(Photo courtesy phandroid) Paranoid about your personal data on your smartphone? You probably set the pattern lock on your Droid and figured you’d be all set. And you are…until you get a phone call.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

While in Las Vegas, the Gear Diary CES team had the privilege of seeing the Google Nexus One cell phone live and in color. Most of us were quite taken by it.  Dan and Judie so much so that they went on to order one that same night.  They never received their phones though.  The next-day delivery Google promised never happened, and the phones were scheduled to be delivered after we left Vegas.  In the end, the deliveries were refused and the phones sent back. Dan departed Las Vegas headed for Mexico without reordering his Nexus One. He recently messaged me that he may call upon me to  reorder him another Nexus One while… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I been using the EyeTV Hybrid for some time now to  stream live TV from my cable connection to my iPhone as well as watch cable TV on my iMac. But I realize this sort of situation isn’t for everyone as it requires a direct cable connection from the outside to the EyeTV hybrid. Elgato has announced another television tuner for the Mac, the EyeTV One. It’s specifically designed to work with a digital antenna to deliver free, over-the-air HD broadcasts to your computer.  This  means you won’t need to have a dedicated cable connection to take advantage of EyeTV’s software offerings. Elgato has long been in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Still looking for a reason to jailbreak?  Infinidock is an incredibly helpful utility for the iPhone OS.  In my opinion it might just be the most useful add-on application released for the iPhone to date. The concept is quite simple.  Infinidock  allows you to place any number of icons (up to 10) in your dock. And then turns your dock into its very own springboard allowing you to swipe and scroll through the various icons. You may also, in the settings, configure, the number of icons you see on your dock by default. For example, if you place 10 icons in your dock, but set the default number of icons to five, you’ll have created… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of CouponSherpa Gluttony used to to be considered a ‘deadly sin’ … now it is a reality show! It started with televising professional eating challenges, but now each night we can tune in to see shows like Man vs. Food where someone takes on a famous local eating challenge. Just in time for everyone to start breaking that New Year’s resolution to eat better, CouponSherpa has rounded up 41 different food challenges to cause you intestinal distress! Here is a sample: 14. Kooky Canuck Location: Memphis, Tennessee Food Challenge: We dare you to try and eat the entire Kookamonga Burger. This monstrous burger includes four-pounds of ground chuck, two-pounds of bun, 1.5-pounds of Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Okay, so the title is a bit off. Sure our GearSponsor can save you $150 on this new 14.1-inch HP Pavilion dv4i Core i5 notebook but fact is, this Gear Deal can actually save you up to $209. Available in Espresso Black or Moonlight White (for a $29 upgrade) this deal offers a free upgrade to 3GB DDR3 memory, $50 off Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007, a free upgrade to 4 years of Lojack (from a one year purchase) and $60 off any wireless HP printer. This deal starts at $949.99 but discounts the price by $150. This nabs the base system for just $799.99. It even includes FREE shipping. And what do you get for $799.99? A nicely outfitted… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

While in Vegas, Dan and I received emails about an upcoming VIP program offered by Camangi, makers of the previously unboxed and discussed Camangi WebStation. As you may recall, Dan and I took a leap of faith when we pre-ordered our Camangis; the company was new, we didn’t know for sure that the product would even ship, and it didn’t arrive exactly as soon as promised. After receiving the units, we quickly decided that the WebStation was being incorrectly marketed — in fact, we felt it might even be incorrectly named. The Camangi is an excellent and responsive eReader. It is not however, an end-all-be-all tablet for surfing or data entry; as long as you understand its limitations going in, it may be a great option. But I digress. Partly because we were busy with CES, and partly because the original email’s terms seemed a little bit open to interpretation, I didn’t really give them a second thought. This morning I received confirmation that the program was a “go”, as well as a more complete invitation to join.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

… or was that WA RTY TOWELS … or perhaps WATERY FOWLS … or maybe even FLAY OTTERS? Whatever the sign outside said, you knew that once inside the lobby you were in for some hilarious and cringe-worthy shenanigans with Basil Fawlty and the rest of the gang! Now you can enjoy all twelve episodes in a three-disk collection that also includes gobs of extras!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Photo Courtesy of NewLuxuryItems OK, so maybe it is the fact that I have been married since before laptops with color screens, the web, IM, texting … or before the stone age as far as our kids are concerned, but when I saw the numbers it took my breath away. Since a couple of folks here are anticipating upcoming nuptials, I thought it appropriate to look at just how much folks are paying for weddings around the country according to an article at BridePop.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(image courtesy Textbook Exchange) Textbooks are crazy expensive. Somehow, information that hasn’t changed in years gets more valuable each semester, despite the number of previous editions! No, I’m not bitter that I had to buy 6 different versions of Plato’s Republic in college, why do you ask? And don’t get me started on the slow acceptance of e-textbooks, or the dismal failure of the Kindle DX in its trial run at a handful of colleges. Barnes and Noble isn’t quite going so far as to hand out nooks full of textbooks (how cool would that be?!), but they are offering a textbook rental program at select colleges. If you’re too lazy to resell… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Photo courtesy of Boxee If you dont know what Boxee is, well now’s the best time to learn. Boxee software is now a public beta download, and allows you to watch almost any content on your pc or internet directly on your TV. The free download software is based on XBMC Media Center code, and contains both open and closed source code. Boxee recently switched gears and decided to team up with D-link and Nvidia make a small, simple, but powerful hardware based solution called the Boxee Box.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you were waiting for the Nexus One backlash, it has arrived. There have been loads of complaint articles and flooded forum postings over the last week about various issues, now the all-too-common complaint about network speed is hitting the new Google phone.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(photo courtesy Boy Genius Report) Boy Genius put up an editorial over the weekend that seemed custom-made to incite fanboys. Essentially, he eviscerated Android for not being human (?), having a non-uniform UI, and because he couldn’t figure out how to cut and paste. Now, it’s very likely that BG and I don’t see eye to eye here because, well, he uses a lot more phones than me. I’ve never touched a Blackberry, though in the last year I’ve used an e71x (Symbian),  a Samsung Epix (Windows Mobile Pro), a Samsung Propel Pro (Windows Mobile Standard) and an iPhone. So I am familiar with what’s out there…and if I had to rank them, it would be awfully close with the iPhone versus Android. Given this past week, and the amount of work I completed on my Droid, I’d even give Android the lead in that race. So what’s Boy Genius’s issue with Android, and where do I differ? Let’s look at his main arguments.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Photo courtesy of Lenovo on Flickr Lenovo took some serious recognition from CES this year winning CNET’s Best of Show this year with the Hybrid U1 laptop/slate. Looks like the beginning of a Hybrid type legacy with the new shots of the Lephone Lenovo Smartphone. This super slick new phone snaps in to the keyboard/dock to give you the option of touchscreen only or full QWERTY flip. The phone takes some resemblance of a few other models out from HTC & Motorola with the slim body and oval looking case. The keyboards circular pattern is the first I have  seen like it with a center mounted D-pad style layout. This could be the answer to those currently on the fence… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome to the special CES Edition of State of the eBook! As everyone has reported, there was a huge onslaught of eBook reading devices this year, from dedicated e-ink devices to tablets! What does this mean for the eBook market? Let’s find out!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …