GeekSugar

Kam Kam Cannon Speakers: Love or Leave?

GeekSugar — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:45:35 -0700

Add another entry into our USB gadget folder, 'cause these speakers are the bomb! This pair of USB powered speakers from Stylish Home perk up any boring desk, not only with their cool color scheme and affordable $28 price tag, but because they're the vessel that will bring you the beats.

And who doesn't need an afternoon music break every once in a while? My fave afternoon music distraction right now is Kanye – love 'em or hate 'em, he never fails to bring the funk, nor will your new (awesome) cannon speakers.

Umbra Charging Station From Target: Fancy At a Great Price

GeekSugar — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:04:19 -0800

Have you checked out the Umbra Loft line at your local Target? It's like their younger, hipper home decor stuff at decent prices - and they didn't forget home tech, either.

Their Charging Valet Studio has a modern Victorian look, with ornate curves on a black MDF box for your power strip and cords. I rather like the look - it feels fresh and stylish, and the best part is that it's so inexpensive: just $22.50. Thank the gods for Tar-jay.

Daily Tech: Samsung's P960 Is the First to Get Mobile TV

GeekSugar — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:27:33 -0700

Mobile TV in Europe will be making its debut on a Samsung P960. Let's just hope it heads this way sooner rather than later! - CrunchGear
Apple staffers (aka "Apple geniuses"), will soon be getting a wardrobe change, which will include dark blue shirts for the behind-the-bar Genius and Creative employees and light blue shirts for the specialists. - Boing Boing
Wish your electronics looked more stylish in your home? Here are some amazing examples of total geek-chic dwellings. Talk about inspiring! - Unplggd
Google has just added Street View turns to Google Maps! - Lifehacker
MySpace is getting more annoying by the minute. Now users can take part in MySpace Karaoke and post it on their MySpace page. - USA Today
Wondering what the heck plasma TVs are? Gizmodo goes back to basics and breaks down the definition of Plasma TVs into an easy-to-understand format. - Gizmodo

Macworld 2008: Skullcandy Brings the Party to Macworld

GeekSugar — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:15:22 -0800

There was a party happening at Macworld yesterday, and it was in the Skullcandy booth! A live DJ was spinning some tunes while I checked out their large inventory of hip and edgy products which not only included their signature headphones, but mp3 players, iPod Docks and backpacks as well! I have to say that there was one MP3 player in particular that instantly caught my eye. Appropriately dubbed "The Macgyver", this baby stores up to 1G of music in-wait for it-a watch! This may be old news to some of you, but this watch is totally stylish and comes in two flavors, pink and black, so it's sure to suit everyone's tastes. But dual functionality watches were not the only products being offered up from Skullcandy, there were many other items I wanted to take home. Have a peek at my slideshow to see what else I was pining over and more!

View Slideshow ›

BlackBerry Curve 8320 In T-Mobile Stores Soon

GeekSugar — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 08:00:00 -0700

The BlackBerry Curve 8320 will be heading to T-Mobile stores by the end of this month. With wifi, full QWERTY keyboard, microSD support, a 2-megapixel camera, and weighing in at only 3.9 ounces, this will definitely be a hot new phone on the market.

It can also connect to T-Mobile’s HotSpot@Home for home phone calls and supports MyFaves, AIM, Yahoo!, ICQ, MSN, Google Talk and Blackberry Messenger.

The BlackBerry Curve 8320 comes in this stylish hue of gold and titanium silver.

via CrunchGear

Love 2.0: Heather Champ and Derek Powazek

GeekSugar — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 10:00:40 -0800

If we’re to believe pop culture, a Beauty and a Geek can fall in love in six episodes, teach each other to dress and balance their checkbooks and combine to make the perfect pair. It may not be that easy in the real world, but there are plenty of beautifully geeky couples that continue to inspire us with their innovative ideas and contributions to the technology and resources we use everyday. As part of our Geeks We Love series, I caught up with a few couples that, through the beauty of the internet and technology have influenced both our lives and each other in a wonderful way.

Heather Champ is the Community Manager at flickr and co-founder of JPG Magazine. Her husband, Derek Powazek is the founder and CCO of 8020 Publishing and Editor-in-Chief of JPG Magazine. A life-long camera junkie, Heather never leaves home without a camera, hoping to capture the small moments that catch her eye. Derek was an early blogger - even though he never liked calling it that. He also used to run fray.com, the original digital storytelling magazine, which Heather calls a “wonderful gift to the web in a time when self-publishing wasn't as ubiquitous as it is today.” What geeky things do these two love about each other and life? read more

Geeksugar: Tell me a little about yourselves!
Derek: I graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1995 with a degree in Photojournalism. When every paper I talked to said they just weren't hiring photographers anymore, I fell into the web. I never really realized it would become my life, but here I am. Of course, now I'm running a photo magazine, so I guess I've come full circle. I invented the magazine I wanted to work for 10 years ago.
Heather: I built a home page in August of '94 while working at Princeton and immediately fell in love with life online. I developed websites professionally for 10 years and then joined Flickr as Community Manager in 2005.

Geeksugar: What’s the geekiest thing about yourself?
Derek: The other day I was on the subway going to work, listening to a NPR podcast on my iPod and checking my email and surfing the web on my Hiptop, and I thought, when did it become the future?
Heather: I've geotagged over 3,000 of my photos on Flickr. I became absolutely obsessed with adding the geo location information a few weeks before we launched the photos on Flickr. Given that I shoot mostly film, I find myself making mental notes of where I am when I'm out and about.

Geeksugar: How about the geekiest thing about your significant other?
Derek: Heather's pretty oldschool. She loves her Polaroid SX-70 and shoots mostly film. But come between her and her Treo and there'll be trouble. She's also the only person I know who can actually watch the low budget Saturday movies on the Sci Fi channel.
Heather: He gave me a dual tuner DirecTV TiVo a couple of year's ago for Valentine's Day. Given that our viewing preferences fall into two buckets ("hand drawn", ie cartoons: him, accents and/or costume drama: me), a dual tuner device is a must.

Geeksugar: How and when did you two meet?
Derek: We met at SXSW in 2000, which I guess is pretty geeky, too. That was the same year Kottke and Meg met, and a few other couples, too. Love was in the air.

Geeksugar: What are your top three favorite gadgets:
Derek: Number one has to be the gadget I use most, which is my 15" Powerbook. I still have the pre-Intel version, which I'm sticking to until CS3 comes out. But it's just a marvelous machine. Two is Danger Hiptop, aka T-Mobile Sidekick I've had every version of this device, and each gets better. I love the flip-out display, qwerty keyboard, and mobile email, web, and chat. I wish the hardware design was better, but I guess the iPhone will be here soon enough. Three is the Apple iPod (video, 30gig). I know, so pedestrian. But it's a nearly perfect device. I love that I can use the click wheel through it's case. And the videos and games are a nice addition for boring Muni rides. I do wish the batter lasted longer, though.
Heather: My Treo 680 (red), Sony DSC-T5 (the wet suit accessory is most excellent for the beach and rafting) and our dual tuner DirecTV TiVo (a Valentine's Day present a few years ago).

What about the top three luxury gadgets you really want?
Derek: The Leica M8. It's the digital version of the M6 I mentioned earlier, and it's expensive as hell, but I'd love to give it a whirl. If they could finally make a digital Leica as sweet as the film Rangefinders, it'd be a dream come true. Does a car count as a luxury gadget? If so, bring on my Mini Cooper. Silver and black with moon roof, please. A stylish car that you can actually park in San Francisco. Bliss. Also a big ass HDTV. When I picked up a plasma display last year, the actual HD models were just too pricey.
Heather: Leica M8, Slingbox, Sony GPS tracker (oh, and a more current version of my point and shoot to go with it), that set of 128 tea mugs designed by Onkar Singh Kular - "Each of the 128 tea mugs is a Pantone shade of brown, which allows people to pick out the mug that matches the way they take their tea. Depending on which one they pick, the host with the most can judge how much milk to put in." And a My5 Power Plate (very weird jiggly, anti-fat thing).

Geeksugar: Your first computer was a…
Derek: Commodore 64. I was bootlegging video games on 5" floppies in grade school. Yeah, I was THAT cool.
Heather: Mac Iici with a whopping 8 MB of ram, baby!

Geeksugar: What are your favorite websites?
Derek: Heather's site, of course! Daring Fireball is a must-read and Ze Frank has
put a smile on my face nearly every day since he started the show. And, of course, the flickr addiction must be fed daily.
Heather: Flickr.com (natch), jpgmag.com, cuteoverload.com, mightygoods.com, dooce.com to name a few.

Geeksugar: What is your Valentine's Day plan?
Derek: I'm not saying! Surprise is the spice of life.
Heather: I don't know. We alternate and last year I made the plans: we went to EOS, a lovely restaurant in Cole Valley where we had our wedding reception. Derek's on deck this year. No pressure. Nope. None at all.

Geeksugar: Who makes the final decision when it comes to gadgets for the home?
Derek: We both do! We had dinner with a couple of friends not long ago, and she said something about not being able to buy a camera because he wouldn't let her. Heather and I just looked blankly at them. If I ever came between Heather and a camera, well, let's just say it wouldn't be pretty.
Heather: We both follow our bliss when it comes to gadgets. Derek definitely plots out the big ticket items while I gift him gaming devices for Hanukkah.

Geeksugar: Who solves tech problems at home?
Derek: Judging solely by who cusses the most when the airport network goes out, it'd have to be me.
Heather: Derek. Period. I once almost had a nervous breakdown when presented with a TiVo green screen of death while he was away at a conference.

Geeksugar: Are you going to buy an iPhone?
Derek: Are you kidding? I may buy two: one to use and one to keep pristine in its box to save for future generations to admire. "This was the moment, children, when computers went mobile," we'll say. And they'll respond in some sort of future kid lingo that we cannot begin to imagine now.
Heather: Will my super secret de-coder ring be taken away if I say no? I'm a big fan of a qwerty keyboard and a die hard Treo fan.

Geeksugar: How do you feel about people calling you a “geek”?
Derek: Amen! To me, "geek" just means "someone who's just a little too into something." I was a guitar geek before becoming a camera geek before becoming a web geek before graduating to being a coffee geek. I can't wait to see what I geek out on next. It's better than being a nerd, anyway.
Heather: That they're misguided.

Geeksugar: What has been your partner’s greatest contribution to the tech/blog?
Derek: As a prominent woman in tech, Heather's been a real inspiration to a lot of girls out there. She's also inspired a lot of people to pick up their cameras again. I know she inspires me to want to be a better photographer.
Heather: If you've seen the Blogger "B", then you've seen Derek's work, but I think that Fray (fray.com) was a wonderful gift to the web in a time when self-publishing wasn't as ubiquitous as it is today.

Geeksugar: How many hours do you spend online a day?
Derek: Pretty much all of them.
Heather: Too many.

Geeksugar: How many hours does your partner spend online a day?
Derek: Same. We try to get out of the house and away from the computers on the weekends. But, otherwise, the net is just part of the fabric of our lives. It's never far away.
Heather: Too many.

Geeksugar: What is one geeky habit you’re trying to quit?
Derek: I think I've already done it: After 10 years, I just recently killed my blog. It was one of my new years resolutions: There's enough pressure already, don't put more on yourself. It was stressing me out whenever the top post got more than a couple days old. I decided to just take it down until I have the time to enjoy it again.
Heather: I think I'm a great multi-tasker, though Derek would disagree. Less SMSing while out and about together would be greeted with enthusiasm.

Are you the “Beauty or the “Geek” in the relationship?
Derek: Oh please tell me I'm the geek.
Heather: While Derek's wardrobe is far more beautiful than mine, I would crown him alpha geek at Casa Chawazek.

Want to know more about Heather? Check out HChamp.com. For more about Derek, check out Powazek.com.

Geek Gift Guide: Best Friend

GeekSugar — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 11:45:39 -0800

My best friend is usually the most problematic person on my holiday shopping list. First off, we like the same things, so everything I find for her I want for myself. Second, she’s the one person in the world that listens to all of my woes so she deserves the best. So what would all the BFFs out there like for Christmas?

iPod Shuffle

Even if she already has an iPod, she’ll love the teeny-tiny new Apple 1 GB iPod Shuffle, $79.99. As of this moment, it’s the world's smallest digital music player, and shockingly holds up to 240 songs. It’s perfect for her workouts, or those days she wants access to a small music library without bringing her regular iPod. Apple says the battery can run for 12 continuous hours, which means she can rock through a flight, workday or marathon.

For two more ideas, just read more

Kolo laptop sleeve
Kolobags has an assortment of simple and affordable “Sumo” quilted corduroy laptop sleeves that Velcro closed and can slide into a larger bag or stand alone as a cute and eye-catching cover. For $34.99, your BFF can protect her laptop (they fit Macs and most PCs), and be stylish. If you spring for an actual laptop bag, Kolobags also offers an assortment of designer styles. With celebrity endorsers like Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Maria Bello, they’ve got to be doing something right.

TiVo
Help her enter the digital life with a TiVo Digital Video Recorder. She won’t be able to use that “I have to go home – there’s a John Cusack marathon on tonight and I need to change the tape” excuse ever again. TiVo will allow her to store nearly 80 hours of digital recording time and will even find and record the types of shows she likes based on her picks. Tivo costs about $70, but there is a monthly fee. If you love her enough, you can cover that too for about $14 a month.

Geek Gift Guide: Top 5 Picks for a Geeky Gal

GeekSugar — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:04:30 -0800

We all know that one girl who has everything. She's the kind of girl that waits 19 hours in the snow for the latest gaming console, buys the hot new phone the day it hits the market and knows great gadgets when she sees them. So what do you get her?

1. Motorola RAZR V3- Cherry Blossom Tatoo

Bland colors are so last year! Motorola's new RAZR comes with an exclusive cherry blossom tattoo designed by Ami James of Miami - the latest and greatest trend setting phone! Enjoy video playback, bluetooth technology, and a digital cam with 4x digital zoom. These holiday hottie phones are priced at $69.99. Get one here.

2. Canon PowerShot SD630

This durable, ultra-thin, ultra-stylish PowerShot SD630 Digital Elph takes spectacular detailed photos, making it the perfect cam for a night out on the town! With a full range of enhanced shooting features, this camera makes photography fun and exciting. Added features include amazing video capabilities and a large 3" viewfinder screen. Get your very own here for about $250.

3.The Angelina by THERESA Kathryn

This is the perfect designer work bag for any working girl. The Angelina is covered in a quality calfskin leather, lined with luxurious satin and includes a special padded laptop section for added protection. This bag looks fabulous with any outfit from sunrise to sunset. Available in black, cognac and snow.
A must have for any fashionista career woman!
Get one here for $535.

4. Apple's iPod Hi-Fi

The Perfect gift for iPod enthusiasts! Get ready to rock around the Christmas tree with Apple’s latest universal iPod dock. With pumping bass to bright treble, the iPod Hi-Fi delivers crystal-clear, high-quality sound in a cool, compact design. This docking station is sure to keep any home or office space b-boppin’. A great gift to give this holiday season! Get one here for $349.

5. LG's latest and greatest mobile addition

Fa-la-la-la LG has done it again! This bluetooth chocolate music phone is completely divine. This glamorous 1.3 megapixel camera and camcorder is now available in black, white, red, and green. Listen to all your favorite tunes on this sleek and fun cell.
Purchase for around $300 here.