This week I’m having a low-keyed celebration of sorts. You see, as of a few days ago my HTC X7501 Advantage turned four years old. I’ve had my share of mobile devices, but I’ve always enjoyed using the Advantage as a mini-computer and phone. With its huge 5″ VGA touchscreen, magnetic keyboard, internal hard drive and metal and magnetic housing, 3G and WiFi capability my Advantage has been excellent for mobile productivity for me. How I came to possess this particular unit is a bit unusual, so permit me to set the Wayback Machine to October of 2007…… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Corning Gorilla Glass. You know the name. You know it is strong. You know it is on dozens of smartphones and a growing number of notebooks. [600 different devices and 600 million total devices sport it!!]

And you likely know that Corning announced Gorilla Glass 2 during CES.

But until you see it in action you can’t really appreciate just what it is. Seriously, Judie and I were impressed, and we think you will be too!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Wow, I am glad that I hadn’t already spring for a Titan from AT&T; today saw the announcement of the Titan II, and this model appears to be even more impressive than the first!

Today, at the 2012 International CES, HTC introduced the HTC TITAN II as the company’s first Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) device to run on a 4G LTE network. Expected to become available in the U.S. exclusively to AT&T customers in the coming months, the new smartphone is designed to help consumers stay connected while on-the-go with the largest display among Windows Phones, an advanced digital camera and access to 4G LTE speeds.

Equipped with a brilliant 4.7-inch super LCD display, the HTC TITAN II offers

As smartphones continue their march into the mainstream the challenge of choosing the right phone for you grows ever-more challenging. This challenge is compounded by the fact that so many of HTC’s phones seems to be a slight variation on the same theme over and over and over again. (The same holds true for Samsung’s phones which all offer slight changes in screen size, features etc while remaining largely the same.) As Judie wrote in her review of the HTC Rhyme a few weeks ago,

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

Now, I don’t have any Otterbox cases myself; I’m more into smaller and lighter cases, and when I go for the heavier case it’s usually either a Mili or (more often) Mophie, with the extra battery power.  But that’s just me; I have heard from lots of folks that they love their Otterbox case and the safety it gives them.  The first case I got for my boy Joseph’s iPhone was an Otterbox, because I knew he would be dropping that durn thing left and right, and we needed the protection. [The first case we got for Kev's oldest's iPhone was an Otterbox, too ~ Judie]  Heck, I think I saw an iPhone in an Otterbox case… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’ve been watching my copies of the TV show “Firefly” lately (and if you haven’t ever watched it, you should).  Why do I mention this?  Well, aside from the fact that I often write in a nearly stream-of-consciouness fashion and it’s been on whatever passes for my mind lately, when I surfed to the USBFever web site to look at this week’s offerings, one phrase that they use in “Firefly” just jumped into my mind when I saw the cases above:

“Shiny!”

In “Firefly,” it indicates general approval, like, “Cool”, or “Excellent!”, or what have you.  In this case, it was more a description of the actual appearance of the cases.  But still, don’t you… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If HTC and Beats Audio have their way, we aren’t going to be able to immediately dismiss the headphones that come with mobile phones as being anemic or lame for much longer.

Today HTC announced the first and only phone in the U.S. with integrated Beats Audio™, the HTC Rezound. The HTC Rezound is a multimedia powerhouse with unparalleled audio and entertainment capabilities which allows customers to experience music and entertainment on-the-go like never before.

Its style is unmistakably HTC, but the Rezound appears to have been jazzed up a bit by the addition of a red speaker grill and red capacitive buttons along the bottom of the screen. A flashy Beats Audio logo on the back will also… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

AT&T is bound and determined to tease those of us who don’t live in major markets with their 4G LTE speeds and the phones that can handle them; today HTC has announced the new HTC Vivid.

Thanks to the dual core 1.2 GHz processor, browsing the web, listening to music, and downloading apps is a snap on the brilliant 4.5 inch qHD display, allowing you to do more – faster. [You can] multitask efficiently—browse the web while streaming video to your TV wirelessly, with zero wait time and no buffering. The AT&T 4G LTE service will launch Nov. 6 in Boston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Indianapolis and Athens, Georgia. AT&T offers the only smartphones that are able to utilize

Smartphone maker HTC has unveiled a plan with cloud storage company Dropbox to give 5GB of free cloud storage to new HTC Android phone owners. According to reports, the deal is tied to phones using HTC’s new ‘Sense 3.5′ UI overlay.

Drop Box gives users 2GB for free, so this is an extra 150% for free – plus HTC will pre-load the DropBox app on all new phones.

This appears to be yet another reaction to Apple’s iCloud service, which offers 5GB free storage to anyone using an iOS 5 device. Microsoft offers 25GB of SkyDrive storage to Windows Phone users.

As of right now the offer is limited to Android phones… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you have been wondering when the next member of the EVO family would make itself known, the wait is over, as the fifth member of the HTC EVO family — the EVO Design 4G — is about to be available from Sprint.

The HTC EVO Design 4G builds on the wildly popular EVO line, but brings you more in a sleek new package. The first EVO family member touting World Phone capabilities, the HTC EVO Design 4G builds on many of the “must-have” features of its predecessors, including a 1.2Ghz processor and large 4” qHD touchscreen display, while sporting a slim, pocket-friendly design at an easily affordable price. Capture content with the HD quality video camcorder – and

I’m not much of an artist–which is a polite way of saying that my drawing abilities totally stink–but even I think that stylus that you can see above is pretty durn cool.  And of course given that it’s from USBFever, it’s hardly the only thing that they’ve released this week, because that’s just the kind of bunch they are.  So without further ado, the full list of USBFever launches for this week includes:

• TUNEPENCIL DrawPro – stylus pen for iPhone / iPad / Smart Phones
• Twine Leather(Carbon Look) Case For APPLE iPhone 4 / 4S
• TUNEPRISM for iPhone 4S/4 case
• iSolider – The Mighty Stand for your iPhone

Original Image courtesy of RPAD.tv

There is no better way to rain on a geeks parade than to dangle a worthy gadget out there at an unbelievable price, then to quickly slam the door in your face and tell you “it was a mistake.” After seeing news this morning that the HTC Flyer has dropped down to a single Benjamin, I quickly started to get my plan of action together. After my meeting at work, I ran to the local BestBuy Mobile at the closest mall and started a makeshift line so I could ensure that I was walking out of there with a shiny new white Flyer. I showed up at 9:30 and… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’ve probably said it before, but PDAir puts me in mind of those old Sherwin Williams paint ads:  ”We cover the world!”  (Roger Zelazny spoofed it in one of his Amber books, I think.)  PDAir seems completely and utterly determined to have a case for every single cell phone and PDA put out on the market.  I have this mental image of a room with one obsessive, sleep-deprived nerd with a laptop, sitting there in its warm glow, just surfing the web for news of a new device.  ”Here it is!” he or she cries.  ”New Blackberry!  Get the specs and start fabricating!”  And then he or she is back to his staring time.

Anyway, without… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

You just never know what those folks at USBFever are going to come up with.  Often, it’s something fairly straightforward–a bike mount for your iPhone, or a headrest mount for your iPad, or something like that.  But every once in a while it seems that they get that wild hair crosswise in their gizzard, and they do something kinda different.  Like this week’s iSoldier stand for your iPhone.  Silly?  Cool?  Strange?  Who knows?  But there it is.  Along with, of course, all the rest of the stuff that they put out for this week.  Decide for yourself!

This week’s full list of USBFever gear:

• iSolider – The Mighty Stand for your iPhone /

Today U.S. Cellular announced they are bringing three new Android devices from HTC to the market: HTC Wildfire S and HTC Hero S smartphones, and the HTC Flyer tablet. The Hero is a powerful 1.2GHz Snapdragon powered phone running Android OS Gingerbread, and has a great screen and plenty of memory and storage to handle everything you throw at it.

The Wildfire is a budget phone with solid features and performance at a more affordable price, but still running Gingerbread and plenty capable!

Finally the HTC Flyer earned some acclaim due to the innovative stylus integration – though the pen is expensive ($80) and not included here, just as with… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...