Still waiting on the latest and greatest new phones to come along and support NFC mobile payments?   One solution available today is direct-to-carrier billing from mobile.  One of the leaders in that space is Mopay, who is already in use in 80 countries and over 300 carriers worldwide today. Does the thought of making purchases from your phone — then having the transaction tied to your carrier phone bill — make you a bit squeamish?   I was a bit wary of the idea too, until a recent chat with Mopay’s managing director Kolja Reiss put the option into perspective.  … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

    Slacker Radio is really one of my ‘can’t live without’ services.   It’s one of the first things I put on any smartphone or tablet.  I use it on the PC and Mac.   I stream music from custom stations in the car, at work, home — and just about everywhere in between.   What’s great about Slacker — besides being able to use on any Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone (yes, your WP7 and your WinMo 6.5 phones), webOS and Nokia Symbian — is that the basic service is 100% free.  Listen to custom stations based on the artists or songs you like.  Choose Slacker stations based on types of music with minimal ads.    Maybe you need a bit more to kick back and really enjoy the remainder of your summer. Maybe your next BBQ or party could benefit from some Slacker love?  Maybe, just maybe you could use a Free Three Month Slacker Premium Subscription? We got those.  And we’re giving ‘em away! That’s right, we’ll be giving away a total of Five 3-Month Slacker Premium subscriptions to Gear Diary readers.    Read on to find out how to enter.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Now  that summer is here, you’re probably gearing up to enjoy some much-needed vacation time.   Before packing up and hitting the road, one thing none of us likes to stop and really think about is how to keep watch over our home or business while away.   Luckily, Logitech has come to the rescue with an easy and portable solution that doesn’t require us to own a private jet to maintain digital home security. Does it do the trick?  Can Logitech Al turn an iPad into your private watch dog?  Let’s jump right in and see.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of the applications I love — not only on the BlackBerry, but on iOS, Android, webOS and Windows Phone 7 — is Poynt.   It is my favorite do-all location-based search utility.   I’m fortunate to get to test different phones and tablets, and Poynt is one of those apps I always load up when I am taking a device out for a test drive.   That’s why when I started using a PlayBook recently, I was very pleased that the app was already optimized for the BlackBerry tablet’s QNX operating system. Whether you’re looking for the cheapest gas prices (and these days, who isn’t??), trying to find a new restaurant close by, or… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

[image via Yahoo News]   This week’s BlackBerry World Conference is meant to show off the latest and greatest BlackBerry products and software offerings — as well as give a sneak peek into what RIM, the makers of the popular BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablet — have planned.    Unlike many prior years (where the conference was branded as the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, or WES for short), there is a sense that RIM is struggling with the challenge of reinventing its brand and platform. Recent announcements such as the new crop of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook updates are…to be blunt, falling a bit flat.   A touchscreen Bold running OS 6.1 … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

While attendees were Tweeting, BBM’ing and trying not to nod off during Mike Lazaridis’s keynote address during this year’s BlackBerry World Conference, a jolt of enthusiasm swept through the crowd as RIM announced every attendee would receive a complimentary 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Suh-Weet!   Gauging the rabid excitement of the crowd, the news was very well received.   Hopefully by the time attendees have it in hand, all those pesky software updates for the native Facebook app will be installed.   Since there’s no native email on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet (until another software update brings native PIM features to the tablet ‘sometime this Summer’ per RIM), all I can say is thank… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of waymarking.com Last Friday, I found myself — like many others — in line waiting to pick up an iPad 2.    I wasn’t even going for myself, either.   See, where I work, we have embraced the iPad in a very big way.   It is very rare to walk into a meeting and not see at least a few iPads in use.  So, for a lucky group of our executives we decided to spring for their iPad 2s.   A few of us scattered about the city of Atlanta to find the holy grail iPad 2s just before 5pm that Friday.   Not exactly an easy task since most locations were sold out within minutes. While we did get a few, what truly impressed me was the team at a specific Apple Store location…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s been quite some time since I last mentioned Tangent’s Tycoon Tablet.   Part of the challenge with also getting to often evaluate technology during my ‘day job’ is that I’m often not the only one who needs to work with it during any given time.  After it got the once over by a few of my colleagues, I (finally) got it back and can now give you my full review.   So how does this Windows 7 Professional tablet stack up to the competition?   While I don’t believe you’ll be rushing to exchange your shiny new iPad 2 for the Tycoon, I was very pleasantly surprised by this tablet.   It’s aiming for a different audience, for sure.   The Tycoon has its sights squarely on the enterprise. So let’s see the Tycoon up close and personal.  While it may not have the fan fare that Apple’s iPad 2 has received, it is certainly worth a very close look for businesses.  Let’s take a closer look… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

One of my all-time favorite mobile applications is Poynt, the location-based search juggernaut that helps you find businesses, people, movies, gas, restaurants, events — or even just the weather.   All from a single app so you don’t have to clutter your phone with five or six different options.  As soon as I pick up a BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android device (I swap between devices quite frequently ), Poynt is one of the first apps I load. Today, the Poynt team announced the ability for BlackBerry and Android users to share their locations and searches via Facebook and Twitter directly within the Poynt application. The feature is currently  for Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Australia.  Hit the jump for the full scoop on this enhancement.  With the various ways to tell your friends where you are — Foursquare, Facebook, etc. — will  you be using Poynt as your all-in-one solution?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Recently, I wrote about the Android app Skifta that lets you access personal media you have stored on your computer — or in the cloud — and stream it to your TV, stereo or other DLNA enabled device.    iPhone users may have felt left out in the cold, but no more.   Twonky now brings media sharing to to your iPhone, turning it into the ultimate wireless remote control.  What’s great about apps like Twonky and Skifta is that you are not confined to the storage space on your phone.   Whether you have 8 gigabytes or 32 gigabytes of phone storage, you can now access, share and stream all of the photos, music and videos you’ve stored on your computer.  Twonky will stream that content to your TV or stereo and let you access much more than you can store with internal phone or even SD card storage.  In addition to DLNA, as of today Twonky will also use Apple’s Airplay and UPnP — so you can even stream media to your AppleTV,  Xbox 360 or Sony PS3.    Twonky is a $2.99 application available for iPhone.  If you install TwonkyManager or TwonkyServer, you can also wirelessly copy media fromyour network onto your phone — or [...]

CardStar has come a long way since first hitting the scene and simply giving users the ability to store loyalty cards on their smartphones.    First they brought Foursquare check-ins to their application — and helped show local businesses the huge impact of location-based sales.  That’s one reason I am an avid user of Groupon.  I’ll get daily updates on my phone about various deals specific to my city.  But the one thing I’ve always missed is a way to get automatic deals when I travel.   As of today, I now have that convenience — thanks to CardStar’s brand new Groupon integration. When I travel from Atlanta to New York (or to any of the other 160-plus cities supported), I’ll  now get automatic deals on my phone based on my location.  No time wasted searching or finding coupons.  Even better — I get all of this direct within  CardStar’s application , so I don’t even have to manually  switch between applications on my phone.    Fast.  Easy.  Convenient.  It gives you deals based on the city you’re in — when you’re in it.    And it SAVES you money. If you use an iPhone or Android smartphone, you’re going to want to [...]

Thanks to Apple’s iPad juggernaut, just about everyone is planning on putting out a tablet this year.   While CES confirmed that most will be running Android (3.0/Honeycomb) to battle the current iPad and upcoming iPad2, don’t count out the non-Apple or Google branded tablets.   Today, I received the Tycoon tablet from a Tangent.  The Tycoon runs Windows 7, and is targeted direct at the enterprise business user who wants full office application access in a portable tablet form. I’ll be putting the Tycoon through its paces over the coming days to see how it stacks up against some of the other tablets available — namely the iPad and Samsung Galaxy S.   Interestingly, one of my… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Our smartphones are very rarely ‘just phones’ for making phone calls these days.  More and more, we are using our smartphones as one of our primary means to access and share our media.  One of the biggest constraints, as a consumer, is having to take your music, photo or video collection and figure out how to share content between multiple devices. Apple gave iOS device users AirPlay, giving the ability to stream content from iPads and iPhones to their Television via AppleTV.  Skifta took this concept a step forward at this year’s CES, by showing how their Android application can stream digital media to certified DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) devices like TVs, IP-connected stereos, Playstation®3 consoles, and Windows 7 PCs.    Forget having to purchase or… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Back in the ‘old’ days of 2009, you typically had your smartphone then paid for a separate voice-application to give yourself some hands-free capabilities. One of those applications has been the very popular Vlingo. Now, just like the Plantronics and Dial2Do partnership that came last year, Vlingo and bluetooth device manufacturer BlueAnt have come together at CES to show a wonderful marriage of hardware and voice-integrated software. So, beginning Q2 of 2011 if you purchase a BlueAnt bluetooth headset or speakerphone you will be getting Vlingo’s features for free. What’s great about that is it will work regardless of whether you use an Android phone, BlackBerry, iPhone or just about any other smartphone out there today. You’ll be able to do voice searches, update your social networks without typing a keystroke, have your emails read back to you via text-to-speech and even open 3rd party apps on your smartphone. Upgrade your phone? No worries. All those features are now right in your bluetooth equipment. Pair it to your new phone and you’re all set. And no extra apps to purchase! Read on to view the full press release and feature list.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

GPS saves me a lot of hassle. I’m certainly not a human compass, and — especially if traveling to an unfamiliar city — chances are I will get lost at least once if I don’t have a GPS device or very good directions. Looking around for street signs and calculating turns is fine, but what if your GPS was so smart it knew to turn at a specific building or shopping center? That’s exactly what NAVTEQ and NNG are showing at CES. The iGo My way uses NAVTEQ Natural Guidance™ to give you directions in a more intuitive method, rather than the linear “turn right in 300 feet” option that so many of our GPS… Continue reading on Gear Diary …