Reviews | Gear Diary

Samsung HM3200 Bluetooth Headset with Active Noise Cancellation and Multi-Point Technology – Review

Driving up to our lake house the other day I was shocked to see just how many drivers were holding their cellphones and chatting away. Years after handsfree laws went into effect a huge number of drivers are still holding phones and talking. Scary. There is really no excuse for this kind of behavior since every phone now has Bluetooth and good sounding headsets are easy to find and relatively inexpensive. Among the headsets fitting this description are the soon-to-be released Samsung HM3200. I have been using one for the last few weeks. Let’s take a look. What’s in the…

Reviews

Nanodots are Addicting Dots of Magnetic Fun

Magnetic spheres must be really becoming popular. There are at least three brands of them out on the market with Buckyballs, Neocube and Nanodots. I was received a set of Nanodots to play with. Nanodots look a lot like ball bearings. However, each of the 236 balls are very magnetic. I actually took one dot and had it hold up a piece of paper on the metal side of my cubical; they are that strong. Because of this, you do need to be very careful when playing with these as you could pinch your skin, and these are definitely not…

Reviews

Bust Bad Guys with IcePics (In Case of Emergency Pictures) for iPhone

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could just point your mobile phone’s camera at something or someone, press a single button, and without any further action on your part a picture — complete with GPS coördinates — would be snapped and instantly emailed to yourself, your spouse, a parent, your best friend, or … well, you get the idea. I can think of times where a feature such as this might be handy — like sharing the names and locations of newly discovered dive bars or hole in the wall restaurants with friends when you find them, or creating a travelogue of…

Reviews

Gumdrop Moto Skin For iPhone 4 – Review

The iPhone 4 is out and despite the issues some are experiencing it is pretty amazing. The screen is gorgeous (so long as you avoided the ones with the yellowish issues), the speed is great, the battery life is impressive and the whole device just feels awesome in your hand. It is everything Apple promised it would be- with one glaring exception. Despite what Jobs said you WILL want to protect your new iPhone 4 with a case. The screen scratches, the glass shatters and that is just the initial reports. Yes, it is a great phone but in its…

Music Diary, Reviews

What the HECK Happened to Herbie Hancock?!?

Herbie Hancock learned a lot from his time with Miles Davis, musically and also about being restlessly creative. After leaving Miles band before the earth-shaking Bitches Brew era, he headed off to release his own series of classics. He had already carved a great space in modal music with his Blue Note recordings Maiden Voyage and Speak Like a Child, but then went on to record Fat Albert Rotunda and the classic Headhunters which solidified him as an all-time great in pretty much every aspect of the music. He was there at the start of MTV with the techno-funk-hip-hop-dance song…

Reviews

Read Along with Woody, Buzz and the Gang: Toy Story 3 for iPad Review

My kids finally are out of school. Believe it or not their last day was June 22nd. With all of the snow we got here on the East Coast this past winter, extra days had to be made up resulting in an additional week+ for them. What’s the first thing my kids wanted to do when they got home yesterday? See Toy Story 3. I obliged and we enjoyed the third offering from Pixar. When we got home I treated the girls to the Toy Story 3 application on my iPad. Disney had been kind enough to send me a copy…

Reviews

Camangi Webstation Update: The Good, the Neutral and the Ugly

The Camangi Webstation has been updated again! I’m starting to think I might be one of five people still using this device, but it is steadily improving with each software release. I have been using the update for the last few days, so read on for my thoughts so far! The Good: The biggest change here is that (finally!) Camangi has given users the option of a plain homescreen. You can finally turn off the skin they were using with scrolling icons, which is great. I was using home replacements, which suck down valuable (and scarce) memory. Being able to…

Game Diary, Reviews

World Series of Poker Hold’em Legend Free for iPhone/Touch App Review

Sunday evening I came home from playing some low stakes poker with some of my coaching buddies and still felt like playing. I searched for a good iPad poker game but came up empty handed so I searched on the iPhone for some poker goodness. There is a number of poker apps on the phone so I first tried a free game just to see how much I liked it. Well, that turned out to be a great decision since I found a fantastic Texas Hold ’em game that I can play anytime. Anyone who enjoys poker has watched it…

Reviews

Chrome Vega Utility Bag: Little Messenger Packs Big Punch

Chrome recently reached out to see if I’d be interested in reviewing some of their bags. The company, which was founded in Boulder Colorado 14 years ago, makes stylish bags (among other items such as shoes and apparel) that are not only meant to perform at a high level but look really good while doing so. One look at the Chrome website, and I knew I wanted to review some of their stuff. The catalogue includes a wide range of bags, most of which are modeled after the “messenger” style, but they’ve got a few wild-cards too. The company, which…

Reviews

White Leather iPad Case Review: Classic Apple

White is the quintessential Apple color. Both my iPhone 3G and 3Gs are white and I’ve owned a bunch of white iPods too. White accessories just make me think Apple so it was with a certain amount of nostalgia that I began to test the iPad Leather Flip Case – White from GearZap.com. Let’s face it, we all can’t afford $200+ Vaja leather cases for our iPads. For many the expense of the iPad alone just about breaks the bank. But you still need something to protect your invest and why shouldn’t it be something that looks good while doing…

Game Diary, Reviews

Mahjongg Artifacts, a PSP Mini Game Review

The Hype: A prequel to Mahjongg Artifacts: Chapter 2, the Story Mode of Mahjongg Artifacts introduces players to the start of the adventure through graphic comic scenes. As players explore five ancient cultures and master more and more complicated Mahjongg layouts, they will uncover lost relics as well as special tiles that will help them in their quest. The Classic mode of the game will allow players to choose which layouts and tile sets they want to complete, while Endless Mode constantly produces a never-ending arrangement of tiles, which will provide a limitless challenge. The Reality: As I mentioned at…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

2010 Chrysler 300C SRT8

During my lifetime (thus far) I have witnessed Chrysler, Dodge and the late Plymouth (R.I.P.) deliver a wide range of vehicles, taking consumers and enthusiasts on a wild roller coaster ride. Ultimate highs courtesy the likes of Super Bee, Barracuda, HEMI (of course) and Viper and bottomless lows, a.k.a. K car, Jeep Compass and bankruptcy (twice). They even invented an entirely new segment known as the minivan and sent Lee Iacocca golfing with Snoop Dogg. Most likely, the future will be just as storied as the past, especially with the approaching stiff fuel economy standards. What is to become of…

Reviews

How Spike Brand’s Doggy Style Shampoo, Microfibre Towel and Jerky Treats Saved the Day

Kevin and I recently returned from San Francisco to find that Daisy Duke, our Great Dane puppy, had managed to pick up what seemed like thousands of tiny little ticks while being boarded at her breeders. We all live in the country and we’re having an exceptionally hot early summer after an extremely wet spring which followed a rather mild winter (are you still with me?), so I’m really not surprised that ticks are currently enjoying a population explosion. Daisy is treated monthly with Frontline, and her breeder had just bathed her with insecticidal shampoo before we picked her up…

Reviews

Lenovo A63 Desktop Computer Review

I could sum up this entire review in one word (Whoosh!), but I think Lenovo would not be happy. Nor would you, since you clicked through to a review intending to find out more about a product, and not just that’s it’s very fast. So let’s get started in on the Lenovo A63 desktop and what makes it so impressive that it left me with “whoosh” as my description! First of all, a bit of a disclaimer: I am geeky, but not great with hardware. I know how it works, I know how to troubleshoot the basics, but I’m…

eBooks, Reviews

Kobo Android App Review

The Kobo Android app is finally out! It is the first major bookstore besides eReader to have an app for the Android platform, and it offers some major advantages, as well as some serious drawbacks. Read on for my review! First of all, there’s some benefits to Kobo’s system. They believe your book should be available wherever you are, on whatever platform you’re using. So similar to Whispersync, you can start a book on your smartphone and continue it on your computer or another device like the iPad. Unfortunately, at this time the Kobo Reader does not have any sync…

Reviews

The Artwizz Alustand Makes Your Laptop Bouncy??

Artwizz’s Alustand has some pretty good looks. It’s got that Macbook like metal and a crystal like plastic piece that connects both aluminum parts together. It looks like it might be sturdy, but in my opinion, it falls short. I love that you can collapse it down and stick it in your laptop bag. If you have a Apple Bluetooth keyboard, the whole package will go nicely in your bag. Both aluminum pieces nest and I am not exactly sure where the crystal piece can go, but it’s not difficult to find a spot in your bag. Unfortunately, when it…

Game Diary, Reviews

First Impressions: OnLive Gaming Service

I have written here and here and here about the OnLive gaming service, which was announced over a year ago as a way for gamers with relatively modest computer hardware to run the latest and greatest games in HD. The service was supposed to release on June 17th, but folks sporadically started gaining access on the 18th – which is when I got access to the service. I’ve had the chance to get some play time with the service and wanted to give you some first impressions. The service runs on most reasonably powered Macs or PCs without any issue….

Reviews

You Can Run but You Can’t Hide- Find My iPhone, An iPhone App Quick Look

Apple’s update of MobileMe brings the new email look that has been in Beta to the masses. It is a huge improvement. It also coincides with the release of the Find My iPhone iPhone app. The app is universal so it works equally well on an iPad. (Perhaps it should be called Find My iOS Device???) Here’s a quick look at it in action. When you start the app it shows you all the devices on your MobileMe account. It can take a few seconds to locate the device and, obviously, those with a GPS chip (ie my iPhone or…

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Coming to iPad!

Game Diary, Reviews

The Netbook Gamer: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (2003, RPG)

I made a big deal in my Neverwinter Nights Netbook Gamer about how that game had reignited my love for role-playing games after nearly a decade away. But I also mention that there was a reason I picked up Neverwinter Nights in the first place – I was enjoying the recent Star Wars games and was really looking forward to the promise foretold in Knights of the Old Republic previews, but wanted to get a feel for the state of the RPG again to see if it was even worthwhile for me to give the upcoming Star Wars RPG a…

Reviews

M-EDGE Touring Jacket for iPad Review

For my final M-EDGE iPad case review I wanted to share a video from my YouTube channel. The M-EDGE Touring Jacket is a neoprene sleeve that’s lined with gray fleece. It fits the iPad just about perfectly. Not so tight that you feel as though you need a crow bar to get your iPad in or out and not so loose so that the iPad gets jostled around. Here’s what M-EDGE has to say about it: The M-Edge Touring Sleeve for the Apple iPad is the must-have accessory sleeve for the active iPad user. The Sleeve, made of durable and easy-to-clean neoprene,…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

LaCrosse driving force behind modern Buick

With Buick being one of the four remaining cornerstones of the General Motors family, executives in the division find themselves in a difficult but familiar dilemma: Deliver competitive vehicles that attract new buyers while not alienating a loyal demographic. The new Buick LaCrosse is completely redesigned for 2010 and is built on global architecture at the Fairfax plant in Kansas City. It offers all-wheel-drive, a suite of advanced intelligent personal technologies and safety features and choice of (eventually) three engines. “The new LaCrosse builds on the success of Enclave as the next step in Buick’s renaissance and great attention to…