Gear Patrol

Unveiling a new iPod along with the new iPhone is becoming a bit of a tradition, so it’s no surprise that a shiny new iPod Touch and iPod Nano were rolled into today’s big iPhone 5 launch. As usual, the Fifth Generation iPod Touch ($299+) takes its cue from many of the features from the…

Let’s face it, not much was kept secret about Apple’s latest iPhone — so let’s start with what the geekosystem didn’t already know. The new device is powered by an A6 chip that doubles the speed and graphics processing of the iPhone 4S. Like Amazon’s recent Kindle Fire HD, so-called “ultra fast wireless” is onboard,…

With all the noise surrounding Nokia’s other Windows 8 phone, it’s easy for to ignore the Nokia Lumia 820. And while it is, basically, a scaled-down version of the 920 (in both size and specs), that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a look. The 820 shares many of the same genetics as its big brother:…

You get the call — but your cell phone is charging/buried in your gym bag/temporarily lost. While most landlines have gone the way of the dodo, the Philips S10 Cordless Phone re-envisions the now retro (how old does that make you feel?) appliance — and, somehow, it’s not entirely ridiculous. Using Bluetooth, the S10 conglomerates…

From the StarTAC, to the original RAZR to the Droid, Motorola has led the way for mobile hardware on quite a few occasions. Now, firmly entrenched under the wing of its Google mothership, Motorola is kicking off the new era with a family of handsets: the Droid RAZR HD ($299), the RAZR Maxx HD ($199)…

Copying is always the easy way out of anything. That’s why we’ve been impressed with the Nokia Microsoft partnership — since both firms appear hell-bent on blazing their own trails on the mobile road map. The newly announced flagship Nokia Lumia 920 is as impressive as it is bold and serves as an excellent starting…

Brushing off the recent court ruling, Samsung introduces the latest update to their ground-breaking phablet with the Galaxy Note II. With a bigger Super AMOLED screen (5.5” vs 5.3”) at a lower resolution (1280×720 vs. 1280×800), the new smartphone takes style cues from the Galaxy S III. Intended to conserve battery life and reduce screen…

When’s the ideal time to unveil a flagship superphone? When your Korean competition is issued a $1,055,855,000 legal sanction of course. Yes, LG’s newly announced Optimus G (we assume P was taken) is a long-rumored 4.7-inch handset that measures 8mm thick and is the first LTE phone to sport Qualcomm’s quad-core, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro…

GEAR PATROL SPONSORED POST Smartphones are the ultimate connectivity security blanket for a new generation of consumers. But the gift of talking, texting and tweeting from anywhere we fancy comes at the price of distraction. Today, we’re all seemingly at the beck and call of a chime or vibration, pausing life to dig into pockets…

If you can’t palm a basketball, you can forget about holding most Android phones these days. Verizon’s recent addition to the Droid Incredible family is quite the unwieldy mouthful, but the same thing can’t be said about its proportions. The so-called HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE’s highlights include Android 4.0 (with HTC’s Sense 4.0 on…

The new iRig Mix ($100) is packaged with the promise of portable party prowess to help you move the crowd. Whether you’re only rocking an iPhone, or packed your iPad too, IK Multimedia’s latest iTool will process your playlists and allow you to scratch and fade with any iOS device. Twist some knobs to fiddle…

If your penchant for gaming, music and web surfing through your smartphone is a 10/10, then you might want to put a tickler in your calendar for this holiday season in anticipation of the Clamcase Clambook. With nary a hint of Macbook Air (ahem), the Clambook is as thin as the day is long and…

Looking like a hefty version of an everyday cell phone, the IsatPhone Pro packs a well-designed punch. Features include: a case resistant to any harm that might befall it, reliable global coverage, and most importantly, a battery that actually has a life — 8 hours talk time, 100 hours standby — and it can function…

Pico projectors have teased geeks like us for years with the potential of carrying a theater-size screen in our pocket. Tony Stark’s candy land o’ holograms may still be a pipe dream, but European research group Fraunhofer has given us a titillating preview of where display technology is headed with the release of their smartphone…

The anticipation for Samsung’s lastest addition to their premier Galaxy line of mobile phones has been higher than any other Android device we can remember. Was it for good reason? Well, the revealed specs include a massive, 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display at 720p resolution, 16-64GB of internal storage with a microSD slot for expansion, Bluetooth…

There are docking stations and then there are docking statements. In a world wrought with crappy auxiliary plug-ins masquerading as “made for iPod” accessories, this would be the latter. No judgment here if you mistook the Jarre AeroPad Two Dock (~$920) for something out of Gattaca, but we think you’ll find that this device has…

Not currently available for civilian use (check back around the end of the Mayan calendar or a city under Martial Law nearest you), the Motorola’s LEX 700 Mission Critical Handheld puts military-grade situational awareness and command and control into the hands of first responders. With the LEX 700, police, emergency medical services, and firefighters benefit…

The death of your iPad is a palpable loss. When you’re on the go, we recommend keeping your glowing Retina Display enshrined in something that can prevent such a tragedy. While there are plenty of i-accessories out there to choose from, Normincies Radical iPad Bag (~$198) features an anodized aluminum shield backing and detachable handle…

One of the best things about technology is how it can mediate mundane or annoying activities, such as hopping on the scale to see the damage caused by the last few months of winter. Enter the Medisana TargetScale ($207), which transforms the entire notion of the bathroom scale into a device that any UFO fan…

Logitech has a new dog in the iOS speaker fight. Teaming up with Ultimate Ears — best known for the ubiquitous in-ear monitors you see worn by everyone from Bono to Bieber — the Logitech UE Air Speaker ($400) is a single-unit sound system whose engineers are out to prove that it has equal parts…

Apple previously described its foray into the living room as a “hobby”. Now that the tiny black puck has been launched side-by-side with the new iPad, it seems more like the ultimate tablet accessory. Given the new iPad’s crazy-retina display, the new Apple TV finally matches the 1080p output of competing set-top streamers like the…

Right on schedule, Apple has announced their latest iteration of the new iPad. Yes, that’s its official name and it was the biggest surprise of the entire announcement. You can guess that the most important upgrade to the third generation of Cupertino’s market-dominating tablet lies in the ridiculous 2048 x 1536 retina display packed with…

A new season of baseball is upon us and with it comes the latest update to one of our all time favorite apps. In its latest iteration, MLB.com At Bat 12 delivers the avalanche of baseball stat goodness you’ve come to expect, but is now available on the iPhone, iPad, Android and Kindle — seriously,…

The annual Mobile World Congress is the ideal place to show off the latest and greatest in cell phone technology, as long as your name isn’t Apple. HTC’s newly revealed super phone, dubbed the One X, is the most exciting handset to emerge from this year’s mobile smörgåsbord so far and is intended to serve…

Anyone on a budget looking to wade into the world of portable headphone hi-fi should take a good Pei Mei stare at Fiio. In the audio community, the upstart brand is known for providing unbeatable value, and their latest E17 Alpen USB DAC Headphone Amplifier ($140) is no exception. Boasting inputs for mini USB, AUX,…

Steve Jobs always said the iPad was magical. We didn’t think our shiny tablets deserved that level of praise, though, until we laid eyes on the 360-degree interactive rotating meat cuts found in Pat LaFrieda’s Big App for Meat ($7). As a modern day manual for carnivores of all strips, the app contains detailed information…

Etsy maker “punkassjim” came across a photo of an antique electrical handbook and got inspired. The bold title and fun aside notes seemed to describe the iPad 2 perfectly. So, he decided to recreate the look into a set of custom iPad 2 smart covers. All of his wares are made by hand from leather…

Headphones are the new status symbol in a world where everyone owns the exact same phone. So it’s not surprising that Parrot, maker of a wide range of random accessories for mobile devices including a remote controlled helicopter drone and the Asteroid car audio receiver, decided to enter the fray. Like the $1,500 Zikmu iPod…

Looking to go beyond iMovie on your iPad? Consider Avid Studio for iPad. Yup, the software behind some of Hollywood’s biggest films has now been condensed and touch-optimized for the tablet experience, and it costs just $5. Capture media through the iPad Camera Connection Kit or access stored media, and arrange everything quickly in a…

Simple, elegant, purposeful — those adjectives are just as applicable to the iPad 2, as they are to the Magnus iPad 2 stand ($50) by Ten One Design. The pure aluminum base is machine-crafted and equipped with customized magnets to hold Apple’s latest tablet firmly in place. While thicker cases won’t work with the stand,…