We are all feeling the financial pinch!  Blue Plate Special is a weekly review of bargain apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Nothing over $.99. I am both a fan and historian of weaponry and aircraft. One of the meanest flying machines available in combat is the AC-130 Gunship. The AC-130 is often used to support ground troops and convoys. A 140mm M102 cannon, a Bofors 40mm autocannon and a 25mm GAU-12 Equalizer packs quit the punch. The firepower brought by the gunship is known to be feared and respected in combat. Lucky for us, the AC-130… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I was working on finishing up my review for Two Worlds II Castle Defense, when I found something in the options menu that I thought I saw last week in a quick article – Face Tracking! A quick search showed an article over at Joystiq, which says: If you’re confused about which platform on which to play Two Worlds 2: Castle Defense, only one platform is going to be staring at your face as you play. Maybe you should take that into consideration. The iPad 2 version features 3D-ET tech, to change the camera angle based on the position of your face relative to the screen. Basically, the Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Each week I publish a huge list of PC game download sales, and have also recently started highlighting five of the best deals I can find each week. Last week one of the games was Civilization V, which Green Man Gaming had for $11.98 for a short time (ended early, sorry to those who waited). The listing had it as 70% off. However, other sites had it listed for $40 and at ~20% off. A quick look at the math says those two things don’t reconcile – because in one case the ‘regular’ price is $40, and in the other it is $50! Likewise, if you wanted to buy LEGO Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’ve looked at a number of in-ear earbuds over the past months. There were the Yurbuds that won over Elana’s heart. (Okay they didn’t win her heart but they are the first earbuds she actually likes wearing!) Then there were the earbuds that took a shower with me. Yup, these new Monster Sport headphones sound great and are machine washable too!) Today we’ll take a look at Skullcandy’s new FIX in-ear earbuds. Like the Yurbuds the FIX earbuds are designed for people who are on-the-go and active. As the company explains, “Until now, some ear buds and in-ear speakers have suffered from the same problem – with rigorous activity… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Vostro 3750 laptop for just $799.00 It’s big. It’s powerful. It’s today’s New Gear Daily Deal. The Vostro 3750 laptop was designed for small business but is great for anyone looking for a desktop-replacement solution. It has a 17.3″ HD screen, and features 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processors. Add in a a full HD webcam, array mics, and pre-installed web conferencing and voice-enhancing software and you have a laptop that can do everything you need in a laptop and a desktop. . As Dell explains, Vostro laptops are your full-featured, business solution — an uncompromising mix of power and portability. Outperform the competition: Experience smooth multitasking Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Judie attended Intel’s Upgrade Your Life event last week and wrote all about it in this post: Intel’s “Upgrade Your Life” Event. She came away from the event with an Acer Aspire One Happy Netbook. The Netbook has a 10.1″ screen, an N570 Atom processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM and a 250GB drive. We asked readers to pick three posts and retweet them. We picked one comment from among those “retweeters” as our winner. And the Acer Aspire One Happy Netbook is going to… MarioBrotha Congrats MarioBrotha. Contact us here with your address and other contact information and we’ll get it to you!!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Grab this Gear Deal here: Planar 27″ 1080p 2ms LCD Monitor   We start the week with a Gear deal on the 27″ Planar LCD monitor at a nice discount. The monitor offers 1080p resolution, a 2ms refresh rate, a super thin black bezel, HDMI connectivity and more. It also has built-in stereo speakers so you can watch AND listen to whatever you want without having to connect additional peripherals. Our Gear Sponsor has found this LCD Monitor with a price cut down to just $229.99. It will even ship for free.   Grab this Gear Deal Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Well, July is over. The heat keeps coming, kids are getting read to go back to school and there’s no shortage of gear news and reviews. Here are a few posts you may have missed but are worth a look… Gear Diary’s Back to School Gift Guide and an ARCHOS 70 Android Internet Tablet for You to Win! It’s time to start thinking about the supplies you are going to send your kids back to school with, and we are here to help! We’ve gathered together a collection of goodies that any student would like, and while there are plenty of practical items, we didn’t forget the gear that Continue reading on Gear Diary …

While the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises seem to have played out in terms of commercial appeal for annual updates, the games are still loads of fun! So it is great news that Guitar Hero 5 Mobile is the Free App of the Day on the Amazon Appstore for Android! Here is the description: Crank up the amps and step into the spotlight with Guitar Hero 5 on your Android device. Command the stage and rock out with up to 20 of the hottest jaw-dropping tracks from iconic rock bands. Drive the crowd into a frenzy on lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums. Guitar Hero Continue reading on Gear Diary …