There are plenty of choices when it comes to screen and body protection for your electronic devices and I think I’ve tried them all.  Clear Coat might just be the best of the bunch. What is Clear Coat?  Here’s how the company describes it. Simply put, Clear-Coat is the only protection you’ll need for your devices. Forget those awkward, ugly cases! Clear-Coat keeps your device scratch-free without adding bulk or changing the look of your device. Clear-Coat is meticulously designed in-house, and then custom cut for every device. So an iPhone Clear-Coat fits the iPhone perfectly, and a Blackberry Clear-Coat fits the Blackberry perfectly. We design Clear-Coat to fit over almost every part of the device – so you get protection everywhere – on the screen, sides, front, and back! How thin is Clear-Coat? Less than 1/100th of an inch, that’s how thin! Most people can’t even notice it on their device, and it will not interfere with docks, cases, or accessories – it’s like it isn’t even there! I recently spent some time with Clear Coat and walked away very impressed.  Their shields are the clearest of any I’ve seen and they do not suffer from what’s commonly referred [...]

I recently start re-reading one of my favorite books of all time: “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping“. It was my bible when I worked for Borders, and even on the consumer side of retail I find it fascinating. The author, Paco Underhill, runs a company that studies how people shop. Everything from how much time people need to acclimate to entering a store to sitelines, signage and spacing of aisles is scrutinized and tweaked for maximum impact based on Underhill’s teams observations and suggestions. In this newer, updated version, he also touches on the internet and e-commerce. Somewhat unsurprisingly, he’s not a big fan of the internet. When your whole career is built around the tactile aspects of shopping, I can see where e-commerce is very alien. But he does have this to say about online shopping that I think is very prescient with respect to ebooks:… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

1Password from Agile Web Solutions is one of my “go-to” application on both my Macs and my iPhone. The secure password management, combined with a host of useful, and growing, features, make it a superb utility. It promises to be even better with the release of the iPad next month. Yes, 1Password is also another application that will be available at, or shortly after, the launch of the iPad. As Agile Software’s David Chartier put it… I hope it comes as no surprise that we’re planning, plotting, and otherwise scheming to bring 1Password to the iPad in a big way. But if you are surprised, well… surprise! I hope it’s good news, because we’re really excited about our progress. So excited, in fact, that we feel like sharing some of our design concepts with you. We aren’t content to leave you with using that 2x button on our iPhone app. It’s an iPhone app! And while it is the Best 1Password iPhone App Ever (if we may so humbly say ourselves), the iPad is an entirely different beast, and we’re giving it the utmost attention it deserves. Keep in mind that the following screenshots are design mockups from deep within [...]

A couple of months ago I highlighted the … um, interesting article from CouponSherpa that looked at ’41 Ways To Eat This Year’s Calories In A Single Sitting’. Well, they’re back with another intriguing look at the food world. Read on for more!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yesterday morning Google released a search utility for Android phones called Gesture Search. Basically, you can handwrite a letter with your finger, and Gesture Search matches it to contacts, bookmarks, programs and music on your phone. It’s in the early stages, but I have been playing with it all day on my Droid and there are so many possibilities for this awesome service.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’ve been using the HP Display Link for some time now, and we knew it would be a great item to give to some of our lucky readers.  These days many of us need to be able to connect one or more computers and view the displays on larger, high-resolution displays.  Whether you need an easy way to connect your computer to your television’s display or simply need to show off a presentation at work, the Display Link fits the bill. Many of our readers agreed.  We are pleased to announce the two winners for our HP Display Link giveaway…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It is official — and it looks like Larry and I won’t be camping out waiting for the iPad. Nope, Apple is making it easy to get the iPad when it is released in just under a month. Apple just released word that WiFi models of the iPad will be available for pre-order on March 12 and will go on sale on April 3.  The WiFi and 3G models will come a few weeks later. Even better, the devices can be pre-ordered online or at a local Apple retail store starting next week. The full release announcement below. via Tech Crunch Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s another deal on one of Lenovo’s new offerings! The Lenovo ThinkPad T510 Laptop features what the company is referring to as a “next generation easy-to-use keyboard”. In addition it can go for up to 18 hours when used with the option 9-cell slice battery. The system highly configurable but even the base model is impressive. It features… Core i5-520M 2.4GHz; 15.6″ Anti-glare LED backlight; Intel HD graphics 2GB DDR3; 250GB Hard Drive; DVD+/-RW Optical Drive; 6-cell battery 802.11n WiFi; 1-year Depot warranty; Windows 7 Professional 32-bit OS This configuration has an MSRP of $1344 but our… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s no secret that we here at Gear Diary have enjoyed PDAir cases for many of our devices.  You can see some of our past reviews here, here, and here.   Oh, and here, too.  PDAir recently released several leather cases for the Zune HD and offered Gear Diary a chance to review a sample.  The new Zune HD styles include flip type, book type, sleeve type, and both vertical and horizontal pouch types.  I was sent a horizontal pouch case for review.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Sometimes applications are big and splashy and exciting.   Sometimes they are quite, unassuming, and just do what they do very well.   But it’s not often you run into applications that don’t even really present you with a startup splash screen before going into the actual program.  Memorize Words for Spanish isn’t flashy, it goes right into the program with out announcing itself via a title screen, and its name isn’t particularly flashy or clever, but it clearly speaks to the thing that this application does – it helps you memorize Spanish words. I’ve looked at a lot of different language applications over the past year and the folks at Componica were nice enough to let me look at this application as well.  I have to say that there’s a lot to like here. So let’s take a closer look at Memorize Words for Spanish and see what’s what!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Considering that I tend to be a very linear person, it is interesting that in terms of role-playing games pre-2004 I tended to play them all ‘out of order’. For example, after enjoying Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic, I asked around and was recommended to seek out Gothic 2 and Baldur’s Gate 2. I played and loved both of those and then sought out the original games in the series. The same was true with games based on White Wolf’s Vampire the Masquerade tabletop RPG – I played the 2004 Troika game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines through before even really knowing that there was an earlier game. As soon as I knew, I grabbed the Mac version for cheap on eBay (it was long out of print) and played it through in early 2005. I later bought the PC version in an eBay bundle and installed it a couple of times but never finished. Recently the PC version was re-released on Good Old Games, so I quickly grabbed that and replayed it again!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Bluetooth technology has been slow to be embraced by the public.  The average consumer probably doesn’t know about many Bluetooth enabled devices — other than their headset, which they’ve most likely been forced into wearing by new “hands-free” legislation created in their local jurisdictions.  The simple fact is there aren’t many other devices using Bluetooth in its classic form, and those that do require a good amount of power (re-charging) which makes them inconvenient. Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call on Bluetooth and more specifically, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE.)  This new specification of wireless connectivity is poised to open the doors to a wide variety of applications and processes, some of which might seem futuristic in nature but in reality are closer to fruition than you think.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of S. Harris “”I understand you are good with numbers,” the lady says. Randy is really racking his brain now. How does this woman know he’s a numbers kind of guy? “I’m good with math,” he finally says. “Isn’t that what I said?” “Nah, mathematicians stay away from actual, specific numbers as much as possible. We like to talk about numbers without actually exposing ourselves to them—that’s what computers are for.” Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon It’s not something that I go bragging on very often, but I’m pretty good at math — good enough to have considered actually getting a degree in it in college (I quit after Abstract Algebra, but before Real Analysis).  I’m the kind of guy who actually read the equations in Cryptonomicon; the kind of guy whose family asks to do arithmetic in his head when it’s time to divide up the check (which I’m not good at, by the way; read the quote!); the kind of guy who immediately questions the statistics that sports commentators toss out at playoff time (“He’s batting over .500 in late-inning pressure situations in night games in the post-season, Jim!”  Doug: “Uh, yeah, that’s because he’s only been in [...]

(image courtesy Greenpeace) Ever wonder what happens when you send an old gadget off for recycling? It may be headed farther than you thought. According to Businessweek, there is an underground market for old technology. Much of it heads to China, where it is stripped for parts or repurposed, often for counterfeits. As if that’s not enough, the process by which this is done isn’t environmentally friendly. This creates issues for water supplies, releases health hazards into the air, and other nasty business. Think this isn’t happening to your gadgets? Apparently the United States does not bar exports of electronics as garbage, and it looks like Greenpeace is claiming up to 80% of “recycled tech” is finding its way overseas. Looks like some companies are starting to pay attention. From Businessweek:… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

… and as Alienware claims, this is NOT a netbook! Sitting side-by-side with my Lenovo s10 the Alienware m11x seems large, and given that it weighs twice as much as the Lenovo it also FEELS much bigger. But compared to my 15″ Macbook Pro or the HP Compaq 15″ laptop I use at work, it looks and feels quite small. That is exactly what Alienware was going for – a high performance system in a portable package. So while I have only had a short time with the system, here are a few initial thoughts about the m11x as a ‘gaming netbook’ …… Continue reading on Gear Diary …