Into the already-crowded field of iPad cases comes another one, this time from Quirky.  The Quirky Cloak is a non-slip hard rubber case with hard plastic hinges for your iPad.  It folds shut to cover the front of your iPad, and (as you can see in the photos) gives you the capability to stand your iPad up in either portrait or landscape mode.  The case itself is a slip-type case, and your iPad is held in place by (as Quirky says) a “firm friction grip”.  Truth to tell, it looks pretty good. If it looks good to you, check it out.  It’s available from Quirky (and you have to love that name) for a sale MSRP of $42.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Hope everyone had a great “Read an eBook Week“! We had some great entries to our JAVOEdge Kindle 2 case giveaway, and three winners were picked at random. Congratulations to Andrew_Lee, LouiseB, and ErinLindsey524! Please email me at carly(at)geardiary(dot)com with your mailing address so we can send you your case! Now get to reading all those free and cheap ebooks you downloaded last week!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When Larry posted about the Case-Mate Mohogany Wood Case, I was smitten — there’s no other way to put it. I loved the look of the rich red wood on the iPhone, and I was thrilled when he sent it to me after the review was complete. I used the heck out of that case, even though it added quite a bit of bulk to my iPhone, and even though it had a flaw which turned out to be fatal. It wasn’t evident from the beginning that the lack of a cutout might be a problem, but because the bottom had to be removed every time I needed to charge my iPhone, it quickly became one. As anyone with an iPhone 3GS knows, the phone must be charged daily, so this happened often. The vertical grain of the case’s wood — the same grain that made the case so striking — played into the problem. The bottom of the case had to be grasped when being removed, and over time I eventually snapped off the bottom right edge — right along the beautiful vertical wood grain. I tried repairing the case several times, but each time it would eventually break [...]

I usually need several types of productivity and reminder applications. Tasks need either alarms or some sort of agenda view or I won’t remember them, but they need to have a date. Floating tasks tend to be forgotten and languish on my lists for days or weeks. To combat this, I’ve usually relied on the old “email it to myself” trick. I also leave myself voicemails and even use old fashioned sticky notes. It looks like I may have found a high tech solution to my issues; is it more effective than my various low-tech strategies? Read on to find out! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I now come to the conclusion of my reviews of the Jedi Knight series (see my Netbook Gamer reviews of the original Star Wars Jedi Knight, the Mysteries of the Sith expansion, and the Jedi Knight II and Jedi Academy sequels) with the game that started it all – 1995′s Star Wars Dark Forces.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(image courtesy myce.com) I had a RadioShack gift card from an old electronics trade-in; I found it while cleaning my home office. The question, of course, was how to spend it before I misplaced it again. Since I can count on two fingers the number of times I’ve been in a Radio Shack in several years, I tossed the question to the Gear Diary team: What would you do with a Radio Shack gift card?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I am pleased to announce that we have a winner of the Toshiba 640GB Portable Hard Drive we recently featured in a giveaway …Congratulations timtim! :mrgreen… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

AT&T fans this might be the moment you’ve been waiting for.  I tried the Nexus One when it first came out but was bothered that it restricted me to EDGE only when using it with my AT&T SIM card.  I ended up picking up a T-Mobile pre-paid SIM card so I could enjoy 3G but was very disappointed in their coverage in my area. Well today Google’s Nexus One page has been updated. Now you have the choice of purchasing your fully unlocked Nexus One for either: T-Mobile (3G/UMTS bands (900/AWS/2100 MHz) and four GSM radio frequencies (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)) OR… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Looks like Spring Design isn’t DOA just yet. Today the company announced pre-orders for the Alex Reader (though the site still says coming soon), but a few things were missing. -No word in the press release on the Borders partnership announced at CES. Engadget says Spring Design confirmed it is still on for June in Borders stores, but that’s a very long time to wait. The only reason I can think of for a delay like that is that the Borders version will have extra features or special branding; otherwise why restrict sales to online-only through the spring? -The price started at $399 at CES, dropped to $359, and is now back to $399. Awfully steep, considering on the high end is the iPad, in the mid-range there’s the kindle and the nook, and on the lower end there’s an army of cheap Android devices. Alex needs to be mind blowing to slide in between these at that price! Gear Diary has inquired with Spring Design’s reps, so check back soon for the answers to these questions. In the meantime, read the press release below and then let us know if you have your credit card at the ready!… Continue reading [...]

Image Via People Okay it’s confession time.  I used to watch the MTV show “The Hills“.  Yes, I watched the first few seasons.  I’ve stopped, really I have.  I swear.  But I do still like to keep up on the Hollywood gossip, following the tabloids and paparazzi. According to People Magazine, Spencer Pratt who made his name as the guy audiences loved to hate on The Hills, now says he’s leaving the show to take his career in a totally new – and unexpected – direction. If you don’t know Spencer, he’s also the husband/manger of Heidi Montag, who’s been in the news lately discussing… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You know those really cool home theaters, like the ones they show on MTV Cribs, with the slick leather recliners, 1000″ screen, popcorn machine and special lights?  Yeah, I wish I was wealthy enough to afford one too.  Sigh, maybe in my next life. Well here’s a neat way to make your own home theater using your iPhone or iPod Touch and you don’t have to be a billionaire Hollywood starlet to do it.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo credit: gwen I was listening to Spark Radio the other night, and when I heard a song that I liked a lot. I jumped over to the iTunes application on my iPhone and purchased the song for $.99. The next day I was thinking to myself that perhaps the rest of the album was worth getting. (Yes, I am old enough to be one of those people who actually likes to own an entire album instead of individual singles.) So I went over to iTunes I saw that it was available for $9.99. I was about to purchase it when I stopped for moment and thought to myself… “Self, maybe I should check out Amazon and see what they charge for the download.” I did just that and discovered that it was available on Amazon.com for a good bit less. In fact, the same album that iTunes had for $9.99 I could purchase for $7.99. The exact same album and it was two dollars less. An oddity, right? Well not quite. And it got me wondering… was the price differential a fluke or a normal every day thing… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Each day our GearSponsor brings us a great deal on something. One day it is a computer, the next a camera but it is always something good. In fact just the other day one of the deals was so good that I jumped on it right after posting. (The unboxing/review will be up shortly.) The deals can save you ten, twenty, thirty percent or more. That’s great but there is no deal better than… FREE. Here’s one example. GameFly is to gaming what Netflix is to movies. For a flat monthly fee you can “rent” over 7,000 game titles for XBOX 360, PS3, PSP, Wii and PS2. You… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

WebIS’ Pocket Informant is one one of my most used, most depended on iPhone apps. I use it for managing my calendar and, thanks to its integration with web-based Toodledo, my tasks. The app was a bit late to the iPhone game but when it was finally released it hit the ground running. Numerous updates later it is most functional, more stable and easier to use than ever. With an iPad arriving on April 3 it only seemed logical to wonder about WebIS’ plans for bringing the app to the iPad. Sure, from day one the iPhone version will work on Apple’s newest device but with so much additional screen real estate I can only imagine what founder Alex Kac and his team might cook up. I decided to stop wondering and asked Alex about his plans. Here’s what he told me… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo credit: benleto photo credit: ClockworkGrue I’ll make this short and sweet… Last week, at least according to the best estimates we can make, Apple sold about 25,000 iPads per hour. According to CrunchGear the number was about 120,000 pre-orders in the first day alone. That’s pretty impressive. Then again, as many of you have read elsewhere already, the original iPhone had no pre-order but sold 200,000 units the first day and the iPhone 3GS apparently saw “hundreds of thousands” of pre-orders. So what does this tell us about the fortunes of the iPad? NOT A THING! Seriously, the numbers that we have for iPad sales tells us nothing about whether or not the device will be a hit. Here’s why.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …