The iPad is awesome. So awesome that it is now available at Target and Amazon.com and, rumor has it, it is coming to Walmart too. Yup, the iPad has take the world by storm. Thanks to the iPad using a traditional 30-pin Apple Dock Connector, the device can connect to a host of accessories you already own. In most cases, however, speaker docks have the connection too recessed into the unit to work with the iPad or they leave the iPad perched precariously in a manner no responsible iPad owner would do. Well iLuv is changing that today with the announcement of the iMM747. The iMM747 is a speaker dock that is designed with… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When it comes to co-op zombie-killing shooters, it just doesn’t get any better than the Left 4 Dead games. While the community was initially upset that Left 4 Dead 2 came out so quickly after the original rather than as a series of DLC or expansions, when the actual game arrived … they were silenced by just how awesome the game was! And now … Mac gamers can get in on the action! From the Left 4 Dead blog: Today we make it official, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 on the Mac. Check out the update page for full details. Not exactly ‘new’ news, since the blog more or less… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A post over on 9to5 Mac points to a new book over on Amazon UK that suggests iLife ’11 is due in November and, surprise surprise… includes iOS compatible apps. That’s all very interesting and would be a nice turn of events, especially since there are a number of tasks I much PREFER to for using an iOS app than on an iMac, but there is one problem… iOS apps are designed for multi-touch. I have to imagine that trying to make them mouse-enabled would be, at best, inelegant. Then I got to thinking… I ALREADY HAVE a multi-touch device that I use with my iMac… my MagicTrackpad. Then I got to checking… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have expressed a fondness for used-gadget trade-in sites like Gazelle.com since they offer a reasonable amount of cash for your stuff (read: not what you might get on eBay, but with virtually no effort on your part). Perhaps looking to get in on the action, Verizon has started accepting phones as trade-ins and giving out a ‘Verizon Wireless gift card’ in exchange. But is it a good deal? I shopped my Motorola Droid to both Verizon and Gazelle to see! If I decided to take my Droid to Verizon, here is their offer: But if… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The other day we posted on Slacker Radio teaming up with Austin City Limits to being the music festival experience to everyone. A new iOS app helps make navigating the festival simple for those who attend, and Slacker Radio has a channel specifically dedicated to ACL called Austin city Limits Radio. We had five, one year subscriptions, to Slacker Radio Plus. The first goes to our reader Corinne. Congrats Corinne! Email me your Slacker Radio user name and the email address you use and we’ll get your account upgraded. Want some good news this Monday morning? We have four more one-year upgrades to share! Want one? Just Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Apple’s stock closed at just over $280 on Friday. That places it at about 12% shy of overtaking Exxon in the top slot on the Standard and Poor’s 500 market index. That means Cupertino’s market value may soon be greater than the oil behemoth. That’s particularly amazing when you consider the fact that the companies that have held that position include GE, AT&T, IBM and, of course Exxon. So think about it. The little company in Cupertino may well join the ranks of huge, diversified companies like GE. It boggles the mind, especially when you consider the fact that Apple only offers a limited selection of products and does so while rarely discounting their premium prices… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The T-Mobile G2 is the first true successor to the phone that started it all, the T-Mobile G1, over two years ago. I have been carrying two Android devices (a Google Nexus One, and a T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide) because there has not been a single Android device that met my needs. Does the T-Mobile G2, with its increased storage capacity, support for the faster HSPA+ network, with its innovative keyboard design and stock Android experience meet my needs? Read on to find out.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Uh oh…more bad news for Symbian (and Nokia). Boy Genius Report has posted that Samsung is getting out of Symbian entirely, to the point where they’re shutting down any developer support at the end of the year. This move just makes Nokia’s strategy to spin Symbian into a separate foundation even weirder. If you hit up Symbian.org and search for phones running the latest Symbian software, the only results are Nokia phones. With Sony Ericsson and Samsung both dropping Symbian, is anyone else left at the party besides Nokia? I’ve used Symbian before, and while it’s not a bad operating system, even the current version feels very dated. Nokia and the Symbian Foundation have… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have a Logitech speaker system I have been using with my computer for a number of years. It is a simple, three-speaker deal (two speakers and a larger subwoofer) but it sounds great and gets LOUD!!!!! Well, today’s Gear Deal brings us the Logitech Z-5500 5.1 THX Dolby Digital DTS 5.1 Speaker System. It has six (6!!!) different speakers and can output over 500 watts of Dolby Digital sound. If my three speaker deal is any indication this thing is going to be amazing. Loud, clear and… did I mention loud?? Here’s a rundown of the Logitech Z-5500 system. It has a total of six speakers, including a subwoofer, a center channel, and 4 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! After such a huge week last week, we pull back somewhat with a load of mid-level releases but no real blockbusters. Probably the biggest release is the DS game Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, which has gotten some good early reviews. The classic zombie killer gets more DLC with Left 4 Dead 2: The Sacrifice coming to the PC and XBOX360 this week, and is supposedly also coming to the Mac as well. Some other big releases include Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, for the XBOX360, some sports games on every platform possible, and the kids show… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Joel Mclaughlin Carriers, Manufacturers and Amazon are Fracturing the Android Ecosystem!!! Yes, I said it. And I meant it. Carriers, Manufacturers and Amazon ARE fracturing the Android ecosystem. Ultimately they will be the ones who will be blamed for fragmenting an open operating system and an open App Market, making the Android Operating System (OS) increasingly frustrating to use. This issue really came to the forefront for me when I heard there was an update for one of my favorite apps, iHeartradio. I learned through AppBrain, a popular application that is basically a way to easily install and uninstall multiple apps. AppBrain said there was an update, but it… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’ve given away some WickedAudio Headphones in the past and know they are always popular. Well, here’s a chance to win a pair directly from Wicked Audio by simply sharing a picture from a concert you attended sometime in the past. Here’s all you have to do… Find a picture of yourself of your friends at a concert. Tag everyone in the picture. Upload it to Facebook here. Everyone tagged in the photo has a chance to win one of 7 Wicked Audio earbuds/headphones. No, we aren’t running this contest but we did think it was kinda fun so, as you are having your coffee this Sunday morning why not take… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Ever wonder if those fees airlines are now charging for carry-on items actually bring in serious revenue? Well, thanks to Scott Jordan and SCOTTEVEST we now know the answer — they bring in TONS of cash. Turns out that while SCOTTEVEST clothing appears in the SkyMall Magazine in the pouch in front of each seat on each Delta flight, a recent ad the travel and gadget clothing company wanted to run that reminded people they can beat the ridiculous new carry-on baggage fees with the right garment hit a bit too close to Delta’s pocketbook. Delta rejected the full-page ad, although it ran in other publications. It seems the ad would potentially… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Since I use my iPad for work a great deal of the time I have tried a host of productivity apps over the six months I have owned it. This includes my checking out almost every PDF reader in the App Store. Eventually I settled on GoodReader as my PDF app of choice. The reasons for this are numerous. It is easy to use, full featured, constantly improving and… most importantly for me, it renders pages quickly. This is especially important for me since I have replaced most every book- include my prayerbook- with my iPad. I NEED it to go from one page to the next quickly! (I also love that it can render PDFs… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photos by Kevin Lenovo recently sent me a 23″ touchscreen ThinkCentre M90z all-in-one desktop computer to use for long-term evaluation. Because of its similar form factor to the ThinkCentre A70z (which had a 19″ non-touchscreen monitor), I already knew that I would like its space-saving design. But what I didn’t expect was how much I would come to appreciate the touchscreen; having a desktop computer with a touchscreen has never seemed that important to me before, as I am used to more traditional methods of input. As with the A70z, the M90z came packaged in a ThinkCentre bag; minimal cardboard or other packing materials were used. Continue reading on Gear Diary …