So you’re scratching your head thinking about what to pick up for your techie friend who seems to have virtually everything a geek could dream of? Perhaps he has dropped a hint of his liking for enjoying TV shows right smack in front of his PC without ambling over to the living room and turning on the TV set - which is where the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-3000 comes in. Noted for its long line of TV tuner cards that have picked up tons of awards and accolades over the years, you can be sure that the WinTV-HVR-3000 will not disappoint if the impressive list of features are anything to go by.

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On Friday afternoon I heard a rumor that the “iPhone” was coming out on Monday, December 18th. It was an interesting rumor because most people thought that Apple would announce their mobile phone product at the January 2007 Macworld conference.

Well, a new product called the iPhone did indeed come out today but not from the company that everyone thought. Linksys announced the iPhone in this press release, not Apple. So what the hell happened? For almost a year now people have been speculating about the possibility of Apple releasing a communication product called the iPhone. But apparently Linksys, a unit of networking equipment maker Cisco, already owns the “iPhone” trademark. According to BusinessWeek.com, a company called Infogear registered the “iPhone” name in 1996. Cisco then absorbed the “iPhone” trademark when it acquired Infogear in the year 2000. Oops. Score -1 for the bloggers. We really should have picked up on that little tidbit months ago.

Just like the rumored Apple version of the iPhone, the Linksys iPhone a Web-enabled telephone handset is compatible with all major Internet chat services including Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, QQ, and ICQ.

So if Apple really has a mobile phone product in the works, they obviously can’t call it the iPhone. What about a variation of a name they already own like iChat Mobile? While the name of this product may still be in question, a trail of clues about an Apple phone product have been popping up all over the Internet for over a year now:

• In June 2005, the source code of an iTunes update contained multiple references to an Autofill phone playlist function.

• Apple has owned the domain iphone.org since December 1999. It redirects traffic to apple.com.
• In March 2006, a source at BenQ, a Taiwanese phone manufacturer confirmed that an Apple phone product was in the works. Why would BenQ leak info about an Apple phone to the media? Sour grapes. Hon Hai Precision, a competitor to BenQ, allegedly won the phone contract with Apple.
• Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, might have let the ‘cat out of the bag‘ on an Apple analyst 2006 Q3 conference call when he said the following: “As regards cell phones, we don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And [Apple is] not sitting around doing nothing.”
• According to analysts, Apple is rumored to be ready to release an Internet phone product at the January 2007 Macworld conference. “From a technical standpoint, the phone is pretty much done,” said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu. “It’s a big endeavor and we believe it’s beyond speculation.” Apparently the rumored existence of an Apple phone has morphed from a question of “If” to “When.”

Here’s the official Linksys press release on the iPhone.

digg story | methodshop

Who is the best-known hip-hop artist in the fictional land of Chub City? Chub C of course. At least that’s what it says on the box. Just don’t tell Hype. He’s the white version of Chub C (a la Eminem). What the hell am I talking about? That’s a good question.

Both Chub C (black) and Hype (white) are interactive toy characters called i-Playaz from a company called Jada Toys. i-Playaz connect to any music source including your iPod, CD player, computer or even an old school Sony Walkman. Just plug in an i-Playaz character and play some music. The i-Playaz characters will then dance to the beat and even play your music through a built-in speaker in their heads. There’s also an audio output if you want to connect better speakers to your i-Playaz character.

When I first got Hype in the mail, I was already on my way out and brought the box along with me to a bar down the street. I figured I’d just test him out for this review when I got home. But while I was waiting for some friends to show up, the people at the bar kept asking me what was in the box. I was curious to see what my i-Playaz could do anyway so I took Hype out of his box and set him up on the bar. With his sideways hat and flashy bling, it’s no wonder that everyone at the bar started calling him K-Fed, after Britney Spears wannabe hip-hop ex-husband. If you know someone who is trying to pull off the K-Fed white hip-hop thing, Hype will bring you and your friends hours of entertainment.

Full Review: i-Playaz Interactive Hip-Hop Toy

Back in May we covered the USB Turntable, the handy little gadget that let you rip all your old vinyl onto your PC. If all of your old school music happened to be on cassette you’d be a bit stuck. That is until now thanks to the Plus Deck Cassette Converter.

The Plus Deck Cassette Converter slots into any vacant 5 1/4 drive bay on your PC. You now have a front loading cassette deck that can be used to play tapes of your PC or more usefully rip them to a less stone age format.

You can get the Plus Deck Cassette Converter from Firebox for £99.95.

Want some positive blogger buzz about your product or service? Maybe you should just buy it like Bill Gates. To help promote the Zune and get some positive Microsoft buzz, Gates coughed up a dozen round trip plane tickets to Redmond, hotel rooms, and Zunes (of course) for a group of gadget and tech bloggers. He then hung out with the bloggers for an hour and answered one question from each of them. Once you factor in the total cost of this stunt, I wonder how much Gates paid per letter for a handful of blog posts?

So what did Microsoft get in return for all of this? Were the bloggers wooed by Bill’s big wallet? Yep.

• Check out the tech-news search engine Techmeme.com. Today their homepage was practically a mural to anything related to Bill Gates, the Zune or Microsoft in general.

• While most reviewers are panning the Zune, blogs like TechCrunch [see post], Micro Persuasion [see post], and GigaOm [see post], are restricting their Zune coverage to DRM issues or posting “feel good” pieces about Microsoft.

Honestly, my criticalness against these other blogs is probably part jealously. Why wasn’t MethodShop.com invited out to Redmond? Oh well, I’m an iPod guy anyway and we’re too small of a blog to make much of a dent for M$. But I do give some of these bloggers credit. Most of them (not Ryan) were upfront and disclosed that Gates gave them free Zunes and paid for their flights out to Microsoft headquarters.

But on the other hand, should corporate blogs like Micro Persuasion and GigaOm, who have venture-capital financing and/or big name PR firms, really be accepting free stuff and sacrificing their objectivity?

How cheap are your personal ethics?

digg story | methodshop

You’ve got your brand new 30 gig iPod, maybe even the 80 gig version, but don’t feel like paying the money for iTunes TV shows but you really, really, really want to your shows on there. It’s quite the dilemma, especially for the technologically impaired. If you’re a techie and know you’ve got a relative exactly like this, consider getting them the iRecord this Christmas. No computers are involved, and all it takes is the push of a button.
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Nearly everybody and his mother already has an iPod, which is why getting an iPod as a holiday gift idea is not exactly the wisest thing to do. What you can do, though, is to pick up a third party iPod device that will enhance the owner’s experience with the world’s most popular digital audio player. This wish is fulfilled with the MusicJam portable audio effects mixer for the iPod, effectively turning this ubiquitous MP3 player into a recording machine that boasts a host of other functions up its sleeves as well.

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I’m not the most organised of DIYers, I’m currently fitting a new kitchen and the place is a bomb site of cabinets, pipes, tools and B&Q receipts. I just come across this toolbox that could help with my lack of tool organisation, the iPod Radio Toolbox.

The iPod Radio Toolbox is like a regular toolbox (you know one of those things you’re “meant” to put your tools in) but also incororporates an AM/FM radio, speakers and a connection and holder for you iPod (or cheaper alternative).

You can get the iPod Radio Toolbox from whatever works for $49.99.