As a firefighter, when I came across this company I was immediately intrigued. Feuer Wear produces a wide range of products all from recycled fire hose.  Feuer is the German word for “fire.”  Their line includes bags, belts and wallets.  Each piece they produce has its individuality.  The hoses used in production come from actual fire companies where they spent countless hours in service.  Fire hose takes a beating.  It’s soaked, dragged, run over, covered in soot and exposed to extreme heat and fire.  Each hose is scrubbed clean and then cut to size.  But each hose retains it own individuality which makes every piece the company produces… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Flickpad from Shacked Software is a really fun way to view photos from your Facebook friends on the iPad.  The application takes full advantage of the iPad’s multitouch features to allow you to quickly browse through pictures from your friends in a way that’s extremely intuitive and actually a ton of fun. Once you load the app, and after you’ve entered your Facebook account information (only required once) it will show you all your unseen pictures from your Facebook contacts.  By default the app loads all new pictures from the day you first launch it but you can move the date back and look at pictures you’ve missed too… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve reviewed a few of CableJive‘s product’s before and have been quite pleased with all of them.  One of their most useful items is their Dock Extender Cable.  This cable essentially allows you to dock (charge and sync) your iPhone or iPod Touch, in accessory items that use a dock connector, while it’s inside most cases.  I say most because the one issue I had with the cable was that it didn’t work with a few of the popular heavy duty cases.  Mainly the Otterbox Defender. Well CableJive has solved that problem and totally revamped the cable.  The company is set to release the new version, the dockXtender, which is a female… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We are all feeling the financial pinch!    Blue Plate Special is a weekly review of bargain apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Nothing over $.99. I am not going to lie…many of the apps on my iPhone are used primarily for entertainment and wasting some spare time.  Most of these time wasters are games, but every now and then a non-game entertainment app is discovered.  2nd Opinion is not considered a game, but can be just as addicting.  If you like crowdsourcing or answering random questions, this will be quite entertaining. 2nd Opinion is a collection of… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The internet is truly a place where anyone can have a voice…even if that voice is 14! Admittedly, I don’t follow the fashion world, but if you do, you may have heard of Tavi Gevinson, a 14 year old fashion blogger. She’s so successful she was seated in a more prestigious seat than Anna Wintour (the inspiration for “The Devil Wears Prada”) at a fashion show! What’s extra crazy is that she started blogging about fashion at 11. And now she’s showered with free clothes, and speaks at conferences, and the fashion industry cares deeply what she thinks. From the Economist profile of Tavi: Since she started at the age of 11, Miss Gevinson has built Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Evernote has been making as many strategic moves as it has technological ones as of late and there are a few new ones worth mentioning. First they rolled out an update to their OS iPhone Universal app that brought some nice enhancements to the functionality of the app on the iPad. The update improves navigating tags, add the ability to edit and delete tags, notebooks and searches and improves the overall search experience within the app. Of course there are also a slew of bug fixes. It is, as always, nice to see Evernote improving their already great OS iPhone… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Do you have notification envy? Perhaps it’s a sign of disorganization or perhaps he’s really that popular but whenever I catch a glimpse of Dan’s iPhone I get it.  He always has multiple applications showing all sorts of numerical notifications.  I want those too! Me on the other hand, I always have none.  Now it could be that I’m admittedly very anal and feel the need to clear (i.e. read) any notification the moment it comes in.  This is one of the reasons I’ve been slow to jump onto the Instapaper application band wagon.  If I see something that looks interesting I don’t save it, I read it.  Or it could be that I… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Every day we highlight one deal that is available over on our GearSponsor’s site LogicBUY. truth is, on any give day there are tons of great deals over on LogicBUY and whenever a family member or friend is looking for something electronic I now encourage them to check our the site. (They also do Gaming, Clothing and more but I tend to got to them for electronics.) LogicBUY might not have what they are looking for but…often times… they do and at a steep discount. The site often has great deals on HP notebooks and that is the reason for this “Gear Deal” post. You see, HP just refreshed their lineup Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of Bestuff.com If you’re sitting at home in front of your Samsung C7000 or C8000 series TV then your probably wondering how life could really get any better. With a ridiculously thin screen, 3D picture, 240hz refresh rate, and a 7 figure contrast ratio, it doesn’t get much better. Or does it? How about not even moving away from your couch to give someone a video call over Skype. Seeing your loved ones while they are away on business or for the holidays, or just making a phone call from the couch. FreeTalk TV along with Samsung and Skype are making that dream a reality. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Images courtesy of Tokyoflash A new first today for Tokyoflash, their first ever pocket watch is now shipping direct from the website. The new band less watch sports a highly polished stainless steel face, a smoked lens and super bright tube LED’s for illumination. The watch is powered by a USB rechargeable battery that lasts up to a month with normal use and can withstand about 300 charge cycles. The watch also features some user selectable light functioning. You can even set an animation schedule to light up every 15 minutes between 6 o’clock and midnight perfect to make your arch nemesis jealous, and guaranteed to be a conversation piece at the local watering… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Photo courtesy GM While I don’t mean this as negative criticism of a recent press release, I do find the meat behind the message a bit premature for the masses and limited in range and use. And I thank them (sort of) for the revelation it led to. OnStar is announcing they will be at the Google I/O conference this week to debut and demonstrate new functionalities planned for an app that works with the upcoming Chevrolet Volt. Version 1.0 of the app will be released alongside the Volt this fall. And the app will apparently only work on Android smartphones. The Google angle here? Helping you find your Volt. OK, perhaps it is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It seems Apple isn’t taking any chances when it comes to the availability and lack there of, of the the next iPhone.  It looks like they want to avoid the problems many consumers are currently having trying to get an iPad.  Stores are simply sold out right now due to high demand. Digitimes, who seems to be pretty accurate with Apple speculation and rumor, is reporting that Foxxonn is poised to ship 24 million next generation iPhones starting this coming June. They go on to say that Foxconn will ship 4.5 million phones in the first half and 19.5 million during the rest of 2010.  All bets are that Apple will be announcing the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

from USAToday There is no question that automation has had an impact on numerous industries and has been responsible for some significant job-loss or, at least, job-shifting. For example factories now need less people on the line but can output more product at an ever-increasing pace. Yes, the impact is everywhere but this is one place where I never expected to see an issue… CrunchGear has a post up about a wedding officiated by… a robot. That’s right, the couple didn’t need a priest, or a justice of the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Too busy keeping up with oil spills and the Survivor finale to keep up with your favorite site?  Awww, that’s OK.  We’ll forgive you.  This time.   We’re highlighting a few notables from last week that you may have missed.    For instance, did you realize that all of America’s economic troubles could be remedied with a brand new way of thinking.  Well, maybe not brand new.  The idea came from Bill Maher.  As Dan mentioned in his post, it actually doesn’t sound half bad.  Well, if you’re a techno geek or gal, it doesn’t anyway… Oh, but there was so much more happening last week.  Maybe you’re anxiously… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Growing up with today’s technology has its advantages.   Constant access to family and friends via social networking, and the ability to take all of your music, photos and videos with you wherever you go are just a few perks.   As many parents will tell you, there are also downsides to growing up in  the “always connected” generation. Kids can all to easily be maliciously bullied via texting, Twitter and Facebook.   All without any physical contact.  Even worse, kids can even become targets for sexual predators — all from that mobile phone you gave them only for ‘emergencies.’     A company called SMobile is working to help families block what’s dangerous… Continue reading on Gear Diary …