Next time you hit the road, stay connected, be mobile and look drop-dead cool with 25 of the world’s BEST tech gadgets!!

Slingbox Pro-HD

By PETER HA

It’s one thing to DVR your favorite show or the big game when you’re stuck late at work, but what if you won’t be going home later that night, or even that week? When travel takes you far, whether for work or pleasure, you still need to see your local teams or that award-winning home video sitting in your DVD player.

The Slingbox Pro-HD allows you to control and watch video from a gaggle of high-definition* and standard-definition sources, including your cable box, DVR or DVD (Blu-ray too!) player, all through the magic of the Internet. You can tune in from your laptop or mobile device and even access couch-potato features like the SlingRemote, which looks and works exactly like the remote control you have at home, and the Live Video Buffer*, which allows up to 60 minutes of DVR-like program-editing.

Using a Slingbox, you can watch TV through your Windows Mobile device, BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian or iPhone using the SlingPlayer Mobile application (sold separately). Fret not, Android users: Sling is hard at work on an application for you too.

*Some features, including HD viewing and the Live Video Buffer, are supported only on Windows machines, though Mac support is reportedly on the way.

Slingbox Pro-HD/App: $299.99 / $29.99

View the full list for “The Best Travel Gadgets of 2009″

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1933520_1933522,00.html#ixzz0bCl0rfXg

Last-Minute Holiday Guide: Gifts For Nerds

By Allie Townsend on December 17, 2009

Getty Images

FULL LIST: Techland’s Holiday Gift Guide

The countdown is almost among us. Friday marks one week until we get all holly and jolly for a day, and if you’re anything like us, you’re not anywhere close to being done buying gifts. (Note: This is where we come in.) If you’re in search of a gift for your geek, (young and old, guys and gals) we’ve got a few ideas. We even found the perfect nerd wrapping paper (Robots! Zombies!) to boot.

And if you need even more assistance, we put together a list of the best apps to get you through the rest of the holiday shopping season.

FULL LIST: Techland’s Holiday Gift Guide
Read more: http://techland.com/2009/12/17/last-minute-holiday-guide-gifts-for-nerds/#ixzz0aLxIokE9

Turn on your speakers and click on the link:

Apple is innovating like its old self once again. But can the company avoid repeating the mistakes that forced it to play catch-up in the ’90s?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/222141/page/1

From the new BlackBerry Bold 9700 to monitor-friendly optical lenses, here are 20 new techie gadgets not to be missed

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1937994_1938235_1938266,00.html#ixzz0X4I201Fb

Fun Gadgets

1. Stainless-Steel Apple Shuffle
2. Etre Gloves
3. Quiksilver Cypher PS+ Heat Vest System
4. Nook
5. Chrome Soyuz bag
6. PlayStation3
7. Darth Vader Robotic Arm
8. Nerf N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS-35
9. Spawn HD-720
10. VholdR ContourHD
11. BlackBerry Bold 9700
12. Zune HD
13. NPR Radio by Livio
14. Gunnar Optiks Digital Performance Eyewear
15. Samsung Series 8 LED 240-HZ HDTV
16. Powermat
17. Sonos S5
18. WD TV Live HD Media Player
19. Leatherman Freestyle CX
20. FLO TV Personal Television

Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1937994,00.html#ixzz0X4HwU51n

Ooma is a new hosted VoIP service that challenges the tradition of monthly phone service costs.  With Ooma, all you have to do is purchase the hardware up front, which as of this writing costs $250 from amazon.com. After your initial purchase, you receive the basic level of service for free, which includes a single number, voicemail, and a nifty web interface for managing your service.

Upgrading to the premier service, which includes multiple lines, send-to-voicemail, and other business-class features will cost you, as will porting your existing telephone number to Ooma.  International calls are charged on a per-minute basis.

Ooma seems practical in a time where many are abandoning traditional phone service for cell phones.  With no monthly fees, Ooma is a great way to keep a cheap landline at your home or office.

Here’s the drill, you come home from work, your cell phone, which claims upto 18 hours of talk time, went dead after a half-hour call during lunch. Do you:

1. Fish the charger out of your briefcase/purse (because you only have one charger and you have to bring it with you everywhere).
2. Say “meh, I’ll charge it later” and never actually do it.
3. Plug it into the extra charger sitting in the nice charger station you bought from Pottery Barn, which all said and done cost you more than the phone itself.
4. Throw your phone down onto a mat that charges it using black magic without wires!

Wait… what?

That’s right, a charging station without wires, exactly what the WildCharger Pad does.  Welcome to the new world of wire-free charging, err… kind of. The pad allows you to charge up to 5 devices on it just by placing them on it’s metal surface - freeing up the precious outlet real estate on your counter.

The technology looks very promising, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet. Here’s why.

To start, you can’t just put your normal old phone on the pad, you’ll have to purchase a skin or new battery cover for your device, complete with little protruding metallic bits that make contact with the pad and transfer power to the battery. These skins cost around $35 and are only available for a <em>very</em> small selection of devices.

It also takes longer to charge your devices than it would if they were plugged in with their power cord, which undermines the ease of come and go charging as the pad advertises.

You can purchase the WildCharger Pad from their website.