Recently I have been mixing in reissues with new releases in these review articles … but this time around there is just way too much new stuff to step back in time. But don’t worry, I’ll be doing a separate look at some re-releases … and a separate look at some late 2010 pop & rock stuff … and also a focus article on a couple of truly superlative recent releases! Another thing – in the past I have tended to simply list the reviews randomly … but no more. You can be assured that if a CD is first in the review list it is my favorite, and if it is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you’re like me, you’ve probably been wondering, “What the heck is up with solar power?”  Since I was a kid–back in the bell bottom and draft-card burning era (seriously!)–people have been blatting on about solar power.  ”Renewable!  Clean!  Environmentally friendly!”  Etc.  So you’re probably thinking, “OK, that was, like, 40 years ago; what’s the friggin’ hold-up?” Alas, it turns out that solar power is durn hard.  (There’s also the whole political “research held back by lack of funding and/or obstruction by energy interests” thing, but that’s for a totally different blog.)  One of the things you have to have, for example, is lots of square inches (or feet, or yards, or miles) of solar… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

About six weeks ago we had a GearChat on ‘Rotation LockGate’, which discussed the change Apple made in the behavior of the side switch from rotation lock to mute switch. I voiced my displeasure about the lack of ANY communication from Apple, and also the inefficiency of the ‘work-around’, saying: As for the difference in action, there are *FOUR* extra steps now: before you slid a switch and were done. Now: double tap home, slide at least one time to the left, tap the unlabeled orientation icon, and then click home again to get back to what you were doing. I don’t think it is possible for any reasonable person to argue that the Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s no secret that some of us at Gear Diary are big fans of shoes like Vibram Five Fingers. But VFFs are far from the only minimalist shoes available! These days it seems like every major running company has a minimal shoe in their lineup, and there’s dozens of small shoe makers all trying to carve out a place in this new niche. Unfortunately, unless you’re lucky enough to live near a major city or a very progressive running store, you need to turn to the internet to figure out what shoe might work for your minimal running adventures. It used to be a haphazard experience, googling away for any reviews you could find…until now… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In Part One of this post we had the opportunity to look at Motorola’s new smartphone offering. We were impressed. In part two we are going to look at the new Xoom tablet computer that is also arriving sometime in Q1. Yes, both of these amazing devices will be shipping within the next 90 days. Motorola describes their first tablet offering in this way– Motorola is redefining what a tablet experience can be as the world’s first device to run android 3.0 honeycomb, Google’s powerful operating system designed specifically for tablets and featuring the latest Google mobile innovations. The tablet also comes with support for Adobe flash player, allowing you to browse the web with Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The most wasteful time Judie and I spent at CES was the hour and a half we had at the Casio Press Conference. They really had nothing of substance to show us yet they made it out to be a huge deal.Yes, it wasted our time but, more than that, the hyperbole they used in their ridiculous attempt to make it look like there WAS something to share was insulting. (At least we got a post out of it…) When I had a chance to meet with Jody Farrar and Andy Van Scaack, some of the representatives from Livescribe, it was a similar story. Like Casio they had nothing truly new and exciting… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We hope you enjoyed Gear Diary’s coverage of CES 2011! All of the editors of the site worked with various devices, but they all had one thing in common: Google. Yes, Gear Diary at CES was brought to you by various Google OSes and services. What were our favorite Google-y gadgets? Read on to find out! Carly My day job is fairly restricted, and so I don’t have access to anything behind the scenes at Gear Diary on my work PC. Thankfully, I have the CR-48 Chrome OS computer, and that made my life very easy all week while Dan, Larry and Judie were in Las Vegas… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Alongside the juggernaut console versions of Call of Duty Black Ops that have led the sales charts since release comes a version for the Nintendo DS. This one didn’t get the attention of its console brethren, which is too bad because it is a better game. The Hype: – Seventh installment of the Call of Duty series, based on the live fire conflicts of the Cold War era – Diverse variety of play settings ranging from urban air and ground combat in SE Asia, to snow combat in Soviet region and jungle combat – Blending of traditional COD, and new first-person character scenarios designed to both… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve always admired Tokoflash watches from afar.  They have a look unlike any other watch I have ever worn and are just plain cool.  Well they now have released a watch that looks like it comes right from a 80s scifi movie. The watch is the Kisai Console Watch and it was selected in February 2010 on the Tokyoflash Design Blog as a watch that fans would like to have created.  Now it’s reality thanks to Tokyoflash! Kisai Console is a USB rechargeable watch design. The USB cap is fitted flush against the case and can be unscrewed with the screw driver Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The king is dead … long live the king! Chrysler announced last week that its “luxury” minivan, the Town & Country, has once again taken the top spot in segment sales leadership and this week came the “better-late-than-never” launch of an all-new version at the North American International Auto Show. OK, it still looks like a minivan and Chrysler has chosen to stay away from drastic styling upgrades such as brought on by imported competition this year. Toyota, Honda and Nissan all radically redesigned their minivans recently. For Chrysler it appears about refining what has brought them back to the top of the sales charts. I admit even have been a bit critical… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have had good personal experience using the Gazelle ‘trade used gadgets for money’ service, finding they offered a fair market value for my stuff. We wrote about their 2009 iPhone Trade-in program, and also about how much better of a deal they offered than Verizon on used phone trade-ins. Now they are announcing a totally revamped site that is easier to navigate and better assesses your gadgets to provide a more accurate estimate of the value of your gear. Here are some details: – Easier navigation to help you browse an expanded catalog of over 250,000 gadgets – Now 22 categories for trade in- with the addition of 2 NEW options Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You know what you need?  You need a robot.  A cute little bunny robot.  A cute little bunny robot that looks kinda like the sort of thing you’d find in Akihabara (aka “nerdvana”) in Japan.  And if that cute little bunny robot also had voice recognition, was a media player, had an integrated web came, and an RFID chip so that you could find it when it was lost, you would be rushing right out to get one for your little tyke, right? Hey, I don’t know either, but it sounds cool (in a silly, nerdly, “I want to go to Akihabara yesterday!” kind of way),  I must say. This gizmo… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have largely ignored Amazon’s digital download shop in my weekly round-ups, and with good reasons: they have offered marginal deals on marginal games and really weren’t bringing anything new to the game … until recently. This fall Amazon started stepping things up, and now for the new year they are standing toe-to-toe with Steam and Direct2Drive and GamersGate … at least in terms of hosting huge sales. There are a number of games I plan to buy from them this week, which will be the first non-casual stuff I’ve gotten from Amazon. Fortunately, it IS Amazon, so I have no reservations about buying from them! Here is there… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’m sure you’ve seen them on a hospital related television show before.  Triage tags are used by emergency responders in the field, during mass casualties.  These tags help responders to quickly identify who needs care right away and who can wait.  This is extremely important when there are more patients than responders. Most places use some sort of paper tag like the one seen below. But in the modern world we live in even the triage tag is getting its update.  These triage lights come in four colors (red, amber, green Continue reading on Gear Diary …

By now you have likely seen that at CES, SanDisk announced their amazing new 128GB Compact Flash Card, a size that still boggles my mind. Available later this quarter for a MSRP of $1499.99, this card isn’t for the feint-hearted. But when you consider that it wasn’t too long ago that a 5GB PCMCIA card retailed for $500 plus, the realization is staggering that this amount of memory is available in something so small. While meeting with SanDisk, I had the opportunity to take a look at their new CRUZER Slider which along with other features also has “error-proof insertion”… Continue reading on Gear Diary …