The question that no one dares ask! What’s a Krustbuster?

Thursday, March 11^th, 2010, Netcast 1044

Krustbuster is a pocket sandwich sealer, krust (as in bread crust) remover and a container for sandwiches that keeps the sandwich fresh and keeps the sandwich from getting smashed by other items in your lunch sack. It is also a child safe "kitchen toy" that encourages kids to eat more nutritiously and puts the fun back into making sandwich classics like PB&J, Toast, Ham & Cheese, Grilled Cheese, Egg Sandwiches, Tuna Fish, Chicken salad and even Hot Dog Sandwiches. (But you DON’T cook in it!)  So how did The Giz Wiz get one? A Daily Giz Wiz fan, Benny Ek sent me one. It seems he sells fun stuff online & this is one of the gadgets he sells. At first I sent a TWEET about Krustbuster saying it wasn’t tech enough for the DGW. But then fans shot back: “Compared to the UpChuck Egg Separator Leo Laporte talked about, this is high tech!” And so it ended up as the gadget of the day! It’s actually easy & fun to use. (Since I don’t like to waste anything, I take the break crusts to the park for the boats, or the marina for the ducks & seagulls.) You can buy a Krustbuster by itself for under $10. Or a Krustbuster and 12 sandwich stamps: 6 to help identify what’s in your sandwich: Turkey, cheese, hotdog, strawberry, grape and pig – for ham. And 6 more stamps just for fun, including a heart, smiley face, car, balloon and star. All stamps and Krustbusters are food grade plastic and dishwasher safe. The Krustbuster, with the sandwich stamps and a cup device called Kupbuster is $19.95. Or for $29.95 you can get 2 Krustbusters, 2 Kupbusters and the 12 sandwich stamps. Shipping and Handling is $4.95. 

www.krustbuster.com 

To buy from Benny – he sells it a bit cheaper:

 http://shop.ebay.com/bennyek/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340  

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1044

The highest tech greeting card I know of!

Wednesday, March 10^th, 2010, Netcast 1043

The Pandigital Digital Photo Greeting Card is like no other. It’s kind of a super mini-digital photo frame you can send the old fashioned way, via snail mail. But these cards let you quickly and easily load up to 50 digital photos of family, friends, cherished memories, vacations, etc. right into greeting card memory. This is the only greeting card I ever heard of that has its own built-in LCD screen that can display digital photos in an ever changing slide show. (The card itself is the frame.) Up to 50 digital photos automatically play on the 1.44-inch color digital photo screen each time the card is opened. It turns off when the card is closed. If the card is left open, it will automatically turn off after five minutes to preserve battery life. Each card will last for up to two and half hours of total battery life. (The batteries are not replaceable, although a handy person could probably replace them with a bit of effort.) These cards are available for most special occasions and are so unique the card can actually be the gift. If you’re a totally non-tech person, that’s no problem. The card comes preloaded with a generic slide show demo. That way the recipient can erase them and upload their own photos. Easy-to-use photo-transfer software (both Mac and PC compatible) is preloaded onto the card. Just use a USB cable to connect the card’s mini USB jack to a home computer. (You supply the cable, but most likely you have at least one of them lying around.) The cards accept JPEG, GIF and BMP photo formats. The Pandigital Digital Photo Greeting Cards come in a wide selection of styles and designs including sentiments of love, thinking of you, anniversaries, congratulations, birthdays, happy holidays, and later this year, season’s greetings. They are just being introduced (March, 2010) so the line will grow over the next couple of months. Suggested retail price is $9.99 each.

http://www.pandigital.net/galleries/324

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1043

Leo comes up with a real winner for this Turn The Table Tuesday!

TTTT, Tuesday, March 9^th, 2010, Netcast 1042

Leo is among the first to play with the new Full HD Xacti, VPC-CS1. It’s called The Dual Camera by Sanyo because it can capture both photos with a Hi Res 8MP still camera and videos at full 1080P resolution. With an onboard mini-HDMI output, you can enjoy your HD videos on the family flat screen HDTV. Leo likes that the VPC-CS1 is certified to be compatible with iFrame. That’s the next generation video format which will allow users to easily import, edit and share high quality video. I saw this new Sanyo device at CES and was impressed at how amazingly compact, lightweight and slim it is. As of CES 2010, it was advertised as the World’s Smallest, Lightest and Thinnest Dual Camera. (But of course that could have changed the next morning with all the new products being introduced!) Even though it’s a mighty slim cam, it has a lot of features; from a10x zoom to a 38-mm wide-angle lens. There’s not only a digital image stabilizer and  “Face Chaser Function” for videos, but there’s a first (at least I’ve never seen it before) “Pet Recognition”. We’ll have to wait for Leo to check it with his cute dog, Ozzie to see how well it works. “Sequential Shot” lets you capture the perfect images and ”Eye-Fi card compatibility” enables automatic uploading of images to a computer when in WiFi range. (Assuming you buy a Eye-Fi SD card!)  It’s also compatible with large-capacity recording media, SDXC memory cards. It’s available in silver for a MSRP of $299.99. Release date is mid-March, 2010. 

http://us.sanyo.com/News/SANYO-Announces-the-World-s-Smallest-Lightest-and-Thinnest-1-Dual-Camera-Xacti-for-2010

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1042

Spices that travel!

Monday, March 8^th, 2010, Netcast 1041

At the Green Products Expo I meet Holly McWhorter, creator of The Mobile Foodie Survival Kit. Holly originally designed it for Frequent Travelers who had to face dreadful airline food, hotel food, or terrible local restaurant food. She decided to come up with an easy way to 'save the dreadful meals and make them taste a lot better'. She did that by creating the Mobile Foodie Survival Kit. It’s a pocketsize set of organic seasonings that are essential for any foodie on the go. It includes sixteen organic herbs and spices, plus wasabi, soy sauce and a mini-bottle of... wait for it... Tabasco! In the big kit you’ll find organic basil, cayenne, cinnamon, ground cloves, curry, dill, granulated garlic, ginger, mustard powder, nutmeg, onion powder, oregano, paprika, pepper, and thyme; plus sea salt, wasabi powder, soy sauce and Tabasco sauce. For 2010 they have come up with smaller, regional specialty kits for Thai, Indian and Mexican. All seasonings are organically grown and the kits are made in New York City by a team of developmentally and other mentally challenged adults. The program is under the supervision of professionals trained in working with the mentally challenged, at the Manhattan packaging and assembly workshop of the nonprofit AHRC. All the herbs and spices in the kit are USDA-certified organic (not including the wasabi, which is so expensive in organic form that the kit would be prohibitively expensive itself), and come from a farming co-op in Oregon that is dedicated to sustainable farming practices. At this point the Tabasco and soy sauce in the kit are conventional, but that will change at the earliest opportunity. Holly adds: “By buying a Mobile Foodie Survival Kit, you are supporting not only sustainable, organic farming practices, but also the gainful employment and sense of well-being of the disabled adults who made it. The farmers, the workers and I offer you a heartfelt...THANK YOU!” The complete kit is $35. The regional kits are $20. 

www.foodiekits.com    or www.uncommongoods.com 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1041

A Golf Gadget That’s Gone.

Back to Dick’s Gadget Warehouse Friday, March 5^th, 2010 Netcast 1040  

Ultradata’s GREENSFINDER was pretty high tech for it’s time. It was introduced in 1994, some 16 years ago. GREENSFINDER was a hand-held device, which contained data on over 10,000 U.S. golf courses. It included important information like greens fees, restaurant facilities, phone numbers, types of terrain, travel directions to the course, availability of carts, caddies, clubs, and other course features. But wait, there’s more! GREENSFINDER also contained a four-player scorekeeper with player name entry. The number keys also contained letters, and other function keys doubled as rocker alphabet keys, so it wasn’t the most convenient device for entering info. But you could also use the device keep track of each player’s individual score. (Ultradata also made GOLF GUIDE. It listed more than 13,000 courses in the U.S., with directions and phone numbers. Other information includes course descriptions, number of holes, hours, fees and senior citizen discount availability.) There was one downside to these devices. Although they were state-of-the-art for the time, updates were available only once a year. To update them, you ordered a new cartridge – which included fresh batteries. You had to make sure you returned the warrantee card because that was the only way Ultradata would be able to contact you to say an update was available. GREENSFINDER retailed for about $80 and the updates were about $35, including postage.      

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1040