WDGW – Week of March 26th, 2012, Netcast 1358

Your thermostat at home controls 50% of your energy costs! But according to one study, 90% of programmable thermostats are rarely or never programmed. The Nest Learning thermostat learns to program itself based on your schedule and needs. As you program it manually the first week, it analyzes your energy requirements and starts adjusting for them automatically. A lot of energy can be wasted with a poorly adjusted heating and cooling system. The EPA says a properly programmed thermostat can cut 20% off your heating and cooling bill. To program most thermostats correctly, you have to provide an exact schedule: lower the temperature at 8 AM, turn it up when you get home at 6:30 PM, lower it again when everyone’s in bed, etc. The problem is, people's lives don’t go according to schedule. You leave for the weekend, go out to dinner, stay up till 1 AM, etc. So programming a thermostat right is almost impossible, which is probably why up to 90% of programmable thermostats aren’t programmed correctly or at all! That's why you should know about the Next Learning Thermostat. It can quickly learn how run your house heating and cooling. It can even sense when no one is home and adjust the heating or cooling to save you energy If you like, you can check what your Next Thermostat is doing and even control it via smartphone, tablet or computer! . I learned this clever device was designed by the same team that designed the original iPod which explains a lot about it's high tech look and high tech operation. $249 at the company website. They often sell out fast each time a new shipment comes in. When I checked just now (3/24/12, they were available.) Prices seem to be much higher at other websites - up to $400.

www.nest.com

See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1358

This link usually goes live Sunday, the day after we record the show.

Video of the week - Better Shred, Than Read!

The new Stack-and-Shred paper shredders from Swingline got my vote for the best device I saw at Showstoppers CES 2012. I have so many checks, statements, tax returns, etc. stuck in file drawers waiting until I find time to shred them. With the Stack-and-Shred you don’t have to sit there and feed them in 1 or even 5 sheets at a time. You don’t have to feed them at all!  With this device, you stack papers to be shredded (up to 60 pages) in the feeder, almost the same way you load paper into the printer paper tray. Then shut the lid and move on to other chores. The Hands Free Auto+ technology automatically rolls and feeds paper into the cutters for you. You don’t have to be there to do anything. A spokesperson told me the shredder works slower, which means it’s quieter and much less likely to jam. The Stack-and-Shred shredders not only shred paper, but also staples, paperclips and credit cards. After the folks at Swingline saw our coverage of the Stack-and-Shred they asked if I'd like to try one for myself. Of course, I did! I only unpacked it last night and already I've shredded four file folders full of old credit card and bank receipts. It works great. If you do a lot of shredding, you may have to wait a bit for the machine to cool down if the red light comes on. But that was no problem. Just hit the start button again when the light goes out. I did a lot of shredding without even being in the room! There are various larger models that can shred 60, 80, 100, 250 or 500 sheets. The 60X is small enough to easily slide under a desk and should be plenty for the small office. MSRP is $299, but do a web search and you can find it for about $150 to $160. I've seen it on sale for as low as $129.99. More info:

http://www.stackandshred.com/

The Giz Wiz Shreds Stuff Video! http://youtu.be/Bf-4sp0eovI

See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1358

This link usually goes live Sunday, the day after we record the show.

Can I Save Money On Gas? Yes, there's an app for that!

With gas prices ever climbing, is there an app that can help me find the cheapest gas near where I am? The answer is “yes, there’s an app for that!” Since I don’t own a car, I figured I’d ask people who drive a lot. So I asked taxi drivers, chauffeurs and friends what app they used to get the best price. Shockingly, the most given answer was: “There’s an app to find the cheapest gas? I have to get that!”  Yes, there are several apps, so I asked those who used an app, which one they like best. The most given answer was GasBuddy. It’s a free app, and it’s available for iPhones and Android devices. Gas Buddy is ad sponsored, but the ads are in a little bar at the top or the bottom of the app, and they don’t interfere with the information on the screen. You tell Gas Buddy where you are by entering your location or zip code, or just hit the “find gas near me” button so it can use the device’s GPS. In a few seconds you will get a list of local gas prices. You can select how you want them ranked; distance, price, etc. You also tell the type of fuel you want, regular, premium, midrange or diesel. You’ll find info on the Gas Buddy website as to how you can report local gas prices and win prizes. That’s how Gas Buddy gets the latest prices, from people who are out there buying gas. Gas Buddy is often the #1 App in Travel on iTunes.

www.gasbuddy.com

See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1358

This link usually goes live Sunday, the day after we record the show.

I talked about this app and the Nest Thermostat on ABC News this past week. Here's the ABC video of the entire Engergy Saving Gadgets spot:  http://abcn.ws/GL6cCu

And now it's time for Leo's Very Giddy Turn The Table Turkey!

If Leo sounded a little hyper during this edition of the Weekly Daily Giz Wiz, it was because he was drinking. No, not booze, but coffee. Super-high caffeine-rich coffee. I’m not sure who put him on to the www.funraniumlabs.com, but Leo is hooked on their cold-process coffee making method. The coffee arrives as a liquid in tubes, that actually do look like they came from a scientific lab – and I guess they did. A ‘tube’ of coffee – you drink it without diluting it – (but you can add milk and ice if you like) – costs about $5. Leo, who loves coffee thinks this is the ultimate cup – or tube of coffee. (That’s until he finds an even more bizarre method of brewing coffee.) Since Leo already talked about BbotE coffee on Mac Break Weekly, Funanium Labs has announced a delay in shipping the product. It seems only a bit of the product can be made daily and lots of people have already ordered it. Here’s some info from the company website:  So, a fun experiment that the Pimpstresses of Los Angeles and Portland started doing a while back was handing out single shots of BBotE in 50ml test tubes for people to sample (or enjoy at parties, as the case might be). I thought that was a pretty awesome idea and decided that this would be a good way to do sampler packs. You will get two 50ml vials of each of the five BBotE varieties: Sumatra (dark roast), Ethiopia, Kona Blend, Kenya (medium roasts), and Colombia (medium roast). If, for some reason, you'd like all 10 to be the same kind of BBotE just let me know with a note when you place your order. Now, just to reiterate, while the caffeine content of BBotE is high, I do not know exactly how high.  I strongly recommend keeping consumption below 100ml/day. While you could drink an entire case of Red Bull you picked up at Costco in a day, you probably shouldn’t.  The same wisdom applies to BBotE.  Know your limits and consume accordingly. Sampler Pack $50.

http://shop.funraniumlabs.com/products/bbote-sampler-ten-50ml-test-tubes.html

And then Leo need a special “Stein of Science” to hold his new brew in all it’s iciness! That was an additional $250. You can read all about these Steins here:

http://shop.funraniumlabs.com/products/350ml-fmj-rugged-stein-of-science.html

See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1358

This link usually goes live Sunday, the day after we record the show.

Back to Dick’s Gadget Warehouse For A Good Brushing!

This is the original Hydrabrush.I found the Hydrabrush in January 2007. I picked it as one of the more bizarre gadgets from CES 2007. But I bet a ton of research and development went into this device, because although it looks weird, it’s a clever, timesaving idea. Hydrabrush is an electric toothbrush that brushes all your teeth – top and bottom, inside and out – at the same time!!  The company sent me a product sample and I used it for a week or two, but I couldn’t quite get used to it large brushing head. And it does take some practice before you can reduce your brushing regimen to just 30 seconds, twice a day. With other toothbrushes, dentists recommend you spend 30 seconds on each quadrant, for a total of two minutes brushing. But with all the surfaces being brushed at once, the Hydrabrush can reduce that to just 30 seconds. Of course you’re saving just 90 seconds, twice a day, but I guess that could add up! It’s now a little over five years later and I did a little research to see how Hydrabrush was doing. It seems to have been redesigned and renamed. It’s now the Thirty Second Smile Toothbrush. Checking the web I see people still use it and like it. At least one user said: “it’s like putting your teeth through an automatic car wash. Just enjoy the ride and come out squeaky clean.” Another common comment is “it feels like I just got a cleaning from my dentist.” The brush head on the new model looks the same as the original one I own, but the handle is much smaller and more streamlined. And it seems to have come down in price to just $60. It was somewhere around $99, I recall. Strangely, the Thirty Second Smile website says: $420 value, or something like that. It’s available at a lot of places, but some high end places are asking $99, while most charge $59.99. The website below offers ‘free brushes’ for life. An agent tried to sell me one while I was looking, but did tell me the shipping on the “free brushes” for life was $9.99 for each order. Considering how complicated the brushes are, I think that’s a decent price. When I left the Thirty Second Smile Toothbrush website without ordering one, a better offer came up. So if you want to order one, you could check it out, and leave without ordering. That should trigger the better deal which I think included two extra free brushes. BTW while we were recording this show I was surprised to see several people in the TWiT chat room say that they use the newer version of this brush and like it. So while the original Hydrabrush belongs in Dick’s Gadget Warehouse, the follow-up brush is very much a ‘new gadget’!

https://www.30secondsmile.com/  

See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1358

This link usually goes live Sunday, the day after we record the show.