Dry Out Your Waterlogged Electronics

Save Your Wet Gadgets: A new product pulls the water out of your drenched electronic gadget. This would have come in handy when I dropped my old phone in a drink.

Recently Independent Skype Deals with Executive Shakeup

Skype Shakeup: Skype, which recently split from its parent company, eBay, is now dealing with internal executive reorganization. The chief operating officer plans to leave the company, while the rest of the company scrambles for restructure.

Mac-Cloner Psystar loses Apple Lawsuit

Apple wins Lawsuit: Mac cloning company, Psystar, who sold PCs that ran Apple's OS X software, has lost a copyright-infringement claimed by Apple. Psystar was selling the software for less than the cost of the Apple software.

Nook Delay

Nook Arrival Postponed AGAIN: The ship date of the Barnes & Noble's Nook has been postponed to January 11, 2010. Supply chain managers are not happy, and neither are those with the Nook on their Christmas List.

Email and Facebook Relationship Etiquette

Internet Etiquette: A NY Time Technology reporter writes a technology etiquette column that tackles how to deal with "relationship status" updates. Check out her post.

Happy Cyber Monday!

So you thought Black Friday was over? False. In this digital era, online retailers have created "Cyber Monday" – it takes place the Monday after Thanksgiving (today) when online shoppers are offered free shipping, free gift cards, and other big discounts throughout the day. My blackberry has been blowing up today with e-mails from Neiman Marcus, Barnes & Noble, William-Sonoma, and David Yurman – each notifying me of discounts and free shipping offers. Even though these offers are enticing, I prefer to do my holiday shopping face-to-face in the physical stores. Nevertheless, many avid shoppers are all over these special deals.

According to a CNN article, By 11:15 this morning, more than 270 retailing Web sites tracked by Akamai, an Internet monitoring firm, were attracting more than 4 million visitors per minute.

Some of the specials offered include a $10 free gift card from LLBean for every $25 spent on the site. Also, Macy's is offering free shipping on purchases over $75.

So if you still have some holiday shopping to do and if you prefer the online route, take advantage of these deals today!

Will the Holiday Shopping Continue?

Online Sales Up, But for How Long? According to comScore, which measures e-commerce sales, shoppers sent $913 million online on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, which is a 10% increase from last year. However, it is too early to tell whether the sales will continue throughout the Holiday season.

More Christmas Wishes for the Amazon Kindle

Kindle #1 Seller: The Kindle e-Reader is the number one bestseller among all other categories on amazon.com. It is also the most wished for and most gifted item at Amazon.

MP3J- Remixing Lives

This past semester, I have been taking an Intro to New Media course, in which we have studied not only the history of media, but also the application of new media today and in the future. A portion of our final grade is determined by our group projects. Each group is assigned to create some new technology, such as a gadget or an iPhone application, and then present your product to the rest of the class. Each of the 15 groups came up with some really innovative ideas. Quite of few of the projects were environmentally focused and offered ways to conserve energy. Others were more focused on international interactions and worked to break down language barriers. My favorite idea presented was based on music.

According the application's website, the MP3J is an application that integrates with iTunes creating a "fluid DJ interface." The MP3J gives the user a chance to fade, blend, scratch, and basically distort any two songs to create a song totally new and different. So basically this application gives you the opportunity to create remixes of any of your favorite songs.

Here is what the application on your iPhone would look like:

Another reason that I was attracted to this project idea was because portions of MP3J's profits go to the Save the Children Foundation, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in public schools across the country. Even though I am not a musician myself, I do believe that music education should always be integrated into a student's curriculum. It is important to give children access to musical instruments because of the likelihood that many of them will develop a passion for music, and this is something that should not be deprived from them.

Hopefully this proposed idea of the MP3J will one day be transformed into a real application that you and I can buy!

Charge your Phone by Walking

Wonder if you could charge your cell phone without ever having to plug it in? Tremont Electric's Aaron Lemieux has developed a gadget that generates energy as you walk.

The device is called a personal energy generator, or PEG, and simply attaches to your waist or belt. It is about the size of a small flashlight. The PEG captures kinetic energy by magnets that bounce back and forth off springs inside of the device. The device will not become mainstream until it is easily and cheaply able to be integrated into devices that we already own, including cell phones.

The company has mentioned building buoy-sized versions of the PEG to put in the ocean. These devices would generate energy from the waves. However, right now, Lemieux is focusing on selling the PEG for $149.00 this holiday season.

Cell phone providers should definitely consider integrating this device into their products. Not only is the PEG energy saving and convenient, but it also promotes exercise. Who doesn't need another reason to go to the gym or to walk to class? I hope to see more of this product in the future.

Landing a Tech Job

Tech Support: Layoffs are occurring across the country, even in the tech industry. Here are 12 helpful resources to help you find a tech job.

eBay's Wishes for Affluent Shoppers this Christmas

eBay's Holiday Wish: eBay is opening up a temporary pop-up store in New York City next to department store Bergdorf Goodman. The store is part of the company's marketing plan to generate more sails at this store.

SizzlingKeys: An Easier Way to Control iTunes

iSizzle: SizzleKeys is a new, free way to use "hotkeys" on your keyboard to navigate around iTunes without the click of a mouse. A combination of option, command, and the arrow keys can initiate basic controls on the program.

Holiday Gadget Shopping Made Simple

The Best Gadgets: Are you wondering if you should ask for the iPhone or the Motorola Droid this Christmas? Or maybe you are confused which laptop is the best to buy? Or maybe the best HDTV? Gizmodo has compiled a list of their picks for the best gadgets of the year.

YouTube Now Available for Hearing Impaired

Auto-Captions on YouTube: Some of the videos posted on YouTube now feature captions to help the deaf and hearing impaired gain access to the online content. The captions are machine generated and use the same speech to tech technology as Google Voice.

E-Reader Shipments May Come After Holidays

E-Reader Shortage: Pre-orders on Barnes & Noble's Nook have exceeded initial estimations, causing deliveries to be postponed until the first week of January. Sony is also not guaranteeing that their version of the e-reader will be available for delivery on Christmas Day. Amazon's Kindle, on the other hand, will be available to delivery the day after it is purchased online.

Black Friday Mayhem

Technology Helps You Find Deals: Finding the stores with the best deals on the day after Thanksgiving can be a challenge, but this year new technologies are making the process much easier. Mobile applications, twitter, and facebook are all helping to make this shopping process much more manageable.

Future of the PC

Chrome vs. Fusion: When envisioning the future of the PC, Google is focusing on simplicity while AMD emphasizes performance. For example, Google wants the PC to turn on the same way that a TV turns on – by simply pressing a button, instead of taking nearly a minute to boot up. AMD is recommending smoother high definition video and higher quality rich media.

Virgin to Monitor File Sharing in UK

Trouble for File Sharing: Virgin Media has announced plans to track illegal file-sharing activities in the United Kingdom. The company will use deep packet inspection technology to track about 40% of its UK users, without their knowledge or even consent of being monitored.

Discounts on Apple Products

Happy Black Friday: Apple is offering deals on their products, including the Macbook, iPod, iMac, iTouch and iPod Nano, today. Discounts on products are available online (www.apple.com).