Ladies, a question for you.  You have just started dating someone new. He is cute, sweet, funny, and smart.  He laughs at your jokes.  He is attentive.  He even opens the door for you.  You enjoy each other’s company. So far, so good.  You really don’t want to mess this up.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The iconic iPod earbuds are either hated or loved depending on the person.  Either you love them because they fit your ear well or you hate them because they hurt your ears.  Yurbuds aims to change that with their new earbud enhancers.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My favorite iPhone cases are those that are more a hard shell than a case. They take a minimalist approach to scratch protection and while they don’t offer much, if any, protection from life’s bumps and bruises, these snap-on cases don’t add much weight or bulk to the device. That’s a trade-off I’m willing to make. The latest snap-on shell I have been reviewing is a case from Konnet. The HardJAC Graffito is a three part-system that I really love using. (Well, more accurately loved since someone took a liking to it yesterday and, as a result, it is now his.)  Let’s take a look.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today we are introducing a new series entitled “It’s The Next Best Thing To Being There”. In it we’ll share stories of ways in which tech lets of make and maintain connections with one another. After reading Dan’s post yesterday, I wanted to share my own tech moment with everyone. My grandparents are in their mid-80s.  Traveling isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world for them to do anymore. Neither one of them can sit in a car for hours on end.  And airplane travel?  This is not even an option for my grandmother. Her health issues simply won’t allow for it and her doctor has pretty much forbidden her to do it.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A lot of people are going to a laptop only computing experience.  There are even some that are going to a netbook only experience as a netbook is all they need.  Sometimes, however, it is nice to have a screen that is bigger than what a netbook can provide.  The same can be said about the touchpad and the keyboard.  Wouldn’t it be nice to plop your laptop or netbook down and have it attached to a 24 inch LCD?  That’s where this dock comes in.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The iPhone is constantly getting knocked for its inability to run applications in the background. Well if you’re jailbroken have I got the solution for you. Check out this video on three applications that when run together make for the ultimate background running experience. Special thanks to Patrick at Just Another iPhone Blog for the heads up about mQuickDo. If you’re interested in the applications shown in the video – mQuickDo, Backgrounder, Notifier. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yahoo’s Go service has left the building.  Yahoo is shutting down the Java client based service because they say its easier to do everything through a web browser. Yahoo Go was a way to have all of Yahoo’s services in one easy to use application. It offered offered news, mail, weather, traffic, and Yahoo! search from a mobile device.  Developers could create widgets that would plug into the client, adding more functions and features.  At the time of its launch, it was a trend setter. But, now, Go is obsolete. Yahoo has branched off into different directions, following the lead of Google, Facebook, etc. Yahoo Go will be shutdown on January 12, 2010. It was… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Context is everything. I hadn’t touched SiN since replaying SiN Gold when it was released for the Mac in 2000. Then they released the first ‘episode’ of SiN Episodes, called ‘Emergence‘ in 2006, which came with a Steam copy of ‘SiN 1′ as it was called. Naturally I played some then as I waited for the release of the episode, but didn’t make it all the way through. Since it is now more than ten years since the original release, I thought it only appropriate that I should do a Retrospective for a franchise that has spent its’ life in the shadow of Half Life.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Shakespeare is rolling in his grave again.  My English teacher in high school is breaking his red pencils.  ”Unfriend” has entered the New Oxford American Dictionary.  It beat out words “netbook”, “hashtag” and “sexting” to take this year’s annual honor. To “unfriend” is “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.”  And yes, they said Facebook. There has been a trend over the last few years of picking words and phrases that are prevalent in our digital word. It all started with Merriam Webster adding “blog” to their dictionary back in 2004. I am of two minds bout this.  The part of me who graduated with an English degree from… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The rumor mill is buzzing about the possible launch of an Android handset that is actually designed BY Google. We heard this rumor before the launch of Android but now it makes much more sense. Here’s why…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Wednesday is the new Monday, right? Well, to help you get through those mid-week hump day blues we’ve got this week’s roundup of Gear Diary highlights.   In the rapid-fire of updates that hit the site, there’s a pretty good chance you may have missed something.  Perhaps you didn’t get a chance to leave comments and well wishes Gear Diary’s own Wayne Schulz (that’s him, in bobble-head form in the picture above).  While Wayne takes a break (we’re still not going to say “leaving”), you can catch a daily dose of Schulz right on WayneSchulz.com and on Twitter.   Don’t forget there are 2,074 AWESOME posts from Wayne that shaped the Gear Diary site since November 2007.  Senior Editor extraordinaire indeed! Last week also unveiled the official Gear Diary iPhone application, developed by Anthony Geranio.  The app lets you keep up with the latest Gear Diary updates, as well as view the editor’s Twitter feeds and Gear Diary YouTube videos. You can get the Gear Diary iPhone app  right here — and best of all, it’s free!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the Windows Mobile Weekly Roundup series. Last week, Microsoft released an update to their Marketplace for Windows Mobile application, which fixes some security bugs, bringing consumers better experiences with the application. Let’s get started with this week’s roundup, starting with the Featured Software of the Week! Featured Software of the Week This week’s featured software would be SPB’s Mobile Shell 3.5. This application has always been one of the best looking Today Screen replacements for Windows Mobile. The combination of a slick interface and some light, handy shortcuts led for a much more pleasing user experience. Each incarnation improved greatly upon the last and this update is no slacker.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Games on Social Networking sites such as Facebook are all the rage – when I check in on Facebook my home page is filled with information at how my various friends are progressing in things like Mafia Wars or Farmville. Similarly, there are plenty of fun games that folks play on MySpace, others that are Flash-based Web games, and still others that folks play on their iPhone. The problem – leaving one social network means leaving that game behind. But now that has changed – read on to find out!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For all you folks who are on Windows Mobile devices and love the Opera web browser, today is your lucky day.  The beta of version 10 of the browser is out and available for download. The new features: New interface that makes it easy to use and navigate. A new Speed Dial that lets you have your most accessed sites available at the click of a button. Tabbed browsing for having multiple sites open at the same time. A password manager to save those web site passwords. Touchscreen or keypad navigation. Save images to show folks offline later. Opera Turbo to offload your page rendering to one of Opera’s servers Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The sixth annual SPB Survey is now online and they want your opinion. The SPB Survey is a questionnaire that captures user preferences and builds up a combined report that identifies the changing user profiles, mobile device expectations and the handset use cases. This report is expected to be released in early December 2009. The survey will last until 7 p.m. GMT December 4th, with results expected to be publicly available by December 17th. Lucky SPB Survey participants will receive valuable “thank you” gifts (Prizes listed below). All winners will be contacted with details on how to claim their prizes before December 20th, 2009. Grand prize— a mobile device of winner’s choice + Continue reading on Gear Diary …