News & Features

Case-Mate Launches New Venture Case/Stand for iPad

News & Features

Case-Mate Launches New Venture Case/Stand for iPad

Case-Mate is just releasing their newest case for the Apple iPad. Well to be more accurate, they are releasing their newest case AND their newest stand for the iPad and it is a single product, the Venture. Understanding that iPad users are clamoring for a good case that also converts into a stand the company has produced the Venture to “…answer the demand for a better iPad stand”. The case is crafted out of a black polyurethane material with green accent piping. The iPad slips easily into the case which can then be used to protect the device and make…

Substrata's Wooden iPad Boxes are Closer to Reality

News & Features

Substrata’s Wooden iPad Boxes are Closer to Reality

Substrata Creative Studios, the Portland Oregon based makers of fine wooden cabinets, countertops, furniture and cutting boards have been creating distinctive iPod touch and iPhone 3G/3GS cases for some time, but they have now upped their game with the introduction of the Substrata iPad Box (Hinged Lid). Each of these custom cases are made to order, with a shipping wait time of 2 – 3 weeks. These cases feature: • an integrated wood hinge with contrasting inlays • a micro suede lining of lid and base • wooden latches (with magnetic stops in the ‘open’ and ‘closed’ positions) • functions…

Fring + iPhone 3GS + Mirror??? = Two-Way Video Chat

News & Features

Fring + iPhone 3GS + Mirror??? = Two-Way Video Chat

Yes it is a bit buggy, but Fring’s iPhone app does let you make video calls over 3G, and that’s something you just can’t do with FaceTime. No, the quality isn’t nearly as good, but it DOES WORK! How do I know? Because Larry and I just video chatted, and there isn’t a stitch of WiFi where he is at the beach. After making a video call iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over 3G we decided to see what would happen if he installed Fring on the 3GS. He did… and it worked. There was just one problem… because the…

Would You Eat a Canned Sandwich? How About Investing Your Retirement in Them?

News & Features

Would You Eat a Canned Sandwich? How About Investing Your Retirement in Them?

How would you feel if you and a group of other investors had contributed a total of $145 million into what you thought were real estate investments, only to later find out that instead a huge portion of that money had been put into the development of “Candwiches” and other equally odd and questionable products? That’s exactly what happened to a group of investors in Utah after Travis L. Wright offered them returns of up to 24% on real estate investments. Obviously promised returns that high should have been their first clue that something was fishy, but evidently Utah investors are known to be näive…

Suffering 'Product Recall Overload'? There's An App For That!

News & Features

Suffering ‘Product Recall Overload’? There’s An App For That!

The other day we were watching the news and there were three product recalls in a row and my wife mentioned hearing on the radio a report about ‘recall overload’, how so much stuff is being recalled so frequently that we become numb to it all. In fact, this week there are reports on various news sources about the issue. Well, apparently the government agencies issuing these recalls are aware of this, and have launched a mobile app called ‘Recall.gov’. It brings together data from the relevant agencies – Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Food and…

Prince Sez No Digital Tunes 4 U!

Music Diary, News & Features

Prince Sez No Digital Tunes 4 U!

For many people, digital music stopped being a revolution – or even something to debate – a long time ago. Apple’s iTunes is the largest music retailer, and more and more sites seek a piece of the ever-growing digital music pie. But not THIS guy: Prince, in an interview with the UK paper the Daily Mirror said: “The internet’s completely over,” Prince told the paper. “I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.” Ah ……

Speakal's New iPom Brings Apples, Flowers and Speakers Together In A Unique Package

News & Features

Speakal’s New iPom Brings Apples, Flowers and Speakers Together In A Unique Package

Tired of your iPod speakers looking like speakers? Want something that looks a bit different but still delivers great sound? If so the iPom might be just the thing you are looking for. The iPom is– a floral themed speaker solution boasts a apple-shaped subwoofer with two removable flower speakers. It plays music from USB drives, SD cards, and any other sound source with a 3.5mm output. The specs of the iPom include… • 2.1 Stereo Speaker System • Plays music from USB Memory stick or SD card or any other music device that has a 3.5mm output, such as…

Beware of Counterfeit Vibram Five Fingers!

News & Features

Beware of Counterfeit Vibram Five Fingers!

Image courtesy Birthday Shoes It isn’t just ebook scammers you have to watch for on the internet! If you’ve been paying attention to Judie and Larry’s Couch to 5k Series, you may have caught that Judie runs in Vibram Five Finger Sprints. Recently I picked up a pair of Vibram Five Finger KSO’s at my local EMS, and I think Larry has a pair too…so we’re clearly big fans of toe-shoes here at Gear Diary. Now, if you’ve looked into ordering VFF’s recently, you may have noticed many sizes and styles are backordered. Vibram has had a hard time keeping…

Palm's Legacy

News & Features

Palm’s Legacy

By now you’ve probably heard the news that PALM is officially part of Hewlett-Packard. If you, like many of us, started with a Palm OS device before moving on to smartphones, it’s a bittersweet ending. On the one hand, no one wanted to see Palm die, even after their slow circling of the drain for years. On the other hand, it’s an open question how Palm will do as part of HP, and whether WebOS will resurface or be absorbed into an HP Printer. One of the original Palm-people, Donna Dubinsky, wants to remind people there’s always been something special…

Falling eBook Reader Prices!

eBooks, News & Features

Falling eBook Reader Prices!

Think Amazon and Barnes and Noble are the only ones slashing prices? Well, it looks like a few players in the ebook market have caught up with the new paradigm, though it’s debatable what changes will actually help them. Here are a few of the big drops we’ve seen so far: Sony Readers: Pocket Edition: From $169 to $149 Touch Edition: From $199 to $169 Daily Edition: From $349 to $299 Pocketbook Series: Pocketbook 360: From $239 to $199 Pocketbook 301: From $279 to $219 Pocketbook 302: From $339 to $279 Just for comparison, again, here are the prices on…

A Declaration on Independence Discovery

News & Features

A Declaration on Independence Discovery

In a fascinating use of modern technology, a high-resolution camera has revealed what can only be described as the use of “white-out” correction fluid on the Declaration of Independence. According to a post on BoingBoing a draft of the Declaration originally used the word “subjects” to refer to those living in the emerging nation. Thomas Jefferson Thought twice about using the word, scratched it out and changed it to “citizens”. My grandpa Alex came to America in 1917. He was so proud to be here that he promptly changed his birthday to July 4th. Jefferson’s word-smithing of the Declaration is…

Woot- Sells TiVo HD, Takes Shot At Apple

News & Features

Woot- Sells TiVo HD, Takes Shot At Apple

Woot, newly acquired by Amazon, has a TiVo HD DVR for sale today. As an owner of this same model, I can attest to the fact that it is a nice unit. It will certainly do the trick… At least until Apple’s revamped Apple TV comes out. And speaking of Apple, the description of the DVR offered by Woot takes a little shot at the iPhone maker’s recent press release. It is rather amusing… Dear Wooters: The TiVo HDXL 150 Hour THX Certified DVR has been the most successful product in the history of the world. Ever. Okay, that’s a…

USBCELL Batteries Make You Wonder Why You Didn't Think of This First

News & Features

USBCELL Batteries Make You Wonder Why You Didn’t Think of This First

Do you remember those old rechargeable AA batteries that first emerged in the 1980s?  You had to charge them overnight just so you could get about 2.4 hours of use in your Sony Walkman cassette player? Yeah, these aren’t those. USBCELL AA batteries are unique in that they have a built-in USB connector hidden under a cap at the + end of the battery.  Open the cap, insert the battery into an open USB port on your computer, and let the charging begin!  You’ll achieve a 90% charge in just 5 hours and – for use in a pinch –…

iPhone 4 Reception Issue Solved? Signal Reporting Not Hardware to Blame?

News & Features

iPhone 4 Reception Issue Solved? Signal Reporting Not Hardware to Blame?

Apple has finally broken their apparent silence on the iPhone 4’s signal-gate and admit that they were surprised when they uncovered the cause of the issue. The full text of the letter is below but here are the highlights… …we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them… …gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones… We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars,…

Cambridge SoundWorks i525 iPod/AM/FM Clock Radio System - Review

News & Features

Cambridge SoundWorks i525 iPod/AM/FM Clock Radio System – Review

If you’re an audiophile you still want to have a fancy powerful stereo system home. But for many of us, the sound coming out of our iPhones, iPods, or iPads is good enough when they’re connected to some sort of a speaker system. Since I am not an audiophile I’m perfectly happy having a dock in my home office, in the bedroom, and in my study at work so I can listen to music whenever I want. Over the next few days, I’m going to take a look at a number of different docks that are currently available. Some have…

IDAPT i4 Universal Charging Solution Now Compatible with iPad and iPhone 4

News & Features

IDAPT i4 Universal Charging Solution Now Compatible with iPad and iPhone 4

A few weeks ago we gave away an IDAPT i3 Universal Charging Solution. It is a fantastic solution for anyone who has more than one gadget in daily use. (And if you are reading GD it is a pretty good bet that means YOU!) We got word yesterday that the new IDAPT i4 is compatible with the iPad and iPhone 4. That means you can now charge your iPhone AND iPad AND 2 other devices at the same time. Awesome! The IDAPT i4 is available in black, white or silver for $59.99 MSRP at www.idaptweb.com. The packaging includes 6 tips…

CoPilot Live North America iPhone App Updated for iOS 4 and the iPhone 4 Retina Display

News & Features

CoPilot Live North America iPhone App Updated for iOS 4 and the iPhone 4 Retina Display

CoPilot Live North America has now been updated to fully support iOS 4 and the iPhone 4 Retina Display. What does that mean? Well first off it means the app is once again usable on your iPhone if you are using an iPhone 4. When the iPhone 4 was released last week the high res screen posed a problem for the CoPilot app. Just a few days later the issue has been resolved and all is working fine. The bigger deal is the fact that the app now fully supports iOS 4.0 and that means it will keep running even…

Buy a Flying Car...for the Price of a Small House!

News & Features

Buy a Flying Car…for the Price of a Small House!

If the jetpack I told you about isn’t really your speed, what about a flying car? It’s called the Transition Roadable Aircraft, and it will run you around $194,000 (plus your pilot’s license!) What’s amazing is that this isn’t really a traditional “flying car”, at least not in the DeLorean sense. Instead, it’s more like a plane that can fold up and drive home. Might be tough to use it in your everyday life, unless you have an extra-large driveway at home. Supposedly, it’s going to be a fairly versatile plane-car (plar? clane?): Going from plane to car “takes about…

RIP Fictionwise?

eBooks, News & Features

RIP Fictionwise?

Looks like Fictionwise is becoming more obsolete by the day. During the spring they discontinued their membership program in the face of the agency pricing changes. Now it looks like “micropay rebates”, the last bastion of their old system, is being discontinued. Micropay rebates were essentially an incentive program to shop at Fictionwise on an ongoing basis. You earned the rebate credits for books you purchased and could apply them towards other transactions on the site. Effectively, the rebates significantly lowered the overall cost of buying through Fictionwise, even if the individual items were not cheaper. Specifically, Fictionwise says: Until…

Tom Bihn Ristretto Bag for Apple iPad - Review

News & Features

Tom Bihn Ristretto Bag for Apple iPad – Review

I carry my iPad with me pretty much everywhere I go these days. That means I need a good case… and a good bag. Tom Bihn was kind enough to send me one of their Ristretto bags. The Ristretto was originally designed for carrying netbooks but it works perfectly as an iPad bag. As soon as you look at the bag you are struck by the realization that this is a bag that was designed for use in the real world. It is relatively light when empty which is a good thing because part of the attraction of carrying the…