Looks like Barnes and Noble has hit upon a new way to keep their NOOK business relevant, while still getting out of the costly hardware space — they’re partnering with Samsung to make NOOK branded Galaxy Tablets! This looks like a win for everyone. B&N will continue to sell tablets, and Samsung has a new avenue to showcase their products.
We recently received almost 5″ of rain at our house, and although we desperately needed it, the tradeoff was made in bugs, bug, and more bugs! No problem, though, as I had recently received a package from Stinger. Inside were their No Touch Fly Trap and their On-the-Go Zapper Racket. Bugs beware; I am now on the prowl!
After Apple’s iOS 8 preview at WWDC, I posed the following query to the Gear Diary Team: Carly: So for everyone who has used iOS and been using Android, or for those who have used both platforms…does iOS 8 make you want to jump back to iOS full time? Personally I think this looks like an awesome upgrade.
At this point the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is a bit “old”. Launched in April 2013, by Android standards it is an antique. And while we’ve seen many new Galaxy devices in the last 14 months, there’s been no new Note 8.0. The arrival of Android 4.4.2 KitKat on my WiFi version today made it a model worthy of 2014.
Temple Run was one of those unlikely successes – a simple ‘endless runner’ game that has you continuously running and trying to collect as many coins as possible before dying. It was the simplicity and easy charm that made the game quick to pick up and hard to put down. Now the game has passed 1 BILLION downloads!
In school systems across the country, arts programs are under budget attack – easy fodder in a system that is loaded with required functions and more attractive programs. Some schools still manage to provide arts education, and more efforts are being made to find alternative resources to fund these critical programs. The latest is Humble “Music in Schools” Bundle.
E3 2014 will bring more details about the highly anticipated new games for Sony’s PlayStation 4 console and Microsoft’s Xbox One console, while Nintendo looks towards the future and bolster their game library. We will also gear up for some exciting services, virtual reality games, the used game market, and independent sleeper hits.
Apple’s WWDC- World Worldwide Developers Conference- is the first chance we get to see what will be coming in the next versions of iOS and OS X. As usual we expect to get updates on sales numbers, store performance and more. We might even see new hardware today but… Who knows. We’ll have a summary of the news and more.
Buzzfeed is reporting that Amazon is planning on expanding their Prime offerings to include music as well as books, movies, and free shipping. This has been speculated before, and the terms (no music newer than 6 months) fits with the backlist strategy of the rest of Prime. It also shows who Amazon Prime is truly aimed at: digital dilettantes.
Just about a year ago, I reviewed Scurvy Scallywags for iOS systems, and summed it up as a “great game, great fun, great price”. The game is an innovative Match-3 / RPG Mash-Up designed by game industry veterans Ron Gilbert and Clayton Kauzlaric, and has just released on the Google Play store as a free game with in-app purchases.
When SimCity launched last year, it had ‘issues’ – bugs, online access problems, lack of ‘game’, and more – and the most common ‘solutions’ or suggestions? Go back and play SimCity 4. Released in 2003, it has remained the best city builder game for a decade, and now it is on GoG.com for only $4.99, 75% off!
Online link and content saver Pocket (formerly Read It Later) today unveiled a paid version for $5/mo or $44.99 / year which could be of interest to anyone who frequently saves web content for later review. Unlike the unpaid app version, the paid edition will automatically download linked pages and create permanent versions of content of links you’ve saved.
Whether you run at night or you just want to be seen in the dark, the iGlo Pulse headphones are the world’s first to “pulsate to the beat of your music using fiber optic technology.” Take calls, listen to your music, and enjoy hours of lights due to the headphone’s rechargeable battery. Available in either blue or green for $29.95.
Imagine that you are an astronaut, and after flying to the moon, you make it safely home. What kind of SWAG do you give a guy who completed a safe lunar mission? Why not the hand controller from his Apollo 15 flight? How much would something like that be worth? Astronaut Dave Scott just found out.
If you are in the market for a backpack that offers style, comfort, protection and flexibility, the booq Boa Flow Laptop Backpack is for you. It lets you carry and protect your laptop, DSLR, headphones and more. The flexible design and its great looks will immediately make it your favorite backpack ever. It may be perfect for my upcoming trip.
My main mobile mapping requirement these days is that whatever navigation app I use must be easy to operate, accurate, and socially connected. I’ve been trying Telenav’s Scout app; the more I dig in, the more I realize how handy it is, and I wonder what took me so long to try it. Is it perfect? No. But it’s close.
Introducing the latest in the over-exposed stars of Duck Dynasty lineup – $2.49 hanging auto freshener. This is a PER character price and you can’t specify your favorite but the company says they’ll try to give a variety if you order more than one. Scents include country vanilla and woodland musk and each character’s body pivots and bounces.
Telenav is announcing that their free Scout for iPhone app “will use the crowd-sourced and free OpenStreetMap (OSM) for all map data. OSM, the “Wikipedia of Maps,” offers users a more accurate and up-to-date map than what is available via commercial maps.” The OSM rollout starts today for some; all users will have it by the end of the week.
Evernote just topped 100 million users; that’s pretty impressive. Even more impressive is the fact that those 100 million users can be found in any of 190 different countries. Taken together, the two numbers speak to the fact that the popular and powerful service meets a truly international need; this milestone reminded me that many of us were early subscribers.
I absolutely love my Sony RX100 camera. It looks like a small point-and-shoot, but it takes amazing pictures thanks to its huge sensor and performance optics. Now Sony has announced a successor to the RX100s successor. The new Sony RX100 III will be arriving in June, and it offers a nice host of updates. At $800 it is pricey, though!
Titanfall: Expedition has released on PC and Xbox One! It’s the first of three planned downloadable content (DLC) packs ($9.99 each) on Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC with the base first-person shooter game Titanfall. Players get three new maps – Runoff, Swampland and War Games. Runoff features an industrial complex while Swampland explains itself plus War Games features special simulation situations.