LensCoat Lens Covers

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Misc. Tech,

Now that winter is coming on, keep your lens warm with a LensCoat Lens Cover. Made of closed-cell neoprene and a camouflage design to hide from critters, they come in a variety of styles and sizes. Each cover is waterproof and has a clear UV-PVC window over the controls and distance-scale window. Our fave has to be the Hoody, priced from $12.99 to $24.99. LensCoat also makes them for tripods and will customize covers for your equipment.

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TokyoFlash To Give Away Watches, NES DSis

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Videos,

TokyoFlash, of the unique timepieces, has all kinds of kewl things going on this week. They are giving away a Limited Edition Midnight Tibida everyday for a given period. They are offering a ¥1000 ($10.00) off any watch, also for a finite time, if you enter the coupon code HA26 during checkout. Best of all they are giving away 3 Nintendo DSis. The Tibida works like the others with LEDs displaying the hours, minutes, and 5 minute progression, and is available for ¥14,900 ($151.16.)

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Irxon Bluetooth Mini Keyboard

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Handhelds, PC / Laptop, Peripherals, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,

Still can’t get used to that touchscreen or want to text faster? We have found an inexpensive Irxon mini wireless keyboard for PCs, PDAs, portable game systems and cell phones. The device is SIG Bluetooth V2.0 with the 4GHz ISM band wireless frequency standard and an HID profile V1.0. At a size of 5.51 x 2.83 x 0.51-inches and a weight of 5.5 oz, the keyboard is powered by 2 AAA batteries and carries a MSRP of $31.41.

Read More | Deal Extreme

Review of “Joker” by Brian Azzarello

Posted by David Torres Categories:

I was excited when I first heard Brian Azzarello was writing a graphic novel that featured the Joker.  A graphic novel is a little out of my price range, but with the Joker I was all in.

The Joker is my favorite Batman villain.  He is the most interesting; the most fun; the one villain you know that when he makes an appearance in a Batman story the stakes are much higher for those who may get caught up in the mayhem.

DC first announced this story a few months back – before “Dark Knight” hit the theaters.  Some artwork accompanied the story and we saw that the artist, Lee Bermejo, was drawing the Joker like we see him in “Dark Knight” with the scars on the corners of his mouth to make a devious grin.  Bermejo said he came up with the look prior to Dark Knight, but that’s not important.  What’s important is if the story delivers and I’m afraid it doesn’t.

Click to continue reading Review of “Joker” by Brian Azzarello

Read More | Newsarama

Netflix Adds TiVo as Streaming Partner

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Home Entertainment, Microsoft, Movies, PC / Laptop, Video Games,

Netflix has been busy, busy, busy. We already knew that Netflix will be available for Macs by the end of the year and on Xbox Live for Gold members next month, and now they have announced that they are adding TiVo as a partner that already includes LG, Microsoft and Samsung. You will be able to receive movies on your TiVo Series3, TiVo HD or TiVo HD XL. Testing has already begun and the service should be available to all by December.

Read More | New TeeVee

Bleeding Edge TV 296: New Xbox Experience definitive walkthrough video

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, High Score, Design, Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Podcasts, Video Games, Videocasts, Videos,

We know a lot of you Xbox 360 owners are counting down the days to November 19th, which is the day that everyone will be able to download the New Xbox Experience dashboard update. Until then, we figured we’d give you a nice, full walkthrough of the update and its interface. Our friends up in Redmond were able to send the update to one of our two Xbox 360 consoles, which in turn, allows us to bring you this exclusive first-look walkthrough.

We show you everything, from the boot-up video, the new HDTV display output options, Xbox avatars, Netflix, and a whole lot more. Our early thoughts? We love it. In fact, we love it so much, that we now hate our second Xbox 360, which still has the old, busted blade interface. We want NXE on that one as well.

One thing we mentioned in the video that we need to clarify, though. As it turns out, Netflix HD streaming should be available on other Netflix-enabled hardware devices on November 19th as well, as opposed to HD streaming being exclusive to the Xbox 360 at first.

Oh, and be sure to check our New Xbox Experience gallery if you wanna see some screenshots in addition to the video - and if you have any NXE questions about anything we didn’t cover, or didn’t delve into enough, let us know on the forum.

Comcast overcharges me by $772 on two cancelled accounts, offers support via Twitter - UPDATED

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Features, Home Entertainment, Smart Home,

Update: Within two hours, I got a call from a Comcast representative who stated that, since the payments were made by credit card automatically, there is no reason they can’t credit it back to that credit card. She went on to tell me that they’d process the refund tomorrow. Very cool. However, I wonder what the response would have been if we hadn’t been paying by credit card, and instead used ACH transfer from a bank account. In any event, the Comcast folks on Twitter really are listening, and really are aiming to put out fires. Good stuff.

This morning I opened mail from Comcast, which, to my surprise, showed that I was two months late on paying up. I thought that was odd, since I kicked Comcast to the curb for Verizon FiOS two months ago. I called and got it taken care of, to find that I was owed $72 and that it would arrive in 6-8 weeks. Kind of annoying, but no big deal. Then they called me back, to tell me that I had another active account that has been auto-debiting from one of my accounts. That one was to have been cancelled back in May. Once that was straightened out, the damage was that Comcast owes me a cool $772. I asked when I’d receive it, and they said 6-8 weeks. I thought that was fairly crappy, being that when I cancelled the services, I also revoked Comcast’s right to take any money from my private accounts. I threw up a gripe on Twitter, and a few minutes later, Comcast’s Twitter customer service went into full effect. Gotta give them props for that. They asked me to email them the details, so they could look into it. You can read the email I sent them, after the break. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts. We will update with any progress made on this, let’s see how customer service on these Web 2.0 Internets works. [Photo Credit]

Click to continue reading Comcast overcharges me by $772 on two cancelled accounts, offers support via Twitter - UPDATED

MIT Student Straps A Wii On His Guitar

Posted by Patrick Phelps Categories: Mods / Hacks, PC / Laptop, Video Games, Videos,

Tired of changing effects pedals with his feet while performing with his band Vivian Darkbloom, MIT graduate student Rob Morris attached a Nintendo Wii remote to his guitar with a strip of Velcro.  Mapping acceleration and button press values from the Wii, Morris set his Mac to translate the movement of his guitar into a variety of audio effects. The result: a new hybrid instrument that you’ll have to see to believe!

How does it work? The Wii controller sends data to a laptop, so the computer knows where the instrument is positioned, and it knows when he’s pressing buttons on the Wiimote. Morris takes this information and smooths it out a bit with some computer code (MIT grad student, hello…); the data is then sent out of the computer through a firewire cable. This firewire cable then sends the data to his stompboxes and other effects. So, essentially, he’s controlling guitar effects by pressing Wii buttons and gesturing with the instrument, rather than pressing a pedal on the floor.

Check out the above video for a demonstration.

Super Talent 18-Carat Gold USB Drive

Posted by Patrick Phelps Categories: Accessories, USB, Misc. Tech, Storage,

Looking for a gift for that special someone who already has everything beyond reason? Memory specialist Super Talent has announced a limited availability custom made solid 18-Carat gold “collector’s edition” of their Pico-C drive. The $599.00 8GB plug-and-play drive features up to 200X (30MB/sec) data transfer speed, is water resistant and comes with a matching gold keychain and a black velvet box. The device also includes a serialized certificate of authenticity, FIPS certified AES-256 encryption and can be laser etched with text or a company logo – if I could get my hands on one, it would certainly be etched with my own initials – proving that bling is a term with infinite possibilities.

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Study Shows Shoppers Wary Online

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet,

A recent survey of 3000 participants by the National Cyber Security Alliance found that 20% of online shoppers have either limited or stopped purchasing that way. The report also states that 4 out of 10 Americans will only visit websites that they are familiar with. Three quarters still use it for banking, trading stocks, or accessing medical records.

If you are one of those with online identity theft paranoia when it comes to banking, make sure that the site begins with https://. The “s” denotes a secure connection.

Read More | Tech Radar