Some people are just born lucky. Take John Hyde from Tipton Tennessee . He was minding his own business at the dump when suddenly and without warning his BlackBerry 8830 fell off his belt. He didn’t notice until he was home. By then he figured all was lost and he’d be stuck kicking in the $150 deductible for another phone. Imagine his surprise when he goes back to the dump and finds the BlackBerry (still working) had been deeply embedded into the mud by the weight of a 50,000 pound tractor. Turns out the damn thing was still working. Figuring this was his lucky day he heads to the casino where he promptly loses $150. Moral of the story? Don’t BlackBerry and Blackjack… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There have been two activities that have become the norm across the world of technology blogging in the last couple of years: unboxing, and loading Mac OS X onto netbooks. As a person who is lucky enough to have the opportunity to play with lots of phones, notebooks and other “unboxable” items, I’ve done the former a fair bit, and as an owner of a MacBook Pro for the past few years, I can understand peoples need to load OS X onto any device with an x86 processor. Another trend that’s come up in the last month or so is loading up Windows 7 onto netbooks, since it is aiming to be a leaner, meaner version of Windows that Vista should have been. After dabbling with XP and absolutely loving the speed boost it offered over Vista on the Shift’s frankly pathetic 800Mhz processor and 1GB RAM, I decided to give Windows 7 a chance. After imaging my XP install (since it was working perfectly, I didn’t want to have to set it up all over again if I wanted to return), I connected up my USB DVD drive and began the install.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There are many reasons to like the Nokia N85, but the one thing that has blown my hair back and made me truly appreciate this talented little device is something I had never before seen in a mobile phone…an FM transmitter*. And not just any weak wannabe transmitter, I’m talking about one that is just as strong – and allows the music to sound just as rich – as the dedicated transmitter on my Sirius box does.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Traverse, the name chosen for General Motor’s latest new people mover, refers to the verb and not the city in upstate Michigan where many of these vehicles will undoubtedly be headed each summer.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

About 2 months ago, I reviewed the Samsung Epix for Gear Diary.  At the time, I really liked the device. I still do, but the romance is starting to wane a bit.  Here’s why… I am having a really weird experience with the device.  Every so often, the sound will completely cut out, regardless of what the volume level is set at, be they loud, medium, soft, vibrate or completely off.  When this happens, I’ve also noticed that the device won’t turn on when the power button is pressed.  It stops to think about turning on, and then maybe, just maybe the LCD will turn on and I will be able to use the device.  Everything, well…almost everything works.  When the sound is out, the sound… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

On a whim I ordered this Febreze Odor Removal Appliance from Amazon for $22. My kitchen always has this “interesting” assortment of (burnt) smells and I was hopeful that the Febreze would do more than pump out a scent to mask odors.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Amazon Kindle is now available for iPhone. No real advance notice in this one other than the slides that Amazon used during the Kindle 2 press conference indicating that the ebook reader would be available on other mobile devices. I set it up on my iPhone in under 30 seconds. Downloaded a book from my library (you cannot purchase books via iPhone) in another 30. Was reading away in under 1.5 minutes. So far as I can tell you are unable to download any subscription items (magazines, newspapers, blogs). There’s also no “pinch zoom” – if you need to re-size fonts you’ll have to select from one of several pre-set layouts. I find it a bit freakish to have to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Apple Store is down. That generally means two things: 1. There will be new products/updated products (iMac, Mac mini, Time Capsule, Airport Express seem to be leading rumor candidates) 2. The older versions of the products getting an update will often enjoy great discounts in the refurbished area of Apple’s online store. I’m guessing this is why 1 TB Time Capsule is marked down to $388 via Amazon as we reported on February 28. Apple Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve read where people describe the Livescribe pen as Tivo for the written word. If you are someone who takes a lot of handwritten notes – you will want a Livescribe pen. This pen computer remembers what you’ve written, records the audio and uploads both (audio and writing) to your computer and to Livescribe’s web site for (optional) sharing. One of the ways I’ve used Livescribe is to record school conferences and events. When one parent cannot attend having a “Livescribed copy” of the event allows them to review a full copy of what was said (as well as read your notes). And since everything is digital – there’s no notes to photocopy – simply email a link to your notes/audio… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

BlackBerry Storm touch screen support, ability to add events and tasks from an email and Outlook sync via USB are but a few of the enhancements that have been added to Pocket Informant version 1.5 for BlackBerry. Today we are announcing version 1.5 with some major improvements all around. First up is full BlackBerry Storm support with toolbars, touch screen gestures (swipe the months to move between them) and many other Storm specific user interface features. This interface was drafted by our interface experts and then polished by our private and public beta testers over three months and we hope you enjoy it. Next we’ve added Direct USB Outlook Sync to Pocket Informant so that all the extra fields that Pocket Informant Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The brand new U2 album No Line On The Horizon is out today. In what’s surely some type of marketing test, the full non-DRM version is available at Amazon for the unbelievable price of $3.99 (iTunes offers a $9.99 and $17.99 deluxe version). This is the full 11 song album $6 cheaper than what iTunes is asking. Consider this either a realization by a band that their album is advertising for selling their live shows or a loss leader deal by Amazon to stick it to iTunes. U2 – No Line On The Horizon – $3.99… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Above is my calendar for the week displayed as wallpaper on my iPhone. It’s a great reminder of the events (the next 5 are shown) I have scheduled and all the data was read in directly from my Google Calendar (which is what I use exclusively) and combined with an image of my choosing to create the wallpaper.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

According a new report today, the much awaited but never held Palm Pre is going to take some more time to come to market. The Palm Pre, announced at CES to much drooling but no hands on opportunities, may yet go down in history as the phone that either saved or sank two companies simultaneously. There’s a ton riding on the new webOS platform for both Palm (who desperately need a hit phone to replace the aged Treo line) and Sprint (who are bleeding subscribers). In my book delays are usually not a positive sign. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is quoted as saying that Sprint wants to make sure they can have production ramped up to a reasonable level before launching the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’m one of those people who can’t make a straight cut for anything. These laser guided scissors are affordable (only $15) and guarantee that you’ll at least have a straight line to follow. Useful for cutting all types of things where you may not want to use a ruler and make a mark to draw your own line. The blade is about 3.5″ long and the laser runs on 2 included LR44 batteries. Perfect gift for the professional gift wrapper who has everything! Laser Guided Scissors Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Hawking has been around a while, and while most laptops have built in WiFi, they may not have Draft N or 802.11N.  You may also have a desktop without WiFi that you want a Internet connection on without using Ethernet; this may fit the bill. Continue reading on Gear Diary …