Paper shredders are a staple in all professional office settings, but they are also important for home businesses and frequent personal use. Think of all the substantial documents you print off your computer and receive in the mail. Your monthly utility bills, information about your mortgage, property taxes, insurance, credit card bills, bank statements, and the list goes on; every one of these things contains personal information that no one ever wants someone else getting a hold of. While you may have been simply recycling or throwing away these documents for years, doing this does not guarantee that the information printed on those pieces of paper is kept confidential. That is where the importance of a paper shredder comes in.

The first personal paper shredder was designed and manufactured 22 years ago, in 1990 by Fellowes, Inc. Considered the category leader in product innovation, they have continued to stay at the forefront of the technology that is responsible for making shredding easier, safer, and faster. This attention to detail and top notch technological design is what has made Fellowes remain a trusted brand over the past two decades, and it is what you can expect from their newest personal paper shredder, the Fellowes 79Ci.

This new personal shredder was created to address shredding needs in the home, home office, or small and shared business settings, and it has some really impressive features.

The number one complaint with any shredder is jamming. Fellowes is the only brand on the market with 100% Jam Proof Technology. A sophisticated sensor measures the thickness of a paper stack and automatically stops a paper jam before it occurs, saving you time and a whole lot of frustration while maximizing productivity.

Fellowes Cross-Cut Technology uses heavy duty blades to shred one single piece of paper into 399 different pieces, making it nearly impossible to piece back together and keeping all of your personal information strictly confidential. Because this shredder is meant to be used in either a small business, shared workspace, or home environment, the SilentShred™ Technology ensures that the shredder is as quiet as possible with the use of a whisper-quiet motor. With this technology, you won’t be disturbing people working alongside you or waking the baby up from a nap every time you need to shred something. Speaking of tiny fingers, the SafeSense® Technology uses an advanced electronic safety sensor that automatically disables the shredder when hands touch the paper opening, ensuring that the shredder is completely safe to use in any and all personal spaces without fear.

The Fellowes 79Ci is available now at Staples for $239.99. What technology features of the Fellowes 79Ci have you most excited about this personal paper shredder?

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Just like you need to make sure your computer isn’t susceptible to hackers, the level of security on your smartphone is crucial–and both platforms have weaknesses. Check out the following infographic that examines the security features of Android and iOS, and also takes a look at their strengths and weaknesses.


Infographic by Veracode Application Security

Click image to enlarge in new window

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A few days ago I went to Amazon’s website, as I very regularly do, and was surprised to notice that the entire site was cleaner. It was simplistic in its delightful white space, the search area was larger and there wasn’t so much going on around the edges to take my mind off of the reason why I had gone onto their website in the first place. It took me a little while to notice the change as it wasn’t so drastic as it was cleaned up.

Turns out that Amazon has begun testing a redesign of their entire website where even the wish list and shopping cart features are more refined and a lot less hassle for people attempting to utilize their extensive list of services and applications.

Sadly my exposure to Amazon’s redesigned site has been revoked. I’m not sure why this is; it was here one day and today it’s back to the same old cluttered, headache-inducing blue and orange. In fact, I didn’t know just how annoying and hideous I found Amazon to be as a whole until I was given a much more aesthetically-pleasing view of the website. I would like to request that Amazon speed up this whole trial release business and just make what I saw the other day permanent. Please?

Many are reporting that Amazon’s new redesign could foreshadow the launch of Amazon’s very own Android-powered tablet, which would be very smart as Amazon basically championed the popularity of e-readers with their Kindle.

The Amazon tablet rumor has been making its round through the rumor mill since July, where it was speculated that it would be released in October. Some have even predicted that it would be priced at $250; another great move on Amazon’s part, undercutting the iPad by a substantial amount of money and therefore making their tablet more accessible.

Nevertheless, I’m pretty thrilled that Amazon is getting a fresh, new look and I hope the full launch date is soon. I’m also extremely interested in what an Android-powered tablet by Amazon could possibly bring to the table. Amazon, you don’t have to be so mysterious!

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Staying up-to-date on news and current events has always been incredibly important to me. As soon as I hit my pre-teen years, I began developing my world view and soaking up as much information as I possibly could about anything and everything I was interested in. I have always had the very strong-held belief that knowledge and information about the way in which the world around us works is power; this is especially true when you notice something within society that you want to help change. This belief in itself is what initially led me to start blogging. Over a decade later, this hunger for knowledge and news has only gotten more intense.

Technology has become such an integral part of how we receive and share information from all over the world. As technology continues to progress, more people are utilizing other gadgets and options in order to share information. The iPad has quickly became one of the greatest resources for new and exciting information and story-based apps being created specifically for the iPad.

A brand new app dedicated to exploring globally relevant topics just launched on April 12th. “the collection” is a media-rich “appazine”, a zine in iPad app form, that uses ground-breaking innovation that is highly interactive in its design and ensures a compelling and entertaining experience for everyone who downloads and utilizes the app.

“the collection” contains first-class articles that you won’t find anywhere else on topics that span a myriad of different topics from several points of view with a whole lot of crisp, clean photos, auto, videos and interactive elements like panoramic photography, 3D digital animation, creative morphing, rubbing and X-Ray lens, among other things. They are really rolling out all the stops to bring users a fantastic experience while staying up-to-date on the world around us all.

iPad Giveaway

To celebrate the launch of the new appazine, “the collection” is giving away an iPad! How awesome is that?

To enter to win, all you have to do is tweet the following mention and you will be automatically entered into the giveaway. This giveaway ends May 15th, so get your tweets in quickly!

Stay up-to-date with current events by using #thecollection iPad App

If you already have an iPad, you can download “the collection” free for the remainder of the year and begin experiencing it for yourself today!

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Current research and medical studies reveal that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Each time one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, she brings a league of family, friends and loved ones with her to join in the fight against it. The fight against breast cancer is never just the fight of the one diagnosed with it; it is the fight of everyone who has ever known someone who has been diagnosed.

It’s true that countless people have committed themselves wholly to fighting breast cancer, but what every person who has donated their time, resources and finances to this fight will tell you, is that the fight will not stop until a cure for this severe and tragic cancer has been found. One of the most pivotal steps in ensuring a cure is found within our lifetime is to continue raising awareness while making a difference in the lives of those who have been affected by breast cancer.

BeeWell for Life is a resource dedicated to supplying people just like you and me with the resources and tools available to make the most of your healthy active lifestyle. Their website is fully dedicated to the health and wellbeing of your body, mind and spirit while continuing to lead the way in breast cancer awareness and support through their partnership with the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization.

The BeeWell for Life website is also the home of the BeeWell Miles Program where you can Walk and Bee the Difference. For every mile you walk, run or cycle and log on their website, they will donate $0.10 to the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization to fund YourShoes, a peer support program that includes a 24/7 breast cancer center that provides a toll-free hotline, email and support groups staffed by trained breast cancer survivors, as well as other outreach and awareness services and programs.

To make sure you never miss an important health tip, be sure to follow @BeWellforLife on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook.

iPad2 Giveaway

In an effort to get more people having active conversations about breast cancer, raising awareness and to help make a difference in the lives of those affected by breast cancer, BeeWell for Life has just launched Tag4Cancer.com, where they are giving away an iPad2 to two lucky winners. To enter to win, tweet from the Tag4Cancer.com website and make sure your tweet includes the hashtag #Tag4Cancer, links back to the official Tag4Cancer website and mentions both @beewellforlife and one of your friend’s Twitter handles so they can raise breast cancer awareness too. The more you tweet, the better your chances of winning.

But that isn’t all; you have yet another chance to win an iPad2 by introducing other participating bloggers (like myself) to some of your most inspiring, motivating friends! To enter to win, leave a comment on this post telling us how or why a certain friend of yours inspires you to either be fit or to make a difference in others. You must link to your friend’s blog, Facebook profile or Twitter handle in your comment.

For the list of participating bloggers where you can also comment to enter to win an iPad2, check out the contest rules. This contest will end May 31st.

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I have something to tell all of you that will undoubtedly surprise a great deal of people, especially those who list their cell phones as one of their most important possessions they couldn’t bare to live without. I have never owned a cell phone before in my life, nor have I ever had any experience with a GPS. It is all just so, completely foreign to me. It seems that for as knowledgeable as I am when it comes to blogging and to social media, to graphic design and web development, I am just as unknowledgeable when it comes to most actual gadgets.

So when Nokia sent me their Nokia N8 handset loaded with a program Nokia has just recently made available on a wide variety of their phones–the Own Voice for Ovi Maps application–I was full of apprehension.

When I first received the Nokia N8 phone, I knew my partner would benefit more from having a reliable phone full of great features more than I would. Firstly, I work from home and have substantial anxiety issues that keep me in the house most of the time. He, however has been known to go out on the road with bands and play live shows, as well as needing to travel long distances for work. This would alleviate my worrying to a certain degree when he does that. Win/win. While he has been using the Nokia N8 as a smartphone for calls and keeping up with social media and networking, after we got some service for the thing with T-Mobile who offers a great month-to-month service plan, we really got to test out the Own Voice for Ovi Maps application when we traveled from Northeastern, Pennsylvania to Kent, Ohio just a few weeks ago and had no idea where we were going for a good portion of the trip.

Firstly, the set up of Own Voice is kind of funny. The phone prompts you with what you say and you speak into the microphone in the phone and it records your voice saying “turn right”, “you have reached your destination” and other directional prompts. Over and over again. This process is a lot more fun if you have someone you care about record these prompts for your phone, instead of having your own voice give you directions while you drive, which could be a little weird for some people.

When you have your directional prompts all recorded, just open Own Voice for Ovi Maps on your phone and set your destination. Your handset will automatically detect where you are and will guide you to where you need to get.

In addition to recording your own voice into the application, Own Voice for Ovi Maps also lets you download voice packs that other people have recorded for the application, and choose from an extensive variety of pre-loaded voices, including a sophisticated English woman’s voice.

For the most part, when my partner and I traveled to Kent, Ohio, Own Voice for Ovi Maps got us to our location effortlessly. That is, until we were traveling from Akron, Ohio, where we had just finished an amazing breakfast at IHOP, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to visit a good friend of ours. After the Own Voice for Ovi Maps got us out of the parking lot of IHOP and down the highway a bit, it immediately told us to take a U-turn, followed by first left turns and another U-turn. The application simply must have thought that we would absolutely love the scenery in Akron and did not want us to leave. After we decided it would be best to not listen to the GPS and get towards the highway we needed to be on, the phone then automatically zoomed all the way out and showed us an image of planet Earth. Just in case we were not aware that we needed to be in Earth in order to get to Pittsburgh.

Luckily, after a few hiccups, the application did get us to our destination, after forcing it to recalculate the route once we were on the highway and going in the right direction.

One of the weirdest, and most frustrating, aspect of the application is that while it gives you the option of choosing feet, Ovi Maps insists on reading everything to you in meters. While I understand that the Nokia N8 phone is predominantly available in Europe, if the option to convert from meters to feet is there, it should work, but it does not.

The Nokia N8 phone itself is chock full of really great features, including a 12 megapixel camera with sound quality that rivals the two other cameras I own. In fact, the sound when playing back video and recordings is about the same quality of my HP laptop. What completely blows my mind, however, is that the speakerphone quality when you are talking to someone is atrocious. If you are on the phone with someone on speakerphone, you can barely hear the person on the other end regardless of if you have the volume turned up completely. If you have a Nokia N8, you can also purchase a Nokia Bluetooth Headset that is said to make the quality of the sound produced by the phone better.

The Nokia N8 also has an HDMI connection so you can show your images and play your videos and music on compatible televisions and even projectors with a high-definition 720p resolution. It also features integrated social networking, pulling feeds from Facebook and Twitter to one application. It also supports games and additional apps you can download.

You can download Own Voice for your phone by visiting their website and simply entering your country and phone number.

Disclosure: I received a Nokia N8 phone from Nokia in return for this review.

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We have all heard of voice recognition software. A lot of us have even used it, but not nearly enough people have had overwhelming success with it. Instead, it’s more like overwhelming frustration or hilarity when you tell your phone to call your husband and it dials the number for your Great Aunt Mable instead. The people behind Evie, a new iPhone app that uses voice recognition to make your daily life a whole lot easier, especially when you’re on the go, have been working to change that.

Evie lets you do more on your iPhone than one would think possible using only your voice. Sure, you can use it to make a phone call. Evie dials any number from your list of iPhone contacts just by asking the app to “Call Tom Smith on mobile” or “Call Tom Smith at home.” You can also tell it to call a specific phone number. But voice activated dialing is something we have all come to expect from voice recognition software. That’s not really an absolutely impressive selling point or anything. So how about we delve a little further into what Evie is capable of doing?

Facebook is a never-ending source of entertainment, current events and news, meetups and more. With Evie, all you have to do is load the app and tap the Facebook icon or simply save “Facebook” and Evie will read your Facebook news feeds at any time, even while you’re driving. How many times have you been out running errands only to come home, sit down at the computer and realize you’ve missed some really important things going on that you wish you knew about sooner? It happens to me all the time. Once you download Evie, however, it won’t happen nearly as much.

Under normal circumstances, when my partner and I make plans to go out of town, we spend a few days prior to our trip looking for additional points of interest around where we’re going to be or what we’ll drive by on the way there or back. This is normal for us so when we have to be somewhere without getting a good week or so notice beforehand, we embark upon our journey blindly, which honestly, can be a little scary for me, the mega-planner. I know there’s a lot of people out there who also like to do their research before heading out for a few days, so if you’re ever traveling and want to know what else is going around the town you’re in, just load your Evie app and let Evie find what you’re looking for along the way. Evie can find gas stations, movie theaters, restaurants and more. The app can also help you call a specific business or point of interest and show you the directions to get there. If you also have AT&T Navigator, Evie will automatically turn over to navigation mode and give you turn-by-turn directions to get you where you need to go.

Traveling, whether you’re just out for the afternoon running errands or traveling across great distances just isn’t the same without music. With Evie, you can play specific songs, artists, CDs, genres, podcasts and even audio books that are stores in your iPod. Using just your voice, Evie can play them all. Pretty cool, right?

Evie is an iPhone app that is so versatile and can do so much that it is the perfect addition to your iPhone apps regardless of who you are and what your lifestyle is like. Best of all, it’s a completely free app, so there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t be utilizing it.

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Lomography has just released an awesome special edition of the classic ’60s Diana F+ model camera. Take My Heart takes 120 squares, and gives the photographer seemingly endless creative options when paired with the many lenses and accessories made for the Diana F+ camera. This special Valentine’s Day edition features an artistic Adam and Eve artwork skin, a red plastic body, and features a bitten apple on the lens cap and “Take My Heart” detailing on the lens.

The Diana F+ “Take My Heart” camera is available at Lomography for $99.

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If you’ve been on the lookout for Black Friday deals at Apple, the announcement that they will indeed be having a shopping event has finally come.

Right now on their website there is an announcement urging customers to browse the Apple Online Store for gifts now, but to come back November 26th, Sadly, no specific details or deals have been released, but they promise there will be “dozens of great iPad, iPod, and Mac gifts” for everyone.

Mashable notes that last year, Apple had a similar Black Friday shopping event, but the deals while decent, weren’t spectacular and perhaps not on par with the laundry list of amazing deals that Black Friday is notorious for. Their best deal last year? At best you could save $100 on more expensive items such as the iMac or MacBook Pro.

This year Apple will most definitely be focusing on the iPad, so if you’ve been thinking of getting one, Black Friday will undoubtedly be the day to pick one up for yourself, or for someone special on your holiday shopping list.

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Dell has just recently put up a product page for their new Dell Inspiron 15R Alloy Edition laptop, a 15.6-inch laptop with laser-etched waves covering its body and inside matching palmrest. Alloy Edition makes this laptop seem fancy, modern, cool, superior even, but after looking through the gallery, I feel very confident in saying that this laptop is just plain ugly. Perhaps it looks a little better in person, but the complete overuse of the wave pattern covering this laptop is really one of the last patterns I would want to look at every day.

There is no starting price or release date available on the product page and although Dell has a customize button on the page, the Alloy Edition laptop isn’t yet customizable. As for the specs, you can expect pretty much the same from the Alloy Edition laptop as the other Inspiron laptops. A choice of Core i3, i5 or i7 processors, a 15.6-inch, 1336×768 display, integrated Intel graphics or an optional ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, up to 8 gigabytes of RAM and up to a 750 gigabyte hard drive.

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After all the years of companies trying to come up with shocking, totally out there products, I do not frequently come across something that makes me think “Wow, did they really do that?” But that’s exactly what I did when I came across the tampon flash drive from Meninos, an online retailer that reminds me, in a lot of ways, of ThinkGeek when it comes to simple products like t-shirts, mugs and yes, tech gadgets like flash drives that are utterly hilarious and not really compatible with everyone’s taste level.

Sadly, there is no definitive price on the tampon flash drive, which has to be horrible for sales because I know I’m not one to go ahead and email a company about a product they have failed to make openly available. I did immediately think that I needed this product when I first saw it though because, what can I say, I really like weird things that start some even weirder conversations. Not to mention that I also run a website called Menstrual Poetry. This tampon flash drive would be hilarious and I would love it, but what about you? Would you carry this flash drive around with you and undoubtedly collect very weird stares from people who catch a glimpse of it?

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It seems that for as many distinct and eccentric personalities there are in the world, there is a different phone to compliment each one. Everyone expects certain features from the phones they choose that go far beyond just being able to make and receive phone calls and text messages. As the technology we utilize on our computers continues to evolve, that same technology must evolve on our cell phones as well. Not only do you need to perform your basic functions, but because so many people, myself definitely included, are wired to the internet and to social media and networking most of the time, for a phone not to have those pertinent functions is downright unacceptable.

A phone service that keeps the demands of web professionals on the go in mind is Boost Mobile. Boost Mobile not only designs phones that are social in nature, not to mention extremely stylish and downright pretty, they also understand the minds of those who are dangerously fickle about their phones and pride themselves on not signing people into long-term contracts. Their monthly unlimited service for Blackberry is great, giving people features like multi-media messaging, instant messaging and web and email access for a flat rate, instead of nickel and diming their customers for every single addon that they essentially expect a phone to have.

One of the best features Boost Mobile has is their featured Re-Boost program that lets you pay your bill in a variety of ways to ensure that you get your payments in on time and at maximum convenience for your daily lifestyle. You have the option of paying your bill online, setting up worry-free automatic payments with a credit or debit card, or register your card for future payments. You can also pay in person at your local Re-Boost location and you also have the ability to pay by phone. The Re-Boost program also lets you add money to a friend or family member’s Boost Mobile account using a credit or debit card without tying your card to that person’s account.

If you’re in the market for a new phone or phone service, check out Boost Mobile and everything they have to offer all without signing yourself away to a long-term contract.

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The iPhone 4 will hit the shelves on June 24th and just about every Apple junkie is counting down the days, hours and minutes until they can finally hold it in their hands and call it their own.

If you pre-ordered your iPhone 4, Apple has good news for you — they have separated pre-order customers from the non-pre-order customers, making everything a whole lot less time-consuming for those who thought ahead and wanted to make sure an iPhone 4 would be in their possession as soon as possible. For the rest of you, it’s going to be a very long wait in line the morning of June 24th, you have my sympathies.

While you may think you can just hop in your car and head on down to the nearest store that stock electronics, you should know where the best–and the worst–places to try to score your new iPhone are, so pay attention.

• Apple Store
  Doors to Apple stores will open at 7am and there will be two lines, one for customers with pre-orders and one for non pre-orders so make sure you get in the right line so you don’t waste your morning (or night before) away.

• AT&T:
  Select AT&T stores will also be opening early, so make sure to call their customer service line or your local AT&T store to see if your location is one that is opening its door earlier than usual and also be sure to inquire about their stock of the iPhone 4.

• Best Buy:
  Speaking of the stock a certain store will receive of the iPhone 4, if you plan on hitting up Best Buy, keep in mind that it has been confirmed that they will only have anywhere from 20 to 70 iPhone 4Gs per store, and that is the 16GB version. The 32GB versions will be more rare, with each store only receiving as low as 10. If you have your heart set on a white iPhone, you may not be able to get one at all at Best Buy because while they have been ordered, it’s unclear if they will be received in time for the day of launch.

• Walmart:
  This is the first time Walmart will have a new iPhone on launch day. Most of the Walmart locations open at 8am but if you plan on heading to a 24 hour location, I know from experience that they will sell you products that have a specific launch date as early as 4am. However, because the iPhone 4 is such a big deal, you may want to call your local Walmart and double check.

• Radio Shack
  Radio Shack announced via Twitter that customers could begin pre-ordering their iPhone 4 on June 15th and have been taking orders since. However, there is no real clarity on how many phones they will get in stock for launch day, so only bet on Radio Shack as a last attempt.

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It seems as if Barnes & Noble and Amazon may have a price war going on. Barnes & Noble recently released a WiFi-only Nook for $149 while slashing the price of the full-featured WiFi + 3G Nook to just $199.

Amazon caught wind of the new price-adjustment of the Nook and acted accordingly–by dropping the price of the Amazon Kindle e-reader from $259 to $189, undercutting the Nook by $10 and reclaiming their position as the most affordable e-reader on the market.

According to Consumer Reports, the Amazon Kindle is not just the most affordable e-reader, it also ranks the highest in terms of performance, readability and portability, beating out nine other competitor e-readers including the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Apple iPad, Sony’s Daily Edition and Touch Edition, among others.

With the $70 price drop, will you be going out and purchasing a Kindle?

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So if you’ve been relying on your standard, energy-sucking alarm clock or even decorative desk and night table clocks, take a look at this awesome clock from Bedol.

The Bedol water clock is your standard timepiece that also has an alarm clock built in it.

First of all, it must be mentioned that the Bedol water clock looks really, really cool. It’s hip, colorful and fun. The purple clock is pictured here, but is also available in an array of colors including blue, orange, green, and pink. How it works is pretty awesome, too. By converting the ions from water into energy, this clock keeps perfect time without the use of batteries or standard electricity. It runs solely on water and you can fill it with plain tap water by unscrewing the base of the clock and filling it right up. The water will not need to be replaced for at least 12 weeks, but if you forget to refill it and it stops, it has a built-in memory chip that remembers the time so you don’t have to reset it.

The Bedol water clock is perfect for anyone who strives to reduce their carbon footprint, for kids and teens who will definitely get a kick out of its water technology, and for anyone who travels and doesn’t want to lug around their bulky plug-in alarm clock. And with a price tag of just $29, why not pick up a couple of them?

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The Mac and PC-compatible Yoda keyboard is a standard size keyboard with 11 shortcut buttons along the top, including the functions home, email and search, to make access to your most frequent web stops that much simpler.

The keyboard is gold with black buttons and features the unmistakable wise Yoda, who is hanging out in the top right corner.

So what do you think, is it too much to show your pride through your keyboard or is it just tasteful enough for you to need to have one?

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The Apple iPhone makes it easy for people to be a little greener by using apps that make it easy to find directions and use maps instead of printing out maps and directions to take on the road with you and it also lets people subscribe to the RSS feeds of online publications like NYTimes.com instead of flipping through a paper. With a piece of technology that helps you give a little back to Mother Earth, it’s only natural that your accessories, apps and disposal of these resource-savers do the same!

Agent 18 is a great, eco-friendly company committed to greening your iPhone and iPod accessories. Their EcoShield Slider is a sleek, tough case for your iPhone or iPod made from recycled plastic bottles. ($34.95)

The Better World Shopper iPhone and iPod app that has accumulated 20 years worth of data on over 1,000 companies from food manufacturers, baby care, vehicles, clothing, airlines, banks, body care and so on, and gives each company a grade (A through F) on how good of a corporate citizen that company has been when it comes to human rights, the environment, animal protection, community involvement and social justice. ($1.99)

Find Green iPhone and iPod Touch app lets you find green and sustainable businesses quickly and easily and helps you make everyday choices to reduce your environmental impact. Find Green is powdered by the GenGreenLife.com database of 56,000+ green businesses who have evaluated all businesses in the directory to ensure validity of the app. (free)

Don’t know where you nearest recycling center is? Use the iRecycle iPhone and iPod Touch app to find any recycling location in the US. You will find places to drop off old cell phones, water bottles, motor oil, and even mattresses and other hard-to-recycle items. iRecycle also makes finding local green news easy by giving you the latest headlines from Earth911.com. (free)

Don’t even think about throwing out your dead Apple computer, iPod or iPhone! Apple has a recycling program and are doing all they can to lessen their–and your–impact on the environment. You can recycle your computers and displays by mail, for free, so Apple can recycle responsibly and domestically. You can also mail in your iPods and mobile phones or bring them into an Apple Retail Store for 10% off a new one!

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In our very fast-paced, technologically-advanced and demanding society, if you’re going to buy a phone, chances are you’re going to buy one that can pretty much do anything and everything your computer can do–and then some.

Every time a new phone comes out, I am blown away by all of its features and add-ons you can choose. Technology has truly made it possible to accomplish everything you need to get done while you’re on the go. However, one thing I have noticed with the phones that seem to have everything you would ever need or want it to have so you can work while you’re out running errands or on business trips, is the price tag and even more crucial than that, the committment. When different companies are always coming out with new phones possessing a whole new web of technology, needing to commit to one provider and one phone becomes a problem for me. I don’t want to limit myself, I don’t want to be stuck with something that my friends and colleagues laugh at because they’ve got the brand new, super awesome phone with everything and I’m still stuck with the equivalent to an archaic piece of tech that no one uses anymore–or wants to use. Staying true to the message of our instant gratification society, I want the best that my money can buy right now and I want everything that goes along with it. I’m greedy like that.

Enter: Boost Mobile.

Boost Mobile knows what we all want when buying a new phone and isn’t afraid to offer it up at an affordable price without all the strings that come with other providers. They are launching the brand new SANYO Incognito; a sleek, sexy phone with nationwide coverage, EVDO capabilities, a full QWERTY keyboard, 2MP camera with VGA camcorder, music and video player and enhanced web browsing. The SANYO Incognito comes with the price tag of $129.99 (plus tax), comes with a $50 monthly unlimited plan and absolutely no contract is required. That is an absolutely awesome plan, if you ask me! If purchased through the above link, the SANYO Incognito SCP6760 will also come to you with free shipping, which is a huge perk because I know how much I hate getting my debit card out to pay for something, after frugally selecting my items and making sure I’m in my budget, only to have my jaw drop when I see the shipping fees.

The SANYO Incognito also has a list of additional features, making it easy for you to do any kind of business on your phone wherever you are, like multi-media messaging, so you can send videos and pictures to your friends, family and colleagues in a snap, it is stereo Bluetooth capable and it also has a GPS so you (hopefully) won’t ever get lost again. All in all, the SANYO Incognito from Boost Mobile is the absolutely perfect phone containing everything and anything you could ever want in a smartphone for a fraction of the cost of most leading brands out there, and without all of the hassle of the contract. The contract is always the killer.

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If you’ve never heard of Alice before, it’s a website that makes it easier and cheaper for you to shop for your household essentials like Q-tips, toilet paper, laundry detergent and more and even get reminders of when you’re running low and need to order more–and not only that, but Alice will ship your order right to your house so you don’t even have to go to the store. From a personal perspective, Alice is a hermit’s dream. When you download the Alice iPhone app (for free, I might add!), you will have full access to product lists, coupons, reminders and shopping cart. You can access price comparisons, ingredients, customer reviews and coupons for the top 50 daily deals on Alice.com.

Get the new Alice.com iPhone app

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There are thousands upon thousands of books and periodicals available in the Kindle Store, but sprinkled throughout all of the material you have to pay for, there are also hundreds of free or extremely cheap items available for download. Instead of having to sift through thousands of items, you can now find all of the free and very cheap items available just by typing -domain in the search bar of your Kindle or on Amazon.com.

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The Sansa slotRadio from SanDisk is the ultimate no hassle music player. There’s no transferring your music from your computer to your music device; no trying to figure out how to get music transferred if you’re not completely comfortable with music downloading or music playing gadgets, no waiting for all of your files to transfer or wondering how much space you have left on your mp3 player and if all of your files will fit, because if you’re as big of a music freak as I am, they can continue making mp3 players with more and more space, but you will always have more music needed to be loaded onto it and chances are, you’re going to run out of that space real quick. The slotRadio comes pre-loaded with 1,000 full-length songs featuring artists from the Billboard charts, professionally arranged into genres that you can flip through. It also has an FM radio integrated into it so if you listen to the morning radio shows you won’t miss them while listening to your slotRadio. Additional slotRadio cards are available for purchase if you want to mix things up a little. You can purchase additional cards for a variety of genres, including health and fitness for all of those great songs to work out to, rock, country, R&B/hip hop, oldies, 80′s and 90′s, daily mix and the slotRadio mix. However, even if you listen to your slotRadio constantly, it will take you quite some time to get through all 1,000 songs that are loaded onto the Billboard charts card that you receive with the player; I have had my slotRadio for a little over a month now and still haven’t made my way through all of the songs. It definitely has something for everyone and something for everyone’s many moods.

You may be apprehensive about the idea of a pre-loaded music player; what if you don’t enjoy any of the songs that are on the card that comes with it? I had the same apprehension and so did my partner who, when I initially told him about the slotRadio told me ‘You should just get a regular mp3 player since you’re guaranteed to like all the music on it.’ But after we both had our time with it, we found that there were many, many songs on the card that we both loved. A misconception that we picked up on from looking at the slotRadio website and actually using it ourselves is that the Billboard card is not full of songs that are currently on the Billboard charts; it encompasses a great deal of songs from years. I was very pleasantly surprised to get reacquainted with a great deal of songs that I had forgotten about completely that took me right back to those good times from the past that gave me that incredible warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you reminisce on past memories that are attached to the songs you heard on the radio or the bands you loved at that time.

All in all, I absolutely love the Sansa slotRadio; I listen to it when I’m working on my laptop from bed and have even used it quite a few times while sitting at my desktop, even with my ample supply of music at my fingertips that I have on my desktop. If you’re looking for a quality music player that involves no work or hassle whatsoever, I would definitely recommend you check out the Sansa slotRadio.

If you would like to purchase the Sansa slotRadio, it is available for purchase on the official website as well as to Radio Shack stores nationwide.

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From now until September 15 Charter is running a Laptop-a-Day Sweepstakes! This contest is for the student who is heading back to school in September (or August, as I know is the case here) who needs a laptop for homework, projects, research papers, and of course, being able to work on your schoolwork on the go! It’s also perfect for businesspeople who are attending meetings, conferences, or just need to get out of the house for a little while to work in peace at a local coffee shop or restaurant. Having a laptop makes it easy for you to get through your workload on the go and even produces a more efficient businessperson or student out of you.

The winner of Charter’s Laptop-a-Day Sweepstakes will receive an HP 550 Notebook 15-inch with Windows Vista and a NeoTec Compu Backpack. In addition, you will also have the chance to receive a gift card ranging in value from $25-$100 with special online deals from major retailers in clothing, home and accessories, restaurants, and more!

This sweepstakes runs from now until September 15 and don’t forget to keep up with all Charter news by visiting Charter on Facebook and following Charter on Twitter.

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I type approximately 84 words per minute with a 4% error rate (Yes, it’s been tested.) Because of how fast I type, I require my hands to glide across my keyboard effortlessly, so you can imagine the frustration that comes with having to press down really, really hard onto a key to get it to type the letters on the screen. My first keyboard, I believe, was the first keyboard made for the computer, so the no-name company really did not grasp the concept of soft keys for their keyboards. The second keyboard I’ve had (and retired today!) was another no-name keyboard that meant well, however, it frequently spazzed out for periods of time, either typing the same letter for quite some time or not working at all. This was not a jamming of the keys or anything, it would just literally get hormonal.

This morning my new keyboard came and after using it for a little while, it is the perfect keyboard I’ve had in mind for years.

The Logitech Classic Keyboard is a no-frills keyboard; it has a great shape, it’s black and sleek looking, but most of all, the keys are so soft making for great rhythm and flow when writing and working!

When I was thinking about how wonderful it was to have a keyboard that actually felt and worked great, I had a look around my office and realized… All of the computer-related gadgets in here are Logitech!

In addition to the classic keyboard, I am also using the Logitech LX3 optical mouse, the boyfriend is using a snazzier version of my keyboard, also by Logitech, and he is also using a Logitech webcam full-time for all of his video needs, which is quite a job because he gives guitar lessons over on YouTube.

All in all, my family pretty much relies on Logitech for all of our computer accessory needs. They are great quality products, affordable, and won’t let you down!

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Last weekend we had the opportunity to meet a wonderful new parenting advice search engine, Mamapedia, and now we’d like you to try the site out for yourself with our new contest, “What Can I Learn Today?” One grand prize winner will win a VADO digital video camera!

To Enter:
1. Visit Mamapedia and ask any parenting question.

2. Choose how you want to enter – or choose all three for more chances to win:

• Comment to this post with your question and the answer you found
• Blog about Mamapedia on your own site sharing the question you asked and the answer you found
• Vlog about Mamapedia and your question/answer at New Baby.

3. Fill out this secure form to let us know that you entered.

It’s that easy! Then join us for another SiteWarming Party on Twitter Saturday, May 23rd from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m eastern time to find out who won! There will also be several great door prizes.

Good luck!

*This contest is open to all U. S. residents 18 years or older and ends May 23rd at 9:00 p.m. eastern.

*This contest courtesy of Momfluence – Rocking the Cradle and Shaping the World.

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The minute that Barack Obama took the oath of office, people started to question his tech habit, asking if he would conduct official business via the device, especially considering we are a country at war and all official presidential business is mandated to be performed under a microscope. With the media and the public’s speculation, President Obama has decided that he will keep his Blackberry for personal use only; anything government-related will be handled on a NSA-approved phone, a Sectera Edge smartphone.

While the specifics of the Sectera Edge aren’t widely known, CNN made a short video explaining the capabilities of the device.

This should definitely work well with a president as tech-savvy as President Obama, but only time will tell if he carries both of the devices.

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