Billie Holiday is famous for two things: her amazing vocal talents, and her tragic downward spiral due to drugs and alcohol. Lester Young was a famous swing-era tenor saxophone player who never quite adapted to the new bebop and other post-war jazz stylings, yet had his best commercial successes in the late 1940′s before beginning his own alcohol fueled spiral in the 50′s. Billie & Lester began working together in 1939 and made a series of wonderful recordings together before all recording was stopped for a number of reasons for a few years. Those records are at the pinnacle of both artists collections, and showed that their was a special… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

And here it is… The iPad 2 was just announced a few hours ago and the accessory news is already rolling in. To start the onslaught we have a goodie… Booq has just announced their Folio for iPad 2- the BooqPad. The BooqPad Folio, which will be available in an “eco-friendly and weatherproof” version for $49.95 (read pleather) and a higher-end luxury option for $99.95 will be shipping in late March. The Folio safely holds the iPad AND provides a space for good ‘ol paper and pen. As the company explains: Whether you’re designing the next Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Any Apple fan loves an Apple event, and there is a big one hitting today, March 2. What will we see? Well, since the iPad 1 is no longer available, the iPad 2 is a lock. But what features will it have and will it really be just the iPad 1.5 the blogosphere has been spewing about? We’ll see soon. And what else will we see? There are lots of guesses but we’ll know for sure once Apple announces it. We wish we were there in person, but instead we’ll be monitoring all of the feeds … and we’ll share the news with you as soon as it’s out!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(image courtesy Teaching Scotland) Everyone’s sweating bullets over the future of in-app purchases and ebooks, but for now it looks like it’s business as usual. B&N and Kobo both released updates yesterday, so let’s see what’s new and exciting! B&N updated two apps, their NOOK kids offering as well as NOOK for iPhone. It’s great that you can read kid’s books on your iPad, and I could see it being useful on a trip where you don’t want to pack a ton of books…but I still can’t see handing a child an iPad and letting them get too hands-on. Now, I don’t have kids, and my primary experience with kids reading books is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For the past few months I have been fortunate to help Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software beta test the Mac version of Avadon the Black Fortress as noted in the credits screen above. Today he announced that the game is available to buy through his site, and also he has released his typically huge demo through his site and several mirrors. As usual, the demo takes you through the early section of the game, creating characters and getting fully engaged for several hours. By then you will know if the game is for you or not – and if so you can easily buy the game through the title screen or at the Spiderweb… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Anyone who has lived through the years of PDA screens that would so easily crack, scratch and shatter in spite of covers, cases, and screen protectors immediately saw the value in Corning’s Gorilla Glass. The multitude of devices using the ultra-hardened glass have conditioned smartphone users to now expect their devices to be able to handle the rigors of everyday life. But what about the future? Corning has produced what they are calling ‘a day made of glass’. It envisions a world in which information is accessible ubiquitously, and is displayed using touch interfaces on glass surfaces we wouldn’t dare to use today – but that are possible as the hardened Gorilla Glass becomes… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Boy, I wish they had invented some of this stuff when I was young and non-brittle enough to use it! Maybe you seen it in your town:  a number of bowling alleys in the last, I dunno, 15 years or so have branched out a bit trying to bring in new customers.  ”Bumper-bowling” for the kids with inflatable bumpers in the gutters, for example.  And night-time bowling, where they lower the lights way down, and your ball and the pins have phosphorescent paint on them.  Frisbee golf in the dark, with glowing disks and lit-up targets (and lots of stoners wandering around, I might add).  (Even night surfing, if you’re loony enough.) And… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You can NEVER be too safe! A friend of mine called me the other day. His laptop computer’s drive had FAILED. Yes, it Failed with a capitol F. “No problem,” I said, “Just restore from your backup when the new computer comes.” “Big problem,” he replied, “I didn’t have a backup.” That only happens once in a lifetime and I’m sending him a link to today’s New Gear Daily Deal to make sure that is the case. Yes, today’s NGD deal brings us a full terabyte of external storage for under $80! This external hard drive (read: liferaft) features- An elegant design: This book-like shape takes up minimal space… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Not that you needed any further proof that I was a dork, I mean geek, but I found myself unnaturally excited when FedEx dropped off this package earlier today. Inside is the SwingLine Stack & Shred, a crosscut shredder that allows you to feed up to 100 sheets of paper at a time by lifting the lid on the front and laying the items to shred inside the tray. Stack, Shut and Go. The Swingline Stack-and-Shred technology is built for busy executives, small and home office users and anyone who wants an easy and efficient way to personally shred. It does the work so users can multitask like they mean it. Just lift Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My favorite thing about the Oscars on Sunday was the auto-tune mashup they did of Harry Potter and other films. At the same time, the last couple of days of Charlie Sheen talking to anyone with a microphone and/or camera and airtime has been much more entertaining than the soporific dirge of the Oscar show. I have no interest in discussing any of the specifics, but have found it simply amazing and hilarious the things he has said in such a short time! Today BuzzFeed featured a string of New York Times cartoons redone with Charlie Sheen Quotes as the text. One of my favorites is at the top … and another… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you ever designed a circuit you used SPICE … or you never really designed a circuit. When we think ‘open source’ we think Linux or Android or some other recent operating system endeavors. But imagine for a second that not just these systems but the hardware used to run them is all derived from circuits designed and analysed using an open source program created as a student project back in 1969! Here is a quick summary showing why SPICE is so important to electrical engineers, which is inscribed on a plaque at UC Berkeley’s Corey Hall which was dedicated on February 20th: SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) was created at Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have wanted to like Android for quite some time. I really did. I kept trying device after device hoping that the next device would be “the one”. Sadly, that never seemed to happen. Even with those devices that I initially liked I found myself growing tired of both the device and the operating system within a relatively short period of time. As a result, the Android handsets I purchased ended up on eBay within a relatively short period, and those that I had received as loaner review units went back without any remorse on my part. Yes, I wanted to like Android, but none of the smartphones I tried were able to win me… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Innovation can lead to great things. That is the concept behind a new series from CNN and Cadillac called “Cadillac Business Unusual” that debuted Feb. 28. Fearlessly individual.
Unfazed by risk.
Relentlessly Optimistic. Cadillac salutes business visionaries who are using their passion, ingenuity and drive to set new standards of success. Chris Hardwick hosts a road trip across America as he meets entrepreneurs who’ve turned bold dreams into business triumphs. Cadillac Business Unusual uncovers unique stories of entrepreneurial spirit, and the risk and passion that accompanies them. Host Chris Hardwick (Nerdist.com) also writes for Wired Magazine and acts for film and television. Of course, as a business partner, Cadillac plays a prominent… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(image found via The Digital Reader) It’s that time again! There’s a whole slew of exciting and disappointing news in the ebook world, so let’s jump right in and take a look! The exciting news: -Asus is rumored to be releasing the EEE Note reader soon, for a very reasonable $200. The biggest thing about the EEE Note isn’t the ebook reading,  but that it will include a Wacom digitizer for note-taking. Ebooks and digital textbooks have had an uphill battle in academics in large part due to the difficulty in taking notes while reading. No guarantees the EEE Note has cracked this, but the price is certainly right. And… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s New Gear Daily Deal is hot. What else would you call a 32″ HDTV for under $330? That’s right, with today’s deal you can get Vizio’s 32″ 1080p LCD HDTV at a savings of $170 off the normal price. That means this $499 tv can be yours for just $329 and it will even ship within 24 hours. Need more details? How about this… Experience the pleasure of Full High-Definition entertainment with the 32-inch VOJ320M 1080p LCD HDTV from Vizio®. This television features 6500:1 dynamic contrast ratio for amazing image detail and color clarity and offers 6.5 ms response time for sharp and impressive video motion every time. With 1920×1080 resolutions Continue reading on Gear Diary …