OK, let’s face it.  If you are reading this, then it is a good bet you are a Gadget Enabled Enterprising Kind (of person) or GEEK.  And many of us GEEKs are always seeking new ways to show off.  Whether it is a t-shirt with binary humor on it, or even a shirt with a wifi detector. 

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I try to stay pretty well informed when it comes to headphones, and I rarely find a company which surprises me much anymore.  But, I have to admit that I had never heard of Aerial 7 until we received this press release announcing their two new models.  I guess I just don’t go clubbing enough these days. Still, I really like their creative approach and impressive looking specs.  I may just need to take a closer look.  Hit the jump for the full press release.

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Wow!  Where was this when I was in high school?  One of the cool things about being so involved with computers and technology is watching the pace of change.  Dan mentioned that the other day with his look at an old 32 MB card vs his 32 GB iPhone. This change is most apparent in how we keep finding new and improved solutions for old problems.  And the oldest, biggest problem for me is losing data. Almost as long as I have had a computer, I have managed to find new and creative ways to lose my data.  As a result, I have grown extremely interested in the available tools for restoring that lost data.  While online backups are nice, it is still online, and as Toodledo’s recent problems showed, that has its downfalls as well.  What I needed was a fast and easy way to backup my data and physically store it in my house.  What I needed all along was the SeaGate Replica.  Like I said, where was this when I was in high school.  Hit the jump for a closer look.

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One of the most anticipated phones coming out this summer is the Nokia N97,  It is only the second Nokia device to offer the Symbian S60 series 5 operating system and a touch screen.  And, it is the only series 5 device to feature a full QWERTY keyboard.

Matthew Miller over at Nokia Experts recently got his hands on one of these fantastic looking devices.  While he may not have been the first person in the United States to post his thoughts, he does offer quite an extensive and detailed look, going over the hardware, software, touchscreen, keyboard, and plenty more.

In his review, Matthew looks at both the pros and the cons of this latest device, noting:

I like the hardware of the device more than I thought I would so far and plan to test out the camera (still and video) a lot more this weekend at our soccer tourney. I need to spend more time with the keyboard since I currently do not find it to be that great, but I am adaptable. $650 to $700 is a hefty price to pay and I think Nokia could have done more to make the device better (RAM, keyboard, several apps and widgets). That said, Nokia stated there will be some big updates coming to the N97 in the future so I am curious to see how much these add to the device. I like my E71x and 5800 and think most users may be happy with these lower cost alternatives that meet just about all their needs. As a power user who enjoys the S60 platform the N97 may be just the ticket.

Check out Matthew’s full review, here,  And if you have tried the N97 or the new Symbian S60 series 5, let us know what you think.  Do you agree with Matt’s concerns?  Write in and let us know.

It is not every day that you come across a truly creative and unique game.  Especially one that can be found deep within the recesses of the iTunes App Store.  Let’s be honest, a lot of the games here, regardless of how good or bad they may be, are derivative or even direct ports and copies of previously developed games.  So. I was pretty excited when I got an email from the folks behind the new game Hexistentialism.

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One of the best technology purchases I made was the Nintendo Wii, which was a family present two Chanukahs ago.  It is a fantastic gaming platform, especially for younger children, and the motion sensitive controls are nothing short of amazing. 

The only problem I found, though, was that the Wii remote can get in the way of the illusion of some games.  I initially found this when I was playing Star Wars on the Wii.  The Wii remote just did not approximate a sword or light saber very well.  Fortunately, at that time, DreamGear contacted me with a Wii lightsaber, which connected to the Wii remote, significantly enhancing the illusion.

Not long ago, I found I had the same problem, to an even higher degree, with shooting games.  The Wii remote is simply not an adequate surrogate for the trigger on a gun.  The illusion was getting shattered, which significantly affected my enjoyment of this genre.  Fortunately, I happened to have been emailing with my friends at DreamGear, who offered to help solve this problem by sending along the DreamGear Rumble Blaster for my Wii.  Keep reading to see how it worked.

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[This is a joint review between Doug Goldring of JAMM and Judie Lipsett of Gear Diary; it will appear simultaneously on both sites. Doug's comments are in black, and Judie's are blue italics]

The last time I used a non-touch screen version of Windows Mobile was the Motorola Q.  It ran Windows Mobile 5, and I quickly learned that the interface was nothing short of terrible.  That phone lasted about a week before I declared the phone completely unusable and gave it away to a friend.  That was then.  This is now: Windows Mobile 6.1.  And a lot has changed.

I’ve been using the operating system formerly known as Smartphone for years, starting with the HTC  Tornado (I-Mate SP5m) in 2005. That was followed by the Motorola Q, the HTC STR TRK, the  HTC 710 (Vox), the Samsung Blackjack, the Motorola Q9, the Samsung SGH-i620 , the Samsung Blackjack II, the Treo 500v, the  HTC S740 – AKA Rose, and more recently the Pantech Matrix Pro.

I have never felt that even the earliest Smartphone interface was terrible, in fact I generally found Smartphone to be a rock solid OS when compared to Pocket PC, as it required far fewer restarts. Over the years I have enjoyed watching the Smartphone (now called Standard) platform mature. With that said, I think that your bad experience with Smartphone was due to the Motorola Q being such a dog.

So, right off the bat, you can see that Judie and I are coming at this from completely different perspectives.  Anyway, I decided the time had come to give a non-touch screen device another try.  And what better device to check out than the HTC S740?

I agree that for anyone unsure of whether a non-touch Windows Mobile phone would work for them, the S740 is a great place to start.

Let’s take a look.

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I think that if I were to leave a legacy in the computer world, it would be this: always, always, always, always back up your data (with apologies to Winston Churchill whom I loosely paraphrased.)  you see, I have led a lifetime of losing data, which dates all the way back to my first computer, the Apple II+.  Most recently, for those of you who read our review of Spb Mobile Shell, boy did I go crazy over that one.  After an hour and a half of editing and saving, my computer chose to ignore the save command, dropping all of my edits.  So, boy do I wish I had the Seagate Replica PC Backup Appliance, which can provide backup support for one or multiple PC’s.  Keep reading for the full press release on this incredibly useful looking peripheral, which is due to be released in May.

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[Note: This is a three-way, multi-site review.  Chris Spera (italics), Clinton Fitch (bold), and Doug Goldring (plain text)have all teamed up to review Mobile Shell 3 together.  It is being simultaneously posted on Gear Diary, and Just Another Mobile Monday.]

It is hard to believe that it has been only a little over two years (February 2007) since Spb Software House revolutionized the way we use our Windows Mobile devices.  Since that time, dozens of other software developers and OEMs such as HTC, Samsung, and Sony-Ericsson have adopted this same technique of replacing the user interface entirely.  Through all of this, however, Spb Software House has managed to stay one step ahead of all the others by constantly refining and updating Mobile Shell.  And just when it looked like some of the other shell-type programs might be gaining a foothold, Spb ups the ante again with version 3 of their award winning program.  You are really going to want to sit down, hit the jump, and enjoy the ride for this one.

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Can you hear me now?  Of course you can.  And now…now…and now.  why?  Because I am using the Griffin SmartTalk Bluetooth Headset.  This one uses a dual microphone design to ensure that you can be heard by every caller, in any environment.  Want to know more?  hit the jump for a closer look.

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Yeah, that’s right…I said FREE!  Sony! Camera!  So, how do you do it?  All you have to do is play the game.  Yup, that’s right.  Sony has set up an online game.  Just head over to the Giveaway site, and follow the instructions.  you could be just three simple rounds from being one of 25 winners of free Sony cameras. 

So, what are you still doing here?  Head on over to the game and get started to enter.

One of our good friends in the Windows Mobile community is Dom Masters, owner of Mastersoft Mobile Solutions.  He has made some phenomenal mobile games, including one of the few good mobile versions of Kakuro.  For some time, Mastersoft has talked about bringing their offerings over to the iPhone, and that transition is finally starting to happen.  Although it is still in the very early Alpha stages, Mastersoft is hard at work bringing both Sudoku and Kakuro to the iPhone and iPod Touch.  So…what does this have to do with you?  Well, a game (or games) this big need to be thoroughly tested before anyone can be expected to shell out their hard earned money, and as Brandon at JAMM hinted the other day, Mastersoft is actively seeking Beta testers.  If you interested, just send your iPhone or iPod Touch UDID to betas [at] mastersoftmobilesolutions.com (don’t forget to replace the “at” with “@”.

My entire philosophy when it comes to computers pretty much revolves around a single incident which occurred when I was in ninth grade.  We were studying Romeo and Juliet in English class, my first exposure to Shakespeare.  At the beginning of the unit, we were given a worksheet with dozens of short essay questions.  The idea was, as we read the play, we completed the essays relating to the portion we studied in class.  Being the diligent student that I was back then, I worked on that worksheet every day, sitting in the basement tapping away with Bank Street Writer on my Apple II+.  Finally, it was the last weekend before the worksheet was due to be completed.  I have to admit that I was pretty proud of my work…until the incident occurred.

To this day, I am really not exactly sure what happened.  I seem to remember smoke and flames shooting out from the computer screen.  But that was probably my imagination.  Like I said, I really have no idea what happened.  All I know is that when I sat down at the computer, inserted my 5 1/4 inch floppy disk, started up and…le’s just say nothing happened.  The disk was shot (remember this was the days before hard drives).  So, now what?  Well, the night started with quite a bit of freaking out.  and then some buckling down.  I ended up working all night, recreating that worksheet.  Sadly, I do not remember my ultimate grade, though I can assure you the first rendition would certainly have received an A. 

So, what was the point of this story?  You should always do what I could not do back in high school.  ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR WORK.  And to help you do that quickly and easily, today we are going to take a look at Norton Ghost.

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[Note: This is a joint review by Doug Goldring, Judie Lipsett, Dan Cohen, and Kerry Woo.  It is being simultaneously posted on Just Another Mobile Monday and Gear Diary. If you haven't already, then take a look at Doug's The Kindle 2: First Look and Unboxing and Judie's Unboxing the Amazon Kindle 2.]

Doug: One thing about sites like Gear Diary and Just Another Mobile Monday, we love our gadgets (I know, shocking!) We love playing with them almost as much as we love writing and telling you about them.  Rarely does a week go by when one of us doesn’t have something new and exciting.  Sometimes we purchase these devices just like anyone else, other times we are lucky enough to get the device loaned or sent to us for review.  Rarely has a device created as much buzz, however, as the Kindle 2.  Whether you love it or hate it, it has everyone around here talking. Not just one, but four of us waited impatiently for delivery of our Kindle 2’s.  So, now here we sit – Dan, Judie, Kerry and myself – each of us has used a variety of eBook readers in the past, whether it be a program on Windows Mobile or the iPhone; the Kindle Classic (like Wayne Schultz uses); Tapwave Zodiac and/or Palm OS based devices such as the Treo 650 or the Sony Reader.  With all of this eBook reading experience behind us (not to mention years of reading actual books), we all agreed that the Kindle 2 is the best eBook reader any of us have used.  So, it should come as no surprise that we will all be keeping this awesome gadget.

Here’s why…

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In the Mission Impossible series, Ethan Hunt (memorably played by everyone’s favorite Scientologist, Tom cruise) uses a host of high tech gadgets to solve mysteries…including completing his impossible mission. 

So, how cool would it be if you could watch Ethan Hunt use all those cool gadgets on your own cool gadget.  Yeah, show people how high tech you are by watching the entire Mission Impossible trilogy…on your phone!

Here are the goods.  All you have to do is head over to your local Alltel Wireless store (or mall kiosk) between now and April 16, and pick up the brand new Samsung Delve.  That’s it.  Mission Possible and Solved.  As soon as you complete the purchase, your friendly neighborhood Alltel Wireless dealer will hand you a 2GB microSD card containing the entire Mission Impossible Trilogy, suitable for playing on your new phone.

This post will self destruct in 10 seconds….Oh and hit the jump for the full press release.

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