The Prize:

Belkin USB Hi-Speed USB 2.0 4-Port Ultra-Mini Hub
Connects up to 4 USB 1.1 and 2.0 devices to your computer
Transfers data at speeds of 480 Mbps
Offers lightweight, compact design perfect for laptops and traveling
Connect your notebook computer to printers, digital cameras, full keyboards, and other devices easily and quickly
Complies with OHCI and EHCI standards
Belkin Lifetime Warranty!

I have FOUR of these great USB extenders to give away! That’s right, four of you will be getting these great little gizmos for your very own. I have one for my laptop and I absolutely love it. It lets me use things easily when I’m traveling, and it definitely got a lot of use over the summer when I was away from home a lot.

Get Entered:

First, please visit www.laptopexperts.net and have a look around. The site is designed to answer laptop questions of all kinds. You can ask a question to get help with your own laptop, or you can apply to become a laptop expert and help others find solutions to their questions.

Second, leave a comment here and let me know your favorite feature about Laptop Experts. Did you find a helpful question or answer?

Want two bonus entries in the drawing? Stumble Upon www.laptopexperts.net and this post and then leave a comment with your stumble user name for verification.

That’s it! Easy peasy! Make sure that you use a valid email in your comment so I can contact you if you win. I will draw the winners at random on Saturday, October 25, 2008 and post the results right here on the blog.

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Contest is void where prohibited.

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TechStyle’s giveaway/contest is a partnership with M80 (www.m80im.com). Information submitted to TechStyle regarding the contest/giveaway will be used to fulfill prizing. M80 and TechStyle do not sell information to 3rd parties, nor keep shipping or other sensitive information on file. Sensitive information such as shipping addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses are deleted after they are used once, specifically to properly label shipments. In the event that the information is incorrect and shipping does not reach its intended destination, sensitive information may be forwarded again to TechStyle or to M80 via [nico@m80im.com].
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If you go to the store and ask for the shiny new Google phone, what you’re actually buying is the T-Mobile G1. It’s being sold and taken care of T-Mobile, so that’s who you’ll be signing up with for service should you go after one of these interesting phones.

I sort of like what Dian said over at Gotta Have; “In appearance, the gadget looks a lot like a Darth Vader version of the iPhone — all angles and pop-out surprises.” That seems very true. Are you prepared to have a lightsaber duel between the iPhone and the Google phone?!

Okay, enough with the dramatics. I have to agree with Dian on another point. The G1 has one important feature that the iPhone is missing. A slide out keyboard. I love a full keyboard on a smartphone! The iPhone’s touch screen is awesome, but for those texting maniacs out there, nothing replaces a full QWERTY keyboard!

Technology Review is published by MIT and is packed full of technology news and stories of all kinds. They also have one of my favorite tech websites to read at. The topic spectrum is pretty big. You might read about purifying water with nano-particles today, and the buzz around the Google phone another day.

Personally, I was most interested in the recent article about the energy crisis and possible solutions. Everything seems to be in crisis these days, and energy and fuels are topping the list of things we need to fix, along with the economy, of course. Technology Review will help keep you in the know about what’s important, even if you didn’t know it was important yet.

Enough about the camera! Let’s talk pictures and photo editing for a quick minute here.  If you want the best snapshots to print and hang on the wall you sometimes have to make a few little adjustments here and there.  Not everyone has PhotoShop on their computer, nor the time to learn to use it.  Honestly, I have PhotoShop on my computer, I know how to use it, and I still would rather use Picnik for photo editing!

Let’s start with the best feature of Picnik …. its FREE!  Compared to photo editing programs like PhotoShop that cost hundreds of dollars, free is a pretty nice feature.  Secondly, I would say the best feature of Picnik is that it’s fast!  you open your photo, click what you want to do and ZAP! it’s done.  It really is that easy.  You can crop, resize, adjust, correct red-eye, and add fun features.  And if you’re using Flickr, Webshots, or Picasa, popular online photo storage sites, you can edit your photos right from your account in just a quick click.

There are  a few premium features available for a paid membership to Picnik, but don’t worry it’s not going to break the bank.  You can upgrade to premium for only $24.95 per year.  Still much cheaper than buying a fancy editing program and then taking the hours of time to learn to use it the way you want.

I use Picnik with my Flickr account on a regular basis.  Here’s some before and after for you to compare.  Each only took me a few seconds of editing in Picnik!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

You can see a huge difference in the before and afters. Making a few quick photo tweaks, especially if you’re going to use your pics online, will make a huge difference in the final result. Okay, I’ll stop talking now so you can go play with all the cool features in Picnik

I chose today’s bag because it reminded of an old fashioned camera case brought into the modern day. The brown leather design is simple, but elegant. And, of course, the sturdy leather protects your camera.

This camera case features a magnetic closure to help make sure it’s always closed. The removable leather shoulder strap lets you choose how to carry this case. You can remove the strap and toss the case in your purse or tote bag, or you can leave it attached and carry it solo, giving you plenty of camera carrying flexibility.

I found the style to be reminiscent of what my dad had for his camera when I was little. He was always snapping pictures and showing me how to use different lenses and filters on the camera. I wish a little more of his camera-smarts had rubbed off on me. I’m definitely more of a point and shoot kind of gal.

I started shopping around and decided that not only did I want my big comfy covered ear headset, I wanted an attached microphone for when we play World of Warcraft and join raid groups with our guild. And also for times when I’m taking customer service chats for my Virtual Assistant business. I figured a microphone would just be handy all around.

I shopped around online and read some reviews and decided on the Logitech ClearChat series. There are several models available in the line all designed to be super efficient for computer chatting. Noise canceling, padded headset, adjustable volumes, one touch muting control and all the good features you want in a mic and headphones. My favorite in the ClearChat line however is this one! It’s wireless!

Ah, yes, the magic computer word that we love to hear. The wireless headset is clear up to 33 feet away from your computer. You can go to the kitchen for a snack without taking off your headset. And if you’re like me you can stand up to take your break and do your stretches every hour and half without being disconnected from your chat.

Luckily, we won that drawing and my son received his Airdrives for Earphones for Kids and Smaller Ears in the mail. Within a week he was pretty much attached to the new headphones! He was using them to listen to his iPod, when he was playing his Gameboy, he even took them to school to use while on the computer in the classroom.

Seeing his love for these unique headphones I had to try them out for myself. I admit that I was quite impressed. The sound quality is fantastic, first of all. And they truly are very comfortable to wear. They don’t cover your whole ear like big over the ear types, which is usually my preference. But, they don’t invade your ear like earbud style headphones do, which just plain bother me and make me want to rip my ears off.

There’s a little bit of rubber padding on the inside part so that they don’t rub up against your ear or the side of your face. That little bit improves comfort substantially compared to similar style over the ear cuffs. And the “bud” part is over your ear where you would insert an earbud style headphone so the sound goes to the right places and the whole world doesn’t hear what you’re listening to. I can vouch for this since my son walks around the house with his headphones on most of the weekend, I never hear a thing when he walks by me, but I know he’s listening to something.

If you have a hard time getting headphones to fit over your ears properly or are shopping for someone under 13, I highly recommend the Airdrives for Kids and smaller ears. Both sizes of Airdrives are great, but for the kids the smaller ones are much more comfortable, and I even found myself more comfortable wearing the smaller version.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

Okay, so this isn’t a gadget, and it won’t organize your life, and it certainly won’t take messages … but it sure is fun. I couldn’t resist this cute t-shirt with a fun one liner printed on the front. Basic black tee with white print, sporting a cute binary code joke. A great way to show off your geeky humorous side on the weekends or hanging out after work.

Wear it to work on casual Friday and enjoy the puzzled look you get from those that just don’t quite get the joke. Also great for lounging around on the weekend and enjoying some quiet time. Or for the really brave at heart, wear it to parent teacher conference day.  As long as you’re having fun, it’s all good.

So, when last week’s 4th generation iPod release was unveiled and we all saw that the shape is more rectangular like the 2nd generation again, well a lot of folks were frustrated.  If you have any kind of accessories, skins, cases, etc you’ll have to replace those to fit the new new iPod.

And the new shape dimensions don’t exactly match the 2nd generation, but they are very close.  The front and back look more rounded than flat so that it’s sort of oval shaped going around than flat.   They’re calling this the”curved” look, and it’s supposed to improve the video viewing experience.

Don’t like the song you’re listening to or just not in the mood for that song right now?  No problem.  Just shake the new iPod and it will shuffle to a different song.   I’m hoping this feature isn’t too sensitive!  I’m not sure this is a feature I’d use in the new iPod either, but at least if I see kids walking down the street shaking the heck out of their iPod I’ll know what they’re doing.

The new accelerometer technology that comes built in and let’s you turn your iPod sideways and still view the video you’re watching is pretty cool.  Though, I’m not sure how completely useful it is, because I don’t go turning things back and forth very often.  Regardless of its level of usefulness, it is pretty cool.

I’ve been hearing mixed reviews about the new Genius Playlist feature as well.  It’s supposed to find songs that will go together harmonously and group them up and play them for you.  Now, I haven’t had a chance to test this feature out in person yet, so I can only go by what others are saying online.  It seems to be one of those things you either love and use all the time or hate and never even bother using.

The new color additions to the iPod Nano family were pleasantly received of course.  Who wouldn’t want a yellow or orange iPod after all?  And with starting prices at $149 for 8GB this generation of iPod is more affordable than it’s predecessors have been.  So, pick your favorite color and give it a try.

I shopped around, read photography and camera blogs, compared cameras, and talked to other photographers online.  I came up with a great recommendation for the Canon Powershot S5.  My friend Alli had the previous model and very much loved it, and after reading some reviews online I decided the S5 was perfect for me.  It’s as close as you can get to having an SLR camera, but with all the ease of a point and shoot camera!  It literally is the best of both photography worlds.

On a recent trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium I really put my camera to the test. There were crows of people to see all the recent new additions to the zoo. A baby tiger, two baby elephants, and plenty of other babies to be seen! It was hard to get up close in some of the viewing areas, especially to see the elephants! There was a large crowd gathered in all three viewing areas for the elephants.

Everyone was trying to get close to the front to snap pictures of the baby elephants while they played in the wet clay. I was way in the back and didn’t feel like pushing through to the front and then fighting to get back out again. But, that didn’t stop me from getting great pictures!

I flipped open my viewing screen, held my camera up high enough that I could see over people’s heads and snapped away. A few of my shots did end up with random people’s hair in the view, but for the most part I got some good pictures without even trying hard.

My old camera would have never been able to zoom in like that and get the shot from far away. I have to say that I’m really pleased with my Canon Powershot S5, it gets the job done and makes me look good even when I have no idea what I’m doing.