We start the week with a Gear Deal on HP’s x2301 23″ Diagonal Micro Thin LED Monitor. It features full HD 1080p resolution, HDMI, DVI and VGA connectivity, 8 million: 1 dynamic contrast ratio, 250nit brightness, 3ms response time. Better still, this monitor is just 9.8mm thin! Normally $299.99 with this deal you can save $20 off then get an additional $30 off using our Gear Sponsor’s special coupon code: LOGICBUY30. That brings the price down to just $249.99 and it will even ship for free. Details and ordering can be found here. HP x2301 23-inch 1080p Micro-thin LED-backlit LCD Monitor via LogicBuy Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of SmartHome As a big believer in the concept of “competition”, I am always happy to let you all know when an iOS app has moved to Android, or vice-versa.  (We will draw a veil over the sad state of WebOS apps . . .)  In that very realm we have the RedEye universal remote control app.  Currently available on iOS, the good folks at ThinkFlood have recognized that they don’t want to limit their market appeal, and are now offering their software on Android.  So if you have been panting for a universal remote for your Android device, maybe you should consider the Redeye one.  The hardware and associated software Available… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I am a big believer in having extra battery power handy, just in case.  I travel an awful lot–once a week on average–and having, say, a Mophie Juice Pack Air for my iPhone 4 is very nice indeed; it relieves me from having to worry about looking for free plugs at the crappy Southwest terminal in San Diego (which doesn’t have many–I really hate that terminal).  ”So what?” I can say to myself; “I’ve got this here extra battery pack, just in case!  Life is good.” PowerSkin wants you Nexus S 4G owners to feel that same sense of freedom unbound with their new battery case.  It’s available through their web site, as… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

TeamViewer is an app that . . . you know what, I’ll just let them tell it: With TeamViewer you can remotely control any computer as if you were sitting right in front of it – even through firewalls.  All you have to do is start a small application, which does not even require installation or administrative rights.  You can also share your computer with others – whether for IT support or for collaborating on a project. The folks at the TeamViewer, um, team have been quick off the mark to update their software to run on Apple’s new OS, Lion.  (It seems like I just upgraded a few months ago to Snow Leopard . … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  You need something durable? Look no further than the T420. This laptop is “military tested for proven superior durability”. With a 14″ backlit HD display the T420 continues the long tradition of Lenovo ThinkPads which have already sold over 60 million units New Gear Daily Deal: Save Up to 45% Saving on the Lenovo T420 with this Back to School Pricing Event: Check out this NGD Deal! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Well … the good news is that I have been having a great weekend with work colleagues and family, the bad news is that meant there was no time for me to put together my Friday PC game deals post. But the other good news is that there are a load of games on sale until Monday, good enough that it was still worth posting! This week I am sticking with the >75% savings rule, aside from the awesome Good Old Games ‘Heroes of Might & Magic Sale’. One other thing – I am skipping my ‘top 5 weekend deals’ section this week since I upped the threshold to 75%. And as… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The promise of converged devices like the iPhone was, among other things, the ability to travel light. Instead of needing to bring a phone, an address book, a music player, a note pad, a camera, etc., smartphones promised to replace all of that and be the only thing you needed to bring with you. Funny but, at least for many of us, that hasn’t happened. Sure, my iPhone DOES replace all those aforementioned items, but along with my iPhone I now carry an iPad, a Bluetooth headset and, at times, a second phone. And in order to keep them all working I also need to bring wall chargers and cables. That’s NOT converged living… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Okay, look:  there’s no question that ordinary incandescent light bulbs are on the way out.  Another few years, and they’re going to be as rare as candles.  I’m okay with that; they’re a 150-year old technology, they put out most of their energy as heat rather than light, they’re inefficient.  With more and more people crowding our poor planet, and more need to make the best of the resources we have, I can dig it.  I’m okay with it. But I’m pretty convinced the CF light bulbs are not the way to go.  Yes, they’re definitely more efficient.  Other than that, honestly, they suck rocks.  How? Let me count the ways: CFs cost more Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Remediation works best in this classic role-playing game adventure game now available on the Nintendo 3DS, which originally released on the Nintendo 64 in 1998.

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! We have now hit the rock bottom doldrums of the summer release drought – but don’t despair, as the coming weeks have some major releases to look forward to, stuff like Deus Ex: Human Revolution. For this week? The only one of note is Fruit Ninja Kinect, a fun action game using the XBOX 360′s human motion controller. And while there isn’t really anything else big getting released, there are a few other releases this week – read on to find out! Fruit Ninja Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo courtesy of Chip Chick I used to joke with my (tragically gone now) brother-in-law–20 years my junior–that if the world was actually built of Legos, I would probably be a mechanical or civil engineer. I love Legos, and have since I was but a wee bairn’.  I think they’re awesome, and I’m of the generation that actually used a lot more of the “standard” bricks to build interesting stuff, then these new-fangled, pre-designed, packaged dealies that you are only supposed to use to create a TIE fighter, or the Empire State Building, or whatever.  Yes, it is quite impressive when that Empire State Building is done, but then what?  (Of course, in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When Spotify finally came to the US I was quick to jump on it. I like using streaming, subscription music services a great deal. I like the flexibility. I love being able to download and listen to pretty much whatever I choose for a small fee each month. Sure, I already have a huge music collection but there’s a ton of music I want to hear that isn’t part of it and there are enough tunes that it would cost me a small fortune to purchase all of them. I tried Rhapsody for a while and while I got hooked on the subscription idea I didn’t like the service too much. That let me to my… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My first vacation with Sarah we went to Las Vegas for a long weekend. Sarah was excited for the shows and the gambling, but all I cared about was going to the STAR TREK EXPERIENCE! My inner Trekkie was very excited, and it’s a credit to Sarah that she stuck with me after watching the extreme geek-out when I saw a guy in a Borg outfit. Sadly, the Star Trek Experience is no longer in Las Vegas, but don’t worry, the King of Jordan has us all covered. From MSNBC: It turns out that King Abdullah II of Jordan is a huge “Star Trek” fan. (When he was prince, he had a nonspeaking role in “Star Trek: Voyager.”) Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I know what you’re thinking to yourself:  ”Okay, what with all this fancy GPS stuff on my iPhone, there must be more I can do with it!” You weren’t thinking that?  Well, can you just do me a favor and pretend you were, so’s we can get on with this here news item?  Please?  Thanks. Anyway, GPS!  You know there’s more you can do with it, and what you need is some programmer somewhere, pushing the bounds of that functionality.  And the Locational folks think they might have done that–their app covers your physical location history like a blanket!  Okay, not a blanket; a web, maybe!  No, that’s not right either.  Anyway, you get the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As I tool down the highway, happily listening to my tunes, or my books-on-tape, or Rachel Maddow, or whatever, I often espy motorcyclists and wonder, “Don’t they like listening to tunes whist cycling down the highway?”  (To which my rational mind invariably replies, “How would they hear it?”) Anyway, the folks at Soundmatters are obviously thinking along the same lines.  They figure you have yourself an iPod or an iPhone or whatever, and what to listen to it even when in motion.  So they’ve developed the foxL series of mounting brackets (and associated Bluetooth speakers), to give you that very option.  The speaker itself runs for an MSRP of around $200, with the car mount going… Continue reading on Gear Diary …