Although many people think of time behind the wheel as the perfect opportunity to catch up with a friend, family member or co-worker over the phone, in reality it can be a truly dangerous activity if you are not properly prepared. Holding a cell phone which talking and especially while talking is a leading cause of car accidents, which can in turn raise your auto insurance payments or worse end your life. Invest in a Bluetooth headset and start talking hands-free. To help you avoid the agony of researching hundreds of models, here’s a list of 4 top-notch BT headsets.

1. Motorola Finiti

This sleek design is one of the most popular Bluetooth headsets. It is also reasonably affordable, coming in well under $100. It has the ability to block out a lot of outside noise, so you can hear the conversation clearly on both ends, whether you are in loud traffic or in a busy building. There are plenty of great features that includes things like voice commands, a helpful addition when it comes to talking in the car; simply speak the name of the person you want to call and avoid fiddling with buttons on your cell phone.

2. Plantronics Voyager Pro UC Headset

Although this model can run up to $200 for some versions, it is a great choice for those who appreciate the many features available. One of the best is the ability to read your incoming text message aloud, an especially handy feature for those who spend a lot of time behind the wheel. Also cool is a unique sensor lets the phone automatically sense when to route incoming calls to the phone and when to direct it to the headset, so you won’t need to manually switch back and forth every time you take the headset on or off.

3. Jawbone Era

This Bluetooth headset stands out from the competition with a unique and comfortable design specifically made to fit the shape and size of each individual ear. This is actually the fifth version of the Jawbone, that’s quite a bit improved from the original. It is considered to be the industry standard for audio, where it will deliver crystal clear sound even in a loud area. The person on the other end of the phone conversation will surely appreciate the loud voice and quiet background noise as well.

4. Samsung WEP300

This small device is best for frequent travelers, who will love that it comes complete with a travel case requiring no outlet to charge for up to several hours. It also comes at a very affordable price (about $39.99) which means it’s a great choice for those who are looking to try out a bluetooth headset for the first time, or those of us who look to jump around. Additionally, it uses and ear bud rather than an over-the-ear set up and comes with two ear bud sizes for maximum comfort.

If you’re going to drive and talk, and honestly, who can blame you if you spend that much time in your car every day, then you absolutely need to get a headset, and while you’re at it, you may as well make it a wireless Bluetooth one.

Roku has been making streaming media players for some time now (we featured their Soundbridge in 2004!), but seems to have just recently made real waves in the entertainment industry. As more of our entertainment comes via the Web or Internet, with services like Netflix streaming, Hulu, and YouTube, having a device that can integrate all of that plus your tv entertainment on your television is almost essential. This is where a Roku box solves your diversity-of-entertainment problem.

Many of us use expensive gaming systems or our personal laptops to access our online media through our television. While this works , it can also be annoying to have to set things up and access your different services through various devices. A Roku box allows you to access everything in one interface. It connects to your television and wireless network at home. The customizable Roku remote lets you toggle between the different choices. Roku supports Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant, Pandora, and many other channels (such as NBC news, NBA game time, HBO Go, and more).

What makes the Roku such a great option for streaming video is how simple and inexpensive it is. The most basic Roku (the ‘purple’ box) is only $50 whereas the most advanced device (Roku 2 XS) with the most features is $100. Even the most expensive is still significantly cheaper than buying a PS3 or an Xbox 360. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are the only other devices that offer the same capabilities for viewing Netflix, Amazon Plus, Hulu, etc., but they cost hundreds of dollars more. Yes, you can play games on these devices and not on the Roku, but if you are just looking for an entertainment aggregator, the Roku is for you.

Looking to the future, Roku is doing away with their small box and turning to something even smaller – a thumb drive. While the miniature Roku stick may be too far ahead of the game (unable to connect to a lot of older TV ports), it is certainly something to look out for when more TVs are better connected.

Flashback to 1984. Ms. Pac-Man had struck a blow for women’s rights and a young Joe Piscopo taught us all how to laugh. A young, cocksure Steve Jobs stepped into the spotlight to introduce a machine destined to revolutionize the personal computer. The Macintosh (128k) was born and home computing was never the same again.

Flash forward to 2012—the Macintosh and Apple brands have become such a ubiquitous part of our lives and culture that it’s hard to imagine just how “mind blowing” the Mac was back then.

Mouse

The mouse pointer had been around since the 1960s, but the Mac brought the mouse out from relative obscurity and into the mainstream. Whereas early home computers relied heavily on text-based UIs and command prompts, the Mac’s graphical UI was a perfect match for the mouse. Rather than memorizing long, complicated commands, the mouse blew minds by allowing you to interact with the computer by simply pointing and clicking.

Graphical UI

Until the Macintosh, unless you had an incredibly rare and expensive machine, the world of computing was a very bland text-based experience. The Mac changed everything with its affordable graphical user interface. It’s hard to overstate just how revolutionary this shift was at the time. Nearly all the conventions of modern GUIs in home computing like “desktops,” “trash bins” and file “folders” owe their roots to that first mind-blowing Macintosh’s GUI.

What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Word Processing and Printing

Before the Macintosh changed the game with its GUI, word processing and document production on home computers was a much more abstract affair. All the characteristics of your document had to be coded on the page with markup language more reminiscent of today’s HTML than what you would imagine from a modern word processor. MacWrite and MacDraw blew minds by allowing users to actually see what their documents would actually look like on-screen as you were working on them.

The Idea that a computer can be used for non-serious games and home applications

Home computing has infiltrated so many aspects of our day-to-day lives that it’s hard to believe there was a time when computers were considered so important that they were to be reserved only the most serious of uses like business and research. The Macintosh blew minds by daring to make computing fun for the masses. Its compliment of fun, useful programs, flashy graphics and a simple to understand UI, took the stuffy, business-only, no-fun model of early home computing and shattered it—ushering in home computing as we know it today.

Sleek Design

In early home computers, design and style were afterthoughts to function. To put it kindly, most early machines were clunky, ugly, space hogs. The Macintosh changed everything with a sleek, compact, design that seemed years ahead of the competition. The Mac wasn’t just some ugly pile of components to hide away in some office cubicle or back room—the Mac was an attention getter, status symbol, and so much more.

Sources:

http://www.aresluna.org/attached/computerhistory/articles/macintoshbytereview
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_128k.html
http://www.larrysworld.com/2009/01/21/larry-magids-1984-la-times-review-of-original-mac/

Specialty online store JetPens sent me a couple of their products to check out. Yes, pens, but they import many of their products from Japan and Germany, so you’ll be hard-pressed to find most of these stateside. And yes, even when it comes to something as mundane as writing, the Japanese and Europeans have some different ideas than we do.

I received 2 products, the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto 5 Color Multi Pen and the Tombow AirPress.

The Tombow AirPress

First, let me hit the Tombow AirPress. The geek factor in this one is that it injects air pressure into the ink cartridge every time you press the cap to keep the pen writing even on dirty or wet surfaces. Of course, I had to test out the ‘wet’ claim. I splashed water onto a sheet of paper, and before it was absorbed completely by the paper started writing. Well there was some ink bleeding of course (can’t help that), but sure enough, the pen wrote. Impressed. On the other hand, I can’t imagine having to write on wet surfaces too often.

The Tombow also wrote pretty nicely, although not as smooth as a felt tip pen, but then again a felt tip wouldn’t do well in water. I also found it a little short, but that’s personal preference that is heavily influenced by the way I hold my pen.

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto 5 Color Multi Pen

The next pen took me back to my high school days when I had a similar, but much cheaper version ‘multi pen’ made by Bic. That one had 4 colors and they were pre-set. The Coleto takes 5 ink cartridges and you get to pick the colors that go into it, and you can replace the cartridges as needed. Love it. This one will stay on my desk, as I’m always looking for a black, red, blue or green pen, and now I won’t have to keep 4 or 5 of them around.

I found the writing to be a little scratchy, but that’s due to the smaller nib on these pens. I’m not about to write my next bestseller with it, so I can live with that in exchange for the convenience. Oh, also cool is that you can also insert a mechanical pencil or stylus as well. Take a look at the video to see how the 5 carts fit into the body.

While you’re persuing JetPens, you may also want to check out the Uni-Ball Kuru Toga that keeps the pencil lead constantly sharp. The Monteverde One Touch Ballpoint is a pen, but flip it over and you have a touchscreen stylus. Apart from pens and pencils and of course refills, they also stock specialty paper, journals and notebooks.

(Disclaimer: Gizmos for Geeks received a complimentary review copy of this product.)

Sci-Fi meets extrapolation meets imagination meets entertainment meets crowd-sourced blog is how I like to view PhutureNews. This site/blog is all about predicting the future but not in the boring “in the future, we think…” style, but rather as headlines and stories with future date stamps. Although they just launched, they have some rather interesting ‘stories’ like “Steve Jobs rising out of the iCryo”, “China wins the 2046 World Cup”, and or the more realistic “Self driving cars mandatory in California”.

Two suggestions for PhutureNews: first, please go buy the FutureNews.com (or dot whatever domain) and rename the site! The “ph” doesn’t quite work. And second, you absolutely need RSS feeds. Other than that, keep writing cool and interesting stories.

Many people leave their gorgeous smartphones at home when heading to other countries and/or take cheap phones so that they don’t risk losing them. But have you thought about how your smartphone, especially its camera, could help you out when you travel?

Here’s how and when your phone’s camera (especially if it’s a good 8 Megapixel camera say on one of the latest Samsung phones or the new iPhone 4S) can be useful to you.

1. Use your smartphone’s camera to take a photo of your bags especially if you’re going to travel by air. If your bag is lost in the airport, you can show the photo to the airport staff, which is much simpler than trying to remember and describe it accurately. I’ve found myself in just this situation a couple of times, and this tip has always helped me save much time and energy.

2. If you’re staying in a country where you’re not familiar with the language, it’s a good idea to take a photo of your hotel. I always had a problem finding my hotel after I went somewhere far on foot, and asking the locals didn’t work either, especially if they didn’t speak English well. But you could definitely show them or perhaps a taxi driver the photo and gesture ‘where’!

3. If you’re terrible with remembering numbers, take a shot of the hotel room door (or write it down in the virtual notebook of your phone). That way, you won’t have to ask the front desk what room you’re staying in the next time you forget!

What are your tips for using your smartphone for more productive and/or fun travel?

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I’m sure you’ve heard about SOPA and PIPA by now, not to mention seeing the online protests in the form of blacked out websites, the most notable being Wikipedia. Here’s a cool infographic explaining what the bills are about and what their (unintended?) consequences are:




Brought to you by Lumin Interactive and Condor Consulting

The impossibility of technology can often be well…seemingly impossible. There has been some talk about OnLive. I say some because many have deemed what OnLive claims to be able to do impossible. Many gaming sites such as EuroGamer don’t believe it is possible, but with the testing of an avid gamer on Popular Science, Dan Nosowitz says that it is.

OnLive now offers the same abilities it once claimed to be available on the iPad, Honeycomb tables—like the Motorola Xoom—the Kindle Fire and Android smartphones. So what does that mean?

It means gamers can play full-complete games on your iPad. Yes, you heard right. On your iPad.

What gamer doesn’t want that? Nosowitz agreed and downloaded some games to see what the capabilities of the newest OnLive app really are. He found the good, the bad and made a final decision. Let’s see if you agree too.

Pricing

The app is completely free, which is a great place to start. There are multiple ways to pay for the actual games. As usual, the cost for games will be the same. Whether you play on an Xbox 360 console or
OnLive instead, the cost of the games won’t ever change. So usually, new games are between $50 to $60. But as most options, you can also rent the games too. For a three-day rental, the games cost $6. A five-day only cost $9. Some may enjoy subscriptions, so a $10 per month fee is also an option. However you choose to pay, the games are ready for streaming.

The Good

It works!

That’s the best news that comes from Nosowitz. He tested out the iPad as his device. The best part is there is no downloading time. You simply hit play and the streaming begins. Saving the games is also really easy. The system does it almost without your notice, and you can always pick up from where you left off. The controller has the normal weight of a gaming controller. Not light and cheap feeling at all. The usual connection is Bluetooth and cost about $50, which isn’t too bad considering the price of most accessories.

The Bad

The Internet speed seems to be the number one problem according to Nosowitz. Between 10 to 12 Mbps, you will be fine; but drop below 5 Mbps, and the game chops, text becomes hard to read, and the lag begins. There were some glitches that caused the screen to black out and the control explanations of how to play to be wrong. One problem some gamers may not be fans of, those who choose the iPad as their console, is the lack of a vibration function. Some might not care, but others prefer the feature.

Another “bad” feature, again only seems to be on the iPad, is not being able to purchase a game from within the app. This is not true for the other available devices such as the Android smartphones, Honeycomb tablets or the Kindle Fire.

One final thought about the bad: the list of games that are available are limited. Hopefully more and more games will be available, but for now there are just some top-tier games. There are currently less than 200 games available, but Nosowitz feels there will be more coming.

Final Thoughts

OnLive is not perfect yet, and it still has its room to grow. As the program and fan base grow, there will be more fixes and better upgrades. The idea is amazing, especially if you can find a strong internet connection. So, break out the iPad and the controller. It’s time to play wherever you want.

Have you ever needed someone else to hold a flashlight for you in a badly lit location, despite how bright the room may have been? (Think inside of a computer case.) Well, startup MicroLite Tech has a solution – their self-named MicroLite. It’s an approximately 1 cubic inch cube that stores a small LED light that is turned on when you press on the top of the unit and pop out the light.

I tested it out behind my computer (of course!). It works as advertised. I only had 2 pieces of constructive criticism. First, I don’t care for the pop-out mechanism. It requires pushing in and then pulling out with your finger/thumb. When this gizmo is attached semi-permanently (via the 3M self-adhesive tape) somewhere, you’ll notice it takes some rocking for it to pop up. I’d rather it just be a simple push in to pop out, push to pop back in.

Second, I find it a bit pricey – $10 for a single unit or even $20 for 3 is a bit much. I think somewhere around $3 is probably about right. It does have a 1-year warranty and the lights last for 30 hours which should translate into much more than a year of use.

But I can’t complain about what it does. Definitely falls into the ‘hey, why didn’t I think of that?’ category, so well-done MicroLite. They’re also developing a magnetic one so that it becomes a lot more portable instead of having to stick and unstick. BTW, they’re always on the lookout for new and useful uses for the MicroLite, so let them know if you come up with one!

Unless you’ve been under a rock the past 2 years or so, you’ll know that HTML5 is the next generation of the markup language that has been powering the Web since its inception. Tech publisher O’Reilly has been busy ensuring that they do their part to educate the Web developers and programmers of the world and they accordingly have a slew of books on HTML5, one of which is in their Head First series.

Head First HTML5 Programming is really that – a book about programming, specifically in JavaScript. It is expected that you already know HTML and CSS, and while some JavaScript would be good, it’s not a requirement. The book starts off with a quick intro to HTML5, but by page 20, you’ll already have seen some JavaScript code.

Next up, it gets into the DOM (Document Object Model) that modern browsers are based on, and then you’ll naturally learn how to manipulate the DOM to get those fancy effects that you see Web2.0 sites sporting. After that, it goes full steam through the highlights of HTML5/DHTML features, programming, and techniques that power today’s Web2.0. For example, Head First HTML5 does a good job of devoting entire chapters to discussing some of the compelling multimedia aspects of HTML5 including video, and the Canvas tag. And it also covers advanced topics such as Geolocation, JSON and even Web storage.

As with the other Head First book we’ve seen (Head First WordPress), this one has you interacting with images, photos, call-out boxes, cartoons, and much more to keep you engaged and active. I can’t say enough good things about it, and I’d like to see other publishers ‘steal’ the technique!

If you’re looking to learn HTML5, I can highly recommend this book, but keep in mind that this is not meant to be a reference or a cookbook but a learning book; there are lots of others out there that that fill that function.

While you’re at it, you should also consider getting an up-to-date CSS3 book like Gasston’s The Book of CSS3. While it’s more of a reference than this text, it covers the bulk of CSS3′s new features including new text styling, positioning, gradients and 2D & 3D transformations, and it includes enough examples to help you better understand the material.

(Disclaimer: Gizmos for Geeks received a complimentary review copy of this product.)