Gear Bits

Do You Really Need to Missspel Your Product Name to Get Attention??

Editorials, Gear Bits

Do You Really Need to Missspel Your Product Name to Get Attention??

The other day Carly wrote a post about the lack of professionalism when using Text-spelling for business communication. It is a good post and one worth reading. (Find it here.) Here’s a related pet-peeve… companies intentionally misspelling words in order to be unique, cool or grab attention. Seriously, there are ways to spell things and… …there are ways not to spell things. I just finished a review of the Joy Factory’s Klick Desk Stand. It is a nice product but my spellcheck is pretty much hating the company right now. GAH!!!!!

Random Cool Video: Lyle Mays Makes Rare Appearance

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Random Cool Video: Lyle Mays Makes Rare Appearance

For fans of pianist Lyle Mays, best known as the keyboardist and co-composer with the Pat Metheny Group, ANY sighting or musical release is an event. This isn’t just because his music is wonderful – it is because it so rarely happens! His last album Some video just surfaced from a CalTech series early this year called TEDxCaltech where Mays appeared with a group in January. Here is a bit about the event: What is TEDx? In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring…

At Least NOW We Know Who the TRUE Enemies of Freedom Are!

Gear Bits

At Least NOW We Know Who the TRUE Enemies of Freedom Are!

Image courtesy WTOP We interrupt my seemingly weekly rant on our ever-encroaching police state to remind you that there are plenty of normal everyday people lurking around looking to circumscribe public discourse and force their bizarre conspiratorial views on others. Those people live on this crazy place called ‘Facebook’ … and here is the latest example of just how crazy they are! Apparently Pepsi in the Middle East and Africa has recently come out with a new design, and a soldier leaving Iraq saw the can and made some wild paranoid conspiratorial leap that Pepsi was ‘celebrating’ the 9/11 attacks….

The Year in Review with LEGO!

Gear Bits

The Year in Review with LEGO!

William & Kate’s first post-wedding kiss The Guardian UK’s Flickr stream has a gallery of curated photos commemorating the events of 2011 through vignettes made of LEGO blocks. Some of them are quite imaginative, and I suspect that you might enjoy them as much as I did …

The Voices of JAMBOX...

Gear Bits

The Voices of JAMBOX…

I love the JawBone Jambox that I purchased a few weeks ago. It came on vacation with me and was quite handy to have around. I like it even more now that I discovered Jawbone’s MyTalk portal. It let me set up the button on the device to activate Siri, and it also let me change the voice used for notifications on the device. Here’s a look at some of the options …

Why You NEED a Front-Facing Smartphone Camera

Gear Bits

Why You NEED a Front-Facing Smartphone Camera

I discovered this week the ultimate reason for a front-facing camera. No, it wasn’t for a Skype call, or Facetime, or to take a profile picture for a website. See, I was sitting at my desk, eating an everything bagel for lunch, when I had a business associate drop in unexpectedly. Great, except I’d just been eating a bagel full of seeds, and I didn’t want to embarrass myself with a big old poppy seed in my teeth. And the bathrooms in my office are in the hallway past the lobby, so I couldn’t escape to check. My solution? I…

Meet the Mutewatch

Gear Bits

Meet the Mutewatch

Are you someone who is not ready to give up your wristwatch in favor of simply checking the time on your mobile phone? I don’t blame you if you aren’t; I’m not either. As a result I’m always looking at watches, considering ones I might wear and balancing function and geek factor against the watch’s looks. The Mutewatch is a design I recently found that looks cool, is simple enough to operate, and adds the function of timers and alarms. The use of “swiping” is cool to see on a watch, and for $259, it’s not too outrageous. via Meet…

The Trikke Is Cooler Than a Segway

Gear Bits

The Trikke Is Cooler Than a Segway

I admit I am totally fascinated by the trend of mashing up bikes with unrelated exercise equipment. I thought the Elliptigo was cool (and the only one I could see someone using in public) until I learned about the Trikke. What’s the Trikke, you ask? It is an electric vehicle that looks sort of like skis on wheels with handlebars. Like a tricycle meets the ski team. According to the company, it is foldable, lightweight, and offers a “full body workout”. It looks incredibly fun, and the company even sells accessories like cargo nets to make running errands on the…

eReader Critical Mass and Other Vacation Tech Tidbits

Gear Bits

eReader Critical Mass and Other Vacation Tech Tidbits

During my week away I noticed that eReaders seem to have hit critical mass. Yes, this year, more than any other, saw Kindle’s, nook’s and iPads in use on the beach and at the pool. (Interestingly, I did not see a single Kindle fire!) I have seen an uptick in the use of devices over the past few years but this year seemed to show a huge jump in their presence. In fact, a cursory look this past Saturday saw MORE electronic devices than dead-tree reading material at the pool. But that was only a small part of the tech…

Adventures in Customer Service: DianeDuane.com

eBooks, Gear Bits

Adventures in Customer Service: DianeDuane.com

During this busy Holiday season with so many great deals, it is easy to make an error as you check out – especially on pages with multi-select options. For example, you can choose the correct size of a shirt and then mess up as you look at a variety of colors and don’t re-check the size before your sale is complete. Ultimately what happens after the mistake depends on how you handle it and the customer service of the company – but it is always important to remember that YOU made the mistake and bear the responsibility. Over the Thanksgiving…

Watch the Final 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' 8 Minute Trailer

Gear Bits

Watch the Final ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ 8 Minute Trailer

Have you read the ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ trilogy by Stieg Larsson? If not, you really should as they are wonderful books – a bit on the disturbing side at times and not intended for a younger audience. But these wonderful books were made into Swedish movies over the last several years, leading to the obvious question – why do we need a Hollywood version? Technically we don’t, at least of the first book: the Swedish version was quite well done. The other two were rather lacking, to be honest. But there were definite areas for improvement, and I…

The Truth About New Jersey

Gear Bits

The Truth About New Jersey

If you know anyone from New Jersey, you’ve probably seen the above image on Facebook or Twitter. However, if this is news to you, it’s a funny yet frighteningly accurate map of the “real” New Jersey, broken down by the demographics of each area. Seriously, it’s true. I live in the “Middle Class Raritan Valley Line Commuters” swath, while my parents live in the “Drunk Rutgers Students” section. My sister-in-law, who is a lawyer who drives a Prius, lives in the “Lawyers Driving Hybrids” territory. And I grew up in one of the less politically correct sections, but trust me,…

Have You Been Fooled By a White Coke Can?

Gear Bits

Have You Been Fooled By a White Coke Can?

Last week at my monthly department staff meeting, our manager took her soda from her lunch bag, opened the can and realized it was a regular Coke rather than the Diet Coke she had requested. The confusion is apparent if you look at the two cans pictured – they are nearly identical. At a all-day meeting today I ran into the same thing – it is very difficult to distinguish the Coke and Diet Coke cans apart. Apparently we are not alone, as reported in the Wall Street Journal: The end is near for a white can that has many…

Latest Android OS Distribution Numbers Showing Gingerbread Taking Over

Editorials, Gear Bits

Latest Android OS Distribution Numbers Showing Gingerbread Taking Over

Have you ever heard me complain about Android fragmentation as a major issue? Yeah, you probably have. But there is actually some good news on the fragmentation front – more than half of all Android phones are running the latest operating system Android 2.3.x aka ‘Gingerbread’. Add to that the 35.3% running the previous version Froyo (2.2), and you have more than 85% on a ‘fairly unified’ platform.

GamerFood

Gear Bits

GamerFood

This holiday season product producers are caterings to gamers more than ever before. Now, the food industry has jumped into the ring with Gamer Food.

One More Tablet Gone; Can Microsoft Avoid the Same Fate?

Gear Bits

One More Tablet Gone; Can Microsoft Avoid the Same Fate?

image courtesy of BerryReporter  Clinton recently wrote an opinion piece entitled, “As RIM Writes Off The Playbook, The Pressure is on Microsoft to Make a Complete Windows 8 Tablet“, in which he says: This morning the Wall Street Journal reported that RIM is taking a $485 million charge for their lackluster tablet, the Playbook.  The charge comes by way of a markdown in the value of the massive inventor that RIM still has of the devices.  It is a brutal and costly reminder that if you kinda-sorta-maybe-woulda-shoulda your tablet strategy, the price can be steep.  Very steep. and The challenge facing Microsoft is that they are…

Universal Discontinues Jaws Ride!

Gear Bits

Universal Discontinues Jaws Ride!

It’s going to be safer to enter the water at Universal soon. They’re shutting down the Jaws ride, though they haven’t said why (or what will replace it). I guess Jaws just couldn’t compete with Harry Potter! MSNBC has some very basic details: Jaws has been in operation since 1990, and was one of the first attractions unveiled when Universal Studios opened its doors. The ride is based on the 1975, Steven Spielberg-directed hit movie with the same name. “Jaws has been an amazing attraction and an important part of our history,” Universal spokesperson Tom Schroder told msnbc.com. “Jaws holds…

Time, Inc Names New Digital-Friendly CEO

eBooks, Gear Bits

Time, Inc Names New Digital-Friendly CEO

There are two ways that digital magazines and ebooks are working their way into the marketplace. From the bottom, it’s consumers voting with their wallets; every Kindle that’s purchased, every NOOK app downloaded, and every ebook zooming through the interwebs all boost the adoption of digital reading. From the top down, it’s changes in management. B&N is struggling, yes, but look at how many devices and changes they’ve made to the ebook market since William Lynch became CEO. Previously, Lynch was the president of BN.com, and his experience with the internet has translated to a strong ebook strategy as CEO….

The Wall of Death Brings Motorcycle Thrills & Spills

Gear Bits

The Wall of Death Brings Motorcycle Thrills & Spills

photo by Lakshman When I stared dating my husband Kevin, he had a Harley Davidson Road King. After his divorce, he had started riding with his brother Mark, who is still a motorcycle aficionado. One of the things that they enjoyed doing together was attending road rallies around the country. They went to Sturgis, the Republic of Texas Rally in Austin, and who knows how many others. Of course they saw plenty of things that would border on NSFW while attending, but there is one thing that really made an impression: at the 2005 Austin ROT Rally, Kev saw a show…