Every story starts somewhere … this one starts last Friday night after my kids got home from their middle school dance. They both had a great time with friends and overall had fun. The next morning my younger son said he was a bit disappointed, and when we asked why he said it was because he requested a song that didn’t get played. My older son reminded him that it wasn’t exactly ‘mainstream’, but agreed it would have been a great song for the dance. It reminded me of something I’ve written about before – my tastes in music tend to fall off the beaten path as anyone who reads my stuff… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

[image via Yahoo News]   This week’s BlackBerry World Conference is meant to show off the latest and greatest BlackBerry products and software offerings — as well as give a sneak peek into what RIM, the makers of the popular BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablet — have planned.    Unlike many prior years (where the conference was branded as the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, or WES for short), there is a sense that RIM is struggling with the challenge of reinventing its brand and platform. Recent announcements such as the new crop of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook updates are…to be blunt, falling a bit flat.   A touchscreen Bold running OS 6.1 … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Just over a year ago SpaceTime Studios launched Pocket Legends, an ambitious 3D online multiplayer RPG that promised to deliver a ‘right sized’ experience for smartphones and handhelds. Most folks were surprised when not only did it work – but it was really good! Well … that was a year ago, and to celebrate the first anniversary SpaceTime is launching a massive celebration by making huge areas of the game available for FREE! Pocket Legends is a ‘freemium’ game, meaning you get access to the game and certain areas and levels for free but need to keep paying to get the whole experience. For a limited time certain areas are free, while others… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Image courtesy of Blackberry Recently at Blackberry World Conference 2011, RIM made some announcements on a few new devices, apps, OS 7, and most notably the new Multi Platform Blackberry Enterprise Server. Blackberry has been under some pressure in the past few years, mainly because they are losing market share daily to both mobile hardware and software competitors. Most of the recent phone offerings have not quite set the world on fire, and the OS leaves much to be desired. As most of the smartphones sold now offer all the things that once made Blackberry great, I feel like RIM has been left behind with their mediocre hardware and all but non-existent app store. We have been… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There’s a secret society stalking your streets, peering behind bushes and rummaging through parks. They work in the dead of night, or boldly move at high noon. These stealthy denizens are known to leave suspicious packages around public parks and quiet neighborhoods, and yet nobody tries to stop them. Using the latest in GPS and smartphone technology, they track hundreds of locations in nearly ever county of the USA. Their secret stashes are tracked on cryptic websites, and they’ve even made inroads into Canada and Europe. Their nefarious websites include listings for thousands of mobile treasures or “hitchhikers” which are shuffled from location to location. Nobody tries to stop them because they’re playing “geek… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

While attendees were Tweeting, BBM’ing and trying not to nod off during Mike Lazaridis’s keynote address during this year’s BlackBerry World Conference, a jolt of enthusiasm swept through the crowd as RIM announced every attendee would receive a complimentary 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Suh-Weet!   Gauging the rabid excitement of the crowd, the news was very well received.   Hopefully by the time attendees have it in hand, all those pesky software updates for the native Facebook app will be installed.   Since there’s no native email on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet (until another software update brings native PIM features to the tablet ‘sometime this Summer’ per RIM), all I can say is thank… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Despite my oft-stated preference for slow-moving, middle-aged-guy friendly, no-fast-reflexes-required games, that doesn’t mean that I am totally able to resist the allure of said games.  Lately, for example, I have been totally obsessed with the iPhone game Home Run Battle, spending ‘way too much time trying to improve my ability to hit the slider instead of doing Gear Diary news posts and reviews like I should.  Hey, it happens even to us middle-aged guys.  (And women–you should see Sami kicking butt on Diner Dash.) Could this new Android game Jane’s Hotel be one of those that breaks through my old-man “get off my lawn!”, “in the old days we didn’t have fancy computer graphics, and we… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

55″ 1080P HDTV with Built-in WiFi and Internet Apps Why is it that the TV is the last device in most of our homes that stands on its own and isn’t part of our ever-more interconnected world? Sure you can add a set-top box like a RoKu box but why not bring your TV into the 21st century? That’s what today’s New Gear Daily Deal wants to help you do AND save money in the process. Yes, this 55″ Vizio TV offers 1080P HiDef and has built in 802.11N Dual Band Wireless networking technology that let’s you quickly and easily connect to the Internet. Yes! It is a TV with apps. How… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The next world cup is not for a few years, but maybe this will put you in the mood for some good ol’ football (or soccer, as only the people in the U.S.–apparently–call it).  Or maybe not; maybe it will just be good clean fun.  But in any event, if you’re a football/soccer iPad person, perhaps it’s time to check out Sauce Digital’s new iPad game, Touch Soccer 3D HD, available for only a buck at the iTunes stores.  I’m old, I admit, so the look of the game reminds me a bit of the old commercial for Weebles (“Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down!”) But don’t be influenced by my old-fart approach… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  It is hard to believe but thanks to recycled carpet and water bottles marine areas that are currently “dead zones” can be brought back to life. Bruce Kania, CEO of Floating Island International has developed a way to create artificial islands from the garbage and, in the process bring life back to aquatic areas that would otherwise remain dead zones. Kania’s company takes the debris and uses it to create a “loofah-like mesh of plastic”. They then add soil and seeds and set it afloat. Nature takes over from there. The seeds bloom and grow and, as a post over on Wired.com explains, Their roots become home to biofilms that gobble nitrates Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the big things people like to envision the current explosion of the online/Web/app/connected world will lead to is improved educational experience.  That’s one of the reasons I like to review apps like Solar System and The Elements, and Carly Z talks about the school eBook market–we think these powerful new tools can help loads of people if engineers and teachers can get together. Cengage Learning, a learning “solutions” provider, has released a program–or platform, depending on how you look at it–for developing learning apps to be used in conjunction with their Web-based platform.  The idea is that developers will create apps to run on their platform-independent system, and folks will have a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As expected Apple introduced new iMacs this morning. While they look the same they have some nice upgrades under the hood. Among the changes are quad-core processors across the line, graphics that are up to 3x faster, Thunderbolt for super-fast data transfer, and a FaceTime HD camera. The 21.5″ model starts at $1,199.00 with the 27″ starting at $500 more. The upper end of the “ready to ship” models line has a 3.1 GHz Quad-Core and costs $1999.99. If I wasn’t so pleased using my 13″ MacBook Air I would be pretty tempted right now. Must… Resist… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the things that has been most surprising to me as I have used more and more iOS devices is the fact that there are many things I actually prefer doing via apps on my iPad than I do on my MacBook Air. Seriously, email, rss feeds and picture editing are so much easier and more streamlined on my iPad as compared to my Mac and I often wish I could run iPad apps on my MacBook. One additional area where this holds true is with regard to task applications. Truth be told, it is far easier and more convenient, not to mention more powerful in many cases, to create, edit and follow… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today our Gear deal brings us the 13.3″ Lenovo IdeaPad Z370. The notebook  features the new, 2011 Intel 2nd Generation Core i3 / i5 processor and comes in either Blue or Brown.   Here are some of the deals our Gear Sponsor has found. The IdeaPad Z370 Core i3-2310M Laptop in Blue is $899. After savings of $230 AND a 20% stackable coupon it is just $535.20. The IdeaPad Z370 Core i5-2410M Laptop in Brown or Blue starts at $999. After savings of $270 AND a 20% stackable coupon it is just $583.20. The older 13.3″ Lenovo IdeaPad Z360 Core i3-380M Laptop features a chiclet keyboard, Dolby Advanced audio, optional discrete Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last week I wrote about the first single from the Beastie Boys upcoming release Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, which arrives on Tuesday May 2nd. That is a great video that really whets the appetite for the release. But the Beastie Boys don’t want you to wait any more – so they have uploaded the entire CD to SoundCloud for streamed listening. I have listened to the whole thing with my kids – and it is pretty much a ‘must have’ for fans of the band! 2011 release, the long-awaited eighth album from the Hip Hop/Rock trio. Hot Sauce Committee Part Two was produced by Beastie Boys and mixed by Philippe Continue reading on Gear Diary …