A few weeks ago I posted a video of Pat Metheny announcing his Orchestrion project. The video – and all of the machinery – were quite cool, but what really matters is the final product. Well, Orchestrion was released on January 26th, and I’ve had the chance to give it several listenings and separate the coolness of the technical accomplishment from the actual musical results.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It took the Android world by storm a few weeks ago…a new style of Android Home Screen. Instead of several desktop style screens with widgets and icons, SlideScreen was only one screen, with sections for missed calls, emails, SMS, weather and time, Twitter, RSS and stocks. All useful stuff, and you could “slide” the weather/time block up or down to expand the information. Francis and I love our Android phones, and thought this had the potential to add a great deal of functionality to our phones, so we each gave it a try. Here was our experience.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you have used a Camangi Webstation, you probably noticed one big issue: the default launcher is sloooooow. It’s also ugly as sin. Luckily, you are not stuck with it forever. Android supports multiple home replacement options, including my personal favorite, Home++. All you need to do is download the program file, or APK, and install it. Once it is installed, hit the home button and select Home++. If you like it, click the “set as default” option, and your homescreen will be set as Home++.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s another item for the “super-cool convergence item” file I’ve got going. The Buffalo Dualie lets you sync and charge your iPhone or iPod while simultaneously backing up or storing digital assets on the integral 500GB portable hard drive. As an added bonus, it offers a brushed-aluminum and black soft-touch two-tone finish. The Dualie works with both the iPhone & the iPod.  In addition to allowing you to store files to its 500 GB hard drive it also offers two USB ports for your other USB powered accessories.  So you get an iPhone/iPod dock, a hard drive and a two-port USB hub all in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo courtesy of Sony Ericsson Product Blog Talk about trying to sneak one in under the radar! Sony Ericcson is announcing a new device, the Aspen, today in the UK. According to the Sony Ericsson Product Blog,”This phone is targeting a business user or the consumer who is really into messaging. With both touch screen and QWERTY keyboard it really ticks all the boxes for fast messaging. It will run on Windows mobile 6.5.3 which delivers a really finger friendly touch experience.” The Aspen is the first phone that I am aware of that is using Windows Mobile 6.5.3, which “will deliver incremental improvement between major releases.” These improvements include: Ease of Use Capacitive touchscreen support Platform to enable multi-touch Touch controls throughout system (no need for stylus) Consistent Navigation Horizontal scroll bar replaces tabs (think settings>system>about screen) Magnifier brings touch support to legacy applications Simplified out-of-box experience with fewer steps Drag and drop icons on Start Screen Browser Performance Page load time decreased Memory management improved> Pan & flick gestures smoothed Zoom & rotation speed increased Quality and Customer Satisfaction Updated runtime tools (.NET CF 3.5, SQL CE 3.1) Arabic read/write document support Watson (error reporting) improvements and bug [...]

It’s time once again for News from the Googlesphere…all Google news, all the time! Google News gets starred:  The star feature in Gmail and Google Reader has always been a great help to those folks who want to go back and re-read something.  The stars highlight the email/post/etc and allow readers to go back.  Well, now Google has added this feature to its Google News.  Now readers can star articles (up to 20) and read them later, at their leisure. Google App Store? Google is looking to ramp up sales of its Google Apps platform by jumping on the App Store bandwagon and developing a online store where it will sell business… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve been reviewing one of Planon’s DocuPen handheld scanners for the past week or so and will have the review up in the next few days. Small enough to carry everywhere, the device lets you quickly and easily create accurate scans on the go. As I said, I’ll have the full review up soon but in the meantime here’s a quick-take: It is a pretty amazing productivity tool. It is accurate. It is fast. It is convenient. It is pricey. Uhm… scratch that. PlanOn’s handheld scanners work quite well but were priced in a range where, once the review unit is shipped back, I was going to be done using their product. Yesterday, however, they dropped the price of their RC805 handheld scanner from $299.99 all the was down to just $159.99. The scanner comes with a leather case, a USB cable, PaperPort SE for Windows users and ABBYY FinerReader OCR for both Windows and Mac users. It scan at 400 dpi and, if the version of the DocuPen that I am reviewing is any indication, it works quite well. At $299.99 the DocuPen RC805 was priced it out of my range. At the new price I may just end [...]

On my recent trip to CES 2010 I flew from Philadelphia, my home, to Las Vegas via my favorite airline, Southwest.  The “no-frills” airline has built a solid reputation on great customer service, always on-time departures and no charges for checking bags. However, I was a little disappointed to see that there was no WiFi available on my cross-country flight.  Many of the other “big” airline companies have added this service and I can only imagine how much faster the the time goes during a 6 hour flight when you’re able to be online. Now that’s all set to change and it looks like next year on my flight… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For years I used a tabletpc– a number of different ones actually. They were amazing productivity tools. I especially loved how the convertible tablet versions could be used as either a standard notebook or a tablet by simply flipping the screen around on itself. Unfortunately, many of those tablets suffered from low power and speed, high cost and short battery life. Oh, and you HAD to use the special pen or the device was mostly useless. Not so today’s deal from our GearSponsor. The HP TouchSmart tm2t is a 12″ convertible tablet and ships with a capacitive multi-touch display. That means you can use the pen OR your fingers to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Apple has updated iTunes to version 9.0.3.  The update is available now via your Mac’s software update tool. The update includes: iTunes 9.0.3 provides a number of important bug fixes, including: • iTunes no longer ignores your “Remember password for purchases” setting. • Addresses problems with syncing some Smart Playlists and Podcasts with iPod. • Resolves a problem recognizing when iPod is connected. • Addresses issues that affect stability and performance. If you’re jailbroken you might want to wait before updating, just to make sure nothing gets broken… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of TomsHardware The common wisdom is – you can’t buy a Mac for less than $1000, the only reason the Mac has such high market share in the >$1000 market is their high prices. Well … wrong and wrong, according to a survey done at Betanews.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Neverwinter Nights is a RPG based on the Dungeons and Dragons rules developed and published by Bioware in 2002. Since then it has been patched, expanded, enhanced, gotten loads of community extensions, and patched some more, and remains a favorite game for module developers and multiplayer gamers alike. But is it something for the netbook gamer? Read on for my review of this RPG classic with a special look at how the original game and all of the commercial expansions play on a netbook.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you are one of the few visitors to GearDiary.com who is not familiar with USBFever.com, now is the time for you to get on board. Literally. Their self-proclaimed “little shop for handheld electronics’ accessories” has just announced a new 4-port USB hub designed like a high-speed “bullet” train. They are also showing a hub based on a steam locomotive but that model is not yet available. The white bullet train hub is USB 2.0 compatible and features an LED indicator light on top of the hub. USBFever.com has some of the coolest gadgets and accessories around, along with some of the most unique. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and what better way to say “I love you” to your geek of a girlfriend than with one of USBFever’s heart-shaped USB hubs or a pair of pink USB-powered heated slippers? Whether your friends and loved ones are wired or wireless, you can always find something they cannot live without at USBFever.com.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

, I admit I am old school and I apologize … for nothing. I learned to type (originally) on a manual typewriter and perfected that craft on an IBM Selectric. I learned to drive in the family station wagon, before I had to wear a seatbelt. I still look forward to receiving the National Geographic magazine in the mail each month (although for slightly different reasons than when I was a young lad), and I get my hair cut by a barber. And I still LOVE Camaros. Sure, I have adopted modern technology into my current lifestyle and life stage, and Camaro has “matured” as well. Deep down inside, though, resides a beating heart yearning for excitement and the ever-fleeting adrenaline rush. If you are asking am I describing myself here or the automobile, the answer is “Yes.”… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Apple may or may not give us the ability to run applications in the background when the iPhone OS 4.0 is released sometime in the coming months. If they do, much of the criticism of both the iPhone and the upcoming iPad will be removed. If they don’t, people will continue to complain — and for good reason. There is no question that the iPad can more than handle having three or four applications running at the same time. In fact, (as the jailbreak app Backgrounder proves) there’s little doubt that the iPhone 3GS would be able to handle it just fine already. If they don’t add background apps, it isn’t the end of the world. (Yes, it makes the iPad far less attractive for many but let’s not go there today — okay?) The truth is, Apple’s push notification system works quite well. It isn’t the same thing, but it DOES work. That doesn’t mean, however, that there are ways in which it could significantly be improved. Here are a few thoughts.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …