold. Even iBooks 2 has many skeptics, despite Apple’s deep pockets and impressive publishing contacts. But the best illustration of how tangled and inefficient the eTextbook market is can be seen in the fight between Cengage (a publisher) and Kno (one of the 49,000 services trying to cash in on digital learning).

Snowtrax 2 Slip-on Cleats Gave Me Plenty of Traction on Dicey, Icy Day

Gear Bits, Reviews

Snowtrax 2 Slip-on Cleats Gave Me Plenty of Traction on Dicey, Icy Day

Admittedly, this winter for Ohio has been a bust where snow is concerned. However, living where I do winter inhabitants are occasionally bedeviled by ice storms or significant ice accumulation. Late January for me was one such episode where we received between 0.25″ to 0.5″ of ice accumulation and a dusting of freezing sleet. Walking in such weather on untreated or partially treated surfaces can be very tricky. Fortunately for me as a Christmas gift I received two pairs of Snowtrax 2 slip-on cleats that made all the difference on that treacherous day.

Synthetik Park's Wall Aquarium Is Eye-Level Gorgeous

Gear Bits

Synthetik Park’s Wall Aquarium Is Eye-Level Gorgeous

Watch how my thought process goes … 1. We have a Beta fish named Brad; he lives in a goldfish bowl that sits on our credenza, and every chance she gets, our cat Avah likes to drink water from his bowl. She’s not trying to eat Brad, or at least we haven’t seen her try, but she seems to love his fish flavored water. This bothers me, because she has been known to lap his water down to less than half a bowl when we have been away. 2. In order to really see Brad I have to bend down,…

SoundHound, the Awesome iOS App of the Day

Gear Bits

SoundHound, the Awesome iOS App of the Day

I was driving in the car and a tune came on that was awesome. It wasn’t familiar and I wanted to make sure I could hear it again so… at the stop sign of course, I pulled out my iPad, fired up SoundHound, and I searched for the song.

How Big is Big? How Small is Small? Find Out on The Scale of the Universe 2 Website

Gear Bits

How Big is Big? How Small is Small? Find Out on The Scale of the Universe 2 Website

 “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” –  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Yes, space IS big, but that is only one side of the coin of the known Universe—there are items known and believed to exist that are incredibly small. Cary and Michael Huang have created a fascinating web page, The Scale of the Universe 2 that permits the scientifically voyeuristic to view a large number of items in the Universe…

A Quick Look at the Bones Link II iPhone Adapter

Gear Bits

A Quick Look at the Bones Link II iPhone Adapter

Sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference. That’s the case with the Bones Link II. Let me back up a bit. The other day I ordered a 16GB RAM upgrade from Crucial for my new iMac. At under $100 it was a great deal. When I went to check out I was offered the opportunity to buy the Bones Link II iPod/iPhone adapter at half price since I had purchased RAM. Normally it is $11.99 so at half that I figured why not and ordered one. The adapter  is described this way … Here’s a great way to…

Yes, I Can Hear You Now; Thanks to Vonage Mobile

Gear Bits, Travel

Yes, I Can Hear You Now; Thanks to Vonage Mobile

This is a sponsored post, all opinions written here  are mine. Make Calls, Save Money Have you tried Vonage’s new mobile app? It lets you make free calls to other people using the Vonage app. It lets you save 70% over the major mobile carriers and 30% over Skype’s rates. It works over WiFi, 3G and 4G wireless data networks worldwide, with WiFi being the most economical method of all. And it is simple. The interface is familiar, you can add calling credit right on the device itself themselves in increments of $4.99 and $9.99 and the call quality is…

$30 off Eyeglasses at Costco

Gear Bits

$30 off Eyeglasses at Costco

Despite my reputation of being very clumsy, I have worn glasses for over 20 years without breaking them. Until last week’s vacation, when I left them on the bed and smashed them. Oops. To be fair, being at sea apparently exacerbates my natural klutziness, since I also went flying off a water tube, fell off a chair, and walked head first into a tree branch. So I guess I should be happy my glasses were the main victims. However, this did mean I needed new ones, and I apparently picked a good month for it! Costco has a coupon for $30 off…

La Plata Time Rings Are a Low-Tech Puzzle for these High-Tech Times

Gear Bits

La Plata Time Rings Are a Low-Tech Puzzle for these High-Tech Times

You can only sling so many angry birds at chortling pigs before your mind goes numb and you want something … different. Sometimes the simplest things can captivate the imagination; a case in point would be this lovely low-tech and natural puzzle made from a slice of cypress. The puzzle is made from the wood of Cypress trees, that died naturally and it does keep me wondering about the history of the tree and its surroundings. Unfortunately I didn’t find this object too near to the region of the Patagonian Andes lakes, where it actually comes from. I simply never been there,…

iPhone Backs from The Brooklyn Bakery Store Will Make You Swoon

Gear Bits

iPhone Backs from The Brooklyn Bakery Store Will Make You Swoon

If you hate putting your iPhone in a case, but you still want it to look unique and interesting, then you might want to consider one of the imaginative adhesive leather backs from The Brooklyn Bakery Store. Made to resemble natural and unnatural skins, these leather objects of art will really make your iPhone stand out.

Get a Grip on Alder & Co's Maple Salad Hands

Gear Bits

Get a Grip on Alder & Co’s Maple Salad Hands

I think that we can all agree that sometimes it’s the little things which make a meal special, and these solid Vermont maple ‘Salad Hands’ by Alder and Co. look like they could instigate a few appreciative comments from around the dinner table. For $34, they can handle your greens. Alder & Co. — Maple Salad Hands.

Quick Tip: Transcribe Audio and Video for FREE

Gear Bits

Quick Tip: Transcribe Audio and Video for FREE

Have you ever had a YouTube video or audio segment you wanted to transcribe but didn’t have the patience to sit and manually type out what the speaker/s said? I ran into just such a situation yesterday and, instead of it taking hours for me to listen, pause, type, listen, pause, type etc I was able to transcribe the two YouTube videos I needed in under ten minutes. Here’s how…

Fact or Crap: Super Bowl - Cancer - Proposal - Greedy Girlfriend Edition

Gear Bits

Fact or Crap: Super Bowl – Cancer – Proposal – Greedy Girlfriend Edition

This week I had to visit a company making equipment for a project I’m working on, and due to the locations of both of our companies, it was simply easier to do the 350 mile drive each way over the last couple of days. As a result – and also the result of the rental car not having any sort of MP3 player input jack, and me not bringing any CDs – I listened to a lot of radio. I heard angering stories about Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, Komen, and the state of financial literacy in our nation. I…

JumpFromPaper Bags Really DO Make Real Life Feel Like a Cartoon

Gear Bits

JumpFromPaper Bags Really DO Make Real Life Feel Like a Cartoon

Judie posted on these über-cool JumpFromPaper bags the other day. As she wrote, I loved the way “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988) and “Cool World” (1992) mixed cartoon elements into a real-world backdrop. I enjoyed the same effect as a kid, watching older Disney movies such as Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Song of the South. There’s just something quirky and irresistible about imagining a world where cartoons can come to life; anything can happen! The bags are the creation of design duo, Chay Su and Rika Lin. They have produced a line of travel, camera, laptop and general gear…

Mental Case Mac and iOS, a Study Tool That's Good for Everything from Tech to Bar Mitzvah!

Gear Bits

Mental Case Mac and iOS, a Study Tool That’s Good for Everything from Tech to Bar Mitzvah!

Last week Apple worked to make the iPad an even more important educational tool than it already is. The textbooks and their own publishing app Apple set the stage for some really huge increases in iPad-in-education adoption rates. The iPad as study tool is nothing new and one of the best educational apps for it has been around for some time. Mental Case is a flashcard creation and study tool for both Mac OS X and iOS. The Mac version of the app is $29.99 and can be found here. The iOS version is $4.99 and can be found here….

Tiny Tower: My Shameful Obsession

Gear Bits

Tiny Tower: My Shameful Obsession

Have you heard of Tiny Tower? Chances are you have, at least if you use an iOS device. It was named Apple’s 2011 Game of the Year, which is how I stumbled upon it while browsing the App Store. But now that I’ve discovered it, it has become my go-to game throughout the day. Worst of all, I’ve now gotten Sarah hooked on the Android version, despite the fact that neither of us can really point to what’s so exciting about the game! If you’re not super familiar with Tiny Tower, here’s the App Store description: Tiny Tower lets you…

Shootout! Touchscreen-Friendly Gloves - iTouch Touchscreen Gloves vs. Agloves

Gear Bits, News, Reviews

Shootout! Touchscreen-Friendly Gloves – iTouch Touchscreen Gloves vs. Agloves

Cold weather and touchscreen don’t go together. More accurately, they did not go together until now. Yes, if you use an iPhone, Android device, Windows Phone or tablet there are now a host of touchscreen-friendly glove options on the market. We take a look at two such offerings in this video. From iTouch Touchscreen 3 in 1 Gloves: Stay Warm and Stay Connected: iTouchTM Touchscreen Gloves with conductive yarn in the fingertips allow you to use your iPod, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, eReader Touch and other touchscreen devices without having to take your gloves off in the cold weather. Witness the…

WeWood Makes Wonderful Wearable Wooden Watches

Gear Bits

WeWood Makes Wonderful Wearable Wooden Watches

I love unique and quirky watches, and today I found some that definitely fits the bill. WeWood makes watches that are encased in different varieties of wood; each watch is a piece of art — almost guaranteed to get a second look!

Jerod Gibson's Wordy Art Prints Bring Movie Phrases to Life

Gear Bits

Jerod Gibson’s Wordy Art Prints Bring Movie Phrases to Life

Pulp Fiction One of the things I most love about certain movies are the iconic quotes they contain;  phrases like, “Bring out the Gimp!” from Pulp Fiction, “May the Force be with you.” from Star Wars, and “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” from Clerks. Say those words, and anyone whose seen the movie will immediately know which one you are talking about. So how could I not be intrigued by the text art created by Jerod Gibson?