Ok, I get you like small form-factor cameras because having one with you is better than having a pro rig that's in the closet at home, but which camera do you suggest for an advanced amateur photographer? I take a lot of pictures of our [dog, cat, ferret, parakeet, hamster, kids] to send to grandparents and post on Facebook, but want to be able to shoot really good quality pictures too, not just snapshots. What do you recommend?

Every time you hook up your iPhone to your PC the iTunes app immediately starts by doing a backup of everything that's on the phone. But what is it actually backing up and is there any way to get to the information that's there if you were to lose your phone or if you just want to poke around?

That's the purpose of iBackupBot (formerly known as iPodRobot), a slick little Windows app that makes access the contents of your backups a breeze, whether it's photos, videos, notes, SMS chats or your address book. Some of 'em are already accessible via iTunes, but if you wanted to grab a Note or save a particularly amusing (or incriminating!!) text message, Apple leaves you out to dry....

To set the scene, VOWSoft, Ltd. contacted me and asked if I'd review the application. Since I sync my iPhone on a Mac, not a PC, I had to copy my backup data files across to my Windows 7 system, but I did and it worked great right out of the [virtual] box.

Ever since adhesive companies like 3M came up with high-quality sticker materials, companies have slowly but surely been licensing brands, logos and artwork to help us personalize our laptops, car windows and personal electronics. The first generation were a pain to work with because the stickers were often too sticky: put them on slightly wrong and you were quite literally "stuck" and lifting corners to erase stray bubbles or seams could end up ruining the skin and leave it unstuck on one side.

The latest generation are a huge improvement with their increased thickness and extraordinary vivid color retention. They can be cut into extremely accurate forms and custom fit whatever device you have. With iPhones, they wrap around the back of the phone and include cut-outs for the camera lens and an irregular edge that neatly extends the sticker without covering up any of the controls.

But are they worth it? Should you rush out and drop $15-20 to emblazon your favorite band, artist or comic book hero on the back of your iPhone?

To find out, I was given sample skins from the two main players in this market: GelaSkins and MusicSkins. Both use the exact same 3M film, and both seem to use the same die to cut their stickers to fit the iPhone, so the difference is primarily in the graphic itself. But there's more to it than that, as you'll see...

As I have moved more into conference calls via Skype and am now involved in two podcasts on a weekly basis (Boulder Open Podcast (or in iTunes) and Three Insight (or in iTunes), you are listening to them, right? I hope so!) I'm finding that the built-in microphone on my MacBook Pro isn't the optimal audio quality. Worse, there's also a frequent feedback loop of it picking up the audio coming out of the speakers which leads to a sort of weird echo/reverb loop.

As a result, I've been on the hunt for a good, small, portable microphone that will offer better audio quality and still be compact enough that I can have it in my computer bag without adding weight and bulk. My ideal is a tiny lavalier microphone that can be clipped onto my shirt and plug into the "mic" input on my MacBook Pro, but so far I haven't found a single manufacturer offering such a thing. Oddly, but maybe it's a tough problem.

When my colleagues and I have all been in the same room, we've been recording our podcasts using the Blue Microphone Snowball, which is a nice microphone but pretty big and bulky. When Blue Microphone contacted me and asked me if I wanted to evaluate the Snowflake, what they call their "portable professional USB mic", I was most interested...

Another game for the iPhone? I already have over a hundred games on my iPhone (one reason my kids are always stealing my phone!) so when my friend Gary dropped me a note to let me know that his long-time hit Gold Strike [iTunes link] was now available through the iPhone App Store, I was skeptical. He writes great games but still, another game? Fortunately, I sprang for the $0.99, dropped it onto my phone and am impressed!

This is a guest article written by freelance programmer Ville-Matti Hakanpää

In this brief introductory tutorial I will go through some basic aspects of Facebook application development. The work itself is basic app programming, but it's a whole new world and environment. If you have a wonderful idea, Facebook can work as a great distribution channel for you. Heck, even a bad idea can get some attention fast!

Start out with the most basic of questions, though: what makes a good app?

That's the first and most common question people are asking or they should be asking. The best way to start when you're trying to decide what to develop is to look through all the other applications what are inside Facebook already. Facebook applications are listed and rated by users, so there's a feedback loop there too that tells you the kind of things people find useful and engaging.

If you're big into movies, TV or other media, you already know that more and more shows and productions are getting short movies to advertise them, "trailers" that you can now even find for books and video games (though you're not likely to see those in a movie theater). I write a film blog too, so I pay close attention to trailers for upcoming movies, which is why the Apple iPhone app TrailerSpy Mobile [iTunes link] caught my interest. Here's what I found...

I'm a fan of Audio-Technica consumer electronics gear and have been for many years. Decades ago, I'm pretty sure I had an Audio-Technica turntable and my earbuds of preference are Audio-Technica Quietpoint ATH-ANC3 (see my review: Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3 noise-reducing earbuds).

When I received a press release from the company about new foldable noise reducing headphones, it caught my interest, because my mainstay noise reducing headphones are the terrific Sennheiser PXC-300 headphones, but they have two issues: first, they're expensive at $150 (they were $300 when I got them two years ago!) and secondly the noise-reducing microphone electronics are big and unwieldy, the size of a small flashlight. A bit awkward.

So I asked Audio-Technica to send us a pair of the new ATH-ANC1 headphones to give a test run and so far, with one glitch, they've been great.

[This article is written by Contributing Editor Gary Moskoff]

A lot of companies are realizing that they can advertise and promote their brands through utilities, games and other applications for the Apple iPhone, including Walmart, Starbucks, REI, Sears, Audi, Target, Nikon, Toyota, Honda, Ikea and Nike, to name just a few.

Most of these, however, come across as me-too applications that aren't particularly creative, games that aren't very fun or as applications that just don't have much cool factor or completely miss their target audience of iPhone users anyway.

So who do I think is doing it best? You might be surprised...

I've written a lot about iPhones, and traveled down many different routes in terms of how to use them efficiently, how to have fun, and how to solve a wide variety of problems or glitches. If you've watched closely, you'll have also see in the screenshots that I have a lot of iPhone apps on my phone, in fact I think I've maxed out the number of screens I can create on the 3GS device.

Most of those apps? Games. I have a lot of games for my iPhone and while many of them are intended to keep my kids entertained (their favorites currently are Surviving High School, Cooking Mama, Oregon Trail, Sally's Spa and Pocket God) there are definitely some that I have added for my own enjoyment.

Peggle has you shooting a ball to bounce off, and thereby eliminate, red pegs on screen

Enter iPhone and computer game developer Popcap. I started out downloading Peggle and then finishing the game -- three times through! -- and asking them to release a new version so I could continue to play. Instead, they told me that they'd released a new game and wanted me to try it: Chuzzle.

[This review is written by contributing editors Deb and Thomas Frey]

Most product review are written shortly after the product is announced, but we thought it would be interesting to give our assessment of the Kindle 2 after using it for a year, and talk about how it has changed our lifestyle and the way we do business.

The Kindle 2 was first announced on February 24, 2009. We placed our order soon after it was announced, but had to wait a couple weeks for it to ship because of the intense demand. Our home looks like a library with books scattered from one end to the next, so we felt this would a good investment. The price we paid was $359 plus extra for incidentals, bringing the total outlay to over $400. Other than missing out on the major price reduction to $259 base price in October, we have not been disappointed.

On a personal note, once we received the Kindle 2, Deb instantly laid claim to the device, and Tom was only granted occasional visitation rights. Deb has since logged several hundred hours of intimate one-on-one time with "Johann," the name she has given to her Kindle, and the following are thoughts and observations from this extended road test.

If you are still clinging to your love for the printed word, there are several features on the Kindle that make it worth giving up the ink-on-paper version of books.

In April 2009 Stanford University announced that its iPhone Application Programming course had broken the 1 million download mark from the Apple iTunes site. And it did it in record time - less than seven weeks.

The course is nothing more than a series of classroom videos being taught by a team of Apple engineers. But the price was set at that very attractive price point of "free." One catch though, only people who were enrolled at Stanford University received credits for the course.

With over 200,000 courses from over 200 different institutions to pick from on iTunes U, and all of them free to anyone who wants to take them, Apple is quickly becoming the world leader in courseware aggregation. The obvious question to ask is "what is Apple's motivation for doing this?" and "how do they intend to make money?"

History of iTunes U

Shortly after Apple opened its iTunes Store in April 2003, the company started receiving requests from colleges to post courses on the site. Initially the requests were directed to the podcast section, but as the numbers grew, Apple devised a strategy for adding an entirely new division.

iTunes U was formally in May 2007. The service was created to manage, distribute, and control access to educational audio and video content for students within a college or university as well as the broader Internet.

[This is a guest article written by entrepreneur Zack Shapiro of the University of Colorado, Boulder]

I live in Boulder, Colorado, home of TechStars, a slew of bloggers and start-ups galore. Everyone seems to have their own great idea for the next big thing. Start-ups come in all shapes and sizes; they aren't all websites either. A start-up can be anything from a new city service to a catering company to an iPhone app.

When someone has a great idea they usually need money to make their idea a reality. But how do they get the money they need to take their dream from a prototype or a piece of paper, to a product that others can use, buy or otherwise interact with?

There are three major types of funding that entrepreneurs often seek out. Those three types are available in the forms of Friends and Family (commonly called F&F), Angel Investors and Venture Capital. Each require those interested to present or pitch their ideas in hopes that the particular investor will be interested in funding a project that aims, down the road, to be a self-sustaining business. Investors exist to make dreams come true for those that would otherwise not be able to fund, say, a 20 person staff over four years as their product evolves and matures.

I've been a mostly casual photographer for more years than I can count, starting with cheesy little cameras and working my way up through Konica gear to Nikon, the gold standard in the world of professional photographers. Today I take photos, sometimes paid, mostly just for fun, with a Nikon D90 tricked out with a full set of additional Nikon gear, about $2500 worth, plus or minus a few hundred dollars.

The results are quite pleasing and I have photos all over the walls of my home, photos that I took, mostly of my children. When I upgraded from the D80 (which was itself an upgrade from my D100), I had shot about 18,000 pictures on it. The D90 is newer, so I think I'm still below 5,000 shots taken.

Nikon Coolpix P90 Digital SLR

When Nikon contacted me to try out one of their Coolpix cameras, the P90, I was quite intrigued. After all, in addition to my big Nikon DSLR setup, my other cameras are a Sony DSC-W90, about the size of a deck of playing cards, and my Apple iPhone. The P90 fits neatly in the middle, less complicated (and expensive) than the D90, and far more capable than the frankly crappy Sony, where 90% of the pics are too grainy to print.

What most attracted me to the P90 was its 24x digital zoom, effectively giving you a staggering focal range of 26-624mm. That's quite a zoom factor in a small camera that can easily nestle in a backpack or computer bag. But since most every feature of a modern digital camera has been commoditized and then end up identical on every camera in a specific price range, regardless of vendor, the only real question to me was: how do the pictures look?

Imagine a device that's about the size of three credit cards and can let you and four of your friends (or multiple of your devices) connect to the Internet at decent 3G speeds, all while sitting in your briefcase / computer bag / coat pocket. The up-and-coming "mifi" (mobile wifi) devices are a fascinating hybrid gizmo that offers the smallest wifi base station you can imagine, tapping into either the Verizon or Sprint data networks.

Verizon loaned me one of their mifi-2200 units and I have to say this is a fabulous gizmo, one that I'll find out about buying when my loaner period is over. It's that good.

As I said, the device is tiny: even in its little cloth pouch, it's less than half the size of my Apple iPhone, and considerably lighter. It uses a micro-USB connector for both charging and direct connectivity (if you prefer to use it as a tethered cellular data network modem), so it's also extremely portable. I know I've gotten into having it in my computer bag 24x7.

It's a puzzle: is a Microsoft Windows Vista laptop with a crystal-clear 12.1-inch screen, 320GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM and a carrying weight - without the external Blu-Ray drive - of about four pounds a netbook? An ultralight notebook? A laptop? HP calls it an "Entertainment Notebook" and refers to it in press materials as "one of the thinnest, lightest notebooks in the market".

Whatever we call it, I was delighted to get my hands on one of these shiny, well-built DV2 computers that offered a very different PC experience than the usual low-budget, poorly assembled PC gear. Focused on multimedia capabilities and highly portable, the DV2 is a fast device with a terrific screen -- plenty crisp and bright enough to let you enjoy movies, even Blu-Ray disks via the external drive -- and a comfortable, solid feeling keyboard.

At $669 (with a $30 rebate that HP's currently offering as I write this review) the DV2 is not the least expensive notebook on the market and it's not even close to the cheapest notebook that HP offers, for that matter. But it's not price, it's value that counts, and that's where we get into another dilemma: would you be happy paying $700 for a multimedia laptop computer that only had a 12" screen?

I think the answer is "yes", because from my own testing, the attractive DV2 fits in quite well between cheaper, small-screen netbooks and more expensive, bigger-screen, heavier notebooks...

If you've owned an Apple iPhone 3GS, 3G or still have an original iPhone, I don't need to tell you that one of the constant hassles with the phone is battery life. It's better in the newest phone, but everyone who has an iPhone seems to have their own strategy for minimizing battery usage, ranging from "don't use the 3G network" to "disable wifi" to "turn off everything, especially bluetooth".

I leave everything enabled on my phone except Bluetooth and my adaptation strategy has been to have lots of power cords with me: two in my house, one in my car, and one in my computer bag so I can sip at USB power whenever I'm using my computer on the go. It's a hassle, but it's manageable.

Where this breaks down is when you're at a trade show or out for the day, without the chance of getting near a power plug, computer or vehicle. You've seen it at parties, i bet: people making BFF's because they have the ability to quick charge iPhones, huddled by the wall outlet like it's the illicit drug of choice.

It's no surprise that add-on and extension batteries are a popular accessory for Apple iPhones, and six months ago, the major contenders were awkward battery devices with universal plugs that acted like an external gas tank: useful if needed, but clunky as heck.

The newest generation of these devices are sleek and double as iPhone cases, and two of the best are from Tekkeon and Mophie.

Do they work, though, and how do they compare? Read on...

I've lost count of how many iPods I have here in the office, but it's at least a dozen of various sizes, shapes, and technologies, ranging from a first generation mini-hard drive unit with a firewire connector to the very latest Classic (that's an odd expression, isn't it?)

In addition, I'm a big fan of my Apple iPhone, which among many other great features, is a splendid iPod in its own right and currently stores 1716 of my favorite CD tracks quite neatly (49 artists, 146 CDs), along with tons of apps, my phone book, and enough games to even keep my kids quiet for ten minutes.

The problem with all of these devices is that when you're ready to skip to the next track because you just don't want to hear the one that came up in shuffle mode, or even just prefer to jump past certain songs, it's a pain in the booty to pull your iPod or iPhone out of your pack, bag or pocket, unlock it, and tap the right button to get to the next track.

Apple's addressed that with the slick new iPod shuffle's smart controller headphone cord (a double-tap advances to the next track) but for the millions of other iPods in the market, what's the smart solution?

Enter the Griffin Technology Navigate device...

I can still remember the first Mac I used: it was a 512K unit that the fine folk at the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link loaned me when they hired me to hack their discussion system and make it faster. At the time I'd just left my job at Hewlett-Packard and had no computer of my own (back then people didn't have computers unless they were hardware hobbyists or could handle cassette backups).

To the proffered loaner Macintosh I can recall saying "uh, no thanks, I don't really need a toy computer. I'll figure out another way to connect to your computer network." At the time, I was living in Los Altos, basically southwest of Palo Alto and due north of Apple headquarters in Cupertino, and the WELL was located north of the Golden Gate bridge in beautiful Sausalito. Way too far to drive for the work. So I had to get a computer of some sort.

I reluctantly accepted the dorky little fishbowl unit that was reminiscent of the Osborne my Dad had won in a sweepstakes a year or two earlier, and...

This is a guest article, written by Tim Beyers.

Rarely do I need access to Windows programs. For the times when I do, I've switched from a Parallels virtual machine running XP to CodeWeavers' CrossOver for Mac, a virtual environment that simulates the Win32 API, one program at a time.

What CrossOver for Mac is

CrossOver is built on the open source Wine project, which proposes to re-implement the Windows architecture for Unix. Thus, systems that draw from a Unix kernel -- Mac OS X and Linux, notably -- can use Wine to run Windows programs as if they were native to the underlying architecture.

I'm perpetually running out of disk space on my computers. If you follow me on Twitter (I'm @DaveTaylor), you've probably seen me every so often send out a message asking about this, that or the other upgrade path for one of my computers because things are filling up.

That's why when I saw that TechRestore was offering a 500GB internal drive upgrade path for my trusty MacBook Pro, I was quite interested. My existing drive at the time was only 149GB in size (that's actual usable size) and it was about 90% full, and that was with me sporadically pruning everything.

I contacted Shannon Jean at TechRestore and asked if they'd run an upgrade for me so I could see how the process worked, in return for me sharing the experience with you, my readers, and they agreed.

Here's how it went...

As a contributing author to a weblog about South Africa's upcoming World Cup 2010 (see The South Africa Project) I was rather surprised the other day when I went to log in to our Wordpress blog, just to see the following warning in my Web browser:

What does it mean? How can we get this sort of warning from our own site, without ever opening up anything or getting any indication that we'd be hacked or compromised?

Google is one of many companies that's been pushing the various capabilities of mobile devices and exploring how to make its vast storehouse of search data accessible in novel and interesting ways to people with the G-1 (the so-called Google Phone) and the Apple iPhone.

The latest example is Google's introduction of its mobile shopping interface, officially called Google Product Search for Mobile. If you never search for products for sale - probaly to do some comparison shopping - you might never bump into it, but it's pretty cool.

Let me show you...

In previous blog entries (see How do I sponsor searches on Google? and Advertising cannot be your only online marketing channel), I've talked about how to use paid services to promote your business online, focusing specifically on Google Adwords and how it lets your company appear as "sponsored" results on a search page. Then we talked last week about the distressingly ephemeral nature of paid advertising and explored examples of how mindshare rapidly declines once you stop paying.

The solution to the dilemma, the path to sustained visibility in the online world, is to understand the gestalt of Google, if you will, the core concept behind modern Internet search engines. Once you understand how they work, you'll see how you can rethink your online presence to maximize results without paying the proverbial arm and a leg.

In a word: content.

[This is a contributed article...]

We all know that almost all the countries have been hit by the economic slowdown. Actually recession has not been set into action as yet while I write this article. When you read this it may have but it is predicted that recession will set in my mid June or July 2009. Most people confuse recession and economic slowdown. Job cuts have been on the rise. People are seeing lesser incentives and the whole world is experiencing a financial crisis. Anyway I will use the word recession throughout this article to avoid confusion. Is it so bad that we cannot recover from it in any way? I don't think so. The main reason I believe that grows this recession is that most of us just sit and think about it alone.

I say think different!!!

Think about what you want always. Here are 28 tips to recover from recession and cut down on your costs, improve your conversions and more. What I am going to say now maybe just opposite to what you may have believed to be true or what your business consultant may have told you. Trust me on this, this is the truth.

In an earlier blog entry (see How to sponsor a search result), I talked about how to use Google AdWords to promote your business and how to get "sponsored" results in search engines like Google and Yahoo. I continue the conversation by talking about low cost grassroots ways that you can promote your business online through having a great content-based Web site, social networking and other avenues.

But first, I want to talk about why it's important to not just rely on paid advertising when you want to promote your business online.

The purpose of cases are to protect and so it should be no surprise to find out that plastic protective cases for laptops and phones get dinged up and scratched. The advancement in plastic materials, however, and ability to pour just about any color or finish seems to have let manufacturers leap too far ahead and produce products that are remarkable both in their attractive appearance and their fragility.

In this piece I'll talk about two that I've been using for the last month or two: A Speck Products See Thru Macbook Air case and an iFrogz 3G Luxe iPhone case

Whether you realize it or not, an enemy of your computer's performance is dust. Over time, your fans will pick up dust which collects on the components, the heat sink and on the fan blades themselves. Eventually, this impedes cooling and can cause your machine to run hot, reducing efficiency. It can also gum up the working mechanism of the fans, causing them to overheat or seize.

The issue? One you probably think about every day: how do I speed up my PC?

I find myself in hotel rooms more often than the average person and it never fails that the music I want to listen to, the music on my computer or iPhone, is available if I want to use headphones or the cheesy little speakers on the devices, but if I want to have it sound good and fill the room? I'm outta luck.

If you work in an office - especially after hours - you might well have a similar desire for a nice little speaker system that you can keep neatly tucked in your desk drawer when everyone's around but pull out and enjoy when the coast is clear.

That's why I was glad to receive a review iLuv iSP100 portable speaker device. I've looked at others in this category, but the iLuv is advertised as having a different speaker technology that gives it better bass response and volume.

The results?

If you're highly mobile, if you travel to trade shows or just walk around campus all day, or perhaps if you take long plane flights, you already know that for all the great features of the Apple iPhone, extended battery life ain't one of them.

Indeed, when we recently attended the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show it was by the end of the first day when it became apparent that the iPhone just didn't have the battery longevity we needed.

That's why we decided to test out extended iPhone compatible batteries at the show, seeking out vendors and asking them for samples and demo units. Most of them were not very good and I'll note that when I tried one that was powered by a pair of AA batteries it died before even completing a single charge. Useless.

Fortunately, I did find one that I was very impressed with, the Power Air Zpowerpac13 and have subsequently been sent a second that's also very good, the morphie juice pack.

I've gone through an amazing number of iPhone cases in the last year or so, between the ten or so I reviewed for the first gen iPhone and the cases I've been sent for the newer 3G phone. At first, my iPhone cases of choice were the rubberized ones like those from InCase Designs. (they call it a "form-fitting, injection molded material", of course, but to me it's just a fancy sort of rubber)

Then I realized that since I like to slip my iPhone into the front pocket of my pants, I'd often end up with the case collecting lint. Not so good, so I moved to harder plastic shells, but didn't really find any that I loved. Well, I like the Griffin Wave for its mix and match capabilities, but not enough that I haven't kept looking.

Until iFrogz generously gave me a couple of their 3G Luxe cases. What can I say, these just ROCK!

One of the many different gizmos we were given at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show was a slick little portable speaker system from long-time audio component firm Altec Lansing.

Imagine a device not much bigger than a 2-inch tall Coke can that you can plug into your iPod or laptop and you've got an idea of what the orbit M speaker looks like.

Cloud computing. What the heck does it mean, anyway? If you're confused by the phrase, you're not alone, because it's as prevalent now as the air we breathe. Without knowing it, you use cloud computing-based services everyday! Still, many aren't aware of just what cloud computing is and why it even matters. The basics of cloud computing is nothing new -- It's similar to the days of mainframe timesharing, where companies shared resources to process data for their needs. The difference today is that many cloud computing-based services and solutions run on thousands of low-cost PCs which are glued together by sophisticated software and networks.

So, here's a crash-course on cloud computing in three, two, one ...

I've gone to the Consumer Electronics Show for years, and generally the innovations there are because something is bigger, faster or brighter (think TVs and audio gear). Occasionally you'll find a company that's rethought a common object -- like, say, an iPod dock -- and done good things with it, but mostly it's the same stuff you saw the previous year, just refined and reengineered.

For 2009 the commodity item at the show seems to have been headphones, ear buds and other personal listening devices to improve your iPod, cell phone, Gameboy, PSP, laptop and other handheld device listening experience. I came home with a half-dozen different ones!

The one that I found brilliant, however, wasn't the one with skulls on the ends (though that was cool), or the one with personalizable earbud ends (again, cool idea) or even the lower priced noise-reducing units. The winner in my book was the listening devices from iHearSafe that limit the max volume of what you're hearing...

I was trying to sell an old laptop on Craigslist and got so confused trying to differentiate between legitimate and scam offers. For example, one guy from France offered to send me a money order and let me cash it before I sent out the computer, and was willing to pay more than I was asking. Another said he was happy to pay via Paypal if I just sent him my Paypal account ID. Were either of those legit? If not, how do the scams work?

Ever wonder where your kids go during the day? Or perhaps you're curious how many miles you travel, point to point, in a typical week? Heck, maybe you're the suspicious type and want to know where your spouse drives the car while you're working?

All of these questions can now be answered by devices called GPS tracking systems that combine the geolocation capabilities of a GPS with a rudimentary recording system and a simple computer interface, typically all packaged as a chunky USB memory stick.

The Telespial Systems' Trackstick II is one of the more interesting GPS tracking systems on the market and I was pleased to get one from the company for review. It's clunky, but performs as advertised, offering a wealth of interesting data and answers to all of the questions I posed above.

Is Santa Claus real, or just something us grownups invented to keep kids guessing about the presents they receive on Christmas morning? It's a question that I wrote about on my blog a few years ago (see Is Santa Claus Real?) and since then have been delighted to receive literally hundreds of comments, almost all from children, talking about their own beliefs and their "proof" that Santa is or isn't real.

I thought that in the spirit of Christmas it would be fun to just share some of the more amusing and poignant comments that have been added over the years.

I recently had an opportunity to interview well-known video game expert and celebrity Fatal1ty, mostly asking him about the current state of the art with computer gaming and what he sees coming in the future. Oh, and why he's called "Fatal1ty", for that matter. I hope you enjoy this interview, which - as you'll see - is, uh, powered by Creative Labs, makers of the Fatal1ty line of computer gaming gear...

Q: What do you think is the best all-around PC game of 2008?

Call of Duty: World at War.

Q: Are games getting better, or has the industry passed its prime, just coming out with sequels and such?

This is a contributed article written by my friends and pro photographers Brad & Jeanine Crooks.

Have you ever wondered why some "people" pictures grab your attention a little more than others? It's probably because the image is conceptual - it tells a story.

BPSI - these are 4 simple letters to keep in mind while photographing people. These letters are an acronym for Background, People (or Person), Symbol, and Involvement. Keeping this formula in mind will help you to conceptualize your people pictures, making them much more interesting and definitely more saleable. This formula was taught to me years ago by Rohn Engh, author of "Sell and Re-Sell Your Photos"?

Social Media Networks like Facebook and LinkedIn offer businesses new channels through which to conduct marketing and advertising. But how effective are these, really? Ask any SEO or online marketing expert and they will tell you that it's an organic process and it takes time to develop real results. The key is to have good content that turns people into repeat visitors to your website - eventually they will buy.

Really? "If you build it they will come?"

"The Great Depression." "The Worst Recession in our Lifetime!" It's hopeless - what can you do?

As a business owner or manager, it really depends on where you place your focus, because it turns out there is a lot you can do. Here are five things you can do right now to start to change things for your company.

#1 - "Give better Service - and remember the 'little things'."

The little things aren't so little - especially when customers are looking for reasons to cut back on doing business with you. What can you do to distinguish your business from your competition? Start with the easiest ones - get creative!

One restaurant owner changed how she presented receipts to her customers. Instead of those old, dirty black plastic folders or trays, she gave presented the bill in an ornamental box, or sometimes in a music box. This set her apart in her customers' eyes and made them feel special.

Only a few years ago this question might have not been so clear. But here we are today wondering where this is going to go. Lots of questions to ponder. Is television turning into the Web?

Will we be watching former television shows online in the future? If so, how soon? Will our televisions become obsolete eventually because everyone will be focused on their computer screens? Do we even want to watch television programming online?

And… will the government stand in our way or not?

It's a known fact that fresh, unique content is the lifeblood of any website.

But here comes the problem.

It's not easy to crank out unique content on a consistent basis especially if you are not a good writer. Well, even if you are an excellent writer, you'll have to have time to write.

Anyway, I have a better solution for you.

Why not you get someone else to create content for you - through interviews?

November 5 every year the English (and some other Commonwealth nations) celebrate Guy Fawkes Night with fireworks, parties and other festivities. But who was Guy Fawkes and what exactly are we celebrating when we commemorate the Gunpowder Plot?

I'm going back and forth on whether to spend the money and buy myself an Apple iPhone. In a lot of ways it seems like a very cool phone, and certainly it has far more features than my clunky old LG. I know about the core functions, but my first glance at the iPhone Application Store was totally overwhelming. I mean, there are HUNDREDS of applications. Tell me, what are your favorites and do you stick just to free apps, or have you bought some too?

If you've been on a plane flight in the last decade, you've doubtless seen people with huge headphones on their ears from Bose, headphones that would cut out most of the background noise even if they weren't using noise-canceling technology. It's not rocket science, big headphones can reduce background noise. But can little in-ear "ear bud" headphones prove effective in noisy environments too?

To find out, I review the Audio-Technica active noise-canceling QuietPoint ATH-ANC3 headphones.

For new players, World of Warcraft can prove to be somewhat overwhelming. After you've chosen your race and customized your character you are instantly transported into a massive 'virtual world'; it's understandable that this might cause some confusion.

Here are some basic survival tips for those new to the World of Warcraft...

Rock Band quickly became a hit game among recreational and hardcore gamers alike. Rock Band 2 has already been released so if you've been dazzled by the quick fret play of expert mode and yearn to be able to shred up a Rock Band guitar then you are in luck!

EVE Online is an involved science fiction MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game). As such, even something as simple as creating your character can take a ton of thought and strategy. Even if you already have a character created, you may want to rethink your choices... the character customization process is much more complex than it seems, and if you don't take into account certain points you may deviate or steer the entirely opposite direction from your ideal in-game persona.

Team Deathmatch is one of the more populated modes on Call of Duty 4 multi-player and also the first mode available to play. The object of this mode is relatively simple, to stay alive and kill enough players on the opposing side to attain the 750 point goal.

It's that staying alive part that can be tricky, though, so if you are one of those players finding that most of their session is spent watching the 'Kill Cam' maybe its time for you to change your tactics...

The coolest thing about playing Pirates of the Caribbean Online is the ability to procure your own pirate ship. Being the captain of the ship comes with its advantages, but it comes with its duties and responsibilities as well; the seas of Pirates Online can prove quite treacherous to those who know nothing of ships and sailing. Use these tips to gain the edge on your competition and leave your enemies with a message, 'Beware, all those that challenge you'.

Welcome to Jack Sparrow's world! The life of a pirate can be defined in one word: dangerous, and so you can't afford to waste time in building your notoriety. Here are some tips on how to become the most hated scalawag of the online seas.

I'm just getting into the amazing war simulation game Call of Duty 4 and want to know if there are any cool tips or tricks you can share so I can learn how to gain levels or level up quickly in the game?

I played hooky today and came to the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) trade show and exposition in Denver, Colorado to see what's new. Sadly, not much. If you're a wirehead this is a cool place to visit, since much of the action is about flexible HDMI cables, very high quality speaker cables for recessed and invisible speaker systems, and lots of subwoofers for high-end home theater systems.

Nonetheless, I did see a few cool gadgets and gizmos that are worth writing about...

I recently purchased a new iPod; the Apple Nano 8GB, in silver. I don't use my iPod very often. But when I do...I do!! It is billed as the most popular music player in the world. I can understand why...

Wondering what to do with that Time Machine application that comes with the new Mac OS X Leopard? Have you thought about plunking $300 on Apple's Time Capsule?
Don't do it: wait until you read this review...

The LaCie Corporation have made hard disks for Macs since the beginning of time. They have a new external disk offering called the Big Disk Extreme 1TB. Let me first say yes, that's 1000 gigabytes of storage! Doubling the offering of Apple's Time Capsule device. At the time of writing this the disk was being sold for $224. That's more than $80 in savings over the Time Capsule and twice the storage too. But is it worth it?

So, what is the first thing you do when you get a dead simple video camera? You take a video of your recent dental implant to send to your cousins in the UK! Imagine how happy my Doctor cousin was upon receiving such a wonderful surprise in their email.

What device am I talking about? The Flip Ultra video camera.

I'm a big fan of Bluetooth, but not Bluetooth headsets. I know, it's probably a bit goofy, but I can't help think that it's a bad idea to have a wireless electronic device hooked over your ear and beaming random electrical waves into your skull.

Some modern phones have no options - either you use Bluetooth for a headset or you hold the phone itself up to your head - but fortunately the Apple iPhone has a very sophisticated headphone jack that actually lets you plug in a wired headset.

If you travel as frequently as I do, you've probably learned a few things about life on the road, tips that help you avoid problems and ensure that fluffy pillows are the biggest complaint you have, not lost data or crashed laptops.

One of my favorite tips, one that I have seen people ignore with really terrible results more than once, is to never apply a security update, patch or other system change when you're away from your office. If it goes wrong, you're in big trouble and you don't have your local geeks around to help recover things.

The second rule of thumb is: back up your critical files before you leave on your trip and again at least once while on the road. Just in case.

That's why I was glad to have an extended trip to Hawaii as an excuse to try out a few different approaches to data backup. The candidates: A Corsair 32GB flash drive, a Western Digital 160GB Passport drive and Memeo's LifeAgent Internet backup system, all connected to my trusty MacBook Pro.

My brother recently got a call telling him that he could get his tax refund that's part of the economic stimulus package early - and not have to wait until May or later. He almost gave his savings account number, but then he got suspicious. Now he wonders. Is this a scam?

Yes, it's a scam. Even before Congress passed the $170 billion stimulus package to boost the economy, scammers started calling people to get their bank account and credit card information, so they could steal money, identities, or both.

Some scammers even claimed that you would lose your refund if you didn't give them your personal and financial information immediately.

This is just one of over 1,000 IRS scams that is currently circulating. With the tax season upon us, scammers are now pulling out all the stops to fool their victims.

Here are some of the most popular IRS scams that are currently making the rounds...

Searched for a few things on your site and I hit pay dirt! Thank you. I'm am nonetheless uncertain on how to pick a MP3 player. I don't know what factors to take into consideration in order to guide my choice. What do you suggest? I'll use it mostly to listen to music on the train as I commute to work. I'm no tech wiz and one of the first things I'll need to master is how to download, so a complicated gizmo won't work out for me. So what should I consider : memory (how much is good?), size, weight, crash proof, compatibility with other technology that might be coming up, keys? As you can read, I have no clue!

I'm somewhat of an audiophile and have owned several pairs of high-end headphones. Trouble is, the thing that always breaks first on these headphones is the cord. I always get the cord caught in something or it gets broken somehow. Do you know of any solution to this?

This is part of a multi-part series on custom stickers. Part one is Custom Stickers For Your Business, part two is A Guide to Buying Custom Stickers and part three is Types of Sticker Printing.

If you're like most small businesses, or even if your business is a large one, you most likely need to advertise without going over a marketing budget. When you're marketing budget is pretty limited, you may not want to spend it all on radio and television advertising and print advertising is expensive as well. So, it goes without saying, that stickers are relatively inexpensive to print and they can be a great way to advertise.

Stickers incorporate one of the best forms of advertising there is – word of mouth. When placed in strategic places, or even in the most common of places, stickers are able to generate great interest. Historically, stickers have been well suited on car bumpers, but today you'll find them literally everywhere. From laptops to backpacks to windshields to storefront doors and windows, stickers can be stuck anywhere and everywhere. No matter where they are stuck, someone is bound to see them and your business will be recognized.

Stickers can be likened to miniature moving billboards...

This is part of a multi-part series on custom stickers. Part one is Custom Stickers For Your Business and part two is A Guide to Buying Custom Stickers.

Sticker printing has evolved greatly over the past several decades. While a black marker and white paper were once the tools of the trade, today's stickers are available in wide variety of stocks as well as a wide variety of color options.

Screen-printing is the oldest, but the most common technique of sticker printing. As the name implies, the process utilized silk, although today synthetic screens are now used. Screen-printing is the most basic form of printing stickers and is typically limited to very small amounts.

For screen-printing, ultra-violet cured pigment colors are used and the desired image is cut out onto a stencil. The stencil is then placed on the sticker stock. The screen is then laid over the top and ink poured on to the screen and pressed into place using a squeegee. If more than one color is required, the process must be done for each color and only after the last has dried. The process must only be completed once for one-color items.

I just got a MacBook Air and have been enjoying having the world's lightest laptop. It's an amazing piece of engineering and while it appears to have some critical features missing (like a DVD drive or Ethernet port) the fact is that I never used those features on my older MacBook Pro laptop either so it's not anything I miss.

Frankly, with my Corsair 8GB flash drive, it's just a super-modern version of "sneakernet" and was a breeze to jump onto the new device and use it full-time.

Even better, it gave me an opportunity to really pay attention to what I change on a stock Mac laptop to make it work for me. And that's what this article is about. Let's call it Dave's Guide to Critical Mac Software...

This is part of a multi-part series on custom stickers. Part one is Custom Stickers For Your Business...

If you have decided to purchase custom stickers for your business, you need to do a bit of planning. A little bit of knowledge can go a long way in saving you money and time. Taking the time to learn a bit about the process can help you navigate this process with no hassle.

First thing that all custom sticker buyers need to consider is how these stickers are going to be used. If your sticker is intended to be stuck on things that will last and that are outside, the sticker needs to be a vinyl sticker of some sort. If your sticker is temporary, for packaging, nametags, correspondence, or presentations, you can opt for a paper sticker.

Vinyl stickers cost slightly more than paper stickers but are much more durable. When they are laminated with a thin film over the ink, they are even more durable. This stock is called "Laminated White Vinyl." Vinyl comes in gloss white, a frosty clear, a clear static cling and a yellow stock. Laminated white vinyl is the most common material for stickers that are meant to last.

Paper stickers can be very inexpensive, yet are really meant for indoor or temporary use. The selection of paper stocks is much larger than vinyl. Gloss, Matte and smudge-proof paper stocks are the three most popular paper stocks. Fluorescent stocks are available in many colors and are popular for packaging and attention grabbing applications. Metallically coated stocks come in gold and silver and can serve as a classy touch to correspondence and packaging...

In the town where I live there are many businesses that use stickers to promote their presence in the community. Oskar Blues is a restaurant, music club and brewery about ten miles from my house and it is one of my family's favorite destinations. Oskar Blues gives away black and white oval stickers that have the letters OB and a website address at the bottom. These stickers are everywhere, mostly on the vehicles of my friends and neighbors. A trip to the local ski area is further evidence that the OB stickers have become a part of the local visual experience.

The question is: how do they create those stickers? That's what this series will address...

One of the features added to the latest revision of the Apple iPhone operating system that's garnered quite a bit of attention is the ability to save Web page bookmark icons directly on the main screen of the phone. Experimentation reveals that some sites have cool icons while most are just miniature representations of the Web site. What's the difference? Read on and find out, including step-by-step directions on how you can easily ensure your own site (or blog!) has a custom iPhone icon too.

I inherited an older Sony color TV from my folks, a really good Trinitron, and it works pretty well with the rabbit ears I've hooked up, but I'm anxious that it's going to become obsolete when TV signals go all-digital. Legitimate worry, or will my TV work just fine over the next few years until it dies?

As you might well know, I'm happy to be a faculty member at Stompernet, a completely new idea in the world of Internet Marketing, a consortium of top marketers pooling their knowledge and expertise to create a single place where you can learn about search engine optimization, search engine marketing, ecommerce, keyword research, proven techniques to improve your PPC campaigns and close rates on your sales pages, leveraging blogs and podcasts for marketing, and even discuss and compare notes about such mundane topics as shopping carts, web hosting companies, designers, and copywriters...

Are you paranoid about the security of your data, and finding that the software-based solutions out there really aren't as seamless and transparent as you'd hope? Whether you're working for the Department of Homeland Security or lead programmer for a hot startup, there are good reasons for you to be aware of - and perhaps even paranoid - about your data security.

Add the complication of a laptop and now things get even more tricky, because if you are aware of the incidence of laptop theft at airports and on the road, now you have to think about all your email, all your documents, business memos, letters, spreadsheets, presentations, and related material all being delivered directly to your competitors, foreign nationals, or worse.

Fortunately, there are hardware-level encryption solutions available that, if you're ready to absolutely trust them with your digital life, can ensure that your system and/or laptop are completely secure and unbreakable.

A few weeks ago I had a chance to talk with some of the engineers at High Density Devices, makers of SecureD, a system that, as they describe, is characterized by "all data being encrypted in real-time: SecureD utilizes the strongest real-time encryption algorithms available and does not require user interaction or maintenance."

Please read on for our discussion...

Dave, I know that identity theft is a problem, but someone told me the other day that there are five major kinds of Identity theft. Then they got busy with something, and it left me confused. Isn't identity theft just identity theft?

Hey Dave. When it comes to tech stuff, even in the names that I read in product reviews on your blog, there are all of these companies I've never heard of. How do I know if what they're making is any good?

With the rise of higher speed wireless networking technologies, from 802.11g high-speed wifi to the pervasiveness of bluetooth and its kin with short-range wireless communications, it's becoming more and more difficult to determine whether it makes any sense to pay to have Ethernet "cat 5" wire installed in a home or office. There are more considerations than just cost, however, including security and future flexibility. Making this decision yourself? Then read on...

It was about four months ago that my 4GB Apple iPhone showed up and, after an initial scare that it was broken from dropping it - screen down - on a hard tile floor, connected to the network, replacing my Blackberry Pearl. I got the $100 credit for the Apple store after having watched the price drop $200 a month after I bought it, and I've gone through a number of cases already (!) and have a stack of different ones from the folks at Marware that I'm using now.

But after months of having it in my pocket, plugged into my car, on lunch tables with colleagues, and in various cities and states throughout the United States, what's my opinion of the phone now? What do I really love about it, and what drives me batty?

Read on...

Somewhat inadvertantly, I have been thrust into the world of the latest Mac OS X system, Leopard. Some months ago, I bought a top-of-the-line Apple MacBook Pro from my friend and colleague Jeff Walker (thanks Jeff!) and have subsequently had a variety of hardware problems with the unit. The first problem was the power switch, which ended up slightly akilter inside the unit and would stick. Not good. But quickly fixed.

This time, however, the power switch went a bit wonky again and the latch switch also became sticky. To top it off, a few keys on my two month old keyboard were already losing their letters / details, so when I took the unit in this time, I asked them to fix everything. They did. I have a new keyboard, new lower chassis, new power switch assembly and, yes, a new latch switch. Very cool.

Unfortunately the Apple techs went above and beyond and did one more thing while they had my laptop, something that caused me to lose 130GB of data...

It was less than a year ago that I bought a 256MB thumb drive and thought "man, lots of space, that'll be handy". In fact, I added my keys and made it my keychain. Then I decided it was too small and upgraded to a Lexar "Jump Drive" with an impressive 512MB of space coupled with some encryption software that would ensure that if I lost the drive, I wouldn't be out of luck.

Problem is, unless you have incredible personal discipline, it becomes quickly obvious that it's useful to have more space, not less, and just like modern housebuying, while it's impossible to have too much space, it certainly is possible to have too little.

As a result, when Corsair contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in looking at their 8GB "Survivor" flash drive, I quickly assented: 8GB sounded like enough space that it could actually be useful.

After using it for a few months, I am pleased to report that it's a great little flash drive with a rugged (and amusing) form factor.

When I bought a new television (a splendid Sony Bravia KDL-40V3000 40" LCD) I decided that it was time to update the sound system hooked up to the TV too, and after much research, I decided not to get a five speaker surround sound and clutter up the room with wires. Instead, I read lots of reviews and opted to buy the Philips Ambisound HTS8100 Home Theater Surround Bar.

The specs are awesome for this all-in-one stereo system, iPod dock, and DVD player that can upscale the movie being played to 1080p, the reference scanrate of high def video (1080 scan lines, progressive). Heck, the sound of the unit is terrific too.

Except for one problem: less than a month after I purchased it I have had to take it in for service, and it's been there for ten days now, with no resolution in sight...

It's impossible not to have heard about the many different social networks online nowadays. Seems like a new one pops up every week and indeed the single most popular site on the Internet is a social network (MySpace). I know because I am part of at least a dozen different social networks, ranging from focused professional venues to chaotic amalgamations of various ideas without any rhyme or reason. You can figure out which is which. :-)

One of my favorites has always remained LinkedIn and since I just this morning needed to track down one of the executives at web hosting company Dreamhost, I thought it would be useful to demonstrate exactly how I used LinkedIn for this task.

I spent a fair amount of time on the phone with Leslie Brooks Suzukamo, Telecom, Technology and Energy Reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Our topic of discussion? Whether the new Apple iPhone is going to be a good business phone or not. He quoted various industry sources and so-called pundits who predicted that it wouldn't and that it's designed exclusively for consumers. But he -- and they -- are so terribly wrong...

In the early days of the Internet, back when we called it a "dirt road" and were delighted when email bounced from UUCP connection to UUCP connection as is slowly wound its way from one end of the topological jungle to the other, email mailing lists were quite the cool thing.

Years have passed and we now have sophisticated web-based discussion boards, blogs and many other venues for interpersonal interaction, but email remains, to me, the killer application, and it's on my mailing lists that I encounter the freshest thinking and most valuable information.

I can remember when there were two main places to find mailing lists too (other than the List of Lists and other short-lived directories), Topica and Yahoo Groups. Google's added its own collection -- of course -- with Google Groups too, but in many ways, Yahoo Groups was always my favorite place to look for people with similar interests.

Which is why it's so distressing to see that it's become an absolute safe haven for porn and spammers in ways that were unanticipated when Web-based lists were first envisioned...

This is a user-contributed article.

TV has evolved in the last 5 years and can be difficult to understand. There are many technologies out there in the marketplace that are worth being conscious of as you go and buy an HDTV. Today's HDTV's also come with a variety of resolutions. You may see 720p, 1080p, 1080i etc. We are going through a changing of the guard, and it's all gotten rather complicated when you want to purchase a replacement set!

The first generation of HDTV's had maximum resolution or lines of 1080i/720p but today's TVs have a maximum resolution of 1080p. When buying a TV you'll find these 1080p sets to be more expensive than those that have a maximum resolution of 1080i/720p. This is because these 'true' HD TV sets are not only newer but they can accommodate optimal resolution on blu-ray and HD-DVD players without having to scale the image. The i/p behind the number indicates whether the resolution is interlaced (an older method of scaling images that results in the image having to be put back together and the signal to degrade) or progressive scan (a newer, superior method that results in no signal degradation).

Can you learn how to relax, achieve a meditative state and control your own brain waves with a computer game? That was the premise of the biofeedback-based series of games from the Wild Divine Project, and when the company gave me a copy of their flagship title The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage, I was eager to check it out.

And y'know what? It's extraordinarily cool. It's unlike any computer game you've ever played and even though I am not a fan of children playing computer games, I was happy to watch my children learn how to explore the lush interactive world of Wild Divine and overcome the various challenges and obstacles that are the heart of the game.

It's one of the most common questions that I hear as a writer, and just about every group of writers endlessly debates the topic: what's the purpose of an agent? Different agents have different views of what they do, and certainly authors vary in their ability to work with an agent or agency, but fundamentally, it can be a tricky business to pin down exactly how an agent should be helping a writer succeed.

This debate came up again on a popular writer's mailing list and with the permission of all parties involved, I am reproducing the original question and the thoughtful and informative answers. The discussion took place on a list sponsored by an agency, but I believe that these are candid answers and comments, not influenced by the sponsor in any way. I have also deliberately not associated individual authors with their comments to protect their views.

Already installed Apple's slick Boot Camp system so you can dual boot your Intel-based Mac into Microsoft Windows in addition to Mac OS X? Perhaps you even used my popular tutorial on How to install Windows XP in Apple Boot Camp to get it all working? Either way, you should be aware that Apple just released an update to Boot Camp that, among other things, will let you install the new Windows Vista in the Boot Camp partition.

Other features of this new 1.2 beta release include:

• Updated drivers, including the trackpad, AppleTime (sync), audio, graphics, modem, and the iSight camera
• Support for the Apple Remote
• Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp
• Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian
• Improved Windows driver installation experience
• Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows
• Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista)

Buying a television has never been more complicated than today, with four primary television technologies -- plasma, projection, LCD or CRT -- and a variety of different scan rates and resolutions, including HD, which has different meanings for different vendors.

More televised and DVD content is becoming available in High Definition (HD), digital broadcasting is becoming a requirement for terrestrial broadcasters, and more TVs are coming on the market to take advantage of these technologies. The result? It's getting more difficult to stick with your old CRT TV, but hard to know which new technology will work best.

In which we get the hottest video game system from Christmas 2006 and turn it into a Linux box? You bet!

If you're still thinking about video game systems as being just a wee bit more technologically advanced than an old Coleco or Atari 800, you've got quite a surprise coming the first time you crack open the proverbial hood. While the new Nintendo Wii (pronounced "wee", oddly enough) has some slick hardware, as does the Microsoft Xbox 360 device, the real winner in the technology race is the rather amazing Sony Playstation 3 system.

Built around an IBM Cell Broadband Engine processor, the PS3 includes a high def Blu-ray drive, four USB 2.0 ports, an Nvidia graphics processor with 256MB of separate video RAM, support for Compact Flash, SD and Memory Stick devices, Ethernet, built-in 802.11b and g, Bluetooth, an HDMI port and support for all the video resolutions you can imagine, including 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i and the holy grail, 1080p. Sounds like a computer, not a video game system, doesn't it?

[This is a reader-contributed article]

For the longest time my wife has wanted a hands free system in her car so that she did not have to use a headset or handle the phone while driving. Her description always included a cradle setup, but she did not know where to put the cradle in the car (a 2002 Audi A6).

For her birthday this year I finally took the initiative and did some research. I found that there are some very good bluetooth solutions out there. My wife's Treo 700p is -- mostly -- bluetooth capable, but more on that later.

For various reasons, including good reviews, reputation (Motorola seems to know a thing or two about voice communications), features and price I went with the Motorola IHF1000 Car Kit.

There really didn't seem to be much to the kit when it came in the mail, though: an interface (they call it a UIM for "User Interface Module"), a control module (a rectangular black box), a 5W speaker, a microphone and a wiring harness. I thought the speaker was redundant since I had planned to use the car's audio system for receiving calls, but that plan changed as installation progressed...

Technology has changed dramatically in the last decade, but perhaps nowhere more than with cellular phone technology. From being a device for dialing numbers cellphones have evolved to where they're a portable entertainment and media device, with music players, Web access, and even the ability to play videos and television content.

Some companies are pushing this set of capabilities further, and I was intriguied when Cellfire sent me a Sony-Ericsson phone with its coupon system pre-installed. I tested it out and was surprised by what I found...

Just before Christmas, Polk Audio sent me one of their new I-Sonic all-in-one entertainment system to review, and it has been in my office ever since, giving me a chance to experience XM Radio and HD Radio, among other things. Does it sound nice? Most definitely. Is it worth $599? Well... let's talk about the pro's and con's of the unit before I answer that question.

After having spent the last year learning everything about the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP), is there really a better device for watching movies away from your television? To find out, we bought a Creative Labs Zen Vision:W video player and were surprised and pleased to find out that it's a far, far superior portable media player than the PSP in just about every way.

I was recently interviewed by a magazine about search engine marketing and search engine optimization, specifically whether big companies are missing the boat and whether smaller companies are paying too much attention to SEO or not. Their questions and my answers follow.

It's something that companies have been trying to perfect for years now, a digital book. A device that has all the physical characteristics and benefits of a book while also having the benefits of a digital device, including vast storage, annotation capabilities, networking, animations, and much more. So far, every launch has failed, but in the last few months Sony has come out with its Sony Reader, the PRS-500, and this might just have what it takes...

If you hop from PC to PC, do you really trust that they don't have spyware, malware or viruses installed, hiding in the operating system? What if you could carry a cheap little keychain pendant that not only offered you storage, but also included effective, easy-to-use anti-virus and anti-spyware applications with which you can quickly scan that suspicious PC and make sure it really is safe for you to use? These devices are just coming out and I had a chance to put one through its paces...

I'm pleased to announce that Ask Dave Taylor has made it into the finals of the 2006 Weblog Awards! I have some tough competition though, including slashdot, Engadget, Gizmodo and TechCrunch.

But you can help! Click and vote for AskDaveTaylor:

Here's what's a bit weird about how it's structured, though: you can vote once every 25 hours, so if you really want to hep me stand a chance against these excellent competitors, I ask that you vote for me as many times as you can until the voting period ends on the 17th.

Kinda like classic Chicago polls, vote early, vote often!

And, thanks!!

[This is the second part of a series of high tech buyer's guides we're releasing here at Ask Dave Taylor to help address many of the questions that we receive about confusing new technologies and gadgets. The first article addressed a core HD question: HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. This second article looks at the rapidly evolving world of personal media players and other ways you can enjoy video on the go. We hope you find this valuable!]

Much the same way the iPod changed the landscape in portable audio, videos frontier has forever been expanded thanks to these tiny devices.

It seems everything in technology is about getting smaller, however some industry expects didn't believe there was a future for a mini-video player. Boy they were wrong. Portable Video has exploded in a big way in the last year, apparently small is just right.

Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP) was the first video capable device to hit the market in Japan in December of 2004. While its primary function was a gaming medium, the PSP set the market as far as movies on mini go. Sony's UMD format was, and still is a big hit with consumers.

This is the first part of a series of high tech buyer's guides we're releasing here at Ask Dave Taylor to help address many of the questions that we receive about confusing new technologies and gadgets. This first article addresses a core HD question: HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Both are amazing, but pick the wrong one, and you can pour thousands down a hole. I hope this is helpful, and encourage you to add comments at the end with your own experiences buying HD consumer electronics, whether they're Playstation 3 / Nintendo Wii / Xbox 360 video systems, DVD players, or televisions.

The battle for your entertainment dollar took a big turn towards your living room in the early 1990s with the debut of the DVD. Replacing an obsolete analog tape format (VHS) with a crystal clear digital picture gave you a far better viewing experience and also allowed the movie studios another way to get your dollars in their pockets.

Today we are on the verge of another revolution in home movie viewing experience. High Definition is here and boy it sure looks good!

Of course, what would a new technology be without a format war, leaving us consumers confused and angry? The contenders in this battle are the two major High Definition DVD formats: Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

While both formats are very similar, there are a few subtle differences that are critically important to understand before you spend a dollar on your next consumer electronics device.

Giving a loved one a laptop can be a great experience. As with any gift, the impulse comes from generosity and a wish to improve someone's life; but unfortunately, there are times when any well-intentioned gift can go badly wrong. With laptops, in particular, it is easy to make a small mistake that can be remedied only by outright exchanging the laptop; and that can mean some hassles at best, and at worst it might cost you a big restocking fee. Follow these ten tips and you can be sure that your gift will be the hit of the Holidays this year!

What's the history of the alcoholic spirit gin? Is it really a medicinal drink, and is this a good reason to have a gin martini every afternoon?