Across the board, Ford and Lincoln engineers have been working to stay at the front of the technological field in their vehicles and most of that emphasis has been in the implementation of MyFord and MyLincoln technology packaging recently. At the same time, much of the fleet has been getting minor (and in some cases, major) cosmetic surgery and powertrain upgrades. The 2011 Lincoln MKX midsize crossover we tested recently is an example of one of those getting a little of both. Outside we see the new “face” of Lincoln while inside the vehicle impresses both aesthetically and ergonomically. In other words, it looks good and it feels good. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of Ted Kurkland Associates Considering most of my recent coverage of Pat Metheny has been about his behemoth technical undertaking with his Orchestrion, this new project seems like quite an about-face. Whereas the Orchestrion project (I also reviewed the Orchestrion Live performance I saw) was about creating an automated orchestra that would respond live to his commands, his new recording ‘What’s It All About’ is an intimate set of solo acoustic guitar recordings made in his home studio. This isn’t the first such recording for Metheny – back in 2003 he used his newly created ‘Baritone Guitar’ with special tunings to produce the gorgeous (and Grammy winning) ‘One… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This past week Sarah Palin was in Boston, and she was asked to recount the midnight ride of Paul Revere. When I initially saw the video two things came to my mind: first how much of history has ‘changed’ since I learned it as a kid, and second how obviously caught off-guard she was by what looked like a ‘gotcha’ question in spite of being at the Old North Church … one of the key sites in the tale of Paul Revere. I would have dismissed this as yet another instance of Palin demonstrating how she lacks substantive knowledge of pretty much anything without proper coaching, but for two things: first off… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Save 30% on SCOTTEVEST Clothing for Dad The response to SCOTTEVEST’s Father’s Day Sale has been so positive that the company is extending it until this Friday. Some of our favorite items are on sale for a full 30% off. These include the awesome Revolution Jacket, the comfy cotton hoodie and the “wear everywhere” Q-Zip. Details and ordering can be found here on the SeV site. And then there’s the latest Delta baggage controversy…. The news that SeV was extending their Father’s Day Sale was accompanied by some additional news that was less welcome. It turns out the US soldiers returning from active duty overseas are being charged overage baggage fees… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Today’s Gear Deal brings us the chance to pre-order the HTC Evo 3D Android Smartphone for Sprint and save some significant money in the process. Yes, our Gear Sponsor just let us know that you can now pre-order this powerful Android handset for as little as $179.99 with new two-year contract and it will ship for free. In addition, with this deal you will get a free 4GB SD card.  The HTC Evo 3D Android Smartphone for Sprint is the first phone to offer a glasses free 3D experience on its huge 4.3″ qHD resolution display.  It features a 4.3″ 540 x 960 Super LCD 3D display, a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon CPU, dual 5MP… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If PC game developers have learned nothing else from ‘Freemium’ games and ad-supported smartphone games, it is that the combination of FREE and ads can actually be more profitable than charging for games. So it isn’t all that surprising that we are now seeing GamersGate launch FreeGames, which is a site that will offer ad-supported Mac and PC games. Here are some details: GamersGate, the premier digital distribution service for games, today announced the launch of FreeGames, a free-to-play ad supported platform for PC and Mac games. FreeGames allows users to play and enjoy both PC and Mac titles free of charge after watching a short advertisement at the launch of the Continue reading on Gear Diary …

At the WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs talked down MobileMe pretty hard … which most folks would agree is largely deserved. But the problem is that there are literally millions of folks who have subscribed to the service for years – and some who have only recently re-upped their subscription. So what happens to all of them? My personal hope was that they would automatically transition everyone to iCloud and perhaps kick in a free year of iTunes Match. Well … I was half right. Over the last few days MobileMe subscribers have started getting emails like the one above detailing the transition plan. Basically everyone with an active account as of the keynote… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Kev gave me his “old” white iPod to use in my car, because its stereo has an integrated auxiliary jack. Every time I pull up at my destination, I have a routine of unplugging and storing the iPod so that would-be thieves won’t see it as a reason to smash & grab. If my car had an integrated USB port in its stereo, then I would totally pick up a Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go Car Audio USB Drive. This little drive is so tiny that it should be virtually unnoticeable when someone is peeking in my lightly tinted windows. And yes, you could load just about any other thumb-drive… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve expressed my appreciation for iFrogz cases before; they’re solid cases at a good price that do the job, and they come in a bewildering variety of colors.  The iFrogz case I currently have on my iPhone is one that I’ve been using, off and on, for most of a year.  They’re good cases, faithful readers. Now iFrogz is release some new cases for the iPad 2.  I am neither going to sing their praises nor curse them–I haven’t used them, as I don’t have an iPad 2.  But if history is any predictor of future quality, if I were an iPad 2 owner looking for a new case, I would definitely take a look Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I am currently in the final weeks training for my first triathlon here in DC on June 19th.  The race lengths are an 800m swim, 20k bike ride, and 7.5k run, mostly along the National Mall.  (Here are more detailed maps of the swim, bike, and run routes.)  What makes this race particularly challenging for me is that when I began my training on March 19th, it was four weeks after I had hernia surgery, I couldn’t jog for more than 60 seconds without getting out of breath, had never swam freestyle in my life and couldn’t hold my form even once across the pool.  I am now up to 5-mile runs… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As a 1) Dad who 2) does lots of news items for an awesome tech site (hi, Judie!), I want to take just a second to point out that the number of news items that we receive for Father’s Day is–no way to sugar-coat it–pathetically small compared to the veritable flood of Mother’s Day items.   There’s no question that moms take a lot more of the societal blame, and carry more of the burden, in the child-rearing department.  No question.  But if news items at a blog site are any judge, dads are basically invisible, still in the “cologne and tie” stage as far as recognition goes.  Just sayin’. Not that I’m bitter. But… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Mitchell Oke left me a message asking if I had seen Google yet this morning. Of course, he left it last night, since he is hours ahead of me in Australia. I took a look, and he is correct … it’s brilliant. From the Google Blog: The electric guitar brings back memories for me of exchanging riffs with friends and wearing out cassette tapes as I meticulously learned songs. Today, we’re attempting to recreate that experience with a doodle celebrating the birthday of musician and inventor Les Paul. For the next 24 hours on the Google homepage, you’ll find an interactive, playable logo inspired by the guitar developed Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last week Coldplay released a new single called “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall”. Amazon had it as a ‘free single of the day’, and Rdio also featured it. My kids and wife have some Coldplay in their collection, so I figured I would give it a spin. I started streaming it in the kitchen while my older son was having a snack, and within a few seconds my younger son appeared from upstairs and said ‘is that Coldplay’? We barely made it through the songs, since it was as my younger son described it ‘utterly generic pop trash that sounds like everything else they have ever done but worse’. Couldn’t sum it up better… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This is Chu, from Blade Runner.  He just does eyes.  Only eyes.  Genetic design, only eyes: PDAir just does cases.  See, only cases.  Lots and lots of cases.  And this week, they’ve release one for the Samsung Galaxy S II GT-i9100 (which I maintain is one of the stupidest names for a phone ever–long, incomprehensible, unpronounceable, and impossible to remember; good work on that one, Samsung!), and a couple for the Apple iPad.  And they can keep up their incredible pace because cases, they only do cases.  See? PDAir’s list of releases for this week includes: Luxury Silicone Case for Samsung Galaxy S II GT-i9100 (Black) Aluminum Metal Case Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Here’s a Gear Deal with some nice savings on Lenovo’s IdeaPad Z-series 15.6″ Laptop with either a Core i3 or Core i5 processor. The Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 is a 15.6″ laptop powered by a 2nd Generation Intel Core i3 or i5 CPU. The Z570 replaces the Z560 and offers a slightly revised design. It also has available NVIDIA graphics, a DVD burner, b/g/n WiFi, four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI output, 5-in-1 card reader, and a 2MP webcam. The system starts at $899 but with this deal you can save $250 and an additional 10% with an exclusive stackable coupon from our Gear Sponsor. That means you can get this new Lenovo laptop for just $584.10… Continue reading on Gear Diary …