Two Unique HDTV Antenna Designs

Terrestrial Digital has recently launched two digital HDTV antenna's that will change the way you think of indoor TV antennas.



The first, the Lacrosse, is a military grade digital HDTV tuner with a range up to 40 miles. It has been designed to look more like an aesthetically pleasing satellite dish than a clumsy antenna.




Their other antenna design is the Picture Frame Antenna that puts a digital HDTV antenna in a 8x10 cherry finish picture frame. This has a much smaller range of only up to 15 miles but will definitely blend into your home decor.

Best Headphones for Your iPod

I happened to come across a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones (the Quiet Comfort 3) in a store the other day and picked them up to give them a try. All I can say is: wow, and double wow. I have never heard headphones sound so great. Now granted, this was a Bose display with music that is probably tuned for the headphones perfectly, but it certaintly made an impression on me. My 20 dollar earbuds for my iPod can't hold a candle to these. It just felt like I was surrounded by sound; I couldn't hear any distractions of the store and I did not have to crank the volume up. (A common approach we all take with cheap headphones that actually damage our ears) Based upon what I heard (and Ultimate AV had a positive experience with them too), I would buy them in a minute - if it weren't for the $350 price tag. But I think these would be killer for your office or for traveling on the plane; heck these would be killer anytime.

SideShow Is One of the Coolest Technologies with Vista

SideShow is the technology Microsoft is rolling out with Vista that allows a Vista PC (even if its hibernating) to transmit data to other devices like remote controls and small LCD displays. CE Pro has a nice slideshow from CES highlighting a multitude of different devices that will use SideShow.

I'm pretty excited about SideShow - imagine being able to see if you have any new emails without opening and turning your laptop on. Or what about a text LCD display on your keyboard when you are gaming? There was even one application for a SideShow display on the outside of a messenger bag!

What SideShow device would you like to see?

What's the Best Underwater Digital Camera That Won't Break the Bank?

Winter is beginning to set in and that means one thing: vacations to warm climates. And while you may have a nice digital camera for all of your land based memories, have you thought about underwater pictures? I remember when I went to the Grand Cayman a few years back I wish I had an underwater camera with me to capture some of that beautiful underwater scenery. I mean, that's the whole point of going to a warm climate, right? You could try a disposable underwater digital camera but those typically have very low resolution. So what can you get without breaking the bank?

Olympus Stylus 720 SW. Kevin over at Cool Tools likes the Olympus Stylus 720 and the above picture (I'm assuming) is from one of his trips. While it may not be the best camera in the world, for the current street price of $280 and 7.1 megapixel it will certainly do the job and then some. You can read a full review at imaging resource where they love the camera but beat up the image quality a little bit.

Pentax Optio W20. I came across this camera on Amazon and it seems to be very popular and has all the right specs - 7.1 megapixel and 3x optical zoom. It comes in cheaper than the Olympus with a current street price of $255.

You can also get a water-proof housing case for your existing digital camera to take it underwater. I know for myself that I wouldn't be comfortable doing that in case something happens and I lose my main digital camera!

No matter what you decide for your next underwater digital photo shoot, go check out Wet Pixel for some tips on taking great photos.

Save 20% Off Open Box Audio System at Best Buy

I found this link recently for 20% of any open box audio system at Best Buy. It looks like its good until the end of Feb. so if you are looking for a new home theater audio system now might be the time to pick one up!

Let me know if you have any problems using this coupon.

The Geekiest Belt Buckle Ever

This is the coolest belt buckle ever; forget rhinestones, LED’s are the new diamond! You will definitely be the coolest kid on the cube farm block with this bad boy. It’s nice to see technology and style finally coming together.

(via wired magazine)

Sony Saves the Earth and Your Eyes with the Sony Reader

I know with all of the recent fanfare of the next generation gaming consoles that books are probably not topping everyone’s Christmas list but Sony’s new digital book Reader may change all of that. The Sony Reader is yet another product to try and fill the ‘digital book’ dream but it may just live up to its expectations. The screen uses new digital ink technnology and has a highly readable and high contrast screen. Here’s some specs:

The Sony® Reader provides a new way to experience reading. It boasts an impressive display¹, utilizing breakthrough technology that’s almost paper-like. In addition, the text can be magnified for sight-impaired readers. Daylight readable, high contrast, high resolution, near 180º viewing angle.

Measuring 6.9” by 4.9” by .5”,8 the Sony® Reader is smaller than many paperbacks. And at about 9 ounces,⁸ it’s light enough to travel with you wherever you go. Its rechargeable battery powers you through up to 7,500 page turns,² so you’re ready for the long haul, and can be recharged in as little as 4 hours with the AC adapter.

A very compact and light design you can take almost anywhere. And with 64MB of internal memory⁹, and a slot for optional removable memory cards you can take many titles, user-selected Web content, or other supported documents for reading on the go.

I saw one of these in my local Borders and I was very impressed by the small size and light weight. It is very thin and the screen is very bright and the text is extremely sharp. It has the same size as a normal book and the controls were very easy to use. You download books from the web through Sony’s Connect service and the reader also supports plain text and PDF format documents.

The only problem with this is the price tag of 350 bucks. (This is Sony after all) However, a lot of the books can be had for less than 50% of the price if you were to buy the paperback version. I checked a few books that I recently bought for 15 bucks and I could of gotten the digital version for only 5 dollars. So if you read two books a month at a normal cost of 15 dollars a book you could save 20 dollars a month and hence pay off the reader in 18 months.

The Sony Reader is the first digital book device that I would consider trading in my trusty book light and paperback for. Although it has a steep price, if you are an avid reader then this device would pay itself off in a little over a year. As long as Sony can put out enough variety in its online book selection, this could be a big winner.

Is Microsoft's SPOT Watch the Sleeper Gadget of the Year?

A few years ago we all heard about Microsoft’s latest technology called SPOT and the uber-watches that held the technology. What Microsoft did was allow you to download all sorts of content to your monochrome watch like local weather, movie times, and sport scores for a monthly fee. The problem was that the watches were ugly and the technology sucked (it uses FM reception).

But in early 2006 Microsoft revamped the watches and technology and it seems to be making some inroads with the uber geeks. Here’s a Abacus watch that looks pretty good:

I checked out my neck of the woods for the MSN Direct service coverage and it pulled up this map:

This is pretty good coverage but it seems to be the only coverage in Maine. It looks like most states only have one coverage area around the biggest city. But if you spend most of your time in this coverage area (kind of like a cell phone plan) then it shouldn’t be a big deal.

The real question is how well does it work. Is it really that easy to get local movie times? What content can you get on your watch? The best thing to do is to go http://direct.msn.com/channels/default.aspx and watch the demo. I was impressed with the different content you can get like synchronization with Outlook and MSN messenger messages from your friends. They even have a new traffic channel so you won’t get stuck for your morning commute. I would like to see them do a mapping service for directions.

Overall I think the SPOT watches are a real sleeper gadget that has a definite role in the uber geeks life. If you’re looking for a gadget that will give you real-time updates then this might be it for you. (I would love to hear from someone who actually has one of these)