Editors
Zek grew up hoping someday to have gadgets as cool as those on Star Trek. While he’s still waiting for a transporter beam to be created, the fact that video chatting and tablet computing are no longer science fiction makes him insanely happy.
If it’s remotely fitness- or health-related, Zek is game to try it out. He also reads voraciously and is grateful for the invention of eBooks, as he was rapidly running out of space for both books and basic necessities like food. When he’s not working, Zek spends his time geeking out with his son and obsessing about hockey.
He lives in NJ and wants to remind everyone that there is more to the state than the Turnpike. And no, the entire shore is not what they showed on MTV.
Zek has been a Gear Diary editor since 2010.
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Julie Strietelmier has been known as a gadget fanatic since childhood. So much so that she started a gadget-based website (The Gadgeteer) back when the web was shiny and new. Fun fact: Judie was her first writing partner before she started Gear Diary. After selling The Gadgeteer to focus on her YouTube channel, she’s now back contributing to GD as part of Judie’s team of writers.
Julie lives in Columbus, Indiana, with her better half, Jeanne, and their American Bobtail cat Ozzy. Julie likes to read, play the ukulele, hike, and travel, and she’s also an avid journaler who likes all kinds of stationery, gadgets, and gear.
Team
Dan Cohen is a native New Jersey resident, a Duke graduate (and an avid Blue Devils fan!), and a lover of toys gadgets technology and productivity tools. 🙂
Tech has always been in his blood. His father was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, and he grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. When he was still in grade school, he brought home one of the very first video games, a “pre-release” touchtone phone, and one of the first Palm Pilots to ship. Thanks to his father, he even spent time working in the Fiber-Optical Research Lab that made the very first trans-Atlantic Fiber-Optical Cable possible. (His dad ran the department.)
Dan was a long-time Windows Mobile and Tablet PC user, but when he tried an iPhone late in the summer of 2007, everything changed. He got my first Mac and, before he knew it, he was among the plethora of “Switchers.”
He still loves using iOS and OS X, but he consciously uses a wide range of devices. He really enjoys using multiple platforms, but thus far, he always seems to come back to the comfort and safety of “all-things OS X.”
He began writing for Just Another Mobile Monday and Just Another iPhone Blog in the fall of 2007, and during 2008-2009, he launched and ran one of the first iPhone application review sites. He was also a frequent contributor to iPhone Life Magazine, had a monthly column in the New Jersey Jewish News, and has written on the meeting points between his work in the clergy and technology.
Dan was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article on religious institutions and mobile apps and featured in a page-one story in the Wall Street Journal. He met Judie in 2008 when they were both part of the short-lived Just Another iPhone Chat and started writing for Gear Diary in July of that year.
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Travis Ehrlich is a retired Texas High School football coach who has started a new career as an Accountant. He lives for the outdoors, whether smoking meats, hunting, or working on the ranch, and is an avid guitar player. As a son of an artist, he loves to create through 3D printing and building Bluetooth speakers.
Travis has a Master of Education Administration from Lamar University. He is a Mac convert and has drunk the whole pitcher of Kool-Aid! He is also an avid guitar player and turns handmade pens whenever he can find a spare moment.
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Perry Brauner is an Architect from Livingston, New Jersey, who always strives to take advantage of the best available technology.
From the moment he got his hands on a Nintendo controller at the age of 5, he knew that technology would be a big part of his life. He uses both Apple computers and PCs regularly and enjoys building his own Home Theater PCs, which combine his love of movies and TV with his love of gadgets. Perry is a fan of all iDevices, though he has extensive experience with Android. His love of video games, which began with the NES, has continued all the way to the Xbox 360 and now the Xbox One, and he loves to keep up with the latest and greatest games.
When he’s not playing with or writing about gadgets, Perry is a big sports fan, especially following the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Eagles. He also inherited a love of cooking and baking from his mother. Perry married his wife, Stacey, in July of 2013, and could not be happier that she also shares his love of technology.
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Charles Kliment runs KAJAcircle LLC, his design and video production company. Charles is also a multidisciplinary visual artist whose work is available on Superarare.com, the curated NFT marketplace. You can also see his digital art at Kliment.com, visit his YouTube channel, Onomatopoetix, or visit its sister website, Onomatopoetix.com.
When not working for clients or on his own work, Charles is an avid Formula One fan (since way before the success of the Netflix series “Drive to Survive”), and one by one is convincing Americans that they need to watch this exciting sport.
Charles has always been interested in the latest tech and gear; he has a background in Architecture, especially design.
Charles is an avid gamer, dog lover, and father of three adult sons. He is married to Jane Randel and lives in New Jersey.
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M Thorne wrote for The Gadgeteer for nearly twenty years. She’s been interested in tech of all kinds since she was a kid and had the opportunity to play with all the neat tech her dad brought home from his corporate job. She’s also an avid collector and user of various cartomancy decks – mostly tarot, but occasionally others – and has turned her collection into a very large digital archive of both decks and books.
These days, M is most interested in maker hardware, especially printing equipment of all kinds. She loves making things beautiful using both dye sublimation and UV printing and hopes to jump into the world of DTF printing, too.
M collects vintage video game consoles and computers (Mac, PC, and everything in between), actually enjoys serving as her small town’s tech support (no, really!), and lives in the mountains with her husband and pets.
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James Cook is an avowed nerd and lives in Ammon, Idaho. His career has taken him to the computing, aerospace, and nuclear industries.
James’s interests include board games, comic book conventions, fishing, hiking, and puttering around the garden. Dungeon Crawler Carl has quickly become a new fandom for him, and Princess Donut is the best! He loves well-built gadgets and gizmos and has a penchant for losing Leathermans (last count was 8+ lost).
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Zack Chongulia is a lifetime tinkerer and lover of all gadgets who started reviewing for The Gadgeteer in 2022. He just retired after 22 years of service in the U.S. Army and now works for the state of Washington. He likes figuring out how things work and prefers function over form.
Zack prefers to repair rather than replace, so he has taken most things apart, and sometimes he’s even successful at putting them back together again. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his son, and when he’s not reviewing gadgets, you can probably find him on a disc golf course.
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Andy Chen has a BS in Electronic Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He is a former contributor at The Gadgeteer and a former electronics technician at the FBI. He is an Eagle Scout and dad to an Eagle Scout. He’s also a Fixer of Everything.
When Andy was a kid, he remembers a handheld electronic game that he took apart and could not put back together. Something clicked, and the hows and whys of gadgetry were born. In the 80s, he ran a side gig repairing Walkman cassette players in high school. When he got my driver’s license, he was fascinated with the radar detector- not because he drove fast, but because of what it does.
Today, nothing around him remains “broken” for long. It must be repaired! He enjoys tweaking and maintaining various radar/laser countermeasures in his Tesla Model 3.
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Bill Henderson is a retired Art Director at a large children’s publisher. He was a music reviewer for The Orlando Sentinel way back in the 80s.
Bill began writing gadget reviews for The Gadgeteer in 2010. He has a love for all things audio, as well as graphics tech and robot gadgets. Since his retirement, he has been freelancing for that same children’s publisher. “I now get to play all day, and they pay me money. How cool is that?”
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Bob Patterson has spent his career in graphic design, digital marketing, customer experience, and digital innovation. He began reviewing products with The Gadgeteer ten years ago to feed his fascination with product design, usability, and the relationships people build with their tools & toys.
Bob has a particular obsession with carry products and cooking gear, with additional interests in fitness equipment, art/design products, and role-playing games. When he’s not writing reviews, you’ll find him experimenting in the kitchen, making art, and indulging in his favorite genres of books & film (science fiction, fantasy, and horror). He’s a lifelong Philadelphia sports fan (GO BIRDS) and was playing Dungeons and Dragons (along with other RPGs) way before they were cool.
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Michael Strange was born and raised in Michigan. He’s learned to appreciate the little things — crisp fall Saturdays, loyal sports fandom, and the excitement of discovering new technology. He shares his home with a 3-year-old French Bulldog, Cooper, who probably thinks he runs the place… and honestly, he’s not wrong.
Michael’s love for tech started early — somewhere around the time an Atari 2600 showed up under the Christmas tree in the early ’80s — and it never really stopped. That passion eventually led him to a 10-year run as a writer for The Gadgeteer, an experience he truly loved from start to finish.
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Garry Kolb likes to scare younger people by telling them that he graduated from Michigan Tech with a degree in Computer Science the year before the internet went live. His 35-year career took him from training to project management, database development, web development, and ultimately managing software development before retirement lured him from Michigan to Florida in 2018.
Since retiring, he has spent seven years writing reviews for The Gadgeteer before joining the Gear Diary team in 2026. He has always loved to fiddle with gadgets and has had a great time automating most things in his retirement home in Central Florida. When he isn’t playing golf, water volleyball, or pickleball, he and his lovely and tolerant wife of more than 40 years love to travel. They have visited over 100 countries, all 50 states, and all seven continents, and have cruised more than 200,000 miles. In addition to writing for Gear Diary, he is an active blogger and has documented all their travels since June 2021 at KolbsOnTheRoad.blogspot.com.
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Kathleen Chapman is a geek who has enjoyed technology and the sciences (biology and entomology; yeah, bugs are awesome) ever since she can remember. She’s worked as an entomological research technician, end-user services tech, home educator, and technical project admin. Her continued interest in technology led her to join the Gadgeteer from 2014 to 2025. She then happily joined the Gear Diary team in 2026.
When she has the luxury of having some downtime, she enjoys the challenge of learning about new tech, playing with mobile devices, organizing her house, serving as a premarital mentor and care advocate at her church, and binge-watching spy thrillers and science fiction shows.
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Guanshan Fix has always been intrigued with anything tech-related since she was a young kid. She was a software programmer before she became a stay-at-home mom. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two kids, four cats, and a huge dog.
When she is not chasing her kids around, she is playing around with a new hobby she picked up.
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Patrick Henderson‘s interest in all things tech most likely began with his love of Star Trek (the Original Series, of course) and science fiction. He has been inclined to tear things apart to see how they work ever since he was old enough to turn a screwdriver.
Patrick began his career during the emergence of the home computer industry in the late 1970s. He has nearly 45 years of experience in computer science, beginning with game development on the Radio Shack TRS-80 before transitioning into traditional software development, iOS and Android apps, and, most recently, working with AI to interpret trends in the insurance industry.
Over the years, Patrick has written numerous programming articles for computer enthusiast magazines and served as a reviewer for The Gadgeteer before joining Gear Diary in 2026.
Beyond tech, Patrick enjoys woodworking and spending time with his five (soon-to-be six) grandchildren. He has been married for 41 years and is the father of eight. He lives in the Orlando, Florida, area.
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Matt Gregersen has been obsessed with technology and gadgets, starting with an IBM 8088 home computer as a young child circa 1985. Though he no longer programs in BASIC these days, he has added a love of the outdoors and camping to his tech-focused interests.
When he’s not out on bike trails or in the backcountry, he’s reading or writing about the latest gadgets and toys hitting the market. He has worked in the tech industry for over two decades and wrote for The Gadgeteer from 2020-2025.
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Dave Moore
Contributors