Photo courtesy of James Wong One of my favorite works of any genre–fine arts, performance arts, what-have-you–is Shinichirō Watanabe’s future-cowboy noirish anime Cowboy Bebob.  I’m not going to get all gushy and fanboy-like telling you about how wonderful Bebop is, and why you should ignore the kinda silly name and rent it from Netflix right now–I’ll restrain myself to just saying that, if you like Joss Wheadon’s Firefly, you’ll almost certainly like Bebop.  (Even if you don’t ordinarily like anime, which is the case with me.) Our heroes (yes, even including Ein the Corgi) One of… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When Judie was in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress she met the folks behind the Apple accessory company Power Support. (Theirs is a great, inspirational story and we look forward to sharing it with you soon.) The company was kind enough to forward a number of their products so that I might take a closer look. Among the items they sent was their Black Sleeve for the iPad 1. They describe the leather sleeve this way- Constructed with premium quality leather, this sleeve protects while complimenting the amazing aesthetics of the iPad. The sleeve’s soft inner lining prevents scratching while using this sleek carrying case. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Since its beginnings in 1994, Spiderweb Software has focused on bringing classic story-rich role-playing experiences to gamers. The earliest Exile games were rudimentary and seem quaint now, but the Avernum and Geneforge series have offered gamers comparable experiences to the best so-called ‘AAA’ games for a lower price. Of course, the focus is on story and character and combat system over graphics and sweeping soundtracks, so it is subjective to what you are looking for out of a game. I had written an article for a defunct site years ago about why Avernum IV was better than Oblivion in all the ways that matter to hardcore RPG fans. Now I am back, and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We are all feeling the financial pinch!  Blue Plate Special is a weekly review of bargain apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Nothing over $.99. We all hear the dangers of texting while driving and how our devices create dangers during travel. These dangers are real and hopefully everyone is taking steps to keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel and leave their devices alone. Using my Mogo Talk and voice recognition applications has helped me pay attention to the road, but one area always poses a problem. Using an iPhone or iPod… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

IDC has done some number crunching, and their ebook sales numbers are…interesting, to say the least. They say Amazon is #1, but surprisingly Pandigital has a very strong showing against B&N, coming in third for the year but second for the fourth quarter. That’s a huge shocker, though Pandigital did flood the market with several models over the course of 2010. I do wonder why IDC didn’t include Pandigital under media tablets, since even though they’re marketed as ebook readers they all run various flavors of Android. Even more interesting, Sony’s numbers were up 80%, which sounds great…until you find out that put them in 5th place AND a jump of 80% is only 800,000 units. Ouch… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The recent Square vs. Verifone kerfuffle/gymkhana/embroglio/whatever-you-want-to-call-it is, I think, a pretty important one.  Not just for itself, but for what it says about the tech industry. (This also happens to be my industry.)  There are a number of companies right now trying to muscle and/or bully their rivals out of the marketplace– Twitter is a recent example with their attempt to be the only one offering a Twitter client etc and, of course, there is Apple’s involvement in the eBooks space.  (Carly has talked about this a few times already and things are just getting started!) Frankly it honks me off.  If your product/marketing/sales/engineering team are better than the competition I want you to succeed- truly!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal starts the week with a series of opportunities to save big on HP’s new G-Series notebooks. The new G-series models feature a new design and extensive system colors options that vary by model. The notebooks are powered by dual-core processors with a Core i3 in the base configurations but the option to upgrade if you need more power. Additional upgrade options include Blu-ray, and discrete ATI graphics. All of them come with HDMI connections, a webcam and a card reader. So let’s take a look at the various offerings… And savings. First up, the HP Pavilion g4. The HP g4 14″ laptop features 16:9 widescreen LED-backlit display with… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Hopefully you have been enjoying the game releases so far – this week has two major releases, and some other significant new games. One big release is the multi-platform first-person shooter Homefront. The game made big news as part of a pre-order deal with OnLive where pre-ordering with them would net you a free game system. Not sure how that worked out, but it will be interesting to see how that plays as a gimmick to increase sales – it is clear that OnLive isn’t looking at the game system as a profit center! The other… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The ten year wait is over for series fans of Marvel vs. Capcom with this latest installment subtitled “Fate of Two Worlds”, produced and directed by Ryota Niitsuma, where the playing field is even for novices and experts.

Do you have an iPad 1 and plan to stick with it even though the iPad 2 has arrived? If so, we have a brief Public Service Announcement for you. Consider this your first, and final, warning. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We counted down the arrival of the iPad 2 by giving away some great items for the iPad Classic. Some are brand new, some are review items and all of them are great! Well the iPad 2 is here and so is the announcement of the winners… If you use your iPad 1 for drawing or note taking Ten One’s Particle case plus the Sketch stylus is a great combination. The duo has an MSRP of $34.95. More information can be found here. If you love gaming on the iPad the Fling is great. It has an MSRP… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When the term “customer service” seems more like “customer lack-of-service” we like to call the company in question out. We did so with regard to AT&T Wireless. We did so with Amazon’s Kindle policy too. We’ve even done so with Apple. (Although, to be fair, both Apple and Amazon are usually amazing in the Customer Service arena.) Yes, when a company lets us down we aren’t shy about saying so. We WANT others to know! But what happens when a company goes above and beyond? What happens when a company has a glitch and, rather than trying to ignore it or place blame somewhere else they actually stand up, take ownership and then… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

March Madness is upon us! Yes, to quote the Staple’s commercial, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”. If you are a college basketball fan today’s New Gear Daily Deal is for you!! You don’t want to be watching your favorite team on some small tv do you? Of course not. College Hoops needs to be watched on something big and clear; something like the Sharp’s 60″ AQUOS LC-60E88UN 1080p LCD HDTV. Here’s what Sharp has to say about the TV- The AQUOS 60-inch LC-60E88UN 1080p LCD HDTV from Sharp® lets you experience splendid image quality and true to life viewing experience. It uses a Full HD 1080p X-Gen panel with true 240Hz Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When you look at the history of jazz drumming, there are many towering figures with names like Williams, DeJohnette, (Jo) Jones, (Philly Joe) Jones, (Elvin) Jones … and a guy from Springfield, Massachusetts names Joe Morello. Morello was a gifted drummer who had a great sense of time and adding appropriate color. His longest gig was with Marian McPartland’s band … But he is best known as the drummer laying down the tight beats on Dave Brubeck’s Time Out recording. The song Take Five was generally used as a solo vehicle for Morello in live performances, such as the Carnegie Hall concerts. Morello was with Brubeck for 12 years, and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today is the launch of the iPad 2, and EA as well as several other companies have launched sales to mark the event … as well as capitalize on the estimated 600,000 units Apple is expected to sell this weekend. Here are some of what I could find: Minigore HD (iPad) for $0.99 Spider-Man: Total Mayhem HD (iPad) for $0.99 UNO HD (iPad) for $0.99 Iron Man 2 (iPad) for $0.99 Shrek Kart HD (iPad) for $0.99 The Settlers HD (iPad) for $0.99 Dungeon Hunter HD (iPad) for $0.99 Star Battalion HD (iPad) for $0.99 Continue reading on Gear Diary …