Last Friday, we were greeted by the most terrible news imaginable – made even more terrible by the fact that it was completely unexpected. Pete Wilson, a great friend and benefactor of The Geek Beat (and without whom, we probably wouldn’t be here), died following a massive heart attack during hip replacement surgery at Stanford Hospital.

I have been a regular guest of Pete’s news and talk show, The Pete Wilson Show, since my days as Editor-in-Chief of Macworld. When I left Macworld in 2001, Pete was one of the few members of the media who stayed in touch, still inviting me on his show from time-to-time to do tech commentary. Only now, instead of just Mac stuff, Pete gave me a forum to talk about all manner of technology. As a journalist focused exclusively on the Mac for the previous 20 years, this was an amazing opportunity to expand my scope and incredibly generous of Pete to make possible.

It was Pete who encouraged me to start The Geek Beat, when our ad hoc sessions evolved into quarterly events with me writing buyer’s guides on all manner of stuff and then discussing them on the air with Pete. And it was Pete’s show, more than anything else, that was responsible for driving that all-important initial traffic to our site. Pete got nothing out of this. In fact, at first, I was at something of a loss to explain this unprecedented act of generosity. But as I got to know Pete better, I realized that was just who Pete was – a good and generous man.

Of course radio was just a small part of Pete’s world. And I will leave it to others more qualified to eulogize his considerable achievements. However, I believe it’s how someone handles the small things in life that is the best measure of their worth. And based on that measure, Pete was a very worthy man, indeed.

We will miss you, Pete. We are all diminished by your absence.

Pete’s family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to your favorite charity in his name.

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:

Logitech’s line of programmable remotes have long been the king of multi-device controllers, allowing users not just to control a device, but to cluster device operations into tasks that make it easy to run even the most complex home entertainment set-ups.

With the Harmony 1000 Advanced Universal Remote, Logitech has severed its last tie to the traditional remote by eliminating 90 percent of the buttons. Instead, most of the remote (which isn’t even remote-shaped anymore), is a big touchscreen that configures itself automatically with the controls necessary for the task at hand, and that task alone. This makes the 1000 capable of controlling a plethora of devices while at the same time operating like a single-device remote. (more…)