AT&T just announced today that starting October 12 they’ll be expanding their unlimited prepaid GoPhone service beyond the cities that were serving as test markets for the last several months. For $60 prepaid monthly subscribers can now have a no contract phone that includes unlimited voice and SMS. This is slightly more expensive than Boost which went unlimited in January 2009 for $50 but pushes subscribers onto the arguably less robust Nextel towers. ATT GoPhone via Engadget and Phonescoop Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Soon temperatures will finally start to cool off here in South Texas and it will finally be time for some serious coffee drinking.  Yes, I know many of you cannot live without your daily dose, but I only drink it when it is cool outside and without caffeine.  First of all, I don’t do caffeine at all, and if I drink coffee everyday the acid starts to bother my stomach.  The Hour Glass Coffee maker produces a low acid coffee extract via a cold brew process.  (hence the title “World’s Coolest Coffee Maker”) The video shows how the system works.  Basically a 12-18 hour brew yields a concentrated extract that stays fresh in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.  Add hot water… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve been looking at iPhone GPS navigation applications for a while now, and  some products need more work, and I’ve seen highly-polished products. One thing that continues to surprise me is that more companies keep jumping into the competition! One of the new entries is GPS Drive from the folks at MotionX. They were kind enough to send me a code for their $2.99 program (which comes with 30 days of live voice guidance) just in time for my semi-annual road trip to visit my mother – about a 1000 mile long trek. So lets take a look at how it did.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Got the mobile app craze?  Need to add to your growing collection of productive cool useful fun apps for your smartphone, but just don’t have the extra greenbacks in your wallet?  Don’t worry, Gear Diary is here to help! You may have noticed that in quite a few of our recent posts, that the Gear Diary Software Store is having a sale.  Now through October 31st, you can grab your favorite Windows Mobile, Palm OS, BlackBerry, Symbian, and even some good ol’ iPhone apps for 15% OFF. There’s no secret handshake… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My son and his Boy Scout council did something really cool at their Day Camp this year.  They made water powered rockets from two liter bottles and launched them in the air.  I don’t know what kind of launcher they used, but odds are it wasn’t the Aquapod. The Aquapod is a futuristic, one piece design plastic bottle launcher made of highly durable ABS plastic. It needs no assembly, just an ordinary bicycle pump, a bottle and water. The Aquapod launches ordinary plastic soda bottles up to 100 feet in the air and is the only launcher available with a built in solid brass check valve to prevent overpressurizing.  All you need is a empty 2 liter bottle Continue reading on Gear Diary …

These Ultrasone HFI-2400s from the German headphone manufacturer of the same name are the flagship headphones in Ultrasone’s famed HFI Series. Distinguished by its airy tone and its modern and elegant design, the HFI-2200s 40mm gold-plated driver provides the finest of three-dimensional sound thanks to Ultrasone’s patented S-Logic™ technology. The HFI-2400 comes outfitted with MU Metal shielding, similar to all other Ultrasone headphones, which reduces the amount of magnetic radiation emitted from standard headphones, up to 98%. Each HFI-2400 comes with a removable three-meter long, straight cable with 6.3 millimeter gold-plated stereo plug, a velvet carrying bag and the Ultrasone demo CD. The new HFI-2400 from Ultrasone has a MSRP of $329 and will be available beginning October/November 2009 from all Ultrasone retailers… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When Windows 7 is released on October 22 quite a few people will need a way to transfer data off their old computers to their shiny new Windows 7 hardware. Belkin announces their Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7 that’s a fast and easy way to get files off one computer and onto another. With a list price of $39 you’ll probably find it worth the money versus other labor intensive choices like backing up your files to a few dozen DVDs and then copying them to your new computer – especially when you consider that the software post-migration report provides a comprehensive view of what was transferred, including lists of all programs and applications installed on old PC and links… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome to another “State of the eBook”. We’ve got some quick news to review, and then a discussion of something that keeps publishers up at night; piracy in ebook-land. Is it an epidemic of music proportions or is it the straw-man argument that publishers use to justify high prices, digital rights management, and slow ebook adoption?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Tell me this isn’t one nice phone. The HTC HD2 (aka HTC Leo) is one of the first to run the 1GHZ Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It’s also packing a 4.3″ WVGA capacitive touchscreen with 5 megapixel autofocus camera. Throw in some multitouch, a little HTC Sense UI and you’ve got a drool worthy device. Slashgear pronounces it impressive, solid and well-built. Expect this in the UK later this month and in the US somewhere by Q1 2010. No word on pricing yet. Take a glance at their video demo at the link below. HTC HD2 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Rarely do I lead a service anymore, (ANY service!) during which at least one cellphone doesn’t go off. It can be a Bar Mitzvah… CELL RINGS! It can be a wedding… CELL RINGS! Or it could even be a funeral… CELL RINGS! I guess it is understandable, after all who would want to miss that all-important call during worship. :sarcasm: This, however, is a very different story about technology and worship…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Gartner group has predicted, via research, that Android based phones will overtake the iPhone and jump into the number 2 position in popularity in as little as two years. Currently the iPhone sits in the number 3 slot behind Blackberry and Symbian.  Gartner further suggests that RIM, makers of the Blackberry, will lose close to 7% of their market share at the same time Android sees a 12.9% increase.  This would leapfrog Android into number 2 and leave the iPhone at number 3.  The loss RIM would take on would cause them to drop down to the 5 spot behind Windows Mobile. These are nothing but predictions, but they are ones which are seriously making me want to try out an Android phone. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Earlier in the week I threw out the following question… What current technology, service or product do you see as totally passé… And why….? The responses were quite interesting and while there was a good deal of agreement there were also some places where our diverse group parted ways. Here are some of the answers… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I had grand plans to do a review of the Nintendo DSi right after I bought it on release day back in April – I was going to take a quick look at the new cameras, SD slot, MP3 player, and the DSiWare store. But at the time I was in the middle of playing one of the better games the DS has seen – Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars, in my opinion the best game in the GTA series – and then I immediately started playing Broken Sword and Black Sigil and … well, time sort of got away, and by then many sites had given their balanced reviews so mine seemed superfluous. But there is still value in an ‘after a while’ look, as we have seen from many great articles at Gear Diary in the past! So instead of a simple ‘how well does it work’ review, I’ll look at how I’ve actually used the DSi over the last few months and what I think scores a hit, and what misses.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You may have read about the plight of StationStops. The application uses train schedules from the New York MTA to create an incredibly useful iPhone train schedule listing for trains going into and out of Grand Central Terminal. At some point the MTA took issue with the use of train schedules in a paid iPhone app. In August, negotiations between StationStops and MTA seeking a licensing agreement for transit data broke down, resulting in MTA Marketing and Legal departments sending a cease and desist to Apple. Well fortunately the two parties have worked out their differences and StationStops is once again back in the iTunes app store. If you’re looking for a train schedule for New York MTA – this… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It seems just like yesterday that Apple released its 3.1 upgrade for the iPhone OS.  Today the’ve followed it up with the release of OS verson 3.1.2 Changes are as follows: So open up iTunes, plug in your device and get upgrading.  If you don’t see the upgrade notification come up automatically be sure to click the “check for upgrades” button in iTunes.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …