Leo does something new: his own Gadget Warehouse Tuesday!

TTTT, Tuesday, June 1^st, 2010 Netcast 1102 

Leo found one of his old Iomega Zip Drives and thought he’s take a shot at talking about old technology for this Turn The Table Tuesday. I had a bunch of Zip Drives from Iomega too. I had the 100MB, the 250MB & even the short-lived 750MB Zip Drive. If you’re not familiar with the Zip Drive, here’s a bit of (edited) info from the web. Then stay tuned for even more bizarre news!

Its no wonder the Zip drive has earned a rock-solid reputation in the PC world as the preferred way to save, backup and collect your important files. Now, the 250MB version of the classic 100MB blue Zip drive is available. The amount of digital information is skyrocketing! Consider the size of even basic office application files, presentations, digital music, scanned family photos, digital video, tax files, financial records, not to mention the millions upon millions of web pages packed with information. It can be overwhelming. From all these choices, you'll pick what's valuable to you. You'll create and save. You'll download, and piece together a growing collection of content that's important to you. Your Zip 250 drive should serve as the safe deposit box for your library of PC files. Easy to duplicate and backup, rugged, reliable Zip disks can protect your data from hard drive crashes and even physical computer theft.  The Zip drive detaches easily and goes where you go. Give yourself the flexibility; transportability and reliability wrapped up in the 250MB Zip drive.

Now what’s the bizarre news? That description above is currently from Google where about a dozen companies are still selling Zip Drives. The 250MB version sells for anywhere from $100 to $150. Strange when you consider how cheap memory cards are! B&H photo sells the 250 MB zip for $128, but why would you buy one? Remember this is MB, not GB!

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1102

How do you like your time? In a straight line, or stacked?

Monday, May 31^st, 2010, Netcast 1101

Yep, you really get to make that decision with the Matrix Cube Clock from our friends at Think Geek. It includes three separate cubes connected by thin ribbon cables. One cube has the hours, one has the minutes and one has the seconds. Each clock module can be stacked vertically, horizontally or in a pyramid. (But they can’t be more than about a couple of inches apart which is the length of the ribbon cable that connects them. The Matrix Cube Clock also has a calendar feature, which you activate by pushing a button. But wait! There's more!  It’s also an alarm clock with a “snooze” button. If you’re looking for an alarm clock that has a techie feel, this is it. I love the backlit green numbers, which are big enough to see from fairly far away. Even Leo, who has his own gigantic clock said he’d like to get one of these Matrix Cube Clocks. Each cube is approximately 3.5" square and you can select a12 or 24-hour format. In the 12 hour format a green LED at the bottom of the hour cube lights to indicate PM. Another green LED lights to indicate that the alarm is set to “on”. $34.99

http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/99fc/ 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1101 

Add bold graphics to your car and then change your mind? No problem!

Friday, May 28^th, 2010, Netcast 1100! 

Hooray!!! We made it to  Daily Giz Wiz 1100! And we’re pushing ever onward!

The AUTOGRAFX Electro-Cling Super-Graphics package dates back to late 1992. This company offered wildly colored designs for the hood or the sides of your car that were held in place with something the company called Electro-Cling. The trademark states that it was issued for "electrostatically charged decals for vehicles and the like." Back then I worked on a show called Steals & Deals on CNBC and I had a chance to see if the product really worked. I have never owned a car in my life, and haven’t driven in more than 20 years. Since CNBC was in New Jersey & I didn’t drive, the station sent a car for me each week. So before we headed from Manhattan over the George Washington Bridge to the studio for the show where I was going to show this product, we applied an Autografx Super-Graphic to the hood of the town car. It only took a minute or two since it basically just gets placed on the car hood, or sides or both - and is then smoothed out. We drove to CNBC hitting 65 mph in some places and – whadda know - the graphic stayed right in place. This probably would have been good for a family with one car. Maybe a younger family member wanted to attract attention when they drove, while another person who shared the car preferred to attract no attention. The AutografX could easily be applied and removed. There were more than a dozen designs and colors available, but the product wasn’t wildly successful. I don’t know of anyone who bought one. The trademark was owned by L.T. Funston & Company, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa. I found that info thanks to www.Trademarkia.com (It’s a free search engine of publicly available government records.) On the same site I read that the current federal status of this trademark filing is cancelled 12/15/2000 AUTOGRAFX ELECTRO-CLING SUPER-GRAPHICS Dead. Then it says: Apply Now! Starting at $159! (Seems like you might be able to buy this product name if you want.)

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1100

Now you can look behind walls, under furniture, etc!

Thursday, May 27th, 2010                                From General Tools comes their new Video Seeker Systems. These devices look a little like an electric drill, but its function is very different. It lets you view behind & under things you can’t see with the naked eye. You aim a flexible probe with built in LED’s to see just about anywhere you can't see with the naked eye, even under your car engine! You view what the mini video camera sees on a video monitor that’s included. The most deluxe model (under $400) let’s you record the results on an SD card. It also features a wireless color TV monitor. You can also watch the playback on the monitor. There's also a way to shoot still pictures as you examine with the probe.  Is that AC wire inside the wall frayed? Is there mold forming behind the walls because of that dreaded Chinese dry wall? Now you can know! There are 3 models, the 200, 300 & 400. On the Daily Giz Wiz I was mainly talking about the model 400, which has the deluxe features mentioned above. The 38” long probe is waterproof in case you want to look down a drain or under a boat. I plan on using this device very soon to see if there are any barnacles on the hull of my boat. Even though you can get the probe wet, becareful not to  get the main unit or the TV monitor wet! The Video Seeker 400 comes with a rechargeable battery and AC charger. The charger has a cable that lets you charge both the main unit and the wireless TV monitor at the same time. Although the list price is close to $400, you can do a web search and find it for almost $100 less.  

http://www.generaltools.com/Products/The-Seeker-400-Wireless-Video-Borescope-System__DCS400.aspx

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1099

AverMedia adds a new digital media player to the marketplace.

Wednesday, May 26^th, 2010, Netcast 1098 

There are lots of digital media players on the market and now there’s one more. It’s the AverMedia AVerLife Cinema and it offers a simple solution for playing movie, music and photo files on your HDTV. To set it apart from all the other media players out there AverMedia made setup simple and kept the cost down by making it “hard wired connections only”. There is no wireless option. There are front mounted USB 2.0 and card reader inputs and a remote control for easy navigation through your media library. This new model makes the viewing experience customizable with the ability to play selected background music, photo slideshow, transition and zoom capabilities.  It supports a wide variety of digital video file formats. They includes RMVB (RealNetwork) video playback with Video Output up to 720p via HDMI and component video, Standard Definition video output with Composite Video. HDMI and component (YPbPr) cables are included. You can use composite video too using your own cable. And now the price. Suggested retail is $69.99. And although this device is pretty new to the marketplace, that price is already down to the low sixty dollar range if you do a web search.  

http://www.avermedia-usa.com/AVerTV/ 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1098