Gear Bits

Exclusive: Fire Goes Mobile! This is Hot!

Gear Bits, News

Exclusive: Fire Goes Mobile! This is Hot!

Fire! It cooks our food and warms our caves. Fire! It keeps the predators away and let’s us see when the flaming ball of light goes away for a time. Fire! It can be hard to start and, once going, an ever-present job to keep stoked. Fire! We don’t want to live without it but living with it can be a pain. Until now! Yes, for the first time starting a fire is as simple as rubbing one magic stick on a piece of black paper. It is magical. It is revolutionary. It is the most important advance since flint….

First Look: I-Mate JAM Pocket PC

Gear Bits, News

First Look: I-Mate JAM Pocket PC

I have seen the future of mobile phones and it comes from… Dubai!?!? Yes, this phone comes from the up-and-comer I-mate, a company that is set to take the mobile world by storm and promises to be on top for decades to come. When I first took the Jam out of the box I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking at. Is it a big phone or is it a small computer? Well, in actuality it is both. The i-mate™ JAM is the smallest Windows Pocket PC available. It includes GPRS for Internet or remote office access, and features…

Would You Take the Beer or the iPad?

Gear Bits

Would You Take the Beer or the iPad?

screenshot from of the Eldorado Success 03/31/11 digital edition One of the joys of living in a small town is that the local paper publishes the police blotter every week; it’s always good for an unintentional chuckle, because some of the things people call 911 for are things you would never see in a larger city. Whether it be a black bull loose on the side of the road at the county line, hit and run doorbell ringing, or people who call for help but then refuse to say what they need — there’s always something sure to raise an…

Random Creepy Stuff: 'Cloud Girlfriend' Provides a Virtual Girlfriend for Social Networks

Gear Bits

Random Creepy Stuff: ‘Cloud Girlfriend’ Provides a Virtual Girlfriend for Social Networks

Oh the shame – you have to set your relationship status on Facebook to ‘Single’. What will your friends think? How can you possibly cope?!? Fear no more – a new company called Cloud Girlfriend promises to help you out with a simple four-step process: Step 1: Define your perfect girlfriend. Step 2: We bring her into existence. Step 3: Connect and interact with her publicly on your favorite social network. Step 4: Enjoy a public long distance relationship with your perfect girl. However, as the AOLNews article notes: Facebook’s Terms of Service agreement strictly prohibits computer controlled accounts, which…

Flashback to Grad School, or “I Wrote My Thesis with That?”

Gear Bits

Flashback to Grad School, or “I Wrote My Thesis with That?”

Kayla’s rant about iPads and her description of college tech was striking to me. She ASSUMED (accurately) that anyone going to college these days has a computer. Yup, access to a computer isn’t a luxury for students these days, it is a necessity. (As she then goes on to point out, iPads, on the other hand, are luxuries.) It got me thinking about my own college days. When I was working on my undergraduate degree we had a room in each dorm with four or five computers. For the most part they were used for math and science calculations rather…

‘Easy Calendar’ iPhone App Makes Adding Appointments Easy

Gear Bits

‘Easy Calendar’ iPhone App Makes Adding Appointments Easy

I have a confession to make-I rarely make my own appointments. No, whenever I schedule something new for myself I usually mess things up and end up double-booking or, worse, not properly saving the date and then not showing up at all. My strategy to avoid this? My awesome, amazing assistant. I know it sounds lame but by working through her I rarely, if ever, mess up my schedule. There are, however, times when I do need to add my own appointment and, when that happens, I curse my iPhone. Seriously, why is it so hard to make new appointments…

TrueCar.com's Top 10 Apps to Help Save Money on Gas

Gear Bits, Vehicles & Gear

TrueCar.com’s Top 10 Apps to Help Save Money on Gas

For those of you not fortunate enough to be taking advantage of the latest automotive technology whilst behind the wheel, online sites and blogs are offering their advice on how to squeeze as much value out of a gallon of fuel as possible, be that by recommending to combine trips and map out the shortest route prior to cranking the engine, or by directing you to the lowest price of fuel for that day. And do not forget that hauling around extra weight just adds to decreased fuel economy so get rid of excessive “junk in your trunk” and see…

Losing a Cell Phone and Finding Honest People

Gear Bits

Losing a Cell Phone and Finding Honest People

“Uh…I can’t find my phone…” is not something anyone wants to discover. It’s especially upsetting when you’re in the airport at 5:3o in the morning and your wife just realized she left her smartphone somewhere between the car and the gate. Uh-oh… That was us on Friday morning. It was not good, since we were flying to Florida and already through security, and neither of us was sure where Sarah had left her Incredible. I tried calling it on the off-chance it was in her jacket pocket, but it rang and rang and went to voicemail. Then we brainstormed and…

Gear Diary Rave: Gomadic

Gear Bits

Gear Diary Rave: Gomadic

I’ve been a fan of Gomadic chargers for several years. Like many of the other Gear Diary writers, I like to switch devices frequently, but replacing desk chargers, car chargers, sync cables, etc., for each gadget gets to be pretty expensive pretty quickly. With Gomadic’s “tip exchange” technology, you keep the same charging cable, but change the tip at the end where it connects to the device.  Here’s how they describe their products: Don’t lug around cords for all of your devices. Buy one Gomadic cable, from retractable USBs to double car chargers and you’re set for years. Simply buy…

Sampling the YouTube Way

Gear Bits

Sampling the YouTube Way

Here’s an amazing example of what you can do it you scour YouTube, have some decent video editing skills and a lot of time. This video was made entirely of YouTube videos that Ophir Kutiel, aka ‘Kutiman’, found on the net. He took a little of this and a little of that and, in the end, created what you see below — a FrankenVideo. It is pretty amazing and worth a couple of minutes. Via TechCrunch

Random Cool Image: Figure Out the Movie Titles!

Gear Bits

Random Cool Image: Figure Out the Movie Titles!

Do you love math? Love movies? Love puzzles? Well, time to shake those cobwebs out of your brains and figure out what movies each of these mathematical images represents! Can you figure them all out? Make your guesses in the comments! Source: geeks.thedailywh.at via BuzzFeed

Tweet Like a Pro, Chip Chick Shows You How

Gear Bits

Tweet Like a Pro, Chip Chick Shows You How

Twitter, so young and unassuming not long ago, is all grown up. Now it has millions of followers, has help start revolutions, has kept people in touch during disasters and more. Yup, Twitter is no longer just about “OMG, I just had the most delicious ribs at Outback Steakhouse”. Yes, Twitter has matured and so have the apps that let you use it. There are lots and lots of offerings out there but which are best? Our friend Zara from ChipChick has some great suggestions. Some, like TweetDeck are likely familiar while others, such as twunfollow and Twistory may be…

NCAA® March Madness on Demand

Gear Bits

NCAA® March Madness on Demand

My newest project at work is fast paced and high pressure … but it is a great team that is loads of fun! One of the engineers on the team is a maniac about March Madness – so naturally we are all on-board with our brackets! Adding to the fun is the ability for me to grab my iPad and tune into whatever game I want wirelessly. How? NCAA® March Madness® On Demand! Better still – it is FREE! Watch every game of NCAA® March Madness® LIVE on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad! NCAA® March Madness On Demand® gives…

Bent Objects: What Happens When an Artist Is Given a Bit of Wire and a Few Household Items

Gear Bits

Bent Objects: What Happens When an Artist Is Given a Bit of Wire and a Few Household Items

My friend Holley just forwarded an email that’s making the rounds; maybe you got it, too. It shows the art of Terry Border, the artistic genius behind Bent Objects. Some of the pictures are cute… Modest pear … some are silly … Paper training our little dog, Frank … and some are creepy! You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato. You Say Potatoes, I say Zombies. Zombies are nuts about brains Zombies! =) I am now officially a fan, and I’ve bookmarked his site. I bet that you’ll want to, too! Bent Objects

Building the Perfect Drink Just Got Easier with Palette Coasters

Gear Bits

Building the Perfect Drink Just Got Easier with Palette Coasters

When we are up in the country we all have our “roles”. Elana is the “food maven”. Her dad, when he is up, is the “grill master”. As for me… well I tend bar. 🙂 Over the years I’ve collected a nice selection of different barware. Margaritas have their glasses, martinis have theirs and the list goes on. Having the right glass for the right drink just makes everything a bit more festive. Same goes for the coaster the glass sits on. And these “palette coasters”… They look kinda fun. Yes, these simple but amusing coasters do their job but…

Call of Duty and C.O.D.E. Help Educate our Vets

Game Diary, Gear Bits

Call of Duty and C.O.D.E. Help Educate our Vets

Image courtesy of ClubLakers. Thanks Kobe. It’s always good to see organizations so willing to support our troops and veteran soldiers, and it’s even better to be a part of it yourself. After returning from a conflict or war, sometimes soldiers need help gaining their civilian life back and often times need to find new employment. Call of Duty Endowment is a program spearheaded by Activision Blizzard to increase awareness for our veteran soldiers. CODE often aids with large grants and donations that assist troops in getting back on their feet. We all know the video game Call of Duty…

eBooks Really Are Getting Cheaper!

eBooks, Gear Bits

eBooks Really Are Getting Cheaper!

Over at Teleread, they have a very interesting, if unscientific, analysis of eBook pricing over the years. By taking prices from 2004 and comparing them to prices today, Chris Walters determined that there has been a slight drop in overall pricing, even if it doesn’t feel that way with the Agency Model taking away $9.99 price points! In a nutshell, Chris argues that the same books bought for $280 in 2004 would cost $213 today. Yes, it’s a subjective analysis, but as a random sampling, it’s somewhat helpful. And he further points out that the average price for fiction titles…

On the Eve of iPad 2...

Editorials, Gear Bits

On the Eve of iPad 2…

Posted January 29, 2010 So here we are on the eve of the iPad 2 release. The anticipation of the release of the iPad 2 prompted me to go back and look at some early posts we did on the iPad over a year ago. I hate to say it, but I think we largely nailed it early on. (OK, actually I don’t hate to say it… We pretty much nailed it early on! Yes, we knew this was going to be an amazing device from the moment El Jobso introduced it.) At the time of the initial announcement, we…