Apparently Dracula didn’t get the memo… Sleeping in a coffin is passe; it is old school and looks a bit silly. Seriously, in 2011 no self-respecting vampire would be caught alive sleeping in a coffin. Sitting in a coffin while you read, watch TV or chat with company however … now THAT is an entirely different story. Our friends at AUTUM, yes the same design outlet that brought us the AUTUM Straight Jacket sleeve for the iPad and the new MacBook Air, are doing a limited production run of what has to be the most unusual couch we have ever seen, the Heretic. The Heretic’s sitting area is made from… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the 8″ Sony VAIO P netbook. The Vaio P is small in size but big on features. It has an LED-backlit LCD with 1600 x 768 resolution, a built-in webcam, a card reader, 802.11n WiFi, 128GB of SSD space, Bluetooth, 2GB RAM, and more. Its long, thin design allows it to have a generous keyboard with isolated or “island” keys and, of course, it runs Windows 7. The Sony VAIO P Series Lifestyle netbook is… so light and slim, you might not even know it’s there. About as thin as most cell phones, this 1.3-pound (with standard battery) PC is a cinch to tote. And though it may be small Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When the heck do I change my oil?  Is this the time I need a “minor” servicing, or do I need one of them there stem-to-stern servicings that take all day and often come with a call from a nice, grease-covered guy in the repair bay who says, “Yuh know, Mr. Moran, there’s only 5% left on these disks here.”  How do you keep track of all that, other than that sticker thing Speedy Oil Change puts in the upper corner of your windshield (which you ignore until the ink fades out and then you think, “Huh, I should probably change the oil)? If you were my Dad, you kept a log.  But no one… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(image courtesy KZOZ) I am going to say up front, I have no idea the circumstances under which this transaction took place…but in catching up with an old Borders co-worker, she mentioned that Borders apparently sold everything down to the studs when they closed down our old store. After exchanging a few jokes about who would want the café display case, she said she’d heard Borders sold a toilet seat and a urinal. Borders is so broke they sold someone a urinal. If that’s not a frightening sign, then I don’t know what is!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When I reviewed the Barnes and Noble NOOKcolor, one of my favorite features was periodicals. Magazines and newspapers looked absolutely fantastic on it. So it’s no surprise that B&N has announced they’ve sold upwards of 650,000 periodicals since the launch of the NOOKcolor! This is a great way for B&N to extend their ebook marketshare and build out their ecosystem. eBooks are a young market, and any lure that brings customers in and gets them buying more product from B&N’s store is a good thing. Plus, as young as ebooks are, magazines are even more dynamic. The iPad was going to be the savior of all things newsstand, but sales took a nosedive after the initial “ooh… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I love Slacker Radio. I love the interface. I love the ability to create and tweak new stations on the fly. And I love the way it has helped me discover new artists to enjoy. There is, however, something much, much better than Slacker Radio. What is it? Slacker Radio Plus. That’s right, for just $4.99 month (or $3.99 if you sign up for a year) you get all the features of the free version AND remove both Audio or Banner Ads, get full song lyrics when available, get mobile station caching and, if you like, ABC News. There is one other feature of Slacker Radio Plus that puts it over the top and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Any of you who own an iPad know there are two main issues. Protection and how to hold it. Of course we want to carry the gorgeous device with us, but all of that screen real estate leaves plenty of room for mishaps and broken glass. There are probably thousands of options for both protection as well as stands, but few combines both. The problem with all of these options is finding good quality and well thought design. As you have seen with many of our reviews, the Gear Diary Team and editors love the design and quality of Speck products, and the CandyShell Wrap for iPad looks like it will not disappoint. Utilizing… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There are a ton of different stands now available for the iPad. They come in different shapes, sizes and materials and all make using the tablet an even better experience. Some of the stands we have reviewed have been a bit pricy. For example, the Jadu Skadoosh stand has an MSRP of $69.99, and the ElementCase Joule has an MSRP that STARTS at over $100. Both are fantastic but both are pricy. So what are you to do if you want a good stand for your iPad but are on a tight budget? That’s where the Amzer Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As I recently announced, I have started switching my Netbook Gamer series to a more broad-based look at games called ‘GearGames Retrospectives’. I have already done a couple before making the transition official, including the ongoing ’50 Games That Defined The Decade’ series and the look back at Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. But for now let’s start the series officially a little closer to home with a game that I have already written on rather prolifically: Dungeon Lords. You can read my review, my review of the Collector’s Edition (required to get the final patch), my original review, a lamentation, and probably other stuff I’ve forgotten I wrote. If… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Now, I’ll readily admit that I haven’t been able to keep up with all the new Android phones.  Heck, I can’t even keep up with the new Android phones from Samsung.  But as a humble news poster, you our Gear Diary audience would be ill-served if I just limited myself to only the products I knew in intimate detail.  (You, Dickerson!  Stop snickering!)  Like the Samsung Wave that you see in that nice, zoomed-in, full-color photo above. No, I may not know diddly about the Wave itself, but I do know that the leather case for it, offered by USBFever for an MSRP of $19.99, looks like it will do a pretty solid job of… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

While I still have a few netbook games to finish up reviewing, I have come to realize something: between the iPad and the Alienware m11x I no longer have any interest in using a netbook. Indeed, I have handed off my last netbook, the Lenovo s10 I have been using for the entire Netbook Gamer series. One reason I started The Netbook Gamer was misinformation from folks saying two different things: first that ‘it played on my old Compaq laptop so it should play on your netbook’ when in fact the netbook presents a unique set of hardware and screen resolution challenges that really needed to be explored. And second I wanted to combat the idea… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of my favorite iPad apps is IM+ Pro, an integrated mobile IMing tool that allows you to pull your various messaging accounts together in one place, as well as giving you access to a bunch of other stuff (that I rarely use, as I use the iPad Twitter app for a lot of those).  It’s such a relief to be able to have all your chats in one place, even if their functionality is slightly different (e.g., no offline chat for Facebook, but you can have it via Yahoo IM). Into that same market comes Agilemobile, who now have an HD app for your messaging pleasure.  It includes access to The Usual Suspects of… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the HP ENVY. In this case we aren’t talking the HP ENVY laptop however but rather the HP ENVY printer. The printer features print/scan/copy/ePrint capability, has a 3.45″ high-resolution touchscreen, has a retractable paper tray, a high-capacity cartridges and is bundled with a reusable tote and an accessory bag. HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One D410a Printer is usually $249.99 but our Gear Sponsor has it for $30 off PLUS a $50 coupon. That brings the price down to just $169.99 and it will even ship for free. HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One (D410a) Printer via… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

“I never quite thought of the Regal as a sports sedan myself, but the GNX from 1987 did get close and the new car will offer a turbo motor once more to tempt eager drivers.” That is what I wrote last summer after my first experience with the new 2011 Regal from Buick. Recently I took delivery of the turbocharged CXL T-type model and well, not much has changed. My hope is that Buick will soon regale us with a GNX knock-off as this car did little to up its ante in the sport sedan game. Sure, there is Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I bought my Motorola Droid in December of 2009. 2009 was a very busy year for me with smartphones; I started with an original iPhone, then became frustrated with the notification system and jumped ship to Windows Mobile. That lasted only a few months before I jumped ship AGAIN, to a Nokia E71x. I didn’t love Symbian, so I jumped yet again to Windows Mobile Smartphone, which lasted all of two minutes before I went back to the iPhone again. Finally, a combination of factors led me to switching to Verizon from AT&T, and I switched to my Droid…the last smartphone switch I’ve made in over a year. So what led me to smartphone monogamy? Well, Android… Continue reading on Gear Diary …