On Gear Live: Samsung S95C: The OLED TV You Can’t Afford (to Ignore!)

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Diamond Tears Edge headphones

This morning Monster announced the debut of its Diamond Tears - Edge high definition music headphones at CES 2012. Developed in partnership with J.Y. Park, the Diamond Tears - Edge is the first in a line of planned audio products from Monster and JYP Entertainment. The design of these over-ear headphones is based on J.Y. Parls musical talent, including Rain, Wonder Girls, and more. They say these headphones are "edgy like diamonds, but smooth like tears." If that strikes your fancy, then you can look forward to picking them up in the first quarter of the year for $279, with an in-ear model to follow in the second half of the year.

Gallery: Diamond Tears - Edge over-ear headphones from Monster and J.Y. Park


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Monster Diesel VEKTR

This morning at CES 2012 Monster Cable announced the VEKTR on-ear headphones. Partnering with Diesel, the fashion lifestyle brand, they've created a stylish headphone that features strong lines in a diamond-cut design. Of course, looks are great, but with headphones that sell for $249.95, you're also gonna want to make sure they sound good. Monster says that VEKTR offers a premium-quality listening solution, and this is the company that brought us the Beats by Dr. Dre audio line as well, so we trust them. Aside from the VEKTR on-ears, Monster will also be releasing an in-ear model as well, which will sell for $149, which will feature a jet black earpiece with yellow accent, and the Diesel logo. Look for both models to arrive later this quarter.

Gallery: VEKTR on-ear headphones by Monster and Diesel debut at CES 2102


2011 will come to an end in just a few short hours, and we are just in time with our annual top 10 list of the most-watched Gear Live video episodes. Over the past year, as expected, there was a bunch of gear that made the list, but the HTC Thunderbolt gets two of the top spots, as does the Motorola Xoom.

Oh, and if you wanna be sure to get our new video episodes as they come out in 2010, be sure to subscribe to us in iTunes, on YouTube, or in your RSS reader!

Also, you can check out the top ten videos from 20102009, 2008, and 2007 - and when you're done, be sure to check out the top 10 most popular Gear Live stories of 2011 as well!

Click to continue reading Top 10 Gear Live Videos of 2011

Gallery: Top 10 Gear Live Videos of 2011


AppleCareWe know a ton of you got some new  gear over the past few days, and we want to make sure you protect those items appropriately. Whether it's a new iPad 2, iPhone 4, MacBook Air, or even an old-school iPhone 3GS, we thought it would be prudent of us to recommend you get AppleCare for the devices you’ve acquired. Here’s the trick though—don’t buy AppleCare from Apple. If you buy it from Amazon, you can get up to 30% off of the price that Apple will charge you for the same 3-year warranty. Even better, when you go to resell your Apple hardware, if you have an AppleCare Protection Plan attached to it, you get a higher resale value. We’ve compiled a list of the different AppleCare Protection Plans available for the entire line of Apple hardware, check it out:

Apple Mobile Devices:

Apple Mac Computers:

Gallery: Just got a new Apple device? Get AppleCare!


AMD Radeon 7970

The perpetual war for supremacy between AMD and Nvidia constantly leaves enthusiasts dodging shrapnel: When you want the best video card you can afford, why buy one now instead of waiting for the better one the competing chipset designer will undoubtedly release in a few months? This leaves reviewers in a tough spot, too, as we're constantly proclaiming that nearly every new card is the fastest ever. But because you can only live in the world you live in, we're obliged to go there. So, here goes once again: The just-released AMD Radeon HD 7970 ($549 list) is the latest fastest and most feature-rich single-GPU card ever, surpassing our previous Editors' Choice winner, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580.

Though we have little doubt that Nvidia will yank back that title with its next generation of cards, the 7970 is an impressive achievement for the moment.  (It's rumored to become widely available by early January of 2012.)  The inaugural member of the Southern Islands family, it utilizes a fresh architecture AMD refers to as "Graphics Core Next." Based on a new 28nm process technology and utilizing more than 4.3 billion transistors, Graphics Core Next uses a revised instruction set architecture, gives each compute unit the ability to simultaneously execute instructions from multiple kernels, and delivers an increased number of instructions per clock cycle per square millimeter of GPU space. The result, so AMD claims, is "designed for high utilization, high throughput, and multitasking."

Click to continue reading AMD Radeon HD 7970 review

Gallery: AMD Radeon HD 7970 review


Last minute holiday gifts

[Editor's Note: Andru Edwards of Gear Live and the Ask Andru column joined us on this week's GeekWire radio show and podcast to share his top picks for technology gifts this holiday season. Here's a rundown of his choices, just in time your last-minute shopping.]

Kindle Fire: Amazon's $199 tablet is often compared to the iPad, but in many ways it's more appropriate to compare it to the iPod touch, based on the price and feature set. If you want a cheap tablet that can ship to you by Christmas, the Kindle Fire is it. There are some bugs. In terms of responsiveness and the accuracy of its touch interface, the Kindle Fire doesn't always live up to Apple iOS devices, but for $199 you're not going to find anything else that has this feature set, and many of the bugs will be fixed by software updates.

Crayola ColorStudio HD: This $29.99 accessory is a digital marker for the iPad, turning the Apple tablet into a virtual coloring book when used in conjunction with a companion app, with music and animations. With the digital marker, kids can do more with the iPad than just play games. They can be color, they can make their own coloring book pages. Input styles include crayons, markers and paint. Features include Facebook sharing and printing through Apple AirPrint.

Click to continue reading Ask Andru: Eight last-minute ideas for cool tech gifts

Gallery: Ask Andru: Eight last-minute ideas for cool tech gifts


This is an entry from our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide. Check it out for suggestions on what to buy your loved, liked, and hated ones this holiday season!

ceton infinitv 4 usb holiday gift

The Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB is one of the cooler items we're featuing in our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide. It basically turns your computer into a fully-functional live TV DVR. We know that features like Media Center exist on PCs, but the problem is that, until now, it's been hard to get a good signal into your computer. The InfiniTV 4 USB fixes that. It's a CableCARD adapter that plugs into your machine using USB. So all you need to do is insert a CableCARD from your cable provider, plug in your cable cord, and plug in to your computer. From there, you'll have access to all of the cable channels that you subscribe to, and you can record up to four different channels at once. See? We told you this was cool. Great for rooms where you only have a computer and no television, but also great if you want to incorporate a Mac or PC into your home theater setup, as it eliminates the need for a cable box, meaning you save on that montly rental fee. The Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB sells for $299, but you can get one on Amazon for $269, saving yourself 10%.

Gallery: 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB


Twelve South MagicWand review

The Twelve South MagicWand aims to solve a simple-yet-annoying issue with the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad. We've used the Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad combo pretty much exclusively here at Gear Live ever since the Magic Trackpad launched back in July 2010, and while we've enjoyed it (heck, we haven't switched away from that setup yet after 16 months,) there's one problem. Despite the fact that the Trackpad and Wireless Keyboard line up perfectly when next to each other, they have a really hard time staying put.

What I mean is, you constantly have to bring the Magic Trackpad back over to its spot next to the keyboard. It's not something you need to do every few minutes or anything like that, but a few times a day we've found that the Trackpad has mysteriously inched its way across the desk and needs to be wrangled up and brought back home. The TwelveSouth MagicWand solves this.

Click to continue reading Twelve South MagicWand review

Gallery: Twelve South MagicWand review


This is an entry from our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide. Check it out for suggestions on what to buy your loved, liked, and hated ones this holiday season!

eye-fi pro x2 holiday gift

We bet a few of you are wondering what an SD card is doing on our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide, but give us a moment to explain. Eye-Fi cards are the bomb. What you're getting here is freedom and convenience, as these cards will sync and upload the content stored on them without the need for a cable. In other words, put this thing into a camera and snap away. When you get back home to your Wi-Fi network, the images will be transferred to your computer right over the network, over the air. You can also optionally tell it that you'd also like the images uploaded to your favorite social network, like, say, Facebook. Even better? Your images get geotagged too by the Eye-Fi card. These things are straight up awesome, and you can get one on Amazon for $88 (a 17% discount.)

Gallery: 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Eye-Fi Pro X2


Nyko Power Grip

A few months ago, we reviewed the Nyko Charge Base for Nintendo 3DS ($29.99, 4 stars). This clever, yet inexpensive, accessory boosts the battery life to the Nintendo 3DS, but requires you to remove the back panel of your 3DS to attach it. The Nyko Power Grip ($29.99 list) clips onto the 3DS and provides all of the battery-boosting of the Charge Base for the same price, without the need for a tiny screwdriver. Is it worth it? Read on for our full review!

Click to continue reading Nyko Power Grip for Nintendo 3DS review

Gallery: Nyko Power Grip for Nintendo 3DS review


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