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Amazon Cleans Up in Sales
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Misc. Tech,
While most retailers lost money this holiday season, Amazon is pleased to announce that they did just fine, thank you very much. Their best sellers included the Wii, the iPod touch and Samsung’s 52-inch LCD HDTV. They claim an increase of 17% (6.3 million items) on their busiest day, Dec.15. That is almost a million more than last year. Somehow we are not surprised as online shopping is so much easier now considering most of us can order what we want without the hassle of snow, nasty shoppers and crowded malls.
Read More 
| USA Today
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The number 1 search on Google yesterday morning was “ihop.” We guess that it wasn’t enough to gorge on holiday roast beast. Or maybe some just wanted to get an omelet before last minute shopping, since the #2 search was “stores open on Christmas day.” Included on the list was “Waffle House” (#9,) Denny’s (#10,) “Wal-Mart Christmas Day hours” (No. 16,) and “Is Best Buy open on Christmas” (No. 18.) Find the complete list via the link.
Read More | LA Times
Verismo VuNow PoD VN100SD - YouTube on TV
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Home Entertainment, Internet, Misc. Tech,
Verismo has unveiled its VuNow PoD VN100SD that has the ability to let you watch online video content on your TV without routing through a computer. It connects like a DVD player and needs an Internet connection for its Ethernet port. Seek out videos by logging into your YouTube account and using the interface and keypad. The VN100SD is available for $99.00, while you can get the HD version for $149.00. An additional $29.00 gives you access to Bit Torrents and global Internet TV.
Read More | Verisomo Networks
Latest Gear Live Videos
In honor of today, we found a couple of quizzes to play when you are trying to escape the family for a few. The Daily Lunchtime Quiz asks you to name all of Santa’s reindeer in less than 2 minutes, while Quizopolis can tell you which reindeer you are most like by checking some of your personality traits. When your family calls you back, tell them you found some new trivia that claims “Donner” was originally “Donder,” but was changed for the song, and the name stuck.
(Have a good one!)
Read More | Quizopolis
Before you head to your nearest 7-11 or Walgreen’s for last minute holiday gifts, think about an inexpensive gift that will benefit more than your Uncle Bob. The site is appropriately named Changing the Present. For $14.00, you can support a land field mine survivor in the Middle East for a day. Send $20.00 and you can provide a family overseas with a small flock of baby chicks. It only takes $30.00 to feed a family in Bangladesh for an entire month. We love the idea that at this time of the year, we can give to others as well as ourselves.
Read More | Changing The Present
How about a Basketball Webcam to go with your Golf Mouse? The cam features a CMOS sensor with 100K pixels and an image resolution of 352 x 288. With an AVI file format, it runs at 12 fps and has auto white balance. The sporty camera runs on Windows 98/2000/Me/XP, and you can plug and play into your USB connection. It comes with CD software and a sale price of $12.99 with free shipping. But then everything is sent that way from Free Shipping.com.
Read More | Free-Shipping
Kickbee Allows Unborn Baby to Twitter
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Wearables, Internet, Misc. Tech,
Corey Menscher, a technologist, interaction designer and web application developer, wanted to know what his unborn baby was up to as his pregnant wife did. He created the Kickbee, a stretchy band embedded with sensors that react to movement with an Arduino microcontroller. He then decided to transmit them by Bluetooth to a MacBook Pro and from there sends Twitter updates. Our first reaction was to wonder if the baby would be affected by the procedure. This is what Corey had to say.
“I’d also like to respond to some comments about “irradiating” my baby. The piezo sensors are simple sensors that generate a very small electrical current when tapped or vibrated. They are not powered in any way…I’ve spoken to faculty about this, and considering the very low wattage, it’s unlikely much of the electromagnetic radiation will reach the baby. Even so, I’m looking into placing the circuitry on radio-absorbing material.”
By the way, we checked out the Kickbee Twitter page and noticed that it simply states when the fetus kicks.
Oh, and as an aside, if you are on Twitter, feel free to follow us: @gearlive.
Read More | Kickbee
If you are hunting around for a new logo or design sites for others, LogoInstant has plenty to choose from free of charge. They claim they do it when bored, but we know that those who can, do and love to share. Categories of the Web 2.0 designs include e-commerce, communication, animals, food and beverage, and logotype. While it really is free, the creative team would love a donation and a link to their site in exchange for their talent.
Read More | LogoInstant
After a two-day “cyberwar” simulation, it was determined that the U.S. isn’t properly prepared. With a participation of 230 government reps, security agents, civil groups and private companies, the exercise resulted in errors in planning, leadership and communications. If such an incident occurred, there could be a banking or electric system failure. Mark Gerencser, of the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting service which ran the simulation, claimed that, “There isn’t really anybody in charge.” How comforting.
Read More | Courier Mail
Say goodbye to seeing Madonna, James Blunt and Sheryl Crow on YouTube. Warner Music is pulling all their publishing rights content. The company was the first in September to offer the site music videos, behind the scenes footage, interviews and original programming. The problem seems to be a monetary one as Warner had apparently been asking for upfront funds, a share of ad revenue and per stream fee. We guess YouTube said no.
Read More | Times Online
