For some time I have been using a backpack as my gear bag.  I like the backpack because it provides tons of room and lets me hold onto my college youth of backpacking around campus.  My main backpack has been the Everki Beacon laptop that I reviewed here.  I loved the quality and features of the Beacon so when I had a chance to review two new Everki bags I jumped at the chance.  I was actually ready for a change to a messenger style bag to bring a bit of professional style to my daily gear travels.  The Track messenger bag is perfect to use as an everyday laptop bag or even a general… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The only thing better than a sale is a REALLY GREAT sale! And that is exactly what Capcom is offering today on some of their iPhone games on the iTunes App Store. The biggie is the classic Resident Evil 4 dropping from $5 to $0.99! But there are some solid deals available for the next few days. From their listings: Huge sale on Capcom games! We’re dropping the price on eight of our most popular iPhone titles to $.99 for a limited time. Now you can get Resident Evil 4, 1942: Joint Strike, Mega Man II and more for the price of a candy bar. They’ll only be on sale through the weekend, so get Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you just can’t stomach AT&T’s iPhone plan, if you really need a 64GB iPhone, or if you have another phone that you usually use along with your iPad, but every now and then you want the convergence of carrying everything on one device — in this case your touch, then you must take a look at the new Apple Peel 520. According to their site, this device will “mobile voice and text messaging capabilities to the iPod Touch. The gadget acts as a protective skin that slips over the iPod Touch and includes a battery, dock connector and SIM card holder. Once the proper software is installed, the Apple Peel 520 adds the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you ask anyone what their biggest complaint was about the iWork apps on the iPad (Keynote, Numbers, and Pages), for many it would be the lack of a simple way to interact with Microsoft Office files and a limited ability to get files on and off the iPad. With a new update to all three applications, those issues are fixed – as are many more! MacRumors has a run-down of the features: Keynote – Export presentations to Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT) format. – Copy presentations between Keynote and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service. – Support for audio in builds when importing Keynote ’09 presentations. – Ability to group and ungroup objects. – Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Is it fair to say I’m a sucker for just about any game with a Star Wars label slapped on it? Yeah, I’d say so! So when I wrote about the upcoming Clone Wars Adventures ‘freemium’ game, I signed up for info and joined as soon as it launched! Now I’ve had a week to tinker around with the service – how does it play? Read on and find out! The Hype: * Extend the Fantasy: Kids no longer have to wait until the next exciting episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated TV series to continue exploring and enjoying the Star Wars universe. With Clone Wars Adventures, kids can go online… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As today is the first full day of autumn, it is really time to start thinking about the holiday shopping season. This year we have plenty of hot video games coming out, and Sony and Microsoft are each coming out with accessories to try to compete with the Wii. The Playstation Move launched this week, and for those of you who already have one, you know that dealing with battery charging is as much of a hassle as ever! The folks at Nyko always have great accessories, and so naturally they have Playstation Move owners covered! Called the ChargeStation, here is their description: Display and charge your PlayStation Move controllers with ease with the Continue reading on Gear Diary …

From the king Cobra case L, to the iPad specific Cobra courier XS, these four cases bring an unmatched elegance and style to the case and bag market Booq makes some of the most stylish and functional gadget bags I have had the pleasure to review. In recent months they have been expanding their line significantly and today they are taking things to an entirely new level. Today Booq will be announcing their new Cobra line of bags. The Cobra line brings a luxuriously fresh design and simply sharp look to booq’s already stellar line of iPad bags, skins, messengers, and backpacks. The stylish line includes the Cobra case Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Before the advent of “Simply Everything” there was an even cheaper way to get Sprint service. All you needed was the email address of a Sprint employee, and you’d qualify for a special plan called “Sprint Employee Referral Offer” or SERO. Basically it was deeply discounted service, and the people lucky enough to sign up have enjoyed ridiculously cheap wireless for the last few years. In an attempt to drive people off SERO and onto the more lucrative “Simply Everything” plans, Sprint stopped allowing SERO customers to upgrade to new phones. Basically, name a hot phone on Sprint, and SERO customers couldn’t have it. No Evo, no Palm Pre, no Epic 4G, etc. Unless you let them pry… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

HP has just released their 20″ HP Omni 100z and it is today’s Gear Deal. This neat-looking All-in-one PC sports an AMD Athlon II dual-core processor running at 2.6GHz, a 1080p LED-backlit screen, 2GB DDR3 RAM, a 500GB Hard Drive (a free upgrade with this deal), a Slim-tray DVD burner with LightScribe, a 6-in-1 Card Reader and a USB Keyboard and Optical Mouse. It is a nice little package that looks good and has everything you need to get work AND play going. The computer has a starting price of $649.99 but our Gear Sponsor has found the hard drive upgrade AND a $175 off thanks to a $150 off coupon AND a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Have you ever given money to buy something you didn’t need or that isn’t a good value in order to support something you thought was worthwhile? I do it pretty regularly – Boy Scouts Popcorn, Girl Scout cookies, fundraisers for all manner of school activities as well as charitable donations to all manner of organizations. And have you ever found yourself in a position where you thought you were supporting something worthwhile and suddenly realized that you were being used? THAT is what just happened with Good Old Games. Just about two years ago I found myself happy to learn that a site was coming to bring back classic games such as the original Fallouts… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last February I had the chance to review Thinksound’s first two offerings. The “Rain” and the “Thunder” were the company’s first entries into the earbud market. Thinksound is a company that takes environmental impact seriously. Everything they use in the construction of their products, from the packaging made from recycled materials to the PVC free cable, is all about leaving as small a eco-footprint as possible. And before you ask, the answer is no. Going green doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality. Thinksound makes a pleasant sounding, good looking headphone now with the addition of a microphone. The ts02+ mic, the company’s newest offering, is an 8mm in ear, high definition headphone with… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Fall is upon us. That means more time inside. That means coughing. That means flu. That means… we had all do our best to stay healthy. Obviously the best way to do that is to wash your hands frequently with soap and water. In addition, a new gadget can help. The VIOlight Cellphone Sanitizer uses UV light to quickly and safely kill 99.9% of bacteria and germs that might be living on your cellphone, earbuds and other small gadgets. It is battery operated, simple to use and silent. Best of all it is under $50. It is super simple to use. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Until very recently, I have not been mobile with my iPad.  I was able to get WiFi set up in my classroom last week and love being able to take my magic little device to use as a teaching aid.  I previously used a book style leather case that I liked, but was not comfortable in traveling with it in my bag.  It just did not seem like enough protection for the iPad.  Although I liked the ability to stand up my device with the other case, using it in an educational setting proved to be difficult.  I needed something that provided protection in my gear bag and was easy to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A while back the OnLive gaming service launched, and I posted my first impressions, and proceeded to spend much of my free time playing free demos of the various games available on the service. Now after a few months of hands-on experience I am ready to deliver my thoughts on this start-up video game-over network service. How does it work? Read on and find out! The Hype: OnLive is the pioneer of on-demand, instant-play video game services, delivering real-time interactive experiences and rich media through the Internet. With groundbreaking, patent-pending video compression technology, OnLive harnesses cloud computing to provide the power and intelligence needed to instantly deliver the latest, premium game titles directly via… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’ve covered Apigee’s services before.   They focus on giving developers the power to use Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs.    That may sound too ‘techie’ but the bottom line is that Apigee gives you the ability to more easily integrate your program with the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and much moremore.   Think of Apigee as the key that can open the doors to give you more ‘Bang!’ for your buck by making it easier to implement robust web services on your site or application. Today marks some big announcements from the company, with the announcement of a new beta Premium service.  The Premium beta gives you the ability to learn, test and debug APIs (making you a ninja-level API developer with much less pain!).  You can also protect your data by limiting service rates and access.  The Premium service joins Apigee’s exisisting Free platform and their top-of-the-line Enterprise service used by companies ranging from MTV Networks, TransUnion, Comcast and GameSpy. Read on to become one of the Premium beta users, and to get the full scoop and see Apigee action!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …