News & Features

Last Minute Father’s Day Selections from Dan, on WBAP Dallas

Just in case you weren’t one of the million’s of people who heard it this morning, Dan was on WBAP‘s morning show talking with Brian Estridge about Father’s Day gift ideas. They liked him and his suggestions so much that they played the interview twice! =) Here’s a tally of the things Dan talked about: • Yurbuds • ROKU • Evernote • Livescribe Echo • Sonos • Apple iPad 2 You’ll have to listen to Dan’s interview to hear why he recommended each! Dan on WBAP

News & Features

Big News from Monster and Earth Wind & Fire

Last night the folks at Monster Cable were kind enough to invite Gear Diary to a special event held in San Antonio at the amazing Bjorn’s store. Monster brought in the legendary members of Earth Wind & Fire for a meet and greet with a special announcement: Verdine, Phillip and Ralph are celebrating 40 years of making music together as the band, and they have teamed up with Monster for a special product coming out soon. The band members were interviewed by Bjorn about their history and the formation of the band. It was a great experience to listen to…

News & Features

Using YouTube to Fight a Traffic Ticket!

If you’ve been to New York City recently (or many major cities, actually), you may have noticed they’ve started offering bike lanes, a move that is supposed to alleviate traffic and be safer for riders, drivers, and pedestrians. Of course, that’s all in theory, as one peeved cyclist has demonstrated in a very awesome video. Apparently, he was ticketed for not riding in the bicycle lane, despite his protests that nothing was being done about the cars, trucks, and construction equipment blocking it. Rather than just write a letter, he created a video showing what his ride would be like…

News & Features

The eBookpocalypse Is Cancelled!

Engadget reported this morning that Apple quietly changed the app store submission rules, and they’ve loosened up the in-app purchase requirements. It looks like apps and services that offer subscriptions and book content will be able to skirt around having to use Apple’s purchasing system (and the 30% cut to Apple that it includes). Here’s how they rephrased the agreement: 11.13 Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app, such as a “buy” button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected 11.14 Apps can read…

News & Features

Google’s Brilliant Tribute to Les Paul, Instrumental Inventor

Mitchell Oke left me a message asking if I had seen Google yet this morning. Of course, he left it last night, since he is hours ahead of me in Australia. I took a look, and he is correct … it’s brilliant. From the Google Blog: The electric guitar brings back memories for me of exchanging riffs with friends and wearing out cassette tapes as I meticulously learned songs. Today, we’re attempting to recreate that experience with a doodle celebrating the birthday of musician and inventor Les Paul. For the next 24 hours on the Google homepage, you’ll find an…

News & Features

How Does Blue Improve a Yeti? You make him a Pro!

A year and a half ago I was able to review the Blue Yeti with Larry. I love the Blue Yeti and use it every Wednesday when I record the Linux Link Tech Show as well as the occasional episode of Hacker Public Radio. It’s almost a perfect product. However, there’s one thing missing that makes the Yeti less of a perfect device for a professional. That is an XLR output. Blue has changed that Yeti of a Microphone and made him a pro by adding a XLR output on the bottom allowing you to plug the Yeti Pro into…

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes: NYC Concert to Support Japan

This year seems to be filled with more than its share of tragedy, making it is too easy to forget how difficult rebuilding is for those impacted by devastating events a couple of months later. Fortunately the Consulate Generals of Germany and Japan have teamed up to sponsor a concert to benefit the people of Japan. Featured in the concert is Ayako Shirasaki, whose most recent recording I reviewed here. Here is some info: The Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Consulate General of Japan invite you to a concert for the victims of the Great…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Mac App Quick Look: unDock Brings Fast Drive unDocking for Mac

One of the things that bugs me about Mac OS X is the need to physically undock a drive before removing it. I understand the reasons, but it doesn’t make it less annoying and it does not mean I don’t forget to do so sometimes. (And each time I forget I receive the “you forgot to undock the drive you shmuck, and it can do damage!” warning.) unDock doesn’t make drive undocking automatic, but it does make it possible to remove all drives at once. As the app’s description explains, Time machine is wonderful, but it makes a mobile Mac…

eBooks, News & Features

Borders eBookstore Moving to Kobo

If you’re one of the five people who purchased eBooks through Borders, I strongly recommend you log into your account and follow their instructions to port your library to Kobo. Teleread is reporting that Borders is no longer operating their own eBookstore, and any attempts at logging in or purchasing will lead you to instructions on how to move to Kobo instead. This should be fairly seamless since Kobo was doing all the behind the scenes work on Borders eBookstore. Any Borders eBooks you might have should work fine in Kobo’s desktop and smartphone applications, and of course, those books…

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes:Watch Wynton Marsalis Live on UStream Today!

They say that music is the international language (actually, in Better Off Dead we learn that ‘love’ is that language), crossing borders and languages and cultures with its ability to transcend the spoken word. This afternoon two titans of the jazz music genre – Wynton Marsalis and Igor Butman – will join forces in a concert that will be streamed LIVE from Ukraine! Here are the details: America’s cultural ambassador, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis will join Russia’s premier jazz musician, saxophonist Igor Butman in a concert that reaches across time and geopolitical borders. Jazz — America’s model for collaboration and improvisation–…

News & Features

Making a Pilgrimage? Apple’s 5th Ave Store is Destination for Many

The Huff Post recently published an article that “Apple Stimulates ‘Religious’ Reaction in Fans’ Brains”. That may sound like a ridiculous April Fools Day post, but neuroscience is neuroscience and clearly Apple has found a way to quite literally strike a nerve in many. It should come as no surprise then that, for many, Apple’s flagship store in Manhattan is a pilgrimage destination. Sure, that sounds even more wacky and fanboy hyperbole-ish than the religious thing, but just take a look at this heat map that was put together by developer Eric Fischer. Each red dot indicates where a photo was taken…

eBooks, News & Features

Zinio Magazine App Now Available in the Android Market

It took far longer than we hoped or expected but, as of this morning, Zinio’s app is live in the Android Market. That’s right, if you have a device running Android 2.2 or above Android Honeycomb you can now get hundreds (thousands actually) of magazines right on your Android device. Zinio is one of my favorite apps on my iPad, and it was one of the things most lacking for me each time I tried to make the move to Android. And there’s more good news. Thanks to Zinio’s commitment to being cross-platform, if you already have a Zinio account,…

News & Features

How You Can Help Tornado Victims in Missouri!

The pictures coming out of Joplin, Missouri are horrific. It’s awful to see what the tornado has done to people’s homes and lives. But thanks to the power of the internet, there is something you can do! In fact, there’s a few ways you can help. One, a consortium of bloggers is working to raise money for the people of Joplin through Paypal, and it’s an easy way to help even if you’re far away. Bloggers without Borders (BwoB) is a blogger-based charity whose mission is to help people—bloggers and readers alike—by harnessing the good will of the blogging community….

News & Features

Today is Towel Day … Do You Know Where Yours Is?

This morning my younger son left for school carrying his towel … since he became a big fan of Douglas Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a year or so ago he ALWAYS knows where his towel is! He has been excited about celebrating ‘Towel Day’ all week. Unfortunately he wouldn’t let me take his picture for this post! Towel Day was created just after Douglas Adams death in 2001, in a post that said: Towel Day: A Tribute to Douglas Adams Monday 14 May 2001 06:00am PDT Douglas Adams will be missed by his fans worldwide. So that all…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Random Cool Video: Classic Sesame Street

I consider my family fortunate – I grew up watching Sesame Street when it was brand new, and my kids got to experience it as well during a time when both classic and new material was presented side-by-side, and there were plenty of videos, computer games, and music CD’s to enjoy! Last week my wife was shuffling on her iPod and ‘What do I do when I’m alone’ came on, a hold-over favorite from when the kids were little (I still have Rainbow Connection on my iPod!). Then this weekend a post at Buzzfeed looked at a bunch of classic…

News & Features

Random Cool Video: What Would You Do

‘What Would You Do’ is one of those ‘if we happen upon it’ shows my family will watch occasionally on Friday. The show sets up actors playing roles on hidden cameras in public places. Some of the ones we have seen are different teens (boy/girl, black/white) attempting to take a bike chained to a pole, hateful speech lobbed at an overweight girl, a spouse (again, male & female) trying to instigate a tryst in a bar on their anniversary while the other spouse is in the restroom. The goal is to see how normal bystanders will behave when confronted with…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Random Cool Video: Watch Family Guy ‘Its a Trap’ for FREE!

Over the last several years Family Guy has taken on the original Star Wars trilogy, with Blue Harvest and Something, Something Dark Side. Last December they released the final entry ‘It’s A Trap’ on DVD and Blu-Ray, and on May 22nd the show aired as the finale for the 9th season of Family Guy. The episode is once again a humorous retelling of Return of the Jedi using series characters in place of the original actors, but keeping the personalities of the Family Guy characters largely intact. General opinion seems to be that this is the weakest of the three…

News & Features

Skooba Design Adds Tenba Photo Bags to Portfolio

In response to many customer requests, Laptop bag manufacturer Skooba Design has partnered with the well-known Tenba brand to add photo/video carrying cases to Skooba’s product offering. Skooba will act as a reseller for the 35 year-old photo brand, which is a division of a separate company. The Skooba website is set up with quick links to match your lifestyle needs. One of four tabs – photographer, fashionista, road warrior and tech lover – will take you to a page with bags suited to fit your exact needs. I love this new offering of the Tenba bag lineup. I still…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Random Cool Stuff: Build a Urinal from Old SNES Cartridges!

Being a ‘Green’ family means looking to repurpose things rather than dispose of them … but I have to admit that I never thought about THIS! A urinal made from old Super Nintendo cartridges! According to Pricecharting.com: Building a video game urinal takes about eight hours of labor and costs roughly $200-250 (not counting the video games). If you too want a custom, hand-made video game urinal follow these steps below: The site goes on to detail the materials needed and provides the step-by-step instructions including images such as this: Interesting idea for the video game loving man looking to…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Random Liger Alert: Napoleon Dynamite … the Cartoon!

We missed out on Napoleon Dynamite when it first came out, but when our kids were a bit older we watched it together, and it remains one of their favorites. All of us pull quotes from the film on occasion. Apparently after enough years that it has properly faded into obscurity, cult classic Napoleon Dynamite is returning in cartoon form. Here is a bit of info from the press release (you can read the entire release below). NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (Heder) is a 16-year-old boy convinced – for no apparent reason – that he is destined for greatness and blessed with…

News & Features

Camtrol Expands Camera Control

For more than a quarter-century I have been serious about photography and videography. And for more than a quarter-century I have discovered that one cannot have too many gadgets/accessories when being serious about photography/videography. A press release arrived at the GearDiary.com inbox that caught my eye recently. It is touting a new customizable free-shooting stabilizing platform called Camtrol. It looks like something straight out of a Transformers movie. It is designed to work with handheld digital video cameras as well as the new breed of HDSLR cameras. Basically it is an action grip attached to a wide base platform with…

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