We are all feeling the financial pinch!  Blue Plate Special is a weekly review of bargain apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Nothing over $.99. The other night, my wife said she needed a new game to play on her iPhone.  Being the Blue Plate Special guy, I started spouting off a list of free or cheap games we already owned.  Of course, she said thanks and walked off to find her own application.  I finally noticed that she had been silent for a long while and was affixed on her phone.  She explained that she found… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This is really brilliant. Kobo is selling “bundles” for the holidays, where you can purchase a Kobo Reader plus either “The Vampire Diaries” or “The Millenium Trilogy”, all preloaded on the device. It takes gifting ebooks to a step beyond just gift cards, plus you save a bit of money on the overall combination. This would be a great gift for an avid reader, since you’re setting them up nicely with a great device AND a good set of books to get things rolling. While all Kobo Readers come with 100 classics, there’s something to be said for newer titles, especially popular ones! My favorite part, though, is how Kobo sneakily manages to discount big… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Just getting ready to do a review of a upcoming product that Neuros is targeting for the Neuros Link and I spied a deal!  TODAY only in the Neuros store you can get the ultra quiet Neuros Link “Phantom” for $249.99 with a free upgrade to a 320 GB hard drive.  You will have to add a controller to your order or provide your own controller. The specs of this machine are: PC, it is customizable and expandable: Dual Core 2.5Ghz CPU 1GB DDR SDRAM memory (expandable up to 8GB) Up to 1080p H.264 video playback Support an extensive list of video and audio formats: MPEG2, MPEG4, .vob, .mp4 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Photo courtesy of Computerworld Just so you don’t all think that my geekly faculties have gone on holiday and that my sole job ’round these parts is telling you what to buy and where to shop for your Holiday consumption needs, here’s a little info about the new Galaxy Tab by Samsung. As you may know, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is one of the most recent competitors in the tablet market.  It runs the Android OS, supports Adobe Flash, and has a front-facing camera.  Which led the folks at Polycom to say to themselves, “Hm, I bet there’s a good market there for videoconferencing software, since those goobers at Apple didn’t put in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I really like Scosche gear–it’s pretty reasonably-priced (especially for what you get), and it has a wonderful feel of solidity to it, in addition to some good design details.  For example, I (stupidly) left my iPhone charger cable at home one trip, and picked up a new one in the Phoenix airport, and it happened to be a Scosche.  I fell in love with it right away–solidly made, with a design that when coiled up, helped protect the wires from, for lack of a better word, yankage.  I like it so much I actually emailed Judie and said, “Have we reviewed any of their gear?  Cuz I sure like this cable!”  And trust me, that doesn’t… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Black Friday is in full swing, Cyber Monday is on the way and as we do every day Monday through friday all year-long we have a great Gear Deal to share. Today’s deal brings us the HP Pavilion dv6 Select Edition laptop with a Core i7 laptop and 8GB RAM. (There’s also a Core i5 deal.) Here’s the story… At just 1.21-inch thin and weighing 5.5 lbs, the HP dv6 Special Edition (dv6tse) sports brushed aluminum finish in stream argento (metal). In addition to Multi-touch screen, optional upgrades include Blu-ray, Core i3/i5/i7 CPU, Fingerprint Reader, Backlit keyboard, and 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 switchable graphics. With this deal you will get a free… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I like iFrogz cases.  They reasonably-priced, colorful, do a good job covering up your precious gadget, and have a nice feel in the hand.  Right now, in fact, I have a teal/green one on my iPhone that I got as soon as I got my iPhone 4 (and was notified that the Speck case I wanted wouldn’t come in for a couple of months, minimum), and people frequently comment on it. Now iFrogz is released a few new cases for the holidays.  As as this is iFrogz, they’re not ones with little Santas or Snowmen or Channukah Harrys on them; they’re all kinda weird and psychadelic.  So if you need a new case, or if… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Now, I know it’s going to seem a little repetitive this month, what with me saying, “This could make a good gift for someone on your list!” two or three times a day.  But let’s face it; if you’re anything like me, you absolutely need all the help you can get.  So I hope y’all can forgive me the repetitiveness.  I’ll spice it up as best I can. And with that said . . . Long time Gear Diary supporter Skooba Design is having a holiday sale until 11/29.  Here’s the gist: 20% off any order of $30 or more (with code Cheer20) 30% off any order of $50 or more (with code Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s a pre-Black Friday Gear Deal for you on a flexible HP TouchSmart tm2t 12″ ULV Tablet with a multi-touch display. The HP tm2 is… powered by the new low-voltage Intel 2010 Core i3-380UM or Core i5-470UM with Intel HD graphics or optional 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450 switchable graphics. Features brushed aluminum design with “Riptide” engraved illustration wrapped in a lightweight & quiet chassis. The zero-force touch display enables you to twist it 180 degrees, fold it; use the included digital pen to write notes, draw or use your fingers to dictate onscreen (make multiple gestures to interact). With… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Thanksgiving is a great time to take a break and recognize all of the things in our lives which are going right … the things we have to be thankful for. Once we start thinking about the things in life that are good, it doesn’t take long before we realize that there is much to celebrate. So have a virtual turkey dinner with us on this Thanksgiving, as we celebrate the good things and enjoy the day! We hope that all of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving today have a huge list of things that are going “right”, as well as loved ones to celebrate your day with! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you’ve been sitting on the fence, unsure about whether you really need yet another Tokyoflash Japan watch, this deal may help you decide. For two days only – starting now at 7pm Japan time (4am CT US) and running until 7 pm Japan time on November 27th, you can get 15% off all Tokyoflash Japan watches when you order and enter the code BLACK. But that’s not the only deal, there are also another way that you can save! HOLIDAY SEASON OFFER – 50% OFF We also have 50% off selected watches when you buy any watch at Tokyoflash this holiday season. This is a saving of Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yup, ol’ Black Friday and the Holiday Shopping Madness Season are upon us.  (There are some holidays slotted in there too, I’m told.)  And as they have all year, USBFever has been cranking out gear for you and yours.  Space–and typing RSI–prevents me from listing all the stuff USBFever is putting out there for you, but trust me:  they have a ton o’ stuff available.  Almost certainly, they have something that you could use, or buy as a gift.  So go look-see.  And if you see something especially cool, let us know, too. Some of USBFever’s release this week include: High Power Dual USB Car Charger for iPad (3100mA) Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I recall seeing an interview with Penn Gillette one time during which they happened to show his laptop, which was covered with stickers.  All sorts of stickers.  It was garish, but yet it fascinated me in a way because it was so individual in appearance. While I usually just use a clear, protective skin on my devices (’cause I’m just boring that way), I appreciate decorative skins that allow the owner to really show off their personality and distinguish their gadget from all of the others around them.  SmirkAbout, an Australian company, is one of the newer companies putting out interesting designs.  Their skins, which are non-adhesive, are available for over 500 devices, including… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A home telephone is just a home telephone right? Of course not. That hasn’t been the case for years. While we used to rent our telephones from “Ma Bell” and could have our phone in any color and style so long as we liked black rotary phones we now have a wide range of options with regard to both look and functionality. Most recently many people have even gone so far as to get rid of their home phone entirely and rely only on their cell phone. We happen to have two lines coming into our house but both use VOiP technology. One is a phone line that we get through our cable provider and the other… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Hard to believe it, but there IS actually news other than Black Friday deals in the world of gaming this week. Aside from singling out the launch of Civilization V for the Mac – which was originally included here until it included SteamPlay – there are a few items of interest, so here goes! World of Goo iPad Incoming! One of my favorite ‘indie’ games of the last couple of years was World of Goo from 2DBoy. I reviewed it here, and also wrote about its inclusion in the ‘Humble Bundle’ earlier this year. Now 2DBoy has announced that they are bringing World of Goo to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …