We’ve looked at a number of different iPad 2 cases from a host of familiar companies. Today we’ll take a video look at the Hard shell case from Hammerhead, a company new to us here on Gear Diary. The case offers complete protection to the iPad’s front and back, includes the sleep/awake functionality and serves as a stand. Let’s take a closer look and see if this $39.99 case might be right for you. From Hammerhead: Hammerhead Hard Shell Case for iPad 2 – Black Hard shell polymer case protects both the front and back and automatically wakes Continue reading on Gear Diary …

New Gear Daily Deal: Vostro 3550 with FREE upgrade to Windows 7 Professional It is time to start thinking about going back to school and with this New Gear Daily Deal you can make sure you or the student in your life has the tools s/he needs. That’s where the Vostro 3550 comes in. It is fast, portable and is more than enough computer for even the hardest working student. And, with this New Gear Daily Deal you can save plus get a free upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. Normally $889.00 this Vostro 3550 is NGD Priced at just $739.00 and that includes the OS upgrade. Details and ordering can be found Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When OS X Lion was released there were some key pieces of productivity software that did not yet work with the update. As Mike noted, among the incompatible software was Livescribe’s desktop for OS X. It posed a bit of an issue for me since I needed a document that was on my Echo Smartpen last week. Fortunately Elana’s MacBook Air had yet to be Lion-ized and I was able to get what I needed off the pen. Well Livescribe sent word today that an update for their desktop software is available and ready for download. If you use a smartpen and have upgraded to Lion you can grab it here Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The first record I bought based on my own taste was Rubberband Man by the Spinners, and have always had a penchant for funky music – but in the late 70′s got swept away from funk in the anti-disco sentiment. So I missed out on the grandmaster of funk, George Clinton, and his Parliament and Funkadelic groups until much later. Recently I was cruising my iTunes Library for recordings celebrating anniversaries this year and came across the classic Parliament recording Mothership Connection, and it has been dominating my iPod for the last few days! George Clinton is one of the true pioneers and creative geniuses in the fusion of R&B, rock, soul and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I had reviewed the Dave Douglas recording Spark of Being last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, but didn’t realize he had his own Greenleaf music company. Today he and Greenleaf announced the ‘Greenleaf Cloud Player. Here is a bit of info from a post on the Greenleaf Blog: We’ve been hard at work on a new way for our community to access our catalog of music. It’s all done, and we’re adopting the buzz term of the year for this delivery system: the Greenleaf Cloud Player. The Cloud Player includes all our frontline catalog, over 20 live sets, and the whole slew of unreleased Subscriber Series tracks. We’ve included a few playlists Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Summer is here, which means it is time for yet another GamersGate Summer Sale! The promotional email I got claims ’350+ offers’, but when I checked this morning the list totaled 548 sale items! Here are just a few of the things on sale – which range from simple 10% off preorders all the way to mega-sales of up to 85% off! King’s Bounty The Legend Battlefield 3 Limited Edition Might & Magic® Heroes® VI NecroVisioN Hardcore Edition Frozen Synapse (Soundtrack Bundle) Theatre of War Collection Pack Settlers 7 Deluxe Gold Edition (Mac) Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction… Men of War: Assault Squad Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia) While reading Carly’s post about eBooks and Children, I was reminded of a discussion I had with my parents about technology and the ease with which children learn to use new devices and, conversely, the relative difficulty of the older generation to learn to use the same devices.  One could fall back on the adage, “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks” but this is both patronizing and overly simplistic. Personally, I like to analyze this “situation” by first examining children’s relationship with technology.  I think that most people would agree that children’s ability to use technology with little difficulty relates directly to the fact that… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

You want 3D? We got 3D! And it is today’s Gear Deal! The VIZIO XVT3D650SV 65″ 3D Edge Lit Razor LED LCD HDTV w/ Passive 3D Technology features edge Lit Razor LED backlighting with Smart Dimming, a 120 Hz refresh rate, Full 1080p HD, 1 million to 1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio, built-in dual-band 802.11n WiFi and much more. It also comes with a premium Bluetooth universal remote and four pair of polarized, battery-free, passive 3D technology, 3D glasses. Normally $2,849.99 our Gear Sponsor found a 10% coupon code. That brings the price down to $2,564.99 and it will even ship for free. Details and ordering information can be found here. Gear Deal: VIZIO XVT3D650SV Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When I was in high school, I remember watching MTV’s “The Real World”, and wondering how long MTV had the cast under contract. Since they all seemed to appear with regularity on various MTV reality shows, I assumed it was because it was a requirement, and not because they truly loved being on MTV. As it turns out, the Village Voice managed to get an actual “Real World” contract, and the terms are, to say the least, eyebrow-raising. A few choice excerpts [note that the BOLD is from the Village Voice, and the italics are my interpretation]:  Producers are under no obligation to conduct background checks on your fellow cast members. (7) So Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When I saw the RunBike on Runner’s World this morning, it took a good two minutes before I stopped laughing/choking on my coffee. I was speechless, but once I recovered from my initial “WHY!?!” response, some more serious questions came to mind. 1) How on earth do you run uphill while strapped into that thing? 2) How long is a RunBike, and how do you get into it? Do you drop in from the top? Limbo in? 3) Is it street-legal? And do you follow biking laws, where you act like a vehicle and obey traffic laws, or do you obey pedestrian rules like a runner? 4) How many bones… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yeah, I know, it was all of two days ago I wrote about the Humble Bundle adding a new game and a Minecraft trial. Now we get even MORE value for our ‘pay what you want’ dollar. Last week I wrote about the Humble Bundle 3, which includes Crayon Physics Deluxe, Cogs, VVVVVV, Hammerfight, and And Yet It Moves – all for the price of ‘whatever you want to pay ($1 or more). Then we learned about the addition of a free copy of Steel Storm and two weeks of Minecraft. Now we get FIVE full games, and all excellent ones: Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Although I have reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed Treasure Seekers II and Treasure Seekers III, I never got around to playing the original. Recently G5 Entertainment has started using the in-app purchase system, meaning that you download the game for free and if you like it your purchase unlocks the full adventure. I greatly prefer this to the former Lite/Full two-app system, which for heavy gamers like myself adds dozens of extra files to our library over time. So I downloaded Treasure Seekers, and just last night started to play – I really wanted to chart out exactly how much game you got before you had to pay. But then… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Back in May we reviewed the Sena Florence for the iPad 2. It was a good-looking, slim folio-style case for the iPad that included the “Auto Sleep/Awake” functionality and served double-duty as a stand for viewing and typing. The original version was a good case, but I did encounter some issues with the Sleep/Awake functionality not working as constantly as I would have liked. It wasn’t enough of an issue for me to not use and enjoy the case mind you, but it was something that I noted in the review. Last week we looked at the second version of the case. It had the same design, but Sena had added… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I am a huge fan of the web comic XKCD, as writer Randall Munroe makes witty and insightful comments in just a few frames. But there is a reality in play here: for quite some time (since last fall) there have been cancer-related comics sprinkled in with everything else. About a month ago Munroe talked about it in his blog: Last fall I posted about a family illness, but didn’t give a lot of details. In October my fiancée was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. It’s rare for young women to get breast cancer, and she’s otherwise healthy and has no family history, so it was a real bolt from the Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Summer beach weather is here in force, and the new film Rise of the Planet of the Apes is about to open, meaning that you are seeing hairy-backed individuals rampaging EVERYWHERE! And the folks at Braun have done a survey that shows that the women of the UK are having NONE OF IT! As the nation basks in the summer sun, Braun reveals what women really think of their partner’s body hair. With a summer full of poolside fun, men listen up and take note – three quarters (75%) of UK women don’t want a completely hair free man, they want a little bit of fuzz. Think groomed body hair in a controlled Continue reading on Gear Diary …