When I was at DigitalLife 2007 in NYC this summer, I looked around hoping to find a digital photo frame which supported WIFI. My goal was to find a frame with Internet connectivity that would auto-update itself by using photos contained in my Flickr account.

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At the same time that Gear Diary was approached to review the Johnny Lightning Battle Wheels, we were also invited to review the V_Bot. What is the V_Bot? Well, here is a clipping from the email describing it:

“V_Bot, the new high-tech hero, transforms from a sleek street vehicle into a giant robot loaded with action moves. This revolutionary RC toy captures kids’ imaginations with a giant robot that they can control, transform and drive. V_Bot even has a plug-in for an MP3 player.”

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I’m pretty sure that at this point there is not a single person who has not used a backpack or satchel. Generally speaking, you usually find yourself wishing you had more space. Then, later on you find yourself wishing you didn’t have more space, but instead find yourself wishing you didn’t have a bag that keeps trying to tear to shreds on you. Then, along comes Mojo. This bag is quite possibly the most durable bag I have ever seen, with the most space I have EVER seen in a satchel. Ever imagine a bag that has pockets inside of its pockets? You were imagining this bag.

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Bose bills their Tri-Port Acoustic Headphones as the “only in-ear headphones with the rich audio and comfortable fit not available from conventional designs“. I’ve been testing a pair in various locations - mainly while sitting still at home, on the elliptical machine at the gym and out walking around the neighborhood.

The headphones are not terribly expensive at $ 99. At least not by today’s standards. Are they worth the money? Continue Reading

Say Hello to the little Beast - The Pantech Duo

Overview

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With all the hub-bub around the new iPods and Zunes, I had been searching for something to make my older 60GB 5G iPod Video new and exciting again. I wanted something that would be fun, and bring some zip back to the device, and be way cool, especially since I wasn’t going to be buying a new iPod any time soon.  My 5G player is in decent shape and since I’ve been watching a lot of vide on it lately (more on that in a minute), I was looking for something that would make that experience a little better. Enter the myvu Solo Edition for iPod.  Let’s see if it gave me the better experience I was looking for…

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Sometimes, I need to have white noise playing in the background in order to be able to concentrate. This can take the form of music (CD, MP3’s etc), radio (Internet or other), or the TV. Sometimes, the simple sound of the air circulating in the room that I’m in can be deafening, and just too loud.  I need to fill the air with something other than, well… the air.

Recently here in Chicago, we had a very bad rainstorm come through. My sump pump decided to die the day AFTER the storm when a lot of the water absorbed by the ground decided to continue to run off.  My house is the last on the street, and a corner lot.  I am at the bottom of a slight incline, and I get run-off water from about 4-5 houses to the west of me.  During this past Spring, my sump pump kicked out about 5-10 gallons of water every 15-20 minutes…it ran ALL the time.

The day after this last storm, we got some water in our basement. Not a lot, but enough to ruin the carpet and to spur my wife and I to move my home office upstairs, out of the basement and into the “living room.”  So long 25″ TV in the basement…Hello….wall. Great. Just great…and with the start of the football season, I’m basically screwed, right?  WRONG!

Enter Hauppauge’s WinTV-HVR 950 Hybrid TV Stick!  The WinTV-HVR 950 models 1139 and 1136 (here on out, called the 950) are USB 2.0 devices. Its an analog AND HD-TV TV tuner that works with both Windows Vista and XP SP2 (Mac OSX users need to use model 01145, which includes Elgato’s EyeTV Lite, so you can watch and record analog and ATSC digital TV on your Mac.) I was given model 1139 to review.

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If money were no object, what would be your perfect laptop? What features would it have? What would it look like? This is the question you have to ask yourself when you’re buying a laptop like this one. Is the Toshiba Portégé R400-S4933 Tablet PC your perfect laptop? At the end of the review I have made a short video with my answer to this $4000 question.

To start of, it is quite a sleek and compact machine, weighing in at 1.7kg (3.79 lbs).

all photos taken by Jerry

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The Almighty Wallet: Homers since the 14th century has used wallets to carry all kinds of stuff. Granted, back then they were called knapsacks (we call them laptop bags these days). With the invention of paper currency in the 1600’s, billfolds became popular.

With the insatiable appetite for wads of currency preferable in rolled form, consumers embraced credit cards in a convenient stackable form. Wallets have become a staple for holiday gift giving and have changed little over the years, with the notable exception of the velcro wallet.

The nice folks at ALL-ETT have designed a clever way to handle the bulk riding shotgun on the gluteus maximus. Billed as the “World’s Thinnest Wallet” there are six different wallets to fit your needs.
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I never thought I would be one of those people that used a hand strap, but at some point over the last year, I decided that I really like having one. I’ve been using a little freebie strap that came with a PQI flash drive, but the WirelessGround USB Leather Hand Strap I was sent convinced me to try something new.

Why would I want to add a 7.5″ long x 0.3″ wide leather strap with a 0.6″ square near its end to my Mogul? Well…check it out!

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