Gadget Wisdom

EnergyStar 3.0 TV Specification Goes into Effect

guru — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:05:29 +0000

The new EnergyStar 3.0 TV specification went into effect November 1st. It includes a test for how much electricity televisions use when turned on, as well as when turned off. Even the default settings could save as much as $100 in power. Keep it in mind when you buy new televisions. For those of us with [...]

Streaming TV to your Computer

guru — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:38:22 +0000

We find the idea of streaming TV live to your computer very useful. The problem is the sheer number of sites that you can use to do so. We’re eagerly waiting more efficient aggregators, however, we doubt the sites that stream would appreciate this. LifeHacker took a poll in September of the best sites to stream [...]

Increasing Wireless Security Now that WPA is Cracked

guru — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:54:27 +0000

Early on, wireless networks were encrypted using WEP encryption, until it was discovered even the FBI could crack that in a minute. Then came WPA, which was supposedly much more secure. However, researchers have figured out a way to break the TKIP key in about 12 to 15 minutes. Experts had known that a brute force [...]

Good Gear

guru — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:28:23 +0000

We troll the tech websites looking for things we find interesting or potentially useful. Here are a few selections… Crunchgear turned us on to this car cigarette lighter with 4 USB connections.Most things can charge via USB nowadays…Cell phones, music players, etc. If you have four devices you want to charge and still have your cigarette [...]

The Simplest Way to Save Energy - Shutting Things Off

guru — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:00:51 +0000

This past week, prompted by increased utility costs, we became obsessed with the idea of vampire power. Vampire power, standby power, or phantom power, whatever you wish to call it, is the power a device draws when supposedly turned off. So, we did the research. If you like tech, and we do, you can go with [...]

Taking Your Laptop on the Plane

guru — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:01:47 +0000

ThWhen you go to the airport with your laptop, you are forced to go through the annoyance of removing your laptop from its bag and placing it in a bin. However, the TSA last month announced the results of its initiative to encourage manufacturers to design checkpoint-friendly laptop bags. Below is an image of the [...]

SanDisk introduces slotMusic - microSD cards preloaded with music

guru — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:35:57 +0000

SanDisk has announced(see Press Release) the launch of a new music option. microSD cards will soon be made available with pre-loaded high-quality DRM-free MP3 music of top artists from EMI Music, SONY BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. slotMusic cards enable consumers to instantly and easily enjoy music from their favorite artists without being [...]

Microsoft is in the Toilet

guru — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:58:45 +0000

Crunchgear posted this amusing image from Russia. It reads, “Windows Vista - The Digital Future Starts Here.” We’re not thrilled with Vista from the time we spent fiddling with it. It certainly, we admit, has some new features of us, but a lot of things are not as easy to locate in the system as they [...]

Convert Word 2007 Files

guru — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:42:17 +0000

We recently received a file by email from someone with the extension .docx, which is the new Word 2007 format. They redid everything, probably to make us shell out more money. We had to email our friend and ask them to save the file in a different format and send it back to us. It [...]

Rockbox 3.0 Released

guru — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:20:23 +0000

Lifehacker alerted us this week to the release of Rockbox 3.0. Rockbox is a product we already use on our MP3 player. It is an alternative open-source firmware which includes not only expanded music support, but album art, games, video playback, and more. For those of you wishing to try it, but not willing to give [...]