Recently in Gadgets Category

I saw these Citizens while on a layover in Japan. They are way cool. They are solar powered and can last for 2.5 years on one charge. They also have dual time zone which I really need. This latest one also has standard time reception via radio waves, so it should theoretically always be accurate in US, Europe and Japan. Its called the Promaster and I'm having a hard time finding it on the core Citizen, although that site is just too flashed and way too hard to use.

A similar model available now is the Skyhawk JR3060-59F, it doesn't have the radio control function, but looks very similar. Has 22 time Zones, interchangeable analog and digital times so you can see the time in two places at once. The key feature I need. It is titanium and is available for about $280-$300 vs the $500 list. Amazon has a good list of product reviews. The main ones are that the time zones thing is great, but it doesn't know about daylight savings time. The big ones are though that the crystal scratches a lot, the alarm is very quiet (that's sort of a bummer, my Suuonto is the same way, so I use my Blackberry) and it doesn't have a good backlight (the Suuonto I have has, but it is very dim). The plusses are that it never needs winding. Another thing is the band has to be professionally adjusted.

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Sonicare Replace Charger Base

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Sonicare is literally the only consumer electronics I've seen in the last five years that doesn't have a universal input. It only takes 120VAC and so we've blown two out in China by accidentally plugging them into 220V.

Also it is impossible to find just the charger, so you call 1-888-666-5765 and have them delivered only in the US. Get international Sonicare!

Headphones

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Well, I seem to have misplaced my beloved Etymotic ER4-S headphones, these are In Ear Monitor headphones that plug into your ear canal and really offer amazing sound quality.

So here's an update from headphone.com, ""Head-fi.org":http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2 ilounge and headphonereviews.org on the best in-ear monitors. In short, the ER6i seems best for just plugging into an iPod and has fallen in price to about $85 (expensive, but worth it!) while the ER-4S remains good, but has major competition from Ultimate Ears and Shure now for deluxe $200 headphones. These $200 headphones by the way with a good headphone amplifier like "Bithead": rival $20,000 speakers.

I still have my ER6 which set the stage and were one of the first very amazing headphones and the :"ER6i":http://www.headphone.com/guide/by-headphone-type/in-ear-monitor-type/etymotic-er-6i.php is the variant that has more bass so is perfect for the iPod, but the ER-6 is more accurate. These are about $120 from Headphone or $95 from Discountheadphones.com including shipping. Or you can goto Mpire and find it for $80 from Amazon which is an amazing deal.

The next is the ER-4 series, with the ER-4P if you mainly use it unamplified directly into an iPod and the ER-4S if you want the flattest response and use a headphone amplifier.

ER-4S go for$180 delivered according to Pricegrabber, Mpire shows auctions at $174 delivered for the ER-4P $214 from Amazon

As you can see from the reproduction chart both the ER-6 and ER-4S are amazingly close in reproduction, with the ER-6 having slightly less at the highend and the ER4-S slightlky more. The ER-6 is about $100 and the ER-4S is $200 so take your pick.

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Beware of Mobile Sidewalk!

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Beware of theses guys at Mobile sidewalk a buddy of mine, Brian, told me about them, I browsed their site and then they asked me for my mobile number. Little did I realize that they would start charging me $10/month via T-mobile for a service I never used.

Amazing that folks can get away with this kind of stuff since it is at the bottom of a bill that you'd never notice. T-mobile is super (unlike Cingular, arrgh, those guys are just terrible, I'm still fighting over bills for the last three months) in blocking them, so if you head to this site, don't give them anything!

Another in a set of clever ideas
Inflight Power Recharger Cables
Finally you can power your handheld device while in-flight from your coach passenger seat!

What it does is take the power that comes out of the headphone jack and converts it into a USB power outlet. So you can charge your cell phone or your iPod just about on any flight. Doesn't help with a notebook though,m but its pretty cool. As an aside, Gomadic has just about every tip in the world converted to USB. I got a similar kit once and it is very useful.

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Mogo Wireless Bluetooth Mouse

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Perfect gift for the road warrior that has everything. This is a mouse that slips into the PC Card slot of a laptop (who uses those anymore anyway), then it uses Bluetooth to connect to the laptop. For all of us who suffer while using a touch pad but would rather have a mouse. $70 from Tigerdirect.
Newton Peripherals MoGo Wireless Bluetooth Mouse (Gray) MG-100-01-0002-01 at TigerDirect.com

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Eagle Creek 0-50W Transformer

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. I wish I had this right now. It is a very small transformer that takes 220 and makes it 110V. Everything I own except for my Philips Ultrasonic toothbrush is 120-220V. Philips, get a clue. Otherwise, get this $15 thing. If you buy two from eBags, you even get free shipping.


Eagle Creek 0-50 Transformer > Travel Accessories > Travel Accessories - eBags
Eagle Creek 0-50 Transformer. Steps down foreign voltage (220-240V) to a North American (110/125V) current for use with electronic appliances such as; shavers, battery chargers, curling irons, and other 110V electric appliances between 0-50 watts.

Pairing JX-10

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Jabra JX10 Bluetooth Headset Review | Everything Treo
o get the Jabra JX10 into pairing mode, there is a tiny button on the back of the headset. Initiating pairing mode on the Jabra JX10 was easy enough.

This thing doesn't work like any other bluetooth headset I've had. Normally you hold the ON button to get it pair, but with this thing, there is a micro button. You turn it on and then hit the button and the headset goes solid blue.

Sonicare Registration

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Sonicare Registration. These are really great toothbrushes, if you read the fine print, you'll see that this online registration gets you some coupons. Just make sure to opt out of getting email spam from Philips.
With a few mouse clicks, you can register your Sonicare toothbrush right now and receive by email $27.99 worth of Sonicare savings certificates on future purchases.

Well, I seem to have misplaced my Plantronics 640 headset again, so not a bad time to look at the headset market once more. Here's the recommendations:

  • Plantronics 640. These have come down a lot in price to $65 at newegg. Nice form factor. It is nine grams and loud enough. Main problem I had with it is that the little pen holder clip broke which is how I lost it. Main issues are that clip and also if you are not careful the headset can fall out of its charging holder.
  • Motorola H5. Potentially the perfect headset but it is delayed until 2007 due to audio quality issues. It is only 5 grams and uses in bone conductance, so you can use it even in a subway!
  • Plantronics Discovery 645. The big brother to the 640, it adds a DSP chip to reduce noise. No word on whether it is worth paying $20 more for this.
  • Jabra JX10. It is bigger and bit wierd looking but it does have a DSP and a nice review.

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