My hometown of Nashville, TN is full of stars, and not just the country music kind. It’s a little-known secret that lots of actors and musicians from other genres choose to live in the area because, in general, we Nashvillagers pretty much leave them alone when we see them out in public. Nicole Kidman shops all the time at my local Whole Foods and can dine in peace at the food bar with no fear of autograph hounds. Peter Frampton has become a gentleman farmer in a Nashville suburb, and ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit moved here from Columbus, OH to escape the ravenous Ohio State fans. One of the Black Keys just bought a house about… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the 11.6″ Dell Inspiron 11z. The base configuration includes a 1.2GHz ULV Core i3-330UM processor, an HDMI port, 2GB RAM, a 250GB HDD, Wireless-N and WiMAX connectivity, a 6-cell battery, a 1.3-Megapixel Webcam, and more. The laptop has a starting price of $499.99 but out Gear Sponsor has found savings that brings the price down to just $349.99. AND it will ship for free. You can find details here. Gear Deal: Dell Inspiron 11z Core i3 ULV 1.2GHz Dual-core Laptop w/WiMAX via LogicBUY Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last May we published a post entitled Bloomberg Businessweek: A More Nuanced Approach to Discussing Nuance Please. In it I wrote Yesterday Bloomberg Businessweek published a rather scathing article about Nuance and its approach to business; it was heavy-handed and one might say once-sided. I went on to say that The article highlights the back and forth between Nuance/Ricci and Vlingo and it is, at times, a bit unpleasant to read. It notes that Ricci offered significant monetary incentives to Vlingo’s co-founders if they could persuade the Vlingo board to sell to Nuance and, if that did not happen, would pay them the same amount to come to Nuance. Hardball? Yes. Illegal? I don’t think Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Until December 21st at midnight the Android Market is offering the classic game for FREE! Here is the description from the Amazon Market: Duke free for two days!!! Duke says: “No ads!”. We listened – here is a new version with no ads – update now! o Controls are fully customizable – move buttons, sticks, where you want it! o Episode 1 included, episodes 2 and 3 can be purchased for 99c each THE ORIGINAL KING OF ACTION RETURNS! Los Angeles. Under attack by aliens intent on stealing our chicks for breeding. Duke Nukem springs into action dealing damage like only he can, making his “insightful” comments Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Some music countdowns are based on so-called experts picks. Others are created by fan votes. Slacker Radio took a different approach to determining the Top 50 Songs of 2011- they looked at what Slacker listeners actually LISTENED to, shared and “hearted”. In other words, their list of the top 50 songs of 2011 consists of the top 50 songs people actually listened to in 2011. How unique! They also have released Top 50 Indie Songs of 2011, Top 50 Country Songs of 2011 and the Top 50 Alt/Rock Songs of 2011. I’m enjoying the Top 50 Alt/Rock Songs of 2011 right now and it is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve always thought there was a certain “something” about a leather folio that made its carrier appear to be smartly pulled together. Maybe it’s that a folio limits its owner to only the absolutely essential “stuff” — all organized and safely zippered up.   Whether it’s true or not, folios create an appearance of maximum efficiency with minimal clutter; I like that.  And now that our documents, presentations, pictures, music, movies, receipts — and just about every other thing possibly imagined — can be carried digitally, my image of the pulled together professional has become even more narrow. Ask me which person would impress me more: the one carrying a lovely slim designer leather briefcase containing a selection… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’re always pleased to bring you news of deals here at Gear Diary, and right now I’m telling you about a game called MinoMonsters which is available for, well, FREE.  Yup, Doug’s Favorite Price™.  Will you like it not?  How the heck should I know?  I haven’t played this game myself, so I can’t say for certain, but doesn’t it sound like from the description that it’s kind of like, well, Pokemon?  Pokemon on your iPhone, sort of, right?  Weird critters that you collect and train and battle?  What do you all think? But that doesn’t entirely matter, because trying it out is no risk to you, right?  Not to put too fine a point on… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In the final days before the App Store has its’ annual hiatus of changes and additions, several publishers have launched great sales on games in the iTunes App store! The reasons are fairly simple – the ‘Top Seller’ charts get frozen after the 22nd, so these sales are more about jockeying for position for when people getting iOS devices for holiday gifts start looking to fill them up with apps. Either way … we win now! First off there are several games for free: Bejeweled is Free via a Facebook ‘Like & Share’ deal – Hero of Sparta II is free for a ‘limited time’ Sentinel 3 is free for Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A few weeks ago we took a look at the BodyGuardz Armor Carbon Fiber for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. While it doesn’t guard from drops or bumps, the Armor does protect the entire back of my iPad from scratches. I like that and now use my iPad sans case more often than ever. On Cyber Monday the company offered some steep discounts on other products so I ordered a few, including a pre-order for protecting the Amazon Kindle touch. It came in the other day and I just put it on my Kindle. Here’s quick look… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy WTOP We interrupt my seemingly weekly rant on our ever-encroaching police state to remind you that there are plenty of normal everyday people lurking around looking to circumscribe public discourse and force their bizarre conspiratorial views on others. Those people live on this crazy place called ‘Facebook’ … and here is the latest example of just how crazy they are! Apparently Pepsi in the Middle East and Africa has recently come out with a new design, and a soldier leaving Iraq saw the can and made some wild paranoid conspiratorial leap that Pepsi was ‘celebrating’ the 9/11 attacks. Here is my problem – for some… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us the Panasonic DMP-BD755 Blu-ray Player and a free HDMI Cable. Normally $99.99 our Gear Sponsor has found it for just $64.99 plus free shipping. Details here. Gear Deal: Panasonic DMP-BD755 Blu-ray Player plus HDMI Cable via LogicBUY Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If there is one thing about Google that I think most would agree on, it is that people love their products their approach of giving stuff away for free. That creates a bit of an issue, since survey after survey finds that the same folks who like Google don’t view them as a trusted vendor that they want to use to buy their products. This certainly causes issues with Google Music, which launched with a whimper and lacking label support, an whose locker system has been universally derided for awful performance. But even if they have no clue about how to make a non-crappy music service, there IS one thing they… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you are a fan of the wild fiction of HP Lovecraft, you already know how well those stories and worlds lend themselves to video games! But now a new strategy-RPG based on his works is coming to iOS devices in late January, with other versions to follow. From PocketGamer: Independent developer Red Wasp Design has announced that it’s bringing turn-based strategy-RPG Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land to Apple’s App Store on January 30th. Set during World War I, the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired horror title sees a team of soldiers and investigators struggle against an evil cult who are hell-bent on using the war’s death toll to summon an unspeakable evil Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Apple’s iOS app for the Apple Store is pretty neat. It loads quickly, it lets you browse and order some of the best gear around. It even lets you check your order status and find stores. It is a rich app but it leaves me with a question …… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

(image courtesy Activerain.com) I received a text message from a professional person yesterday that set my teeth on edge. The content was fine, but it was presented in a very unfortunate way. See, any place “you’re”, “you”, or “are” should have been used, she replaced it with “UR”, “U”, and “R”. Unless she’s on a special texting plan where she pays by the letter (unlikely), there’s no excuse for those abbreviations in a professional setting. Sadly, this has been a trend I am encountering more and more, even with adults in a corporate setting. Text-speak is bad enough with personal messages, but at least those are informal. When you’re trying to present yourself… Continue reading on Gear Diary …