News & Features | Gear Diary

News & Features December 21, 2012

Pocket Informant Continues to Shine and Adds New Updates and Bug Fixes

I am about to head to my first CES experience in just a few short weeks, and already I have learned something very important: the schedule is an absolute beast. Everyone wants to meet, there are only a few short days, and juggling all those commitments is going to be rough. Luckily, I am not leaning on the anemic iOS calendar to handle all this, but I have the always amazing Pocket Informant to help me out! There are a few reasons why I recommend Pocket Informant as a more robust calendar and tasks option. One, it’s far, far easier…

News & Features December 20, 2012

Pique your [P]Interest

Did you know that if you run out of AA batteries, you can use AAA ones and fill the gap with foil? Did you know adding baking powder into your baby’s bath can help relieve diaper rash? Do you want to learn how to make homemade gel ice packs? Do you want a recipe for garlic cheese bread? Do you enjoy looking at cute pictures of fluffy animals? Are you interested in learning how to make an eternity scarf? These are just a few things that Pinterest has to offer. Pinterest is like Facebook, Twitter, and Evernote all in one…

Game Diary, News & Features December 19, 2012

Bike Baron on iOS Gets an Update and a Sale Price!

Remember my Minigore 2: Zombies post where I told you that Bike Baron is one of my favorite games on iOS, ever? Well, it was just updated to version 3.0 and it got even better! Bike Baron is in the “physics motorcycle race” genre. Did I just make that up? There are four buttons: Left, Right, Stop, Go. You lean back and forth and use the gas and brakes to make your way through over 100 different levels and 300 challenges. The premise is simple, the game itself, is not. Once you get into the Hard and Extreme levels, the…

News & Features December 19, 2012

New Wheel of Fortune App for iOS and Android Launched to Help Celebrate 30th Wheel of Fortune Season!

“WHEEL…OF…FORTUNE!” Whenever I hear that phrase, I start to salivate a bit. Yes, I’m sure there are a lot of brows creasing as they read that second sentence, but bear with me, as it was the result of inadvertent Pavlovian conditioning. Back in the late 20th century, when I was but a college student, the local radio station would play an NPR segment followed by the audio broadcast of Wheel of Fortune from a local TV station. Due to my schedule proctoring organic chemistry labs, the timing of these two broadcasts generally coincided with my dinner. I’d often eat in…

Gear Bits, News & Features December 18, 2012

Apple Releases iOS 6.0.2 Software Update to Fix iPhone 5, iPad Mini WiFi Bug

I wrote here about the iOS 6 WiFi bug that seemed particularly bad on the iPad Mini. Well, things haven’t improved, and many folks have been struggling with WiFi on their iPad Mini and iPhone 5 since release. For me, I managed to work around everything, but then last week suddenly I couldn’t connect to my home WiFi network but the rest of my vast sea of devices were fine. A couple of calls and the iPad Mini was in a box headed back to Apple … now I wonder if all I needed was this update. For the sake…

News & Features December 16, 2012

The iPad Smart Case – Smart Protection for Your iPad Tablet

Photo courtesy of Apple.com The iPad Smart Case is a great way to protect your iPad without the added weight and bulk of other cases. Similar to the original iPad Smart Cover, the iPad Smart Case contains a magnet that automatically wakes the iPad upon opening and puts it to sleep when closing, helping to preserve your battery power. It can be configured to hold the iPad low to the desk to write emails or work on presentations or more upright to view movies and video clips. Transforming the cover into the stand takes some practice, as the flaps don’t…

News & Features December 16, 2012

Could This Be the Alternative to CAPTCHA That You Never Knew You Wanted?

You know those human verification challenges that pop up when you try to buy a ticket on Ticketmaster or complete some sort of online registration form? The ones that show you the image of scrambled text and you have to decipher the secret code in order to continue. They are all over the web, and they can be seriously annoying. Sometimes, the code is impossible to figure out because the image is too blurred. Sometimes, the challenge includes a character that doesn’t even exist on your keyboard! They often take multiple attempts and it’s been said that these challenges can…

Game Diary, News & Features December 15, 2012

Deepworld Is Available for iOS now!

Hello again iPad gaming fans, I’m here to give you a quick tip; kind of like when your doctor tells you that you should exercise more often. Check out Deepworld, out now on the iTunes for free. It’s a 2D minecraft-type sandbox MMO game that focuses a lot on its hand-drawn art and a cool steampunk vibe. Also, did I mention that the game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world? Its true. You mine different kinds of ore blocks in order to build various items like doors, chairs, lanterns, and many, many more, all of which help you to survive…

News & Features December 13, 2012

Twelve South Releases the BookBook for iPad mini

I love my iPad mini. I love my Twelve South BookBook. Now I can bring my favorite tablet together with one of my favorite tablet accessories thanks to the new Twelve South BookBook for iPad mini. Here’s the news in the company’s own words. Twelve South is proud to introduce the latest BookBook volume – BookBook for iPad mini. Conceived exclusively for the smallest iPad, BookBook for iPad mini is a compact, genuine leather case that discreetly protects iPad mini from dings, scratches and sometimes even theft. New features include a spine that allows users to hold their iPad mini…

Gear Bits, News & Features December 13, 2012

It Has Now Been 25 Years Since the ‘Red Square Landing’

Could you imagine if tomorrow a small single-engine plane landed on the White House lawn? Well, imagine a German teen landing on Red Square at the heart of Soviet Moscow. For those of us old enough to remember, it was stunning. Stunning that he did it … and stunning that he wasn’t shot on sight. In 1987 a West German teenager shocked the world, by flying through Soviet air defences to land a Cessna aeroplane in Red Square. He was jailed for more than a year – but a quarter of a century later, he has no regrets. Here are…

News & Features December 13, 2012

The Ceton infiniTV 4 – The Better Way to Watch TV

Photo courtesy of Cetoncorp.com If you’re like most Americans, I’ll bet you watch TV on occasion. Probably more than occasionally. In my household, we watch TV everyday. We have hours upon hours of shows that we record on the DVR and we don’t want to be tethered to just one TV in the house. If you’re like me, you have a multi-room HD DVR hooked up so that you can record shows on one cable box and watch them throughout your house. You can watch the game in one room and your wife can watch last night’s installment of Honey…

News & Features December 13, 2012

Google Maps Has Returned to the App Store for the iPhone!

What to my wondering eyes should appear, but Google Maps for iOS, with turn by turn so dear! Yes, that’s right. Yesterday Google Maps was reintroduced into the Apple App store, so now your supported iOS device of choice can now (re)enjoy Google Maps to your heart’s content. Many users were very unhappy with the removal of Google Maps with iOS 6, and the problems with Apple’s own Maps app. There is now cause for holiday rejoicing as enthusiasts can hop over to the App store and install their new, improved copy today to get to where they need to…

News & Features December 13, 2012

Even More Arrested Development Coming Soon!

I have a few shows I really love. When I’m home sick, nothing makes me feel better like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon. But there’s one show I can watch over and over and over, that never stops being funny, and that seems to have new jokes even when I can’t remember how many times I’ve watched it: Arrested Development! So needless to say, I am beyond excited at the latest news about the Netflix revival of the series. Not only is it coming back via Netflix, which we’ve known for a while, there was just so much good…

News & Features December 13, 2012

ArchetypeMe Makes Finding New Content Fun and Personal

Finding new things to read online can be remarkably difficult. Everyone has their “usual” websites, via RSS, or Flipboard, or Twitter. And there are sites like Stumbleupon that give you fun random ideas. But it can be hard to set the parameters for new sources just right — either you’re looking in too broad an area, or you get so focused on a narrow niche that you miss out on finding anything new and different. That’s where ArchetypeMe.com steps in to make your morning news and coffee routine that much more interesting. What is ArchetypeMe? It’s an approach to content…

News & Features December 13, 2012

Knomo’s iPad mini Folio Looks Lovely

Knomo, makers of some of the more sophisticated laptop bags I’ve seen, has just introduced their newest accessory, the iPad mini Folio. Available in black, cognac, and red (or rather — teaberry), the iPad mini Folio is composed of “full-grain leather and tough moulded plastic”. Some of its features, beyond being slim and protective, are that it “can be used in 3 ways: to protect your iPad on the move, opened into upright position for viewing movies, folded into raised position for typing.” The form-fitted rubberized case provides easy access to the iPad mini’s headphone jack and speaker, as well as…

News & Features December 9, 2012

A Dodo Mini for the iPad Mini

I’ve been debating whether to get an iPad Mini. So far, I’ve been able to hold off on what is likely inevitable. All of the new iPad Mini accessories are not helping, however. Take, for example, Exhibits A and B, DODOcases bookbound cases and Durables Sleeve for the iPad Mini. We’ve reviewed DODOcase products before and liked them. I’ve always thought that their designs looked rather interesting and these are no exception. The bookbound cases come in a variety of colors and styles, so you can select something that best fits your tastes. They look like hardbound books, with…

Gear Bits, News & Features December 9, 2012

Cool British Video Reminds Us of the Difference Between ‘Climate’ and ‘Weather’

“Another 10 feet of snow fell on Buffalo last night … derp … so much for Global Warming” – it is something most of us hear in one form or another on an annual basis, and makes us choose between (a) shaking our head and walking away, (b) hitting the person upside the head with a crowbar or (c) trying to explain the difference between ‘weather’ and ‘climate’. Fortunately we now have a fun video from The Armstrong & Miller Show out of the UK that reminds us of the difference … and the penalty for failing to heed that…

News & Features December 8, 2012

Augmented Reality is Tech You Should Know About

Anyone who refers to Augmented Reality as a ‘new’ technology hasn’t done their research. The past twenty years have been littered with entertainment gimmicks that loosely use the technology. That being said, modern innovations are providing the framework with which to more fully integrate this type of tech into our daily lives. While creations bordering on the concepts of augmented reality have been around since the sixties, it wasn’t until 1990 that a Boeing researcher coined the term as we understand it today. For those in the dark, augmented reality refers to a blurring of the lines between what’s real…

News & Features December 8, 2012

Element Releases the Atom Case for Samsung Galaxy S3

The Samsung Galaxy S III is a slick and sturdy phone, but no phone is indestructible – therefore we need cases. Element Case is known best as an iPhone case company, but as that market continues to get flooded with cheap imitators they have branched out and are now making a case for the Samsung Galaxy S III called the Atom. Here are some details: While we’ve always been thought of as the iPhone case company, we’re widening our horizons with this, our first offering for the Samsung Galaxy S3 smart phone. The all new Atom follows in the footsteps…

News & Features December 7, 2012

Does The Shutdown of “The Daily” Mean Anything For Digital Magazines?

New broke this week that “The Daily”, Rupert Murdoch’s iPad-only newspaper, was being shut down. The four people who read it were probably heartbroken. Sarcasm aside, the real question is whether the death of The Daily is indicative of a larger issue. Businessweek brought this question up, pointing out that Newsweek plans to go all-digital in the shadow of a nasty fall from grace for the competition. At the same time, as Slate points out, an iPad-only newspaper was naturally limited, which probably also hurt The Daily’s chances of survival. Still, The Daily died due to a myriad of reasons,…

Game Diary, News & Features December 7, 2012

Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition Arrives on iPad!

For the past week or so I have been working my way through the PC version of Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition from Overhaul Games. And it is the same as the absolute classic I played in 1998 – but better. So I was thrilled this morning to see that the iPad version was released! It had been delayed due to a bug discovered just before App Store submission, saying “iOS build had a game-stopper bug. With current estimate for app store approval, that puts us into next week. We’re doing all we can.” Next week arrived – and now the…