The original one day sale site Woot has recently been joined by dozens of copycat web services (think Groupon and the like) but if you’re looking for great deals on cool electronics, Woot is still the number one place to find one-off deals. Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. It started as an employee-store slash market-testing type of place for an electronics distributor, but it’s taken on a life of its own and now includes spin-offs such as Kids Woot and Wine Woot.

Woot offers a new item for sale daily (and the sales are rather embarrassingly good, the kind of prices you’d lie about when your friends ask how much you paid for that snazzy new computer so they don’t get jealous) but if you miss the sale, that’s it, you’ve missed it. Fortunately there’s a new item each day so there’s always something intriguing on offer. Woot even has the occasional launch event which features a product that has yet to launch in any other retail channel.

It all sounds like the kind of site that makes you want to say Woot!

More of a webcomic than a blog, Scenes from a Multiverse is a new online comic with an added level of reader participation. Author Jon Rosenberg explains:

Here’s how it works: each day we’ll visit a new destination in an ordinary multiverse. At the end of the week, you’ll vote on which destination you enjoyed the most. The following Friday, we’ll take a return trip to the destination with the most votes!

A mix of science, outer space and social commentary, Scenes from a Multiverse is definitely appealing to the intellectual closet geek (or anyone who’s ever wished there were a place in the universe where kittens fell out of a wormhole in the sky).

Scenes from a Multiverse is quite a young webcomic and although there isn’t a continuous storyline, with just a few weeks of catch up to do, it’s worth starting from page one.

Visit Scenes from a Multiverse
Subscribe to Scenes from a Multiverse

So, you’ve got a brand new Apple iPhone 4G and you want to play some games on it. The problem is, you don’t know what games to play and where to get them. Well, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we will list down the top 10 games for the iPhone 4G.

Number 10: Call of Duty World At War: Zombies II
What was once a feature for the console versions of COD: WaW has become a full-fledged iPhone 4G game. And so popular was the first installment that the sequel has dominated the App Store games section for weeks after it was released. Think of World War II. Think of zombies. Bam! You’ve got a masterpiece!

Number 9: Fruit Ninja
Minimalism is the name of the game for most of the entries in this Top 10. Fruit Ninja, in its barest form, is an action game that is so addictive, you’ll have a hard time putting it down. Imagine your finger as a sword, and swiping across the iPhone4’s screen would make your ninja avatar slash through falling fruits. Fun, fun, fun!

Number 8: WORP
One of the most popular puzzle games for the iPhone4 is WORP. Think of it as Bejeweled Evolved and you’ll realize why this belongs in the Top 10.

Number 7: Propaganda Lander
Pilot a spacecraft across alien terrains and perils using your finger. This critically acclaimed iPhone 4G game won’t disappoint!

Number 6: Espgaluda II
Belongs to a new genre of games called bullet hell. Dodge bullets, missiles and lasers coming from everywhere. An absolutely exciting game that’s sure to enthrall.

Number 5: Angry Birds
Has the record for having the most number of weeks at the top of the App Store games chart. Control birds fueled by rage as they extract their revenge on those who have done them wrong.

Number 4: Town Raiders 3D
A survival shooter. Kill hordes upon hordes of enemies and survive through levels of progressive difficulties. Bound to keep you at the edge of your seat.

Number 3: Doodle Jump
Looking for a simple game that will cause insatiable addiction? Voted as Game of the Year by many online publications, besting console games on many occasions, Doodle Jump will provide the thrills you want.

Number 2: Grokion
Once you see the graphics of this amazing side scroller, you’ll begin to doubt if the iPhone4 really has any limitations. We’re talking about 128-bit graphic quality here. Episodic in nature, the first chapter is now available and has been the subject of rave reviews.

Number 1: Sword and Poker
Astounding blend of card game and sword & sorcery. Two genres joining forces to give you an iPhone 4G game for the ages. Currently the highest rated iPhone 4G game of all time. This, folks, defines a “must buy.”

The date seemed to be going to well until what your friends would later refer to as the “unfortunate radio incident.” He liked Eminem, you wanted Garth Brooks. He tried to compromise with Kelly Clarkson and you stormed out with headphones and AFI on. If only he hadn’t started singing along with that Abba song the situation might have been salvaged but in the end there was nothing for it – tall, dark, handsome and completely incompatible music tastes.

Let’s avoid any future unfortunate radio incidents with Tastebuds, the new dating site that allows you to vet future significant others based on their music preferences. When creating a profile, you can either add your favourite artists individually or simply import your Last.fm profile for instant music compatibility testing.

We have it direct from the founders themselves – there seems to be a disproportionate amount of guys on the site so the odds for Techettes are looking quite good but don’t leave it too long to sign up, you wouldn’t want someone else to snap up that one guy who also likes LFO, Justice, Deerhood and Slayer.  Now he’s a keeper.

Developed a mobile app recently? Does your company have the obligatory iPhone app? Maybe even got an app on the side for those Blackberry users? There’s one thing all of these apps have in common – a serious lack of analytics and tracking. In the black box of mobile app use, there isn’t much feedback on the usage of your mobile babies out there in the scary mobile world.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could keep an eye on the usage of your mobile apps – maybe even add some new monitisation streams into the apps you’ve already created? Flurry, a new start up out of San Francisco, thinks so too. Flurry provides free tools for developers to help them monitise and measure usage on their iOS, Android, Blackberry and J2ME apps. More than 30,000 apps are already using Flurry’s tools to look under the proverbial mobile hood and using that feedback to improve their apps and future app development.

In addition to Flurry’s tracking tools, Flurry is also running an advertising network – AppCircle – which allows both promoters and publishers to benefit from the huge inventory of mobile advertising space in applications and the hundreds of marketers looking to reach customers on mobile channels.

It’s like a whole flurry of new tools for the mobile application space. It’s the perfect storm for your own app development.

We’ve trawled through dozens of our own and other peoples reviews and tried out the models and drawn our conclusions. We’ve based our results on practicality, functionality, cost and looks. So here we arrive at the Top Ten Mini Laptops Rankings… starting at the bottom:

#10 - Asus Eee PC 701
The first netbook unveiled by Asus at COMPUTEX Taipei in 2007, which kicked off this entire industry trend, has once again reappeared in our rankings. Yes, it isn’t as powerful as newer models, yes it does have a smaller screen and yes it does cost up to half the price of the newer models. True to its netbook routes, it is still one of the smallest, cheapest and lightest netbook.
If you were considering going for a budget mini laptop (fair enough during harsh economic times!) there are some unbranded models. But it’s always worth buying branded particularly with computers since you can take advantage of the after sales support network. For what it is, the Asus Eee PC 701 is still a bargain!
Overall: 2 stars - previous ranking February 09: Back in the Top Ten Mini Laptops rankings!

#9 - Asus Eee PC S101
Although we’ve previously ranked this netbook quite highly, Cnet still ranks it highly at their #3, but under it’s delicious skin there’s not very much there, especially for the price they’re asking - £449. On closer inspection there’s a derated battery - 4-cell instead of 6 like it more functionable brothers or not integrated 3G option like on the Eee PC 901. At about twice the price of similar spec, yet more powerful models it’s harder to justify a higher ranking anymore.
Overall: 3 stars - previous ranking February 09: #6

#8 - Toshiba NB100
The Toshiba mini laptop has climbed the rankings thanks to some incredible price cuts. The Editor has found Amazon.co.uk shaved £50 off the £299 RRP, with LaptopsDirect cutting a further £50 off that during April in a clearance sale. The computer isn’t as good as some competitors such as the Asus Eee PC 901, but the build quality is pretty solid and the brand holds a lot in its name so we consider it a safe buy.
Toshiba have also unveiled plans for a larger 10 inch model boasting 160GB of storage and 3G embedded. See New Mini Laptops
Overall: 3 stars - previous ranking February 09: #10

#7 - LG X110
This pretty new laptop is infact based upon the pioneering 10 inch laptop, the MSI Wind. The corners have been rounded off to give quite an attractive chassis, and the price tag isn’t too bad either. The addition of integrated 3G allows for connectivity wherever you can get mobile phone signal, not yet available on competing models such as the HP Compaq mini 700 or Samsung NC10.
Overall: 3 stars - previous ranking February 09: New ranking in this months Top Ten Mini Laptops, but the MSI Wind hit #9

#6 - Acer Aspire One
The Acer Aspire One family has grown to include the new D150 10 inch netbook. We’ve decided to merge the two for the sake of rankings. The price range for new model is similarly good value to its smaller brother, significantly cheaper than the £300 odd you’d expect to pay for the very latest netbook.
Despite the addition to the range, the Acer has slipped slightly down the rankings as newer and better models enter the Top Ten Mini Laptops rankings.
Overall: 3 stars - previous ranking February 09: #5

#5 - Asus Eee PC 901
The Asus Eee PC 901 is a truly complete netbook. It replaced Asus’ earlier 9 inch models, the Eee PC 900 series introducing 6-cell batteries and Intel Atom processors as standard. Now available for FREE on contract with Orange in a variety of colours the options are vast. We consider it the best 9 inch portable mini laptop.
At the time of writing, the Asus Eee PC is available for around £25 per month on Orange Pay Month Mobile Broadband.
Overall: 4 stars - previous ranking February 09: #4

#4 - Asus Eee PC 1002HA
The top end of the Asus Eee PC range comes in the shape of the Eee PC 1002HA. Complete with a restyled chassis with inspiration taken from the seductively sleek Eee PC S101 and the insides of the Eee PC 1000H. Unfortunately, they’ve stopped a hairs breath away from making something quite amazing by failing to offer the 6-cell battery as standard like the earlier Eee PC 901/1000 models. None the less it hit’s #4 in our Top Ten Mini Laptops rankings - a new entry.
Overall: 4 stars - previous ranking February 09: New ranking!

#3 - Samsung NC10
Samsungs low-key entry into the netbook world has been met with overwhelming sales success. The keyboard, crafted to make the letter keys larger and the number keys smaller to help with typing is almost a match for an HP netbook. Recently, O2 have partnered up with Samsung to offer a range of laptops on mobile broadband contract including the NC10. O2 offers one of the better networks, with it being the sole provider for the infamous Apple iPhone in the UK. As well as providing an excellent network, they also offer free Home Broadband for mobile broadband customers.
Samsungs confidence in netbooks has become overwhelming, with the larger Samsung NC20 now available and more models unveiled and waiting in the pipeline. See mini-laptops-and-notebooks.com and click on ‘New Mini Laptops’ for details including pictures!

#2 - HP Compaq Mini 700
Not shifting from last months Top Ten Mini Laptops is the HP Compaq mini 700 which boasts the best keyboard in the netbooking world. You’d think it obvious to stretch it right to the edges woudn’t you, but few mini laptops do so. Although it does leave the trackpad a tad on the slim side, it’s a much better interface than other competing models. Keeping it high in the rankings is it’s price which has dropped significantly over the last few months to around £250-260, far less than the Samsung NC10.
The HP Compaq mini 700 is also available on mobile broadband contract, with Orange and 3, although all in we don’t find it as good value on contract as the providers other offerings. For example, on Orange you pay a fiver extra for the Compaq over the Asus Eee PC 901 for the same service - so it’ll cost an extra £120 over the duration of the contract.
Overall: 4 stars - previous ranking February 09: #2

and our #1 mini laptop is…
Sony VAIO P Series
The new Sony VAIO P Series mini laptop was unveiled at CES. Sony’s new 8 inch, £849 “lifestyle pc” (Sony are vary wary to avoid the term “netbook”) is less than 2cm thick and only slightly larger than an office envelope. It comes with a world of features including 3G Mobile Broadband, inbuilt GPS, Windows Vista, battery life of up to 8 hours, SSD storage of up to 128GB and amazingly weighs less than 640g!

Read more: http://www.mini-laptops-and-notebooks.com/top-netbook.html
Original article at http://www.mini-laptops-and-notebooks.com/top-ten-mini-laptops.html | The one-stop resource for mini laptops and netbooks | Copyright Ed Fry 2009. All Rights Reserved

Over the decades, members of Conspiracy For Good have been reputed to be quietly and effectively doing good in the world’s most troubled areas. But CFG is not without enemies, and it is now under fierce attack by Blackwell Briggs, a London-based multinational company committed to advanced infrastructure development and security services. Chataika Basic School teacher, Nadirah has recently disappeared whilst investigating an unlawful attempt to destroy the local school in favor of a fuel pipeline by the dubious Blackwell Briggs.

It’s not an evening news report, it’s the newest project of creative mind Tim Kring, creator of the hit TV show Heroes, and a fully immersive transmedia game that’s crossing digital channels and engaging thousands of unmembers eager to bring down Blackwell Briggs. Conspiracy for Good, which is sponsored by Nokia and supporting two non-profit organizations (the Pearson Foundation and Room to Read), is a new form of creative and interactive story-telling that delivers the tale through online, offline and mobile channels. Participants can engage through the website, live interactive events and a variety of entertainment channels, searching for clues in Pirate Bay torrents, London tourism guides, songs and hidden web servers. These clues support the activities of CFG unmembers participating in live events in London and around the world.

Joining the Conspiracy For Good, Participants enter into the story, which fuses reality and fiction, through www.ConspiracyForGood.com, where they will join like-minded thinkers, artists, musicians and causes, creating a unified voice to fight for social and environmental justice. The audience can take action within their own comfort zone and level of engagement to meet new people with similar interests online and in person, and have some fun too. Participants who join CFG will be able to solve mysteries online, play casual mobile games or be a physical participant in the London events that will take place from mid-July through early August.

In the UK, participants will be able to download a special edition app called Conspiracy For Good: DeadDrop powered by Nokia’s Point & Find service. Available in the UK Ovi Store in mid-July, the app will allow players to point at objects and images in the real-world to discover clues and participate in challenges during the series of upcoming events in London.

Conspiracy for Good is one of the first transmedia games of its kind and while it seems that the style of entertainment will become more popular as awareness and the industry grows, this is an amazing opportunity to get involved with a highly creative transmedia event and social movement tying together real social change and fictional adventures.

Owners of Android-compatible phones such as the HTC magic and the T-Mobile G1 will be pleased as punch to learn that there are some great free games out there just waiting to be downloaded from the Android Market. Here are a few to try - and a few to avoid!

Mahjongg - A fairly faithful rendition of the Japanese pairs game. Unfortunately, the touchscreen is the only input device that can be used with this game, which pretty much rules it out unless you have very slender fingers to select the tiny images with.

mem - This simon-says game, in which you have to press an icon as soon as possible after its counterpart is displayed, features some pretty zany sound effects, and it works well with the touch screen, but the long term appeal is fairly limited.

Minspace War - A 2D shoot-em-up that uses the phones mini-keypad as a control surface. Although the graphics are good and you suspect it might play a lot better on a laptop or a dedicated games console, the controls are too fiddly to make it worth the time it takes to download.

MisMisMatch - The aim of this deceptively simple puzzle game is to press boxes, arranged on a grid, with your finger, that are not currently part of a pair in order to flip them over so that they match with an adjacent box, and can be taken out of play. There is a helpful tutorial mode to guide you through the basics, and a selection of difficulty settings.

Pac-Man by Namco - After the Space Invaders craze of the late 1970s, came Pac-Man, a yellow ball with eyes whose main purpose in life was to munch down lines of pills, arranged within a maze, and occasionally eat a few flashing ghosts when he was full of the confidence that only oranges could offer him. This is a fine rendition with all the original visuals, but neither the touch screen nor the track ball is really suitable for playing it with.

Pop Pop Popcorn - Use your finger as a virtual heating element, to heat un-popped popcorn, arranged on a grid, until it pops, but make sure not to leave your finger on two long or surrounding popcorn will burn. One of the better touchscreen games available for the Android platform.

Santas War on Terror - This side scrolling platform game features the western worlds favourite generosity metaphor in a pitched battle against the terrorists. Although the title might raise a chuckle or two, the graphics are poor and St. Nick is ridiculously hard to control, making it one to avoid.

TxtSpeed - In this game, words scroll across the screen that you then have to type into the miniature keypad as quickly as possible. Great if you are trying to get to grips with typing on a miniature QWERTY keypad, but a little bit boring nonetheless.

Check out all apps and dowloads in the Android App store. Vodafone offers a huge range of mobile phones and price plans. If you like smart phones, you will love the Google Phone with its fast internet for express browsing and downloads.

Damn, girl, you so fit! You must be using FitDay Online, the web calorie counter, exercise manager, weight loss coordinator extraordinare. This free service is a much better way to spend your time than reading the Hoodia spam emails that appear in your inbox - instead of promising a mircale boost in fitness, FitDay helps you see what’s coming in to your body by automatically counting your calories based on the foods you eat, and what’s going out based calories lost through your daily exercise (funny the things that count as exercise…).

Perhaps one of the most useful features is the nutritional value counter that shows you how much of your recommended dosages of vitamins and minerals you’re getting each day. That multivitamin might look a bit more appealing when you realise that a diet of grapefruit and donuts (hey! It’s got fruit, bread AND protein if you go for the Boston Creme or pistachio-covered) leaves you severely lacking in essential nutrients.

FitDay makes no recommendations based on your lifestyle, exercise or eating habits, simply breaks down your day into easy to see graphs and charts. The only thing that’s missing from FitDay is a mobile plugin to let you update your food and exercise intakes on the go. If they do add a mobile application, then this service will definitely be one of the top weight management solutions on the web.

And we think that looks well fit.

You look pointedly at your watch for the third time but he still doesn’t get the hint. Stifle a yawn, Stare longingly at the couple next to you picking up the check. Tap your foot impatiently. Suddenly – thank Alpha and Omega! Your cell phone rings. So sorry, friend emergency, really must go and… sweet escape.

Instead of relying on the good timing of your friend’s phone calls, however, you really should have signed up for Get Mooh (that’s Get Me Out Of Here), an absolutely free service that sends messages to your phone at a preset time. Need to end a bad date for good? Try an incoming call from your annoyed drug dealer. Endless client meeting? A call from your neighbours about your home’s burglar alarm going off should do the trick. Someone not getting the hint? Why not get the news of the end of the world delivered straight to your phone.

Helpful prompts guide you through the conversation (“Repeat after me,” the message says. “What? Well does the Government know? I’ll be there right away! Now hang up and say sorry, I have to go – there’s an asteroid about to crash into the earth ending life as we know it.”)

Next time you’re stuck, don’t suffer, just schedule a Get Mooh.