Congress decided to pass a measure to begin daylight saving time three weeks earlier, thinking that the longer the day, the less energy consumption. Now some scientists are thinking that because many of our electronic gadgets will not know this, they may have mini-meltdowns and we will experience a minor Y2K. You can either freak out about this piece of information (if you are one of those who did before the first scare,) or calm down, get yourself a shot of tequila, and see what experts suggest you do to prepare:

• If you have a fairly recent computer with Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2, or Apple’s OS X, you can probably breath a sigh of relief since it will either know it or has already received an online software patch. If your computer is older, don’t forget to change its clock Saturday night and again in April. 
• If you own a Blackberry or similar handheld device, you may need an update. Check the company’s website for information.
• Most cell phones receive time signals from service providers, and most of the major ones have updated their systems. Contact yours if you think there may be a problem.
• Check your Tivo or preset VCR to make sure that your programs make the adjustment. You don’t want to be taping the latest episode of “Lost” and find out that you have accidentally recorded “According to Jim.”

Daylight-savings time would ordinarily have begun on the first Sunday in April. Instead, it’ll begin this weekend.

Read More | ABC News

Gallery: Daylight-Saving Time Change May Cause Mini-Y2K

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

What’s better than a game of Pacman? A game of Ms. Pacman, of course. The Namco classic is celebrating its 25th anniversary and will soon be available from the iTunes store for your iPod. Last fall the original was released, and we are thinking that Apple is making yet another attempt to compete with the PSP which, with a modicum of hacking, already boasts the ability to carry many of the classic games, such as those produced by Atari. Find Ms. Pacman at the iTunes store at the decently inexpensive price of $5.99.

Read More | iTunes Store via iLounge

Gallery: Ms. Pacman Comes to iPod

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

Moixa has already produced an award winning USB connector for charging regular batteries. Now they have unveiled one for cell phones, Blackberries, and other personal devices that will not only save you a few bucks but will also help save the planet. This is truly a gift for those of us who have a tendency to run our cell phone down to empty before we remember we actually have to recharge it occasionally. Contact Moixa for price and future availability or to be put on their product launch alert list.

Read More | Moixa

Gallery: Moxia To Release Cell Phone USB Connectors

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

With all the cell phones and smartphones out there flaunting the latest innovations, choosing the right one can be a daunting process.  Research in Motion just made that decision even harder (or perhaps easier depending on your view) when it introduced the new BlackBerry 8800 at the 3GSM World Congress, a showcase for state-of-the-art wireless devices. While targeted toward the corporate crowd, the 8800—the slimmest corporate Blackberry yet—includes such consumer-friendly features as a media player that supports MP3 and AAC audio as well as MPEG-4 and H.263 encoded video files, and a microSD slot for music and video storage. The smartphone also contains a QWERTY keyboard, trackball, GPS software and Bluetooth capability.

The 8800 is a quad-band GSM/GPRS and supports EDGE - but oddly enough, leaves out HSDPA. That means that while the phone is slick, you won’t be doing any broadband surfing or downloading. It also has a built-in GPS chip, which means it can give you directions and support other location-based applications right out of the box.

The BlackBerry 8800 will be available this month, with pricing yet to be announced.

Read More | BlackBerry 8800 Product Page

Gallery: Research in Motion Unveils BlackBerry 8800

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

Based on the ever popular “The Fast and The Furious Tokyo” game, the I-play mobile version has managed to capture the Best Made for Mobile Game at the 3GSM World Congress. Released last June, the game received over 6 million downloads in under six months. Based on Universal’s movies of the same name, gamers get to be the new kids on the block and beat their rivals. We think that this is a more viable alternative to its sometimes real life counterpart.

Read More | I-play

Gallery: “Fast and Furious” Wins Best Mobile Game at 3GSM

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

Gear Live reader “Slezak” wrote in to tell us about Digby:

Digby is a really cool app that lets you shop for all sorts of stuff from your BlackBerry without having to use the browser. It has a local catalog with flowers, chocolates, books, cds, dvd, etc,.. including search capabilities for stuff not already in the catalog. It links up with the address book and the calendar so you can buy and ship stuff to yourself or anyone in my address book without having to rekey info that is already on my BlackBerry. Digby is a free download and the products are at the same price as they are on the vendors normal website.

So there you have it, for all you BlackBerry owning shopoholics out there, Digby might be just the thing you needed to push your credit card bill over the edge.

[Thanks Slezak!]

Read More | Digby Product Page

Gallery: Digby: Mobile Commerce for the BlackBerry

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

Hooked on Sudoku? Kid Galaxy, designer and developer of creative toys and games is featuring their handheld Pro at this week’s NY Toy Fair 2007. The gadget features over 1,000,000 puzzles, 4 different skill levels, and an adjustable screen. It also sports check, hint, and mute buttons, a timer, a step counter, and an input for downloading games. Pro Sudoku is available online for $15.00, requires 3 AAA batteries (not included,) and also comes in a $5.00 Sudoku To Go Model.

 

Read More | Kid Galaxy

Gallery: Kid Galaxy is Answer to Sudoku Addicts

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

Bill Clinton does them. Jon Stuart and Sheila Franklin do them. What are they? The New York Times Crossword Puzzles, of course. What better way to stave off Alzheimer’s or prove your mental acumen than by doing them in pen? We suggest a stylus and the NYT Electronic Crossword. With a 4 x 2.5-inch LCD screen, it contains 1,000 puzzles and comes with a memory saver, three levels of skill, a spell checker, and a hint helper (although we consider that cheating.) The handheld device runs on 2 AAA batteries (not included) with auto-shut off and adjustable contrast, and is available at Hammacher Schlemmer for $99.99. What’s a six letter word for “expensive?”

Read More | Hammacher Schlemmer

Gallery: Solve the NYT Crossword Puzzle Anytime

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - Windows Media

Read More | The Bleeding Edge

Gallery: CES 2007 Video: Garmin Astro 220 Dog Tracking GPS Unit

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - Windows Media

Read More | The Bleeding Edge

Gallery: CES 2007 Video: JVC Everio GZ-HD7 Camcorder

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story