We asked… “What iPad App to Use When You Want to… Take Notes” and you answered with a host of good suggestions. Among them: Audionote, Notebooks, Evernote, Noteshelf, Awesome Note, PhatPad, Simplenote and WriteRoom.

I’ve personally used each of them and any single one is a good choice. And while I tend to either use Evernote or the iOS Note app (now that Siri makes it amazingly powerful when used with the iPhone and iCloud moves the notes to the iPad in seconds) any of them would be a good choice. But the comment that really caught our eye and was a great example of one reader helping out countless others came from Mike

I hate bills.  I also hate paying for things I can get for free. I was at Thomas’ house last year just hanging out. We were watching a movie on his Roku box, and I realized that the little box was giving him everything that I watch on TV except for local channels. That was the beginning of my quest to get rid of my cable bill.

At first I searched the web and found that all you need is an antenna to pick up local television stations. I could remember back to my childhood, and how we had an antenna that was pointed toward Indianapolis so we would get about 10 channels; that is… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you have been using Google to search for a while, chances are you have picked up a few tricks along the way such as putting quotes to specify phrases to find, or adding a ‘+’ or ‘-’ to specify things that must be included or excluded. But now the folks at HackCollege have come up with a great new infographic to help you see even more possibilities for searching.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’m a huge fan of the application TextExpander. It is, in fact, one of the key Mac utilities I cannot do without. TE offers a good deal of power but the primary reason I use it is that it allows me to create text shortcuts that have saved me a great deal of typing. For example, instead typing in Gear Diary’s URL constantly I simply type “ggear”. Less than a second later TE converts that combination into “www.geardiary.com”. That’s five characters instead of seventeen.

It is even more helpful when using HTML code in a post. For example “llike” yields “What I Like: ” at the end of a review. TE is also good if… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Perhaps it was because I was using the Sony Vaio S-series laptop with its 15-hour battery, but I never really looked critically at the battery life on my 2011 15″ Macbook Pro. But recently I have been using it almost exclusively and have felt that I should be getting more hours between charges.

My assumption – particularly how the fans would spin up even when I was doing nothing particularly challenging – was that there was something related to the graphics card. So I looked around and found that the dynamic switching on the graphics cards will often leave the system stuck using the discrete card when the integrated is more than enough (for… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Now that summer is unofficially here you may be spending more time than ever outside. As great as the iPad is it leaves a good deal to be desired when you are in the sun. There is the glare. There is the overheating and subsequent shut down safety mechanism. And there is the fact that polarized sunglasses do a number on the iPad and can result in a screen that looks blank even on the highest brightness.

One solution for getting some reading done is to pick up the least expensive Kindle or nook and use it for reading. But if you don’t want to go that route and want to read your books you can at least… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Now that the ad-supported Kindle with Special Offers (aka the Kindeal) is out, sales are apparently through the roof again. With that in mind, it seems a good time to bring up the question on many (some?) people’s minds – how do I get free stuff on the Kindle?

Books

There are a truly remarkable number of free digital books on the internet, legally. Everything eventually goes out of copyright and becomes public domain (and there’s a huge discussion following from that statement we’ll not get into today). Project Gutenberg is likely the oldest of the many free-text archives on the internet (OpenLibrary is another big one), filled with public domain works in various… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you’re like me, and you have been waiting for the official Zinio app for Android, then you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. I like to harass Zinio every once in a while on twitter about the Android app, and they usually tell me that it’s being worked on and to be patient. That’s all fine and well, but in the meantime, since I don’t have an apple device it’s really not worth buying any subscriptions because I have nothing to read them with. Some of the members of the XDA forums found that unacceptable, so they extracted the Zinio app from the European Samsung Galaxy Tab and were able… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I recently upgraded to a 27″ iMac [thanks to a spectacular deal from Dan], and the first thing I did was install VMWare Fusion so that I could run Windows when needed. Well, truth be told, there is only one time that I ever really need to run Windows, and that is when I run Microsoft Money. You see, after nearly three years of using OSX, I have yet to find a money management program that I like nearly as much as Money, Microsoft’s long in the tooth financial software. It’s not an ideal solution, but being able to run a virtual windows machine on my Mac desktop has been a lifesaver.

I’ve tried… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Several months ago I wrote about Quiescence Music giving away a book of New Age piano lessons simply for signing up for their email newsletter. I have enjoyed the weekly tips and ideas that Edward Weiss includes in the newsletter, and still encourage everyone to sign up!

Now Quiescence has released a new tip sheet titled ‘Top 14 Tips for Successful Piano Improvisation.’ The tip sheet contains principles to help students play more freely at the piano.

The creator of the tip sheet, pianist/composer Edward Weiss has this to say about it:

Do you think you can’t improvise? Nonsense! All you need are a few chords, the

Talk about a one-sided love affair! Many of us, consumers that is, love Apple but does Apple love us in return? Heck no. Apple loves market share and money. Yes, once again the company that once called on us to “Think Different” is using its new moniker, “We’re Apple, we don’t care, we don’t have to… And by the way that will cost you 30%”.

Truth be told it is a little (LOT) frustrating. And dumb. Just as Apple’s momentum seemed unstoppable they are on the verge or being their own worst enemy… And ours.

We’re here to help.

This is a public service announcement to anyone and everyone… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

As I sat in my hotel room waiting for my flight home, I had some time to reflect back on my first CES experience. CES for me was as amazing as I ever imagined it would be. More than anything though, it also prepared me for my trip back in 2012. I thought I might write something up that would give you an idea of what it was like and how to prepare yourself. Now that the show is open to the industry as well as the vendors, bloggers, and manufacturers, some simple preparation can maximize your time and coverage at the show. Here is a list of helpful tips and ideas that I’ll surely be… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Ah… Android. The allure of a completely open system. You’re in control, unlike on iOS devices. Right? Right? Sometimes, not so much. Turns out, AT&T Android-touting users, for example, can only install applications in the Android Market.

Recently, Travis asked about installing non-Market applications on an AT&T Android smartphone, and Francis told him a few possible ways to do this. It’s definitely a source of frustration for users on carriers with such restrictions. Removing a standard feature of Android is simply an annoyance to users, and can be circumvented, as the Tested.com article How To Install Apps that are Filtered Out of Your Android Market App points out.

Some Android users are… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I have had the original Motorola Droid since last November just after it launched, and I have been extremely happy with the device and the Android operating system. Aside from the mediocre keyboard (which I’ve gotten used to over time) I have had an absolutely fantastic experience with the Droid – it is my constant companion, and I greatly appreciate how it has improved in many ways during the time since purchase thanks to app updates and operating system upgrades.

Back in May I grabbed a Palm Pre Plus on eBay. I was going on a business trip and bringing my iPad as… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Antidisestablishmentarianism? Okay, so maybe you don’t use those words every day, but what about other words that you do? And they aren’t in your iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) dictionary? Judie was running into this issue recently on her iPhone. For some strange reason, she frequently needs to type the word “Kev”, and the iPhone kept auto-correcting it to “KeV” (note the upper-case “V”). So what do you do? Buying a bumper won’t fix this problem!

Well, with the release of iOS 4, a little-known feature is available to allow you to add custom words to the iPhone dictionary. I was puzzled when Judie said she didn’t have a… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...