Search Results for samsung

Apple’s iPad 2’s Camera Placement and Software Features Show Apple Still “Thinks Different”

(image courtesy of Apple) Apple’s iPad 2 adds new hardware, including a front and back camera. What is interesting is the difference in where and how their front facing camera works, compared with other upcoming tablet offerings. Apple, in typical Apple fashion, was “thinking different”. Rumors that Apple would be adding front and back camera to the iPad 2 were circulating for months, and now we know it is true. Apple almost had to put both cameras in, as all other tablet manufacturers are putting them in. It’s essentially become a “required” feature. So, what makes Apple’s approach so different…


iPod Touch 4th Generation Accessory Review: Infinity Carbon Texalium Silver Case

Judie recently reviewed the Infinity Carbon 2×2 Carbon Fiber Twill Case. She loves it. The review started with this: We spend a fair amount of time reviewing accessories here on Gear Diary because all of us enjoy using products that enhance our gear experience. When I buy a new smart phone or tablet, the first thing I generally do is order an anti-glare screen protector for it … and immediately afterward I start looking at cases. The screen protector serves two purposes: much as wide tape placed across a window will help strengthen it during hurricane, I’ve learned through experience…


MWC: One Last Look at Mobile World Congress 2011

Beyond hamming it up with wandering oompah bands at Mobile World Congress, Helena and I managed to  get hands-on time with some of the new devices and technologies that will be causing a stir in 2011 and beyond! HTC’s New Android Devices HTC won me over with their lovely new ChaCha. After using the BlackBerry Bold for a week, with its tiny little keys that I never got used to, the generously sized keys on the ChaCha, along with its softly curved body … I so wish that my Tru SIM had been installed in one of these babies. Helena…


The Hidden Price of Our Gadget Obsession: Child Labor

One item that came through in Apple’s Supplier report last week was a marked increase in issues with child labor in supplier facilities, particularly in China. The report noted that Apple ” audited 127 facilities and found 91 cases including 31 workers who had been hired prior to reaching the legal age, but were no longer underage or no longer employed at the time of the audit.” Before you get out the Apple-bashing hammer, remember that EVERYONE making devices is using these facilities – Dell, Asus, Acer, HP, even Samsung gets loads of stuff from these plants. This means it…


Review: HTC Desire HD / AT&T Inspire 4G

Mitchell Back in early 2010 I reviewed the HTC Desire, and I liked it a lot. I liked it so much that I actually bought one the day that it was launched here (which lined up well with the day the review unit went back). Unfortunately the love affair ended about 2 months later, and I returned to my iPhone. Why? Apps. Not just the selection of apps, but the polish that so many iOS apps display that other platforms didn’t at the time. My iPhone also had the major advantage of being jailbroken so it was even better. As…


#1 Reason the Motorola Xoom WILL Fail (But Shouldn’t)

Everyone seems to be freaking out about the recently revealed pricing for the upcoming Motorola XOOM tablet. On the surface that seems silly: the XOOM has a dual-core processor, a 1280×720 10.2 inch touch screen, two cameras (a 5MP rear camera with flash and a 2MP ‘webcam’), as well as the latest Android 3.0 operating system. On paper it seems like the XOOM completely blows away the iPad, but as we have learned with the fictitious Samsung Tab sales numbers, having better specs means little. An article at eWeek lists 10 reasons why the XOOM is overpriced, but there was…


SCOTTEVEST Women’s Trench Review

When done correctly, a woman’s trench coat is the perfect jacket. A trench keeps its wearer warm, but it isn’t too heavy; trench coats are belted, so the woman wearing one gains an instant hourglass figure — whether she has one or not! The right trench coat can add instant sophistication to even the most basic outfit; but best of all, a well-cut trench coat can hide a multitude of figure flaws while taking an outfit from day to night. Scott Jordan let us know last October that SCOTTEVEST would be coming out with a women’s trench coat, and the…


CES Snippets: Wrapsol Offers Protection, Reduces Glare

At one of the evening events during CES Wrapsol was showing off their wares. The company offers protective skins for a wide range of devices. That is not big deal since there are a host of other companies that do the same thing. What was impressive was their Wrapsol Clean Screen Protection Kit. At $29.95 the iPad screen protector is on the pricey side for a kit that offers screen protection only but when you see it up close and personal it impresses. As the company explains, Wrapsol Clean screen protector film is the easiest to apply and the most…


CES Snippets: Speck Rolls Out a Host of New Cases at CES

Let’s get this out of the way- we love Speck Case. We love them on our iPhones. We love them on our iPod Touches. We love them on our iPad. We love the amazing variety they offer. And yes, we love visiting with Speck at CES because we get to try them all. 🙂 This year was no exception and we wanted to give you a quick look at some of the cases we had a chance to check out. First off we wanted to see what Speck has to offer for the Samsung Galaxy Tab. They have a bunch…


Gear Diary at CES Brought to You by Google

We hope you enjoyed Gear Diary’s coverage of CES 2011! All of the editors of the site worked with various devices, but they all had one thing in common: Google. Yes, Gear Diary at CES was brought to you by various Google OSes and services. What were our favorite Google-y gadgets? Read on to find out! Carly My day job is fairly restricted, and so I don’t have access to anything behind the scenes at Gear Diary on my work PC. Thankfully, I have the CR-48 Chrome OS computer, and that made my life very easy all week while Dan,…


CES: Nuance’s Technology Is EVERYWHERE! (And That’s a Good Thing)

A while we were at CES last week I had a chance to meet with a number of the people who I email and speak with regularly from Nuance. Nuance is the leading company developing voice to text technology; they’re the company that has given us of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Dragon Dictation for iOS devices and Dragon for Mac (the application I’m using to write this post). There were a few bits of important news that came out from Nuance over the course of the week. Nuance T9 Trace + Android = Happy Samsung Galaxy Tab User The first day we…


ProClip Makes Francis’ Day

Francis doesn’t own a single Apple product. Yeah I know… some day he will come to his senses but for now he is committed to remaining unenlightened. His phone of choose right now… the Samsung Vibrant. The problem with that is that there are tons of accessors for iPhones but when it comes to phones like the Captivate there are few choices. Francis was sharing his tale of woe when we stumbled upon our friend Johan at his ProClip booth and… wouldn’t you know it, ProClip has a carholder that IA designed specifically for the Captivate and its top-positioned microUSB.


Corning Gorilla Glass: Not Just For Smartphones Anymore!

Corning’s Gorilla Glass has become the industry standard in just a few short years for an obvious reason: people don’t like their phones to shatter. While the glass isn’t completely indestructible, it has shown an unprecedented ability to resist scratches and breaks in normal use. The list of devices using the glass is impressive, and that is with some (ahem) well known users left off the list. Here is just a sampling: Handheld Devices * Dell: Aero, Streak, Venue Pro * LG: LG Mini, Arena TV, Ophone, Ally, Optimus 7 * Motorola: BACKFLIP, BRAVO, CHARM, CLIQ, CLIQ XT, DEFY, DEVOUR,…


Gear Diary’s NoBC to CES for Haiti Plunge- the Packing Episode

Don’t forget: This challenge is benefiting The Haiti Plunge – They are building a road and a new medical clinic among other things in a rural part of Haiti. Please take a second and support them HERE. Today is the day when the SCOTTEVEST No Baggage Challenge for Charity becomes a reality and moves into high gear. Yes, tomorrow morning Larry and I both fly out for Las Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show 2011. That means today, Sunday, January 2, 2011, is the day when we need to pack our clothes into our luggage. Scratch that, not into our…


Gear Diary 2010 Gear of the Year and Predictions for 2011

The past year has seen interesting developments in the gear we all use: the term iOS replaced iPhone OS as the OS that started on iPhone was also on the new iPad when it took the world and Gear Diary writers by storm, Android phones blossomed and became real competitors to the iPhone, and the iPad got its first real competition in the Samsung Galaxy Tab just a few months before 2010 drew to a close.  While there’s much more that happened in the past year, I thought let’s ask the following questions of the Gear Diary Team. 1. What was your…


Gear Gadget Review: Veebeam Set-Top Box Lets You Stream Content from Computer to TV

Imagine if you could simply tap a button and both the audio and the video loaded on your laptop or desktop could be sent to your large HDTV? Sure, Apple’s AirPlay has brought us partly there. In fact, just the other night I wanted to watch a movie I had rented on my iPad and decided to view it on my large Samsung TV instead. I started the movie on my iPad, tapped the AirPlay button and, within a few seconds, it was being streamed from my iPad to my Apple TV to my HDTV. It works seamlessly. The only…


Review: BodyGuardz Dry Apply Protector For iPhone 4

Let’s face it, today’s devices are expensive and beautiful.  Unfortunately their function and uses makes it difficult to keep them looking as shiny as they were right out of the box.  It is always so disheartening when the dreaded scratch shows up on the beautiful screen of a device.  There are many ways to protect these works of beauty and a leading product is the clear protector.  They provide scratch protection while not adding bulk or changing the appearance.  There are many brands and kinds of clear protectors, but BodyGuardz has proven to be one of the leaders in the…


Neuros Control Tablet 1002

Joe Born at Neuros Technology has always been a supporter of Linux and Open Source technology since I’ve known him.  Well Joe came up with a great idea.  How about using a cheap Android Tablet to control the Neuros Link?  Sounds like a good idea, but did it work? The Control Tablet 1002 is very similar to the Eken M002 tablet.  In face, it will run the same builds of Android that the Eken M002 will. Let’s take a look at the specs: • Slatedroid firmware based off of Google Android OS 1.6 • VIA MW8505 350-400MHz • 128MB DDR2…


Why I’m Keeping the HTC EVO 4G

I’ve never been shy about admitting my Apple fan-boy status. When it comes to mobile phones the iPhone has become my be all end all. The truth is, although I’ve sampled a few other mobile handsets since the release of the first generation iPhone, I’ve not owned anything else for any extended period of time. As long as I’m being totally truthful here I also have to admit I’ve become a little bored. Not bored with the iPhone hardware as much as the software it’s running. Yes, I’m a little bored with iOS.  As stupid as it sounds it’s just…


The Death of the Synthetic Green Laser … Long Live the Native Green Laser

If you have heard of Corning Incorporated, it might have been for CorningWare, Corelle or Pyrex dishes in the past; perhaps for the glass on that big screen TV; or even as the ones behind Verizon’s FTTH (Fiber to the Home) initiative; or possibly you knew it was behind the catalytic converter in your car; or maybe you know about Gorilla Glass in so many phones and tablets. But you probably don’t think of Corning as a laser company. Yet one of the big ‘cool tech’ stories from last year, the Microvision SHOWWX projector that was going to offer the…


Verizon to Customers- If You Don’t Read the Fine Print (and Read Our Minds) That’s YOUR Problem

Ever heard of the “bait and switch”? Of course you have. That’s the game in business that advertises one product and then, when it is not available, pushes you to buy something else. In almost every case the “something else” costs more and offers less. It is certainly not the most consumer-friendly approach… to say the least but it works for the bottom line. Well, Verizon might not be playing the “bait and switch” game but they certainly have found their own way to screw customers. Here’s the story- Our friend Joel Evans bought a Samsung Tab from Verizon and…