Okay, I’ll admit it:  I didn’t have any idea what they meant by “GPS-controlled game”, either.  You can read all about it below, but the short form is, it kinda makes your iPhone or iPad into a Wii, sorta.  Your avatar moves when you do, inside of a designated area. Now I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned, that sounds hella cool.  You’ll have to decide for yourself, of course, but in the meantime you should surf on over to the Fraga-Games site and check it out.  Want to buy?  This first game has an MSRP of $0.99 at iTunes. Full information below. Fraga-Games Ltd., the developer of Kickin’ Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve gone back and forth between task managers on the iPhone and iPad and keep coming back to using Appigo’s Todo. For me ToDo is the most full-featured task app that syncs with Toodledo. And because the company is continually updating the app it just keeps getting better and better. (Full disclosure, I also use the task manager build into Pocket Informant since both sync with Toodledo.) Today Appigo is unveiling the most recent update to ToDo- ToDo 4. It is a significant update that brings with it a host of new features for both ToDo for iPhone and ToDo for iPad Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have a bad back, and when it goes out I have a very difficult time sitting for extended period. This can be more than a slight problem in light of the fact that, between my work as a rabbi and my work on the site, I do so much writing. At times I’ve ended up placing my keyboard on a box and typing … and that way works, but it’s not the best solution. That is the reason I was thrilled when Ergotron reached out to me and asked if I might be interested in reviewing one of their standing desks. To be honest, the review unit they sent isn’t exactly a standing desk… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

At today’s Blackberry development conference RIM announced their soon to be released tablet device named the Blackberry Playbook.  The 7″ tablet features a 1GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, and front and rear facing cameras. It’ll run flash 10.1 with hardware acceleration and it supports HTML5.  The device also has both HDMI and USB ports.  It’ll hook up with Blackberry’s Enterprise Server straight out of the box too. Specifications: 7-inch LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing 1 GHz dual-core processor 1 GB RAM Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have written about ArcaniA: Gothic 4 before here, here, here and here … and with each new notice I am feeling more and more positive. From the ashes of the awful Forsaken Gods expansion to Gothic 3 in the wake of its separation from Gothic developer Piranha Bytes, publisher Jowood and new developer Spellbound seem to have been shaping a reasonably worth while successor. Late last week I got to put that to the test in the form of a demo. Since I have had such ‘trust issues’ with Jowood since the Gothic 3 debacle, I wanted to give you some impressions from the demo to help if you are… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In some parts of the country–not here in Austin, but other places–there’s a hint of fall nippiness in the air.  The sign that winter, basically unthinkable a month ago, is not all that far off.  Time to take your woolen snuggies out of storage, make sure you ScotteVest winter gear is ready to go, and weatherize your gear. Wait, wait; what was that last one again? Hey, you need some wool protecting your tender skin from the cold; what about your Kindle 3 or your iPhone?  ”We have you covered!” (sorry), sez Case Closed.  They are now offering New iPad and Kindle 3 Wool Felt Sleeves, 100% Natural German Wool Felt, All packaging is Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’m using DropBox more and more these days, thanks to a recommendation from Thomas a number of months ago. One of the key apps on my iPad that makes Dropbox even more powerful is Elements. The universal app lets you use Dropbox as a note-taking application on any iOS device; it is a great way to take notes on the go and ALWAYS know exactly where to find them. When Larry first recommended the app to me, it was good… but extremely limited. You could make notes and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My background is in archaeology. Long before I became interested in theology or moved heavily into tech, I loved excavating.  I worked on a dig on the Mediterranean Cost when I was 17 and spent two summers excavating the ruins of a major city in the Galilee. Yes, my favorite fictional character was and remains Indiana Jones. This is a Roman house we excavated during one of the dig seasons. (And yes, that is me… a long, long time ago.) During one of the summers were excavating in the Galilee, there was a second team of archaeologists digging in a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Not unlike a bunch of kindergarteners exposed to cool new toys via TV who all then end up playing the obsessively at the same time, your Gear Diary writers and editors tend to follow each other along with new obsessions. We’ve had our Plants vs. Zombies period, of course (still ongoing for some) the Couch-to-5K participation, the massive focus on the iPad during and after the announcement last–what was it, January? A number of folks on Gear Diary lately have been playing “Angry Birds”. And now along comes some hotshot games designers that think they may have another new one to rival it in the town of “Put that damn thing down and spend some time out… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Talking with Clifford Nass is a real treat. He clearly loves what he does, and his passion for his work comes through in his stories and anecdotes. Not everyone gets to talk to Cliff Nass about his studies, but luckily he’s written a fabulous book, “The Man Who Lied To His Laptop”, that shares some of his best work and theories. The basic idea behind many of the studies Nass and his team do is that people respond to perceived emotions and intentions, even if it’s presented by a (supposedly) neutral party like a computer or television. From there, Nass and the other researchers extrapolate lessons about how interactions with each other can be influenced… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Back before the bubble burst, Sami and I went looking for floor coverings.  Suffering from various exposures as a child growing up the Louisiana oil country, she focused on hypoallergenic stuff in an attempt to keep her toxin exposure to a minimum.  And one of the hot new (then) floor coverings in that category was . . . bamboo. Well, seems the folks at USBFever got to thinking on bamboo themselves, and thought it might make for a nice case material for an iPad–I mean, hey, if it’s good enough for floors, why not, right?  Along with the other items listed below, the bamboo iPad cover goes for an MSRP of $46.99.  They haven’t said it’s hypoallergenic… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I recently uploaded a new video on my YouTube channel, where I reviewed the newest case for the iPhone 4 from Case-Mate. The Hula case is a bumper style case that comes in a variety of colors and includes both front and back screen protection.  At the end of the video I also added a comparison video to a case offered by Scosche, the bandEDGE,  which happens to look almost identical.  While I was in NYC for the Pepcom event last week, I had a chance to preview the Hula case at Case-Mate’s booth and I remarked to the company how much it resembled… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the occasional topics of conversation amongst your faithful Gear Diary crew is what, exactly, the iPad will be used for.  But we don’t ask that in the sense of, “What will this silly thing ever be good for?”, but rather “What unexpected use is someone going to come up with for this really cool gadget now?”  One consistent answer has been, “Education.”  The amazing Carly Z and I agree that text books are a potential huge market for the iPad; how much better would it be to buy one iPad, and then only have to cart that around, instead of a dozen heavy textbooks–even used ones? DANO Toys, a genuine mom-’n-pop company out of Southern… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It is widely recognized among friends and family that I could, if I so desired, go through a day saying nothing that wasn’t a quote from some movie or other. And in that vein, let me say this: when I think of “paprika”, I think of two things right off the bat: “Waiter, there is too much pepper in my paprikash”, When Harry Met Sally . . . The entire anime movie Paprika, which still kind of bends my mind just by thinking about it, let alone watching it. But I’m weird. For most people, paprika is a spice, a cooking ingredient that goes in a wide variety of recipes. And the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We start the week with a Gear Deal on the high-performance, HP Pavilion Elite HPE-490. This Six-Core Desktop PC is a powerhouse. The Elite HPE490 is designed for gaming and video editing and comes with a Core i7-970 Six-core 3.2GB processor, 9GB DDR3 RAM, 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5570 w/ HDMI, Blu-ray Player & LightScribe DVD+/-RW, a 5-in-1 Card Reader, Wireless-N Card and a Keyboard + Mouse. It also offers an optional upgrade to Core i7-980X Extreme Edition (3.33GHz, 1.5MB L2 + 12MB Shared L3 cache) CPU if you need even more power. With this configuration the HP Elite HPE-490t is $2,349.99. Our Gear Sponsor is showing a deal which will get you $500… Continue reading on Gear Diary …