Cats make great pets because they don’t require a lot of attention like dogs do. Just give them a bowl of food and a pan of litter, and they can pretty much take care of themselves. The only down side to having an indoor kitty is that we humans have to clean their ‘toilet’ for them. Not fun… Today Julie of The Gadgeteer and I are going to tell you all about the CatGenie. It’s an alternative to the traditional litter box. Will our cats love it? Will we love it? Read on to find out… Julie’s comments are in Black and Judie’s are in Blue italics. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The newest trend among the wireless providers is to subsidize the cost of a netbook, provided you sign up for a two-year data plan. AT&T Wireless and Verizon are either doing it already, or have released information on it. Best Buy has a mobile division designed to promote these items and Radio Shack is offering an Asus with AT&T wireless service at www.radioshack.com. Sound familiar? This is how the cell phone industry was built. On its face it seems like a great deal, save a couple of hundred dollars and all is well. But things to consider are that it will tie you to a specific carrier for two years,  it cots upwards of $1400.00 in data airtime, and it may or may not be a good deal depending on your personal needs. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Celery, the service that lets the less technologically-inclined population (their website really screams ‘old people’)  send and receive emails via fax, has introduced support for Facebook updates. And from June, Twittering by fax will become a reality. Okay, I think that emails by fax is a great idea – from personal experience, iPhones rock for older folks, but printed pages are much easier on the eyes. Facebook and Twitter integration is extraneous and really pushing it, IMO, given what teens (and some adults) really use them for. Think about it: BB was a great @#*&… we @(*#& and (#*$&@ *censored* ’til the sun came up 10 minutes ago from lindsayluvsBB Grandma’s had a heart attack. Meet us Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Shape Services is announcing the latest upgrade to their IM+ mobile instant messaging client for BlackBerry. IM+ provides for multi-chat integration including GTalk, AIM, iChat, MSN, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo!, ICQ, Jabber, MySpace IM and Facebook. Instead of loading different chat clients to your BlackBerry you use IM+ to coververse with friends via one program. The IM+ software is also unique for its “push chat” capabilities which allow you to completely log off – saving battery life – yet still receive notification of incoming chat requests. This functionality is added via integration to Yap which is a voice to text platform enabling IM+ users to dictate their instant messages and send them as text to chat contacts.The beta version is slated… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

After seeing the Nextar Ribbit and showing it to my son, I literally jumped at the chance to look at this fun little MP3 player with him. This MP3 player is SMALL.  So small, that not long after Luke had it, he had misplaced it.  Luckily, it doesn’t cost that much to replace this cute little frog head.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the making of this case.  Really!  Although it might look like wood from the outside, the Lumberjack Back Cover from JAVOedge is actually made from pressed cork.  Looking for an eco-friendly and stylish case for your iPhone 3G that doesn’t add much bulk?  This might be the one for you. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Oh mom, you’re such an unbelievably special woman! We love you for your patience, your unconditional love, and the way that you always made us feel like we are your favorite. You were the only one who didn’t roll your eyes when we told you what we wanted to be when we grew up – in fact you encouraged us to dream! We declared that we wanted to be doctors, lawyers, scientists, Alaskan Crab fishermen  – and all of the other professions showcased on the Discovery Channel – and you said we could, because you believed we could be anything! It’s only fair that on Mother’s Day we showcase some really awesome gear that we don’t think you’d want to live without, because we understand that you can’t always think of gift suggestions when we’re pressuring you about what you really want. We know that you have certain expectations, and we understand that they don’t include flowers, chocolates, or small home appliances. Ans it’s okay mom, we’ve got you covered…! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Did you know that you can date your depth and breadth of internet time-wasting, by which over-wrought internet memes* are immediately familiar to you?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There’s no denying it, the Apple iTunes App Store is a big success.  They just recently passed an unbelievable milestone.  1 billion applications have been downloaded since it launched last summer.  1 billion!  That’s a lot of apps.  Everyone wants in to this new found fortune and developers are springing up left and right each with their golden ticket, in the form of an application they’ve developed, that they hope leads them to gold at the end of the rainbow, in the form of countless downloads. With popularity comes problems for Apple.  How does Apple not only go about approving or rejecting applications that are submitted to the App Store (this process has always remained a bit of a mystery) but once they are approved how are they then organized in the App Store in a format that makes sense to the consumer?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’m in the process of tossing out my fileservers at work. I’m already 100% dedicated to Google Apps and the process of having a file server for strictly local storage seems outdated. So I read with interest the article by Clinton on his site that goes into Windows Live Mesh in greater detail. This 5GB of storage space can be synchronized between Windows, Mac and Windows Mobile clients. The net effect is to remove the need to keep your computer cabled to a storage device in order to retrieve data. So long as you have a web browser and an Internet connection you can retrieve – and synchronize data files and folders across many types of devices. Curious how it’s done? Take… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Official Google Enterprise Blog has announced the upcoming release of “Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)”. The Connector will make Google Apps easier to use on BlackBerry devices by further increasing the speed with which items will synchronize in real time. Presently a lot of this functionality is available via a free Google Sync application however the BES integration will create a tighter two way synchronization than currently available including total synchronization of your email inbox – but only one way synch of your Google Calendar.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Filemaker Inc., a subsidiary of Apple just announced this morning that their Mac only instant database application, Bento, is now available via the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. Bento has been out for a while and is now in its second major release as Bento2. You can see more details at the Filemaker website. Bento, which retails at $49, is a sexy personal database application for keeping track of whatever you might need. It integrates with iCal, Apple Mail, Address Book, Excel and others. It comes witha myriad of prebuilt templates for all types of personal applications.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you’re into gaming on your iPod Touch 2G you may have noticed one slight problem. The back of the device is like one big bar of soap. As your hands start to perspire, the Touch gets harder and harder to keep a tight grip on. And many of the games demand that you move your hands and arms in all different directions to work the Touch controls. Here’s a reasonably priced solution from DLO – the Jam Jacket Game. This silicon case has integrated handles along the back that make your grip – well, grippier. There’s also an included wrist strap to help prevent inadvertent launches of your Touch during intense gaming. DLO Jam Jacket Game – $19.99… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. This fakeola skull will look out of place and creepy on just about any office desk. Featuring a 4-Port USB hub that have two ports on one jaw and two on another. Plus there’s ample room in the top to hold candy for Halloween. The rest of the year you can use it as an ashtray or popcorn bowl. Is there anything they won’t convert into a USB hub ? USB 4-Port Hub with a tray in skull Shape – $34.99… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

UPDATE- THE SYSTEM IS LIVE AND WE’VE ADDED AN EXAMPLE!! Okay, I promise that my Livescribe obsession will end… I’m not sure when but it will end some day. THAT day, however, is not this day. This day I have some exciting news for old, new and soon to be Livescribe  users. The good folks at Livescribe reached out to us last week, and shared the news that as of today,  Tuesday, May 5, Livescribe users will be able to embed “pencasts” directly into any Web site or blog just the way you embed a YouTube video. Prior to today pencasts could only be viewed on Livescribe’s Online Community (as displayed in the above video); now they can go everywhere. … Continue reading on Gear Diary …