I am on a search for an alternative to the vice-grip like David Clark headsets that the company gives us to use on our planes. The Dave Clarks have one thing going for them; they shut out noise from the outside very well. The price for this though, is they can get downright hot and painful after a couple of hours.

The Plantronics MS200 is my first try at something lighter.

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Jason Dunn has relaunched Digital Home Thoughts with a new look and a contest.

He has about $6500USD worth of goodies to give away. You better hurry, the contest ends tomorrow!!

Update from Jason:

I should have added that while all the individual contests will still say April 7th is the deadline (there are too many for me to change by hand), the real deadline is Friday morning, the 11th:

http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/88477

Via: Digital Home Thoughts

If you are as excited as I am about the new WM 6.1 devices (is my sarcasm showing?), then here is a peek at two new ones.

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Once again, the Gear Diary Team invites you to listen in behind the scenes, while we talk about social networking. We also invite you to continue the conversation in the comments section…

Wayne: Isn’t it about time for a post on the use of Twitter? I see Judie and Joel on there. Anyone else? I find that FriendFeed is a pretty useful tool to keep up on what people are doing. I think techmeme overhyped it a little, but I enjoy seeing in one place what people are writing about, and especially when they post photos and YouTubes.

Do you think this is a passing fad? A lot of this seems pretty “early adopterish”. I know the blogging kings are all over it — but I’m not sure if it has “legs” beyond these hardcore folks that are connected 24×7 to a computer and more open to these faddish ideas.

Will the general public put up with what to many might be an invasion of privacy? Don’t know the answer.

I’m finding that it’s almost a replacement for social bookmark sites like Digg or Delicious, since you are filtering out people who you don’t know and other spammy submissions. It’s also a great way to track favorite writers and online friends.

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I went down to Malibu today, to one of my favorite burger places - Malibu Mutts. I brought my 1D with me because there is always something nice to photograph in Malibu. Mutts is in an open shopping area with stores and places to eat. After I ordered I was approached by a girl who wanted me to sign a petition, for what cause I’ve already forgotten. I said “no thanks,” after which she asked if I was looking for famous people. I said no, and she said she thought I was because of my big camera. Then she asked if I had seen anyone famous lately. Now I’m not only hungry, but I’m getting annoyed! I said, “Not lately!” Finally my food was ready and I sat outside to eat.

Then it got interesting.

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I just got an iPhone. I know some of you can’t believe your eyes, but it is true. Since my purchase, I have noticed a strange phenomena. The other day I was flying with a First Officer who also had purchased an iPhone, and he was telling me how it got him so interested in Macs that he went out and bought a MacBook Air; he had been a hard core PC user until then. Our very own Judie, after having an iPhone since December, just got a MacBook Pro. I myself was in the Apple store the other day looking at MacBook’s for the first time in my life!

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Judie: It stands to reason that our last post about CES would be about the last meeting Jerry and I attended; and as the title above this text reveals, that meeting was with i-mate. Here was an opportunity for us to enjoy some hands-on time with their long promised Ultimate line in the privacy of an off-convention site, and I have to tell you - I honestly didn’t know what to expect.

As you may recall, when the Ultimate models were first announced they all had matte golden metal bodies, completely impressive specs, and there were several projected models which as yet have never come to fruition. I was so excited about the line when it was first announced, but as time went by I began to read increasingly negative postings by people who had spent a few moments with some of the early models. Needless to say, I was starting to think that the loss of HTC as their OEM might have sounded the death knell for i-mate. I was eager to see the Ultimates in person and find out for myself if i-mate needed to be written off, or if the naysayers had been premature.

But let me back up for just a moment, because a lot of funny stuff happened on our way to the meeting and during…

Jerry and I were picked up in front of the Hilton by our driver Eddie, who had already called twice to coordinate. At first Eddie seemed like all the other hired guns who had been sent to get us for other “off-site” meetings during our stay - dark suited and very professional, so I was surprised when he started asking questions about Gear Diary. I honestly figured that he had just read our site name off his clip board and was being polite, but it soon became evident that he was truly interested. Pleasantly surprised, I asked if he was a “techy”.

Holy mistaken identity, Batman!

That’s when we found out that Eddie actually works for i-mate…and not as a driver. After laughing over my mistake, we had a great conversation about i-mate, Dubai (the company’s headquarters, which Eddie has visited a few times), and yes - a bit about Gear Diary and the things we like to cover.

When we arrived at the MGM Tower, we ran into two guys that Eddie obviously already knew. They had thick accents - one was Scottish for sure, and I couldn’t place the other’s accent; in all honesty they reminded me of a couple of characters from a Guy Ritchie caper movie…think Snatch. They were joking around, really at ease, and asking about badges to get into CES. The two guys came up to the i-mate suite with us and made themselves at home.

This was where we met Hector Lopez, the American Director of Sales. After a bit of banter, I was given a seat at the main table and the demonstration got underway. If you look closely at the monitor below, you’ll see that it is showing the screen from a Windows Mobile Professional device - that’s because each Ultimate device has a VGA out connection for easy hookup.

Jerry: I honestly was tired and ready to be underwhelmed. Then the devices came out, and I woke up.

all pictures taken by Jerry

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I first found out about Gizmodo’s stupidity on ValleyWag a little earlier today; the post read “What’s the difference between a blogger and a journalist? Nothing, says CNET’s Rafe Needleman. But he’s concerned that Gizmodo’s sophomoric prank, using a TV remote control to turn off video screens at the CES 2008 gadgetfest, will get bloggers disinvited to the event next year. After all, CES only grudgingly started accrediting bloggers to the show.”

I had no idea what Owen Thomas, the post author, was talking about, so I went to Gizmodo and took a look…which turned into a moment of wide-eyed horror.

In a post titled “Confessions: The Meanest Thing Gizmodo Did at CES“, Brian Lam - Editor of Gizmodo - basically bragged about committing corporate sabotage. [The emphasis in the following quote was added by me]

CES has no shortage of displays. And when MAKE offered us some TV-B-Gone clickers to bring to the show, we pretty much couldn’t help ourselves. We shut off a TV. And then another. And then a wall of TVs. And we just couldn’t stop. (And Panasonic, you’re so lucky that 150-incher didn’t have an active IR port.)

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Judie Says: If you agreed with me that the Toshiba gigabeat U202 was a product comparable to the Apple Shuffle, then I think you’ll also agree that it would be hard for the Toshiba gigabeat T400 to avoid comparisons with the the 4GB Apple Nano. Both of them have a relatively intuitive interface, both have vivid color screens for picture and video, and both cost under $150.

The gigabeat has drag and drop features and plays perfectly with Windows Media Player, while the Nano has the full support of the well established iTunes audio and video download store. Which is better? I guess it just depends on what type of music and video you have in your collection, and whether or not you are tied to a particular brand.

For this review I enlisted Jerry’s help; I’ll cover the hardware portion, and he will cover the software…

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I have always wondered about these devices and wanted to give one a try. Personally I have no need for something like this, but I can see where such a portable scanner could come in very handy. This is the Planon DocuPen RC800 Portable Scanner.

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