Sink one of these 4 ocean liners and 4 icebergs into your drink and watch the party start. That’s assuming your guests can identify the ships as Titanic replicas and the tiny ice balls as icebergs. Simply fill these 8 molds with water, place in your refrigerator and in a few hours you’ll have a nifty set of ice ships for your guest’s glasses. Gin & Titonic – $7.49… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Large, rear-wheel-drive American sedans still hold a place in consumer’s hearts judging by how many times I am asked my opinions on cars such as the Dodge Charger. I find quite a few folks, especially those with families, with the Charger on their list of possibilities when researching a new automobile.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Although it may not have happened yet when you read this, the Jaunty Jackalope is now streaming around the internet to anxious Ubuntu fans and early adopters. Some of the things that are in this release are: Gnome 2.26 Improved handling of multiple monitors. X.Org Server 1.6 Wacom tablet hot plugging Faster booting Ext4 Filesystem Support Server Edition includes “Cloud Computing” features and Turn-Key Mailservers. Missing on their website is the new Osdnotify system for notifications. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

No, this rectangular black box is not the monolith from 2001; it’s the LaCie Little Disk, and it’s the latest addition to my gear bag.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I remember reading a New York Times article that was calling the recently released entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise of video games ‘one of the most important’ video games released in recent years. The article talks about how by bringing a fully fleshed out entry of the M-rated series to a platform generally associated with under-18 children, it signals an important milestone in the history and maturation of the video game industry. That is an awful lot to heap on a game that is barely larger than a SD card, so I will take a look and see if it really is an ‘important’ game, if it is acceptable for anyone under 18 to play, and finally if it is any good! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Since the Japanese release of the PSP in December 2004, Sony has been continuously updating the system software (Firmware) of the system for three main reasons – security, bug fixes (always rolled into other patches), and new features. Security has largely been about patching vulnerabilities that have allowed exploits permitting the use of so-called homebrew, which is user-created software that offers many useful features, but sadly the most utilized is the ability to play pirated games.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When I have a hard time getting motivated to work out, a new pairs of running shoes or a new gadget will help me get out the door.  Sometimes,  just the desire to use my gadgets helps me workout.  I have my iPod but my latest gadget is a Garmin watch that I use to track mileage and calories burned. What I miss is that I didn’t buy the Garmin with a heart rate monitor.  During my competitive days, I really got into measuring my pulse rate.  Measuring your pulse rate helps you measure the intensity of your workout. I became quite fanatical about knowing what my resting pulse, my exercise rate etc.  I had one of the original pulse monitors that you stuck your finger into, then the monitor that clipped onto your earlobe and then all the ones with chest straps. However, you really could never use them in the pool.  The way they transmitted never worked in water.  But, now there is a solution for those that swim. Finish has just released the AquaPulse Heart Rate monitor for those that like to measure pulse submerged. Finis “AquaPulse” Heart Rate Monitor Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Why does it seem like talking about something jinxes it. I know that you can jinx a no-hitter by talking about it, but kill your favorite gadget? Unheard of. I did Dan’s Gear-Libs the other day, singing the praises of my HTC Advantage 7501. Last night it passed on to gadget heaven. It had been fine except for the micro-drive which stopped working a few months ago.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When you ask most techno-nuts about the possibility of an Apple Netbook with a touch-screen, they tend to look much like Lieutenant Frank Drebin from the TV show Police Squad as he frothed at the mouth while questioning a dentist. The reasons are simple and manifold – Apple has a reputation for excellent and innovative notebooks starting from the original Powerbooks in 1991, their OS X is a highly regarded operating system that has shown itself to be highly scalable, and they also have done a great job infiltrating existing markets with high quality products and making a massive impact.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Update: This contest is now closed, and the winner is CHUCK. Thank you for entering, and keep your eyes open for more Gear Diary give aways! In honor of Earth Day, The Gadgeteer and Gear Diary are holding another dual site contest. We are each giving away a Green 500GB Seagate FreeAgent Go USB hard drive with a desktop dock. What does a portable hard drive have to do with Earth Day you ask? These days with content all going digital, there is no excuse for buying CDs and DVDs that come in plastic cases, adding to the boxes full of photos tucked in a closet or printing out stacks of papers wherever you go. By embracing the 21st century, you can eliminate waste and clutter. It also gives you a more convenient way to store or carry all your precious files.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

PhoneFace has now added Twitter support, enabling you to call, email, or send an SMS to your contacts by flipping through  photos. You have the choice of loading a photo you’ve taken with your smartphone’s camera, or by selecting the option to use either their Twitter or Facebook profile pic. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It looks like we can chalk up Ugobe, makers of the lovable Pleo Robot, as one more victim of the poor economy and the ongoing credit crunch. Evidently, it was never a matter of whether there were enough people buying the personable robots, because Ugobe defintiely had the orders. The problem came when the companies who ordered shipments could not pay Ugobe, because their credit was frozen or denied. As a result, Ugobe has had to lay off 20 employees and declare Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Owners of existing Pleosaurs are understandably a bit freaked out. This just in from Robert Oschler…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have used mindmaps for several years to manage both professional and personal projects. Mindmapping is a great way to capture ideas and information visually. I currently keep all of my projects on track using MindManager from Mindjet, but I’ve never found a way that I truly liked to create, edit, and maintain mindmaps on the mobile platform – much less, on a BlackBerry. That is, until now. MindBerry has developed a mobile mindmapping application specifically for BlackBerry devices.You don’t have to be Tony Buzan to use the software, either.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As we all (yes, ALL) try to do better by Mother Earth in general, and particularly today on Earth Day, and try to ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ wherever possible, it seems that the ‘Reduce’ part often gets lost in a sea of packaging that we do manage to Reuse and eventually Recycle. An article at Care2 discusses some of the chemistry behind all of those plastics and how they might impact us.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We all have hundreds and hundreds of pictures, taken to freeze moments in our life like happy events and sad days, and to recall persons we love. Today these pictures are hidden in our hard disks rather than being printed and it’s time to use them in their full glory, for something or, better, for someone. Continue reading on Gear Diary …