Although many people think of time behind the wheel as the perfect opportunity to catch up with a friend, family member or co-worker over the phone, in reality it can be a truly dangerous activity if you are not properly prepared. Holding a cell phone which talking and especially while talking is a leading cause of car accidents, which can in turn raise your auto insurance payments or worse end your life. Invest in a Bluetooth headset and start talking hands-free. To help you avoid the agony of researching hundreds of models, here’s a list of 4 top-notch BT headsets.

1. Motorola Finiti

This sleek design is one of the most popular Bluetooth headsets. It is also reasonably affordable, coming in well under $100. It has the ability to block out a lot of outside noise, so you can hear the conversation clearly on both ends, whether you are in loud traffic or in a busy building. There are plenty of great features that includes things like voice commands, a helpful addition when it comes to talking in the car; simply speak the name of the person you want to call and avoid fiddling with buttons on your cell phone.

2. Plantronics Voyager Pro UC Headset

Although this model can run up to $200 for some versions, it is a great choice for those who appreciate the many features available. One of the best is the ability to read your incoming text message aloud, an especially handy feature for those who spend a lot of time behind the wheel. Also cool is a unique sensor lets the phone automatically sense when to route incoming calls to the phone and when to direct it to the headset, so you won’t need to manually switch back and forth every time you take the headset on or off.

3. Jawbone Era

This Bluetooth headset stands out from the competition with a unique and comfortable design specifically made to fit the shape and size of each individual ear. This is actually the fifth version of the Jawbone, that’s quite a bit improved from the original. It is considered to be the industry standard for audio, where it will deliver crystal clear sound even in a loud area. The person on the other end of the phone conversation will surely appreciate the loud voice and quiet background noise as well.

4. Samsung WEP300

This small device is best for frequent travelers, who will love that it comes complete with a travel case requiring no outlet to charge for up to several hours. It also comes at a very affordable price (about $39.99) which means it’s a great choice for those who are looking to try out a bluetooth headset for the first time, or those of us who look to jump around. Additionally, it uses and ear bud rather than an over-the-ear set up and comes with two ear bud sizes for maximum comfort.

If you’re going to drive and talk, and honestly, who can blame you if you spend that much time in your car every day, then you absolutely need to get a headset, and while you’re at it, you may as well make it a wireless Bluetooth one.

Many people leave their gorgeous smartphones at home when heading to other countries and/or take cheap phones so that they don’t risk losing them. But have you thought about how your smartphone, especially its camera, could help you out when you travel?

Here’s how and when your phone’s camera (especially if it’s a good 8 Megapixel camera say on one of the latest Samsung phones or the new iPhone 4S) can be useful to you.

1. Use your smartphone’s camera to take a photo of your bags especially if you’re going to travel by air. If your bag is lost in the airport, you can show the photo to the airport staff, which is much simpler than trying to remember and describe it accurately. I’ve found myself in just this situation a couple of times, and this tip has always helped me save much time and energy.

2. If you’re staying in a country where you’re not familiar with the language, it’s a good idea to take a photo of your hotel. I always had a problem finding my hotel after I went somewhere far on foot, and asking the locals didn’t work either, especially if they didn’t speak English well. But you could definitely show them or perhaps a taxi driver the photo and gesture ‘where’!

3. If you’re terrible with remembering numbers, take a shot of the hotel room door (or write it down in the virtual notebook of your phone). That way, you won’t have to ask the front desk what room you’re staying in the next time you forget!

What are your tips for using your smartphone for more productive and/or fun travel?

——–

This is one product category that has tons of nondescript entrants, and for the most part, they all do the trick more or less, and that’s to wipe your gadget’s screen. Kimberly-Clark decided to try something a little different – make them dry, disposable and inexpensive.

The KIMTECH Touchscreen Cleaning Wipe are made especially for touchscreens, which we all seem to be adopting at a rapid rate. I tried out a sample and wasn’t disappointed. These come 10 to a pack, and while dry, they are soft, and had no fear of using it to wipe the screen on my iPad or smartphone.

It got rid of my fingerprints and smudges. Now if you have the kind of grime that has built up over weeks, you may need a liquid cleaner, but if you’re good about keeping your screens clean, the KIMTECHs should usually do the trick.

A 10-pack is only $3 and you can get them in dollar-stores and at Amazon; actually, Amazon has a 2-pack (so 20 wipes) for $5. Even at $3 for a 10-pack, it’s a good deal, and that way you can have a wipe everywhere you need it – in the car, in your bag, on your desk at home and in the office, with some to spare.

(Disclaimer: Gizmos for Geeks received a complimentary review copy of this product.)

Unlike the FoneStand which does not fold up, the next gadget, the Mobile Multi-Stand 360, is a portable smartphone stand that folds flat and slips into your pocket/bag, etc.

The MMS360 as it’s known for short, requires a little installation. You first need to take one of the 3 included self-adhesive foam dots and stick it to the back of your phone. These protrude perhaps 1/8″ and have a lip that allows it to slip inside the stand itself.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth what, a million? Take 45 seconds to watch how the stand works including how it rotates, and then I’ll tell you more about what you can’t really see in the video.

First of all, you do have to spend more than 10 seconds up front to ensure you stick the other half (the dot) on your phone, or you won’t be able to use all 3 of the positions on the MMS360 without your phone tipping over. Unfortunately, repositioning the lip means getting some adhesive remover to take it off as it’s a fairly strong bond.

Unlike the FoneStand, the MMS360 has more than just 2 possible positions and angles – although you can rotate the stand 360 degrees, it practically only has 2 angles – the 2nd being 90 degrees out of phase with the first. So with the 3 angles, you really have 6 positions, which is nice depending on your preference (from almost vertically standing to almost flat).

But that’s not the real value in this – it’s super light; put it in your pocket and you’ll forget it’s there, so it’s one more gadget accessory you can carry around without a weight worry.

Given how light it is, I really would have liked it to be wider, because I found that with my somewhat heavy phone, if I didn’t take an extra second (yes, I’m impatient sometimes!), the phone would tip over. A wider stand would be a quicker balance.

The MMS360 is only $5-6, and you can get it directly from the vendor, Amazon or eBay.

Now that memory cards are no longer the tiny, pricey luxury enjoyed by the few, manufacturers are looking for new ways to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. Samsung thinks it has found a way – create SD-type cards that are supposedly waterproof, shock and shatterproof and magnetic proof.

I took an 8GB microSDHC card for a spin, and really only cared about one test in particular – whether or not it’s water proof. In case you’re wondering, I figured that the risk from magnetism-caused data loss was pretty low, and as for being able to survive being run over by a car, if I’m in a situation where I pull out my memory card and it gets run over by a car soon after, I’m doing something wrong and have more to worry about than the survival of my SD card.

So my test was pretty straightforward – I loaded up the card with a bunch of data – photos, files, etc., then I dunked it in a cup of water and let it sit for an hour, which I thought was more than enough time for water saturation. Incidentally, this card is supposed to handle up to 24 hours in sea water which has to be more damaging than mere fresh water.

I let the card sit overnight to dry out after yanking it out of the water. (No, I didn’t expect to just plug it back in and get it working!)

And what do you know? My data was still there. I’m usually wary of things advertised as waterproof or worse, water-resistant, so it was nice to see something like this work well.

These Samsung SDHC cards come in sizes 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32GB. The 2 and 4GB models are class 4 devices; the 8 and 16GB can be found in either class 6 or class 10 models; and the 32GB is a class 10.

One other very nice feature is the that it comes with a microSD adapter and a clear plastic case. You can find these cards at Amazon and lots of other retailers starting at under $13.

Our thanks to MemoryCardZoo.com for the review sample.

(Disclaimer: Gizmos for Geeks received a complimentary review copy of this product.)

One of the longest continuing trends in mobile phones is the personalization of ringtones. Now that modern smartphones are as good as computers, you can make any song your own personal ringtone. Moreover, you will not have to buy these ringtones. You can make them for free with free apps. Read on to find out more.

Free Ringtone Making Apps For Windows

AV RingtoneMAX

AV RingtoneMax has one screen where you load your favorite music or audio file to edit into a ringtone. Other than cutting out the exact part you like with the help of a visual waveform, you can also add effects like fade-in and -out, 3D sound, etc. You can even mix two tracks together. And since it is very easy to use, it is a perfect app for beginners. It supports WAV, MP3, CDA, OGG, WMA, AAC, M4A and MP4. You can use the built in recorder to record any sound that you want and make or mix that in to your ringtone.

Audacity

Audacity is full-fledged audio editing software that is available for free for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It has a lot of advanced features but making a simple ringtone on it is pretty straightforward. Open the audio file that you want to use inside Audacity. When the file opens, you will see the waveform of the sound. Select the portion you want as your ringtone, then you can directly export that part as an MP3 regardless of original format – just go to File > Export As Mp3. If you want to add fades, effects and mix it in with other tracks, you can copy and paste the selection in a new file and work on it.

Free Ringtone Making Apps For Mac

iTunes 10

iTunes 10 no longer has the ‘make ringtone’ feature but you can still make ringtones with it for free. All you have to do is choose a song, go to its information and then change the start and stop times to match the part that you want as a ringtone. Now right click on it and choose ‘create aac version’. Then go to the new file, change the extension to ‘.m4r’ and open it into iTunes after deleting the previous reference to it within iTunes. When you do this, it will automatically get imported as a ringtone, ready for syncing. It works on both iTunes for Windows and Mac.

GarageBand

GarageBand is a powerful piece of music-making software that has a useful feature where you can export your work as a ringtone directly into iTunes. To make a ringtone, drag the audio file into a new empty project. Then cut out a 30-40 second part that you want as your ringtone. Make sure to apply ‘cycle region’ on it to make the ringtone repeat itself when the phone rings. Then go to the ‘share’ menu and choose to share as ringtone. If you are already used to GarageBand then you can also add in extra beats, sounds and other things to your ringtone or make your ringtone from scratch. GarageBand comes free with all new Macs.

Free Ringtone Making App For iPhone

Ringtone Maker Pro (by Mobile17)

Ringtone Maker is a super simple ringtone-making app that can take any audio file from your phone’s music library and turn it into a ringtone. Once you load a track in to the app from the start screen, you will see a small waveform view with a slider on it. You can drag this to decide where the ringtone starts. Below it you have the length selection, which decides how long the ringtone goes on for from the starting point. Below that is the play button for hearing what your ringtone looks like and also the create ringtone button that saves the ringtone. Additionally, the app recommends popular start positions from its user base.

Free Ringtone Making App For Android

MP3 Ringtone Maker (by LuckyStar)

MP3 Ringtone Maker is a easy to use app that can be used to make free ringtones. It can also assign sounds as alarms, notifications or to contacts. The app’s start screen allows you search through the songs on your phone, go to the sound library or go to the ringtone editor. Once you have entered the editor, you see a large, zoomed in view of the waveform of the selected song. There are start and end markers that you can drag across the screen to make your selection. It has a play button and forwards/backwards skipping buttons. After finishing, save the sound with the save button and use it as a ringtone or some other alert.

Free Online Ringtone Making App

Melofania.com

Melofania is an easy to use web app that allows you to upload your audio file on to the website and then use the in-browser tools to edit a portion of the file in to a ringtone. It also shows you the waveform to make things easier. You can choose either mp3 (most phones) or m4r (iPhone) format for download. The website also has free ringtones of popular tunes up for grabs.

So whether you are looking for an easy app or a fully featured one – you have a lot to choose from when it comes to making ringtones for free. No matter which phone or computer you are on, you will always have multiple free options for making the ringtone that you have always wanted.

Here’s another one of those no-batteries-needed accessories for what is probably our most treasured of gadgets nowadays – our smartphones. The FoneStand is a black (or white) plastic stand for your iPhone, Android or other smartphone or even some tablets that lets you view them in either portrait or landscape mode at an angle.

The feet of the FoneStand are rubber pads to keep the whole contraption from sliding around on your desk, and where the back of your phone makes the most contact with the FoneStand is a large rubber pad to prevent the phone itself from sliding around when it’s seated in the cradle.

The FoneStand fits most smartphones even with a case on, although with the lip at the front, it may not fit some of the larger cases. It would be nice if the retaining lip was adjustable, but then that would probably raise the price.

This is a fairly inexpensive accessory for your flat phone that has lots of uses (the video below does a good job of showing some of those off), but think on your desk at work, on your night stand (clock), in the living room, etc. About the only thing I’d like is for a slightly lower price or better yet, a discount for buying 2 or 3 at once. Even so, I highly recommend it. You’ll probably be surprised like I was at how quickly you get used to having this to plunk your phone into, especially on your desk.

According to Wireless Week, HTC shipped the most smartphones in the US in Q3 2011 with 5.7 million smartphones shipped. Samsung shipped 4.9 million and Apple shipped 4.6 million providing Android a number one and two spot in US shipments. RIM continues the free slide dropping to under 10% share of shipments.

With the Apple 4S release at the beginning of this quarter, Apple should reach the #1 spot again for new shipments during Q4 2011. With that said, the aggregated mobile OS view will remain in the favor of Android supported by multiple manufacturers.

Additionally, according to Information Week, Android has surpassed the iPhone in App downloads holding 44% of App downloads while Apple clings to a 31% download share.

If you have a smartphone, you already know how useful it is in a myriad of ways. Personal finance is such an integral part of our daily lives; make sure you’re harnessing the power of your phone to keep track of expenses, budgets, and investments. It’s a lifeline in today’s fast-moving world.

Whether you are a seasoned investor, starting out with your first checking account, or somewhere in between, you can probably benefit from tracking your personal finances with a software program. Knowing at a glance just where you stand financially can help you decide whether to give into that impulse purchase, or if you need a payday loan to cover your unexpected care repairs.

The beauty of using a personal finance app for your smartphone is that you have this valuable information just a touch away all the time. App developers know this too, so there are a plethora of great apps available in the personal finance section. Here are five of the best apps available for smartphones to help get you started:

From tracking your personal bank transactions and investments to watching stocks and taking credit card payments, smartphone apps are making life easier and freeing up our time to pursue the things that are most important to us.

Photo Credit: Piggy Bank by Images Money/flickr; Smartphone bar by Miki Yoshihito/flickr

Is this the world’s smallest fully-equipped 4G smartphone? Possibly. The HP Veer 4G is a sliding form-factor phone providing you the benefits of a touch screen, while also giving you a fully-functional QWERTY keyboard when required. The HP Veer also runs WebOS, the same as the Palm Pre. Pricing starts at $99.99 – read on for full tech specs.

• 800Mhz Processor
• 2.6″ screen; 320×400 resolution
• 5 hours talk-time battery; over 300 hours standby
• 8GB internal memory; no expandable memory

Buy now!
Price: from $99.99 (contract)
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)