News

New iPad??? Read This!!!

The iPad-train just keeps on rolling. There’s no question it was the “hot gift” this season and as more and more people get their hands on the “wonder tablet” and discover all it can do the momentum will just continue to build. My own circle has seen numerous iPads make their appearance in recent weeks. My niece and nephew got one from their grandmother. (My nephew emailed this morning “Uncle Dan, we’re at the airport and I’m emailing you from my iPad using Dragon Dictation!!!” Love that!) Their grandmother (my mom) just asked me to pick one up for her….


Gear Chat #19: The Gear Diary CES Edition of the Scottevest No Baggage Challenge for Charity

Larry and Dan are headed to CES on Monday along with Judie, Kevin and Francis. We, however, are going as part of a Scottevest No Baggage Challenge for Charity. In this Gear Chat we’ll discuss how this came about. This IS a No Baggage Challenge for Charity, and donations will be going to the Haiti Plunge. As part of the Challenge, Scott Jordan, founder and CEO of Scottevest will be making a donation, and we’d like to invite you all to step in and help as well. All the money raised will support The Haiti Plunge and help build a…


BottomsUP Beer Might Be the Coolest Thing I’ve Ever Seen

A company called GrinOn Industries has created one of the coolest beverage accessories I’ve ever seen.  They’ve designed and fabricated what they call the “Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System.”  The  proprietary Bottoms Up Dispensing System is the fastest dispensing system in the world and fills at a rate of up to nine times that of traditional beer taps. The system isn’t only a marvel to watch but it’s pretty cost-effective too.  The company claims because of its super fast delivery speed (videos on their web site show them pouring off up to 56 beers in a minute) that it…


CuffLink iPhone Wrist Band Takes the iPod on Your Wrist Too Far

Some of the iPod Nano 6G watch bands look pretty cool. The TikTok and the LunaTik, both Kickstarter projects, have seen a tremendous amount of support and more importantly capital to begin production. However, this iPhone band is just taking things a little too far. Over at Kickstarter the band, named the CuffLink, is in need of backers.  The designer is looking to raise $10,000 of capital so she can begun production. The CuffLink will retail for $34.95 and come in a variety of colors. Here’s what it’s designer has to say about it. Hi, I’m Zenda Snyder and thanks…


Kobo’s Big End of Year Contest!

Kobo is running what they call a “Get-a-Gift” contest. Every day, you head to the site, sign in and scratch off your virtual entry card. You can win a Kobo eReader, coupons or a gift card! If you’re as hooked on lotto scratch-offs as I am, you’ll definitely like this contest! It goes from now until New Year’s Eve, so you have all week to win something. So far I’ve won 10% off one book; give it a shot and let us know in the comments if you win anything good! Check out Kobo’s full blog post and contest rules,…


What Would Santa Drive?

I began this annual ditty around the turn of the century and I find that I enjoy revisiting it each year as the world is buried neck-deep in the (commercial) spirit of the season. Looks like Santa’s load will be a bit heavier this year as early numbers indicate a bit more cheer in the air online and at the register. And the big guy will need to remember to bring along much needed accessories as wish lists are undoubtedly a bit tech-heavy this season. Right of the top I am going to disappoint a certain segment. Santa will NOT…


Remember: Starting Tomorrow, No iTunes App Store Additions or Updates for a Week

I have mentioned that the flurry of activity this past week on the iTunes is related to the ‘freeze’ that will be in place from the 23rd through the 28th. Well, iTunes Connect sent out a reminder message, so I figured I’d do the same! Basically it comes down to this: the state of the App Store today will remain identical until the 29th, when whatever new additions or price changes or updates have been pending will go into effect. One interesting side-effect is that if a publisher mistakenly scheduled a price change for during this time, it will make…


British Humor + Tech = I Thought This Was Funny… How ‘Bout You?

One of my all-time favorite movies is… Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Even though it looks dated now (since it is) I still laugh when I watch it. And I’m not alone. A few years ago Elana and I went to see the Broadway version of it- Spamalot. (More accurately, I dragged her to see it with me.) She near died of embarrassment as I kept saying lines as they were being uttered. I believe she would have moved her seat were it not for one small fact… Half of the theater was doing it too. 🙂 In short—…


Amazon’s Kindle Sales Explode!

Trying to figure out how many Kindles Amazon has sold is like reading tea leaves. No one’s quite sure, though Amazon likes to give vague hints during their earnings calls and make boastful announcements without any actual numbers beyond “double last year!” But several financial analysts have debated and studied, and it seems like a few rumors are pointing to upwards of 8 MILLION KINDLES sold in 2010 alone! It’s not a shocker that the Kindle has had a great year. Between iOS, Android and Blackberry apps, plus the popularity of the Kindle 3 wifi and 3G, it’s been a…


The Legal Entanglements for Superheroes, Supervillians, and Innocents

(image courtesy pajiba.com) Admit it-if you’re even the slightest bit geeky, you’ve debated the real-world issues of superheroes. How does Spider-Man justify all the time he takes off work? Does Bruce Wayne write the Batcave off as a business expense? Not to mention, where does Superman keep his cape under his Clark Kent suit? As it turns out, some truly smart geeks have taken this to the next level. “Law and the Multiverse” takes on the complex legal issues superheroes face every day (if they were real). What kind of issues? How about insurance costs? Or the thorny issue of…


Did You Catch Last Night’s Lunar Eclipse?

Last night Kevin and I watched the lunar eclipse. It was cold but clear outside as we watched the earth’s shadow pass over the moon, and I was able to snap a few photos with my Canon G11. I didn’t have a special lens attachment, I wasn’t using a tripod, these aren’t going to win any awards, and I sure wish that I had planned ahead and got a camera mount for our telescope … but even so, we had a lot of fun watching our fully moonlit yard go dramatically black. How about you? Did you catch the eclipse?…


eBossWatch Releases ‘Worst Bosses of 2010’

At some point or other, most folks work for someone that makes them think ‘how did THEY ever get put in charge of other people’? Or we think ‘I’m glad that person isn’t MY boss’, or otherwise notice someone who should never have been put into a position of authority. But compared to the folks on the Worst Bosses of 2010 most of those folks would seem a great alternative! eBossWatch is a site that: eBossWatch was launched in June 2007 to help people avoid hostile work environments and workplace bullying. Because it is extremely difficult during the job interview…


iOS App Deal Alert- All Appigo iPhone and iPad Apps Just $.99

Appigo makes some of the best iPhone and iPad apps out there. Todo and Todo for iPad are fantastic apps for managing your tasks, Corkulous is an interesting, and useful iPad “corkboard app” that is super for brainstorming and collecting bits of information and Notebook is a great notes app that works well with todo and syncs with Toodledo. Appigo was one of the first to release a task app for the iPhone and they have been regularly updating all their apps since then. The result is a collection of apps that are useful, refined, look good AND are a…


Google Ngrams Lets You Search Historical Word Usage

My wife is the Vice President of our middle school PTO, and therefore last Friday night (while Travis was out winning a state championship) I was chaperoning the middle school dance. Aside from all of the expected drama and tears, I noticed that the hip word for everything with the 8th grade boys was ‘ghetto’. Of course, for me that doesn’t have positive connotations, but for them … it means super-cool. I wondered when it came into use and how it had gone from the meanings I associated with the poor areas of World War II Warsaw through the inner…


Last Minute Gift Idea… A Toothbrush??

I’m not quite sure what message this gift would send but it sure is one of the most unique gifts ideas we’ve come across. For just $13 you too can give a cherished loved one a full year of… Toothbrushes. Yes, every 3 months for an entire year your loved one will get a new toothbrush. (That’s makes a total of 4 toothbrushes for those who are numerically challenged.) Best of all, they won’t have to think about replacing their toothbrush since a new one will just come in the mail. Here’s the story behind this service- How many times…


Random Cool Gear: Get Ready for the Next Generation of Commodore 64!

Remember the good ol’ Commodore 64? Between 1982 and 1994 more than 30 million of them were sold. And while they offered excellent programming capabilities and the ability to hook to a TV and run productivity applications, where the C64 found its biggest niche was in gaming. It offered great capabilities for a very reasonable price. And now it is BACK! What? Well, not the same one, but the concept of ‘the keyboard is the computer’ has returned, with Commodore teasing the release of an all new C64. Here are the very modern specs: Technology MODEL: Commodore 64x PROCESSOR: Intel®…


Random Cool Stuff: A Guide to the 12 Stages of the Total Lunar Eclipse … in YOUR Time Zone!

Doug told us about the cool App for tracking the total Lunar Eclipse coming tonight, and now Space.com adds to the coolness of the event with a fact-packed page … and a timetable linked to your specific time zone. With the handy info they provide you can check out the eclipse in your area and know exactly what is happening when. Here is the time zone chart: And in case you were wondering what all of the ‘Stages’ are listed along the left column of the table, Space.com has a great informational listing! Here is some of it: 1) Moon…


Dropbox Out of Beta… Adds Key Features

This year saw a number of key changes with regard to how I work on a computer and accomplish the many tasks that face me each day. Of course the iPad was central to the changes in my work style since, most days, I carry it instead of a laptop but I don’t think I would call the iPad “My Most Significant Change in 2010. No, I suspect that that title would go to… Dropbox. Thomas turned me on to Dropbox toward the beginning of the year and I have grown increasingly reliant upon it. At first I used their…


Join Us In Wishing Coach Travis the Best of Luck with His Game Tonight

Travis, or “Coach” as he is affectionately called by many of us, is in the midst of fulfilling one of his lifelong dreams; tonight the Falls City Beavers are one of the high school football teams that will be duking it out for the State Football Championship in their division. As you can imagine, even getting to this point is something that few football players or coaches will ever do. In Texas — perhaps even more so than in other states — the competition between high schools is fierce, and the players and coaches give it their all for a…


Santa Tracker? Forget That … Now it is Time for a ‘Leak-Tracker’!

Image courtesy of Kabobfest.com By now most people know more about WikiLeaks than they ever cared to … have heard various opinions about how founder Julian Assange is either the saviour of journalism, a cyber-terrorist, or a scumbag … and the WikiLeaks site is either a great hero of international transparency or an illegal hacker group threatening lives for fun. But one thing is sure – whenever someone or something gets as much coverage as Assange and Wikileaks, there are sure to be others to follow! And here they come! Last night I got an email from something called ‘TradeLeaks’…


Flipboard Update Makes Reading RSS Feeds on Your iPad Downright Civilized…

When Flipboard first came out for the iPad I was impressed by the user interface and thought I would use it a great deal. I didn’t. Before long I was back using Reeder to check my RSS feeds and using specific news apps to read my news. Well an update to the Flipboard app may just change that. Among the features you will find in the new version is… Google Reader integration. That’s right, you can now add a section that delivers your Google Reader account items AND lets you share interesting items with others. The app makes your Google…