It didn’t have many features, but it was small enough to fit just about anywhere.

Gadget Warehouse Friday, Friday April 30^th, 2010 Netcast 1080 

Features include door & door latches!Back in 1998 manufacturers jumped the “tiny microwave” bandwagon. The idea was to make small microwaves ideal for the office, dorm or RV. I had, and still use, the SAMSUNG Junior. It’s small: 11" wide X 12" deep and 13" high. And those are the outside dimensions! The interior is too small for a turntable, but it did come with heavy-duty glass dish at the bottom of the oven compartment. It’s just big enough to cook one frozen dinner. At 500 watts, it’s not very powerful. By comparison today’s microwave ovens range from about 900 to 1200 watts. Because of the low 500-watt power, there are no power settings. You would never cook anything that I can think of at less than 500 watts. There’s no glass door, so you can’t look inside and there’s no interior light. It also has a minimum amount of controls, just six buttons. You could tell it was aimed at the college dorm market because the three cooking buttons are: POPCORN / SOUP / BEVERAGE. The electronic timer only goes up to 15 minutes. There’s a minute button & a 5 second button, and you use them to set the cooking time. Then there’s a stop/reset button. Those are all the controls. It did have a nice child-safe feature. By holding the Clear/Off button for 3 seconds it would lock out all the buttons. To restore them, hold the Clear/Off button again for three seconds. I found this microwave was ideal for my small boat where both power and space are a problem. I’ve heard people liked them for RV’s and tiny apartments too. It retailed for about $89.99. Although almost all those tiny microwaves have disappeared, including this one, Sharp still makes the Half Pint. But “small” commands a “big” price. It retails for about $150! You can get a bigger, much more powerful microwave for under $100. The higher price for the small unit most likely is because they don’t sell many of them. 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1080.

18th Century Master Distillers Meet Modem Technology.

Thursday, April 29^th, 2010, Netcast 1079 

When I got a call asking if I was I interested in brand new high-end vodka, I had to pass. But then I heard this new vodka was going to be marketed in the world’s first bottle with a programmable digital display on it. That was a whole different story! I met the guys behind MEDEA who came up with the unique idea of combining the golden era of 18th century master distillers in Holland with the modern technology of the 21st century here in the US. The name MEDEA stands for personalization (ME) and creativity (IDEA). The message board right on the handsome vodka bottle can hold up to six messages. Each message can be up to 255 characters. You program your message right on the bottle using two buttons to scroll through the alphabet & symbols. To save power, the screen shuts off after three minutes of scrolling to preserve power. The display can be turned on up to 800 times and the battery has an approximate year and a half lifetime. The bottle can be immersed in water with no harm to the display. If you’re a bit handy, it looks like replacing the batteries should be pretty easy. MEDEA is now available in stores in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, Vegas and California.  SRP ranges from $39.99 to 44.99 for a 750 ml bottle. It’s also available for online purchase via Drink Up NY, Astor Wine and Spirits, and Bowery and Vine. You find the MEDEA dealers on the company’s website.) The Vodka itself is also new. It comes from a distillery founded in 1777 in Schiedam, (pronounced [skhee-dahm]), Holland. 

http://medeaspirits.com/

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1079

Print Black & White Copies for One Penny each!

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 Netcast 1078

This is the 905. You can remove the lower paper tray if you wish.I learned from Lexmark that there are two types of computer printers made. There are super low cost printers where the cartridges are high in price and business printers, where you pay more when you purchase the machine, but you get low printing costs. It’s as low as a penny a copy with these three “P” printers from Lexmark: The Lexmark Platinum 905, the Prestige Pro 805, and the newest, the Pinnacle. The 905 is a four-in-one model. It prints, scans, copies, and faxes. (Grate, chop, and stir will most likely come in a year or two.)  The Prestige 805 has the same features as the Platinum 905 minus the fax. The Pinnacle has the same features, but has only one paper tray as opposed to two on the others. Yes, it’s a bit confusing, but all the features are explained at the Lexmark website. These 3 models are all wireless N equipped and have a 4.3 color LCD Touch Screen. Instead of confusing onscreen menus with dozens of icons, you use Lexmark’s Smart Solutions to create your own applications. And if you want, you can add RSS feeds, weather, CNN, etc. Set up your preferences on the web and then it’s sent to your printer’s screen! So you have a custom made printer menu. Another nice feature is  the business card scanner that scans up to 8 business cards at a time. The Eco-mode lets you do double sided printing at the touch of button, no menu option hunting needed. You can even access photos directly from Photobucket via the LCD screen if you want. And you can access and print content directly from the Web. These 3 models have the lowest black ink cartridge cost available: as little as $4.99. You can print up to 500 copies, so that comes to as little as 1 cent per page. Another bonus of these high-end printers is a 5-year warrantee, plus lifetime priority phone support. Prices start at $299.99 and of course you should do a web search for an even lower price. (Remember just the three printers mentioned here: Platinum, Prestige and Pinnacle are the one-cent-a-copy printers.)

 http://www1.lexmark.com/products/ 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1078

Leo finds a really neat Bluetooth video camera.

Turn The Table Tuesday, Tuesday, April 27th, 2010, Netcast 1077 

On this Turn The Table Tuesday Leo comes with a gadget even I would love to have, but I’ll start with the spoiler up front. It’s for MAC users only. It’s the BT-1 webcam, the first Bluetooth based wireless web cam for the Mac. (I believe Leo got his at MAC World.) The BT-1 connects to your Mac via Bluetooth, and once connected you can use it for video chats, broadcasting, even doing a tour of your surroundings as Leo did as he walked around the TWiT studio with it. But don’t forget, you’re limited to the approximate 30 feet range of Bluetooth. The BT-1 is small, smaller than an iPhone. If you want to use it at your desk you also get a mini tripod. It comes with a USB cable, which you use to charge the camera. The video quality looked good especially since it considering it was broadcast via Bluetooth. Here are the camera specs from the company’s website: •640x480 H.264 video (15 fps) and 48 kHz AAC audio • 2" x 2½" x 5/8"  •Stereo microphone • 4 hour talk time • Compatible with iChat, Skype and other video apps • 10 - 30 foot wireless range • Standard tripod mounting screw. Bluetooth: 2.0+EDR with Authentication and Encryption, Class 1 RF Capability.  This webcam is from Ecamm. The price isn’t bad either, $150.00.

http://www.bt-1.com/ 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1077

Tea for Two. As in Tea for Two Hundred & Fifty Dollars!

Monday, April 26^th, 2010, Netcast 1076 

As a turn the table a while back, Leo picked the Breville variable temperature kettle.  www.twit.tv/dgw947 It’s was state-of-the-art for a short time, but now it’s been replaced by the new Breville One-Touch Tea Maker. (BTM800XL) It has many of same features of the original. A variable temperature control heats water to the ideal temperature for your chosen tea. Yes, it seems different teas need different water temperatures. (Who knew?) But with the kettle Leo has -- after the water is the exact temperature for the tea you’re going to brew – you had the difficult task of not only adding the tea – but manually dunking while it steeped. No more! The new Breville model has a Tea Basket that auto-lowers when the correct temperature is reached! This is to bring out the tea’s optimal flavor and aroma. And yes there’s a variable steeping times control for the tea strength you want: strong, medium or mild. Then the Tea Basket auto-raises at the correct time to prevent over steeping. Pretty neat, eh? It also has timer auto start, a 60-minute keep warm, and a Time Since Brew LCD timer to monitor freshness! It a 1500 Watt Quick Boil Element so it properly should be on its own circuit. Under $250.00.  

More info & a video: http://www.brevilleusa.com/tea/one-touch-tea-maker.html 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1076