Having recently been exposed to all sorts of high-end in-ear monitors from the likes of Shure and Etymotic, my ears are quite sensitive to craptacular headphones and low grade MP3s. The recently announced Super.Fi 5s from Ultimate Ears have been my weapon of choice the last two weeks in a variety of environments that include the streets of Manhattan, on multiple planes, working out and around the house. Audio quality is superb and the novice might not be able to tell the difference between these and let’s say, the Super.Fi 5 Pros, but there is one distinctive difference. Would it deter me from recommending these $170 in-ears? Not at all. Read More
Head over to your local drug store and, next to the other crap marked “As Seen on TV,” you’ll find these Push Up Pros – not to be confused with the Perfect Push-up which is essentially exactly the same device but with a padded hand-rest. But does it really work?
This will be a quick one! What we have here is a dead-simple, compact 500GB external USB hard drive. To be honest there’s very little else to add. That won’t stop me from making you click through to hear about it, though. Read More
Short Version: Kensington’s “ShareCentral 1” provides an easy, hassle-free way to share a USB device between two computers. At $39.99, it’s not too expensive, either.
Keep the Windows Mobile, Android, and Symbian goblins that live in your closet (waiting to destroy your iPhone) at bay with the Scosche “reviveLITE” – a nightlight and iPhone charger in one. It’ll also charge any dockable iPod players.
It’s available in black or white and can be had for $39.99 at Scosche’s website. Might make a nice gift for that special child in your life who has everything — including an iPod and/or iPhone – but can’t get over their fear of the dark. It’d also work for adults who are afraid of the dark, which is like 80% of the population, right? No? Just me?
When I was in Europe two weeks ago I fell in love with Moleskin notebooks. I know I am neither a college-age girl or a pretentious artist but these things are great. The paper is soft and thick, there’s a little pouch for your documents at the end, and they survived the abuse of me running around Paris doing research which is more than I can say for most reporters notebooks I’ve used. But yes, they are kind of for weenies but I’m giving some cool, specially engraved notebooks away, so read on.
Short Version: The Kensington 4-Port USB Charger is an ideal solution for people toting multiple USB-powered gadgets who want to charge more than one of those gadgets at a time without looking for open USB ports and wall sockets.
Here’s USB Man, a little guy that takes the ordinary and mundane task of sharing a USB port and makes all that the aforementioned activity entails ever so slightly less ordinary and mundane. The best part is that “his heart lights up to let you know he’s powered on.” Looking good, USB Man. He costs $27.99 at ThinkGeek.com.
I wrote this up a few years ago but I thought it might be fun to bring it back for our Gift Guide. These things are massive. A friend of mine was wearing one out in the city with me and someone asked him the time. He checked his watch and bust out laughing because it’s like wearing Flava Flav’s watch on your wrist. Not quite a gag gift but close. There’s a product page at the end of the review and you can find them on EBay as well.
Captain’s Log – 0600 hours – Baltic Sea – My men and I have surfaced near Gdansk where we stopped for McDonald’s Hamburgers (made with imperialist swine) and some Polish beer. We are testing our Zlatoust diving watches (AKA the CCCP diver) made at the Zlatoust factory in our glorious Russian homeland.
Quick Version: This handy, compact, five-in-one power doodad from Kensington turns one outlet into three plug-ins and two USB charging ports for $24.99.
Geeks.com is selling the refurbished 4GB Insignia Sport in red, black, and blue for $39.99 when you use code NS4V at checkout. The Sport is a fairly straightforward portable media device that plays music and videos and displays photos, but it’s also got an added feature that you won’t find on most other devices of its kind: Bluetooth.
So if you’ve got some Bluetooth headphones, the Sport might make for some inexpensive wireless audio goodness. Other features include OGG support, 1.7-inch color screen, FM-tuner, and memory expansion via microSD cards.
The promo code (NS4V) is good until the end of November.
Quick Version: Starting at under $40, the Sansa Clip from SanDisk makes an excellent wearable MP3 player if you’re looking for something small that still has plenty of features.
Short and sweet: Kidz Gear Headphones for Kids are just that: headphones for kids. The cans fit little ears, and the swivel mounts allow for comfortable positioning. Volume control on the cord, reasonable sound quality, and an affordable price make these a pretty good buy for Junior.
Quick Version: Sometimes e-mailing files to yourself or dumping stuff onto a USB drive gets old. Kensington’s plug-and-play USB cable makes sharing files between two computers stupidly easy. If you’ve used a USB port before, you’re pretty much set.
Sometimes, the simplest tools are the best: the wheel, the hammer, the chopstick. Today, we can add to that list the FURminator, the pet de-shedding tool. You might say “Oh, it’s just a pet brush.” Yes, it’s just a pet brush. It might be the best pet brush you’ll ever buy.
If you’re anything like me, you have a slew of gadgets and a large electric bill. So when Black and Decker came out with their Power Monitor, I knew that this device was going to help raise awareness on how electricity was being used in my house. In order to use this, you will need access to your electric meter and a copy of your electric bill. You first mount the sensor around your electric meter and position the optical scanner correctly which can be difficult, especially with older meters. This took me a while, but I finally got it but it could prove to be your downfall if you have an incompatible meter.
