About a year and a half ago I took of my community’s website and rebuilt it from the ground up using the excellent program RapidWeaver. I wanted to create a site that was more flexible, could become an educational resource rather than just share facts and was easily updated in order to ensure that it was always relevant to my community. I also wanted to be able to share as many pictures and as much video as possible. The site was even built in such a way that when you go to it from an iPhone you are automatically redirected to an iPhone-friendly site. (It is amazing what some of the templates in RapidWeaver can do.)… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The folks in the “eReader” division at B&N are probably relieved today. All the official, Barnes and Noble-store compatible apps have been rebranded “nook” instead. Along with the rebranding, the iPhone, iPad and PC apps were all updated as well. I know I’ve picked on B&N before over their confused branding with eReader, B&N eReader and nook, but this is a very smart move. The actual updates seem fairly incremental (support for the iPhone 4′s retina display, the ability to “rate” ebooks in the iPad app) but more importantly it ties “nook” to B&N more clearly, much like “Kindle” immediately reminds consumers of Amazon. The full press release is below, but one bit stuck… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last August Larry and his fellow firefighters put ioSafe’s external hard drive to the test. They placed a drive with a back-up of Larry’s iMac in an old car, lit it on fire and watched it burn. They then removed the drive and, as promised, all of Larry’s pictures and files were still safely on the drive. (Now how many sites can say they have an an editor who is a real firefighter and can perform such a demo for the site??) Then back in January Larry, Judie, Kevin and I trekked into the desert with the ioSafe team to watch their new SSD drive be burnt, drowned and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Lenovo’s IdeaCentre all-in-one computers are slick-looking and powerful. Judie reviewed one back in April and had some good things to say about it. Well Lenovo now offers a newer, more powerful, All-In-One and it is today’s Gear Deal. The Lenovo A700 (40243BU) features a Core i3-350M processor running at 2.26GHz, 4GB DDR3 and Intel HD graphics. The screen is a generous 23″ 1080p LCD that makes this as good a computer for play as it is for work. The large 500GB hard drive spins at a fast 7200RPM Hard Drive. Mix in a DVD+/-RW, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS and a webcam and this is a computer that will be as comfortable in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Hurry! Today only Amazon is featuring three Square Enix RPG games for the Nintendo DS at 25% off or more! Here are the details: * The World Ends with You – $14.99 (25% off) * Chrono Trigger – $14.99 (25% off) * Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days – $17.99 (28% off) Chrono Trigger is a remake of one of the best console RPGs of all time, and is better than even on the DS! Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a great addition to the Disney/Square franchise and one of my younger son’s favorite games of all time! And The World Ends With You is one of the most innovative games in the genre in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Mac vs. PC ad still courtesy Chiat/Day One of the things that’s wonderful about writing for Gear Diary is the diverse  mix of folks involved in the endeavor.  You got your PC folks… you got your Appleheads… and you got your LINUX fans (well fan… Joel) and so on. We’ve got gaming folks; hard-core gadget nerds; exercise mavens; and gear heads (“petrol heads” to you “Top Gear” fans). You have folks who are into fashion and making sure their high-end handbag matches their Oberon iPad case, and people who get help from their partner when matching shirts with pants for an outing (that would be your humble reviewer here). Me, I’m a UNIX… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So you love the look of your iMac… and you need a stand for your iPad… and you like it when things match… has InnoPocket got an iPad stand for you! The HexaPose Stand for the Apple iPad looks like a cute little Apple iMac that can hold your iPad in either landscape or portrait for handsfree use. And when paired with Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard… it is so darn cute… but it is functional too. Let’s take a look. From InnoPocket- InnoPocket HexaPose iPad Stand is made of solid aluminum and tough polycarbonate Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A while back, I reviewed an excellent Cocoon Innovations netbook case with an integrated GRID-IT! Organizer, a feature that I really loved. However, I wished I could have one for bags I already owned because I really liked the way it kept all my items secured in one place. Now, my greatest wish has come true–an individual GRID-IT! organizer! The GRID-IT! is a unique, flexible organizer that basically allows you to secure the smallest of items, like pens or earbuds, or larger items, like phones or chargers, using a series of stretchy elastic straps in what they call an “object retention system.” I am always looking for something to help Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Like everyone else, I got a million links to the article at The Chive and even started a serious post about it before it was revealed as a fake, which I noted here. In the serious story I was writing, I refused to use the word ‘girl’, as a I think a young professional person of the female gender should be referred to as a ‘woman’. I was dismayed about the treatment of her by a boss who treated her in a sexist and demeaning fashion, which struck a personal nerve with me as I have a 22 year old niece who has just started her professional career and had told us that even as… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Sometimes it is hard to believe some of the stereotypes and discrimination that persist all over the world. From the soccer player who was fired for refusing to fast to … well, THIS story! I am not intending to say this in a ‘look at how everyone else is backwards’ sort of way, as I could easily drum up 1000 links to sexist / racist / ageist / weightist / religiously intolerant / etc links directly related to day-to-day life in North America. In fact, that is part of my point – in this day and age when knowledge is available so quickly on a global basis, it is hard to believe that… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If ANYONE really doubted that you could simply post something claiming to be a review and get some credible follows, here is the latest: the KFC Skinwich! A site called Brainresidue has a story saying that KFC is testing out the new sandwich at a few locations. Here is the description. KFC is testing a new sandwich: The Skinwich. 5 layers of fried chicken skin, lumped on a bun and topped with white american cheese and bacon. It’s only available at a handful of KFCs (for now). One happened to be right near our office, so I walked over. They describe how the sandwich tasted: Nasty. The richness of all that fatty seasoned Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of our loyal Gear Diary readers dropped me an email today sharing the homemade iPad cases she’s selling on Etsy. Sure, you can hit up one of the big case makers for a slipcover, but if you’re looking to support a fellow geek, this could be a fun option! As Dan pointed out, iPad cases come in all styles, from leather to metal to plastic snap ons and thin vinyl skins. And now with sites like Etsy, you can even get something homemade and custom designed just for you! Yasemin’s Etsy page can be found here, the iPad case as… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Judging from the never-ending parade of paper that I get in the mail each day, every special interest and retailer has a catalog or magazine for me. Then, of course, there’s all the online versions of those catalogs and magazines…there’s a huge signal to noise ratio, which can make it hard for anyone to break through my “junk filter”. ZMags is looking to solve that with their “ZMags Showcase”. It’s partly for consumers, but also largely geared towards the creators of online magazines and sites, with tips and discussions on what works, how many ads are on each page, etc. Each magazine gets star ratings, and companies can submit their eMagazines for evaluation. It’s a great… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

TiVo, Slingbox and Roku are increasingly commonplace in American homes. The problem is, more and more of us have multiple set-top boxes taking up multiple outlets and sucking up electricity while costing a small fortune. Vulkano is poised to change all that with their converged set-top box. Vulkano is …a sleek consumer device with a tightly integrated hardware and software platform that has a powerful video processor and local storage, is set to replace multiple boxes such as TiVo, Slingbox and Roku providing consumers incredible performance at a low cost. Vulkano is available now- at prices ranging from $259 to $379, depending on storage capacity. When connected to a set-top Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We were having a conversation among the site’s editors last week with regard to items that we reviewed. It’s one thing to use an item for a few days or a week or two (which is the average) and quite another thing to use it for a month or two or three. There are times when an item looks great in the initial review but then there are some issues that arise with it down the line. Of course, if there’s any radical change in our perception of an item after using it for a while we will update the post or write another one, but it does beg the question — what items have we Continue reading on Gear Diary …