We want to thank all of you who commented on the review for Case Mate Tough Cases featuring Realtree designs. I have continued to use the deer design and love it. We hope to continue to broaden the amount of outdoors gear to make sure everyone has the best gadgets when they hunt, fish, hike and camp. Suggestions and requests are always welcome! The two winners were chosen at random, one by my 7 year old and the other by my 4 year old. And the winners are…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Friendly reminder that today is the last day to comment on the Case Mate Tough Case with Realtree designs review for your chance to win one of two cases. Just let us know what kind of other outdoors products you might like to see more information or reviews on. Winners for the cases will be announced soon! All you have to do is head here and leave a commend, two winners will be chosen at random! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

iOS devices are becoming increasingly more versatile and even specialized if chosen to be. I am blown away by the uses for my devices with my guitars. From tuners to chord libraries and tabletures to effects pedals. There are numerous hardware interfaces available for iPhones and iPads allowing users to connect an electric guitar and output the sounds. I am sure some savvy musicians are even finding a way to use their iOS devices to record records and even use during live performances. For me, I love the ability to be mobile and easily practice my guitar with headphones so I do not disturb my wife and kids. The GuitarJack from… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I deal with the same battery scenario at least twice a week. When we have game nights, I go hours without a chance to charge my iPhone. There is no charging port in our buses and really never anywhere in a gym or field for me to charge during the games. Of course road games are extra tough since I listen to music or podcasts during the trip to and from our opponent. That is a lot of use with no power and usually a late night. Take this past Friday for example. We left the school at 1:45 in the afternoon and I walked into my house at 1:30am. All of that time… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yes, it is true! Country boys do have tech gear and iPhones! In fact, as you will see with the Gear Diary Outdoors series, gear and the outdoors are actually a wonderful match. We use camo gear for just about everything. Of course, I mostly use it when hunting, but it is also a bit of a style for us outdoors nuts. It really is something you only understand if you live in the country and live that lifestyle. I by all means do not run around in full camo gear all of the time, but some items are fun and stylish to use daily. Case Mate has produced some cases which perfectly fit the bill for those of us who love to hunt and fish by using designs from Real Tree camouflage as well as some of your favorite animals. After the review find out how to win one of the Case Mate Tough Case With Realtree Designs used in this post!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As a South Texas Country Boy, I am an avid rifle and bow hunter, fisherman, camper and all around outdoorsman. Technology and gadgets have come to play a huge role in the outdoors lifestyle, and we hope to bring more reviews and news of this type of gear in the near future. When you see the Camo Gear Diary logo, you know it is Country Boy approved! As an avid shooter and hunter, I love to spend time at my friend, Travis’s place sighting in rifles or just working on accuracy. A while back I reviewed the X-Rest from Montie Gear and liked how light and portable the rest was. I recently had the opportunity to take Montie’s newer rest back to the range for some shooting enjoyment. The Travis’s, or Travii as my wife calls us, decided we were going to work on shooting at the 300 yard mark; we were shooting his customized .223. Read on to see how the rest fared … Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In part 2 of this series, I took the fan out of my 13″ MacBook Pro, cleaned it and lightly lubricated it. For about a day, the fan noise was almost non-existent and the heating issue was mildly approved. Unfortunately, the noise quickly returned along with the hot CPU. This problem had to be fixed one way or another or I was going to have to throw the computer out of the window since it had become painfully slow and buggy. The next plan was to buy a new fan and replace the loud, failing original. I also decided to double the RAM from 4 to 8 gigs since the back would already… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Our favorite gladiator, Spartacus will be coming back soon in the next season of the acclaimed Starz series. The new season entitled, Spartacus: Vengeance airs January 27 and promises to be just as edgy and exciting as in the past. Now you can join in the fight on Facebook as they introduce a game of the same name when the new season premiers. Build armies, free slaves and make them warriors all in the comforts of Facebook.Why farm when you can battle the Romans!?! Starz Takes Spartacus Outside the Arena with New “Spartacus: Vengeance The Game,” Sampling Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In part 1 of this 3 part series, I discovered that my computer was not acting happy due to a fan issue. Catch up with the post here to follow my MacBook adventure. One goal of this project is to avoid the Apple Store and keep the cost down as low as possible. The fan noise is definitely out of control, the machine is running hot and it has become super slow. My next plan of action is to open up the case to clean and lubricate the fan. I took a few photos to explain how to open the machine, take out the fan and clean and lubricate. Remember, this is purely for… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The only thing bigger today than extreme sports, is extreme sports videos. The internet is full of amazing video footage of talented and sometimes crazy people hitting the big trick or conquering a huge slope. We seem to have begun to video everything we do and it often produces some pretty entertaining footage. Myself and several buddies have begun filming our deer and turkey hunts, editing them into full episode, high definition presentations of our adventures. In fact, the ability to film my own hunts is something I have struggled with using my current set up. Dragging a tripod by myself out to a tree stand or ground blind is not always possible while… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I pretty much live on my Mid 2009 13″ MacBook Pro. The computer literally goes everywhere I go, and it contains most everything I need for work and home life. The past few months, my amazing little machine has developed some annoying problems. First, the fan started making a loud noise. At first I thought that it was running too fast, but after adding iStat Pro to my Dashboard, I quickly found the fan to be running at normal speeds with extra noise. Soon after the loud fan issue came the heat. My CPU was regularly running a temperature up to 90+ degrees. When this would occur, the machine was almost unusable. It seemed the noisy fan just could not keep up with the temperatures. I know the MacBook is getting to be a bit old when looking at computer years, but I love this computer and cannot afford to replace it. In fact, the computer was a family gift to me upon graduating with my Masters degree. Fixing the MacBook will be a three-part series of my adventure from start to finish. DISCLAIMER: ALL OF WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ WAS DONE AT MY OWN RISK! IF YOU [...]

I practically live on my MacBook Pro. All of my Gear Diary posts are done using it, most all of my internet browsing and I even use it full time at work instead of my supplied Windows machine. Some would say I love this computer since it is with me everywhere I go. There is one problem with the MacBook Pro. The speaker is terrible! It is too small and provides thin, weak audio quality. The machine is so beautiful, it is a shame that the audio quality is so poor. I have tried several options to improve the audio, all of which are not exactly mobile. As luck would have it, the folks… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have reviewed a number of earphone solutions in just about every price range; yes, I do have a problem. If it were up to me, I would try all earphones with the goal of  finding the perfect fit and sound. Earphones are an interesting product because you can find them anywhere from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars. One has to be cautious when formulating an opinion on them and make sure they are comparing apples to apples. A pair of $250 earphones should be superior to a $35 set, logically. That is not to say that a $35 earphone is not good or worth the purchase, though. I recently received the E461-BM earphones from Arctic and put them through some rigorous testing during our football playoff travel run. Arctic products have impressed me with their quality in relation to their price ranges in the past; read on to see how the E461-BM earphones stack up.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We want to thank Monster for joining with Gear Diary and providing this amazing contest. I hope everyone got a chance to enter. Let’s cut to the chase and announce the winner of the Monster Accessory pack given to one of our lucky readers. And the winner is….. Dudebroman17 You have 24 hours to send your name and address information to contests@geardiary.com and your prize will be shipped out.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If there was only one guitar app I could have on my iOS device, I can easily say GuitarToolkit would be my choice. Numerous times, I have been sitting around a fire or on someone’s deck and a jam session broke out, but the guitars were out of tune. With my trusty iPhone and GuitarToolkit to the rescue, the guitars get tuned up together and the music much improved. The ability to look up chords and scales at anytime is important to any musician; there is rarely a time I play the guitar that this application is not used. This new update introduces “an all-new iPad version that is free for existing GuitarToolkit users… Continue reading on Gear Diary …