Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Wow … what a big week! We have the third entry into the classic Playstation-exclusive God of War franchise (the first two are two of the best PS2 games made, and the PSP version is in the top few games for THAT console!), and also the next entries into the amazingly long-lasting Pokemon franchise, Pokemon HeartGold Version and Pokemon SoulSilver Version, and much more.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One thing that came along for the ride with the introduction of the XBOX360 is late 2005 was the ability to add post-release ‘downloadable content’, or DLC. DLC was different from the ‘expansion packs’ PC gamers were familiar with as it was smaller and more focused, and able to be delivered much more quickly and at a lower price. The system is attractive to publishers since it allows fast turn-around on the product as well as higher profits, but through the reuse of existing assets; it is attractive to gamers because it allows for frequent and inexpensive updates to favorite games. But as always, there is a dark side … … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I came across this picture over at Howard Forums and couldn’t help but laugh at what the person had named his/her iPhone and what happened when it was “syncing”  (look at the text at the top-middle ) Then I thought about it and wondered, how many people even know that the name of their iPhone or iPod can be changed?  Or how many of you, in the excitement of setting up your new device simply left the default name in the set up box when you first synced it with iTunes? If you’re tired of seeing your beloved device showing up in iTunes as “iPhone 3Gs” or “iPhone” and would rather give your phone a more fitting moniker read on for the quick tutorial. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve been using the Swype beta on my Droid for about a week. The only reason I tried it out when I heard the beta was opened was because I hate the soft keyboard for Android. Despite owning my Droid for a few months, I struggle once I get past a few sentences on the soft keys, and usually pop the hard keyboard out for any serious typing. Yes, I am one of the 4 Droid owners who actually likes the hard keyboard!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So, you’ve got your new Strat, your supply of pics, your cables, your cool shades, and your rock-star haircut.  You’re ready to start whacking away on your axe and compose this century’s answer to “Gloria” or “Satisfaction” or “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.  (Or even “Baby Got Back.”)  Problem is, your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/mom stole your amp, or worse, didn’t even allow you to buy one (or worse, took it away and hid it).  Now what? USB Fever‘s USB Guitar Link Cable, that’s what.  This little doohicky allows you to plug your guitar directly into your laptop (either PC or Mac), turning it into an amp, or a recording studio if you like.  Plug this baby in, plug in your headphones to the audio jack on your laptop, and deafen yourself to your heart’s content.  Because let’s face it:  we all have laptops these days. Available from USB Fever for an MSRP of $39.99.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It has been inevitable for quite some time. At some point there would be a merger of a high quality point and shoot with an HD pocket camcorder into one small device that does both still and hidef video without major compromise on either one. Well that’s just what Sony has done with the brand new DSC-HX5V. Better still, it come in at a more than reasonable price thanks to the deal our GearSponsor has tracked down. The Sony DSC-HX5V is a small package but packs a good deal of punch. It has a 10.2 megapixel camera, anti-motion blur mode, “intelligent sweep panorama mode” (this looks awesome!!), 10fps image capture and the ability… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My town flooded today. Not like a foot of water type flood…as in, enough water that the rescue crews needed to use a boat to get around the downtown. My neighbor says he saw the emergency management crew using a jet ski at one point! To my fiancée, Sarah, and our neighbors, this is just part of living in Bound Brook. The town has flooded before, in 1999 and 2007, and they’ve learned a bit from past experiences. Luckily our house is above the flood zone, but down the street from us is not so lucky. Over the course of today, which started with griping about rain, then turned into the power being out, followed by the Raritan River making a surprise guest appearance in my neighborhood, I began to realize there are a few things in life I am distinctly grateful for…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Never mind the scrapers! Those who subscribe to Gear Diary’s RSS know that for the longest time we have used an abbreviated or truncated feed. If you read a bit and liked what you saw, then you could click the link and come see the rest of the article on the main site. The biggest reason we did this was because in the site’s early days we started off with a full feed — which was promptly scraped and reposted on various other sites around the net. That led to truncating the feed and at least having the knowledge that when our feeds were scraped the resulting post would automatically have… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Remember the Plastic Logic Que? It was quite the hit at CES, with a thin form factor, plastic touchscreen, and full suite of productivity options to go along with its ebook reading capabilities. It was pricey, at $649 for a WiFi-only version and $799 for a 3G+WiFi option. Still, it was unusual enough that it generated a great deal of buzz. Anyone who pre-ordered a Plastic Logic Que Reader received this email on Friday: Dear _____, Thank you for being one of the first customers to order a QUE proReader from Plastic Logic. We appreciate your business. Today, I wanted to personally inform you that we are postponing the first QUE proReader shipments until this Summer in order to fine-tune the features and enhance the overall product experience. Within the next month we will send you an email with more details about your order. If you also ordered accessories for your QUE proReader, we plan to ship them at the same time as your QUE proReader. I can imagine that you want to get your QUE proReader as soon as possible. We are sorry for the delay. For your inconvenience, the shipping charges will be on us. Please note that [...]

- Okay time for a little Gear Diary fun.  Do you friends, family or co-workers often make an “asses” out of themselves? Do you wish you could tell them just how big of an ass they made? Well thanks to JackassFace for the iPhone OS you can. With JackassFace you can take a photo (from your photo album or on camera equipped iPhones, snap a photo), and then using your finger, drag, pinch/zoom, to place your friend’s face where it belongs- in the face of a photo of a real ass. The application gives you four different “asses” to choose from and you simply choose the image you want to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Manpacks is… the Netflix of underwear. (As opposed to Underoos… “the underwear that’s fun to wear!!”) Manpacks is a subscription service for underwear. Yes, you read that right. With Manpacks you sign up for a skivvies refresh every three months. That way just about the time they are wearing out, shrinking to nothing, or… (use your imagination). Anyway, just when you need them, new underwear show up in your mailbox… Yes, this is a real eCommerce company that is intended for the bachelor single man guy among us. Seriously. Really. Has it really come to this? We need a subscription tighty-whiteys??? As my grandmother never said, “Oy vey!” There are four different subscription levels… and what levels they are…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

picture courtesy of Wikipedia It’s one of my favorite times of the year – when we lose an hour by setting our clocks forward, but in return we gain sunlight during the later hours of the day. Yes, tonight marks the beginning of Daylight Savings Time! I realize that its origins are controversial, and you can argue all you’d like about the many cons and inconveniences of setting one’s clock forward, but for me it’s all worth it. So say goodbye to darkness at 6pm, say adios to any remnants of seasonal affective depression … and say hello to spring’s longer days and the promise of the upcoming summer.  … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I ordered a 64 GB iPad because I have long subscribed to the belief that you should always order and purchase the device with the largest amount of memory that you can afford. (The only exception to this comes into play when you’re purchasing a new notebook. In that case I believe that you should only order an SSD drive, but still… the largest solid-state drive that you can.) So I ordered a 64 GB iPad. It should be a good amount of space, and will likely hold me for quite some time. Then again, if I end up loading a lot of apps, docs, books, music and video, even 64GB might fall short of my needs at some point. That’s where Seagate’s DockStar (currently on sale for $79.99) can come in rather handy. While not specifically an iPad accessory (it can expand the storage of any device and currently does just that for my iPhone), with the ways in which I plan on using the iPad it promises to play an even more significant role after April 3. Best of all, the potentially limitless storage it promises isn’t all that expensive, it works beautifully, and it is easy to [...]

If you’ve ever tried to grow a beard you know the first few weeks are the toughest part.  Why?  It itches!  New hairs growing in on your face can be bothersome not only to you but to your family members as well.  I’ve let my beard grow before, sometime just out of laziness on the weekend, other times just for fun, but my family members often complain that it’s scratchy.  Especially when my daughters ask for a good-night kiss and my wife often catches me scratching and pawing at my scruffy face. I recently stumbled across Bluebeard Original, who makes products for the “bearded man.”  They company is located less than five miles from my home.  Not too long ago I started to let my beard grow in so I figured I’d give their stuff a try. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Apple’s iPad page yesterday snuck in some new information about iBooks; specifically, that you won’t be totally limited to books purchased through Apple. Specifically, Apple says: Grow your library. You’ll find lots of books on the iBookstore, and more arrive every day. The iBooks app uses the ePub format — the most popular open book format in the world. That makes it easy for publishers to create iBooks versions of your favorite reads. And you can add free ePub titles to iTunes and sync them to the iBooks app on your iPad. This is where we’re going to start getting into semantics. Technically, it doesn’t have to be a free book in that no money was exchanged. Rather, it needs to be free of digital rights management, as iBooks is not compatible with anyone else’s DRM setup. This means you can load up your Feedbooks, Manybooks, and Smashwords books without a problem, but anything purchased from B&N, Sony or Kobo will not work.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …