We reviewed the Plantronics BackBeat and the BackBeat 2. Both stereo Bluetooth headsets impressed us with their sound, comfort and value. Now Plantronics has gone one step further and designed a light stereo Bluetooth headset that will make your workouts feel less like work. The Plantronics BackBeat FIT is impressive. It is comfortable, great sounding and ready for your workout.
LinkedIn today announced an expansion of their Influencer program that will now allow members to create longer form posts that exceed the standard 700 characters allotted regular members. This expanded feature now lets members to treat LinkedIn as a type of professional blog to showcase their technical knowledge. Posts become a part of their LinkedIn profile.
There’s no doubt that Nokia makes amazing phones. You may not like the operating system, but Nokia does a great job of bringing everything together into a very polished package. Their newest accessory is another “little thing” that makes Lumias better; the “Treasure Tag”, an NFC and Bluetooth-enabled accessory to insure you never lose your keys again.
According to researchers from security firm IOActive, the popular home automation product known as WeMo might be susceptible to some surprising security vulnerabilities. IOActive says a rogue user could remotely control attached devices, install malicious firmware, and remotely monitor your activities. The firm issued a critical security advisory recommending unplugging affected WeMo products.
For the true fan of music, genre doesn’t matter in appreciation of an iconic and legendary artist or group. This is true for Miles Davis, Beethoven, Michael Jackson, or the Allman Brothers Band. Alan Paul’s new book One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band seeks to illuminate their history for new and old fans alike!
If you ask anyone involved with electronic music during the digital age to name an instrument – it would be the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer drum machine. The sounds appear on countless songs from the last 30+ years, and vintage systems sell for steep prices. Now Roland is back with the Aira line that is both classic and modern.
Civil rights and courage go hand in hand. It takes courage to stand up and say “I am a gay man and I play football” like Michael Sam did just last week. He’s taking a risk with his career, challenging the internalized homophobia of professional sports, and he’s getting help from an unlikely source: Dallas sports anchor Dale Hansen.
Interesting quote of the day from BlackBerry CEO John Chen, who is quoted as implying that apps don’t matter, that BlackBerry could be the Porsche of smartphones. Does history teach people anything? Perhaps I’ve been dozing the past two years as BlackBerry market share has completely nose-dived – largely due to a lack of applications.
I’ve overall been quite pleased with my Lumia 928 Windows Phone. In fact, almost all of my complaints are hardware and not software related (the screen is far too fragile, and the phone has some earpiece issues). What I like about the software is that it’s constantly improving, and the new Nokia Black/Microsoft GDR3 update brings some excellent new features!
I like watches. It’s not as if I have a large collection of them, and it wasn’t until the last few years that I actually started taking an interest in fine time pieces. Before that, it was all about the functions … the gadget part of them, in other words.
Amazon reported quarterly earnings today, and revenues were $25.59 billion vs expected revenues of $26.06 billion. Sales were up 20% over 2013, however Amazon missed their revenue forecast which caused the stock to decline 10.6% after hours. Even though sales increased by a healthy margin, the stock market looks to the company’s ability to meet (or exceed) revenue goals.
Today we got confirmation that Google sold its money-losing Motorola handset business for about $3 billion to Lenovo. Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion a couple of years ago, then sold off the set-top box unit and now the handset division. With the sale Google retains many of the valuable Motorola patents it sought initially.
Apple announced its earnings yesterday, which featured loads of record-setting device sales numbers and revenue and profit figures so high they are hard to fathom. Even Mac sales saw a significant boost while the rest of the PC industry marked another double-digit declines. The one area not even mentioned? iPod sales, which continue their decline in a no-update year.
When was the last time you called a company and could barely understand the person on the other end. There’s a good chance the person was sitting in a crowded room with other people who were also speaking, and their headset was junk. The Jabra BIZ 2300 can fix that … and it won’t cost an arm or an ear.
With much of the country in the grip of some of the coldest weather we have experienced in years I thought of one thing: Do you have to go in to work? With current technologies allowing you to work almost anywhere with no issues are snow days a thing of the past? For myself and many like me that is the case.
If you participate in the emotional vortex that is called Valentine’s Day, and you have no idea where to start looking for original and meaningful gifts this year, then you’ll want to check out Oberon Design. They have added limited editions that include copious amounts of hearts and red-drenched leather.
If you were to ask my younger son about his most elusive piece of affordable technology, it would be the M-Audio Trigger Finger from 2005. The popular controller was used by all of his favorite music producers but was discontinued. Now it is back and better than ever with the M-Audio Trigger Finger Pro announced at NAMM 2014! Here is what M-Audio is saying: Trigger Finger Pro is a fully encompassed performance instrument and software control station in the form of a portable, 16-pad (4×4 configured) instrument with onboard sequencing. Nearly a decade ago, M-Audio revolutionized the industry by introducing…
I’ve loved video game trading site Goozex for more than 7 years since it launched in 2006. Initially it grew quickly as an alternative to paltry trade-ins handed out by GameStop or the cumbersome trade mechanics of early trade-site GameTZ. Goozex acted as middleman on millions of trades, but industry shifts doomed trading and now Goozex appears closed for good.
Kerry Woo, past Gear Diary writer and current street photographer extraordinaire, has just launched his first Kickstarter project — the aptly named “Take the Long Way Home”. His goal is to “document a rich pictorial history of America’s back roads, [and] upload the images online with professional printing and direct mailing to you” while driving cross-country from Seattle to Nashville. And now, in my words: Kerry is someone who I have never met in person, but over the ten or so years that we have been communicating online, he has become a dear friend. Kerry has always had a quirky…
If you use 123456 or password as your secure password – it’s time to stop (and change passwords). According to analysis of compromised password lists by Splashid password software these are the 25 worst passwords. Some are obvious – 00000000 anyone? – others are a little more obtuse – monkey?
2K and Bethesda will offer duo packs for players who missed Borderlands 2 and Dishonored or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and BioShock Infinite for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. These treasures will cost $29.99 each (North America only) and include the base games without any downloadable content (DLC). This special team-up team will release February 11, 2014.