Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Closet Speed Freak

In the gadget food chain, routers rank right next to bottom feeders like printers in terms of consumer buzz. It’s just hard to get jittery over a small block of plastic and metal that passively blinks its way through life. Technophiles who really understand the router’s role as the pit boss of the digital home [...]

Well Sounded

Long before AirPlay was on the scene, Sonos products made streaming music wirelessly throughout the home an easy affair. The company’s new Play 3 ($299) speaker is no exception. Designed to act on its own as a small but mighty audio solution for apartments, or as part of a larger Sonos system, its 5.2 x [...]

Assaulting Batteries? Guilty as Charged.

Mac heads are normally a pretty cohesive group — that is until you ask what “magic” product they prefer using. Both the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad have their respective advantages, but until recently, dealing with frequent battery changes was an issue for either side. Thanks to the Mobee Magic Charger ($50) the tides have [...]

Free (Jay)Bird

Jaybird’s new JF3 Freedom Bluetooth Headphones ($100) are built from the ground up to be the workout accessory you’ve always wanted. Their Bluetooth connectivity allows them to connect to your iPhone, or any stereo Bluetooth device wirelessly, which is a huge plus for anyone whose nearly been garotted by their current wired set mid-lift. They’re [...]

Aperion's Take On Wireless* Surround Sound

Probably the biggest issue most people have with installing a surround sound setup is dealing with wiring. Hiding the wires for the center channel, sub, and left/right surrounds is typically easy since they often tuck behind the entertainment console. It’s really the rear surrounds that pose the biggest risk of decor destruction. Aperion Audio’s new [...]

Dead Zones Be Damned

Wireless internet is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. If you’re paying for internet service, then expecting to have full Wi-Fi coverage throughout your home or business shouldn’t be too much to ask. Unfortunately, unless you shelled out some serious dough for your wireless router, you’ve probably become all too familiar with Wi-Fi dead [...]

Das Beaut

We fully endorse Sonos’s line of high-end multi-room audio equipment, and honestly feel their competing systems provide more flexibility than the pricier 2Raumfeld ($1,794). That said, Raumfeld’s system certainly scores for its stylish Bauhaus looks, which can be more important to some, and gives Sonos a run for its money in sound quality. What’s included [...]

Making Home Theater Computing That Much Easier

Recently when we purchased a Mac Mini to use mainly as a home theater computer in our lab, we started searching for a great wireless keyboard that would make navigating the computer from the couch an easy affair. After a thorough hunt, we came across the Adesso wireless SlimTouch Mini Touchpad Keyboard. Very lap friendly [...]

Finally a Laptop with No Strings Attached

Steve Jobs’s finger may consistently rest on the cool-factor pulse of the world, but that doesn’t mean he’s the only one who gets it. In a break from the traditional corporate cookie-cutter workhorse laptops that built the Dell Computer empire, the Latitude Z represents the convergence of several nascent technologies built with portability in mind. [...]

Wireless Speaker Solution that Finally Lives Up To Its Promise [click to enlarge image] One disadvantage of having a gadget and gear addiction is that eventually you find little impresses you. So it goes without saying that I had my doubts when the decision was made to test the unit during our last Gear Patrol [...]