Gadget Dose

Tv tuners on Pc’s are nothing new, in fact I think the first time I saw one was back in ‘94. Still, how many people have one? Not very many. Price may be a factor, possibly not many people can see a direct benefit to using one. Why would you want one ? Well, heres a few benefits.

1- (The obvious) - You can watch TV on your pc - computer monitors have always been high def, now I’m not saying that you’ll get HD programming with this thing, you’ll still need a tuner for that. Still - have you ever compared watching a DVD on your TV versus the PC? Try it.

2 - You can watch TV on your pc while working on something else. Sure, you could resize the TV picture to be a small box in the corner of your screen while doing your work. Great way to keep up on your favorite show while doing that work your boss wants you to finish.

3 - You can record TV/Video/DVD/VHS on your pc. Yup, want to have a digital copy you can play on your pc whenever you want? If you get a little fancy you could use even a basic software package to edit out commercials.

4 - You can convert your home videos to DVD- or if you have some older VHS movies you could convert those as well.

The unit comes with a TIVO like recording scheduler - so you can set it like a VCR to record at whatever time you want. It also includes a MPEG editor - with basic editing functions.

As you can see in the picture above it also comes with a remote control - which may be overkill unless you have a big enough monitor to be sitting that far away from the PC.

All in all its a pretty useful box - one thing to look out for though. - Make sure your USB port is a USB 2.0 port. I do not think a 1.0 port has the throughput to make this product worthwhile.

And now for the best part (drum roll please) - the price - $24.99 !!

You can grab one at Tiger Direct HERE

Want a little Christmas cheer by your home or office PC? Theres plenty of options available. This particular tree is one of the better ones. Sporting animated fiber optics and a nice little star on top.

Its fully USB powered and requires no drivers. Heck, what exactly you would need a driver for - except maybe to change the lights rotation speed is beyond me.

At any rate this is my personal favorite USB Tree and its only $17.00

Product Page

Why settle for just any old ornament when you can have a digital one? This nifty little hanging ball of wonders plugs into your USB port and gets loaded up with 50 or so pictures.

Then pop a couple AAA batteries in and your ornament is ready to go. The pictures will rotate in slide show style - you can either hang it on the tree or use the enclosed stand.

The ornament is compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista, so you Linux/Unix fans out there will have to replenish the slideshow via the dreaded Windows.

A very nice twist on the plain old glass ornament.

Find ‘em HERE for $34.95

Todays post is more of a hey - look at this type of post - Buy.com has the Sandisk Sansa e250 2GB MP3 Player, FM tuner, FM on-the-fly Recording, Built-in microphone, Video, Expandable Memory - Refurbished

for $39 bucks! thats a heck of a price reduction off of the $199.99 price tag. IT sports a user replaceable battery - micro Sd expansion slot (max 8 gigs) - video playback - picture playback - voice recording - FM radio recording - all with a 1.8″ TFT screen.

the deal is HERE

And you better hurry as they have limited stock - tell me this isn’t a fantastic Christmas gift - and at this price you can afford to make it a stocking stuffer!

Ok, I couldn’t resist. IF you’ve got a spare usb port just burning a hole in your pocket - why not fill it up with something totally useless that lights up, has cylon action, and articulated arms.

And since its getting closer to the holiday season - why not go with a snobot.

The eye that scans in the ever popular cylon raider fashion can turn blue or red on command, and it also has that evil cylon sound. You can also select the speed of the eye - for those days where a faster eye scan might just be necessary.

Does it do anything else - well yes, you can pose the metal arms.

I’d personally set this up on top of my cubicle wall (30′ cord) and set the eye for my mood. If the eye is red don’t even think of bothering me - or the snowman just might take you down.

Available from the always cool ThinkGeek for the ultra low price of $12.99

Also a perfect secret santa gift for the alpha geek in your office.

Just in case you have a USB hub or still have extra usb jacks to fill don’t forget the interactive USB aquarium.

At first look this nifty little gadget looks like any other SD card on the market. Tiny, full of space for all your digital pictures, but it boasts a hefty advance in technology. This tiny little gem carried a full ethernet card with wireless capabilities. That means when you need to dump your pictures theres no need to find the card reader or grab that USB cable ( now where did I put that again? ).
Really all you need to get your pictures from the camera is a wireless connection. ANY wireless connection. So if your laptop is nearby - boom.. connect and dump with no hassle. If you have a home or office wireless network you could put the pictures on any pc connected to the network.

But it goes even farther than that. If you upload your pictures to a photo sharing service (any of these ) The pictures will be automatically uploaded to the web whenever you are within range of the wireless network.

That means as soon as you get home you just put the camera down and automagically the pictures go to the web. If you’d rather have your photos go to a network drive - you can do that too - or how about both?

It works with 802.11b 802.11g and 802.11n - so the only folks left out are the 802.11a folks and lets face it - its time to update if you are still running that.

So you say your Sony camera runs on memory stick (I or II) - or maybe you use Compact Flash or another format? No problem - they sell adapters for those too.

This functionality is worth its weight in gold - imagine the time saved doing it the wireless way vs. booting up your desktop - getting into the operating system, and downloading all pictures and then uploading all of them to the web.

The card itself stores 2 gigs of pictures and is fairly priced at $99.99 or $129.99 with adapter

Product can be found HERE

Some accesories you might want to go with this are the wireless range extender -(to take your wireless all the way to the back yard…

or the Wireless hotspot detector T-shirt to find public hotspots for your use.

oh - and thanks to DT at Turnthescrew for sending this in!

This tiny little stealthy USB stick is packed with spying software - basically you plug it into any pc for a few seconds and it auto installs its payload - which is a spy software package that allows you to remotely monitor activity from any internet connected pc. It has a hefty load of capabilities (outlined below) - Mind you, there is a yearly charge of $14.95 for I presume the dynamic dns service needed to route one pc to another. The stick itself is $79.95 - which , for the capabilities is not bad.

Benefits And Features

• View and save an instant screen snapshot of the computer being monitored, any time.
• Monitor all web site access.
• Works with all browsers and web enabled programs.
• Monitor both sides of all “instant messenger” communications.
• Automatically translates frequently used Instant Messenger abbreviations.
• Works with all popular IM programs.
• Monitor all email access (SMTP, POP3, IMAP) to see who and when emails were
• received from and sent to.
• Monitor activities in real time, or retrieve activity logs from recent activity.
• Snoop-It Stick records everything, whether you are monitoring in real time or not.
• Store up to 12 months of activity logs directly on your Snoop-It Stick
• All program modules are updated completely automatically so you always have the
• latest version.
• Send the user a pop up message alert. A good way to tell them they’re busted!
• Turn off/on Internet access with the Snoop-It Stick locally or remotely.
• Set allowable times for Internet access.
• Prevent users from using certain types of Internet programs.
• Block access to specified ports.
• Block access to web sites.
• One click “Block Social Networking” option instantly blocks access to sites
• like MySpace.com.
• Completely secure. Only your Snoop-It Stick can access your computer or change the settings you have chosen.
• Works with Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and is Vista ready.

Quite impressive eh? Cheating spouses beware - not to mention corporations,bosses,dogs,cats, and the occasional gecko.

The manufacturers page is HERE
To go along with that you might want to get the worlds smallest video camcorder for when you confront whomever with all that incriminating data.

One of my favorite places to go and gaze upon goofy gadgets ( Toys.brando.com.hk ) has just picked up ssomething I’ve been watching since it came out in Japan some time ago. Back then it wasn’t available for shipment in the states. Now everyone can enjoy this desktop space killer.

Its a small aquarium complete with fish (not real ones) that swim around the tank. Its powered by the USB connector on a 4 foot cord. You can also switch the light on via computer control too (blue led). As if this weren’t enough to get you to give away valuable desktop real estate - theres more!

With the enclosed software you can also feed and “play” with your fish - Feed / Medical / Play / Turn Light on /off. You fill it up with real water and a motor generates a real current.

Now thats probably enough for the goofy desktop toy enthusiast, but I’d actually take it a step further… You could hack the thing and put in real fish! - yeah sure - get that top off and put in a freshwater goldfish - or crayfish - or a small blue shrimp. All those do great in cold freshwater tanks. Here are the specs….

# Swimming fish with hinged tails and life-like motion
# Blue LED nightlight and water current
# Able to feed and play with your fish by using the interactive menu
# Plug and play
# No batteries required
# Compatible with Windows 2000/XP
# 4 feet USB cable
# Size: 11.2×11.2×8.8cm
# Weight: 343g

Youll need a usb port - and surprisingly 200 megs of hard drive space for the software …

A you can’t turn this down kinda deal at $23.00 HERE

And while your at it - you might as well hook up the scrolling usb message board to brag about your new fish tank.

Happy Friday!

How many times have you wondered what exactly your pooch or cat is up to while your away? Sure, you could set up webcams around the house - forward them to external ftp addresses and view them as webcams, but the hassle of that vs. the power requirements are restrictive.

This neat gadget from Tomy allows you to get a “pets-eye” view of fidos day. Just strap it around your pets neck and either manually take shots ( via the remote ) - or set it to go off in timed intervals. Just imagine the satisfaction of catching your dog in the act of chewing your slippers. Or if you have a cat- you can find out where he or she goes throughout their daily rounds.

Features and contents:
Wonderful Shot features:
• 3.5 megapixel camera
• 8 MB internal memory (good for 90 photos)
• Rechargeable battery (via USB)
• Timer: Every 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes

Included in Delivery:
• Wonderful Shot camera
• Remote control
• “Bone” USB cable
• Collar clip
• Camera pack
• Weight: 38g.
• Manual (Japanese)
• Instructions in English

For $79.00 it isn’t exactly cheap, but if you have a little room on that Mastercard it seems reasonable. You can buy one HERE

While your at it you might want to get your dog or cat a cell phone so you can speak to them while your away…

and if you are looking for similar pet type gadgets theres an excellent online store Petgadgets

Now that schools back on, its a great time to start thinking of how to keep track of classes and lectures. This DVR from Sony can record up to 130 hours, and also is smart enough to stop recording during quiet pauses. You can also hook this up to your pc and edit your recordings or even turn them into a podcast.

To make it even more attractive - its now 23% off at $53.99

Grab one at Amazon

Heres a somewhat silly - somewhat cool gadget. They make a usb memory stick version and another version with mini tools and a flashlight. I could see both being useful in many situations. You’d sure be prepared for anything at a LAN party.

memory choices are 512 megs / 1 gig / 2 gig / 4 gig

The manufacturers page is HERE

On the Desk–MX Air is a high performance cordless mouse with laser-precise tracking, ultra-smooth scrolling, and a convenient rechargeable Li-ion battery.
In the Air –Simply pick up MX Air and point. Freespace technology transforms your motions into natural and responsive cursor control

Perfect for controlling your home theater pc, doing presentations, gaming, or just showing off from 20 feet away. Works with XP and Vista.

At $149.99 it isn’t exactly cheap - but its still affordable if you need that kind of distance control.

Grab it at Amazon

If you have a wireless network - 802.11g in this case - you can expand its range with one of these.

Basically they act as a repeater and improve on your range by receiving your current signal and duplicating it. (interesting fact) If you have a couple Linksys access points you already have this feature - you can enable it in the web based admin menu.

Note - that the encryption is limited to 128 bit WEP - which is a good bit short of the best encryption (WPA). That may not suit you if your signal can be “overheard” locally.

Still - if you want to extend your range without going into pre-draft 802.11n spec - then these will fit the bill.

Manufacturers page

There was a day when carrying 2 gigs of information with you meant 200 floppies.
Not anymore - now you can wear your 2 gigs on your wrist -

bring your mp3’s to work - heck - bring a game iso, movie - portable browser - whole operating system …

or better yet - bring something home - its a 2 gig portable drive for christmas sake - take home your corporate secrets.

Just don’t Tell ‘em I told ya.

- Grab one at Thinkgeek for a mere 50 bucks.

Ok, I know what your gonna say… “What the heck is so special about a freakin webcam?”

Well, let me tell ya - and btw this cam is not just for notebooks, it does desktops as well.

First off it is High Definition - yeah it does video at 926 X 720.

Second its got a 2 megapixel sensor and Carl Zeiss glass optics.

Low light ? aha, thats covered - hardware and sofware correction.

Ultra wide view angle and intelligent face tracking.

Kinda makes your webcam look like a Fisher Price model eh?

And to top it all off it’s only $99 bucks ….. See the manufacturers page for details

I’m off to get me one!