Tech Blog

The Consumer Electronic Association's Jim Barry stopped by to show us some great items for holiday gift giving.  I've known Jim for more than 15 years and he never fails to show us the greatest new stuff.  He's a great spokesperson for the trade association that puts on the Consumer Electronics Show every year in Las Vegas.  See the segment here.  Here are the items Jim showed us:

MSI Wind-  Netbook $350

Sylvania G Meso- Subnotebook $350

Sima- AeroPro Bag  $90

Garmin and Tom Tom- GPS Units $150-$500

Casio- EXILIM 10 MP $275

Lexar- Shoot-n-Sync WiFi Card $99

Google G1 Phone from  T-Mobile $179

LG- Dare  Verizon $199

Micro Innovations- Bamboo Mouse  $20

Pure Digital- Flip Camcorder  $159

Kodak- Zi6 HD Camcorder  $180

It was exciting to find out that the Green Car Journal has given my car the 2009 Green Car of The Year award!  The most amazing thing is that it's a diesel!!  I bought the car around Labor Day, after taking a test drive and finding that it had a good deal of oomph that I hadn't found in the hybrids I had driven....that is, the hybrids that get great gas mileage.  I can take some comfort in knowing how green I've become...while I shell out more green at the pump.  While gas prices have fallen to under $2, I'm filling up with ultra-low sulfur diesel that costs about 70 cents more than premium.  The 2009 Volkswagen Jetta was voted greenest by a panel of 9 automotive experts, including auto legend Carroll Shelby and the Tonght Show's Jay Leno.  Even though diesel is a bit higher than gas, I've more than doubled my mileage over the high-performance car I used to drive and I still have a sporty green car that is not as lethargic as the hybrids I drove.  That diesel engine sure has some torque!  You'll see more clean-burning diesel cars coming from a variety of auto makers.  Read about the award at greencar.com.  Read more of our Tech Blog here.

The Blackberry Storm launches today with Verizon and we were the first local TV station to show you one about a month ago!  I was a little disappointed by the one feature some folks made a big deal about, the touch-screen with tactile feedback.  I call it a "push-screen" instead of a touch-screen.  I don't like the clunky feedback.  Yes, the iPhone lacks any feedback and it takes some getting used to, but I would NEVER trade its elegance for the BlackBerry Storm screen.  You may love the Storm, compared to the BlackBerry you currently have, so give it a test drive.  It's cool, it's fast, and it's the first BlackBerry with a touch screen.  You can take a look at my first showing of the Storm here: Take a look at how cool it is! 

The Flip video cameras from Pure Digital have really taken it up a notch, with their newest Mino that creates HD.  We're testing one soon but, if it's anything like their past products, I expect to be nothing short of amazed.  This Mino HD does 720P and can hold an hour worth of video.  When you marry the quality and convenience, along with a price tag of under $229, it's one heck of a way to have a little 4GB HD machine in your pocket!  It's the smallest HD camcorder out there!

We often don't give our home cordless phones a second thought.  They ring, you answer, that's it.  But has your trusty system let you down lately?  Have you heard scratchy sounds or fadeouts?  Have people told you that they have trouble understanding you?  Then you may want to upgrade your phone system.  Yesterday's 900 Mhz, 2.4 Ghz, and 5.8 Ghz phones can suffer from interference.  Stray radio waves in the air, your microwave, your WiFi, your neighbor's phone, can all have an effect on the quality of your cordless.  When you go to the store you'll now find a wide array of the latest DECT 6.0 phones.  Operating on a digital voice-only frequency of 1.9 Ghz, these phones don't suffer from interference, boast outstanding clarity, and use less power.  We showed systems by V-Tech and Panasonic.  The two-handset version from V-Tech can be found for about $79 at Best Buy and Costco recently featured a 5 handset Panasonic DECT 6.0 model for just $139!  The base station is the only part of the system that needs to plug into the phone line.  The other handsets wirelessly pick up your phone line, can be used within the house as intercoms, and all store the same phonebook information entered into any of the handsets.

It hits the street tomorrow at T-Mobile, but I got my hands on the new phone this afternoon!  The G1 is a great phone with a beautiful touchscreen display, and that screen slides to reveal a full keyboard.  It also has a nice little trackball for navigating that functions very well.  I've been using an iPhone since the day it was introduced and I think it's an outstanding smartphone.  Every other phone in the past year has been touted as an "iPhone killer" and I've yet to meet one.  The G1 from Google and T-Mobile impressed me, however, and seems to be an outstanding phone for $179.  It also uses the Android operating system, meaning the phone is open for users to customize it.  Take a look!  Here's a nice piece on the phone that takes a very in-depth view.

It won't be available for a month or so, but we got our hands on a beta version of the Blackberry Storm, the first touchscreen Blackberry!  Watch for it coming from Verizon.  Take a look at how cool it is!

Digital photo frames are hot, but they really vary in quality.  This 6 inch photo frame has the highest resolution on the market.  That's imporant when you're looking at high definition TVs in so many homes.  It has an internal memory but accepts all kinds of camera cards.  It plays back your photos, videos, and will even playback your favorite music to accompany your pictures.  The Image Moments 6 frame is from Digital Foci, just became available, and costs about $149.  See our segment from this morning.

So, I told everyone on Friday about the big electronics recycling event being held at Motorola headquarters on Saturday, October 11.  Around 1 in the afternoon I suggested to my son that we take a drive out there with his old computer, monitor, and DVD player.  We arrived at 2:45, just :15 minutes before closing time, and we couldn't believe our eyes.  The Schaumburg campus had cars backed up nearly to Algonquin Rd!  We were among the last in a long line and, about 45 minutes later, workers removed the electronic junk from the back of our van.  It felt good to be among the nearly 2,500 cars that passed through.  The Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County tells me the number of analog TVs dropped off was waaaaay up.  Nice job, Chicago.  Recycle those old TVs properly and, if it's a good TV, consider a donation to The Salvation Army.

Don't throw away that old TV or computer!  Motorola in Schaumburg hosts this annual electronics recycling event on Saturday, October 11.  From 9-3 you can bring in old computers and TVs, cell phones and other items.  The phones should be turned in separately at the event and will go into Motorola's special program that raises money for schools.  Click here for more infomation on this great event.