Original painting ©Frank Frazetta, baby! Yup, it’s Conan, now available on your iPhone. Paradox Entertainment is bringing the bruising wanderer to you in a mobile game. The first one they’re releasing is “Tower of the Elephant,” which is based directly on a Robert Howard story, and it is available for both the iPhone and iPad.  Available soon at an iTunes process running near you! Full information below. Paradox Entertainment, through its subsidiary Conan Properties International, has begun internal development of mobile games based on its library of character properties. First out is Conan in ”Tower of the Elephant”, based on the original Robert E. Howard story, for iPhone and iPad. Developing the game Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you have read any of my music reviews here, you know I am strongly drawn to arrhythmic and atonal music in the jazz and classical genres. Needless to say this sort of music isn’t very popular. There are certain artists that I love that most people I know, even those who like some amount of modern jazz, just cannot fathom. Let me call upon Derek Bailey to provide a great example: Here is another great example, with a very young Frank Zappa appearing on the Steve Allen show to play … the bicycle … Next we have Pierre Schaeffer, who is credited with the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We end the week with a Gear Deal on a Lenovo notebook that is “said to be thinner and lighter than the average 15-inch entertainment laptop”. The Lenovo IdeaPad Z560 features a chiclet keyboard, Dolby Advanced audio, a Core i5 CPU, optional discrete NVIDIA GeForce graphics and more. Bluetooth, WiFi, a webcam and, of course, Windows 7 are all standard. The IdeaPad Z560 has an MSRP of $949.00 but our Gear Sponsor has found a deal that will bring the price down to $699.00. It will even ship for free. To learn how to configure your Z560 for Core i5 performance visit the product page over on LogicBUY. Lenovo IdeaPad Z560 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Although I’m an iPhone guy (right now), I’m always happy to see new Android apps hit the world.  After all, as much as I like Apple (right now), competition is a pretty good thing, and with technology companies, it helps keep them on their toes and avoid arrogance.  And it helps keep the pace of innovation brisk. So I was pleased to see that Google had released Voice Actions for Android.  Google tells us: Voice Actions are a series of spoken commands that let you control your phone using your voice. Call businesses and contacts, send texts and email, listen to music, browse the web, and complete common tasks, all just by speaking into your phone. Are… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As I mentioned earlier, QuakeCon is this weekend, which has been a major event for id Software for ages. Since Bethesda bought id a few years ago they have joined in the fun – and gamers are the winners as they are hosting a major sale on Steam. Here are the basics of the Steam Sale: – All weekend long the whole ‘QuakeCon Pack’ is on sale for $69.99. This is a collection of 27 games Doom I, II and III; Quake I, II, and III; Fallout 3; Call of Cthulhu; Return to Castle Wolfenstein; both Heretic and Hexen games, and many many more! – Each day there is a special offer… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We are back on track with the previously published schedule for the EA Games Summer Sale – Week #5 features some solid racing games at reasonable discounts. Anyway, here are the deals for Week #5: Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box – 75% OFF – $7.49 Need For Speed SHIFT – 25% OFF – $22.46 Need Speed Undercover – 50% OFF – $4.97 Burnout Paradise is the clear star of this show – released for the PC in early 2009 with all prior console DLC included as part of the ‘ultimate box’, this looks great, controls… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Nuance, the company behind Dragon Dictation and Dragon NaturallySpeaking has done it again. This time they are going after the medical market with an app that anyone in a healing profession will likely find quite useful. Nuance Healthcare, their medical division, is launching the first of their four iPhone apps for clinicians. Dragon Medical Mobile Search brings speech recognition specifically designed for doctors, PAs and nurses to the smartphone. The Dragon Medical Mobile Search app will give clinicians a smarter way to search for medical information… The voice-enabled medical search app for iPhone is a tool for clinicians to dictate a search query and within seconds receive results from a variety of sources such Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Of all the cases that I tried when I was using the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX, there was one brand that always stood out — not only because their Kindle covers were functional, but because they were also absolutely gorgeous. Of course I am talking about the cases made by  Oberon Design, the California based company which is well known for their leather folios and journals … and now for their eReader covers. When I eventually let go of both Kindles because Kevin and I had purchased iPads, I knew that as soon as an Oberon style iPad Cover was available, I would want it… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When I was a kid, we took a station wagon on big family trips.  Big ol’ green Dodge station wagon.  No air conditioning. No minivans. Games were “punch buggy” and such–not much for in-car entertainment. (And there was tons of trash by the side of the road–Lady Bird Johnson had only just got started on her anti-litter program, and people were more worried about trash in their cars than litter on the highway.) Well, nowadays they make cars with videos in the seat backs, so your kids can be gently numbed into passivity whilst heading to Granny’s (and a good thing, too!). But what if you have one of them there old-fashioned vehicles, or didn’t want to spring… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve actually seen computers go up in flames from over-heating, so I’m kinda ambivalent about Blackberry’s decision to name their new product the Torch.  I mean, seriously! But I digress!  Blackberry fans, you don’t want to hear about my weird proclivities about naming, right?  You want to hear what sweet new products AG Findings is offering to cart around your precious new gadget in.  And so that’s what we’ve got here; four new “carrying solutions” for you Crackberry, ranging in price from an MSRP of $30-40.  If you’re ready to clothe your new Torch, you should surf on over and take a look. Full information below. AG Findings, engineers of advanced carrying solutions, unveils four 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 currently back hard at work.  We have begun football season and are in the middle of 2-a-day workouts which takes pretty close to every waking hour of the coaches.  With that said, many of my usual daily entertainment is left behind for things like eating and showering because the loss of free time.  QRANK has stepped in to the rescue.  It is a daily short quiz that… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We all know that products get announced and subsequently canceled all the time, and even more often they are re-focused or have features trimmed due to time and/or cost constraints. In this multiplatform video game release world, chopping or delaying platform releases is a reality brought on by expanding budgets and shrinking profit margins. So the announcement today that LucasArts is canceling development of Star Wars The Force Unleashed for the Sony PSP is not terribly surprising. According to Yahoo! News: LucasArts told IGN it’s quashed plans to bring Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II to Sony’s PSP video games handheld. The game was on track to ship for the PSP along with Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The 32″ Vizio Razor LED LCD HDTV features full 1080p high-definition resolution. It has RazorLED backlighting, dynamic 100,000:1 contrast ratio, a digital ambient light sensor, SRS TruSurround HD, and more. The TV has an MSRP of $699.99. If it were not sold out on Amazon it would have a price of $619.00. Our Gear Sponsor has found a deal that will let you get it for far less. How much less? With this deal you can get the Vizio Razor for $469.99 and it will even ship for free. Vizio Razor LED 32-inch M320NV 1080p LCD HDTV via LogicBUY Continue reading on Gear Diary …

With three girls under the age of 9 I’m forced to attend what seems like almost monthly, a “Bounce-House” party.  These parties are often held in a large warehouse type space where they cram in as many bounce house structures as then can.  The kids love jumping and flinging themselves around the soft, cushioned structures. Meanwhile I’m often left sitting on the sidelines with the other parents, often sweating, because the bounce places are always 100 degrees, waiting for the party to end.  Hey, as long as they’re having fun that’s all that matters, right? I think I’ve got an idea for a new franchise of bounce house places though.  One side of the space would… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I voiced my enthusiasm for Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ) here before, and you might say that the majority of the Gear Diary staff was a bit PvZ crazed, to the point where one person asked ‘how can you Android folks use a phone without Plants vs. Zombies’? To which I replied … we play it on our iPod Touch, iPad, Mac and PC! Until now the only way to get the Mac version of PvZ was through PopCap – either digitally or in retail box version from a store such as Amazon. But no more! Today on Steam you can get the ‘Game of the Year’ edition of Plants vs. Zombies, newly released… Continue reading on Gear Diary …