“For all the times you would rather stab someone in the eye than talk about 3G anything” i-wood may be a perfect gift for someone special in your life.  Someone who is constantly checking their e-mail, twitter, or facebook account from their mobile device.  Someone, who, maybe, just doesn’t get the message — regardless of their data connection speed.  Afterall, can their current phone “survive a 1,000 foot drop?” Didn’t think so.  No contracts.  No pesky data plans.  No dropped calls.  Ever.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Some days ago Dan asked the various writers and readers of Gear Diary to comment on their favorite currently in use gadget. Results were very different, and the list of gadgets ranged from PDAs to smartphones, from notebooks to desktop PCs, and both a camera and a car (!) were mentioned as well. I was answering Dan’s e-mail, explaining the reason why my favorite current gadget is still an old Treo 650, and I started thinking to the Palm Pre. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Speck has been making accessories for handheld devices since 2001. One of their latest products is the Candy Shell case for the iPhone 3G.  The Candy Shell features the protection of a hard exterior, but has the cushioning of a softer interior to help buffer the iPhone if it’s dropped – hence, the “candy shell” name. Top View Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This is not an invitation to loose your good habits in personal hygiene, but a different way to preserve it, offering a healthy environment not only to your feet but also to others. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Following the Google Labs and Gmail Labs, the people behind the Google Toolbar Team has chosen to free their imagination and build and deliver fast improvements to the Google Toolbar. Here are the first two creatures of the Google Toolbar Labs.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I ordered a Livescribe Pulse Smartpen a few weeks ago after seeing an ad for it. Having now used it for a few weeks I can honestly say that, other than my various Apple products, this may well be my favorite technology purchase ever. It certainly has all of the qualities necessary to stand out as a tech “home run”. It certainly has the “cool gadget dimension handled. Likewise it has the “technology that makes your life easier and you more efficient” market covered. And to think, I sat looking at the sealed box for two days after it arrived from Amazon debating whether or not I would actually open it. Let’s take a look at this remarkable gadget… I mean… Work device. Let’s take a closer look…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Now this has to get filed under bizarre stories. According to CNN, there is a rise in addictions to Facebook. How can you tell you are addicted to Facebook? According to the article if you: 1. You lose sleep over Facebook 2. You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook 3. You become obsessed with old loves 4. You ignore work in favor of Facebook 5. The thought of getting off Facebook leaves you in a cold sweat I suggest if you answer yes to any of those questions, start a Facebook group immediately so you can get the support you need!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Do you like talking to your BlackBerry?  Do you dream of being able to use your voice to write emails,  memos, tasks, and calendar entries?  Well, MyCaption.com, Inc now has their voice-to-data MyCaption product available on BlackBerry® App World™. Too busy to type?  This application may just be what you’ve been looking for.  The application is geared towards business users who need to convert their voice to searchable, actionable data.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

About a week ago I realized that I needed to get organized. My desk is a mess and my notebook bag… well let’s just say my cables have cables. It was so overstuffed and under-organized that I couldn’t find anything. I sent the following cry for help to the Gear Diary Team. There are two different gear patterns for me these days when I leave the house. One has me only bringing my iPhone. Simple. The other has me with way too much stuff- notebook, charger, iPhone, extra battery, pulsepen, bluetooth headset etc. So much little crap that throwing it loose into my bag is a mess. Any suggestions for keeping all my on-the-go semi organized????? I got some excellent suggestions. Among them was this from Judie- Can’t recommend the AcmeMade Courier bag enough…just sayin’! Well, that was a pretty strong endorsement from someone for whom I have the greatest respect so I did the only reasonable thing- I looked at the AcmeMade site. Long story short, although Judie reviewed the Courier just recently, ACME MADE was kind enough to send one to give a second opinion. What do I think? Can’t recommend the AcmeMade Courier bag enough…just sayin’! Let’s [...]

I usually keep my thoughts of economic doom and gloom to myself, but John Starkweather posted a link to this on Facebook, and I had to share. Chris Wilson of Slate has posted an interactive map of where jobs have been gained and lost across the country since January 2006. The map’s dates start with January 2007, and when each button is pressed they show respective losses or gains for each month throughout the previous year. Only counties with a gain or loss of 250+ are represented by a red or blue dot. Using the Labor Department’s local area unemployment statistics, Slate presents the recession as told by unemployment numbers for each county in America. Because the data are not seasonally adjusted for natural employment cycles throughout the year, the numbers you see show the change in the number of people employed compared with the same month in the previous year. Blue dots represent a net increase in jobs, while red dots indicate a decrease. The larger the dot, the greater the number of jobs gained or lost. The country as a whole looked pretty good in January 2007; granted, there were some red (job-loss) areas across the country, but [...]

Games for devices such as PalmOS and Windows Mobile PDA’s have typically gotten much less attention than those for consoles and handhelds by big names such as Sony and Nintendo. What that has meant is that it is harder for game producers to get their games into the hands of those who might enjoy them: so-called ‘hardcore’ gamers would know about the games but be typically looking for a more serious and involved experience, while the more ‘casual’ gamer would be less likely to visit the online stores to get the games. The Apple iPhone changed that with the tight integration of the iTunes App Store into the already familiar iTunes Store for music and video.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Alltel Wireless is offering the CDMA BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 smartphone for $79.99, after a $70 mail-in rebate, at Alltel retail stores and online at shopalltel.com.  This discounted price is available to new and existing eligible customers who sign-up for a two-year service agreement. The clamshell design of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 smartphone allows users to discreetly screen calls and preview messages on the high-resolution external display or utilize the large internal display to respond to calls or messages, view maps and web pages, and play games.  With a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, the internal LCD displays videos and pictures in crisp detail and contrast. The 8230 features the SureType® QWERTY keyboard… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The summer travel season is fast coming upon us.  In fact, here in Columbus we have a day in the 80′s predicted already! While it’s still not warm enough to go swimming, when you do finally take the plunge you may want to take this with you. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

All through college I worked weekends as a Disk Jockey. I have many none-too-fond memories of lugging heavy crates of albums (the CD was JUST being invented) into and out of way too many clubs. My hands still ache at the thought of how heavy those records were. Now things have changed for the better and records are gone and most people DJ with iPods. That still doesn’t completely eliminate the need to lug in mixing equipment as well as iPods and perhaps CD players. This $499 Pacemaker Handheld DJ System has a 120 GB hard drive, all the mixing/beat matching and fading muscle you’ll need and it just may replace all that DJ equipment. The Pacemaker has turned traditional DJing on Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I briefly had a new iPod Shuffle when it was released last month. I loved the size and the voiceover feature, but ended up returning it. Why? The inability to use any headset other than the stock Apple buds didn’t work for me. I have, and use, a number of relatively high end headsets with my iPhone, and I just couldn’t get used to the stock buds. So back it went! Still however, I wanted a small iPod to use when I didn’t want to carry something larger and/or put my iPhone or iPod Touch at risk. As a result, I returned the Shuffle and got a new Nano. Small, light and easy to use, I love it. And when OtterBox offered an opportunity to review their iPod Nano 4th Gen Armor Case, I jumped at it. Let’s take a look…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …