For those of you putting off the eReader craze due to price, not sure you should have any reservations after this Friday. Earlier this week it was announced that Best Buy will be offering the Barnes & Noble Nook Wi-fi for $99 on Black Friday. Well Amazon has fought back and announced that they will be offering the Kindle 2 for $89 on amazon.com, this was announced on their Twitter page and over at ireaderreview.com; it is the first time ever Amazon has offered a Black Friday deal on any Kindle version. Now keep in mind Amazon stated there will be a limited quantity, but at $89 it’s a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

USBfever has launched a new 3 in 1 USB2.0 Direct Link Cable + USB NetLink Cable + Card Reader! It looks to be a great little accessory that has the ability to help those of you that rely on netbooks without DVD drives. Why is that? Well, the Direct Link Cable allows you to transfer files between computers instantly, for me that means no more loading everything I need onto either a thumb drive or external hard drive from my desktop….and then pulling it to the netbook. With this I could just connect the two computers! It is also a Netlink Cable which allows you to connect any computer WITHOUT an internet Continue reading on Gear Diary …

baby, it’s cold outside … This year, Gear Diary has hit several milestones; I wanted to do something super-special to mark the event and thank the writers, other than just sending items from their Amazon Wish Lists which is what I have done in the past. After wracking my brain, I wrote to Scott Jordan, a long time friend and owner of SCOTTEVEST; I asked him what kind of price break he could give me if I ordered jackets in bulk, and his answer was surprisingly do-able. Why go with SeV? The answer for me was simple: they are extremely well made, I love their products, these items hold up over time, I think their products look great, I wanted to support a business that I believe in, and I could get item ordered personalized with the Gear Diary logo! Scott set me up with his custom embroidery guy (Rick from S&R Monogramming), and together they made sure that the Gear Diary writers were perfectly outfitted for the winter weather. After everyone had received their packages, I asked them to send me a picture of them wearing their jackets, along with a few sentences telling what they like — or [...]

Editor’s Note: This is a joint review between Adrian and Jessica. Adrian’s comments will be in black, and Jessica’s will be in blue italics Multi-tasking seems to be one of my strong points…work 40 plus hours a week, chase around a toddler, coach high school sports, have a small business, and have family priorities that put me in and out of Dr appointments and hospitals at least once a week…so honestly what else can I add? Oh … let’s throw in mowing the lawn, maintaining the house, and helping my wife with the everyday chores (ok so I duck as many of those as possible). Oh yeah, and my wife has these two fur balls running around the house — guess who gets to clean their litter box? ME! So let’s just say when Dani over at Brilliant Pet offered the ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter box for a review, I was well on board, as was one of our other writers Jessica. Here is our adventure.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

OK, so I may be one of the only people I know that hasn’t jumped on the Blu-Ray technology yet, mostly because I can’t decide if I would prefer to by a Playstation 3. But for those of you not interested in gaming, there is a great offer over at Woot! A Pioneer Blu-Ray player for only $134.99, which is not a bad deal if you are just looking for a Blu-Ray player. Pioneer BDP-121 Blu Ray Player w/Remote $134.99 at www.woot.com Continue reading on Gear Diary …

With my schedule I find myself with tons of down time throughout any given day. Being in Dr’s waiting rooms, bus rides in the spring during baseball season, or just sitting on a bench while my wife spends hours in the mall emptying our bank account…I always turn to one thing, my BlackBerry. While I have tons of games that could pass the time, RSS feeds to read, or movies to watch…sometimes I just want something more, something live, maybe even a newscast to watch instead of reading the news. Well SPB TV Is an application that shows live TV from across the world on your BlackBerry device. I was lucky enough to get advanced review copy of the application, here are my thoughts….… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I. Am. A. Mobile. Computing. User… Period. I live for converged devices, laptops, netbooks, and data on the go. I’ve got unlimited data on my Smartphone account; and have tethered my laptop to my phone when I need to be online in a pinch. When I travel, I need to take it with me; and when it comes to airport security, I dread the TSA required aerobics and mandatory disrobing… Thankfully, to help make things easier, Skooba Design has created the CheckThrough Backpack.  Let’s take a quick look to see how (and if) this thing makes traveling easier… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Legos are for the little ones, now MicroRAX are the Tim “The Toolman” Taylor version for us big guys(cue the grunt)!  TwinTec, Inc.out of Washington has just announced the release of pre-cut MicroRAXkits that are compatible with Erector, Meccano and Eitech construction sets. MicroRAX are made from high-strength precision extruded aluminum, in other words MicroRAX is much stronger than plastic building systems or thin punched sheet metal. From taking a look at the website the only limitations to what you can build is based on your general engineering skills, so for me I guess I will only be making a box! Some if this equipment has been used in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My wife will tell you that I forget absolutely everything! But she’s my wife so she’s allowed to exaggerate, and the truth is I do forget stuff…as I am sure many of you do too!  I have gotten a little better now that I have my BlackBerry and the calendar and Notes apps, but creating calendars is very tedious and the notes don’t alert me. So what do I do now…BugMe! That’s what. Electric Pocket has just released the BugMe! app for BlackBerry phones, I had the chance to review it over the last week.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you are looking for a new skin or armband for that shiny new iPod Touch, why not get a quality case AND support Breast Cancer Research. Belkin yesterday announced the release of the DualFit and Grip for the Cure! Maintaining the fight against breast cancer, Belkinintroduces new designs of its pink-ribbon cases for the iPod Touch. For each DualFit and Grip case for iPod Touch sold, Belkin will donate $2.50 to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure (with a minimum guaranteed donation of $100,000). DualFit for the Cure-$29.99 Grip for the Cure–$29.99 These are an update to the old style and make for… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I cut the cord a long time ago, as I am sure many reading this already have also. What is the use of a home land line if all I ever use is my cell phone?  But if any of you have a house like mine, then you have a toddler that will run off and hide everything in sight…including my cell phone! VTech has just released the DS6321-3, their expandable cordless phone which connects wirelessly through Bluetooth to you cell phone….actually it will connect to 2 cell phones at the same time!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

So there is BlackBerry… then iPhone…and then there is, according to our own Clinton Fitch, the new HTC Touch Pro2 which “could well be the only phone business users could need.” Clinton posted a review of the HTC Touch Pro2 on his website that is dissection goodness, you can read the review here.  His review is one of the most in-depth I have read to date and covers everything from the updated calendar and start menu, to the new TouchFlo3D  v2 and how it changes the Windows Mobile game! There are also nearly 2 dozen screenshots of the phone in action. I am hardcore BlackBerry to the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Kevin and the gang  at Crackberry broke the Hippopost app earlier today, and I must say if this app has some longevity it will certainly be great. The Hippopost app gives you the ability to take a photo with your BlackBerry, and send it as a physical postcard to any recipient for only $0.00 – yeah that’s right…FREE! They do this by placing sponsor ads on each postcard. Currently postcards in Canada are being sent, as the creators of this app are former RIM employees. They will start shipping stateside beginning October 15th. Hippopost integrates seamlessly with your Contacts to pull addresses. This is a free app that can… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

OK, so the name alone makes me think of that mind numbing “Jitterbug” jingle (don’t even try to deny that you just blurted out that little tune!). But what we have is Twitterlerts for BlackBerry smart phones, and the app is for Berries running OS 4.3 or higher. Twitterlerts, by Electric Pocket, gives BlackBerry users the ability to receive notifications when any keyword is discussed on Twitter. I find it to be a great tool for marketing research, because you can use it to determine how often a product or company name is talked about on Twitter. For instance, I might set it to track anything Buckeyes or Cowboys, but that’s just me! Users can also… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Well looks like calling to any mobile number for free is the “Game Changer” that Sprint was talking about, I’m not sure that I would consider it a game changer…but who am I to judge. What it does do is put pie in the face of the ‘Fav 5′ of T-Mobile, and completely steals the thunder of AT&T starting a similar ‘Fav’ plan. So much for editing your 5 monthly, now you get to call any mobile phone. Now if Sprint could only shake that “Are you really dating HER?” reputation they have! This new plan will be automatically added to Everything Data plan subscribers and allows for unlimited free calls to or from any… Continue reading on Gear Diary …