Today’s Gear Deal brings us some nice savings on a traditional desktop. The Dell Inspiron 580 has a Core i5-760 Quad-Core processor clocked at 2.8GHz and even in its base configuration it is plenty powerful. It includes 6GB DDR3 memory, a 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive, a 19-in-1 card reader, a 16X DVD+/-RW, a built-in wireless-N card and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. It also comes with 5GB of Dell Online Backup for a year, is pre-loaded with MS Office Starter 2010 and comes with a bundled Keyboard and Mouse. To round out the system it comes with a 20″ monitor. This impressive base system has an MSRP of $1,017.99 but our Gear Sponsor has found… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Just last week I wrote about the original Humble Indie Bundle from May being added to Steam for those who grabbed the deal, noting that the team was hard at work on the follow-up … and now we have great news: Humble Indie Bundle 2 is available! But hurry – it will only be around for about a week! Here is the description: The Humble Indie Bundle #2 Pay what you want. If you bought these five games separately, it would cost around $85 but we’re letting you set the price! All of the games work great on Mac, Windows, and Linux. We don’t use DRM Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I recently reviewed the Hewlett Packard (HP) Elitebook 8440w and loved it, so when I had the chance to look at the recently released HP Mini 5103 my thought was: ‘take the 8440w and shrink it to netbook dimensions and you have the PERFECT business netbook’! At first glance that seems to be exactly what they did, but of course I needed to put it through the day-to-day paces of my work life to see how it did. And since I have an unhealthy obsession with trying to shoehorn ‘big PC’ games onto netbooks, naturally I had to see how the hardware performed as a portable gaming system. Read on… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of NAVTEQ. All opinions are 100% mine. There are a few key features that MUST in my next car. Since I live on a steep hill and have a bit of a schlep to get into my office my next car will have to have four-wheel drive. Since I care about our environment my next car will have to have a hybrid engine or, if available at the time, be fully electric. Since I talk on the phone while driving my next car will have to have integrated Bluetooth. And since I often… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of CreStock A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Gameloft Advent Calendar, which planned to offer all sorts of deals throughout the month. I have frankly not paid that much attention since the first couple of days, but Joel recently pointed me towards a post at phandroid that caused me concern: it talks about someone getting charged FOUR TIMES while trying to buy a game from Gameloft. There are three reasons this is a concern: I don’t ever want to recommend something that results in someone getting cheated out of money. Gear Diary folks saw Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Joe Born at Neuros Technology has always been a supporter of Linux and Open Source technology since I’ve known him.  Well Joe came up with a great idea.  How about using a cheap Android Tablet to control the Neuros Link?  Sounds like a good idea, but did it work? The Control Tablet 1002 is very similar to the Eken M002 tablet.  In face, it will run the same builds of Android that the Eken M002 will. Let’s take a look at the specs: • Slatedroid firmware based off of Google Android OS 1.6 • VIA MW8505 350-400MHz • 128MB DDR2 • 2GB NAND FLASH, support most TF card up to 32GB •… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A few interesting news items today, some related to sales numbers, and a couple of other tidbits. It is an interesting time of year, things are starting to wrap up for the holiday break in general, but there are loads of deals being offered and other news items drifting around that are interesting. World of Warcraft Cataclysm Sells 3.3 Million in One Day Anyone who doubts that World of Warcraft (WoW) is still the dominant force in online gaming can keep their head in the sand a bit longer, because the juggernaut 6-year old MMORPG just keeps on rolling. Two years ago the expansion Wrath of the Lich King sold 2.8 million copies in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Have you ever read a book and then saw the movie based on that book, or saw a remake of a classic TV show into a movie, and thought – HEY, how did you people manage to completely screw up such an amazing premise?!?! That is pretty much my review of A Witches Tale, but let me supply you with a few hundred words of context. The Hype: Which Witch is Which? Liddell is a young witch-in-training who wants to be the greatest witch in the world, but she isn’t willing to work for it. One day, she discovers a secret tome that unleashes an evil witch that has… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve never been shy about admitting my Apple fan-boy status. When it comes to mobile phones the iPhone has become my be all end all. The truth is, although I’ve sampled a few other mobile handsets since the release of the first generation iPhone, I’ve not owned anything else for any extended period of time. As long as I’m being totally truthful here I also have to admit I’ve become a little bored. Not bored with the iPhone hardware as much as the software it’s running. Yes, I’m a little bored with iOS.  As stupid as it sounds it’s just too simple. A few weeks ago I picked up a Sprint EVO. I’ve tried… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For a while I would post a group of game deals mid-week and another for the weekend, but too many mid-week deals were 24-hours only … so I just moved to the weekend deals. Even this week I have seen and let pass a few minor deals … but then Good Old Games dropped a huge sale in my Inbox that simply refused to be ignored! Here are the details: GOG.com Holiday Promo Starts Now! We’ve told you we’ll be finishing the “GOG.com Holiday Celebrations” with a big bang! Here it is, we’re discounting almost 300 games up to 50% for the last weeks of 2010, until January 3rd! If Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Christmas disclaimer:  blah blah blah holidays blah blah blah gift ideas blah blah blah hurry hurry hurry! Okay, now that that’s out of the way, the facts are these: Gear Diary sponsor Skooba Designs is having their final sale of the season.  Between now and 12/16 (That’s Thursday, in case you were wondering), you can get deals on Skooba items under the following conditions: 10% off any order 20% off any order of $50 or more 25% off any order of %75 or more They got tons o’ gear, Skooba does, so if you’re still searching for gifts–and let’s face it, you almost certainly are–you really should hustle on… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I usually don’t lead with pictures of cables–cables are boring; cables are dull.  But you know, sometimes you want to enhance your computing environment, and you need some kind of adapter cable.  Like this here one above from USBFever, which provides you an iPad to DVI link.  Which, you know, could be kinda nice if you want to plug your iPad into a video player, say.  So I thought, hey, let’s show these cables, because people need ‘em! As for what else USBFever is putting out this week, take a gander: iPad (iPhone 4G / iPod Touch 4G) to DVI Cable / Adapter iPad (iPhone 4G / iPod Touch 4G) Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the Vostro 230 desktop computer bundled with bundled with a 23.6″ monitor from Samsung. If you are in the market for a new desktop computer this deal is worth a look. The Vostro 230 desktop is a slim desktop tower running at 2.8GHz thanks to its dual-core processor. The computer is small but it’s no slouch. The base configuration has 3GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, a 320GB Hard Drive, a DVD+/-RW Optical Drive, and GMA X4500 graphics. The system comes with Microsoft Office Starter 2010, Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, and a 15-month subscription to Trend Micro’s Worry-Free Business Security Services. It also comes with a keyboard and mouse… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’ve all grown used to seeing the (sometimes) exciting bundled software deals offered by MacHeist and MacUpdate; in fact we usually find them intriguing enough that we’ll post. The one thing that these bundle sales have all had in common up until now is that there has been no PC love. But now you can add a new type of bundled software deal to the mix — the one offered by BitsDuJour. Mac software is being offered here as well, but unlike the other bundled software deals we’ve previously seen, you can buy the same exact software packages for either Mac or Windows. Bits Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of the AP When you think of the target audience for 10-ounce featuring colorful images of characters from the Wizard of Oz or a variety of well-known super heroes, would you say the audience is: (a) Under the age of 12 (b) Over the age of 12 If you guessed (b), then you are thinking along the same lines as the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the government agency set up to help keep consumers safe. When the test results showing the glasses had 1000 times (!) the level allowed in a product for children back in September, the CPSC stated that the products… Continue reading on Gear Diary …