We’ve been using MAGHOUND for a couple of months now on an evaluation basis, and we must say, we like the concept. The easiest way to describe it is to say it is like Netflix for magazines, but even that isn’t quite right. In a nutshell, when you join MAGHOUND, you choose a number of magazines that you’d like to receive each month. Let’s say, 3. Unlike traditional magazine subscriptions, though, if it turns out you don’t like a magazine, you just log in to your MAGHOUND account and replace it with something else.

Even better, if you subscribe to a magazine that only publishes every other month, then you also get to specify what substitute magazine you want to receive in the off months. You see, you are paying for three magazines per month, period. So if a magazine doesn’t print that month, you get to choose something else. It’s very cool, especially if you know there is an upcoming issue of a magazine that you definitely want. You can take a look at their complete magazine offerings to see what I mean.

Want in on the action? We are giving away TWO one-year subscriptions to the 3-per-month MAGHOUND plan, which would normally cost you $4.95 per month. Entering is simple - we will give one subscription away on Twitter, and the other on Facebook:

To enter the Twitter giveaway, be sure you are following Gear Live on Twitter, and tweet the following:

Hey @gearlive - Count me in on the MAGHOUND giveaway! http://bit.ly/maghound #gearlive (Click here to tweet this now!)

To enter the Facebook giveaway, just become a fan and leave a comment on the Gear Live Facebook page.

Feel free to enter both. Winners will be selected at random, and if you enter both, you will only be able to win one. The contest runs from today through September 11, at 11:59 PM PDT. We will announce winners on Monday, September 14th, and you must be a US resident to enter.

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (1)
• Email this story

A few days ago, we hit you with our Snow Leopard Review, and interspersed some videos into it. We admit, 2000 words may have been a bit much, and a bunch of you wrote in asking for one video review. Well, we’ve stitched together some of the Snow Leopard videos we’ve done, and put them all in one for a Snow Leopard video review. Mind you, this isn’t a full review of the entire operating system. Instead, we take a look at four or five new things that you, as a user, will see as new, different, or enhanced. In this video we look at the Finder, Expose, Dock Expose, Stacks, and a comparison between Quicktime X and Quicktime 7.

We hope you enjoy it, but if you just want our quick opinion - go ahead and pick up Snow Leopard. It’s worth it. In fact, you can pick up Snow Leopard at a discount on Amazon, saving yourself even more cash off the already inexpensive price:

• Snow Leopard Upgrade: $24.99 (14% off)
• Snow Leopard 5-User Family Pack: $43.99 (10% off)
• Snow Leopard Mac Box Set: $149.99 (11% off)
• Snow Leopard Mac Box Set Family Pack: $199.99 (13% off)

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - MP3

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (1)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

My pal Robert Scoble announced that the Yelp iPhone and iPod touch app that was recently updated included a hidden Augmented Reality feature. Obviously, as soon as we saw, we had to give it a shot, and we figured we’d do it on video. Augmented Reality apps use the camera on the iPhone, along with overlaid information, to present location data while looking at the “real world” - it’s very cool, and you can expect a bunch more of these types of apps to make an appearance on the App Store very shortly upon the release of iPhone OS 3.1.

In this demo, we show you how to unlock the Monocle mode in the Yelp app, and also give you a look at what exactly it does. For now, our early opinion is that it’s a cool idea…it just needs to be refined a bit to be truly useful.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - MP3

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

We were able to spend some quality time with the Zune HD a couple of days ago, and we put together this video walkthrough of the interface on the device. Unfortunately, we weren’t connected to Wi-Fi, so we weren;t able to show web browsing, downloading from the Marketplace, or Social, but this gives you a really good idea of what to expect when you get pick up your Zune HD (available for pre-order now) come September 15th.

Our favorite feature? I’ll probably be using the pinned items on the side quite a bit, especially for the recently synched stuff. Quick access to things like that have been much needed on touch devices. A runner up would have to be the quick scroll in the music browser. Again, it saves you on just quickly swiping a bunch of times, hoping to get to the right spot.

All in all, we’re impressed. Of course, we will have a full Zune HD review when we get our own device. For now, be sure to read up on everything we know about the Zune HD.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - MP3

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

We realize that it’s been a few weeks since our last giveaway, so we are back with a vengeance this time around. As part of HP’s Back to School: Better Together campaign, we are a part of 25 different sites that are giving away a bunch of portable computing technology to one lucky winner. So, what’s up for grabs? Take a look:

• One HP dv6 notebook: Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, Windows Vista Ultimate, 4GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Blu-ray drive
• One HP Mini 110 netbook: Intel Atom 270, Windows XP, 1GB RAM, 10-inch display
• A customized Gear Live Timbuk2 bag
• Syncables software pre-installed on the notebooks, for hassle-free synchronization between the two

Sounds good, right? We’ve made entering super-easy. Here’s how to throw your name into the hat:

• Become a Fan of Gear Live on Facebook
• Follow Gear Live on Twitter
• Send out the following update to your Twitter account: “Hey @gearlive - Count me in on the HP Notebook giveaway! http://bit.ly/hp-giveaway #gearlive”
(Click here to tweet this now)

That’s it! Our contest runs from today through August 20, at 11:59 PM PDT. As long as you’ve completed the above requirements by that time, you are entered. The winner will be picked randomly, and contacted through Facebook messaging, and will need to respond within 48 hours, or else another random entry will be selected as the winner. This contest is open to anyone, as long as you live on planet Earth, so you non-US residents, feel free to play along.

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (12)
• Email this story

GM‘s OnStar service has a few convenient features, along with some nice safety features in place to aid in the recovery of your vehicle if it happens to be stolen. In this episode, we take a look at Remote Ignition Block, a new OnStar feature that stops your car from turning on in the event that it is reported stolen. In conjunction with GPS satellites, this helps law enforcement find your car much faster than they’d likely be able to otherwise.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - MP3

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

Tom Cullen of Sonos stopped by to give us a first-hand look at the new Sonos Controller 200 CR200 remote control. A marked improvement over the original Sonos Controller 100, the CR200 is a full touchscreen device that allows you to interact with music from a vast amount of sources and services, both on your network and from the Internet, with relative ease. We give you a look at how it all comes together in this episode.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - MP3

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

A few days ago we did a quick post of our Xbox 360 August Dashboard Update video, promising that we’d publish the actual video podcast version later. Well, here it is. In case you missed it, we give you a 35-minute full walkthrough of the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update, giving you a look at the new Netflix features, Avatar Marketplace, Games on Demand, Indie Games, and more. Go ahead and give it a look for all the goods. Definitely a nice, solid Xbox 360 update.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - MP3

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

We got our hands on the Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 personal video recorder, and we bring you a review of this unit in this episode. The Hauppage HD PVR 1212 connects to your HDTV peripherals using component cable, and then goes out to your display over component as well. It captures the video output live, and records it to a computer, which will then let you edit that video. It is fantastic at recording video game sessions in full HD resolution, as we demonstrate in the video. Take a look, and if you want one, you can pick up the Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 on Amazon.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - MP3

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (1)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

Whoa! Gear Live is now five years old—can you believe that? I sure can’t. It seems like it was just yesterday that I started up this little blog, to share my thoughts on consumer electronics in my spare time, and eventually getting a friend to help me post some news. Before we knew it, this become my full-time gig, and we were adding writers, and sections, left and right. Today, Gear Live has over 20,000 articles spread across our various sections, headed up by some of the best writers in the blogging game. We’ve got video shows, giveaways, and a social network that we are building as well. Regardless of how many things we’ve got going on from the past, we will always have some neat tricks up our collective sleeves in the future.

So how are we celebrating? Well, how about if we gave you presents? Since it’s our fifth birthday, we decided we would give away five Mophie Juice Pack Airs. After all, people are all over the iPhone 3G S if our numbers are correct (they are,) and what better way to celebrate than by doubling the battery life of your iPhone 3G or 3G S?

How do you enter? Simple. Just leave a reply in our ‘Gear Live Turns 5’ forum thread, letting us know what your favorite Gear Live story of all time happens to be. It can be a text update, or one of our videos. Just leave a link and tell us why you liked it. Once you’ve done that, head on over to Twitter and tweet the following:

“@gearlive Turns 5, and I just entered to win a Mophie Juice Pack Air! http://bit.ly/mophie-air” (Click here to tweet this now)

We will choose five random entries as our winners, and they’ll receive the Mophie Juice Pack Air for their troubles. Why should you want one? Check out our Mophie Juice Pack Air review. Now to start comparing kindergarten programs…

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (1)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story