Amazon has this Lenmar 5V 3.8 Wh AnyWhere charger for only $6 (with free shipping if you’re an Amazon Prime member – as you should be). This charger is strictly for emergency use. Re-charge it via your USB port (expect this to be an overnight process) and it will give you an added re-charge when you most need it. The tips included claim to power iPhone/Touch and BlackBerry. I haven’t tested this particular brand so YMMV on how it works in the field. The Amazon comments are a little mixed with most saying it takes a long time to re-charge the battery and a short time to discharge when connected to your phone. I can however recommend a better solution that will… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Your Mileage My Vary (YMMV) on whether this deal goes through. Dell has the UNLOCKED Quad Band (850/900/1800/1900 – UMTS) /Nokia N85 for a paltry $59.99. By comparison, Amazon’s price is $429.99 for this same model. Unfortunately Dell shows this out of stock with a 6 week weight. Pricing error? Probably. Worth a shot. Since the specifications show this as unlocked (with no contract requirement) you can use this phone on any compatible GSM carrier. In the US that means T-Mobile or AT&T. Nokia N85 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have been a fan of the ever shrinking computer since I was in college.  Laptops, netbooks, PDAs, my motto these days is small, compact, and light.  The whole time, however, there has been one thing the gnawed at the back of my brain…probably due to the numerous hand cramps I have gotten over the years.  There is just no good way to control the mouse.  This started with the eraser tip controller, which worked well enough, if you don’t mind rubbing against a tiny rubber nub in the middle of your keyboard (which was also prone to accidental swipes).  This “evolved” into the current method of control, the trackpad.  Oh how I hate the trackpad, rubbing my fingertips raw like a fingerprint eraser.  I would gladly pay for any netbook which eschewed this terrible torture device and gave me a more natural means of control.  Until then, Microsoft seems to think they can offer a better solution with their new portable mouse, the Arc Mouse. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The news is spreading all over the interweb about the Android Marketplace now going paid.   There are still a TON of free apps, but there are now a whole swath of games including Guitar Hero ($9.99).  Here’s a pic of my G1. In the Pic, we see Derek Jeter Pro Paseball for $4.99, BreakTheBlocks for $0.99, Block Breaker Deluxe for $3.99 and CSI:Miami for $4.99.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Fellow techno-geek Joel Evans of Geek.com has a cool video of Andoid’s new Cupcake.  Says Brother Evans, Last night we had a geek outing with our favorite hacker, Brian Jepson, who you may remember from our feature on Hacking the XO laptop. This time around Brian got a hold of a development G1 and hacked around with cupcake… You can see the rest of the article and the video here. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s an interesting little 5W mini amp that looks like it belongs on a night club stage. Makes a great gift and is powered by 3 AAA batteries. Sporting a 3.5″ mini-jack – you can hook just about any MP3 player to this without worrying about a pesky docking adapter. Works with your iPod, Zune, iPhone, iPod Touch. Doesn’t work with – electric guitars – or any other musical instrument. The mini-amp also includes adjustable Bass, Treble and Volume dials. Rock on! ThinkGeek Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Hey, it happens. You’re sitting to answer nature’s call and without warning or provocation the phone you thought was securely clipped to your hip goes for a swim. Sometimes you’re lucky and can fish it out of the water fast enough and there will be minimal damage. Other times you’re not so lucky and the water shuts your phone down – forever. Unless you’re signed up with an extended warranty company such as Squaretrade – you are out-of-luck because water damage is not covered under most carrier insurance plans (this is the first thing they check – and they know because for quite some time they carriers have used water sensitive labels hidden inside the phone to detect water damage). Luckily if you’re using a GSM carrier like AT&T or T-Mobile you have several good options for replacing the phone without paying the insane out-of-contract price that your carrier will ask. … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve been looking at a number of iPhone games lately.  Some of these games take excellent advantage of the iPhone hardware and some don’t.  Some are excellent ports of web games or Windows Mobile games, and some are not.  Killer Pool is a title unique to the iPhone, it’s not a port, so I would expect it to take good advantage of the iPhone hardware.  Let’s take a look in more detail…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Ever since I walked into an office while my client was two knuckles deep “cleaning his nose” — and then was offered his same hand to shake — I’ve been a little edgy about other people’s hygiene habits. There’s nothing wrong with using the sleeve on your coat to open doors. After all, similar to my client experience, how do you know where other people’s hands have been? And what’s worse than being trapped on an airline flight for hours with a bunch of hygiene challenged travelers? If you’re looking for a gift for the special germ phobic in your life – look no further – Flight 001 has the F1 Germ-Free Pak (carry-on approved) which includes: – anti-bacterial hand soap -… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So you’ve got one of those nifty new digital cameras – but no way to print the pictures? Sure you could take the memory card to your local pharmacy and quick print the photos – but then you’d have to pay. Why pay when various services gift you with free prints for becoming a member. Dealnews.com has this list of sites that together offer up to 1,645 free pictures just for signing up. Sure, you may have to pay shipping for some – but your priceless memories will be worth it! Snapfish – 50 free prints dotPhoto – 50 free prints CVS – 50 free prints PhotoMama – 50 free prints YorkPhoto – 50 free prints AdoramaPix – 50 free prints FujiFilm – 50 free prints PhotoWorks – 50 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Bubble Shuffle for iPhone or iPod Touch is a word game that’s fun for kids and adults. The object is to create as many words as you can from the letter bubbles. If you get stuck you can shuffle the screen to get re-arrange the letters (bubbles) and break up your “bubble block”. Start with 4 letters and work your way up to 7 letter words. There are 4 fun game modes – 2 timed and 2 untimed. This looks like a fun game for the whole family to enjoy. My kids especially enjoy creating words on their iPod Touch – and anything that takes the kids away from Disney TV is a good thing in my book! Astraware – Bubble Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Users living in the San Francisco CA area and logging into T-Mobile are reportedly being offered access to the new unlimited usage “test” plans. So far this appears largely limited to subscribers with 22 months of contract under their belts who live in the San Francisco area. Watch for this to roll out nationally soon (March 1 is the rumor) and my bet is that if it’s well received you’ll be able to get it by begging (whether you’re a 22 month customer or not). Watch out for the add-ons though – data is presently a $24.99 add-on. There are unlimited plans for both individuals and families. Come on T! — another $24.99 for pokey EDGE data? Your kidding, right? FW Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I graduated high school in 1982. During that era I remember Radio Shack being the dominant source for all things computer. Their TRS-80 line of computers were perhaps not the sleekest but my school had a dozen of them – including their awkward cassette tape storage drives that constantly corrupted data (talk about SLOW data transfer!). Then one day Radio Shack’s computer store announced they had a 15-megabyte hard drive for the TRS 80 for only $2,495 plus $495 for the installation kit. Expensive but it let users kiss the days of cassette tape downloads goodbye! What would Mr. Tandy say about prices for today’s storage where an entire 1 TB drive is 1/5th the cost of his “installation kit”?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Over the years, Arkon has produced some of the best device mounts I’ve ever had the pleasure to use, review and own.  They have always had mounting solutions available for GPS and PDA units, Smartphones, Satellite Radios and Portable Audio devices.  When the iPhone 3G was released in July of 2008, they got hard to work and pulled together mounting solutions for these devices as well. Recently, I was fortunate enough to receive mounts for the iPhone 3G and Touch 2G. Let’s take a quick look and see how they did… iPhone Frction Dash Mount (Model IPM112) Use of a device mount on your windshield is illegal in some states.  However, the use of a suction cup mounting system is still a good idea, and is, in my opinion, an effective way to secure a device in a moving vehicle.  In order to insure that the mounting system can still be used, but used off the windshield, Arkon has come up with a universal friction base that will hold the suction cup, windshield mount, but will prevent, or at least greatly reduce the possibility that the mount will move. The base has a foam rubber coating on it designed to [...]

Speakal is announcing availablity for a line of iBoo iPod docks in red, white and blue. The price is $89.99 and the dock includes numerous cradles to fit various iPod devices as well as a 3.5 mm input jack for those devices refusing to play nicely and sit in a cradle. There’s a remote control included and the iBoo can be controlled (volume and music navigation) by on board touch controls. The iBoo has rubber feet so as not to vibrate the table that it’s placed on. Is it me or do these remind you of the Pac Man video characters? Specifications: – 15 watts total output – 9 W Subwoofer – 3.5 mm audio input jack -… Continue reading on Gear Diary …