On Gear Live: Samsung S95C: The OLED TV You Can’t Afford (to Ignore!)

HP Mini 1000

So, our HP Magic Giveaway winner was awesome enough to give back to the community, thus invoking a second giveaway. We’ve got an HP Mini 1000 here, along with a bunch of software as well. Specifically, here’s the prize package:

We’re going to use the same entrance criteria that we used last time, since that seemed to work so well. Here’s how to enter to win:

  1. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Gear Live account
  2. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Twitter account
  3. Add the Gear Live Twitter account to your follow list
  4. On Twitter, post a tweet about our contest and link to this page. In the tweet, include the phrase “#gearlive”.
  5. Once that is done, leave a comment here in this post with a direct link back to your Tweet. Be sure you are signed in to your Gear Live account before you leave the comment.

Here’s an example of an appropriate Twitter entry:
“Entering to win an HP Mini! http://059.qlnk.net/ #gearlive”

BONUS ENTRIES: Want more chances to win? Share the link to our contests on the following sites, and leave us a comment linking to those as well:

  • Facebook: Shared Link
  • Del.icio.us bookmark
  • FriendFeed: Use Post a Link
  • Your blog: Have a site? Link to our contest on it!

Remember: The bonus entries are just that - bonus. In order to be eligible to win, you must complete the core Twitter requirements.

Now, as to the actual contest dates. The contest starts today, December 5th. You have until 11:59 PM PST on December 11th to enter your comments here on this post. We will then announce our winner, chosen randomly out of all valid entrants and bonus points, on December 12th.

Aaaaaand - we’ve got our winner!


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HP Magic

Our HP Magic Giveaway came to a conclusion last night, and, wow, we are calling this one a success, as we just got inundated with entries. We first need to thank everyone involved for entering and spreading the word on Twitter, Facebook, and the like. Of course, there can only be one - but if you feel a swerve coming, read on!

First, the winner was chosen randomly out of all valid entries. The person who came out on top of Ashe, with this comment. I’ve contacted him, he replied, and things are good.

Now, about that swerve. In the original contest, we mentioned that it would be awesome if the winner were to give some of those winnings away. After all, it’s the holiday season, and who really needs 3 notebooks, a desktop, and all that stuff? So, the cool thing here is that Ashe has decided to throw some items back into the pot, and he wants us to do a second giveaway! We will get it set up today, and will run it for another week. The winner will get the following:

That is not too shabby of a prize package right there. Wanna win it? Just head on over to our Gear Live Magic Giveaway page to enter.

Again, thanks to all entrants, and a big thank you to Ashe for giving back.

Read More | Gear Live Magic Giveaway

iPhlix Netflix Queue Manager 2.5One of our favorite Queue Manager’s for the , iPhlix, has hit version 2.5, with some welcome improvements. First, it uses the Netflix public API, which just makes things snappier and less likely to break. As the user, you can now select which Queue shows up first as a default (Mail, Instant, or Search). You also get ship dates, return dates, and a much faster search. All in all, a nice update. You can grab iPhlix on the App Store,

completely free of charge

for $2.99.

Read More | iPhlix

HP Magic Giveaway

So, a few days ago we told you about our HP Magic Giveaway, and how we’d be giving away an absolutely ridiculous amount of prizes to the winner. Now, we are announcing the the contest has officially started, and we’ve got the details on how you can enter to win. First, though, a refresher on what we are giving away:

Yes, you do see four computers listed, as well as a Media Center Extender. No, you aren’t dreaming. Yes, we (and ) are awesome. You want the goods? Here’s how to enter to win - we are making this super-simple:

  1. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Gear Live account
  2. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Twitter account
  3. Add the Gear Live Twitter account to your follow list
  4. On Twitter, post a tweet about our contest and link to this page. In the tweet, include the phrase “#glmagic”.
  5. Once that is done, leave a comment here in this post with a direct link back to your Tweet. Be sure you are signed in to your Gear Live account before you leave the comment.

Here’s an example of an appropriate Twitter entry:
“Entering to win a ton of HP gear! http://jk9.qlnk.net/ #glmagic”

BONUS ENTRIES: Want more chances to win? Share the link to our contests on the following sites, and leave us a comment linking to those as well:

  • Facebook: Shared Link
  • Del.icio.us bookmark
  • FriendFeed: Use Post a Link
  • Your blog: Have a site? Link to our contest on it!

Remember: The bonus entries are just that - bonus. In order to be eligible to win, you must complete the core Twitter requirements.

Now, as to the actual contest dates. The contest starts today, November 28th. You have until 11:59 PM PST on December 4 to enter your comments here on this post. We will then announce our winner, chosen randomly out of all valid entrants and bonus points, on December 5th. We are also going to encourage (but not require) you to think about donating a portion of the prize package to someone else. It can be a charity, a relative, friend, a fellow contest entrant - anyone. We can even handle the shipping to that third party for you. It’s all in the spirit of giving, and we will let you play Secret Santa, if you so choose.

The contest is open to anyone in the world, which is a rarity. If you are in the US, you’ll even have your tax burden taken care of. What more could you ask for? Now, good luck to all - comments are open!

Update: We’ve announced a winner - and a new contest!


HP Magic GiveawayUPDATE: ENTER OUR HP MAGIC GIVEAWAY CONTEST!

Listen, it’s the holiday season, the economy is going to hell, prices are going up on everything but gas, and you know that no one is going to get you any super-fancy consumer electronics this year. Or, so you thought. You see, once again we are partnering with (along with 49 other sites) to bring you a mind-blowing prize package. That means that you get 50 chances to win the following:

  • HP TouchSmart IQ816
  • HP HDX18 Premium Notebook PC
  • HP Pavilion dv4 Entertainment Notebook PC
  • HP Mini 1000 (Windows XP)
  • HP MediaSmart Connect

Oh, what was that? That isn’t enough? Well, our bad, we though that five computers being given away would be enough. But hey, you pulled our arm, so I guess we’ll also throw in the following:

  • HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless All-in-One printer
  • HP 564 Photo Value Pack
  • Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 with 3 licenses
  • Microsoft WIndows Live
  • Corel VideoStudio X
  • Kung-Fu Panda on Blu-ray disc, and two DVDs

There, now are you happy? We figured as much. Go back and look over that list again - that’s a lot of stuff. In fact, the value of all that is over $6,000 USD. There’s enough there that you could win it all, and give away some of it as gifts to your family or friends - that what the holidays are all about, right? That whole better to give than to receive thing?

We’ll be announcing the contest rules soon, but in the meantime, check out the HP Magic Giveaway page for more information on the prizes, and other participating sites.

Oh, and let us know what you think of this contest in the comments!

Read More | HP Magic Giveaway

TweetsvilleBeing the big fans of Twitter that we are here are Gear Live, we are always looking for the best way to interact with the service. We’ve used apps like Twitteriffic, Twinkle, and Twittelator, but we think we’ve found one that we will be sticking with for a while. It’s called Tweetsville, and it’s an app that Tapulous purchased from an independent developer, and then incorporated into their umbrella. Here’s the description:

The ultimate dedicated Twitter client for iPhone! Send tweets and direct messages with ease. Check out the latest trends on Twitter and do powerful searches. Favorites, History, Replies… it’s all here! Tap on a tweet to reply to the user, send them a message, check out their profile. From their profile, you can also see their history, their favorites, and their friends and followers. See the number of unread direct messages in your inbox right in the tab bar. Supports inline links, bold and italic automatically in tweets by treating words like *this* as bold and like _this_ or /this/ as italic. All of this in a clean, iPhone look and feel with two looks for your tweet lists: balloons and simple.

Since release a couple of weeks ago, the team has already released an update, bringing it to version 1.1. This includes support for international formats and encodings, along with significantly enhanced stability. As I said, we’ve certainly enjoyed the app, and currently feels it’s the best thing available as far as Twitter clients are concerned. The only improvements we are looking for are faster syncing and downloading. Once they get that fixed up, this thing will truly rock. You can pick up Tweetsville on the App Store for $3.99.

Read More | Tweetsville

OrbLive for iPhone

Here at Gear Live, we’ve been big fans of Orb for quite a while. Back in the original days, they made an app that was only available on jailbroken phones that we really liked - we just knew it needed to run at 3G speeds to be useful when on the go. The time has finally come, though, as OrbLive has hit the App Store. To back up for a moment, Orb allows you to access files and media on your home computer while on the go. This means that any music on your home computer can now be played on your iPhone from wherever you are. Videos too. Oh, and if you have a TV tuner in your computer, Orb will even allow you to tap into that and watch live television on the go as well. Isn’t that off the hook?

The one caveat for the time being is that the Orb PC software is only available for Windows - but the Orb folks are promising that versions for Mac and Linux are coming soon. We definitely recommend this one - grab the full version of OrbLive for $9.99, or if you are on the fence, there is also a demo version, OrbLive Free.

Read More | OrbLive via Orb


Pass the PigsI’ve always been one who enjoys a good game of Pass the Pigs, and I just gained the knowledge that the game is available in the App Store. It’s basically a dice game that uses pigs rather than, you know, actual dice. Depending on how the pigs land, you gain points, lose points, etc. The is put out by THQ, which likely explains why there is also a one-player Story Mode as well. In any event, Pass the Pigs can be found in the App Store for $2.99.

Read More | App Store: Pass the Pigs

OmniFocus for iPhone

One of my absolute favorite apps, OmniFocus, just received a small update, meant to kill a few bugs. In case you have yet to give it a try, OmniFocus is an organizational tool solely meant to keep you on task, focused, while maintaining peace of mind that you aren’t forgetting anything. It’s configurable in so many ways, that just about anyone is able to fit it into their workflow. There is an iPhone version, as well as a desktop version for OS X, and the two can sync together. Anyhow, here are the details of the recent update for OmniFocus for iPhone:

Changes in the minor v1.1.1 update:
Fixed a bug which could leave the user at a blank screen after adding a new item.
Fixed a bug which caused the app to be unresponsive after converting an action to a project.
Fixed a few places where English was still visible in the Japanese translation.

Changes in the minor v1.1.2 update (released November 13, 2008):
Updated the Settings icon to avoid potential confusion with the iPhone’s built-in Settings application.

As we said before, if you haven’t already, you owe it to yourself to check out OmniFocus.

Read More | OmniFocus via OmniGroup Forums


Alright, let’s take a break for just a moment away from the standard news fare. We know that you guys love the gadgets, gizmos, and consumer electronics just as much as we do.  These expensive and cool toys are often a marvel when you break them down to the technology that drives them. That’s what makes what we do fun, and why we love the interaction we have with our readers. However, we want to focus a bit of attention on the young ones in our country who would be happy to have a calculator for use in class, and the teachers who work for districts that can’t afford things like projectors for use in their schools.

Gear Live has joined the 2008 DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge, and we have chosen eight great causes that are centered around getting some basic technology and literature into classrooms located in our local area, as well as some of the hardest areas still suffering the affects of Hurricanes Ike and Katrina. We’ve chosen eight causes that we thought touched on what we believed in, and you can take a look at them and choose which one(s) you want to help. Our goal is to raise $5,000 for the children of our nation. Just know that the money you donate will go directly to that specific teacher request - not into some big pot of money that is then doled out by the organization.

Some of the most expensive purchases for schools are consumer electronics. We believe that all children need to get acquainted with the tools of the future as they learn so they when they are ready to hit the workforce, they can succeed alongside their peers. Please, help us in assisting teachers, children, and schools in low-income areas get the tools they need to help their children excel.

Read More | Gear Live Gives Back 2008

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