The New SCOTTEVEST Carry-On Coat Last Monday we brought some clarity to the question of baggage fees and the conflict that erupted when SCOTTEVEST’s ad was rejected from Delta Sky Magazine. Millions of people have heard or read about the story in some form, but if you missed it you can read our post HERE. For more background, please skip to the bottom of this post, but the fun part is right below. So, all pun intended, let’s Carry-On! At the end of last Monday’s post we mentioned that there was more to come… there was… and here it is.. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We start the week with a Gear Deal on the newly redesigned HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition Laptop. The HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition Laptop is just 1.21-inch thin and weighs 5.5 lbs. A host of configuration options are available and include an optional Multi-touch screen, an optional Blu-ray upgrade, choice of a Core i3, i5, or i7 CPU, a fingerprint reader, a backlit keyboard, and 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 switchable graphics. With this deal you can get the HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition Laptop with a FREE 6GB RAM Upgrade, a FREE upgrade to 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive, and free shipping. In addition, our Gear Sponsor found deals that will get… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! This is one of those blockbuster weeks, with loads upon loads of PS3 and XBOX360 releases led by Fallout: New Vegas, the big sequel from Bethesda and Obsidian … and the game I said will likely decide the fate of Obsidian. As I mentioned here, ArcaniA – Gothic 4 was released early but will still be a big pull for RPG fans … well, until New Vegas comes along! And there are quite a few other releases this week – read on to find out! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A couple of weeks ago we got word that ArcaniA: Gothic 4 – which I presented the hands-on demo impressions here – would be delayed and was going to launch alongside Fallout: New Vegas on October 19th. Well, I heard some rumblings yesterday that the game might have unlocked early on Steam, and sure enough when I checked last night it was also available on Direct2Drive, where I had my pre-order. I was able to download and get up and running without any issues! I already have a few hours in the game, and while everything I said about the demo – good and bad – is true for the full game, I am… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

What the HECK took me so long to get my review of Alpha Protocol done? Didn’t I mention months ago having finished the game? Didn’t I later say I was going back and replaying again … and haven’t some months ensued since THAT as well? It is all true, and since then I have gone back again, looking to reduce the ‘two minds’ I have about so much of this game into a coherent review … you’ll have to read on to find out how I did! The Hype: The year is 2009. Worldwide political tensions are at a breaking point when a commercial airliner is shot down by a U.S. missile over Eastern Europe… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Next month the Unreal-engine powered dungeon crawl meets action-RPG meets tower defense game launches for the PC, PS3 and XBOX360. It looks awesome as shown in the screen at the top and the launch trailer at the bottom, so naturally I pre-ordered as soon as it became possible, opting for the discount and free item deal on GamersGate (still available). Here is the description: Dungeon Defenders is an original hybrid of two hot genres: Tower Defense and cooperative online Action-RPG! The game puts players in the role of one of four distinctive hero classes, tasked with fending off hordes of invading Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Powermat was first to bring wireless charging to the iPhone.  I was admittedly not a huge fan of their first generation design for the iPhone 3G/3Gs.  The large back plate just didn’t look good.  Dan had a chance to review the first generation system just about a year ago and came to a similar conclusion. The company is readying their iPhone 4 second generation release and I had a chance to preview it.  Boy how things have changed.  The new iPhone 4 Powermat is a world away from its predecessor.  Small, sleek and thin, the new version is a site to see. Check out the video review, taken from my… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here at Gear Diary we love (LOVE!!) our SCOTTEVEST clothing. A few weeks ago Judie gave a sneak peek at some of the new items SeV would be releasing this fall and now we have some of them in hand. First up… the new SCOTTEVEST Outback men’s jacket. The machine washable jacket comes in Dark Olive with a Dark Brown Corduroy collar and, as is always the case with SeV clothing, offers a host of different pockets. The Outback is great for travel and gadget-heads but was specially designed for undercover law enforcement. I’m about as far from that as you can get but I still love the jacket. Let’s take a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There are some who would have you believe that all of the games for the Nintendo DS are either casual puzzle games, shovelware (bad licensed games) or licensed products such as Pokemon (i.e good shovelware). Since I like neither or those game types and have played and reviewed more than a couple hundred DS games over the last five years, and have a library of over 100 DS games I love to play, it is safe to assume the platform has more to offer. From excellent adventures such as Hotel Dusk to grand strategy games like Advance Wars to the recent jRPG Dragon Quest IX, the DS has something for everyone. Nor are games trivial -… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Another weekend, another group of sales! We have more great deals, some excellent price drops, and a one-day sale worth mentioning! So let’s get right to it! Amazon.com: Today (October 15th) only, they are featuring Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold and Storm of Zehir at significant discounts as the ‘deal of the day’ Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold – $14.99 Storm of Zehir Expansion – $11.99 Good Old Games: This weekend they are featuring all titles from publisher Rebellion – and as with last week it is 50% off the full… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The good folks at NPR’s Marketplace did a story on the state of ebooks and libraries the other night. At first I was excited, since it’s great to hear any story about ebooks, especially library programs that tend to fly under the radar. But NPR’s reporting was so horribly, egregiously, painfully inaccurate that I really wonder if they did any research at all. Let’s start with the biggest head-scratcher: Kai Ryssdal: For all that die-hard bibliophiles say they will never ever give up their actual printed books, they may be fighting a losing battle. E-book sales are up 118 percent this year over last. The number comes from to the Association of American Publishers. You don’t Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It hasn’t happened to me with art so much, but it’s definitely happened with furniture.  You know how it goes:  you pick out something that you think will look awesome, and then you get it into that mess you call your house, and “Man, I never thought it was going to look like that!”  Oops! Imagu wants to spare you the pain.  You totally lovin’ that Monet print you just saw, but are not sure how it will go with your Goodwill sofa that you covered up with that purple crocheted blanket you threw over it?  Imagu can help, baby! Imagu’s new iPhone app gives you access to over 50,000 art prints, and lets… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We end the week with a Gear Deal on a 13.3″ Lenovo IdeaPad Z360 Core i3-350M Laptop which features a chicklet keyboard, Dolby Advanced audio, optional discrete NVIDIA GeForce graphics, integrated WiMAX, and more. Better still, you can configure the machine to your needs/liking and still save big. For example, you can get the IdeaPad Z360 (091233U) with a Core i3-350M 2.26GHz, 3GB DDR3, Intel HD Graphics, Windows 7, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 802.11n WiFi, WiMAX, a 6-cell battery, DVD+/-RW and a 500GB HDD. Configured in this manner the laptop is $849. The deal our GearSponsor is highlighting lets you take off $50… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You know, one of the last things I would have thought about the iPad when considering it’s form factor (that’s the fancy way we in the nerd biz have of saying “size”) is, “Wow, that thing is almost the same width and length as a Bento box!” But then, I’m an uncultured goofus. Greg Cheong, on the other hand, is clearly not an uncultured doofus, and did think about it.  And being a software boffin, instead of just thinking about it, he decided to do something with that thought:  create a Bento box designer program for the iPad!  So if you’ve ever wondered how you could maybe design a Bento box to send to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I love using my Livescribe Echo Pen. It is especially useful when I am meeting with a family prior to a funeral or with a couple prior to a wedding. It is a great way for me to take handwritten notes and then know that my notes are saved on my computer and on the web. I love using Evernote. It is my catch-all service for notes, emails, pictures, and more. Once something is in Evernote it is accessible to me no matter where I am from any of my devices or any browser connected to the web. Unfortunately there wasn’t an easy way to use my… Continue reading on Gear Diary …