Back in February we shared news that Waterfield was rolling out a number of different ways to protect your newest Apple device thanks to their Ultimate SleeveCase and Suede Jacket for Apple iPad. Well both are shipping and we’ve had a chance to check them out. Are they a good way to protect your iPad in a rough and tumble world? Read on and find out… First up is the iPad Ultimate SleeveCase. According to Waterfield… Ultimate iPad Sleeve Protection. Safeguard your iPad with a properly fitted SleeveCase. Cushioned with high-grade neoprene and wrapped in a nearly indestructible ballistic nylon shell, the iPad SleeveCase functions as Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo credit: Thom Watson Last year we told you about a contest where you got to tell about your worst business travel experience. Now, together with Navigon, we want to hear about your most interesting or unusual road trip experiences. For the winners, we have copies of Navigon’s Navigator for Windows Mobile (Windows Phone). By way of an example, I had friends who were road-tripping while hauling a travel trailer, and by misreading their paper map they found themselves trapped at the end of a narrow road at a river – with no good… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Apparently some intrepid hackery types have banged up a Kindle Developer Kit and emulator for themselves…and used it to play Super Mario Brothers! This is proof of concept right now, but I will happily donate if I can play SMB on my K1…who’s with me? Via The Digital Reader Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When the iPad was first announced, the one missing feature which bothered me more than any other was the lack of multitasking.  However, for me multitasking is the wrong word.  What I want on the iPad is what I like to call “multiviewing.” I could honestly care less about being able to listen to Pandora Radio while browsing the web.  The iPad has a big, beautiful screen and what I want is to be able to open up a few applications and be able to view them side by side, all at the same time.  With all the cool multi-touch and pinch to zoom features Apple has at its disposal I imagine allowing the user to resize and move the different applications around their screen wouldn’t be difficult… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As a long-time techno-geek I loved the Tron movie back in the early 80′s and pumped loads of quarters into both the Tron and particularly Discs of Tron arcade game a few years later. I have watched the movie on a couple of occasions over the decades, but never owned or rented a copy until late last year. Sharing it with my kids, I found that they enjoyed it – though some of the ‘inside the computer’ references were terribly antiquated and the kids had no frame of reference to get the jokes. More recently we’ve seen the Tron Legacy trailer, and all of this Tron goodness made me want to revisit the 2003… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The clipboard is a tool of the trade for basketball coaches that has been used for decades.  I never coach a game without my trusty board sitting under my chair.  The basketball clipboard is simple.  A white dry erase clipboard with a basketball court diagram and a dry erase marker.  The come in many sizes and configurations but all have the same function.  Not high-tech by any means, but extremely useful.  In fact, the only change in this technology is the switch from chalk boards to dry erase.  Watch any game and you will see the boards come out at the end of a quarter or crucial timeout.  Many a game has been won… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s all anyone wants to talk about-color, color, color. When will eInk go color? Will the iPad and its color screen kill the Kindle? Will there still be eInk devices going forwards? Luckily, there’s plenty of news and information to go around! Let’s start with the straight eInk ebook readers. Viewsonic is jumping into the game with two ebook readers, one with a touchscreen and wifi and one with just eInk. Right now they are not available in the USA, but if you’re desperate to import them their prices are roughly $269 and $315. A bit high for a plain eInk reader with… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Photos courtesy Jeep While Jeep heritage has been going strong for more than half a century, most of its product lineup is still in its infancy. Compass and Patriot are actually more like adopted children – loved by their new parents but not sharing any DNA. Then there is Liberty. The Jeep Liberty was first introduced as a 2002 model but was quickly relegated to popularity around college campuses and sorority houses. Seeking to get back to its roots, Jeep gave Liberty a complete redux for the latest model. All-new from the ground up, the (Gen-II) Liberty returns to Jeep’s legendary 4×4 heritage by offering two Jeep Trail Rated four-wheel-drive systems – a part-time Command-Trac… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of BoyGeniusReport If you even peripherally follow any news about media piracy – music, movies, video games, TV shows, ebooks, and so on – you would have likely been confused. The media industry would have you believe that the amount of piracy is so massive and devastating that if they could recoup, the taxes would be enough to pay off the deficit, solve world hunger, wipe out disease, and give every child a cute little hypoallergenic kitten. If you believe the pirates, they are actually increasing sales for media and are misunderstood innovators breaking ground with a new way to make informed media choices. Of course, most people know that both of… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Want to know who’s behind all this? For the latest entry in their JAMM Developer Interview Series, Just Another Mobile Monday has interviewed SPB Software CEO Sebastian-Justus Schmidt and COO Vassili Philippov.  JAMM says During the interview, we were able to pick the minds of the men behind SPB Software, CEO Sebastian-Justus Schmidt and COO Vassili Philippov, about the origins of the company and the rise of a software development house that works closely with the guys at Microsoft, various OEM’s and a myriad of different mobile operating systems. So if you’re interested in SPB software and the minds behind their products, surf on over and check it out Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As you may have heard Apple updated their MacBook Pro line this past Tuesday. The new machines look exactly like the ones they replaced but they have a few significant differences inside. Namely, they run faster than ever before and they run longer than ever. Yes, as is often the case with Apple you can’t judge a (note)book by its cover. The MacBook Pro 13 inch notebooks didn’t get new processors but they did get a significant battery bump and an upgrade with regard to their integrated graphics. The big changes came with the 15 inch and 17 inch models. These got graphics bumps… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

[image courtesy of legacy leavers ] It’s no secret this Twitter thing has done a bit more than just ‘caught on’.    If the Libary of Congress is archiving tweets then, yeah, that’s kind of a good indication that this is a big deal.  A technological, cultural and communicative big deal.  The kind of thing that has power.  Just look at the way Twitter brought donations to Hiati, or the way it brings breaking news to many people across the globe long before TV news anchors. With that kind of impact, many developers are certainly planning to include (if they aren’t already)… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I love Altec Lansing products.  I have the inMotion Classic iPod Dock and I use it quite a bit.  However, sometimes you need a speaker dock that is a little more compact and simpler to use than the inMotion Classic.  That’s where the inMotion Compact comes in. The inMotion Compact looks a lot like the Classic, but it lacks the FM Radio, the integrated battery, remote and integrated display.  The only controls on it are power and volume; all controls are on the top near the center of the dock. The rear of the dock hides the power cord’s port, an auxiliary… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As a firefighter, I’m always looking for “gear” that keeps me safe.  It’s especially nice to find a piece of equipment that I can carry both at work and at home.  My rescue tool, for example, never leaves my pocket.  It’s a versatile piece of hardware that I use almost every day, sometime to free an injured patient from their seat belt, other times to cut the blister pack off of one of my daughter’s newest toys. When I saw the SurvivalStraps web site I immediate thought, “now there’s something that might come in handy no matter where I am.”  The product not only looked functional, but when I delved into the information about… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today brought some excitement in the mobile phone community when at the 99% Conference, HTC and Verizon Wireless announced the Droid Incredible by HTC. In case you can’t tell by the photo, the Incredible is another large-screened device (I am loving this trend!), with a 3.7″ AMOLED touchscreen, optical joystick, and dedicated capacitive navigation buttons, HTC’s Friend Stream, Snapdragon processor, GPS, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an 8 megapixel camera, a digital compass … and it is running Android 2.1. Did I leave anything out? Did you want something more? Available in Verizon Wireless stores on April 29th, the Droid Incredible by HTC’s price will Continue reading on Gear Diary …