I tend to go for the most minimal of cases when it comes to protecting my iPhone. Sure this means my iDelicate cellphone is left more exposed to breakage but I just love having SOME protection while still keeping it in its gorgeous, super-model thin state. There are, however, times when it is best to pop off the thin shell and put the iPhone into something a bit more rugged. One good choice for such times is iSkin’s Special Edition revo4 for iPhone 4. It offers great bump protection while featuring a touch-through visor to protect the iPhone’s screen. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Admit it; you’re at least a LITTLE tempted by the iPad 2. Sure, your current iPad works fine, but the new one is thinner! And shinier! Before you go through the trouble of eBay or Craigslist, NextWorth might have a better offer. NextWorth is an electronics trade-in company, and they’re also partnered with Target if you prefer to trade in electronics in person. More importantly, they’ve carefully tracked how prices fluctuate with time and updates. According to their blog: Apple products tend retain value more than other brands, and the iPad is no exception. NextWorth provides great values for used iPads that are in “Light Wear” condition (the unit is fully Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As anyone who has passed the third grade knows, all you need to form a line is two points and a ruler. Add another point and you can extend the line or draw a curve, and with one more point you can describe a third-order or declare a trend! All of that is good in the abstract, but when it comes to predictive modeling you need more data … and some common sense. So I chuckled when I saw this article at TheTechnium predicting free Kindles this year. The chuckle wasn’t that the idea was preposterous – in fact, here is what they think is happening, based on a quote… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A while back I reviewed the Sansa Fuze+ from Sandisk.  Back then, the way the player was locked would wreak havoc with it.  You would lock it and then the heat of your body would unlock it even when it wasn’t moving all that much in my pocket. Well, Sandisk has released an update to their firmware that changes the lock function and moves it from holding the play button in to lock to pressing in the power button on the top.  To unlock, you just tap the power button which takes a lot more effort to do and now it is not prone to unlocking while it’s floating around a pocket.  This simple change makes… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If we have learned one thing about Apple in recent years, it’s that they don’t do anything by accident. Every move Apple makes is the result of a well thought out, calculated decision. It may be the wrong decision (think the MobileMe launch, iPhone 4 antennagate and a few others), but even those were the result of calculated choices the company made. So when Apple decided that they would launch the iPad2 next Friday at 5 PM we can assume there is some reasoned decision behind it. In a conversation with Elana last night, those reasons became abundantly clear to me. By not allowing people to even order the iPad2 until next Friday, Apple… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s a New Gear Daily Deal that is only good until tomorrow morning at 7am so you will want to act fast. The Vostro 230s Slim Tower has a starting price $845.00 but you can get huge savings of $376.00. That brings the price down to just $469.00. So what will you get for under $470? …a pretty impressive desktop computer system, that’s what. Here are some details… Vostro 230s Slim Tower: A space-saving mini tower with a 23” Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor, more memory & a larger hard drive. From its space-saving design to its ability to integrate with the latest Dell business hardware and services, the Vostro 230s Slim Tower provides Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of Arctic For the third and final installment of my Arctic Products review we will be looking at the M571 Gaming mouse. The past 2 reviews we looked at some gaming headsets, but this time it’s all about control. The K381 is a white and silver full size mouse that offers some great gaming features without breaking the bank while doing so. This mouse is an enhanced version of the earlier M551 and is targeted at the gaming community. The mouse I tested this against is my trusty Logitech G9 gaming mouse. I have been using the G9 for quite a while and absolutely love it. When… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Skooba Design makes some great bags for carrying your gear. Actually, that’s not quite right. They make great bags for carrying just about anything you need to carry with you. And now there is a whole new way that Skooba is making it possible for women to carry their stuff in style! Skooba’s new Harmony collection “blend the look, fashion and quality of a high-end tote or handbag with the capacity and protection of a laptop bag”. Sure they are designed with laptops in mind but they will work well for just about anything you need to take with you. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The consumer electronics world is a “sea of sameness”, and that’s not a good thing if you are an electronics company. “Sea of sameness” is the term that was used numerous times during a private briefing with the number of Sony’s executives. The issue is this: You walk into a box store such as Best Buy, and you go to the back of the store. There on the wall you find high-definition television, after high-definition television, after high-definition television. They all look pretty much the same, and they all pretty much have the same price points. Some are a little bit more expensive, and some are a little bit less expensive, but overall it looks… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(image courtesy ConspiracyLOL) I might be seeing conspiracies where there aren’t any, but I think I see a pattern in many business decisions going on in the eBook market lately. We’re all sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for the outcome of the in-app purchasing drama, and so far no one’s (overtly) talking. But reading between the lines tells a very different story… 1) Apple can’t be happy with how iBooks has performed so far. 100 million books downloads is an empty number, especially since everyone who downloads iBooks gets one download to go with it. With a very low number of books in iBooks (just around 100,000, versus… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The tears have dried, the hysteria subsided, the death threats stopped … and now folks are starting to take a critical look back at the Grammy Awards, and the two awards seen as ‘upsets’ in particular. One thing that everyone hopes they’ll get from an awards show (aside from awards) is MONEY – in the form of enhanced sales of whatever record or movie or whatever they’re pushing. Of course, there is a problem – many of these artists have already super-saturated the market with the hype and bought radio and retail slots and therefore there are few new buyers after an awards show. But for indies? BIG payback! Now we’re… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Imperium Romanum is a 2008 PC game in the ‘city builder’ genre. Back in 2008 it got fairly average reviews, being called out for bugs and other issues as well as a too-strict adherence to genre standards at a time when the market was flooded with better games. Three years later, the ‘Gold Edition’ has been out which also includes numerous patches and the Emperor expansion pack … and the game is surprisingly enjoyable! Now it is available for a limited time from Green Man Gaming, a relative newcomer in the digital download arena! Here are the details: How would you like a free game? We’re giving away a copy of Imperium Romanum Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Nanodots are fun all by themselves.  I love playing with these.  It’s almost relaxing.  It’s hard to believe that they have figured out yet another way to make them fun with a new product that makes it more fun to build with Nanodots.  The Nanopad with FeWeave technology is a nice pad to use when you are building with Nanodots that also let’s you play a game with your Nanodots.  Available in 16 inch for $19.99 and 26 inch for $29.99.  For more on the Nanopad, head over to the product page on thenanodots.com.  They are expected to show up in specialty stores any day now… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(Image courtesy Transformers HQ) You may or may not have followed the robot marathon that went on in Japan, but over at Runners World they took it very seriously. After all, if we’re going to be racing robots soon, it’s important to stay on top of the competition! I followed it too, and have to say I was pretty thrilled to see that robots are slower than me. I’m not that slow, but I’m solidly middle of the pack, and have had a few smaller races where my goal was “don’t be last”. Now I know I just need to convince a robot to run along with me, and I’ll always… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of WiiNintendo.net Contrary to popular belief, the rest of the world doesn’t stop just because Steve Jobs walks on stage to announce a new product. But there has been some pretty cool gaming news recently – and that doesn’t even count the upcoming GDC (Game Developer Conference)! So let’s highlight just a few! Nintendo 3DS Sells Out in Japan! One of the OTHER most anticipates launches of the year, Nintendo’s ‘glassless 3D’ handheld gaming system the 3DS launched last weekend in Japan. Nintendo had promised to have adequate supply … but apparently underestimated the hunger of Japanese gamers, according to reports: It looks like Nintendo’s 3DS isn’t having trouble finding Continue reading on Gear Diary …