Misc Gear

Epson’s Expression® Photo XP-850 Small-in-One™ Printer Introduced Today

It’s great to have today’s digital cameras, isn’t it? It used to be that we’d take pictures using film, and we’d have to hope that through a magical combination of our equipment’s quality and our picture-taking ability, the results would be worthwhile, because we were going to pay the same price for the good shots as we would for the bad. If you wanted copies of your photos, you had to pay a photo processing company to do them; the price for this could add up quickly! Now we can take all the pictures we want with our phones, digital cameras…


Garmin ForeRunner 10 GPS Watch Hands-On Review

I usually like to lead my reviews with an intro, give the company providing a product the chance to say something, and then dig in … but not this time, because the Garmin ForeRunner 10 is simply that easy to recommend. In fact, here are the only people I would NOT recommend getting the Garmin ForeRunner 10: You run races of more than 50 miles distance or 5 hours duration. You don’t like to sync/charge your GPS watch within 50-60 miles or 5-6 hours of use (or 7 ‘events’). You need to use a heart-rate monitor or other ANT+ wireless…


Chaval Outdoor Introduces Response-XRT Tech-Based Luxury Ski Gloves

We have now had three sub-30F mornings in the last two weeks … so I am thinking about my cold weather gear for running. Also, next month my younger son starts his annual ski team weekend jaunts, so again I am thinking gear. I have found that through the years maintaining finger warmth has become increasingly critical to my overall sense of comfort. By the coldest days I am often double-gloving in order to keep warm. But that was before; I am now running FOUR TIMES the distance and staying out twice as long. So I anticipate this year being…


iBike POWERHOUSE Complete Cycling Fitness Plan

Through the years, I’ve reviewed several devices for iPhones and iPods that purport to be sturdy protective mounts for bicycle usage. Keeping in mind that there are inherent dangers in listening to music while you’re cycling, especially if you have to worry about dangling headphone wires, it’s important to make sure that safety is your first concern. The iBike POWERHOUSE ensures both the safety of your iPhone and your body with its well-designed mount for the 3 and 4 series iPhones. (No luck for you early iPhone 5 adopters yet.) Add in a software solution for exercise and cycling technique…


KeyShark Takes a Bite Out of That Bottle

The other day I received a KeyShark from the folks at Cranky Monkee for a review here at Gear Diary. The timing was perfect, as it arrived just before for my annual U of I football tailgate. So, what is a KeyShark you ask? And what does it have to do with football tailgating? Well, I’m glad you asked. A KeyShark is a lightweight, but strong, bottle opener that is designed to fit on your keychain. I have to say, though, that when it first arrived I was a little skeptical. It’s pretty darn small and pretty darn lightweight. It was…


Liquid-Armor Invisible Nano-Coating Tech Screen Protector for Tablets and eReaders Review

all photos by Kevin Stanford Like many who ordered an iPhone 5 when they were first available, I didn’t have any kind of case, screen protector, or protective skin on hand when mine arrived. I did have a review sample of Dynaflo’s Liquid-Armor, however. Nano-coating tech? What’s that all about? I was ready to find out! Included in the package are one 0.33 ounce bottle of Liquid-Armor fluid, an 8″ x 8″ microfiber cloth, and a second, smaller (bonus) microfiber cloth The Dynaflo site says that the Liquid-Armor system – Provides scratch-resistant surface for normal wear and tear. – Screen…


SOUND+SLEEP Nomad Sound Machine Review

I tend to fall asleep with earphones in and soft music on. It works for me and helps me fall asleep fairly quickly. (The fact that I usually go to be quite late and get up fairly early doesn’t hurt either.) My wife Elana, on the other hand, has a tough time relaxing and an even tougher time falling asleep some nights. That’s why I was interested in getting a review sample of the SOUND+SLEEP Nomad Sound Machine. The nomad is the smaller of the company’s two sound machines and it is primarily intended for travel. (It works just fine…


The ’90s Live on … in My Attic

We have been cleaning out our attic, and found this piece of “once-cutting edge technology”. Yes, Sarah’s ruggedized CD player was her prized possession in the ’90’s…and while it was no doubt super-cool at the time, it’s amazing that we once carried these around happily. Even old school cassette players were less cumbersome! The next time a phone, or a rugged case, feels too big…just remember how big an old school portable CD player used to be…that will make your Otterbox Defender look downright svelte in comparison! We found some other cool stuff in our attic, including a Sega Genesis…


New iPhone? It Deserves a Bodyguardz

If you got a new iPhone today you know it is Apple’s best iPhone ever. you also know you are going to take it with you everywhere you go. That means it needs, and deserves, good protection. One of our favorite ways to protect iPhone (and laptops. iPads and Kindles and… you get the idea) come from Bodyguardz. Judie and I love their Armor series, and their screen protectors are pretty great too. Better still, starting in October they will be offering tempered glass protectors. The company is already shipping a number of options for iPhone 5 protection. You can…


iShower Bluetooth Water Resistant Speaker Review

I’m a guy who needs constant input. Whether it’s sport talk on the radio or music from Spotify while I’m working or a television droning in the background while I’m fixing supper, I always want something to entertain me. So the five minutes I spend in the shower every morning is problematic. I do have one of those old shower radios that had a television tuner as well so I could keep up with the Today Show while I completed my morning ablutions. But once digital tv pretty much killed over the air transmission, that eliminated the usefulness of that…


JetPens.com’s Kaweco AC Sport Carbon Fountain Pen Review

In a world obsessed with texting and emails, it’s so very refreshing for me to be able to put away my electronic devices and use something that doesn’t require electricity to convey thought. Oh there are No. 2 pencils, mass-produced and disposable pens galore that I’ve used over the course of my lifetime, but for me the ultimate tool for fine writing is the venerable fountain pen. Directly descended from the first simple cut reed pens and bird feather quills that gave way to metal tipped dip pens, reliable fountain pens began emerging in the mid-nineteenth century and became the…


SteriPEN, a Handy Tool in a Variety of Models for Water Purification on the Go

Quite a few years back when I was in high school, I enrolled in a “primitive” two-week hiking trip to the Smoky Mountains/Shining Rock Wilderness area with a group called Wilderness Southeast. It was quite an education for a young greenhorn like myself far from civilization…hiking boots, heavy backpacks and open to the elements (no tents), and no food except what we carried and rehydrated with water from mountain streams. Water…that was key, you see, because back in those days we used chlorine tablets to sterilize the water…and most of you who ever spent time in a swimming pool know…


Grove Makes Your Moleskine Pop

I’ll be flat-out honest about this: I like the idea of Moleskine notebooks, but I’ve never used one. Having a tried and true methodology for capturing information that becomes part of a personal tradition and eventually results in a shelf full of old notebooks representing one’s history over a number of years is so old school and so cool at the same time. (Well, that’s my old-fashioned opinion, anyway.) But the darn things are boring looking. I mean, plain black. No pizzazz. No pop. Grove, an iPhone and iPad accessory maker based in Portland, Oregon, has a solution for that….


In an Apple and Everything Else Funk

Lately I’ve been in a funk.  I thought, at first, it was an Apple funk.  I thought it might be about the fact that Apple today doesn’t seem to have the same excitement  and vision as it did under Steve Jobs.  I thought it might be about a sequence of products that is becoming very evolutionary instead of revolutionary.  I thought it was about Apple and where it might be heading. But it’s more than that.  It’s about where the mobile industry as a whole is heading.  It’s about what kinds of things we think are important (and it’s not…


Twelve South’s BackPack Shelf for iMac and Apple Displays Gets Refresh and Redesign

Twelve South’s very first Apple-only accessory was the BackPack Shelf for the iMac and pole Display. It is one of those small, unassuming accessories that you might not necessarily NEED, but you can’t do without once you start using it. Now they have gone and made three different enhancements to it. As they note, Three years after Twelve South released BackPack, its very first product, the company unveils an elevated new version of the tiny shelf with three major enhancements. Designed exclusively for iMacs and Apple Displays, BackPack now features vertical support pegs, built-in cable management rails and the option…


BodyGuardz Ultimate Protective Clear Skin for MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review

While I was waiting for my MacBook Pro with Retina display to show up, Dan was kind enough to loan me his 13″ MacBook Air. Once it had arrived, I found his Air inside a protective plastic shell … which I promptly removed. I did wonder for a few moments about whether or not I was taking a chance of having something happen to Dan’s laptop, but in the end I decided just to be extra careful, Sorry Dan! No tossing his Air in my bag next to the car keys, no laying it naked on the carpeted floor just behind the…


The ePool Smart System Swimming Pool Wireless Monitoring System Review

One of the things that makes living in West Texas bearable during the “hot months” — you know, mid-April to early September (when the temperatures consistently hover around 100º) — is having a pool or favorite watering hole that you can use to cool down in. We have a freestanding 30’x6′ concrete stock tank not far from our back door. While the primary function of this tank is to hold water which pipes to a trough our livestock drink from, we have also outfitted it with a regular pool filtration system so we can enjoy algae-free swimming; it’s pretty much awesome, and we…


“Sound Matters” As DTS Completes Acquisition of SRS Labs

Sound Matters! That was the central message offered by DTS CEO John Kirchner during a Press call on DTS completing the acquisition of SRS Labs. This deal paves the way to offer “best in class” audio solutions. As he put it, We are very well positioned through a combination of the technologies in pre and post-processing to deliver the solutions that our customers want and need. This positioning is especially true in the areas of mobile, connected TV and automotive audio as there are “significant opportunities to enhance audio in those areas”. It is difficult to get quality, convenience and…


Building a Simple Ham Radio Antenna without Soldering

One of the first things you might want to do after getting your Ham Radio License is talk on the radio.  However, there are many things you may have to do to get that done depending on what kind of radio you purchase. If you purchase a handheld radio, you likely already have an antenna included in the box.  These radios typically will have 2 m and 70 cm bands on them so the antenna is small enough that they usually include one right in the box.  Even my Yaesu VX-7R included an antenna that works on the 6 m…


USBFever Magnetic Lenses for the iPhone 4S (and other Smartphones) Review

I recently upgraded my camera to a Canon T3i from a Canon G11. The move from a point and shoot, albeit a good one, to a DSLR has been a long time coming and I am loving the process of learning how to use it. (Okay, to be honest, I’m also loving the opportunity to gather new accessories to use with it… that’s another series of posts.) In the past, I would use the G11 for product pictures and even for some video while my iPhone served as my “always with me” point and shoot. I briefly considered keeping the…


The Proporta Quillit Stylus Pen Review

Remember when we carried electronic organizers called PDAs? Remember how they all used a stylus, which is how you would enter information on their resistive touch screens? Remember how fingers weren’t used to tap out anything, because leaving finger grease on a screen was gross? Remember how using a screen protector was an absolute necessity, because if you used a cheaper stylus you could leave deep gouges in your device’s screen? My how things have changed. In 2007 we saw a shift occur with the introduction of the iPhone; it soon became de rigueur for every device to have a capacitive screen…