News & Features

Music Diary Notes: Stream Nickelback's New Album on iTunes for Free!

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes: Stream Nickelback’s New Album on iTunes for Free!

The pop-rock group Nickelback is one of those love/hate things for many – ‘hardcore’ rockers absolutely hate them on principal, yet they sell millions of records and there are people who either like them or – like my wife – consider them a ‘guilty pleasure’. If you are a fan of the group, or just curious to check out their upcoming release, here is your chance! For a limited time you can stream the entire album for free on iTunes! As with previous deals like this, you can’t skip songs or shuffle or otherwise control the playback – it is…

NeverWet — I Want to Coat My House in This Stuff!

News & Features

NeverWet — I Want to Coat My House in This Stuff!

I have a consistent problem with spilling drinks. No glass of water or bottle of beer is safe near me. It’s not my fault, of course; gravity just works more strongly on liquids when I’m nearby. Clearly. So when I saw this video today for NeverWet, I was not joking when I exclaimed: “I want to coat my house in this!” It’s amazing…I have no idea how they manage to do it, but when and if this ever becomes a commercial product they will make millions. I could see this stuff coating clothing, rugs, tables, and athletic wear. Forget Gore-Ttex,…

Businessweek Provides a Eulogy on Borders, and Hope for the Future

News & Features

Businessweek Provides a Eulogy on Borders, and Hope for the Future

Earlier this summer, the final chapter was closed on the Borders bookstore chain. It led to all sorts of conjectures as to why, and what it means for the future of bookstores and readers. Some said it was ebooks, while others pointed out Borders had a long history of mismanagement and neglect. Businessweek has a good overview of the history of Borders, and some of the reasons why it died a sad death (spoiler alert: it wasn’t ebooks). What I found most interesting was this commentary from Borders’ last CEO, Mike Edwards: Edwards says that by the time he became…

PocketLoops Let's You and Your iPhone Make Beautiful Music Together

News & Features

PocketLoops Let’s You and Your iPhone Make Beautiful Music Together

I loved reviewing Gear4’s UnityRemote and continue to use and enjoy it. Now they have come up with a new “appcessory” called PocketLoops. PocketLoops is a “portable music creation studio for iPhone and iPod touch”. As the company explains, An innovative platform for the musically-minded, PocketLoops is a powerful tool that combines app-based software with advanced hardware, allowing musicians to build their own loops, remix them into full tracks and share them with friends. The hardware is $79.99. The app that turns the hardware into an “appcessory” is available from the iTunes App Store. You can learn more here on…

Veterans Day Is Every Day with the ElementCase Patriot Case

News & Features

Veterans Day Is Every Day with the ElementCase Patriot Case

If you have a favorite soldier or if you’re just feeling patriotic, Element Case has an iPhone 4 / 4S cover that will have you seeing stars! Take a look at their limited edition $124.99 red, white and blue Patriot Case that first went on sale on 11/11/11, Veteran’s Day; they’ve created a series of 200, and 10% of the proceeds will go to the non-profit “Disabled American Veterans.” They hope to raise $10,000 for the group, and with your help, they’ll do it!   ElementCase Patriot Case Learn more about the Disabled American Veterans at  www.DAV.org.  

Zinio's on Fire with $25 Shopping Perks and Availability on Amazon Fire

News & Features

Zinio’s on Fire with $25 Shopping Perks and Availability on Amazon Fire

  Zinio isn’t about to let Apple and Amazon slow down their momentum. No way, no how. And to help make sure they remain the eMag service of choice they are introducing a shopping perk program that puts a $25 credit into the accounts of all new Zinio registrants from now until March 2012. Better still, this credit can be used to purchase magazines across the company’s entire global newsstand. In addition, the Zinio app is now available in the Amazon Appstore. The timing is key since many of us will be getting our net Kindle fire’s today. As Chris Wilkes, vice…

Kobo Touch Gets a "Price Drop" with Some Ad Support

News & Features

Kobo Touch Gets a “Price Drop” with Some Ad Support

It looks like Amazon’s “Special offers” strategy is contagious! Kobo, the #3 ebook retailer is being acquired by the Rakuten, the “Japanese Amazon”, and they are already looking to copy some of Amazon’s success. The most obvious example of this is that they will be offering an ad-supported Kobo Touch for $99. This new “product” will allow Kobo to have a reader at the $99 price point “sweetspot” without breaking the bank since sponsors will foot some of the bill. Fortunately, Kobo is taking the same discreet approach as Amazon by placing the ads on the screen saver and home screen…

Type Away on Your Tablet with ZAGG's New ZAGGkeys FLEX

News & Features

Type Away on Your Tablet with ZAGG’s New ZAGGkeys FLEX

I have yet to find a keyboard for use with my iPad that I really really wanted to use. Time and again I have tried one, liked it but then gone back to typing on the screen using the soft keyboard. Maybe this time is THE time and the new ZAGGkeys FLEX is THE keyboard to convince me that using a physical keyboard is the way to go. Sure, the new offering from ZAGG looks great. And sure, it looks like a super-portable solution for productivity on the go but is it THE keyboard? Here’s how ZAGG describes it- Stylish…

What's ioSafe Planning for CES 2012? We Don't Know but it is Gonna be Awesome!

Events, News & Features

What’s ioSafe Planning for CES 2012? We Don’t Know but it is Gonna be Awesome!

  ioSafe is at it again and this time they are looking to outdo themselves. (At least, we sure hope they are!) To recap our experiences with data-storage dynamos ioSafe… At CES 2010 ioSafe fried, soaked, dropped and crushed one of their rugged hard drives. As you can see, it was awesome. At CES 2011 ioSafe sought to outdo themselves when they took their new portable drive for a drag behind a car and then let us all take turns shooting it with a shotgun. Check it out here! Now we’ve been invited to the next demo, the “ioSafe Cage…

Ultra-Comfy Chair Review: Sumo Lounge Omni Beanbag Chair

News & Features, Reviews

Ultra-Comfy Chair Review: Sumo Lounge Omni Beanbag Chair

If you were a teen or pre-teen in the 1970’s, chances are you or one of your friends (or ALL of your friends) had a beanbag chair. The bags of the time were vinyl (or denim) bags filled with polystyrene pellets. Things have come quite a long way – the 1990’s saw a resurgence in the beanbag chair, and now it has been reinvented as the Sumo Omni. We first looked at the Sumo Lounge Omni in 2007, and the folks at Sumo were kind enough to send one my way for an updated review; let’s see how it holds…

Apple Releases 'iTunes Match' to the Public - Your Music Library in the Cloud!

News & Features

Apple Releases ‘iTunes Match’ to the Public – Your Music Library in the Cloud!

With the release of iTunes 10.5.1 Apple has finally brought iTunes Match to everyone rather then those of us who have been using it in beta. If you are not familiar with the service it isn’t the music streaming that had been long rumored but rather something far more powerful and, potentially usable. What the service does is scan your iTunes library and line up those songs that you have in it with those that are currently available on iTunes. Then, if there are songs that you have that are not available in iTunes, it will upload the remaining ones….

Music Diary Notes: Facebook Music Sharing is a Success for Customers and Businesses Alike

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes: Facebook Music Sharing is a Success for Customers and Businesses Alike

Less than two months ago Facebook had its big f8 event where they launched their music integration amongst other things. At that event Spotify was heavily features alongside MOG, Rdio and others. I think that everyone expected some degree of success – I mean, folks already share EVERYTHING (often WAY too much) on Facebook … so why not this?!? And the results have been phenominal, with a report at Mashable saying: Facebook users have shared their listening activity more than 1.5 billion times with their friends, says Facebook’s Casey Maloney Rosales Muller in a blog post published Tuesday. “Developers have…

We'll Be Trying Partial Feeds for Two Weeks

News & Features

We’ll Be Trying Partial Feeds for Two Weeks

Hey all, I wanted to give you a heads up that we are going to be experimenting with partial feeds for two weeks. Obviously if you usually come to the Gear Diary site to read our articles, you won’t notice anything different. Those who read us on RSS will notice a “(read more here…)”  tag at the bottom the now truncated posts. I don’t particularly like partial feeds, but I need to see if using them takes care of  some of the anomalies that I’ve been noticing. Thank you for your patience while we try to figure this out, and…

How Fast Is an Elite Runner?

News & Features

How Fast Is an Elite Runner?

  When I ran the Virginia Beach Rock n Roll half-marathon, one of the highlights for me was right around mile 3.5. The course looped out and back, so that was the crossover point where us “back of the pack” runners were officially lapped by the elites. When Ryan Hall, arguably the best American professional runner today, came flying by us, the entire crowd chanted, screamed, and cheered. It was amazing to catch even the slightest glimpse of an elite in action. The entire pack of professionals was running full miles in less time than it often takes me to…

Beyzacase's New iPad 2 "Downtown Series" Case Looks Organized and Streamlined

News & Features

Beyzacase’s New iPad 2 “Downtown Series” Case Looks Organized and Streamlined

One of the things I don’t like about folio cases is that they can add a bunch of unnecessary bulk to an otherwise thin device. I mean, its great to be able to add ID or business cards along with other slips of paper into your folio, but such convenience usually comes with a thickness caveat. I spotted the new Beyzacases iPad 2 “Downtown Series” Case this morning, and thought it might be a good alternative to all of the more cumbersome folios we’ve seen. If these pictures have you thinking about gorgeous pebbled leather covering your iPad, then you are…

AUTUM Dualist Lets Your Cards Travel in Style

News & Features

AUTUM Dualist Lets Your Cards Travel in Style

We are huge fans of AUTUM and their sometimes quirky, always awesome, leather goods. So when they come out with something new, we love to bring word to all of you. Yes, their products tend to be on the pricey side, but they are as much works of art as they are usable accessories. Which brings us to their latest item, the Dualist case. The Dualist is a leather cardholder that will hold 2 to 6 different cards in style. It has the style we have come to know and appreciate and the rivets that are found on many of…

IOS App Release: Chuggington: Terrific Trainee

News & Features

IOS App Release: Chuggington: Terrific Trainee

  If you follow any of my posts, you probably know, my two sons love gadgets and gear just like their dad. They come by this love honestly, but we are careful to limit their time with devices and closely watch how they use them. Anytime games or applications are developed specifically for their age group, we are happy to download. The boys get extra excited if the app can be based on a familiar subject or characters. When I let them know there was a Chuggington iPhone game, they were pumped. My youngest proceeded to give me a complete…

iOS 5.0.1 Over-the-Air - How'd You Fare?

News & Features

iOS 5.0.1 Over-the-Air – How’d You Fare?

This morning the world was greeted with iOS 5.01, a rather minor update designed to address the less-than-stellar battery life that people are reporting. Personally my iPhone 4S has been pretty good on the juice, but both my dad and sister have had major problems with their phones dropping 20% in as little as an hour. In addition to fixes to improve battery life, iOS 5.0.1 adds additional multitouch gestures to the original iPad (I want these on my iPhone…) and resolves iCloud issues. Us Aussie’s get a special mention, with improvements to Siri to better understand our “foreign” accent. I’ve…

iPhone Battery Life Got You Down? The Cure Just Arrived

News & Features

iPhone Battery Life Got You Down? The Cure Just Arrived

As promised and expected Apple just released its first update for iOS 5.0. This one should fix the battery life woes that have been killing a lot of us. Better still, thanks to the Over the Air Update system that arrived with iOS 5.0 you don’t even have to go to iTunes. Just connect your iPhone to a power source and go to updates in the system preferences.

Andrea's SuperBeam Phones On-Ear Headphones Go "Boom-less"

News & Features

Andrea’s SuperBeam Phones On-Ear Headphones Go “Boom-less”

I’ve used a number of Andrea headphones for voice recognition in the past, and I’ve always been impressed. The company’s SuperBeam Phones are a departure from previous models, and I’m really loving the design choices that went into creating them. They are sleek on-ear headphones that drop the microphone boom, but still offer great voice quality. Here’s what the company has to say about them: SuperBeam headsets deliver Hi-Definition sound. Our unique integrated array microphone system is designed for use with Andrea’s patented beam forming and digital noise reduction audio software, providing “The Freedom of Voice”. SuperBeam also provides a new…

Cdock Turns Your iPhone into a Fab Table or Bedside Clock

News & Features

Cdock Turns Your iPhone into a Fab Table or Bedside Clock

  We’ve all seen docks that allow you to set your iPhone up as a bedside clock, but this one takes the concept to such lengths that it is worth a mention: the Cdock keeps your iPhone 4 or 4S charged while holding it so that you can glance over to get the time instead of fumbling to pick it up from your bedside table. There are different styles available, and when you add the Gorgy Timing Atomic Clock app (or any other favorite iPhone clock app), you’ll have one beautifully functional setup. The only downside that I can see is you…