This all seems a bit bonkaz but it’s actually quite practical. It’s a smart piece of in car bluetooth hands free kit that doubles as a rear view mirror.  The best thing is there is no wiring or tricky installation required.

You simply clip it over your existing mirror, charge it in the lighter socket (doesn’t require continuous plugging) and you have your very own hands free kit for up to 15 hours talk time.  The microphone and speaker are cleverly integrated into the mirror surround and the caller id is displayed on the mirror itself so you don’t even have to take your eyes off the road to see who is calling.

It also comes with a bluetooth headset which sits neatly in the unit so if you want to continue talking when  you get out the car you just detach it and away you go.

I think the best thing about this for me is its ease of installation so no wires no complicated set up and the time that saves by not having to get it installed in the car by someone else. And it’s pretty cheap. You can get it online for around £60 at www.udiggit.com

 Key Features

• Bluetooth version 2.0 compliant - will connect to any type or model of bluetooth enabled mobile phone
• DSP technology, full duplex - providing high quality noise and echo cancellation for clear communication
• Independent Bluetooth headset, easily detached - continue your call outside of the vehicle
• Caller ID display - straightforward visibility of identity (phone number) of inbound caller
• Supports Handsfree & Headset Bluetooth profiles - simple pairing of this device to your mobile phone
• Built in Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery -providing you with 15 hours talk time, 20 days standby time for the mirror unit, and 2.5 hours talk time, 2 days standby time for the earpiece if used independently
• Convex mirror - for an enhanced rear-view field of vision and safer driving 
• Please note this product may not clip over the rear-view mirror of every make and model of vehicle. A maximum existing mirror height of 80mm can be accommodated. A typical clearance of 15mm between the top of your existing rear-view mirror and the the vehicle roof or windscreen, depending on which is closer, is required. 
   

Following on from the succes of The Flip camcorder, Pure Digital have taken a big step into the world of HD and brought out the Flip Mino HD, shooting in 720p.

It’s dubbed the world’s smallest camcorder, weighing only 3.3 ounces and it is very cute looking. It comes in loads of funky designs and you can even customise it with your own images.

It comes with 4gb of internal memory for up to 60 minutes of high quality video. The built in FlipShare editing software has also been upgraded allowing you instant viewing, editing and one click emailing. And dont forget it has direct upload to You Tube and MySpace for sharing those emabarassing video moments with the world.

I think this is a great Christmas pressie idea, it’s available on line for around £200 at http://www.bitesizedeals.co.uk.

Product Specification:

• Internal Memory:  4GB (60 minutes)
• Screen Size:  1.5″ (transflective TFT)
• Screen Resolution:  528 x 132 pixels
• Video Resolution:  1280 x 720
• Frame Rate:  30 frames per second (constant frame rate, progressive scan)
• Video Bitrate:  8.8Mbps (average - auto adaptive algorithm)
• Video Format:  H.264 video compression, AAC audio compression, saves as MP4 file
• Lens Type:  Fixed Focus (1.5m to infinity)
• Aperture:  f/2.4 (fast lens for great results in low-light environments)
• Zoom:  Smooth multi-step 2x digital
• Interface:  8 Touch-Sensitive Capacitive Buttons (Power, Play, Delete, Record and 4 way navigation)
• Dimensions:  3.94″ x 1.97″ x 0.63″ (H x W x D)
• PC Connection:  Built-in flip-out USB arm (up to 2.0 USB speed)
• TV Out:  NTSC (cable included)
• Battery Life:  Rechargeable lithium ion battery, charges using built-in USB arm
• Tripod Mount:  Yes
• Operating Systems:  Windows XP, Windows Vista Mac OSX
• Min. Requirements:  (Windows) Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz processor, Windows XP SP2 with 512 MB of RAM or Windows Vista with 2 GB of RAM, display monitor and video card support for 1024×768/24-bit color, Windows Media Player 9.0, Microsoft DirectX 9.0, USB 2.0 port
  (Mac) 1.66 GHz Intel CoreDuo or faster processor, 1 GB of RAM, OS X Tiger 10.4 or Leopard 10.5, display monitor and video card support for 1024×768/24-bit color, QuickTime 7, USB 2.0 port
• Software:  Built-in FlipShare^TM software with upgraded features: 
  Browse, playback, organize and archive your videos
  Create movies with videos, music & titles
  Edit clips and save still photos from video
  Instantly upload to AOL, MySpace, YouTube and other video sites
  Share your videos using email or greetings cards (free and unlimited video sharing)

For all of you who travel a fair bit  www.tripit.com  is a personal travel assistant that automatically organizes your travel plans into one master itinerary. It’s absolutely free and turns your travelling chaos into order.

It does the following:

• Organizes trip details into one master online itinerary , even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites, including flights, hotels, cars, trains and more
• Automatically includes maps, directions and weather in the master itinerary
• Gives the option to book restaurants, theatre tickets, activities and more right from within the online itinerary
• Safely access travel plans online, share them, check-in for flights, or print an itinerary

It’s so simple and easy to use, Just create an account and then forward your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and tripit will do the rest.  

Happy travels!

I love books, I love going to bookshops and just looking around so the thought of making my own book that actually looks like a proper, real, grown up book is very exciting. So bring in Blurb.com.

Blurb is a great website that allows you to create your own book. And having made my first one it really is very simple and easy to use and I got it today and it is just SO cool!

The book can be made in a variety of sizes and covers at varying costs depending on your budget.

Once you have downloaded the software onto your computer, which is very simple, you’re ready to go. All the various predefined layouts for the page are listed on the left hand side which you can select depending on which photo text combo you so desire. There are 32 layouts provided allowing for full bleed images, a full page of text or anything in between.

With regards to adding images this is also easy and intuitive. If you want to use your own pictures you have to import them which is again straightforward.

Images are added to a page by dragging them from the image library on the left of screen to the placeholder on the page. Once added the image can be rotated, resized and realigned. Custom borders can be used and the software will also warn if the image resolution is too low and should be zoomed out.

Text can by typed or copied and pasted in and most installed fonts can be used. Again you will get a warning if there is too much text.

Once the book is completed it is uploaded to their website and then can be ordered from there and shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks to get to you.

My book was 28 pages long, with premium paper and a high quality cover and it cost around £ 22 in total  including delivery which I think is pretty good value for money. And I have to say I really am impressed with the final product and I hope the lucky person who it’s destined for likes it too.

For further details check out www.blurb.com

Girl Geek Alert

Make sure you use spell check, I double proofed and tripled proofed but still missed a few spelling mistakes!

Ok, so this strictly speaking isn’t that gadgety as it’s a s £500 pair of nix but wait for it, they do come with a GPS tracking system ! I know *gasp* - what self respecting girl about town would willingly be tracked in her pants (that’s not a eupehmism btw) and what nutter came up with the idea…

The ‘find me if you can’ range of underwear has been described as a modern-day, high-tech chastity belt and is designed by lingerie maker Lucia Lorio of Brazil, yes it’s a woman, errr why Lucia?

The set consists of a lace bodice, bikini bottom and faux pearl collar, with the GPS device nestled in the see-through part of the bodice next to the waist and it’s fair to say has caused some controvesy with feminists out there.

Lucia says her design targets the ‘modern, techno-savvy woman’ - slightly off the mark methinks. Maybe we should come up with a similar range for men, now that would be more fun.

Or alternatively you could agree to be tracked and then just as things were hotting up you could switch it off, maybe just as you were passing his best mates house.

Is there any girl out there who thinks this is a good idea?

I say give me Agent Provocateur anyday.

For all of you die hard Twitter fans out there, get yourselves down to the end-of-year Twitter drinks and meet-up in central London.  Entertainment and VIP attendees to be confirmed shortly…

When:
Monday December 15 from 6:00pm - 12:00am

Where:
Match Bar
37-38 Margaret Street
London, England W1G 0JF

Website:
http://twitter.com/twinterval

The Sony Vaio CP1 is Sony’s latest offering in digital picture frames. Aside from showing photos, which it does on a sexy 7” LCD display whilst calling on 16 million colours, it is also packed with a whole bunch of other stuff which is possibly a bit OTT. But the best thing about this frame is that it has wifi !

You can access all of your photos (well, not all of them!) on your computer wirelessly, rather than being limited to a certain number on your memory card. It also allows you to grab photos off compatible online photo albums such as Picasa.  

There are other features that I’m not so sure about such as the built-in RSS reader so you can keep up to date with world affairs and the weather, errr why, its a photo frame? But hold on, there is more,  it displays the time, touts built-in stereo speakers and has an MP3 player so you can have choonz with your photos. Is there no end to its talents!!

It retails in the region of £200, which is pricey but it is quite nice a pressie idea if you’ve got the money to spare!

 Girl Geek Alert

Apparently it’s not compatible with a mac so if you want to get pics off that, you have to either download them on to a memory stick and plug it in or stick your pictures in an online photo album.

Please can you give me some advice about netbooks. My daughter is ten and is always nicking my laptop. I thought I might buy her a netbook for xmas. She loves going on sites like stardoll. I know she would want a pink one, and yes I know it is poor to base decisions on colour, but she is a proper girl and that would definitely score 50% of the points with her. I don’t want to spend a massive amount of cash on it as she will probably treat it badly. There seem to be a lot of them out there but for her she just needs to be able to access a full screen of a website and perhaps msn and she also uses it sometimes for her homework research. The reviews don’t seem to focus on these points

many thanks

Tracey

 Dear Tracey

There are various netbooks out there but I think for what your daughter will be using it for the best ones to look at are the eeepc, acer aspire one, msi wind. You can get some good deals on the eeepc if you look on line, the cheaper ones tend to have linux operating system and I’m assuming your daughter uses windows so just make sure you see what the operating system is if you find a really good deal.

Here is a link to an eeepc with windows (8.9″ screen) http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=38029&source=Kelkoo

Acer aspire one (8.9″ screen - click on the colour you want on the site) http://www.acer.co.uk/aspireone/

MSI wind (10.2″ screen) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149325/show_product_overview

eeepc in pink with linux (7″ screen) http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0013AN3OQ/shopzilcouk-21/ref=nosim#moreAboutThisProduct

The best thing to do is see which one you like the most out of the above and look on pricerunner.co.uk of kelkoo.co.uk and try and get the cheapest deal.

I think the eeepc would be a good one to go for, and if you didn’t mind having the linux operating system and a smaller screen on it you can get them as cheap as £150 on line, you can still access the net in the same way from a linux pc if she is mainly going to be on the web. Or, go for one of the higher spec ones if your budget allows.

Hope this helps!

Luv
girlgeek
x

If you’re up for reviewing the latest gadgets and having a good laugh in doing so get in touch at girlgeekchic.com http://www.girlgeekchic.com/contact 

Nikki x  

 I did think about going for Bold which does have a very nice screen but it’s just too damn big and boyish (not something i say often).  Then there’s the Storm which is sexier but for me personally, the amount of time I spend sending emails, I need a serious keyboard and a touch screen just doesn’t cut it.  And it could never replace my iPhone. Oh no, not ever.

 It seems to me, the new Curve 8900 looks like the perfect solution. Similar size to the current Curve but with the looks, keyboard and sexy screen of the Bold. Details are sketchy at the moment but it should be available in a month or two. As soon as I find out more, you will be the first to know, hopefully out in time for Christmas, yeh!