XtremeMac has announced a series of new iPad cases and a screen film intended to not only protect your precious iPad but to protect it in style. They range in price from $24.99 to$49.99. Among their offerings… the Tuffwrap, a form-fitting silicone case that “safeguards the iPad by shielding it from unwanted scratches”, the Nylon Sleeve which features “a durable form-fitting exterior with a soft plush lining to provide maximum protection for the iPad” and the lightweight, form-fitting Neoprene Sleeve that is “the ideal travel solution for the iPad, featuring an integrated pocket for items such as cables and earphones and closes with a Velcro seal to ensure that the iPad and other accessories are… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Thanks to the iPad I have moved further than ever away from using paper. When I want a new book I buy it to read with my Kindle app. When I want to take notes in a meeting I use one of a few different iPad apps. When I am doing serious writing I use the app Notebooks and then sync it to my MobileMe account so that it is available everywhere. When I need to create a voice note I do it in Evernote. That way it is available to me everywhere and, thanks to new integration with the Voice2Note service, it gets transcribed into text as well. And when it comes to magazines… it… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

On a hot summer day like today (the area I’m in is currently under a heat advisory) what’s the one thing most people have with them almost all time?  If you said a bottle of water, you’re right.  I’m sure no one said, ” a tri-pod” though right?  Well if you said “bottle of water” the next time I ask you the same question you might just respond “tri-pod” as well. This Bottle Cap Tri-pod turns almost any bottled beverage into a handy tri-pod mount for your camera.  It’s small enough to be carried around everywhere and works best with the smaller, point and shoot cameras.  The tri-pod swivels… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Our Gear Sponsor’s site LogicBlackFriday has a nice deal on Lenovo’s IdeaPad Y460 today. (Two actually!) The IdeaPad Y460 is a 14″ laptop that features the new Intel Core i3-350M CPU and 4GB RAM. That configuration… …should give you plenty of power to watch 720p HD on your LED 1366×768 display and more. 500GB HDD is enough space to store all your HD media, and at 4.7lbs this notebook is very portable too. The laptop has an MSRP of $1029.00 but is available through this deal for just $649.00. It will even ship for free. If you need more power, the Core i5 version of the Y460 has 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The other day Larry pointed out that, without my even thinking about it, I have a tendency to pull my iPad out of its case whenever I am using it in one place for an extended period. That makes it all the more important for me to make sure I have some permanent protection for the back of the device. Up until now that protection has come in the form of a Clear-Coat skin that I’ve had on the back, the screen, and the sides of the device since I first got it. It does a great job of protecting the iPad but, to be honest, it doesn’t add much in the way it looks. So… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I made no attempt to hide my love for Torchlight in my Netbook Gamer review. Here is some of what I said: Torchlight is a pure action-RPG, and as such doesn’t pretend to be ’story driven’ or character centric – not even to the limited extent of games like Sacred or Titan Quest. But as I said at the outset – it never tries to be those things, it just aims for pure action-RPG fun, and it absolutely succeeds at being an evolutionary step forward from Fate in that regard. Now we have word from Runic games that they are hard at work on the follow-up, Torchlight 2 – and it is planned for a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The original Starcraft is one of the most successful games in PC gaming history – it has sold more than 11 million copies since it was released in 1998. Interestingly it sold ~1.5 million copies during the first year it was released – I call it interesting because new information from Digital Trends shows that the game passed the 1.5 million sold mark within 48 hours of release! That easily makes it the top selling PC game of the year and the fastest selling PC game in quite a while. While no one really doubted that StarCraft II would be successful, there were some barriers to such meteoric sales: – DRM: the game is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Is you grill always dirty?  Covered with food and grime?  Regular steel wool bristled brushes don’t do a great job of cleaning.  The Grill Daddy claims to be the ultimate grill brush.  Using the heat of the grill combined with steam the brush says it’ll get your tired old grill grates looking like a new again. The Grill Daddy Pro is available for $24.95 at As Seen On Tv. This month we put the Grill Daddy Pro to the test in another episode of Gear Diary, Deal or Dud?  How did it perform?  Watch the video below to find out if this one’s worth adding to your outdoor arsenal… 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. Remember back in the day when the iPhone did not have an App Store?  I actually joined the iPhone party in the modern era with thousands of native apps to choose from.  In those early days, the only way to utilize the phone beyond the provided Apple apps was through Web Apps.  Because of the thousands of app possibilities, I have not previously had much of an experience with these types of… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This is one of those items that just gets cooler and cooler the more you look into what it does. Basically the Tunebug Shake turns your bike helmet into a speaker… seriously. The Shake is a portable Bluetooth speaker that connects to your phone or media player via Bluetooth or 3.5mm plug. It is a “surfacesound” speaker which means it turns your bike helmet (or other helmet) into the speaker which eliminates the need for earbuds. That means  you can now listen to music safely while you ride. It is made “for any kind of action sport helmet” and comes with two different mounts so it will attach to both helmets with a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Did you know that Devo has a new album out? Yeah … I really don’t care either, and it is really not worth mentioning other than it is better than anything they’ve done in almost 30 years (a VERY low bar!). Devo is a band that will forever live in the late 70′s / early 80′s as one of the most innovative groups of the New Wave era. Let’s just remind ourselves what they looked like 30 years ago: The stuff they put out back then remains fresh… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The big bookstore news of the day is that Barnes and Noble is looking to sell themselves. Everyone is wondering who or what will be snatching up B&N, with rumors and speculation flying. Who are the likely and unlikely suitors? Here’s my take, from least likely to best fit. Microsoft (or Apple, or some other pure technology company): This is a completely insane idea. If B&N were solely looking to sell the ebook division, I could see Microsoft being a good fit. But why would Microsoft, or any pure tech company, be interested in buying 700+ retail bookstore locations? Putting aside the false notion that the only value left in B&N is in the ebook division… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’m still on the fence about Apple’s new MagicTrackpad. I’ve wanted something like this for my iMac for such a long time but I still keep flipping back and forth between it and my MagicMouse. Others, however, love it and it is easy to see why someone who is using it all the time now might quickly find the far smaller trackpad on a MacBook Pro too small and confining. Fortunately the Magic Trackpad is small enough to take with you. Unfortunately it is easily scratched. Fortunately… Waterfield SFBags has you covered with two new ways to protect your Magic Trackpad… the Trackpad Slip and Trackpad Socket. Both are available for ordering now and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Heroes of Newerth gained a loyal following with a solid closed beta and a very customer-focused release. The game is a MMORTS – massively multiplayer online real-time strategy – game based on the Defense of the Ancients scenario from the classic Blizzard game Warcraft III. The usual cost of the game is $30, but for this week you can play for free! You can now play Heroes of Newerth for FREE! Come join us for a Free To Play Week starting Monday, August 2nd at 1:00 PM EST and ending on Monday, August 9th at 1:00 PM EST. Set up your free account and download the client here. It’s fast and easy to do. You’ll Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For today’s Gear Deal we have another HDTV only this one is bigger and badder than yesterday’s. Yup, today our Gear Sponsor has the Samsung UN55C6500 1080p 55” LED HDTV. The TV features a 5,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and Auto Motion Plus 120Hz blur reduction. It is Internet-ready and more. The TV has an MSRP of $2,299.99 but with a $600 coupon the price drops to $1,699. It will ship for free and there is no tax in most states. Details and ordering can be found here. And if 55″ is too big for your space you may also want to look at this 40″ Samsung UN40C6500 or this 46″ Continue reading on Gear Diary …