For more than 50 years the Billboard Hot 100 has tracked the most popular songs in the country. Of course, for nearly that any years there have been payola scams, chart manipulation and other industry shenanigans that have tainted the songs that appear on the list. But make no mistake – whatever means are used to get a song to #1, the result is a lot of recognition and sales. Last week on Buzzfeed a user had compiled in two segments five seconds of EVERY #1 song from the inception of the Hot 100 until 1992. Over the weekend someone else filled in with five seconds from the #1 hits Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I grew up in a time where not only were military actions and anything related to the government held in disdain and mistrust, but soldiers themselves were treated poorly by much of the public. So regardless of any feelings I have about whatever military or government actions happen in any given year, I love that there is a great public appreciation for our soldiers, the men and women who put their lives on the line in service to our nation. So much attention has been paid to World War II in recent years, from ‘The Greatest Generation’, to school visits with veterans, to the passing of so many great heroes, that it seems the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

After starting my ‘Music Diary Songs of Note’ I quickly realized that I wanted to look at both pop music for the music video trends, and also at some of the great jazz and other recordings I hoped to feature. So I’m going to use the ‘Music Diary Songs of Note’ label for the times I want to focus on the MUSIC, and now I’ll use “Pop Goes the Music Diary” when I am looking at the music industry. In case you didn’t know, Britney Spears has a new song out called ‘Hold it against me’. It sort of reminds me of a joke running through my junior high back in the 1970′s: If Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In just a few days Apple is expected to announce the iPad 2 (or whatever they end up calling it). Yes, Apple’s runaway success with its first entry into the tablet market is nearing its first anniversary. Along the way I’ve had the opportunity to look at a wide variety of different mounting solutions for the first-generation iPad. Some have been exceptionally simple while others have been more complex. Some have been highly refined, have an aesthetic that stands out and carry a price tag to match. There is, however, a good deal to be said for accessories which are rather simple in design, short on aesthetic appeal but high in functionality. That’s the case with… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(image courtesy Port Wallpaper) Publishers looooove to complain about piracy, and how it’s going to destroy the very foundation of bookselling. That’s why they say we need digital rights management, and why there’s an ongoing cat and mouse game between content providers and enterprising users finding ways to strip out the DRM and truly own their ebooks. So is the threat of piracy that real? Is a bookstore version of Napster brewing in a dorm room right now, just waiting to ensnare your Kindle in it’s web? Well, there might be, but apparently the vast majority of individual titles being downloaded over peer to peer is not going to keep HarperCollins from paying… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When I visited Altec Lansing’s headquarters back in January I was able to spend some time in the back area of the complex where the company develops their speakers. I didn’t write a great deal about it at the time because I had signed an NDA, and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t mistakenly share anything that I shouldn’t have. [That's how we do things here at Gear Diary] Well, I can now share with you a good deal of what I was able to see in January because a video of Dave Burke, an Altec Lansing acoustics engineer, who was kind enough to spend the better part of an hour with… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Too much information Runnin’ through my brain Too much information It’s driving me insane . . . Is that you The Police are singing about?  Do you have a Windows machine?  Well, Ilium Software wants to help you out (and make money, too, of course; this is Capitalism, baby!): they’ve just release their eWallet GO! product for Windows.  Including 256-bit encryption and the capability of sharing your information between Windows on your Windows Phone 7 device, eWallet GO! (I know; the exclamation point irritates me soon, but don’t blame the software!) gives you the ability to store your critical “wallet” information.  And for only $4.99 through their online store, that’s not a bad deal… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As much as I love my iPad, one thing is true–reading some file types on it is, well, a pain in the tuckus.  And that’s where an app like Goodreader comes in.  Goodreader gives you the capability to view those pesky TXT and PDF files, and annotate them, on your iPad and iPhone.  I wouldn’t say that I use Goodreader all the time, but when I need it, boy, it’s absolutely critical. Now the Goodreader folks have release an update with some nice enhancements.  The update includes the following stuff: PDF Annotations improvements – Annotations Summary – browse a file’s annotations list, email it or print it via AirPrint – Typewriter tool with optional callouts Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the 17.3″ HP Pavilion dv7 Quad Edition (dv7tqe) Laptop. This powerhouse laptop sports a brushed aluminum chassis and is just 1.25″ thin. It features Altec Lansing speakers with Beats Audio and an HP Triple Bass Subwoofer. A 2nd generation Core i7 CPU, 6GB of memory and 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6570 DirectX 11 discrete graphics make this laptop scream and a TrueVision HD webcam makes it perfect for video chats. This deal also brings a free upgrade to Blu-ray. The “best deal” on the dv7 starts at $1,249.99. Less the $300 coupon code our Gear Sponsor has found, the laptop can be yours for just $949.99. It will even… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

“Moooooo!” “Run away!  Run away!” It’s an iconic Monty Python movie moment:  the irritating (fake) French person has decided that he has to get rid of the irritating “ka-nig-it” (whose father smelled of elderberries, and whose mother was a hamster, apparently), and so he fires a cow over the castle wall at Arthur and his knights. Now you can re-live the bizarreness right there on your iPhone with Zed Worldwide’s Monty Python Cow Tossing game.  And let’s face it: any more I would say would just be redundant at this point, so I’ll just point out that it’s all yours for an MSRP of $0.99 at the iTunes store. Full information… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

What Lou Reed has on his iPhone? Okay look, let’s be honest here:  There are a b’zillion iPhone cases out there.  Well, maybe not that many, but a lot.  A lot a lot.  I’ve told you about some that I like–the iFrogz selection, the Speck cases–and Dan and Judie have told you about even more.  But if you’re anything like me, other than something really eye-catching (like the Element case, or the wooden cases Judie posted about the other day), they all start to blend together, right? So I want to mention that, in the vast plethora of cases, the bioserie iPhone cases actually stand out.  Yes, they have some interesting… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Given the long hours I spend editing and writing, there are a few things that I need to have available at all times: a good desktop or laptop computer, a decent camera for taking pictures, a comfortable chair, and an ever flowing source of caffeine. The refrigerator behind me takes care of my Diet Cokes, I have a canister of dark-chocolate covered coffee beans on the counter, and lately I’ve been using the Keurig Mini Plus Personal Brewer system to handle my coffee and tea requirements. As the company explains: · The Keurig brewing system offers a coffee house quality cup of coffee for just a fraction of the cost with the convenience of Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There are times when you need to write something on the iPad that is just too long for the software keyboard. Sure you can carry a Bluetooth keyboard, but that may become cumbersome and heavy. That’s where having a mini Bluetooth keyboard built into a case for the iPad comes in. Sure, it is a relatively new concept, but by combining the keyboard with the familiar and popular folio style iPad case, many of the limitations people find with the iPad can be resolved. Finding the perfect solution, however, is difficult at best. Several companies have provided options. One of them, Sena — the creators of elegant, hand crafted leather cases — has an offering… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve noticed a troubling and confusing theme in reviews and comments about Google’s new OS, Honeycomb. It seems everyone thinks it’s great, but there’s an anti-Xoom, anti-Honeycomb meme that keeps appearing about the lack of Honeycomb specific apps in the Marketplace. This is what’s called  a “Straw man” argument. Rather than argue Honeycomb on its actual merits, pros and cons, they’re trotting out something that sounds awful (Honeycomb has very few apps) and using it as a distraction. Now, I can’t comment too deeply on Honeycomb, but I’ve played around with Android on a tablet with a rooted NOOKcolor, and I can tell you the Android experience on a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Several years ago a variety of games started adding things like experience, skill building and other forms of progression as elements to their roster. Games like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas allowed you to ‘pump iron’ to make progress, online shooters like Battlefield 2142 tracked your progress and allowed you new ranks and skills as you progressed. Games were touting their ‘RPG elements’ in an attempt to differentiate themselves from the sea of similar shooters and action games … rather than actually being innovative. Life has come full circle, or so it seems based on a couple of statements by senior folks at Bioware. The first one seems harmless enough at… Continue reading on Gear Diary …