Yesterday Ubisoft announced that they would eliminate paper game manuals in all future video games, and also introduce new ‘Eco Friendly’ game cases. Here is their announcement: Today Ubisoft announced an environmental initiative to eliminate paper game manuals, replacing them with an in-game digital manual for all titles on PlayStation®3 (PS3™) system and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The program, the first initiative of its kind in the video game industry, launches worldwide with Shaun White Skateboarding this holiday 2010. Ubisoft’s digital game manuals will provide multiple benefits for the player and the environment. Including the game manual directly in the game will offer the player easier and more intuitive Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For many, portability is a key determiner when considering new technology, and functional portability is an absolute priority. Myself, I chose to ditch the behemoth desktop computing system years ago in favor of a highly capable new generation of laptops. And as has been the case for my workstation at home, I am ladened with many “extensions” in my portable workspace as well. These days that includes an external hard disk drive. I never thought I would fill the internal drive of my latest laptop when I purchased it but that ship has sailed. Enter WiebeTech and their new ToughTech mini pocket drives. Accepting fast SATA 2.5-inch drive units, the new ToughTech series offers that… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

According to Yahoo news computers in a host of companies, hospitals and schools around the world got were brought down, re-booting themselves over and over again on Wednesday after an antivirus program identified a normal Windows file as a virus. McAfee Inc. confirmed that a software update it posted at 9 a.m. Eastern time caused its antivirus program for corporate customers to misidentify a harmless file, home users were not effected. McAfee could not say how many computers were affected, but judging by online postings, the number was at least in the thousands and possibly in the hundreds of thousands. The company says it is investigating how the error happened “and will take measures” to prevent… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly on the lookout for a good mouse and keyboard combination to haul around.  I love my Apple Bluetooth keyboard, for example, even if I can’t use it (currently) with my iPhone, and I don’t have an iPad yet.  But still, it’s nice to have good travel peripherals. Genius has a new offer in this category:  a 2.4GHz digital cordless optical mouse, the “Traveler 900“.  The mouse comes with a Pico dongle that you can store inside the mouse, and comes in four different colors that, honestly, look pretty cool to me–I particularly like the diamond ruby, myself, but maybe you’ll prefer “champagne gold.”  Who knows?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Timbuk2 is one of my favorite bag designers/manufacturers. They are one of those companies that go the extra mile to ensure their products have both style and function. They describe themselves in this way… Born, bred and here to stay. We were born in a San Francisco garage and bred on the backs of messengers in the city streets. And we still manufacture our custom bags in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District. For 20 years, we’ve been building bags and accessories for urban adventures with a simple philosophy – create good-looking, tough-as-Hell bags you can truly make your own. I reviewed their H.A.L. Backpack and was really impressed. I liked it so much that I bought myself… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

UPDATED: Apple’s 13″ MacBook Pro s got upgraded last week. They look great… but there are other options out there that will get you an even lighter ultralight.  Notebooks like Lenovo’s latest ultralight ThinkPad, the X201. The X201 has a Core i5-520M 2.4GHz so it is super zippy. It has a WXGA LED Panel, 2GB DDR3, a 160GB Hard Drive and 4-cell battery. You can also upgrade the base ThinkPad X201 model with its Core i5-520M to the Enhanced ThinkPad X201 which sports a faster Core i5-540M 2.53GHz. With the optional 9-cell battery it will run up to 12 hours on a single charge. The ThinkPad X201 ultra-light laptop starts at $1,389 and as you can tell, at… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo credit: woodleywonderworks I recently obtained an iPad and moved a healthy portion of my daily personal computing work to it. I love its convenience and portability. I also like that most of my iPhone apps work on it as well, including my language apps! But when I started moving and working with my iPhone apps, it became clear that most of them haven’t been fully converted (they are running in compatibility mode).  The apps run, which is ok, but… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Have you run out of hanging space in your closets? The As Seen on TV Wonder Hangers promise to triple the amount of closet space you get without any fancy or costly custom alterations. A set of 8 Wonder Hangers sells for only $9.99.  I recently picked some up at a local home store and decided to put them through the Gear Diary Deal or Dud test. How did the hangers perform?  Are the Wonder Hangers a Deal or Dud? Watch the video below to find out. You can learn more about the Wonder Hanger by… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The other night I was watching VH1’s ‘100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80’s’, and was thinking about Bioware and the whole ’spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate 2′ thing surrounding Dragon Age: Origins. Baldur’s Gate 2 is the 2000 classic PC RPG that is not just one of the best RPGs ever but one of the greatest games in video game history. Not only that, it is one of those rare sequels that is better than the original – and the original itself is always on the ‘best video games ever’ lists! Put into that context, it is hard to ever live up to the massive hype and expectations. But Bioware has never stopped trying… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Teleread has an interesting editorial about the future of Fictionwise/eReader (or lack thereof). Yes, there’s the elimination of the buywise program, and there’s the slow death of the PDB format in favor of ePUB. The really bad news: There’s no intention to release an iPad-specific version of eReader. So your choices are either blow the app up to 2x size, or skip making use of the gorgeous iPad screen. Or, of course, just buy your books through Barnes and Noble instead. It’s a shame, really. Many, many ebook fans started their reading on Peanut Press, which turned into eReader and then from there was bought by Fictionwise before being snapped up by Barnes… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’m a big fan of the British TV series “Top Gear.”  I’ve never been much of a “car guy”.  When it comes to guy attributes, in fact, in the “car” area Doug is totally stamped as a “FAIL!”  But even so, “Top Gear” is a fun, enjoyable, funny, and (sometimes) informative look into the world of, generally, higher-end cars and “supercars“.  And it is on “Top Gear” that I have come to appreciate some brands that I might not otherwise think about, such as Aston Martin, Bugatti, the various flavors of Volkswagen that we don’t see here in the states, and Audi. Now Audi has a driver game out, Audi A1 Beat Driver Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Ok I am still trying to figure out why this is a good idea.  Go800corp.com has started a service that is kind of neat, but then kind of makes me ask why. What it does is supposedly makes it easier to contact companies with 800 numbers on your cellphone.  You basically text a keyword to 46800 and then your phone will ring and be connected to the 800 number the keyword belongs too.  They call this a Voice Keyword, and yet you can’t just call them and use your voice to establish the call? Plus since smart phones are becoming all the rage, is there really a need for this?  I have Where installed on my G1… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Do you hold the Ultima franchise of computer games and Richard ‘Lord British’ Garriot in high esteem and wish that someday someone would make a game that allows a proper return to the greatness of those games from Origin Systems? Well, if that is the case run far, far away as fast as you can from Lord of Ultima. If, however, you are open to checking out a new browser-based MMO based on the Ultima franchise, read on! Here is EA’s Press Release: EA’S PHENOMIC INTRODUCES STRATEGY GAME ‘LORD OF ULTIMA’ Free-To-Play Web-Based Game Transports Players to Legendary Ultima Universe Guildford, UK – April 20, 2010 – Phenomic™, an Electronic Arts Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Are you like me?  Do you carry a Kindle 2 without protection while reading it?  Well Speck has given us 3 cases to give away to our lucky readers.  All you have to do is tell me why you are sticking with your Kindle 2 instead of switching to the iPad.  Is it the iPad’s weight or do you love the eInk display (like myself).  All you have to do is post by 11:59pm (EST) on April 27, and we will select 3 winners at random. Once the winners are picked, I will e-mail the winners for shipping information and their choice of a Dust Jacket or Fitted Kindle 2 case.  Sorry international readers, this contest is US… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Tody’s Gear Deal brings us a Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 Laptop. Usually this 14″ Core i3 notebook has a starting price of $999. Thanks to our GearSponsor however you can get $100 off plus an additional 15% and free shipping. That will bring the price down to just $764.5.   Let’s look at the details… The IdeaPad Y460 is powered by Core i3 but there is also an optional Core i5 Processor. It comes with an Intel HD graphics but you can get an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 with 1GB discrete graphics. It ships with Windows 7, a 500GB drive and a 6 cell battery.   In all it is a nice machine at an even nicer price.   Lenovo IdeaPad Continue reading on Gear Diary …