From Mitchell's First Impression Post Yesterday Mitchell posted a first look at his new 13″ MacBook Pro. In his terrific overview he showed a few pictures of his swapping out the installed drive for a mammoth 500GB drive. As luck would have it the 120GB Solid State Drive I ordered from NewEgg earlier in the week arrived while I was reading it. As a result, the iPhone 3G S that is “Out for Delivery” isn’t the only piece of “zipper” Apple Hardware I’ll be enjoying. Instead of taking some shots of the install I figured I would grab my Flip UltraHD and film it. So here, for your viewing pleasure is the transition of my AWESOME MacBook Pro into the Uber-Quiet Awesome MacBook Pro.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

NextWorth, one of the growing number of businesses based around paying users for trading in their used gadgets, has announced a remarkable iPhone trade-in program. Basically, you send in your iPhone 3G and get enough to cover the purchase of a new iPhone 3G S. Sound too good to be true? Let’s take a look!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I am a staunch anti-piracy fighter: I engage in forum discussions about it on a regular basis, and also being a hardcore PC gamer I see the direct impact of piracy on that hobby. I see how it has impacted where developers target their games, how many top-level PC games are released, and the increasingly draconian DRM schemes used to try to thwart piracy … most of which simply punish honest customers. I constantly rail against piracy and try to stop folks from doing it when I can. That said, I have absolutely no love for the RIAA , the music industry, the game and movie publishers, and others who seek to extol punishments greater for downloading a song or movie or game than is given out for selling drugs to kids on schoolyards! So what happens when a pirate and the RIAA meet in court?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Travis got his iPhone 3G S at the Apple Store this morning, and Larry’s iPhone arrived at his home home a bit ago. I’m still waiting. Larry has unboxed his on camera for your viewing pleasure. (Hint: Pay special attention to the gentle way Larry treats his iPhone 3G, now that it has been left for a newer, hotter model.) Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Below You’ll find an account of Travis’ experience this morning but here you’ll find the first iPhone 3G S-shot Gear Diary Video. (We will assume someone else was driving… right?)… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

RapidRepair got one of the first commercially available iPhone 3G S’ from France and performed a quick teardown. They’re in the process of conducting a more detailed analysis, but they’ve already found out that the 3G S runs on a Samsung S5PC100 SoC (system on a chip). The S5PC100 is capable of running at up to 833 MHz, but is downclocked to 600 MHz, presumably for power-saving reasons. (Photo: The 3G S board is on the left, 3G is on the right) Continue reading on Gear Diary …

No room is complete without a 24″ x 36″ poster print of “The Kramer” which depicts Cosmo Kramer, Jerry’s loopy next door neighbor, from the popular Seinfeld TV show. And now for only .49 plus $4.99 you can have your very own copy. Add in another $20-$30 and they’ll even ship it to you all framed for formal viewing. Amazon Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It all started innocently enough when Christopher Gavula e-mailed the team about the Mapquest on iPhone article.   Wayne responded with an email on how much he liked the Palm Pre’s navigation program and wished standalone GPS makers well because from his point of view the Pre’s included turn-by-turn Telenav software/GPS combination all but put the nail in the standalone automotive GPS coffin. And it all spun off from there.  Join us in another behind the scenes look at the Pro’s and Con’s of integrated devices.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Wednesday evening was enjoyable as I tested out the features of the new iPhone OS 3.0 and walked some friends and family through the process of updating their phone. I went to bed satisfied and had many happy iPhone 3.0 users, thanks to my instructions. My step-mother called me early Thursday morning and said there were some iPhone issues. This was surprising as I walked her through the process on the phone and she tested the features while talking with me. She wasn’t the issue… my step-brother was… and he was extremely upset.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’ve all seen the elaborate un-boxings that sites offer. These are usually short videos of cool gear being taken out of their boxes. Judie’s done some classic unboxings with her Sprint Mogul unboxing being one great example. Some of the unboxings are difficult to tell whether they’re jokes – or just over-enthused gadget fans like this guy. I was thinking yesterday whether we might invent a new category of these video adventures. Let’s call them a RE-Boxing. This is where we explain why a device is being sent back – as we’re packing it for shipping. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Intelligent Designs Group, LLC  has released a BlackBerry version of their Total Control Application Suite that allows you to view live video streams and control supported IP cameras and video encoders.  Now you can sit back, relax and view your fortified compound, monitor the pizza delivery guy, that “strange” baby sitter, or make sure Fido is safe and sound (and not chewing on the couch) from anywhere in the world. In all seriousness, anyone needing the the ability to easily access video of their home or business remotely — for security or just peace of mind — will want to take the Total Control application out for a spin. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

With the recent launch of the new iPhone 3.0 software, we are sure to see a host new applications.  In addition to the new titles, we’ll also see existing applications updated with new features as well. One such program has already received a hefty upgrade. MLB At Bat, which is an application for tracking all things baseball, has added the ability to watch live baseball games through the app. The feature is somewhat limited for now. There are two live game shown per day and none of them local, but it’s a start. The application actually uses the phone’s built… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Imagine trying to explain a computer to someone who has never seen one. Try explaining this strange thing called a mouse, and how you use it to control your interactions with the screen. Try explaining how you type on a keyboard, and through the magic of wires and electronics the words appear onscreen. And if you want to move something from point a to point b, hold down the mouse and drag…but have some fancy moves if you need to drag beyond the room you have on your mousepad. I know it sounds crazy, but if you’ve never used a computer before it can be incredibly intimidating. So how do you tap into the power of a computer to teach, stimulate, and sharpen a mind, especially the mind of a senior citizen? One company that’s stepped up to answer that is Dakim with the Dakim Brain Fitness system.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Well, OS 3.0 landed yesterday, and we’ve been like kids in a candy shop. The were lots of upgrades taking place around the GD community and some of the stream of “Wow, take a look at this!” can be found in our 3.0 Tidbits Post. Now that the smoke has cleared (ha, get it, smoke cleared, Larry’s a firefighter…ha!) it is time to begin assessing whether or not the excitement was justified. Some overall impressions and useful links follow…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Beware – while the link below doesn’t fall into the NSFW (not safe for work) category, you might want to avoid clicking on it. Because this is what happens when you take your love of a video game console to the extreme! From the site: If you love your Nintendo Controller as much as Metal games from Arnheim does, you would let Jeffrey to take up a scarification project in order to etch the controller’s design on some part of the body, just like Metal games did. That is right – ETCH into your body. Beyond a simple tattoo that some fanboys get, this is known as ‘scarification’, and it means I have finally found something that… Continue reading on Gear Diary …