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Best Chrome Extension Ever?

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:06:31 +0000

One Chrome extension seems to be satisfying users more than any others. "Nothing" manages expectations fantastically by doing… nothing. Perhaps the more surprising is the user response. 7,000 people have installed the extension at a clip of around 2,000 a week with a 4.5 of 5 rating. There are hundreds of comments filled with effusive praise from good natured users like this one from anonoymous:

This extension does exactly what you said it'd do. I love it. Keep up the good work.

Sann on the other hand disagrees:

No it does something. It made me laugh!))

Extension builders everywhere wasting hours adding new features and slaving away responding to feature and support requests in hopes of pleasing a few disgruntled users have been outdone by Nobody who promised Nothing and delivered big.

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Defense Grid: Borderland and Resurgance

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:50:05 +0000

Hidden Path, the makers of the killer premium tower defense game Defense Grid: The Awakening have released their Borderland expansion to Steam users for free — no need to do anything, it will download when Steam auto-patches it. Previously, this same set of 4 levels was available to 360 users for free, but it's brand new to the Steam version. I purchased Defense Grid at Steam on sale over the new year, and it was the best $2.50 I've spent in a long time — it would have been a deal at 10x the price. At this point, if they put the Defense Grid brand on a steaming pile of crap, I'd buy it. Just in case they knew something about steaming crap that I don't. My theory for game developers is a lot like my theory for authors, if they prove their quality, stick with them.

Hidden Path is also working on another expansion planned for April, called Defense Grid: Resurgence. There aren't many games I buy at full price, but I'll be picking up Resurgence the day it releases.

Spoiler alert. The following are links to videos of the 4 Borderland levels (presumeably from the 360 version, since they're dated 3 months ago). I haven't watched them since I haven't finished the levels yet, but best to assume they could ruin the fun of playing them for yourself. Avoid them unless you just can't help yourself.
Onslaught
Infiltration
Entanglement
Forge

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Google Voice: The Final Countdown (to new members)

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:43:14 +0000

UPDATE3: The rumors were correct, Google says invites start going out today but will take a while. Start reloading your inbox…. now.

UPDATE 2: Shortly after I tweeted Google Voice's Craig Walker asking for confirmation on the CBS tip that waitlisters would be issued numbers this week, the official Google Voice Twitter account posted another "we're working 24/7 ... but have no announcements to make." While I take the CBS tip itself with a grain of salt, Google Voice is definitely on the verge of adding members.

UPDATE: CBS' Morning News, Monday June 22nd, did a bit on Google Voice and claims that Google will begin issuing numbers to people on the waitlist this week. See the video after the break. Thanks to jigwashere for the tip.

According to PC World, Google snapped up 1 million phone numbers for use with its Google Voice service last month. Combine that with the recent CNET podcast Buzz Out Loud slip of the tongue that Google Voice would be launching to the public a few days ago (it obviously didn't), and evidence is growing that new members may soon be welcomed into the fold. The service has been closed to new members for some time, save for a few invites given out when Google Voice launched a few months ago to promote the product.

Google snatched up the internet telephony company GrandCentral some time ago, and rebranded it as Google Voice very recently. The primary feature is to allow you to consolidate all your phone numbers under a single number, but it's much bigger than that. There is a sophisticated routing technology that let's you have different people ring different phones even though they're all calling the same Google Voice number, and if it goes to google's voicemail, you can have different greeting messages for different groups. Google is also working on letting you port one of your current numbers to Google Voice to ease the transition. Other cool features include transcripts of your Google Voicemail, in case you don't have visual voicemail on your cell service yet, easy to use call recording, call conferencing, screening, blocking, and great SMS tech.

Why would you need it? Even with more number portability options these days than in the past, Google Voice gives you powerful and flexible control over your number that you wouldn't otherwise have. Moving? Getting rid of your landline? Picking up a prepaid phone overseas on vacation? Using a cheap prepaid here while you are inbetween phones and/or services? With Google Voice, you won't have to beg or plead with Customer Service reps, or scream and cuss at them once they screw up your requests. You won't have to call all your friends and family and give them a new or temporary number. You'll just log on and a few clicks later, you'll have seamlessly transitioned everything just how you want it, and the people trying to get a hold of you won't know anything changed. All that, a huge bag of Google perks too.

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M'am, Please Turn Off Your Book

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:30:33 +0000

Heard on an plane right before landing to someone w/ a Kindle: "Ma'am would you please turn off your book right NOW!" Heh.

From Google's Wesley Chan.

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Life Without Data: qGPS

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:35:51 +0000

Data is an ever more pervasive part of the smartphone experience. But the cost of data plans are still generally massive, sometimes costing as much as your voice plan. So Life Without Data is a Tips and Tricks feature to help you get around the cost of data plans.

Straight up GPS is slow. It reaches out to four satellites to grab all the information it needs to give you a fix on your position, and that takes time. aGPS was designed to give you a fix more quickly by grabbing some of the information you need over your phone's data connection instead of using the GPS radio alone. If you're trying to get by without an expensive data plan, aGPS could be running per-kb charges, or it might be completely unavailable to you.

Fear not, because there's another way to speed up GPS fixes: Quick GPS. Instead of requiring 4 satellites to get a fix, qGPS makes it possible to get a fix with just three. To wit, it does so by downloading a week's worth of data in advance—making it possible for you to get away with only using WiFi to speed up GPS fixes rather than having to use cellular data.

How do you get it? Although aGPS is more pervasive, HTC includes the Qualcomm designed system on some devices, and Palm put it on their Treo Pro. And hackers are adding it to yet more devices.

Other Sources:
HTCWiki.com
PPCGeeks on bringing qGPS to CDMA devices via WMExperts

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Misfortunz: How not to rob an ATM

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:00:51 +0000

Stories of people installing card scanners and cameras on ATMs to grab your card info and PIN seem to crop up all the time. Some days it seems like thieves are getting smarter, but not today. Ocean's 11, meet Drip 21.

Video after the break. Props to the Giz.

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Prepaid Introduction

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:28:17 +0000

If you're looking to save some money, you might take a long look at your cellular bill. If you're a heavy user of voice and or data, contract plans might be your best bet, while simultaneously providing you with a subsidy of your phone every 2 years or so. However, some light users may find cost savings in a prepaid plan. Extremely light users could save a lot.

American carriers are only just now really offering a respectable variety of prepaid plans. In Asia and Europe, prepaid is far more popular, but in the U.S., carriers have been reluctant to offer decent service or decent prepaid phones. Why? They like the security that comes with having a subscriber base locked in to their plans. What's more, American consumers rather like the phone subsidies that come with contracts. Having to pay full price for a high-end handset can come as quite a shock to some.

There are two basic kinds of prepaid plans. In one, you pay a monthly fee just like you do under contract, but you have no term and there's no ETF if you decide to leave, also, no phone subsidy. In the other, you purchase units (minutes, data, blocks of text messages etc) as you use them.

Monthly plans are pretty self-explanatory. They might save you some money if you are a light user and your carrier offers a smaller monthly prepaid plan than they do a contract plan. At the time of this posting, for instance, AT&T's smallest available contract plan in my area is $39.99. However they have a prepaid monthly plan running $29.99. If your usage fits in that $29.99 prepaid plan, and you don't need the phone subsidy, then you can save by going prepaid. Beware though, a lot of extras that fit into the contract plans may not be in the prepaid plans. Thousands of night and weekend minutes, nationwide long distance, unlimited in-network calling—you'll need to compare every item of the plan to make sure you can get by with the prepaid plan.

Per unit plans require a little more explanation. But for extremely light users, they also offer the potential for exceptional savings. Once upon a time, if you wanted a cell phone, even if you didn't use it much, your options for finding a cheap plan were limited. Some people opted to pay $30-50 a month for the convenience, even though they were dramatically under-using their service. Those people may reap savings from the expanding category of per unit plans.

There are typically two types of per unit plans: those with daily access fees, and those without daily access fees. As a general rule, a plan with a daily access fee will have a lower per minute charge or more perks (like free in-network calling or free evening minutes), and a plan without a daily access fee will charge more per minute and not have as many perks. $1 per day is a common daily access fee charge, and you only pay it on those days that you access the service. In both plans, your minutes have an expiration period. This period can vary depending on how many you buy at a time. With both T-Mobile and AT&T, if you buy in blocks of $100, your minutes won't expire for 1 year. Buying in amounts less than that typically have expiration dates in the 1-3 months range.

A daily access fee plan makes sense if you don't talk on your phone very many days of the month. Say you mainly only make calls on the weekends, but you talk for more than a few minutes for each call, then you are only paying the daily access fee a few times per month. However if you make at least one call every day, and especially if the call is short, you'll end up paying $30 a month before you even start paying the per minute charges. If you're a light user with lots of short calls spread out over the month, a no daily access fee plan is better.

This is a part of Fortunz.com's series on prepaid plans. Next up, we'll look at some specific scenarios where you might save money—comparing a particular per month usage against contract and prepaid plans and seeing what it takes to save money with prepaid. Later we'll look at ways to decrease your usage and make prepaid plans make more sense. We'll also look at prepaid data plans and phones, so stay tuned and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Continue Reading Prepaid Intro

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Vizio Giving Away a Million Dollars worth of 55" LCDs

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:32:02 +0000

After spending a cool $3,000,000 on a Super Bowl Ad, renowned budget HDTV maker Vizio still had a cool million to blow on 55", 1080p, 120Hz LCD giveaways. They'll be giving away one set every week from the week of Feburary 23rd until August 14th.

Entering is painless. You punch in your information ONCE, and you're in all giveaways from the beginning until it's over. No need to reenter. Of course, the sooner you get your one entry in, the more weeks you get a chance to win.

^0..08

David Marseilles

Enter Once to Win at: Vizio until 08.14.09 (but sooner is better)
Via EngadgetHD

Learn More About Vizio:

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First Ever Opportunity to Win a Pre?

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:01:26 +0000

The Palm Pre is one of the most talked about phones of 2009 from a company everyone had already counted out. Its unique WebOS has a host of drool-worthy interface features, and its screen is bright and full of color. It's one of the only phones Fortunz.com knows about that has a first party inductive charger (no cords!), although that charger is sold separately.

Hit the link below by February 17th. You may have to register your stuff to become a Tell Us panelist first, and then you'll have to put your info in again at the entry site. But who cares? It's for a Palm Pre.

^0..08

David Marseilles

Enter to Win at: US Weekly Sweeps: Win a Film Independent's Spirit Awards Giveaway! by 02.17.2009
Via Engadget

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HTC Fuze Giveaways Aplenty

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:37:05 +0000

HTC is giving away 120 Fuze smartphones. Want in on the action? Register here and play once daily until April '09. In addition, HTC is gifting some blogs with a Fuze for their readers.

Engadget Mobile is giving away one at random to the commenters at the contest post. Ends 12/19/09.

Boygenius is giving away another if you subscribe to their feed AND leave a comment. Ends 12/21/09.

Good luck, and catch some hot Fuze action after the break if you want to know more about the Wi-Fi capable, qwerty Windows Mobile smartphone.

^0..08

David Marseilles

Via Engadget Mobile | Permalink

Learn More About The Fuze:

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Win a 10" Advent 4211 from PCWorld!

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:15:22 +0000

Future Competitions and PCWorld (UK) are giving away a snazzy new Advent 4211 (a rebranded MSI Wind U100) netbook with Xp Home. What's a netbook? A tiny, low-powered device with screens ranging from 7-10 inches with a laptop form factor. Most of the present lot, including the Advent, use the efficient Intel Atom processor to bring you 1.6ghz without killing your battery. The great portability and longer battery lifes (4-5 and half hours with a 6 cell batterY) typically attracts writers and students, though many of them have seriously compromised keyboards. Fortunately, this Advent is a 10" unit, making keyboard cramping less of a concern.

The contest ends October 21st, and entering is a simple as entering your name and email address. Good luck, and check after the break for a Youtube review of the Advent 4211.

^0..08

David Marseilles

Enter at Future Competitions Until 10.21.08
Via whatlaptop.co.uk | Permalink

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46" Sharp Aquos LCD HDTV Giveaway

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:21:59 +0000

TBS and Sharp are giving away a 46" LCD TV to one lucky winner. The contest shamelessly exploits appeals to the growing enviornmental awareness of our generation by asking you to pledge to turn off your energy-sucking TV your lights while you watch Game 4 on TBS. Yes, they want you to conserve energy—they just don't want to conserve their ratings.

At fortunz.com, we're pretty sure they aren't auditing entrees, so be a rebel. Turn on an extra light during the game, and watch FX instead. We won't tell.

You can enter once daily until October 16th. Entry is easy, but this is a big contest, so the odds probably aren't in your favor.

^0..08

David Marseilles

Enter to Win at TBS once a day until 10.16.2008
Permalink

Learn More About Sharp HDTVs:

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Win Final Fantasy IV (DS)

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:19:26 +0000

One the better games in the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy IV has been remade by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS. Now DS Fanboy is giving away their review copy (read the review here).

You can enter once per day by simply leaving a comment at the contest post (linked below), up until September 17th. Good Luck.

^0..08

David Marseilles

Enter to Win at DS Fanboy once per day until 09.17.08
Permalink

Learn More About Square Enix Games:
(Like Final Fantasy IV)

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Win A 37" Sharp LCD HDTV

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:37:35 +0000

fortunz.com likes to bring you easy-to-enter contests from small blogs with great odds of winning. But sometimes the prizes are too good to pass up, and we bring you impossible to enter contests from entities where you are more likely to be struck by lightning while scratching off a lotto ticket than to win. Which category does this contest fall into? Well, let's just say you don't want to be eating foods rich in iron right now.

Gizmodo has teamed up with their sponsor Sharp to bring you a chance to win a 37" LCD HDTV. If you've been putting off the inevitable upgrade, this might be just the contest you're looking for.

Entering involves answering 11 TV trivia questions, some with easily googable answers, and others that are complicated enough that you may just bypass building a planet-sized supercomputer and just fill in "42" and be done with it. Men already at risk for male-pattern baldness are encouraged to consider the risks before attempting to answer these questions. Once you have your answers, email them to the address provided, and cross your fingers.

As of the time of this posting, Gizmodo had not yet posted a deadline for the contest. So err on the side of caution and enter soon. Open until September 12th.

^09.06.08

David Marseilles

Win A 37" Sharp LCD HDTV

Enter to Win at Gizmodo (deadline unknown at time of posting) until 09.12.08
Permalink

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DS Lite and N+ Contest

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:52:27 +0000

Ninja and Pirates. It's a question that has plagued guys nights out since the dawn of time. Or at least since there have been pirates and ninjas. Well if you've spent a great deal of time working on that particular conundrum, today you can tell your wives and girlfriends that it wasn't actually a waste of time. Today, you could a win a DS Lite and N+ the game by wielding your solution to the puzzle, because VideoGameBlogger.com is giving them away and they're asking just that question to wannabe winners.

All you have to do to enter is provide a good answer to the question “Ninjas versus pirates. Who would win?” in a comment on the contest post. The best answers will thrown in a hat and the blogger will choose one winner randomly. You have until September 26th to enter.

^08.27.08

David Marseilles

DS Lite and N+ Contest

Enter to Win At VideoGameBlogger.com until 10.26.08
Permalink

Learn More About N+, the game:

Learn More About The DS:

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Garmin Nüvi 350 GPS Contest from Celebrity Cafe

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:19:01 +0000

Is GPS just one more way for Darwin to help cleanse the gene pool? Stories about people ignoring rivers and cliffs because their GPS told them to go a certain direction are a pretty constant source of entertainment in the blogosphere (see a couple of stories just to the left of this post). Is it because some GPS units come equipped with alluring female voices that just won't be disobeyed, or are people really as stupid as they seem?

Well, now you've got a chance to win one of your own and find out if it has any additional uses. Celebrity cafe is giving away a Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS unit to one lucky winner. You have until October 31st to enter, but you can enter once per day if you want to increase your odds.

And if your GPS asks you turn into the Potomac, well… do what seems right.

^08.25.08

David Marseilles

Garmin Nüvi 350 GPS Contest from Celebrity Cafe

Enter to Win at Celebrity Cafe until 10.31.08
Permalink

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Engadget's Swag Giveaway

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:00:44 +0000

Longtime editor of one of the biggest gadget blogs ever, Ryan Block, retired recently. In the process of cleaning out his 'office', Endgadget managed to rustle up a massive cache of swag just begging to be given away to a lucky reader. This is the third round of that giveaway we mentioned over the weekend. Here's what's up for grabs:

I Am Legend (DVD), Apple iPod shuffle Sport Case, set of Zune Originals art prints, Energizer cellphone charger, Super Mario Galaxy X-mas stocking and ornament, Lair fake Zippo lighter, Heavenly Sword letter opener, Hot Shots golf balls, Nokia beer cozy, stuffed TiVo toy, Pursuit Force glove and sunglasses, plus at least four backpacks / bags filled with all kinds of funky stuff!

What is "Swag"? It's cool goodies sent by companies to the press in hopes of favorable coverage. In Endgaget's case, a lot of that swag consists of gadget accessories. Lots of blogs give that stuff to their readers. Entering is a simple as leaving a comment (and confirming it if need be). But make sure you only leave one. You've got until this Friday the 29th to enter.

^08.25.08

David Marseilles

Engadget's Swag Giveaway

Enter to Win at Engadget until 08.29.08
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Engadget's Video Game Giveaway

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:52:01 +0000

Longtime editor of one of the biggest gadget blogs ever, Ryan Block, retired recently. In the process of cleaning out his 'office', Endgadget managed to rustle up a massive cache of video games just begging to be given away to a lucky reader. This is the second round of that giveaway we mentioned over the weekend. Here's what's up for grabs:

Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock (Xbox 360), Eye of Judgment + PlayStation Eye (PS3), Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Windows), Project Sylpheed (Xbox 360), The Matrix Online (Windows), Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire (PS3), Singstar (PS3), MLB 08: The Show (PS3), Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds (PS3), Twisted Metal Black (PS2), Socom (PSP), Pursuit Force (PSP), Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (PSP), Pokemon Pearl Vision (Nintendo DS), and more!

Entering is a simple as leaving a comment (and confirming it if need be). But make sure you only leave one. You've got until this Friday the 29th to enter.

^08.25.08

David Marseilles

Engadget's Video Games Giveaway

Enter to Win at Endgadget until 08.29.08
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Gadgets Galore Giveaway

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:31:18 +0000

Longtime editor of one of the biggest gadget blogs ever, Ryan Block, retired recently. In the process of cleaning out his 'office', Endgadget managed to rustle up a massive cache of gadgets just begging to be given away to a lucky reader. It looks like they're not giving away the entire cache at once, but here's what's on the table for this round:

Ooma VOIP box, Aliph Jawbone, Sansa e260 4GB PMP, Ramos RM550 1GB PMP, Enermax Caesar Aluminum Keyboard, SageTV Hauppauge Media Extender, Wowwee Butterfly, Microsoft Notebook Optical Mouse 3000, Microsoft Lifecam VX-5000, PSP A/V cable, Nikon 1GB flash drive, Trendset USB WiFi card, and more!

Entering is a simple as leaving a comment (and confirming it if need be). But make sure you only leave one. You've got a week to enter.

^08.22.08

David Marseilles

Gadgets Galore Giveaway

Enter to Win at Endgadget by 08.27.08
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X3F's Bionic Commando Giveaway

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:35:54 +0000

Xbox 360 Fanboy is giving away Bionic Commando: Rearmed (XBLA) to 5 lucky readers. Bionic Commander is a side-scrolling shooter with a unique gamplay hook: instead of jumping, you use you character bionic arm to grapple, swing across chasms and climb up levels. It looks like crazy fun — a throwback to games like Contra and uh…Bionic Commando from the heyday of the NES — so be sure to enter this contest.

Entering is easy, just leave a comment on the contest post. You can leave one per day, so as of the time of this posting, you could have two chances to enter.

^08.21.08

David Marseilles

X3F's Bionic Commando Giveaway

Enter to Win At X3F until 08.22.08 at 12pm Eastern (noon).
Permalink

Learn More About Bionic Commando: Rearmed:

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Best Chrome Extension Ever?

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