If you have a Google Music Beta account, and an iPad or iPhone … this message is for YOU! Google has enabled their Music Beta site to work as a HTML5 web app on iOS 4 devices. That means it will run from an icon on your device’s “desktop” and has allocated storage space for buffering tracks and so on. To get it just point your iPad browser at the Google Music site and then choose to add to your desktop! The app is rather spartan – it is a player-only, so you will need to handle any uploading and organization of tracks on the main site and through… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Judie and I are both huge fans of Acme Made’s products. We’ve reviewed their Clutch, their Skinny Sleeve, their Slick Case for iPad and their awesome Courier laptop bag. We got word today of a brand new style, the Cylde St. Messenger, and it looks great too. Here’s Acme Made’s description of it: The Clyde St. Messenger is a solid, all-purpose messenger bag. It’s built tough with lots of interior space and pockets to store it all. With styling that looks as good in a conference room as it does on the street, the Clyde St Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Dell Small Business has some great deals running right now but they expire tonight. Among the deals: A Vostro 260s Slim Tower with a monitor: was $559.00 but now $399. Get it! A Vostro 260 Mini Tower with a laser printer: was $718.99 but is now $499.00. Get it! Dell’s Ships Fast Vostro 3555: was $759 but is now $579.00. Get it! These and many more great deals are available but time is running out. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have been happily using MOG subscription music service for a little over a month. For most of my life I have been a huge collector of music. I never thought I would quit keeping physical media, much less give up owning a copy, in favor of a streaming service. Long story short, I am in love with the service! And it just keeps getting better. The MOG staff seems to be interested in listening to, and acting on, feedback from users. One thing I had requested was a resident Mac desktop app instead of the web interface. Well, the desktop app was released in the Mac App Store yesterday. It is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us an expiring deal on the 23″ Dell Inspiron One (2305) All-in-one PC. The base model starts at just $499.99 and has a dual-core AMD processor, a standard display and ATI HD4270 graphics but you can upgrade it and get a multi-touch display, a quad-core processor, dedicated graphics. The least expensive touchscreen model starts at $788.99 but after all the discounts is just $599.99. It also comes with shipping and Adobe Elements software. The least expensive Inspiron One model with a touchscreen and Blu-ray starts at $1008.98 but with this deal is just $734.99. It comes with free shipping and has 4GB RAM, a 1TB HDD, Blu-ray and a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A couple of months ago I wrote about the 20th Anniversary of Pearl Jam’s iconic ‘Ten’. Today only, Amazon.com’s MP3 has the 12-track album for $3.99! Here is some history on the record: During the recording of their debut release Ten, the drummer changed twice; from Krusen to Matt Chamberlain and subsequently to Dave Abbruzzese. Ten album was released in 1991 and was a slow burn that eventually caught on like wildfire. It is considered a totemic album of the grunge era and the “Seattle sound.” Recorded at Seattle’s London Bridge Studios, Ten was filled with guitar-driven classic rock; harmonic guitars and uber-catchy melodies urged forward by heavy percussive elements Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. enjoyed the rare position of critical, commercial, popular and cult success during his lifetime. His stories piqued the imagination and were often conveyed in the wrappings of popular or science fiction, but his writing placed him amongst the greatest of 20th century novelists. For the next four weeks Amazon.com is having a sale on the Rosetta books editions of 18 key works by Vonnegut, including his acclaimed “Slaughterhouse Five”, and my personal favorite “Cat’s Cradle”. The full list with links is located here. Here are the books: Slaughterhouse Five Cat’s Cradle Breakfast of Champions The Sirens of Titan Player Piano Welcome to the Monkey House Mother Night God Bless Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Where have all the wagons gone? Long time passing… (Apologies to Pete Seeger and his classic tune from 1961.) Apparently station wagons fell from the good graces of the auto-buying public being replaced first with the minivan, then the SUV and now the crossover and hatchback. But for those who have not lost the love for the “family truckster” look no further than your closest luxury car dealer. Seems the place to find this segment is in the higher-end markets as brands such as Acura, Cadillac, and Mercedes all offer the long, low “sedans with a greenhouse.” Volkswagen still offers a wagon on the Jetta platform but most of the high-volume brands have… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Let’s face it, the iPad is eating everyone else’s lunch and that not only goes for other tablets but for traditional computers as well. MG Siegler has a rather interesting and excellent post over on TechCrunch the other day that makes this point rather well. In it he argues that the iPad represents a Clear and Present Danger to the traditional PC market. The reason? Unlike those of us who write for a living (whether as bloggers or… say… clergy) and need something that we can use to write hundreds or thousands of words, the vast majority of people can use an iPad (he is careful to point out that… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

How many different cases can there possibly be for the iPad 2 before reaching the saturation point? That’s one of the questions that needs to be asked at this point as the iPad 2 reaches the six month mark. The short answer, of course, is plenty since there seems to be no slowdown in sales of Apple’s second-generation tablet. Griffin has a nice assortment of cases available for the iPad and I’ve been checking one of them, the Griffin IntelliCase, out for the past week or so. How intelligent IS the $59.99 case? Let’s take a look and you can decide for yourself… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The saying goes that, “clothing make the man”. Maybe, maybe not. What is for sure is that in 2011 Apps Make the Device. What has turned the iPad into a runaway phenomena is, in part, the amazing variety of apps that are available. Want to use your iPad to create music? Easy, get the right apps. Want to edit pictures on your iPad? Simple, get the right apps. Want to use the iPad for school? Grab some of the amazing academic apps that are available! Want to use the iPad as a serious productivity tool? All you need are the right apps. And as the “right” apps have made their appearance more and more of us have… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Today’s Gear Deal brings us the 23″ Dell S2330MX Ultra-slim 1080p LCD Monitor. This is the thinnest LCD monitor Dell has ever made. It features a “mega-dynamic contrast ratio of 8,000,000:1″, has LED backlighting and a 1920 x 1080 resolution. For connectivity it includes VGA and DVI-D (HDCP) connections and a bundled DVI-HDMI dongle. The monitor is available now for $249.99 but our Gear Sponsor gave us a headsup that you can save $30 and get it for just $219.99. AND it will ship for free. Get details and ordering information here. Dell S2330MX 23-in Ultra-slim 1080p LED-backlit LCD Monitor via LogicBUY Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the things have has differentiated free Evernote accounts from paid accounts has been the ability to upload a variety of file types. With paid accounts you could upload a wide range of file types… with free accounts you could only upload text, image, audio and PDF files. As of today Evernote has removed that restriction. As a blog post on the Evernote site explains, The reason we lifted our file restriction is that we want to allow our users to store everything related to an experience or memory in a single, visual, searchable place. Note size and monthly upload restrictions remain the same with free users able to upload up to 60MBs of… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last year I looked at the HP Mini 5103, which was a traditional netbook in many ways, but also came packing the nVidia ION chipset … and a $750 price tag. In many ways that system represented the death of the traditional netbook, which was followed by what many call ‘notbooks’ – computers that offer sub-12″ screens and easy portability with great battery life, but also with reasonably low-end notebook performance and a palatable price tag. The HP Pavilion dm1z laptop falls into that category, and I was thrilled with the opportunity to see what I could get from a system that topped out at $500 INCLUDING a Blu-Ray player! The Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Given how much I love my iPad and iPod Touch, and that I have constantly had a top-end Mac laptop as well as a PC laptop for nearly two decades, many people assume I would use an iPhone. I don’t – I have used an Android phone since I got the Motorola Droid as my first smartphone when it was released. Since then I have tried the HTC Touch Pro 2, Palm Pre Plus, Palm Pixi Plus, and Droid 2 before settling on the Droid Pro as my ‘go to’ device. The Droid Pro is nearly a year old yet hasn’t been replaced or matched in the market, and is only now being… Continue reading on Gear Diary …