Halloween is just around the corner and I’ve picked out a few goodies for the kids in your life.

The number one priority for us parents is to keep the little ones safe while running around in the dark – so lighting is key. Of course flashlights are an easy way to let people know you’re coming, but now there are all kinds of cool looking ones available like little kitties, flower wands and even tigers (some of which are below). Kids can even light up those little fingers with cool finger lights or add reflectors to costumes.

Now that they’re all lit up, let’s keep track of ‘em. We can keep tabs on their whereabouts a few ways, both include attaching a device to the child. The first is called the Loc8tor and it’s a tracking device for household items like keys, the remote or your cell phone. On Halloween night you can take one of the 4 tabs and attach it to the child’s costume. If all of the sudden you notice someone’s missing simply press the location button for the assigned tab on the handheld device and the screen will show an arrow pointing towards the tab. A beeping noise along with the arrow will lead you to them. If you’re not the parent walking with the kids but still want to know where they are? A child locator GPS enabled device will allow you to pull up an online map and literally watch where the kids are scoring their loot.

Lastly here are a few more cool treats for the scariest night of the year.

A hot glue gun that casts webs while decorating. It instantly adds that spooky feeling to any home. If you’re looking for a quick fix to get the decor up in a hurry or don’t want to hang anything, check out a decoration projector that flashes spooky images on the side of your house. Having a party? These Jello molds are shaped like different icky looking body parts and once you add different colored Jello to them they make the perfect trick or treat!

Here are some links to examples of ghoulish goodies – have fun!

Finger Lights
Kids Flashlights
Flashing mouth lights
Costume reflectors
Child Location Devices
Webcaster Gun
Decor Projector
Jello Molds

When the Kindle hit the market two years ago people went nuts. The concept of being able to pick numerous ebooks from a bank of over 350,000 titles and store them in a single book looking device that has a paper-esque screen was pretty awesome to book worms. Several manufactures wanted in and Sony came out with a version right away. This started the eReader version 2.0 war.

Both manufactures added in tweaks like larger capacity, easier uploading , bigger libraries of content to choose from and price reductions, but people wanted more. In fact, about a year ago I spoke with Doug Belgrad, Co-President of Columbia Pictures, one night backstage at a Chris Rock show. He told me that he wanted to turn all of his top producers on to the devices to help reduce the 30lb piles of scripts. However, the ability to read a .PDF (the main format for scripts) was not available at the time, so he wasn’t into it. He wasn’t alone in his needs; manufacturers listened and this is no longer the case. Now eReaders are almost perfect, are more user friendly and are gaining speed towards appearing more frequently under Christmas trees this holiday season. The two companies are still neck in neck in terms of popularity and have both been busy adding in all kinds of cool features like the ability to read .PDFs, content upload via Wi-Fi, larger capacity (the Kindle can hold over 3,500 books), longer battery life and quicker refresh rates (a.k.a. page turns).

On eBay you can find eReaders from Kindle, Sony, Hanlin and iRex, although the most popular is the Kindle. In the past 60 days, there were over 23,000 Kindle listings with the average selling price around $113. So definitely check one out for a good read!

Photo credited to: Kindle

Teaching a child to read is something parents take pride in. We start the process early on and look forward to seeing the progression and realizations – the pages have words on them, the words go from left to right and each one means something different. One gadget I found to help with the process – LeapFrog Junior.

For the little ones (ages 2-4) Leapfrog Junior is a version of the Tag Reading System that launched in June. Like the big boy version, Junior brings the book pages to life by allowing kids to interact with them in a few cool ways. Little fingers point the hand held door knob to various pictures and words on the page and kids can listen along as audio plays either reading the words or describing what the child is looking at. You can load your Junior with five titles at a time and learning can come with you anywhere you go – it’s a great portable toy.

The device comes with one book that’s enabled with the touch technology and there’s an extensive library of titles from stories with Pooh, George and Dr.Seuss. Each one of the Junior board books is loaded with 24 playful activities with 130 audio responses that expose children to preschool skills including counting, alphabet and problem solving.

A few down points include the higher price, (new system MSRPs at $34.99 and comes with one book, additional books MSRP at $10.99) and the larger design makes it hard for kids to select one specific word at a time if desired. If you get the system make sure you check eBay for any of the 13 titles and look for deals on pre-loved titles. All-in-all I love this system and love how well the technology works even more.

It’s amazing that iPod’s marketing is so clever that many Americans assume the terms “MP3 player” and “iPod” to be synonymous.   Well, America, that’s not the case.  There are many other types of MP3 players out there and often the other brands have cool features that an iPod doesn’t. The history is that once Apple gained so much recognition for the iPod, Microsoft knew they needed to get into the market and came out with the Zune.  It didn’t exactly blow away the competition but it was strong enough to come out with the latest portable media player, Zune HD that just launched this month.

So how is this digital player different than iPod? Most notably is the 3.3 inch OLED touch screen display.  It takes the iPod’s screen and laughs at its quality with a crystal clear grin in high definition and amazing colors and contrast.  OLED is a technology that we don’t see much of because it’s fairly new and is notoriously pricey.

Content is key with the Zune.  Built into the device is an HD radio tuner with cool features like tagging songs to download on the spot if you have a Zune Pass ($14.99 monthly subscription to access millions of songs and you get to choose 10 to keep for free each month).  This version also has a new Internet browser allowing you to surf the web as well as access the Zune Marketplace where you can download tunes, apps, games on the fly.

Overall it’s a great choice if you’re strictly a PC person (as the Zune can’t be used on a Mac) and really does make for an awesome portable entertainment experience. For $90 more you can get an adapter that hooks this baby up to your HD TV so you can watch high quality video on your big screen, too!

Last Wednesday the tech community was pleasantly surprised, so much that they gave a nearly minute long standing ovation, to see the trusted leader in the revolution of portable music, Steve Jobs, who recently recovered from a liver transplant, deliver the not so surprising news that yet another generation of iPods will be hitting the market.  The latest version of the gems that will help justify your need to replace the one you just bought and sell your outdated version on eBay now comes in a few forms.

First up, the new Nano will come in 9 colors, will have a larger screen, an FM tuner with live pause, a camera that can take video and a built in pedometer!

Speed and price are what’s going to make you finally want a Touch, with 50% faster processor on the 32GB and new 64GB versions, and a price cut to $299 and $399. Steve made it known that size does matter by bumping up the iPod Classic capacity from 120GB to 160GB (that’s over 40,000 songs) and shrinking the price size down to $249.

Lastly, Shuffle fans will now have the choice of 5 different colors, and the ability to use a variety of different headphones, instead of being limited to Apple’s version.

As for software updates, iTunes lovers can expect to see an improved iTunes store – now boasting the world’s largest online music, movies, games, podcasts and application collection.  This new iTunes version will be Facebook friendly so you can let your friends know what you’re into, listening to and purchasing and will have a much cleaner layout that’s easier to navigate. Cool new features include the ability to download “LP” type information such as artist and group pics, song lyrics and liner notes, special new video features, and comes with increased home sharing capabilities. So look out Zune, although you have HD playback, this new line up should really give you a run for your money!

One of the most amazing aspects of the digital revolution is that we’re now able to listen to all kinds of content wherever we want, whenever we want. There are so many gadgets that play sound we want to hear – Portable DVD players, MP3 players , Portable PCs and most popular of them all, MP3 playing cell phones.

Each of these devices has an output (headphone jack) that allows us to plug in and tune out, but now that hands-free is the law, I’ve been wanting to do so in my car. You’ve seen the signs that read “iPod Your Car” but that can cost a lot! If you’re in the same dilemma try one of these quick fixes. If you’ve got a tape player in your car then you’re lucky because one of the least expensive (often well under $10) and most effective (clear sounding) ways to rock out in your car is through a Car Cassette Tape Adapter. It’s a cassette tape that has the male end of a headphone jack attached from about a 1 foot wire. There’s no tape in there rather just a blank feed that allows your music to boom straight through to your sound system.

Another playback only situation comes from a new take on an older concept – the Cassette MP3 Player. This cool gizmo is also a tape cassette equipped with a SD card reader slot that allows you to insert your music filled memory card and listen through your stereo. With a price tag well under $20, this too, is a grand idea for your tunes.

No cassette? No problem. (more…)

The new “PS3 Slim Edition” is out (well, for the media)  and in about two weeks is going to make its way into the hands of gaming enthusiast all over the world. I’ve been looking and listening all over about this console launch and have found a few main points to share with you before I actually get my hands on one.

The Bad
The technology in this version is not different than the regular PS3 so the game will play the same way, it will just look cooler sitting on the shelf.  Once again it’s not backwards compatible with PS2 titles.  Boooooo. Unlike it’s predecessor there’s no stand built in rather you have to pay $24 for it.

The Good
They took $100 off the price so now it’s $299!  That’s a great price for a gaming console with a Blu-Ray Player built into it! It’s smaller making it look cooler. It uses less power and weighs a bit less.  Runs a bit quieter and a bit cooler. It’s rocking a 120 GB hard drive.

This is a nice improvement over the original PS3 and it’s a really great improvement over the last version (there’s 5 total). Will this device deliver some new and amazing gaming experience you PlayStation lovers are dreaming of?  Not exactly because the games are going to play the same way, but, if you don’t have a PS3 yet and you’ve been holding off for a price cut, now you’re going to get the price cut as well as the size cut. Also, if you’re looking for a Blu-Ray player at a great price, $299 is pretty darn good.

Photo credited to:  Sony

I always love checking out the most popular items sold on eBay and am never too shocked when I see tech plastered all over the place.  In the electronics category, you can find the “Touch Screen Cell Phone”  at the top of the heap. I love my iPhone, and now that it takes video, I’ve pretty much bailed on my other devices for everyday outings. The Palm Pre is my next favorite “touch screen”, but between you and me, I think the iPhone is really what this is all about.

GPS devices are also popular items sold on eBay.  I see these as hot sellers because in these shaky times people are looking for quick fixes and with a GPS device, they instantly can modernize a car without having to buy an entirely new ride.

Other big sellers on eBay are Wii and XBox 360 wireless controllers.  This makes perfect sense because it’s silly that these systems short changed us on the one controller thing, so your clever eBay loving peeps know that it’s the best place to get an item that you should have gotten for free.

I’ll keep checking what’s hot and share the data with y’all again soon.

*Photo credited to: Sprint.com

School is back and there are thousands of hi-tech goodies to choose from.  I’ve seen some great deals on eBay for student-centric goods and here’s what’s popular.

Netbook
These little powerhouses pack in techno strength of a regular sized computer and are the one tool every student needs.   The size is perfect for small dorm rooms, the webcam is great for keeping in touch, the inputs are essential for connecting to printers and phones, and the sub $500 price tag is the bow around this perfect package. I’m seeing a huge variety of netbooks on eBay and because they’re priced so well, you can score some great deals on new, like new or refurbished – so check it out!

Digital Message Board
When students set up their dorm rooms, a message board is usually outside the door for fellow students to leave homework assignments on, set a study date or say “hi.” This Home Base Message Center allows you to not only write an “old skool” white board message, but also post a picture or video message.

Microphone and iPhone
Recording a lecture can be useful when studying and two tools make it really easy to do.  First, the external microphone from Belkin attaches to the bottom of your iPod and records high quality audio as an MP3 file. That file can later be recalled, shared or edited.

Second, the new iPhone 3GS application called “Voice Memos.” It’s a stylish microphone icon that records audio and shares the file with iTunes.  Other ways the phone helps students stay organized is with the calendar, To Do List and Flash Card applications.

Solar Powered Backpack
Often students leave the dorm first thing in the morning and are gone for the day.  If gadgets are running “full speed ahead” while they’re out, chances are they’re running on empty by the end of the day.  A solar powered backpack can be a life saver! The pack has panels on it to catch light rays and stores a charge until the device is plugged in.  The pack comes with several adapters for all types of gadgets.

With Apple’s announcement of the 8Gig 3G iPhone coming down to under $100 and the existing popularity of the apps store, I’m seeing a new surge of parents wanting the phone specifically to keep little ones entertained during certain situations.  Although that $99 price tag is attractive, the first stop for savvy Mom’s and Dad’s is going to  be eBay because of the already wide selection of new and refurbed phones at great prices. For instance the 16 Gig 3G iPhone sells at an average price of $140, that’s twice the storage for only $40 more!

Around my town it seems as if the iPhone has become the new crayon and paper menu. If you’re little one is ready for it,  the phone can be a great tool for keeping them occupied.  I’m in no way suggesting you replace dinner conversation with video games, but if the food is taking longer than it should or a fight is about to break out, it can be a life saver. They can listen to music, play all kinds of educational apps that are really amazing, pull up funny youtube videos,  even watch movies. It’s interesting that kids don’t seem to mind the somewhat compact size of the screen for long periods of time, they just love the content too much to mind. From the time my son was 2 years old he knew how to launch the apps on my phone and was taught what sounds all of his favorite animals made as well as their names in several languages thanks to the apps ZooBox and Voice Toddler Cards. If you’ve been toying with the idea, now’s the time to pounce!

*Photo credited to: Apple.com