Friday, January 21, 2011
Six unusual and useful gadgets for small offices
From a universal charger for all your gadgets, to a pen that records audio as you scribble, these useful gadgets can make any small office run smoother.
I work out of a small office, and there are six products that I find I can’t live without. These things make my job much easier, so I figured that this week, I’d share my favorites with you.
Livescribe Echo Smartpen
This pen has a built-in recorder and a camera which synchronizes (if you use the right paper) what you are writing to what you are hearing. In other words, if you are like me and take really crappy notes, this pen can save your ass. All you have to do is tap the pen tip on the word you no longer recognize to hear what was actually being said at the time. The pen can actually do a number of additional things with the addition of inexpensive applications that include translators, games, music players, and topics of interest, but its core function is the most valuable. It has 4GB of memory, and the files can be offloaded to a PC for archiving. It is a little geeky, but very handy. Paper comes in a variety of sizes and costs about the same as most high-quality stock. This is one handy pen, and LiveScribe just reduced the price to under $100.
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500
This has to be the handiest scanner in the market. We all have hard-copy documents and forms that have to be filled out and physically signed. You can fax them, but that takes a lot of time and fax machines have a tendency to tie up your phone line and jam. This thing screams through documents at 20 pages a minute, almost never jams, and outputs a PDF file to your PC, so you can e-mail the high-quality result. This finally had me put the fax machine in mothballs, and it saves a ton of time. At $429, it isn’t cheap, but if your time is money, it pays for itself.
Polycom Soundpoint Pro SE-220 2-Line Conference Phone
Most of us still haven’t moved to VoIP yet, or pulled the plug on our wired lines and moved directly to our cell phones. For those who haven’t, the Polycom Soundpoint Pro SE-220 2-Line Conference Phone stands out. Most office phones for small offices are cheap and sound like crap. This one doesn’t, and the speakerphone function is particularly useful. It has a fabulous speakerphone built in, which can be handy when you aren’t wearing a headset and don’t want to hold onto the phone, or have more than one person in your office. The electronic features of the phone are a bit out of date, but that’s true of most analog phones, and I’ve been living with this product for a number of years now and fully endorse it.
Plantronics Savi Office Convertible
If you are like me and often switching between VoIP and landline calls, the Plantronics Savi Office Convertible is a lifesaver. It can pull sound from your PC or a phone, and when coupled with the handset lifter option, you can answer calls from anyplace within its 350-foot range. The sound is crystal clear, and it switches seamlessly between Skype (my VoIP provider) and the Polycom Phone. It runs about $379, and the optional lifter is an additional $45, but if you live on the phone this is very handy. If you don’t use VoIP, the Plantronics CS70N comes with the lifter, is less complex, and costs $399.
Innergie mCube Pro Power Adapter
Most of us have laptops that go where we go, and we often have to charge them up on airplanes or in cars. These laptops generally come with cheap, inefficient power adapters that don’t work in cars or planes with a DC plug. In addition, we have to lug other power adaptors for our smartphones and gadgets like Kindles, which take up space and add weight. The Innergie mCube Pro Universal Power adapter has adapters for nearly any notebook, accepts AC or DC power input, and it has a USB plug to power your smartphone or other electronic gadget at the same time. You still have to bring the USB cable for that extra device, but you end up carrying a ton less weight, and ready to work on a plane or recharge your laptop in the car. It kind of looks like it was designed by Apple as well, because it is white, sleek, and pretty. It costs about $119, but it is well worth it for those of us who want to get over lugging a bunch of redundant (and often useless) power supplies.
Clickfree Automatic Backup C2 500GB USB Portable External Hard Drive
Recently, a scientist working on the cure to cancer, and who was reported to be very close to that cure, lost his laptop. He hadn’t been backing it up, and two years of research and that potential cancer cure were lost as well. While it is unlikely you will have something so critical on your PC, backing up a laptop that might be lost, damaged, or stolen is critical, yet it’s still not done as often as it should be. We don’t backup because it is simply pain in the ass to do backups. The Clickfree product line is the easiest I’ve reviewed, and the company has a variety of products, including a dongle you can attach to an external drive to get the core features. The product I recommend is the C2 500GB, because it has enough capacity for growth and it costs under $100 on Amazon. The dongle, if you already have a drive, is only $30, and that $30 could have saved that cancer research. It could save your work as well. Hard drives do fail and PCs do get lost or stolen. Make sure you don’t lose your work as well.What Are Your Favorites?
These are the small business products that have been the most useful for me. If you have a moment and want to comment, what are the unusual and useful products that you have found particularly useful for work or school? I’m always looking for ideas.TOP 6 WIND POWERED GADGETS
Over the past few years we've seen plenty of innovative green gadgets powered by sunshine, kinetic energy, and the motion of the oceans -- but there is also a flood of companies out there that are exploring innovative ways to harness the power of wind! You can catch a breeze practically anywhere in the world, which makes these versatile, mobile wind-powered gadgets a blast to use. Read on for our top 6 wind powered gadgets!
1. HYMINI Tiny Portable Wind-Powered Gadget Charger
The HYMINI is a compact device that allows you to utilize the power of the wind anywhere you go. This portable mini wind turbine can be connected to various devices, allowing you to charge your camera, cell phone or any other small electronic device via the power of wind. You can easily attach your HYMINI to your bike or take it with you on your next run around the block. With their newly-introduced personal wind turbine armband, you can now power your iPod while your iTunes set your pace.
2. Firewinder: The Wind Powered Outdoor Light
Developed by young British inventor Tom Lawton, The Firewinder is an innovative outdoor lighting system that transforms wind into a visual display of light. This decorative lamp is 100% wind-powered, and it reacts to subtle variations in wind speed to create a vibrant expression of your natural surroundings.
3. The Greenbird: The World's Fastest Wind Powered Land Vehicle
Wind has been powering transportation since the first gust of wind hit a sail. Now, the wind is propelling vehicles on new terrain - land. The Greenbird is "part aeroplane, part sailboat, and part Formula One car," and it's the fastest wind-powered land vehicle on Earth. The Greenbird broke the world land speed record last March, and this year it's back for more on the frozen lakes of Montana.
4. Eolic: A Foldable, Portable Wind Turbine
Although it's relatively easy to find a quality portable solar charger, wind turbines that can produce the same amount of energy haven't had the same success. Now, thanks to the Ecolic, a small wind turbine currently being developed for consumer use, this could be a problem of the past. Designed by Marcos Madia and Sergio Ohashi, this gadget is both portable and powerful, and it can be mounted on its telescopic pole in just three easy steps. Not only is this good for consumers, but the Ecolic could also prove to be extremely useful in developing countries or in disaster situations where on-the-grid power isn't available.
5. WIND POWERED WATCH: Urwerk UR-202
The revolutionary Urwerk UR-202 watch actually has miniature wind turbines installed in its core. We're used to seeing alternative power function in large-scale devices, but the UR-202 proves that wind power can be effective on the smallest scale as well. The energy-efficient watch is built to last for a long time to boot.
6. Wind Powered Remote Control Car
This set of remote control cars entertains children while informing them about various forms or renewable energy. One of the cars taps the power of a small wind turbine to propel it across tabletops and floors. The set also includes cars that are powered by a solar panel and a hydrogen fuel cell.
What are you favorite wind powered gadgets?
Preventing Your PC Games From Crashing
It is very frustrating when you are in the middle of a PC game and it crashes. And what is even worse is if this happens at a crucial part of the game such as when you are about to get past a certain stage which has had you frustrated for days. Just at the point when you are about to get complete the part that has been eluding you for so long, your game crashes and then you have to begin again. This can leave you feeling very frustrated but thankfully there are a number of things you can do to stop this from happening.
Most computer games will crash because of the fact that the computer cannot cope with actually running the game but there are things that can help to improve this situation.
- The most common reason why games crash is that there is a mismatch between what the game requires and what your computer is providing. So before installing a particular game, it is recommended that you check the system requirements first. If your current computer cannot meet the requirements of the game then you can either upgrade your system or choose an alternative game. Loading a game on a computer that cannot meet the system requirements will more than likely crash continuously.
- You may find that your game keeps crashing if you have too many programs running on your computer in the background. A way to stop this from happening is to make sure that you don’t have programs running which you don’t need when you are playing your game and that the start up menu does not have any necessary programs on it. Many programs are now available which stop the background processes giving a boost to the gaming experience
- Make sure you have enough space on your hard drive because if you don’t it will mean your game has nowhere to store data needed for the game and it crashes.
- The best way to ensure that your computer’s performance is up to scratch is to make sure files are found easily and this can be done by regularly defragmenting your hard drive.
Top 5 Most Anticipated Games Of Q1 2011
- Dragon Age II : The success of its predecessor which was GoTY 2009 has put real pressure on the game developers in Bioware Corp. They need to make sure it is as good as Dragon Age, if not better. This fantasy Role-Playing-Game is all set to spread dragon and darkspawn blood all over your screens from the 8th of March this year.
- Crysis 2 : Another much anticipated sequel. But its predecessor can be considered the most hyped game that released in the directX 10 engine. Stunning visuals in Crysis have already set a benchmark for Crysis 2 which releases on the 22nd of March. Gamers across the world , however, hope for huge improvements in the gameplay from the development team.
- Marvel vs Capcom 3 : Fate of Two Worlds : This vs-fighting game also features in our list. Its rare, but there you have it. Such is the following of the Marvel vs Capcom franchise. Its Wolverine vs Ryu and it starts February 15th.
- Dead Space 2 : Since 2008, the gamer union of the world has been wondering when the sequel to the best ever survival horror FPS will come out. Well, like a ghost in the shadows, Dead Space 2 will surface on the 25th of January…that’s only 5 days from now! Fasten your seatbelts and don’t call your mommy when you see the whole new set of features in this one.
- Deus Ex : Human Revolution : Eidos Interactive have been at work on this project for quite some time now, and the wait will finally come to an end this March. This game is the third installment of the highly popular RPG series known as Deus Ex.
5 Factors That Will Keep Your Laptop Battery To Run Longer
After using your laptop for some time, we often notify the laptops charge whether it’s going down very slowly or fastly, if it’s decreasing very fastly then it’s better to assume to say the life of the battery is lessened. So how does this happen? After spending a lot of time researching on these topics I got to know 5 major factors which affects the life oflaptop batteries. When we are using laptops, there are always some basic factors affecting the life of the battery. However, this doesn’t mean that these factors will damage the laptop battery. There are many factors which affects the life of a laptop battery, the factors are:
Factor 1: Temperature
If your laptop is in some sorts of different circumstances then the life of your laptop battery is reduced faster than those in normal circumstance. Increased temperature oftenly affects the life of laptop batteries. If the climate is cold, then your laptop battery is going to take longer to fully charge. Increased heat also impacts the particular battery’s capability to transfer power from the batter to the operating system. The best temperature for laptop batteries is between 50 and 82 degrees.
Factor 2: The speed of the processor
The right operation to install Intel/AMD chip set drivers makes the speed of a laptop quicker, which will extend the life of the battery.
Factor 3: Power source
Always check the connection between the power adapter and your computer’s charging input. If the connection is loosened, then your laptop’s battery will certainly fail to charge.
Factor 4: Age
If the life of your battery in your laptop arrives at the finish of its operating life, it will no longer needs any more energy from the adapter even it have more strength too. The routines of your PC will tell whether the battery it is worned out or not.
Factor 5: Wireless devices and Bluetooth devices
Those devices will accelerate the use of battery, don’t use wireless, you can disable it in the network and sharing area
After all, if you want to expand or increase your battery life, please pay care to these factors.
5 Factors That Will Keep Your Laptop Battery To Run Longer
After using your laptop for some time, we often notify the laptops charge whether it’s going down very slowly or fastly, if it’s decreasing very fastly then it’s better to assume to say the life of the battery is lessened. So how does this happen? After spending a lot of time researching on these topics I got to know 5 major factors which affects the life oflaptop batteries. When we are using laptops, there are always some basic factors affecting the life of the battery. However, this doesn’t mean that these factors will damage the laptop battery. There are many factors which affects the life of a laptop battery, the factors are:
Factor 1: Temperature
If your laptop is in some sorts of different circumstances then the life of your laptop battery is reduced faster than those in normal circumstance. Increased temperature oftenly affects the life of laptop batteries. If the climate is cold, then your laptop battery is going to take longer to fully charge. Increased heat also impacts the particular battery’s capability to transfer power from the batter to the operating system. The best temperature for laptop batteries is between 50 and 82 degrees.
Factor 2: The speed of the processor
The right operation to install Intel/AMD chip set drivers makes the speed of a laptop quicker, which will extend the life of the battery.
Factor 3: Power source
Always check the connection between the power adapter and your computer’s charging input. If the connection is loosened, then your laptop’s battery will certainly fail to charge.
Factor 4: Age
If the life of your battery in your laptop arrives at the finish of its operating life, it will no longer needs any more energy from the adapter even it have more strength too. The routines of your PC will tell whether the battery it is worned out or not.
Factor 5: Wireless devices and Bluetooth devices
Those devices will accelerate the use of battery, don’t use wireless, you can disable it in the network and sharing area
After all, if you want to expand or increase your battery life, please pay care to these factors.
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