News

Mark Levinson Helps Lexus Celebrate Launch of CT200h

The automotive audio industry has been a busy and competitive business segment for several decades. What began on the west coast in the 1970s spread to the rest of North America in the ‘80s and from there to the OEM side for automakers around the turn of the millennium. Entering its 10th year with luxury brand Lexus, Harman and Mark Levinson recently celebrated their latest partnership for high-end mobile audio with the release of the new Lexus CT200h hybrid sport wagon.

News

Beauty is Skin Deep and Some Retouching Away

You know the saying that “beauty is only skin deep”? Well it is not quite accurate. More fitting might be, “Don’t believe everything you see.” Why? Because Photoshop or some other method of retouching images can have a lot to do with how things looks and the distance between “the final image” and “reality” can be great. How great you ask? Well, the above picture actually looked like this before it was “worked over”. Now don’t get me wrong, the woman in the second picture is far from unattractive but from picture number two to picture number one is a…

News

Twelve South Introduces the MagicWand for Magic Trackpad and Wireless Keyboard

Twelve South makes some great Mac products. They make the Compass iPad stand and the BookBook iPad case, along with a host of other Mac accessories. Well today they are rolling out a new product that seamlessly connects Apple’s Magic Trackpad to the Apple Wireless Keyboard to create one, easy to use, accessory. Judie recently reviewed a somewhat similar item, the BulletTrain Express (she loves it!), but while that created an arrangement similar to what you will find on an Apple notebook, the MagicWand creates on long keyboard/trackpad combination. As the company explains, What is MagicWand? It’s a cool little…

News

Apple’s 30% Toll on App Store Content

Rumors have been rumbling since the Sony Reader app was rejected that Apple was planning on making changes to subscriptions and in-app purchases. Today, Apple fired the first shot across the bow with a press release making it clear that all subscription options must be offered as an option through iTunes (complete with a 30% cut to Apple). Engadget is reporting that Rhapsody has already weighed in with their response, and it’s a big fat no. According to Rhapsody, 30% is simply too high to be sustainable. What’s really interesting is that in their press release Rhapsody explains they are…

News

Drink Clean Water, Become a Solid Citizen with the Revolve Tap Water Filter Bottle

For the longest time I was a bad resident of Planet Earth. Yes, on any given day I might go through three, four, five or even six plastic water bottles. What a waste. What a complete and total waste. Some time ago I finally went out and I got an insulated, reusable water bottle. Now I don’t add to the growing number of bottles in landfills AND, because it is insulated, my water stays cold all day. Well it looks like my insulated water bottle is about to see a lot less use thanks to the Revolve Tap Water Filter…

News

iOS App Update of Note: Kindle for iOS Gets Page Numbers and More…

I led a book group last week and, as always, I used my iPad for both reading the book and for sharing my thoughts about it. It worked great except for one thing; because there were no page numbers in the Kindle app I wasn’t able to refer to specific places in the book with ease. It was more than a bit frustrating. Well, Amazon just began to address that by releasing an update to their Kindle application for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. The update brings a host of new features; among them, the addition of real page…

News

Amazon Video on Demand Comes to the Rescue!

I’ll be honest — I am not always on top of ordering gifts ahead of time. Even when I have a plan, or am told exactly what to purchase, I somehow always push it to the last minute. Luckily for me, I was ordering Sarah “Big Love: Season 4” for Valentine’s Day, and Amazon comes through like a champ by offering free “video on demand” rentals with purchase! See, without it I would have been without part of Sarah’s Valentine’s day present (bad Carly!) But thanks to the free rentals, we were able to start watching the show even though…

News

The Valentine’s Day Gift Arms Race

Let’s face it – by this time if you are still deciding on Valentine’s Day gifts you are pretty much in deep trouble with the object of your intentions. This isn’t meant as gift-giving advice. Nor is it a curmudgeonly rant about the ‘Hallmark Holiday’ – while the card-maker and your local florist certainly profit from February 14th, the celebration has historical ties. No … this is about the seeming ‘arms race’ in gift-giving. Initially I had started pooling loads of images from every email I had gotten over the last month touting the ‘perfect Valentine’s Day gift’, with the…

News

Check Out Larry Greenberg’s New RunAroundTech Site!

One of the great things about writing for a site like Gear Diary is the crew – I love reading all of the different insights and viewpoints and interests. Former editor Larry Greenberg contributed some really cool things – his Apple on TV, Smash or Trash, YouTube reviews, destructive reviews, and other fun things have always been a blast to watch & read! Larry has maintained his active YouTube site, and now Larry has a new tech site of his own Here is his welcome: Welcome to Run Around Tech. We’ve been chasing down the technology you crave behind the…

Events, News

MWC: AppUp, MeeGo, Open Source, and Tablets

The partnership between Nokia and Microsoft that was announced the other day has caused some speculation that the Intel powered AppUp store in general, and the MeeGo in particular might be the losers in this story. Helena and I spoke with Peter Biddle, General Manager to AppUp Products and Services, and he said that despite this partnership, AppUp and Meego will thrive. Proprietary systems have a place in the ecosystem, and so do open ones. Further scaling the development of flexible, open software platforms and applications for all mobile devices, Intel demonstrated a compelling new MeeGo tablet user experience to…

News

Swingline Introduces the Stack-and-Shred, So You Can Keep Your Secrets Hidden

Are you one of those people who sticks your insurance finalization forms in the trash? The kind who tosses bank receipts, deposit slips, paid utility and credit card bills in the bin? Do you make jokes about filing important documents away in “drawer #13”, but you really mean the overflowing bucket under your desk? If so, then you are also the type of person who is simply begging for their identity to be stolen. Yes, really. The solution is to shred those documents as they leave your hand, before they make their way into the garbage. Don’t even let them…

News

HP’s WebOS Announcements

We’re all Palm fans from way back in the day. So while none of us are currently using WebOS, we were all excited to follow HP’s recent announcements! Of course, big geeks that we are, everyone had their own opinion on the new entries to the smartphone and tablet world … Carly Z: Anyone else following the HPalm stuff? Amazing what HP’s deep pockets can do. Francis Scardino: yeah, works out for us…(greedy consumers) The touchpad looks awesome. Touchstone support is a winner. No cords for you. Carly Z: All that phone<–>touchpad integration is awesome. They are out-appleing apple! Francis…

News

Nokia and Microsoft Get in Bed Together to Produce Prettier and Presumably Smarter Babies

This is so good, it’s almost hard to believe: Microsoft and Nokia have just formally announced their “Broad Strategic Partnership” as they “combine assets and develop innovative mobile products on an unprecedented scale.” The joint press conference occurred at 2:00 a.m. PST/5:00 a.m. EST, and unfortunately (or is it fortunately?) I was still awake trying to catch up on things when the news came out. From a post titled “Open Letter from CEO Stephen Elop, Nokia and CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft” on the Official Microsoft Blog, here is a summary of what the two companies hope to achieve. (Note that…

News

Nuance Gives the New Jawbone ERA Headset a Voice

Nuance, the leaders in voice-to-text and tech-to-speech technology, have brought their powerful Vocalizer Network connected text-to-speech (TTS) functionality to Jawbone’s ERA headset. The new integration brings a unique Caller ID by Name feature via Jawbone’s MyTALK platform by letting users load an address book onto the headset itself. Once this is done, as calls come in, the headset announces the caller’s name in “an incredibly natural sounding voice through a combination of pre-recorded names” As Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s vice president of product management and strategy explains “The Caller ID by Name feature of the Jawbone ERA takes the hands-free experience…

News, Vehicles & Gear

Buick Gets eAssist but Chevy Brings the Thunder

The Chicago Auto Show brought powertrain announcements from General Motors anchoring each end of the economical scale. First, Buick. If we as consumers are not already befuddled by all of the “e” and “i” lower case leading letters for proper names in our world today, GM is going to throw another into the mix. eAssist. eAssist will arrive on a pair of 2012 Buick sedans ¬– LaCrosse and Regal – to up the ante in the fuel economy game. This new technology is a sort of “hybrid lite” if you will as the electric-assist motor and battery pack offer much…

Music Diary, News

Music Diary Quickie: Attend the Worlds Largest Guitar Lesson with Steve Vai on March 3rd!

If you list out the most amazingly talented guitarists working today, Steve Vai is sure to be near the top of that list. Now look at the best places in the world to get a musical education, and you will certainly have Boston’s Berklee College of Music on your short list. Now Berklee and Steve Vai are teaming up to put on the ‘world’s largest guitar lesson’ on March 3rd. Check out the official site for more details, and if you are so inclined tune in and help them make history! I know I will be there with my kids!…

Music Diary, News

Music Diary Notes: Dear Sony-BMG … ENOUGH ALREADY!

We all know that a company will milk a property for cash so long as people are paying. Last fall I wrote about the excellent 40th Anniversary edition of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. There were two different editions, each containing additional live material ‘never before released’. Both contained a Copenhagen concert DVD from November 1969, and the ~$100 Collector’s Edition also had the complete Tanglewood concert from August 1970. This is in addition to the OTHER 1970-ish shows like the Fillmore East dual CD release from several years back. The release note from AllMusic.com: Before looking into the musical quality…

News

Announcing the Winner of the Amplicom Alarm Clock

Congratulations to SLNew, the winner of the Amplicom Alarm Clock! His winning entry: I would love this for my father. At 84 his hearing is failing and he complains that standard alarm clocks don’t wake him any longer. Check your email for more details, and I hope your father enjoys the alarm clock! Remember, for everyone who didn’t win you can purchase your own Amplicom Alarm Clock here.

News

Roman Catholic Church Sanctioned Confession App Leaves Me Scratching My Head

I’m not a Catholic, however I can’t help but be fascinated by the church’s ~2000 year history. I’ve even attended a midnight mass or two on Christmas Eve with friends over the years, and I’ve got to tell you — for sheer pageantry, tradition and eye-candy, it is hard to beat a Roman Catholic service performed in a beautifully decorated cathedral complete with full portions spoken or sung in Latin; it’s really impressive. However there are rites and procedures expected by those practicing Catholicism that I don’t fully understand, and one of them is confession. From what I have observed…

Gear Bits, News

GD Quickie: It’s Getting to be THAT Time of Year

I keep professional contacts with loads of folks in different industries all over the country, and after a couple of years of them being divided between ‘I’m happy to still have a job’ and ‘oh crap, I no longer have a job’ … this is the first year folks are starting to discuss raises. Having talked to several people in the last few weeks I have found a few basic themes: there are ~1% companies like Google who are saying ‘we had a great year – here, have some money’. Then there are the companies that are still struggling –…

News

Star Wars: Frames for the True Fans

Possibly just in time for Valentine’s day, but definitely in time for graduation or late spring and summer birthdays, comes the ultimate gift for any Star Wars aficionado: Star Wars: Frames. Imagine if you will, George Lucas sitting in his office with every Star Wars movie at his disposal. Imagine him sorting through millions of individual frames as he picks and chooses his favorites; every battle, every character’s emotion, every iconic scene laid out in front of him. The result of his selection process would ultimately become Star Wars: Frames, an 1,138 copies limited edition. Each set comes in an…

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