As our world grows more mobile, the importance of being able to go hands free and pay attention to what we are doing also grows. Not only is texting or emailing and driving dangerous, but we are discovering that driving and using a handset for any use can be disastrous. With this said, the market if flooded with hands free devices from headphones to bluetooth solutions. I have attempted to use some of the bottom tiered products with limited success. When someone calls, I still tend to pick up my phone to see who is calling and I also have a problem with clarity of my voice. Be it wind or other noises, having… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have a new favorite case for my iPhone 4. Actually, I have two new favorite cases for my iPhone . And no, neither of them are the Hello Kitty iPhone cases that are depicted above. (Those cases are of the same design as my “new faves” and we will be giving them away so read on.) My new favorite iPhone cases come from Power Support. Judie met the folks from Power Support while she was in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress and was impressed by their story and their products. Upon her return she reached out to them and they… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Every now and then you come across a device or an accessory that does exactly what you want it to do or solves a problem you have been looking to solve. That is the case with the TuneLink Auto. I have been looking for something like this for quite a while without much success. The TuneLink auto not only does what I was hoping, but goes a good many steps further. I was about to buy one when the company was kind enough to put a review sample in the mail. Let’s take a look at this awesome new gadget and why I highly recommend it… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image taken from the Wayback Machine In the beginning, there was Peanut Press . . . Seriously, though; as you’ve probably noticed from Carly’s great postings, the eBook industry is . . . well, the polite way to put it is, “In flux.”  The less-polite way to put it is, “A big friggin’ mess.”  The same book cannot be read on different eReaders; paperbacks are cheaper than eBooks; eBooks are being delayed to give hardcover books a chance to sell more; books can be summarily deleted from your library without notice; and on and on.  It’s enough to drive you nuts. My personal peeve is both the plethora of eBook readers available… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Twitter, so young and unassuming not long ago, is all grown up. Now it has millions of followers, has help start revolutions, has kept people in touch during disasters and more. Yup, Twitter is no longer just about “OMG, I just had the most delicious ribs at Outback Steakhouse”. Yes, Twitter has matured and so have the apps that let you use it. There are lots and lots of offerings out there but which are best? Our friend Zara from ChipChick has some great suggestions. Some, like TweetDeck are likely familiar while others, such as twunfollow and Twistory may be new to you. All are worth checking out. You can find the full… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Vizio 42″ LCD HDTV March Madness is here and, in my humble opinion, off to a GREAT start. If you are into the best couple of weeks of basketball each year but trying to follow the games on some small, standard definition TV don’t you think it is time to upgrade? If so, have we got a great New Gear Daily Deal for you. As Vizio explains- Enjoy a breathtaking viewing experience with the 42-inch E421VA LCD HDTV from Vizio. This LCD HDTV delivers full 1080p HD picture quality and advanced audio. This flat screen LCD HDTV features 120Hz refresh rate for sharp clarity of fast action scenes, SRS TruVolume and Continue reading on Gear Diary …

All images courtesy of Shape Services A couple of months ago, Shape Services–the makers of IM+ and IM+ Pro for the iPad and iPhone (which I will also be reviewing)–let me test out their iDisplay program.  The idea behind iDisplay is simple:  why not turn your iPad or iPhone into a second monitor?  How did it work out in practice?  Read on. I tested this app with my  Lenovo T-61, which has an Intel Core Duo 2 Ghz/777 Mhz, with 2Gb of RAM, running Windows XP SP 3.  Being a work laptop, it also has considerable security software running, which might contribute to any latency issues.  (Soon I will have a MacbookPro, and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Everyone shares the pain and difficulty of the people of Japan dealing with the horrible tragedy, and many of us look for ways to help out in whatever way possible. Judie wrote about some ways to help, I mentioned some here and here and here, and more ideas keep pouring in every day! Here is one of the latest! All this weekend PopCap is donating ALL proceeds of iPhone and iPad games to the Red Cross for their efforts in Japan. If you don’t already have all of the games below, this is a great time to pick up games like Plants vs. Zombies or Bejeweled 2 and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One nice thing about Android–and one reason why people jailbreak their iPhones–is that you can create home screen icons that allow you to access a particular person’s phone number instead of hunting through the contacts list.  Or having a home screen icon that applies for contact groups.  Or maybe one that will just start playing a particular song. Well, the good folks at Mokten Pty Ltd decided that really tanks, and have developed an app that will allow you to do that, plus a few other things.  aHomeIcon, which is available for Doug’s Favorite Price (FREE!), is the one I’m telling you about.  And for FREE, how can you go wrong?  Available at… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A few months ago, I told you all about PhatPad’s port to the iPad.  Now at the time, PhatWare was asking an MSRP of $7.99 for the software, which moves it into the “that’s a bit much for my taste” realm for a number of people, me included.  But with their latest rev, in welcome to the new iPad 2, PhatWare is offering 3 bucks off on PhatPad.  And honestly, that’s a pretty steep discount.  Here’s what they say about the latest rev: PhatWare has released a new version of PhatPad for iPad focused on document filing and search, making it faster to find the documents you’re looking for. Another nice new feature is playback Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you’re like me, and you have been waiting for the official Zinio app for Android, then you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. I like to harass Zinio every once in a while on twitter about the Android app, and they usually tell me that it’s being worked on and to be patient. That’s all fine and well, but in the meantime, since I don’t have an apple device it’s really not worth buying any subscriptions because I have nothing to read them with. Some of the members of the XDA forums found that unacceptable, so they extracted the Zinio app from the European Samsung Galaxy Tab and were able… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have made my love for the Jazz Session well known in my music reviews – Jason Crane does a great job of finding lesser known folks from a broad spectrum of jazz styles and getting them to open up and talk about all sorts of stuff. He also integrates music into the interview in a way that allows you not only to hear the tunes but get inside what is happening. Over the last few years Jason has interviewed more than a hundred jazz musicians, and now his show has passed 1 million downloads! Here are the basics about the show: The Jazz Session is a member-supported online interview Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Rodney Dangerfield based an entire stand-up career on it, singer Aretha Franklin had a big hit with it and the new Hyundai Genesis Coupe demands it: Respect. Two things might help them out here. First, get your marketing department to begin plastering every new action film with the car and second, spin a performance division off from the main corporate umbrella and give it a brand name consumers can easily pronounce. Sure, I had read the glossy newsrack reviews pitting the new Korean coupe against the latest Detroit had to offer but did not really take them seriously until I slid behind the wheel of this 2011 Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track edition recently. This… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

March Madness selection weekend and the digital download sales are INSANE!!! As usual, everyone is getting in on the action with great deals. Once again the sales are so huge that I’m only showing games that are 50% off or more (unless it is something special like the Black Isle / Bioware games at Impulse). And as always thanks to the crew at Deals4Downloads for their help finding everything. Also, Direct2Drive is having a couple of extra deals. First, D2D will be taking 20% off its entire library of first-person shooters this weekend through March 21st at 10:00am PDT. Use code SPECWAR5 at checkout. Also, for every game sold this weekend… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You want power? We’ve got a Gear Deal with power! The “just released” Dell XPS 8300 Desktop PC is a powerful desktop and our Gear Sponsor has some nice savings on it. The XPS 8300 features an angled chassis and a sleek black/white design. It has a black bezel, a tilt-back design with top-recessed tray, integrated 7.1 with THX TruStudio PC sound and ships with Windows 7. Our Gear Sponsor’s featured model can be ordered for the low price of $749.99 with FREE shipping thanks to a special coupon code it is a great deal. This system has a Core i5-2300 2.8GHz Quad-core CPU, 8GB RAM, Wireless-N PCIe Card and 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5450 for $1147.99… Continue reading on Gear Diary …