News

Just Mobile AluPen Wins Awards… Gets Color

We’ve reviewed a number of the offerings from Just Mobile in recent months. Among them are the Gum Plus external battery, the UpStand for holding your iPad securely and, most recently, Judie reviewed the AluPen stylus for touchscreen devices. Well the AluPen has now won some nice awards including the Spark Design Award and iF product design award 2011. The AluPen is a great accessory… or last minute gift… and it just got more interesting because now it comes in a variety of vivid colors. As the company explains… To thank all Just Mobile customers and friends, we decide to…

News

Use Google Chrome? Install ‘Chrome for a Cause’ to Benefit Charities!

Do you use Google Chrome? How many tabs do you open in a day? Imagine that by simply opening tabs you could donate a charity! From now through December 19th you can do exactly that – simply install the “Chrome for a Cause” extension and open tabs as you normally would, knowing that each time you do a little Here is a snippet from the Chrome blog: Whether it’s bug fixes to the Chromium open source project, dazzling apps and extensions arriving daily in our Web Store, or boundary-pushing Chrome experiments — the Chrome community never fails to inspire us…

News

Random Cool Image: XKCD on WikiLeaks

No matter where you fall on the opinion scale with regards to WikiLeaks, the various governments and companies involved, or Anonymous and the 4Chan DDoS attacks and everything else related to this wild ride … you have to admit that this comic is ironic if not hilarious … Source: XKCD

News

GV Connect + Talkatone = iPad Phone

When the iPad was first released there were many who commented that one of the device’s shortcomings, among many, was that it could not be used as a phone. That wasn’t quite accurate. Sure the iPad isn’t a device you would want to hold up to your ear but with apps like Skype or Ooma’s iOS app the iPad makes for an excellent speakerphone. In fact, I use it on a regular basis in this way. Now, however, thanks to a new app and an update to an “old friend” the iPad can truly function as a phone. The first…

News

Random Cool Video: All 270 Movies Released in 2010 … in Six Minutes!

Every year at the Academy Awards there is a montage of movies released during that year … but at this point they should just cancel whatever contract they have out for that job and license this! Youtube user genrocks compiled this video because, as she says “this year’s movies have legitimately transformed my idea of what is creatively possible”. You can also follow her on Twitter. Here is his description, including all of the music used: This year’s movies have legitimately transformed my idea of what is creatively possible. To commemorate, I’ve remixed 270 of them into one giant ass…

News

Our Government at Work: CPSC Avoids Lead-Laden Glass Recall By Redefining Audience

Image courtesy of the AP When you think of the target audience for 10-ounce featuring colorful images of characters from the Wizard of Oz or a variety of well-known super heroes, would you say the audience is: (a) Under the age of 12 (b) Over the age of 12 If you guessed (b), then you are thinking along the same lines as the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the government agency set up to help keep consumers safe. When the test results showing the glasses had 1000 times (!) the level allowed in a product for children back in September, the…

News

TOM BIHN Introduces Ristretto Vertical Messenger Bag for 11″ Apple MacBook Air

A few weeks ago Thomas and I wrote about our ongoing debate regarding which MacBook Air to order. I started with a base 11″ MBA, moved to ordering a loaded 11″ version and then, after some back and forth with Thomas, ended up getting the 13″ MBA. He did too. It is an awesome machine and I thought I was done with my search. Then Judie had to get into the mix. She got an 11″ MBA and called it “my second best tech purchase ever… after the iPad.” Coming from Judie that is high praise and I realized that…

News

A Post Worth Reading From TechCrunch… No Commentary Needed

So my week’s vacation is coming to an end. The bags are packed, the flight confirmed and the skies have opened up and are pouring on the island where it never rains. My head is clearer save the all-you-can eat and drink Sunday brunch we just visited… Or is it fuzzier… And as a result I have the rare gift of… Perspective. This week gave me the chance to catch up with family, catch up on old Gear Diary posts that other members of the team have written and check out some of the comments that others have shared on…

News

SplashID KeySafe Unlocks Your Cold, Security-Obsessed Heart

Well, now, what do we have here? Generally a software company, SplashData has now taken one of their best known software products and merged it with a hardware product. The SplashID Key Safe is a 2 GB USB drive made to fit on your keychain, but featuring a portable version of SplashData’s well-known password protection program, SplashID. We’ve reviewed various incarnations of SplashID on this site a number of times in the past and we’ve always had good impressions of it. I’ve always liked SplashID because it’s available for so many different platforms. The Key Safe includes many of the…

News

Google Lowers Android App Store Refund Period!

One of the biggest items that Android fans used to lord over iOS users was the marketplace policy regarding refunds. On iOS, if you purchased an app and wanted to “return” it for a refund, good luck, and start groveling to Apple or the developer. On Android, if you purchase but uninstall within 24 hours, you get a full refund automatically! No need for as many “lite” versions of programs and it gave you a chance to really kick the tires before you committed your cold hard cash. Well, as of last night, that window has dropped from 24 hours…

News

R.I.P.: Jazz Legend James Moody Dead at 85

Few artists in any field can claim a career that had them active and vibrant across 8 decades. Yet that is the legacy of James Moody, the genial and fabulously talented saxophone and flute player and bandleader who made his first recordings in 1948, and was working right up until his health made it impossible earlier this year. Early this year we learned that Moody was seriously ill and had to undergo surgery, but it was only last month when we learned more details from his wife Linda: “Some of you know that Moody has been ill for quite sometime,”…

News

Random Cool Stuff: Steve Martin’s Royalties for His Bluegrass Recordings? $0.13!

OK, that isn’t the full story, but it is a funny enough image! There is clear irony here in saying “People say the music business is suffering, but it’s NOT.”, but what is the main point? Is it that despite being wildly successful across more than four decades, he is now getting royalty checks for as low as $0.03? Is it that while he has made $0.13 the record company has pocketed the vast majority of the money for his work? Either way, it is pretty funny to think about such small checks for such a major star. As some…

News

Get Added to Orange UK’s Secret Portrait Twitter Gallery

I’ve always loved watching caricature artists quickly plot out their exaggerated perception of their subjects, but this new offering from Orange UK’s The Feed takes the art to a whole new level. They are offering “secret portraits” of twitter users based on a tweeted self-description. I am about to enter mine, and I thought you might want to give it a try, too. Describe yourself in a tweet – and don’t forget the #secretportraits hashtag If your tweet intrigues us, our illustrators will dive into your Twitter profile to find out more about you They’ll draw a secret portrait based on…

News

Random Cool Stuff: Honda’s App Tells If You Were Naughty Or Nice on FaceBook This Year … But Beware!

Since the advent of the web there have been sites like ‘Santa Trackers’ and ‘Naughty or Nice’ tests that would tell you about your behavior based on answering some questions. And since these were aimed at kids they would never ask anything that would allow a truly evil path. But what would happen if someone were to analyze your Facebook history for the past year? If you head to Honda’s Facebook site, you can start the ‘NaughtyOrNice-a-Tron’, which will dig through everything you’ve done on Facebook this year and then spit out an answer about how you have behaved. It…

News

From the Unfortunate Name Department: ‘Mercury’ Playsets for Kids

At this time of year many folks are looking for Christmas presents for their kids, and many people want to get something that is more centered around creative play instead of the pre-packed products that are most popular now. They look to the older toys, to Erector Sets, Lincoln Logs, LEGO sets, and so on. At the same time, as someone who writes some offbeat articles for Gear Diary I end up with all kinds of emails, from consumer safety information to import oddities to … well, badly named kids toy sets! At a time when there are seemingly weekly…

News

Samsung Galaxy Tab Sells 1 Million Units!

Despite getting some mixed reviews in the press and highly variable pricing, the first major Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab has sold 1 million units in the two months since release, according to the Korean news site Chosun. Here is a quote from their article: Sales of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Tab tablet PC have surpassed the one million mark just two months after its debut. Samsung said Thursday that thanks to the strong market response it has increased its sales target for the year to 1.5 million units. Launched via Italy’s TIM in October, the device is now available…

News

Now Your iPhone Nags You More Specifically

Electric Pocket seems to be on an updating roll. Earlier this week, Doug posted about the new universal version of Electric Pocket’s BugMe! app for iPhone and iPad. Now, it seems that another one of their iOS apps, Nag, has also received an update. A few weeks back I did a quick review of Nag and liked it for its simplicity. Now, Nag has been updated to include a feature that adds a new customization option. With the update, users can now change the alarm message and add text to remind you specifically why you’re being nagged. Nice! You…

News

Random Cool Stuff: If You Are 30, These Are the Toys You Grew Up With

Over at Milo.com’s Daily Bark, they are featuring a subjective list of the ‘best gifts ever’! It is interesting because it is focused on someone who would have been born in 1980, therefore turning 30 this year. The infograph looks back at what the hot gifts would have been for boys and girls over time. Personally I am too old and my kids are too young to have wanted the kid-centric stuff, but the later stuff … well, who said you ever really had to grow up?!? As I look back over time it is hard for me to peg…

News

Phone Fail? Motorola Droid Allegedly Explodes While Owner Is In-Call

You can’t even make these things up … or maybe you can. It’s hard to imagine that your two-day old Motorola Droid — or any other mobile phone, for that matter — would explode next to your ear while in a call. But that’s exactly what Aron Embry says happened to him yesterday. A North Texas man talking on his cell phone was rushed to a hospital after his phone apparently exploded Thursday morning. Aron Embry was at Ray Elementary in Cedar Hill at the time of the incident. The man said he had just finished a call when he…

News

NASA Gets One Step Closer to Aliens!

(image courtesy Marketing.fm) NASA rocked the scientific world today with a HUGE announcement: Possible aliens! That’s the gist of it, at least. The less exciting part is that they found a bacteria that eats arsenic. But if there is a bacteria that can survive on arsenic, it proves something that’s simply been a theory so far, that life can exist on non-traditional elements. According to CNN: The bacterium — strain GFAJ-1 of the Halomonadaceae family of Gammaproteobacteria — was scooped from sediment in California’s Mono Lake, an area rife with high levels of naturally occurring arsenic, it said. Scientists were…

News

Angry Birds Replace Nokia in Finnish Hearts

Nokia’s falling star is hurting more than just the company’s bottom line. It was once the pride of Finland and a decent size chunk of the country’s GDP. So it’s been nasty all around to see Nokia get decimated by the iPhone and Android. Surprisingly, Finland has been more than a hotspot for iconic phones; I learned reading Businessweek today that there’s a big software startup movement there, including Rovio (makers of Angry Birds). Yep, the game that seems to have singlehandedly slowed down worker productivity worldwide is helping to fill the gap left by Nokia. Not only that, but…

« 1 … 192 193 194 195 196 … 222 »