Tonight is Friday, which means it is the start of the Jewish holiday Shabbat, which is the Sabbath.  It begins at sundown on Friday and runs through sundown on Saturday.  Shabbat can be a very ritualistic holiday, with certain prayers and other activities which occur at specified times.  Of course, since nothing can ever be too easy, these times change based upon when sundown occurs.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There are a number of apps available for the Palm Pre which require a specific hardware or software configurations.  Since I do not have all of the right equipment, I will not be able to go into too much detail, but I wanted to mention them in the interest of ensuring a complete series.  So, read on for a few additional sync options designed for your unique needs. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It is like a shared ritual.  We have all been there.  Your friend, mother, mother-in-law, or another random visitor is coming into town for a visit.  Your job is to meet them at the airport.  Unless you live across the street from the airport, this requires an incredible feat of timing and coordination.  Otherwise, your friend ends up standing outside baggage claim for half an hour…or you are driving around the terminal in endless circles (don’t even think about pulling over to catch your breath).  What you need is some app which will give you the status of any flight.  What you need is FlightView on the Palm Pre.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I am a huge fan of the Joby Gorillapod, a fantastically flexible mini tripod.  It is one of my favorite gadgets for my camera.  Well, now the good folks at Joby have brought the latest in the Gorilla line, the Gorillatorch.  This is an ultra-bright light, mounted atop the same three flexible legs as the Gorillapod.  At the end of those legs are magnetic feet, which allow you to position the light wherever you need it most.  This would be the perfect solution for workshops, autoshops, and even camping.  Hit the jump for the full press release. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The folks at Zumobi are well known for the widgetized apps they have developed, primarily for Windows Mobile.  So, I was pretty interested to find out what they had put together when I saw their name cropping up in the Palm Pre App Catalog.  What I found was Sporting News Pro Baseball.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Time to take a look at another game for the Palm Pre, Blackout.  Sadly, this is number four of five.  Like many of the other games available for the Pre, it is a good concept, but an underwhelming exhibition of what this platform can do.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We have taken a look at SplashID several times before.  This is one of the great apps coming out of SplashData, who seems to have now come full circle.  They started out developing for PalmOS, moved on to Windows Mobile, iPhone, Nokia, and even several desktop platforms.  Well, now they have come back to their roots with Palm and their WebOS.  This is SplashData’s second app on the Palm Pre, following Infopedia. Now, some of you may recall that last week I briefly mentioned how I had tested SplashID and found it to be terribly buggy.  Heck, it would not even load most times at all.  Well, earlier this weekend, SplashData released an update of SplashID to the Palm Pre App Catalog, and now it is running better than ever, so let’s take a closer look.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I had other plans for this article tonight, but as I mentioned earlier, there were a few new releases this weekend, rounding the App Catalog off to an even 35.  So, I thought it would make sense to take a look at one of these new apps.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have to admit that I am not terribly interested in social networking.  Email is usually enough for me, though there are a few sites which I do find to be particularly enjoyable or useful.  One of those sites is LinkedIn, a social networking site for business connections.  As much as I enjoy LinkedIn however, I have always found their mobile versions to be a bit lacking.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Open Table is pretty similar to Good Food, which we looked at yesterday.  Like Good Food, just enter your current location (either by city name or using the GPS).  Open Table will then pinpoint affiliated restaurants in your area, which you can view either on a map, or in a list view.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We are going to quickly tackle two apps in one tonight.  I was planning to bring you a look at SplashData’s SplashID, the only secure information manager available for the Palm Pre.  Unfortunately, I had terrible problems with SplashID on the Palm Pre and could not get it to load at all.  Every time opened it, it froze.  I know others have had much more success with this program, and I have enjoyed it on other platforms, but it just would not work on my Palm Pre.  So, that is all I have to say about this one.  If you have used SplashID on your Palm Pre, then write into the comments and let me know what you think.  In the meantime, let’s take a look at the first of several location based programs, Good Food.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I continue to be amazed by how much storage hard drive manufacturers cram into an extremely small space.  Not long ago, I looked at the MoreSpace drive, and was blown away by its full terabyte of storage.  So, you can imagine my delight when only a few months later, I was offered the chance to review a drive which uses half the space on my desk, but features double the storage…and it comes from Seagate, whom I already love.  The Seagate Freeagent Xtreme features a massive 2 terabytes of storage.  I think we are going to need a closer look at this one. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the complaints I heard (and voiced) about the Palm Pre before its release was the lack of support for PalmOS apps and games.  It felt like Palm was missing an opportunity to feature an enormous, ready-made library of apps.  Additionally, with the large (but admittedly shrinking) army of devoted Palm users, it seemed like there was an almost built in path to an automatic upgrade.  By not supporting those apps, it seemed as though many users might choose to stick with their current devices rather than risk giving up significant functionality with an unknown operating system. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I think it is no secret around here that I am a pretty big fan of Sudoku.  I have explored many Sudoku options for various mobile platforms, and even a number of alternate variations on the theme.  For those of you who are new here, Sudoku is a classic Japanese puzzle game, in which you are faced with a grid of 81 squares arranged in nine rows of nine blocks each.  Scattered across the grid are numbers from 1-9.  Your job is to fill in the remainder of the grid by placing each number, 1-9, into each row, column, and 3×3 mini-grid, without duplicating in any direction.  Sounds easy…but that can be deceptive.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Do you Twitter?  Are you a Twit with your Tweets?  I’ll be honest here and tell you that I really don’t Twitter.  Sure, I have an account, and have tried to understand it, but it just never did much for me.  That being said, I do understand that millions of people out there send what must be billions and billions (sorry, Carl Sagan) of Tweets on Twitter every day (does this make anyone else think of a little yellow canary from Looney Tunes?) … Continue reading on Gear Diary …