I was a slow comer into the realm of social networking.  It took me a while to get the hang of using MySpace, and then Twitter, and afterward, Facebook.  I admit to being on Facebook more than I should some days.  I am addicted to a few of the games there, Mafia Wars and Castle Age.  I know I am not the only one in my family that has this problem though.  My mother plays Bejeweled, my aunt is on Farmville, and I think my fiance’ plays Space Commander (or something like that). While I love Facebook for communication with family and friends, and for the fun applications, there is something that I cannot stand.  It is the endless stream of application notifications.  They tend to pop up all the time.  I remember one time having over 100+ notifications waiting for me to read them.  I just don’t have the time nor do I want to read them in most cases.  Even if you only used the application once, the notifications from that application and from every other application you use start going…and going…and going.  It can drive a person nuts. When I play Castle Age, I still don’t like [...]

While at CES this year, I was lucky enough to talk to our friends over at Gelaskins about the new things they were going to introduce this year. Gelaskins provides stunning protective skins for all types of devices from e-readers to cell phones to laptops; they have plenty of beautiful designs to choose from, as well as the ability to design your own skin. When I stopped by their booth, I was hoping to find for something for my T-Mobile G1 or maybe my Acer Aspire One netbook.  Myself, as well as several others on the Gear Diary team, like the Gelaskins line, as seen in this review by Larry. Well, I wasn’t disappointed with what they had to tell me, and now it can be announced. Gelaskins has partnered with National Geographic to provide their stunning photos to the Gelaskins line of protective skins.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Farwell Google Gears, we hardly knew you… For those of you not familiar, Google Gears was an API used by developers to enrich the web interaction between users and their data.  In layman’s terms, Google Gears allowed web-based services like Gmail and Google Reader to store content locally on a computer. This, in turn, meant that emails and RSS feeds could be accessed even when the end-user didn’t have an active data connection. In essence Gears turned a web-service into a hybrid-webservice that lived in the cloud but behaved more like a resident program that was ready and available all the time.  The API has only been around for three years. Well Google Gears as we knew it is going the way of the proverbial dodo. The development team has shifted its focus and is moving in a new direction. And that’s where it gets interesting. But first, the change in Google’s own words…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have been at home in Miami, FL for the last few days.  It’s always fun to go home and see what has changed.  It’s about a four (4) hour drive, so to pass the time, I count cop cars, telephone polls and billboards.  It’s childish but it keeps me from a bad case of highway hypnosis. During the drive, I saw something that just struck me as 1. damn cool and 2. in the “it’s about time” vein.  What did I see?  I saw billboards with the name and phone numbers for local hospitals, the approximate wait time in the emergency room (ER)….and a number to text  (text “ER” to  23000 for more information) to get more… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Google has unleashed Google Buzz. It feels somewhat like wave from the video, but there’s some unique things that make it like Twitter. Twitter on steroids. So far, it seems, the only thing out there is the new version of Google Maps. So what do the Gear Diary writers think about the latest Google thing?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It looks like our friends over at T-Mobile are trying to help out us poor G1 users by beta testing a new product called  Voice Plus.  Its only open for G1 users now, but more than likely, if the service is a success, it will roll out to all of their Android customers. What does the Voice Plus service include? Call Divert: Send select phone numbers directly to voicemail without ringing your phone.  (You can do this now manually, but a service may be a good idea.) Call Defer: Let callers know that you are busy, and when is a convenient time to call you back. This service can also send text messages acknowledging Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Google Buzz has only been out for two days, and already there are tips and tricks for getting the most of out of Google’s new social networking/Gmail tool. Here are a few from around the Internet: How to get started with Google Buzz How to Connect any site or RSS feed to Google Buzz Delete a Buzz post in email or mobile Buzz How to Post messages and Photos via an email in Google Buzz How to Disable Google Buzz How to Stop Google Buzz from showing your Google Contacts Google Buzz has the Internet… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Android users have been waiting patiently to be able to have Flash capability on their phones. Well now users can have it…sorta. Adobe has said that Adobe Flash 10.1 for Android will be available, but only for smartphones running version 2.1 of the Android operating system. This means myTouch and G1 users are out in the cold, at least until they get the upgrade to version 2.1 of Android. According to a post from PocketNow: Adrian Ludwig from the Flash team, states that Flash 10.1 requires some additional enhancements from Google, and that those updates will be rolled out as necessary. The company is committed to bringing Flash 10.1 mobile to webOS, Android, and Windows Mobile handsets Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Google Nexus One is still receiving a lot of attention.  Its is one of the “it” phones of 2010.  Most people love it, but there are those who take issue with it, either due to performance issues or support issues. Last week, Google fixed the performance issues with an update.  It also enabled some really cool features, such as multitouch. This week, some equally cool things are in the works. On a monetary note, Google has removed the termination fees for those Nexus One buyers who returned their phone for whatever reason. Also, Google has drastically lowered the termination fee it charges for customers who, for some reason, do not want to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We all watch TV.  Its what we do when we aren’t online or going out into the real world.  We just thought it was for watching the Lost premiere or that special episode of Mythbusters, but now, TV has gone and done something different.  In this new world of digital convergence, you can now download an application from your television.  Specifically, you can download the Weather Channel application for Android to your Android phone from the television.  How cool is that?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It looks like social networks are coming under attack more and more frequently from phishing attacks, as well as other security breach issues.  This time, its Twitter. From the post on CNet: “As part of Twitter’s ongoing security efforts, we reset passwords for a small number of accounts that we believe may have been compromised offsite,” the company said in a statement. Some Twitter users apparently “used their Twitter username and password to sign up for an untrusted third-party application which then posted Tweets to their account,” a spokeswoman said. This came in the wake of a number of users reporting that emails from Twitter asking to change their passwords… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Blogger service has been around for some time.  Its the quick and easy way to start up a blog on the Internet in zero time.  Many writers have started their blogs here first.  Its almost a right of passage to being a blogger. Well, the service has decided to change, and as of March 26, they will no longer be supporting FTP publishing of blogs.  Blogger (owned by Google) announced this on their blog yesterday and sent emails to its subscribers. From the email: Last May, we discussed a number of challenges facing Blogger users who relied on FTP to publish their blogs Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s time once again for News from the Googlesphere…all Google news, all the time! Google News gets starred:  The star feature in Gmail and Google Reader has always been a great help to those folks who want to go back and re-read something.  The stars highlight the email/post/etc and allow readers to go back.  Well, now Google has added this feature to its Google News.  Now readers can star articles (up to 20) and read them later, at their leisure. Google App Store? Google is looking to ramp up sales of its Google Apps platform by jumping on the App Store bandwagon and developing a online store where it will sell business… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Ok, we all know that logically, texting while driving isn’t a smart thing to do.  It’s too distracting from driving, and one could wind up with some serious repercussions. And, in cases where the state hasn’t enacted the law about requiring a Bluetooth headset while talking on the phone, the same thoughts apply.  This is just common sense. So, state legislatures have been working hard to put laws in place to ban phone usage and texting while driving to save us from those ‘serious repercussions.’  Has it worked?  Well, according to a study put out by the Highway Loss Data Institute, the answer is no. “The laws aren’t reducing crashes, even though we know that Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It looks like Google decided to take on a small chunk of Microsoft, specifically their Internet Explorer v6 web browser, and won. As of March 1st, Google will no longer support the IE6 browser for Google Docs or Google Sites. IE users will have to upgrade to at least version 7 if they want to use those products, as “many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers,” said in the Official Google Enterprise Blog. What is supported?  IE7, Firefox 3 (and newer), Chrome 4 (and newer) and Safari 3 (and newer).  Why did they decide to do this… Continue reading on Gear Diary …