News & Features | Gear Diary

Ilium Software Launches eWallet GO! – Their First App for WP7

Well established mobile software companies are slowly rolling out apps for Windows Phone 7. Ilium Software, a long-standing mobile software company, has just released its first WP7 app, eWallet GO! (the ! is theirs – not [necessarily] an indication of my excitement). eWallet is a secure information manager (password protector, etc.) that has been around for quite a few years, expanding to new platforms as they are introduced. It’s an old favorite of many – I myself have used eWallet on several different platforms in the past. eWallet GO! offers over 30 card templates, ranging from credit cards to website…

News & Features

Contour GPS Adds Bluetooth to Hands-Free Video

It’s an issue as old as Xtreme Sportz. You’ve strapped a video camera to your helmet, and you’re convinced it’s absolutely killer footage. Unfortunately, you taped the camera at the wrong angle, and instead of seeing your wicked skating set everyone sees the sky. Luckily, ContourGPS has a hands-free video camera that solves this issue by turning your phone into the viewfinder via Bluetooth. I can see where this would be helpful since without some sort of screen you don’t know that your camera is aimed properly. However, may I make a suggestion? If you’re going to be using this…

Events, News & Features

First Ever Demo- Motorola Atrix 4? Phone To 20? Desktop to… 24? iMac

Francis and I got to spend some intimate time with Motorola’s Xoom powerhouse tablet and Atrix smartphone and we came away impressed. Toward the end of the demo we asked for a chance to try something new; we asked to take over the Atrix while it was connected to a 20″ monitor, keyboard and mouse and use it, in conjunction with LogMeIn, to take over my 24″ iMac in New Jersey. The result… The smartphone took over and controlled my Mac seamlessly. We asked if anyone else had done this, and were told this was, at least in their experience,…

Events, News & Features

2011 May Actually BE the Year of the Tablet

It is actually looking like the tablet bonanza promised last year will finally arrive. Francis and I just found ourselves in tablet-Ville. Prototypes and actual shipping models were everywhere and almost all were running some version of Android.

Events, News & Features

ProClip Makes Francis’ Day

Francis doesn’t own a single Apple product. Yeah I know… some day he will come to his senses but for now he is committed to remaining unenlightened. His phone of choose right now… the Samsung Vibrant. The problem with that is that there are tons of accessors for iPhones but when it comes to phones like the Captivate there are few choices. Francis was sharing his tale of woe when we stumbled upon our friend Johan at his ProClip booth and… wouldn’t you know it, ProClip has a carholder that IA designed specifically for the Captivate and its top-positioned microUSB.

News & Features, Vehicles & Gear

CES Garage, Day Four

Day Four is all about the unveiling of the new Ford Focus Electric, an all-electric version of the next-generation Focus subcompact. The all-new Focus Electric is Ford’s first-ever all-electric passenger car. (OK, maybe its first-ever mass-produced electric car as Mrs. Henry Ford was reported to spin around the Dearborn countryside in an electric car in 1914.) The zero-CO2-emissions, gasoline-free version of Ford’s popular small car is the flagship of the company’s growing fleet of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles coming to North America and Europe by 2013.

Events, News & Features

Gear Diary Live at CES- The Lenovo U1: A Year Later It Looks Better than Ever

Dino and I spent some time this afternoon at the Lenovo display. We had the opportunity to look at all of the new computers that will be offered by Lenovo this year. Trust us, there are a ton of them and we will have a look at many over the next few days. Right now, however, we wanted to take a few minutes to look a little more closely at their most unusual and innovative product–the Lenovo U1. This is both a tablet and a notebook computer. We saw a version of this computer last year when we were here…

Events, News & Features

Vision Objects Makes Their CES Debut

Vision Objects has been developing and refining handwriting recognition technology since 1998, with their software being partnered with some well known products, such as the Livescribe pen series so well loved by several Gear Diary writers (including yours truly). Despite being well known for their handwriting recognition prowess, which is available in different forms for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, this is the first year that Vision Objects set up shop at CES. To coincide with its first CES appearance, Vision Objects is introducing several new products. As described by their press release: MyScript Studio…

Events, News & Features

Casio- “Viva LaRevolution”; Us “Revolution? What Revolution”

What do you do when you have nothing of substance to say but it’s the biggest technology event of the year? Why you hold a press conference of course! And then you use words like “digital revolution” and “create fantastic works of art” over and over and over and over again. That was the experience we had yesterday afternoon at the Casio press conference. Yes, the company that first brought digital photography to the world had nothing of substance to offer today but that didn’t keep them from holding a press conference and talking for a seemingly endless period of…

Events, News & Features

CES: Handsets and Tablets, Oh MY! All from Motorola!

Today at CES Verizon had their day in the sun! During that announcement they officially announced what looks like a great handset in the new Droid Bionic, plus the new Xoom Tablet. Both are due to hit Verizon early this year. The Droid Bionic boasts from the press release: Packing a dual core processor with each core running at 1GHz, delivering up to two GHz of processing power, and 512 MB RAM, the sleekly designed DROID BIONIC smartphone with 4G LTE delivers a mobile Internet experience that’s up to 10 times faster than 3G. This means consumers can stream their favorite…

Events, News & Features

Nike Introduces the Nike+ SportWatch

Garmin has been the undisputed leader of GPS running watches for several years. Timex and Polar have similar devices, but neither has captured running hearts quite like the Garmin Forerunner line. Nike has the “poor man’s Garmin” with their Nike+ system, and at CES they stepped it up with a new GPS-based Nike watch. According to Nike: Starting April 1st, get the extra push you need with the Nike+ SportWatch GPS powered by TomTom. Not only does it track what you do, it tracks how you do it, then makes you want to do it again and again. Here’s how:…

Events, News & Features

A Huge Gear Diary Thank You to Card Munch

So CES is well underway, and we are running from sun-up until late at night. Along the way we are seeing all kinds of great tech, speaking to awesome people and… collecting tons of business cards. Well, actually, that’s not quite true. If this were last year we would be collecting tons of business cards but this isn’t last year and we aren’t collecting any business cards at all. Thanks to the Card Munch iPhone app and the generosity of the folks at Card Munch, Judie and I haven’t collected a single business card. Instead we take the cards, grab…

Events, News & Features

CES- Iomega Superhero Dock

I spent some time this morning at the Iomega booth and had a chance to see their news Superhero dock for backing up and charging iPhones and iPod touches. The unassuming dock does a trick that, surprisingly had not been done before. The dock will charge your device but it will also backup photos and contacts to the included SD card. To use it you download the free app that will be available soon and then, whenever the device is docked the app will launch and back up the most precious content on it. It works with all generations of…

eBooks, News & Features

“We’re Not Dead Yet!” Says Borders

(image courtesy Magnificent Vista) There’s a slight, baby, teeny-tiny glimmer of hope for Borders. Apparently, they’re not quite dead yet. Late breaking news today indicated Borders is making inroads on restructuring their debt, AND they aren’t hiring bankruptcy lawyers. According to Bloomberg news: Borders Group Inc., the second- largest U.S. bookstore chain, surged in after-hours trading on a report that Jefferies & Co. is helping the company restructure its debt. The investment bank is advising the Ann Arbor, Michigan- based chain on reworking its debt load, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing people familiar with the matter. Borders doesn’t have…

Events, News & Features

How Many Bloggers Does It Take to Screw in an Archerfish Solo?

“Installing Archerfish Solo is now as easy as screwing in a light bulb – literally.” Okay, now we’re talking… a product tag line that promises something I can handle. No drills, hammers, screwdrivers, or circular saws. The Archerfish Solo is advertised as “thinking camera” featuring “built-in Homeland Security technology” that allows it to interpret what it sees, so it only shows you what you want to see – those types of activities that made you install a security camera in the first place – rather than making you weed through hours of uneventful video. Cernium Corporation, makers of the Archerfish…

Events, News & Features

Corning Gorilla Glass: Not Just For Smartphones Anymore!

Corning’s Gorilla Glass has become the industry standard in just a few short years for an obvious reason: people don’t like their phones to shatter. While the glass isn’t completely indestructible, it has shown an unprecedented ability to resist scratches and breaks in normal use. The list of devices using the glass is impressive, and that is with some (ahem) well known users left off the list. Here is just a sampling: Handheld Devices * Dell: Aero, Streak, Venue Pro * LG: LG Mini, Arena TV, Ophone, Ally, Optimus 7 * Motorola: BACKFLIP, BRAVO, CHARM, CLIQ, CLIQ XT, DEFY, DEVOUR,…

Events, News & Features

CESLive- Skype Press Conference: Acquires qik Plus More

The press conference with Skype brought some important news. There were 90 billion minutes of calls on Skype last year. Video is the next big thing in communication. They launched Skype for iPhone on New Years Eve. First day saw four million downloads and one million video calls! Then came the big news. Just announced that they have purchased qik. Also announced group video calls that let up to ten people talk at a time. Also adding more companies such as Visio and Sony into the live innovation. Panasonic is also adding Skype technology blueray players. All exciting news for…

News & Features

Cool Tech Stuff: Next Mars Rover to Use Laser Spectrometer for ‘Real Time’ Decision-Making

Image courtesy of Wired One of the big problems with remote exploration using automated systems is figuring out what is important and using that information to make decisions that will allow you to alter your collection plans to gain more information during the study. When sending an automated exploration vehicle to Mars, those problems are amplified enormously – space and power become a huge issue. Look at this example from a new article at PhotonicsOnline: After NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit examined an outcrop called “Comanche” in 2005, it took years of analyzing indirect evidence before the team could confidently…

News & Features

Mac App Store Now Live With >1,000 Apps, Requires OS X 10.6.6 Update

This morning I got a couple of emails from Apple, but the one that immediately grabbed my attention was “The Mac App Store. Grand opening today.” There isn’t much to tell as of yet – there are over 1,000 apps loaded up and ready to go, and the process of checking everything out is as simple as using the iTunes App Store! I haven’t bought anything yet, as I took care of iLife, MS Office and MobileMe before the holidays. One thing to note: as stated in the press release below, to get the App Store you need to grab…

Events, News & Features

Video Exclusive: ioSafe Rugged Portable Hard Drive Given a Hard Time!

We just posted the release of ioSafe’s newest hard drive product right here. Just like last year, Dan, Judie and Larry were able to see the ioSafe perform in person. Last year, the demo showed how well their products stand up to fire which was right up Larry’s alley. This year they dragged one behind a van then shot it! To make it even better, the Gear Diary editors get to take the shots!!! Of course, I am saying Judie and Kevin took the best shots since they are fellow Texans and all. Watch the video and I promise you…

News & Features

Astraware and Digital Eel launch Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space on the iPad

Along with all of the gadgets at CES, some new games are also being released this week. Astraware has just released a new iPad game, Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space. This is the iPad take on the Mac/PC game of the same name. The iPad seems like a great platform to engage in space combat. Here is the complete release from Astraware. Watch soon for a full review. Astraware and Digital Eel launch Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space on the iPad Staffordshire, UK – January 5th 2011 – Astraware® is excited to announce it’s going to be a…