GeekSugar

How to Make a Digital Holiday Wish List

Kelly Schwarze — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:15:08 PST

Remove the stress of whether your holiday gift will be loved and encourage family to pass along a digital wish list of dream presents. Have them use these tools to ensure the gifts they're jonesing for this year end up in your e-shopping cart. Of course, they work for hinting at what you'd like to see under the tree as well.

Pinterest - Already spending hours on Pinterest? Pin with purpose and make a personal wish list board filled with ideas to direct moms and loves ones. While you're at it, track products and DIYs a boyfriend, parent, or friend might like with individual boards for each.
Etsy Wishlists - For the DIY and vintage enthusiast, use Etsy's gift recommendation app, which plugs into Facebook, to discover the unique finds your friends are hearting.
Amazon Wish List - As one of the biggest stores on the Internet, you're likely to find everything on Amazon. Search for lists by your recipient's name to see the electronics, DVDs, and books they're craving.
MyRegistry - Add a MyRegistry button to a web browser and add items from around the web to your registry account. It works just like a normal store registry you might use for a wedding, and items are checked off as they're purchased. That way, if grandma already bought you the coffeemaker from Crate & Barrel, mom can move onto another gift.

Other than good old-fashioned handwritten lists, what tools do you use to keep track of holiday wishes?

Penny-Pinching Phones With Amazon's Black Friday

Kelly Schwarze — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:44:14 PST

Not one to be outshone by its competitors on Black Friday, Amazon released their own set of low-priced electronics marked down for the Thanksgiving weekend. The penny-pincher sale has all phones from Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint for one cent with a new line of service.

The line of phones available in this deal is impressive, including the latest smartphones that have me wishing my current contract was up. Some of the penny-priced phones across the three wireless carriers are the Motorola Droid Razr 4G, BlackBerry Torch 4G, HTC Inspire 4G, HTC Rhyme, Samsung Focus Flash 4G, and on - though no iPhones. If you don't want to be tied to a data plan, you'll be happy to know that not all of the 97 phones for sale on Amazon are smartphones. To avoid higher monthly fees, choose one of the feature or kid-friendly phones that are also selling for one penny.

Verizon and Sprint customers are eligible for some extras. If they activate a mobile hotspot data plan on their hotspot-capable smartphone, they will also receive a $100 Amazon gift card. Verizon 4G smartphones can double the amount of data for the same fee through November, and Sprint customers qualify for free activation through Dec. 5.

The Amazon penny phone deals are on now through 11:59 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28. Are these sales enough to make you upgrade your current phone?

Outfit Your New Kindle Fire in One of These 13 Cases

Kristy Korcz — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:36:49 PST

Surprise - the Kindle Fire started shipping today, one day earlier than expected. Whether you're gifting the Kindle Fire to someone special this holiday or indulging for yourself, check out these cases that will protect it and keep it like new.

Count Down to Black Friday Shopping on Amazon

Kelly Schwarze — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:38:01 PDT

Are visions of online shopping carts and free shipping coupons already dancing in your head? The advent of this year's holiday shopping spree is already on many retailers minds now that November is in full swing, and Amazon is enticing customers to get a jump start on the madness with their Black Friday Deals page.

Though Black Friday isn't until the day after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday follows the holiday weekend, Amazon's Black Friday Deals page is now hosting a countdown to Black Friday daily deals page. A little bit of everything from the retailer is on sale including electronics (of course), DVDs, video games, toys, magazines, and books. Select "lightning deals" are also being revealed throughout the day, and are up for grabs only for a limited time.

If you want to check off items on your holiday gift list early, stay up to date on each day's Black Friday deals through the iPhone app, Twitter, and Facebook.

Tote Your New Kindle in a Book (Clutch)

Kelly Schwarze — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 03:21:05 PDT

Amazon's announcement of four new Kindle devices has us ready to stock our new virtual gadget bookshelves with a never-ending reading list. What better way to carry these new reading machines than in a book? The Kate Spade book clutch ($325) reimagines classic novels into a compact clutch with cheeky cover designs. The current collection includes always chic literary classics like Emma, Romeo and Juliet, and Pride and Prejudice. At a little over five inches high and nine inches wide, the book clutch has room enough to double as Kindle case and minicarryall.

Are You Buying a New Kindle?

Kristy Korcz — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:33:05 PDT

Amazon unleashed a flurry of new Kindles earlier this morning, so in case you missed it, here's a quick recap:

Kindle Fire - The all-new Android-backed tablet from Amazon will come with a seven-inch screen, a dual-core processor, and WiFi. It's priced at $199 and will be available Nov. 15.
Kindle Touch - The new (and unexpected) Kindle Touch will come with a six-inch infrared multitouch eInk display and the ability to loan books from your local library, and it will come in two models - WiFi-only for $99 including special offers on your screensaver, and $139 without offers, and WiFi + 3G for $149 with special offers, and $189 without special offers. All versions will be available on Nov. 21.
Kindle - A brand-new version of the Kindle is available today, which comes with a smaller and lighter body than the previous Kindle editions, comes with WiFi connectivity, and has free cloud storage for backing up your books and documents. You can get a Kindle for as low as $79 if you opt for the model that displays special offers on your screensaver, and $109 without special offers.

Amazon is releasing these devices at the perfect time, right before the frenzy of the holiday shopping season. Tell me - will you be buying a new Kindle? If so, which one?

An Explanation of Amazon's Silk Browser

Kristy Korcz — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:09:28 PDT

Along with a slew of Kindle devices, Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos also unveiled a new browser made just for Amazon's Kindle Fire device called Silk. Amazon Silk is a new kind of browser, as it is split up into two parts - the browser you see on your tablet, and one part that lives in the cloud.

Amazon is able to drastically cut down load times on webpages thanks to this new technology. How many times have you been sitting and waiting for your tablet or phone to load a webpage and wished that you had a better connection or network? With Amazon Silk, you won't need a better network connection because Amazon's cloud servers are doing most of the heavy lifting - rendering and downloading images, for example - for your device. Jon Jenkins, Amazon's director of software development, puts it best:

"Think of your web browser as a small store for some of the commonly accessed files that you use to browse the web. What we've done is extend that using the Amazon computing cloud to create a virtually limitless cache that can store the common files such as images, javascript, and CSS, that are used to render the webpages you view every day. Because we've built this cache on top of the Amazon utility computing systems, it doesn't take a single byte of storage on the actual device itself. That provides a much better user experience."

Even crazier, the Amazon Silk browser analyzes aggregate user behaviors when browsing the web and can actually predict which webpage you might visit next and start downloading it before you even go there. Amazon used the example of The New York Times in its video, saying that if visitors to The New York Times homepage often visit the business section next, Silk will start downloading the page and optimizing it for your device before you actually need it.

Hear the developers talk about Silk in their own words in a demo video after the break.

Get the New Amazon Kindle Today For $79

Kristy Korcz — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:26:58 PDT

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the new Kindle earlier today at a press conference in NYC, and it will be available for purchase starting today. The new Kindle will be stocked with WiFi connectivity and will come in two flavors: with special offers for $79 and without special offers for $109.

The new Kindle is smaller than previous generations - 30 percent smaller and 18 percent lighter - and will hold up to 1,400 ebooks in its 2GB of onboard storage, but you'll be able to automatically back up your content with a free subscription to Amazon's Cloud storage. You can even borrow ebooks from your local library and send personal PDF documents to your Kindle to read on the go.

Get a better look at the new Kindle in the gallery!

A Closer Look at the Kindle Fire

Kristy Korcz — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:15:31 PDT

Amazon announced the $199 Kindle Fire earlier today, which will be available in mid-November. Get a closer look at the seven-inch tablet here!

Amazon's New Kindles Priced at Just $79

Kristy Korcz — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:44:00 PDT

Amazon is on a roll releasing products this morning! We've already seen a Kindle Touch, but Jeff Bezos also announced another lighter and smaller version of the Kindle today at the Amazon press conference in NYC. The latest version of the Kindle is only 5.8 ounces, comes with the most advanced e-ink display, carries 1,400 books, comes stocked with WiFi, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, and Amazon Local offers on screensavers for just $79. The latest Kindle is available starting today.