Amazon.com is buying out one of its fiercest competitors, Diapers.com, after going through some serious price wars.
They’re actually buying the holding company, so that means they get Soap.com as well, which is a new property launched just a few months ago.
Price tag for this little purchase: $540 million. Price tag for parents: still unknown, but expect super cheap diapers to be a thing of the past, unless someone else comes along to reinvent diapers.com.
We love our iPods, iPhones, and digital cameras. But when millions of users recharge their gadgets using fossil fuel-powered energy, it puts an incredible strain on our fast depleting sources of exhaustible energy.
ReNu has released a ‘green recharger’ that will allow users to enjoy their gadgets with worrying about the environmental impact. The company has developed a modular solar panel- square in shape and black in color- that will recharge your iPods, phones, and cameras using the freely available solar energy.
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A few weeks ago, I was sitting at a traffic light by the Hollywood Video store near my home and glanced over at the empty parking lot. This was not an unusual sight because for years the parking lot at the Hollywood Video was always empty. But looking a bit closer, I realized the space was being gutted and prepped for an upcoming Advanced Auto Parts store. The Hollywood Video store was gone for good.
To be honest, I have not entered a video rental store in probably 10 years. But, I still felt a bit sad and nostalgic for all those Friday and Saturday nights back in the early 1990’s that I spent in the video store perusing the shelves for the newest flick with my boyfriend (who is now my wonderful husband). Rows and rows of videotapes, which eventually changed over to DVDs, were all lined up right at our fingertips. We really enjoyed going to the video store.
But then my husband and I stopped going to the video rental store. And it looks like everyone else stopped going too.
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A couple of weeks ago New Zealand and Australia iOS 4.1 device owners lost an hour of beauty sleep thanks to a bug in iOS 4.1. People with recurring alarms had their alarms trigger an hour earlier when the countries switched to DST.
While Apple states that the bug will be fixed in a software update, the fix has yet to appear. Unfortunately for our friends in the UK and other European countries, their DST ended this past weekend causing iOS 4.1 European users to oversleep by an hour.
While some hope the iOS 4.1 bug will be fixed by November 7th, which is when DST ends in the US and Canada, I plan to oversleep an hour and blame Apple if I don’t get an iOS update.
Did you know there is Starbucks Etiquette? If not, you’re probably breaking the rules.
While eHow has a short article explaining the etiquette of ordering, there so much more! People apparently lose all common sense when they smell their newly created Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte.
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Got a small child? Worried that they may wander off (which they have a tendency to do)? Then take a look at BrickHouse Security’s Child Locator. Attach a small mini homing tag to your kid’s clothing or on their wrist and use the handheld locator to pinpoint their location.
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Child Locator alerts and finds your wandering kidsRead More »
Remember Fulton’s eCoupled wireless charging solution? Well, Fulton got together with some other big power hitters such as Philips, National Semiconductor, Sanyo and others to form the Wireless Power Consortium, their main purpose being to create and guide a wireless power charging standard.
They named their standard Qi (as in the Chinese life force). Now, actual working products are starting to emerge. For example, Dell’s Latitude Z uses the technology, and now Energizer is releasing its Inductive Charger for the iPhone and Blackberry Curve and even for the Wii.
Of course, you probably also know about Powermat, but they are a competing technology. Ah, technology wars – let us count the ways we hate thee.
If you and/or your spouse love your AV gear, but would rather it be out of sight, then you need the Smarthome Hidden IR Repeater System. It allows you to use an existing infrared (IR) remote control to operate up to eight audio/video (A/V) components located behind closed doors or even walls.
Any of your components – TV, cable/satellite box, DVD player, etc. – that can be controlled via an IR remote can be integrated into this system, and it works from up to 40 ft away.
It comes with 4 IR emitters to ensure you get coverage on all of your devices.
Buy now!
Price: $89.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
One of our first gizmos we ever featured was the iJoy Robotic Massage Chair. Fast-forward a few years later and Human Touch and massage chairs have not stood still. In fact, take the AcuTouch 9500 Massage Chair, which interfaces with your iPhone or iPod Touch via Bluetooth.
Download the HT-Connect app and control the AcuTouch’s settings and programs from the palm of your hand.
But put aside the iPhone app for a second and consider how decked out this chair really is. It aims to simulate the hands and techniques of expert therapists and even includes dual-lumbar back heat, foot and calf massagers, and uses sensors to map the pressure points along your back.
You can choose from 8 15-min programs depending on how you’re feeling. It can remember your favorite positions, and you can adjust the intensity of the massage, and of course you can program in your very own customized massage routines.
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $4999
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
One of Google’s ‘secret’ projects that is just coming to light is their work on automated cars that drive themselves.
To date, their automated cars have driven over 140,000 miles. Of course, they’ve always been manned, but for the most part, the cars did the driving using a combination of video cameras, radar, laser range finders and detailed map data that they accessed from Google data centers. Impressive.
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