Even though we already knew it, Facebook has officially surpassed Myspace with users according to comScore. Even though the two sites were fighting closely for the crown mid-2008, by December the clear winner emerged as Facebook grew to 222 million users, 100 million more than Myspace.

The graph above shows the Google Trend utilizing data from google over the past 21 months. 21 months ago Myspace received double the interest as Facebook… but now people are saying “Myspace who?” and “Will you friend me on Facebook?”

Become a Fan of the Gizmos for Geeks Facebook page!

Apple’s Mighty Mouse may match my keyboard and 24″ iMac in the context of design, but the Mighty Mouse simply does not match the quality of the iMac. After a year and a half, I have finally decided to drop the Mighty Mouse from my desk (literally) and switch to another mouse.

The Mighty Mouse has a design flaw, even though it was “Designed by Apple in California” where the mouse ball gets dirty. Instead of the mouse ball touching the surface of the desk, the ball rotates under your finger. When the mouse gets dirty, the best you can do is disconnect the mouse from the wireless Bluetooth link and clean in one of two ways. First you can follow Apple’s official KB article or you can turn the mouse upside down and rub really hard in all directions and hope the dirt comes out. The official way never worked for me and the second way use to work at least for a couple of weeks. I finally gave up and could no longer scroll side to side or up and down until I was sufficiently angry enough to purchase a new mouse.

In comes the Logitech V470 Cordless Laser Mouse. I decided to try this mouse because it’s a cool blue color, uses Bluetooth, ability to scroll up and down as well as sideways and uses laser technology. This is meant to be a notebook mouse, but even with my huge hands (you heard that right ladies… huge hands!) I decided to give the mouse a try. If I like the mouse enough, I’ll use it with the laptop too.

When I first got the mouse I thought the mouse was indeed blue and a bit small. Since I’ve been using it I haven’t noticed that the mouse is blue or small, just that I again have the ability to scroll horizontally and vertically! My hand fits nicely over the mouse, the buttons are easy to use and the scroll wheel works perfectly fine.

To scroll horizontally, you simply push the scroll wheel left or right until the wheel clicks. While horizontal scrolling is not as elegant as the Mighty Mouse, it works. I find that I typically use the keyboard and key shortcuts to get around the computer, except for scrolling… this fact makes the Logitech V470 Bluetooth Cordless Laser Mouse MUCH better for me to use than the Mighty Mouse. I definitely recommend the mouse for whatever computer you have provided you have Bluetooth. You’d be amazed at the clutter than disappears when you move to a cordless mouse and the accuracy you’ll gain moving from a mouse ball or optical mouse to laser technology.

Gimmie!

Suggested Price: $57.40
Seen on Amazon for: $37.94

Here’s a nice productivity tool that can help you manage your chaos of open windows especially if you’re one of those folks who has tons of windows and browser tabs open (like me!).

It’s a Window Manager that has way more features than you can shake a stick at. Just for starters, you can minimize unused windows in various ways – rolling up, make semi-transparent, closing or to the tray. You can place and size windows exactly where and how you want them.
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E-mail overload? Only want to deal with an e-mail a specific time or day? Take a look at HitMeLater.com. Really easy to use – just send the e-mail that you want later to x@hitmelater.com. Say you want the e-mail in 5 hours? Send the e-mail to 5@hitmelater.com. Want it on Saturday? Send it to saturday@hitmelater.com.

Just one snag – HitMeLater gets a copy of your e-mails!

The free version lets you send up to 5 e-mails per day. The premium versions aren’t that expensive either.

Fatgadget from Geeky Gadgets had a problem, and as all good Geeks do… he solved it.

While working on his PC, he wanted to watch some video but just could not get his iPhone properly propped. Looking around his desk in MacGyver mode, he found 5 pencils and some elastic bands which were crafted into a simple but effective iPhone prop-per we think is brilliant so we dubbed the “iPencil”.

Check out the Geeky Gadgets quick but simple how to.

More alarm clock obsession. This one is for geniuses, or would-be smarty pants. It’s the Mensa Puzzle alarm clock. In order to shut it off, you have memorize a sequence of lights and then punch them back in to the clock. Nice.

Don’t get it wrong, or the alarm gets louder. Definitely a good way to get your brain quickly active in the AM. I think I’d throw mine against a wall.

Buy Now!

Price: approx $30
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Almost 3 years ago, Gizmos for Geeks reviewed GoodSync with the intent of using it to backup important data from a user’s desktop computer to USB thumb drives. Fast forward to today where hard drives have grown tremendously in size and so has data storage and you have an even tougher backup issue. For those of us who also perform a lot of work out of our own homes, backing up data is crucial and backing it up to offsite locations is just as important. I’ve personally decided to test using Amazon’s S3 service to backup my computer’s data and GoodSync has been recently updated to include S3 support. We put the latest version of GoodSync through its paces and in particular, focused on its S3 support.

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Only last week Obama expressed his desire to hang on to his Blackberry:

“I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry. They’re going to pry it out of my hands,” Obama said in a broadcast last week televised by CNBC. “You are interacting with people who are outside of the White House in a meaningful way.”

The concern with Obama continuing to use a Blackberry centers around the fear of the device being hacked. McAfee has detected only a few attacks against the RIM device which is credited to the unique network controlled by RIM. While US engineers might be able to build a Blackberry that uses higher levels of encryption than RIM and the wireless carriers, without this special version Obama’s message cannot have confidence of privacy.

“If Obama uses a vanilla BlackBerry, he should use it with the assumption that the world will read it,” said Entner, the analyst. “His counterparts in the capitals of several countries will read it.”

Research In Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of the Blackberry, has enjoyed an increase in sales thanks to Obama’s free publicity.

Read more on The Seattle Times.

Amazon has added a Music Store to their offerings with categories including Band & Orchestra, Bass Guitars, DJ, Electronic Music & Karaoke, Drums & Percussion, Folk & World Instruments, Guitars, Keyboards, Live Sound & Stage and Recording Equipment.

I’d sure hate to be a brick and mortar music store…

After turning down a Blockbuster offer that was a premium to their then valuation back in April, Circuit City has fallen on harder times and announced January 16th, 2009 on their website that Circuit is going out of business. This affects 567 stores across the US and will result in 34,000 jobs lost. Canadian Circuit City stores will remain in operation.

Unfortunately, Circuit City’s close did not come as a surprise as the economic environment continues to worsen. Having watched big box companies including Sharper Image, Bombay and Linens and Things close their doors and others scaling back on the number of stores including Starbucks and Home Depot, I was actually amazed that a company like Circuit City was still alive.

Circuit City made the decision to pull out of the area I live first (Atlanta, GA) and about a month ago I visited literally a week before the official closing of a nearby store. Walking with my iPhone in hand, I compared prices of the heavily marked down merchandise (30%-40%) with e-tailers including Amazon and Buy only to discover I could get the same merchandise for the same amount or even less with free shipping from the e-tailer! I walked out of the store with nothing in my hands. In fact, I’ve only walked out of that store with some Sony memory once before because I needed it at the last minute. After getting home and checking the same memory on Amazon, Circuit City’s price was double what I could have gotten the exact same product at Amazon if I had planned better.

Consumers are not stupid and with better tools such as the Internet and smartphones people search for the best deals rather than simply showing up at Circuit City to purchase a new laptop or TV. Smart consumers come armed knowing which product they want that contains the feature set they want and know how much they can purchase it for online. If a consumer does decide to grace your brick and mortar store with their presence, you sure as hell better treat them with respect and present them with excellent customer service. Retailers cannot afford to piss off one customer as that information can spread virally via the Internet.

The above applies doubly to retailers in the tech market (gadgets, computers, audio/video), as this class of consumers — our readers for example — are especially adept at using tools to find the best deals.

Big box stores need to rethink their strategy or just become another entry in Wikipedia.