News & Features | Gear Diary

News & Features September 29, 2010

UPDATED! Tales In Packaging Insanity- Default Case

Larry has commented on Default Case a few times. Most recently he made the case that Default Case needs to stop talking and start doing. I agree- good customer service and a funny one-liner only go so far. After Larry’s first encounter with Default Case I ordered four more of the cases. Two came fairly quickly and then… nothing. Then I got word that one of the two remaining cases had finally shipped. It came today. The first issue I encountered was the fact that, unlike my first black case, this new white one is loose on the iPhone. There…

News & Features September 28, 2010

Gear Chat #17 Is Live…

On Gear Chat #17 Larry and Dan talk new iPods, iPad apps and more. Dan sent his iPod nano back and explains why… Larry finds that the iPod touch has the worst single feature of ANY Apple product and offers details. That and much more on the 17th episode of Gear Chat. Intro Music- Lean On Me- Sounds From the Ground Solarstone’s Chill Out Remix… Editorial note- we refer to questions as to whether or not the Apple TV was delayed during the episode which was recorded prior to said devices shipping earlier today.

News & Features September 28, 2010

AMC Theaters Goes ‘Back to the Future’ With 25th Anniversary Release!

While I sort of lost track of the sequels, I definitely remember seeing the original Back to the Future in theaters back in 1985! I saw it with a bunch of friends who were, like me, home for the summer from college but busy working as much as possible to earn whatever we could for the coming year. And while the screening at a campus the following spring elicited some derisive chuckles over the ‘flux capacitor’ – since flux means change and capacitor is for storage – the room was packed with folks who really loved the film. And why…

News & Features September 27, 2010

Work Gear Review- The Ergotron WorkFit Sit-Stand Desk

I have a bad back, and when it goes out I have a very difficult time sitting for extended period. This can be more than a slight problem in light of the fact that, between my work as a rabbi and my work on the site, I do so much writing. At times I’ve ended up placing my keyboard on a box and typing … and that way works, but it’s not the best solution. That is the reason I was thrilled when Ergotron reached out to me and asked if I might be interested in reviewing one of their…

News & Features September 27, 2010

iPad and iPhone App Update- Dropbox-Powered Elements 1.1

I’m using DropBox more and more these days, thanks to a recommendation from Thomas a number of months ago. One of the key apps on my iPad that makes Dropbox even more powerful is Elements. The universal app lets you use Dropbox as a note-taking application on any iOS device; it is a great way to take notes on the go and ALWAYS know exactly where to find them. When Larry first recommended the app to me, it was good… but extremely limited. You could make notes and do some minimal formatting, but that was it. Now Elements has been…

News & Features September 27, 2010

Old Meets New as iPad Becomes Essential Tool for… Archeaology!

My background is in archaeology. Long before I became interested in theology or moved heavily into tech, I loved excavating. I worked on a dig on the Mediterranean Cost when I was 17 and spent two summers excavating the ruins of a major city in the Galilee. Yes, my favorite fictional character was and remains Indiana Jones. This is a Roman house we excavated during one of the dig seasons. (And yes, that is me… a long, long time ago.) During one of the summers were excavating in the Galilee, there was a second team of archaeologists digging in a…

eBooks, News & Features September 25, 2010

Zinio Replaced Paper Magazines and Now… Catalogues!

I’ve made no secret of my fondness for the Zinio iPad app. It is a great way to browse, buy and read an ever growing variety of top magazines. I love always having a wide range of magazines with me. And I love the convenience of having an email show up weekly or monthly telling me that my new issue of RollingStone, Macworld or a new favorite, GreenSource, shows up. Well now Zinio has expanded their range of offerings to include three of Macy’s fall catalogues. It is a first for Zinio and a great new way to use Zinio….

News & Features September 24, 2010

Lenovo Releases Their First AMD-Powered M-Series ThinkCentre Windows 7 PC, and We’ll Be Giving One Away Soon!

This is just a heads up! Lenovo and AMD have joined together to create the new M75e ThinkCentre, and the specs are pretty impressive … The ThinkCentre M75e is an enterprise-class mainstream desktop designed for cost-conscious large enterprises and public segments. This is the first M-series ThinkCentre desktop featuring the powerful AMDTM processor AMDTM VISION Pro Technology. The ThinkCentre M75e offers high performance, multi-monitor capability, manageability and energy-efficiency. Built on the AMDTM VISION Pro technology that is known for reliability and performance, the ThinkCentre M75e supports processors up to AMD PhenomTM II Quad CoreTM Bx series – delivering the exceptional computing…

News & Features September 24, 2010

Glow In the Dark Car Paint Can Hide Insults Well … Until Dark, Anyway

What you’re looking at is color changing paint; it’s invisible during the day, but at night … well, as the song goes — the freaks come out at night. Gadgets & Gear is introducing a glow in the dark powder that when professionally mixed with the highest quality car paints produces glow in the dark effects that can last for up to 20 glowing hours. This isn’t some one shot deal, either, as the paint’s glowing properties can last for up to 10 years! Sure, you could design some really cool paint design that looks fabulous during the day and…

News & Features September 24, 2010

You Wouldn’t Drink and Drive So Why Is Your Smartphone in Your Hand?

The other day I was driving home and was a bit distracted while driving. No, I wasn’t texting. Instead I was trying to look around to see how many of the drivers around me were either speaking, typing or otherwise distracted by using their smartphones. I was amazed, and horrified, to see the percentage of individuals who were doing just that. Then, last night, as I was about to turn off the TV after watching one of the new season premieres I saw an advance blurb for the 11 o’clock news. It said something to the effect of, “Yet another…

News & Features September 23, 2010

Apple Updates Keynote, Numbers, and Pages for iPad – Definitely Worth Getting!

If you ask anyone what their biggest complaint was about the iWork apps on the iPad (Keynote, Numbers, and Pages), for many it would be the lack of a simple way to interact with Microsoft Office files and a limited ability to get files on and off the iPad. With a new update to all three applications, those issues are fixed – as are many more! MacRumors has a run-down of the features: Keynote – Export presentations to Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT) format. – Copy presentations between Keynote and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service. – Support for audio in…

News & Features September 23, 2010

Booq Introduces New, High-End Line of Gadget Bags

From the king Cobra case L, to the iPad specific Cobra courier XS, these four cases bring an unmatched elegance and style to the case and bag market Booq makes some of the most stylish and functional gadget bags I have had the pleasure to review. In recent months they have been expanding their line significantly and today they are taking things to an entirely new level. Today Booq will be announcing their new Cobra line of bags. The Cobra line brings a luxuriously fresh design and simply sharp look to booq’s already stellar line of iPad bags, skins, messengers,…

News & Features September 23, 2010

Sprint SERO Plans Adding Support for Newer Phones

Before the advent of “Simply Everything” there was an even cheaper way to get Sprint service. All you needed was the email address of a Sprint employee, and you’d qualify for a special plan called “Sprint Employee Referral Offer” or SERO. Basically, it was deeply discounted service, and the people lucky enough to sign up have enjoyed ridiculously cheap wireless for the last few years. In an attempt to drive people off SERO and onto the more lucrative “Simply Everything” plans, Sprint stopped allowing SERO customers to upgrade to new phones. Basically, name a hot phone on Sprint, and SERO…

News & Features September 21, 2010

Pad Brackets Lets You Hang Your iPad Anywhere That You Have a Wall…

As the iPad continues to find its way into more and more homes there are more and more uses being found for it. One of the more interesting iPad “accessories” I saw a few weeks back is a mounting kit that literally embeds an iPad in the wall so that it is flush with the sheet rock. It looked great but that strikes me as a bit obsessive… not to mention a whole lot of work to hang an iPad. And then there is the whole… “now how do I get the iPad out so I can use it elsewhere”-thing. Well…

News & Features September 21, 2010

Random Cool Video: Miles Davis & John Lennon Playing Basketball

Is there really much else to say? You have two of the most important musical figures of the 20th century, together shooting hoops at a birthday party, and it was caught on film. From the MilesDavisOnline site notes: There’s this most excellent footage floating around the ‘net of a John Lennon / Yoko Ono party from 1972 that features Andy Warhol, Phil Spector and Miles Davis. The 16mm color film was shot by filmmaker Jonas Mekas (the date was specifically October 9, 1972). Great. Party footage. Looks like they had fun. Good for them. But what makes this unearthed party…

News & Features September 17, 2010

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Score ‘The Social Network’; You Get a Five Song Sampler for Free

Here’s a heads-up that you can download a FREE five-track sampler of music from the upcoming movie The Social Network, scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, by clicking this link. You can also pre-order the full 19 song soundtrack as a CD ($8.00), in HD Blu-ray Audio ($20.00), or on vinyl ($25.00). The Social Network soundtrack will be released digitally on Tuesday September 28th with physical formats to follow in October. You can pre-order standard CD, Blu-ray (audio only 5.1 surround and high resolution stereo) and 2 disc 180g vinyl formats now. All preorders include an instant 5 song sampler download…

News & Features September 17, 2010

Random Cool Stuff: Too Many Cats? Here Are a Few Ways To Organize Them!

This summer my wife’s sister moved from New Jersey to Texas because her husband works for Exxon-Mobil, and in the process what started as ‘babysitting’ her 3 cats turned into getting them dumped on us permanently! So on top of our two terriers, without own cat we suddenly had a minor herd of kittehs! Here is one we actually just got rid of when our nephew returned from China and wanted the cat back with him at college: And yes, he is rather large – he’s actually bigger than either of our dogs! They can get out of hand at…

News & Features September 17, 2010

Random Cool Stuff: ABC’s for Baby Gamers!

How young is too young to start indoctrinating your children in the ways of the gamer? NEVER too young! So instead of reading ‘Chicka Chicka ABC’ or ‘Goodnight Moon’ to your toddler, tuck them in with the ‘Gamer’s Alphabet’! Anyway, ElJeffe at the Penny-Arcade forums talked about his book and how he created it: Okay, here’s the Gamer’s Alphabet. First, this is roughly how I made it. Instead of using adhesive paper, I used plain, sturdy printer paper and spray-on glue, because I couldn’t find any adhesive paper that didn’t suck for printing. Also, the instructions make it sound like…

News & Features September 17, 2010

Duracell myGrid Makes Cordless Charging Easy, Simple and Fast

We have looked at a number of cordless charging systems over the last year or so, but now a heavyweight in the world of mobile-device power jumped into the field in a big way when they released their myGrid system. Duracell’s myGrid offers several different kits that let you simply set your device down and watch it charge up. With the myGrid… Cord clutter is a thing of the past. With myGrid, you can easily charge up to four mobile devices at the same time. Simply attach a Power Sleeve™ or Power Clip™ to each device and drop it onto myGrid…

News & Features September 16, 2010

Android on a Palm Tungsten C!

(image courtesy Dmitry Grinberg) Yes, Android has been ported to iPhones, but what about older devices? If you’ve got a Tungsten C, you can (theoretically) run Android 2.1 on it! Yes, a Tungsten C can run a higher version of Android than some official Android phones! This upgrade (if you can call it that) was done by Dmitri Grinberg, possibly the last major hacker/developer of the Palm OS platform. He’s claimed for some time to be working on “DGOS”, a pseudo-upgrade to Palm OS. Either to not endanger his DGOS project or because the Android port is so unstable, it…

News & Features, Vehicles & Gear September 16, 2010

Ford celebrating Vans and 8-Tracks

Ford Motor Company is celebrating a couple of milestones this week. The first is the 50th anniversary of the E-Series fullsize van, originally called Econoline. Second, and more importantly to some of us, is the 45th anniversary of its first offering of an 8-track tape player option in its vehicles. In 1965, car buyers were given a new option for factory sound systems. An 8-track stereo tape player was being offered in new 1966 model Mustangs, T-Birds and Lincolns. This new recorded music format was developed by Lear Jet along with the assistance of Ampex, Ford, General Motors, Motorola and…