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DS Game Review: Puzzle Quest 2

The original Puzzle Quest was a revelation, what I called “Casual Meets Hardcore and Loves It!” back in 2007. The game featured a solid RPG story and progression mechanic with an enhanced ‘match 3’ puzzle mechanic for the combat system. It was smart, fun and tremendously addictive! The follow-up, which I reviewed here, was “a decent game, it just pales in comparison to the original.” Now we get the ‘true’ sequel – does it live up to expectations? Read on and find out! The Hype: Puzzle Quest 2 marks the return of the world’s leading puzzle adventure series and its…

eBooks, News

Google Has Quantified the Number of Books in the World

I pity whoever had to sit down and do all the work, but the Google Books project has calculated there’s something in the range of 129,864,880 books. They must be fairly certain if they felt comfortable nailing it down (as opposed to just rounding and saying 129,000,000+, since I for one am not quibbling over a few thousand). It’s sort of an awe-inspiring number! Personally, this means I really need to get cracking if I want to read as many as possible. Sadly, unless I find the fountain of youth, it’s unlikely I’ll get through them all. At a book…

eBooks, Editorials

Sony’s Murky eBook Future

With Amazon’s Kindle 3 and Kindle WiFi selling out, and B&N seeing the nook as their major bright spot, it’s pretty clear that Amazon and B&N are dominating the ebook market. So where’s Sony in the mix? Apparently, not competing at all. Sony was out at the end of July with this comment to the blog ReadWriteWeb: “Pricing is one consideration in the dedicated reading device marketplace, but Sony won’t sacrifice the quality and design we’re bringing book lovers to lay claim to the cheapest eReader,” said Phil Lubell, VP of digital reading at Sony Electronics. “Our global customers expect…

eBooks, Editorials

Barnes and Noble Looking to Sell, but to Whom?

The big bookstore news of the day is that Barnes and Noble is looking to sell themselves. Everyone is wondering who or what will be snatching up B&N, with rumors and speculation flying. Who are the likely and unlikely suitors? Here’s my take, from least likely to best fit. Microsoft (or Apple, or some other pure technology company): This is a completely insane idea. If B&N were solely looking to sell the ebook division, I could see Microsoft being a good fit. But why would Microsoft, or any pure tech company, be interested in buying 700+ retail bookstore locations? Putting…

Editorials, Game Diary

Nintendo DS News: R4 ‘Piracy Enabling’ Carts Now Illegal In UK

I think by now I’ve made it known that I am frothingly anti-piracy, so the new ruling in the UK that bans the R4 Revolution and similar devices thrills me. The high court set a new precedent by adjusting that it is illegal for the R4 card to circumvent Nintendo’s security systems in order to play content on the DS. In the US this sort of thing isn’t necessarily illegal to sell, but since they are such piracy-centric devices even Amazon who used to be a big seller of the devices has stopped supplying them. Basically the R4 is an…

News

Caddyshack Celebrates 30 Years as the Best Golf Movie Ever

… and also the most hated by golfers! I remember when it came out my Uncle who was an avid golfer saw it right away, as did my cousin who was visiting with family from Georgia. Two very different opinions, one from a middle-aged golfer who thought it was stupid and one from a guy a couple years older than my brother and I who thought it was hilarious. Pretty soon we saw it (remember back in those days you didn’t need to rush to the theater on opening weekend!) … and it has remained one of my all-time favorite…

Reviews

ECOWRIST Review: Wearable Art That Helps The Planet

Every year I take one of my daughters on a weekend trip to NYC. This past weekend on our annual excursion we stumbled across ECOWRIST at a street fair in the Soho section of Manhattan. ECOWRIST was founded by husband and wife team David Gandy and MarQuerite Hamden in 2008 and the pair hand-makes watches from recycling, the use of natural materials, and minimal wastes to ensure as little effect on the environment as possible. From the ECOWRIST web site……….. The primary components of the watches are bamboo, tagua nuts, acheera seeds, coconut, wood, cow’s leather and canaflecha (reed in…

eBooks, Reviews

The Elements, by Theodore Gray Review: Adapted for the iPhone 4 by TouchPress

I spend a lot of time on my own. My family is in Austin, but I work in Sunnyvale, leaving me with a two-week period where I’m, in essence, a bachelor who doesn’t date. So when I’m in Sunnyvale, I revert to my true nerd state, spending extra time at work, obsessing over work-related details, making a nuisance of myself to workmates, writing posts for Gear Diary, and chatting incessantly about gadgets and tech. By the time I get back to my room, I’m usually so beat that I just flop down on my bed (after inhaling some food), and…

eBooks, Editorials

Fear and Loathing in eBooks

Amazon announced this morning that they’ve struck an exclusive deal with literary agent Andrew Wylie. He’s acting as a publisher for several authors he represents and has agreed to give Amazon an exclusive on 20 titles. You can check out the full press release here, but the highlights are: Books available in the Kindle Store through Odyssey Editions include modern classics such as Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children,” Oliver Sacks’ “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” John Cheever’s “The Stories of John Cheever” and four novels…

Reviews

JAVOedge Axis Case for iPad: Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover

JAVOedge has been churning out accessories for our “i” devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod) for quite some time. I’ve been happy with many of them but their recently released “Axis” case for the iPad might be one of the most innovative cases I’ve had the opportunity to use. The Axis case looks like a traditional book style iPad case, but don’t judge a book by its cover. The Axis allows you to prop up your iPad in both the vertical and horizontal positions, a feature I’ve not yet seen on any other iPad case. The case is available in three color…

Music Diary, News

What a Recording Artist Needs to Sell to Make Minimum Wage

Image Courtesy Kevin Dayhoff’s Blog I had seen this image a month or so ago, but had lost the link – but it remains stunning to think of what is required for a musician to simply make minimum wage, let alone scrape by a reasonable living! The graph below shows how many of their recordings an artist would need to sell to make a mere $1,160 per month. Of course, that is gross earnings, not counting any taxes or other niceties paid to the various federal state and local governments we feed … First off, that number of $1,160 per…

News

The Kindle’s Killer Wireless Feature: Google Maps?!?

One of the major advantages Amazon’s Kindle has over the nook is that the wireless feature is not limited to just downloading books. Unlike the nook, the Kindle can browse the web over its free built-in wireless. While it may not be the world’s greatest browsing experience, it’s still better than nothing at all! A Kindle World Blog has found ways to take it one step further than just Wikipedia on the fly…they have detailed instructions on how to access Google Maps mobile on your Kindle! While this wouldn’t take the place of GPS, it’s a pretty cool feature to…

eBooks, Editorials

State of the eBook: Fight!

For this week’s “State of the eBook” I thought we should look at potential winners and losers in the ebook world. With competition and price wars getting fiercer, there’s a few major battles shaping up that may change the competitive landscape. One is (at this point) a slam dunk, while the others are subject to many variables. Without further ado, here are the matchups! Borders vs B&N B&N vs Amazon Amazon vs B&N and Spring Design Spring Design vs B&N Amazon, B&N, Spring Design and Borders vs the iPad Borders vs B&N Let’s start with what I think is just…

Reviews

Review: iLuv iMM178 Vibe Plus- Dual Alarm Clock w/Bed Speaker Shaker for iPhone

iPhone/iPod speaker docks are multiplying around my home and at the office. And for good reason. Since I’m not an audiophile the music that is pumped out of a relatively inexpensive speaker dock is usually just fine for me. But while a simple speaker dock is fine for my office (I use a bluetooth system that I love… more on that another time) in my bedroom I want something that also includes an alarm clock. The other day I took a look at one that offers good sound. It costs $150, sounds good but isn’t compatible with iPhone due to…

eBooks, Editorials

Is Borders Destined for Failure?

Oh Borders. I don’t want to wish failure on any entity, especially a company that taught me a great deal, but sadly, the Borders eBook strategy is going to fail. Spectacularly. I just don’t see how they’ll overcome the Amazon/B&N/Apple juggernauts with such scattered, messy, and honestly lackluster set of offerings. Head over to Borders’ site, and check out their ebook readers page. Be sure to look at their ebook comparison chart. In case Borders caught on to how bad it is and has removed it, here’s a screenshot: Hint to Borders-If your “comparison chart” illustrates how much better spec’d…

Music Diary, Reviews

More Quickie Jazz Reviews: A Few New, and a Few That Slipped Through

Image Courtesy TheLastMiles.com Recently I wrote a rather large article full of ‘quickie reviews’ for recent Jazz music releases – and the response I have gotten has been amazing! I have heard from musicians, jazz lovers, general music fans and folks who simply wanted to express appreciation that I was supporting the ‘indie’ movement even thought they had no interest in the music. Even as that article was published, I had a couple of new releases I was listening to, a couple new recordings that were about to release … and a couple that should have been in the article…

eBooks, News

Falling eBook Reader Prices!

Think Amazon and Barnes and Noble are the only ones slashing prices? Well, it looks like a few players in the ebook market have caught up with the new paradigm, though it’s debatable what changes will actually help them. Here are a few of the big drops we’ve seen so far: Sony Readers: Pocket Edition: From $169 to $149 Touch Edition: From $199 to $169 Daily Edition: From $349 to $299 Pocketbook Series: Pocketbook 360: From $239 to $199 Pocketbook 301: From $279 to $219 Pocketbook 302: From $339 to $279 Just for comparison, again, here are the prices on…

News

Cambridge SoundWorks i525 iPod/AM/FM Clock Radio System – Review

If you’re an audiophile you still want to have a fancy powerful stereo system home. But for many of us the sound coming out of our iPhones, iPods or iPads is good enough when they’re connected to some sort of a speaker system. Since I am not an audiophile I’m perfectly happy having a dock in my home office, in the bedroom, and in my study at work so I can listen to music whenever I want. Over the next few days I’m going to take a look at a number of different docks that are currently available. Some have…

Reviews

Kindle for Android Review

Finally, Android Kindle fans can rejoice! Today Amazon announced Kindle for Android, and it’s live and free in the Android Marketplace. Is it worthwhile, either as a companion to a Kindle or as your primary ebook source on your smartphone? Read on for my quick review and find out! First off, the app is fast. After the initial setup, I selected a book to download to my Droid and it not only downloaded extremely quickly but opened at the place where was I last reading on my Kindle. It’s a minor thing but I like that the book opens as…

eBooks, Editorials

Attrition in the eBook Ranks!

It’s been an interesting week in ebook-land. We’ve seen the opening shots of a price war, and the beginnings of what may prove to be many players dropping from the ebook market. It’s an exciting time to be an ebook fan, so read on for more details and exciting news! First, in case you missed it earlier this week, B&N attempted to gain the upper hand in the ebook world with a twofold strategy. First, they announced a WiFi-only nook for $149, effectively out doing Borders Kobo Reader, and then they dropped the price of the famous original nook to…

Reviews

Camangi Webstation Update: The Good, the Neutral and the Ugly

The Camangi Webstation has been updated again! I’m starting to think I might be one of five people still using this device, but it is steadily improving with each software release. I have been using the update for the last few days, so read on for my thoughts so far! The Good: The biggest change here is that (finally!) Camangi has given users the option of a plain homescreen. You can finally turn off the skin they were using with scrolling icons, which is great. I was using home replacements, which suck down valuable (and scarce) memory. Being able to…

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