Here’s a quick video of an iPhone 3G S in the wild, thanks to a Brazilian Portuguese website. Nothing too surprising here but it IS nice to see the landscape keyboard, video recorder, voice recorder, auto-focus camera, increased speed, fingerprint-proof screen, voice over, voice dial/control etc. Oh, who am I kidding… this thing looks AWESOME and Friday can’t come soon enough! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Well, we’re just a few hours away from the formal release of iPhone OS 3.0. I for one couldn’t be more excited as it means that, once again, our iPhones and iPod touches are about to be transformed into something largely new. It also means that we’ll be seeing a host of new applications and update applications.The surprise tonight, was a bit of unexpected insight into a whole different aspect of 3.0 thanks to some banter from the folks at Evernote. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

These LED earbuds are more than a set of flashing blue lights that also happen to play music. They’re a set of flashing blue lights that happen to play music AND blink along with the beat of the music. For even more fun wear these in the car and before you know it you’ll be pulling over unsuspecting motorists who spot flashing blue lights in their rearview mirror. LED Earphones Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There have been rumors of Sirius bringing their service to the iPhone through the App Store ‘any day now’ for quite a while … in fact, SatWaves just posted another such article! While we hope for the sake of all paying members of the Sirius / XM service the article is correct, Normsoft wants you to know that they have you covered. That is right, as of the recently released version 5.2.2 its’ Pocket Tunes Radio can stream live Sirius / XM radio signals on the iPhone! Of course, you need an active subscription to the service to do this … read on and find out more!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As we reported earlier those people who’d ordered their iPhone 3G S’s from the Apple web site received the news today that their new phones were on their way from China and many showed a delivery date of 6/17, a full two days early than Apple’s earlier announced release date. As first reported by TechCrunch.com it seems this early delivery was only a dream.  A check of my tracking number tonight shows my phone making good travel time (it’s now in Anchorage Alaska) but the delivery date field, which previously did show 6/17, is mysteriously gone from the UPS tracking page. Did Apple ask UPS to remove it?  Perhaps they’ve… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

[Editor's note: This is a joint review by Judie and Julie that will be appearing simultaneously on Gear Diary and The Gadgeteer. Judie's comments will be in black, and Julie's will be in blue italics.] Like many who own an Amazon Kindle or Kindle2, Julie and I have grown to greatly enjoy the convenience of carrying our current and future reading material on our own “virtual book shelves”. The question of how to keep our Kindles protected was one that we had to answer fairly early on, seeing as Amazon did not include any type of cover with our pricey new readers. For a while, I… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Just in case you thought fast changing technology only exists in cell phones and Mp3 players I bring you this Gear Diary entry. This one hits especially close to home for me because, well you know, I’m a firefighter.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome to a new weekly feature here at Gear Diary! Each week I will highlight the major video game releases for the following week, give a quick feel for what was released the prior week, and chime in with what is burning up my gaming systems … and hope you will chime in with your playlist and hotly anticipated titles in the comments! Without further delay, let’s get right to it! Who ya gonna call? Yep – after delays, rumors of cancellations and more, we finally get the video game release of the classic Ghostbusters! Early reviews are calling iot solid if unspectacular on all of the platforms it is hitting (which means basically everything). Other than that … there are some other assorted games, including yet another entry into the Guitar Hero: Quest for Franchise Destruction series, and my personal pick – Dawn of Discovery, the latest entry into the excellent Anno series of simulation / adventure games. Check out the list!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s GearSponsor deal  is this black 30GB Zune MP3/WMA and video player from Microsoft for only $99. It comes with a car kit (cigarette lighter adapter and auto-tuning FM transmitter so you can listen to your songs playback over any FM station) and Wi-Fi is built in. The battery itself is rated for 14 hours on audio playback and 4 on video (MPEG4/WMV). UPDATE: DEAL SOLD OUT Newegg via SD Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I saw this the other day on ZDNet and wanted to say a couple of things. I promise to make this short and not ramble on too much.  I’ve been cooking this response for the past couple of days, and it may still not be fully there yet… At the Advertising 2.0 conference, Barry Diller, Chairman and CEO of the IAC, an interactive services company raking in over $1.5 billion dollars in revenue a year, stated that the free internet would soon be a thing of the past. Picture from ZDNet. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The transition from the 60 year old analog TV standard has been made, and now all over the air transmissions are digital. Most of us have already made the transition.  If you have digital cable, you probably didn’t notice anything.  If you still use rabbit ears on a old TV, you need to buy a converter box.  You can still apply for a coupon on the DTV transition web site for another month. What are your thoughts?   We’re you affected?  Do you still watch TV or do you use on demand services like Hulu to replace it?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you ask my wife, the money she spent buying me a telescope a few years ago was wasted. If you ask me or my sons, we’d disagree. It isn’t that we use it all that much, but I chalk that up to living in the Northeast – it is hard to hit that small window when the temperature is right for standing outside at night and it gets dark early enough that we can all enjoy it together. The folks at Vito Technology have a great solution – Star Walk, an educational astronomy app for the iPhone andiPod Touch that allows you to browse the night sky right from the palm of your hand without regard for time or weather! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When it was announced that the new iPhone 3G S would not only include video recording but onboard editing and uploading as well, I was of two minds. One part of me was excited. Clearly this would be something I would be using a lot. After all, although the iPhone 3G’s camera wasn’t the best, it was with me all the time and, as a result, it is the camera I use the most. The ability to take pictures on the go, do some basic (and not so basic) editing and upload them to the web is fantastic. The thought of having the ability to do video in the same way was nothing short of awesome. The other part of me, however, was concerned about the impact that this would have on a little device I have come to truly appreciate- my Flip Video camcorder. What impact, I wondered, would the iPhone have on Flip Video’s growing dominance in the portable video market?  And what, if anything, would Flip do to respond? We have some early answers in the form of a new service just being announced.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Our first GearSponsor deal of the day sold out before we could get it posted. If you’re in the market for a 20″ LCD monitor – don’t let this one slip away. Only $129 shipped after $50 instant savings. This Samsung 2033SW features 1600 x 900; DVI + VGA Input; HDCP. Deal expires 6/17 or while supplies last. Logicbuy Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Simple rivals or symbols of a culture clash? There was an interesting blog post circulating the interwebs over the weekend. The author, Tomi Ahonen, posits that the differences between the United States and the international cell markets have influenced what phones find success domestically vs the rest of the world. It’s a very long piece, so take your time…maybe start slow cooking a pot roast. Dinner will be done around the same time as when you finish reading the piece…but it is worth reading. What I found really struck me was that among the ideas in the author’s main thesis was the idea that “American” phones are not as SMS-centric as euro ones, hence the lack of Symbian love in the United States. He also argues that what worked successfully in the USA (the RAZR, the iPhone), needed to be tweaked for the rest of the world, and that the rest of the world needed to tweak their phones for success in the USA.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …