Mickey Can Tell the Time! So can Goofy! Oh Boy!

Back to Dick’s Gadget Warehouse, Friday, July 23^rd, 2010, Netcast 1140 

A Mickey Talking Watch that was available on Ebay. Yes, they're BIG watches!The Mickey, Minnie and Goofy Talking Watch came out toward the end of 1991. Way back then, the inventor, Harold Pierce, asked himself: “What would the Mickey Mouse watch be like in the year 2000?” His answer was a digital animated timepiece that would announce the time in Mickey's, Minnie’s or Goofy’s cartoon voice. Mr. Pierce decided not to wait until the end of the century to design the Talking Time Mickey Mouse watch. As you can see in the photo, the watch is a bust of Mickey (or Minnie or Goofy which were added shortly after Mickey) with a digital readout under his/her chin. When you squeeze the hands at the base of the watch, the Disney character’s familiar voice is heard. But wait there’s more! The mouth moves in synchronization with the popular phrases they use. For example Mickey says: "Hey, the time is 27 minutes after 5. Wow!" or "Wow, it's 5:31. Oh boy! Mr. Pierce believes that his company, Sounds Fun, was the first to develop a motor powered by a watch battery.” Actually I found it took 3 watch batteries when I opened the back of the watch. The ones in my Goofy watch were dead, not surprising after 19 years. Maybe the new ones I put in where low on power too, because now Goofy moves his mouth, but he doesn’t talk. Of course on this episode of the Daily Giz Wiz Leo was more than happy to jump in and supply Goofy’s missing voice. Now, 19 years later, the Talking Time Mickey, Goofy, Minnie, watches are pretty much gone. They’d be forgotten too if it wasn’t for Dick’s Gadget Warehouse & Ebay. The watches, which sold for $29.95 each back then, show up on Ebay from time to time (no pun intended), usually for under $10.

Hear or SEE this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1140

Did I take my pill??

Thursday, July 22^nd, 2010, Netcast 1139 

I bet you’ve asked yourself that question anytime you needed to take pills at certain intervals. An simple way to remember to take your medicine is to use The Pill Timer. It’s an easy to use medication management system designed to help people, patients, and care­givers get the full benefits from their prescription medications. You program it for prescribed regimen interval – by pushing a button on the cap to tell it you need to take a pill say - every 2, 4, 6, 8 hours, etc. Once programmed, an alarm sounds for 20 seconds when it’s time to take a pill. Along with the alarm, a red light flashes for one minute when dosage is due. When you take off the cap to take your pill, the timer automatically resets to 0:00. That way you can easily see how long it’s been since you took your last pill. There’s an hourly reminder alarm and the LCD continues to blink if the dosage is missed. Pill Timer can help you prevent accidental under and over dosing. The battery is not replaceable, but the company says it’s guaranteed to last for at least 3 months. My guess is that the battery will last a lot longer, but the company wants to make sure you don’t use the cap battery too long, which could make the timer not operate properly. Luckily the The Pill Timer is under $5 and comes with USP approved prescription vial. $4.95 

http://www.medtimetechnology.com/product.html 

Hear or SEE this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1139

A digital frame alarm clock for under $25.

Wednesday, July 21^st, 2010, Netcast 1138 

Coby has been making really nice electronic gizmos at a very reasonable price. (Their under $30 CAM3000 Mini Digital Camcorder is an excellent example. See the link below for more info.) The Coby (DP356WH) 3.5" Digital Picture Frame With Alarm Clock is one of their newest devices to offer a lot of features for the money. It offers an easy and convenient way to display digital photos of your friends, relatives, pets, etc. without a computer. The built-in memory card reader is compatible with Secure Digital memory cards, even SDHC cards up to 32GB. You can download the photos onto the SD card using your computer and play them back on the frame. Or you can use Coby’s onboard USB port to download photos from your computer to the card docked in the frame. It's high-tech, fashionable design and display options make it a great for home or office. And it even has an alarm clock to keep you on time! And a snooze alarm too. The 3.5-inch TFT LCD screen displays JPEG photo files and it can play MP3 and WMA Music files. You can even have a photo slideshow with background music from your music files. But wait there’s more! There’s even a calendar display function. The frame is available in black, white, red, blue. MSRP is $29.99, but it’s under $25 at this Adorama link: 

http://tinyurl.com/2dsjfhk

Hear or SEE this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1138 

The Coby CAM3000 SNAPP Mini Digital Camcorder/Camera

It's the 3rd Tuesday of the month, so Leo must be doing a new cell phone for his Turn The Table Tuesday!

TTTT, Tuesday, July 20^th, 2010, Netcast 1137 

On a recent Daily Giz Wiz I told Leo I finally figured out the pattern to the gadgets he picks for Turn The Table Tuesdays. Even though they seem random, they actually go in a precise order. Bluetooth headset, a new camera or camcorder, cell phone, piece of crap, Bluetooth headset, camera, cell phone, repeat, etc., etc. This Tuesday, it’s the Iphone 4. This phone has been talked everywhere so much, for so long, everywhere, I'm not going to list the features and drawbacks Leo talked about here. It will be far more helpful if you listen to this episode of the Daily Giz Wiz. Actually, it will be even better if you WATCH it, because Leo did some demos with his iPhone 4 on the show. And Leo had an excellent point. His review will be much more accurate because he's now spent some real use time with the iPhone 4. Early reviewers had their phones for a day or two and then wrore their review. That's not much time to find the good, the bad and the antenna problems. The link below will take you to the audio or the video version! And yes, you’ll even hear about the iPhone 4 antenna problem, with a demo! Enjoy.

IPhone 4 info:  http://apple.com/iphone

Hear or see this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1137

Make your netbook a lot more useful!

Monday, July 19^th, 2010 Netcast 1136 

For a netbook to be small, many features have to be left out. But help is here. The Aegis NetDock is a smart-looking Plug N Play device that adds back many of those missing features. Just plug this device into AC power and then into your netbook via a USB cable. Almost instantly you’ve added 4 additional USB ports and a large 500 GB hard drive! But wait there’s more!  When I first opened the box to remove the unit I saw an installation DVD and thought: “Well this is dumb. Netbooks don’t have a DVD drive to install software. Then I realized this slim, trim unit has a built in dual layer DVD burner. Nice! Another nice feature is how the four additional USB ports are set up. Two of them are constantly powered. That means you can charge your phone or other USB gadgets even when the netbook is shut off or asleep. Or even disconnected. Of course the NetDock must be plugged into AC power. Speaking of power, the Aegis NetDock has an automatic “ON” and “OFF” feature tied to the power switch of the connected netbook. It powers up when the netbook goes on and powers down when your netbook goes to sleep. A non-slip rubber stand is included if you want to save desktop office space and stand the NetDock on end. It ships with CD/DVD burning software, VLC Media Player, and Microsoft sync software. The MSRP of the NetDock w/o a hard drive is $89. (If you have a  2.5-inch drive sitting around, you can install it yourself. You only have to remove one screw for the NetDock to open. Then connect your drive to the SATA connector, secure it with a couple of screws, put the cover back on, and you're ready to save lots of stuff.) With a 500 GB hard drive pre-installed, it’s $179.00. A 250 GB model is $149. When this was written 7/18/10, there’s a rebate on the company website. Go here for details: 

http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=64   

Hear or SEE this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1136