For a while I thought I would never see my Nintendo DSi again … I mean, my younger son already permanently took over my original copy of Korg DS-10, and when we were playing around with the new Korg DS-10 Plus on my DSi and he realized that I could add a second bank … well, he took the whole deal! Fortunately I managed to get it back and now he just borrows the DSi when he wants to use the Korg DS-10 Plus. The Hype: KORG DS-10 Plus is an enhanced version of the revolutionary KORG DS-10 synthesizer software that was released to critical and retail acclaim for Nintendo… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Communication is an evolving thing. When I was a kid everyone had rotary phones, no one had an answering machine, no one had a home computer, and people quite often communicated via hand-written letters sent over the postal service. If I was taking public transit to see a movie with friends or biking to the tennis courts at the high school, I would be expected to be home by a certain time – and if I actually had an issue I would need to find a pay phone and call. Five or ten years ago we did most stuff by home phone, got messages on our tape-based answering machine, had cell phones for… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I recently reviewed the PC release of Supermarket Mania 2, and found it a ‘casual thrill ride’. I noted the basic plot from the original game – but I had never played it! It has been available for a while for the PC & Mac, came to the iPhone in early 2009, was released for the iPad and as a PSP Mini earlier this year, and has now arrived on the Nintendo DSi as part of the DSiWare store! Let’s take a look! The Hype: In Supermarket Mania, you’ll have to help Nikki operate a small grocery store; satisfying the needs of increasing demanding customers. Nikki’s main goal… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Not only ’tis the season to be jolly (too jolly for me, but that’s another post on a totally different web site!), ’tis the season to make tons of decisions.  What do you get for a 7 year-old niece?  Uncle Harold sent presents for the kids; do you send him a present in addition to a card?  Since have your friends are non-Christian, including some pagans and atheists, what kind of cards do you buy, anyway?  And who do you spend Christmas with this year? Yup, making decisions is a pain, but Great Life Software wants to decrease the pain a little bit with their new, decision-aiding software for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you’ve read a few of my news items, you may have noticed that my favorite word is not one of those fancy-pants fifty-cent jobs, like lugubrious, or glacial, or gallivant, or something like that.  Nosir, as someone who tries to point our faithful readers towards gear, my favorite word is . . . free! And good luck today for you, because Friendly for Facebook, an app that “is filling a noticeable gap left open by the lack of an official Facebook app for the iPad”, has been reduced in price by an infinite amount, making it . . . (wait for it!) . . . free! And that’s a serious gap, if… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Let’s face it, televisions are no longer just television. Thanks to a host of different set-top boxes you can now watch YouTube videos, download movies and even use your huge TV as a mammoth computer monitor. But what if you don’t want all the add-ons required to make the move from tv to TV!!!!! ? That’s where today’s Gear Deal comes in. The VIZIO XVT423SV is a 42″ LCD HDTV that has VIZIO Internet Apps built right into the unit. With it you can get movies, music, look at photos and even visit social networking sites. Here’s a full description of this next-gen TV… The VIZIO XVT423SV delivers the ultimate HDTV experience! This high Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We all know what it’s like to have multiple remotes in the house.  One for the DVR.  One for the cable box.  One for the DVD player.  Maybe another one for a VCR player (if you still have one).  Another for the TV itself, probably.  All that, just so you can watch the saved version of the Wings/Flyers game in HD.  Doesn’t seem fair, honestly. Gear4 agrees with that point of view, and has designed a solution.  The UnityRemote device lets you control everything that’s remote-controllable from you iPhone or iPad.  And if you’re reading this, you already have one of those anyway, right?  So maybe what you want is one of these nifty gadgets… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have mentioned that the flurry of activity this past week on the iTunes is related to the ‘freeze’ that will be in place from the 23rd through the 28th. Well, iTunes Connect sent out a reminder message, so I figured I’d do the same! Basically it comes down to this: the state of the App Store today will remain identical until the 29th, when whatever new additions or price changes or updates have been pending will go into effect. One interesting side-effect is that if a publisher mistakenly scheduled a price change for during this time, it will make the app unavailable for purchase from the time of… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Just to prove to you all that I’m really not an Apple fanboy–I’m an old UNIX nerd, durn it!–I try to make sure that I post plenty of news items on non-Apple stuff.  Because I think that competition is a good thing, and I think that the Android OS has a lot of really good potential, I’m always glad to post some ‘droid stuff for you all. Like today, for example.  PDAir is pretty egalitarian when it comes to cases, and they’ve just added a whole heapin’ load of new cases for the Droid Pro.  Unless my eyes deceive me, all their cases go for an MSRP of $28.00, and that’s not a lot… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve always loved music but since I got my first iPhone I find myself listening to more music than ever. When I was a kid I had a pair of over-the-ear Pioneer headphones that I played way too loud and, no doubt, did my self some significant longterm damage. Nowadays I tend to prefer earbuds to on-ear or over-ear headphones. As a rule I find the buds more comfortable and less tiring to wear. They are also easier to carry. When Denon asked if I was interested in reviewing their AH-D1100 over-ear headphones however I jumped at the chance. I hoped that, perhaps with these over-the-ear headphones, I would finally find a pair… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of Notion Ink Now that the pre-order dust has settled Notion Ink is cashing in on their promise to show us some live video of the tablet in action. Since the pre-order D-Day there has been massive amounts of confusion, anger, and scrutiny directed towards Notion Ink. So many questions were left unanswered and from what it seemed people were already starting to have buyers remorse. Notion did indeed have a rocky start with no tablet in sight nearly a year after it was presented to the world and then some pre-order troubles to boot. I have been following pretty closely with the blog and managed to get both a Piqel Qi WiFi model… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In the ‘last minute gift’ email from Apple yesterday they included the image at the top, showing representations of various Apple products on the base of a Mac Pro, with different colored iPod Shuffles as ornaments. It is a cool image that immediately struck me. On reason it struck me was that while I was gathering up gear to stuff in the SeV Expedition for my review video, I took all of our iPods and arranged them in a sort of ‘family tree’ and took a few pictures. I had thought it might make a good basis for a post … but until I saw that Apple image I didn’t know… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Kingdom Hearts franchise occupies a unique place in the gaming world: born out of the combined universes of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy multiverse and the multiple characters of Disney, Square Enix has forged a beloved new franchise that brings both together in a way the emphasizes the strength of each without compromise. The original games for the Playstation 2 remain favorites for games of any age, and the series has been augmented by solid releases on the GameBoy Advance and the Nintendo DS. Now we get an original release for the Sony PSP. Let’s diver right in and see how they did. The Hype: Play as… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the things I really didn’t want to give up when I moved from my iPhone 3Gs to the iPhone 4 was my Mophie Juice Pack Air. I used it every single time I traveled, and it made a huge difference–one day of heavy use during a voyage from Austin to San Jose (or vice-versa) no longer risked draining the poor ol’ battery dry; I had my Juice Pack as a back up. So I was pretty excited when USBFever announced the release of a similar product for the iPhone 4: the Mili Power Spring. Would this be a gizmo that could take the place in my gear bag that, up until now, was… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Whenever I think of Christmas apps I think back to what was one of the absolute worst games ever – Elf Bowling! But when G5 Entertainment offered me their new holiday themed game I was fairly certain it wouldn’t be a Christmas nightmare, so I gave it a shot. The Hype: Plunge yourself into the shining world of a winter fairy tale! Control and master the logistics of Christmas! Help magic elves deliver and load gifts to Santa’s sledge before Christmas comes. Make sure they don’t run into each other or they will drop the gifts and children won’t get their Christmas presents. This isn’t just another line drawing game… Continue reading on Gear Diary …