I just finished watching the Google/Samsung event that officially announced the new Galaxy Nexus phone. This will be the first phone with Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich).  I liked what I saw as there is a lot to like about this new phone.  The hardware is impressive and the new version of Android takes the look of Honeycomb but makes it much smoother and faster. Here’s a quick look. Let’s talk about the hardware. The Galaxy Nexus ships with a huge 4.65 inch high-definition super AMOLED display.  The display is humongous yet the phone is just 8.84 mm thick. At just 4.29 mm, the bezel is also super thin.  The phone… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear deal brings us the LG’s 42″ 1080p LED HDTV model number 42LV3700. The 60Hz LED HDTV features a resolution of 1920×1080, has 4 HDMI inputs, internet connectivity so you can access services like Netflix and more. Normally $899.99 our Gear Sponsor has found instant savings of $300. That brings the price all the way down to just $599.99 and it will even ship for free. Gear Deal: 42″ LG 1080p LED HDTV (2011 Model) via LogicBUY Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Siri is a lot of fun to play with, but it is time to get down to business. After all, with a little bit of patience and a few (many?) tweaks, Siri can become an amazingly useful productivity service. Truth be told, for the first few hours I was trying Siri I thought it was a big fat fail. After making some of the changes I want to share with all of you however, I already can’t see having to go without it. So let’s jump right on in. Home Button? You don’t need no stinkin’ Home Button Yes… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Ahead of the Samsung/Google announcement for the Galaxy Nexus, Motorola had a press event in conjunction with Verizon on two new devices. The first one is the new Motorola Droid RAZR which they say is the thinnest 4G LTE Smartphone.  It packs a dual-core 1.2GHz TI OMAP4430 processor, 8 megapixel rear camera capable of 1080p HD video, 1GB RAM, 16GB of onboard storage with 16GB additional on the microSD card and an 1,800mAh battery.  Of course it also works with the recently announced Lapdock 100 and 500 Pro.  Also included are some cloud features that Motorola calls MotoCast. Unfortunately, by the looks of things, it is shipping with Android 2.3 which may be overshadowed by Samsung’s announcement later tonight (US… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Can you see a case on this iPhone? Sure you can but you have to actually look closely to see it and that is the point. Aranez’s iPhone 4 Mirage Leather Case protects the sides and back of your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S yet has a low profile that all but disappears. Better still, while most minimalist cases are made entirely from synthetic materials this case has a back plate made of kangaroo leather. The company sent review units of both the black and the white version. If you like a minimalist approach when protecting your iPhone and you like leather this case is worth a serious look. Let’s see why… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The name Moog is synonymous with the development of and popularization of synthesizer technology back in the 1960′s and 1970s, along with names like Arp and Phophet (Sequential Circuits) and Oberheim and others. If you want an example of the classic ‘Moog Sound’, think of ‘Switched on Bach’, the soundtrack to Tron (the ‘real’ one), and also the awesome ‘Evolution of the Dark Side of the Moog’. After the digital synth revolution of the 80′s and 90′s, musicians were looking to recapture the warmth of the analog synths like the Moog, but without the fiddly oscillator drift and analog circuit hassles. Expensive products by Nord produced great sounds … for loads of money… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last week I wrote about going to the Skrillex with my 13 year old son. For good or bad, I got to hear loads of unfiltered teenage (and early 20s) discussions. Some of it made me wish I was elsewhere; much of it reinforced my decision that I be there with him throughout! Anyway, one of the YouTube video series my kids and their friends have been consuming fiendishly as of late is ‘Epic Meal Time’. You can check out their site for more info …but basically they cook massive and disgusting meals … then eat them on-air. Generally speaking … there will be bacon strips involved. And deep… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Since I love G5 games and I love FREE stuff … what could possibly be better than the possibility of getting a fun game for free? That is exactly what G5 is offering – all that needs to happen is for enough folks to ‘Like’ the page above. Simple? You bet! Here is the deal: Stand O’Food for iPhone will go FREE for a limited time if one hundred people will share this picture on their Facebook wall. Click here to view the post to be shared. Here are the details on the game: Stand O’Food is an original, fast-paced restaurant challenge with millions of players worldwide. Feed a host of hungry Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have spent the majority of my life in stadiums. Some are big, some are small; in some I am a fan, in some was a player, and in some I am coaching. Bottom line is that I feel comfortable in a stadium. It is just who I am. My father went to high school in Houston, so while growing up we made many a trip to stay with my aunt who happened to live just a few miles from the Astrodome. By the time I was in Jr. High, I knew the dome like the back of my hand. We would come to town all summer and catch the Friday, Saturday and Sunday… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the things that’s always kinda interested me is the difference between the Queen’s English, and American English.  For example, we here in the U.S. call potato chips “chips”, while in the U.K. they call them “crisps” (both equally valid, in my opinion).  U.S.:  Cookies; U.K.:  Biscuits.  Etc. So it makes me wonder; if USBFever is offering their latest product, pictured above, in the U.K., are they calling it the iSpanner, instead of the iWrench?  The fact that I even ask myself these questions is a good indicator that I am a nerd’s nerd.  In any event, it’s one of this week’s new USBFever launches. This week’s list o’ USBFever releases is: Continue reading on Gear Diary …

To best describe Fila Skeletoes, you need a bit of background. When I started running last year, I became enamored with the barefoot running concept, but found my feet just couldn’t adjust to it. So I tried Vibram Five Fingers, which were great for walking around but didn’t work well for me for running. After a great deal of experimenting with shoes, I finally settled on a lightweight pair of normal running shoes, paired with wearing Vibrams for casual use. It puts me in the odd position of being neither fish nor fowl; not really part of the “barefoot running” community, but also not 100% an advocate of “traditional” running shoes… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There are a b’zillion tools out there purporting to be able to enhance your “productivity”.  I think the constant news stories on how “productivity has increased in our economy” are actually said, because it means fewer people doing more work, but I digress. While a few of them actually help, that’s only a small percentage.  I am a big fan of both DocsToGo and GoodReader, for example. PhatPad, however, has some fans.  So when the folks who make PhatPad asked me if I wanted to give it a whirl, I said, “Yeah, sure!  Why not!”  So how does it stack up?  Keep reading to find out. I have never used PhatPad before and was pleased… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Deus Ex game series continues with engaging themes involving modified, or “augmented” humans in a futuristic world, set in 2027, amid various international settings, amazing musical score, and “choose-your-own-adventure”-type decision making format.

(image courtesy Cultural Weekly) Kobo is like the Rodney Dangerfield of ebookstores — they get no respect! Here they are, pumping out app after app for every smartphone platform, pushing the social envelope with “Reading Life”, created a touch-based ebook reader…yet they’re still an also-ran. As Nate over at The Digital Reader notes, Kobo never gets mentioned alongside B&N and Amazon, and his sources indicate Kobo has, at most, 5% of the ebook market. Still, for a tiny presence Kobo has a big voice. They promote themselves heavily, so they often get coverage on blogs, but in my conversations with everyday people I’ve only had one person tell me they shop… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! So … there are a ton of games out this week. And despite having several big releases there is only one easy pick. That game is Batman Arkham City, the sequel to the excellent 2009 ‘Arkham Asylum’ game. There are loads of other games, such as finally getting Dungeon Defenders, which I actually pre-ordered in 2010! There is once again something fun for every genre and platform! There are other interesting releases like The Sims 3 Pets, as well as Professor Layton & the Last Specter, as well as some others. Every platform has something worth checking… Continue reading on Gear Diary …