Gear Diary is proud to present a first ever video from Larry G the long lost cousin of Ali G. In his first video Larry G takes a look at the iPhone Crystal Clear Case for the iPhone 3G and 3G S. Does he like it? Well you’ll just have to watch……
Everyone loves a good laugh, though sometimes coming up with something funny or original can be a challenge. For my tween sons, the breadth of humor consists primarily of body parts, bodily functions, and silly quotes from movies. However, as we mature (hopefully) we would like a bit more substance and diversity in our humor. Enter iLaugh, the new App for the iPhone and iPod Touch that puts a database of over 50,000 jokes at your fingertips!
Imagine trying to explain a computer to someone who has never seen one. Try explaining this strange thing called a mouse, and how you use it to control your interactions with the screen. Try explaining how you type on a keyboard, and through the magic of wires and electronics the words appear onscreen. And if you want to move something from point a to point b, hold down the mouse and drag…but have some fancy moves if you need to drag beyond the room you have on your mousepad. I know it sounds crazy, but if you’ve never used a…
Since Dan posted his thoughts on the new 13” Pro compared to the previous 13” non-Pro, I thought I’d throw together the thoughts I’ve had in my first day of ownership as well. I bought my very first Mac back in 2006 and I have never looked back. It was a second generation 15” MacBook Pro, the first of the Core 2 Duo models, and it was fantastic. Beautiful screen, super fast, looked great and ran an OS that I would become very happy with. Today that laptop headed off to its new owner as yesterday I took delivery of…
HP and Microsoft sent me an HP Pavilion dv2-1199us Entertainment PC to try out. Once I got past the fact that the model number is a mouthful, I couldn’t help but notice how lovely this moonlight white computer is – both in appearance and specifications. The exterior is described as a “magnesium-aluminum-alloy case in a white imprint finish,” but that barely describes it; the look is stunning. The touch pad is a mirrored surface, and it runs Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit). The dv2 has a bunch of bells and whistles…both in the hardware and in…
PDAir makes a case or skin for just about every mobile device currently available. They have a wide variety of cases available ranging from leather to aluminum to silicone. I was lucky enough to recieve a Luxury Silicone Case compatible with the BlackBerry Storm 9500/9530 to review. Sporting a low $18 price and wide range of color choices, you could easily pick up one color — or several — to show off your individual style.
I couldn’t resist; I put in my order and received an Amazon Kindle DX. 😛 Some of the more obvious differences between the two devices are that the DX has a ~9.5″ screen, while the 2 has a ~5.8″ screen; the DX measures 10.4″ tall x 7.2″ wide x 0.38″ thick, and the 2 measures 8″ tall x 5.3″ wide x 0.36″ thick; and the DX can hold ~3500 books while the 2 can hold ~1500. The keyboards are a bit different, there are no buttons on the DX’s left side, and hmmm – just watch! The full review will…
Getting yourself a new iPhone 3GS and want to make sure it keeps looking like it did when you first pulled it out of the box? Or have the iPhone 3G and just need a new case to spice things up a bit? JAVOedge recently released a new line of cases called the “Jelly.” These cases, offered in five colors, do a great job of protecting your phone while adding some style at the same time.
The Cocoon Innovations netbook case is pretty much my ideal netbook travel case. It’s durable, shock absorbent, airport friendly, comfortable, and it features a unique organizational system that I have never seen before in another bag. There are a few key things I wish I could tweak a little bit, but otherwise I was very impressed by the Cocoon netbook case.
[Editor’s note: This is a joint review by Judie and Julie that will be appearing simultaneously on Gear Diary and The Gadgeteer. Judie’s comments will be in black, and Julie’s will be in blue italics.] Like many who own an Amazon Kindle or Kindle2, Julie and I have grown to greatly enjoy the convenience of carrying our current and future reading material on our own “virtual bookshelves.” The question of how to keep our Kindles protected was one that we had to answer fairly early on, seeing as Amazon did not include any cover with our pricey new readers. I…
If you ask my wife, the money she spent buying me a telescope a few years ago was wasted. If you ask me or my sons, we’d disagree. It isn’t that we use it all that much, but I chalk that up to living in the Northeast – it is hard to hit that small window when the temperature is right for standing outside at night and it gets dark early enough that we can all enjoy it together. The folks at Vito Technology have a great solution – Star Walk, an educational astronomy app for the iPhone andiPod Touch…
One feature that is often missing in smartphone camera applications is the ability to rename — or automatically name — photos directly on the device. Sure, most smartphones are simply not going to completely replace point-and-shoot or D/SLR cameras; but, when you just want a quick photo to capture the moment, you will probably reach for your smartphone and use the standard 1.3 to 3.0MP camera. Then, once you take the photos, you have to go back and sift through all of those “IMG000XX” files, transfer them to your computer, and then manually rename each photo. It is not a very efficient or enjoyable process….
Bump for the iPhone & iPod Touch has a lot going for it. It happens to have the honor of being the 1 Billionth iPhone App downloaded. It is F-R-E-E. The application actually makes what used to be a chore of swapping contact information with friends and colleages — gasp! — fun, and easy. I know, I know. It’s not Tap Tap Revenge Fun. It won’t entertain you like Peggle will, either. Bump will, however, help you rid yourself of of a pocket full of business cards and keep you from manually typing in numerous fields of emails,…
Wow! Where was this when I was in high school? One of the cool things about being so involved with computers and technology is watching the pace of change. Dan mentioned that the other day with his look at an old 32 MB card vs his 32 GB iPhone. This change is most apparent in how we keep finding new and improved solutions for old problems. And the oldest, biggest problem for me is losing data. Almost as long as I have had a computer, I have managed to find new and creative ways to lose my data. As a…
Last month while searching for some media player software for Linux, I came across a program called Elisa. Elisa was a full screen media player similar to Apple’s Front Row. It had an interface that looked a lot like Apple’s Front Row, with a twist. I installed it on both my Eee PC 701 and initially on my 1000HE and would use it whenever I wanted some music playing in the background. Flash forward to today. The Elisa project has revamped itself and renamed itself into the media center called Moovida. It is available for both Linux and WindowsXP/Vista with…
Remember those fun little “keychain” LCD games that you probably played as a kid? Maybe one was even your first taste of the “gaming” experience. Squibs Arcade, from Chillingo, for the iPhone and iPod Touch lets you relive the games you remember all over again. The application features seven games that each takes you back to a time when games were simple, addictive and most of all fun.
I’ve used a Plantronics 510 series for about 2 years now. It’s been a nice, steady workhorse for me. It isn’t the flashiest, or the loudest, but it has always been rock solid. Now along comes the new Voyager Pro. It offers a host of new features and technologies – a whole host of improvements. Let’s see if it lives up to the “Pro” moniker…
A few months ago I had the opportunity to test out a HTC Dream (unlocked version of the T-Mobile G1), and to be perfectly honest, I didn’t like it at all. The software wasn’t that great, the battery life was poor and whoever thought of that design should be locked away forever. When I was offered an HTC Magic for a few weeks, I was eager to see if HTC’s latest Android attempt had address many of the issues I had with the original. Straight out of the box the Magic makes a much better impression than the Dream. With…
I love to cook, and I love to use fresh herbs from my little garden, but I don’t particularly enjoy the monotony of chopping fresh herbs into uniform bits. That’s why I am especially enjoying the set of Herb Scissors that Useful Things sent me.
Among the good news with the upcoming iPhone 3GS is the additional battery life of anywhere between 10 and 20%. That will be a welcome addition as the iPhone 3G was, at best, problematic with regard to battery life. At the same time, however, even with 10 to 20% of additional run-time there is no question I’ll be burning through my iPhone’s battery long before the day is through. (Yes, I use it that much.) Thankfully, there are a host of extra battery options available and every one, while designed for the iPhone 3G, will continue to work with the…
Some of you may recall me talking about living in Taiwan when I was a child. One of the necessary skills that I learned, that I can still recall, was how to eat with chopsticks. This has come in quite handy as an adult, because I’ve grown very fond of eating sushi. 😉 Those who haven’t mastered fashioning two pointy sticks into their fork and spoon – whether because they don’t have the patience or they don’t have the dexterity – will understandably get a huge kick out of the Clothespin Chopsticks from Useful Things.