The Verizon droid has gathered a great deal of attention over the past few days.  It’s something that Dan I’ve been talking up quite a bit. Dan has tried a number of Android devices and really likes the operating system.  So I stopped by Verizon wireless store earlier today and tried it myself. There’s no doubt that it’s a nice piece of hardware, it felt great in the hand, sturdy, and the screen was bright and easy on the eyes.  But I couldn’t help but feel like the Droid ran slow.  I called Dan on my way home and told him so.  To which he remarked something to the effect of “I can’t believe… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Zagg, makers of the ultra popular iPhone protective skin, The Invisible Shield, has announced major plans for expansion of their product line. *App Space – AppSpace.com – “with so many apps available in the iTunes App Stores it’s often hard to find apps that you’re searching for or new ones that you might enjoy.  App Space is a search engine that combines social media to make finding those applications easy. *ZAGGskins – Zagg brings the popular invisibleShield to a whole new level with ZAGGskins.  You’ll be able to pick from hundreds of patterns or upload your own picture to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Honestly? It’s not like I was going anywhere. I mean, my entire life seems to be managed by Google these days, and it only seemed right to upgrade and support a company that usually treats me so nicely …well, except when their Exchange ActiveSync isn’t working properly, but sheesh! It’s free! How can I complain without seeming completely ungrateful? Anyway. This was waiting in my inbox this afternoon, and it was a pleasant surprise. Thank you Google, you are pretty darn cool. … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Woot.com, is a very popular, ‘deal a day’ website that is known for having great prices for one item per day.  They stay on sale from midnight (West Coast Time) until midnight the next day or until they run out of stock.  Products tend to lean toward tech such as GPS, computers, etc but a variety is out there. Since starting they’ve added kids.woot.com for kids oriented stuff sellout.woot.com which is basically a second daily deal but done in conjunction with Yahoo!. wine.woot.com … Self explanatory shirt.woot.com for daily cool shirts There are numerous copycat websites, although none seem to have the quality of the deal they have and they don’t have the sense of humor woot does in their product listings.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As November rolls on the deals will soon be coming. Yes, Black Friday is on the way. But the deals are here already… From now to November 16th, you can get $20 of any purchase of $100 when you use PayPal to make an online purchase at Best Buy. Best Buy?? PayPal?? Yup, Best Buy online now takes PayPal. And for the next few days you can save $20 on purchases over $100… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There are hundreds of iPhone cases available in the marketplace right now.  Many fall into the same category.  Mid-price range, plastic or silicone materials, decent protection and no custom options.  Not the case with the Leather Flip Case from Shinnorie. The Shinnorie case falls into a class almost all by itself.  Hand crafted from ultra high quality leather the flip case can be custom built to your specifications.  It wraps your iPhone in a soft protective cocoon yet still allowing full access to your device when you need it. You might think all this custom work and expensive materials come with a super high price tag.  You’d be wrong.  The Shinnorie Leather Flip Case brings custom design to the consumer for a very affordable price. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In this, the second edition of “Look Ma No Hands, Voice Recognition Technology Today” we’ll take a look at getting started with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 10 Professional. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Standard has an MSRP of $99. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred has an MSRP of $199… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Will Wright’s 2008 PC game Spore was hyped to the point where anything that was actually released couldn’t help but disappoint. The publishers also made some arrogant claims regarding their DRM that led to the game being quickly cracked and becoming one of the most pirated games of the year. The game offered an amazingly deep creation system but the ‘anything is possible’ shine quickly wore off as gamers worked through the chapters. Yet after all of the hype and backlash … what we were left with was a very good game that offered loads of fun. Similarly there were complaints about the very limited scope of the offshoots on the Nintendo DS and iPhone, but they were loads of fun for what they offered. Now EA has released new games in the Spore franchise for the DS and Wii. There are enough differences that I’ll review them separately, and let you know if they are worth buying or are an attempt to cash in on a popular name at the start of the Holiday shopping season.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve always admired those lap top stand which sit on your desk and allow you to place your notebook computer on them for better and more ergonomic viewing angles.  But what happens when you leave your desk?  Most of these stands won’t fit in your gear bag and therefore you have to leave them at home. Enter AViiQ and their Portable Laptop Stand.  The stand, which works with all laptops, including 17″ wide models, easily folds down to 1/4″ for total portability and ease of storage.  It’ll simply slide into your laptop sleeve or case. The stand also keeps your computer at a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We are all feeling the financial pinch!    Blue Plate Special is a weekly review of bargain apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Nothing over $.99. Sudoku is a terribly addictive number puzzle game.  The object is to fill in 9×9 grid using numbers 1 through 9 as well as filling them into a 3×3 region with no numbers repeating in rows or columns.  Before the iPhone days, I was hooked on on sudoku playing the puzzles on with pencil and paper.  I even used to carry around a little sudoku puzzle book in my bag so I could play when there was a spare moment.  My sudoku play tends to attempt to work quickly and I rarely stop before finishing a puzzle.  The iPhone has changed all of this allowing for easily played and carried games.  Sudoku (free) has met my appetite for the game for almost a year.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

OWC (Other World Computing) has announced a $500 price reduction and expanded options on the Axiotron Modbook, what they call “the world’s only Mac-based tablet computer that lets users draw and write directly on the screen.” Custom configured 13.3″ Modbook tablets now start from $1,599 with a standard Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz processor, 2GB of memory, 160GB internal hard drive, an 8X Dual-Layer SuperDrive, Airport Extreme 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth, and Mac OS 10.6.x “Snow Leopard” installed. Exclusively for OWC customers, a built in WAAS enabled GPS is also included for no additional cost. Customers may also custom configure their Modbook with up to 6GB of memory, Solid State Drives (SSD) up to 256GB… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

How many times have you said to yourself, “if I could make my own phone case or lap top bag, here’s how I’d do it…..” Well alkr, a new company is doing just that.  They bill themselves as not only marketing and design folks but first and foremost “gadget freaks”. After traveling the globe and seeing countless plain jane, boring bags they decided lap top cases could use a little more excitement. The company is getting set to release its very first offering in the form of a colorful new line of lap top cases designed to fit 13″ or 15″ lap… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Lenovo is just starting to ship their 11.6-inch Lenovo IdeaPad U150 LED-backlit Laptop (690968U). It comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS, Pentium Dual-core SU4100 1.3GHz; 3GB DDR3; 11.6″ HD WXGA LED. GearSponsor LogicBuy spotted a coupon code (USPBANNERS) that lets you buy it for $699 – 10% off coupon = $629.10 plus FREE shipping. The newest U-series ultra-portable from Lenovo is 0.75″ thin and under 3lbs. To get this deal follow the link below and be sure to let us know how you like it! Lenovo IdeaPad U150 $629 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Oh, poor, poor BlackBerry users.  Alwasy watching their iPhone-toting friends run Urbanspoon to find some new restaurant.   Well, the sad days are over!   The team over at Xtreme Labs has brought the popular app over to the BlackBerry platform.  That’s right, now you too can use this app to find your next restaurant via the “slot machine” method — just press the Space key on QWERTY/SureType BlackBerry keyboards or, if you have a Storm, just shake the device.  The app will let you select the neighborhood, cuisine, and price that you’re interested in to give you the very best matches based on your location. Look for Urbanspoon to be available in BlackBerry App… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I had to share this example of fantastic customer service. A friend of mine is an avid runner, and for her birthday I bought her a RoadID gift certificate, to be delivered electronically to GMail account.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …