Google has launched a brand new Gmail mobile web engine for the iPhone and Android devices. The change incorporates HTML5 and Google Gears for Mobile, which will allow you to access your Gmail and other gear-enabled applications offline (not that anyone ever loses their 3G data connection…right?…right? *cough*). Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There was much outcry when Apple unveiled their new unibody MacBook and the new Mini DisplayPort. There was even more of an outcry when it became clear that it included —High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). As MacWorld explained at the time- HDCP is a digital rights management (DRM) specification developed by Intel to help content providers protect their content across DVI and HDMI connections. Like other forms of DRM, HDCP will not allow content to be played on non-authorized devices. And because purchased content on the iTunes Store—protected by Apple’s FairPlay DRM—is HDCP-enabled, owners of new MacBooks are finding they can no longer play the TV shows and movies they’ve legally purchased from Apple on many external displays. In other words, unless your external monitor or television is HDCP compatible, you’re be stuck watching your purchased content only on your computer. As if that isn’t bad enough, a quick look at the Apple Store reveals that while (ridiculously expensive) Mini DisplayPort adapters are available for VGA and DVI, they haven’t released one that converts to HDMI and likely won’t. Fortunately 3rd Parties are releasing them. … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve always been interested in protecting my baby MacBook Pro, but I didn’t like the look of the plastic hard cases, and I used an elastic neoprene sleeve for a while. I then searched the internet again, in the hopes of finding a cover for my MacBook Pro that was protective, and at the same time stylish. However, all I could find were really variants of the plastic case model. Until I stumbled across Macally. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

What good would the week be without the good ole’ rumor mill churning with news of a new Blackberry.  The folks over at Slash Gear have got some news from a little birdie that “Blackberry Storm 2 due in September“. From their info it sounds like RIM has addressed one gripe of Storm owners, WiFi! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Does it annoy you that so many web site want you to create a unique login and password? Sure you can use the same login and password on every site – but that doesn’t seem too secure now, does it? Instead use RoboForm. This Password Manager for Windows accumulates your logins and passwords keeping them handy on your browser toolbar. The next time you navigate to a web page that requires a login RoboForm completes the login information automatically. There’s also a handy Identity Editor to hold all those annoying bits of information sites ask you for over and over (and over and over) again. Now instead of re-typing – click the identity button and all the info is pre-filled for… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Levenger sells an amazing array of high end stationery supplies. Their pads are thick paper that don’t rip in half as you remove a sheet and are so smooth they make writing (almost) a pleasure. Now through April 12, 2009 they have a huge variety of items marked way down. Their SoHo MicroFiber Organizer Bag ( $49 marked down from $148) looks like a great Mother’s Day gift for a Mom whose on the go and need some organization. If you have a smaller budget, pick up some of their great 3″ x 5″ pads for only $4.95 (marked down from $20). PS – Coupon code SPCHG1 takes another 20% off your order. Levenger 50% off sale Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Seesmic has just released a preview of their Seesmic Desktop. The program runs on top of Adobe Air and supports multiple Twitter accounts (Facebook support expected shortly). Additional features include support for multiple Twitter accounts, multiple column views, saved searches, grouped friend lists and an easier (and slicker) navigation bar. Missing features include lack of any trending topic screen to show popular keywords, lack of support for Friendfeed and an inability to automatically shorten URLS pasted into the message bar. Near as we can tell this will eventually be the replacement for Seesmic’s other Twitter client Twhirl. Comparatively this looks a lot like Nambu which is another Twitter client that I tried and found less stable than Seesmic Desktop. For a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Illusion Labs, developer of the iPhone and iPod games Touchgrind and Sway, is testing its applications on an oversized multi touch screen. The screen size allows for an impressive scenario and a really cool hands interaction: Via: Mela|Blog Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yahoo! has done a nice job of optimizing its mobile website and products for use on an iPhone, but until now hasn’t released a more robust application to compete with Google’s iPhone app.  That changed this past week with the introduction of Yahoo! for iPhone. Previous Yahoo! iPhone applications focused on specific functions such as social networking (OneConnect) or web searches (Inquisitor).  The new application – simply titled “Yahoo!” – is an attempt to pull together several of Yahoo!’s standard website products into one mobile software package, simulating some of the website’s primary features on your iPhone. It’s a nice app, fairly intuitive and well designed.  The application menu lists five primary components: “Featured,” “Y!News,” “My Interests,” “Connect,” and “Yahoo! Everything” (listed as “More” on the application home screen).  Each of the first four menu items checks for updates since the last time you visited, and gives you the option to update your content if there is more recent information available. “Featured” lists synopses of the current featured news items on Yahoo!’s site.  If you want to read the full story, Yahoo! will launch Safari on your iPhone.  Hitting the “back” button in Safari will re-launch the Yahoo! application and [...]

Mr. Beer Home kit In the words of the great Homer Simpson….”Hmmmm beer” The weather is beginning to break, baseball season has started, and NASCAR is getting into full swing. What better time to start thinking about cookouts and libations.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you like to make videos and photos in every situation, then you may want to consider a Liquid Image Underwater Camera Mask, especially if you plan to enjoy some time at the seaside. Liquid Image produces some underwater masks with a built in digital camera, allowing you to capture photos and videos during your snorkeling and scuba diving. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Garmin’s nuvifone G60 is a quad band phone (850/900/1800/1900) EDGE, HSDPA and Wi-Fi device running Linux. Naturally you’d expect a phone from Garmin to be heavy on GPS features and this won’t disappoint. The video gives a nice overview of the GPS heavy feature set. The bigger question on this phone – is it introduced too late and will people buy phones that are designed around GPS rather than phone functionality? nuvifone G60 via Nan Palmero Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Back in the day, before the introduction of Google Docs, ThinkFree Office was the only really usable online office suite. ThinkFree is still one of the more fully-featured offerings out there, but all that robustness comes at a price. While Google Docs and Zoho are entirely browser based and take seconds to load, the ThinkFree apps run on Java and can take up to several minutes to download – not very efficient if all you want to do is view a document. Uni Paper is their solution to that particular problem. It’s a Flash-based document viewer, similar to Adobe’s Flash Paper. Once you’ve… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I live by Evernote these days and it has become my central place for text, images and more. In fact, I use not one but three different accounts. My personal account has over 2500 notes and is constantly growing. We are using it at work to better coordinate all our efforts and my administrative assistant, who has been luke-warm to most of my tech-shifts, told me the other day that she loves using. And we’ve even started using it here on Gear Diary since the team is spread all over. Evernote is a great way to keep everything in one place and the more one uses it the more useful it becomes. Among the features that make Evernote standout are – The fact that each note is scanned and is thereby fully searchable.  (This is issue for people uber-concerned about security but for me it is just fine.) -The fact that it is available cross-platform with versions for Mac, Windows, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Blackberry as well as a universal web-based version -The fact that they offer a very usable free, add-supported account with 40MB of storage per month and a premium account that offers a huge 500MG of new [...]

If you are evaluating the purchase of an HTC device with the Touch Flo 3D user interface, or you just can’t get enough of modding your own, Clinton Fitch’s piece entitled “Tweaking your HTC Fuze or Touch Diamond or Touch Pro – Part 1″ will be useful. Continue reading on Gear Diary …