A few weeks ago I wrote about the fact that we were going to be adding an alarm system and a nice degree of home automation to our residence in New Jersey thanks to Vivint. Well, process is all but done and I thought in this second post we would take a look at what the installation process actually entailed. I set up a standard installation appointment with the company and was pleased to find out that, unlike so many companies, the guys actually showed up exactly when they said they would. And they were awesome. They explained what was going to be happening over the next few hours and then had a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

UPDATED: Since the introduction of the lower case “i” at the beginning of a device name it seems the sound reproduction world has been solely delivering tiny little chunks of plastic and other material to shove into your eardrum. For some however, we still need something more traditional, something that fits snugly over the ears, not in them. When searching for a new set of headphones I could use while working both in the field as well as here in my little makeshift production studio I received a press release from a PR firm extolling some cool new devices that also mix in a bit of nostalgia including one of the biggest names in rock and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Never one to get left behind, EA Games has launched their own Father’s Day Sale on the iTunes App Store! While this isn’t a $0.99 sale like GameLoft is having, the deals are still very sweet! Many of the games – such as Dead Space HD – are amongst the best available on the iPad, and definitely worth checking out at these prices! Here is the list – with both iPhone and iPad games listed: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – $.99 Command & Conquer: Red Alert – $.99 Command & Conquer: Red Alert HD – $1.99 Dead Space – $2.99 Dead Space HD – $4.99 Dragon’s Lair 2: Time Warp… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It is amazing to look at the image above and realize that reflects the top TV shows the year that seniors graduating high school this month were born! Many of the shows – certainly Seinfeld, Rosanne, Frasier and Home Improvement – are classics easily found in syndication now. The X-Files also launched that year, bringing with it nearly a decade of conspiracies and unrealized sexual tension between the main characters. Jurassic Park Stomped through theaters, and ‘A Whole New World’ from Aladdin ruled the airwaves. 1993 was also the year that the Mosaic web browser launched, and the internet as a popular medium was really starting to take off as the “WWW Revolution Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A couple of months ago we had ‘Record Store Day’, now tomorrow June 18th is ‘Free RPG Day’! What is Free RPG Day? Here is what the site says: For Free RPG Day, Impressions Advertising & Marketing works with participating hobby game retailers and RPG publishers to bring NEW RPG Quickstart Rules and Adventure Modules into the hands of gamers. Consumers WORLDWIDE will be able to grab brand new material for a variety of RPGs — no overstock, retail-priced or dead product here. The goal of Free RPG Day is to inspire gamers to play a new RPG, which will in turn, create sales through local game stores. This is a great… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

“What does your boyfriend do when you go out of town? Well, [mine] gets struck by lightning.” – Daphne Cheek We’ve all heard stories about people getting struck by lightning — usually as some sort of cautionary tale, but how many of us have ever seen the effects of lightning on a human? Winston Kemp, a 24 year old electrician, has had first-hand experience, and now he also has a unique and possibly permanent bit of body art to go along with it. As Winston tells it … I went outside to save my pumpkins. (I guess it was May 21.) After that, I was going back inside. I just know it struck in our neighbor’s Continue reading on Gear Diary …

All images courtesy Tokyoflash Ever had one of those Friday nights where you ended up drinking alone and wondered what your Blood Alcohol Content was? Or maybe you and your friends were having a contest to see how many Zima’s you could put away during your all night Magic fest with your local guild members. Either way, nothing shows off your super geekness more than a fancy new Tokyoflash watch especially when it’s sporting a built-in breathalyzer. This concept is bringing the best of two worlds together, the ability to tell time in classic geek style and now the ability to tell you blood alcohol content too. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the Dell Inspiron 620s Slim Tower. This tower pc is powered by Intel 2011 Core i3 / i5 “Sandy Bridge” platform, is available in classic Black or 4 other system color options and can be yours starting at just $469.99. The Core i5 range begins at just $694.99. Our Gear Sponsor’s recommended Dell Inspiron 620s Slim Tower configuration comes with the Core i5 processor, 6GB RAM, a 1TB drive, 1GB Radeon HD 6450 and 2-year warranty, Normally this would run $912.99 but with this deal the price drops down to $694.99 and it will ship for free. Gear Deal: Dell Inspiron 620s “Sandy Bridge” Slim Tower [Core Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As we have seen, game publishers need little reason to have monster sales … but when there IS a reason they seem to go all out! The most recent excuse is Father’s Day! To celebrate, GameLoft is having an awesome $0.99 sale on a bunch of cool games! Here is the list – with both iPhone and iPad games listed: Eternal Legacy – 99¢ Eternal Legacy HD – 99¢ Fast Five: The Movie: Official Game – 99¢ Fast Five: The Movie: Official Game: HD – 99¢ Fishing Kings – 99¢ Gangstar: Miami Vindication – 99¢ Gangstar: Miami Vindication HD – 99¢ NFL 2011 – 99¢ NFL 2011 HD – 99¢… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It seems like my kids have grown up with Harry Potter, and therefore we all share a fondness for the books and films. When they were little I read the first few books aloud using character voices. By the time the last couple arrived they could read them just fine but still had me read them aloud … which meant the world to me (though my wife wished she made the ‘approved reader’ list). We have also seen all seven films in theaters, and most of them a few times at home as well – so we are very much looking forward to the arrival of the final entry… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Do you really need to spend $70 on a nail clipper? ($95 if you want the attractive leather case specially designed for it.) Of course not! But, as my lovely wife often reminds me, you get what you pay for. In the case of the Klhip nail clipper, while you can get something that does the same basic grooming function for under $10, you really aren’t comparing apples to apples. Here is take a look at what this high-end nail clipper is all about. From the Company: BUILDING A BETTER NAIL CLIPPER: Why re-design something so Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image source: Carl De Souza / AFP – Getty Images I commented on Princess Beatrice and her amazing hat right after the Royal wedding, and since then there seem to have been loads of hat-wearing events by the various young British royals. Some hats are elegant, some are interesting, and others are downright silly. Now we have something entirely new: an iPad hat! This is from the Royal Ascot: The annual Royal Ascot is a five-day racing event that has highlighted both British fashion and horseracing since its inception in 1711. See more photos of the fun fashions and crazy hats that have helped make it famous here. If you head to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Earlier I posted on the brewing battle between EA’s Origin and Valve’s Steam digital download service. And while I still think there is going to be quite a bit of conflict between the services, apparently THIS isn’t about that – it merely appeared that way due to coincident timing. There is a simple reason that Crysis 2 is available everywhere but Steam – because Valve removed it, not EA. EA confirmed this with GameFront: It’s unfortunate that Steam has removed Crysis 2 from their service. This was not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA. Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As someone who lived in the Boston area for more than 40 years before the economy finally tanked and I landed in western New York, I grew up with that image of Bobby Orr flying through the air after scoring the winning goal in the 1970 Stanley Cup … along with ‘Bird stole the ball’ and Bill Buckner and a bunch of other Boston sports memories. Hockey was never my first love – that would be basketball – but I have kept track of the B’s throughout the years, finding hockey to be a much ‘purer’ sport where the stars are less likely to have rap sheets longer than their athletic accomplishments. A couple… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Although ‘business social’ site LinkedIn started off slower and with seemingly less traction than Twitter, a recent study showed that LinkedIn is now considered the most important social media network, with 60% of respondents saying that having a LinkedIn account is more important than any other social network. Since so many business users of social media carry smartphones, it seems that one necessary element in any strategy is to have a mobile application for iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices. As many have found, implementing a full-featured interface for sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn is daunting, as is keeping user data secure. Android users – especially those using older phones… Continue reading on Gear Diary …