A Clever Piece of Luggage From The Warehouse Still Lives!

Dick’s Gadget Warehouse Friday, November 20^th, 2009, Netcast 965

The Getaway is a sleek- looking carry-on bag with a frame covered in durable quilted water repellant treated nylon. But the thing I like best about this bag is that it has four wheels that spin in any direction. So instead of pulling it behind you, you can walk it along, right at your side. This is perfect for long lines like at the Security Lines at the airport. It’s at your side where no one trips over it. The company, Swany, also calls their bags The Lean On Me “Walkin Bags”. Dimensions (HxWxD) are: 18'' x 9'' x 18'' & it fit easily in the overhead compartment on my recent Continental flight to the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. There’s a roomy interior compartment; and three detachable pouches that Velcro in place. Another clever feature is a lightly padded pocket that can be quickly accessed through the convenient “by-pass” pocket on the outside of the bag. This makes it easy to “get in and get out without having to unzip the main compartment” The company says it’s fine for a laptop, but my guess is that it’s better for a netbook or a light laptop.  According to the specs, the bag weighs 8 pounds. It’s available in two colors:  black and red. The question is, for how long will it be available? Mine’s been in the warehouse for more than 7 years, and I just re-discovered it when my even older suitcase gave up the ghost. Since The Gateway seems to be on close-out at the company’s website, my guess is it won’t be around for much longer. The MSRP is $199.00, but it’s on sale for $119.00. (At least it was when I checked their website on November 19^th, 2009.) 

http://www.walkinbag.com/cases/limitedtimeoffer/getaway

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw965

Does Folding Fitted Sheets Give You A Fit?

Thursday, November 19^th, 2009 Netcast 964

A new solution is a product called Fit & Fold. I met the inventor, Cooper Hipp, who gave me a demo of how easy it is to use his product on fitted sheets Here’s pretty much how he describes his product: Normally to fold your fitted sheet, you have to know how to get its rounded edges to take the shape of straight, foldable corners which takes a lot of patience and skill.  Without FIT and FOLD, you have to locate each corner of your fitted sheet and tuck the bottom left and right corners up into the top left and right corners, giving the sheet foldable corners. How many times have you put the first corner of your fitted sheet onto your mattress only to realize that, when attempting to fit the second corner that it wouldn’t fit because you got the alignment wrong? You rotate the sheet, hoping that it will fit.  It can take up to three tries before you get it right. With Fit and Fold, the corners are easy to locate and the snaps are colored either blue or green. This lets you know which corners snap together. Blue snaps to blue and green snaps to green.  This lets you easily achieve the squared corners that let you fold your fitted sheet. It’s that easy to make fitted sheets folding hassles a thing of the past. You put them on the sheets once and they stay there. You leave them on even when you wash the sheets. When you take them out of the laundry the corners of your fitted sheet are still labeled. Now when you make the bed, grab any corner of the folded fitted sheet. Because each snap is labeled top right, top left, bottom right and bottom left, you know exactly where to start. There’s a demo at Cooper’s website that makes it easy to understand. They come in a variety of colors to match your fitted sheets. Price is $9.99, plus S&H.

www.fitandfold.com

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw964

The Clickfree C2 is the next generation of their great Clickfree Portable Backup drives.

Wednesday, November 18^th, 2009, Netcast 963

So you haven’t back up all your files because it’s “too hard”, or “you don’t know how”. Then check out the new Clickfree C2. It’s the next generation of the Award-Winning Clickfree Portable Backup drives. It features their Smart Automatic Backup features. Plug in the USB cable and it backs up your files. You don’t have to click anything. It’s Click Free – just like the name says. This new all-in-one design has an integrated USB cable, offers iPod music transfer, and advanced backup features including 256-bit hardware-based encryption and email attachment extraction. You can schedule backups, import iPod Music and Playlists and even use it to backup multiple computers. I can’t recall another backup system that lets you do that. PC or Mac compatible. You can also use it to share photos on Facebook or My Space directly from the Clickfree Viewer. And burn CD's and DVD's of your backup using the computers DVD burner. And if you’re moving to a new computer or operating system, use it to transfer your files to the new computers, and new Windows Operating Systems. Works with Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. System Requirements: Windows-based PC or Macintosh. Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Macintosh OS X 10.5 or later, Windows 7. Prices: $139.99 / 250GB   $189.99 / 500GB. You can do a price search. These are brand new, so the price might stay close to suggested retail for a while.

http://www.clickfree.com/products_c2.php#

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw963

SONOS introduces the Zoneplayer S5, and Leo loves it!

Turn The Table Tuesday, November 17^th, 2009 Netcast 962

The SONOS Zoneplayer S5 is an all-in-one wireless music system that can be controlled with an iPhone. When the people when Sonos called and told me they had a device that would let me hear music in every room in my house I explained that my apartment is so small, I can hear my radio in every room of my house just by turning up the volume! But I passed the info on to Leo who has many rooms and folks with very different musical tastes. Leo got one and he loves it. You can play music wirelessly in any or every room of the house. It lets you access your iTunes library, plus thousands of radio stations and millions of songs from the Internet. Leo controls it all with the free Sonos Controller for iPhone. You can also use any other Sonos Controller. The S5 includes two tweeters, two mid-range drivers and a built-in single subwoofer– each individually powered by a dedicated digital amplifier. The S5’s analog audio input lets you connect to an external audio source such as an iPod, CD player, TV, DVD, VCR, etc. The S5 is $399. You’ll need a separate unit for each person in the house if you want everyone to share the S5 experience.

 See the S5 in action: www.sonos.com/S5demo

 Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw962

From NASA to your TV Screen!

Monday, November 16^th, 2009 Netcast 961

The folks who make the TVclean LCD screen cleaner says it uses a specially formulated rubber pick-up roller developed by NASA. (So that’s where our money went!) This pick-up roller acts like a magnet for dust and lint particles. Just roll the roller gently across your screen to remove loose unattached particles down to 1 Micron. Just for the record, you can’t see particles less than 15 microns! The TVclean rubber roller stays in contact with a special TVclean adhesive roll. This roll captures the dust picked up by the rubber roller. It keeps the rubber roller clean and captures the particles off your screen. Because the rubber roller is always clean it won’t scratch or mark the delicate surface of your screen. From time to time the TVclean adhesive roll will need to be refreshed by simply peeling off the soiled layer to expose a new one. As Leo learned, don’t press to hard of the roller will pop out! But it’s real easy to pop back in. What the roller misses you can wipe away with the TVclean Microfiber Ecowipes. They’re made of specially woven synthetic fibers.  When dampened with ordinary tap water the Microfiber Ecowipes will lift smudges and oily fingerprints leaving a smear free, glossy finish. I found it cleaned LCD screens very well. So did Leo. As a matter of fact even if your screen looks clean, you’ll be surprised at how much dirt you’ll find the roller picked up. It was less successful at greasy fingerprints. Just for laughs Leo run the roller over his iPhone and it shined that screen really well. Price wise, it's really expensive. A kit which includes the TVclean & the Microfiber Wipes costs $49.95!

http://www.tvcleanusa.com   

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw961