Computers

Larry and Dan Serve Up Gear Chat #15

In Gear Chat #15 Larry and Dan talk about their experience with the Magic Trackpad (one kept it, one sent it back), chat about the current Apple hardware rumors and more… Elements app for Dropbox ($4.99) Get it HERE. Fastever ($1.99) Get it HERE. TextExpander Touch ($4.99) Get it HERE. Train Conductor 2 ($.99) Get it HERE. Intro Music- Lean On Me- Sounds From the Ground Solarstone’s Chill Out Remix… (http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chillout-a-nettwerk-escape/id258464413)

Editorials

Microsoft’s “PC vs. Mac” Site: What on Earth Are They Thinking?

Mac vs. PC ad still courtesy Chiat/Day One of the things that’s wonderful about writing for Gear Diary is the diverse mix of folks involved in the endeavor. You got your PC folks… you got your Appleheads… and you got your LINUX fans (well fan… Joel) and so on. We’ve got gaming folks; hard-core gadget nerds; exercise mavens; and gear heads (“petrol heads” to you “Top Gear” fans). You have folks who are into fashion and making sure their high-end handbag matches their Oberon iPad case, and people who get help from their partner when matching shirts with pants for…

Reviews

Lenovo A63 Desktop Computer Review

I could sum up this entire review in one word (Whoosh!), but I think Lenovo would not be happy. Nor would you, since you clicked through to a review intending to find out more about a product, and not just that’s it’s very fast. So let’s get started in on the Lenovo A63 desktop and what makes it so impressive that it left me with “whoosh” as my description! First of all, a bit of a disclaimer: I am geeky, but not great with hardware. I know how it works, I know how to troubleshoot the basics, but I’m…

Editorials

Mac Mini Updated and Priced to Sell iMacs, that is

Image courtesy of GeekyGadgets By now you have likely heard that Apple did a refresh on the Mac Mini, greatly overhauling the internal and external hardware and enhancing the overall specifications … and the price. The basics are as expected – more or less a copy of the 13″ Macbook Pro with more desktop-like set of connectors. The big new features include the addition of a HDMI port, upgrade of the graphics chip, and the sleek new look. Here are some details: Most notable is the new aluminum unibody enclosure, which stands just 1.4″ tall and features an easy-to-access memory…

Reviews

The Lenovo ThinkCentre A70z 1165 as a Digital Picture Frame With Benefits; Why Not?!

At the end of 2008 I bought my first digital picture frame, the Gigantor 15″ from Think Geek, which at the time was one of the largest available without getting into astronomical amounts of money. I paid about $200 for it, which I thought was a pretty good deal considering that many 10″ and under frames were selling in the ~$150 range. Everyone who comes into our house will generally stop dead in their tracks when they see the massive photo display; they want to know who people are, when photos were taken, and where they were taken. It’s as…

Reviews

SpiderOak Cloud Backup Review

Backing your data up to the cloud and living out of the cloud is all the rage. SpiderOak cloud backup has a lot of features that I have been looking for in an online backup solution. First, to get started with SpiderOak, you need to download the software for Windows, Mac or Linux and install it. The version delivered for Ubuntu works on pretty much any version of Ubuntu. You can install it with standard dpkg commands or double-click on it and us the graphical package manager, GDebi package installer. Click on install, enter your system password and it installs….

Reviews

NeatDesk Review

From The Neat Company….. “The NeatDesk is a high-speed desktop scanner and digital filing system that will quickly turn all the paper on your desk into organized, digital files. More than just a great scanner, NeatDesk also includes patented NeatWorks software to identify and extract key information from your paper files, then automatically organizes it in the easy to use database.” I’ve tried a bunch of systems to manage my receipts, business cards and paper but I just can’t seem to find one that works the way I want it to. Previously I was using Evernote to manage my business cards but that meant…

How to Do It Yourself!

Seagate DockStar + iPad = Limitless Storage On The Go

I ordered a 64 GB iPad because I have long subscribed to the belief that you should always order and purchase the device with the largest amount of memory that you can afford. (The only exception to this comes into play when you’re purchasing a new notebook. In that case I believe that you should only order an SSD drive, but still… the largest solid-state drive that you can.) So I ordered a 64 GB iPad. It should be a good amount of space, and will likely hold me for quite some time. Then again, if I end up loading…

News & Features

How to Get Your Free ‘Underground Guide to the iPhone’ and ‘Mac Manual’

Have I mentioned our TradePub affiliate store lately? It’s a place where you can sign up for magazine subscriptions and technical documents based on your profession … and assuming you qualify — you’ll get them all for FREE. Sounds good, right? Well to get you started, here are two new documents which might be of interest. The Underground Guide To The iPhone Read about the basic user interface and a ton of incredible iPhone features you would’ve otherwise missed. This guide explains in detail how to perform both the very simple and the most tedious tasks. Find out how to…

Game Diary, Reviews

Alienware m11x Gaming Laptop: First Impressions

… and as Alienware claims, this is NOT a netbook! Sitting side-by-side with my Lenovo s10 the Alienware m11x seems large, and given that it weighs twice as much as the Lenovo it also FEELS much bigger. But compared to my 15″ Macbook Pro or the HP Compaq 15″ laptop I use at work, it looks and feels quite small. That is exactly what Alienware was going for – a high performance system in a portable package. So while I have only had a short time with the system, here are a few initial thoughts about the m11x as a…

How to Do It Yourself!

Monolingual: Delete unused language packs on your Mac.

I personally use only one language on my Mac computers, English. Unless you’re multi-lingual or unless you’re like Judie and plan on taking up another language, chances are you only need one language on your computer as well. The Mac comes preinstalled with several language packs. These packs includes fonts, and other things which all take up hard drive space. That’s where Monolingual comes in. Monolingual is a free application (donations are accepted) which allows you to selectively remove any language pack from your Mac that you choose.

Gear Bits

Giving the 17″ MacBook Pro Laptop a Try

I’ve been greatly enjoying the HP dv6 that I recently upgraded to Windows 7, and that got me wondering about Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6). Dan was evil kind enough to send me a link to the latest Apple refurb sales last week, and I couldn’t help myself…after perusing the wares, I bit.

Reviews

The HP Pavilion dv2-1199us Laptop Reviewed

photos by Kevin As many of you know, two different MacBook Airs in a row have performed as my main computer for over a year. I can get away with using what others have called an “oversized netbook” because I don’t do a lot of processor-intensive computing beyond basic video and photo editing, and much of what I do can be done “in the cloud.” I would be lying if I didn’t say that part of the Mac’s attraction for me has always been hardware based. From the first time I laid eyes on Mitchell’s MacBook Pro, I knew it…

How to Do It Yourself!

My Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh – The Installation

This is Part One in a series about my journey with my new Dell Mini 9 into Hacktinosh territory…I’ll be talking about my installation process, my impressions of the Mini as a Mac netbook, performance, software, and more. I was pretty early to jump on the netbook bandwagon. When I saw the original 7″ Asus Eee PC for the first time, I knew that I had to have it. I had been lusting after computers like the Sony Picturebook for a long time–something that could fit in my purse and go with me everywhere! As a writer, having a full…

Reviews

Unboxing the HP Pavilion dv2-1199us Laptop

HP and Microsoft sent me an HP Pavilion dv2-1199us Entertainment PC to try out. Once I got past the fact that the model number is a mouthful, I couldn’t help but notice how lovely this moonlight white computer is – both in appearance and specifications. The exterior is described as a “magnesium-aluminum-alloy case in a white imprint finish,” but that barely describes it; the look is stunning. The touch pad is a mirrored surface, and it runs Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit). The dv2 has a bunch of bells and whistles…both in the hardware and in…

How to Do It Yourself!

Take Control of Time Machine

I’m a Apple fanboy through and through. This I admit freely. But I’m also man enough to admit that not everything Apple does is perfect. Time Machine, Apple’s default back up program, is one of those not so perfect things. My biggest problem with Time Machine is the inability to customize just when Time Machine backs up. The only time management setting offered by Time Machine is on or off. When it’s on it backs up everything on your Mac, every hour. I find this to be a major nuisance as it seems my iMac is always backing itself up and it’s…

Reviews

Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 Storage Array Review

If your drive goes south, without backup storage and some type of backup strategy, you could be in a world of hurt. Everyone here at Gear Diary knows what that means… We’ve had a couple of server issues over the past few years that have caused all of us some major pain. Enter the Elite-AL Pro Qz2. It’s a RAID drive system and backup device that will accommodate up to 8TB (yes… that’s 8 TERABYTES) of data in a single drive array. Let’s take a look and see how it does with both Windows and Mac systems. The Elite-AL Pro…

Reviews

Blue Icicle XLR-USB Interface Review

Blue has been making microphones for a while now but this is their first adapter. This adapter takes any microphone with an XLR connector and converts it to a USB connector making it possible to record high quality audio through your computer.

How to Do It Yourself!

Blowing in the Breeze Part 2 – OSX 10.5.6 & the MSI Wind

Before I get started, I wanted to say special thanks go out to Dan Cohen, who stayed up with me until 3am Eastern/2am Central working on the Flash drive needed to get this all done. So… OSX 10.5.6 and the MSI Wind… Yah ok… maybe not so much. Quick update – I’ve got OSX installed on my Wind (calling it miniMBP); and I’ve learned some interesting things as of this morning. 1. I can still survive and be human on as little as 2.5 hours of sleep as long as there’s good, strong coffee around…somewhere. 2. You have to find…

How to Do It Yourself!

The Creation of a Hackintosh

(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,…

Editorials

Is 64bit Vista Ready for Prime Time?

There’s been a big push by Microsoft to get everyone to cross over to the 64bit version of Vista. Are you and your hardware ready for it? I’ve got a MacBook Pro. I purchased the notebook in December of 2006. It’s the low end unit, with a 2.16 GHz C2D processor, 4GB of RAM (yes, Leopard will see and use all 4GB of RAM, despite what you might think, or are told), and a 120GB hard drive. It’s not a bad unit; and has treated me well in the almost 20 months that I’ve been using it. The biggest problem…

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