Just under a year ago I reviewed the Monsoon Vulkano Deluxe Pro which opened up my satellite to be viewable on my laptop and IOS devices. I was able to watch my own television programming from virtually anywhere, even changing channels and setting up programs to record. Watching Monday Night Football on my deck with the iPad and catching NCAA March Madness games while away from a television is awesome. While this technology is amazing and I fully believe that I should be able to watch the content I subscribe to anytime and anywhere, many of the content companies do not agree. The fight over management of our media is just getting underway… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

With the release of the iPhone 4S and the upcoming Google-Samsung-Nexus-Galaxy-Prime-Whatever expected to be unveiled next week, it is easy to get caught up in ‘new smartphone envy’. But it is always important to remember WHY we have smartphones to begin with – email, maps and navigation, light web browsing, social networking, and other things. In short – apps. Many folks point out that the majority of apps that people use most heavily are available on iPhone, Android and even Windows Phone – though the quality and feature set tends to vary a bit between platforms. But for many there is that ONE APP that defines your loyalty to the platform. The ONE… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yesterday I was speaking with someone who, at one point, pulled out his iPad 2 and looked up an address. I asked him how he liked the tablet and he replied that he loved it. He then went one to share with me that his company had given every employee one and, since doing so, very few are actually using their laptops anymore. It is a story that is being repeated in business after business, school after school and home after home. He also told me that while he likes typing on the on-screen keyboard, many colleagues don’t and they have been finding the various keyboard cases that are now available to be quite useful… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The iPad 4s is about to invade and there will be some old favorites in the accessory department getting a new lease on life thanks to the familiar design. There will also be some new accessories hoping to make a mark. One of them looks especially interesting. It follows the line of “iPhone case meets wallet” and does no in a fun way. The Code Wallet for iPhone 4/4S comes from HEX and The Hundreds, two brands known for California culture and urban design. The case combines “function with street-approved fashion”. Code Wallets are made of genuine leather… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have written about the continuing decline of music sales, as well as the increasingly desperate measures labels are using to puff up their chosen ‘top stars’ by means that might land them in jail in other industries. It has also always been clear that the industry hates digital music – and especially digital singles! This at the same time as consumers have increasingly shown a desire for digital music – and the ability to only buy the songs they want. The impact of this cognitive dissonance is clear: consumers are being pushed in a direction they don’t want to go, and as a result sales are down. Rather than adapt, the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last fall Motorola and Verizon put out a trio of phones including the slider-keyboard based Droid 2, the large screen Droid X and the Blackberry-esque Droid Pro. I reviewed the Droid Pro here, and while I love the form factor and most other things, I did have some criticisms: The Droid Pro comes with Android OS 2.2 Froyo, and has seen a single ‘quick fix’ since release. It was released alongside the Droid X and Droid 2, both of which have been updated to Gingerbread (2.3), but it is doubtful the Droid Pro will get the update. That is just the way of Android – OS fragmentation is the rule, and you really need Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yes, I gave in and bought the new iPhone this morning. I walked into my local Verizon store, and not only did they have the iPhone in stock, they had an amazing deal: 30% off accessories purchased with your iPhone! They had bundles of car chargers, screen protectors and cases, along with Bluetooth headsets like Jawbone. Basically, if you need it for your phone, they had it, with almost no line and on sale! So if you are looking to grab a 4S and outfit it with some accessories, be sure to try Verizon first! &nbsp… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have mentioned the musical sub-genre Dubstep before, and the practitioners including Daft Punk, Deadmau5 and Skrillex. My son is a MASSIVE fan of this style of music, so I have become more aware of it than I would otherwise. It is hard to describe the musical style to someone who hasn’t heard it, but from his bio at AllMusic they say he “combines the Benny Benassi and Deadmau5 styles of electro with the over the top samples and giant noises of acts like the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim.” Here is the official video for his biggest hit, Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites. Note the use of vocal snippets as coloration… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal is something we have not previously highlighted as a deal. With Creative Labs’ Sound Blaster Wireless Audio Transmitter and Receiver Bundle you simply plug the device into a USB port, and you can stream your iTunes music wirelessly to powered speakers. It requires no cables or network configuration and comes bundled with a remote control. Moreover, thanks to the fact that it uses uncompressed Xtreme Fidelity enhanced music the sound is great. Finally, with the remote control you can play, pause and skip through your music from the comfort of your couch. Usually $119.99 our Gear Sponsor has tracked it down for just $69.99. It will even ship for free. Details Continue reading on Gear Diary …

With this week’s launch of iOS 5, iPhone 4 and iCloud, Apple has brought their ecosystem into the cloud more fully than ever before. However, many folks are realizing that the free 5GB Apple offers won’t spread too far … and the added 20GB that MobileMe users such as myself get expires next year – unless we pay $40 annually to maintain it! Of course, many iOS users already have an array of cloud storage options from DropBox, SugarSync, the recent addition of 10GB free from Minus, and so on. Now Box.net has upped the ante, offering 50GB of storage FREE for life to anyone who downloads their iOS app… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’m already a big fan of iCloud and its ability to seamlessly back up your iDevices without your having to even think about it. I liked it so much that, even while still in Beta, I upgraded to a 25GB account (20GB paid, 5GB free). That should be plenty of space but, as it turns out, it wasn’t. Not by a long shot. In fact, when I checked this morning (Settings, iCloud, backup…) I had just 1.5GB of space left. I tapped “Manage Storage” and immediately saw the culprit. My iPad was using 12.8GB for backup and my iPhone… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Having trekked down to the Apple Store this morning, I had no trouble picking up my brand new white 64GB 4S. The feature I was most interested in trying was Siri, the “Personal Assistant” included with every new 4S, but unfortunately between the US and the rest of the world, everything is not equal. Asking Siri to find the closest petrol station greeted me with this unexpected rebuff: Having had a look through the Apple Australia website and rewatched the Siri section of the keynote (link), I can’t find anywhere that… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Rather than lie in bed lazily this morning (or tomorrow morning, for those of us in the United States), Mitchell has been waiting patiently in line at a local Apple Store along with a crowd of other hopeful iPhone 4S owners. The irony of photographing the Apple launch on the EVO 3D. I should have brought the Galaxy S II! In an email with the subject line, “I’m a nerd,” Mitchell let me know how his morning was going. Well of course you’re a nerd, Mitchell! But there’s no shame in it, and you’re in good company! After all, I’m the dork that was up until 4am the morning of the 7th, making sure… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Finding the perfect iPad 2 case can begin to seem as impossible as finding a golden pearl in a sea of clams, but if you keep looking then you may find your oyster. I’ve watched Dan go through one iPad case after another; every once in a while he’ll find one that he truly likes, but there was ultimately always an issue: “this one makes the iPad too fat”, “this one makes the iPad too heavy”, “this one doesn’t close the way I’d like it to, but I like the materials”. It’s all very “The Three Bears”, isn’t it? And then thee was the time when I pointed out the neon green interior of one he was… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In my experience, new iOS applications fall into one of a number of categories. There are “Wow” apps; these are the ones that are released into the iTunes App Store that blow you away from the very start. There are “Ow!” apps; these are the ones that are released into the iTunes App Store, and you wonder how they ever got through Apple’s screening process in the first place. Then there are “Not quite now” apps; these are the applications that show a great deal of promise, but are not quite there… yet. You want to keep them on your device because you know that they’ll be updated, and it’s abundantly clear that when the updates… Continue reading on Gear Diary …