3D TV is all the rage right now but what about 3D sound? That’s where Antec’s new SoundScience ruckus 3D/2.1 speaker system comes in. The rockus™ 3D | 2.1 speaker system creates a personal home theater experience that brings the power and realism of 3D audio together with the clarity and accuracy of high-fidelity music.  3Dsst™, soundscience’s 3D technology, actively analyzes incoming stereo audio signals and intelligently places them into a 3D sound field. The results are a personal theater experience with realistic, immersive 3D sound for your movies and games from 2.1 speakers – whether it’s the impact of an explosion, the snap of a baseball whizzing by a player’s face, or the thunder and Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This jacket came as a gift from some friends and I have been dying for it to get a bit warmer so I could start wearing it. It did and I have. So what do I think of the SCOTTEVEST XAE – 10th Anniversary Edition Leather Jacket? Check out this video look to find out. X-Ray View of the XAE – 10th Anniversary Edition Leather Jacket Here’s what the SeV site has to say about the XAE – 10th Anniversary… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Have you been anticipating The Witcher 2 as much as I have? The sequel to the excellent 2007 game is due out in May. Here is some of what I said about the original: I hope that The Witcher represents the future; it has plenty of combat, a deep skill system, nicely integrated alchemy and most importantly one of the best and deepest stories and quests ever written into a video game, as well as looking gorgeous throughout. You can pre-order The Witcher 2 in many places, but as the developers are paired with Good Old Games since they all come from the same company, that seems the best place to grab… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Over the last few months I knew this was coming – Metacritic was having round-ups of ‘best iPhone games of the month’. But now it has arrived! Metacritic has announced that they will have an entire section dedicated to review round-ups of iPhone / iPad games. Here are the details: Metacritic is proud to announce that we have added complete coverage of iPhone/iPad game reviews to our site. As many of you know, we have been publishing monthly IPhone/IPad games guides – recommending the best new iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch games available for a total budget of $30 — and this popular feature will continue to appear each month. Starting today Continue reading on Gear Diary …

By now you’ve probably heard about the byzantine paywall being set up by the New York Times. It’s complicated, it’s expensive, and it proves one thing: for the New York Times, paper subscriptions are still what they care about, and digital is just a means to that end. If you haven’t already heard about the NYT paywall, here’s how it’s going to work: 1) Buy an online+smartphone app subscription for $15 every four weeks, or roughly $180 a year. 2) Buy an online+tablet app subscription for $20 every four weeks, or roughly $240 a year. 3) Buy a combo online/tablet/smartphone subscription for $35 every four weeks, or roughly $420 a year… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My newest project at work is fast paced and high pressure … but it is a great team that is loads of fun! One of the engineers on the team is a maniac about March Madness – so naturally we are all on-board with our brackets! Adding to the fun is the ability for me to grab my iPad and tune into whatever game I want wirelessly. How? NCAA® March Madness® On Demand! Better still – it is FREE! Watch every game of NCAA® March Madness® LIVE on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad! NCAA® March Madness On Demand® gives you FREE live streaming video of every game of 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 more ideas keep pouring in every day! Here is one of the latest! Japanese RPG developer Aksys Games is having a sale, and during this sale (from now until March 24th) ALL proceeds will go to the Japanese Relief Effort. Here are some details from CEO of Aksys Akibo Shieh: The thoughts and prayers of our staff are with the people of Japan. We have Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Apple has made a name for themselves with creative and often humorous commercials through the years, from the legendary 1984 Mac introduction video through the Think Different campaign through the Pentium-toasting PowerPC commercials through the infamous ‘I’m a Mac …’ spots with John Hodgeman and Justin Long. Now they have launched a series of three new iPhone 4 commercials themed “If you don’t have an iPhone”. Each features a specific iPhone-specific ecosystem that you are missing if you don’t have an iPhone: one touts the App Store, another the iPod and iTunes, and finally iBooks. Let’s take a look: App Store iPod & iTunes iBooks By… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I would normally separate these out, but they are both one-day sales … so here goes! EA Games is having a Shamrock Sale today only, here are the details: Save some green on the greenest of holidays. All weekend long, we’re celebrating Saint Patrick’s with big savings on games for iPhone & iPod touch. You can save up to 80% on some of our most popular titles. When you visit the App Store, look for the picture of this wee green man holding the shamrock in the screenshots for select EA games. When you see that shamrock, you’ll know ‘tis a game on sale. To get you started on your Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the 15.6″ Lenovo Essential G570. It features an Intel 2011 Core i3 or i5 CPU, 4GB RAM, a 500GB Hard Drive, Intel HD 3000 graphics, an HDMI connector, a 2-Megapixel Webcam, 802.11n WiFi, an optional Blu-ray and more. The notebook is available in a number of configurations and there is some nice savings on each. Here are a few worth noting– The least expensive system has a Core i3 processor. It has an MSRP of $849 but with savings of $150 it is just $699 and comes with free shipping. The Lenovo G570 with a processor upgraded to Core i5 is $899. With savings of $150 it is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There was much rejoicing when Amazon rolled out their latest Kindle update which included page numbers! It made life much easier for book clubs, students, and everyone who just wanted a comfortingly familiar way to figure out where they were in a novel. What’s really cool, though, is that Amazon did some serious behind the scenes work to make the feature successful. Amazon explained on today’s Kindle blog post that they didn’t want to just create new page numbers for the eBook (and implied that’s how their competitors do it), but instead they took the time to match Kindle version page 1 to paper version page 1, etc. Their main explanation: An e-book, like Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Vostro 230 Mini Tower with 21.5″ monitor Here’s a great New Gear Daily Deal for you on a small but powerful desktop computer bundled with a great 21.5″ monitor. The Dell Vostro 230 Mini Tower includes 3GB of memory and a large monitor 21.5″ monitor. As Dell explains, From its scalable design to its ability to integrate with the latest Dell business hardware and services, the Vostro 230 Mini Tower provides a strong foundation for your small business to grow on. Smart, Scalable Design: Just the right size for the office; easily set up and expandable for “future-proof” performance Affordable Desktop Solution: “Plug-and-play” compatibility with a range of affordable Dell business Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Later today you’ll be able to buy the HTC ThunderBolt from Verizon for $299 with a two-year contract; yesterday I received a review unit, and I have spent much of the day (and evening) getting acquainted with it. The 4.3″ WVGA screen is beautiful, and it’s immediately reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite devices, the HTC HD2. You’ll likely hear quite a few comparisons to the HD2 as I work my way through this post and the resulting review, because more than any device since its introduction, the ThunderBolt feels like the HD2′s worthy successor. The ThunderBolt is hefty! It measures 4.75″ tall… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you grew up watching Eddie Murphy and Jo Piscopo parody Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra, or have only seen recent performances by Wonder in which he looks almost like a self-parody of what Murphy was doing, you probably don’t ‘get’ why so many call Stevie Wonder one of the great geniuses of modern popular music. When you look back at the period from the early and middle 1970s in particular, his compositions – songs like You Are the Sunshine of My Life, Higher Ground, Superstition, My Cherie Amour, Signed-Sealed-Delivered, and the entire albums Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life remain major milestones in popular music. Wonder… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’ve covered Keurig with at least 3 different device reviews.  I loved it and Wayne was pleased enough to dump his drip coffee maker.  Judie didn’t have the same luck with the Mini.  We know that Keurig machines are pretty popular and those who have the higher end Keurigs seem to have a better experience. But the devices are only part of the equation.  What about a source for the K-Cups?  The problem is my local grocery store only carries a small fraction of the available coffees and no tea and very rarely will they have Hot Chocolate.  Bed, Bath and Beyond is usually the best bet locally.  However, when you… Continue reading on Gear Diary …