Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!
eBay has the 17-inch MacBook Pro for 24% off for a limited time. These Apple notebooks are packing a 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 processor. They normally sell for $2,299, but the 24% off savings means that you end up saving $550. Shipping is free with this deal as well, so this is an amazing deal all around:
Don’t forget, if you’re looking for other deals, be sure to check out our Newegg Promo Code thread. Oh, and if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow @TechPromos for the latest deals, or you can Like TechPromos on Facebook.
Advertisement
Verizon Usage Controls lets you monitor data, prepares you for end of unlimited use?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Smartphones, Corporate News, Wireless / WiFi,
What does a wireless carrier do when it expects to cancel its unlimited data plan? Offer a data management service.
Verizon, which said in March that it plans to do away with its unlimited data plans by this summer, launched a Verizon Wireless Usage Controls service on Monday, with the ability to set usage allowances, place restrictions on when kids and other members can use their phones, and even block numbers.
Usage Controls is available for $4.99 per month per line, which is added to a customer's monthly service plan, Verizon said.
"Summer vacation means more time for the youngest customers who use Verizon Wireless phones to send and receive messages, download and use apps and games, surf the Web, and make calls on their cell phones," Verizon said. "But, with a few tools from Verizon Wireless, summertime doesn't have to mean unexpected high wireless bills."
I like the Tintin books by Herge. They’re good, goofy fun built on crazy characters, wild coincidences and non-stop action.
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a Tintin movie coming out: The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. It’s due at Christmas in the US (October in the UK) and the newest trailer has just been released.
The trailer looks a lot like Raiders of Herge’s Ark but it also looks like it might be fun, too. It has that dead-eyed Uncanny Valley look to it that you'll find in other mo-cap features like Polar Express.
But I'm still willing to give it a shot in the theater because of the people behind the software.
It’s co-written by Stephen Moffat (Coupling, Doctor Who and the new Sherlock Holmes series at the BBC).
The other co-writers are Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and Joe Cornish (who co-wrote the new Ant Man movie and directed the upcoming Attack The Block).
Tintin’s director is Steven Spielberg, who still has Geek Cred and certainly knows how to make a good adventure movie.
Click to continue reading Tintin: Secret Of The Unicorn
Read More 
| Tintin Trailer
Latest Gear Live Videos
Motorola Droid 3 spec leak: dual-core, 4-inch qHD display
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Handhelds, Rumors,
What we've got above is a leaked image of the Motorola Droid 3, but that doesn't really tell us much about what's happening on the inside of the device. However, TechnoBuffalo is saying that they've got the goods, and if they are to be believed, this'll be a nice upgrade over the current Droid 2 smartphone. The display here is reportedly a 4-inch qHD screen, and inside there's a dual-core processor (similar to the Droid X2,) front-facing camera, and 8 megapixel camera around back. The other pertinent detail here is that the Droid 3 won't be packing a 4G LTE chipset.
Deal of the Day: 25% off Dell UltraSharp U2711 monitor
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Displays, Hot Deals, PC / Laptop,
Dell is offering a 25% discount on their UltraSharp U2711 display, and that's good enough to make that our Deal of the Day. The UltraSharp U2711 boats a WQHD 2,560 x 1,400 resolution IPS panel, 6ms grey-to-grey response time, 80,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio, 8-in-1 card reader, 1 USB 2.0 upstream port, 4 USB 2.0 downstream port, capacitive-touch switches for setup, and an HDMI 1.3 port. Shipping is free with this deal as well, so you end up savings over $275:
Save 25% on Dell UltraSharp U2711 display
Don’t forget, if you’re looking for other deals, be sure to check out our Newegg Promo Code thread. Oh, and if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow @TechPromos for the latest deals, or you can Like TechPromos on Facebook.
Square launches Square Register, which turns iPad into a cash register
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Software,
Square CEO Jack Dorsey is on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt right now, and he just announced a new product from the company called Square Register. It's an app for the iPad that prety much turns the device into a full on cash register on steroids. It also includes a bunch of analytics, which lets users see all sorts of data. For example, a coffeehouse can see how many lattes they sold last Tuesday, how many customers also bought biscotti, or what trends happen when it's rainy out. The product works with a consumer app called the Square Card Case which acts as a digital loyalty card, menu, receipt holder, map, and payment card all in one. The new Register and Case Card service is debuting with 50 merchants spread across San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. These include bakeries, coffee shops, restaurants, salons, flower shops, and more.
We still don't know when the HP TouchPad media tablet will arrive this summer, but a little bird has given PreCentral.net an inkling of what the pricing will be like.
A source tells the site that Wal-Mart will be carrying a 32GB version of the 9.5-inch tablet running HP's own in-house webOS, for the Apple iPad-like price of $599.
A Wal-Mart listing presumably passed along by the tipster doesn't contain a lot of detail, though it does list the $599 TouchPad as Wi-Fi-enabled. Other connectivity options weren't indicated.
The source must have passed on other details, because PreCentral.net reports that the TouchPad will be 9.5x10x1.78 inches, weigh in at 3 pounds, and that a number of TouchPad accessories will also be available from Wal-Mart.
Click to continue reading 32 GB HP TouchPad to cost $599
Amazon sells Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ album for 99 cents in battle with iTunes
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Hot Deals, Music,
Lady Gaga's Born This Way album is one of the biggest album releases of the year, and digital stores like iTunes and Amazon MP3 certainly know that her fans are more than willing to pay full price for the offering. However, possibly more interesting than the album itself, is the price different between the two aforementioned stores. iTunes has the album for the typical $12 (or $16 for the Bonus Track Version,) and we are sure they'll sell a ton of them at that price. In addition, you can buy individual tracks from the album on iTunes for $1.29. However, budget-minded shoppers might want to jump over to Amazon, where they are selling the entire Born This Way album for 99 cents. Yes, for less than the price of one track on iTunes, you can get the entire 14 track album on Amazon. In addition, an Amazon purchase also allows you to store the album on Amazon Cloud Drive, makes it accessible from Amazon Cloud Player, and gives you 20GB of space on the service as well.
Amazon MP3 purchases can be automatically synced to your iTunes library as well, so really, why would anyone buy this one from the iTunes Store?
Read More | Born This Way on Amazon
Weekend Reading: Borders, Barnes & Noble, Batman & Thor
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, Reviews, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Borders Books is finding no takers in its quest for a buyer, so unless a miracle happens, they’re probably toast.
So it’s a good thing they paid all those retention bonuses to people who can’t make anything happen for them.
Their main brick-and-mortar competition, Barnes & Noble, is currently looking like the smartest girl in class. They’ve gotten a $1 billion (with a “b”) offer from Liberty Media.
They probably aren’t interested in the books or the stores, but since Liberty has a lot of old school media holdings, the one thing they lack for modern-day exploitation is Nook technology.
Let’s go elsewhere for good reading:
Batman: Want to know a cool digital-only comic you could be reading for just 99¢? DC’s got one: Batman: Arkham City #1 by Paul Dini & Derek Fridolfs and artist Dustin Nguyen.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Borders, Barnes & Noble, Batman & Thor
Apple says that “App Store” does not imply a store for buying apps
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Software,
According to Apple, an "app store" is not a store for apps. Right. Apple warns, the phrase "app store" is not generic and can only be used to describe their App Store, which is their...um, app store?
"Apple denies that, based on their common meaning, the words 'app store' together denote a store for apps," Apple said in a Thursday filing with a California district court.
Apple has been fighting several tech giants on this point lately. In March, Apple sued Amazon over its Amazon Appstore, arguing that Apple has the exclusive rights to the phrase because of its iTunes App Store. Apple has targeted Microsoft on similar grounds.
Last month, Amazon responded to the suit, arguing that the term "app store" is generic and that Apple should not be allowed to use it exclusively. Amazon cited the American Dialect Society, which recently voted "app" as the Word of the Year for 2010, noting "that although the word 'has been around for ages,' it 'really exploded in the last 12 months,' with the arrival of 'app stores' for a wide spectrum of operating systems for phones and computers.' Indeed the words 'app store' are commonly used among many businesses in the app store market," Amazon argued.
Apple is not buying it, at least not publicly. "Apple denies that the words 'app store' are commonly used among many businesses to describe mobile software download services and further denies that the term 'app store market' is used to describe the market for mobile software download services," the company reiterated in response to Amazon's filing.
Click to continue reading Apple says that “App Store” does not imply a store for buying apps
