In search of a different distro (term of endearment for Linux distributions) to try, I decided to try installing probably one of the harder distros to install, Arch Linux over the weekend.  I thought I would gather some thoughts into a post and share what I think of this interesting distro that doesn’t get the press that Ubuntu does. Arch Linux is a bit different than most Linux distributions out there.  For example, it doesn’t have a default graphical interface.  It boots directly into a Linux command prompt from the CD.  You get into the install by typing in: /arch/setup in the command… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yesterday Ubuntu’s community manager, Jono Bacon put up a post calling for people to test their brand new idea for the Unity interface they currently use.  They call it HUD.  HUD will be included in the next relse of Ubuntu, version 12.04, code named “Precise Pangolin”. With HUD, you can do many different things like post to Twitter, Search your web history or find a drop down menu in Firefox or any other app.  You can do some of this even if you don’t have that app loaded.  Above is a video that shows you just what you can do with the HUD. To try the HUD, you have to install Ubuntu… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My new laptop finally has USB 3 in a couple ports and now Lexar finally has releases a couple new flash drives that may help me fill my USB 3 ports. First up is the new JumpDrive Triton model which boasts itself as one of the fastest USB 3.o flash drives available. The new JumpDrive Triton is more than 20 times faster than standard USB 2.0 flash drives based on benchmark tests, offering 155MB per second read and 150MB per second write speeds for exceptionally fast and reliable downloading and transferring of content. Available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities, JumpDrive Triton is the premier, high-performance offering in the Lexar line of USB 3.0 flash drives. The JumpDrive… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Android people have long been without a great speaker dock solution. Usually you ended up just plugging your phone into desktop speakers and pressing play on the phone. Remote control? No way. Gear Diary’s own Bryan lamented about this lack of accessories just a few weeks ago! Well at CES 2012, Digital Innovations has brought out their Universal Speaker dock for Android! Android users rejoice as you can pause and alter the volume of the music from across the room with a remote just like iPhone users have been able to do for quite some time now. What is even better is this dock will be available in just a few days from ThinkGeek! They estimate… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When the rumors came across last week of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu coming to CES, I thought ‘Why?’.  What could they be introducing that could be worthy of a booth at CES?  Well all across the internet today Canonical has introduced their new Ubuntu TV product.  Ubuntu TV, based on the new Unity interface is what Canonical wants TV makers and content providers to consider for integration in their TV’s. They also promise apps for Android, iOS and Ubuntu itself for interfacing with your Ubuntu TV. While it really looks nice, I am not so sure how this will go for them.  First, companies who make TVs like… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

According to Droid Life and the Android developers blog  the Holo theme included in Android 4.0  is a requirement on a devices that ship the Android Marketplace with 4.0.  This promises to fix is the amount of time it takes manufacturers to produce updates to the OS.  They do this by making Holo a requirement and allowing a DeviceDefault skin as well. Adam Powell of Google says: Formally separating these theme families will also make future merges easier for manufacturers updating to a new platform version, helping more devices update more quickly. Also, developers can specify DeviceDefault or Holo.  Since every device going forward will have Holo, this can help provide a more… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In the spirit of Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier’s post over on Linux.com, I thought I would craft my list of 10 important open source desktop applications of the last year.  Now I know that not every Gear Diary reader is a huge Open Source fan or follower, but these are projects to watch in the coming year.  Some of this software works on Windows and Mac OS X as well so you may want to check them out if going full bore into Linux isn’t in the cards right now.  Most of this software is software I use on Linux every day.  Some of them are not just applications, but whole desktop environments or Linux distributions as well. Note: These aren’t ranked in any order.  These are just… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

HP has put up a press release regarding the fate of WebOS.  WebOS has been given to the open source community. HP will engage the open source community to help define the charter of the open source project under a set of operating principles: The goal of the project is to accelerate the open development of the webOS platform HP will be an active participant and investor in the project Good, transparent and inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation Software will be provided as a pure open source project This is probably the best thing that HP could have done with this.  Once everything is finalized, it will then be… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Recently there’s been several stories across the net about people in the real world that have underestimated the viral nature of the internet with regards to business promotions.  Sometimes it comes from official channels  like GroupOn.  However, sometimes this can come from places that the store simply cannot account for. The picture above is the toy aisle at my local Kroger.  No they are not going out of business but it sure looks like it in the picture above.  The above picture is the result of a promotion that has gone horribly wrong.  The promotion?  Well, from October through the end of November, for every dollar you spent at Kroger, you would get a 10… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Mice seem to be ubiquitous.  Everyone has one.  Not many people even consider buying one that didn’t come with their computer while some are fanatical about the mice they use.  I tend to be one of the former.  As long as it has a scroll wheel I am usually happy, but now I have a new favorite wired mouse in the Digital Innovations AllTerrain Wired 3-Button Mouse. What makes this mouse All Terrain?  Well anyone who has used an optical mouse and tried to use it on a glass surfaces knows that they usually will not work on glass table top or glass blotter like you find in a hotel room.   The Digital Innovations AllTerrain Wired 3-Button Mouse… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Now that Amazon is shipping the Kindle Fire, I got to thinking: what if you gift the Fire or any other Kindle?  Well, if you do, make sure you do what Laptopmag.com says in their post and keep YOUR Kindle account safe.  After I read this, I did some more thinking: What if someone stole your shiny new Kindle off of your porch? If this happens, then that thief has access to ALL of your books and can purchase books on your account.  This is bad.  This is very bad.  Gear Diary’s own Michael Anderson and Dan Cohen are both trying out the Kindle Fire, and both commented in our Yammer on how easy the setup is.  However… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s not often I do book reviews.  In fact, I’ve only done one other book review, and that was for Cooking for Geeks which wrapped my love of tech with my love of food.  In that book, there was a chef who shared recipes via Twitter.  In this book, by Don R. Crawley, we take sharing on Twitter to a new subject: Linux. The full title of the book is Tweeting Linux: 140 Linux Configuration Commands Explained in 140 Characters or less.  This book explores one of the things that, once you go beyond just installing Linux, you come to realize is invaluable — and that is the command line.   Yes I said the command line.  What is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The tech press has maligned Android tablets.  There just hasn’t been one that has caught the up to the iPad according to many people.  That may soon change with tablets like the one I have, the Asus’s EeePad Transformer. Hardware Much of the hardware on the Android tablet front has eerily similar specs.  Like most Android tablets that have a version of Honeycomb, the Transformer has an Nvidia Tegra 2, 1 GB of ram, 16 or 32 GB of Flash (mine has 16), WiFi (B,G and N supported), Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, HDMI out, MicroSD Slot, a 5 megapixel camera on the back and a 1.2 megapixel camera on the front.  Where the Transformer differs is in its screen and it’s… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I just finished watching the Google/Samsung event that officially announced the new Galaxy Nexus phone. This will be the first phone with Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich).  I liked what I saw as there is a lot to like about this new phone.  The hardware is impressive and the new version of Android takes the look of Honeycomb but makes it much smoother and faster. Here’s a quick look. Let’s talk about the hardware. The Galaxy Nexus ships with a huge 4.65 inch high-definition super AMOLED display.  The display is humongous yet the phone is just 8.84 mm thick. At just 4.29 mm, the bezel is also super thin.  The phone… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Ahead of the Samsung/Google announcement for the Galaxy Nexus, Motorola had a press event in conjunction with Verizon on two new devices. The first one is the new Motorola Droid RAZR which they say is the thinnest 4G LTE Smartphone.  It packs a dual-core 1.2GHz TI OMAP4430 processor, 8 megapixel rear camera capable of 1080p HD video, 1GB RAM, 16GB of onboard storage with 16GB additional on the microSD card and an 1,800mAh battery.  Of course it also works with the recently announced Lapdock 100 and 500 Pro.  Also included are some cloud features that Motorola calls MotoCast. Unfortunately, by the looks of things, it is shipping with Android 2.3 which may be overshadowed by Samsung’s announcement later tonight (US… Continue reading on Gear Diary …