Once again I am back with a Portal themed fan creation … but it seems that the little puzzle game truly inspires creative works in a variety of media! This time it is a mix of Relativity by MC Escher with a bunch of imagery from Portal. This is part of a larger set of art from a collection called ‘Fine Arts’ on Imgur Here’s a nice gallery of video-game-themed fine art remixes, including this curiously appropriate Escher/Portal remix. The collection has art including juxtapositions of classic arts with games like Mario Bros, Half Life 2, Grim Fandango … and of course Portal. There is some really cool stuff there from a variety… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal lets us start the week with savings on the HP Pavilion dv7 Quad Edition Core i7 “Sandy Bridge” Laptop. This deal offers a 15% stackable web-use coupon code on any 17.3-inch HP Pavilion dv7 Quad Edition (dv7tqe) Laptop. The model is equipped with 2nd Generation Intel processor “Sandy Bridge”, offers Beats audio, includes USB 3.0, has a fingerprint reader, HP Coolsense technology, 2-year warranty and more. New customizable options include a 1080p (1920 x 1080) anti-glare screen, a steel grey / dark umber system colors, 2GB GDDR5 Radeon HD 6770M Graphics and up to 16GB RAM. Check out the various models, savings and available customizations here on our Gear Sponsor’s Deal Page. Gear… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As a major-league goofus myself–maybe not in Patton Oswalt’s class, but definitely on that end of the spectrum–I am a big believer in goofy games, or games that have the courage to embrace their inner goofus.  (One of my favorites:  Cows in Space.)  Now, I don’t know if Extensive Studios’ new game Snappy Dragons is totally goofy, but to judge by the graphics, it’s gotta have some good goofiness working there.  Worth checking out on iTunes when it becomes available in November (or as we in the tech biz like to qualify it, “In the November timeframe”), don’t you think?  Keep an eye out for it. Full information below. Extensive Studios is working on a Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Dear Apple, Wow, you had quite a month. Sure, it’s only been a week and a half since Steve Jobs died but, wow, what a way to honor him! So many releases, updates etc. in such a short period of time. I’m impressed. So maybe it didn’t go quite as smoothly as you might have liked, but I have to attribute a good deal of that to the fact that we are all so impatient that we insisted on downloading everything you made available as soon as you released it. No one on the planet can handle their servers being hammered as hard as yours were. I remember the MobileMe debacle quite well, and this… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Consider this Halloween video game review collection for spooks and scares that include Dementium, Silent Hill, Bioshock 2, Dead Space, CastleVania, Demon’s Souls, Ju-On, and Onechanbara.

If you’re an iOS user, I’m guessing that your last few days have been a lot like mine:  lots and lots of updates of apps for iOS 5.  Everything from games to Wikipanion to, heck, I don’t know what all–Dragon Dictation and that Sound Like Samuel L. Jackson app, for all I know. Game maker Astraware has kept up, naturally; they’re not exactly new to the industry, doncha know.  In addition to updating their quite pretty (I have a copy) Mahjong app, they have also created and deployed an app called Mahjong of the day, which they describe as a “compliment” to the existing Mahjong.  Read all about it below.  Both are available on the iTunes… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So you just got a new iPhone 4S, and what’s your first question?  No, the one you ask after ”What is this Siri thing, and how do I get it to work?”  It’s, “What case should I use to cover my precious new piece of gear?”  Cygnett is one of the companies that’s quick out of the gate with a possible answer; they’re offering a set of inexpensive cases to cover your new iPhone 4S ranging in price from $15-17.  Want an low-cost solution to your case dilemma?  Check them out. Show Press Release (1 More Words) On the heels of Apple’s announcement today, leading accessory maker Cygnett announced today the launch of their all new iPhone 4S case Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you have some gear, chances are you need a case.  Now, you can get a case from tons of different folks, some of them quite beautiful and expensive (e.g., Vaja).  Or you can go to a place that tries very hard to be a one-stop-shop for all things case-y, in which case PDAir is someplace you should definitely check out.  They add new stuff pretty much weekly (like the above case for the Tab), and if you have gear, the likelihood is that they have a case for it. The full list of releases by PDAir this week includes: Aluminum Metal Case for Motorola Droid 3 XT862 – Open Screen Design (Silver) Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I think it’s safe to say that most iPhone 4S users have toyed around with Siri’s capabilities and limits. We’re all telling her that we love her, asking her absurdly subjective questions, and the developers anticipated all of it. While I was making a fool of myself with Siri last night (did you know that she can’t –or just chooses not to– hear certain four letter swear words?) I found myself uttering a mysterious question that rose up from some murky place in my id: “Do you know Eliza?” What? Where did that come from? I then remembered the world’s first artificial intelligence psychologist: Eliza.  She was developed in the 1960s and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As if in reaction to Box.net free offer, DropBox has emailed anyone who has previewed their releases in the past letting them know of a new pre-release version of their Android client. Here are some details: We’ve just given our Android app both an engine upgrade and a new paint job! Since we know you’ve liked sneak peeks in the past, we wanted to let you check out the app before we release it to the world: • Favorites: quick offline access to files • Bulk upload photos and videos • Access all file and folder actions with just one tap • Improved gallery view • Upload from and export to your phone’s memory Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today we have a special treat: Jeff Vogel is providing a guest editorial on game pricing. Vogel is the founder, CEO, and primary developer of Spiderweb Software – a company that was making ‘old school’ RPGs before it was hip to do so, and from the very start using the ‘shareware’ model of a generous demo with paid unlocking that we see so often now under the guise of ‘in-app purchases’. Many of the games Mac & PC RPG fans love now – such as “Eschalon Book 1 & 2″ from Basilisk Games, “Depths of Peril” and “Din’s Curse” from Soldak Entertainment, and “Frayed Knights” from Rampant Games – come from people who… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

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 …

Carly got her iPhone 4S first thing in the morning. If my recollection is correct, by 8:30am she was on her way to work with a newly activated handset. Her first “Siri-enabled” email came just moments later. I was less fortunate. UPS didn’t arrive until much later in the day and, once the phone arrived, it still didn’t work for hours thanks to AT&T forgetting that there would be a number of phones needing to be activated.Their system choked and my iPhone was, at least for the first few hours, a brick. It was a beautiful brick but it was… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Ah, AT&T. So, I’m sitting here staring at my shiny new iPhone 4S. It’s unusable right now, thanks to AT&T’s lack of preparedness. They’ve had several years to figure out how to handle the spike in the load on their servers that accompanies the launch of a new iPhone model. Yet they still manage to hack up a hairball when it comes time to process orders and activate phones. Apparently, I’m not the only one, either. Several blogs are reporting AT&T customers are experiencing widespread problems with activations. When AT&T carried the iPhone exclusively, I could at least understand that they may have felt that they could get away with inconveniencing their customers. If… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Got a problem with thievery?  Is weird-ass stuff happening around your desk when you’re not there?  Or are you simply someone who takes the “better safe than sorry” approach, and would like to keep a friendly eye on what happens around your workspace when you’re out and about? Well our pals at Gadgets and Gear (Hi, Jason!) have sent us a pointer to a cool new device that they’re offering:  iGotcha.  It’s a charger for your iPhone, yup, but it also contains a hidden camera.  A spy-lover’s two-fer!  You can check it out at Gadgets and Gear; available for an MSRP of $395.00. Show Press Release (1 More Words) This new ingenious small covert hidden camera video recording system is Continue reading on Gear Diary …