Blockade Noise Isolating Earbuds are $14.99. Are the Blockade Noise Isolating Earbuds an alternative to expensive earbuds sold by companies such as Bose? Blockade Noise Isolating Earbuds could be a great alternative, but many people are skeptical.

 Blockade’s earbuds are noise “isolating” wheras expensive counterparts are noise “canceling.”  There is a difference between the two.  Noise canceling earbuds require batteries, as they contain electronics inside that cover up outside noise with white noise.

 Noise “isolating” earbuds, however, are nothing more than rubber tips jammed in your ears.  Blockade calls this a “triple flange noise isolating system.” There are no batteries, and the Blockade Noise Isolating Earbuds probably aren’t as comfy as the Bose QuietComfort earbuds.

 The Blockade Noise Isolating Earbuds do have some benefits, however.  They have a hearing-saving volume limiter.  The earbuds won’t let you listen to anything above 91 decibels.

 Some say that Apple’s stock earphones produce a better overall sound.  Those that are sound connoisseurs should probably stick to more expensive earphones.  However, those with a limited budget may find the Blockade Noise Isolating Earbuds a great Christmas gift for a kid or teenager that wants expensive Bose earbuds.

Many people have been wondering when Daylight Saving Time (DST)  is scheduled for this fall.  Mark your calendars (if they aren’t already) for Sunday, November 1, 2009, at 2 a.m.

Daylight Saving Time

There has been some confusion about the “fall back” time for DST 2009. In the past, the time change happened on the last Sunday in October. The time change now happens on the first Sunday in November.

Remember to change your clocks, but be careful as some clocks on cell phones, computers, etc., are programmed to change automatically for DST.  Also, to add more confusion, some computers and electronic devices may have already been programmed to change on the last Sunday in October.  So double-check that your clocks have the correct time.

So what is DST? Here is a description from TimeandDate.com:

Daylight Saving Time (or summertime as it is called in many countries) is a way of getting more light out of the day by advancing clocks by one hour during the summer. During Daylight Saving Time, the sun appears to rise one hour later in the morning, when people are usually asleep anyway, and sets one hour later in the evening, seeming to stretch the day longer.

The reason DST works is because its saves energy due to less artificial light needed during the evening hours—clocks are set one hour ahead during the spring, and one hour back to standard time in the autumn. Many countries observe DST, and many do not.

Note: Between March–April through September–November, it is summer in the northern hemisphere, where many countries may observe DST, while in the southern hemisphere it is winter. During the rest of the year the opposite is true: it is winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern.

Benjamin Franklin first suggested Daylight Saving Time in 1784, but it was not until World War I, in 1916, when it was adopted by several counties in Europe that initially rejected the idea.

It is difficult to predict what will happen with Daylight Saving Time in the future. The daylight saving date in many countries may change from time to time due to special events or conditions.The United States, Canada and some other countries extended DST in 2007. The new start date is the second Sunday in March (previously the first Sunday in April) through to the first Sunday in November (previously the last Sunday in October).

Windows has sometime back released its latest version of Media Player and although it can play the Flash FLV files without any glitch but there is a slight catch to it.

Yeah, you guessed it. To be able to play the FLV Windows Media Player, you first need to install the media decoder for it. The media decoder is also called in tech paralance as a Codec.

Continue Reading

I use GPS and I am hooked to them. I cannot imagine my life driving long distance (anything above an hr) without one. I am not really good at directions so this technology comes straight from heaven for me.

The Sanyo NVM-4050 Easy Street 4-inch Global positioning System which has the double whammy feature of of Text to Speech is quite a catch and the fact that battery life is really lengthy makes it first among equals.

Continue Reading

There is an irresistible deal on right now at Best Buy that you might want to check out.

The circular is dated for 7/13/08 – 7/19/08 and the details are mentioned below:

Be aware of these conditions though:

Continue Reading

The new sling media Slingbox solo is out and DBTechno has the following to say about it.

Sling Media has come out with a box called the Slingbox Solo. The idea behind the Slingbox, for those who do not know, is that it allows you to control your home TV, DVD player, etc. from anywhere in the world on your computer via an internet connection. We have always been intrigued by the idea of the Slingbox, and were lucky enough to have Sling Media allow us to test out the Slingbox Solo.

The review site is also reporting that if:

Continue Reading

The other day I was watching an advertisment and it looked pretty cool. After watching the extended demo I thought thats a sleek helicopter and must cost a fortune. Maybe only the real enthusiasts would be interested in it.

But how wrong was I.

Continue Reading

Besides all the marketing propaganda, BlackBerry 7130g smart phones offers complete functionality and top-of-the-line features such as speakerphone, Bluetooth, SMS and MP3 ring tones. All this comes in a stylish, light weight package, the phone itself.

Using the phone, one can browse the net, view attachments and run third party applications faster than ever.

Below are some of the features of the phone which might entice you to lessen the weight of your bank account:

Continue Reading

I use a Garmin 360 and I think it is the most useful piece of electronic gadget I have ever spent my dough on. (The only other device I use more often is of course, my HP laptop but that’s company gifted).

Nuvi 5000 is the latest in the series of Garmin navigational GPS products to hit the market. 360 to 5000, sure sounds like a hell lot of difference but trust me, its only numerical. There is only so much you can go as far as core technology goes. Here by introducing newer models, they are only making spec changes and not introducing a totally new concept.

Comparing with the nuvi 360 that I have, the only way nuvi 5000 or another GPS would out strip it in technology would be if it has a more robust satellite receiver.

Points of Interests (POIs), live traffic receiver, maps, all these can still be updated later on whenever a new update is available in the market.

Some cons with my nuvi 360 – sometimes it takes inordinately long to load the route map initially when you boot it up. Worst case scenario, I often have to reboot it and hold it up my arm facing the sky so that it loads faster. Also, while driving down the streets of Manhattan it would sometimes lose the signal cuz of the high concentration of tall buildings around.

Continue Reading

(Pic: Nokia 6110 Navigator, courtesy unwiredview)

It is the latest acronym to invade the mobile world. And after a rickety start, it seems to be making itself right at home in India too! We are talking of the Global Positioning System, or GPS as it is popularly known as. Basically a tool that helps users find their way by plotting their locations using satellites, GPS has of late become a standard feature of high-end phones and could be making its way to the mid-segment too.

Why GPS rocks

For the uninitiated, GPS is a technology that pinpoints the location of a person on a map. What one needs for this is a GPS-enabled device that can communicate directly with satellites , which do the actual pinpointing and then show the result on the device. So if you are using a GPS-enabled phone (say), you will be able to see yourself as a dot marked on a map of your present location.

And if you happen to have the right kind of software loaded on to your device, you could look up the most convenient way of travelling from one place to another-and even watch yourself doing so on the map! Add to that features like turn-by-turn instructions (in voice and text), information about traffic congestions as well as alternate routes, the ability to search for landmarks, and you can understand why GPS was considered invaluable for travellers who loved technology.

Continue Reading