Welcome back to another weekend of insane game deals! I am sure I’m getting jaded – it seems with each week I am unimpressed by the list of hundreds of games at 50% off or more and have a hard time grabbing five favorites … but when I dig in I still realize how awesome the deals are! I am focusing my lists more on the deals of 75% off or more to keep things manageable … but still have some that are >50% off – but that is my lower limit! I am continuing my ‘top 5 weekend deals’ section where I grab my favorite 5 deals of the week and provide… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We got our hands on two different cases for the iPad 2 from a company called ZENUS. We had not seen their offerings previously but were immediately impressed by the sheer number and variety of cases they have available. The first of the two cases we’ll look at is the ZENUS iPad 2 Leather Case ‘Prestige’ HandCraft Stitch Pouch Series. The off-white case has a nice look and feel. If you tend to be a fan of pouch-style cases it is worth a look. From ZENUS: ZENUS ‘Prestige’ Handcraft Stitch Series is a pouch type case made of high Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Have you ever taken a good look at the space just in front of you when the morning sun shines directly in your windows? If you have pets or live anywhere other than in a hermetically sealed envelope, you are probably used to seeing fine floating particles that are nearly unidentifiable … but if you have allergies they are all it takes to make your skin crawl in anticipation of your histamines’ response. Those of us who suffer from allergies are used to dealing with itchy eyes, scratchy throats, runny noses and stuffy heads … and if we are lucky, it stops there. For many of us, a rough allergic spell can soon turn into a full-blown sinus… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When a new device comes out it is almost inevitable that one of the first companies we will hear from is WaterField Designs. They make some of the most protective sleeves and cases around. Better still, their products — while not the most inexpensive — are always made from quality materials, have fantastic build-quality, and they last… and last… and last! In fact, I still have the very first laptop sleeve I bought from them years ago, and it looks pretty much brand new. When Amazon announced the new Kindle Fire, it was a sure bet that Waterfield… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you haven’t heard of the musical sub-genre ‘dubstep’, or artists like Deadmau5, Tiesto, Skrillex, and so on … I have a suggestion: GET WITH IT!!! Seriously, this no-words-needed, drum & bass inspired techno dance show electronic style of music is all the rage with kids, to the point where I was only slightly surprised to see the dubstep-heavy Wheetobix commercial from the UK. Apparently the song used for the video is called ‘Its a New World’ and is by Mord Fustang. In full disclosure, my younger son is a full-on dubstep fan, and saved his summer yardwork money to buy a ticket to see Skrillex … so I… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Gear Diary is exactly 5 years old TODAY. To celebrate we figured that it was about time we revealed the full grand prize package in our fifth anniversary giveaway contest series, as well as the ways in which you can enter. So here we go … We’ve already told you that we’ll be giving away a review unit of a Lenovo M90z all-in-one desktop PC. It is a powerhouse computer that works beautifully and will serve you well either as a computer or as a touch-screen media center. In addition… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This week we learned that Samsung will be the latest Android licensee paying huge royalties to Microsoft, and a general sense that the final nails in the ‘Android is free’ coffin have been hammered. We also heard the uproar about the Spotify-Facebook linkage, and even though Spotify now has a ‘private listening mode’ they still require a Facebook account and connection. Finally, Facebook itself has gotten criticism for its practice of tracking users even when they are logged out of the service! This is yet another security issue for online services, something I talked about in Invasion of the Super-Cookies. Yet none of it is surprising… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today I’ll be meeting Thomas, Francis and a few other friends in Austin to attend the second annual Big Android BBQ. Francis and I went last year, and I got to enjoy watching him — and dozens of other Android users — act like total star-struck fans as they met some of their Android-hacking idols. That was worth the price of admission, alone. Well, that and being able to snap future blackmail pictures of my friend Kat posing on top of a huge jackalope statue at some pub on 6th street. Heh! This year should be even better, since we’ll get to see “members of the CyanogenMod team along with Steve… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The title is misleading, since you really never know … but here are three things my kids can’t see to leave alone this week – which I suppose is better than Nyan Cat yet again! First, we have an amazing show of ‘chicken beatboxing’ … which is beatboxing, but with chicken sounds! Yeah … just watch: Next we have a video simply Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom. It is totally stupid, which means you won’t get it out of your head today. Finally … minimalist cartoons that are somehow some of the most amusing stuff middle and high school kids have ever seen … well… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Are you still toting your Laptop around without any protection?  That will never do! To help you safeguard your expensive portable computers, we have a selection of Skooba Design Skooba Skins! What’s a Skooba Skin? Quite simply put, it is a slim laptop sleeve that converts to a tote with the “flip of a flap”, allowing you to “protect your laptop while inside another bag, or carry it on its own”.  Skooba Skins are also Checkpoint friendly, which means you do not have to remove your laptop from them when going through TSA checkpoints at the airport. It’s a slim and secure time-saver! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

No two ways about it, the 11.6″ Dell Alienware m11x Gaming Laptop looks cool! It sports a Core i7-640UM ULV processor with 1GB GeForce GT 335M discrete GPU. It includes 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, 1.3-Megapixel Webcam, 802.11n WiFi, 320GB Hard Drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS. Normally $1,114, this Gear Deal is available for $315 off. That brings the price all the way down to just $799. It even ships for free! And if you are willing to go with the older model of the Alienware m11x check this out… the older Core 2 Duo Alienware m11x model is just $649! Check out both deals on our Gear Sponsor’s site Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Well, as I mentioned last week Good Old Games was having a ‘race to 6 million’, which would conclude with one lucky person winning the entire Good Old Games collection … and everyone else getting Broken Sword for FREE! The offer is good only until Saturday at noon GMT (8AM EDT) – so hurry to take advantage of this! Here are the details: Last week, during CD Projekt Fall 2011 Conference, we’ve launched a counter on the main page which indicated the number of unique games downloaded at GOG.com. Today that counter hit 6 million unique game downloads, and to celebrate this fact and to thank all of you at Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This is the second of two iPad 2 cases from ZENUS that we are reviewing. This time out we are looking at the ZENUS iPad 2 Leather Case with Stand ‘Prestige’ Crocodile Sportism Series, a pearl white folio-style case made of leather that is embossed in a manner that makes it look like crocodile skin. Here’s a closer look. From ZENUS: ZENUS ‘Prestige’ Crocodile Sportism Series has its unique contemporary style by using bold lines and colors on the pressed cowhide that resembles ‘gator hide’ which has a touch of exotic crocodile skin to enhance its luxury appeal and Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Anyone old enough to remember how floppy disk drives had some very characteristic sounds will instant appreciate this video – the Imperial March from Star Wars played on two floppy disks. According to Silent’s official site: How does it work? It’s nothing new and it’s very simple. The sound comes from a magnetic head moved by stepper motor. To make a specific sound, head must be moved with appropriate frequency. FDD has a simple interface – the description may be found for example [ HERE ]. To move the head you need to activate the drive by pulling the DRVSB0 or 1 (depends on the cable you have and the Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the best loved young adult series in recent years is the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Now also a hotly anticipated movie, the books have been extremely popular … and now Amazon.com has the trilogy bundle on an amazing deal for just $4.38! UPDATE: The deal seems to have abruptly ended. Hopefully some folks got in, sorry to those who didn’t! Praise for The Hunger Games series #1 USA Today Bestseller #1 New York Times Bestseller #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller #1 Publishers Weekly Bestseller A People magazine (Top 10) Best Book of 2009 A Time Magazine Best Fiction Book of 2009 A Continue reading on Gear Diary …