Gear Bits | Gear Diary

Random Creepy Stuff: ‘Cloud Girlfriend’ Provides a Virtual Girlfriend for Social Networks

Oh the shame – you have to set your relationship status on Facebook to ‘Single’. What will your friends think? How can you possibly cope?!? Fear no more – a new company called Cloud Girlfriend promises to help you out with a simple four-step process: Step 1: Define your perfect girlfriend. Step 2: We bring her into existence. Step 3: Connect and interact with her publicly on your favorite social network. Step 4: Enjoy a public long distance relationship with your perfect girl. However, as the AOLNews article notes: Facebook’s Terms of Service agreement strictly prohibits computer controlled accounts, which…

Gear Bits

Flashback to Grad School, or “I Wrote My Thesis with That?”

Kayla’s rant about iPads and her description of college tech was striking to me. She ASSUMED (accurately) that anyone going to college these days has a computer. Yup, access to a computer isn’t a luxury for students these days, it is a necessity. (As she then goes on to point out, iPads, on the other hand, are luxuries.) It got me thinking about my own college days. When I was working on my undergraduate degree we had a room in each dorm with four or five computers. For the most part they were used for math and science calculations rather…

Gear Bits

‘Easy Calendar’ iPhone App Makes Adding Appointments Easy

I have a confession to make-I rarely make my own appointments. No, whenever I schedule something new for myself I usually mess things up and end up double-booking or, worse, not properly saving the date and then not showing up at all. My strategy to avoid this? My awesome, amazing assistant. I know it sounds lame but by working through her I rarely, if ever, mess up my schedule. There are, however, times when I do need to add my own appointment and, when that happens, I curse my iPhone. Seriously, why is it so hard to make new appointments…

Gear Bits, Vehicles & Gear

TrueCar.com’s Top 10 Apps to Help Save Money on Gas

For those of you not fortunate enough to be taking advantage of the latest automotive technology whilst behind the wheel, online sites and blogs are offering their advice on how to squeeze as much value out of a gallon of fuel as possible, be that by recommending to combine trips and map out the shortest route prior to cranking the engine, or by directing you to the lowest price of fuel for that day. And do not forget that hauling around extra weight just adds to decreased fuel economy so get rid of excessive “junk in your trunk” and see…

Gear Bits

Losing a Cell Phone and Finding Honest People

“Uh…I can’t find my phone…” is not something anyone wants to discover. It’s especially upsetting when you’re in the airport at 5:3o in the morning and your wife just realized she left her smartphone somewhere between the car and the gate. Uh-oh… That was us on Friday morning. It was not good, since we were flying to Florida and already through security, and neither of us was sure where Sarah had left her Incredible. I tried calling it on the off-chance it was in her jacket pocket, but it rang and rang and went to voicemail. Then we brainstormed and…

Gear Bits

Gear Diary Rave: Gomadic

I’ve been a fan of Gomadic chargers for several years. Like many of the other Gear Diary writers, I like to switch devices frequently, but replacing desk chargers, car chargers, sync cables, etc., for each gadget gets to be pretty expensive pretty quickly. With Gomadic’s “tip exchange” technology, you keep the same charging cable, but change the tip at the end where it connects to the device. Here’s how they describe their products: Don’t lug around cords for all of your devices. Buy one Gomadic cable, from retractable USBs to double car chargers and you’re set for years. Simply buy…

Gear Bits

Sampling the YouTube Way

Here’s an amazing example of what you can do it you scour YouTube, have some decent video editing skills and a lot of time. This video was made entirely of YouTube videos that Ophir Kutiel, aka ‘Kutiman’, found on the net. He took a little of this and a little of that and, in the end, created what you see below — a FrankenVideo. It is pretty amazing and worth a couple of minutes. Via TechCrunch

Gear Bits

Random Cool Image: Figure Out the Movie Titles!

Do you love math? Love movies? Love puzzles? Well, time to shake those cobwebs out of your brains and figure out what movies each of these mathematical images represents! Can you figure them all out? Make your guesses in the comments! Source: geeks.thedailywh.at via BuzzFeed

Gear Bits

Tweet Like a Pro, Chip Chick Shows You How

Twitter, so young and unassuming not long ago, is all grown up. Now it has millions of followers, has help start revolutions, has kept people in touch during disasters and more. Yup, Twitter is no longer just about “OMG, I just had the most delicious ribs at Outback Steakhouse”. Yes, Twitter has matured and so have the apps that let you use it. There are lots and lots of offerings out there but which are best? Our friend Zara from ChipChick has some great suggestions. Some, like TweetDeck are likely familiar while others, such as twunfollow and Twistory may be…

Gear Bits

NCAA® March Madness on Demand

My newest project at work is fast paced and high pressure … but it is a great team that is loads of fun! One of the engineers on the team is a maniac about March Madness – so naturally we are all on-board with our brackets! Adding to the fun is the ability for me to grab my iPad and tune into whatever game I want wirelessly. How? NCAA® March Madness® On Demand! Better still – it is FREE! Watch every game of NCAA® March Madness® LIVE on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad! NCAA® March Madness On Demand® gives…

Gear Bits

Bent Objects: What Happens When an Artist Is Given a Bit of Wire and a Few Household Items

My friend Holley just forwarded an email that’s making the rounds; maybe you got it, too. It shows the art of Terry Border, the artistic genius behind Bent Objects. Some of the pictures are cute… Modest pear … some are silly … Paper training our little dog, Frank … and some are creepy! You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato. You Say Potatoes, I say Zombies. Zombies are nuts about brains Zombies! =) I am now officially a fan, and I’ve bookmarked his site. I bet that you’ll want to, too! Bent Objects

Gear Bits

Building the Perfect Drink Just Got Easier with Palette Coasters

When we are up in the country we all have our “roles”. Elana is the “food maven”. Her dad, when he is up, is the “grill master”. As for me… well I tend bar. 🙂 Over the years I’ve collected a nice selection of different barware. Margaritas have their glasses, martinis have theirs and the list goes on. Having the right glass for the right drink just makes everything a bit more festive. Same goes for the coaster the glass sits on. And these “palette coasters”… They look kinda fun. Yes, these simple but amusing coasters do their job but…

Gear Bits

Random Cool Video: Wile E. Coyote in ‘127 Hours’

This silly spoof is better than anything done at the Academy Awards … enjoy! Source: Buzzfeed

Gear Bits, News & Features

GD Quickie- A Public Service Announcement Regarding the iPad 1

Do you have an iPad 1 and plan to stick with it even though the iPad 2 has arrived? If so, we have a brief Public Service Announcement for you. Consider this your first, and final, warning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ur7b3Hmcx2c

Game Diary, Gear Bits

Call of Duty and C.O.D.E. Help Educate our Vets

Image courtesy of ClubLakers. Thanks Kobe. It’s always good to see organizations so willing to support our troops and veteran soldiers, and it’s even better to be a part of it yourself. After returning from a conflict or war, sometimes soldiers need help gaining their civilian life back and often times need to find new employment. Call of Duty Endowment is a program spearheaded by Activision Blizzard to increase awareness for our veteran soldiers. CODE often aids with large grants and donations that assist troops in getting back on their feet. We all know the video game Call of Duty…

eBooks, Gear Bits

eBooks Really Are Getting Cheaper!

Over at Teleread, they have a very interesting, if unscientific, analysis of eBook pricing over the years. By taking prices from 2004 and comparing them to prices today, Chris Walters determined that there has been a slight drop in overall pricing, even if it doesn’t feel that way with the Agency Model taking away $9.99 price points! In a nutshell, Chris argues that the same books bought for $280 in 2004 would cost $213 today. Yes, it’s a subjective analysis, but as a random sampling, it’s somewhat helpful. And he further points out that the average price for fiction titles…

Editorials, Gear Bits

On the Eve of iPad 2…

Posted January 29, 2010 So here we are on the eve of the iPad 2 release. The anticipation of the release of the iPad 2 prompted me to go back and look at some early posts we did on the iPad over a year ago. I hate to say it, but I think we largely nailed it early on. (OK, actually I don’t hate to say it… We pretty much nailed it early on! Yes, we knew this was going to be an amazing device from the moment El Jobso introduced it.) At the time of the initial announcement, we…

Game Diary, Gear Bits

Mortal Kombat…the Joy is Back

Mortal Kombat continues a gory media revitalization campaign with a limited edition Mortal Kombat Fight Stick controller.

Gear Bits

Hike the Appalachian Trail from Your Chair!

This is a super cool video if, like me, you’ve ever daydreamed about hiking the full Appalachian trail. However, since I have a job and lack the fitness to head out the door and cover 2,174 miles (unlike Dean Karnazes, who is currently running across the whole damn country!) Luckily, an intrepid through-hiker videotaped his experience, sped it up, added some fun music and created this video. If you’ve ever hiked the Appalachian and can identify any of the trails as they go by, be sure to share in the comments! Warning: If you’re sitting in your office while watching,…

Gear Bits

Google’s Reaction to Android Exploits; Conspiracy Theory or Keeping Us Safe?

Original image courtesy of KnowYourCell If you were following mobile news over the weekend you probably saw some reports about Google remote killing some malicious apps that found their way to the market. While most were simply noting this because you may have been one of those affected users , others took some pretty hard jabs at Google for using an exploit of their own to remote into your phone and kill the apps. While this is not far off base, I think some people are taking it to an unnecessary level of conspiracy theory like ideas that Google is…

eBooks, Gear Bits

Andy Rooney Rants About eBooks

Apparently, Andy Rooney is not a fan of Kindles and NOOKs. His 60 Minutes rant this past week was all about ebooks. I really hate to say this about Andy Rooney, but he really missed the mark big time. He expressed surprise that paperbacks are being outsold by ebooks, and seemed wholly perplexed by the concept that an eBook reader holds 3,000+ titles. At one point he touches upon one of his books being free, though he doesn’t explain if he’s mad about piracy, or if it was some sort of “freebie” deal organized by his publisher. Sadly, the germ…