(image courtesy myce.com)

I had a RadioShack gift card from an old electronics trade-in; I found it while cleaning my home office. The question, of course, was how to spend it before I misplaced it again. Since I can count on two fingers the number of times I’ve been in a Radio Shack in several years, I tossed the question to the Gear Diary team: What would you do with a Radio Shack gift card?

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Tivo and I have been together a long time. Almost four years, which in the electronic world is practically a lifetime. Sadly, Tivo has begun showing signs of dementia; mainly, stuttering and freezing occasionally, and insisting on attempting to record from every HD channel FIOS offers, despite our distinct lack of an HDTV. Constantly playing whack a mole with removing HD channels from the lineup settings is not my idea of a good time, nor is it fun when I come home from a long weekend and discover Tivo has helpfully recorded the Verizon screensaver instead of actual TV.

So it’s time to start researching alternatives. My cable is through Verizon FIOS, and for one DVR they want $14.95 a month. Tivo is currently $12.95 a month, so the difference is minimal. It really comes down to features and the cost of the digital video recorder itself. Verizon’s is rented through my service, and Tivo is an up-front sunk cost.

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I had a late meeting last night, and since it didn’t kick off until almost 7:30pm, my plan was to stop along the way for dinner. As I headed out the door, my choices for dinner reading material were the Camangi Webstation or my Kindle. I grabbed the Camangi, since I am in the middle of a few books on that device and have not yet started any new ones on the Kindle. Now, the Camangi has a rated standby time of 4-5 days, and around 5 hours of use. I hadn’t charged it in a few days. And you see where this is going…

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It was Saturday night, and I was getting dinner ready when I heard the crash. I knew what it was before my fiancee yelled my name…yet again, my netbook had gotten tangled and flown off the coffee table. My Toshiba has been through this a few times and it never flinches. But this was different.

I had forgotten to clear the table before leaving the room earlier in the day, and I left a full glass of Crystal Light Pomegranate Cherry on the table. And when my fiancee tripped, I think you can guess where the flying glass of liquid aimed itself; direct hit, right on my poor netbook.

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I tend to be a huge fan of notebook bags and cases. I carry my MacBook Pro with me most days and, as result, having a good, usable bag is important to me. Having a usable, well organized, high-quality bag that is also good looking is a bonus. And, thanks to my work here on Gear Diary, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know a number of superb companies and their products. One of my favorites is booq. Their cases are stylish, superbly designed and great to use. I have been using one of their newest — the booq Taipan Shadow. It looks like a relatively simple messenger bag but it is incredibly well designed and built. I’m really enjoying it. Let’s take a look.

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Being the gadget freak that I am, I like to have gadgets in the kitchen almost as much as I do in the office or on the go.  I am a big fan of drinking tea (both hot and cold), but often I only want one mug of tea at a time, not a whole pot.  I was looking around at tea flavors I wanted to try when I happened upon the Perfect Teamaker from Teavana.  It seemed like the perfect solution, so I promptly added it to my Christmas list.

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Oh, who am I kidding. I’m downright giddy about Apple’s announcement tomorrow.

Yes, it’s possible that we’ll just see a new iPhone operating system or an upgrade to the Apple TV but with all of the buzz this time around that would be rather surprising. This time around it really truly looks as if we’ll be seeing a tablet and that’s why every single website and news media outlet can’t get enough of the rumors and opinion pieces. I really didn’t want to add some more of it just markets closer and more possibilities leak out I just can’t help myself.

Yes, I know that ultimately we really don’t know what tomorrow will bring but my gut tells me that it’s bigger than what many of us have thus far heard. I can’t imagine Apple simply releasing a large-size iPhone or iPod touch. No, if there is a new device announced tomorrow it will be an entirely new category that does things we don’t expect in ways we can’t imagine.

In of itself that’s pretty exciting. There is, however, an additional reason that I am particularly excited that we might finally see a tablet from Steve Jobs and company. It will finally give me the device promised back in 2006 when a new category was established — the UMPC. Here is what the vision promised…

The reality was not close!

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I remember, back in the day, where the only subscriptions I had to worry about were magazines.  I only had two or three, and I only had to pay it once a year.  I think I was out about $30 tops for the year.  But now, geez, where do I start?

There is my cellphone with dataplan, Internet service, Mi-Fi service, cable, content (e-books, movies) certain applications that I use on a yearly subscription bases (i.e. Spanning Sync to name one) at Lifehacker.  Its about all the subscription services we have today … and why we are all having problems paying for it all.

I just moved in with my fiancé, and we are trying to consolidate our bills and streamline our finances.  All of his subscriptions, and mine, are adding up.  I think between the two of us it tops out over $600 a month. Ouch!

This is something we really need to think about.  Now more than ever considering today’s economy.  I came up with a few easy questions to determine if you can cut your subscription budget:

• Do I REALLY need this application/product/service or is it just a toy?
• Do I use this application/product/service daily? Weekly? Monthly?
• Does this help in my life/job/etc?
• Is there a free alternative?

Anyone else have some ideas on how to cut our subscription dependency?

Here’s a quick post that starts out rather awfully but, thankfully, ends on a positive note with lessons learned.

Monday morning I check out my hotel in Las Vegas and headed to the airport about 5:30 AM. I was on my way to Cabo where I was to meet Elana, spend a few days relaxing, and then join with our friends to celebrate their daughter’s wedding. I got in a cab and 12 minutes later was at the airport. I grabbed my backpack, my suitcase and the extra bag I had borrowed from Larry because, while he was truly the king of swag in Las Vegas, I hadn’t done too terribly myself.

I check my baggage in. It took only a matter of seconds. I went upstairs to go through security. I went to passport control and began taking off my shoes and my jacket etc. I went to pull my laptop out of my backpack… it wasn’t there.

I looked on the ground around me. It wasn’t there.

I looked in the other bag I was carrying. It wasn’t there.

I panicked.

I grabbed everything that I had with me, explained to the TSA representative who was checking baggage what had happened and ran down to the check-in counter to see if perhaps my notebook was there. It wasn’t.

Now I was really starting to freak out.

And it was even worse than it might appear.

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When I began teaching twelve years ago I had no cell phone.  At one point, we bought a bag phone for my wife, since she commuted to work.  The day after September 11, 2001, I made the decision that we both needed a cell phone.  In the early days of owning a phone, I turned it off during the school day and kept it in my desk.  It is amazing how things have changed in nine short years.

Cell phones are allowed in our classrooms now, and they are the primary communication device for the coaching staff.  All of our scheduling and coaching business is allowed since nobody uses the school phone system any more.  In fact, I have not logged into my school phone account in probably a year and a half.  Most coaches just email or text their communications, since it is so convenient.

My students know I am an iPhone fanboy, and they are completely used to it being used daily in my classroom.  Here are some of the ways we use the iPhone in the classroom.
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(photo courtesy Boy Genius Report)

Boy Genius put up an editorial over the weekend that seemed custom-made to incite fanboys. Essentially, he eviscerated Android for not being human (?), having a non-uniform UI, and because he couldn’t figure out how to cut and paste.

Now, it’s very likely that BG and I don’t see eye to eye here because, well, he uses a lot more phones than me. I’ve never touched a Blackberry, though in the last year I’ve used an e71x (Symbian),  a Samsung Epix (Windows Mobile Pro), a Samsung Propel Pro (Windows Mobile Standard) and an iPhone. So I am familiar with what’s out there…and if I had to rank them, it would be awfully close with the iPhone versus Android. Given this past week, and the amount of work I completed on my Droid, I’d even give Android the lead in that race. So what’s Boy Genius’s issue with Android, and where do I differ? Let’s look at his main arguments.

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After having seen the Nexus One in the flesh prior to it being launched, I knew that I would have to order one as soon as it officially launched. As soon as the online store went live during the presentation, I placed an order for the unlocked version, as my T-Mobile family plan doesn’t qualify for the subsidized version. Read on for more thoughts on the ordering and delivery process, some unboxing photos, and some initial thoughts on the Nexus One hardware and Android 2.1.

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YES! It is finally time for CES. Judie, Larry and Dan are going (Kevin, too!), and we’ll do out best to bring you (for the first time) team coverage of the biggest electronics show of them all. In preparation… It is time to pack!

Dan: After months of planning and anticipating CES is finally here. In preparation I need to embark upon one of my least favorite activities — packing. Yes I hate packing. I tend to do at the last minute. I can to bring too much and, inevitably, despite having overpacked, I tend to forget something. To make matters worse, after CES I’ll be heading to Mexico to meet Elana for a friend’s daughter’s wedding. That means I have two full weeks on the road in two entirely different climates, with two entirely different reasons for being there. Did I mention… hate packing.

Judie: I feel right at home with Dan admitting that I am a serial over-packer, but at the same time — I travel enough that I have learned (the hard way!) to streamline my packed gadgets. It’s just too big of a pain to keep up with everything, and I don’t want to be loaded down like a packmule  as I walk around the show floor or attend meetings; there’s also the fear of accidentally leaving something when it is time to pack up and leave. Where I can’t lighten my load is in the area of clothing and shoes — a week away is no small feat when you are considering all of the events, meetings, meals, and other occasions you have to plan for. I tend to seriously over-pack in the area of clothing, shoes and accessories.

Larry: My biggest problem with packing is always over packing. Wherever I go no matter what the event I always end up bringing too much stuff. This time I want to make a conscious effort not to overpack. Now that won’t be easy because I surely don’t want to forget anything and I’m also going to be away for almost a week. I don’t have the problem of forgetting things like Dan seems to. More often than not I end up packing several things that I never end up using.

So what are we bringing??

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So, the folks here at Gear Diary got to chatting yesterday about going 48 hours without technology.  We are talking no phone, no television, no computers, no e-readers, no Internet, no nada! From what I saw, most of the GD crew gave a “you’d have to pull my tech from my cold dead hands before you get me to relinquish my tech for 48 hours” kind of responses.  We are a group of geeks.  We rely on technology for our everyday lives and our GD lives.  We need it.  So, no one really wanted to try this experiment, until I piped up and said I had just done this exercise this weekend.

This weekend from Friday through Sunday, I was without any kind of technology. This was weird.  Even my fiancee commented on my lack of checking my phone for email and text messages. He seems to think I am glued to the phone, which I am, but we all have our vices.

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I had actually planned to do a ‘First Impressions With My First Smartphone(s)’ article, but pretty soon I realized things weren’t going to go as I planned. I bought a smartphone, returned it due to some issues and ordered another that had even MORE issues, and when I went to return that I discovered something interesting – Verizon wouldn’t let me return it due to a provision in their policy that is very difficult to find and never addressed by customer service folks, until it is too late! Continue Reading