Last year (although I'm FIRMLY looking FORWARD in 2009) was a banner year for fabulous and affordable, practical, enjoyable electronic finds for me. Above is a picture of an incredible gizmo called the ClickFree automatic backup and restore system. It's an external hard drive, yes, but it's designed to simply plug into a port on your computer and instantly back up your computer however you want. It knows how to separate all your different types of files (documents, pictures, music, videos, saved email, etc) and it truly does it all by itself! You can back up several computers and it instantly recognizes which one you're dealing with at the time. Also, most helpful, is you can use it to restore or transfer files to a different computer, too! I love this thing and it really saved my bacon when I had to purchase a new laptop due to the demise of my former one. Easily I put all my important stuff onto the new machine and I can access it, like, presto! It's lightweight, doesn't require a power source, comes with it's own cable....you don't even need to install any software to run it! They come in different sizes.....I think mine is 165 GB. It's designed to be able to deal with the contents of up to 10 different computers. I can't recommend this gizmo enough. OH oh....how could I forget! It was INCREDIBLY reasonable to purchase and now, of course, it would cost even less. And when you think of the importance of all your material, how can you not have something like this for when your computer ultimately bites the big one? We do know that's a matter of "when" and not "if". Being prepared is such a secure feeling :-)
This is an amazing thing which is SO beyond just being an electronic "reader". It's the "Kindle" by Amazon. Even before adding any additional memory (via a memory card) it will easily hold the contents of 200 books. But WAIT....you can do so much with this thing, it's truly astonishing. It comes in it's own little binder thing, but knowing I'd need to be able to keep the binder closed with this in my purse, I purchased an upgraded one. So it actually "looks" like a book. However, you can ALSO go online with this thing! It uses something called "whispernet" (a form of cell phone type technology supported by Sprint) which requires NO subscription or fee to use at all...even if you have no relationship with the Sprint people --- which I don't. You can Google stuff, go to lots of sites, get the weather for anywhere, read blogs.....incredible. The QWERTY keyboard, albeit small, is easily negotiable and the thing is totally intuitive to easily learn. Yes, the screen is in black and white, but basically, aren't most of the books you read? Additionally and wonderfully, there's a "Kindle store" which you access with your Kindle and the cost of books in this format are SO MUCH less than in hard copy. Plus, if you want to subscribe to any of SEVERAL newspapers or magazines, they are extraordinarily inexpensive and each edition is instantly, automatically delivered to your Kindle. Weighing 10 oz, this little gizmo is a dynamic wonder. It has so many more features to make your reading/browsing experience, especially on the go, just a delight. Oh! Also, you can load your music onboard and listen to it (with ear buds) as an MP3 player as well! OK, if you go to the Amazon site, you'll see it's pretty pricey. But if you're an avid reader, the books are SO much less expensive. I was very fortunate to able to purchase mine via a huge coupon together with an amazing special promotional sale so it put it within my price range (which, as a pastor's wife, is, well, stuff has got to be as inexpensive as possible). It charges quickly and holds the charge for HOURS and hours. It's just simply fabulous!!
Although this LOOKS like an iPod, it so totally is NOT. It's a Sansa e280 MP3 player. What makes it different from an iPod? Oh simply tons of marvelous things! First, it's way less pricey, plus it's not nearly as delicate, being a flash player with no moving parts. This model with 8 GB of storage, will hold thousands of things: more music than you could imagine (and you can organize this into play lists by album, artist, genre etc), pictures and videos and has a built in radio receiver as well. The color screen is very attractive and the battery life (rechargable) is amazing. It has a wonderful equalizer so you can adjust the sound settings for your music to suit your specific taste in sound. And the quality of the sound it produces? WONDERFUL. This is my second Sansa MP3 player, the first having been a 1GB model which required a AA battery. The e280 is an upgrade for me and my former Sansa is alive and well and living with a friend I gave it to who'd been so wanting an MP3 player. Also, I can simply plug this one into my car and it will play directly through it's sound system! Yay! Plus, not being an iPod, you're not locked into iTunes for your downloadable music and can purchase it anywhere to download to your computer and sync it onto the player (as well as music you've ripped from CDs, of course). If you are into researching for the best prices, find great sales, you'll be able to find this for an affordable price. It's sleek, light weight, attractive, reliable and just totally amazing.
If you have an MP3 player, doubtless you've wished for the ability to listen to your music (and share it with others at the same time as well) without ALWAYS being tethered to earbuds or earphones. This is the GPX Music System with iPod docking station which is compatible with other MP3 players as well. Those 7 odd little things in the picture are just adaptor dealies for different models of iPods so they can "dock"/click into place. For other MP3 players, you simply use a cable the type of which I can't instantly recall (RCA cable?) but had on hand and presto --- you're in business. The quality of sound is GORGEOUS and there's quite a bit of cable for each speaker so this could easily be a bookshelf stereo system. I have mine with the speakers right next to the central unit (which also has a nice clock) on the table next to the bed. Additionally, this system has a marvelous AM/FM radio receiver with an additional unobtrusive wire antenna which provides for fabulous reception. And the price? I got mine for a smidge over $25.00, including the shipping. Oh...and did I mention it even has a remote control? Yup. How can you miss! LOVE this thing.
So, there you have them! The 4 fabulous electronic gizmos I acquired in 2008 which really DO make life easier and more fun and will last for a long, long time. When you find things as great as these, you just HAVE to share the info! Enjoy!!!
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