Today’s Gear Deal brings us the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 ultra-thin 13.3″ laptop. It is available now with a price starting at $1585. Our Gear Sponsor has found a deal that will take $386 off the price. That drops the total cost down to just $1,199 and it will even ship for free. Want/need more power? You can upgrade to a Core i5-2520M 2.5GHz CPU for just $105 more. This new model of the ThinkPad X1 weighs only 3.7 lbs and is just 0.65-0.84 inches thin. It features a backlit and spill-resistant keyboard, Gorilla Glass screen and a RapidCharge battery. It also includes a Mini DisplayPort, an HDMI, Ethernet, one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, one… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Back in the day, when you wanted a new game console, you had to actually surf on over to Amazon.com and drop a couple hundreds. Times have changed. For all you studious types out there, Windows has just revealed a brand new offer for students in both high school and college. Want a free Xbox 360 game console? Instead of actually paying for it, current scholars need only purchase a brand new Windows 7 PC priced at $700 or more. All in all, this is a pretty simple, no strings attached kind of deal. As long as you have a valid .edu email address or some kind of school identification, you should have a shiny new Xbox coming your way… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Stuff for the iPhone!  Stuff for the iPad!  Stuff for Samsung.  And MacBook Air and Sony-Ericsson!  Yup, that’s what the folks at USBFever are laying on you this week.  You should go there once in a while to view in awe the plethora of stuff they offer, but to save you a wee bit of time every week, we list what they release just for that week.  (Which gives you an idea of what my definition of “plethora” is.) And the full list for this week iiiiiiis . . . Smart Cover friendly Crystal Case for Apple iPad 2 eggshell for iPad 2 fits Smart Cover Kraft Envelope PU Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have been reviewing games since … well, since before the advent of smartphones anyway. And yet I have always managed to be able to come up with screenshots from my chosen device -Newton, Psion, Palm, Windows Mobile, iOS … but not Android. For some mind-numbing reason Android lacks a built-in screenshot utility. No problem for many – just ‘root’ the device and install one of the many screenshot utilities on the Android Market. Heck, that almost makes it seem like it is sanctioned officially!. But it isn’t – and that is one reason I have not rooted my Android device. Because every now and again you hear something that is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Generally speaking, video game publishers really like selling games. That is how they make money, which is the sole reason publishers exist. The is a bit of a problem when it comes to the PSP. Why? Because the PSP has an atrocious software sales history, by far the worst of this console generation, including a piracy rate high enough to make the PC jealous! And while I have found the rate of releases rather anemic, the hit-to-miss ratio is actually pretty good, meaning there are a bunch of solid PSP releases that no one has bought! Good news is coming in the form of the ‘Remaster Series’. In this release series, PSP games will… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Over the last several years Family Guy has taken on the original Star Wars trilogy, with Blue Harvest and Something, Something Dark Side. Last December they released the final entry ‘It’s A Trap’ on DVD and Blu-Ray, and on May 22nd the show aired as the finale for the 9th season of Family Guy. The episode is once again a humorous retelling of Return of the Jedi using series characters in place of the original actors, but keeping the personalities of the Family Guy characters largely intact. General opinion seems to be that this is the weakest of the three (with the first one regarded as the best), but it is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As Judie shared last week in a post, she has been having a terrible time getting and staying connected thanks to the WildBlue, a company that makes AT&T Wireless look good! Well over a week after being throttled, Judie still has a connection speed that is at or below dial-up. Judie’s internet speeds as of 05/23/11 Because she is in a rural area that is not covered by 3G, and because she doesn’t have a phone line (and even if she did, DSL is not available), and because “beamed” broadband internet will not work due to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Clementine is a very clean-looking media player, inspired by the venerable Amarok player from Linux, and even using the Qt platform so it works in several flavors of Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. The installation is quick and simple, with no options presented to the user besides folder for the program. Unlike most media players, Clementine does not prompt the user for a music folder during the installation process. My 4000+ track test library was read and available in just over two minutes, although the program remained responsive during that time so I could do other things while waiting. The default look for Clementine is a two-pane view plus… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This past week has been loaded with music news, from continued disappointment with Google’s abysmal cloud-based music service through updates from Slacker and eMusic to speculation exactly what is happening with Apple and their cloud-based service. Slacker Goes Premium Slacker and Pandora are great examples of the ‘streaming radio’ side of the streamed music movement: you cannot play a specific song, but you can choose a genre or artist or song as a seed to populate a station that will play like-minded music from your initial selection. But at the same time most of the buzz comes from sites like Spotify and Rdio and Mog … not to mention cloud-based music… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Hey, it’s summer!  Well, almost–here in Austin, summer comes kind of early, so you’ll excuse me for jumping the gun a bit.  But I’m not exactly alone here:  Archerfish video monitoring has released an “intelligent video surveillance system”, to help keep an eye on your home and valuables while you’re out gallivanting around in whatever part of the country one gallivants this summer.  Personally, I wouldn’t know; we pretty much stay at home, or visit the ‘rents in Louisiana.  When I’m not flying to friggin’ California all the time for my job.  Jeez, I travel too much, you know?  Really, I have to do something about that.  I’m never home!  I mean . . . wait, what… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In response to many customer requests, Laptop bag manufacturer Skooba Design has partnered with the well-known Tenba brand to add photo/video carrying cases to Skooba’s product offering. Skooba will act as a reseller for the 35 year-old photo brand, which is a division of a separate company. The Skooba website is set up with quick links to match your lifestyle needs. One of four tabs – photographer, fashionista, road warrior and tech lover – will take you to a page with bags suited to fit your exact needs. I love this new offering of the Tenba bag lineup. I still use one of their earlier satchel style models every day at my “day job.”… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Whatever you might think of pop singer Lady Gaga, she is certainly riding high on the attention she gets from her songs and her ‘family friendly’ controversies. Her new album ‘Born The Way’ launches today, and Amazon is featuring it for $0.99! To put it in context, that is less than you would pay for JUST THE SONG Born This Way on iTunes (and exactly the same price for the single on Amazon). At that price, if you are even THINKING about grabbing any of the 14-songs, do yourself a favor and buy the whole thing! Head to the Amazon MP3 store now! From our sister site New Gear Daily! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Did you ever think you would see the day when you could get a 40″ HDTV for under $400? Well today is that day. That’s right, thanks to our Gear Sponsor you can get the Auria EQ4088p 1080p 60Hz LCD HDTV for just $379. That’s $130 less than the normal price of $499.99 and it even ships for free with no tax in most states. THAT’S a Gear Deal!   Gear Deal: Auria EQ4088p 40-in 1080p 60Hz LCD HDTV via LogicBUY Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Another week with some solid releases across platforms and genres. We have the movie tie-in represented with Kung Fu Panda 2, sequel-itis represented with Dirt 3, collection fever with King Arthur Collection, freemium games with Faxion Online, unlikely for the PC version to come first (in other words it won’t release this week) Dungeons & Dragons Daggerdale, and so on. And while there isn’t really anything else big getting released, there are a few other releases this week – read on to find out! Dirt Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve never been really big with social networking on the Web, at least not in the traditional sense of putting in a bunch of information and relying on some piece of code written by some (probably wet-behind-the-ears) programmer to both keep my personal information safe, and match me up with people who have “similar interests”.  I use Facebook like a lot of other folks my age–finding old high school and college friends, and sometimes for chat.  (Although Facebook’s chat utility is kinda buggy, so I usually use Shape Services IM+ portal.) As you can imagine, I have not exactly taken a big interest in Apple’s “Ping” utility.  Hey, call me crazy. But… Continue reading on Gear Diary …