Misc Gear | Gear Diary

Shape-Up Shoes Shocker: They Don’t Work!

Here’s a news flash for everyone who’s looking for a quick fitness fix: there isn’t one. There is no magic equipment, no special pill, and definitely no pair of super sneakers that are going to get you in shape or zap away the weight. It takes watching what you eat and getting your butt moving! Of course, if you look around your local mall, every athletics store is touting some form of “toning shoe” that promises better muscle tone in your legs and back, and all you have to do is wear them! The first time I saw the shoes…

Reviews

iPad Accessory Review: Saddleback Leather Company iPad Sleeve / Large Gadget Pouch

There aren’t many materials that are more long-lasting, beautiful or more protective than thick, full-grain leather; Saddleback Leather Company is one of the few companies that takes advantage of that fact. I recently received their iPad Sleeve / Large Gadget Pouch, and have since had a chance to put it under the microscope (figuratively, of course).

Reviews

Gear Review: Sewell Minideck USB to DVI/VGA Display Adapter

I work with some awesome people day in and day out. They are smart, creative, dedicated to their community and a great team with whom to work. They are also, for the most part, tech-phobic or, to be gentler, not the most technically savvy crew around. For example, when I moved my entire staff over to Gmail from Outlook a few years ago, you would have thought I was repeatedly poking them in the eye with a sharp object. The kicking and screaming that went on was painful. Then, one day … bam! … I heard the words “I actually…

News & Features

Gear Must-Have: Gadget Genie Moisture Removal System

Judie knows gadgets. She’s been blogging for years and has tried out hundred and hundreds of different items and accessories. Many of them get “ooos and ahhs” from her, but rarely have I seen a product draw such immediate enthusiasm as this one. No, this product received an “OMG Great Idea!!! I need some to keep on hand!!” What product caught her eye in such a big way? Is it a phone? Nope. Is it a tablet? Nope. Is it a new computer? Nope. So what is it? It is a bag. And no, it is not one of her…

Reviews

iPad Acessory Review: Hard Candy’s Candy Stylus and Pen

I loved working on a Tablet PC. The ability to “ink” on one– that is, create digital ink by using a stylus to write or draw on the screen– made taking notes quick and easy. I don’t mind the trade-offs I had to make once I moved to the iPad since it is lighter, runs longer, is silent, never gets warm and… it is Apple, but every now and then I miss “inking”. Fortunately more and more iPad apps are improving the experience of writing on the iPad’s screen. They are making the ink “flow” more smoothly and many are…

Reviews

Purse to Go Bag Organizer Review

It’s no secret that a few of us here at Gear Diary are bag fanatics. Judie’s collection puts mine to shame any day, as does Clinton’s. But for the past few years, I have been a purse fanatic. It’s been my other spendy item other than technology. I haven’t gone crazy; usually I only buy one nice bag a year, almost always from Coach, and maybe a few accessories. They have lasted so much longer than my previous cheapie purchases and I’ve been very happy with the investment. However, I have one problem–I love big bags. I love carrying a…

News & Features

Just in Time for Halloween, Batman’s Utility Belt Can Be Yours

I’ve been making jokes about BatBelts for years – usually when referring to the way so many of geeks will carry a plethora of items clipped to their waist. And now, for $149, geeks everywhere can have a real BatBelt of their own. Composed of polished bronze leather with silver studs, this isn’t some cheep plastic wannabe — it’s the real deal with usable and movable pouches. Fantastic for Halloween and cosplay, the TDK Batman: Utility Pouch should also make an interesting addition to your “Casual Fridays” attire. And for those of you who are thinking “But it’s gold! Too…

Reviews

Gear Gadget Review- The Violight UV Cell Phone Sanitizer

Fall is upon us. That means more time inside. That means coughing. That means flu. That means… we had all do our best to stay healthy. Obviously the best way to do that is to wash your hands frequently with soap and water. In addition, a new gadget can help. The VIOlight Cellphone Sanitizer uses UV light to quickly and safely kill 99.9% of bacteria and germs that might be living on your cellphone, earbuds and other small gadgets. It is battery operated, simple to use and silent. Best of all it is under $50. It is super simple to…

Events

How ETS-Lindgren Makes the Products You Use Every Day Even Better

Along with a very small group of bloggers, earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit ETS-Lindgren in Cedar Park, Texas. If you are as uninformed as I was before this trip, that name will mean absolutely nothing to you. However, I can promise you that by the time you finish this trip report you will understand why you should be familiar with this company, and how they have most definitely had an effect on you. My initial introduction to the company was a link to their site and a slightly cryptic email from a contact saying that “they…

News & Features

Duracell myGrid Makes Cordless Charging Easy, Simple and Fast

We have looked at a number of cordless charging systems over the last year or so, but now a heavyweight in the world of mobile-device power jumped into the field in a big way when they released their myGrid system. Duracell’s myGrid offers several different kits that let you simply set your device down and watch it charge up. With the myGrid… Cord clutter is a thing of the past. With myGrid, you can easily charge up to four mobile devices at the same time. Simply attach a Power Sleeve™ or Power Clip™ to each device and drop it onto myGrid…

Reviews

iPad Accessory Review: the Just Mobile AluPen

One of the first things I wished for when I first got my iPad was a way to use it as a tablet computer. The iPad’s large screen was simply begging for handwriting input, and programs like PenUltimate, SketchBook, Brushes, and photo editors like ColorSplash were ripe for a better input device than my pointer finger. Because of the iPad’s capacitive touch screen, any old stylus would not do, plus I wanted a stylus that wasn’t too pointy. I’d seen quite a few capacitive styli that would work, but I thought they were pretty homely when compared to my iDevice’s…

News & Features

The Rubber Band Gatling Gun

Oh the damage you could do if you had a Rubber Band Gatling Gun from Gadgets & Gear! Not for children and not for the faint of heart, this aluminum beast of a rubber band shooter will set you back $499, but it will give you bragging rights the likes of which have never been seen! Each handmade Gatling Gun is made of CNC machined parts, and it weighs a hefty 20 pounds. It can shoot 100 rounds of rubber bands, and it comes with two pounds just to get you started. A mounted flashlight on the top should come…

News & Features

LaCie’s MosKeyto Has a Tiny Memory

It’s cute, it’s tiny … it’s the LaCie MosKeyto, one of the most compact USB flash drives I’ve ever seen! Available in 4, 8 and 16GB (the one capacity which isn’t showing on the site quite yet), the MosKeyto is an inexpensive backup flash drive that you can stick in a laptop’s USB port and forget about. I like that they stuck the keyring on the side with the memory, not the side which serves as a cap. 😉 The stealthy MosKeyto becomes nearly invisible when plugged into your computer, and can even travel with the computer in a protective…

Reviews

RoadID Wrist Sport Band Review

About a week ago, my fiancee came home, walked the dog, and headed out for a bike ride. After she was riding for about an hour, she started to, for lack of a better word, “bonk”. It was hotter than she thought, she didn’t bring a snack, and she was almost out of water. Luckily she was able to call me to pick her up at the trailhead, but the incident worried me. What if she hadn’t stopped herself and started walking, or the heat snuck up on her more and she’d passed out? The next day, I went online…

Reviews

The Alphasmart NEO Review: The Ultimate Draft Writing Tool

Alphasmart NEO Portable Electronic Keyboard It has a full-size keyboard so it is definitely not pocketable and a sports a 5.75″ x 1.5″ Mono Liquid Crystal display which shows a “generous” 2 to 6 lines of type. It has a whopping 512K memory. It runs on 3 AA batteries. It has no ability to connect to the internet. Finally, to get “all this,” you’ll have to pay a little more than half the price of a bargain Netbook. No, you haven’t just accidentally stumbled on a review from the Gear Diary Archives. This amazing little piece of retro tech is…

News & Features

Random Cool Video – ‘Balloon Accelerator’ Made From Dyson Bladeless Fans

If you have ever used any of the products by British inventor James Dyson (who also does his own commercials), you know they are pretty cool. At Gear Diary we are all about technology that is cool, so this video immediately grabbed our attention. The image at the top shows how the fan technology works in terms of the mechanics, and the image below shows the flow-front produced. The fan draws in random air from behind and pushes it out with 15x the force in a nicely focused beam. Using the focused draw and push of the fan design, folks…

News & Features

Sandisk Takes Us Back to the Future with WORM SD Media

You know you are of a certain age if the acronym WORM immediately evokes CD-R in your brain. WORM stands for ‘Write Once Ready Many times’. In the early days of commercially available recordable CD media the drives were used as back-up devices competitive with 8mm DAT. Consumer systems lost the WORM name and became CD-R in around 1990, with the first rewritable CD-RW systems only introduced in 1997 and commercially viable in 1999! Since then every sort of Flash memory storage has been rewritable to the point where it is hard to even think about a ‘write once’ architecture….

Reviews

7Pipe Pro Review: A Pipe for the Self-Contained Medicinal Smoker

When I was first contacted by 7pipe about reviewing one of their products, I sent an email out to the Gear Diary team asking if any of them could use it; I asked if this might be a product they would be interested in. I’ll admit that I was a bit surprised when no one responded affirmatively. Because I thought the 7pipe to be an interesting piece of engineering, I figured I might as well take a look at it myself. I am not going to call this a full review, because I didn’t actually load the bowl and use…

Reviews

Battizer Review: Charges your Batteries and Helps Save the Planet

If you’re like me and never replace your batteries until it’s too late, then this product might be for you. If you have kids, lots of remotes, RC cars or anything that takes AAA and AA batteries, then the Battizer could prove to be a great investment. My home theater remotes, thermostat batteries, and Wii controllers are the items which to die at the most inconvenient times., so instead of saving money by going to the Costco, Sam’s Club or BJ’s and buying a bulk pack of AAs, I usually run to the convenience store and spend $6 on a…

Reviews

Review: Keurig Elite Brewing System

As a geek and blogger, staying caffeinated is a specialty of mine. One of my favorite things in the morning is coffee. However, I am the only coffee drinker in my house. Making a whole 10 cups when I am only going to drink 1 to 2 cups doesn’t make sense. That’s where single cup brewing systems come in. I used to have a Black and Decker Home Cafe, but finding the pods it used started to become a problem. I had heard of Keurig and my friend Linc swears by his so I decided to use some eBay sale proceeds to buy my…

News & Features

If You Need a Breathalyzer on Your Keyring, It Probably Means You Shouldn’t Be Driving (DUH!)

Judie: I have personally always thought that unless you were buying something like this as a joke, buying a breathalyzer — especially an $11.50 one for your keyring — means you are already going to be drinking too damn much, and someone else needs to drive. 😛 Carly: Agreed…plus Wired did an awesome article on these a month or two ago. Essentially the cheap ones vary so much they are useless. Now that would be a fun chat with a cop. “Honestly, Ocifer, my breathalyzer said I was ooooooookay….!” Judie: Right! I mean, I could see some sleaze at the…