It’s the downside of having a dog. We go through bags like crazy cleaning up after him on walks, and it’s painful to see all that plastic build up in the garbage can at the end of the week. Flush Puppies claim to have a better solution though! According to their site: Flush Puppies doodie bags are 100% biodegradable and flushable.  Yes, really… flushable.  Made from Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) – a water soluble, eco-friendly, “green” alternative to plastic – Flush Puppies are specifically made to dispose of doggie doodie down the toilet.  (It’s science, people – not voodoo!)  Unlike plastic bags or other “biodegradable” bags, Flush Puppies actually biodegrade in water and in landfills. What you Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A few weeks ago I wrote that there was a 38-song mega-sampler called ‘Songs for Japan’ that featured songs from loads pop stars. Well, as we all know there is still great need for humanitarian relief, so this is a great way to help – and now it is on sale for $7.99! Over at Amazon.com, there is a sampler from various artists called “Songs for Japan” that features 38 songs from loads of pop music stars. Here are the details from DealNews: Amazon.com offers downloads of the Songs for Japan MP3 Album for $7.99. That’s $2 under our mention from two weeks ago and the best deal we’ve Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Like many folks, I make great use of DropBox for non-sensitive storage options for files I need to access from a variety of platforms. The free storage level tends to work fine for me, but I know many folks who take advantage of the reasonably priced upgrades in storage. Now AVG, a company best known for making great malware and anti-virus products, has launched a new competitor: LiveKive. The service is similar to those offered by competitors, including backup, sync and more. Here are the basics: Free 5GB storage account, with 25GB costing $49.99 per year, 50GB for $59.99 or ‘unlimited’ for $79.99 per year as shown below. (I put unlimited in… 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 started checking out this game searching for my Blue Plate Special app and was not sure if it could make the grade, but after a few minutes of playing I started getting hooked and found myself trying to beat more and more levels. HellOut!-Volcano Adventure reinforces my theory that simple, fun game play along with easy controls makes for an enjoyable IOS playing experience. Let’s take a look. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s been an up and down day to be Netflix. On the positive side, they announced the availability of Mad Men on Netflix streaming. This is very exciting, and not just because I was annoyed waiting for the discs to arrive in the mail one at a time. However, I don’t think there was a whole bunch of Mad Men-style cocktails being busted out at Netflix quite yet, since it looks like the undead corpse of Blockbuster was just reanimated by DISH Network. First, the good news. As I said, Mad Men will be stream-able this July, and Netflix paid a big chunk of change for it. The Wall Street Journal pegs the deal at being… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo credit: Joachim S. Müller Last week I trashed my MacBook Air. It was a sad day and within hours the computer was with Apple and on its way to be repaired. I went two days using only my iPad and it worked fine but, as expected, I discovered there were a few things that really required the use of Mac OS X. (One biggee is posting to Gear Diary since, after a few years of apps, there still isn’t a decent app for posting text, links AND pictures to WordPress.) I broke… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have been playing around with FireFox 4 for the Mac, since I absolutely adore the Windows version and it has replaced Chrome on my main PCs. My experience hasn’t been all that great – I tend to run loads of things all at once on my Mac and have found the performance … lacking. Turns out I am not alone, as a new review from Macworld shows that while FireFox 4 is much better than the last version, it still lags Safari and Chrome in terms of key performance. Here are a few graphs they shared: Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I live in the northeast. That means is has been a brutally cold winter and, as a quick look outside would suggest, it isn’t completely and totally over. You know what would have been great to have over the past few months? A remote starter! Yes, just imagine if I had been able to push a button a few minutes before I needed to leave for the day. Then I would have been able to sprint from my warm house and, seconds later, jump into an equally warm car. There’s only one problem with this idea, my Subaru Outback is a decade old and doesn’t know from anything “remote” beyond doors… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

While I mentioned that Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars came out two weeks ago for just about every platform, I’m still not playing it yet. Why not? Because due to my play habits and the game style of the LEGO games, I love playing on the PSP. Also, my favorite PSP is the PSP Go, which then means that I have to wait for the PSN release – sometimes same day, sometimes later, sometimes never. In this case it was known there would be a delayed launch, which meant that I would just have to keep an eye out. So as always I checked in on Joystiq’s RSS feed on Tuesday… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us a nice deal on the new 2011 Sony BRAVIA EX500 series 46″ 60Hz, 1080p LED HDTV. The Sony KDL46EX523 HDTV features ambient sensor & light sensor technology to auto adjust color & backlight based on room’s lighting condition; 4 HDMI inputs, WiFi, X-Reality Engine, Internet Streaming, USB port for photos, music & video, and more. Normally $1,199.18 with this Gear Deal you will find $121 in instant savings and a savings of $80. That brings the final price to just $998.99. Better still, it will ship for free and there is no tax in most states. $200 Off Sony BRAVIA KDL-46EX523 46″ 1080p Ultra Thin LED HDTV via… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Our friend Clinton Fitch of ClintonFitch.com and AlliOSNews is a big baseball fan. And big fans need robust apps like MLB At Bat 2011 for iPad.  It was actually one of Clinton’s past reviews of this app that caused me to purchase it last year and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Now, as you read his review, you’ll need to bear in mind that he’s a Rangers fan and cut him some slack anyway. Sure, he thinks that his purchasing MLB At Bat 2010 was behind the Rangers’ success last year, but that’s just being superstitious. Good thing that we fans of Chicago’s north siders are completely unaffected by superstitions Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Once I had decided that I was going to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain, I knew that one of my biggest “hidden” expenses was going to be what appeared on my mobile phone bill well after I had returned home. I fully expected to spend as much as $500 – 600 on top of my usual monthly bill during a week abroad between phone calls, text messages and whatever data I didn’t put on the Spanish SIM I had just purchased on eBay. Even though I had added AT&T’s $5.99/month “World Traveler” International Voice Roaming package (which meant that I would pay 99¢/minute to call home from Spain versus the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Hearing loss is something many of us never think about, yet at some point in our lives we will either experience it or know someone who does. For me, it’s my father-in-law as he uses a hearing aid these days (although we think he turns it down quite often to tune some of us out). Amplicom USA is addressing hearing loss issues through technology in their telephone products, both corded and cordless. They recently sent out a new product designed to expand the activity range of folks who are home-bound for fear of missing a phone call and being without the access to cell capability. The Powertel 601 Wireless Wrist Shaker allows folks to roam… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you are like me you remember well the days when you could stroll into a local record store and hold a conversation with a worker or perhaps even owner who was quite knowledgeable about what he had, what was coming out, and could perhaps even have a decent conversation about various music genres. For most of us, those days are LONG gone, with discussions moved to internet forums, and shopping done online at Amazon or iTunes for the most part. Well, for those who still have independent record stores in their area, coming soon you will have the opportunity to support those shops – and get in on some awesome vinyl and CD… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Every time a certain co-worker logs on to a computer at work I see his wallpaper of a map of a special place called “The Dragon’s Tail.” “Hey, I’ve been there,” I tell him. “What kind of bike were you riding,” he queries. “Bike? We were testing the new Ford Taurus SHO – and it rocked.” Yes, add taming the Dragon’s Tail to the list of things the new Ford Taurus – in SHO trim – can do. It is also the next Police Interceptor sedan package. Will it work as the next workhorse for the men and women in blue? If the reaction from a couple of high-ranking local law enforcement officials… Continue reading on Gear Diary …