iLive Travel iPod Speakers

Travel is hectic enough as is. Your travel gadgets shouldn’t put any extra burden upon your travel worn bones. Gadgets are always getting smaller, but when shopping for speakers logic dictates the more speaker you have the more sound you’ll get. This equation doesn't fit well with the lifestyle of the seasoned traveler. So, is there a happy median? It is doubtful anyone, aside from Bose, has found that perfect blend of compact size and big sound, yet. Though, iLive IC2807 has gotten closer than I’ve seen in a while.

iLive IC2807, (will the “i” era end?) is a lightweight, tote worthy, speaker system delivering a full sound…all in a slick foldable case that takes up less of the precious free space in your luggage. iLive has blended a travel alarm, with an iPod speaker. What’s better than waking up to your morning playlist to dissipate those home sick feelings? If you’re an audiophile, or rich, or both, go for the Bose SoundDock, it sounds amazing, but for the rest of us iLive speakers rock our heads hard enough...while sparing our wallets to boot.

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Touch Sensitive Bluetooth Headset

So you're driving along, and you get a call on your Bluetooth headset. You go to press the answer button, but it takes such force to press it...you dislodge the headset from you're ear. Ok, so this might not happen that often, but surely it does happen. Why else would the folks at Bluetrek come 'out the box' with their touch sensitive answer button on the new 'Sense' Bluetooth headset? As far as interface upgrades go this is as much of a breakthrough for headsets as Macintosh's Mouse was for PCs. It's amazing no one has done this yet.

As far as functionality goes, Andrew Lim, of Crave UK said, "Call quality is relatively clear". The battery life is reported to be four hours talk time and five hours standby. This should provide plenty of time to communicate with your love ones and mates while commuting, provided your commute isn't absurdly long. Of course, if you're one to sport a Bluetooth headset all day like some robot than you may need a longer battery. However, if you use it sparingly, like while actually using the phone, than Bluetrek Sense has plenty of battery life for you. Bluetrek Sense will be available in the UK, at beginning of next year, for about $100US.

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Cyber-Monday Hype Pays Off

All the marketing hoopla about Cyber Monday must have spontaneously ignited the credit cards of gift shoppers. Pockets are still smoldering this morning after Monday's online sales jump of 21% over last year’s figures. According to ComScore (in Virginia), which tracks internet sales and traffic, Cyber Monday produced $733 million in sales.

Cyber Monday's lure is evident. This year’s Monday after thanksgiving or “get back to work” day saw more sales than the $667 million racked up by online retailers on December 13, last year busiest day.

Numbers of shoppers rose by 38%, but the average spent went down 12%. Trends like this make sense; affluent consumers have been shopping online for a while, as a wider diversity of shoppers take the first shaking steps towards the cornucopia that awaits the virtual shopper, the numbers will shift.

ComScore is reporting good news all around for online retailers. November, up until the 26^th, has seen a 12 point gain against the total sales of all of November 2006. These gains show the American Consumer’s readiness to goof off at work by embracing the convenience of exercising their civic duty, to shop, online.

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Canon's DVD Direct Connection to HDD and Flash Drive Camcorders

New Japanese Releases

Digital camcorders are great for having a video format that’s easily transferred and edited… on the computer. But if you need quick and dirty unedited copies, you have to first transfer the footage to a computer in order to output a DVD. This minor annoyance will soon dissolve quicker than a bad video effect when you fire up your Canon DW-100 portable DVD recorder. This Canon directly connects to select Canon cameras; allowing you to burn standard definition and high definition resolutions straight to DVD without computer intervention.

The Canon DW-100 also connects thru USB to Mac or PC for dual duty as an external DVD burner. Canon’s other market for the DW-100 is digitally savvy video editors that want to output their finely crafted footage in 1080p glory (it writes in Blu-Ray format). But the overshadowing benefit of the DVD recorder is the innovation of the direct connection to the Camcorder. This effectively eliminates the time and cost involved with distributing those videos to your fans, like Uncle Mike and Aunt Betty (yeah those fans). There’s definitely nothing wrong with pleasing your audience, but up until now you had to wait till you got home to make copies. Usually, this means you have to spend a ton on postage and mailers in order to get those copies to your die hard fans. Now they have their copy the same night and the harassing phones calls inquiring into the whereabouts of the irresistible footage will cease. Allowing you to focus on your next blockbuster.

So, for those events that everyone wants a video of: weddings, reunions, sporting events, theatre productions, graduations, and so on, the Canon DW-100 is the perfect solution. Just make sure you buy your DVD-Rs in the value pack. If your camera work is as stellar as this direct connect concept, you’re going to be very popular. ..via..

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Get Futuristic with Nespresso Essenza

The Jetsons had a capsule for everything, and Nespresso Essenza D100 is helping bring that Jetsons-like convenience to espresso makers. Their exclusive coffee pods eliminate the guess work involved with making the perfect cup of energizing elixir. The pods ability to put an end to the mess finely ground coffee can make, along with the long clean up sessions with the machine, is reason enough to use this thing. You’re most likely wondering if the coffee pods will taste fresh, me too (I can’t pop one in unfortunately); this is a justifiable concern when dealing with any prepackaged goods. According to the Nespresso their aluminum pods avoid tainting the taste of the grounds by having a barrier between the metal and the coffee. The grounds are supposed to last up to nine months, but they probably won’t be around long enough for anyone to find out, caffeine is addictive after all. Another nifty thing about your new adjustable serving friend is the water carafe. The large opening makes the carafe easy to fill and the unit’s design allows the carafe to be installed quickly. So if your sophisticated sensibilities want to take the time to enjoy the finer things of life, but your time constraints demand efficiency. This pod's for you.
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RCA's Media Player Banks on the Fitness Niche

RCA Jet Stream Series media players promise fewer fitness related fumbles involving wired headphones. Jet Stream’s armband holder and wireless headphones provide this added security. RCA’s unwired wonder comes on the heels of Kleer’s market shaking…product enabling radio link technology. These digital RF wireless earbuds far exceed the sound quality of the compressed audio you get from Bluetooth connectivity. The prototype model had no wire connecting the two earphones (visually this was a design plus), but focus groups raised concerns about misplacing one earpiece so a wire connecting the earpieces, running behind the neck, materialized on the production model to alleviate these concerns.

Because there is one less transmitter, this modified configuration cost less to produce. This PMP is no sissy; it’s made for stressful situations, like the constant jostling of a morning jog or being drenched with sweat. Along with its 340 song capacity, 20 FM presets, and long battery life the RCA Jet Stream also integrates the most popular fitness gadgets into its software. With the stop watch, pedometer, calorie counter, and body mass calculator you can set more achievable goals, calculate your progress, and monitor your body’s changes closely for that added motivation. It’s a music player at heart, of course, so don’t forget to load up on those bass pumping workout tunes while you’re at it. ..via..

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Clock Radios: a Timeless Gift?

When was the last time you gave someone a clock radio? The only time most people think to give one as a gift is when their child or friend makes the precarious trek to college. However, after four years of being soaked in beer and getting thrown across the room, most clock radios have thrown in the towel. As far as thoughtful inexpensive gifts go, the clock radio wins. Sleep schedules are important. The Sony ICF-CD843V gives it’s user a better chance at promptness while allowing them to wake up to the method of their choosing (CD, radio, or buzzer). The CD-R/RW playback option allows one to be coaxed to consciousness while enjoying their own burned CD mixes or any CD. The Sony has 25 station presets and radio reception is strong via the wire antenna, which is a unique feature to find on a clock radio. Reviewing users on the fringe of larger areas found the radio could tune in stations that were previously unavailable to them. Along with radio, the unit’s digital tuner also tunes in TV audio and weather stations.

The sound quality was highly regarded among users as well, many noted the superior sound reproduction and powerful bass boost mode as being the deciding factor in whether or not to make the purchase. Having woken up to this clock radio first hand (many hotel chains have this model) I have to concur. The dual display of the alarm time and the actual time is useful and the alarm modes, themselves, are versatile. There’s nap mode, which lets you choose your nap duration (20 to 120 min) with one button access, while the main alarm stays set to your preferred wake time. The snooze setting functions similarly, one touch of the snooze bar gives you 10 minutes, press it again and you have 20 minutes, and so on, up to an hour. Again, you can do this without having to reset you alarm to a later time.

The major drawbacks of the Sony ICF-CD843V are the lack of battery back up, the odd shape, and the LCD display.It doesn’t read well at an angle. Conversely, the LCD does have a brightness adjustment so it won’t disturb users that are sensitive to light while dozing off. The unit’s shape is touted by Sony as being space saving, but the lack of a battery back up is pretty unforgivable. Why would Sony overlook this key feature? Battery backup has been a major feature of clock radios since they were first introduced. Maybe, Sony is betting gift givers, and gift receivers will be so distracted by the other great features that they will overlook this shortcoming. Plus you can always buy a battery back-up.

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Black Friday Cometh

Black Friday Cometh, it’s just two days away. That steady march to the gift giving season is quickly becoming a foot race. You’re not going to brave the masses at the mall…are you? Of course you aren’t, you’ll go online to Amazon, Buy.com, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, or a similar site. At these sites you’ll more than likely find the best price is here at Etronics.com. So, don’t waste your time, cut out the middle man, go directly to the source of good deals…us. We have thousands of great gifts just waiting for your cleverness to match them with that perfect somebody. If you’re short on gift ideas there are the tried and true gifts, like Braun shavers. Braun makes a great shaver, along with many useful kitchen appliances, and Braun is constantly making improvements to their technology. So a newer shaver is always a welcomed upgrade from the previous year’s model (plus those blades don’t last forever).

Any crafty chef, or challenged cook, will welcome our classy cookware offerings into their kitchens (browse all our brands offerings here). Our cookware selection is greater than any box store could offer, from beer makers to ice cream makers, from countertop grills to outdoor barbeques there is something for the foodie in all of us. Black Friday’s madness is not inevitable. There are those who need to save those couple bucks by fighting the masses. The real price might be their sanity. Do yourself and your constitution a favor, and shop online. It’s dangerous out there.

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GE Cell Fusion Cordless Phone

Gift Ideas

These days, landlines get no love. Cordless phones are about as hip as a hip replacement. Most likely, your cordless phone got shoved to the side, along with your 56k modem, sometime around the turn of the Millennium. Despite the cordless phone's battered image they've improved quite a bit over the years. Rapid developments in the telecommunications industry have forced cordless phone makers, like GE, to come up with more creative and integrative solutions. GE Cell Fusion is one of these. Cell Fusion uses a dedicated, less congested, radio frequency (1.9GHz) known as Digitally Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication or DECT, which avoids interference from other wireless devices. DECT, in and of itself, doesn’t warrant any special praise, but Cell Fusion also uses Link to Cell technology.

This allows GE’s cordless handsets to sync with up to two Bluetooth enabled cell phones at once. Link to Cell, gives you all the stability of landlines, with the free long-distance of your cellular plan. Your phonebook is synced up too. Not only do you have the added convenience of managing your cell and landline calls on one handset, you get fancy cordless phone features too, like battery back up and push to talk between handsets. GE’s Cell Fusion is not a bad gift idea for those landline users on your list, if there are any left.

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Is Cambridge Consultants’ Wi-Fi "RadioPro" a Platform for Success?

Portable internet radios don’t share the stage with other MP3 based players…yet. Cambridge Consultants, a marketing and product development firm based in England, is betting that lowering the eBOM (electronic bill of materials) for possible portable Wi-Fi products is the key to initiate a surge of interest in the technology’s marketability. Their new platform “RadioPro” is a dedicated portal of over a 10,000 radio stations, a software development kit, and two chipsets that include a Multimedia Application Processor and WiFi chip.

The SDK allows for customizable menus and automatic firmware updates. RadioPro will be offered to manufactures at the low price of $15 per unit, which should bring the actual consumable product cost to about fifty bucks or so. In order to illustrate the point, the firm has developed a Wi-Fi product of their very own. It was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in the beginning of the year. Their version is sort of goofy looking; it would take an aesthetically conscious company to really present this technology appropriately. Looks are a big part of creating the desire to acquire that is needed for the portable Wi-Fi radio market to be fully realized.

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