Most of the time my work area resembles my brain – overflowing with useless information and only slightly coherent. While I’m convinced my brain is beyond hope, technology is making it so my work area doesn’t have to be.
If your desk looks anything like the picture below, here are 15 gadgets that’ll make your life a bit less cluttered.
The Geeks received an invitation to test Anonymizer, Inc.’s new consumer-based online privacy and identity protection service called Anonymizer Universal which was released in June. Anonymizer Universal creates a secure and encrypted VPN tunnel between the user and The Anonymizer Network to prevent interception of identifiable information, or “packet sniffing.” The technology protects the user by replacing their personal IP Address with an anonymous IP Address daily. One of the differentiators from other anonymizer’s that are browser-based, Anonymizer Universal works for all Internet activity including accessing the web, obtaining email, streaming music, instant messaging and playing online games.
In addition to traditional Windows and Mac Operating Systems, Anonymizer Universal also protects a user’s mobile Internet activities. For example Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch devices use a “Connect/Disconnect” interface that runs silently in the background to establish and tear down the VPN session. The service only requires a simple download, and can be up and running immediately. Anonymizer Universal’s retail price is $79.99 (U.S.) per year, and is available via the company’s website (www.anonymizer.com) and select Anonymizer Authorized Resellers which provides a license good for one computer and one mobile Apple device.
This video was created to demonstrate the service:
Read the review after the jump…
Not only is jailbreaking your iPhone now perfectly legal, there are other exemptions to the DMCA act that the Library of Congress has just issued.
They include:
You may be wondering why there is even a need for such otherwise common-sense guidelines. It just goes to show how short-sighted the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyrights Act) turned out to be.
Unfortunately, these exemptions expire in a few years and are not permanent laws. It certainly makes trying to be an upstanding citizen a difficult process, especially as so many law-enforcement groups follow the ‘innocence is no excuse’ rule of thumb.
No longer do you have to forget that confounded charging cable for your phone or MP3 player. flipSYNC goes where you go, well as long as you take your keys, because it folds up nicely to fit on your keychain.
There are 2 flipSYNC models: a 3 connector model (model# USBMM) with 1 micro USB, 1 mini USB and a standard USB type A connector; and a 2 connector version (model# IPUSBM) for iPhones and iPods.
Buy now!
Price: $15.99 for iPhones. $17.99 for general USB devices.
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Here’s another emergency USB charger, this one powered by 2 AA batteries. Not a bad deal for under $10, and it includes a tiny built-in LED light for grins.
However, I can’t say I love the idea of using batteries. I’d rather have it either use a rechargeable battery or even better, be solar rechargeable (like the iTech SolarCharger).
Buy now!
Price: $8.50
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Here’s another of our ‘no batteries needed’ gadgets that is great for your gadgets that do need juice. The CommuteMate Cell-Cup sits in your car’s cup holder and holds 2 phones/iPods/sunglasses, etc neatly and without rattling around.
There are a couple of holes so you can route your phone’s charger cord as well.
Here’s what it can hold: The front slot holds anything up to 72mm x 15mm, while the back slot can handle 69mm x 29mm. The devices can be any height.
Buy now!
Price: $5.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
If you’re a regular visitor to Gizmos for Geeks, then you know that we love our alarm clocks. And of course, we had to feature a voice-controlled alarm clock, namely the Moshi.
Well Moshi has a new model out, the Moshi Voice Control Digital Clock Radio, that includes an AM/FM radio, and we had a chance to test it out.
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Now that you’ve got all of your VHS tapes either copied to your computer or onto DVD, it’s time to back all of those DVDs up. DVD Ranger copies your DVDs to your computer; your mobile device, be it iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune and more; or over to Blu-Ray disc.
You can opt to squeeze 10 older formatted DVDs onto a single BluRay or upscale your 480i/480p DVD to 720p or 1080p HD video.
DVD-Ranger can burn your already created disk images (ISO) to SCSI/IDE/USB DVD burners and recorders. It can rip your DVDs for backing up or make a backup copy in case you have a disc that seems to be dying.
About the only downside to DVD-Ranger is that it comes in either a yearly subscription or lifetime subscription.
Buy now!
Price: yearly subscription: $39.95; lifetime subscription: $69.95
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Apple released iOS 4 today available for download through iTunes 9.2. Some of the 100 features include multitasking, folders, better unified email, new iBooks app, playlist creation from your iPhone, 5x digital zoom, tap to focus video, faces and places in Photos, home screen wallpaper, Gift apps (to send apps to family and friends as a gift), spell checking and wireless keyboard support.
There are some serious reasons to upgrade, but are you going to move away from your jailbroken iPhone? Oh, you want to jailbreak your iPhone?
Today Rip2iPod opened their doors to offer a CD ripping service where they convert your CD collection into a digital library. Granted, they are a little late to the game, but hey “better late then never,” right?
The CD ripping process is nothing new and not much has changed over the years on how it’s done. Same old stuff….put the disc in, start ripping, wait 6 minutes add the songs to iTunes. It is still an arduous task given all the technology we have – not in the sense of difficulty, but in the amount of time required.
Consider this: The average CD collection is 250 CDs. The average iPod [or similar] owner has less then 5% of their CD collection ripped into MP3s. Here is why: Ripping the average CD collection of 250 discs takes about 20 hours of work. That’s 20 straight, none-stop, hours. Obviously no one will pull an all-nighter to rip music, but even breaking that up over a several days will easily translate into a couple weeks worth of time. Who wants to deal with that?…and thus your 5%.
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