Fidelity Electronics this week announced the launch of the VPC – Very Personal Computer: a fully preloaded, Wifi portable netbook computer at a very affordable price.
Very portable: The VPC weighs only 1.5lbs and measures just 8.4” x 5.5” x 1”
Very functional: The VPC has both wifi and ethernet connections and a full function keyboard to connect, work and play.
Very affordable: All programs and applications are preloaded and ready to use.
“At a $199 SRP, the VPC is perfect for students and people on the go,” says Richard Kizner, Director of Marketing for Fidelity Electronics. “Preloaded programs include internet browser, spreadsheet, word processor, a media player for movies, music and pictures, e-book reader, dictionary, calendar, PDF reader, email, chat, calculator, file manager and much more. VPC comes with a full function keyboard, touchpad, 7” TFT display with 800 x 480 WVGA resolution, 802.11g Wifi, 100 MHz internet browser, 2 GB internal storage, 3 hour rechargeable battery, microphone and a headphone jack. It has onboard USB, SD and Ethernet ports that make the VPC an incredibly affordable yet versatile device,” he adds.
The VPC is expected to retail at $199.99 USD and should arrive in stores beginning March, 2009.
Fidelity Electronics Inc. is a leading provider of innovative personal electronics and consumer products including award winning Fidelity digital picture frames, digital memory and imaging accessories. Fidelity operates from Vaughan, Ontario; Buffalo, New York; Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. For more information, visit Fidelity’s website at www.fidelityelectronics.com.
Mint.com, the leading online personal finance service, today added an inbound SMS feature to its award-winning product, allowing users instant access to an overview of their entire net worth – wherever they are. Users can simply text “Bal” or “Balance” to shortcode “MyMint” (696468) to receive real-time balances for the checking, savings, credit union and investment accounts they track using Mint.com. Because the free online service now supports over 7,500 financial institutions, Mint.com is now offering free mobile access to the majority of US banks. Mint.com users can now find out in the checkout line whether they should use debit or credit, and which of their cards to use. This new inbound SMS feature helps avoid overdrafts and other fees, and lets users maximize reward points.
With nearly 600,000 users, Mint.com is the fastest-growing personal financial service, tracking more than $50 billion in transactions and $15 billion in assets. And it’s free. Mint’s “Ways to Save” feature has already identified more than $100 million in potential savings for its users. This new inbound SMS capability is the latest in a series of MInt.com innovations which help its users stick to budgets, avoid unwanted fees, and ultimately save and do more with their money.
“90 percent of our users tell us they understand their spending better after using Mint, and about half have already changed their spending behavior,” said Aaron Patzer, founder and CEO of Mint. “In the past few months, we’ve seen an even sharper change, with users cutting hundreds of dollars in monthly spending across categories. As the holiday season approaches, we’re proud that the more than half a million Mint.com users are well-prepared to shop within their budget and avoid crushing debt, especially in this uncertain economy.”
A January, 2008 Mint.com survey found that over 4 in 10 people spent more than they’d planned during the 2007 holiday season. At that time, 6 in 10 respondents said they planned to make some changes to their holiday spending this year. And in fact, the majority of Mint.com users have adjusted their budgets downward since the beginning of the American economic crisis in September, reversing a more typical seasonal trend to increase budgets for the holiday season. Overall, Mint.com users are planning to spend 3% less in the coming months, with the largest reductions planned in Travel (down 20%) and Personal Care (down 24%). Users are planning to maintain, not increase, their average monthly spending this holiday season by shifting spending from general Shopping purchases (budgets down 7%) toward Gifts (up 8%). Thousands of Mint.com users have already added customized Gifts and Shopping budgets since Mint.com introduced personalized spending categories last month.
In addition, Mint.com’s blog features tips and tricks for surviving the holidays. Among Patzer’s key recommendations: Don’t spend more than one paycheck on the holidays. For someone making $60,000/year, that means spending no more than their average $1,500 bi-monthly paycheck on gifts, decorations, food and drinks for parties— everything.
“For many, budgeting is a dirty word. But in this economy, with the generosity of the season pulling at our wallets, budgeting is essential and doesn’t require as much work as some think. Pick a few problem areas – you may go out to restaurants too much, or spend too much on clothes. If you track and budget in just those categories, you’ll likely find enough money for gifts,” continued Patzer. “We recently had a user write in that after Mint showed her the ‘error of her ways,’ she’s cut out $5 visits to Starbucks, $7 visits to the work cafeteria, and is eating and drinking at home more. After two months, she’s not only cut $680/month in spending, but she’s also lost 3 pounds!”
Mint.com has recently released major updates to the product, adding: support for 1,000’s of new banks; mortgages, loans and investment tracking; customizable spending categories; and automatic budgeting features.
Effective immediately, DBL will begin marketing SPOT-1 to customers nationwide. This state-of-the-art personal messenger with GPS tracking, once activated by a satellite subscription, will send the exact coordinates of your location to International Emergency Response Center or 9-1-1. If your exact coordinates cannot be obtained, the device will send a distress signal instead. Other excellent features include personal messaging capabilities that reaches out to friends and family to request for help or to let them know you are okay. In addition, SPOTcastingSM sends a message to your account every 10 minutes, allowing your friends and family to view your entire route through GoogleMapsTM. Designed for maximum reliability, Spot performs a self diagnostic test every time it is powered on. It works worldwide and even in the most remote areas where cell phone service is scarce.
“This new and innovative product and technology introduced by Spot has revolutionized the navigational market,” stated Tim Coakley, Senior Vice President of Merchandising for DBL Distributing. “Its tremendous versatility coupled with its unique functionality greatly appeals to customers within our navigational product segment.”
SPOT-1 was included in DBL’s new Spring/Summer catalog featuring nearly 520 product lines, 5,200 new items and over 20,600 products. To order SPOT-1, please call DBL’s dedicated sales staff at 800.733.6766 or order online at www.dbldistributing.com.
Sonos, Inc., the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the digital home, today announced a new release of Sonos System Software v 2.2 that will bring Pandora* to the award-winning Sonos Digital Music System. Pandora, the developer of the ground-breaking personalized radio service, and Sonos have collaborated to provide music lovers with an exciting new way to discover music from the palm of their hand, and enjoy that music all over the house. Today’s addition of Pandora expands Sonos’ unsurpassed home audio experience—providing access to more music services than any other whole-home digital music system on the market. The free software upgrade is available to all registered Sonos customers via Sonos’ wireless handheld Controller.
Pandora’s innovative approach to radio combined with Sonos’ industry-leading digital music system signals a new era for radio enjoyment in the home. With Pandora and the wireless Sonos Controller in hand, users can create and play up to 100 radio stations based on their favorite songs or artists. Using Pandora’s Music Genome Project®, Pandora’s highly-trained musicians analyze songs, one at a time, using close to 400 musical traits including melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics, and more to automatically build a station with songs that share interesting musical similarities. Users can take hold of the Controller and rate the music they hear to further refine the station’s playlist on the fly.
The Sonos Digital Music System allows music lovers to create and play Pandora radio stations all over the home without ever installing an application or turning on a computer. It is possible to play the same Pandora radio station in each room, perfectly synchronized; or, play different stations in different rooms to fit the mood. In fact, Sonos can simultaneously stream 32 different Pandora radio stations to 32 different rooms—an industry breakthrough. Starting today, new and current Sonos customers can listen to Pandora for free with a 30-day trial—no credit card required. Following the free trial, Sonos customers can continue their Pandora service for $36 annually. Read the rest of this entry »
DXG USA announced today the new DXG-Roadster all-in-one Personal Media Center that lets you take your entertainment on the road wherever you go. The DXG-Roadster (Model DXG-521) is the only device you’ll ever need to capture precious memories and keep you entertained while traveling. The Roadster is a combination 5 Megapixel digital and video camera, video game and music player with FM radio, voice recorder and storage device, with 32MB of internal storage and an SD slot for additional memory.
Instead of being bored on a plane, waiting at the doctor’s office, at your kid’s soccer practice, or at the Department of Motor Vehicles, why not entertain yourself while waiting? The DXG-Roadster lets you listen to your complete collection of MP3s and videos anywhere you go. You can record TV shows and movies ahead of time directly from any video source via the included AV cable and then watch your favorite “American Idol,” “Desperate Housewives” TV shows, or NBA basketball games on the 2.5” bright TFT LCD screen.
As featured in the March 12, 2007 issue of Life & Style Weekly, the Roadster is the ultimate in design and functionality. Geared towards kids, teens, and young parents, where style, price, and usability are most important, the DXG-Roadster is popular for its price-performance ratio and the multiple features available in one easy-to-tote compact package. Not only can you store and watch your entire media collection of music, videos, and photos wherever you go, you’ll also never miss another once-in-a-lifetime photo-op with the Roadster’s 5 Megapixel camera and camcorder. Also, if you remember something important while on the road, you can record a reminder on the spot with the included digital voice recorder.
“Are we there yet?” How many times do parents have to hear this on a family trip? With the DXG-Roadster, kids can now enjoy their OWN entertainment. The DXG-Roadster features 4 pre-stored popular video games, such as Tetris, Boxman, and Gobang, and is shaped like the familiar Sony PSP™. And since the device is lower cost than competing products, you won’t be as worried about sticky fingers playing with it.
“No other product offers the amount of features at such a low price,” said Paul Goldberg, Vice President – Sales and Marketing, DXG USA. “The DXG-Roadster is a one-of-its-kind mobile experience at a user-friendly price.” Read the rest of this entry »
Google has just released its Browser Sync for Firefox users which brings an amazing and powerful feature to Firefox: full synchronization of bookmarks, opened tabs, history, settings, and even cookies. All of it. Doesn’t matter if you have two, three, or fifteen computes with Firefox, they’ll all sync with each other. Heck, it doesn’t even matter if you have Mac, Red Hat box, or Windows98, because they all will sync with each other, too. Now the only catch is that you can’t have more than one browser open at a time (Google Browser Sync will notify an “old” session that another session has started and disconnect the old session browser.) But is that the only catch?
When SvenOnTech sniffed the terms of service page, we found an interesting few sentences. It reads, near the bottom, “You understand and agree that Google may or may not pre-screen Content and shall have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to pre-screen, refuse or move any Content available via Google services. You also understand and agree that you nonetheless may be exposed to such conduct and/or Content and that you use the Extensions at your own risk.”
Now while this doesn’t mean Google will sale your information and all, it does mean it will look at it and if you’re in, say China, it’ll do things to it. Maybe dump it; maybe send it to the red commies themselves. But if you read more, you do find that the Google law staff was really smart and opened it up even more to legal interpretation and stated that its general terms of service applied as well, with a link to that page. With that catch-all, all your information is basically open to being searched and indexed just like your Google Mail and Google Calendar. True, Google specifies that it will not sale your information, but hey, do you really want this mega-company knowing all your information? It’s not just about your links to some questionable places that you may like to visit or maybe confidential client information but rather your cache, settings, and cookies. It’s all Google’s to search and index.
This has been the major reason I don’t use my GMail account. I can’t imagine all that e-mail of mine being tucked away into an index server for a rainy day. You GCal users should be scared, too. But hey, if you’re cool with all this, than by all means, go get it. It is a neat download for sure and I’m sure Google has all your rights in interest. I mean, they sure are doing a great job in China, right?