Thermapak Cooling Pad Keeps Your Legs Cool Without Draining Your Laptop’s Battery

Everyone who owns a laptop knows the unpleasant sensation of having your legs fried when working with the computer on your lap for an extended period. I’ve been considering several cooling devices to place between my lap and the laptop, but I’ve always considered it to be a disadvantage that they need batteries or the use of a USB port to power their fans, thereby seriously reducing your working time. They’re also not very portable – you’d dread taking them with you on a flight. The ThermaPAK HeatShift Laptop Cooling Pad deals with these issues, using physics instead of electricity to keep your lap cool.

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen Review – Link Your Notes With Your Audio Recording

- A six month test.

The Livescribe Pulse smartpen is one of the most innovative products I’ve seen in years. The pen allows you to write on paper, but when you dock it into its USB charger, your notes are automatically transferred to your PC/Mac. But the best part is that it also records the audio during your meetings or classes. You would imagine that you could then also play back the audio on your PC – and indeed you can. But even better, when you tap your handwritten notes with the smartpen itself, it even plays back exactly that part of the meeting through the built-in speaker! It’s a great invention for college students and professionals alike for note taking and to record meetings, classes and courses.

ShowMyPC – Give Your Relatives Remote PC Support, No Need for Technical Knowledge

It’s great that older people are also embracing the possibilities of the Internet and multimedia, but less so when they regularly ask you when you’re in the neighborhood and if you can spend a few hours to help them with some issues with their equipment or software. ShowMyPC is a free remote support software that allows you to take over their computer remotely, even when it’s behind a (wireless) home router. And you don’t need to have a degree in computer science to get it up and running.

Cell Boosters Add a Few Bars to Your Indoor Cell Phone Signal

Cellular phones have become so common that nowadays many people even give up their landline. Everyone calls you on your cell phone anyhow, so what’s the point of keeping a home phone? But then you relocate or change operator, and suddenly your indoor cell phone reception is no longer good enough to make reliable phone calls. The result is often frustration due to missed or dropped phone calls. A few consumer-grade signal boosters are around now that promise to help you out with this – we take a look at the Wi-Ex zBoost and the Cell Ranger Port.

NoHands Mouse – Footmouse Prevents Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and RSI

Long before “Blackberry thumbs”, carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive strain injuries (RSI) were already well known. RSI is a typical problem of computer workers, characterized by a vicious pain in the hands and fingers. It’s caused by continuous work on a computer keyboard and computer mouse, among other things. A doctor might suggest taking a break from work for a while or doing other things, but not everyone has the luxury to be able to decide what to do and when to do it. The NoHands Mouse from Hunter Digital might be your ergonomic savior.

Enjoy Your MP3 Music on Your Factory Car Stereo – Without Static

Once you get used to the comfort of an iPod, iPhone or other MP3 player, having your whole music collection at your fingertips, the next thing you obviously want is to be able to connect this to your car stereo and enjoy the same flexibility when driving. New car stereos are often equipped with an AUX input or even with an integrated iPod docking station. When you’ve got a more basic or older car stereo, there’s generally no direct means of connecting your MP3 player. In that case you have to revert to the well-known FM transmitters and live with the interference of neighboring FM radio stations – unless you go for the Scosche FMMOD02 FM modulator.

USBCell from Moixa – Rechargeables that Plug Into any USB Port

We just discussed the Rezap Battery Doctor, which recharges even alkaline batteries – a solution that I favor for most purposes. But it still requires you to take yet another charger with you on your travels, which is not ideal for vacations or business trips. Recently, however, I stumbled upon these USBCell rechargeable batteries from Moixa, which have the charger integrated in the battery itself! A very clever design, with a few minor drawbacks – but lots of advantages.

Charge all your Battery Types with the ReZap Battery Doctor – even Alkaline Batteries

Given the overly high price of good alkaline batteries, I switched to rechargeable NiCd and NiMH batteries long ago. They work quite well, but the voltage is 1.2 volts instead of the 1.5 volts that some devices expect, causing some devices to function incorrectly or to give false battery readings. Another drawback is that they lose charge spontaneously – even when not in use they’re empty after about a month. This means that you can’t use them for devices that need to operate for a longer time, such as a clock, or that need to be working when you only occasionally need them, such as a flashlight or photo camera. This Battery Doctor from ReZap seems to bring the best of both worlds, allowing you to use disposable 1.5 V alkaline batteries – which retain their charge – and still recharge them when empty, saving you money.

Make Your Infrared Remote Control Work At Any Angle

Today's infrared-controlled equipment is better than those of a few years ago in the sense that many infrared remote controls now work at almost any angle. Even so, you might still be using older equipment or less well-designed new devices that still require you to align them well or to be sitting more or less directly in front of them to operate them reliably. Inconvenient? Sure – but there is a free and fast do-it-yourself solution to solve this problem and to increase the operating angle.

Bexy iMirror - Marantz IS301 - Philips SJM3151 iPod Dock - CD Carrousels Compared

Most iPod docking solutions connect your iPod to your stereo, but you still need to get up to view the little screen if you want to select another artist or album. We've reviewed various solutions that take the concept a step further and allow you to do this from the comfort of your couch.

We let the Bexy iMirror, the Philips SHM3151 and the Marantz IS301 contend and compare both to carrousel solutions.