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iPad Accessory Review: modulR Anywhere Pack

“Where do you use your iPad?” That’s one of the key questions you need to answer before you can make the right choice with regard to what case you buy and what accessories you order. If, however, your answer to the question “Where do you use your iPad?” is something like “Everywhere!” or you simply don’t want to make a choice, there’s a great option for you. The modulR system lets you use you iPad on the go, at home, in the car and everywhere in between. It might not be the most refined iPad accessory/case you can find but…


iPad Accessory Review: Belkin Chef Stand and Wand

It comes as no surprise to anyone who lives on this planet that the iPad is finding its way into pretty much every aspect of our lives and certainly into pretty much every room of the house. Among the places where it can come in particularly handy is the kitchen. Thanks to the iPad, the days of needing a special under-cabinet television if you want to watch a show while cooking are gone. Similarly, the days of needing a separate music player/boombox are over. In fact, unless you are my purest, like my wife Elana, you don’t even need  paper…


Rocking Accessories for Fall Cookouts and Tailgating

Fall is upon us, but there are still plenty of great days left for grilling while tailgating at the game or barbecuing at home! If you want to extend your summer and bring a little bit of head-banging to your grill, then look no further than the BBQ Guitar Spatula and the BBQ Rockin’ Fork available from GAMA-GO. Both the spatula and fork are full-size heavy stainless steel utensils, and they can be had for $20 each. As an aside, they will go perfectly with the Roast My Weenie grill tool that Wayne posted about some time ago. 😉


Home Audio Review: Orb Music Streaming System

Elana is all but sick of hearing my content refrain of “Have I told you how much I love our Sonos System?” It is at that point that she reminds me that, while she enjoys the music when it is on, the Sonos system is definitely my baby. She’s right. It is one of the best purchases I have ever made. Here is the thing though: the Sonos system worked for me for two reasons. First, at the time I didn’t have a serious music system in the house and, second, I was willing to make the investment to set…


Convenient Gadgets’ Bottle Opener Fridge Magnet Review

If you drink a lot of mass-produced cold beverages that come in bottles with twist caps, then you probably don’t often need a bottle opener. Similarly, if you drink a lot of beverages that come in aluminum cans, then you might have a bottle opener … located somewhere in your junk drawer. But if you like to drink bottled-beverages that don’t easily twist open, or if you regularly run into twist-caps that don’t seem to loosen easily, then you no doubt keep several bottle openers placed around your kitchen and back patio … and you have probably had moments when you have not been…


Giving the Honeywell HEPAClean 3-in-1 Advanced Air Cleaning System a Try During This Allergy Season

Have you ever taken a good look at the space just in front of you when the morning sun shines directly in your windows? If you have pets or live anywhere other than in a hermetically sealed envelope, you are probably used to seeing fine floating particles that are nearly unidentifiable … but if you have allergies they are all it takes to make your skin crawl in anticipation of your histamines’ response. Those of us who suffer from allergies are used to dealing with itchy eyes, scratchy throats, runny noses and stuffy heads … and if we are lucky,…


iPad Accessory Review: Rain Design iRest for iPad and iPad 2

There are some companies that understand that it is not form OR function but rather form AND function. Such companies, few in number, have an ability to design products that look great but also function with a simplicity that makes you wonder how you ever went without. Of course Apple leads the pack in this regard but there are others who follow suit. Sonos is one such company. (I write this while Garbage’s song “Push It” is blasting from two Play:5s set up as a stereo-pair.) I LOVE their products. Rain Design is another such company. Their designs are simple,…


iPad Accessory Review: Just Mobile Horizon iPad Wall Mounting System

  We’ve taken a look at a number of different accessories from Just Mobile. Among them have been the AluPen, the XStand, the Gum Plus and the UpStand. All have impressed us and remain in use by one of us here at Gear Diary. Their newest product, the Just Mobile Horizon, is the Just Mobile take on the iPad wall mount. It looks great, does its job and, overall, impresses. Let’s take a closer look.   From JustMobile: The high-style wall mount for iPad: Just Mobile Horizon™ is the minimalist wall mount for iPad and iPad 2, designed by the award-winning…


The Sceptre 24″ E246BD-FHD LED HDTV / Monitor with DVD Player Review

When we built our house, for various reasons we decided not to put a TV in every room; we installed one 55″ LED VIZIO on the wall in the living room with all the home theater options, and we called it good. Well, sometimes the best laid plans don’t quite work out. Over time, we realized that it would be handy to have a second television as backup, so that the girls could pop in a DVD when we were watching something “boring” like the San Diego Chargers and Texas football games, or the Tour de France. Because this second…


Keep QuikClot on Hand, and You May Save a Life

QuikClot is an emergency wound dressing loaded with blood clotting agents. You can go to YouTube and watch some extremely graphic training videos of QuikClot in action, but I suggest that you not do so if you have a weak stomach. If you are able to handle the graphic images, I’m sure that you’ll agree the results are pretty impressive. I had never heard about QuikClot until I stumbled on a recent Lifehacker post, “How to Survive a Gunshot Wound.” Yikes. QuikClot is the consumer version of a Z-Medica product that has long been used by the military, law enforcement and emergency medical…


Belkin’s Cooking with iPad Kitchen Accessories

I’ve written it before and I’ll write it again, the iPhone and the iPad are like eRorschachs; the device and what it can do changes depending upon what app you are using. Want a school device? It is one. Want a good GPS? It can handle it. And the list goes on and on. And as the iPad becomes useful in more and more settings the accessories that make it even better matter more and more. Belkin understands that the iPad is a great device for the kitchen at Pepcom’s Holiday Extravaganza I got a first hand look at three…


Ooma Updates and Gets Even Better

One of the standout piece of consumer electronics I have discovered over the past few years is the Ooma phone system. The system brings an unusual business model to the business of phone service. Instead of charging a monthly fee Ooma sells the hardware that connects to your high-speed internet service and then lets you have your phone service for free. Sure they sell a number of useful accessories and there are some value-adding services to which you can subscribe (Ooma Premier is one of them and is totally worth the price) but you don’t HAVE to do so to…


Do You Have a 30 Pint Goldstar or Comfort-Aire Dehumidifier in Your Home? If So, Then Read This!

Do you have a dehumidifier in your basement? If so, you probably put it there to protect your home from water damage, right? Well, if you own a Goldstar or Comfort-Aire dehumidifier, you need to check your model number, because you may have put yourself at risk for something even worse — fire damage. The recalled dehumidifiers were sold at The Home Depot, Walmart, Ace Hardware, Do It Best, Orgill Inc., and other retailers nationwide from January 2007 through June 2008 for between $140 and $150. They were manufactured in China. The dehumidifiers were first recalled in December 2009 following eleven incidents,…


Wacom Inkling Digital Sketch Pen Is New Spin on Digital Analog Technology

(Image courtesy of Wacom) While the iPad has become synonymous with the term “tablet”, there has been other digital tablet technology, such as the Tablet PC and the Livescribe Pulse Pen which came out before and is surviving, albeit in more of a niche market. So it is rare for me to see any new devices, especially in the analog-to-digital space. While I love handwriting recognition on the Tablet PC and touch typing on the iPad, there has always been an appeal to writing on actual paper. The Livescribe handles this well, but requires the use of their special (Anoto-based) paper…


Hurricane Irene: Be Prepared, Fake Candles Edition

Like everyone on the east coast we’ve been doing our part to get ready for Irene’s arrival. We moved the deck furniture into the garage, made extra ice so things in the fridge won’t go bad if (when?) the power goes out, we’ve charged our devices and some external chargers and we’ve stored up some water. The latter wasn’t so easy because every store we went to was out so we just filled up pitchers. Batteries and candles were out too, but Elana did bring something useful home. Here’s a quick look but first, a brief musical interlude from one…


Food Sanitation Just Got a Lot Easier with the CleanCut Touchless Automatic Towel Dispenser

A few years ago Elana trained as a chef at the Natural Gourmet Cooking School. One of the most important lessons she learned had to do with food sanitation. (She’s a nut about it which is a good thing. She also once commented that “If you knew what went on in some restaurant kitchens you would never eat out again.”) It is important to keep kitchen surfaces as clean as possible and that means, in part, using paper towels to ensure that all surfaces touched by raw food are sprayed and cleaned on a regular basis. To ensure this happen,…


Review: Griffin Beacon Universal Remote for iOS

It looks funny. It does exactly what it promises. And, at least for me, it is in the running for “iOS Accessory of the Year”. Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit but I’m pretty serious about how cool I think this iOS hardware/app combination is. The Griffin Beacon is the universal remote on steroids. With this odd piece of plastic powered by four AA batteries and a free download from the App Store I have taken my Samsung HDTV remote, my TiVo remote AND my Apple TV remote and put them away. Now all I need is one of my iOS…


Lorex LIVE SENSE Gives Parents (and Grandparents) Peace of Mind

Photos: Author Having never been blessed with children of my own, I never quite got a grasp of everything new parents had to worry about nor how extensive their “to-do” list was … until last Christmas when we got word of the impending arrival of my wife’s first grandchild. Fast forward to July 26, and Baby J arrives in fine fashion. In no time I begin hearing “I can’t wait until we can start babysitting him over here.” What? The baby is coming here? “I’m not ready.” “The house isn’t ready.” “Where did the time go?” The very next day…


Why I Hate Compact Florescent Lightbulbs

Okay, look:  there’s no question that ordinary incandescent light bulbs are on the way out.  Another few years, and they’re going to be as rare as candles.  I’m okay with that; they’re a 150-year old technology, they put out most of their energy as heat rather than light, they’re inefficient.  With more and more people crowding our poor planet, and more need to make the best of the resources we have, I can dig it.  I’m okay with it. But I’m pretty convinced the CF light bulbs are not the way to go.  Yes, they’re definitely more efficient.  Other than…


Sonos PLAY:3 Review

We have had a fair bit of coverage of the Sonos Wireless Hi-Fi System over the past few weeks. As I noted in my initial review of the system, I only had the review units in my home for 23 hours before I went and ordered my own. I was impressed by the ease of use, the overall sound quality, and the vast amount of music that was available to me through the Sonos eco-system. It was by no means an inexpensive purchase but I have not had a single moment of buyer’s remorse. At this point I am a…


Gear Diary Video Round-Up

  Last week saw us post a larger number of videos than ever. In them we took a first look at the AT&T Status phone running Android 3.2.2, Carly talked to us about the benefits of Chromebooks and why they might be a great choice for you and we launched not one but two contest/giveaways. Missed any of them? Well we’ve gather all of them together along with links to each post… Gear Talk: iPad 2 Case Roundup  Read It! Judie’s Orbino Padova for iPad 2 Has Arrived: Here’s a First Look  Read It! Gear Giveaway: Judie Attended Intel’s Upgrade…