Showing posts with label electronics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label electronics. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Amazon Kindle : The Perfect Graduation Gift?

Amazon.com's proprietary Kindle Wireless Reading Device is one of the best kept secrets in electronics. In contrast with Apple's iPhone media blitz, Amazon generates sales that often outpace their Kindle production capacity with little more than their own web-based promotion. While the First-Generation Kindle is now fairly well-known, the same cannot be said for the updated Kindle 2, or the upcoming Kindle DX, currently available for delivery this summer.

Kindle readers include a subscription to Amazon's Whispernet 3G Wireless service, subject to certain limitations. Although the terms of the contract could be clearer, it seems that normal web browsing is permitted. The service explicitly includes free downloads of first chapter previews, and discounted electronic "kindle" versions of 275,000+ books to date. Amazon is currently negotiating with several major textbook publishers, which potentially will dramatically increase the value of the Kindle to collegians.

Amazon acquired Mobipocket in April 2005, so Windows users can download the free Mobipocket Creator 4.2 Home Edition software, allowing them to convert a wide variety of files into the kindle-supported .PRC format. Understandably, Amazon doesn't aggressively publicize the fact that thousands of public-domain titles are freely available in this form from Amazon, Mobipocket, Project Gutenberg, and others.

For Apple enthusiasts, there is a Kindle App for iPhone and iTouch, although these devices obviously suffer from their small screen size. You will find useful information on Amazon's "Shopping the Kindle Store on Amazon.com" page, but it would be well worth the nominal fee to download The Kindle 2 Cookbook: How To Do Everything the Manual Doesn't Tell You

Monday, February 09, 2009

Valentine's Day Gifts by Category

I actually found Amazon's Valentine's Gift Guides more confusing than helpful, but maybe that's just me. You should look at the main pages (in large type below) as they do have handy links based on price ranges. Beyond this most of the links aren't really recommendations, but just links to Amazon's main category pages. I used to refer to these as "top-level" categories, but that is no longer accurate. What distinguishes these "main" pages is that they contain a lot of extra navigational links and editorial content, which you may or may not be interested in. The subcategory pages are less verbose, and are compiled "on the fly" from Amazon's database.

If you are looking for actual suggestions, I believe I have included all of those pages in the links below. Some of them are a new page format (at least it's new to me.) There are a number of subcategories included on "tabs" across the top of the page. I've included the direct links separated by a colon and slashes. These pages seem to load pretty fast, so I think it's an improvement even if it might be confusing at first.

Amazon's gift suggestions tend to have a holiday-specific theme. If that isn't what you are looking for, You might be better served by the gift guides for girlfriends or wives or the gift guides for boyfriends or husbands. These and more can be found on the (generic) gift guide page.

Valentine's Gifts for Her



Valentine's Gifts for Him


Gifts For Yourself


Gift Ideas in Automotive

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Popular Consumer Electronics @ Amazon.com I

This is the one of a series of quick articles on popular products from Amazon.com. Of course, the most obvious measure of popularity is Amazon sales rank, the default listing order of Amazon's aStores. That order is already represented in the search engine listings, at least in theory. These items are ones that I have actually sold.

The idea here is that these items are popular enough that someone would buy them, but not so popular that they are widely listed elsewhere. Though this approach may seem wildly random, it is very likely that if someone bought these before, someone else might want to buy them in the future. Perhaps they are just what you're looking for!

Items

  1. Eforcity 2 Meter HDMI M/M Cable
  2. Airline Adapter
  3. Apple iPod shuffle 1 GB Metal (2nd Generation)
  4. Apple iPod shuffle 1 GB Pink (2nd Generation)
  5. Apple 30 GB iPod AAC/MP3 Video Player Black (5.5 Generation)
  6. Apple iPod nano 4 GB Blue (2nd Generation)
  7. Apple iPod nano 4 GB Green (2nd Generation)
  8. Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station (Gigabit) MB053LL/A
  9. Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (3G)
  10. Belkin HDMI-to-HDMI Cable (8 feet)
  11. CTA Digital IP-TBC Rapid Travel Charger for iPod
  12. Cameta Digital Slave Flash + Sunpak Grip + Case + Accessory Kit for Fuji
  13. Canon NB-2LH Rechargeable Battery Pack for Digital Cameras
  14. Canon PC 170 Personal Copier
  15. Canon PSC-50 Soft Leather Case for Canon Digital Cameras
  16. Canon PSC-65 Deluxe Soft Case for Canon Digital Cameras
  17. Canon PowerShot A550 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
  18. Canon Powershot SD500 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom
  19. Casio FX-115ES Advanced Scientific Calculator with 2-Line Natural Textbook Display
  20. Cobra FRS 104 2-Way Radio (Pair)
  21. Creative Labs MuVo TX 256 MB MP3 Player
  22. Creative Zen V Plus 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Blue)
  23. Creative Zen Vision:M 30 GB MP3 and Video Player (Black)
  24. D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router
  25. Digital Grey Kard White Balance Card / Gray Card for Digital Photography
  26. Eforcity Premium Mini All-in-1 Memory Card Reader, Smoke
  27. Emerson PD5098 Portable CD Player with AM/FM Radio
  28. Emerson PD5203 Portable CD-R/RW Player with AM/FM Stereo Radio
  29. GE 29861GE2 Digital Answering System with 3 Mailboxes
  30. GE 29875GE2 Digital Messaging System with Voice Time and Day Stamp - Black
  31. Garmin Dashboard Mount for the StreetPilot C510 and C550
  32. Garmin Replacment Beanbag for Portable Friction Mount for Garmin GPS Units
  33. Garmin StreetPilot c530 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
  34. HP Officejet 5610 All-in-One Printer/Fax/Scanner/Copier
  35. IMATION 01889 500MB Write Once / Multi-Session DataPlay Disks
  36. Kingston 1 GB Secure Digital Flash Card ( SD/1GB )
  37. Kingston Data Traveler 1 GB USB Flash Drive ( DTI/1GB )
  38. Kodak Carousel 140 Slide Tray
  39. Koss KSC75 Portable Stereophone Headphones
  40. Koss PortaPro Headphones with Case
  41. Lenmar DLP006 Lithium-ion Digital Camera/Camcorder Battery Equivelent to the Panasonic CGR-S006A Battery
  42. Lexar Media 512 MB JumpDrive Sport Portable USB 2.0 Drive
  43. Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router
  44. Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop
  45. Midland GXT850VP4 22-Channel 26-Mile GMRS/FRS 2-Way Radio (Pair, Mossy Oak)
  46. Midland XT511 Dynamo 22-Channel GMRS Emergency Crank Radio
  47. Monster Cable DVI400-2M DVI-D Video Cable
  48. Monster Cable HDMI 400 Cable (2 Meters)
  49. NeatReceipts Scanalizer Professional 2.5 Mobile Scanner and Software
  50. Olympus Neoprene Soft Digital Camera Case
  51. Apple Nike + iPod Sport Kit for iPod nano 1G, 2G, 3G
  52. Nikon Coolpix Camera Case
  53. Nikon Coolpix L11 6MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Popular Consumer Electronics @ Amazon.com II

This is the one of a series of quick articles on popular products from Amazon.com. Of course, the most obvious measure of popularity is Amazon sales rank, the default listing order of Amazon's aStores. That order is already represented in the search engine listings, at least in theory. These items are ones that I have actually sold.

The idea here is that these items are popular enough that someone would buy them, but not so popular that they are widely listed elsewhere. Though this approach may seem wildly random, it is very likely that if someone bought these before, someone else might want to buy them in the future. Perhaps they are just what you're looking for!

Items

  1. Nikon ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control for D50 & D70 Digital SLR Cameras
  2. OPPO DV-970HD Up-Converting Universal DVD Player
  3. Olympus 202032 H-1 GB xD Picture Card
  4. Olympus 202049 USB 200 Media Reader/Writer
  5. Olympus VN4100 Digital Voice Recorder
  6. OmniMount CCH1B Center Channel Speaker Shelf
  7. Onkyo TX-SR605 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)
  8. Onkyo TX-SR674S 7.1 Channel Up-Converting A/V Receiver (Silver)
  9. Opteka 70" Full Size Professional Photo / Video Tripod
  10. Opteka HD2 Filter Kit for Panasonic Lumix Digital Camera
  11. Opteka HD² Slide Copier for Panasonic Lumix Digital Camera
  12. Palm TX Handheld
  13. Panasonic PV-GS300 3.1MP 3CCD MiniDV Camcorder with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
  14. Philips 6.5-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Wood)
  15. Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
  16. Philips EXP2581 Portable MP3-CD Player
  17. Power2000 NP-BG1, NPBG1, 1150mAh Battery + Charger Kit for Sony Cybershot Digital Cameras
  18. Pyle PP-999 Phono Turntable Pre-Amp
  19. Samsonite Microfiber Deluxe Camera Bag with Lens Cleaning Kit & Tabletop Tripod
  20. Samsung LNS3251D 32" LCD HDTV
  21. Samsung LNT2342H 23-inch LCD HDTV
  22. Samsung LNT4071F 40-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
  23. Samsung LNT4669 46-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
  24. Samsung LNT5271F 52-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
  25. SanDisk 512MB TransFlash microSD Card
  26. SanDisk SDDR-103 MobileMate SD+ 5-in-1 Mobile Reader
  27. SanDisk Sansa e250 2 GB MP3 Player with microSD Expansion Slot (Black)
  28. SanDisk SDSDB-1024-A10/11 1 GB Secure Digital Card
  29. Sandisk 4GB Secure Digital SD HC Memory Card
  30. SanDisk Micro Secure Digital 2 GB Memory Card
  31. SanDisk Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot (Black)
  32. Selector 100 Black
  33. Sony ACCDVDP2 Accessory Kit for DCR-DVD Camcorders
  34. Sony CPA-9C MiniDisc and Discman Cassette Adapter
  35. Sony External USB Floppy Drive
  36. Sony ICF-CD73V Shower CD Player/Clock Radio
  37. Sony ICF-CDK70 Under Cabinet Kitchen Clock Radio with CD-Changer
  38. Sony MDR-EX51LP Fontopia Headphones
  39. Sony NPFD1 Rechargeable Battery Pack
  40. Speck MacBook 13" See-Thru Hard Case - RED - Fits all versions of 13" MacBooks
  41. TDK 4.7GB 16x DVD-R (100-Pack Spindle)
  42. TRENDnet USB to Serial Converter
  43. Tamrac 5273 Expedition 3 SLR Photo Backpack (Black)
  44. Targus CVR600 15.4 Groove Notebook Backpack
  45. Texas Instruments TI36X Solar Scientific Calculator
  46. Toshiba SD-3990 Divx PAL/NTSC DVD Player
  47. Uniden DECT1080-3 DECT 6.0 Cordless Digital Answering System with Caller ID with 2 Extra Handset
  48. Wacom Graphire2 Pen, Mouse & Tablet Set (Steel-Blue)
  49. Xtreme N Wireless Cardbus,adapter, Draft 802.11N
  50. Xtremehd 4-PORT HDmi Switcher
  51. Ziga 8-inch Digital Picture Frame
  52. yooZoo SanDisk Sansa e250 e260 e270 e280 Premium Silicone Skin Kit with Belt Clip, Sports Armband, LCD Screen Protector, Lanyard - Midnight Black

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Popular Cellphones @ Amazon.com

This is the one of a series of quick articles on popular products from Amazon.com. Of course, the most obvious measure of popularity is Amazon sales rank, the default listing order of Amazon's aStores. That order is already represented in the search engine listings, at least in theory. These items are ones that I have actually sold.

The idea here is that these items are popular enough that someone would buy them, but not so popular that they are widely listed elsewhere. Though this approach may seem wildly random, it is very likely that if someone bought these before, someone else might want to buy them in the future. Perhaps they are just what you're looking for!

Items

Popular Brands

Friday, March 14, 2008

Top 50 Video Movie Downloads

Amazon.com has recently made its "Unbox" downloadable video product available through its aStore program. Now you can browse through the available Unbox titles more conveniently using the abbreviated aStore pages, then move to the download page with one click.

Watch videos on your computer with the free Unbox Video Player v2.0, or transfer videos to and from your TiVo with a networking device such as the TiVo AG0100 Wireless Network Adapter. This is all part of Amazon's bid to dominate the up and coming video download-on-demand market, and there are other players, so there is no support for DirectTV at this time.

See Amazon's "Getting Started" page for more details.

  1. The 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Show
  2. Michael Clayton
  3. The Brave One
  4. Elizabeth: The Golden Age
  5. Justice League: The New Frontier
  6. Rendition
  7. No Reservations
  8. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
  9. 3:10 To Yuma
  10. The Heartbreak Kid
  11. The Bourne Ultimatum
  12. The Kingdom
  13. Martian Child
  14. Good Luck Chuck
  15. The Invasion
  16. Eastern Promises
  17. Stardust
  18. Superbad
  19. Once
  20. Resident Evil: Extinction
  21. Sunshine
  22. In the Valley of Elah
  23. Next
  24. Mr. Brooks
  25. Balls of Fury
  26. The Simpsons Movie
  27. Live Free or Die Hard
  28. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  29. Waitress
  30. Saw IV
  31. Mr. Woodcock
  32. Beowulf
  33. Delta Of Venus
  34. Shoot 'Em Up
  35. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
  36. Ocean's Thirteen
  37. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
  38. Transformers
  39. American Gangster (Unrated)
  40. Evan Almighty
  41. Dragon Wars
  42. I Know Who Killed Me
  43. Wedding Daze
  44. Rush Hour 3
  45. License to Wed
  46. Hairspray
  47. Angel-A
  48. La Vie en Rose
  49. Into the Wild
  50. War

Top 50 International Video Downloads

Amazon.com has recently made its "Unbox" downloadable video product available through its aStore program. Now you can browse through the available Unbox titles more conveniently using the abbreviated aStore pages, then move to the download page with one click.

Watch videos on your computer with the free Unbox Video Player v2.0, or transfer videos to and from your TiVo with a networking device such as the TiVo AG0100 Wireless Network Adapter. This is all part of Amazon's bid to dominate the up and coming video download-on-demand market, and there are other players, so there is no support for DirectTV at this time.

See Amazon's "Getting Started" page for more details.

  1. Angel-A
  2. La Vie en Rose
  3. Irreversible
  4. Lust, Caution (NC-17)
  5. Paris Je Taime
  6. To Kill A King
  7. Nubes de Verano
  8. XXL
  9. Wives and Daughters
  10. Mujeres Infieles
  11. Casshern
  12. Lust, Caution (R)
  13. Irreversible
  14. El Callejon de los Milagros
  15. Vitus
  16. A Very Long Engagement
  17. La Vie en Rose
  18. Les Miserables
  19. Hot Milk
  20. Tequila 5
  21. Mansfield Park
  22. Mujeres Infieles
  23. House of Cards
  24. The Lives of Others
  25. To Play the King
  26. Little Britain
  27. Smoking Room
  28. Open Your Eyes
  29. Amores Perros
  30. Johnny Sokko
  31. Coupling
  32. Doctor Who
  33. Churning the Sea of Time: A Journey Up the Mekong to Angkor
  34. The Immortal Yi Soon Shin
  35. Ballykissangel
  36. Sense and Sensibility
  37. Emma
  38. Doctor Who
  39. Miss Marple: Caribbean Mystery
  40. Angel-A
  41. Ven. Yin Shun
  42. El Callejon de los Milagros
  43. Un Rey en la Habana
  44. To Kill A King
  45. Mondays in the Sun
  46. Kung Fu Hustle
  47. Cook on the Wild Side
  48. The Duchess of Duke Street
  49. Perder Es Cuestion de Metodo
  50. Love Stars (Zvezde ljubavi)




Sunday, March 09, 2008

How Google Sees My Site(s) - I

Google isn't necessarily the best search engine; in fact I'd rate it third out of a field of four. Nonetheless, a recent survey showed that Google accounted for 58% of all the searches performed on the Internet. Obviously, Google's opinion is important to any webmaster whose goal is to attract viewers to their content. The following Amazon.com products are those that Google believes are the most "significant" ones listed in my Amazon aStores.

Google's idea of significance isn't necessarily mine -- or yours. My goal is to help shoppers find what they're looking for -- a task which should correlate pretty well with sales (which, of course, is my real goal.) Google's evaluation is based on a number of mostly irrelevant data, which produces some fairly odd results. (Similar results can be found with Live Search and Yahoo! )

Here are a couple hundred products Google thinks you'll be interested in. Frankly, none of them have been big sellers for me, but that could change. In any case, I've placed them into the appropriate subcategory aStores, which should help customers and indexing 'bots alike.

How Google Sees My Site(s) - II

Google isn't necessarily the best search engine; in fact I'd rate it third out of a field of four. Nonetheless, a recent survey showed that Google accounted for 58% of all the searches performed on the Internet. Obviously, Google's opinion is important to any webmaster whose goal is to attract viewers to their content. The following Amazon.com products are those that Google believes are the most "significant" ones listed in my Amazon aStores.

Google's idea of significance isn't necessarily mine -- or yours. My goal is to help shoppers find what they're looking for -- a task which should correlate pretty well with sales (which, of course, is my real goal.) Google's evaluation is based on a number of mostly irrelevant data, which produces some fairly odd results. (Similar results can be found with Live Search and Yahoo! )

Here are a couple hundred products Google thinks you'll be interested in. Frankly, none of them have been big sellers for me, but that could change. In any case, I've placed them into the appropriate subcategory aStores, which should help customers and indexing 'bots alike.

How Google Sees My Site(s) - III

Google isn't necessarily the best search engine; in fact I'd rate it third out of a field of four. Nonetheless, a recent survey showed that Google accounted for 58% of all the searches performed on the Internet. Obviously, Google's opinion is important to any webmaster whose goal is to attract viewers to their content. The following Amazon.com products are those that Google believes are the most "significant" ones listed in my Amazon aStores.

Google's idea of significance isn't necessarily mine -- or yours. My goal is to help shoppers find what they're looking for -- a task which should correlate pretty well with sales (which, of course, is my real goal.) Google's evaluation is based on a number of mostly irrelevant data, which produces some fairly odd results. (Similar results can be found with Live Search and Yahoo! )

Here are a couple hundred products Google thinks you'll be interested in. Frankly, none of them have been big sellers for me, but that could change. In any case, I've placed them into the appropriate subcategory aStores, which should help customers and indexing 'bots alike.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Get True Uninterruptable Power with Tripp Lite

Most uninterruptable power supplies would be better termed shutdown power supplies. They protect your computers and other sensitive electronic equipment from disatrously abrupt shutdown during breif power outages, but they typically will only sustain operation for a few minutes while power is restored, either by the public utility or on-site generators. Then, when their meager batteries run low, they signal your computer to shut down normally. This is all very worthwhile, but it won't allow you to run internet servers reliably, or even continue your dungeon-crawling if online gaming is more your style.

What you need is a Tripp Lite APS2012 2000W UPS, or if you're serious about converting to off-grid power, perhaps it's 48-volt cousin, the 2400W APS 2448. These units take the admonition "batteries not included" to new heights, but that's a good thing. You can outfit these with deep cycle marine batteries (the kind electric trolling motors use) or, if you're installing the unit indoors, large SLA batteries designed for electric wheelchairs and scooters. Connect as many as you think you'll need in parallel to add up to the desired Ah rating. (1 Ah = 1 Amp current x 1 hour)

Note that one user commented that he was "only" getting 18 months to two years battery life with this unit, which he felt might be due to overcharging since the unit continuously supplies a float charge to the batteries. It seems that it would be easier to cycle the entire unit off (i.e., on battery power) periodically by adding a simple lamp timer to the circuit, than to modify the unit internally as he suggested. If you add a cord to the hard-wired junction box the unit comes with, be sure you get the "hot" and "return" lines right. Most equipment will work if these are reversed, but it negates the effectiveness of the ground line. You can check all this with an inexpensive circuit analyzer. You will also want a power usage meter to ensure that you are operating within specifications. (Since published power requirements are necessarily conservative, you might find that you can support more equipment than you thought.)

Now that you're thinking along the lines of serious batteries, chargers, and invertors, you might want to take the next step, and recharge using solar panels and an appropriate charge controller. That discussion will have to wait, though, while I delve a litle deeper into Amazon's new Home Improvement Section.

Before you settle on this solution, though, you shold be aware that complete standby power systems are much cheaper than they were a few years ago. Once an item available only for mission-critical commercial installations, they have become commonplace in new home construction. The increased volume has brought the per-unit cost down to a few thousand dollars, so you might just want to put your whole house on standby power.

Free Shipping Specials on Generators

Free shipping on portable generators (limited offer) permalink
Free shipping on standby generators (limited offer) permalink





Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Electronics Mania

The 2008 International CES Consumer Electronics Show is in full swing now, and I guess it's time to upgrade my Electronics Mania aStore. The big news coming out of Las Vegas this week seems to be in the Home Theater arena. Time-Warner announced that their future high definition DVDs will be released in Blu-ray format, and a number of other distributors have already indicated that they will do the same, or seem to be leaning in that direction.

It seems that Sony, after being on the wrong side of the VHS / Betamax standards war, is about to get a little pay-back as Toshiba's competing HD DVD standard may have to struggle for market share. It may be time to look into a High-Def DVD Player to go with that new HDTV! Of course, if you are a "belt and suspenders" type there are Combo Players like LG's BH200, or you could get their GGC-H20L Blu-Ray/HD DVD Rewriter Combo Drive to be prepared for anything.

Maybe this Blu-ray announcement is the impetus you need to get that Playstation 3 you've been lusting after, or perhaps you'll need to compare the games available for Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft XBox 360, Nintendo Wii first. Another big hit at the show is the VUDU Box (pronounced "VooDoo," naturally.) which downloads movies on demand via your broadband connection and plays them on your (HD)TV.

Now since the CES is always the occasion for a lot of new product releases, I've resyndicated several Amazon feeds using FeedBurner. While a lot of people are aware of feeds, many others aren't -- particularly since they tend to be displayed as raw XML. These are human-readable. Just click on the feed icon. If you're already using feeds you know what to do. If not, you might want to try subscribing via an online feed reader (upper right corner of feed.) If you already have an account with Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, or "other," that would be the logical choice. If not, many people swear by Rojo or NetVibes, but YMMV.

Subscribe to Amazon Feeds by FeedBurner

You may recognize the orange squares below as feed icons, but you may not know that these feeds display as normal web pages in your browser instead of the cryptic raw xml most feeds give you, and contain additional useful links thanks to a little tweaking by FeedBurner.



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