™ No, I don’t travel with quite that much stuff; close, though (Image courtesy of The Tech Journal) So it used to be that I had to travel basically every week–my job was in California, but my home is in Austin, so I did an awful lot of flying around.  After a while, it got to the point where it was practically automatic, and I didn’t give much thought to the things I did to make traveling easier. Recently, however, after a 5 month hiatus, I had to make a business trip, and I’m finding that some of the gear that I got to ease my way makes things much easier.  If you yourself are a road warrior, a technogypsy, a traveling nerd, then maybe some of these hints can help you out, too.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We’re back with the next edition of Gear Chat. This time out Mike is bringing us some gaming news and Thomas and I talk tablets, apps and iPad 3. Listen below or click here to download. Your browser does not support the audio element. Podcast Powered By Podbean Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Yes, it is that time of year. The annual iPad announcement and release is likely on the way and, with it, the flurry of rumors are in full force. Moreover, as we have seen in recent year, these rumors are often accompanied by slightly blurry spy shots of various components. We saw a supposed back plate for the iPad 3 and today the supposed hi-res display has emerged. We do our best to stay away from rumor and innuendo (although sometimes we just can’t resist) but that does not mean we aren’t thinking about what we want in the iPad 3. Here’s what the team had to say about it I asked: What do YOU want in the iPad 3 (that is also actually possible) and are you buying? Why or why not?… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

AT&T is reportedly slated to increase their device upgrade costs from $18 to $36 this coming Sunday, February 12. Because the overall costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased, effective Sunday, February 12, 2012, AT&T will change its upgrade fee from $18 to $36 Just my luck. I’m due for an upgrade, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to try a Windows phone, as evidenced by Dan and Judie’s saga of their HTC Titan usage. Speaking for myself, it’s just unfortunate that by the time I want to try out the Titan II or the Nokia 900 I’ll be paying a lot more than I anticipated. In a message to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

  Update #2 by Dan: We reached out to Evernote CEO Phil Libin to bring this to his attention. He let us know that the feature is supposed to be off by default when you add a person manually AND, if you change the settings the app is supposed to remember the settings. Currently it is on by default aND it doesn’t remember changed settings but that is a bug that will be addressed ASAP. That’s great news. I also hope Evernote will highlight this functionality in the future so people know it is there in the first place. Update #1 by Judie: Dan just called to tell me that it turns out that there is a “Send my contact info when I meet someone” option that is checked by default, meaning that the app is installed to send the offending introduction email. You must uncheck the box, and thereby OPT OUT, or this app will send an automatic email to the contact. My advice would be “make sure that you check that box!” I just downloaded it (on my iPad) to see for myself, and I didn’t find any opt-out check box during the set up process, much less any notice anywhere that the [...]

Over the last couple of weeks details about the music industry results for 2011 have been trickling in, and at this point I figured it was time to share a few interesting (to me, anyway) tidbits … and then discuss them in more detail. Here’s one of the points that I think is really important that also really makes me smile: I am enjoying watching the industry rush to get behind Adele (or more to the point, jump on her bandwagon), while in reality they were never rooting for her. Her album didn’t have huge marketing, and took off thanks to a curious method you might have heard about: airplay and listener feedback. People liked her song and voice and bought and requested the song, which got it played more and more and more. Completely organic – labels love the money but hate the lack of control. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Judie: Our saga began when Dan and I received HTC Titans at a Microsoft sponsored dinner while attending CES; it’s hard to believe that on the 11th it will have been one month ago. You can catch up on our previous posts before starting with this one by clicking the following links: Considering the Move from an iPhone 4S to Windows Phone Titan Comparing the iPhone 4s Hardware to the HTC Titan and Dipping into the Windows Phone User Interface In that month, my iPhone has never left my gadget drawer. Although I can think of a few times I wished I had it – mainly when writing up a cool accessory I had just discovered that was ‘iPhone only’ or when feeling the absence of a favorite app — not once have I missed it enough to retrieve it from the drawer. That’s better than I can say for any other phone running any other operating system that I have tried in the past … but I’m not sure if I’m ready to list the 4S on eBay just yet! Continue reading on Gear Diary …

They say that if you want to learn something about a person take a look at how they treat people they DON’T have to be nice to – you know, anyone from kids to animals to waiters and store clerks. If a person treats them poorly without reason they are, quite simply, a lousy person. And you can only expect to receive the same down the line. On the other hand, if they treat you AND others well, you have a partner you can count on. I can hear you saying ‘what is it NOW, Anderson? What are you griping about this time?’ Well, I’m talking about Sony. Anyone who has a PSP Go remembers how, right up until the release of the Go, Sony was teasing the possibility of some form of ‘UMD transfer program’ that would allow users to get some value out of existing UMD games by trading them in or somehow ‘swapping’ them for a digital version. And, in fact, EU and Japanese gamers who had existing PSN accounts with registered PSPs got a set of three digital games. US gamers got … nuthin’.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Obsolete describes something that is no longer being used or is out of date. The perception of obsoleteness shapes the upcoming gaming outlook as the Wii and PSP are scrutinized as the “new” Wii U and PlayStation Vita release soon.

If you look at post comments here on Gear Diary you’ll see some that correct mistakes we made and others that outright disagree with us. You’ll see perspectives that differ, Judie teased for “just happening to carry a micro-sim adapter” with her at all times and, sometimes, a suggestion about something we missed. All of that is fair game and, in fact, we welcome it. What you will not see however, are rude, offensive, gratuitously nasty comments. The reason for that is simple, such comments immediately get yanked. You see, we have a zero tolerance for trolls on Gear Diary. Who are the internet trolls, the people who use anonymity to hide their vile, repulsive, self-hating bigotry? Who are these people that even a mother would find difficult to love? The BBC tracked one down and… he is an idiot. See for yourself…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Van Halen just released ‘A Different Kind of Truth’, their 12th studio album, and their first album of new material since 1998. It turns it turns out some of the songs are based on demos and unrecorded lyrics from the 1970′s. And it sounds like it. The album is making me feel old and…… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It has been over a year but Gear Chat is back and we’re talking tech. In this first episode Thomas and I talk about the Samsung Galaxy Note, the Series 7 Slate tablet and what configuration of Apple computing products is best. Future episodes will include Gaming and eBook segments and much more. We also want to hear from you! What content do you want covered? What questions do you have? Would you like us to do the podcast as a live, call-in conversation? We want to know. Happy listening and, as always, thanks for sharing via Twitter and Facebook. Your browser does not support the audio element Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It has been nearly two years since I reviewed ‘The Settlers 7: Path to a Kingdom’, in which I trashed the always-on DRM for the single-player, offline strategy title, saying: As for the DRM … it is intolerable and unacceptable. The DRM is this: you need to go through all of the normal serial number and online activation hoops, but beyond that you also need to have a constant internet connection to Ubisoft’s servers. If that connection drops – ON EITHER END – you are booted out of your game. Originally the boot-out would lose all progress from the prior checkpoint, but an update made it so the game state was saved at the moment of connection loss…which was at least a step in the right direction. It was reported that the new DRM system was cracked on the day of release for both Assassin’s Creed II and this game, which was made worse the following week when Ubisoft’s servers experienced issues and many folks were unable to connect and therefore unable to play. I was amongst those who tried to play the game and while my internet connection was fine, I couldn’t even get started. Continue reading on Gear Diary [...]

I love my iPad; I mean, I really love it.  If I could figure out a way to get it to completely replace my laptop, I would do it.  I use it to watch movies, read books, follow my Twitter feed, and lots of other things.  As a nerd– and this is no exaggeration– it’s the kind of device I’ve been waiting for most of my nerdy, computer-geek life. It does have some issues, though, one of which is that, after a while, you do get tired of holding the durn thing up.  It’s not that it’s so heavy but, like reading a book on the beach, eventually your hands get fatigued and you feel the need for a break.  Sure, it’s okay to rest the iPad on your stomach while reading but that doesn’t work well when you are, for example, watching movies and TV shows.  Sometimes, you just want to clamp the iPad in place and relax while using it hands-free. Arkon has just the accessory to make this happen. The Tablet Table Mount is a  universal tablet holder that is designed to work with many different tablets. Of course, I only have an iPad 1 so that’s what I [...]

Patchen Barss’ book The Erotic Engine has the subtitle “How Pornography Has Powered Mass Communication from Gutenberg to Google”. An article on it highlights ten technologies that “secretly owe debts to the pornography business” Among them, E-commerce, Streaming video, Webcams and Bandwidth; you can read the fascinating post here. But if the Pornography industry drove forward electronic communication, it was an entirely different arena that drove the print world it is replacing. What was it? Religion.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …