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.

Puzzle games are some of my favorites, particularly puzzle games that have an anachronistic, steampunk, Myst-like sensibility.  Good ones are few and far between, unfortunately, and it’s not like Broderbund is  cranking out iOS ports of the various Myst sequels in HD anyway, if you know what I mean.  So when I see game in this category, it does intrigue me:… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

This is a sponsored post, all opinions here-in are mine.

Make Calls, Save Money

As crazy as it sounds, there are still people in the world who use their iPhones and Android handsets to …  make voice calls. I know, Crazy! Right? If you are one of them, and, especially, if you travel internationally, the cost of those calls can add up quickly. Vonage has been around for quite some time, but they’ve just released a new iPhone and Android calling application that is pretty impressive.  I’m already using it for calls when I’m in a WiFi network; although the app works over 3G, over WiFi the calls are fantastic and they don’t use any of my data plan. I had a chance to speak with the Vonage mobile app team yesterday, and as soon as the call was over I downloaded the app.

I’m impressed. The app is easy to use, loads quickly, and the quality of the calls is excellent.

Let’s run down what stands out in this app, and then walk through the process of actually setting it up so you can see just how easy it is to use …… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The sophistication of music production tools for the iPad is simply staggering. I can do more on my iPad than my entire multi-thousand dollar mini-studio from the 90′s could ever hope to accomplish! It has gotten to the point where a solid app that lacks a few features – MIDI in, AudioCopy, etc – will get passed over by musicians. Such is the case of DM1, and excellently designed and implemented drum machine and sequencer. It has loads of great programming flexibility and features – but lacking the aforementioned features kept it off of many folks iPads. Now with the 2.0 update FingerLab seeks to remedy that – and based on a few minutes playing around this morning I would say they have succeeded!

Here is their description of the update:… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Almost two years ago I did a review of the 2003 PC game called ‘XIII’, which took a French intrigue-filled graphic novel and brought it to life in a unique graphical style. Late last year the game made the jump to the iOS platform as a hidden object adventure. Let’s see how it did!

The Hype:
Imagine waking up to discover you’ve led several different lives.
Based on the comic book series by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance.

A man suffering from amnesia is found washed up on a beach by an elderly couple. He has to unravel who he is and where he has come from, the only clue to his identity being the numerals “XIII” tattooed on his neck.

You are XIII, a man with a host of enemies and who faces danger at every turn as he goes in search of his past.

Pursued by mysterious strangers and wanted for the assassination of the President of the United States of America, his life becomes a whirl of conspiracy and intrigue.

Pay close attention to everything around you, because it will no doubt be your only chance to piece together XIII’s enigmatic past.

Use your inventory to escape from the most hazardous of situations.

Are you ready for an adventure unfolding at breakneck speed?… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

As the official Old Phart of Gear Diary, I get to do that crabby “I remember when” stuff, because, well, because, that’s why!  And in this case, “I remember when” they used to have a Concentration game show on TV, and I’m barely old enough to remember when it was played with cards that some poor schmuck on the set had to flip around by hand, like the scoreboard at Fenway.  It was the low-tech era, kids!

Well, we’re a loooooooong way away from those days; now you can get a computerized, high-def version on your iPad.  And “for a limited time”, this particular version of Concentration, called Instamory, is free:… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Have you ever had a YouTube video or audio segment you wanted to transcribe but didn’t have the patience to sit and manually type out what the speaker/s said? I ran into just such a situation yesterday and, instead of it taking hours for me to listen, pause, type, listen, pause, type etc I was able to transcribe the two YouTube videos I needed in under ten minutes. Here’s how…… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Adonit’s Jot and Jot Pro Stylus for the iPad is an unusual animal. We reviewed it here and had this to say

What sets the Jot and the Jot Pro apart from the crowd is the disk at the top. Rather than having a relatively wide rubber tip for darting or writing the Jot and Jot Pro have a ballpoint tip that then attaches to a clear disk. The ball-point tip gives you accuracy while the disk protects the screen from scratches. It looks rather odd and does take a few minutes of adjustment but, after that, it REALLY WORKS!!

It is an impressive combination from a company that clearly pays attention to how people use their tablet and what details, like the threaded back so you don’t lose the cap, are important. In all my initial experience with the Jot and Jot Pro is entirely positive. We’ll see how it stands up to daily use but, for now, I highly recommend this tablet accessory.

Now the company has released an app specially designed to work with the Jot and Jot Pro stylii.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Even after reading the description of Royal Trouble I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect in terms of gameplay – and frankly I was nervous that I was getting burnt out on hidden object games after Spirit of Wandering (though ‘Letters from Nowhere 2′ tells me otherwise). Fortunately this is an entirely different sort of casual adventure game – and an absolute blast that you simply MUST try! Let’s take a look!

The Hype:
In this critically acclaimed adventure quest, help two charming royal heirs escape from a secluded island! Princess Loreen and Prince Nathaniel find themselves locked in a dungeon without any idea of how they got there. She is bright… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Judie turned me on to TripIt about two years ago, and I have been a devoted user ever since. And today we got word that TripIt.com just got “iPadified”, and now “Travelers can interact with their trip plans on a map and create directions instantly online.”

This is a new way for TripIt users to access trip maps and get directions and makes the service even more valuable than ever. As the news release we received explains,

Now, when travelers log onto TripIt.com, they’ll have the option to view their itinerary alongside an interactive map, or select the traditional detailed view. By clicking on their hotel, airport, or other itinerary item on the map, they can get directions created instantly.

A… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

General Sherman (the tree, not the guy who marched from Atlanta to the sea)

Despite what you may think, “going green” and thinking about the environment and the future are not new things.  There is the story–possibly apocryphal–about the New College at Oxford planting oaks to replace the beams in the Great Hall . . . several hundred years later, when they (inevitably) became beetle-infested.  Teddy Roosevelt was thinking green when he designated huge swaths of the United States National Parks, to be preserved for everyone.  Johnny Appleseed is an American legend for planting a zillion trees, and many nations around the world celebrate Arbor Day by planting trees.

Now we have a lot… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Last week Apple worked to make the iPad an even more important educational tool than it already is. The textbooks and their own publishing app Apple set the stage for some really huge increases in iPad-in-education adoption rates. The iPad as study tool is nothing new and one of the best educational apps for it has been around for some time. Mental Case is a flashcard creation and study tool for both Mac OS X and iOS. The Mac version of the app is $29.99 and can be found here. The iOS version is $4.99 and can be found here. I’m using it to create a tutorial system for my students becoming Bar and Bat Mitzvah and am impressed with just how flexible it is. Here’s a video of it in action with a little extra “tech” at the end!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Smile software makes some of the mainstay apps I use on my Mac. Their PDFpenPro is an amazing application for working with PDFs and I’m honestly not sure what I would do without their TextExpander application. It lets me create shortcuts for terms, phrases and especially HTML code that I use all the time. Now, for example, if I want to put in the site’s URL instead of typing out the entire thing I simply type “ggd”. TextExpander sees it and replaces it with the address. There honestly isn’t a post or an email I writer where TE doesn’t jump in at least once or twice. And their TextExpander touch brings the same time-saving goodness to iOS!

That’s why I was pretty stoked to see the company release PDFpen for iPad. I bought a copy and thought we might take a look together.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you still weren’t convinced that Apple’s desktop/laptop Mac OS X operating system and their mobile operating system iOS were moving closer and closer to one another here’s yet one more example.

If you have a Mac go to software update and download the Airport Utility update. Once you do you’ll be greeted with a utility that will be rather familiar if you have used the recently release iOS Airport Utility.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you use an iPhone 4S and are Apple-centric in your computing this quick tip is for you.

The tasks application built into iOS 5.0 is good but it is a bit on the basic side. For many it might be a great option but for others, those of us who need task management with some muscle behind it, it just won’t do the job. the OmniGroup has made it possible for you to now use Siri and the iOS 5.0 task app to add new tasks to OmniFocus. That gives you the best of all worlds- voice input AND a deep, rich task management.

Here’s how.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...