Have you noticed lately that more and more people are finding it harder to resist the allure of all the latest gadgets and gizmos? The items don’t have to be technology related, although those are certainly the most talked about “whatsits.”

My mom gets a mail order catalogue that has its share of gadgets, even though they are pretty far down the list.  You’d call these “toys” low tech. From gizmos that open those pesky aluminum can tabs, to back scratchers, to little balls that grab lint, to slippers that dust the floor as you walk, new inventions and conveniences abound in such catalogues with promises of making life easier and saving us time.

I must confess that I love checking out all the latest tools and toys for grown up girls and boys. It makes good bathroom reading. Oh, wait…am I allowed to bathroom online? Guess I just did. Twice.

It seems like just yesterday, that we were happy if our CD players would tell us what track they were on.  Or listening to a cassette tape and listening to the whole thing because there just wasn’t an efficient way to find the song you wanted to hear.

Then there were MP3 players – where you could actually see what song you were looking for on a convenient LCD screen.

But, we are now on the verge of moving past LCD to MP3 players OLED screens.  What this will mean is a resulting increase in battery life for the player, as well as cheaper production costs.  There is even talk of making MP3 players and PDAs with foldable displays, further reducing their size.

Some of the early devices that will have OLEDs will be based on Sony OLED technology.  Though there are a couple of devices currently on the market, it will be some time before the thinner and cheaper OLEDs become the mainstream display technology.

I never cease to be amazed at the new devices and gadgets that are always coming out.  While I try to keep up with everything new, it is just not something that is possible.  Lately, I have been following the latest iPhone news on many different sites, and the more I read about it, the more the technology behind it amazes me.

For example, I find that the number of iPhone accessories that were available.  Just like with the iPod accessories, you can find something that will let you do just about anything with your iPhone.  Whether it is charging it in the car, or a set of speakers which will let you listen to music wherever you are, chances are there is an accessory available for whatever task you wish to accomplish.

I have also been following the games that are available for mobile devices and watching their evolution.  From the simple puzzle games such as Sudoku, to the newer, action based shooters, the available iPhone games are a great way to spend those couple of free minutes that you have on the bus, or on the plane.

I am very interested in what new things that are going to come out for the iPhone – I am simply amazed so far.

So, I bought a mobile phone, and I rushed to get home to see what was in the box.  Guess what I found?  Just the phone, a charger, and the manual - that’s it.  Feeling a little disappointed, I jumped on the computer to find some accessories for my phone.

My first stop was at a mobile forum that I have spent a lot of time at: Interweb.in.  You see, that forum is where I read reviews on which phone to buy and learned some good tips there.  I figured that it would be a good place to start and I was right.

I found a post on the forum that said where I could get cheap gadgets - it was an India gadget website.

I checked out the site and was pleased to see that this gadget India site had accessories for my phone.  I quickly ordered a mobile charger, case and kit to hook the phone up to my laptop.  The price was ridiculously cheap - which I didn’t mind at all.

I just need to wait until the accessories show up - I know they will be worth the wait.

I am not one for plain and simple anything, so I was definitely not going to be one for plain and simple when it came to my phone. I was so excited to be the proud owner of an iPhone. The first week I had it, I downloaded so many iPhone ringtones that I thought I was crazy, but no, that is just me.

My friend has some really amazing Motorola ringtones and I was curious to see if I could find some cool ones for my own. I did not know that there were different ringtones for different cell phone brands, but, I learn something new everyday. And besides, I don’t want the same tones as she has anyway.

Since I am on a Cingular plan, I can also download Cingular ringtones, which are different than those that other phone companies have to offer. I am pretty proud of my new phone and even prouder of its incredible rings. Right now, I am playing the theme from Star Trek. Beam me up Scotty.

I recently decided that I had way too many photos on my digital camera and computer.  Unlike the old days of printing pictures from film (if you are old enough to remember), you sure seem to collect a lot of pictures compared to negatives.  Perhaps this is because the digital media you buy to store your images (think memory card) is reusable, so there is really no cost per picture - at least it is not as significant as film.

The one thing that I find really difficult is trying to search through your archives for a particular picture - which can be pretty overwhelming.  I mean, if you have ten thousand pictures, how do you find the one about you three years ago, playing in the mud puddle with your son?  All I can say is good luck.

So, I was looking for a free search tool for images, and I found a couple of them that said they had nothing for sale - the tool was supposedly free.  I have already uninstalled a couple of them as some of them had spyware, or other ads embedded in them.

For the few I have left, I am going to have to use them for awhile to see which one comes out the victor.  When I do figure out which one I like the best, I will let you all know.

Now, where is that picture of my car from three years ago….

Tomorrow night I am volunteering my time to teach a class about iPods at our community center in town.  I was asked a few months ago if I would teach the class as I was the computer consultant for most of the people in town.

The last class I taught went okay, but I missed a few of the newer iPods in my presentation.  So, I have been working on adding to my presentation and I have been making a few more slides.

Most of the new slides have been added to the section on video conversion.  I had some slides on how to convert iPod Classic video, but now I have expanded the presentation to include iPod Nano conversion, and the iPod Touch video converter.

I didn’t have a chance to find out how many people have the new iPods, but I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry.

I have a few more slides to make, so I better quit writing here and work on the slides instead.  I hope the presentation goes well - I might just have to practice before tomorrow night.

Computers are much like humans - they work long hours and are prone to sickness.  These illnesses can include viruses, spyware, and registry errors.  Sometimes these problems can happen for a reason, or they just seem to happen by chance.

Thankfully there are ways to protect your computer and "cure" it from these problems.  Most people have the first two problems covered as most computers have some form of anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed on their machines.  But what about registry problems?  Thankfully there are solutions for that as well.

While reading one of my favorite computer blogs today, they had a feature article on the best registry repair software on the market.  Intrigued, I had to take a look.  After reading a Regcure review and Registry Easy review, I was able to understand what these software products did.  They could repair registry problems, optimize computer performance, while at the same time protecting your registry from dangerous changes.

Even though they did not clearly state which product was better, I felt that I had a better grasp of what I could do to maintain my computer’s health besides hiring a computer technician to do it for me.

Alright, I’ll admit it, I love video games.  I love them so much, that if I could, that is all I would do each day - play games.  Sure, this wouldn’t make my life too productive, but at least I would have fun - and that is what life is about.

You might think that a video game addict like myself would not read - but that is not true.  In fact, I spend a lot of time reading reviews of Wii games and also Xbox reviews.  I find reading them quite informative, and I try to base my game purchases on the reviews I read.

Lately I have been trying to find a Nintedo Wii, but I have had little luck.  Whether it is a shortage of the units (that would be my guess) or the fact that the stores in our town are not as big of a priority as larger centers.  I think I may have to find one online - I may have better luck there.

Well, I made the plunge today and bought an iPod Nano.  I decided on the Nano because I was just going to listen to music, but from time to time I would take it jogging with me.  Getting an iPod with flash memory was key, as I didn’t want to jar and damage one that had a hard drive in it.

The transaction seemed pretty simple.  I picked the color, made sure to ask the clerk if everything was in the box, and I was on my way.  When I got home, I was so excited, I ran into the house opened the box, and looked at my new toy.

What?  Only the iPod, headphones, and a USB cable?

I guess that was it.  I was under the understanding that the common iPod Nano accessories would come with it like an armband case and maybe a charging cradle, but I guess I was wrong.  Now, I had planned to buy some stereo speakers for iPod later on, but what about the other stuff that I expected that would be in there?

My last MP3 player was one from San Disk - and it came with everything you would need.  I should quit complaining and try it out.

Well, it seems that the iTunes software is not included in the box either.  Once I downloaded it, my iPod worked great, but I think that Apple should include an important warning on their iPod boxes:

"Accessories Not Included"