This deal is rather simple for those needing a few more dollars for their iTunes account. Give Best Buy $25 and they’ll mail you $ 30 worth of iTunes cards. Shipping is free and for the iPod / iPhone / Touch user – this is one gift that usually fits everyone. The cards even come in $10 increments so you can split them up for gifts or sharing with friends. Best Buy $25 iTunes Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Register reports that Apple is considering expanding the iPhone range; not with radically differentiated hardware, but by varying the software features included with various models. Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner, speaking exclusively to Register reporter James Sherwood, recently met with Apple executives in which several hints about future iPhones were dropped. Apple staff are notoriously reluctant to speculate about future products for fear of incurring the Wrath of Jobs, so it is somewhat surprising that an executive would reveal that: “(iPhone) Segmentation would focus on software.” Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Do you like to always have access to your data wherever you go?  There are plenty of online data storage depots where you can store your personal files, but these require an internet connection to access.  USB thumb drives are popular as well, but they’re just another thing to carry in your pockets or lose in your bag. TopTech products has something better.  Packaged in the same size and shape as a credit card their new 4GB and 1GB Slim Data USB Cards Flatten the USB Flash Drive and allow it to be carried right inside your wallet right next to your other credit cards.  Since it weighs a mere 9 grams you won’t even know… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s a contest that’s sure to put a smile on lucky winner’s face. Enter by May 31, 2009 for a chance to win an all expense paid trip to a Celtics home AND away game. If you don’t win that you might win a trip the NBA All Star game with Judie who will be wearing one of the cheerleading outfits pictured above! There’s also a $50 NBA gift card, an NBA Celtics home game trip and one of 10 regulation basketballs signed by the player of your choice! Lots of stuff to win – but as they say — can’t win if you don’t enter. 
 PS – Yeah, that’s Courtney Galiano, in the photo above to the right, a Knicks… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Ever wanted to know what it’s like to be an air traffic controller, without all the stress often associated with the frenetic position?  Flight Control from Firemint puts you in the seat of air traffic controller responsible for landing planes at your own airport.  Get each plane to its proper runaway without crashing into another plane and you earn points.  The more points you earn, the harder the game becomes. Flight Control has been in the list of top 20 paid iTunes App Stores apps for weeks.  It’s a highly addictive and very challenging game.  Let’s take a look. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have to admit I have absolutely no idea why these gearsponsor deals come in exactly four hours after I’ve already purchased a laptop. Although my purchase this morning involved a Netbook, I would have been tempted by this 12.1 inch HP TouchSmart tx2z. For a limited time they’re also offering a free 4GB RAM upgrade, free 320 GB hard drive upgrade, free HP DeskJet printer (after mail in rebate) and free shipping. The screen offers multi-touch control. Use two finger gestures to do cool stuff like zoom in and out of web pages or rotate photos. If a stylus is your thing, use one to take notes on the screen (which folds back for ease of use). HP TouchSmart Laptop Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve become spoiled. I have reviewed numerous excellent headsets over the past year and a half, and in the process I’ve got used to the high end sound of really good buds.  It was in fact, the inability to use anything but the stock Apple earbuds that prompted me to return the new Shuffle I bought in exchange for a Nano. (Although as Larry pointed out, adapters that solve this issue are on the horizon.) As a result, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the Radius Atomic Bass Aluminum Earphones for iPhone W/ Built-in Mic that were sent to me for review. Sure they looked great, but at a retail price of just $49.99 they were priced far below any of the headsets I have been using lately.  So how did they hold up? Let’s take a look.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s an interesting 2.5″ SSD Do-It-Yourself kit that transforms relatively cheap and abundant Compact Flash cards into a 2.5″ SSD IDE / SATA drive that’s suitable for mounting in your computer – or just bragging about to your friends. Hopefully you are able to read Japanese fluently because the manual is only available in Japanese. Maximum capacity is stated at 2TB and the minimum you can load is 2GB. Data transfer is dependent on the card speed (which are not included). Price is about $200 US. 2.5″ DIY SSD Drive Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Have you ever wondered where in the world the people following you on Twitter were located?  Tweet Globe is a new application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that shows, on a map of the world, where each tweet you receive in Twitter originated from.  Not only does the application show you a geographical representation of where your Twitter followers are located but it allows you to read and respond to tweets you’ve received from them. The application is currently on sale in the iTunes App Store at an introductory price of .99 cents, but the developer has said the price won’t stay that low forever. To celebrate the launch of their application… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Netbook popularity continues to grow every day, but cute netbook cases are still pretty hard to come by.  I love my tech toys, but I also love to accessorize them.  I like cases that look fresh and feminine, something different than the traditional, boring flat black leather or neoprene.  There is no reason that cases can’t be both functional and attractive! There are a few companies out there that understand the desire for a pretty laptop case, and CoverBee is one of them.  CoverBee is a company from Holland that is dedicated to creating functional, fashionable cases for laptops of all sizes. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Doug has a nice review of SPB Puzzles. It’s intriguing because not only can Windows Mobile JigSaw puzzle fanatics get a nice workout without worrying about their puzzle board taking up half the kitchen table – but those of us with young kids don’t have to worry about “that last lost piece” that somehow never is found (until you’re cleaning under the sofa). And it goes farther than just a missing piece – because somehow the fact that there’s a missing piece is only discovered 10 minutes before bedtime and therefore a whole house treasure hunt for that piece is immediately required. I think kids will also like the feature that allows a puzzle to be made from a photo. JAMM – Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Promises, promises, promises.  At one time in my life I worked for a small, start up company.  For the entire first year the company existed all we did was market.  We had no product to sell, only a few working prototypes.  We traveled the world displaying these prototypes at trade shows to very interested customers.  We had the prettiest booth and the best brochures but nothing to sell.  We even promised release dates.  But these quickly came and went and eventually our potential customers became upset.  They lost their patience.  They wanted the product and they wanted it now. When we finally were ready to launch we’d lost some of our previously interested customer base who had grown tired of our missed deadlines and sought alternate product elsewhere.  I understood this.  I also understood the company’s need to market itself while it struggled through the initial phase of development and production.  But making empty promises to customers wasn’t easy. You know what they say about Karma right?  It seems it’s come back to bite me.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

ShapeServices has been very busy lately, releasing a wide variety of new and updated mobile applications.   You may have read Adrian’s recent review of ShapeServices’ Mobiola xPlayer, or Wayne’s coverage of their popular all-in-one instant messenger, IM+. This week I’ve been using their VR+ voice recording application, which is available for BlackBerry and iPhone/iPod Touch.  VR+ lets you create voice recordings — or even entire podcasts — on the go, and share the recordings via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Blogger.com.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve been eying the latest iPod shuffle since it launched.  However, I’ve yet to pick one up because of it’s proprietary headphones.  Since the device has no buttons on it anywhere you have to use the ones that are built into the device’s included headphones to control your music. That’s about to change with Scosche‘s upcoming release of the IRM35 tapLINE control adapter for the new iPod shuffle.  One end of the inline jack plugs into your shuffle and it has a port on the other end for you to then plug in your headphones. You can then control play, pause, adjust volume, skip tracks, navigate play lists and activate the Voice Over feature with… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You can’t help but wonder if Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed interfaces will soon emerge for this Windows Mobile USB Ultra-Sound Probe. Sure this started out as a medical project to help create the Cell Phone as a Platform for Healthcare. Using a USB connected Ultra-Sound gizmo doctors in remote locations can capture images and transmit them via cellular signal. If they’re on something other than EDGE the baby may even still be in the womb by the time the hospital gets the full image. I can’t help but wonder whether we’ll see interfaces to all the social media places we love to over share. Imagine live streaming your ultrasound on Ustream.TV — the shared Ultra-Sound channel. I cringe to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …