If you’ve been to New York City recently (or many major cities, actually), you may have noticed they’ve started offering bike lanes, a move that is supposed to alleviate traffic and be safer for riders, drivers, and pedestrians. Of course, that’s all in theory, as one peeved cyclist has demonstrated in a very awesome video. Apparently he was ticketed for not riding in the bicycle lane, despite his protests that nothing was being done about the cars, trucks, and construction equipment blocking it. Rather than just write a letter, he created a video showing what his ride would be like if he slavishly followed the officer’s instructions. I have no idea how he managed to film… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Many years ago, when I still dreamed of being an author, I came up with an idea for a kid’s book that I wanted to do with my good friend Paul Nass, an excellent artist and illustrator.  Alas, while with writing all you have to do is rap out your ideas on the page (or the screen), when it comes to publishing, the bar is quite a bit higher. TaleSpring wants to help lower that bar.  TaleSpring provides the tools to create your own animated eBook.  And through June 30, you can publish your works of creative labor for 50%.  Now, I don’t know if you’re a frustrated writer or not, but take it from me… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We start the week with Dell’s 21.5″ Dell 1080p IPS-panel Multi-touch LCD Monitor. The monitor sports 21.5″ Multi-touch screen with IPS panel and optical touch technology. The monitor supports finger, stylus or input from any other pointer. The specs include 1000:1 Contrast Ratio, 82% color Gamut (100% sRGB coverage), 250nit brightness, DVI + VGA + HDMI connectivity, built-in USB 2.0 hub, tilt adjustment capability and much more. The monitor sells for $329.99 but with this deal brings you a 30% off coupon code. That brings the price down to $230.99. It also comes with shipping and a 3 year warranty. (Note: it expires June 15 or after limited uses.) Get it here Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Image courtesy of DC Comics, all rights reserved Want this guy’s powers?  Be able to fight evil in the brightest days and the darkest nights?  Fly, create clothes out of nothing, and all that there?  Maybe this will help: Okay, maybe not.  But it’s still a cool nerd watch, don’t you think?  And at the very least, you should surf on over to the Geek Watch web site and take a look.  On sale now for an MSRP of $64.95.  So get surfing!  Because Green Lantern can’t do it all, dude!  Plus, he doesn’t hit theaters until July!  I… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I don’t know about you, but one of the frustrating things about modern shopping for me is figuring out “How much does this durn thing cost?”  Yes, there are still plenty of stores that actually post their prices by their products, but be honest:  how many times have you been in a store (Target, say), tried to figure out the price, and can’t because they don’t post it.  You can go to one of those bar-code scanners that they have stingily distributed about their store.  Or you could whip out your iPhone or iPad and read the thing right there, so long as you have this here new app. Just to let you know:  this app… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

DragonNaturally Speaking is simply the best voice recognition software available. Period. It lets you use you voice to not only write on your Windows PC but navigate the computer and much more. Well this morning Nuance is announcing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5, the latest version of their voice recognition software. As the company explains, version 11.5 adds new features that make it easier to create documents, send emails, surf the Web, share social status and interact with many PC applications. I watched a demo of NaturallySpeaking 11.5 in action a few weeks ago and there are a couple of great new features that stand out. When I asked why they were releasing a point upgrade with such… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In spite of what you may think from reading the news posts I write here,  Apple iPhone and AT&T are not the be-all and end-all of the cellular world (thank God!).  There are plenty of other folks out there making hardware; there’s more software available than iOS; and there’s more carriers than AT&T.  Like U.S. Cellular, for example.  Who wants you to know that they’re offering a bunch of cutting-edge devices “for the remainder of 2011″. So what kind of “cutting-edge devices” (hey, it’s there term, not mine!) do they have now, or are they going to offer between now and the end of the year?  Well, they didn’t tell me, so you’re just going to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! This week has been nearly 15 years in the making – the release of Duke Nukem Forever. The game has gone from highly anticipated to the biggest joke in the industry to something people wouldn’t dare to believe was really happening to … just a game. And while the early looks aren’t exactly overwhelmingly positive, this remains a game you simply must play if you are a PC game fan. The other big release is Alice: Madness Returns the follow up to the acclaimed American McGee’s Alice. And while there isn’t really anything else big getting… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Reading on a tablet (or dedicated device like a Kindle) is one of the great breakthroughs of modern technology, so far as I’m concerned.  I’m a naive utopiast, yes, but I firmly believe that the more people learn, the better their lives can be.  And if you can’t read, or don’t have access to information, you’re really stuck at the starting gate.  The internet, the Web, and now devices like the iPad, the Tab, and BlackBerry’s new PlayBook give more people (so long as they have money, yes; I’m not that naive) the ability to access information. Why am I going on about this?  Because while I love iOS and Instapaper and the various book and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So I was listening to NPR the other day, and one of the stories that they did was about this web site called Kickstarter, which the Kickstarter folks describe as the “largest funding platform for creative projects in the world”.  The idea that the Kickstart folks had was sort-of based in the whole idea of web stuff going viral–they will host your proposal, be it an idea for a theater performance, a new product, or whatever–and will provide you the means to generate some start-up funds. We’ve talked about them before, Dan specifically has highlighted how diverse they are with the Vere Sandal Company project. While originally they were thinking of performing and perhaps… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Father’s Day is almost here and time is running out on getting dad just the right gift. We already highlighted a few possible gifts for dad in this post. We especially love the NeatDesk scanner/software system. We’ve been using a review unit for a few weeks and love the ease and simplicity of it! We do have a few more ideas for you. OfficeRunner Wireless Headset If dad spends a lot of time on the phone you might want to splurge and get him the OfficeRunner Wireless Headset. Sure, at an MSRP of $399.95 (currently available for… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

While it was inevitable that Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ would suffer a large drop from the 1.1 million first-week sales, the amount of the drop even surprised industry watchers! Also, once again Spotify is said to be closing in on a US launch, and eMusic has announced that membership remains flat – but it isn’t all bad news. Read on for more! Lady Gaga Second Week Sales Plummet I had said that I would not be surprised if Lady Gaga failed to retain the #1 position in her second week, so in that I was wrong – but not by much! After selling more than 1.1 million copies in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Vacuum cleaners are loud.  I don’t have one personally–with 5 cats, two dogs, and two kids, it seemed suicidal–but I bet even those durn Roombas are loud.  And being Swedish, the folks at Electrolux decided they wanted a friggin’ quiet vacuum cleaner, than you very much.  (They want “peace”, get it? Nobel Peace Prize?  Peace and quiet?  No?  Oh, never mind!)  So they did a whopping load of research, a bunch of engineering, and came up with–you guessed it–a quiet vacuum cleaner. The new UltraSilencer is the result.  Electrolux says: UltraSilencer is the quietest vacuum cleaner on the market. With Silent Air Technology™, UltraSilencer has a record-low noise level of 68dB(A). Silent Air Technology™ combines high Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I love all of these Indie Game bundles – you get great games for an awesome price and support hard-working developers doing things that just don’t happen at the mega-corporations anymore. Indies are the reason we have games like Plants vs. Zombies, Puzzle Quest and Angry Birds! Now we have a new bundle – and for the next 8 days they are offering a special deal. Here is the background: Summer just got a lot more interesting.. ..with this incredible six-pack bundle of creatively inspired, home-grown, and fun indie-games for your PC or Netbook! Whether imersing yourself into the lush world of the Aztec for a RPG adventure, building ecologically-sound ‘green’ cities Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Save $320 on a Dell Vostro 230 Slim Desktop System This New Gear Daily Deal is impressive but it won’t last. Grab it now and you can get a Dell Vostro 230 Slim Tower system for just $435.00. That’s $320 off the normal price of $755! As Dell explains, From its space-saving design to its ability to integrate with the latest Dell business hardware and services, the Vostro 230s Slim Tower provides a strong foundation for your small business to grow on. Compact, thoughtful design — Space-saving form factor that sets up quickly and fits in almost anywhere; easily upgradable hardware designed for future-proof performance You want to know how… Continue reading on Gear Diary …