Garmin, who seem to be going like gangbusters lately (including the addition of Navigon to their lineup last year) have released a preview of what they are showing at CES this week.  In their press release they are announcing some new and update products including: – Garmin Smartphone Link is the first Android app that provides live services to a PND utilizing the smartphone’s data connection. – The new nüvi® 3500 series: Garmin’s newest flagship personal navigation devices and the company’s first GPS navigators that combine the ultra-thin form factor with a large, 5-inch glass display. – Garmin® Approach™ G6 GPS takes golf to a whole new level with Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Photo courtesy of Woman’s Day The news from Netflix starts off with an “apology” from the Big Kahuna himself, Reed Hastings: It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing. Now okay, I just experienced a layoff, so I’m bound to be more cynical right now than is typical (and my default level of cynicism is pretty high, too), but that sounds like the opening of ” … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

image by signap I haven’t posted in a while.  Life has a way of getting in the way of the things you’d like to do sometimes.   I missed writing here – a lot – but the world is a crazy place (a new job, a new city, a new apartment).  Things are finally getting back to a semblance of calm and order.  I finally have some time to start writing again.  In a twist of divine comedy and coincidence, I have run into a support incident that has got me completely annoyed and provided me with an excellent platform from which to jump back to the the wonderful world of blogging. I am a Macbook… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The past year has seen interesting developments in the gear we all use: the term iOS replaced iPhone OS as the OS that started on iPhone was also on the new iPad when it took the world and Gear Diary writers by storm, Android phones blossomed and became real competitors to the iPhone, and the iPad got its first real competition in the Samsung Galaxy Tab just a few months before 2010 drew to a close.  While there’s much more that happened in the past year, I thought let’s ask the following questions of the Gear Diary Team. 1. What was your favorite gear in 2010 and why? Continue reading on Gear Diary …

For the second time in two days I was giving a technical talk: one at night in a public setting, the other to a project team at work. In both cases I needed to note some questions, discussions, take contact info and jot down some ‘to do’ tasks and follow ups. It was only when someone said something in each case that I even realized – all I brought with me was my iPad. It has been nearly 8 months since the release of the iPad, and I cannot imagine going anywhere without it. Through numerous discussions I know that many of the other Gear Diary folks feel the same way… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ll admit it. I’m tough on my electronic devices – especially my phones. After a couple of years with me the cases are usually scuffed and marked. Amazingly, I’ve been lucky and not had major problems with screen scratches (even though I do NOT use screen protectors).  I think my phones survive, however, because I always make sure I use some kind of protective case as a daily driver. When Magellan offered us the opportunity to review their ToughCase, it seemed right up my smartphone-abuse-laden alley. Not only did it offer a strong rigid case, but also GPS signal improvement, and an extended battery! So let’s take a closer look… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Mahjong is one of those games that has always fascinated me – both the solitaire version that most PC gamers are familiar with and the competitive version of mahjong (sometimes called the “real” mahjong). Shanghai Majong is one of the former – the solitaire version of the game. For those who have never been exposed to the game, the idea is simple – a number of tiles are places in a stacked pattern on the board and you need to find open (free on one side) pairs in order to remove the pairs from the board. The goal is to remove all of the pairs from the board. Shanghai Mahjong is one of the first I’ve seen on the iPad. So… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo credit: woodleywonderworks I recently obtained an iPad and moved a healthy portion of my daily personal computing work to it. I love its convenience and portability. I also like that most of my iPhone apps work on it as well, including my language apps! But when I started moving and working with my iPhone apps, it became clear that most of them haven’t been fully converted (they are running in compatibility mode).  The apps run, which is ok, but… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo credit: Thom Watson Last year we told you about a contest where you got to tell about your worst business travel experience. Now, together with Navigon, we want to hear about your most interesting or unusual road trip experiences. For the winners, we have copies of Navigon’s Navigator for Windows Mobile (Windows Phone). By way of an example, I had friends who were road-tripping while hauling a travel trailer, and by misreading their paper map they found themselves trapped at the end of a narrow road at a river – with no good… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

SPB has had their SPB TV product out for WIndows Mobile devices for a long time, and it’s always been considered an excellent app.  Recently they released it for the iPhone – something many people were eagerly anticipating.  Let’s take a quick look at this latest release for the iPhone!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

photo credit: powerbooktrance Okay, okay.   I’m weak – I admit it!  I lasted nearly a week before I finally caved in, went down to Best Buy, and picked up an iPad which I now have been playing with for about 12 hours.   So of course, I now have a few observations and because the world hasn’t had nearly enough iPad opinion pieces, I’m going to share with you! First – the device and it’s potential really are amazing. Despite all the hype and the nonsense and even a few drawbacks, I’m really impressed with… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last night, Navigon released another significant update to their MobileNavigator product for iPhone – version 1.5. In this latest update, we get some interesting features including social networking connections to Facebook and Twitter, we get the presentation of multiple routing choices (Navigon calls this MyRoutes), as well as the addition of a 3D terrain display called Panorama 3D View (for an additional fee).  I went right out and I bought the 3D update and have been taking a look at it as well as the other new features. So let’s go take a quick look at the new features of Navigon MobileNavigator 1.5.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This past week I did a review of Documents to Go Premium. I really like that product – it does a wonderful job of working with MS Office documents. But a lot but my main use of it is as a PDF reader – really a secondary function of that program. So when I saw a new stand-alone PDF reader program for only 99 cents I decided I had to take a look so I bought a copy and started playing. So how did it do? Let’s take a look!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The last few weeks have been interesting. We saw the release of a lot of new products during CES earlier this year.  One of those products was the version 3.x of Documents to Go Premium from DataVis.  Now, quickly on the heels of that, they have release version 3.1 which adds even more improvements including Google Docs support! On a personal note – my own life has been a crazy roller coaster with my day job sending me all over the place and then getting seriously ill, all of it ramping up to this past week where I had to rush three different people to the Emergency Rooms of three different hospitals on 3 different days (ok, ok - in the 3rd case I only had to MEET the ambulance at the hospital)!   Nevertheless, the level of general chaos in my life over the past couple of months has been huge, but, interestingly enough, at the same time, the iPhone version of Documents to Go entered my life and I was actually mostly able to continue to function throughout it all.    I really appreciated being able to work with my office documents on my iPhone, but I have to add that  it [...]

As a fan of language learning, I just discovered something very cool.   Through today, iPhone and iPod Touch users can download Byki’s Irish language app from the App Store for free! Normally, most of the Byki apps are $7.99, so this is an excellent way to see how Byki approaches vocabulary and phrase learning while putting on a little Irish! I have the Byki apps for a few different languages on my iPhone and computer. The Byki language apps are really good at helping you learn vocabulary and phrases from a wide variety of languages and now… Continue reading on Gear Diary …