Joe Stewart's blog

A simple, affordable flip phone from Alltel and LG that has a 1.3 MP camera and bluetooth. The Fastap Press-to-Experience keys are six Quick Keys integrated with the regular numeric keypad. The ability with Realtone Jukebox to play music stored in the memory slot (up to 8 GB) might be a good reason to choose this phone. There are external buttons to make controlling the music player much more convenient.

Alltel Wireless is offering the LG Swift, in a red and blue clamshell design, for $49.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. This discounted price is for new customers on two-year service agreements, as well as existing eligible customers on qualifying rate plans.

Zebralight makes amazing little flashlights and headlamps.

With the included accessories the H60 can be used in other ways than a headlamp. The lanyard or pocket clip makes it easy to use as a task light. It has 3 click modes, but each mode can be memorized to one of two levels. These levels go from a High mode at 190 lumens down to the Low mode that can run continuously up to 26 days. And not just with a spot, it has an 80 degree smooth flood beam.

Zebralight uses the great Cree LED's to drive this bright little light. The H60 requires one 18650 size battery and is OK with it being a rechargeable.

The price for the Zebralight H60 is $79. Check it out, or if you would rather one that uses a single AA battery, the Zebralight H50-Q5 Headlamp at $49 is an awesome light too.

Samsung is going to make the long awaited Omnia available in the US in a CDMA version from Verizon. They of course released it in Asia and then Europe much earlier in GSM. This SCH-i910 is otherwise identical.

Similar in size and general appearance to the iPhone, the SCH-i910 runs Windows Mobile 6.1 with built-in 128 MB RAM and 8 GB of storage. PhoneArena says "...this is the first device with a built-in support of not only DivX, but XviD video.". Very cool. It also has a 5-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, GPS, and something I like – built-in FM radio.

PhoneArena has lots of details starting here - www.phonearena.com/htmls/Hot-new-phones-coming-to-Verizon-next-month-article-a_3375.html

UPDATE - 11/25/08: Samsung Releases New All-Purpose Smartphone for Holiday Season

Much of the US is accustomed to power problems from thunderstorms, but are not prepared and have taken no precautions. Give yourself peace of mind during thunderstorms and while traveling with the Duracell Powerpack 450 to provide portable backup power.

The Powerpack 450 provides AC output at a continuous 340W to power a variety of household devices like laptops and your blender while camping or picnicking at the lake.

The display showing runtime is a very nice feature. I'm not sure how much I would like it talking to me though. But for some people, the voice instructions giving step-by-step usage might make all the difference and give them confidence in emergencies.

More conventional features are a 150 PSI compressor, 2 ft. jumper cables, and a 5 watt lamp.

Get more info from Duracell, Xantrex or read the press release.

Palringo is available for Windows and Mac (currently in testing) but its niche seems to be when used on a mobile handset like an iPhone or Blackberry.

For your existing contacts it supports Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live!, etc. but also adds a dedicated Palringo account. This Palringo service has easy to add or join Groups providing office and small business users a convenient way to communicate.

A feature that might prove useful is voice and picture instant messages. Send a quick voice message to a co-worker.

Beejive has a somewhat similar IM client and Fring competes on the iPhone. Read more

Gmail has a To-Do list manager now. Well not really. This is third-party integration of Remember the Milk (RTM) inside Gmail. RTM users have had a very effective Firefox extension for quite awhile so integration isn't new either.

The Remember The Milk Gmail gadget incorporates all the good stuff from the main RTM task management site like tags, multiple todo lists, and different task priorities. Everything entered in the Gmail gadget is available on the RTM website and any external services used too. If you aren't familiar with RTM already, check out the features and screencasts.

What makes this stand out is that it isn't tied to Firefox. Safari, Opera and IE users can use it now too. Since it is enabled inside Gmail it doesn't have to be installed on each computer you use. Read more

This notebook is Samsung's first consumer laptop to integrate fingerprint sensors. Using AuthenTec's sensor makes for a convenient and secure usage of fingerprint authentication.

The lightweight notebook is a full featured multimedia PC despite only weighing 2.8 pounds. The 13.3 inch computer includes 3 USB ports and an HDMI connection. The Lithiumn Ion battery should provide a long runtime in part because the X360 uses a 128GB solid stated drive. This SSD is a big deal for lots of reasons since there are no moving parts for storage, like less heat generation, the computer is quieter and more rugged.

Check X360 availability with Samsung. 

This simple email service is a fun little application. Its only purpose is to periodically email you a selection of your most interesting photos from a year ago. They don't spam you with additional email.

There are just a couple of options. I have it set to pick from photos from six months ago. This is long enough that I've forgotten about the pictures and highlights the change in seasons. It's a fun little reminder.

It only works for Flickr at this time. However Photojojo has a simple request form asking how to extend it to work best for you.

Get started with Photojojo's Photo Time Capsule.

The BlackRapid R-Strap is worn across the torso and not around the neck. It stays in place and the camera slides up the strap when in use. The R-Strap connects to the camera using the tripod mount. So when not in use it rests upside down.

No more having to hold on to the camera when leaning over to pick something up. There are just a few options – with and without storage pockets and a camo version. Read more

Google Labs is rolling out a feature that will allow you to send a SMS message to a friend's cell phone from inside Gmail's chat. This is not groundbreaking news in and of itself. Yahoo and AOL already have this. SMS via AOL/AIM is the one reason I still use AIM every now and then.

Instead of sending email to the cell service provider or create a temporary id, your gmail account will be assigned a phone number in the 406 area code.

Unfortunately I mostly use a Google Apps account so don't normally see all these cool new things available in the Labs. A regular gmail.com account of mine does not have this feature added yet. So I can't use it yet.

Has anybody tried it yet? What are your impressions?

Via: Techcrunch: Gmail Labs Adds Text Messaging Feature

and Webmonkey: OMG! Gmail Adds SMS Chat