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Plenty of auction sites exist for people who want to sell off their old things that still have some market value but never has there been a site so noble as to offer to buy people’s no longer needed electronic gadgets. That would be gazelle.com. Unlike auctions sites, they’re paying consumers for sending them their gadgets that were probably replaced by newer models. The purpose is environmentally friendly because there is an incentive for people to not throw their old electronics into the trash but instead let these be reused and still stay in circulation for as long as possible.

It’s a wonderful idea but certainly not the ultimate solution yet. It will buy companies and governments enough time to figure out how to properly deal with the ever increasing amount of special wastes such as electronics. The proper disposal of these things are not yet shouldered by most companies as the technologies that could recycle or at least make components less hazardous are still very costly and impractical. We are not really mindful of the speed of our technological advances and their consequences. Where else would all the waste go? They’ll be buried in landfills. The goal of gazelle.com is to make usable old electronic gadgets stay in circulation for as long as these can while everyone else figures out a better way to deal with the ballooning garbage problem.

Space on earth would not be enough to hold all our garbage in the next centuries. It’s a waste of our resources to keep converting material that won’t even be of any value to nature itself. Untreated wastes are indeed very wasteful of our resources because there are still things of value that could be extracted such as more service life or other valuable substances that could be reused or recycled. The problem is that the process of doing so is quite labor intensive as is the case in computer parts. Millions of tons of electronic garbage are shipped to developing countries that are willing to accept these as surplus second hand items but will eventually end up in these countries’ landfills as their facilities are unable to cope with the proper treatment of such wastes. So far the prices offered by gazelle.com are reasonable and would make the resale of these items in distant developing countries unfeasible. Remember, should you choose to circulate your old stuff instead, you would have contributed to lessening the garbage problem.

I don’t have many gadgets that I want lately except I’ve been eyeing on a netbook for a while. Currently the cheapest I find is about $300 to even high $200 Canadians, plus tax of course. While this is within my range, I am still telling myself to wait until at least Boxing Day for better deal.

I now have a change of heart as soon as I saw this from Gizmodo about Microsoft’s prototype booklet called Courier. It looks like a labtop/netbook with two sides that fold like, well, a book! The major difference is the two sides are made of two 7 inch multitouch screens. I can already see one of the screens being the keyboard when needed since it doesn’t have a physical one. The screens are also designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, no surprise there.

As nice and as much as I want the Courier, I will have to wait until there’s a production version. I highly doubt it will be as cheap as the netbook but hopefully cheaper than a Mac?

Image source: Gizmodo

So I was reading an article on BusinessWeek, it wasn’t directly related to gaming but it got me thinking about how it could apply to gaming. Motion-sensing isn’t new, not even in gaming since the Nintendo Wii has been out for some time now. The article talked about how TVs and PCs will soon work like the Wii, basically they will behave based on user input, in this case, improved built-in cameras track body gestures like nods, head shakes or a hand wave.

Again, such technology isn’t new but it just hasn’t been widely used yet, except the Wii.

It got me thinking, what would the future of gaming like if motion-sensing technology were more widely used? I was thinking as far as playing Call of Duty 4 without controllers where camera coming out of my PlayStation 3 would track all my body and hand movements and reflect that on the game. Like tilting your head forward would mean forward movement, tilt a bit more would be running, tilt back would, obviously mean moving backwards. These should be easy to do but I was also thinking about tracking my finger movement to the point where the game would know I was trying to fire a shot, where I would aim at and when I wanted to reload, I think the latter one is harder.

Will my thinking/dreaming become reality? I think so personally, its just a matter of time. Before we can fully immerse ourselves to video games.

A custom desktop is every gamer’s dream. It can offer you hours of enhanced game play, and eye-candy and high quality graphics to those looking for an exciting gaming experience. As opposed to a regular desktop, a gaming desktop is especially tailored to display graphics and videos needed to give you that heightened thrill of the game.

A custom desktop is better than a pre-built one primarily because it is easily altered according to your gaming needs. This gives you more leeway and freedom to tinker with and add more to its functionality. Likewise, you can upgrade its RAM, plug in a faster hard drive, and include more add-ons like new controllers and hardware. You decide what goes into your desktop, giving you unlimited options to meet your gaming requirements. To top it all off, a custom desktop is cheaper and more affordable compared to a pre-built gaming desktop. If you have the skills, you would have no problem at all in assembling the parts you need to create your customized gaming desktop.

If it is ultimate gaming paraphernalia you want, but do not have the money to strain, then a custom desktop is definitely for you. Why splurge on expensive pre-built gaming computers if you can have one with the very same or even better specs for a cheaper price? Just make sure to buy quality desktop components, mix and match it with other parts at hand, and you are all set for hours of gaming bliss without scraping the barrels of your funds.

GPS tracking technology is like a double edge sword. While it can save you when you bump into life’s glitches, it can also become a source of annoyance. Sure my wife can know my whereabouts when I’m stuck in traffic or can send help immediately when mishaps happen, but then what if she begins to breathe down my neck and check on my location all for the sake of watching my every move? Wouldn’t that be much like having a stalker or having my privacy violated?

This technology is so powerful and enabling that it almost comes across as something abominable to me. Having the feeling of being watched by someone is already burdensome, but what’s even more alarming is having someone closely intertwined in your life wielding the power of a GPS. No matter how much you put logic into the benefits of having this technology, it still presents itself as a nuisance. It would make me feel like I should always be on my toes, not to mention feel conscious about my actions and destinations.

Instead of strengthening ties, having the power of a GPS tracking technology would only give more rooms for doubts in a relationship. Instead of bringing me closer to my wife, I might even feel more alienated because spontaneity in my actions would be, to some extent, affected. In the end, my wife and I would both feel restless about having the power to know each other’s locations and having the feeling of being monitored anywhere we go. GPS is definitely not a good idea for couples because it might only bring them to the brink of hitting the rocks.

The Apple iPhone has been such a hit that 1 out of 10 of my friends has one, be it the first generation or the new iPhone 3G. They are always constantly looking for iPhone Accessories to personalize their iPhones.

Wireless Emporium, Inc offers a huge selection of iPhone Accessories such as iPhone leather case but I much prefer one of these Silver Aluminum iPhone cases.

WE (Wireless Emporium) also sells screen protector films as well as a huge selection of faceplates of different colors and styles. Aside from selling these protective products, WE also sells iPhone compatible hardware such as chargers, data cable, battery, holsters / belt clips and over 50 different hands-free headsets to choose from.

Wireless Emporium not only provides accessories for iPhones but it also offers accessories from other brand name wireless products like Sony, BlackBerry, LG just to name a few. There are also a few phones that you can purchase on the site as well.

The web site is also user friendly because you can browse the products by their brand names, accessory types or carrier types. For those that do not know the model of their phones, the site also teaches you where to look for it (as quoted from the site “The model number is noted on the back label of the phone”).

If you are looking for accessories for your cell phone, you should drop by Wireless Emporium and check out its huge selection of wireless accessories at very reasonable prices.

First I want to apologize for not taking the protective sticker off the screen because I haven’t had a chance to buy a real screen protector yet.

Today I had a chance to play around the c902’s interface. One thing I want to point out is that instead of having two rows of buttons surrounding the center Navigation key like the T616 and k790i, the c902 actually has 3 rows of keys or buttons (the manual calls them keys). The top row has “Selection” keys and they function based on what are displayed on the screen. As for the middle row, you have the “Call” Key which also displaying the call history and “End” key on the opposite side which also acts as a on/off key as well as closing all the menus. Finally the last row has the “Toolbar” key as well as the “Clear” or cancel key. There are more on the right side of the phone but I will cover that tomorrow when I review the camera.

Honestly I am still trying to get used to these three rows of keys and I still press the wrong key once in a while. I don’t recommend this phone for those with big fingers because the keys are rather narrow. I’m not a big person myself but I’ve hit the wrong key before because of the narrowness as well as the little space in between them.

First thing I noticed when navigating through the Grid layout (default style) menu is how fast the screen saver gets activated for inactivity, roughly 20 seconds. I have no luck finding the option to extend the screen’s active time. There are four styles for the menu layout – Grid, Rotating, Single icon and From theme. I am unable to test the last one because I don’t have a theme that supports menu layout yet. After testing the other three styles I still prefer the classic Grid style that displays all 16 icons.

The menu is pretty standard with the only a few additions comparing to my T616 and K790i. The PlayNow, Radio and the Alarm function is now on its own separate icon as oppose to having it as part of the Organizer. The PlayNow allows you to buy and then download music to your phone. For more information, visit the Sony Ericsson page I found.

Basically the menu offers functions that are pretty common among other cellphones out there, nothing special in particular which is fine because I think the real strength of this phone is the 5 megapixel Cyber-shot digital camera as well as the games. Stay tuned for my camera review tomorrow and games the day after!

Related articles:
Sony Ericsson c902i hands-on review (Day 1)

One of my tech savvy and hardcore networking friend was talking to me about how expensive it is to purchase all these brand name equipments like Cisco routers and switches, can cost a fortune, for personal use that is. My friend, or more suitably the businesses, can reduce their networking costs by purchasing these refurbished and used networking equipment from MULTI-LINK Communications Products or MLCP. Take one of the used Cisco Equipment , Cisco Catalyst 6513, for example, a brand new one cost approximately USD 13k, but you can get it for less than half of the full price for a used one.

You might be asking the question “well are these MLCP networking equipment reliable since they are refurbished and used?”. MLCP offers 1 year warranty on refurbished equipment which is 4 times longer than the industry-leader Cisco.

If you are a business owner or a networking fanatic like my friend, you should check out what MLCP has to offer and watch how much you can save with its jaw-dropping prices for refurbished and used networking equipment.