Last night the folks at Monster Cable were kind enough to invite Gear Diary to a special event held in San Antonio at the amazing Bjorn’s store. Monster brought in the legendary members of Earth Wind & Fire for a meet and greet with a special announcement: Verdine, Phillip and Ralph are celebrating 40 years of making music together as the band, and they have teamed up with Monster for a special product coming out soon. The band members were interviewed by Bjorn about their history and the formation of the band. It was a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the first games I loved playing on my Apple ][+ in college in the early 80′s was Wizardry. After the original, I actually missed out on the series until after the awesome Wizardry VIII landed with a (undeserved) whimper in 2001, at which point I started working my way back through. And while the last decade has been Wizardry-free in North America, in Japan the series has continued. Now GamePot is bringing the series back to North America as a ‘freemium’ MMO title. Here is a quote from the press release: “Wizardry Online hearkens back to the original allure of the groundbreaking Wizardry RPG series, but brings an updated flare for modern Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The other day I wrote about the conundrum I was having about the pricing versus feature comparison of iTunes compared to the Amazon MP3 store. I mentioned Pat Metheny’s ‘What’s It All About’ recording, which came out this morning. Here were my thoughts: But next week the new Pat Metheny recording comes out, and that has the exact same issue, but worse! iTunes has the pre-order set at $11.99 and Amazon has it at $10.49 (~12.5% difference). The iTunes has an added bonus track not found on the Amazon listing, but the Amazon one is much more likely to go on sale for even cheaper on the day of release … and Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have written about the new Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle before so I am not going to go into too much technical detail here. This time I am going to delve into the “electric lifestyle” that would surround a consumer who drives one of the new breed of vehicles home. It did not take me long to figure out a week with an electric vehicle was going to require some different thinking. In fact, when the vehicle was delivered, more than half the battery pack was already drained just going from warehouse to carwash to my driveway in the ‘burbs. So I dig into the rear storage compartment of the Volt and find… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

U.S. Cellular and HTC have teamed up to bring the first Windows Phone 7 handset to the carrier, the HTC 7 Pro. It was only a week ago the carrier announced plans for bringing a myriad of new devices out this year including a Windows Phone 7 smartphone – and today we learned that the phone is available today, June 14th! Functionally the HTC 7 Pro is similar to the HTC Arrive, with a 3.6″ tilting touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, as well as Xbox LIVE® integration, access to NetFlix for streaming movies (subscription required, of course), Zune for Music and thousands of other applications through the Windows Phone Marketplace. The HTC Arrive… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There is a commercial about how ‘once in a lifetime’ actually used to mean something, but in this age of everything captured instantly and forever on a smartphone camera or YouTube video suddenly these ‘unique’ experiences are there for anyone to scrutinize and critique. I cannot help but wonder what happens when our own individual look at events is replaced by the group-think of the internet. Anyway, back in the early 80′s concert tickets cost about the same as concert t-shirts, so I was fortunate enough to see many great performances by folks like the Police, Frank Zappa, Pat Metheny, The Who, Miles Davis, and King Crimson. I actually saw… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(image courtesy Charity Lawyer Blog) The most common complaints surrounding ebooks are probably digital rights management related. Either books aren’t cross-platform compatible, or there’s arguments of fragmentation, and the biggest boogeyman of all, fears that someone could flip a switch and deauthorize an entire library. That’s precisely what happened to one unlucky Teleread contributor. Douglas Cootey explains: My iPhone wouldn’t let me authorize any new apps that utilized Adobe’s DRM. I had run out of the allotted authorizations. By March of this year, I began to contact Adobe to fix the situation, but each web case was “withdrawn”, which is to say “dismissed without solving”. I called tech support on multiple numbers and Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Get L.A. Noire for $44.99 on Amazon before it’s gone today, Tuesday, June 14, 2011.

The powerful Dell XPS 8300 Desktop PC is now available starting at $699.99 only and it is today’s Gear Deal. The desktop features an angled chassis with a sleek black/white design. It has a black bezel, a tilt-back design with top-recessed tray and includes integrated 7.1 sound with THX TruStudio. The recommended mid-range configuration features a Core i5-2300 2.8GHz Quad-core CPU, 8GB RAM, a 1.5TB Hard Drive, a Dell Laser Mouse, 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5450 and a 2 yr service plan. This Studio XPS 8300 Core i5 “Sandy Bridge” Desktop also includes a wireless N PCIe Card and a Blu-ray drive. Normally $1,202.99 with this deal you can save $403 instantly and save an additional… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Shark Eye case for the iPhone 4 may look like just another rugged iPhone case but it is far from it. You see, the Shark Eye case has a built in screen shield that swings out of the way when you need to use your phone and goes back into position protecting the screen when you don’t. From the Company: SharkEye Cases are the best rugged iPhone cases to keep your iPhone and your life up and running. Meticulously engineered to protect your iPhone from serious drops, slips, scratches, pressure and from the same challenges you Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s an iPad accessory that took me a bit by surprise. When I first took a quick look at it I figured this thing would be a bit silly: interesting but silly. Then the thing came and my first thought was “This thing is a big pillow with an iPad stand sewn to the top of it”. Then I used it for a few days and thought, “Okay, this thing gets a good review.” What is “this thing”? It is the Prop ‘n Go from Padded Spaces and it is a well conceived, nicely executed, off-the-beaten-path accessory for anyone who finds themselves using their iPad all the time. Here’s a look… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

image courtesy likeable Oh Wired. For a magazine based around technology, they really, really, missed the point in their latest article on ebooks. It’s chock full of ignorant statements and petty complaints, which is pretty disappointing. Not only did they spread misinformation and confusion, there are genuine drawbacks to ebooks that could (and should) have been addressed instead. Read on for Wired’s take, my rebuttal, and my list of eBook drawbacks instead. Wired says: 1) An unfinished e-book isn’t a constant reminder to finish reading it. My take: If you need a half-finished book to taunt you to finish it, you’re not reading the right books. It shouldn’t be something torturous that you need Continue reading on Gear Diary …

No, no; that’s babalu, not Bababoo!  (Image courtesy of the Lucie Arnaz web site) “But Ricky!  Babalooooooooo!” (Sorry, but I just can’t get it out of my head.  If you’re younger than me, maybe you don’t recognize the allusion to the “I Love Lucy” show.  Click on the link and get the quick intro, and you’ll be all set.) But no, that’s not what this is; this here is a voice-over-IP (VOIP, or making voice calls over the internet instead of via a phone carrier) app for your iPhone.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been thinking for a while, “Jeez, I can make international calls practically for free via Skype… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

About 10 years ago I went skeet shooting with my father-in-law (ex Drill Instructor for the Army and Vietnam Veteran), and I tweaked my neck.  Ouchie ouchie ouchie.  But alas, I found that I had done more than just tweak it; my fun bonding exercise with my Pop turned out to be the last straw for a congenitally-crappy neck, finishing the job of making a disc bulge into my spinal cord.  Surgery!  Chronic neck pain!  No more fun exercises! Wait, what was that last part again? You read it right.  No more disc golf; no more ultimate; no more soccer; no more biking; no more swimming.  (Roller-blading was okay, “Just don’t fall down.”)  What the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My Pop (my father-in-law, but since the death of my own Dad about a decade ago, he’s been more like a Dad, and that’s a fact–thanks, Pop!) is a big guy.  I mean, really big.  A former D.I. for the U.S. Army, he’s about 6’3″ and is . . . well, big.  Really big.  So finding stuff for him is sometimes hard. Well, Fatheadz wants to at least ease the pain when it comes to sunglasses.  They have a whole line of shades for those of us with big cabesas.  The prices are pretty durn reasonable, and they work with you to fulfill your prescription sunglass needs, too.  Because after all, just because you’re a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …