Buzz is a fickle thing. It can carry you away on waves of anticipation, promising the fulfillment of all your dreams. But buzz can turn on your just as easily. Nothing can be as good as pre-launch hysteria will make it out to be, and when that new device we’ve been waiting for with such yearning doesn’t turn out to be the cure for all the world’s ills, it can get ugly.

Apple is very familiar with the changeable nature of buzz. Anyone remember the Newton? I do. I wrote two books about it. (No really, two books.) I’m sure somewhere in Apple’s collective hind brain lurks that traumatic memory. Just as I’m sure more than a couple of Apple execs enjoyed some truly epic night terrors on the lead-up to the iPhone launch, probably involving iPhones morphing into Newtons on the store shelves and angry mobs of disappointed consumers hurling globs of egg freckles at Apple’s corporate headquarters. (more…)

It took three fruitless pilgrimages to our local Apple Store before The Geek Beat could achieve iPhoneness, and even then an insider tip was required (a tip which allowed us to bypass the lines altogether and didn’t even require we beat the sunrise – see below).

In the last 24 hours we’ve done little else but play around and take some photos (Exhibit A to your right). Our initial impressions? Wow! I mean, it’s not perfect – lack of an instant messaging client currently tops our list of complaints – but still, wow! (more…)

To those of you who heard the “Best Tech Gifts for Dad” segment on The Pete Wilson Show today, thank you for coming by and checking out The Geek Beat. We hope you’ll find some useful info here, and will visit us again for more.

We’re finalizing reviews of the products that were covered on today’s show, and will be posting them over the next few days. However, we know some of you need access to these products now. Rather than have you wait, we’ve included a complete list of those products (with links) below:

The Helio Ocean
Pure Digital’s Flip Video Pocket Camcorder
The Chargepod by Callpod
One True Media
OSIM iSqueeze Calf and Foot Massager
Brookstone 5-Day Wireless Weather Forecaster
I-Tech Virtual Laser Keyboard
Brookstone Super-Sized Remote
Logitech Harmony 1000 Advanced Universal Remote

Thanks again for dropping by. Don’t be afraid to leave a comment if you have a question or just have a thought you’d like to share.

Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law states, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” And if there is a downside to being a tech geek, besides the whole not-being-able-to-get-a-date thing, it’s that this is an almost impossibly high standard for most technology to reach. Nothing is magical to us, because we know how it works.

Except for I-Tech’s Virtual Laser Keyboard (VLK). (more…)

There’s not much in life dad can lay claim to; unless, of course, you count taking out the trash. By the time your kids reach adulthood, just about everything Dad considered to be his and his alone has been borrowed, broken, beaten-up or just plain co-opted by others in the house.

Except the remote.

The last vestige of alpha maleness remaining in our PC world (the other PC), many “enlightened” men still reserve exclusive control of the TV remote like some treasured weapon of war from a bygone era. Even the most sensitive philosopher will viciously smack any hand that dare reach for this treasured icon of masculine domination, and grunt, “remote mine!” like some irritated Neanderthal.

We at The Geek Beat say celebrate this last crumb of Dad exclusivity by giving your pop a shiny new remote for Father’s Day. We offer the following two reviews for your consideration: