In August 1969, Ken Thompson wrote the first version of an Operating System that would be called UNIX; it’s hard to believe it’s been that long.  Since UNIX is the inspiration for  Linux and the GNU utilities, Ohio LinuxFest chose to celebrate 40 years of UNIX.  What a long way we have come.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

¡Hola mis amigas! This week, I was greeted by an instructional video that started the minute I signed into TOTALe. It gave a great overview of what the different parts of the course entailed, and how to navigate the various sections…and I couldn’t help but wonder why it didn’t show the first time I started the program! Of course, the likely culprit is my slow satellite connection of doom; it is totally possible that the screen tried to show when I first started the program five lessons ago, but was reset in all of the screen refreshes. Ah, country living… … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Remember the Amazon Kindle DX? That is the huge eBook reader from Amazon that’s just like the Kindle only bigger and geared toward college student use? Well there’s a study underway at Princeton University to see how well students adapt to the gigantic eBook reader. As may be expected there’s been a period of adjustment. Although people have remarked that they can read for a longer period of time with the e-Ink pages – several students are complaining about the lack of note taking and page flipping. A pretty good summary of the experiences would be: “Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and other marks representing the importance of certain passages — Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the things about the built-in calendar app on the iPhone that surprises me is that it lacks the ability to view more than one month at a time.  Sometimes it’s just handy to see several months – or a whole year – at once.  So when Zicron Software, a new software developer based in Scotland, offered Gear Diary the chance to evaluate their new iPhone app, Years, we agreed to take a look.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

iLuv has announced that their new i1166 PMP will be available for shipping in mid-October. The unit features a 9″ TFT screen and can play DVD and CD media (including CD-R/RW, and DVD±R/RW and VCD/SVCD) as well as access media on MMC/SD cards and even USB flash drives.  It will play a wide variety of media formats including DivX, MP3, and WMA.  It doesn’t specify AAC, but one would hope that with iPod compatibility would also come AAC support.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

According to DigiTimes, more than 30 smartphones running on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 from a total of over 15 handset vendors are to be launched before the end of 2009, says Benjamin Tan, senior director, GCR Mobile Team Unit at Microsoft China. Handset vendors which have expressed their support for Microsoft’s new mobile OS include HTC (High Tech Computer), Acer, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics (LGE), Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, and Hewlett-Packard (HP), according to market sources in Taiwan. So, is Windows Mobile dead? With more than 30 WinMo 6.5 devices in 3 months, which average to about 10 WinMo 6.5 devices per month, I would say it is still alive and kicking. [via… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Now that the various major players in the iPhone navigation arena have been out for a bit, I thought it would be a good time to mention that all of them have released (or are about to release) significant updates to their applications. Here’s a round-up of the most recent updates: Sygic Mobile Maps The folk at Sygic have recently added text-to speech (TTS) to their application. They have also added a Brazilian voice to their available instruction voices, as well as the ability to choose addresses from your iPhone’s contact list. They have made improvements, to music playback, made the GPS lock faster, removed the repeated disclaimer after phone calls, made the road name font size bigger, fixed the crash at state borders and major interchanges, and corrected the way that parkways (boulevards) were seen. They have been busy! For a short time, they have also reduced the price of their application to $39.99, making it an excellent value!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Palm Pre users can now update their phone to version 1.2 of webOS. Some of the new operating system features include: a beefed up Palm Synergy that includes LinkedIn contact syncing, more linking across different “flavors” of IM contacts (no word on what flavors), better filtering of your email inbox by typing a search term, ability to download files in the browser, Amazon MP3 downloads now supported from both Wi-Fi and cellular data, and FINALLY cut and paste introduced to web and email. Expect an over-the-air update to webOS 1.2 within the next few days. Oh, and it does not fix iTunes sync – but you didn’t think the Apple/Palm cat and mouse game would go on forever did you? Full changelog after the jump.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the Direct2Drive 5th Birthday Sale! Over the past several years more and more of the PC gaming industry has moved to Digital Downloads, and while Steam definitely has the dominant position, Direct2Drive has seen tremendous success and growth. Now they have hit their 5-year anniversary and WE get the presents! Week 1 featured Ubisoft & strategy games, Week 2 had Action games, Week 3 had RPG / MMORPG games, and now we are up to Week 4 – PC/Mac ‘Indie’ Games! Read on to find out more – and to get two important reminders!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve been writing for a long time, and one of the things that I learned early on, is that there’s a lot to like about most everything you get to review.  Your TRUE opinion usually hits after the honeymoon period is over.  THAT can last a couple of months, depending on the device/gadget/thingy you’re reviewing. Getting past the WOW factor is important, and most product reviewers just can’t do it in a couple of days to a week. When I saw the Soda Stream Penguin Starter Kit, the wow factor for me was pretty high – a nine or a ten (on a 10 point scale), and I knew that any kind of review would take a while.  The device is, after all, pretty cool (more below); but let’s can the chit-chat and get down to brass tacks.  The Soda Stream Penguin Starter Kid – Yeah or Nay..?  Read on for a combo video/picture and text review. The Soda Stream Penguin Soda Maker Starter Kit Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So there is BlackBerry… then iPhone…and then there is, according to our own Clinton Fitch, the new HTC Touch Pro2 which “could well be the only phone business users could need.” Clinton posted a review of the HTC Touch Pro2 on his website that is dissection goodness, you can read the review here.  His review is one of the most in-depth I have read to date and covers everything from the updated calendar and start menu, to the new TouchFlo3D  v2 and how it changes the Windows Mobile game! There are also nearly 2 dozen screenshots of the phone in action. I am hardcore BlackBerry to the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We looked at the Peek wireless email devices back in October of last year. At that time the only thing that seemed a bit off was the price of the service (then $19.95/month and since lowered to $15/mo). Now the updated Peek Pronto is available with lifetime push email (up to 5 email accounts – Windows Live, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Outlook) plus text messaging. With Peek Pronto you get everything Peek packs: unlimited push email, 5 accounts, unlimited texting to cell phones, PeekSocial for Facebook, PeekMaps that lets you track Peeks on a map, PeekFeed for your Twitter and weather and news feeds.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So you’re settling in to another long week and getting into your routine.  Don’t worry, there’ s plenty of Gear Diary goodness coming up to get you through the next seven days.   Before you start getting all misty-eyed over how fast the weekend went by, let’s take a look at some of last week’s highlights. In case you missed it, the Palm Pre has significantly been sliding down in price.  If you’ve been holding out, your timing will certainly pay off.  We thought the $99 Palm Pre price was good.  Then Wayne let everyone know about a deal where you can scoop up a Pre for $55 at Wal-Mart with a rebate + coupon code.   More Pre good news?  Well, it won’t be much longer before the GSM version of the Palm Pre will finally start to hit the streets (the UK, Ireland and Germany should see the GSM Pre first — but we expect a lot of folks to start eyeballing eBay to get early shots at the device on this side of the pond ). Let’s not forget some of the other deals, big wins, and news from last week either…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In the time I have been writing here at Gear Diary, I have made it my mission to find the perfect Bluetooth headset.  Although we have tested dozens of headsets, that quest continues.  In fact, considering the rate at which new headsets are developed, I would not expect this process to reach a conclusion anytime soon.  Today, we will be looking at the Motorola H790, the latest entry in Motorola’s already extensive line of Bluetooth headsets. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

MySims Agents is due tomorrow for the Wii and Nintendo DS. It’s the latest release from the popular MySims line of role playing fantasy games. In this release you start off working as a private detective making ends meet while working out of the back room of a pizzeria. Gradually as you solve more cases you progress through different levels of game play and work your way up to tougher and more interesting cases. Do you like puzzles and games that have a story line? Then MySims Agents is for you! During the EA Blogger day we spent some time with the developers and found that the role playing and clue solving were nicely integrated in a way that was much more than just an afterthought. The games are… Continue reading on Gear Diary …