Reviews | Gear Diary

Astraware Casino for Symbian Series 60 Review

I love casinos, but I am terrible at gambling. Flashing lights, lots of bars, video games; essentially casinos are just a grown-up version of the boardwalk arcades from my childhood. Of course, my problem is that I don’t understand how to gamble; I just tap screens, pull levers, and pretend I understand how poker works until I run out of money. Luckily, Astraware Casino for Symbian offers many of those games with virtual money; we’ll be taking a look at this versatile game set today.

Reviews

Scosche soundSCREEN – Review

There are a lot of options for listening to your iPod sans headphones but this is one of the more interesting and useful designs in my option. The Scosche soundSCREEN wraps around the your iPod like a picture frame (it is particularly good with the iPod touch which is a perfect fit) and lets you watch or listen to music, video and more hands-free. Let’s take a look…

Reviews

All Weather for iPhone and iPod Touch Review

I have a number of weather apps on my iPhone. Overall, they are OK, but I’ve generally had two complaints: 1) They never seem to be as accurate as the information I find at the Weather Underground, and 2) They always seem to want to display the temperature in Fahrenheit OR Celsius, but never both at the same time! I grew up in Detroit where they often broadcast both (because Detroit is on the Canadian border). Additionally, I have friends all over the world. It’s nice to be able to talk about today’s weather without having to reset all the…

Reviews

Apple MacBook 13″ Unibody Suit – Review

The new Unibody MacBook Pros are gorgeous. They are sleek, refined and… well they just look awesome. And while it is a shame to cover up those good looks, there is a lot to be said for keeping the beauties pristine… especially if, like many of us on the site, you tend to cycle through devices frequently and therefore rely on keeping resale value as high as possible. So if you ARE going to hide the unibody MacBook behind a protective shell, the least you can do is hide it behind an awesome looking one. On this front Case-Mate has…

Reviews

Neoprene? No, Neogreene!

We’re all familiar with neoprene laptop cases, phone slipcases, etc. The slightly rubbery feeling material is pretty much a permanent part of any self-respecting geek’s arsenal. And anyone who has spent time around neoprene knows that it has a distinct chemical odor – kind of like new car smell for your computer.

Reviews

DivPro from NoJoke.com Review

A few weeks ago Judie asked the question “are you that guy?” She was posting about the NoJoke.com Shotgun KeyChain. Well NoJoke.com has another product, which although does have the ability to turn any can into a ready to shotgun chugger also has some really useful functions out on the golf course. The DivPro is 6 tools in 1; think of it as the Leatherman of the links.

Reviews

OttoSkins Review

OttoSkins are protective decal skins which when applied to your electronic gadget provide protection from scrapes and scratches while offering you a personalized look. The skins are available in a variety of patterns and designs for a wide range of gadgets. From iPods to iPhones, netbooks, laptops and gaming consoles, there’s probably an OttoSkin for at least one device you own. Let’s take a look at a few of the skins OttoSkins was kind enough to send me to review.

Reviews

Everyone needs a good time waster on their iPhone

I own a ton of games for my iPhone and iPod Touch, but I always seem to be looking for new ones. Lately I’ve been looking for inexpensive games that don’t take long to learn or play. Ones that although seem simple are both challenging and more importantly addictive. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Madden 10 and Sandstorm but everyone needs a good time waster on their iPhone, too. Instead of taking tons of screen shots, I’ve decided to show you three of my favorite games of late on video. Remember, these games aren’t super graphically…

Reviews

Slime Army For iPhone/Touch Review

Overview One day in the peaceful Slime world, the king of monster commanded his army to attack the Slime empire and forced those slimes to be his slaves. The Slime empire was plunged into chaos. The Slime King commanded his gereral (Colonel Slime) to control the army to fight against the enemies. You who have a role of Colonel Slime, have a mission to defeat the monsters and bring the peace back to the Slime world. Swap adjacent slimes to match three or more same color slimes in order to summon slimes to help you fighting in the battlefield. The…

Reviews

Plantraco Micro Butterfly Review

When I got this airplane in the mail, I was shocked that this little tiny thing can actually fly. I am happy to say that this little airplane not only flew, but flew very well even outside where I tested it. Let’s go over all the pieces of this plane. The plane itself is constructed mainly of a carbon fiber wire for it’s fuselage and durobatic foam for it’s wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers. It doesn’t sound like much, but the plane is very durable even though it looks like you could and can crush it. In normal use, it…

Game Diary, Reviews

Connected for iPhone/Touch App Review

Puzzle games have become a staple in the app store lately. Creating something that is new, challenging and fun has become more difficult. Connected steps in as a contender in the puzzle game category. The idea of Connected is simple. Take the pipe pieces and connect the start and finish pieces. Sounds easy right? From the developer: Connected is simple idea, each of the 40 puzzles contains a number of pipe pieces. At the edge of the board are some start and end points. You just have to move the pieces to create a continuous pipe from start to finish, oh and you…

Reviews

Arcade Hockey for iPhone Review

My distinct memories of getting an air hockey table back during the 70’s fad era certainly places me in time, but I do still have a certain fondness for the game that I share with my family from time to time. Our kids got one of those multi-game tables with a small air-hockey board included. So when I heard about Arcade Hockey coming to the iTunes App Store I was thrilled … but the obvious question remains – how does the table game translate to the small screen?

Reviews

Dymo LabelWriter 450 Twin Turbo Review

If you have to send large numbers of snail-mail, a dedicated label printer may be just the thing for you. If you want speed and flexibility in your label printer, then the Dymo 450 Twin Turbo is definitely worth a look. While having a dedicated label printer with two different bays that hold two different sizes and types of labels may sound like overkill, it isn’t. In fact, it makes life even simpler by allowing a degree of flexibility that can save the time of switching from one type of label to another. For example, one side can have address…

Reviews

WunderRadio for iPhone Review

The Internet is proving to be an interesting outlet for traditional, commercial radio. Many programs like iTunes, offer streams from various radio stations. WunderRadio is from the Weather Underground folk, and it brings you literally thousands of radio stations and streams from around the world. Let’s take a closer look!

Reviews

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks: Week Three into the Rosetta Stone TOTALe Program

As you will recall, this week started with me being quite frustrated when I had miserably failed the Milestone at the end of Unit One. I was also concerned about the empty checkboxes that I was seeing on my Unit 1 progress bar, but I figured I would get things straightened out — eventually. Tuesday morning, I received quite a bit of encouragement from an unexpected source…

Reviews

Convergence in Da-Club – Case-Mate Credit Card Case

Everyone knows I love convergence devices. From my iPhone to my clock radio to my dock/card reader. Why shouldn’t convergence carry over to iPhone cases? Case-Mate sure thinks it should. They’ve recently released a new case they’re calling the “ID/Credit Card Case.” This slim fitting case, which comes in a ton of colors acts as part case part wallet. How does the case do as both protector and card carrier?

Reviews

Wolfenstein RPG for iPhone Review

Back in 1992 when id Software was preparing to release their seminal first-person shooter ‘Wolfenstein 3D’, I was already sold – it had been over a decade since I had my first Wolfenstein addiction. In 1981 the game ‘Castle Wolfenstein’ for the Apple ][ captivated me to the point that when I heard that Wolf3D would be set in the same game world, I was already sold. Needless to say, Wolf3D was an amazing game regardless of lineage, and I professed my love for it here in my review of the iPhone version. Now the question is – how does…

Reviews

iPod touch Gen 3 First Look

The 3rd generation iPod touch is something special. With plentiful storage, awesome speed, a speaker and hardware volume control it is hard to remember how limited original version of the touch that was released just two short years ago was. While this new version of the touch LOOKS the same as the model it replaces, just a few short minutes with it immediately tells you that this is an entirely different animal. The original touch was an iPod with a touch screen. The 2nd generation touch was, on many levels, “an iPhone lite”. This new touch is being billed as…

Reviews

Review: Cooking Dash for iPhone and iPod Touch

I am a big fan of time management games. They combine some of the most interesting elements of action and puzzle games into a single package. Cooking Dash is a follow-up to the hugely successful Diner Dash game. Let’s see if it lives up to the expectations created by the original.

Reviews

qTweeter Gets New Name, Apple Approval But Loses Key Functionality

qTweeter is one of the best reasons to jailbreak. Once installed via Cydia all you do is draw your finger down from the top of the screen and an input window appears and allows you to quickly update your Twitter or Facebook status. Now the app has been approved by Apple and released in the App Store for $.99. That’s the good news. The bad news?? The key drop down functionality that lets you launch the app from the status bar is missing.

Reviews

GelaSkins Review

Many of us like to keep our overly expensive gadgets protected. We always want them looking like they did when we first pulled them out of the box. There are several ways to do so. Cases are popular, as are clear protective skins. But GelaSkins are another way to not only keep your device pristine but also keep it looking stylish and personalized. GelaSkins are removable covers for protecting and customizing your portable devices. They feature stunning, photo-quality graphics ranging from fine art prints to contemporary urban images designed by the company’s growing family of artists from around the globe….