Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - 59 minutes ago
AT&T is reportedly slated to increase their device upgrade costs from $18 to $36 this coming Sunday, February 12. Because the overall costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased, effective Sunday, February 12, 2012, AT&T will change its upgrade fee from $18 to $36 ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 10, 2012, 4:15 pm
Welcome back to another weekend of game deals for you to enjoy! Things seem to be cranking up again on the deals, headlined by the awesome 75% off sale on the Jedi Knight collection at Steam. Take my advice, skip Jar Jar in 3D and spend the weekend with Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade! As a rem...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 10, 2012, 3:45 pm
Have you ever taken a ride on Star Tours at Disney? The first time we went as a family in 2001 was on a Star Wars Weekend, and taking the Star Tours ride was a major part of the fun for all of us. We rode it again the other two trips we made, and it possesses great memories, although it is cle...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 10, 2012, 2:35 pm
Just a reminder that the great folks at 2k Games have given us TWO FULL GAME CODES for the XBOX360 version of the original Darkness game! TO WIN: simply comment here confirming you have a XBOX360 with a XBOX Live account so you can use the code. That is it! The contest will run until...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 10, 2012, 2:15 pm
Quick - what is the first requirement of having a Grammy Music sale? That is right - that music nominated for Grammy Awards is featured! So you should be able to look at the 'best song' or 'best solo' category and then find that song in the 'On Sale' list at Google Music ... right? Well, ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 10, 2012, 2:00 pm
Mix together a crime-drama mystery, puzzles, hidden objects, and tons of twists and turns and intrigue ... and you have the makings of one of the most compelling casual games made this year. The name of that game is "Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand that Feeds" from G5 Entertainment, and I rev...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 10, 2012, 12:30 pm
I have already written about The Darkness II which launched this week on PC and XBOX360, which I am already starting to play for review. But if you are looking to get a taste of the demo and only have a PC ... you can head to Gakai to try it out! Gakai is a cloud streaming game service - ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 10, 2012, 12:30 pm
Steve Jobs passed away several months ago now, and the burst of news at the event, followed by the (just days later) release of Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson, has pretty much abated.  So what possible news could Jobs be making now, from beyond the grave? Continue reading on Gea...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 10, 2012, 11:20 am
I am an unapologetic Star Wars fanboy - my wife and I pulled our kids out of school an hour early back in 2005 to hit an early matinee of 'Revenge of the Sith', and we saw 'Attack of the Clones' in normal and IMAX formats, and of course we own all of the movies on VHS and DVD (we skipped the '...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 10, 2012, 11:15 am
I have featured news from Space Time Studios, makers of several free-to-play MMORPG games, several times. Why? Two reasons - they seem to have loads of great giveaways and I love to feature those. And second but most importantly - their games are FUN, play through your browser and work on almo...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 4, 2012, 11:30 am
Welcome back to another weekend of game deals for you to enjoy! You might notice that this week is a bit slower than previous weeks ... but there are still some great deals! As a reminder, I have refocused on only those sites I feel bring great deals AND great customer experience to the t...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 4, 2012, 10:30 am
Back in 1968 there was not the tendency to capture everything on video in the same way we do now - in fact it is not uncommon to learn that we have lost master recordings or out-takes from some of the great recording sessions of rock, pop and jazz. So finding this gem - a video showing the dev...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 4, 2012, 10:00 am
I have said before that I have been reading much more since getting my Nook Touch last June, which has really been wonderful. The Nook Touch in my Oberon case is just a thing of beauty to hold and behold. It has allowed me to catch new books like Robopocalypse and recent releases like The Art ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 4, 2012, 8:45 am
This weekend New Gear Daily Deal brings us the Dell E Series 21.5" Monitor. It offers a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio and 1920x1080 resolution. For connectivity it offers both VGA and DVI-D. For viewing the stand offers a tilt feature and a quick release button for easy removal of the stand fro...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 3, 2012, 3:00 pm
Adonit's Jot and Jot Pro Stylus for the iPad is an unusual animal. We reviewed it here and had this to say What sets the Jot and the Jot Pro apart from the crowd is the disk at the top. Rather than having a relatively wide rubber tip for darting or writing the Jot and Jot Pro have a ballp...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 3, 2012, 3:00 pm
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,...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 3, 2012, 2:00 pm
Even after reading the description of Royal Trouble I wasn't sure exactly what to expect in terms of gameplay - and frankly I was nervous that I was getting burnt out on hidden object games after Spirit of Wandering (though 'Letters from Nowhere 2' tells me otherwise). Fortunately this is an e...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 3, 2012, 1:51 pm
Kev and I are headed to Las Vegas to spend a day at the Motor Speedway and watch the superbowl, where Lexus will run their first-ever Super Bowl commercial for the 2013 Lexus GS, called “The Beast”. The :30 second commercial features the all-new 2013 GS as it breaks free from containm...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 3, 2012, 12:22 pm
The first rule of a health-centric charity - don't get political. UPDATE: The Komen group annouced they were reversing their decision, stating "it will "amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political." "O...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 3, 2012, 11:30 am
I missed when this originally launched, but today is the final day you can grab 10 great indie albums from 10 different bands all for only $15! It is a great deal and a new variation on the 'bundle' theme we've seen in gaming. The great thing is they have a trailer featuring snips of songs fro...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 1, 2012, 9:00 pm
There's a dramatic difference between 4.7" and 3.5"! Judie: For those of you who missed it, in our last article, Dan and I talked about the circumstances behind how we -- two iPhone 4S users -- each came into possession of an HTC Titan. We also gave some of our initial thoughts about the ope...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 1, 2012, 3:00 pm
Images: Toyota Toyota is working feverishly to recover from a few setbacks in global production last year. Mother Nature wreaked havoc on the automaker in the Asia-Pacific regions in 2011, and at a time when Toyota was releasing new or redesigned product. One such re-launch is the 2012 Ya...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 1, 2012, 12:00 pm
There was a recent article in the New York Times that pretty much singles out Apple as being to blame for the work conditions in China. Sure, they off-handedly refer to 'other companies' and repeatedly say 'other devices' as a footnote, but again and again it is Apple, iPhone and iPad that are...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 1, 2012, 11:00 am
Last week Apple worked to make the iPad an even more important educational tool than it already is. The textbooks and their own publishing app Apple set the stage for some really huge increases in iPad-in-education adoption rates. The iPad as study tool is nothing new and one of the best educa...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Feb 1, 2012, 9:45 am
Today's Gear Deal brings us the newly re-introduced HP ENVY 15. This 15.6" laptop features an all-new aluminum design. It is just 1.11" thick, weighs 5.79-pounds, has a 1GB Discrete Graphics AMD Radeon and can handle up to 16GB DDR3 memory. On the audio front it has Beats Audio, six built-in s...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 31, 2012, 6:00 pm
There's a new Humble Bundle in town ... but this one has a twist! Instead of just Mac and PC versions of games ... now you get Android copies as well! This makes an awesome deal even better - and check out the great games: Continue reading on Gear Diary ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 31, 2012, 5:00 pm
Smile software makes some of the mainstay apps I use on my Mac. Their PDFpenPro is an amazing application for working with PDFs and I'm honestly not sure what I would do without their TextExpander application. It lets me create shortcuts for terms, phrases and especially HTML code that I use all the...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 31, 2012, 3:00 pm
Still got actual Super Nintendo games? Well, get them out of storage for this portable SNES console that also plugs into a television and features two SNES controller ports. Continue reading on Gear Diary ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 31, 2012, 2:00 pm
Sling Media, makers of the SlingBox, today announces the availability of the SlingPlayer app for the Kindle Fire. What is the SlingBox? It is a device that works with all of your various set-top boxes to: allow folks to watch their TV from wherever they are with their PC, Mac, tablet or ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 31, 2012, 12:00 pm
Sometimes these stories are just too amazing ... George Martin and his son Giles were visting Abbey Road studios with George Harrison's son Dhani, and walking through the master tapes to 'Here Comes The Sun'. Martin shows Dhani how the track was constructed by isolating various sections, with ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 30, 2012, 9:30 am
We start the week with a deal that will bring some fun into your life. This deal brings us the Sony PlayStation 24" 1080p 3D Widescreen LCD Monitor Bundle. It includes a 3D Display featuring a 1920x1080 resolution, edge-lit LED backlight, a 240Hz refresh rate, two HDMI inputs, and more, PlaySt...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 29, 2012, 8:00 pm
You read the title right and I meant it. I paid just over $1800 for my new car last November. At least that is the case if you price it out using the "Walt Mossberg Method of Valuation". Continue reading on Gear Diary ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 29, 2012, 3:00 pm
One of the biggest problems with our ever-growing love of smartphones ... is that everything we do with them seems to consume more and more battery. As a result we are always struggling with the battery life of our smartphones. As a result we keep chargers in our offices, our cars, and so on. ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 29, 2012, 2:20 pm
I love unique and quirky watches, and today I found some that definitely fits the bill. WeWood makes watches that are encased in different varieties of wood; each watch is a piece of art -- almost guaranteed to get a second look! Continue reading on Gear Diary ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 29, 2012, 2:15 pm
Got arachnophobia?  Well then, maybe the new Android offering from Itzy Interactive isn't for you.  But maybe not.  Or, perhaps, you've realized that these helpful little critters are really our friends (most of the time), and what you need is a little empathy, a little time viewing life fr...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 29, 2012, 2:00 pm
  ioSafe is known for keeping your data SAFE. How safe? Well, first we took the initiative to burn and water-soak a drive, and the data was still recoverable. Then, starting with CES 2010, ioSafe decided to show everyone that their drives are capable of withstanding burning, soaking, dr...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 29, 2012, 1:40 pm
If you use an iPhone 4S and are Apple-centric in your computing this quick tip is for you. The tasks application built into iOS 5.0 is good but it is a bit on the basic side. For many it might be a great option but for others, those of us who need task management with some muscle behind i...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 29, 2012, 1:15 pm
Pulp Fiction One of the things I most love about certain movies are the iconic quotes they contain;  phrases like, "Bring out the Gimp!" from Pulp Fiction, "May the Force be with you." from Star Wars, and "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" from Clerks. Say those words, and anyone...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 29, 2012, 11:00 am
(yes, I am very obsessive about keeping all my apps neatly in folders.) Recently Thomas commented that he had re-read my "Farewell, Android" post, and he wanted to know if I felt the same way since buying my 4s back in October. At the risk of ruining the surprise, the short answer is "He...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 28, 2012, 6:15 pm
Recently I did a review of XVision's video clock app for iPhone and iPad, and Gear Diary and vlock's developer XVision would like to offer up three copies of vlock to three lucky readers! Continue reading on Gear Diary ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 28, 2012, 5:30 pm
For a computer nerd, I'm pretty bad about data privacy and data security.  I had just pretty much decided years ago that I'm hosed; my data is going to be compromised, and it's only a matter of when, and by who. I do my best with passwords and opening email and such, but I'm resigned.  But t...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 28, 2012, 5:00 pm
The folks at IK Multimedia have been at the forefront of developing great hardware and software tools for iOS devices ever since that capability was introduced. I have been a big fan of their products since iRig and Amplitude launched, so when I was offered a chance to review their new Sample ...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 27, 2012, 9:00 pm
Welcome back to another weekend of game deals for you to enjoy! You might notice that this week is a bit slower than previous weeks ... but there are still some great deals! As a reminder, I have refocused on only those sites I feel bring great deals AND great customer experience to...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 27, 2012, 6:00 pm
Now far be it from me to tell a man (or a woman for that matter) how to use their bbq grill. Like politics and religion, grilling is a topic where advice is rarely appreciated or even more rarely followed. I'm sure you're great at cooking a steak over charcoal or gas, and I wouldn't tell...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 27, 2012, 6:00 pm
Who in the world would get excited about a shredder? ME, that's who. So when Judie posted a review of the SwingLine Cross-Cut Shredder last year I took note. You see, as bad as Judie and Kevin's stack of "waiting to be shredded documents" was, Elana's and mine is worse. How much worse? L...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 27, 2012, 5:00 pm
Aren't these just the cutest iPhone 4S cases EVER!?!?! These are the Incipio M&M's feather cases and they are more than just a tasty-looking way to protect your iPhone. The cases are based on Incipio's popular feather line of cases. The feather is "Incipio's answer for a low-profile pro...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 27, 2012, 2:00 pm
I was still warm in the afterglow of the awesome iOS game 'Letters from Nowhere' from G5 Games when I started another hidden object game from G5 Games called Spirit of Wandering. Given the innovative style of the former game, I really didn't expect Spirit of Wandering - a stock standard hidden...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 27, 2012, 2:00 pm
Back in the '70s and '80s there used to be a series of commercials for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups that featured a person with a chocolate candy bar and another with an open container of peanut butter.  The inevitable collision of the two oblivious eaters resulted in them exclaiming "You got y...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 27, 2012, 1:30 pm
Time for another cool mashup video! The folks at Ultimate Guitar have put together a bunch of mashups of pop and heavy metal music, all of which are pretty fun ... but this one was my favorite! It takes Ke$ha's Tik Tok opening and beat track and overlays Lamb of God's Redne...
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Judie Lipsett posted an article on Gear Diary - Jan 27, 2012, 1:00 pm
For the next 24 hours - 1PM EST (6PM GMT) on January 27th until 1PM EST (6PM GMT) on January 28th - Get Games is having an awesome sale on two Steam-loaded games: Serious Sam 3 BFE and Deus Ex Human Revolution. Serious Sam is the follow-on to some of the most fun shooters e...
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