Gear Bits

Six Degrees of Musical Separation

Last night I was listening to my iPod touch and an awesome song came on that I had never heard. I looked up the name and it turns out it was “All the World” from the self-titled album Fauxliage. Having never heard of the group I did a quick Wikipedia search of the band. This is what I found: Fauxliage is a musical project made by members of the Canadian electronic music group Delerium (which, in turn, is made up largely of members of the seminal industrial band Front Line Assembly) and Leigh Nash in 2007. The vocals are performed…

Gear Bits

Slix – You Get What You Pay for Even with Underwear

I just spent more than I ever imagined to get a week’s worth of Slix socks, undershirts and briefs and I’m glad I did. They are, by far, the most comfortable undergarments I have ever worn and are worth every penny. Let me back up a bit and explain. Last January I was getting ready for my SCOTTEVEST No Baggage Challenge for Charity to benefit the Haiti Plunge. I knew I needed things that would be super comfortable, wash easily and dry fast since I was only bringing one change of clothing for the entire week. I hunted around…

Gear Bits

Living under a Rock? Nope, under a Bubble

At times I’ve been told I live under a rock. Maybe I do sometimes but its nice and quiet there. 🙂 And it sure beats living in a bubble doesn’t it? Well maybe not. Check out this bubble hut, the Crystalbubble. Its shape …was voluntarily designed with the goal to offer a dreamy space without disturbing the nature and the environment. The hut and its walls were reduced at their minimum. Cristalbubble hut is both suited to spend an unusual night in the nature and taking advantage of a multifunction life space all year long, even at the bottom of…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: Wal-Mart Exits the MP3 Business!

It has been an amazing story – Apple burst onto the MP3 store scene when competing MP3 players were in place and markets were already emerging, and yet within a couple of years you would have thought that they invented the entire category. Yet a few years later as Amazon and later Wal-Mart entered the MP3 marketplace, many thought that both retailers’ reputation for low-price sales would mean the end of dominance for Apple. Of course that never happened, and Amazon has desperately struggled for market share, to the point of taking millions of dollars in losses giving away the…

Gear Bits, Reviews

A Gear Diary Video Look at… iPad 2 Keyboard Cases

We’re still in search of a name for this video series but, name or not, we are putting together a few more videos in the mean time. This time out we take a look at a couple of keyboard cases that are specially designed to work with the iPad 2. We look at the M.I.C. Keyboard Buddy for iPad 2 and the Adonit Writer for iPad 2($99). We also make mention of the Logitech Keyboard case by Zagg for iPad 2 ($99), the Apple Wireless Keyboard ($69) and the Waterfield Keyboard Travel Express ($49).

Editorials, Gear Bits

Soft-Touch Cases and Suntan Lotion Do Not Mix: A Gear Diary PSA

I love a minimalist iPhone case with a soft touch feel. among my favorites are the Feather cases from Incipio. I have one for my iPhone 4 and I also bought one for my iPad 2. They look and feel great. Here’s what Incipio has to say about them: Measuring less than 1mm in thickness, the feather® for iPhone 4 is a slim, form-fitting case that offers low-profile protection. Don’t like feeling the added bulk of a traditional case? Go lightweight and sexy with the feather®. With the largest variety of color selections to choose from, the feather® is the…

Gear Bits

BlueAnt Embrace Stereo Headphones First Look

We first saw BlueAnt’s upcoming stereo headphones back at CES. (Our CES roundup of BlueAnt’s products can be found here.) Here’s what the company has to say about them- Music The Way It Was Meant To Be Heard True-To-Life Sound: Due to the flat frequency response of our highly optimised drivers, the BlueAnt EMBRACE enhances your mobile entertainment experience by offering the absolute best sound that is not artificially manipulated. The headphones provide a listening experience that is true-to-life and enables users to adjust EQ settings to match their personal preferences. Absolute Best Sound: The EMBRACE offers the absolute best…

Gear Bits

Is There Anything You Can’t Do in an Apple Store?!

Sure, there are always people hanging around checking their email and surfing the web at the Apple Store. And apparently, they’re fairly permissive about small dogs and other pets. But one comedian, Mark Malkoff, really wanted to see how far he could push Apple retail and videotaped some of his more entertaining attempts to push the envelope. These were really funny, but trust me when I tell you there are some sure-fire ways to get kicked out of an Apple Store, or any retail store, but they wouldn’t be as funny to videotape. But here’s a few easy ones: 1)…

Gear Bits

More Cool Tech from the Beach- Apple TV Edition

We just spent a couple of nice days at a small boutique hotel on the Jersey Shore. As I mentioned the other day the Bungalow Hotel has a few neat pieces of tech at play. There’s the RFID room-key I mentioned the other day as well as their use of an HP Touchscreen All-In-One computer at the front desk. And there’s this… The hotel information mentions that each room has a “DVD Library”. We checked in and found… no DVD’s. A closer look did reveal a movie “collection” but not in the manner we have all come to…

Gear Bits

Listen Up Hotels, Near Field Communication Room Keys are Here and They are Awesome

Elana and I are at our third stop on our “Jersey Shore Road Trip”. This time we are staying at a cute little boutique hotel just a block from the beach. The hotel was designed by Bob and Cortney Novogratz, owners of the NYC based design firm, Sixx Design, and stars of Bravo’s docu-series “9 by Design.”. It is a rather cool place that has some great design elements and some pretty neat tech built into it. The first that caught my eye was the key system that is used to access the elevator and open the room door. Before…

Gear Bits

The Brave New (App) World

It is truly an iOS world. Need proof? Elana and I are out to dinner on the Jersey shore and Elana comes back from speaking to the front desk with… Yes, the restaurant has its own app and has cards advertising it at the front desk. And to top it off the musician playing the background music had his sheet music right in front of him. Well sheet music isn’t quite right… No, his first gen iPad was held in the microphone stand and between songs he could be seen swiping the touchscreen to get to the next tune! It…

Editorials, Gear Bits

Gear Talk: iPad 2 Case Roundup

We’ve long been talking about starting a Gear Diary Video Podcast and saw this weekend as a great opportunity to kick it off. In this first “episode” we talk iPad 2 cases. Below the video you’ll find links to our reviews of most of the cases we discuss. Powis iCase for iPad 2 booqpad iPad 2 Agenda for iPad 2 Aviiq SmartCase for iPad 2 The Joy Factory SmartGrip 2 The Joy Factory SmartSuit 2 for iPad 2 Yoobao Executive Genuine Leather Case for iPad 2 XtremeMac TuffWrap Shine for iPad 2 The Orbino Padova for iPad 2

Gear Bits, News

Scientists Create Implantable Memory, or the Dollhouse Cometh

I recently came across a brief news item about “memory jello”, essentially electronic components that can be placed in the human brain. Hopefully, these have non-nefarious uses, such as assisting people with brain injuries to recover, but if you watched the short-lived “Dollhouse” series, you would likely walk away with a different impression. Dollhouse was a show that took the concept of implantable memory to a whole new level. In it, “Actives” were people whose brains had been wiped clean, and could be “rented” by someone with the right amount of money. The rented “Active” had memories implanted to fit…

Gear Bits

OS X Lion’s AirDrop- First Experience with it Explains Why it Rocks

One of the features that will arrive with OS X Lion later this week is AirDrop. AirDrop makes it possible to quickly and simply share files with someone on your local network. Personally I didn’t see much of the point… until just now. Judie and I are both working on our Macbook Airs here in NJ. My 13″ has an SD slot while her 11″ Air doesn’t. (And boy oh boy has she been complaining whining about that fact!) She took some pictures for a review and wanted to get them on her computer. At first we were going to…

Gear Bits, News

Androids in SPAAAAAACE!

image courtesy Brighthand When the alien invaders arrive, they’ll no doubt swing by the International Space Station for a quick rest stop before invading Earth. Let’s hope they’re fans of open source software and not iOS fans since they’ll find Samsung Nexus S phones powering several satellites there. According to Brighthand: SPHERES were created by a group of undergraduate students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in conjunction with the Department of Defense and NASA, in 1999. Present on the International Space Station since 2006, SPHERES are individual satellites self-contained with propulsion, power, navigation and computing. Each SPHERE was designed with an…

Gear Bits, News

Sonos + Spotify = Even More Music Throughout the House

Despite using MOG quite a bit recently (It replaced RDIO for me.) I’m still a huge Slacker Radio fan. I like the interface, the customization and the catalogue. And now that you can cache music AND selectively grab tracks or albums it is just awesome. Unfortunately it still doesn’t integrate with my Sonos audio system so, at home at least, it is either MOG or Pandora. Hopefully I’ll have yet another choice before the day is out. Spotify went live in the US this morning and I’m waiting for my invite to arrive so I can try out the long-awaited…

Gear Bits

Unboxing the Toshiba Thrive Android 3.1 Tablet

Yeah, I did it. I picked up the new Toshiba Thrive Android 3.1 Honeycomb Tablet. I’m just starting to check it out, but here is a quick unboxing video. More later…

Gear Bits

The Circle of Technological Life, or, RIP Kindle 1

(while not actually our bedroom, a pretty close approximation) This is the conversation that used to go on in my house a few years ago: Me: Hey Sarah, would you like me to buy you a Kindle? Sarah: No, I don’t need one, look, I have all these books piled up on my nightstand. This is the conversation that went on earlier this year: Me: Hey Sarah, would you like me to buy you a Kindle? Sarah: No, I don’t need one, but can I borrow your old Kindle once in a while? This was the conversation a few weeks…

Gear Bits

Jackson Pollock … Physicist?

I have always loved the art of Jackson Pollock. What for many is the epitome of all that is wrong with abstract art, I find the opposite – I see deep inferences drawn in the lines strewn on the canvas. Yeah … there is something wrong with me – or is it the statistician in me seeing the beauty of physics at work? A recent study published in Physics Today looks at the scientific nature of Pollock’s unique painting techniques using quantitative analysis and finds surprising results: “My own interest,” said Mahadevan, “is in the tension between the medium —…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: Spotify Opens ‘Sign Up For Invite Page’ … U.S. Launch Imminent!

I have written much about Spotify, including this hands-on I did a while back. But the time is fast approaching for everyone to get their own chance to try out the service! Today Spotify opened up a ‘Sign Up for an Invite’ page, touting ‘We’re coming to the U.S.’ and offering a lucky few to be among the first to try out the service! So don’t delay – head to Spotify and register your email address for an invite!

Editorials, Gear Bits, Music Diary

The New America: Jazz Legend Has Payment Blocked Because His Name Sounds ‘Muslim-y’

The name Ahmad Jamal has popped up here a couple of times. He was playing at the Newport Jazz Festival last August which was broadcast live via webcast, and then I also mentioned his Live at Pershing recording as one of few records I remember from my dad’s music collection (not that I remember him ever playing it). Ahmad Jamal was born Frederick Russell Jones in 1930, and changed his name in 1952 when he converted to the Islamic religion. His recordings have been extremely influential both inside and outside of Jazz. His most famous and direct influence was on…

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