Another great weekend filled with deals from all over! As usual I am relying on Deals4Downloads for their amazing work rounding up many of these deals, adding only a little here and there. And once again there are simply too many deals to list them all … so here are a few: Impulse Weekend Sale Three Musketeers (PC) for $4.95*, Save 67% Expires on Sunday Majesty 2 The Fantasy Kingdom Sim (PC) for $4.99*, Save 75% Expires on Sunday Star Wolves 3: Civil War (PC) for $8.99*, Save 70% Expires on Sunday Avencast: Rise of the Mage (PC) for $5.09*, Save 66% Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Portable Sound Labsis  the company behind iMainGo, a portable external speaker kit for your portable device such as an iPhone or touch. They sent me a test unit quite some time ago ,and somehow it made its way into the back of the closet. Since that time they have released an updated iMainGo 2 and now the iMainGo X for more lifestyle integration. So, why my oversight? To be honest, I do not lead that portable of a lifestyle. Mine is more mobile – actually mostly mobile. When I am not test-driving new cars I am driving a fleet vehicle in my… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve been in the nerd industry now juuuuuust long enough to remember a time when people were wondering if you even could patent software.  Is it really what patents are for?  Maybe the copyright laws would be better, since software is, ultimately, text in the Roman alphabet (albeit not in English)?  Can you really copyright a computer program?  If someone changed the names of the various functions and simply moved them around, maybe they could steal your “copyrighted” material, but patents would cover that kind of thing?  And so on.  It was an interesting debate. Now Poynt, the mobile local search folks, have issued a third Continue reading on Gear Diary …

TVs were a huge deal at CES 2011 and one of the companies that is really picking up steam is Vizio. To many of us, Vizio once looked like an off-brand label. That is anything but the case these days. They make some great TVs and, better still, they are priced right. Even better, when the TVs come your way through our Gear Sponsor the prices are even more impressive… And that’s what we have as today’s Gear Deal. Today’s Deal brings us the 42″ Vizio SV422XVT. It is a 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV and comes with built-in WiFi and Internet Apps. Moreover, it offers 178 degrees Viewing Angle, 4ms Response Time, wireless N, 4… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Do you have an OnLive account but haven’t signed up for the $9.99 per month PlayBack service yet? Great news! For the rest of January you can access all of the games associated with the Playback service for FREE! This is a great and simple deal – all you need is an OnLive account, and you can head there and get to play everything available for Free until the end of January. As mentioned before, not all games are in the Playback library – but there is a solid collection, as noted here: So… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Photo courtesy of ICanHasaCheeseBurger I once read that the scariest sound for burglars is not, as you might expect, the sound of a growling or barking dog, but rather the distinctive “chunkCHUNK” of a shotgun being racked.  And let’s face it; it’s not a warm, fuzzy, friendly, inviting kind of sound at the best of times, even if you’re just, say, out skeet shooting with your Pop. Being Doug, when I read that the first thing I did was download an app that contains a bunch of sounds of guns–including shotguns–being cocked.  ”Ready to roll!” thought I to myself; “Burglars beware!” However, like a lot of people, you… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You know what I said when I found out that the iPhone 4 was using a micro-SIM instead of the standard-sized SIM that they had been using for years?  ”#$(*&%@$(*&#@!!” is what I said.  And you can quote me. And I wasn’t alone–a lot of folks out there were equally irritated.  As were a lot of AT&T store employees, because they were the ones stuck with doing the ever-popular “Well, my son’s phone’s contract is up, but I want the new iPhone to have my number, so can you please . . .” routine.  Used to be, you went to the store, got the phone, opened the SIM drawer with a paper clip, swapped ‘em… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have written quite a bit about Star Wars, from games to movies to analysis of the prequels. And while I am a fan of the franchise, I would certainly not consider myself a fanboy. And certainly not an ‘extreme fanboy’. But I just got an email about the release of a DVD called ‘Jedi Junkies’, which chronicles some epic fans in their pursuits related to the film franchise. Here are some details: JEDI JUNKIES, the first documentary about extreme Star Wars fans, is now available on DVD effective TODAY, on Amazon. This fun, affectionate documentary profiles some of the projects inspired by the multi-billion-dollar grossing deep space epic: from the creation Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A few weeks ago I saw a discussion online in a forum about whether you should use one space or two after a period before starting a new sentence. Apparently some folks felt very strongly that one was correct and two was wrong, while others felt very strongly that two was correct and two was wrong, and still others felt very strongly that the other two groups were getting seriously worked up over nothing. But in that same thread today someone pointed out an article at Slate that takes the issue to a whole new level. Here’s a fellow (Julian Assange) who’s been using computers since at least the mid-1980s Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the great things about CES events such as Pepcom’s ShowStoppers is that you never know what you might discover at one booth or another. This was certainly the case this year when I stumbled upon YurBuds. Perhaps it should not be such a surprise since the earphones have been selling well at BestBuy in recent months. This graph shows just how well they have done… Still, when I first met YurBuds the year before they were simply molds that snapped over your existing earphones. They were kinda silly looking, weren’t all that comfortable and, at least in my… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have no idea how long it will last so I wanted to let everyone know as soon as possible. I had noted the release here, and now one of the best iPad games released last year (even though it just came out in December) has gotten a temporary 50% off! In my review of the PC game I said: World of Goo is an amazing confluence of simple things done extremely well with excellent results. There is a unified set of elements – graphics, story, music, sounds, gameplay, and goo to hold it all together. Just as Portal wowed everyone last year with simple gameplay that really worked Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Gear Diary, Today I was going through some of the pictures Francis took while we were at CES 2011 last week and I came upon one that captures the two words we “instant gratification-loving” tech bloggers like most… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have several iPhone/iPad to guitar interface hardware products.  All of them work well and allow players to use their IOS device to plug in a guitar and add effects.  The products are awesome for practice, but the sound quality probably is not good enough for recording or true performances.  PocketLabworks is planning on releasing some hardware designed to improve the audio quality while using an IOS device for the guitar.  Here is a short press release and video of the iRiffPort. About iRiffPortTM 24 bit Digital Audio Guitar Interface for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad PocketAmp and PocketGK work with several adaptors listed Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My home telephone is now free thanks to Ooma, the company that advertises that you can buy their hardware once and get free calling for the life of the system. It is a bold promise and… It delivers. I switched to Ooma over two years ago when I bought one of their original systems, and have not looked back. Better still, for a few dollars a month you can subscribe to Ooma Premier and get a host of extra features — and get Ooma To Go for your handheld device. While we were are CES the Ooma booth was packed. PACKED!!! At the same time the company rolled out new mobile features such… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For years, I’ve read about waterproof gear holders and wondered, honestly, “WTF?”  Why make it waterproof?  My sports shirts and shorts aren’t waterproof; my socks aren’t waterproof; why do gear holders have to be waterproof? And then I joined in (for about a month or two) last year’s Gear Diary C25K effort.  And while bouncing along with my iPhone in my pocket and my iMuffs headphones over my ears, it became obvious why you needed gear holders to be waterproof.  I won’t say more at the risk of grossing you out, but let’s just say that a layer of water-proofedness between one’s skin and one’s gear is a really good idea. Which brings us… Continue reading on Gear Diary …