The Smorgasbord

We need to find some “floating shelves” after the post about our new surround sound system the other day. You know, the kind that look like they’re just floating on the wall. Since we have a flat screen hanging on the wall – what the heck do we need a TV stand for? I want to get that audio equipment off the TV stand, take it out, mount it on the wall and free up room in my living room!

I’d been thinking about this for some time, and the floating shelf concept was one I had in the back of my head, but hadn’t seen anything even remotely like what I wanted at the store. I took 5 minutes to search Amazon today – and lo and behold they have exactly what I need!

This set of floating shelves is only $100, much cheaper than anything else I say, it’s quality and can hold heavy weights like a big audio video receiver, they are stylish, come in three colors, and very functional! It’s exactly what I wanted and they are on order now! You can check out the floating shelves here!

These audio rack shelves came in a close second, and if I had wanted something on the floor – this would have been exactly what I chose. Maybe when we put a system together for the basement family room this is what we’ll get!

36"x10"x2" Beech Wood Wall Floating Shelf Rack Ledge Shelving
	USD 41.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-11 07:52:38
Floating Wall Shelf Wood Bookshelf Decorative DIY Wall shelves MDF Board 3 color
	USD 87.43 (1 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-07 12:00:19
18" White Traditional Crown Molding Design Floating Shelf Mantle Ledge Decor
	USD / 10.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-08 04:58:25
2pcs 14"x14"x2" Black Floating Wall Shelf Corner Shelves Wholesale
	USD / 20.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-11 07:27:23
Floating Wall Shelf Wood Bookshelf Decorative DIY Wall shelves MDF Board 3 color
	USD 85.60 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-08 06:30:32
NEW SEI EN8102 Aspen Floating Shelf 10" Black
	USD 29.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-07 13:01:42
24"x10"x2" Espresso Wood Wall Hot Shelf Floating Shelf
	USD 23.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-09 01:45:44
24"x10"x2" BLACK WOOD WALL SHELFS FLOATING RACKS LEDGES
	USD 23.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-09 01:46:25
Wood Floating Shelf - 18 X 4 X 1 1/4"
	USD / 13.56 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-08 16:11:19
24"x10"x2" Walnut Wood Floating Shelf Hidden Bracket
	USD 23.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-02-09 01:46:56

We just bought an RCA RTD217 home theater for our living room. It was kind of unexpected, but I thought I would blog about it because it was such a good deal. I’m no audiophile by any means, and I’m pretty geeky when it comes to computers and gadgets – and I do have a flat screen LCD hanging on the living room wall. But for some reason we just never got any kind of surround sound or home theater system. Probably because I spent the money on an external hard drive or something else.

So I’m in the store and we see they have some display models on clearance – and I took a look. They had 2 DVD players and one was HDMI output that was pretty cool. But then I saw this RCA surround sound system for half off the retail. It was 250 watts (50 per speaker), a 5 disc DVD changer, AM/FM radio, but the thing that sold me was the fact that it would play CD and DVD data disks, Windows Media, DivX, PhotoCD’s – just about anything. The selling feature was the fact that it had a USB port on the front that said it would accept both USB flash drives or external hard drives!

So at half off we couldn’t resist – we snatched it up and took it home. I hooked it up to the 5 prong component cable to our flat screen, wired up the speakers, and fired it up! It has 4 levels of subwoofer, both surround and stereo modes, DVD’s were awesome (progressive scan), and we sent audio from the TV back to it so the cable could play through it on the AUX channel.

Then we brought in the external hard drive, and that’s when the surprise came in. We plugged in a 300GB Western Digital Mybook and brought up the menu on the TV. MP3′s played fine, pictures were great, but we couldn’t get it to play any video at all. Not Windows Media, DivX, MPG, anything! Arghh! We went back and read the manual and found out that the USB port only plays AUDIO!! Crap! All is not lost because we can still play data discs, but that means burning one every time. I guess we just have to get some rewritables. I still say that at half off it was a good deal. Let this be a lesson to you if you go shopping for a home theater with a USB input jack!

I am however, going to start searching for a stereo system that you can hook up external drives too and play video!! I’ve heard you can “hack” the menus of some DVD players too (through the firmware) and this is something that we’re certainly going to look into.

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Memory Cards keep getting lost? Get a “Memory Card Case” to organize them so you have them all in the same spot – each and every time!

I can’t tell you how many times I went to the Camera case and all the memory cards were gone. Or the times that I grabbed my digital camera and either no memory card was in it – or the card in it was full of pics (I wasn’t sure if I could erase yet). Flash memory cards are small, and the microSD ones are smaller than a thumbnail.

Of course, there’s already something you can buy to fix this problem – and it’s a “memory card case”. There’a ton of ‘em on eBay – and they don’t cost that much at all. In fact, it’s probably more expensive to replace a lost flash memory card than it is to get the case, not to mention the cost you can’t put on precious memories and pics and if they aren’t on your PC yet. These would make excellent gifts for Christmas or any occasion – you should stock up now!

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Gorillapod – the digital camera tripod with a twist

Looking for an innovative flexible tripod for your digital camera that will go anywhere and work in the worst of situations? I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to temporarity “mount” my digital camera for either a good picture or some short video.

I play in bands out in the bar and you can’t always get right in front of the stage for good pictures or video. And who wants to hold the camera steady for 10 minutes or more anyway? They make these little flexible tripods you can wrap around a post, pole, or nearly anything and then mount your digital camerea temporarily on. If you use your digital camera a lot, I highly recommend you get one of these and stick it in your bag. It’s definitely worth the $20.

Gorillapod uses its 30 adjustable joints to grip to trees, fences or posts–anything it can wrap its legs around–to provide a steady and secure platform for your digicam! No more hunting for flat surfaces at eye-level: just wrap or hang Gorillapod on any handy object and get in the picture! tripod,”camera tripod”,”flexible camera tripod”. Click here for the latest price. This would make a really cool gift idea for just about anyone.

Oh – you can find (different versions and sizes) of them on eBay as well:

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Looking for a “Hi Def Camcorder”? The “Canon Vixia HF10″ is not only affordable, it records direct to flash media – which is why we think it’s the best bang for your buck right now!

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

I was shocked and amazed when I saw the Vixia HF10 for the first time. Weighing less than one pound and only a little less in size than a water bottle (3″x2.5″x5″) this little wonder is amazing. The one feature that makes it stand out most is the fact that it has an internal flash memory of 16GB. Wow! No more silly tapes, no spinning disk hard drives – none of that! And it has a slot for SD or SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) flash memory cards. You can buy a high capaticy SD card now for around $35, so that’s a big pro! Canon is not the first company to make a flash drive based digital camcorder, but they may be the first to do it as well as they have – especially at this price!

Here are the features of the Canon Vixia HF10:

• 12X Optical Zoom (200X digital zoom)
• 16GB internal memory and SDHD card slot
• SuperRange Image Stabilization
• 2 hours 1920×1080 Full HD Recording time
• 2 Channel Dolby Digital Audio
• External Mic Jack
• Mini HDMI Out
• 2.7″ LCD Screen

I’ve read a lot of really positive reviews, and it’s amazing to me that you can now buy an HD Camcorder for under $1,000! The Vixia HF10 got a 5 star review from c|Net – watch the video review:

One of the things that the video highlighted that I forgot to mention was the fact that you get about an hour of HD record time per charged (included) battery. What you want to do is order one of the double size aftermarket battery packs that will get you about 2 hours of recording time. It will stick out a bit and make the Vixia HF10 a slight bit more bulky – but it will be worth it.

Most places online are listing the Canon Vixia HF10 for $1,000-$1,200. The reason I wrote this review today was that I saw just this morning that Newegg (practially my favorite online electronics store) has it listed for only $829! I consider that a steal since my last digital camera was over $600. This would make the perfect gift for a birthday, Christmas, or Father’s Day! Newegg even has free shipping, how can you beat that with today’s price of gas?

Canon VIXIA HF10 Black High Definition Camcorder
Price: $829.0
Canon VIXIA HF10 2.7″LCD 12X Optical Zoom High Definition Camcorder

Like always – it’s always worth perusing eBay to see if you can get a deal. Here’s the latest eBay auctions for the Vixia HF10:

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If you’re looking for one of those double sized aftermarket batteries, eBay is a great place for that as well:

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Looking for one of the 8GB or greater SDHC flash memory cards? eBay once again to the resuce:

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The Socket Sense Expandable Surge Protector Strip is something I wish I had a long time ago! It always seems like I have some kind of big bulky adapter to plug in that spans more than one outlet. This nifty little gadget just slides out at any outlet to expand and give enough room for big adapters where needed. I think all surge protectors should do this. I can use one of these in my living room entertainment center, and also at just about every computer in the house, in addition to carrying one in my musicians gig bag for the stage (where I have all kinds of adapters for effects)! Where could you use an expandable socket surge strip? click here to check prices for the “Socket Surge”.

Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

Monitor how much electricity you’re using the the “Kill A Watt” Electricity Usage Monitor! Meter your own electrical usage!

When you get your monthly electric bill – ever wonder what was using the most electricity? What appliance or device is costing you more money per month than any other in your house? Is it your microwave? Your fridge? The hair dryer? There’s no more guesswork, because you can track energy consumption on your own with the “Kill A Watt” gadget. I’ve seen it demonstrated on Good Morning America and other news broadcasts and talk shows, and even online in forums people talk about it calling it the “Kill-o-watt”, “killawatt reader”, killwat, kilowatt, killowatt, and more…

The bottom line is – if you want to learn how-to conserve energy just get this little gadget, let it track how much your spending by the hour, day, week, month, or entire year by measuring the electricity you use for certain devices. Just plug one thing at a time to let it capture a reading, and it will forecast your electric bill costs within 0.2% accuracy! You’ll be amazed at how much money you can save once you find out where your money is going! To Check Prices on the Kill A Watt Click Here

Here’s a video demo of how the Kill-A-Watt works:

I’ve also seen some extremely good deals both new and used Kill a Watt gadgets on eBay – here’s some auctions ending soon for you to check out:

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Growing fresh herbs in your kitchen is now a reality with the high-tech “AeroGarden” smart garden from AeroGrow. Every since I first saw this – I thought it was one of the coolest things ever. It’s basically a cool little container you can put on your kitchen counter with some holes for enclosed seed pods (no dirt required), built in plant grow light and canopy, built in reminders for water, and timer for lights.

The plant roots are suspended in air and bathed in nutrients and oxygenated air, they say that the plants can grow up to twice as fast in their patended system. You can grow all kinds of things with this, from fresh herbs, to cherry tomatoes, roses, and more!

Here, check out a little of their official 10 minute “infomercial” -

I kind of think that this would be one of the coolest and “best Mother’s Day gifts” you could give, because it’s not only unique, but more than likely will get used for a very, very long time! You can check out the official AeroGarden web site here

If you want to try to get a deal or sale on an AeroGarde, another place you can try is eBay, and I’ve listed the latest auctions for AeroGarden’s on eBay now below…

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Consider this my “Vonage Review” and why we now have an “Internet Phone” as our “home phone”.

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

I’ve been seeing (and hearing) these “whoo hoo, whoo–hoo–hoo” ads now for a few years (Vonage) and never paid much attention. A few years back we dumped the landline in our home and went “cell phone only”. I know lots of people that have done the same. Our phone bill used to be $60-$70 per month. Since it’s been gone we haven’t missed it much. What I have noticed though is that when my phone is charging (and it rings) – I don’t answer it. I miss a lot of calls. Sometimes I leave it in the car….or my coat….or my pants. There’s something to be said for just having a phone hanging on the wall in the same place each and every time you need it.

Now that I’ve had the experience of “not having a land line” for 2+ years, I started to think about the value of a “house phone”. I’m certainly never again paying $60-70 a month for that privilege since I only pay $105 per month for 3 cell phones with 1500 minutes and unlimited IM now. Well, I saw that “whoo-hoo-hoo” ad on TV a few weeks back again and it struck a chord for some reason – “$24.95 per month for unlimited calls…”. Really?? Unlimited? Like I can call anyone, anywhere for free, anywhere in the US 24 hours a day 7 days a week free? I went to their web site and that’s what it said. And it also said that you can get started for only $9.95 (which also seemed to good to be true).

Well, what I mean is you can get the “necessary equipment” for only $9.99. I never looked into Vonage much before because it seemed when it came out you needed some special kind of “internet phone” to make it work. You couldn’t use a regular phone from the store. That couldn’t be further from the truth now. With the little adapter pictured here you just plug in a regular land line phone and it works just like a copper line and your local baby bell! In fact, this little device is also a caller ID – AND (my personal favorite) it comes with a LAN out jack…meaning that once you plugin the phone and a LAN cable from your router there is an extra ethernet port on this device which basically acts as a switch. You could use it to plugin a laptop, and xbox 360 (or classic), a PC, Mac, whatever! I know, I’ve geeked out a bit on this, but I thought it was pretty cool. The only drawback to getting this device for $9.99 is the fact that it locks you into a one year contract with Vonage. Otherwise you have to pay $70-odd dollars for it. I took my chances, figuring I poured thousands into Verizon over the years anyway.

So I ordered this “internet phone adapter”, they call it the “Vonage V-Portal”, which essentially is an adapter to convert a normal phone for Internet use, a caller ID device, and a 1 port router as well. I had to pay for shipping, my first month of service, tax, and I think it was about $52 for me to get started. UPS delivered the adapter about 4 days later and I was ready to get started! We had purchased a 5.8 Ghz cordless phone with 3 cradles to use with Vonage. I had them charging 24 hours before we hooked everything up. We decided that the best place for phone the central phone unit and the vonage portal was in our living room. Luckily one of the corners of the room already had a hole in the floor, so I had already run a very long 100 foot ethernet cable from the other end of the house in the basement (ceiling) through the floor to the living room.

When I took the Vonage box out of the box it had a paper right on top that told me to turn off my router before plugging it in. So I ran downstairs and turned off my cable modem and router. Once I came back upstairs I plugged the phone into the wall, and the the vonage box. I plugged the ethernet in the vonage box, and then plugged the vonage box into the wall (the last thing). The Vonage box lit up like a Christmas tree, big orange display with a rotating globe saying “connecting”. It seems like it took about 10 minutes for it to get an IP address, configure itself, download an update from Vonate, turn off, and restart. Then the display just went to the date and time and looked like it was ready to go! I grabbed the phone and called my wife at work, and we talked for about 10 minutes. I never once could tell the difference between the Vonage Internet phone and a traditional copper land based phone line. We ran several tests where we downloaded all kinds of things while using the phone – but it never seemed to degrade the quality of the call. Maybe a different Internet connection would yield different results, but we’ve not had problems and the service is now just over one month old. Now, I don’t think much of it – it’s just like a regular land line to me.

With Vonage you can do something that’s really cool that you could never do with a land line. Vonage is portable, and it can work on any Internet connection anywhere. The unique thing about this is you can unplug the vonage adaptor, and take it and your phone with you to anywhere there’s a broadband connection and a LAN cable. Plug it in, and you’ll be able to send and receive calls just like you were at home! In fact, when your friend and family call – they won’t know that you aren’t at home! We went away for the weekend, and stayed in a motel with free wireless Internet. When we got to our room I just plugged in my Lan cable to the vonage box, and it connected quickly and it was ready to go! I made a phone call to test it, and it worked like a charm. Imagine if you had to visit your parents, or other relatives for the weekend. You could take your phone with you as long as they had broadband Internet!

Vonage has many different adapters, one of the newer ones if an Internet phone in a flash memory stick. It turns your computer or laptop into a phone on the go! You can certainly Vonage directly from Vonage.com, but let me leave you with a few eBay auctions. Since Vonage works with broadband connections (that have normal speeds), there are always people on eBay getting rid of their Vonage because they couldn’t afford broadband or they were having major connectivity problems. Grab a great Vonage deal in an eBay auction now!

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Affordable Home Security can be yours with an IP Camera. It’s cheap peace of mind, a cool gadget, and easy to install diy home tech!

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

Every now and then I see something and get a thought like – “Why don’t I have one of those…” or “that is so worth the money…”. It’s funny because as a kid I used to thumb through the cool new techie gadgets in popular science that were still years away and only in reach of those with a 6-figure salary. Now I see stuff online, or in a gadget magazine or tech catalog and I say “it’s about time they made that…” – and the prices aren’ t bad either!

Today my realization was that you can get an affordable IP camera! What is an IP camera you ask? It’s a camera that you can hookup to your network at your home or business and get live motion video. This would mainly used for surveillance as a security cam, but the “IP” in “IP camera” means you can access it via the Internet. You connect it to your network either wired or wireless (depending on the camera).

Intellinet Network Ip Camera, 550710

First I want to talk to you about the Intellinet IP Camera. It cost about $300 which is a bit high for an IP Camera, but it’s because of what it can do. This particular IP Camera has an embedded Linux operating system, flash memory, will email you “on-event”, and can stream (or upload via ftp) live motion video to a web site or PC. Once you set this up with a static IP – you can watch live motion video just by typing in the IP address in a web browser – no software of any kind required! Read the specs on that to find out the video quality, size of the flash memory, etc. I didn’t get much out of that page itself, so I moved on to other models…

Wireless G Network Security IP Camera Webcam AIC250W

This model of IP Security Webcam is Wireless! It’s VGA quality and you can view it over the web too, but the cool thing about this one is the fact that you can view up to 16 of these suckers at once (on one screen). Now that’s what I call affordable in-home security since each one is under $100!

Sony SNC-M3W Pan/Tilt IP Wireless Network Camera w/Audio

Sony has a nice Wireless Network IP Camera that looks pretty durable. You’ll pay a bit more for this one, but #1 it’s “Sony” and #2 it’s the first IP camera I’ve seen that captures audio. In addition to that – this Sony IP camera does pan and tilt (the first one’s don’t do that either). To use all of the features (like pan and zoom) you’ll need to install the Sony software to get everything to work.

SMC 802.11G Wireless IP Camera Pan

The SMC Wireless IP Camera does all the Sony model does, including record video and audio in MPEG 4. You can of course control the camera from a remote location (which does pan and zoom) and it also has motion detection. This Wireless IP Cam seems to be a good bet since it’s priced about $160 less than the Sony (currently).
Pan & Tilt IP Network Camera IR Night Vision, Video, Audio, Color, digital Zoom

This IP Network Camera is unique because in addition to the pan and tilt features, it has a color pictures, digital zoom, audio capture – but wait…..(drum roll) – it has NIGHT VISION!

Honestly – IP Camera’s have so many features that you have to figure out what you want to get out of it, and how much you want to spend. You might not need Pan and Tilt, so you might be able to get away with as $100 bargain IP camera. Then again, one that can be chained with many others in a multi-view display or the night vision could be what you need. In any event – do you homework before you buy. I should probably remind you that you can find a ton of great IP camera deals in auctions, check some ending soonest below!

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