Stereo Bluetooth is a great innovation for the freedom it grants from cables.  I was quite pleased when Apple finally added stereo Bluetooth functionality to the iPhone.  Not that being connected to a headphone cable is a huge problem, but it’s nice to be able to set my iPhone on my desk while listening to music, and still be able to move around my office without needing to pick up the iPhone and carry it with me if I’m just moving a few steps to get something off a shelf.

Mobile Action understands the appeal of eliminating wires. Their new Voiis Stereo Wireless Music Gateway adds stereo Bluetooth capabilities to home stereo and computer systems.  It has both transmitting and receiving capabilities, so you can use it to stream music from your home stereo to a pair of Bluetooth headphones, or you can use it to receive music streamed from a Bluetooth-enabled device, such as an iPhone, and play it over your home system without needing a dock.

The folks at Mobile Action were kind enough to send us a review unit.  Keep reading for our evaluation.

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Speck makes a number of products designed to protect your mobile valuables.  We here at Gear Diary have favorably reviewed several of their cases for iPods and smartphones, including one of my favorites, the CandyShell for iPhone.  Now, Speck introduces protection for your Western Digital Passport and other small portable hard drives.

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One of the items frequently included on iPhone owners’ wishlists is the ability to test an application and then upgrade to a full version if they like it.  This is relatively common on other platforms, but iPhone owners have been relegated to using “lite” apps, if the developer even chooses to make a lite version.  The problem with lite versions, though, is that if you upgrade to a full version, there generally isn’t any way to transfer any data you’ve entered into the lite version.

As of yesterday, however, the problem may have been solved.  Apple informed developers that it will now allow in-app purchases for free apps.   This opens the door for developers to allow in-app upgrades to full versions of their programs.  Apple has allowed in-app purchases for paid apps for a while now (allowing the user to buy other services or products through the app), but had not extended this ability to free versions.  For more information and a quick Q&A, check out TUAW’s article at the link below.

[via TUAW and 9to5 Mac]

If you’ve been paying attention to T-Mobile’s problems with Sidekick backups this week, it’s probably made you think at least a little bit about how you back up your own mobile data.  Of course, given the Sidekick’s problems, it’s also possible that you may be a little tentative about the cloud at the moment.

If you’re willing to give the cloud a chance, then Best Buy’s new venture may be of interest.  In conjunction with Dashwire, Best Buy is introducing its own cloud backup service, called mIQ.  mIQ works with Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Symbian S60 operating systems.  The service goes active today (October 12), and you can sign up for a free account with 1 GB of storage.  If you purchase your phone at Best Buy, the blue shirts will install it on your phone in-store via Best Buy Mobile’s Walk Out Working program.

According to the mIQ website, “mIQ takes the content on your phone and automatically pushes it to a private account on the web. From that point on, what you do on the phone will instantly update on the web and what you do on the web will instantly update on your phone – without you having to ever think about it.” In addition to backing up contacts and calendar data, mIQ also includes enhanced text messaging, photo and video storage and organization, and connectivity to Facebook, FriendFeed, Flickr, and Twitter.

For more information, check out mIQ’s website.

This is one of those bits of news that bears repeating, particularly if you use online banking.  CNET is reporting about a new type of Trojan horse, known as URLZone, that is designed not to steal your login information for online banking sites, but rather to actually steal your money while you’re on the bank’s website.  URLZone is sophisticated enough that it calculates how much money to steal based on how much is in your account, then displays a false balance to the user so as not to arouse suspicion.

The Trojan is being distributed through emails, infected sites that carry the malware, or an Adobe PDF.   It exploits a hole in Firefox, Internet Explorer 6, IE7, IE8, and Opera running on Windows systems.  According to the firm that identified the Trojan horse, about 90,000 computers have visited sites with the malware, over 6,000 have been infected, and a few hundred have actually been used to steal the users’ money.

For more details, see CNET’s articles here and here.

[via CNET]

I have used database programs for quite a while to keep track of things like my music collection and favorite wines.  Sure, I could do that with a spreadsheet, but having the data organized in a database makes it easy to sort and view records. I’m relatively new to Bento, just picking it up with version 2, but found it very easy to learn and use. This week, FileMaker released Bento 3, a major update to their user-friendly database software for the Mac.

Bento 3 offers a number of new and improved features, which are largely directed toward incorporating graphics better and adding security options, including:

• iPhoto integration

• Grid View – view any library in the new Grid view to show a grid of images or thumbnail views of your forms

• Related data field – now with image thumbnails

• File List – now with image thumbnails

• Table view with media cell

• Simple list field type – add a freeform table to your forms for quick list tracking

• Library Folders – save space in your Libraries pane by grouping like libraries in a single folder

• Library Icons

• Image box – add a static image, such as a team logo, to any of your forms

• New security options

• Multi-user sharing – share your Bento libraries with up to 5 other Bento users on your local area network

• Group emailing – send one email to multiple recipients through Apple Mail with a few clicks

• Improved Theme Chooser

• New option to print blank forms

• Print a blank version of any form, great for surveys and sign up lists

• New option to copy forms within a library and between collections

• 10 new pre-designed templates

In addition, FileMaker released an update to their iPhone app this week to improve compatibility with the Bento 3 desktop software.

Bento 3 is available for $49.00 from FileMaker’s website.  For existing Bento users, FileMaker is offering an instant upgrade rebate of $20 (offer expires January 28, 2010).

When it was first released earlier this year, DataViz’ Documents-To-Go iPhone application supported creation and editing of Word, but not Excel documents.  Anyone who purchased the application upon release paid a slightly discounted price, with promise that Excel editing was coming.

When I checked last night to see if there were any updates available for the applications on my iPhone, version 2.0 of Docs-To-Go was available, featuring Excel file editing.  Finally!

There are two flavors of Docs-To-Go:  with and without support for Exchange mail attachments.  Looking in the iTunes store this morning, the price for the applications has risen since I last checked.  Docs-To-Go with Exchange support is now $14.99 and without is $9.99 (up from $11.99 and $6.99, respectively).   Available here, in the iTunes store.

SPB’s Mobile Shell is one of my favorite Windows Mobile programs and one of the first things that I load on any new device. It’s like a launcher program on steroids, integrating contacts, weather information, and utilities into customizable screens.  SPB just announced the release of their latest version of Mobile Shell, version 3.5.  Among the updates in the new release are:

*–New widgets for tasks, a picture frame, Facebook status, Twitter status, birthdays reminders, four instant wireless switches (WiFi, Bluetooth, Flight Mode, and Phone Switch), internet search, operator’s name, date, and alarm

*–Updated to the contacts, wireless manager, and weather widgets 3D email and SMS viewer

*–Streamlined background change (with cropping and easy to view local gallery)

*–Current weather conditions (in addition to forecast) Improved 3D carousel design (e. g. added reflections)

*–Widget skin selection with preview and new skins for most widgets

*–Widget-based Professional home screen

*–Option to have only one home screen (lifestyle or professional)

*–Option to change the number of screens in lifestyle or professional layouts

*–Weather in Agenda view

*–Tactile feedback on tap-and-hold

*–Option to choose the default tab for Contacts and Launcher

*–Improved design of most dialogs (popup menus, settings, etc.)

*–Category filter in the contact list

*–Improved widget edit mode (widget can be dragged to other pages, recycle bin for easy delete etc.)

*–Color themes support on Windows Mobile 6.5

*–Integration with SPB Weather and SPB Traveler via widgets

*–Improved “Choose Shortcut” dialog box with similar look to SPB Menu

Mobile Shell 3.5 is available at SPB’s website for $29.95 ($14.97 if upgrading from version 2) or you can get it for 15% off at the Gear Diary Store, with the code GDFallTweets.

One of the things about the built-in calendar app on the iPhone that surprises me is that it lacks the ability to view more than one month at a time.  Sometimes it’s just handy to see several months – or a whole year – at once.  So when Zicron Software, a new software developer based in Scotland, offered Gear Diary the chance to evaluate their new iPhone app, Years, we agreed to take a look.

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PDAir has been making accessories for the mobile market since the early part of this decade.  They have offered accessories for an ever-growing lineup of devices, ranging from phones to media players to ebook readers.

Recently, PDAir released several new or updated models of cases for the iPhone 3GS and sent Gear Diary a couple of samples to review.  We were provided with the Vertical Pouch and the Sleeve Case in black leather.  (You can see their full line of iPhone 3GS cases and other iPhone accessories here.)  Both of the cases we were provided come in a variety of colors and with or without a belt clip.  Our samples were well made and the leather had a good feel to it.  The white stitching on black leather looked nice and the stitching on our samples was even.  Both cases came in nice boxes suitable for gift wrapping.

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Are you a Palm loyalist, still clutching your Centro, Treo, or T|X tightly in your fingers, not yet ready to surrender your trusted device, but perhaps looking for something to give your Palm OS device a little boost and add a little excitement?  If so, Handmark may just make your day.

Through its gaming group, Astraware, Handmark makes a great range of games for the Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian, BlackBerry, iPhone, and PC platforms.  For a limited time, they are offering their Palm OS games at a 50% discount, including such well known titles as Tetris, Tradewinds 2, Bejeweled, Text Twist, GTS World Racing, and Astraware Casino.

To get your discount, use promo code PALM50 during checkout when shopping on the Astraware, Handmark, or Pocket Express websites.

My one-year old daughter appears to take after her mother in almost all ways, which is a really good thing.  The only thing she seems to have inherited from me is that she doesn’t need a lot of sleep.  She sleeps well at night, but once she’s up, she’s up, and that’s the end of it.  She’s not much of a napper.  Getting her to sleep during the day takes a pretty fair amount of effort: reading to her, singing to her, giving her warm bottles, ensuring the house is quiet, and… well, lots of rocking her to sleep.

So why didn’t someone show me this trick before now???

Check out the Ubuntu baby rocker script in the video above.  This guy is a genius.  He’s using an Ubuntu script to open and close his CD ROM drawer automatically and tied it to a child seat, creating a pleasant rocking motion.

Okay, I don’t think it’s a real child in the child seat in the video, and no, I wouldn’t actually put my own child in a contraption that wasn’t specifically designed, tested, and approved for such a use.  But it’s fun to daydream anyway.

[via Waylou]

Speck Products has been making cases and protective products for a wide range of laptops, mp3 players, and smartphones since 2001.  Earlier this spring we took a look at one of Speck’s newest cases, the CandyShell for the iPhone 3G and 3GS.  The CandyShell is an interesting concept with a hard plastic outer shell that slides nicely into and out of pockets and a softer interior that is intended to provide cushioning in the event of a drop or hard bump.

Speck recently updated the CandyShell line with five new color combinations: BubbleMaker Pink, BatWing Black, AquaBerry Blue, WaxStick White, and JamJar Purple.  While the original CandyShell line featured contrasting color combinations, the new cases feature complimentary colors.  Speck sent along several samples for us to review. Continue Reading

Heading back to school shortly?  NPR reported this morning on textbook manufacturers moving toward releasing textbooks for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Not a huge surprise, really, given the number of ebooks available for the small Apple devices.   Available through CourseSmart, a consortium of several of the largest textbook publication houses, digital textbooks are about half the cost of a normal hardbound version.  If you’re not crazy about reading on the small screen of an iPhone, you can also access the textbook files through any computer with internet access.  While the upside is the cost savings, the downside is that you only get to keep book for six months, after which you would lose your access rights.

I have very few textbooks from college.  By far the majority of them were sold back to the campus bookstore for beer money.  Only having access for six months wouldn’t have been much of a hinderance because I had no need to keep most textbooks for long-term reference.  On the other hand, with the digital version, you have nothing to sell back for beer money.