Archive for the 'Gadgets' Category

3 Sites To Help You Save Money Online

clipped from consumerist.com
con_pricespider.jpg PriceSpider works much like WishRadar that we mentioned last week, except PriceSpider focuses exclusively on electronics, and searches more sites. You choose the product and set a target price, and when it sees that price somewhere online, it sends you an alert.

PriceProtectr will help you take advantage of any price-matching guarantees at 72 different stores. “If we notice the price drop any time within the price protection period, we’ll send an email your way (and we’ll keep sending them if the price keeps dropping).”

The founder of Spendfish has a collection of deal-related websites posted on his personal blog. It’s a great place to start if you’re not sure where else to look.

“A Universe of Gadget Advice” [New York Times]

Popularity: 91%

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Breathe New Life into your Old Gadgets

clipped from lifehacker.com
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With all the buying that goes on this time of year, our aging gadgets seem older, more out-of-date, and just plain obsolete in the face of all the shiny new toys glimmering on the display rack—which, of course, is part of what motivates us to pry open our wallets for newer and better stuff. But this year, instead of forking over more cash to the likes of Jobs and Gates for their newest toys, we’re taking a look at several ways to make your old gadgets new again. From the iPod and Xbox to a run-of-the-mill PC, chances are you’ve got something lying around the house that could use a free or cheap upgrade.

Popularity: 100%

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Eye-Fi WiFi-enabled SD card finally shipping

clipped from www.engadget.com

It’s taken well over a year for Eye-Fi to bring its self-titled wireless SD card to market, but on the plus side, that Benjamin now gets you 2GB of storage — a welcome boost for a rumored capacity that had dipped as low as 512MB. In case the past 18 months have made the details a little fuzzy, this 802.11g card requires a one-time setup on your PC before it’s ready to automatically upload full resolution pics to one of 17 websites each time you turn on your camera. Even better, a backup copy is also sent to your PC, ensuring that your photos are safely archived when your favorite social network folds.

Popularity: 49%

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Gizmodo.com - the State of HD DVD

clipped from gizmodo.com
format-trains.jpgWhere Blu-ray is a freight train of unrivaled weight and marketing might, backed by 13 of the world’s most well known electronics and computer makers, HD DVD is a Little Engine That Could, the product of a much smaller group of collaborators that has gotten over each obstacle by simply thinking it can. Judging from early buzz, HD DVD should have been beaten long ago. Today, though, it appears healthy and gaining in momentum thanks to lower prices, less confusion about disc standards, less in-fighting among the format’s supporters and a high likelihood of cheap Chinese models arriving soon. This piece answers the following questions: How in hell has the HD DVD camp lasted this long? And how will the format’s backers stay competitive in the next year in the face of cheaper and more plentiful Blu-ray players?

Popularity: 23%

Lifehacker.com - 20 best iPod utilities

clipped from lifehacker.com
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With a new generation of iPods on the market this holiday season, your reliable old iPod may not seem as shiny as it once did. But with the help of third party applications and utilities, you can unlock tons of useful functionality you never knew was there and revive that aging iPod so it doesn’t look quite so bad next to its successors. Whether new or old, the following 20 iPod utilities can help you get the most from your iPod.

Popularity: 74%

lifehacker.com - Decrypt your DVD’s

clipped from lifehacker.com
dvd43.pngWindows only: Freeware application DVD43 decrypts DVDs and CDs, removing most copy protections schemes so you can interact with the media using whatever ripping or copying application you please (similar to the shareware alternative AnyDVD). DVD43 runs in your system tray, detects when you’ve inserted a new DVD, and automatically removes the encryption (the smiley face turns green when it succeeds). I’ve always had a lot of luck using DVD Shrink to rip and copy DVDs, but if you’ve ever run into problems working with encrypted DVDs on your PC, DVD43 is worth a try. DVD43 is freeware, Windows only.

Popularity: 42%

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HD DVD player at Wal-Mart for $98

clipped from www.dailytech.com
Just as the market was getting used to the idea of a sub-$200 HD DVD player, the looming promise of crazy sales for this holiday season has driven high-definition movie hardware at levels never thought possible.
Believe it or not Wal-Mart is advertising that it will sell the Toshiba HD-A2 this Friday for $98.87. The holiday-themed ad calls the sale this Friday the “Secret In-Store Specials.” The Toshiba HD-A2 is asterisked with the notes saying that the product may not be available in all stores and that it will be while quantities last – suggesting that there could be a limited number set aside as a “doorcrasher” item.
The third-generation Toshiba HD-A3 will also be soon selling at $169.99 at Sears during its Black Friday sale, according to blackfriday.info. The player currently sells for $299.99.

Popularity: 21%

Wirelessly upload images to your pc with Wi-Fi SD card

clipped from gizmodo.com
eye_fi_425.jpgThe Eye-Fi 2GB SD Card that can wirelessly transfer pics to your computer just got FCC approval. There’s an 802.11b/g Wi-Fi chip on board, allowing you to upload shots that you’ve taken without plugging in your camera. The feature’s been around in other cameras before—Kodak’s Easyshares come to mind. We’re not sure about the features, but if this can somehow stream pics as you take it and delete them afterwards, you can have a relatively unlimited storage card (as long as the battery in both your camera and the laptop you’re streaming pics to hold out). [TGDaily via Slsahgear]

Popularity: 50%

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‘Second Earth’ found, 20 light years away

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk
Scientists have discovered a warm and rocky “second Earth” circling a star, a find they believe dramatically boosts the prospects that we are not alone.
The planet is the most Earth-like ever spotted and is thought to have perfect conditions for water, an essential ingredient for life. Researchers detected the planet orbiting one of Earth’s nearest stars, a cool red dwarf called Gliese 581, 20 light years away in the constellation of Libra.
Measurements of the planet’s celestial path suggest it is 1? times the size of our home planet, and orbits close to its sun, with a year of just 13 days. The planet’s orbit brings it 14 times closer to its star than Earth is to the sun. But Gliese 581 burns at only 3,000C, half the temperature of our own sun, making conditions on the planet comfortable for life, with average ground temperatures estimated at 0 to 40C.

The Earth-like Gliese 581C circles a star in the constellation of Libra that is cooler than our sun

Popularity: 24%