Dell Mini-Laptop /Notebook (Inspiron)

It looks like Dell has a new mini-laptop/notebook coming out (Dell Inspiron). Details are scare, but images of the Dell Inspiron have surfaced on the Dell Company Blog.

5,000 More Titles available on Amazon Kindle

Amazon.com and Simon & Schuster announced today (5/30/2008) that they will make 5,000 additional titles available for the Amazon Kindle over the course of 2008. Kindle books overall are starting to grow as a percentage of Amazon's overall sales (Currently 6%).

In case you were wondering, the Kindle is a portable reader that can downloads books, blogs, magazines, newspapers and more wirelessly. The Kindle reader itself will run you about $359.00.


Additional News on Amazon Kindle

TiVo and CinemaNow team up to offer Disney Movies

Tivo's market share has been falling quarter after quarter so it looks like they are trying something new. Tivo and CinemaNow have teamed up and will start allowing Tivo users to download (rent) movies from Disney's Studios.

You will be able to download the movie for a fixed price and it will stay on your Tivo box for 24 hours (similar to the cable company offerings). The prices will range from $3-$4 dollars depending on the age of the movie.

Earlier in the year Tivo annouced that they will alow Tivo users to subscribe to watch video content from the Web on their TV's.

Here's a list of Tivo Products in case this announcement has enticed you to want to get one.

TiVo Series2 DT DVR ($99.99)
TiVo® HD DVR ($299.99)
TiVo Series3 HD DVR ($599.99)

Crash Predicting Car can Prepare for Impact!

The Crash Predicting Car was built with a system (using radars and cameras) to detect when a crash is about to occur. Just prior to impact a bar locks into place within the car creating a brace to strengthen the frame. The brace reduced the impact from the crash.

This is just in the test phase so don't get too excited. The next step is to get Manufacturer's involved. I am sure with the sensor they could come up with all kinds of interesting features like -- deploying airbags, locking seat belts, Or an Oh $*#@! voice recording of some sort. We'll have to keep an eye on this and see what develops.

Full Story from newscientist.com

You Tube Video:



Pretty Cool!

Zune Accounces expansion of Zune Video Store

Today Zune announced that it plans to expand it's Zune Marketplace video store by 50 percent. It is adding 400+ TV Show episodes. The shows include the SCI Fi Channel, Comedy Central, NBC Universal, USA Network and Bravo.

Schedule can be found in the full Zune Press Release.

A Woman's Complaint - Tools to Fight Back!

A Woman's Story - Tools to Fight Back!


Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A friend recently told me about a dog breeder who had caused her a great deal of pain and cost her a great deal of money. Here is Her story along with the advice I gave her to help fight back.

My little granddaughter was recently
diagnosed with a life threatening heart condition
and she has been limited on her physical activities
and she really really wanted an English Bulldog
puppy. We put together money and bought one from a
breeder online for $1500.00. The puppy we got from
that supposed breeder died!We had over $1000.00 in
vet bills. The breeder said it was a fluke and this
and that and we were just trying to calm her because
she was so devastated so we decided to get the 2nd
one. He made us pay another $850.00 for the 2nd one,
instead of them sending one for free... The 2nd one
arrived very sick and has run up $1300.00 in vet
bills. Everyone is very upset because the seller who
turned out to be a puppy mill in GA refuses to give
us back the money. Everyone has suggested that we
start a web site warning of these scammers


There are all kinds of companies in all types of industries where customers are mistreated, stolen from and more. Here is some ammunition for the customer to help get the word out about these fraudulent companies.

For starters you should file complaints on the complaint
sites listed below:

http://www.complaints.com
http://www.thesqueakywheel.com
http://consumeraffairs.com
http://www.complaintsboard.com
http://www.screwedcentral.com

In addition to these, if you have really been mistreated, you could set up a free
blog (blogger.com, or other ) and post your bad experience there. Google favors blog listings over regular websites, so it has a better chance of showing up at the top of search engines. Once you have put it there,go ahead and submit your listing to some of the content posting sites (digg.com, mixx.com, etc.). This will also help Google to find your blog and further help to get the word out.

Then... if you know other folks with blogs, you should ask them to link to your blog. This will also help to drive it up in the Google search rankings.

For those who are extremely irate, you could purchase a domain name with the company name in it (adding in your own suffix the name -- xyzcompany-sucks.com). You can register a domain through any of the domain registration companies (godaddy.com). If you have deep pockets, you could consider buying Google Sponsored links (with keyword for the bad company name) and point them to your blog or website. This will end up costing you anywhere from 5cents to 50cents per click (if you get any clicks).

Some of the trouble with these scamming companies is that they will change business names and start all over again, so it may not be worth the last step.

Hopefully if the victims do at least the initial step of filing the complaints, it will help to protect other against similar scams/fraud.

Borders.com - Magic Shelf & More (launched today)

Borders broke away from Amazon (after 7 years) and launched their new Online eCommerce Site today.

Here's the details on some of the best features:

Magic Shelf™ Technology - This feature allows customers to view book, music and movie titles on an actual shelf like you would in an actual store. You can also personalize your shelf, by selecting categories of interest. The magic shelf will instantly show you book, music and movie titles uniquely picked for you.

Exclusive Video Programming - Some of these include "Borders Book Club” (featuring best selling authors), “Live at 01” (recorded in store event), “Borders Kitchen” (bringing you the hottest chefs), "Borders Open Door Poetry” (featuring great poets reading their work) and more.

I've played around with the site and it looks pretty well put together and well thought out. It will be interesting to see how well the Magic Shelf finds unique picks for me. Like most personalized sites, I imagine that it will take Borders.com some time to get to know me. Only time will tell. :)

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Apple Coming to Australia

In heart of the Sydney, Australia, an Apple Store is expected to open on Thursday, June 19 (6:00pm). The sign above the new location says "Drop in soon. Apple Store, Sydney" and shows the Apple Logo.

I wonder if the store will look anything like the one that recently opened in Boston (Boston Apple Store).

You can read a full summary in
The Sydney Morning Herald.

16 year Old - Earth Saver (Daniel Burd)

A 16 year old teenager in Canada has figured out how to make plastic decompose in 3 months using common household chemicals. This is a little faster than the 1000 years it takes to normally decompose.

Daniel Burd decided to make this his Science Fair project after getting annoyed by the plastic bags that would consume him when he opened the closet door (Guess his Mom shops a lot). To get them to decompose he started by isolating the microorganisms that can break down plastic (common 16year old activity). Then after playing around with bacteria strains for 4-5 months, Voila! After successfully getting a single bag to decompose, he tried it on a bunch of bags and it worked fine. So, it looks like his solution will scale. And, if you couldn't guess, he won the science fair.

Good thing his mom didn't choose "Paper" over "Plastic" at the grocery store or this may have never surfaced.

See Full Story on Dainel Burd. I am sure we will see more of this kid in the future.

Memorial Day Sales - Best Deals Found

There are a number of big sales this Memorial Day weekend, but thought I'd call out a couple of the better deals I've seen.

Circuit City
Samsung 46" LCD HDTV
This 46" LCD HDTV delivers all the resolution and all the color to anywhere in your room. And it does it in style with hidden bottom speakers and a glossy black finish.
2 Days only - $1499.99 ($900 off regular price)


Best Buy
Sharp - 32" 720p Flat-Panel LCD HDTV
Model: LC-32AV22U | SKU: 8275047
2 Days only - $599.99 ($200 off regular price)

Both of the TV's above have received great users reviews, so if you are in the market for a HDTV, these look pretty promising.