Today is day three of HP and Microsoft’s ‘Back to School and Better Together’ Giveaway, which means that Kill Jill Goes to College will begin theirs. Up for grabs is a computer combo containing an HP dv6, an HP Mini 110 and Syncables software – which allows you to keep the larger laptop at home but carry the smaller netbook (synced and carrying all of your data!) when on the go. The Winner will also get a customized Kill Jill Goes to College Timbuk2 bag to carry their loot! … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Chess is one of those classic games I tend to always grab for whatever new device I get, so it was surprising to me that I hadn’t added anything since grabbing the original Chess game released soon after the App Store launched. That game served the basic needs of offering me a chess game on the go, but not much more. Since then there have been a load of new chess games added to the iTunes App Store, and the latest is Chess Elite. Let’s take a look at what the game has to offer and whether it is worth your time, money and attention!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Shape Services provides a variety of cross-platform mobile applications, primarily for the iPhone/iPod Touch and BlackBerry (although you’ll also find offerings, like IM+ messenger that have compatible versions for Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Palm). One of their most popular applications, the voice recorder VR+, has just been updated for the  iPhone 3GS/3.0 OS.   I  have previously used and reviewed VR+, and liked the application — a lot.   I was not disappointed with the latest update… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo credit: William Hook A new report from RBC Capital Markets released a report today on the customer satisfaction rate for the iPhone 3GS. Coming into the survey data data was available that pegged satisfaction with the first two iPhone at 73%. That’s might impressive. So how did the iPhone 3GS fair?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Just in time for back to school is this HP Color Laserjet CP1215. Normally priced at around $150 – you can now take another $30 off with this stackable coupon code (SV2132). The printer is rated for speeds of 12 ppm black & white and 8 ppm color. This deal comes in via GearSponsor Logicbuy who also indicates that it is due to expire 8/16/09. Enough deal talk – can you believe we’re already discussing back to school? HP Color LaserJet CP1215 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

These days, information about upcoming movie (and music and game and TV show and …) is so quickly available and so widely disseminated that it is hard to remember a time when you could walk into a record store or theater and get a true surprise. Today marks the 30th anniversary of one such surprise – the theatrical trailer of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. At that time there were no ‘episodes’ and the overall look was quite different. Narrated by Harrison Ford (yup, that’s Han hamming it up with his best 1930s announcer impression), the trailer contains a few noteworthy gems, such as the famously cut “Threepio ripping the sign off the door” shot. Originally, the invading Imperials Continue reading on Gear Diary …

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film, Sony and Youtube are teaming up to stream the classic movie for free! The film shows in High Quality in Sony’s Crackle player embedded on the site. The movie released on August 13th at 9PM EST and is supposedly available for a week. If you have never seen this film, well … you are dead to me ( ). If it has been a while, or even not so long, there is never a bad time to re-watch a comedy classic! Direct link to the High Quality movie online at YouTube Before you get all teary eyed about the altruism and commitment to the preservation of great… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When Larry sent this video around yesterday I was positive it was nothing but a viral campaign for MSI laptops. But (pun intended) the skill of the performers in the video seemed real enough. But what do I know? Now there’s a doubter who say’s it’s probably all a fake-ola done with some type of computer imagery. Sure – what are you going to tell me next that there’s no fairie that enters my house when the kids lose teeth and drops a quarter under their pillow. I’m not buying the hoax theory. PS – Don’t try this at home. Laptop caught in butt video a fake: expert Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It does not happen very often, except perhaps with Police Drama’s: two TV shows manage to come up with virtually the same concept independently, and both execute it with a fair degree of innovation and quality.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Cosmos magazine is collecting short 160 character messages via their web site. They’ll bundle them together and beam them into outer space on Sunday August 23. More specifically they’re encouraging you to visit their site – hellofromearth – and leave a short (under 160 character) message that they’ll beam up to super-Earth planet Gliese 581D. ‘Gliese 581d’, a super-Earth about eight times heavier than our own planet. Gliese 581d and its three known sister planets orbit the low-mass red dwarf star Gliese 581, about 20.3 light-years (194 trillion km) away from us, in the constellation Libra. Has anyone looked at the type of messages the typical earthling leaves on Twitter? Is there any chance aliens want to read that crap? Really – if alien life form is advanced enough to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you spend any amount of time online with Twitter you’ll soon notice that the service is seemingly over-run with hypsters, spammers and shameless self-promotion. Because of this I seldom visit the web interface and instead post mostly from my iPhone. To me Twitter is just a convenient way to autopost updates to social sites I use more regularly like Facebook and Friendfeed. Sadly, until now, there hasn’t been a convenient way to weed out Twitter people who follow you but are doing nothing but sending out blatant advertising. Twitblock.com is a free site that does an admirable job of sorting through your Twitter followers. The site scores them based on how likely they are to be spammers and provides an easy interface… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Over on workswithu.com, I came across this sweet new Ubuntu Netbook.  ZaReason has released the Terra A20 Netbook.  While ZaReason is not the first to use Ubuntu, I personally think they will be one of the best! Base specs are an Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz CPU, 10 inch 1024×600 LCD, Intel GMA 950, Draft N Wifi, a 5400 RPM 160 GB hard drive, Optional 3G modem, 3.5 hours battery life, 3 USB ports, SD card slot, VGA port and headphone and mic jacks.  Oh, and it has a Ubuntu logo on the keyboard instead of a Windows key!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Some of you may recognize the name Joe Born from the company Neuros, whose open source products we’ve been reviewing and talking positively about for years. What you may not know is that Joe also founded the company Digital Innovations over ten years ago.  According to him, he hasn’t been “very active in it since starting Neuros, but recently they acquired a peripheral company called Micro Innovations that makes a host of commodity peripherals, and [he's] very excited about applying the Neuros open innovation formula there.” Last night Joel and I had an opportunity to take a survey that Joe had forwarded us, showing some USB Hub concept… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have to admit that I am not terribly interested in social networking.  Email is usually enough for me, though there are a few sites which I do find to be particularly enjoyable or useful.  One of those sites is LinkedIn, a social networking site for business connections.  As much as I enjoy LinkedIn however, I have always found their mobile versions to be a bit lacking.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Shortly after we tried QIK on the iPhone, Larry discovered that (here we go again) it only works on WiFi. That’s right, if you are on 3G the app records the video and then, when you are connected to WiFi (and presumably launch the app again because.. oh, right, no background apps), it uploads the video. Not Good. Well, Larry tweeted the bad news and… within seconds he got a response… from Qik’s marketing director!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …