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Audible BlackBerry App Review

Audible provides audio books. Customers can download the audio books to their computers or mobile devices — including iPhone/iPod, a variety of MP3 players, and BlackBerry devices. Last week, the Audible team released an upgrade to their BlackBerry application (version 1.4.2). It is no secret that I was less than thrilled with the first release of the Audible application. Performance was painfully slow (when it worked), and the process proved — for me — to be more cumbersome than simply plugging the BlackBerry up via USB and dragging the audio book over manually via Mass Storage Mode and playing the…

Editorials

Moving Back to Windows from Mac: Why I made the Move to Mac

I bought my first modern Mac in February, 2008, a 15″ MacBook Pro. At the time I was frustrated with the laptop I owned – a 17″ Toshiba X205 – which was running Windows Vista Ultimate in what seemed like a most underpowered way. I was tired of being told that there were no drivers yet available for my gear, I was tired of seeing notifications pop up asking me constantly if I was sure that I wanted to do something, and I was basically ready for a change. It didn’t help that I had already seen Mitchell and Vincent‘s…

Reviews

SplashID – A Second Look

A while back I took a look at two electronic wallet programs that are available for the iPhone. Both are applications I used on Windows mobile. Both come from reputable, long time, mobile application manufacturers. Both offer the flexibility to organize and protect a wide-range of information. Both protect your data with a high level of encryption. Both cost the same. And both have been revised a number of times since their initial release. The two applications are SplashData’s SplashID and ilium Software’s eWallet. As I wrote in my initial post — With so much in common “Sounds like a toss-up…

Reviews

You know, this is… excuse me… a DAMN fine cup of coffee!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I love coffee. Anyone that knows me well would have you believe I have a thermal stainless steel coffee tumbler surgically grafted to my hand. It’s my American Express — I don’t leave home without it. I don’t fiddle around and mess it up with cream, sugar, or milk. A cup of coffee, if done just right, is best au naturale. The saddest part of all this is that I’ve become accustomed to good coffee. I rarely order any at a restaurant since it’s usually weak, not made…

Reviews

Mass Effect Galaxy for iPhone Review

There is a fine somewhere between cynicism and being an actively suspicious consumer … and when I heard about the release of a game called Mass Effect Galaxy on the iTunes App Store that would somehow tie into the upcoming Mass Effect 2 for the PC & XBOX360, I had a hard time deciding which of the two feelings was foremost in my mind. Because I felt that this was on the surface little different than Burger King having all of those cheap X360 games a few years ago as a big promo. Sure, they were games … but it…

Reviews

Peggle for iPhone Review

Just a couple of weeks ago I highlighted the awesome $0.99 sale on Peggle at the iTunes App store. As I mentioned, the concept of Peggle is simple: you are presented with a board of pegs, some of which are orange. You have a ball shooter at the top center of the screen. The goal is to remove all of the orange pegs from the screen using the balls from your shooter. Since gravity and physics are the laws in the Peggle universe, you need to estimate the trajectory of bounces off other pegs if you hope to clear all…

Reviews

PhatWare’s WritePad Notes, Affairs, and Events Review

Phatware has been making handwriting recognition and note taking software for [what were called at the time] pocket PCs and smartphones since 1997. I’ve used PhatPad on my Windows Mobile devices for quite a few years now, and it’s often one of the first things that I install when I get a new device. When they announced their first products for the iPhone at the end of May, Phatware offered Gear Diary an opportunity to review their first three programs: WritePad Notes, WritePad Affairs, and WritePad Events. All three programs feature PhatWare’s handwriting recognition software for the iPhone, WritePad.

Editorials

“There Is No Science Fiction”

The divide between our imaginations and our reality may not as be as wide as we think. Tonight’s “60 Minutes” had a repeat piece titled “Mind Reading” on the development of a budding technology referred to as ‘Thought Identification’ or in laymen’s terms – ‘Mind Reading’ – and it’s a technology that seems to work with a fair degree of accuracy. As Lesley Stahl asks: “How often have you wondered what your spouse is really thinking? Or your boss? Or the guy sitting across from you on the bus? We all take as a given that we’ll never really know…

Reviews

The SKYlasers 125 mW Green Laser Pointer Review

Not long after I received this rather benign looking kit containing a 125mW Green Laser Pointer and a pair of Laser Protective Goggles from SKYlasers, I started really paying attention to all of the reports regarding people with lasers – red and the stronger green, interfering with pilots flying passenger airplanes. In February 2009, there were already 148 reported incidents of laser attacks, and just last week a plane arriving at Sea-Tac was lasered no less than 20 times. What’s the big deal? Well to start, shining a high powered laser at a plane creates the possibility of messing with…

Editorials

To My Dad, Mel Cohen, on Father’s Day: Thanks for All the Toys

I love technology and gadgetry. Even though I’m in a field that isn’t normally associated with such things, I can’t get enough of it. For the longest time, I thought that my interest had to do with my maturity level, which, as my wife will tell you, can be rather low. 🙂

Editorials

It’s The Content… Stupid

We were over my in-laws’ house for Mother’s Day, and I did something rather unusual — I actually read a newspaper… from newsprint! Here’s what happened… I saw these quaint bundles of paper sitting on the counter and inquired as to what they were. My father-in-law said they are called “newspapers” and that, in his day, it was how they got the news. (I know I know… as shocking as it is, I learned that RSS feeds are actually relatively new.) I was surprised to find that the same information I read on my iPhone and Kindle could be found…

Reviews

Review – OtterBox Armor Case for 4th Generation iPod Nano

I briefly had a new iPod Shuffle when it was released last month. I loved the size and the voiceover feature, but ended up returning it. Why? The inability to use any headset other than the stock Apple buds didn’t work for me. I have, and use, a number of relatively high end headsets with my iPhone, and I just couldn’t get used to the stock buds. So back it went! Still however, I wanted a small iPod to use when I didn’t want to carry something larger and/or put my iPhone or iPod Touch at risk. As a result,…

News

Brown Bottle DIY with Mr Beer

The weather is beginning to break, baseball season has started, and NASCAR is getting into full swing. What better time to start thinking about cookouts and libations. With DIY mania in full swing as the weather warms up, at least that’s what my wife tells me as I work on project #49.3 on her “to-do list”, what better way to test your skills than making your own beer. For those of you brave enough to attempt making your own brew, I have just the site for you. The folks over at Mr. Beer offer 5 different kits that range from…

Reviews

Norton Ghost Review

My entire philosophy when it comes to computers pretty much revolves around a single incident which occurred when I was in ninth grade. We were studying Romeo and Juliet in English class, my first exposure to Shakespeare. At the beginning of the unit, we were given a worksheet with dozens of short essay questions. The idea was, as we read the play, we completed the essays relating to the portion we studied in class. Being the diligent student that I was back then, I worked on that worksheet every day, sitting in the basement tapping away with Bank Street Writer…

Reviews, Vehicles & Gear

2009 GMC Canyon – a date with a V-8

As if straight out of a “Pimp My Ride” episode on TV, General Motors is offering its compact pickup trucks with a fullsize V-8 powerplant under the hood, complete with a factory warranty and fully-intact fenders and hood.

Editorials

The Amazing Hubble Space Telescope in Action

According to astronomer Lyman Spitzer’s 1946 paper “Astronomical advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory”, there were two main advantages that a space-based observatory would have over ground-based telescopes. The first advantage was that “the angular resolution (smallest separation at which objects can be clearly distinguished) would be limited only by diffraction, rather than by the turbulence in the atmosphere, which causes stars to twinkle and is known to astronomers as seeing.” The second advantage was that “a space-based telescope could observe infrared and ultraviolet light, which are strongly absorbed by the atmosphere.” The United Kingdom launched the first orbiting solar telescope…

News

iPhone 3G vs BlackBerry Storm

Judging from the quantity of Twitter questions asking for purchasing advice on the “BlackBerry Storm vs iPhone” – it looks like plenty of people still are undecided between both these devices. While I typically have a one sentence response of “If you want email buy a BlackBerry otherwise buy an iPhone” – I realize that the analysis isn’t always so cut and dry. There’s the touchy issue of AT&T’s signal quality, the ability to capture video, ease of on-screen keyboard use, integration with iTunes. James at JKOnTheRun has done an excellent job with comparing and contrasting the iPhone and Storm….

News

Donkey dispenses cigarettes in a way that will make you want to quit

This Donkey Cigarette Dispenser must be seen to be believed. Holding about 25 cigarettes this charming guy holds a surprise dispenser for the smoking aficionado. Press down on the Donkey’s ears and out comes a cigarette. Watch the video to see from where the smokes will appear. This just could be the ultimate “stop smoking now” tool. Donkey Cigarette Dispenser – $7.95

Reviews

Spb Traveler 2.0 Review

Editors Note: This review appears both here on Gear Diary and on Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! As I have stated many times throughout my reviews here and at Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!, I travel quite a bit for my “day job”. Just so everyone is clear: American Airlines Executive Platinum isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It means that you have had a lot of time on airplanes. But I digress…. Understanding this, anytime I am able to find a tool that makes travel easier I’m automatically going to be interested. Once such tool has been Spb Traveler. Traveler…

How to Do It Yourself!

Update on Windows 7: Blowin’ in the Breeze, Part 4

This is just a short note, kids to let you know where I am with my Wind after this weekend’s article. I’ve completely blown the box, so XP is OFF the Wind. I took a couple of hours and put Windows 7 on it, and find it very interesting. I’m not completely sold on it yet, as its very Vista like, and I’ve really just got Vista Ultimate working the way I want it to on my MBP. However, I’m playing with it; and yes, there is indeed a great deal to like about Win7 that you’re going to hear…

Reviews

The Netflix Player by Roku Review

I know it’s just the first week of 2009, but I suspect that when we are preparing to welcome 2010 in some 360 days, the Roku player that I purchased just over a week ago will be on my list of “favorite gadgets of 2009”.

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