Reviews

The Southwing SH505 Bluetooth Headset Review

Reviews

The Southwing SH505 Bluetooth Headset Review

Yeah, I know. You’ve read plenty of Bluetooth headset reviews in the last few years, on this site and on plenty of others, and you’ve tried your share of BT headsets, too. Sometimes you think you might have found the perfect headset, because your latest ear roach’s performance seems satisfying enough…and yet? Every time you see a new review you are compelled to peek…because you wonder. You wonder if this one will sound clearer, if people will still hear background noise while you’re talking, or you wonder if you’ll like that one’s features better. It’s okay to look; it’s only…

The DLO HomeDock for Zune Review

Reviews

The DLO HomeDock for Zune Review

So you’ve got a Zune and it’s loaded with your favorite music and videos, and you want a way to play your digital music player’s content over your home theater system. Can it be done? Of course. Digital Lifestyle Outfitters, or DLO as they are more commonly known, has a product for that very purpose: the HomeDock for Zune. With the HomeDock, you can “Play your Zune’s music, photos, videos and more on your home stereo and TV.” You can also “navigate and select your Zune’s music, videos, photos, radio and community on your TV screen with the included, full-function…

The Palm Centro Review, Part One

Reviews

The Palm Centro Review, Part One

Things have been so crazy today (in a good way, thanks for asking), that I am just now getting settled down to tell you about the package that showed up this morning. Inside that FedEx box was the brand new fire engine red ruby Palm Centro, the $99 Palm OS smartphone that was announced earlier this month, and that has been showing up all over the web as other review sites have also been receiving theirs.

The FLY Fusion Pentop Computer Review

Reviews

The FLY Fusion Pentop Computer Review

When I was a kid, computerized math tutoring came in the form of the Little Professor, an educational device made by Texas Instruments. While it was a fabulously geeky toy for my elementary school self, the Little Professor did have its shortcomings – all “he” could basically help with was addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Today, kids have it made. Companies like LeapFrog have made educational electronic toys available and accessible – even to toddlers. I am going to tell you about their new FLY Fusion Pentop Computer, which is marked as appropriate for ages 8 and up. Due to…

The Tuniq Tower 120 Ultra Silent CPU Cooler Review

Reviews

The Tuniq Tower 120 Ultra Silent CPU Cooler Review

Everyone knows the phrase, “Bigger is better,” and that phrase applies to almost everything except cell phones, so logically it should apply to as well…right? Well, that’s what I was aiming to find out in this review. Trust me, CPU coolers don’t get much bigger than this little behemoth…at least, I hope they don’t. If so the gravitational pull from it could cause the wires in your case to get tangled in its fans. Generally, I consider that bad, but luckily this model doesn’t suffer that complication.

The Device that never was: Palm Foleo

Reviews

The Device that never was: Palm Foleo

Well here ya go, the unboxing of the device that never was: The Palm Foleo Ah a new toy that was never meant to be. What to do, what to do…I know, Play Time. Here are some unboxing photos of this device that just wasn’t meant to be. Granted this is only the unboxing but still, there is nothing like playing with a device that was never meant to be; it kinda of reminds me of the Motorola MPx300. More details to follow on the use of the device. I’ll let everyone know this though, the Foleo reminds me of…

The AT&T Tilt Unboxed and Discussed

Reviews

The AT&T Tilt Unboxed and Discussed

Yesterday, as my Fujitsu T4215 was experiencing an irritating hardware failure, and as the whole world was grinding to a complete stop, a box in a plain brown wrapper showed up on my doorstep. I had had little advance notice, and there was absolutely no fanfare. Inside, was this – the new AT&T Tilt, AKA the HTC Kaiser. Finally, a bright spot in my day. And no, I do not get to keep it. The box content list is printed on the side… The opened box… All of the included AT&T paraphernalia, program disks, special offers, etc… Opening the tray…

The Toshiba Tecra M8 Laptop Computer Review

Reviews

The Toshiba Tecra M8 Laptop Computer Review

For the last month or so, I have known that this would be a very hard review to write. Not because of the subject matter, but because once the review is finished I’ll no longer have an excuse to keep “my” Toshiba Tecra M8 loaner. Ah well, the deadline has come and gone (eep!) and I can’t procrastinate any longer…so let’s jump right in. Toshiba has different lines of laptops designed to meet different people’s needs: Satellite, Qosimo, Tecra, and Portégé. Satellite are listed as “Laptop PCs with all the new mobile technologies at affordable prices;” Qosimos as “Entertainment media…

The Battlefield 2142 Review

Reviews

The Battlefield 2142 Review

When you see all the new DirectX10 titles coming out for PC it becomes very easy to overlook the newer DirectX9 titles. Battlefield 2142 is one of these titles, and it most definitely shows itself as proof that DX9 is not dead yet! Now, don’t get me wrong, I am fully aware that Battlefield 2142 came out almost a year ago now, so it’s not anything new. However, it is new to me! Now, without further ado I will now begin… I got my hands on a copy of the game Saturday, and I figured it would be a nice…

Sync your mobile digital lifestyle: The Ford Focus | Sync Review

Reviews

Sync your mobile digital lifestyle: The Ford Focus | Sync Review

[THIS is a monster post with lots of photos – so give your browser some spinning wheel time!] GearDiary was invited to join traditional media and automobile journalists to experience the launch of the redesigned Ford Focus and Ford Sync™. Hosted in Seattle, Washington by Ford Motor Company and Microsoft, the program included significant drive time with the Focus vehicle, demonstration of the Sync technology and a visit to the Microsoft campus to view the House of the Future. Geekness and coolness personified ❗ . Sync is the newest mobile technology to emerge from the Ford-Microsoft relationship. Debuting in the…

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Reviews

AntWorks – Space Age Ant Habitat

Observing ants in your home used to mean obtaining the typical ant farm which used sand as the medium for the ants to live in. A modern development and improvement on the old sand ant farms are the AntWorks ant habitats. This habitat uses a special gel instead of sand. The gel setup was originally developed for an NASA experiment, in which ants were sent into space on board the space shuttle to study insect life in near weightlessness. Traditional soil-based ant farm tunnels would collapse from the intense vibrations during a take off. To solve the problem, NASA scientists…

Aerobie Aeropress Coffee & Espresso Maker Review

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Aerobie Aeropress Coffee & Espresso Maker Review

I enjoy a hot cup of coffee every now and then. But, I never had any interest in learning how to brew the coffee (cooking is really not my thing). I have always bought my coffee from restaurants and coffee shops. When I came across the Aerobie Aeropress Coffee & Espresso Maker while searching the web for interesting devices, it really caught my attention. The Aeropress is said to be easy to use and that it makes the best tasting coffee. This I had to find out for myself and we got an Aeropress to review. The Aeropress System consists…

Tersano Lotus Sanitizing System Review: Cleaning Has Never Been This Easy.

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

Tersano Lotus Sanitizing System Review: Cleaning Has Never Been This Easy.

Imagine if I told you there was a device out there which could replace all of your soaps and cleaning supplies with water. Pretty unbelievable, isn’t it? Need to remove some heavy duty mildew? No more heavy abrasive cleaners. Just use tap water. Need to remove food stains from clothing? No more spray cleaner. Just use ordinary tap water. Preparing fruit? Preserve it with tap water. Just about anything you can think of can be made better with tap water…according to Tersano, the creators of the Lotus oxidizing system.

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Reviews

Nokia N95 Review

As I am sure you have seen, Jenneth has been extremely impressed by the Nokia N95 smartphone, going as far as to call it her “JesusPhone”. I managed to get my hands on one for a couple of weeks to review, and while I agree with many of her points, I have some reservations. The N95 comes quite nicely presented. You don’t even have to take it out of the box to see this gorgeous phone. That large screen dominating the front panel looks fabulous. Like Sony Ericsson with the P1i, Nokia hasn’t skimped on the included accessories either. Not…

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Reviews

The Funslides Carpet Skates Review

Recently, Judie did a post about the FunSlides Carpet Skates. Because of a technical glitch with our email server, I never got the team email about reviewing them. It was after Judie did her write up on the skates that I thought to myself, these may be just the thing to solve the problem my Robosapien robots have with walking on carpet. I mentioned this to Judie, and she thought it would be a great idea to let the bots volunteer. The FunSlides Carpet Skates come in six color choices, blue, silver, red, purple and hot pink. I was sent…

The Astraware Solitaire Review

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The Astraware Solitaire Review

[Note: This is a joint review between Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! and Gear Diary, and it is being simultaneously posted on both sites. Clinton’s comments appear in black; Judie’s comments appear in italics.] I love card games.  From the first time my mother taught me how to play Spades to my addition on Free Cell on Windows 95, card games have always been at the top of my list of things to keep myself entertained (Nintendo Wii aside of course). I was more of an Uno kid while growing up, but once I discovered Solitaire, Pyramid, and Poker, I was…

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Reviews

Sony Ericsson P1i Review

Last year I bought a Sony Ericsson M600i for several reasons. First off it was very small, fit easily in a pocket without bulging, and felt great in the hand. It also had both a thumboard and UMTS, both features I wanted. The hardware aspect of it was fantastic, and I loved it, but it was disastrous on the software side. It would crash repeatedly, the web browser would often require 4-5 attempts before it would open, and I would regularly pull it out of my pocket to find it sitting on a wonderfully helpful screen saying it had restarted…

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Reviews

Rocketfish Universal Wireless Rear Speaker Kit Review

Rear speakers have been pretty much the bane of my existence for most of my married life. OK, let me back up for a minute. I love stereo equipment. To me, it ranks right up there with my mobile devices. I have been an aficionado of multi-channel sound since it was first introduced back in the early 1990’s. While 5.1 surround sound (and now 7.1) is a phenomenal way to add an extra dimension to your television and movie watching experience, it does come with one major drawback. The rear speakers, which must be on the opposite side of the…

The SoundID SM100 Bluetooth Headset Review: Enjoying The Sounds of Silence.

Reviews

The SoundID SM100 Bluetooth Headset Review: Enjoying The Sounds of Silence.

Since I have been writing here at Gear Diary, and at JAMM, I have had the opportunity to test numerous Bluetooth headsets. I love the freedom that Bluetooth gives you to talk on your phone without tying up your hands. On the other hand, I hate having a piece of plastic stuck on my face all the time (especially one with an annoying flashing blue light). To me, the ideal Bluetooth headset must find a middle ground between these two interests: allowing me to easily use it to place and receive calls, while remaining unobtrusive and accessible when not in…

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Reviews

The HobbyTron.com Hornet 3 Mini RC Helicopter Review

Radio-controlled helicopters are cool toys and the manufacturers are still making new models and evolving them to include new and better features. When HobbyTron.com approached Gear Diary to review the new HobbyTron.com branded Hornet 3 mini RC helicopter, Judie thought immediately of me and asked me if I wanted to review it. I said yes! So, I guess I am now the resident RC helicopter pilot around here. 😀 Review updated July 22, 2007: Added video of the Hornet 3. The features of the Hornet 3 helicopter are as follows: 15 Step Digital Proportional Controls Tail Rotor Trim Dial (persists…

The Sprint HTC Mogul Review

Reviews

The Sprint HTC Mogul Review

[Note: This is a joint review between Just Another Mobile Monday and Gear Diary; it is being simultaneously posted on both sites. Doug’s comments appear in black normal typeface. Judie’s comments appear in blue italics typeface] Even if you have never used a device branded by HTC, you have probably used an HTC device. Most of the popular Pocket PC’s available today were designed and manufactured by HTC, including: the Dell Axim, the HP iPaq, and the Palm Treo (to name only a few). So, it came as little surprise when HTC began branding devices on their own, or that…