GadgetReview

I’m not a big fan of any iPhone case.  They add too much bulk and just like the iPhone most have become ubiquitous and common place.  But no more.  Case-mate’s ‘I Make My Case’ website let’s you design your very own case using a massive selection of pre-rendered artist images along with a wide variety of tools enabling you to create a one off case that represents the individual buried deep down inside of you.  Best of all the cases are ultra slim and add little to no bulk to your handset.

Keep in mind, though, that they’re not designed to protect your phone from a tumble to the floor, but it will keep its back plate and sides free from scratches and wear.  One down side: they cost $40, but try coupon code ‘CES20′ at checkout for 20% off (expires: 1/31).

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Well, folks, it’s true.  An era has ended.  One of the greatest early guardians of Internet content just got wiped off the face of the web about ten hours ago.

I’m talking about Geocities, folks, the place where everybody who was anybody who knew HTML went for free web hosting.  They too could make a web page about their cat or their dog (Foofie, even–if you saw the White and Nerdy video that makes a lot of sense) or anything like that.

Back in the early days of the Internet, long before blogging and SEO and any modem speed much faster than 14.4 kbps (yeah, K.  As in Kilobyte.), Geocities was the place to go to get a chunk of the world wide web for yourself.  And Yahoo realized this, inevitably buying it for a whopping $3.5 billion bucks.

Of course, these days, Geocities wasn’t as widely used as the blogs and social media of today, so that spelled the end for Geocities.

So long, old friend.  We’ll miss this simple relic of a bygone era, back when the Internet seemed new and potential seemed limitless.

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If you love surfing the websites of foreign countries but find it too much of a hassle to learn to speak their language first, then you’ll love what Google’s about to do for you.  They’ve issued free software that allows website operators to automatically translate online pages into any of 51 languages.

It’s called the “translator gadget”, and it will automatically shift the language on the page to match the default browser’s language.  Let’s say that I’m a guy from somewhere near Iran, and my browser’s set to Farsi.  I surf on over to Craigslist to look for a job writing for a fashion magazine, and they’ve got the gadget installed, and boom!  Suddenly Craigslist is coming to me live in Farsi.

Granted, the system isn’t foolproof.  As everyone who’s surfed Engrish.com knows, translation isn’t always an exact science, especially for software.  But still, those occasional errors should at least be entertaining!

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Well, if you’ve been worried about using your various Net-capable gadgets because of the lack of net neutrality law, then worry no longer.  Seems that the FCC is about to adopt net neutrality as a set of general principles soon.

Net neutrality, in case you don’t know, is a standard that requires all internet service providers to treat all information equally in terms of download speed.  For instance, Comcast recently decided to force BitTorrent users to accept vastly slowed download speeds as they gave precedence to other users.  Technically, that’s not illegal, but the FCC did scold Comcast, and now with net neutrality, such actions as Comcast took will be illegal in the future.

So download away, folks–your ISP can’t stop you any more.

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If there’s one thing I love–positively LOVE!–about gadgets, it’s their great potential to make my life better, easier, and more entertaining.  And now that I’ve found a possible way to shatter a cable bill by the judicious use of Netflix, DSL and a Roku video device, I’m more inclined to express my love of gadgetry.

Here’s the rundown: a DSL subscription can run about twenty three bucks a month, depending on where you live and what plans are available.  A subscription to Netflix that includes unlimited downloads starts at a measly nine bucks.  The Roku?  Another ninety nine.

So for a hundred bucks to open and thirty two bucks a month, I can essentially get access to a wide-open commercial free library of movies and television shows.  Why would I get cable when this is a possibility?

And now, thanks to this coalition of gadgets, you can overthrow the cable company.  Sounds like a plan to me.

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Europe has a pretty big problem with its gadget vendors these days–roughly half of them, according to a report from the European Union, are under investigation for something.

The worst part is just what that “something” entails, according to reports:  concealing delivery charges, misleading customers about products, and failing to honor the customer’s right to return products within a week as mandated throughout the European Union.

Three hundred and sixty nine websites throughout twenty eight countries are currently under investigation by EU officials, and punishments for wrongdoing vary wildly according to the charges filed.

I don’t know about you folks, but to me, this is horrible news.  When you can’t trust the web stores in any basic level you’re leaving a serious potential for economic devastation.  If no one trusted Amazon any more, or eBay, we’d lose a HUGE portion of revenue.  And with three hundred sixty-nine European websites under investigation, this doesn’t bode well for an economic recovery.

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Okay, anyone out there who’s worked in retail any time in the last fifty years, let me assure you that precious little has changed.

And the crew out at DSGi, a gadget retailer, has pretty much conclusively proven that by setting up a Facebook group and actually–GASP!–being candid on it.

Comments ranged from calling customers “stupid”, to describing in vivid detail unpleasant conversations they’d had with customers to even wondering if a cattle prod on excessively difficult customers might not be out of line.

Naturally, DSGi took the news of the fact that their clerks in general hated their jobs and the people who came into their jobs with shock and horror, proving they either are all as naive as four year olds or lying through their teeth.

It’s not surprising store clerks would be disgruntled with their customers.  Store clerks are wildly underpaid drudges who get virtually no respect at all and yet continue to take abuse.  But there’s something to be said for much more anonymous tale-telling, like drinks with your co-workers, rather than something that can be traced back to you.  Especially in an environment where jobs are difficult to come by.   Companies are keeping tighter watches than ever before, whether you agree with them or not, and it eventually pays to keep your negative opinion to yourself these days.

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For some reason Microsoft Poland seems to think that black people aren’t accepted in marketing campaigns.  So much so in fact, that they’ve Photoshopped the black dude’s head from their US site with a white guy’s.  And apparently they fell short on budget, because the intern that PS’d this thing forgot about the hand.

[via Engadget]

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Read – Microsoft Poland

Whatever!  I’m just gonna concede and do a post on Firefox 3.5 because after all, the browser wars are really starting to heat up.  Safari 4 officially rolled out a few weeks ago and soon Google’s Chrome will be making landmark speed claims for some poor IT guy to test out and determine which truly offers the better surfing experience.

To be honest, and you know, that’s my whole shtick, I use both.  I blog in Firefox (wordpress likes it) and I surf in Safari.  Generally speaking I find that Safari is less taxing on my computer’s overall performance, but when it comes to doing any web publishing, trouble shooting, whatever, Firefox wins every time.

So what’s the new FF have to over?  It uses less of your computer’s memory, better memory management, faster page load (2x that of FF 3.0 and 10x that of FF 2.0 – tested on Windows XP) and improved color profile support.

Hit the ‘read’ link to grab Firefox 3.5 now!

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Looks like Apple is officially ready to take Safari 4 out of beta and will begin offering the full non-beta version starting today.  As before, they’re promising blazing fast speeds, cover flow (I’m not a fan), Phishing and Malware protection and some sort of feature that prevent the browser from crashing when a plug-in fails.  To revert to bottom tabs check the fix here.  Hit the ‘read’ link for all the info.

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