Misc Gear

Quirky Ham Radio Gadgets from Yesteryear: The Wouff Hong and the Rettysnitch

Well, the Wouff-Hong is not so much a gadget, but it has been a part of Ham Radio lore since 1930’s. What is a Wouff Hong? According to 1930 edition of The Radio Amateur’s Handbook: The Wouff-Hong is amateur radio’s most sacred symbol and stands for the enforcement of law and order in amateur operation. The story goes that T.O.M. ( The Old Man) wrote stories in the American Radio Relay League’s magazine, QST, titled Rotten Radio. It excoriated bad operating practices using caustic humor and satire. It was in one of these stories that the Wouff-Hong was born. It wasn’t…

News

The Good and Bad of HDMI Switching

This holiday season was the season my family finally made the jump to HD TV. I absolutely love HD TV, and I am really looking forward to watching NASCAR and actually being able to read the tickers! As result of getting the TV, I ended up receiving or giving products that needed an HDMI connection to the TV. We got an Xbox 360 for Luke and I, plus I was given a Roku 2 XS and a Blu-ray player for Christmas. One of the things on my Amazon list was a Kinivo HDMI switch as I knew right away I…

News

The Tricorder Could Be Just Around the Corner

I love Star Trek. One of the things I like the best about Star Trek is the gadgets, and the gadget I have always thought was the coolest was the Tricorder. There were, of course, two different Tricorders. One was used to look at items in the environment to get away teams the info they needed to find people, to discover other objects and more. The other is the Medical Tricorder that Dr. McCoy, Dr. Crusher and Dr. Bashir used to determine the extent of a red shirt’s injuries and other medical uses. Now the Xprize foundation, with the help…

News

APC Releases Rock and Paper Computers

The Raspberry Pi has been openly embraced by the hacker community for all sorts of projects. From roll your own set-top boxes to Amateur Radio uses, it’s become a fast favorite of the hacker community. Not to be outdone, APC has released two new computers that are sure to peak interest of the hacker community and anyone who wants a nice, simple computer without worry of viruses or other malware. The Rock computer is a board only device that runs a customized version of Android 4.0 that is designed to work with a keyboard and mouse. The Rock has a Via…

Gear Bits

Let MobileFun.co.uk Be Your One-Stop Mobile Accessory Stop

If you are looking for mobile accessories you have a host of options from which to choose. There are brick and mortar stores like Best Buy and there are online retailers like Amazon. One online retailer you might not think of first is MobileFun.co.uk. They recently reached out to us and challenged us to make a list of a few accessories we might need and then go shopping to see if their site offered the listed items. That’s exactly what we did and, as luck would have it, we found a plethora offerings in each and every category. I decided…

Events, News

Etón Proves Nature Is Pretty Darn Good at Empowering Innovative Technology!

Hurricane Sandy knocked out power for much of New Jersey, and at our house we lost power for about a week. Unfortunately, it was the same week we were scheduled to move out, so we found ourselves doing all the last minute packing in the dark. Luckily we weren’t totally on our own, as my handy Etón emergency radio kept us happy with music, a flashlight, and the chance to top off a smartphone once in a while. Basically, it was the first thing we grabbed when the power went out and the very last item we packed. So I was…

Gear Bits

Foldboat is a “Seamless Folding, Leisure Boat”

Remember taking a sheet of paper, folding it into the shape of a boat and seeing if it would float in the bathtub? Yeah, me either. I do, however, recall seeing origami masters create all kinds of three-dimensional items from flat sheets of paper. And yes, that did include boats. And yes, they did float… for a time. Now take the idea of a small origami boat, multiply it by a few thousand and make it out of a sheet of plastic rather than paper. The result? This flat-boat that folds up to create a real, three-dimensional vessel. Here’s what…

Health and Fitness

iHealth Brings Out Monitoring Tools for Your iBaby

My friends with kids all marvel at how instinctively their children grasp iOS. They seem to easily master the touch interface and love playing games. The folks at iBaby have a few ideas to get your child started early on integrating smartphones into their lives … even in utero! The HeartSense won’t be out for a few months, but the video monitors are available now. The price and features are in line with other video monitors, but being able to control and watch them on your iPhone brings the experience to a whole new level! It makes me wonder what’s…

News

The Leap Motion Controller Is a Tiny Gadget Poised to Change Computing

The Leap Motion Controller is small but powerful. It has yet to ship but, if it works as advertised, it will change computing forever. That’s not hyperbole. I mean, seriously, the Leap promises to let you scroll by simply waving your hands, use your finger as a gun while playing a first person shooter or draw by waving a pencil IN FRONT of the screen while never actually touching it… how cool is that? Sure, it looks and sounds a bit like Microsoft Kinect on speed, but that’s not a bad thing. Here’s how the company describes their invention. For…

Gear Bits

Adobe Creative Suite – Subscription vs. Retail

If you work in a creative industry, chances are you use software programs from Adobe’s extensive creative suite. The issue, of course, is that these applications are insanely expensive. Interested in image-manipulation through Photoshop CS6? MSRP will cost you $700 for that program alone. You can grab it off Amazon right now for $560, but that’s not exactly a bargain. What about Illustrator? Dreamweaver? After Effects? The list goes on and on. How can anyone possibly afford to keep a solid library of digital tools? Here’s the answer: Adobe Creative Cloud. Subscription services have been around for ages, but software-based…

Crowdfunding, Events, News

The Pebble Watch Press Conference

Are you one of the people who backed the Pebble watch on Kickstarter? Dan and I were, but unlike every other smartwatch that we have personally backed on the crowd funding site Kickstarter since the phenomenally successful Pebble was successfully funded, the Pebble still hasn’t shipped. We’ve been curious about the holdup; not alarmed, just curious. (Note: after the press conference we got an update with more info, scroll to the bottom to read!) So when I found out that they would be hosting a press conference at CES, I was completely interested — not only as a tech journalist…

Events, News

Boogie Board Introduces 2 New LCD eWriter Models at CES

You know about the Boogie Board, right? It’s basically an LCD notepad that can be reused as many times as you need. It’s great for leaving a note for your husband, wife, or the kids, or maybe jotting down a phone number at the office. I know I go through tons of little notepads that I keep next to my phone in my office just taking little notes. This saves all that paper, plus, all your friends or coworkers would be totally jealous of you. What’s really cool is that these babies use zero power. Zero. They use Reflex No…

Events, Travel

What’s Coming with Us to CES, the 2013 Edition

Every year we make the trek to Las Vegas, and every year we try to strike the perfect balance between the gear that we’ll need and a few extra things that will make our lives easier; the trick is to not forget anything vital or to too seriously overpack. Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we fail miserably. Here’s what’s coming along this time … Judie: I’ve been going to CES since 2002, and you would think that by now I’d have a perfect kit prepared … but technology keeps changing, and so does my gear. I think I…

News

Wilson Electronics’ New Sleek 4G Signal Booster Will Keep Your Connection Solid

If you are on the road a lot, then you know all about what it’s like to have your cellular signal act in a less than reliable manner. Watching your 4G/LTE signal drop down to zilch, then slide over to EDGE, 3G and then ultimately climb back to 4G — depending upon where you area, even though the areas are shown to have 4G coverage — is just part of using a mobile phone these days. . The same thing can happen when you are in a car, truck, boat, or any other moving vehicle. One way to combat this…

News

Mobile Fun Samsung Galaxy S III Extended Battery Kit

If you have a smartphone other than one of the Droid Maxx devices, chances are you wish it had better battery life. And as they get more and more powerful we do more and more – so any gains in power efficiency are lost by greater usage! There are battery cases available that fully cover your device and change the appearance and certain enhance the size and weight. But what MobileFun is offering is a replacement battery that adds nearly 50% to your battery capacity (from 2100mAh to 3000mAh) yet only increases the thickness by attaching directly as a replacement…

Crowdfunding, Gear Bits

Whooz? Are a Huge Hit at My House

On Christmas morning, as packages from under the tree were divided into piles and then opened, I got what would turn out to be one of my biggest Christmas surprises: the best gift was something I had stuck into the girls’ new Jon Hart bags, almost as an afterthought — Whooz iPhone and iPad Character Sets! Kev’s youngest daughter stopped everything to start installing a set on her iPad charger, and Kev’s oldest daughter was right there with her. Let me back up for just a moment. Everyone in my house has an iPhone or an iPad (or both), and…

Gear Bits, How to Do It Yourself!

Raspberry Pi Hacked to Allow Siri to Open Your Garage Door

What a world we live in – We now have computers that fit in our pockets, gorgeous televisions that are 1″ thick, and a dude who skydived from the edge of space. Continuing along that vein, now you can program your credit card sized computer, otherwise known as the Raspberry Pi, to open your garage door for you using Siri’s voice commands on your iPhone. Seriously. RaspberryPi.org forum user “DarkTherapy” was able to code his Raspberry Pi saying he used “SiriProxy running on the Raspberry Pi, along with wiring Pi to access the Pi’s GPIO pins and turn a relay…

Reviews, Yum Log

Baker’s Math Kitchen Scale – KD8000 – Unleash Your Inner Alton Brown Again

I’ve often said (including here on Gear Diary, I think), that in the kitchen you’re either an Alton or a Mario. “Altons” refer to Alton Brown, the Mr. Wizard of the Food Network who combines science and math with recipes to teach you how to cook and why precision is important. I’m an Alton. “Marios” are more like Mario Batali, cooks who throw in a dash of this and a sprinkle of that and never measure anything. My girlfriend is a Mario. Well, maybe she’s more of a Maria… These two archetypes can work well together in a kitchen, as…

Gear Bits

Set Top Boxes, a Gear Chat

Over the years writing for Gear Diary, we often have chats behind the scenes about all sorts of issues. Some are private and will never see the light of day, but many times what is said ends up in a long string of comments that would make a great post. This one all started by a gift I received from a friend — a brand new Roku 2 XS — which I love a lot. I posted in our back channel about it, and off we went. Joel: Received a Roku 2 XS from a friend of mine. Best thing ever. First…

Editorials

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Regarding FedEx Smartpost and UPS Surepost

If you have ever bought something on the internet that didn’t ship solely via USPS, then using either FedEx Smartpost or UPS Surepost was likely an option; they are both shipping options that use the United States Postal Service for the final leg. In other words, UPS or FedEx will deliver the packages to your local Post Office, and the Postal Service will handle the actual delivery. The concept sounds good, but in practice it can be anything but. The Good For the e-tailers, it’s a really good deal. They setup the contract with UPS or FedEx, and they get…

Gear Bits, Outdoors

Caching in on Fun

Has anyone ever told you to go take a hike? Have you considered actually doing it? Do you enjoy scavenger hunts? If you answered yes to these questions, then geocaching is for you! Geocaching is a scavenger hunt appropriate for adults or anyone who can follow a GPS. The basic premise is that somewhere out in the woods, someone hid a treasure chest (or geocache), and in that chest is a collection of random goods including anything ranging from a heart necklace to a plastic stegosaurus. The GPS coordinates will help you get to the area, and then it’s your…

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