We’ve reviewed a number of E Ink watches from phosphor. There have also been several blinged out Phosphor Appear watches that Judie has reviewed and, more recently, the Phosphor Appear Rose Gold Crystal Watch with Clear Nylon Bracelet. I had a chance to review the Phosphor E Ink Digital Hour Clock Watch with Black Leather Band which, while far less shiny than the ones Judie reviewed, was a bit on the formal side. But what if you want the cool E Ink technology in a watch that is less formal than the one I reviewed and far more understated than the watches Judie reviewed? That’s where the phosphor World Time Sport comes into the picture. It is black. It is simple. It has a sporty rubber band. And it is under $100.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you hate putting your iPhone in a case, but you still want it to look unique and interesting, then you might want to consider one of the imaginative adhesive leather backs from The Brooklyn Bakery Store. Made to resemble natural and unnatural skins, these leather objects of art will really make your iPhone stand out.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I love unique and quirky watches, and today I found some that definitely fits the bill. WeWood makes watches that are encased in different varieties of wood; each watch is a piece of art — almost guaranteed to get a second look!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Pulp Fiction

One of the things I most love about certain movies are the iconic quotes they contain;  phrases like, “Bring out the Gimp!” from Pulp Fiction, “May the Force be with you.” from Star Wars, and “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” from Clerks. Say those words, and anyone whose seen the movie will immediately know which one you are talking about.

So how could I not be intrigued by the text art created by Jerod Gibson?… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I loved the way “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988) and “Cool World” (1992) mixed cartoon elements into a real-world backdrop. I enjoyed the same effect as a kid, watching older Disney movies such as Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Song of the South. There’s just something quirky and irresistible about imagining a world where cartoons can come to life; anything can happen!

Evidently the minds behind JumpFromPaper feel the same.

Created by Taipei-based design duo, Chay Su and Rika Lin, JumpFromPaper is a bag company that has produced a line of travel, camera, laptop and general gear bags which look like props from a cartoon.

One cozy afternoon, the two girls were chatting, when they got to sketching their dream designer handbag. A surprising idea popped up – “How amazing it would be if a two-dimensional hand-drawn illustration could come to life as a real bag!” They explored every possibility, rendering fantasy handbags in perspective, and giving birth to JumpFromPaper™.

Cartoon-like outlines and bright and cheerful colors add a brisk yet funky flavor. And despite the slim appearance, each JumpFromPaper™ bag has a roomy interior to accommodate personal belongings and even a laptop.

This is one of my favorites, the “Cheese” camera bag …

 … Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I reviewed the red Phosphor Appear last year, and I had so much fun with it that I bought one in black. Recently Phosphor began combining their popular Appear watches with nylon bracelet wristbands, and the result has been a bit of a transformation. Before, the Appear relied upon a leather wristband that had to be bucked — in my case on the last hole; now there is a lightweight and fashionable bracelet which can be sized (by removing individual links) to perfectly fit even the smallest wrists.

The bracelet Appear features a modern, fashionable resin band finished with a

Are you someone who is not ready to give up your wristwatch in favor of simply checking the time on your mobile phone? I don’t blame you if you aren’t; I’m not either. As a result I’m always looking at watches, considering ones I might wear and balancing function and geek factor against the watch’s looks. The Mutewatch is a design I recently found that looks cool, is simple enough to operate, and adds the function of timers and alarms. The use of “swiping” is cool to see on a watch, and for $259, it’s not too outrageous. Take a look …

Meet the Mutewatch from Mutewatch

Those of you who held out on buying a Phosphor Appear watch because the leather strap didn’t appeal will be pleased to know that there is a new Appear Bracelet watch available. There are four women’s watch and band combinations: pink with a pink band, amber with a clear band, amber with a white band, and black with a black band.

As you’ll recall, the Phosphor Appear is the watch that features the cool crystal flipping display feature that makes the time or seconds appear in a mechanized manner similar to those flipping train station signs.

You can buy the new Phosphor… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It wasn’t long ago that we reviewed Phosphor’s eInk watch. It is a rather attractive timepiece that has the added geeky-goodness of an eInk screen. Now the company has announced their new World Time Sport watch. It is “sleek, modern and tech-savvy” and we have one on the way for review. As the company explains,

The new World Time Sport debuts a state-of-the-art buttonless touch lens operation, allowing for a sleek, ultra-modern look, and the ability to change modes with simple finger swipe across the case. The new World Time Sport offers the ability to select from 24 time zones for one display mode, while optionally displaying a second time zone simultaneously . The dual

Image Courtesy of Tokyoflash

Tis the season to start the holiday shopping. With Black Friday and Holidays sales popping up everywhere Tokyoflash decided to make things a little easier on your wallet this year. Their site now has a nice breakdown of the current specials including the under $100 category, a buy one get one 50% off, as well as some sale prices on regularly priced watches and gadgets. As an added bonus to the sale every watch purchased between the dates of November 16th and December 25th will give you an entry to win a new Playstation Vita + 1 game, an Apple iPad (no specs listed), or 3 watches from the 2012 lineup… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

From the Editorial Staff of Gear Diary: Is there a lover of leather in your life? If so, here are five gifts with which you can’t go wrong.

The Orbino Padova 2 Crocodile iPad 2 Case: Yeah, at $689.00 this iPad 2 case is a splurge but it is handcrafted from Crocodile and is a stunner. Judie has one and loves it. Here’s a video of the case. Gorgeous isn’t it? If that is too rich for you, then you can go with a Padova for iPad 2 made from standard leather. It costs $209.00 and is also a gorgeous case you or a loved one will use proudly… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

photos by Kevin

I like items that have their own personality and that aren’t similar to every one else’s, but lately it seems like all of the HTC Android phones that I have been posting about have been basically the same phone — albeit with different features or screen sizes. Has it seemed that way to you?

Whether it’s been the Vivid, or the Rezound or all the EVO iterations, there are traits that most HTC Android phones seem to share: they are rectangular, they have four capacitive buttons on the bottom of the screen, there is a noticeable speaker grill at the top of the screen, they are predominantly black, they are trying to out-compete each other (and other brands) in screen size, they are trying to out-compete each other (and other brands) in processor speeds … it’s like  a massive nuclear arms race, but all of the weapons look the same!

I understand building brand recognition,  but for some time it has seemed that HTC has been specifically marketing to masculine sensibilities, i.e. — bigger, faster, stronger, harder, rawrrrr!

I’m not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I don’t think that there is anything wrong with keeping a phone at a comfortable size for holding, recognizing that some people don’t want to have such a personal device that looks like every other one out there, or making a phone that is a bit more convenient to use right out of the box.

HTC actually has a history of offering phones that came in more feminine colors (remember the HTC Star Trek?), but I can’t think of a single time that they pulled out all the stops and made a phone with the direct intent of going after the female side of the market.

And then along came the Rhyme.

If you could have been a fly on the wall the evening after I had posted the HTC Rhyme announcement … oh my! I was looking forward to checking out the Rhyme because its specs looked pretty good, and I’ve been a bit bored with all of the HTC devices that look exactly the same. Carly was bothered by the fact that the Rhyme might be a sub-par Android device that had been prettied up and marketed specifically to women (ala the pink Palm Centro in early 2008), which would have totally offended me, too …  if I had felt that was the case. But once we sorted out the specs (and basically discussed it to death), we came to the conclusion that the Rhyme might not be a sow’s ear disguised as a silk purse.

Of course, I still needed to use one in real life to make a final determination.

Obviously geared toward women and men who don’t mind a deep splash of color, the Rhyme flaunts its plumness and comes with accessories that I haven’t seen accompany ANY mobile phones since … well, ever. So for pure colorful cheekiness and complementary accessories out of the box, the Rhyme was already on my “not too shabby” list.

Specifications

Size: 119 x 60.8 x 10.85 mm (4.68 x 2.39 x 0.43 inches)

Weight:130 grams (4.58 ounces) with battery

Display: 3.7-inch touch screen with 480 x 800 resolution

Screen: 94mm (3.7″)

CPU Processing Speed: 1 GHz (Qualcomm MSM 8655)

Storage: Total storage: 4 GB; Available storage:up to 1 GB; RAM:768 MB; Expansion slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible) [comes with an 8GB microSD card]

Connectivity: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack; Bluetooth® 3.0 with FTP/OPP for file transfer, A2DP for wireless stereo headsets, and PBAP for phonebook access from the car kit; Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n; DLNA for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to your TV or computer; ANT+ to connect with sport and fitness sensors

Sensors:Ambient light sensor, G-Sensor, Digital compass, Proximity sensor

Power & Battery: Battery type:Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery; Capacity:1600 mAh; Talk time: Up to 480 minutes for WCDMA, Up to 620 minutes for GSM; Standby time1:Up to 340 hours for WCDMA, Up to 295 hours for GSM (The above are subject to network and phone usage.)

Platform: Android™ Gingerbread with HTC Sense™ 3.5 Interface

Network: HSPA/WCDMA:Europe/Asia: 850/900/2100 MHz; Upload speed of up to 5.76 Mbps and download speed of up to 14.4 Mbps; Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:

850/900/1800/1900 MHz; (Band frequency, HSPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)

Camera: 5 megapixel color camera with auto focus and LED flash; 720p HD video recording; VGA front-facing camera

Location: Internal GPS antenna

Multimedia: Audio supported formats: Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9); Recording: .amr, .m4a, .aac; Video supported formats:; Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3), .xvid (MP4 ASP and MP3); Recording: .3gp, .mp4… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of Tokyoflash

Fresh out of the Tokyoflash workshop comes the Kisai Seven. Yet another watch from their concept to reality blog, the Seven joins the limited edition club and launches at the low-cost of only $99 shipped. Breaking off slightly from the standard Kisai style and material, this “Tron” inspired watch has an “identity disc” like watch face that glows either white or blue depending on the model you purchase. New to this watch is a seamless polyurethane band and hard plastic encased face instead of the matte or polished bands we are used to seeing with other models. The large rings on darken in spots to show the hours and minutes… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Vertu is now taking reservations for the newest Constellation, their first touch-screen model, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Nokia C7. Okay, the uncanny resemblance is actually an intentional resemblance, as I have it on direct authority from a Vertu rep that this is the phone the Constellation is “most like”. Now obviously it is nothing new for Vertu to offer a phone with many similarities to currently available Nokias (witness the Vertu Constellation Quest), but in my ownership experience there are always a few disparities between the Nokia version and the Vertu version, and it bothers me.

Let’s start with the… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of Tokyoflash

Today marks a new era in ultra geek timepiece technology. Tokyoflash just launched their first ever touchscreen watch known as the Rogue Touch. The Tokyoflash design team has been hard at work this year with a whole new lineup of killer watches, this is the first to combine their hybrid LED/LCD technology with a full buttonless touchscreen interface. The Rogue Touch has an always on face, new gunmetal and with a touch of bronze metal steel housing. The watch comes in 4 vibrant colors and time is expressed by a multitude of blocked out rings, dials, and lines. There are 4 “hot zones” or quadrants that when touched show time, alarm, date, and… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...