I was planning on introducing you to the all-new 2013 Lexus GS luxury sport sedan this week as I have just returned from an awesome day at the track with the new models, but Judie kind of stole my thunder last week. [Sorry! -Judie]

So instead perhaps I will regale you with word of the OTHER Lexus that showed up while us autowriters were putting GS through its paces.

Ya’all ever heard of the LFA?

Well, Lexus invited us to spend some seat time riding shotgun with… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Rather than lie in bed lazily this morning (or tomorrow morning, for those of us in the United States), Mitchell has been waiting patiently in line at a local Apple Store along with a crowd of other hopeful iPhone 4S owners.

The irony of photographing the Apple launch on the EVO 3D. I should have brought the Galaxy S II!

In an email with the subject line, “I’m a nerd,” Mitchell let me know how his morning was going. Well of course you’re a nerd, Mitchell! But there’s no shame in it, and you’re in good company!

After all, I’m the dork that was up until 4am the morning of the 7th, making sure… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Today I’ll be meeting Thomas, Francis and a few other friends in Austin to attend the second annual Big Android BBQ. Francis and I went last year, and I got to enjoy watching him — and dozens of other Android users — act like total star-struck fans as they met some of their Android-hacking idols. That was worth the price of admission, alone. Well, that and being able to snap future blackmail pictures of my friend Kat posing on top of a huge jackalope statue at some pub on 6th street. Heh!

This year should be even better, since we’ll get to see “members of the CyanogenMod team along with Steve… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Along with 12 other site owners, I was invited to attend the Intel “Upgrade Your Life” experience in Santa Clara, California on July 13th. I went into this event with no itinerary and no idea of what we were going to see, but I figured it had to be more than “just” processor chips. Sure enough, I was in for an eye-opening day …

After a greeting by Intel’s Social Media guru Alison Wesley and an ice-breaking game of ‘guess the tweet’ game, we were on to the first speaker …

Suzanne Fallender – Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Communications – “Green is the New Black”

Suzanne Fallender has more than 15 years of experience

I recently joined a group of online and traditional media for the “Forward With Ford” event at Ford’s Dearborn facility for a multi-day event covering trends and technologies that Ford is addressing. Before attending, I was offered the choice of exploring three of the following sessions; I chose the ones with stars next to them.

★Living Green

As gasoline prices continue to rise, fuel efficiency has become an even more important purchase factor for consumers looking at buying a new vehicle. In the first four months of 2011, small cars sales jumped from 19% to 25% in the United States. Gas prices aren’t just changing the kind of vehicles Americans are driving, they are also changing ethical, political

One of the main themes of this year’s CTIA Wireless conference was Mobile Broadband.  People just can’t get enough of it.  Literally! Major wireless service providers in the U.S. have long been battling it out over whose network reigns supreme for speed and reliability.   The race is heating up with the promise of 4G speed in our future.   What was interesting at this year’s  CTIA Wireless conference was to hear vastly different approaches being taken by each carrier.   Whether you’re on AT&T, Verizon or Sprint, you can expect a different approach to 4G — and time frame on actual the actual deployment to this technology.  Let’s take a closer look and see how this impacts your service and customer loyalty to a specific carrier.

Remember ages ago when Gear Diary participated in the “Take All the Action With You”  giveaway sponsored by the NBA and HP“? That was last May, so if you’ve forgotten, you certainly aren’t the only one. Anyway. One of our readers was a winner of the NBA All Stars game in Dallas package, which means that I was, too. So today Kevin and I are driving to Dallas to check into our hotel. We’ll catch part of the All-Star Jam at the Dallas Convention Center this evening, and then we will attend the All-Star Game tomorrow night at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

I’m not sure why, but our winner opted not to go. We’re still… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’ve tried just about every GPS application for the iPhone. I have to say that there hasn’t been a single one that I would consider a “fail”. That doesn’t, however, mean, that some don’t stand out over the others. The one that currently stands out for me — and one that I actually use on a day-to-day basis — is AT&T Navigator. My first experience with it was poor but since then it has worked flawlessly for me. It is fast, it is accurate and it has received numerous updates (most recently last night) that continue to add useful features like music integration, night view and the ability to set a new destination handsfree.

For the sake of disclosure I should note that I am on a one-year review subscription of the service. But the fact is, I have access to four different GPS programs on my iPhone and AT&T Navigator is the one that I use day-to-day.

The service does have its downsides. Unlike standalone GPS applications that are one time purchases, AT&T Navigator requires a monthly subscription. At the same time, however, that also means the maps on it are always up to date. In addition, it means that it has a much smaller footprint. It comes in at under 5MB while two of the other major GPS programs are close to 1.5 and 2GB. (That’s gigabytes with a G.) That is a huge difference in the amount of space it consumes on your iPhone AND it means that AT&T Navigator tends to load more rapidly. Of course, that also means AT&T Navigator relies on data from cell towers to get the maps and, as a result, you need to have connectivity, but except for the very first time I used the program that has never been a problem.

It’s for that reason that I was excited when telenav, the company behind AT&T Navigator, invited me to join them in San Francisco for their media and blogger program officially known as “Waypoint”. I leave tomorrow.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you are a sports fan, or even a stadium / architectural junkie, there has been much written and discussed about the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Besides the cost of 1.15 billion Texas bucks, amazing engineering, the lavish interior, retractable end zone glass doors and roof — the largest enclosed NFL stadium is a visual jaw dropping experience when viewed in person.

As a life long Dallas Cowboys (and Tennessee Titans) fan, I recently took advantage of Southwest Airline’s fare sale to catch a game day experience at the new Cowboys Stadium.  I purposed to take my camera and capture as many shots as possible, and concentrate on the Cowboys – Chargers game as a secondary priority. As a gadget junkie, I had to see the HD video board in person!

Cowboys Stadium, Arlington Texas

It’s not often that I admit it, because there’s such a stigma attached, but I used to be a Trekkie.  Not the kind who dressed up as a Klingon and went to conventions, but the kind who knew every episode and had a pet tribble on his desk at home.

(Well, at least up until the second season of Deep Space 9, anyway.)

I’ve been to one convention, but it wasn’t my thing.  I used to try to decide if I wanted to be Spock (I was fine with being able to raise a single eyebrow, and loved quick quips, but not so much with the lack of emotion thing), or Scotty (making magic happen with technology!).  Trekkie, but maybe not hard core.

Even so as you might imagine, I went to the traveling Star Trek exhibit when it rolled into town in San Jose.

John Albright and Kevin Talbot (Photo:Nigel Dickson, CNN/Fortune)

What is a “winning application?”  Is it how cool it looks on your smartphone?  Is it how productive it makes you on the go?  Mobile application developers are constantly coming up with new and innovative solutions that bring more function to our smartphones.  So, how can a developer get their application in front of companies and users to be a winning application? I spoke with Kevin Talbot, Managing Director of RBC Venture Partners & Co-Managing Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund to get his take on a “winning” mobile application.

I found out that there is not an arms-length checklist, but merely three things that he — and the other members of the Partners Fund — look for in an application.  So, what three things can make an application go from relative obscurity to receiving prizes valued at $100,000, tons of press, being featured on an application storefront and even a possible venture capital investment?

I’m on my way to another Microsoft sponsored Mobius Session this morning, this time in Seattle Washington. There won’t be much for me to post about today, but on Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll share info from sessions attended as I am able.

As usual, I’ll be updating on Twitter regularly, so if you haven’t already, then you might want to follow me. … Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

One of the cool things about being at the BlackBerry Developer Conference is the chance to try out pre-release apps from actual developers.  Couple that opportunity with developers and conference participants all exchanging “tweets” about their applications, and you may be fortunate enough to get a look at some awesome apps for ‘Berry devices.

Last night I got the chance to try out an advance look at the Craigslist app for BlackBerry from Movela.  As the screenshot above shows, I immediately configured it for my home preferences and location.   Anyone looking for a better method than the mobile Craigslist site, will definitely be happy with this app which makes quick-and-easy work to not… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Oh, poor, poor BlackBerry users.  Alwasy watching their iPhone-toting friends run Urbanspoon to find some new restaurant.   Well, the sad days are over!   The team over at Xtreme Labs has brought the popular app over to the BlackBerry platform.  That’s right, now you too can use this app to find your next restaurant via the “slot machine” method — just press the Space key on QWERTY/SureType BlackBerry keyboards or, if you have a Storm, just shake the device.  The app will let you select the neighborhood, cuisine, and price that you’re interested in to give you the very best matches based on your location.

Look for Urbanspoon to be available in BlackBerry App… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The team from Cellcrypt let us know that they’ve just released an update to their popular security software for BlackBerry devices.  They now support the brand new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9700 smartphone and for the first time on the BlackBerry® Curve™ and BlackBerry® Pearl™ series of smartphones.

Cellcrypt is the very first application that provides secure encryption for BlackBerry voice calling.  The product is geared towards the enterprise business or government user, who requires top-level security features across all smartphone features.  If you have a BlackBerry and happen to be in a line of work where you may be concerned that your cellular line is being tapped, Cellcrypt has your solution.   So, if your line of work is super-top… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...