It started out as a quick joke yesterday morning. I had seen Engadget’s post that the Palm Pre could be had for just $80. Coming so soon after  the release of the Pixi (and its discounted price), it struck me that with such rapid and steep discounts the writing is more clearly on the wall than ever.

So I sent around this image…

It got the team talking.

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I really liked the Flint Striker from Coghlan’s I reviewed in September.  It works really well but sometimes you need a little more.  The Magnesium Firestarter from Coghlan’s not only gets the spark you need, but also provides you some tinder that burns a little hotter than dryer lint. Continue Reading

More and more of our digital lives is left sitting on our computers. As a result we need a better way to access it. Seagate has that covered with a system that is not only simple to use but simple to set up as well. It consists of three parts. The first is Seagate’s FreeAgent Go portable hard drive. (You can use any USB hard drive but the system is designed for the FreeAgent Go). The second is the FreeAgent DockStar that incorporates a PogoPlug for anywhere access to your data. The third, if you are an iPhone or iPod touch user, is the PogoPlug iPhone app. The three work seamlessly to let you access all your content no matter where you are. So long as you have a data connection, that is.

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Netbooks are tiny.  Finding a stylish netbook case is difficult.  You can generally find sleeves and some smaller bags but sleeves generally fit your netbook a bit tight to fit the power cord too.   If you want a mouse or a few other accessories, you can forget taking just a sleeve. Bolt Bags aims to change this with their new netbook line. Continue Reading

If there’s one thing the Gear Diary editors have in common it’s their love for the Mophie Juice Pack Air.  At a recent get together in NYC Dan took notice that of all the gadget items the group had with them the Juice Pack Air was the one constant among them.

The Juice Pack Air, which had previously been available in White, Black and Purple is getting a color upgrade.

Just in time for the holiday season the extended batter/case hybrid, for the iPhone 3G and 3Gs, will soon be available in a soft touch red metallic.

The battery remains $79.95 and according to the Mophie web site it had been scheduled to begin shipping on 11/30 but it looks like it might be ready a bit early.

Also, a little birdie told me today that some have already begun appearing in Apple retail stores.

The red color can be ordered here.

I spent a year during college living abroad. There were four phones to which we had access and they were in a bomb shelter in the building’s basement. If we wanted to make a call we needed to first stand in line… and wait and wait. When our turn finally came we would then hold our breath and hope the call went through. It was always hit or miss.  And… tf the call did go through (“IF” not “WHEN”) it was always questionable whether or not you would be able to actually understand the person to whom you were speaking. The connection was THAT BAD.

Perhaps that was why last night’s “tech encounter of a familiar kind” made me take pause.

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Have you ever thought of using your Windows Phone as a motion detector? Well, look no further! VIO, a motion detector application for Windows Mobile, is your companion. VIO uses the phone’s camera to capture and detect any motion.

The comparison is done by analyzing pictures square by square. The size of the squares can be defined from VIO, it will allow you to adapt the sensitivity as you wish. When motion is detected, VIO will do one of these 2 things:-

• Send emails containing pictures to the email address you defined
• Send SMS to alert you anywhere

Features:-

• Detect any motion
• Automatically save pictures
• Send emails with pictures included
• Send SMS alert
• Set detection sensibility
• Compatible from Windows Mobile 5.0 to 6.5
• Compatible with 320×240, 640×480, 400×800 resolutions
• Need NET Compact Framework 3.5

Try the FREE 7 day time limited trial here.

Most would argue that the iPhone is the best smartphone out on the market today. I have disagreed in the past, however, my perspective recently changed…

I have loved the iPhone since it first came out, but have been bothered by its lack of “advanced features”. You know the list of complaints. No copy and paste (until recently). No multitasking (still). No MMS. Multitasking specifically is a big gap in the iPhone’s capabilities in my mind.

But that all seems moot to me now.

You see, I was on a trip overseas to visit my wife’s family. Her sister wanted to get an iPhone, mainly due to the buzz about it. She had never owned anything other than a feature phone, and even those were very light on features. Watching her interact with the iPhone for the first few days really changed my perception of why the iPhone’s “simplistic” interface is one of its greatest strengths. Continue Reading

(image courtesy of apple.com)

Yesterday Businessweek reported that Sony plans to open an iTunes-style store, showcasing their eBook, music and movie libraries. While certainly newsworthy all by itself, this news marks something bigger that is changing in technology today; hardware doesn’t matter anymore. Continue Reading

Most of you are probably familiar with Zagg and their uber-popular protective skin called the “Invisible Shield”.  Dan reviewed one for the  iPhone here.

I for one have really been looking forward to the release of the company’s new product, Zagg Skins and today’s the day.

Zagg Skins combine the toughness of the Invisible Shield with high resolution graphics which is sure to result in one of the best choices for protective skins on the market.  You can choose from a variety of pre-desgined skins or upload your own photo or image and create your own.

The skins are offered for the iPhone, Palm Pre, Blackberry Tour, Blackberry Curve, laptops with more being added all the time.

Each skin sells for $19.99 and comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.  If you opt for more than one you’ll even get free shipping.

You can buy the Zagg Skins here.

^{(Any resemblance to author purely coincidental)}

Just yesterday, I was staring at the lights that are draped all over my rooftop, twirled around my trees and, depressingly, dragging on the ground, and thinking to myself, “Self, I just know those strings of lights don’t work.”  A few bulbs are probably busted, and so the whole thing won’t work.  That’s the way it is with strings o’ lights, yeah?

Well, a group of friendly midWesterners got sick of that problem and decided to do something about it.  And so they came up with a product to actually fix those strings of lights, called it LightKeeper Pro, and now you can buy it and fix your strings of lights.

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It looks like Twitter has finally finished rolling out it Retweet functionally to everyone.  But did you know you could do this vis SMS?

If you  send “RT USERNAME” to 40404 (at least in the U.S.) it will automatically retweet the last tweet of whatever username you entered has sent to Twitter.  Not too shabby, especially for those of us with unlimited texting capabilities.

Thanks Tech Crunch for the news.

Last week, the big news was that several universities decided not to support the Kindle (or similar e-readers, presumably) because they are not accessible or friendly to blind and visually impaired students. Intel has stepped up this week though with an innovative device to help those with visual impairments read and hear the written word easier! Continue Reading

Sony has seen no end of bad press since just after they confirmed the early leak of the PSP Go. There was the lack of a second analog stick, the high price, the lack of clarity on what happened to UMD libraries, the price, and so on. But now the system has been released, and I’ve had it in my hands for several weeks and been able to evaluate the reality of things compared to the hype. So how does it measure up? Read on and find out.

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It’s hard enough for developers to build apps and make money with the iPhone due to very low prices that the fierce competition has caused.  A large percentage of apps cost 99 cents, and 20% of that goes to Apple.

The saving grace is the huge number of iPhones in the market and the fairly well organized and promoted App Store.

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