Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Peer into the future, without the crystal ball

We kicked off 2012 by visiting not-so-beautiful Las Vegas to attend CES, with the hope of getting a head start on the exciting new products that will launch over the coming year. While we’ll continue to highlight gadgets revealed there on a regular basis, one of the best parts about being on the ground at [...]

Who says enterprise has to be dull?

Lenovo has made it clear that it intends to grab a piece of the Android pie with its K2 and S2 IdeaTab tablets. Both of the portable, but not groundbreakingly thin, 10.1-inch tablets will run Android 4.0. The higher-end K2 is one of the first tablets to feature a 1080p screen. Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 [...]

In Living Color

Is it an eReader or a tablet? Kindle or iPad killer? Does it really matter? Packing a dual-core CPU, Gorilla Glass coated multi-touch 7″ IPS panel, and its own special brew of Android, the 14.6 ounce Amazon Kindle Fire ($199) is all about the content. Sure, it may lack some niceties like a camera, mic [...]

No Screen Protectors Required

While every other tablet maker has been focused on cramming components into ever-shrinking casings, Panasonic has been hard at work applying the engineering tricks of their Toughbook laptop line to an even more portable device. The result is a newly announced Panasonic Toughbook Android Tablet. Specifics like pricing and what version of Android the device [...]

A peek of what's to come?

While you were busy BBQ’n with friends and family yesterday, Asus decided to tease the world with the Padfone. Hard facts really aren’t available at this point, but as the picture and videos below illustrate, the main draw of the padfone is its unique tablet shell. We do know the device will run some form [...]

What You Need to Know Before Diving In

2011 is the year of the tablet, no matter how hard we and our wallets squirm over having another gadget thrust into our lives. But why now? A discussion on that topic could take longer than the birther diatribe if explored in full, but the short answer is we have our smartphones addictions to thank. [...]

The right play for this book

Photos by Gear Patrol Falling from grace is an experience many businesses never recover from — especially in the vicious world of consumer electronics. BlackBerry, once the darling brand of the technological elite and synonymous with power and status, is working to be the exception. In just a few short years, while companies like Apple, [...]

Backup Protection

Apple’s new smart covers do a lot of cool things for the iPad 2, but protecting the shiny aluminum back isn’t one of them. The Xgearlive iPad 2 Smart Cover Enhancer ($35) lets you still use that $38 magnetic flap while providing added security against back-stabbing encounters. Made from vaguely described “polycarbonate material” covered with [...]

Keep Your Doritos Fingers Away

The Acer Iconia-6120 14-Inch Dual-Screen Touchbook ($1,200) is the latest iteration of a budding computing form factor that wants to walk the line between tablets and laptops. Unlike the petite Toshiba Libretto W100, this king of the Iconia series sports two 14-inch Gorilla Glass touch panels that provide plenty of real estate for all manner [...]

The Tablet You Love, Take 2

Let the speculation cease. The iPad 2 ($499-$829) is official. Apple’s latest creation features a new A5 dual-core chip, that’s 2x faster than the original and 9x faster graphics performance. A front and rear video camera are now included too, with the latter being capable of recording 720p video at 30fps — implying HD video [...]

WebOS Goes Tablet

The wait is finally over folks. HP has announced a Web OS 3.0 runnin’-tablet called the the TouchPad, and it looks mighty fine. Its 9.7-inch, 1024×768 XGA multitouch screen, 16 or 32GB of storage, 1.5 pound weight, and 13mm thickness should seem familiar. A 1.2Ghz Snapdragon processor, a 1.3 MP front facing camera for video [...]

As men, we’ll always be suckers for shiny things. There’s no point in fighting it. Particularly when they can help do things like battle our inbox(s), catch up on missed episodes of the shows we’re too busy to watch, or single-handedly sway the tide of battles using just our thumbs. This gift list is a [...]

Part Netbook, Part Tablet, All Sexy

Love the idea of a tablet, but can’t bear to part with your keyboard? Well, Dell has heard your plea and developed the “convertible” Inspiron Duo ($550) netbook in the hopes of bringing you the best of both worlds.

And Then There Were Two

We opted to wait on covering the most promising tablet device to arrive for Android until it hit shelves. Now the wait is over and you can pick up this 7″ 1024 by 600 multi-touch tablet from T Mobile or Sprint for $399 with a two-year contract. Alternatively you could pay $600 to own the [...]

Barnes & Noble Gives E-Ink the Boot

Definitely not an e-reader, and not quite a full-fledged tablet, the newly announced Barnes and Noble’s Nook Color ($250) blends an interesting mix of features that could change the current landscape of gadgets vying to replace your laptop, paperbacks, and magazines.