Tech News & Reviews

Have you ever found yourself looking for a place to scan a document when you were not at home? Trying to get an electronic copy of a document, but no scanner could be found? Well, this is one scanner you have to see to believe! It’s called the ScanShell 3000DN, and it’s a portable scanner. Yes, you heard me right, it’s a truly portable scanner! But you haven’t heard the best part yet … ever heard of a Duplex scanner ? Well, this baby has it … it will scan BOTH sides of your document at the same time and store it internally in PDF format. Talk about a sweet piece of equipment!

So what’s the catch? External power required, right? Wrong! It’s a standard USB 2.0 interface for downloading your scanned PDF files, it doesn’t require any external power sources, and best of all … it’s Windows Vista compatible (excluding the 64-bit versions). Another nice feature is the bundled software that comes with it. It’s called DocShell, and provides for easy scanning, sharing and organizing of photos and documents. DocShell is easy to use, and can export scanned documents into existing, pre-installed application on the user’s pc (PDF,Microsoft paint etc.). The scanned document can be saved to one of the following image types: BMP, JPG, TIF, PSD, PCX, PNG or TGA.

So if you’re in an industry (sales, tech support, etc.) where you handle paperwork on the road … don’t be caught in a bind again! Get one of these beauties and never be left without an electronic copy of your documents!

Ever wonder if you’re getting ripped off by your mobile phone company? Looking at the bill, it always seems to be higher than what you figured it should be? Perhaps your rates have gone up, and you’re just not prepared to do the comparison shopping to make sure the rates are still good?

Well, look no further for help. Wirefly has an awesome service that will help you determine the best cell phone plan for you. This handy calculator uses information about how many minutes you use per month, what provider you’re with, and how much you’re currently paying. You will also need to specify anytime minutes vs. night/weekend minutes and roaming percentage as well. Add in your zip code and viola! - out comes the comparisons for you.

Now, I don’t have a “regular” phone service - I use Tracfone. However, I thought I would give the calculator a shot anyway. I estimated that I use about 300 minutes a month (when I’m out on service calls). That would cost me about $30. These are basically anytime minutes, but about 1/3 are roaming,so that adds up to another $10 extra per month. I’m looking at about $40 a month for my services.

So, after putting in all of my information into Wirefly’s calculator, what did I find out? Well, I discovered that T-Mobile has a plan with 300 anytime minutes and unlimited nights / weekends for only $30 a month. Now realize that if my usage was much less, say 100 - 150 minutes a month, then a pay-as-you-go service like Tracfone would be ideal. However, since I’m over the threshold of regular rate plans, it appears that I can save roughly $120 a year using Wirefly’s recommended service.

The calculator also presents about a half dozen other profider options as well. In addition, each provider plan is rated based on market coverage, and JD Power rankings for cost & service and customer care. So if you’re in the market for a new phone plan, or you just want to make sure you’re getting the best deal in town, you need to check out this handy calculator from Wirefly!

Have you ever been out on a service call (or over at your mother-in-laws for all you d-i-y people out there) and come up short on a cable or USB adapter? It’s a real pain in the rear when you’re on site and you don’t have the equipment you need.

That’s why it’s better to stay stocked up. Simply put: you can never have enough of some things around. Computer cables, adapters, and wall plates are just a few of those things.

So today I bring you TCA-Inc., a company that has a ton of stuff to choose from when stocking your geek supply cabinet. You don’t want to miss out on some of these deals. One of the things that caught my eye was one I had not seen before: the flex USB Adapter. Now that looks like a handy little jewel!

They have a variety of categories to choose from: everything from fiber optics, firewire, iPod accessories, SCSI cables, etc. You name it, they probably have it. Their website is easy to navigate, and things are categorized in a user-friendly fashion. Combine that with the confidence that they have the store hosted as a Yahoo! store, and you’re set for a secure online shopping experience. Quality looks good, and the prices look even better. Don’t miss out … check it out today!

Do you burn your own CDs? Are you in a garage band, or maybe you use your CD burner to distribute free copies of Linux or some other open-source software? If you are into CD duplication or burning DVDs, I’ve got a great resource for you to check out.

Supermediastore.com has been in business since 2002 and has become a major player in the wholesale market of blank CD and DVD media products. Hailing from southern California, they supply a large variety of blank media, packaging, hardware … even memory, ink, and toner! This helps those of you who are interested in printing custom disc labels as well.

If you are anything like me, you’re always looking for ways to save money. This is especially true with online purchase, since you have to pay shipping fees. There are a lot of different place to find coupons online, but there’s a new site that looks very promising. The new site is CouponKathy.com, and the picture on the home page says it all: “Let me help you save money”.

There are quite a few categories that should appeal to the “techies” out there. Available right now she has coupon codes for Franklin Covey, GoDaddy, and Sharper Image. They even have Oriental Trading Coupon Codes. If you are involved in promotional widgets or goodie bags for kids, hand-outs, etc. - then you must check out Oriental Trading!

The process is pretty simple. Find the category you are interested in, click on the category to view the coupons. For example, I like Sharper Image. She currently has four coupon codes available as well as a banner ad. Three of the ads are for 50% off specific purchases, and the other ad is for various amounts from $10 to $100 off, depending on the amount of your purchase. These are excellent! Simply click on the ad to use the coupon and order. So next time you are shopping online and looking for that coupon code, stop by Coupon Kathy and check it out!

Whether you’re looking for laptops or desktops, Dell offers a wide selection of computers for your needs. In fact, I recently helped a friend with her purchase of a Dell laptop. You can go online and configure your personal setup in accordance with what you will be using the computer system for. This will give you a quote which you can then use for a certain amount of time when you call in to order your desktop system.

The only issue we had with the Dell system she purchased was an issue with the DVD driver. For some reason, the initial install of the device driver was corrupted, and the performance appeared choppy with the sound out of sync. After maximizing performance and disabling all the fancy visual features on Vista to free up system memory, I finally gave in and called tech support. After holding for almost 45 minutes (and this was late at night , CST), I finally got someone who was able to help me troubleshoot and re-install the driver. After this, no more DVD issues!

Getting a small business loan is often intimidating to business owners. Because of restrictions from the regular channels like banks and other financial institutions, the small business owner often doesn’t give it a second thought. Well, EZUnsecured.com is out to change that.

I know that before I shut down my local PC repair business, opening up a brick and mortar shop would have been nice, but it wasn’t practical because I didn’t have the funds. With a program like EZUnsecured.com has, it would have been a lot easier to apply. They only work on unsecured financing, but they do require a business to be in business for a minimum of two years.

If you’ve been looking for a way to keep your business going or to buy that equipment you’ve needed, consider checking out EZUnsecured.com. They just might be able to hook you up!

bOftentimes, businesses are the last ones in the marketplace to adopt new technology. The reason for this is simple: business owners don’t want to take chances with glitches in new technology when their business is on the line. First impressions can mean everything to a customer, and as a business owner you don’t want to mess that up. However, there is an emerging technology that has several years of experience under it’s belt, that is moving into the business segment, and seeing remarkable success in meeting business owner’s needs. What am I talking about? Well VoIP, of course!

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It basically uses a high speed Internet connectin to route your phone calls instead of the traditional telephone company routers and lines. So what does this mean to you as a business owner? It means that you can usually save big bucks over traditional phone services, including some services you just can’t get from a traditional phone service provider. That’s where Packet8 comes in.

When you are looking for a small business phone system using VoIP, you need to check them out. Looking over their services, they have quite a few options to choose from. Whether you are just looking for that virtual office setup or wanting to use VoIP for an entire call center setup (and yes, that’s an option), they have the product for you. If I were setting up my small business on a VoIP plan, I would use the Unlimited Extention program. This is Packet8’s flagship extention service for virtual office and has quite a few bells and whistles, including a unique direct inbound dial (DID) telephone number, auto-attendant routing and switchboard viewing.

So when you decide it’s time for your small business to make the plunge into VoIP (and why not now?), be sure and check out Packet8.net.

Take a time out from worrying about tech support for a minute and head on over to Quiz Rocket and take the nerd quiz to find out if you qualify as a nerd. Yep, you heard me right! Quiz Rocket has 18 trivia quizzes and funny personality tests, with new quizzes added every week. These free trivia and personality quizzes are professionally written and fun to take. Users take the quiz, then see some offers from advertisers based on their quiz responses, and then they receive their score and badge. Quiz completion badges can be posted on any blog or MySpace page.

I’m heading over there momentarily, and I will let you know when I get back if I qualified or not (one would hope, since this is my tech blog … LOL)

It’s already that time of the year again, and if you go to any brick and mortar store, you already see it creeping in! It’s time to start thinking about holiday shopping, and how you’re going to pay for it all. Have you ever considered using coupons to help you save through the holiday season?

Well, now it’s easy to save with coupon codes from CouponChief.com. With coupon codes available for stores like Best Buy, Dell Home and HP Home Store, it’s easy to see techies like you and me being able to really stock up on some nice gifts for this year! In fact, one of the featured coupons today is for 20% off of a customized HP Pavilion notebook of $899 or more (that’s a minimum savings of $179)!!! That offer shows to be good through Saturday, September 22nd. So what are you waiting for?