Holiday Shopping on Cyber Monday

Tired of waiting in line for the sales of Black Friday? Well, now you can get great deals from the comfort of your own home on Cyber Monday. “What’s Cyber Monday?” You ask. Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving when online shoppers congest the e-commerce world with traffic. It is the cyber world’s equivalent to local retailers Black Friday. Many online distributors offer customers holiday discounts and sales in attempts to lure patrons away from crowded malls and into the relaxing world of online shopping. With the abundant array of stores now located on the World Wide Web, the hassles of holiday shopping can be made easier with just a few clicks of the mouse from the comforts of your own home.

And to make online shopping more enticing to the holiday shopper, many online retailers, like Superwarehouse.com, offer customers not only great holiday deals, but also ideas for gifts and convenient shipping discounts on Cyber Monday and through out the rest of the holiday shopping season. Have your holiday shopping lists prepared and ready to go? Many online retail sites offer their own easy to use search engines to make zipping through that holiday list near effortless. Just type in the brand or product name of the gift that you are looking for and let your computer takes care of the rest.

So why wait in line all night in the cold after your Thanksgiving meals? Take a few days, relax until Monday and shop with ease online. Best of all, you are sure to find everything to meet your holiday needs at the tip of you fingers without having to wait in any long holiday check out lines. So check out some of the great holiday deals offered by Superwarehouse.com like the Kingston 8GB Data Traveler USB 2.0 Flash Drive, the Buffalo Drive Station Turbo 500 GB USB External Hard Drive, or the HP Pavilion a1748x Desktop PC with HP w19b 19" LCD Monitor.

Hands-Free Headsets for a Hands-on Life

If you are currently a driver in the U.S., you, at some point have felt the frustrations of driving behind, next to, or in front of a reckless driver blabbing away on his or her cell phone. And though I have personally felt these frustrations, I have also occasionally been one of those annoying drivers with a cell phone at her ear. Generally, I try not to use my cell phone while driving because I do understand the potential dangers of multitasking while operating a multi-ton vehicle. However, I do empathize with the occasional emergency call made while driving.

Last July my home state of California implemented its first hands-free cell phone law. At first I protested and avoided spending the money to buy a hands-free headset, thinking that they were pricy and a bit dorky looking. However, I quickly felt the need for a hands-free device. I caved and went out and bought myself a Bluetooth headset and have never looked back. The functionality of my Bluetooth far exceeded my original expectations.

I had initially thought that I would leave my Bluetooth device in my car, only to be used while driving. However, my Bluetooth quickly proved its worth in my everyday life. Multitasking, for me, became that much easier. I can now leave my cell phone in one room, activate my Bluetooth, and roam around my apartment doing various chores while talking on the phone- hands-free. This convenience carries over into the outside world as well. For example, grocery shopping while talking on the phone used to mean one less hand to push the cart and pick up groceries with, but with a Bluetooth devise this becomes much easier. The leisure’s of a Bluetooth device are ones that I thought I would never indulge in, yet I have quickly become a fan of the Bluetooth.

Major brands of Bluetooth devices include Plantronics, Nokia, and Motorola. Prices on these products can vary from about $30 to $100 plus depending on brand name, quality, and functionality. On the criteria of price, quality, and functionality, I would recommend Plantronics Voyager 520. This is the updated version of the Plantronics Voyager 510 which was highly recommended in value by PC Magazine in September 2007 and by CNET in September 2005. The Voyager 520 is comfortable, compatible with the majority of all mobile phones, and works well in most environments.

Connecting Skype and Your Life

Skype saved my relationship. I know that this is a bold statement to make, that internet software could actually save a personal relationship, but it did. I recently made the life changing decision to move to France for five months. I would leave behind a boyfriend, friends, and family to venture to the other side of the world. Without Skype, I would not have been able to communicate as effectively and easily as I otherwise would have. Skype enabled me to talk with loved ones on a daily basis without worrying about expensive international rates, and video chat allowed me to talk and connect with friends as if we were having a face-to-face conversation.

Downloading and subscribing to Skype is easy, fast, and free (skype.com). No equipment is needed for the online chat, however a headset is essential for voice chat and a webcam and headset are necessary for video chat. Today, a user friendly webcam can be bought for less then $40 and a headset can be purchased for as little as $10. Some of the most popular brands of webcams are Logitech, Microsoft, and Creative Labs; and some of the most popular brands of headsets are Plantronics and Logitech. Though Skype-to-Skype connections are free of charge, Skype does also offer users the ability to make local, long-distance, and international calls from a Skype account to a landline or cell phone. These calls can be placed for a fraction of the price that most telephone companies offer (international calls made from a Skype account cost about 2.1¢ per minute).

Though I used Skype for personal reasons, Skype could also work well in the business environment. Skype’s online chat could be used as Windows Live and AOL Instant Messenger are in the office. These chat tools allow employees to easily carry on continuous conversations with co-workers without ever having to leave their desks. Skype’s video chat could be used to conduct video conferences or presentations between employees in and out of the physical office space. Additionally, international businesses could economically benefit from the low long-distance or international rates that Skype offers.

Whether it's used for business or pleasure, Skype has really innovated online communication in the digital age. So go out there and try it, and see how Skype can work for you in your life.

Moving Into the Digital World… What Does This Really Mean?

Many people, myself included, have felt much confusion regarding the recent television campaign reminding us that the switch from analog to digital is soon approaching. Beginning February 17, 2009 all broadcast stations will no longer be broadcasting in both analog and digital, but will solely be broadcasting in digital (DTV). This does NOT mean that all broadcast stations will be transitioning to High Definition broadcasts, and HDTV will NOT be a requirement.

How do I know if this change will affect me?

To determine if this switch is going to affect you and your TV watching habits, ask your self these two simple questions:
1) Do I subscribe to digital cable or satellite TV service or do I utilize the free over-the-air television programming?

If you have a subscription to digital cable or satellite service this change should not affect you, however if you do utilize the free over-the-air television programming, ask yourself this second question:

2) Do I currently have a roof top antenna? Do I have a pair of “rabbit ears” sitting atop my television set?

If you answered “NO”, to both of these questions, again, you need not be worried about the switch; your TV set already has an internal digital-tuner. However, if you answered “Yes”, to one or both of these questions, then this change is going to effect you. So take note. Current users of analog televisions have the choice of either buying a new digital television set altogether (with its own internal digital tuner), or obtaining a digital-to-analog converter box to continue watching free over-the-air broadcast television on old analog televisions.

How much will this cost me?

If you have an analog television set you may already be thinking about getting a new television set altogether. Prices on new TVs can vary depending on the size, functionality, and quality of the set desired. However, in the ever advancing world of technology the prices of quality televisions with the functions you desire (whether LCD TV's or Plasma Displays) are becoming ever more affordable. The prices of televisions are only dropping as the next new advancement hits the market.

On the other hand, if you decide to obtain a digital-to-analog converter box the Government established the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program which began in January of 2008. Valid coupons are worth $40 each and the digital-to-analog converter box is estimated to sell from $40 to $70 each (meaning an overall cost to the consumer of about $0 to $30). For more information about this coupon program or about the overall digital switch visit the government’s digital television website at www.dtv2009.gov, or call 1-888-388-2009 (voice) or 1-877-530-2634 (TTY).

Backing Up Your Holiday Digital Photos

Four weeks into my so called Euro trip, while having dinner with a few friends in the South of France, my beloved digital camera failed me for the first time. Unexpectedly, while taking a few snap, my digital camera read “Error. Unlock Disk”. Immediately, I thought that this was going to be a minor issue with my photo card, but I was wrong. The error was huge and unrecoverable. After countless hours of fussing with my camera and consulting with peers and tech support, it was concluded that my pictures were forever lost. Just like that, a month of memories and travels captured on a single photo card disappeared and were never to be seen again. Though devastated by my loss, my misfortune taught me an important life lesson. Always, ALWAYS back up your photos.

This is an especially important tip to remember with the holiday season quickly approaching. Many of us will soon be taking countless snap shots to capture the memories of the season spent with family and friends. Because of the convenience digital cameras offers us (allowing us to take endless photos and immediately view the pictures after being taken) most of us will never get around to actually getting those pictures printed or even downloaded onto our computers in a timely fashion. This is a habit that needs to be broken.

If you are one those people who would answer, “family photos”, as being one of the top five things that you would save from a fire, it is important to realize that natural disaster is not the only type of disaster that could hit your photos. Technical disaster is the tragedy that could potentially hit any one of in this fast paced digital era. Photo cards mysteriously delete pictures, computers crash, a variety of scenarios can occur that could potentially erase every one of your priceless photos. For this reason, it is important to commit to actually taking a few minutes to download your pictures onto your computer and even take it one step further. With as little effort as a few click of the mouse you can save additional copies of your photos onto external hard drives, USB flash drives, or even CD’s and DVD’s.