Last year I reviewed Dragon Age: Origins for the Mac, noting that it was the same excellent game as on the PC, but with reservations based on support, DLC and future content. Since then Bioware has fully supported the game and has brought ALL DLC, patches and expansions to the Mac – something I later acknowledged. So now, with the support in place, let me be clear – Dragon Age: Origins is a game Mac gamers simply MUST play. Oh – there is another issue: while I have seen the PC version on sale for less than $10, the Mac version has never dipped below $24.95 as far as I can… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

DotEmu is both a publisher and a classic game digital download site, which gives them a unique perspective on many classic games. One of those franchises is the Gobliiins series which originally launched 20 years ago with Gobliiins. Here is a snip from one of the few reviews I could find online: In conclusion, Gobliiins is a challenging adventure game with many puzzles but little plot. The ability to control multiple characters with different skills is an innovative idea for its time and has become the hallmark of the Gobliiins series. Though the game’s extreme difficulty may frustrate some players, gamers who enjoys solving twisted, illogical puzzles will enjoy working their way through Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Images courtesy of Tokyoflash Tokyoflash has excited the geek nation once again by re-releasing the Kisai RPM design. Back in November the Kisai RPM was outed as the first user submitted watch design (concept-to-reality) to be made by Japanese company. This time around, Tokyoflash went for a material swap and ditched the Stainless Steel body and strap for an all Acetate design. That sounds really fancy and all, but I needed to know what exactly Acetate was in order to get excited about the watch being made from it. So I consulted Merriam Webster and got this out of them: Definition of ACETATE 1 : a salt or ester of acetic Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The PlayStation Store functionality will reportedly return by June 4th after the recent outage to PlayStation Network, Qriocity, and Sony Online Entertainment that began on April 20th.

I absolutely loved the original version of e13ctron’s s4 for iPhone 4. It was a sleek aluminum case that protected the iPhone, didn’t add too terribly much weight and had a beveled shape in strategic areas that just felt great in the hand. Yes, I loved the case and I used it… For a day. I was a bit heartbroken when I quickly discovered that the all aluminum case wreaked havoc on my signal strength. The case was specially designed with a gasket insert that kept the metal case away from contact with the iPhone and was, theoretically, supposed to prevent this from happening. It didn’t. This wasn’t something with which we were… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

C’mon … you KNEW it was coming. First there was the price increase to $60 for this generation of games. That is easy enough to justify and accept based on the cost to product the graphics assets. Next we started with DLC, which very quickly spawned the whole ‘Horse Armor’ DLC nonsense. DLC is paid ‘downloadable content’, and the ‘nonsense’ is that companies quickly realized that gamers would buy $2 – $5 DLC on impulse for games they like – and that it was possible to ‘hold back’ content or at least create it in parallel with the main game, making the DLC pure profit. Then EVERYTHING… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My brother-in-law Robert recently ordered an iPad. I never thought I would see the day when that would happen but order he did. The same goes for my friend Michael. He too finally hit the “Order” button and came into the new post-pc era. I predict that Robert and Michael will find themselves using their iPads even more than they expect. That means they’ll need some key accessories. Chief among them, a way to charge the iPad in the car. As you are likely aware, the iPad requires a 10W power source. That means you cannot use many, or all of the car adapters you might already own. That’s where The Joy Factory’s Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Back in the spring of 2006 Nintendo didn’t own the handheld gaming world – in fact, at that point the PSP had sold more units than the original DS in spite of Nintendo launching a few months earlier. But then the DS Lite launched … and by the end of 2006 the DS was outselling the PSP 4:1 or more on a weekly basis and there was talk about the demise of the PSP. Nintendo has moved on to release the DSi, DSi XL and now the 3DS, but for many the DS Lite remains the pinnacle of the DS series. It has a DS slot, a GBA slot, a great weight… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There has been growing speculation ever since Apple bought Lala nearly 1.5 years ago, but now it is confirmed by Apple itself: Apple is entering the ‘cloud streaming’ business as of June 6th when it will introduce iCloud officially. Oh, there is some iOS and Mac OS X Lion stuff and this guy Steve will be there and all … but I am very interested and excited about what it is that Apple will offer. This has been an interesting year in ‘music in the cloud’: Spotify has continued to fail to break the North American market, and even in the EU they have been giving up an Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Huff Post recently published an article that “Apple Stimulates ‘Religious’ Reaction in Fans’ Brains”. That may sound like a ridiculous April Fools Day post, but neuroscience is neuroscience and clearly Apple has found a way to quite literally strike a nerve in many. It should come as no surprise then that, for many, Apple’s flagship store in Manhattan is a pilgrimage destination. Sure, that sounds even more wacky and fanboy hyperbole-ish than the religious thing, but just take a look at this heat map that was put together by developer Eric Fischer. Each red dot indicates where a photo was taken in Manhattan and each of the four circled areas represents a specific… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of StarTech As a Systems Administrator, I’m always looking for new tools to help me get my job done faster and more efficiently. I spend a lot of time at work creating operating system builds and imaging in preparation for mass deployment. During the process I have to build an image, distribute it to a few machines, start and then test for any issues. I have some great hardware and software to help me with that, but the latest offering from StarTech could make my life all that much easier. The new SATDOCK4U2E Hard Drive Docking station from StarTech is an industry first — a 4 bay hard drive dock that allows for both SATA and IDE drives… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We reviewed the Warpia: StreamHD some time ago. It offers “Advanced wireless USB solution connects your computer and HDTV for easy online streaming”. In other words, with the StreamHD you can view slideshows, movies and more from you computer on your television. You can even listen to 5.1 channel surround sound!! My bottom line on it: If I sound enthusiastic about this product, it’s because I am. I was disappointed in the reality of the other device and I’m thrilled to see that this product realizes the potential of this sort of streaming. Very often there are videos or other kinds of media that the teachers in my synagogue’s school want Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So, last week was a busy one for ebooks! Kobo and B&N released new competing touchscreen readers, and Amazon and B&N became embroiled in quite the PR war over battery life. So what happened, and what’s coming next? Let’s start with a quick cheat sheet on what’s new, and what everyone’s offering: Kobo: The fine folks at Kobo released their Touch Edition Reader, a full touchscreen ebook reader. They’re claiming battery life of up to one month, not too shabby for a touchscreen. It’s retailing for $129.99, and the previous non-touch version has dropped to $99.99 if you’re bargain hunting. These devices can read PDF and ePUB files; you can find… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The HTC Inspire 4G Smartphone for AT&T is available in either red or black. Normally $449.99 with this Gear Deal you can get it for just $29.99 and it will even ship for free. The Inspire features a 4.3″ 480×800 display, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, has 768MB of RAM, sports an 8MP camera with HD video, and can take advantage of AT&T’s HSPA high speed network. It ships with Android 2.2OS and has 4GB built-in memory which can be expanded with up to a 32GB microSD. Bluetooth, an accelerometer and more round out the package. This deal price requires a 2 year contract but this is a great deal if you are in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It took far longer than we hoped or expected but, as of this morning, Zinio’s app is live in the Android Market. That’s right, if you have a device running Android 2.2 or above Android Honeycomb you can now get hundreds (thousands actually) of magazines right on your Android device. Zinio is one of my favorite apps on my iPad, and it was one of the things most lacking for me each time I tried to make the move to Android. And there’s more good news. Thanks to Zinio’s commitment to being cross-platform, if you already have a Zinio account, then you can simply add your Android device to it and access all your magazines in seconds… Continue reading on Gear Diary …