If you have a favorite soldier or if you’re just feeling patriotic, Element Case has an iPhone 4 / 4S cover that will have you seeing stars! Take a look at their limited edition $124.99 red, white and blue Patriot Case that first went on sale on 11/11/11, Veteran’s Day; they’ve created a series of 200, and 10% of the proceeds will go to the non-profit “Disabled American Veterans.” They hope to raise $10,000 for the group, and with your help, they’ll do it!   ElementCase Patriot Case Learn more about the Disabled American Veterans at  www.DAV.org. &nbsp… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The iPhone 4S is pretty amazing in so many regards and with this new accessory, the result of a partnership between Texas Instruments and Brookstone, you can now use your iPhone to catch video on the “big screen” even without an Apple TV and AirPlay. Here’s what the product page has to say about it-… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Today’s Gear Deal brings us this new 2011 LG 55LK520 55″ 1080p LCD HDTV. The tv features a resolution of 1920×1080, has 3 HDMI inputs, offers a 120Hz refresh rate, has a 1000000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio and, because it is an Internet connected tv you’ll get access to services like Netflix. Normally $1,499.99 our Gear Sponsor has found savings of $550. That brings the price down to just $949.99 and it will even ship for free. Details and ordering can be found here on the deal page. Gear Deal: LG 55″ 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV (2011 model) via LogicBUY Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Zinio isn’t about to let Apple and Amazon slow down their momentum. No way, no how. And to help make sure they remain the eMag service of choice they are introducing a shopping perk program that puts a $25 credit into the accounts of all new Zinio registrants from now until March 2012. Better still, this credit can be used to purchase magazines across the company’s entire global newsstand. In addition, the Zinio app is now available in the Amazon Appstore. The timing is key since many of us will be getting our net Kindle fire’s today. As Chris Wilkes, vice president, App Lab, Hearst Magazines explains, Having all of our titles available through Zinio gives us an opportunity to reach readers both across the world and on all digital mediums – PC, Mac, tablets and smartphones. Digital distribution is now responsible for more than 300,000 subscriptions per month, and we look forward to continuing to focus on reaching our customers with innovative new features, on every device they are reading on.” Zinio now offers 5,000 magazine titles from around the world And, thank to their UNITY approach, any magazine you get through them is available on multiple platforms. You can download [...]

It looks like Amazon’s “Special offers” strategy is contagious! Kobo, the #3 ebook retailer is being acquired by the Rakuten, the “Japanese Amazon”, and they are already looking to copy some of Amazon’s success. The most obvious example of this is that they will be offering an ad-supported Kobo Touch for $99. This new “product” will allow Kobo to have a reader at the $99 price point “sweetspot” without breaking the bank since sponsors will foot some of the bill. Fortunately, Kobo is taking the same discreet approach as Amazon by placing the ads on the screen saver and home screen but not in the books themselves. I find it interesting that ad support has become the path to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have yet to find a keyboard for use with my iPad that I really really wanted to use. Time and again I have tried one, liked it but then gone back to typing on the screen using the soft keyboard. Maybe this time is THE time and the new ZAGGkeys FLEX is THE keyboard to convince me that using a physical keyboard is the way to go. Sure, the new offering from ZAGG looks great. And sure, it looks like a super-portable solution for productivity on the go but is it THE keyboard? Here’s how ZAGG describes it- Stylish and Compact Bluetooth Connection: The ZAGGkeys FLEX is a high tech Bluetooth Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  ioSafe is at it again and this time they are looking to outdo themselves. (At least, we sure hope they are!) To recap our experiences with data-storage dynamos ioSafe… At CES 2010 ioSafe fried, soaked, dropped and crushed one of their rugged hard drives. As you can see, it was awesome. At CES 2011 ioSafe sought to outdo themselves when they took their new portable drive for a drag behind a car and then let us all take turns shooting it with a shotgun. Check it out here! Now we’ve been invited to the next demo, the “ioSafe Cage of Death Demolition 2012″. Here’s what we know. This year we’re not going to bore you with forefoot propane fireballs, 10 contractors, 12 gauge shotguns or fully automatic M-16s – oh no, that’s so last year. We are flattered that other companies have followed our lead and now come to CES to show off their rugged(ish) stuff with dishwashers and paint ball guns – loaded with real paintballs! Meh!! Our demos are a little more extreme than that and come with a moneyback guarantee if you’re not 100% satisfied. This is an entirely new demo with new products. We aim [...]

Illustration by 姒儿喵喵 Every week this month (except for Thanksgiving week), we’ll be posting two clues separately at some between Monday and Friday; we are looking for a specific answer that lists the exact brand name and the exact model of the item in question. The first person to answer correctly will win a prize pack that includes: 2 one-year Pandora One premium subscriptions 4 movie tickets a month for a year from MovieTickets.com A $250 OpenTable dining card The first clue was: My screen width is wider than an iPad The second clue was: I can help you plan your dinner-and-a-movie night out. And the latest… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you were a teen or pre-teen in the 1970′s, chances are you or one of your friends (or ALL of your friends) had a beanbag chair. The bags of the time were vinyl (or denim) bags filled with polystyrene pellets. Things have come quite a long way – the 1990′s saw a resurgence in the beanbag chair, and now it has been reinvented as the Sumo Omni. We first looked at the Sumo Lounge Omni in 2007, and the folks at Sumo were kind enough to send one my way for an updated review; let’s see how it holds up to my memory of the past!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The continuing saga of the ‘out of stock’ HP TouchPad with a seemingly endless supply returns! From a post at PreCentral we learn about the latest Tiger Direct ‘deal’: Here’s the deal: buy a TouchPad and any HP laptop or desktop from TigerDirect, pay $299.99 upfront for the tablet, and get a mail-in rebate (sigh) for $150. Or just buy a 32GB TouchPad for $299.99. Yeah, that’s more than they were asking before for the same tablet with accessories that aren’t included here. Supply and demand, folks. Here is how Tiger Direct shows it: Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Have you ever watched the show Hoarders? I can’t really say that it is a guilty pleasure, because I usually watch it with a mixture of horror and fascination. Some of the houses aren’t really that bad when compared to the others (e.g. – no dead animals or animal waste inside the home, house isn’t rotting and about to be condemned, adult health services aren’t about to be called, etc.), but some of them … oh my. We do DVR all the new episodes and when we have time to watch, I’m not ashamed to say that it is with much mental check-listing, “Does our shed look like that?” “No.” “Good!” If anything, the show is a great motivator; we watch an episode, and I start thinking about my review shelf and gadget closet … and then we start having more give-aways on Gear Diary. See? You all should be glad that I watch it!  But as usual, I digress. It never fails that when we are watching an episode, one of the two “hoarders” featured will have either HSN (Home Shopping Network) or QVC (Quality, Value, Convenience) boxes piled up in one of their stacks of “stuff”. I’ve made the comment [...]

This week you are going to see 95% of the small tablet news focused on the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, but there is another 7″ tablet device that we just got some more pictures of that will never hit the market – the HP TouchPad Go. … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

From the Editorial Staff of Gear Diary: Is there someone in your life who loves music? If so, here are five gifts with which you can’t go wrong. First off, Sonos. Dan hasn’t stopped raving about the Sonos wireless music system he installed a few months ago. Sonos is the best way to get lots of music in lots of room at a fairly affordable price. Better still, the system can grow with you as you add more and more components. You can read our reviews here, here and here. The Play:3 is just $299 in our Amazon Affiliate Store. The Play:5 is $100 more at $399 Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have been using the same password protection program for quite a few years. I’ve thought about switching on a number of occasions, but it’s always is too much of a hassle, or the software that interests me isn’t available on enough platforms. So when I was recently offered an opportunity to review mSeven Software’s mSecure 3.0 I was at least a little ambivalent about it. However, I figured it certainly wouldn’t hurt to review the software; I would just create some dummy data, load it on a test device, put it through its paces, do a brief write up, and be done. I was surprised, though, to find that I actually liked mSecure… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

With the release of iTunes 10.5.1 Apple has finally brought iTunes Match to everyone rather then those of us who have been using it in beta. If you are not familiar with the service it isn’t the music streaming that had been long rumored but rather something far more powerful and, potentially usable. What the service does is scan your iTunes library and line up those songs that you have in it with those that are currently available on iTunes. Then, if there are songs that you have that are not available in iTunes, it will upload the remaining ones. This, in and of itself, is pretty powerful but it’s the next aspect that… Continue reading on Gear Diary …