News & Features

Apple ‘Wins’ Product Placement Award for 2010

Tracking Apple products in shows is somewhat of a hobby for many folks, and we even did a number of ‘Apple on TV’ posts here at Gear Diary. Of course, Apple is just one of many companies that spend heavily to get their products featured prominently in TV shows and movies, and keeping in the spirit of awards season the folks at BrandChannel have compiled their annual ‘Product Placement Awards’ … and not surprisingly Apple has come out on top again. Here are some details from the award: Apple products appeared in ten (or 30%) of the 33 films that…

News & Features

Random Cool Video: Hotel Room Boredom at 2,564 Frames Per Second

Last week many sites posted images shot at 2,564 frames per second. Now we have full video, and more details about the monster camera that can shoot that fast at full 1080p resolution! The cameraman was Tom Guilmette, and here is what he had to say: Violating the laws of nature. Playing God. Capturing stuff we are not supposed to see. Potentially opening up a wormhole in the fabric of time. These are a few of the things I think about while shooting with a Phantom High Speed Digital Cinema camera. The above video is a bunch of test footage…

News & Features

Random Cool Video: Watch All 22 Episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series Online for FREE!

I remember watching Star Trek: The Animated Series back in the early 70’s with my father, who had enjoyed the short lived Star Trek series back in the late 60’s. It was the time before syndication was mainstream and seeing a show again was called a re-run, but the original Star Trek had grown more popular since cancellation and the animated series brought even more folks into the fold. And surprisingly enough, most of the episodes were pretty good! Now and for a limited time, the official Star Trek site are offering free streaming of all 22 episodes through their…

News & Features

Your Favorite Geek May Be a “Geeks of the Week” Trading Card

Oh, this is so totally cool! Think Geek is now offering the first of 52 “Geek of the Week” trading cards! The cards are broken into sets of eight — I guess because doing sets of seven didn’t look symmetrical enough(?), but anyway! Seriously! How can you resist Veronica Belmont dressed as a warrior princess? In 2010, illustrator Len Peralta set upon a challenge: interview 52 members of the geek-elite, and use that newfound familiarity to create likenesses of them. Each geek would be depicted in iconic representations that best reflected their style and personality. His medium of choice: trading…

News & Features

GD Quickie: iPad’s Hidden Benefit to Business

An article in the New York Times this morning entitled “After iPad’s Head Start, Rival Tablets Are Poised to Flood Offices” does a nice job of discussing the impact tablets have already had on the world of computing. It also goes on the describe the changing landscape as real iPad alternatives finally begin to enter the market. While the article notes that Apple’s unchallenged run into the tablet market is about to end it also does a good job of describing the impact Cupertino’s device has already had and its rapid, and somewhat surprising penetration, into business. The article notes…

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes: TuneSecure – Making the (Same Old) Piracy Argument New Again

Why is it that music files were the first ones that were widely pirated, yet now account for ~3% of files downloaded in a recent survey? Bandwidth – or more to the point, convenience! But as internet access speeds and download methods have evolved people are downloading movies and games and other massive files more frequently than music. For a long time folks in the RIAA and MPAA and other related media industry groups have keyed on THAT – the ever-increasing ease of piracy – as a route to eliminate piracy by making it inconvenient / uncomfortable for pirates. Their…

News & Features

Mobile Fun’s TypeTop Swivel Mini Bluetooth Keyboard for iPhone 4 Case Creates the Smallest Mobile Office

With so many keyboard cases being introduced in the past few months for the iPad, people who were using their iPhones as mobile offices might have been feeling a bit left out. They need feel that way no longer. With the introduction of Mobile Fun’s TypeTop iPhone 4 Keyboard, the iPhone comes into its own. Swivel design gives many different angles to use iPhone and Keyboard Adds a stand to your iPhone for FaceTime and viewing media Full QWERTY keyboard makes typing easy Built in battery won’t take power from your iPhone 4 Connects wirelessly through Bluetooth Adds just 0.9mm…

News & Features

dB Cases Crank It Up

Just can’t quite hear your iPhone or iPod Touch but hate earbuds and a big-honkin’ add-on amplifier unit is nowhere in sight? The folks at dB Cases have a solution for you.

News & Features

Amazon Adds Unlimited Free Streaming for Prime Members

I joined Amazon Prime last year by way of a free one-month trial and somewhat reluctantly paid the $79 annual fee, but by the end of the year the service had easily paid for itself in terms of greatly reduced shipping costs, no minimum to qualify for free shipping, priority treatment and so on. At the same time, my wife bought me a Roku XDS for Christmas and my family has greatly enjoyed the simplified access to Hulu+, Netflix and rental movies through Amazon On-Demand. We recently decided to (once again) cancel Netflix due to the selection and our usage…

News & Features

The Hidden Price of Our Gadget Obsession: Child Labor

One item that came through in Apple’s Supplier report last week was a marked increase in issues with child labor in supplier facilities, particularly in China. The report noted that Apple ” audited 127 facilities and found 91 cases including 31 workers who had been hired prior to reaching the legal age, but were no longer underage or no longer employed at the time of the audit.” Before you get out the Apple-bashing hammer, remember that EVERYONE making devices is using these facilities – Dell, Asus, Acer, HP, even Samsung gets loads of stuff from these plants. This means it…

News & Features

You Didn’t Want to Know This: Mall Food Court Trays Dirty as a Toilet

Have you ever eaten at the mall food court and had your kids drop stuff on the table and say ‘hey don’t eat anything that falls off of your tray, the tables are filthy!’? Well, it turns out that the trays themselves are no better! According to a non-scientific study done by the CBC: Swabs taken from trays in food courts at three malls were sent to University of British Columbia microbiologist Bob Hancock, who analyzed the samples. The malls involved were Pacific Centre in downtown Vancouver, Park Royal in West Vancouver and Metrotown in Burnaby “We saw as many…

News & Features

ContentMatters Translates Borders CEO’s Email

Content Matters has taken the time to give a more honest interpretation of Mike Edwards’ email, and it does a great job of hitting the high (er…low) points in Borders’ history. My favorite bits: So around 3 years ago, Amazon came out with this Kindle e-reader. As my mama said – who the heck wants to read a book on a computer? So we did the smart thing and ignored it. Our friends at Barnes & Noble came out with their own version, called the Nook. And we ignored that one too. Then last year, our private equity investors told…

Gear Bits, News & Features

GD Quickie: Vintage Swedish Army Belts Ready to Do Battle With the Bulge

In a world of “new and improved” sometimes the best things are “old and broken in”. I mean seriously, if you compare the build quality of the appliances we put into our first house almost 20 years ago with the ones we installed in our current home 6 years ago it quickly becomes apparent that older things are sometimes far more durable. That goes for some clothing too. That’s where Inventory Magazines treasure trove of old Swedish Army belts comes in. As they explain, The perfect belt always seems to elude us, well some of us. One member of our…

News & Features, Vehicles & Gear

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 & Features

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 & Features

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 & Features

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 & Features

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 & Features

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 & Features

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 & Features

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…

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