I’ve been testing this universal external battery from Amstron for the last month or two. When I venture into New York City for the day I’m often away from any source of electrical power. There’s nothing worse than having your device power down on you 1/3 of the way through the day.
It’s hard to travel light when you’re a gadget lover. You can’t bear to leave your toys behind, so you bring ’em all… Or at least I do. And then there’re the required accessories – sync cables, spare batteries, chargers, and international plug adaptors. Add everything up, and you end up with… A lot of luggage. The Lifetrons Multi-Functional Charger is powered by AC, USB, car cigarette lighter, or a 9V battery, and charges any mobile device for which an appropriate tip is available. Can it replace the 42 different chargers currently cluttering up your gadget bag?
I usually put into context how long I’ve been a gamer by saying that I was anticipating the release of Wolfenstein 3D in 1993 and was already a fan of the franchise. Huh? You didn’t realize there was a Castle Wolfenstein franchise before the release of the seminal first person shooter (FPS)? And wait, how does this all relate to the ‘modern gaming’ promised in the title? Don’t worry … I’ll get there!
When I came across the Super Travel A/C USB Wall Chargers from USBFever.com, I thought they were a great idea! So I asked USB Fever to send a set to me, I received it yesterday, and I like it even more than I thought I would. This charger is going to save me from carting 3-4 charger adapters along, plus it will also save precious power outlets in my hotel room when I go to DC in a week.
[Note: This is a joint review by Doug Goldring, Judie Lipsett, Dan Cohen, and Kerry Woo. It is being simultaneously posted on Just Another Mobile Monday and Gear Diary. If you haven’t already, then take a look at Doug’s The Kindle 2: First Look and Unboxing and Judie’s Unboxing the Amazon Kindle 2.] Doug: One thing about sites like Gear Diary and Just Another Mobile Monday, we love our gadgets (I know, shocking!) We love playing with them almost as much as we love writing and telling you about them. Rarely does a week go by when one of us…
With all of the hullabaloo over the Amazon Kindle 2‘s recent release, one might think that there were no other eBook readers on the market; not so! Those who eschew DRM protection and who can do without the convenience of an online content store (I’m thinking of Amazon‘s and Sony‘s, specifically) should pay particular attention to the Ectaco jetBook, a reading device capable of handling .txt, .pdf, .fb2, .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, and MP3 file formats. According to the literature I picked up at CES, the EPUB format is expected in Q1 2009*.
There are many reasons to like the Nokia N85, but the one thing that has blown my hair back and made me truly appreciate this talented little device is something I had never before seen in a mobile phone…an FM transmitter*. And not just any weak wannabe transmitter, I’m talking about one that is just as strong – and allows the music to sound just as rich – as the dedicated transmitter on my Sirius box does.
Podcasting started around the time of the last election that George W. Bush won, in 2004. Now it seems to still be growing, although at a much slower rate. Up until now, you needed a computer to download the podcasts; now maybe you don’t, thanks to the CastGrabber.
Only a few days ago Judie posted her first impressions of HTC’s hottest new devices, the Touch HD, and I am lucky enough to be able to follow that up with my own! For several weeks I have had my cursor hovering over a Touch HD in Hong Kong on eBay, but I wanted to try it out before I committed over $1000 to purchasing one. At last, the Touch HD was released here in Australia, and HTC’s local PR agency received their review units! Having gotten my name on the list some time ago, I was set to receive…
(Note- This post is done in order to share my experience creating a Hackintosh. It is not intended to recommend or encourage similar hacks. Gear Diary neither recommends, nor takes any liability, if you choose to do the same.) I’ve been through the whole UMPC thing from the start. I had a TabletKiosk UMPC the day they were shipped. I had a Samsung Q1P, Q1Ultra, Q1Ultra Premium and a Sony UX 280P in rapid succession. I loved the whole UMPC concept but none of the machines ever fit the bill quite well enough for me. Each was either returned or,…
I love reading; always have. I remember the joy of checking out books from the library when I was a child: the thrill of finding a book that could transport me to other worlds and situations…and the sorrow when the time eventually came to return “my” book. It was as if I had separation anxiety when it was time to return a title I had really enjoyed. What if I wanted to read it again later? What if I couldn’t remember the title or author? I decided early on that book ownership was key. With that goal in mind, I…
Over the past week, Grinding Gears editor David Goodspeed has been privileged to drive a pair of all-new vehicles from Ford and Lincoln, both of which will arrive in dealerships this summer. The first stop was Washington, D.C., for the 2009 Lincoln MKS. That was the trip whose highlights included a visit to a winery, a sneak peek at a future Lincoln, outrunning tornados, a dead turtle and not quite making it back to our starting point. All-in-all a very memorable trip. And a great new Lincoln. Next stop: LA – Santa Monica to be precise – for the launch…
In March I bought a BlackJack II off eBay US, since I wanted a cheap smartphone with a keyboard. It was very cheap, had HSDPA (important) and ran Windows Mobile 6, so I was pretty happy. But not long after I got it I realised it just wasn’t quite right, especially after having used the Nokia N95 8GB for several months. I found the BlackJack II too have a rather poor radio, it’s signal strength was always pathetic. Worse than that, often when it would lose signal it would not reconnect to the network properly, therefore calls, messages and emails…
[Note: This is the second of two articles relating to to the Adobe PhotoShop Elements 6/Premiere Elements 4 Bundle. Click here to see my review of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6]. My video camera, a Sony Handycam, is slightly over six years old. I bought it in anticipation of the birth of my first son. Oh did I have plans for that camera. I would take videos, capture them on my computer, edit them, and make amazing home movies of my new baby which I could share with friends and family. Oh the plans. Unfortunately, my plans did not account for…
So, I guess it has been a while since I tried to work with any of the video I shot with my Sony camcorder. A few weeks ago, I decided to capture and edit some video from my son’s school concert. After about a half hour of fruitless searching, I realized a critical fact. My Toshiba Satellite laptop does not have an IEEE1394 Firewire port. Of course, this is a critical feature if you want to work with video. Without a Firewire port, there is no way to connect the camcorder to your computer. Now, I know I have done…
The Easter holiday delayed the delivery by a few days, but never mind, my new unlocked BlackJack II is here! I’ve had it for less than 12hrs but I wanted to post my first impressions of the device. • Looks great. The glossy black body is more stylish and “hip” than the original BlackJack. The new design is less functional, loosing out to the original’s superior grip and ruggedness, but with competitors like the iPhone and Nokia N95 8GB around it was a necessary change. • Build quality is top notch. No flexing , creaking or general crapness to be…
When I bought my new car in September 2007 I knew I would be keeping it for a few years, so I decided that I was going to take the plunge, and build a Car PC like those that I had read about on the MP3Car.com forums. The computer would replace the standard audio system, and add MP3 playback, video, GPS, GPS tracking and internet access to my car After months of dreaming about such a setup my Car PC is finally installed. I’ve had the computer on my desk for over 3 mths now but time and money kinda…
[Note: This is the second part of my look at the Toshiba Qosmio. For my unboxing and initial impressions, take a look at Part 1] When I first started looking at the Qosmio laptop, I thought I was going to have a panic attack. There were just so many different features here. How was I possibly going to discuss them all? Was I in over my head? In fact, I came close to wondering whether I should have asked for it at all. Yikes! Talk about a crisis of confidence. Luckily, I had a chance to discuss this with Judie,…
Last fall, the Palm Centro was launched in the U.S. on the Sprint network. Judie did a review of it and covered everything from the unboxing to her impressions of the device. Rather than repeat covering the basics of this device, I’m going to recommend that you take a look at her review here and here for a basic overview of using the Centro.
About six years ago, when we were preparing for the birth of my first son, I went out and treated myself to a fancy new camcorder. This thing, a Sony, had the works. All of the latest and greatest…including a one megapixel camera (yeah, did I mention this was in late 2001?) I had big plans for that camera. I was going to document everything my son did from his first midnight poop, all the way through college. I would edit those photos and videos into short movies, slideshows, and albums, which I could share with friends and family. It…
When I was a kid, my parents bought me my first robot. Except this was in the early 70s, so it wasn’t a real robot – it was a fuzzy effigy, a mechanized kitten thing. The kitten was tethered by co-joined wires to a long battery box which also served as a remote control. It could walk forward…stop…walk forward…stop; it might have even meowed, too – but I honestly don’t remember. Anyway you get the idea; the kitten wasn’t very exciting, and it certainly didn’t replicate the fun of owning a real cat. In other words, the kitten reacted but…