A few items we acquired at the BBQ

A little over a month ago I trekked down to Austin for the Big Android BBQ. I took two friends along with and met up with some of my fellow Gear Diary geeks for a weekend filled with fun, food, geeks, and the little green robot. The event was bigger and better than last years; there were lot more people, vendors, developers, and of course fantastic giveaways. We had a great time sitting in on the developer forums, meeting new people, and talking with all the vendors about the latest and great Android products and accessories.

Samsung was on hand showing off some Galaxy S II models as well as a few tablets, LG had a nice little display and sit down session, as well as many more vendors, developers, and accessory manufacturers. We were lucky enough to have one of our crew members score a new Galaxy Tab 10.1 from a Samsung giveaway, but that does not mean we left empty-handed. Seidio was on site with some really cool reps, and a truckload of cases. They were happy to give away one case to each and every person who attended — a most generous offering by any stretch. They had well over a dozen different phones covered, and they even brought along some cases for those brave enough to attend toting an iPhone. [cough, cough -- Judie, Kevin and Thomas, even though they both carried Android phones there as well]… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Today I’ll be meeting Thomas, Francis and a few other friends in Austin to attend the second annual Big Android BBQ. Francis and I went last year, and I got to enjoy watching him — and dozens of other Android users — act like total star-struck fans as they met some of their Android-hacking idols. That was worth the price of admission, alone. Well, that and being able to snap future blackmail pictures of my friend Kat posing on top of a huge jackalope statue at some pub on 6th street. Heh!

This year should be even better, since we’ll get to see “members of the CyanogenMod team along with Steve… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

When Sony provided a sneak peek last week of the two new tablets it plans to launch later this year, it also offered a glimpse into the unspoken imperative it faces: Because it’s late to the game, trailing Apple by, um, years, and others, like Samsung, by months, its biggest hope to gain a toehold in the ever crowded field of similar devices is to do something different — really different.

And different it’s done, as least so far as the second of its tablets is concerned — the one code-named Sony Tablet S2, a dual-screen clamshell device that bears no resemblance whatsoever to a tablet, not to the paper versions that make for the namesake crop… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Along with 12 other site owners, I was invited to attend the Intel “Upgrade Your Life” experience in Santa Clara, California on July 13th. I went into this event with no itinerary and no idea of what we were going to see, but I figured it had to be more than “just” processor chips. Sure enough, I was in for an eye-opening day …

After a greeting by Intel’s Social Media guru Alison Wesley and an ice-breaking game of ‘guess the tweet’ game, we were on to the first speaker …

Suzanne Fallender – Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Communications – “Green is the New Black”

Suzanne Fallender has more than 15 years of experience

If the apocalypse comes, I want to spend it with the teams who competed in the Red Bull Creation event. They were given 72 hours and a pile of junk, along with the mission to illustrate “Energy in Motion”. Any scraps were fair game, from metal to electronics to slabs of wood, and the creations were just astounding. What they created was absolute brilliance, from hamster wheels to see-saws, and did I mention they did it in 3 days? If you left me in a room with a pile of junk and Red Bull, you’d come back to find a hyper-caffienated blogger probably trapped under said pile of junk. You certainly wouldn’t find the jaw-dropping creations these 16… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’m in Dearborn, Michigan tonight; flown in along with other media as a guest of Ford as they launch their “Forward with Ford” Conference, an “exclusive two-day media program that will explore global trends and issues facing consumers now and forward into the future.”

Forward with Ford 2011 will bring together expert futurists and key trend-spotters as well as Ford’s designers, scientists and product specialists to explore what’s influencing the choices facing consumers today and tomorrow. From lifestyles and occupations, to transportation and technologies, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in discussions, interviews and product experiences with the experts.

This evening starts with cocktails, dinner and a keynote speech by “thought leader”, Malcolm Gladwell.

9:55AM PST: That’s it! We are done for today’s keynote! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s keynote though.

9:52AM PST: Google’s showing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition. 1GHz dual-core CPU, 32GB onboard, 1GB of RAM, and Android 3.0. It’s launching in a month, and everyone here at Google I/O 2011 is getting one!

9:47AM PST: Project Tungsten is being introduced by Google. Music Beta by Google is used to demo with this project.

9:43AM PST: Android at Home is the new vision, making your Android device the “center” of your life. Discover, connect and communication with devices in the home.

9:41AM PST: Whoa, some seriously crazy stuff… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Here it comes again: the annual Google I/O event on May 10th and 11th, and we expect Google to make a whole slew of announcements during the two-day event. For those of you who have no idea what Google I/O is, it’s a conference which brings together thousands of developers for two days of deep technical content. Google I/O focuses on building the next generation of web, mobile, and enterprise applications using Google and open web technologies such as Android, Google Chrome, Google APIs, Google Web Toolkit, App Engine, and more.
Here at Gear Diary, we’ll be bringing you exclusive on-site coverage with the latest announcements.
Here’s what to expect:

• Android - Android will clearly get a big

[image via Yahoo News]

This week’s BlackBerry World Conference is meant to show off the latest and greatest BlackBerry products and software offerings — as well as give a sneak peek into what RIM, the makers of the popular BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablet — have planned.    Unlike many prior years (where the conference was branded as the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, or WES for short), there is a sense that RIM is struggling with the challenge of reinventing its brand and platform.

Recent announcements such as the new crop of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook updates are…to be blunt, falling a bit flat.   A touchscreen Bold running OS 6.1 … Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of Blackberry

Recently at Blackberry World Conference 2011, RIM made some announcements on a few new devices, apps, OS 7, and most notably the new Multi Platform Blackberry Enterprise Server. Blackberry has been under some pressure in the past few years, mainly because they are losing market share daily to both mobile hardware and software competitors. Most of the recent phone offerings have not quite set the world on fire, and the OS leaves much to be desired. As most of the smartphones sold now offer all the things that once made Blackberry great, I feel like RIM has been left behind with their mediocre hardware and all but non-existent app store.

We have been… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

While attendees were Tweeting, BBM’ing and trying not to nod off during Mike Lazaridis’s keynote address during this year’s BlackBerry World Conference, a jolt of enthusiasm swept through the crowd as RIM announced every attendee would receive a complimentary 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Suh-Weet!   Gauging the rabid excitement of the crowd, the news was very well received.   Hopefully by the time attendees have it in hand, all those pesky software updates for the native Facebook app will be installed.   Since there’s no native email on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet (until another software update brings native PIM features to the tablet ‘sometime this Summer’ per RIM), all I can say is thank… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Back in the ‘old’ days of 2009, you typically had your smartphone then paid for a separate voice-application to give yourself some hands-free capabilities. One of those applications has been the very popular Vlingo. Now, just like the Plantronics and Dial2Do partnership that came last year, Vlingo and bluetooth device manufacturer BlueAnt have come together at CES to show a wonderful marriage of hardware and voice-integrated software.

So, beginning Q2 of 2011 if you purchase a BlueAnt bluetooth headset or speakerphone you will be getting Vlingo’s features for free. What’s great about that is it will work regardless of whether you use an Android phone, BlackBerry, iPhone or just about any other smartphone out there today. You’ll be able to do voice searches, update your social networks without typing a keystroke, have your emails read back to you via text-to-speech and even open 3rd party apps on your smartphone. Upgrade your phone? No worries.

All those features are now right in your bluetooth equipment. Pair it to your new phone and you’re all set. And no extra apps to purchase! Read on to view the full press release and feature list.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

GPS saves me a lot of hassle. I’m certainly not a human compass, and — especially if traveling to an unfamiliar city — chances are I will get lost at least once if I don’t have a GPS device or very good directions. Looking around for street signs and calculating turns is fine, but what if your GPS was so smart it knew to turn at a specific building or shopping center?

That’s exactly what NAVTEQ and NNG are showing at CES. The iGo My way uses NAVTEQ Natural Guidance™ to give you directions in a more intuitive method, rather than the linear “turn right in 300 feet” option that so many of our GPS… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Chances are if you own a television, stereo, or any type of home theater equipment you know that Dolby is synonymous with “blow-you-out-of-your-La-Z-Boy-recliner” surround sound.  During this week’s Consumer Electronics (CES) show in Las Vegas, Dolby is showing off their latest audio improvements, including new PC surround sound technologies to help bring your entertainment to life right on your computer.

The Aspire Ethos multimedia notebooks and Aspire Z-Series PCs will be the first to feature Dolby’s new surround sound enhancements.  Whether you’re gaming, listening to music, watching movies, or streaming  your Hulu or Netflix on your computers, Dolby is enriching your entertainment value by bringing that rich, full sound to your computers and devices.  Why sacrifice entertainment just because your not in your barcalounger?

Read on to see even more that Dolby’s showing at this year’s CES event.

As you, hopefully, know by now, Larry and I have embarked upon a week-long No Baggage Challenge for Charity. We left the East Coast yesterday morning with just the clothes on our backs and arrived in Las Vegas for CES a few hours later. We are already getting into a routine of determining what we’re going to wear one day while washing the clothes we wore the previous one. It’s a great way to demonstrate how little we actually need while traveling- especially when using SCOTTEVEST clothing, but there is an additional reason why we are doing this. It was a year ago that the devastating earthquake struck Haiti. On January 12 of last… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...