Grace Digital Audio has been on a roll introducing new products and another one just hit the wires. Their new Eco Extreme is a “Rugged all-terrain waterproof case with built-in speaker” that provides dynamic sound and good protection for MP3 players. The case is water and dirt resistant so it can be used outside in numerous places and environments. It features an internal storage compartment that can hold keys, MP3 Player, credit cards, drivers license and cash. It is a great way to keep your MP3 player safe from sand, sun, and water. According to Grace Audio the 3.5mm audio jack… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I come from a long line of Jersey beach bums. Not the oiled, overtanned Jersey Shore types though. My mom grew up just a few miles from the beach, and so I spent every weekend as a kid down the shore. I have very fond memories of my parents and their friends using an old portable radio to listen to Yankees games all afternoon. Now, with smartphones you don’t need to sit there and adjust an antenna as the wind and sand start to interfere. Unfortunately, smartphones have very weak speakers, so you either need to pop your headphones in and be anti-social, or strain to hear over the crashing of the ocean. Or just pick up… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The iPad simply begs to be held in a propped position, whether it’s being used as an extra computer monitor, as a cookbook in the kitchen, with a Bluetooth keyboard as an impromptu netbook replacement, or in any o dozens of other scenarios. Those who agree will want to pay attention to the latest offering from Lapworks … the iPad Recliner. What sets it apart from all the other iPad docks? The iPad Recliner is unique because it is one of the few iPad stands that has dozens of incline positions to choose from. The majority of the iPad stands on the market today are in a single Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Our friends at Skooba are having a sale.  Almost a double sale, really–the first 100 orders get a double-dip discount of up to 60% on certain select items.  “Which items?” I hear you cry.  Well, you should go to their site and check it out for yourself, but certainly the popular Skooba Satchel 2.0 and the Skooba Satchel 2.0 Luxe.  As for the others, surf on over!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Sometimes our Gear Deals get you 10% off. Other times they give a 20% discount. And on a really good day you might find a notebook for 30% off. But today’s Gear Deal is in a league of its own. That’s right, our Gear Sponsor has a coupon that will get you a full 50% off of a Dell Alienware M17x 2GHz Core 2 Quad Gaming Notebook. The Alienware m17x machine features– a Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 2GHz CPU, 4GB DDR3, a 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive, a DVD+/-RW, Card Reader, Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M SLI-enabled with 2GB (1GB x 2) memory, eSATA, HDMI, a 9-cell battery, Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi, Windows 7 Home Premium Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Prior to the release of the iPad, there were a multitude of articles – some touting 15 ways the iPad was better than a netbook, and others talking about the 42 ways the netbook was better than the iPad, and so on. As my Netbook Gamer series indicates, I am a netbook lover. I am also a proud iPad owner, and have had a few weeks using them both to look at the strengths and weaknesses of each. So here are 5 ways I feel each is better than the other … and I leave it to you to decide whether any of these matter! 5 Ways the iPad is Better 1… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Larry and Dan are back after a few week break. In this podcast they focus on jailbreaking their iPhone, iPod touches and iPads, highlight a few iPad and iPhone apps, touch on some items making news and offer a few tips and tricks. Some of the jailbreak apps we are enjoying… Activator Backgrounder FullForce Infiniboard Infinidock Categories Also in this podcast- iPad apps FlickPad and NotesToStore. You can listen here or download from iTunes… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For whatever reason, people in my family gray pretty late (and there’s not a lot of male-pattern baldness, either–I’m lucky); I’m pushing 50, and as you can see my hair is still mostly brown and mostly extant.  Maybe my follicles are more resistant to cosmic rays; I dunno.  (The horrible teeth, on the other hand . . .) But not everyone is so lucky.  And for those unlucky folks who are tired at staring at a gray head in the mirror, there’s a new supplement-based possible solution:  Go Away Gray.  Go Away Gray is a capsule containing all-natural supplements that, after 4-6 weeks, allows you to start growing your natural hair color back. … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It is Monday. I don’t know about you but I feel like a giveaway would be a good way to start the week so that’s what we are going to do… We’ve got a Speck Fitted Artprojekt case for the iPhone 3GS to give away. These are limited edition cases and have an MSRP of $39.95. Speck describes them this way… Outfit your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS in exclusive form-fit fashion with an Artsprojekt Fitted case! In collaboration with Artsprojekt Global Creative Network, our cases feature authorized reproductions of continuous-tone original artwork. This durable, lightweight snap-together case makes your iPhone an instant masterpiece. Soft fabric provides extra comfort and grip in hand. Custom-fit Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here are your list of new USBFever items for this week: Hard Shell Cover Case for iPhone 3G / 3Gs (Black Jeans) http://usbfever.com/index_eproduct_view.php?products_id=1845 Hard Shell Cover Case for iPhone 3G / 3Gs (Purple Jeans) http://usbfever.com/index_eproduct_view.php?products_id=1846 Hard Shell Cover Case for iPhone 3G / 3Gs (Blue Jeans) http://usbfever.com/index_eproduct_view.php?products_id=184 Waterproof Flashlight DVR (All Weather Torch + Digital Video Recorder) http://www.usbfever.com/index_eproduct_view.php?products_id=1848 Tri-image mirage / Sparkle / Starburst Lens for iPhone 3G / 3Gs http://www.usbfever.com/index_eproduct_view.php?products_id=1849 Red / Green / Yellow Color Filter Lens for iPhone 3G / 3Gs http://www.usbfever.com/index_eproduct_view.php?products_id=1850 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I was traveling and therefore mostly missed out on the whole ’30th Anniversary of Pac-Man’ thing … as Google had a mini-game on their home page and the iTunes App Store had a sale on all Pacman games. Did you get to enjoy these? Anyway, Google doesn’t want and of us to be left behind, so they have permanently stored the Pac-Man page at Google.com/Pacman. The game is the basic coin-op classic from 1980, fully playable with the arrow keys. Sadly the App Store sales have already come and gone before I got to add a more reasonably priced version of the game to my iPad, but at least I know I can always… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Of course, I know what you’re thinking … HUH? Why should you pay $20 to play a ‘free to play’ online game? Before you go, ask yourself a basic question: how do you think these ‘free to play’ sites are supported? Two ways: advertising and in-game purchases. That is where Direct2Drive comes in: they want to sell you a ‘starter pack’ that will get you into the game well-equipped to excel at the early going, and hopefully continue to have you come back for more, which will benefit Direct2Drive since they only get royalties on items bought through their service. How does this actually benefit anyone? Direct2Drive – gets paid royalties based Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I got hooked on Foursquare, the social networking iPhone OS application that allows you to “check-in” at the places you visit, by Judie back at CES.  Judie, Dan and I had a fun time battling for mayorships of various locations in Las Vegas.  I’ve been a frequent user of the app. since then too.  But a worthy competitor to Foursquare has emerged, so worthy in fact that I find myself using Gowalla more. Both Gowalla and Foursquare are iPhone OS applications that operate on the same basic principal.  Using your device’s built in GPS the applications locate you and show places (things like stores, offices, gas-stations, restaurants)… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here on Gear Diary we use Yammer to keep in touch with one another all the time. It works great, especially since we are all spread out geographically. We tried other systems but Yammer best met our needs. And it does the job. I recently began using the service with my senior staff for the same reason we turned to it on Gear Diary- we are all running around constantly and it seemed like the best way to keep everyone in the loop on issues without the need to constantly remember to cc everyone. Now if there is a schedule change or a pastoral issue in the congregation we all get notified, and can follow any conversations… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(I want to live here. Via ReadyMade) Welcome to yet another State of the eBook! First of all, the results of last week’s poll are in. Apparently, most of you are bigger ebook fans, with the vast majority voting for “eBooks first!/What’s a paper book?” Guess it isn’t TOO surprising, considering the subject of this column… This week, the big ebook news was that Barnes and Noble debuted “PubIt!”, their self publishing arm. This brings them into direct competition with Amazon, as well as smaller companies Smashwords and Feedbooks, plus the vanity paper book publishers looking to break into… Continue reading on Gear Diary …