So many of the arguments for and against getting an iPad are…well in a word they are specious. Some buying the iPad are buying it just because… it is coming from Apple. Others aren’t buying it just because… it is coming from Apple. Some buying the iPad are buying it because it will run all the apps they currently own. Others aren’t buying it because it doesn’t run flash or currently let apps run in the background. The bottom line is, there are lots of arguments for AND against buying the iPad right now, but most of the people taking positions aren’t making their case for or against buying… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A few months back HP came out with a new “digital appliance”. Actually thy came out with two of them- one offering a 10″ screen and the other a 13″ screen. The idea behind the DreamScreen is that it is a digital frame that does much much more. So long as you have WiFi, with the DreamScreen you can wirelessly access content on your PC and the Web . Yes, you can enjoy photos on it but you can also access music and video. It gets even better. The DreamScreen also lets you access weather, clocks, calendars, Facebook, and more. In other words, the DreamScreen has the ability to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Arctic Cooling has recently entered the noise isolating earphone market.  I reviewed the Arctic Sound E361 earphones which proved to be a great solution that I carry daily in my away game bag.  The E352 earphones match the E361 in build and quality and add a touch of style with an attractive wooden chassis.  The E352 do not include a microphone, so these will have to be used for audio only, no iPhone for me. Click through the break to see how the Arctic Sound E352 earphones stack up.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! This week is a fairly typical spring release week, with a couple of solid new games and otherwise just mostly ‘filler’. The big release of the week is the sequel to the uneven fan favorite Red Steel for the Wii. The other big game is the sequel to the ambitious but heavily flawed (and commercially unsuccessful) 2006 multiplatform game Just Cause.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I love my Roku Player and enjoy using it to stream media… especially when we are up on the mountains at our cabin. Since its release the Roku Player has seen both hardware and content updates. The Roku HD added the ability to play HD content, output for surround sound and added an HDMI connector. The HD-XR added all this plus wireless N for even better streaming. With the Roku Player you can stream content from Netflix (subscription required) and access Amazon Video on Demand’s huge library of movies for rent. In addition you can access Pandora, MediaFly and even MLB.com (subscription required). It is easy to set up and the company behind the Roku Player is continually adding content. All in all it is a great little device that is relatively inexpensive, easy to use and makes accessing tons of digital media a breeze. Browsing Amazon yesterday I stumbled on a great deal they are offering right now… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Original Image courtesy of Mashable Who would have imagined what Google’s Android OS would have become in two years. Since 2007, Android has morphed almost into full life integration using a huge variety of devices and appliances. Google has indeed taken it a step further with the revealing of the first production car to be built with Android onboard. The Chinese auto manufacturer Roewe now is in full production of the Roewe 350, which includes an in-car GPS built on Android 2.1.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Wednesday night I kicked off a nice mini vacation to Boston, MA and Portland, ME. Since my fiancée and I have crazy different tastes in music, she suggested I grab us an audiobook or two for the ride. I’ve reviewed Overdrive for Android before, but my local library didn’t have any books we wanted to read. Wednesday afternoon I was still scrambling to find a book, and that’s when I remembered Audible.com. Perfect solution! Yes, the cost was a bit higher than I had wanted, but considering what a procrastinator I was, I didn’t have much of a choice. We both enjoy David Sedaris, and even though we’re way beyond the holiday season I grabbed “Holidays on Ice”. Now, this was where I made a stupid, rookie mistake. I assumed because Audible books work on iPods, WM phones, Blackberries, and every mp3 player imaginable that they’d work on Android….only to discover AFTER I paid for the book that Audible has no Android support at this time, and no concrete plans for support in the future.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

ScanSnap S1300 Closed A number of years ago I wanted to begin moving toward having a “paperless” life. I was tired of being swamped by piles of paper. It was getting out of control. The first step in my trying to unclutter my life (it is still “in process”) was to purchase a high-speed scanner. I did a good deal of research and eventually ended up with one of Fujitsu’s products, a ScanSnap scanner. It blew me away. It had the ability to handle up to 40-50 pages at a time. It did two-sided scans. It scanned fast, Created high quality scans and even compressed large documents down to usable sizes.  In addition the software that came with the scanner allowed me to scan and have the documents that were created converted to usable text using OCR — optical character recognition. It was amazing, fast and although the scanner was rather pricey at the time it was worth every penny. When I made the move to using a Mac I ran into a problem. My wonderful scanner was only usable with Windows PCs. I put it on eBay and immediately bought the Mac version of the scanner, the ScanSnap S500M. [...]

Every now and then we come across something that brings us back to the origins of our love for a hobby. For me and computer games, my first real love was Castle Wolfenstein for the Apple ][ in 1981. I have related that story more than once now, since I have reviewed the iPhone version of Wolf 3D, the iPhone game Wolfenstein RPG, and last fall’s franchise reboot Wolfenstein for PC, X360 and PS3. In between all of that, Activision released Return to Castle Wolfenstein in late 2001. In this episode of The Netbook Gamer I see how the game has aged and how it plays on the netbook… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image from http://anotherubuntu.blogspot.com/2009/11/lucid-lynx-timeline.html Spring is in the air!  The trees are budding and the flowers are starting to come out of their slumber.  It also means that it is time for another release of the desktop oriented Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu will frequently produce what is called a LTS or a Long Term Support release.  That means unlike non LTS releases, this version is meant to be stable and to also have security updates and fixes for the next three years.  A release like this is meant for those who want to install something that will be somewhat guaranteed to work for the next 3 years.  The previous LTS, Ubuntu 8.04 codenamed “Hardy Heron” was released in 2008.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

On Wednesday morning, if you searched on the iTunes App Store for Lexcycle, the makers of the top-rated Stanza ebook reader, you would see ‘no matches found’. I was alerted to this on the MacRumors forums, and did my own quick check and confirmed that Stanza was no longer available. While the news didn’t spin out of control as has happened in the past, it certainly raised a red flag – why is the best ebook reader, owned by Amazon, suddenly unavailable on the iTunes App Store? … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Microsoft’s Bing running on the iPhone always perplexed me a little.  I’m conflicted.  I feel as though Luke must have felt when being lured to the dark side by his father and the emperor.  Bing is a really nice search engine but aren’t Microsoft and Apple supposed to hate each other?  What’s next?  “Cat’s and Dogs living together?” Microsoft has announced a new version of the Bing app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can get it for free from the App Store on your device or use iTunes to download it. The original version of the application was released by in November but has since received… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It is March Madness, the game is coming to a close and yet another of your bracket picks is about to fall.  You do not want to miss the last second shot from the latest 14th seed Cinderella story.  If you are like me, there will now be three or four bracket pools that will need to be paid up soon.  As a tear goes into your beer, you notice one last sip.  This is no time to be hunting that bottle opener!  Another brew needs to be opened quickly to serve as a celebration for a miracle that keeps your Final Four hopes alive or drowning your sorrows in yet another failed March Madness.  Luckily if you have the Clicker Universal Remote you can stay at the edge of your seat, open that brew and hope for the best!  This could be the perfect man gadget!! Check out the details after the break…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When I spotted this picture over at yuhmm (A NSFW site) I immediately thought of Dan’s recent post and figured, hey if we told our readers about that we certainly need to tell them about this. Priced at $5.99 and available here, the Weener Kleener is a ring shaped bar of soap that promises to take care of the task of cleaning the male appendage. Even though the Weener Kleener claims to be “one size fits most” it doesn’t come without a warning on the package:  Caution:  If the Weener Kleener becomes stuck soak the area with COLD water. So if you need some assistance cleaning up check… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Hey buddy!  Over here!  I have a deal for you!  I hear that you might be looking for a iPad.  Well, if you are, do you have the cash?  No?  Well do you have 600 CD’s or DVD’s you aren’t listening to?  Let’s say you give iPodMeister those cd’s and they will send you one! Seriously, this isn’t  a joke.  Since 2004, iPodMeister has been trading CD’s and DVD’s for a iPod, iPhone or now a iPad. There are many different rates for getting a free device.  Some include free ripping of the music or movie before sending you the device.  This all sounds a little questionable to me, but it might be worth a shot!  I… Continue reading on Gear Diary …