Yet Another Reason Why eBay Is A Total Joke

I can’t believe eBay is still in business considering the huge number of scams that seem to pervade the site like flies on you-know-what. Just this past week I attempted to use eBay to auction off two notebook computers and quickly discovered that this was an impossible task thanks to all the scammers who now appear to have almost complete control of the site. Yes, you heard that right. Complete control. The way these scammers work is they send you an email asking to purchase your item outside of eBay, then when you won’t bite they hose your auction using a hacked account effectively preventing you from making a legitimate sale and at the same time sticking you with huge sellers fees from eBay. Don’t believe me? Here is the proof.

Technorati Tags: auctions, ebay, fraud, phishing, scam, scammers, security

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Apple Inc. iPhone: Will It Sell?

Ok, now that the virtual dust has settled and the Steve Jobs reality distortion field has finally dissipated I think its now time to take a more critical look at the groundbreaking Apple Inc. iPhone. As many had expected, Apple did come through and announce the pending release of the much ballhoo’ed iPhone, a integrated (convergence device) of an widescreen iPod Nano, a cellular “smart” phone, and an internet communications device.

Technorati Tags: apple, cell phones, fashion, gadgets, iphone, ipod, mp3, video

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Surprise! New iPods Will Feature Phone Functionality By Default!

This may take a leap of faith but after reading all the latest rumors and making some very basic deductions using common sense I think it is safe to make this very interesting prediction regarding the much rumored Apple iPhone. Simply put, there is no such thing as an “iPhone” in the form of a separate product that is primarily a phone. Instead, Apple has simply made all new iPods (with the exception of the Shuffle & Nano) support the ability to also feature phone functionality. Yes, it’s that simple. If you purchase a new (after next Tuesday…hopefully) iPod 80gb or the new 120gb widescreen (opps did I say that out loud) model you will get an iPod that can make phone calls (and maybe email, etc…). To better understand why this makes perfect sense read on…

Technorati Tags: apple, cell phones, gadgets, iphone, ipod, mp3, music, video

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Panasonic Widescreen MiniDV Digital Camcorder PV-GS59 Mini-Review

As I am sure many of you can remember the early days of the camcorder, with over-the-shoulder clunky VHS units that were painful to use and had less-than stellar video quality. Flash forward to today with just about everything on the market being digital and with HD handheld cameras now priced under $1000 it is truly a great time to buy if you find yourself in the market for a new camcorder. But what if you just want sometime simple and cheap but still digital quality? That’s where I found myself recently, in the market for an inexpensive easy to use but still good quality digital video camera. Thankfully I quickly discovered that there are many choices in the sub-$400 range and even some good choices in the sub-$300 range for miniDV digital camcorders. These units won’t wow you with picture quality but they do a very decent job when compared to past camcorders. The camcorder that I picked out ended up being the Panasonic PV-GS59 which is a very small widescreen miniDV unit that can be had for under $300 and has everything you need for basic recording.

Technorati Tags: gadgets, miniDV, panasonic, camcorder, review, video

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Apple & Google, sittin’ in a tree…

As we quickly approach Macworld this year there are many rumors and speculation on which direction Apple will be taking in the coming year. With the recent holiday successes of just about every member of the iPod product line and the almost debilitating level of traffic on the iTunes store Apple is heading into 2007 looking better than ever. This once almost down-n-out computer company is now a media powerhouse rising to the challenge of competing with companies many times its size. The recent banner on the Apple web site featuring the tag line “The first 30 years were just the beginning” is fueling the media frenzy even further with speculation of iPod cell phones and the iTV product. I think Apple may have something far more interesting up their sleeves and hopefully it involves Google. Why Google? Let me give you three reasons why Apple should partner with Google right now.

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Compaq Presario V6101 Mini-Review

As far as entry-level notebook computers go the Comapq Presario V6101US (V6000 Series) is not too shabby. Having picked one up through a “doorbuster” sale back during the Thanksgiving rush I thought I would share my impressions, including how Microsoft’s latest OS Windows Vista performs on this system. Featuring a AMD Sempron processor and 512mb ram the V6101US shows it’s true colors as a budget notebook right away. Although video is provided by a Nvidia Go 6150 display adapter I definitely was not expecting any real video performance due to the use of shared system memory with the video controller. All things aside, I ended up being pleasantly surprised with the overall performance of the notebook and find it a very usable piece of equipment.

Technorati Tags: Compaq, gadgets, Laptop, microsoft, Notebook, review, vista, Windows

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