Smartphones & Gear

MiPow Power Cube 8000M Backup Battery Review

In today’s world of power-sucking mobile devices carrying a backup battery is a must. A reliable, quality battery that will safely charge your devices is important. In fact, that’s the most important feature in a backup battery. But as the MiPow SP8000 proves, having a good quality battery doesn’t mean you need to compromise on style. The battery looks good, offers amazing capacity, has convenient features and has internal circuitry to protect the devices connected to it. It is currently Judie’s and my backup battery of choice. Let’s take a look. There are three styles of the SP8000 currently available. One…

Crowdfunding, News & Features

GCW Zero – Open Source Gaming Handheld

Have you ever looked at the Playstation Vita or Nintendo 3DS and thought that they look great, but you would rather have a handheld gaming system that ran inexpensive open-source games but had physical control buttons? That is the concept behind the GCW-Zero: Open Source Gaming Handheld. Project Title: GCW-Zero: Open Source Gaming Handheld Status: Active Closing Date for Funding: 1/28/2013 URL of the Project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gcw/gcw-zero-open-source-gaming-handheld

Events, News & Features

Cygnett Cases Shows off Their Booth at CES 2013

We love Cygnett Cases at Gear Diary. They offer a tremendous number of unique styles in a variety of price ranges, and it’s always a treat to see their newest designs. While at CES 2013, we were lucky enough to swing by their booth and get a tour of the highlights on deck for 2013! Some of the graffiti-inspired cases were especially cool looking. I like a case with a pop of color, and having that sort of unusual artwork really makes the cases stand out! You can browse all of Cygnett’s various offerings on their website. Let us know…

Events

Luvvitt Booth Tour at CES 2013

You may not know the name Luvvitt, but you should. They make affordable, attractive iPhone, iPad, and Samsung cases, plus they’ve branched out into Bluetooth keyboards for the iPad and iPad Mini. I’ve used their Dolce back cover for my iPad 3, and even though I have tested other cases I always come back to the Luvvitt for its simplicity, durability, and style. So when I was walking the floor at CES and saw their booth, I had to stop by and learn more about them — and I am thrilled I did! Their cases are stylish and affordable, and…

Editorials, Events

Accessories at CES Illustrate Only Apple and Samsung Matter

I had the privilege of walking the CES floor and trying hard to cover as much as I could for Gear Diary this past week. It was, as you can imagine, absolutely geek heaven. I can’t even count how many smartphone accessories I saw this week, but one common thread stood out among the many mixed styles: if you want a nice case for your phone, buy an iPhone, a Samsung Galaxy S3, or a Note 2. Otherwise, you probably won’t see much case love. Now, seeing iPhone cases everywhere isn’t a big surprise at all. But all week I…

Events

Boost Your Smartphone Volume With Smartsound Case

Company: SmartSound Case Products on Display: Cases for the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy Note that have a kickstand that doubles as a channel to naturally amplify sounds without needing a separate powered speaker. Also includes a reflective flash ring for brighter photos. What Caught Our Eye: The cases were very light, and the combination of sound channel and kickstand makes the phones very stable while on display. It was too noisy to test the sound quality, but the build and style looked great!

Editorials

The Case for New Smartphones Cases

Every year over the holidays millions of smartphones are bought and activated, with this year seeing a record of more than 17 million devices in the US alone. And for way too many folks, those devices have a very short life due to damage from being dropped. Because while the devices are much tougher than in the past, they remain fragile. When you get your awesome new iPhone or Android smartphone, the LAST thing you want is for it to end up looking like my old Droid 4. That was awful – and totally avoidable. I had lost my running…

Events, Music Diary, News & Features

Android Mobile Musicians Rejoice – IK Multimedia Accessories Now Work on Android!

IK Multimedia is coming to Android full force this year at CES! Having just announced iRig Recorder for Android, they have opened the possibilities for mobile music-making on the platform. But just having an app isn’t good enough, you need ways to get your music into the app – so now IK Multimedia has announced the compatibility of several of their accessories with Android and iRig Recorder, including the iRig MIC, iRig MIC Cast, and iRig PRE. All of those products will work well in tandem with the just announced iRig Recorder for Android, the easy-to-use recording and editing IK Multimedia app. A couple…

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Events, Reviews

Scansnap iX500 Scanner Review, the Best ScanSnap Scanner Yet

Scansnap’s scanners have been a mainstay of my move toward a paperless life. They have also played a huge role in my digitizing much of my rabbinic library. I wrote about it here and here and here. The hardware is always top-notch and the software integrates with the hardware to create an excellent and seamless workflow. And while I have enjoyed using the mobile scanners I’ve reviewed it has been the desktop versions of the device that have truly been a huge help to me as I have continued to convert my documents and library into electronic formats. The company…

News & Features

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…

Gear Bits

How to Keep Your New Gear Looking Great

It’s 2013, and the year is off to a running start. No doubt someone in your home received some new gear over the holidays. And regardless of the brand all the gadgets have one thing in common — they need to be protected. This is especially so in 2013, when mobility is the name of the game. Think about it, a desktop computer that sits at home or in your office runs minimal risk of physical damage unless a natural disaster or a disastrous pet come into the picture. A laptop however, something that is specifically designed to be carried and…

News & Features

Canonical Outs New Ubuntu for Phones

The New Year has barely begun, but there’s something BIG going on at Ubuntu’s parent company, Canonical! Today Canonical has announced a version of Ubuntu for Mobile phones. According to Canonical, Ubuntu for Mobile Phones should have this on hardware to demonstrate at CES 2013. Canonical says that the SDK has everything developers need. The interface certainly looks nice, but they have not announced hardware vendors or carriers yet. A phone OS without hardware is pretty useless. They say they are in talks, but they said that when they outed Ubuntu TV at CES last year, and there STILL isn’t a hardware vendor…

Reviews

AT&T LG Optimus G Android Phone Review

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Android for some time; I’m not sure exactly when it started, but I think that it was around the time that I realized that just because an app was available, it didn’t mean I could necessarily install it on my phone. Lockdowns by carriers and various hardware limitations made Android apps non-universal across the platform, and that was a hard concept for me to accept. The very nature of Android being an open platform meant that the OS could be made to run on some rather unimpressive hardware, but it didn’t always run smoothly or offer a…

Reviews

Mophie Juice Pack Pro for iPhone 4/S Review

Tough on your iPhone 4/S? Prone to drops and breaks, and your slim case just isn’t cutting it? Want longer power for your iPhone? If you said yes to any of these questions, you might want to consider taking a gander at the Mophie Juice Pack Pro. Designed to exceed the U.S. military’s MIL-STD 810G specifications, barring any full submersion in liquid, the Mophie Juice Pack Pro will keep your iPhone safe and secure under most conditions. While lacking complete immersion protection, the case will protect your device from rain and splashes, sand and dust, vibration and shocks, as well as drops…

Reviews

Save Money on Talk, Text, and Data in 2012 with Republic Wireless

From now until 2013, we’re going to take a look at some New Year’s Resolutions and a Gear Diary way to help you keep them. First up… New Year Resolution: Spend Less on Cellular in 2013 republic wireless offers one single handset. If you want more choices you need to go somewhere else. republic wireless offers a handset with just a 3.7″ screen. If you want something larger go somewhere else. republic wireless offers a handset running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. If you want something newer go somewhere else. While it might seem that republic wireless is the worst cellular option…

News & Features

US Cellular Samsung Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean Update Now Available

When the Samsung Galaxy S3 arrived it had Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as the operating system. Since the release, Android Jelly Bean 4.1 launched with the Nexus 7, and more recently 4.2 Jelly Bean also arrived. While Ice Cream Sandwich had loads of great features, Jelly Bean was a smaller update – but what it brought were refinements and loads of under-the-hood updates that once used become essential. Over the last month all of the US carriers have rolled out Jelly Bean 4.1 for the Galaxy S3 … and as of yesterday US Cellular has the update available as…

Events, Reviews

Just Mobile Gum Max Backup Battery Review

In the first post of this two-part series, we looked at the Just Mobile Gum Plus backup battery. (Read the review, here.) It provides 5200 mAh of battery life and lets you charge your iPhone a number of times. The Gum Plus is small and light enough for you to easily throw the battery into your gadget bag and carry it all the time. But what if you REALLY need extra battery life? What if you have an iPhone and an iPad you need to keep charged? What if you can’t be sure you’ll be near an outlet at all…

Reviews

Just Mobile Gum Plus Back Up Battery Review

One of the main challenges for those of us who attend CES, is making sure our mobile devices stay charged. Year after year we find that, half way through the day, we are scrambling to find somewhere to plug in and repower. Not. This. Year. No, this year is going to be different; this year we are going to carry enough backup batteries to easily make it through the day. (Yeah, I know we said that last year but, this year, we mean it.) I reached out to our friends at Just Mobile, and asked if they might be willing…

Events, Reviews

PowerStick+ Backup Battery with 4GB of storage and Gear Diary Branding Review

CES is coming up quickly, and we’re making lists of the gear we’ll be bringing. When PowerStick reached out and told us about some of their upcoming products, we knew we wanted to spend some time with them in Las Vegas. And when they offered to brand a couple of their PowerStick+ backup batteries with the Gear Diary logo … well, that was an offer we couldn’t refuse. After all, the PowerStick+ packs in a 2300mAh battery AND 4, 8 or 16GB of storage into a small package that easily slips into a pocket or gear bag. Let’s take a look….

Editorials

Rapidly Advancing Smartphone Technology Makes It Hard to Go Back

Early this year I got the Motorola Droid 4 for Verizon (on release day no less), and I joined the 4G/LTE revolution. At first it was underwhelming since the 4G coverage in our area was ‘spotty’ at best, and non-existent for the most part. But within a couple of months, Verizon had added a new 4G zone to our area and expanded coverage in the existing zone. It was awesome! So for the next few months I enjoyed fast data speeds — and the zippy performance — of the Droid 4. It was apparent that the phone itself thrived on…

Reviews

Sena Lusio Case for Samsung Galaxy S III Review

As I mentioned in my review, the Samsung Galaxy SIII is a sleek and slim device and it would be a shame to wrap it up in a bulky case. Well, apparently the folks at Sena feel the same way, since the new Lusio is a thin leather case for the Galaxy SIII that offers stylish protection. Let’s look in more detail! The Hype: The Lusio stands out from the rest. This custom hand-sewn two-tone saddle-stitched design offers a personalized hand stitched look. •Hand-sewn two-tone saddle-stitched design •Soft velvet lining with light protective layer •Easy device access •Slim back credit…

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