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…

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…

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….

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…

Gear Bits, News & Features, 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…

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!

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?

Gear Bits

Old Cables to the Rescue!

I wrote yesterday about my first impressions of the Case-Mate Phantom for the iPhone 4s, and I pointed out that it was new and therefore in the “new accessory honeymoon phase”. Last night I discovered a potential issue, but luckily for me, the legacy of the original iPhone came to the rescue! See, the original iPhone had a very recessed headphone jack. It fit normal 3.5in headphones, but only if they had a very slim plug design. Anything not supermodel-skinny didn’t fit. Of course accessory manufacturers stepped right up, and when I had my original iPhone I used a $10…

Gear Bits, How to Do It Yourself!, Music Diary

A Few Cool iTunes Match and iTunes Cloud Things to Remember

Having used iTunes Match along with iTunes in the Cloud for the last few months, I have developed a few habits that I don’t even realize are new anymore! This weekend I gave my younger son my 4th gen iPod Touch to use as his own, as he was constantly pushing beyond the limits of his 8GB iPod Touch that was the pseudo 3rd gen that was really a 2nd gen model holdover. Since I almost never use it, I had no qualms since I’d rather it actually get used than sit idle. But while going through things with him…

Gear Bits

Starbucks Asks: Venti, Grande, Tall, or Cabernet Sauvignon?

Sure, you hit your local Starbucks for coffee, morning after bleary-eyed morning. And maybe on weekends, you sit with the paper and a nice latte, people watching and catching up on the news. Pretty soon you’ll be able to add happy hour to the list! Starbucks is adding alcohol to several stores as a test run, which in theory sounds like an intriguing idea. After dinner drinks like “Irish coffee” would be a great fit for a cafe. But according to Bloomberg, Starbucks is apparently aiming for the after-work drinkers: Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop…

Gear Bits

Wait … YouTube Has HOW MANY Daily Visits?

When someone mentions a song I want to check out or something from my past, I turn to iTunes or Rdio or perhaps Slacker Premium. My kids? YouTube, YouTube and YouTube. And apparently that is the trend according to Reuters, which has exclusive data from YouTube claiming 4 BILLION daily views! Here is some of the article: YouTube, Google Inc’s video website, is streaming 4 billion online videos every day, a 25 percent increase in the past eight months, according to the company. The jump in video views comes as Google pushes YouTube beyond the personal computer, with versions of…

Gear Bits, Travel

Looking for a Deal on That Flight? Book Six Weeks in Advance, New Study Says

Buying flights has NEVER been fun – you know that no matter what you are losing out somehow … that somewhere on the same plane someone else paid less than you. And through the years there have been numerous strategies for getting the cheapest rates … and for avoiding too many of the add-on fees that seem to increase each year in number and cost! Now according to a study by the Airlines Reporting Corp. at the L.A. Times the latest strategy: shop six weeks in advance. Here is a section of the article: Passengers can get the lowest airfares…

Game Diary, Gear Bits

The Most Pirated Video Games of 2011!

The #1 excuse/reason given for game publishers not putting out games for the PC is … piracy. People downloading and playing their games without paying. And there is no disputing that piracy is a HUGE issue for PC publishers, but the reason I call it an ‘excuse’ is that time and again we are seeing publishers who say that the PC is also a great place to make money DESPITE piracy. Anyway, TorrentFreak recently put out their list of the top games tracked on BitTorrent in 2011. Here are the most pirates games for PC, Wii and XBOX360: Top PC…

Gear Bits

Cool Infographic: The World of Mobile Phones

With CES this week, there is even more focus on the state of mobile technology than usual. So I enjoyed browsing this cool infographic from SoMobile.com. Here are a few details: Having gathered a number of statistics from around the world, our infographic also reveals that around 2.7 million SMS messages are sent in China every day, which is no doubt why 70 percent of Chinese mobile users – all 666,120,000 of them – admit they simply “couldn’t live” without their mobile. In Russia, it seems as if people can’t live without one or more handsets – with each person…

Events, Gear Bits, News & Features

FashionWare Fashion Show And Gear Diary Is There

Last night at CES featured the Fashionware Fashion Show which featured a showcase of wearable technologies including solar powered backpacks, sophisticated mobile phones and netbooks, and fashion powered by light or movement, climate changing gear, and more. Here is their description of the show: FashionWare captures the excitment of the new wearable and sensor-based technologies combined with style and sophistication. Our approach is to mix the traditional fashion show runway with education about how high tech is transforming fashion. Targeting fashion afficionados and technologists,some of the outfits are future-tense and some are available today. The outfits are accessorized by some…

Events, Gear Bits, Yum Log

IcePan Ice Cream: Made in a Pan Right Before Your Eyes

On the way back from a meeting at the Wynn Hotel we passed by a small kiosk for IcePan. IcePan is ice cream that is made right in front of you while you watch. It is never put into an ice-cream maker but, instead, is made using a pan kept at 35 degrees below zero. (Yeah, it is cold.) We shot a video of it being made so, without further ado… I scream, you scream, we all scream for IcePan Cream. (Yeah, I went there.)

Events, Gear Bits, News & Features

Adobe Debuts Photoshop Lightroom 4 Public Beta on Adobe Labs

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom provides a powerful set of tools with a singular focus: making our photos look amazing. In the past Adobe has opened up their ‘lab’ and allowed early access to in-development tools to a limited audience. Now Adobe is opening up their Lightroom 4 beta to EVERYONE! It is a great opportunity to get a peek at the upcoming version of one of the most powerful photo editors available. Here are some of the new features: Lightroom 4 beta is a major software update adding a broad range of new capabilities based on feedback provided by the photography…

Events, Gear Bits

Here’s an Original Use for the BenQ GP2

While visiting with Texas Instruments DLP PICO, we discovered that they had a familiar product — the BenQ GP2 — set up to do something we thought was pretty mind-blowing … So you set an iPhone in the BenQ’s cradle, and then you can use another iPhone or an iPod touch (connected by WiFi) as a gaming remote control, with the action being displayed on the wall for everyone to see. That’s a pretty cool and offbeat use for what might otherwise seem like a very straightforward piece of equipment. What do you think? =) BenQ GP2

Game Diary, Gear Bits

Marvel: Avengers Alliance coming to Facebook

The Avengers Superhero media assault begins with a preview video for the new upcoming Facebook game, Marvel: Avengers Alliance.

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Random Cool Video: Daft Punk ‘Derezzed’ on Floppy Disks

Image courtesy abduzeedo OK, so making music on floppy drives is now ‘a thing’. Which is actually kind of cool for those of us who remember floppy drive sounds and feeling like there was a certain musical aspect to them. For myself and my family, the best part of the movie Tron: Legacy was the great soundtrack by Daft Punk. And so since Tron: Legacy is very much a machine-based movie inside a computer, it is quite appropriately that the ‘floppy disk’ treatment is applied! Here is Derezzed: Source: Neatorama

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Some of the Most Amazing Ukeleles Come from Celentano Woodworks

yes, that’s a ukelele! I don’t play the ukelele, but I do remember a couple of days spent learning how to tune one back in third grade music class; “My dog has feas“, anyone? When I think of the ukelele, this is one of the first images that pops into my head … umbrella drinks, anyone? via NY Daily News Followed by this one … Oh Myyyyyy! =P I have no intention of picking up a new hobby, even if Eddie Vedder has deemed the ukelele cool enough to release an entire album full of and entitled Ukelele Songs. And…

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