Spring turkey season has been in full swing for several weeks. My buddies and I have been spending countless hours in our pop up blinds on the weekends, both morning and nights. Mother nature has blessed south Texas with some much-needed rain this spring, making the land green and wildflowers colorful.
Thanks to services like Line2, my iPad makes for a great phone. Seriously, so long as I have a good data connection, the tablet offers a huge screen for dialing and an excellent noise-canceling microphone for making speakerphone calls. But what if I want to use my iPad, or my iPhone, or my iPod touch or, shockingly, a device running an OS other than iOS as a VoIP phone AND have the calls be private? That’s where Native Union’s amusingly functional line of handsets come in. Many of the designs simply connect to the 3.5mm headphone jack on my handsets…
I’m not much of a shopper, usually. When it comes to clothes, the quicker I can get in and out of a store, the better, so far as I’m concerned. Same with shoes, or cars, or appliances, or pretty much anything, really. Although Judie has made some headway over the years in helping me to see the beauty of quality accoutrements for my gear. Nice laptop bags. Vaja cases for my iPhone. Things like that. But usually, I’m pretty immune. However, when I wrote up the news item for Finnish company Normincie’s new high-end laptop bags, I must admit I…
You have all seen them, the posters with a black border and a motivational saying matching a pretty picture. I have no clue when or why these types of posters began, but they have been popular for some years now. These posters can be found to suit virtually any subject and are available with thousands of images. Using these posters for comedic reasons has also become popular if my Facebook newsfeed is any indication. Recently one of my buddies was laughing at one of these ridiculous posters and said, “I wonder how people make their own versions of these.” I…
I have already reviewed the original Virtual City on the iPod Touch, iPad and Android, and have also reviewed this sequel on the Mac. If you have read any of my reviews you know that I really enjoyed the twist on the SimCity gameplay. Now G5 has released the sequel, Virtual City 2: Paradise Resort for the Mac and PC. I’ve been playing for a while now and am ready to declare a new gaming love or if this one needs to go back to the zoning bureau! The Hype: New buildings, new product chains, new challenges! After winning the…
This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to spend some time with representatives from Plantronics as they revealed their latest product — the Plantronics BackBeat GO. The Plantronics BackBeat GO offer “Great sound in a small package”. They speak the truth. The BackBeat GO are small, light and they sound great. Plantronics isn’t new to the world of stereo Bluetooth headsets. They have long offered the $79.99 BackBeat 903+ headset. The 903+ headset is designed for workouts and other activities. It is sweat-proof, has a stable wrap-around the ear design and is a very nice product. The company sent me home…
During the first part of this year, Judie and I spent a fair bit of time using the HTC Titan Windows Phone. We were both surprised by much we like the device and even more surprised by how much we like the operating system. As devoted iOS users, we both have iPads and iPhones; we had also tried Android numerous times and were always disappointed. That wasn’t the case with the HTC Titan running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. In the year since we had initially tried WP, the operating system has matured significantly and the selection of available applications had…
There are many, many cases available for the iPhone. Plastic in every form, color, and style. Bumpers, wallet-style, simple covers, and cases with stands built-in. Sometimes you want something a bit more classy, and that’s where leather cases make a great option. But what if you could combine the look and feel of a leather case with the flexibility of a case with a built-in stand? That’s where Mapi Cases Orion case shines! Is this the ultimate case for entertaining and professional iPhone use? Read on to find out! At first glance, the Orion looks like a simple leather case…
There are a few companies that consistently impress me with the design, functionality and quality of their laptop and iPad bags. Tom Bihn is one of them and, with the recent release of the updated Ristretto bag for iPad, 11″ MacBook air and 13″ MBA they have, yet again, proven why they are such a great company. For the past few months my “go to” bag has been the Skooba Design V.3 Tablet Messenger. It is a great bag that I continue to use and enjoy. It holds my devices in “landscape” and, as I note in the review,…
Does your iPhone NEED a dock? The short answer is, “No. No, you don’t need a dock for your iPhone.” After all, you can simply attach the sync/charge cable to it and you will be good to go. From there, your iPhone will charge or sync and be ready to go when you are. It will also get buried under papers, be crushed under the box that just came and crash to the ground when you go to grab something on the other side of the table and hit it in the process. On second thought, maybe you DO need a…
There was a time when I was totally against the idea of streaming music services. I was stuck in the old ways of thinking I must own all of my media and had a large collection. Due to a hard drive issue, I decided to give MOG a try and never looked back. Having a much larger library of music at my disposal than I could ever collect which is available on all of my devices anytime has been awesome. While there can be a separate discussion/debate on which service is the best, this post will simply focus on the…
I’m a pocket watch kind of guy. I have asked for, received, and used nice pocket watches since I was a teen. In fact, I managed to initially catch the eye of one of my pre-marriage gas with a pocket watch: at a party, she spotted the gold chain attached to my pants, came over, and said, “Is there a watch attached to that chain?” (We dated for 3 years!) So yeah, I like pocket watches. The iPhone is small enough to fit in pretty much anyone’s pants pocket, of course, and I have long wondered why someone didn’t create…
Not long ago I reviewed the Kindle Fire version of Mahjongg Artifacts. Now we get a look at the sequel, which had found tremendous success as one of the most popular PSP Minis. Ironically the sequel was released before the original game on that platform, but on the Kindle Fire both were released together. The original game was excellent on the Fire, let’s see how the sequel plays! The Hype: Mahjongg Artifacts: Chapter 2 is highly addictive tile-matching game with millions of players on PC and other platforms. It takes tile-matching games in an exciting new direction! Pair up tiles…
Youda Survivor joins games like Civilization Revolution, Jack of All Tribes and Tiny Token Empires and other casual strategy games that have journeyed to handheld tablets. These games all work well with the touchscreen interface, present more than a trivial experience, and are still playable in small time increments. All of those games are available on the iPad … but Youda Survivor is the first one to venture to the Kindle Fire! Let’s take a look! The Hype: For all real fans of time management games – the most frenzied adventure yet! Can you survive on a mysterious island as…
How much can you actually say about an in-car charger? I mean, seriously, so long as it plugs into your power adapter and can charge your device you are good to go right? Maybe, but as with so many things, when the tool you are using for a task is well-conceived and beautifully executed and when the object in question is made from high quality materials and does exactly what is promised, it is something abut which to take note. That is the case with the Just Mobile Highway in-car charger. I’m using it in my new car and it’s…
The other day I wrote about one of the Brookstone iOS accessories Elana gave me for my birthday, the iConvert iPad scanner. Today we are going to look at an accessory that lets the iPhone or iPod touch become a home theater. The Brookstone Pocket Projector for iPhone 4 devices is pretty impressive. In fact, when Elana first saw it, she declared it to be “the coolest iPhone gadget ever!”. I don’t know about “THE coolest”, but it is pretty neat; let’s take a look. Here’s what Brookstone has to say about it: Easy to use—just dock your iPhone 4 device…
There are lots of ways to determine the doneness of meat that you are grilling or roasting in your oven. (Notice I didn’t say “BBQing.” Where I come from BBQ is a noun, not a verb.) In addition to meat thermometers and a nifty little iPhone app that I’ve reviewed lately, sometimes it’s best to go old school. The cooking geniuses at GrillGrate.com have developed what they call the “Meathead’s Temperature Magnet.” If someone calls me a meathead, I take it as a compliment, so I was happy to see this product. There are so many things to like about…
The Hype: Escape from the rush of modern life into the immersive ancient atmosphere of Mahjongg Artifacts®! The prequel to Mahjongg Artifacts: Chapter 2 and a new fan-favorite comes with three gameplay modes which take you through five exotic cultures. It also comes with innovative gameplay twists, like Special Tiles that allow you to use new strategies to clear layouts, Bonuses for skillful play and Trophies for special accomplishments. Story Mode features an epic quest for lost relics, Classic mode allows you to choose the layout you want to play, and Endless mode allows you to remove tiles from an…
I have a regular column in our local New Jersey Jewish News where I have the opportunity to share different apps of Jewish interest. The last time out I focused on environmental and conservation apps in conjunction with the holiday of Tu BiShvat since it is a day celebrating trees and nature. This time I decided to focus on apps for the upcoming holiday of Passover. Here is a reprint of the article which appeared yesterday. From the NJJN: In preparation for Passover, I went to the iTunes App Store looking for some specific apps. I wanted an…
Hidden object adventures continue to evolve on smartphones and tablets, with PC games being ported that are more complex, more interesting and have better stories. The success of games from folks like G5 Entertainment has resulted in an explosion in the category. The latest one to try to capture the Kindle Fire gamer’s interest is the Magician’s Handbook, which I already reviewed for the iPad. Let’s see how it does! The Hype: Remove the evil curse in this captivating adventure by finding hidden objects in the dark and mysterious Cursed Valley! The fabled “Magician’s Handbook” has fallen into your hands….
Last month we had a giveaway for V-MODA, and at CES Judie and Dan were very impressed by the headphones. The folks at V-MODA were kind enough to send a custom set along with the Gear Diary logo, and I gave them to my son the aspiring DJ. Now we have gotten some hands-on time with them – let’s take a look and see what we thought! The Hype: Developed over the span of four years in collaboration with some of the world’s top musicians, DJs and producers, the Crossfade LP delivers epic sound with a distinct design composed of…