In a text I sent yesterday I inadvertently used ‘here’ when I intended ‘hear’ … but of course, once it is gone you can’t edit it! Now we have a Facebook battle celebrating an even more epic battle: the use of ‘your’ versus ‘you’re’. Just in case you were wondering … Emma has it right, and we love her for her patience and diligence trying to help her friend. Source: Buzzfeed Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Speck’s CandyShell cases are among the company’s most popular and protective cases. The CandyShell style is available for a host of different devices including the iPad. The CandyShell does a great job of protecting the device’s back and sides but, because of its design, it does nothing to protect the screen. That change with the recently released CandyShell Wrap. The CandyShell Wrap has all the tasty goodness of the original CandyShell for iPad PLUS it adds in a removable cover that not only protects the iPad’s screen but also creates a stand that holds the iPad at the perfect angle for typing. Here’s a look… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Majesty 2: Battles of Ardania was released just over six months after Majesty 2: Kingmaker and only a year since of the original Majesty 2, long enough for me to have played loads of games … but soon enough that playing the new expansion Battles of Ardania feels like returning home to see an old friend. The Hype: When there is peace in the kingdom, and nothing has happened in a month, any good King would itch for war. And even if not a full scale war, then at least for a skirmish; and if there is no skirmish, then at least it’s time to go hunting… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Someone at Gear Diary recently had one of their personal accounts hacked, which should be yet another reminder to everyone that you never know when or why one of your accounts might get compromised. Last year I had an issue with my Facebook account, and several years ago my Steam account got hijacked. It can happen to anyone, anytime … but the passwords you use can help keep you more secure. Last week there was a interesting infograph about the 20 top passwords of all time. Here is a snip from the graph: Continue reading on Gear Diary …

With each passing seasonal event there is a new Angry Birds … and so naturally Rovio is printing money celebrating Valentine’s Day by releasing a new version of their ever-popular Angry Birds. Here is the description: As we all know, every season is an Angry Birds Season HD. After Trick Or Treat and Season’s Greedings, Angry Birds Seasons returns with yet another gift that keeps on giving: Hogs And Kisses for Valentine’s Day! Enjoy the Valentine’s Day spirit of love and affection by popping more pigs! Fling more passionate birds in an atmosphere of affectionate action! Find the loveliest Golden Egg of them all! Share the love and send a Valentine’s Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I love my Flip Mino HD, I really do. Since getting it I have used it extensively, capturing tons of our kids’ activities and so on easily and without any fuss. There are no accessible settings – you just record and use the digital zoom. But until last week I never really pushed it. Sure I have had it run out of time on me, but that is after capturing a bunch of different clips, usually during the holiday school concert season. But last week both of my kids had lead roles in the middle school play. Based on last year’s play running about 1.5 hours, I decided to record the first… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us Kinect Sports for Xbox 360. Kinect Sports will get you up and active even in the midst of winter. In fact, With Kinect Sports, anyone can become the next star of the living room, and it’s fun no matter how fit you are. Add your style to any of the six action-packed games – Soccer, Volleyball, Track & Field, Bowling, Table Tennis or Boxing – with Full Body Play. Compete against yourself to set a personal best or win as a team. Either way, you will unlock new content and thrills as you play. If this sounds like fun our Gear Sponsor has a deal to make it even better. Kinect… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s the biggest complaint about ebooks, and Amazon’s Kindle in particular; page numbers go wonky when you convert a book to e-form! It makes it difficult to track between paper and ebook form (say, for a class or a book club), plus it’s just an easy target when you want a reason to complain about ebook flaws. Not anymore! According to the Kindle Blog: – Real Page Numbers – Our customers have told us they want real page numbers that match the page numbers in print books so they can easily reference and cite passages, and read alongside others in a book club or class. Rather than add page numbers that don’t correspond to print Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Back in the day when AOL was first starting out–yes, I know it seems like ‘net pre-history, and it kinda is–many of us in the tech biz derisively referred to Steve Case, then head of AOL, as “that soap salesman” (he used to work at Proctor & Gamble), and say things like, “What could that guy possibly know about running a tech business?”  After all, the only thing he seemed good at was finding magazines willing to insert his sign-up disks, and signing up new customers; the product itself was . . . let’s just say immature, as well as being a walled garden. With Case now rich and AOL still around, we might be… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I had the opportunity to spend some time at Altec Lansing’s headquarters in Milford Pennsylvania the other day. They were kind enough to let me see the inner workings of the company and to visit some of their sound labs. While I can’t go into detail on much of what I actually saw I can tell you that I came away from the visit more than a bit impressed. The company puts so much care, concern and expertise into their products; and it shows. Perhaps the best way to summarize the difference between the company and some of their many competitors came from the mouth of one of their sound engineers who told me that they… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Generally there are two reasons to watch the Super Bowl: the game and the commercials. But some folks look forward to the half-time show as well. But there is even more music, and last night we had two pre-game songs including America the Beautiful as well as the National Anthem. Was any of it tolerable? Here is my quick take. Lea Michele sings America the Beautiful Gleeks know her well as the talented but full-of-herself Rachel, but she is also becoming known for her ‘diva’ like behavior in real life, such as when she snubbed a fan who just happens to be a star from True Grit. Fortunately she… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When Maggie was but a wee bairn, the hot trend around our neighborhood was taking care of virtual pets.  The most famous was the Tamagotchi, but honestly, they were everywhere in a number of forms.  The big advantage, of course, is that if your kids’ pet “died,” well, you weren’t killing off a living, breathing, sentient creature like my sweet Corgi Isabelle, were you? Nope, you were just junking up a plastic toy.  No big. Now Teyon is offering a similar pet-caring title for the North American Nintendo DSiWare™ service:  101 Dolphin Pets, similar to the 101 Shark Pets Mike… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’re way beyond the Rubik’s cube now, people. Shapeways is an online community and marketplace for personalized products, and every once in a while, they get one that is such a doozy, they like to let people know about it.  Such is the case with a twisty puzzle created by a gent named Oskar van Deventer–he decided that the other Rubik’s cube enhancers were a bunch of pikers (“Ha!  5x5x5?  I scorn you!), and so came up with this incredible 17x17x17 model.  Maybe you’ll find it amazing; maybe you’ll find it absurd; I think it has a certain mathematical beauty to it, whether it’s solvable in a finite amount of time or not.  (And I… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you have an Xbox Kinect today’s Gear Deal is for you. Amazon.com is offering two Kinect games for Xbox 360 for just $70. Even better, the games will ship for free. And it isn’t just one or two games that are available. No, you can choose from games such as Kinect Sports, Dance Central, Kinectimals, Kinect Joy Ride, and more. Just pick your games, add them to your cart and you will see price discount at final checkout. Two Kinect games for $70 during Amazon Video Game Sale via LogicBUY Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! While many folks will be focused on Super Bowl Sunday and the aftermath of staying up too late and eating too much unhealthy food, some will be looking ahead to the games of the week! This week we get the PC version of Two Worlds II, which has gotten solid reviews in the console release. The other big release is Test Drive Unlimited 2, the follow-up to the 2007 racing game. The original was fun as it featured a huge island setting and allowed you to simply drive wherever you wanted, but to earn money for more… Continue reading on Gear Diary …