Ever wish there were an easy way to find and purchase cool little gadgets and gizmos from Japan? I always discover such neat stuff on Japanese websites, but there are two major roadblocks that get in my way — I can't translate the website, and they won't ship to the US. But now I have full, easy access to all things awesome from Japan thanks to a chic new site called Gizmine. Search by categories like price, color, theme, brand, and more. It really is Japanese shopping paradise for geeks and you can get the product sent to you in the US!
To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group, read more
I'm used to rhapsodizing over how much I love Thomas Paul stuff when I'm looking at home stuff, but the dreamy designer has done me proud by making Mouse Pads in his famous designs.
Each mouse pad is as functional as it is pretty — they double as notepads for scribbling — and they're only $9 each, a far cry from what his pricey pillows and other accessories normally cost.
The idea of tagging photos is nothing new, but most people use it for things like identification, ala Facebook or Picasa (whose face-recognition technology continues to blow me away). After having had several parties in the last few months for people, and thereby putting together slideshows featuring the guests of honor, I realized how much photo tagging could help me — but with the original files.
I'm finally putting iPhoto's tagging to use; not only will tagging the photo files by the names of the people in them to sort through later, it couldn't be easier. iPhoto lets you assign hotkeys to the names of people who frequently appear in your pictures.
To see more of how you tag and use hotkeys in iPhoto, just read more
I'm a big fan of Crumpler bags, so I jumped at the chance to go to the grand opening of the first West Coast Crumpler store right here in San Francisco. Born in Australia, Crumpler bags are functional, versatile, yet still stylish (even more so than rival bag-maker Timbuk2, maybe?). I got a chance to see some cool limited-edition artist series bags, and was pleased to find out I can customize my own online. Check out the new store and some of the awesome bags that line the shelves.
It's true that I sometimes complain about how expensive some iPhone apps can be. Although paying $15 for a language learning app doesn't seem unreasonable, there are tons of other translation apps out there that are much more wallet-friendly that catch my eye.
Recently, CNN wondered about the potential of the App Store to become the "Crap Store," with its high number of featured free and 99-cent apps (that may be lacking in quality), while more expensive and useful apps get less promotional love because of their price tag. I'm totally willing to pay a higher price for a good app, but I'll admit that I tend to search the free apps before anything else.
Tell me — what is the most you've paid for an app?
Groundbreaking, mind boggling and even catastrophic things happen every week (or day!) in the tech world, but there were a few standout stories that rose above the usual crash and burn this year.
Here are the most shocking tech headlines of 2008, from a bankruptcy, a prematurely printed obit, and some extremely sad tech-related deaths.
Diesel
Mulberry
Killah