Repainting your house?  Yeah, yeah, be honest now: you know you’re thinking about it.  But those tiny color swatches at Joe’s Friendly Paint and Remodel never look the same as they do when they cover your walls, do they?  That color that was labeled “dusky rose,” and looked so great in the shop?  Turns out, well, it’s more like hot pink.  Oops! That’s what paintingWalls is for.  With this new revision, the app “features the most requested enhancements by our users, as well as our own upgrades, in order to get the most complete and easy to use photo editor.”  Shoot some photos of the wall in question, and then use paintingWalls to slap… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Although it sometimes seems as if Garmin has cornered the market on GPS technologies, that’s just not the case.  In addition to the built-in mapping functionality, there’s plenty of apps available for the iPad and iPhone, some of which we’ve even reviewed here on Gear Diary. One company in that mix is DeLorme.  And at the the resent Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show in Salt Lake City, DeLorme showed off a number of their new products, including their PN-60w with SPOT Satellite Communicator, the Earthmate PN-60, and the DeLorme Topo North America 9.0 software.  The prices are listed below and, though pricey, in my experience they’re pretty much in line with most… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So you got yourself one of them thar’ fancy iPad thingies.  And you’re thinkin’ to yo’self, “Hey, I got one of these here fancy iPad thingies–I wonder if I can use it, and the amazing power of the internet, to make inexpensive calls anywhere?”  Well, you’re right; you can!  And Truphone is just the bunch to give you that capability. The Truphone app for the iPad lets you make calls as part of your data package even when you’re not comfortably ensconced in a wifi hotspot.  The app also has an instant messenger, to let you do your IMing with other Truphone users on their iPhones and iPads (plus Facebook, Skype, et. alia.).  So… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Hope everyone is having a great summer – because this week the video game world declares that summer is OVER! It is time to forget about how your baseball team is doing and get ready for fall with Madden NFL 11! There is also the sequel to the solid colonial era real time strategy game Victoria II coming to the PC. The original was highly regarded and this has already gotten some positive press. About half the other games were also on last week’s schedule (yet again) and are easily dismissed as ‘fluff’. But there are a few other releases… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s been a probably for as long as I’ve been doing tech stuff (since the “stone knives and bear skins” era):  data protection.  Not just backups, but also identity and data theft protection.  It’s hard to do right, and even with all the tools in the world, you sometimes goof up (you all know the probably-apocryphal story about the guy who backed up his files on a 5 1/4″ floppy . . . and then stuck it to the fridge with a magnet, right?). Well, CoSoSys (which I find really hard to type!) wants to help out.  They have a launched an endpoint protector app for your iPhone and iPad.  Available through iTunes, their app… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

“Poowwwweeeerrrrr!” It’s something that Jeremy Clarkson is constantly looking for in his cars on the BBC show “Top Gear.” But it’s also something that, in this brave new world of portable geek gear, we need a lot of.  Particular portable power.  Especially slim, easy-to-cart-about portable power packs. The Digipower until of Misco has a potential answer with their Jump Start Slim power pack.  The Jump Start Slim is a rechargeable 1000mAh pack for SmartPhones that weighs in at a mere two ounces.  Digipower is hoping that this is exactly the kind of thing that will serve your portable travel needs.  Look for it to be available soon on Mizco’s Digipower web Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A good friend bought me a Wii as a gift a few years ago and I love it. I love playing tennis on it, bowling and I even bought Wii Fit last winter (although thanks to Larry and C25K I’m enjoying running outside for real these days). Well today’s Gear Deal will get you into the Wii universe with an awesome bundle and some nice savings too. The Nintendo Wii Summer 2010 Bundle comes in white. It includes… the Wii game console in white, a Wii remote controller in white with Wii remote jacket, a Nunchuck controller in… you guessed it… white, a Wii MotionPlus accessory, Wii Sports Resort, the original Wii Sports, 1-wired sensor… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So, you’ve got yourself an iPad, and you’ve been waiting with fish breath (it’s a joke, honest–think about it!) for Speck to come out with a full selection of iPad cases and sleeves. Why?? because you’re picky, and you want to get juuuuuuust the right one for your wonderous new gizmo. Well, wait no longer, iPad owner!  Speck now has their entire line available.  No more “releasing in August!” or “Coming Soon!”; they’re all available… right… now.  The cases run from an MSRP of around $25 bucks to $50 or so (“priced for every wallet!”, as they used to say), and you should check them all out before you choose one. And you can do… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Do you get tired of trying to go to multiple search sites from your SmartPhone, bouncing from Bing to Google to whatever?  Brazillian company Handcase wants to help.  Gune (which is a Basque word meaning “site”–how cool is that?  Basque!) is a meta-search system that searches through other sites and generates one page of results.  So instead of having a list of Bing results, and a list of Google results, hey, just one set! For more information, surf on over to the Gune site and check it out. Full information below. The Handcase launched your mobile search system, called Gune. Gune is a system of meta-search, ie he searches the other sites and Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Sena cases I have used over the years have come in either black or… no actually that’s it, all of the Sena cases I have bought over the years have been made from black leather. The reason? Leather protects delicate electronics beautifully and a black case for a phone or similar device always looks appropriate whether at work or at play. (That and the fact that I tend to be drawn to the simpler (read “boring” styles in cloths and cases.) Maybe that’s why I was initially drawn to Sena since their early cases were fairly conservative in style. In recent year, however, Sena has upped their game in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Who says social networking doesn’t do anything good for the world? Philo, a social network designed around sharing your television addiction habits, has launched a “Save Teresa” campaign. Don’t know who Teresa is? Read on… Teresa Guidice is one of the “stars” of the Real Housewives of New Jersey. While I try to avoid tv trash, it’s a train wreck of a show I can’t stop watching. I keep justifying it as keeping up with the various ways people can make fun of me for being from New Jersey, even if I can shamefully explain the “plot” of each episode. So now you know Teresa is a reality star, but why does she… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

With Amazon’s Kindle 3 and Kindle wifi selling out, and B&N seeing the nook as their major bright spot, it’s pretty clear that Amazon and B&N are dominating the ebook market. So where’s Sony in the mix? Apparently, not competing at all. Sony was out at the end of July with this comment to the blog ReadWriteWeb: “Pricing is one consideration in the dedicated reading device marketplace, but Sony won’t sacrifice the quality and design we’re bringing book lovers to lay claim to the cheapest eReader,” said Phil Lubell, VP of digital reading at Sony Electronics. “Our global customers expect to get the best digital book reading experience and we’re concentrated on delivering that by investing Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The iPad is incredibly versatile. Much of the time when you use it you want to hold it in your hands but there are times when you want to put it down but have it stay at a particular angle. This is especially the case if you are watching a movie or using it to type when connected to Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard. That’s why cases with built-in stands such as the Case-Mate Venture and Sena Folio are so incredibly useful. There are times, however, when you want the iPad sans case but still held in a particular position. That’s why it’s so nice to see an increasing number of options with regard to stands… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The PDAir Aluminum Metal Case for the Apple iPad wraps your iPad in a protective layer of metal while still giving access to all the ports. The PDair shell is available in either silver or black aluminum. It is shaped to fit the iPad perfectly without adding much bulk or weight and the interior is lined in shock-absorbing black neoprene. PDair’s Aluminum Metal Case for Apple iPad can be ordered directly from the PDair website but we had two to give away. And the PDair Aluminum Metal Case for Apple iPad Giveaway Winners are… Henry Lum Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Big news for Texas and Toyota yesterday. OK, the news actually came out a while back that the automaker would shift midsize pickup production to their full-size truck plant in San Antonio but it was guns blazing Friday as Governor Rick Perry helped kick off the official celebration. … Continue reading on Gear Diary …