Yes, yes, I know:  ”Halloween just ended, Doug!  It’s waaaay too early to start thinking about the holidays! Can’t you give us a break, dude?” I’m with you there.  But let’s face it:  the stores are putting up a few desultory Thanksgiving decorations here in the states, but you know it’s not very long until we’re inundated with the dreaded Holiday Shopping Season.  O’Reilly will soon be bleating about the “War on Christmas!”, we’ll see editorials in the papers about how commercialized it’s all become, and people my age will be downloaded Charlie Brown specials instead of waiting for the networks to broadcast them. But buck up!  This isn’t your typical pre-holiday shopping post–or… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We all love our ScotteVest clothing here at Gear Diary. One of the coolest features of SeV wear is the ability to take a set of ear buds and wire them through the garment so they’re always there when you need them. The only issue is the fact that you then have to dedicate a set of headphones to this task – wiring them up each time you want to use them isn’t practical. Enter the HoodieBuddie. The HoodieBuddie looks like any old hooded sweatshirt. But it’s not. Using their patent-pending HB3T technology the HoodieBuddie contains a standard headphone jack hidden in the front pocket that plugs into any headphone compatible device (Mp3… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If all of music was like the Beatles album ‘Please Please Me’, with the average song less than 2:30 and the longest song under 3 minutes, having 30 second samples on places like iTunes and Amazon wouldn’t be an issue. For songs like that, 30 seconds gets you a taste of the verse and chorus and allows you to make an informed buying decision. However, as my younger son tells me ‘you could fit a lot more songs on your iPod if you got rid of all of those 45-minute long Miles Davis songs!’ While that is somewhat exaggerated , it is true enough that in my retrospective of Bitches Brew I remarked on… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the new 46″ Sharp AQUOS 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV. This HDTV offers full HD 1080p resolution with Edge lit LED design, 120Hz Fine Motion Advanced for virtually blur-free motion, high dynamic contrast ratio and fast response that delivers spectacular picture quality and is equipped with built-in ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuners. It comes with six 1080p compatible inputs including 4 HDMI and 2 HD Component inputs. The AQUOS 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV has an MSRP of $1,299 but our Gear Sponsor has found it for $300 less. That means you can get this stunning HDTV for just $999. It will even ship for free. AQUOS® LC46LE620UT 46″ LCD HDTV via… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’m a big fan of the Amazon Kindle 3. It’s become a permanent fixture on my bedside table and I use it almost religiously each night before bed. Amazon’s current version of their e-reader is slim and small. So much so that I think a case actually compliments it. Like the iPod Touch I sometimes find when devices are too slim they become hard to use. While I haven’t tested a ton of Kindle 3 cases I have been using JAVOedge‘s newest offering over the last two weeks and have been quite pleased with the result. The Charcoal Flip Style Case comes in two color variations, Stone and Dusk. It features a inner sleeve… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So the other day, I was watching Silence of the Lambs . . . No, that wasn’t the beginning of a bad joke that would include a piece of string, a rabbi, a priest, and a man with a duck on his head going into a bar.  It’s just that, when I saw the news below, I couldn’t help think of the fact that, just days before, I had watched Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins matching cinematic wits. Why is this relevant?  Well, it is if you’re a fan of the Showtime program “Dexter,” about the family man who’s also a whacked-out serial killer (black humor at its blackiest!).  And Marc Ecko Entertainment has… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Our world seems to become continually more mobile.  With all of these mobile gadgets comes a need to charge and charge often.  Unfortunately, devices have not adopted a standard for charger connectors so that leaves many of us with a ton of plugs throughout the house.  We have a vase on the kitchen counter near a set of wall plugs that holds all of the various charging cords while keeping them hidden.  Basically, I throw the rats next of wires in the vase so my wife does not kill me due to the mess.  Duracell has released an interesting product that will not only clean up this charger problem, but also allow for… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I loved working on a Tablet PC. The ability to “ink” on one– that is, create digital ink by using a stylus to write or draw on the screen– made taking notes quick and easy. I don’t mind the trade-offs I had to make once I moved to the iPad since it is lighter, runs longer, is silent, never gets warm and… it is Apple, but every now and then I miss “inking”. Fortunately more and more iPad apps are improving the experience of writing on the iPad’s screen. They are making the ink “flow” more smoothly and many are adding palm rejection to their apps so that you won’t create stray marks on the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Wall Street Journal this morning reported Apple has 95% of the tablet market. Amazing, in the face of virtually no competition! Also, Apple has 99.9% of the “electronics starting with i” market. But they aren’t the only ones with big marketshares in questionably competitive areas… -Toyota has 85% of the market for “sudden, unexpected, OH CRAP, 0 to 60″ cars. -Snapple has 100% of the “greatest stuff on earth” market (tm Dan) -Gear Diary has 100% of the market for blogs named Gear Diary! -Coca Cola has 100% of the “secret formula cola” market. -Google has 93% of the “Customers are trained to think privacy is overrated” market. -Microsoft has 100% of everything Continue reading on Gear Diary …

BUT WHAT ABOUT VIDEO GAMES? So … where do iPhone games fall in regards to what you should do at a ‘dollar store’? That is always a tough call – $1 seems like so little, but pretty soon you find you’ve spent as much as a full-size game! And hopefully you have actually gotten many hours of gameplay from those dollar games, but just as likely you have played most for about five minutes and never touched them again. Anyway, for my next set of micro-reviews I am looking at four recently released $1 games – some are good, some are … well, less so. None are high-profile entries, but they might all… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When Joseph was a little, little guy, he was surrounded by good-quality, very-PC, Northern California liberal friendly toys.  Not a gun-related toy in the house.  So naturally, through osmosis or some durn thing, he started turning everything into a gun.  Bananas.  Blocks.  Even the animals from our really nice Noah’s Ark (the giraffe was a particular favorite). Sometimes, honestly, it’s a lot easier to live in Texas. Anyway, Joseph loves any kind of iPhone game that involves point and shooting at stuff.  I’m not showing him this one, because I’m sure that he would ask for it immediately, and I would have to say “No” 80 b’zillion times.  But you’re not 12 years old… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Speck has introduced two new bags for taking your netbook (up to 10″) or iPad on the go. The CorePack-10 and the PortPack-10 both feature Speck’s excellent design and high quality construction. Each has an MSRP of $49.95 and are available now. Here’s a quick first look at both. We have review units of each and will have a thorough Gear Diary look in the next few days. CorePack for Netbooks and iPad Open up CorePack FLY 10’s butterfly design and it instantly becomes a portable work surface. The butterfly feature is also airport security checkpoint friendly, allowing you Continue reading on Gear Diary …

UPDATE: After this post went live, I received an email from Verizon. They were very concerned about the experience I had, and the frustration I expressed here. I talked with them about the plan we were on, and what bundles made more sense given what we were looking to accomplish (saving money since we didn’t need super-fancy pants TV). To say they were helpful is an understatement. We picked a better bundle and worked out a much better set of features, and FiOS customer service was incredibly friendly. When I ranted about my experience, it was just to get it off my chest, not with any expectation, so having FiOS not only reach out Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s an intriguing new way to protect and carry your iPad; the “i-hotake” (a play on “hold & take”) appears to be a pretty-thick protective plastic bumper case with handles on each end. Made for kids? Made for klutzy adults? We’re not exactly sure and they aren’t telling. Cutouts for syncing, speakers and other ports are in their proper places, so if nothing else — when your iPad is in this you can use it a mini breakfast in bed tray. i-hotake site (MSRP $39.99) Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Across the United States today hopefully millions of folks will be out voting for their local, state and federal representatives. There are tons of important issues and races at stake, as well as the balance of power in Congress. I’m sure there are local issues in your areas as well. Google is making things easy – simply type vote into your search bar / web page and you are brought to this page. From there you simply enter your home address and you will get a Google Map page showing the directions to your polling place, and on the left side a bunch of info including who is on your ballot… Continue reading on Gear Diary …