My latest gadget purchase is the Creative TravelSound 400. I bought it so that I have speakers for my iPod and my friends’ mp3-players when we’re going to a festival next week. Speaking of which, I’m leaving in 5 days and won’t be back untill July 9th.

Since I’m not an audiophile, I’m pretty satisfied with these speakers. However, people with more sensitive ears than me, have mentioned that the sound isn’t the best when listening to music where there’s “a lot going on” like metal. Bob Dylan’s music on the other hand, sounds great using these speakers. Good thing I’d rather listen to folk than metal…

I had read up on the speakers before buying them, and one of the things that was mentioned in all of the reviews was how compact and portable TravelSound 400 was. Still I was shocked when I first saw it in the shop. It was tiny compared to how I expected it to be. Measurements are 15,7 x 4,1 x 7,1 cm to be exact. In addition to a stereo-to-stereo cable, you also get a cute travel pouch in the pack.

Besides the cute travel pouch and the size, I like that it is possible to rotate the speakers 180 degrees. TravelSound 400 is very simple. As you can see, it only has four buttons on the front: On/off, volume down, volume up and the wide stereo effect button. The last mentioned button is another thing I like about the speakers. When using this function, the sound becomes better and seems more spread out.

I recommend these speakers if you want something small, simple and last but not least, cheap. They cost $71.95 over at Amazon. Mine were actually cheaper, but if you combine shipping, the cost is about the same.

No, not finally is the BlackBerry Curve here, but FINALLY I can blog about John Mayer without feeling guilty about it. But first I should talk a bit about the smartphone, I guess. Blackberry 8300 Curve is a phone that has both the beauty and the brains. So it’s a work-phone, but it doesn’t look like one, and it can do much more than just get you through a day at work. On Curve’s website it says that it’s the smallest BlackBerry ever to have a full QWERTY keyboard. In this small thing, you will not find 3G or a video camera, but there will be many other media features such as a media player, 2MP flash camera, EDGE, stereo Bluetooth and a microSD-card slot.

Wow, the phone really does sound awesome when you combine all those features. However, I’m not that interested in it since it will be too expensive for me, and I don’t really need all those features anyway. I’m happy with my little SE Z550i…

So back to the real reason why I’m blogging about 8300 Curve – it’s an excuse to talk about my favourite artist, John Mayer. John has mentioned several times that he’s a devoted Blackberry user (and an Apple lover, but that’s another story), so it was no big surprise when Blackberry was announced as the sponsor of John’s summer tour this year across the US.

In addition to sponsoring the tour, the folks over at Blackberry have also set up a website for him with tour dates, pictures and a video clip where John talks about his tour and what his Blackberry means to him.

Source: TryJM.com

The iPhone hasn’t even hit the stores yet, and it has already received tons and tons of publicity. It’s time for me to jump on the bandwagon in my search for an iPhone alternative. There are a couple of things identifying the iPhone, so what I will be looking at is how a couple of cellphones compares and if they can offer the same. Do they have a…:
- media player? iPhone is also a wide-screen iPod so it offers the same functions as iPods.
- photo album and camera? It has a 2MP camera which takes pictures and records videos. It also has a photo browser and editor.
- breakthrough internet device? It uses an HTML Safari browser, has email and instant messaging.
- touch screen? The iPhone uses a multitouch technology and has a 3.5 inches screen (320×480 pixels) with 16M colours.

LG KE850 Prada $800+
This stunning Prada phone cought loads of media attention in the time right after the release of the iPhone because of their remarkable resemblance in design. LG was first out with their phone as it had already won a International Forum Design Product Design Award for 2007 earlier in 2006.

Media player: Audio – MP3/ACC/ACC+/WMA/RA. Video – MPEG4/H.263/H.264. 256MB MicroSD card follows, expandable to 2GB as of now.
Photo Album and camera: 2MP camera, pictures + videos. Has a photo album.
Internet devices: EDGE, xHTML browser, email
Touch screen: TFT touchscreen with 256K colours. 3 inches screen size, 240×400 pixels.
Other: Document reader, FM radio, battery life ~3h (iPhone ~5h). The iPhone is a step ahead KE850 in some areas, but they are mostly similar.

Samsung F700

Media player: Audio – MP3/AAC/AAC+ player. Video – H.264/H.263/MPEG4 player. MicroSD (unkown how much follows).
Photo Album and camera: 5MP camera (auto focus) + 3G camera, pictures + video. Don’t know about album.
Internet devices: 3G (HSDPA), EDGE, xHTML browser, email, IM
Touch screen: TFT touchscreen with 256K colours + QWERTY slide out keyboard. 2.78 inches screen size, 240×440 pixels.
Other: In my opinion, this is a great alternative to the iPhone, but it’s about personal preferences when choosing between the iPhone and F700. If you want a good camera and prefer a QWERTY keyboard, then you’ll go for this one, while if you like widgets and want a phone with an iPod, the iPhone will suit you better.

Neonode N2
The Neonode has used iPhone’s much popular “touch-scrolling” function for years. Neonode is a rather small Swedish cellphone company which is now very up and coming. In addition to releasing this phone which has been called “the iPhone mini”, their new CEO was formerly the CEO of Sony Sweden.

Media player: Audio – MP3/WMA/WAV. Video – MPEG/WMV. MiniSD (unkown how much follows).
Photo Album and camera: 2MP camera, pictures + video. Has a filemanager.
Internet devices: xHTML browser
Touch screen: TFT touchscreen with 65K colours. 2 inches screen size, 176×220 pixels.
Other: Specswise the N2 is probably the worst out of all 4 cellphones. But I think it targets a younger group than the other phones by being simpler. Even though it’s the worst compared to the other phones, it might be very good for someone who doesn’t need that many functions in their cellphone, but just wants a phone that looks unique.

Even though the iPhone has been much praised, you can see that there are many good alternatives that can compete with it. I think that Samsung F700 is the strongest candidate because it has many things that people are missing from the iPhone: 3G, document viewer, QWERTY keyboard and a better camera. So it’ll be exciting to see if iPhone will create a positive shift in demand of smartphones and if it is able to compete in the cellphone market!

I haven’t mention yet how awesome I think the 2nd generation iPod Shuffle is and it has already gotten even more awesome. It’s now available in pink, green, blue, orange (!) and the grey which was the orignal, while the price and specs are still the same.

Now wouldn’t this have been the perfect Christmas present?

(Damn it, that title is going to give me more spam.)

First…

Right now I’m in the process of applying to colleges and universities around the globe, and it’s so stressful. Some schools want me to write three essays! Like I don’t have enough homework. So I thought I could kick the new year off with a entry about some inexpensive stress relievers for those of you who can’t afford to spend money on vacations or expensive spa treatments.

A common thing that happens when people are stressed, is that they get tense shoulders. Something inexpensive that can improve tense shoulders is a Mini Massage On The Go (Slogan: “Massage anywhere!” Wow, really?). It’s cute, it vibrates, and yes, it comes in pink as well (and green and purple).

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Stress can also come from frustration. If there’s someone bugging you, and you don’t have a voodoo doll of them, try the “Rip Apart Ref” referee doll instead.

On to more high tech stress relievers:

- The first device is named “Eyezone Massager” and it’s supposed to “revitalise your eyes and banish bags, pain and puffiness.” Sounds kinda cool, eh?
- The second device is an “Orgasmatron“. I don’t think it’s anything nasty about it although one of the customer reviews mentions that it’s “Very effective during foreplay.”… The Orgasmatron gently massages the pressure points on your head and on the back of your neck. I think I want one of those…

Why do I like piggy banks?
1. They are adorable!
2. It’s fun to put money into the small slots.
3. Piggy banks make me happy because I have such nice memories from the time when they were popular.

Since my piggy bank is long lost (I have a piggy bank shaped as a house now… Wtf?), I decided to go on a quest to find a Super Awesome Piggy Bank (SAPB).

The question that pops up is, what makes a piggy bank super awesome? How about making piggy banks in all types of colours and patterns? I guess that was what the creators of the Posh-Pig Piggy Banks were thinking when they made the “Lucky Pig”, “Trooper Pig” and many others.

I think they look quite awesome. I especially like the boxes they come in.

In fear of that this entry wouldn’t have anything to do with technology, I decided to add an electronic piggy bank, or the “Pig E Bank” as it’s called.

The LCD screen shows you how much money you have in the bank, but the Pig E Bank only reckognizes pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, so it goes without saying that you can only use it if you’re American. The pig has many different voices that say how much money you have, and to retrieve coins you press the nose. Fun!

The Pig E Bank has many cool features, but it takes away the fun of guessing how much money you got. I remember how I was always off on my guessings, thinking “this must at least be 1000kr” when it was in fact barely 100kr. The Pig E Bank would prevent me from guessing wrongly, but I don’t think I would want it to…

This piggy bank is a bit different than the traditional piggy bank because it doesn’t have the thin slot. Instead the Mint Coink has a funnel where you can but loads of coins in at once, as well as get them out. “Innovative”, they call it, “taking away half the fun”, I call it! So like the Pig E Bank, the Mint Coink is not the SAPB (pronounced “zap-bee”).

The final piggy bank is just a simple pink piggy bank called “Precious Moments Baby Bank Pig“. It doesn’t do anything special except look cute. This is still my favourite piggy bank though. I just prefer them simple.

In closing I want to say that piggy banks are a great way of saving money over a short time period. I also think that they rock, and I know that there are many other people who agree.

The third and last part of my “Gift tips” series is has a “miscellaneous” theme. The gadgets are still pink, but since I couldn’t find anything in common about them and the other stuff, I just made a seperate category.

The Tivoli “PAL® Radio in Pink” radio works great as a travel radio. It’s small and light, the sound quality is great and you can hook it up to your mp3 player. It’s battery life can be up to 16 hours depending on volume level. I think this is a perfect travel companion, allthough I wouldn’t mind it just being in my room… It comes in many different colours. My favourite is the lime green one.

A digital camera has become a must-have. So if you know a girl who doesn’t have one yet, you might consider buying her the Sony Cybershot T10 that has a 7.2 Megapixels! The pink version looks sweet (but not childish) and sophisticated, if you ask me.

Last out are the cellphones. While looking for a new cellphone for myself, I got so fascinated with cellphones that I constantly have a cellphone on my mind that I want to blog about. Like with the Sony Ericsson Z610; when it first came out, I almost made an entry about it (but instead it stayed in my drafts) and was crazy about the looks. Now all I see is the possibility of getting fingerprints on the phone. But it does look quite fancy.

Another cute pink phone is the Nokia 6111. My friend has one of these in black, and she likes it very much. If you didn’t like any of the cellphones I mentioned, don’t worry, there are loads of pink cellphones in all price ranges.

So here’s part two of my series of Christmas gift tips. There’s still a lot of pink, but this time it’s not a music pack, but a gaming pack. You know, girls like computers and video games too!

The only game I’ve put up, is The Sims 2 Holiday Edition, but I could have added all the other extensions as well as games like Dance Dance Revolution and SingStar.

You can play these games on a Playstation 2, and probably a Playstation 3 as well. Getting a PS2 might seem a bit stupid now that the PS3 is out. However, if you don’t think it’s that important to have the latest features in your PS and you like pink stuff, getting a pink PS2 wouldn’t be that stupid. In fact, it’s probably cheaper than the PS3 even!

Another pink object in the Playstation family, is the Playstation Portable. Two of my cousins have one of these each (in black though), and they’re really cool. The screen looks great, it has wi-fi and with this thing, you don’t really need an iPod as it can play both music and movies.

An alternative to the PSP, is the Nintendo DS Lite. The PSP is great, but many people think that game-wise the Nintendo DS Lite has more to offer (*cough* Super Mario rocks *cough*). DS Lite also looks great, has two screens and my favourite browser installed (Opera, duh!).

Btw, I just got my laptop back as I was writing this entry. Yay! Finally

Prepare yourself for a lot of pink. I’ve made a long list of pink gadgets that a girl might want for Christmas. Prices range from $30 to $400. I’ve divided the lists into three parts because otherwise the posts would be too long.

If you’re buying a present for a girl who likes pink and music, here are some tips for you. Apple’s iPods are usually winners on the “favourite Christmas presents”-list. So buying a pink 2nd generation Nano would in many cases be a safe choice. The Intempo IDS-01 Speakers are good and cheap (£29.99) complements to the Nano.

Some girls try very hard to not follow the mainstream so you should in which case not buy an iPod. Take a look at Creative’s players instead, like for instance the Creative Vision:M which has been rated even with the iPod 5G, and in some places, even higher!

Last up is the Sony lightweight, NWE003. This one has a very nice and clean design. Sony does actually have more pink mp3 players as well..

A common problem with mp3-players, is the earplugs that come with them. Sometimes they’re not the right size, other times it’s the sound quality. In addition to that, they can also be broken. I decided to change my earplugs with the Skullcandy Smokin’ Buds, so I would like to recommend them.

As promised, here are some pictures of my laptop:

I named it Stanislav after a dancer I saw on “So You Think You Can Dance”. Not because I liked the guy nor because he was a good dancer, but simply because he had a cool name and because Russian names rule.

I have a quite sad story to tell. On Monday, 30th of October, the Stanislav’s monitor went black. He wasn’t even a month old, and already the monitor had stopped working. Bad luck, I guess. Luckily, the machine itself worked fine so I could still use it when I connected to it an external monitor. Stanislav is currently in repair on the other side of the country (actually, since I sent him on Friday, I guess he’s not there yet). They said it would take a maximum of 12 or 14 days to fix him. So hopefully, I’ll get him back soon because I do miss him dearly.