Late last night Final Fantasy III became available on the iTunes App Store, at the rather shockingly high price of $15.99. It has already been called the ‘the definitive version of a classic rpg‘. I have to confess that the $15.99 price tag scared me off a ‘day one’ purchase – particularly when I have so many unplayed games looking for some attention, and there are so many App Store sales on a regular basis. As a way of celebrating this release, Square Enix has put just about every other game they have on the App Store on sale. Here is the list: iPhone and iPod touch games: Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Power Support teamed up with Sanrio to create a line of air jackets featuring Hello Kitty looking “her very best”. Yes, thanks to these cases “your iPhone 4 will be looking super cute and totally protected in the Hello Kitty air jacket set, which includes 2 films for all-over protection”. Each Set includes 1 air jacket, 1 Anti-Glare film and 1 Crystal back screen film. The cases features include- Printed with durable ink and high quality printing process Protects iPhone 4 from scratches, dust, and low velocity impacts At just 1mm thick, jacket is nearly weightless to eliminate any Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I live by Nuance’s voice recognition technologies and the company was kind enough to allow us to run a contest where we will give away one version of the desktop software to one of our readers. The winner will get his or her choice. They can choose Dragon NaturallySpeaking home edition (it has a retail price of $99) or, they can choose Dragon Dictate 2.0 for Mac OS X. (It has a retail price of $199.99) We randomly picked one of the readers who entered and the software is going to… Fyn Fellow Our congratulations to Fyn Fellow and our thanks to Nuance for letting us run thise contest giveaway… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I recently reviewed the Guitar World Lick of The Day app for the Blue Plate Special. Learn new licks and tricks from some of the best guitarists in the world with daily lessons. The app is free to download, but the best content is obtained through subscriptions. To celebrate 500,000 downloads, discounts are being offered along with new features for the app. Full release below. Guitar World Lick of the Day Celebrates 500,000 Downloads with Special Discounts on Subscriptions to the App and A New Release that Includes Free Sponsored Licks Continue reading on Gear Diary …

With the recent earthquake, tsunami and issues with the nuclear plants in Japan, the one thing we should all seriously take a look at is a way to back up all that digital media we have accumulated since switching our precious memories to a digital form.  There are some parents that never have taken a picture of their children without a digital camera.  That means no shoe boxes full of pictures to burn or get wet.  Instead, you need to worry about your system and when, not if, your system decides to have hard disk failure or some other problem that causes all of those precious memories to go away.  There are many ways you can do this yourself… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s just a car. How many times have I heard that response from someone attempting to reduce my enthusiasm when talking about automobiles I am excited about?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Amongst the young artists performing at the Grammy Awards, Bruno Mars was one of the few who demonstrated the basic ability to … well, sing his songs. Everyone else simply showed how effective modern sound production tools are, and also that the Johnny Bravo phenomenon wasn’t just for the Brady Bunch! Growing up as a teen in the post-Vietnam era is very different than the world my own kids experience, so while we saw ‘War, what is it good for (absolutely nothing)’ and ‘buy all of your guns and explode them to space’,they get songs like Bruno Mars Grenade, in which he uses the analogy of catching a grenade as a means of demonstrating… 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. I did a strange thing this morning. My alarm is set for 5am but I actually woke up 10 minutes early. I grabbed my phone from the charger next to my bed and searched the appstore for the new Angry Birds Rio game. Most would think I am nuts for doing such a thing, but if you are a fan of the Angry Birds games, you understand my excitement… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For those of you not fortunate enough to be taking advantage of the latest automotive technology whilst behind the wheel, online sites and blogs are offering their advice on how to squeeze as much value out of a gallon of fuel as possible, be that by recommending to combine trips and map out the shortest route prior to cranking the engine, or by directing you to the lowest price of fuel for that day. And do not forget that hauling around extra weight just adds to decreased fuel economy so get rid of excessive “junk in your trunk” and see your gas dollar stretch a bit further. Some, including TrueCar.com below, recommend apps for your… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You can probably trust any reviews written by this guy! Recently, our own Carly Z pointed us GD folks to a very interesting and, for me, thought-provoking article about online reviews and blogs published to the web that contain reviews–like this here one that you’re reading–by Al Gauthier of “Living Barefoot”.  (N.B.–I don’t follow the “living barefoot” guidelines, but if you saw me paddling around my workplace in my stocking feet, you would know that I’m closer to it than a lot of high-tech types.)  Gautier’s (fairly open) question was, in an online world where there’s no barrier to creating blogs and to publishing your opinion, what is the value, if… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have to say that I’m finding more use for the cameras on the iPad 2 than I expected. More than anything I’m glad to now have the same functionality across all my iOS devices. That means I don’t have to think about which device I want to use for which task. If I can do something on my iPhone I can do it on my iPod touch. If I can do it on my iPod touch I can now do it on my iPad. And, thanks to an update to Evernote’s iOS app that is more true than ever. As a blog post on the company Web site notes, Today, we released an update Continue reading on Gear Diary …

“Uh…I can’t find my phone…” is not something anyone wants to discover. It’s especially upsetting when you’re in the airport at 5:3o in the morning, and your wife just realized she left her smartphone somewhere between the car and the gate. Uh-oh… That was us on Friday morning. It was not good, since we were flying to Florida and already through security, and neither of us was sure where Sarah had left her Incredible. I tried calling it on the off-chance it was in her jacket pocket, but it rang and rang and went to voicemail. Then we brainstormed, and concluded the only place we had a shot of finding it was at airport check-in, so we… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When the show ‘Secret Life of the American Teenager’ debuted in the summer of 2008, it presented viewers with an intriguing scenario: a 15-year old incoming high school freshman got pregnant her first time having sex when she was at summer band camp, being seduced by an older boy who had a ‘bad boy’ reputation. The show’s first season addressed how everyone involved, from family and friends to the girl and boy, dealt with the issues of teen sex and pregnancy. For my wife and I, it was a great way to share a ‘question raising’ experience with our tween boys. That was a long time ago in TV years, and by the second… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Jabra has just announced their latest and greatest in-car Bluetooth speaker, the Jabra FREEWAY and it is impressive. As the company explains Taking audio quality to a whole new level, the Jabra FREEWAY features a ground-breaking new three speaker system – a first-ever in the category – along with HD Voice Ready, ensuring superior audio quality on both ends of a phone call. The Jabra FREEWAY provides unique versatility as both a device to be used inside or outside the car and for both calls as well as listening to music with any device – an iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, mp3 players or video game console. The FREEWAY comes with a complimentary year… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the HP Omni 100 20″ AMD LED-backlit All-in-one PC – LogicBUY. The Omni 100 features a 20″ LED backlit LCD with a non-glare display. A tilt and swivel adjustment ensures that you will always get the best viewing angle possible. The integrated 6-in-1 card reader, six USB 2.0 ports, built-in webcam and mic, integrated SuperMulti DVD burner and premium stereo speakers makes this a truly well-rounded all-in-one. Of course it has Windows 7 and more. The HP Omni 100z AMD Athlon II 900p LED-backlit All-in-one PC has a starting price of just $499.99 . With this GearDeal you can get $70 off plus another $30 through a stackable coupon. That… Continue reading on Gear Diary …