Today is the first time that I have used my new MacBook outside of the house or college and I have to say I’m impressed with its performance. I’m sitting in a pub in Wales writing this entry. I am indoors though because the glare from the sun is too much.

My Windows Laptop was, and still is, way too noisy to use these days without deafening everybody within a 20 foot radius. It’s a shame really, because it was a nice laptop when I first got it. Maybe I should format and install Windows XP on it (currently has Vista). Having a Windows machine does have advantages too, don’t get me wrong. It has the software I use for my University course on it and I can’t afford to put them on the MacBook just yet.

It’s nice though to be able to go out and not be stuck in the house on such a nice day. The battery life on the MacBook is extremely impressive. I charged it this morning and have been using it for about 3 hours already, and it informs me that I still have 2 hours of charge left!! Mind you, I’ve only been doing basic word processing today on it. Everything about this machine impresses me if I’m honest. Much more than any Windows based machine ever did.

There’s always something new to discover and most times the software that comes with the MacBook for free would cost you an arm and a leg for a Windows based machine.

I’m definitely an Apple Fanboy now. Viva la Apple!!

Microsoft have released Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista recently. I’ve not downloaded it myself yet but I thought it would be good to let you all know of it’s availability. There are two versions of the service pack available; a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version.

Since getting my MacBook I’ve become used to it just working unlike my Windows Laptop that constantly needs to be checked for viruses and updates. I’ve also seen the difference in the load times between both machines (The MacBook wins hands down).

This new Service pack is meant to support new types of hardware and emerging standards according to the Microsoft website. Microsoft are working on a new Operating System at the moment too, which should see a release date soon (Windows 7).

I’m going to include liks to both the 32 and 64 bit versions at the end of this post for your convenience. I personally don’t know if I’ll bother with the download. It’s a constant battle with me keeping things up to date and because of the way that Windows Vista works on my machine it tends to slow everything down to a crawl when it does an update. I’m even considering going back to Windows XP an the other laptop because it used to work so well for me.

We use Windows XP at college, so it makes sense to have the same OS running on one of my machines. I tend to use the MacBook more these days because of the programs that are on it. iMovie and iDVD are the ones I’m using the most at the moment.

So, here are those all important links for the downloads should you choose to do it.

32-Bit version
64-Bit version

Some of you may remember that I posted about buying a new 22″ LG LCD Television at the beginning of the year. Well, that TV had to go back because it had a fault with it. It kept getting white lines across the screen, and would become un watchable. So the 22″ LG LCD Television had to be sent back for a replacement. I arranged for the courier to pick it up on Monday, and today I got an email saying that a replacement 22″ LG LCD Television was on its way to me and would be with me by tomorrow.

I do really like the 22″ LG LCD Television when it works. The picture quality is crisp and bright, and it works well as a monitor for the computer. I’ve not been able to test the Freeview out on it yet though as it isn’t available in my area. That will happen in November according to the Freeview website. I’ve not been able to test the HD quality out on it either, as I don’t have anything that outputs a HD signal yet. I am hoping to get a Sony Blu Ray player soon though. Once I do get it, I’ll write about it here first.

Anyway the company I bought the 22″ LG LCD Television from were very quick with their assistance and support; the turnaround time is amazingly fast. Quite a few other companies could learn a lot from the customer support that eBuyer provide. It is an A1 service, and I will be recommending them to others in future. I have purchased quite a few items from them because of their highly recommended after sales care. From the reviews I’ve read people only have praise for them and I will be adding to that shortly.

So fingers crossed that my new 22″ LG LCD Television replacement works properly this time. Although I know that if anything is wrong, I’ll be in good hands if it needs returning.

If there is one major complaint I have about the Nokia n95 (apart from the fact it’s not an iPhone) is that battery life pretty much sucks, especially if, like me, you are using it to the extent of its capabilities. I’ve actually just become used to charging it overnight, in the car, and in the office and of course this means that very few times when I’m doing a normal days work it will run out of charge. But what about when I’m out and about, or travelling? Yup you guessed it, more often than not I’m left with a dead phone. What about my other gadgets, they also need their power fix while on the move. Well that’s when a solar powered charger could come in very handy indeed.

Products such as the Freeloader, allow you to position this on your back, so you don’t even notice that your getting your power fix. Then using the various connections it comes with you can charge your iPod, mobile phone or practically any other electronic device you may have on you. The nice thing about it is you can also charge its internal battery using a usb connection to a computer, so if you are in a hurry to give it some juice you don’t have to wait for the sun.

If you have a bunch of gadgets which require standard batteries then you may want to consider this charger, which can actually double as a light for a bicycle and supports all types of standard batteries. Again very useful if you are planning a long trip and need to ensure your battery powered device stays with you the whole way.

Of course there may be a fundamental issue with these solar charges, especially in the UK. Over the past couple of years our summers seem to have lost one crucial ingredient, the sun ! Now that’s something that we could all do with a little more of.

So CES2008 is well under way and the technology blogsphere is full of the latest and greatest technology to be doing the rounds in 2008. What has caught my eye so far?

First up computer monitors and heck, it looks like flat screen monitors are so 2007 - the new kid on the block looks to be curved with Alienware showing off their offerings. For some, though, they will say that this is a beast in more than just features, given that it’s much thicker than a traditional LCD. The technology behind the monitor is Digital Light-Processing (DLP) which gives the monitor its bulk, however the curved nature is supposed to give the gamer a more immersive experince. I’m used curved displays before and I must admit they do provide a better experience in some circumstances, so I’ll be interested in how this takes off.

On the home cinema front, and specifically on the audio side of things, the big thing at CES was wireless speakers. I must admit, every time I need to install a new bit of kit in my cinema room I get so annoyed with the room full of criss-crossing speaker cables. So the minute I hear that we could finally be getting good quality wireless audio I need to sit up and pay attention. Today the only semi-decent solution is a one speaker solution, however Neosoniks solution, which uses an AV controller to help distribute the audio around all speaker systems. Again I’ll be keeping a close eye on this.

Finally, for now, how about High Def displays? Just when we were getting our heads out LCD vs. Plasma and the whole High Def story we start to hear about a new technology - OLED, or Organic Light Emitting Diode. The main feature of this technology is the ability to create an ultra thin High Def TV - and by thin, how about 3mm thick !

It’s interesting to hear that a lot of people come out and say that CES is getting more like showcase based around an evolution of technology, rather than a true revolution. Looking however, even at these three products above, I would say that in some cases we perhaps are on the edge of some kind of technology revolution - and that makes me a very happy geek !

So throughout 2007 I’ve gotten into video podcasting and life streaming in a big way. If you check my blog you can see links to my lifestreams (kyte.tv, qik.com, seesmic, and youtube) Now of course what makes most of this possible is a decent webcam. Even if you aren’t into the whole lifestreaming side of things you may still want to consider a webcam for sending video messages to friends and family who perhaps you don’t get to see as often as you would like. I also know some people use their webcam as a poor-mans home security solution. As you can see the options opened up to you upon owning a webcam and pretty extensive.

The nice thing about webcams is that you don’t need to pay the earth to get a pretty decent camera. Take for example the Creative Cam Notebook Pro, one which I have owned in my time. This camera is small and portable, ideal for those on the move and will hook onto the lid of your laptop. The camera can also swivel 180 degrees to take an image behind it - perfect for the James Bond fans among you. Despite its small size this camera packs quite a punch, delivering 30 frames per second (fps) at 640×480 (vga) resolution. As I said I had this camera and found it perfect for video calls on the road.

If you are after a webcam for use at home then you may want to consider the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000. This camera offers 30fps, similar to the Notebook one above, but this time the maximum resolution is 1600×1200. I’ve also been a fan of the QuickCam range, owning a QuickCam Pro 4000 at the moment. The nice additional feature to this is its small size, meaning once again you can take it on the road.

Finally don’t forget that quite a few PC manufacturers are building a camera into the lid of the laptop. Although this probably won’t be up to the standard of the QuickCam Pro, in terms of resolution, the benefit of having the camera built in could be one to consider when looking for a new laptop.

Digital photo frames have been around for a while now and with more and more being released every week their uniqueness and novelty is kind of wearing off, but just as with all other aspects of technology they are constantly growing and going through the technology evolution process. Digital photo frame company eStarling have “pimped up” their latest frames with a whole load of great new features and have put uniqueness back into the digital photograph frame.

The eStarling WPF-288B has an 8-inch LCD screen, 128MB memory, is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista & MAC OS X and can take pictures from photo sharing websites such as Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket and more! The frame has its very own email address so you can subscribe it to photo RSS feeds or send it pictures via email from computers or even mobile phones. Each frame has its own email address but it does have a Group Frame feature where you can set up a single email address so all frames correspond to each other. You may be thinking “How is this thing receiving these emails?”. Well the answer is Wi-Fi and if no Wi-Fi is available it will still work as a stand alone digital photo frame. It can even receive text messages! either from a Seeframe Live account or authorized mobile phones.

Sadly though at the moment this is only available in the US but there are other options, they may not all have their own email address but larger frames, higher quality and Wi-Fi compatible are still available.

The Carlsberg Draught Master is the gadget that has caught my eye the most recently, planting itself inside my head begging to be bought. Wether it’s because Carlsberg are telling me “It is probably the best gadget in the world” or just the fact that i am a man and beer is one of the main things on my mind anyway, nothing is going to stop me owning one of these. The Carlsberg Draught Master gives you beer, on tap, in your very own home. Wether it’s because you want to play “Barman” or simply that you want to have a good, cold, pub quality beer in a tall glass in your very own home, I’m sure this will be top of most guys Christmas want list.

The Draught Master is basically a bunker top beer tap similar to a coffee machine, by that i mean you wont have to wire it in or attach it to the wall not that it will dispense coffee too. The Draught Master contains the keg inside its casing so there is no need for running tubes from a basement or anything like that. One thing you do have to do is chill the beer first but once you have put it in there and opened it up, the Draught Masters twin speed fans and cooling functions will keep it chilled and fresh for up to 3 weeks! It has took the guys at Carlsberg 7 years to design and make this thing. I can only assume they spent most of the time drinking beer out of it than actually working on it! But 7 years does prove that this thing has a bit of technology behind it.

So ladies, if you are looking to score some Brownie points with your man this Christmas, get him one of these!

So first all let me welcome you to the new brand new gadget blog here at PriceGrabber. The aim of this blog is to highlight some of the gadgets and technology you can expect to find on the Pricegrabber website. Whether your interest is in photography, movies, video gaming or computing, we will have you covered.

There will be a few of us contributing to the blog so you can expect to find fresh content on an almost daily basis - just what you need as we come up to the holiday seasons in both America and the UK.

I hope this blog is especially useful to those who sometimes find searching through gadget and technology websites somewhat confusing especially when trying to decide on that last minute gift for the man or woman who already seems to have everything (I know my wife already has that problem with me).

We hope to cut through some of the usual techno jargon you see on some other blogs and give honest and clear reviews of some of the latest technology on the street. A big part of the reviews will be to try and compare similar products which hopefully will help you in your quest for the ultimate mp3 player or flat screen TV something I know from personal experience can be a daunting task when faced with Gigabytes, Pixels and HighDef Ready signs.

And of course as this blog is linked directly to the main PriceGrabber website once you have read the review you can simply click on the link which will take you through to a page where you can purchase the item - couldn’t be easier right ?

So that’s all from this post right now but we hope to start building the content on this blog from now so make sure you bookmark us or subscribe to our RSS feed - gadget reviews right to your inbox or favourite RSS reader.