Stuff Geeks Want

The iGo Green Power Tower Surge Protector is your power saving friend. It automatically cuts juice to devices when they’re in Standby mode but has four always-on plugs for constant running gadgets like a DVR or digital clock.

It’s energy-saving power management system with integrated iGo Green Technology automatically reduces wasted standby power. It automatically powers down outlets when not in use and powers back up again when devices need power – reducing standby power by up to 85 percent.

It includes an instant wake-up button to immediately power the outlets with iGo Green Technology, in addition to two USB ports to charge mobile phones. It features four fixed and four rotating outlets to accommodate all sizes and shapes of wall plugs.

Buy for $80 from iGo

We recently told you about five Blu-ray players below $200. But here’s a player plus surround sound system that delivers majestic picture quality and an absorbing sound stage.

The Panasonic SC-BT300 is a 1250 watt, 7.1 channel system that integrates a Blu-ray player and an audio receiver with a built-in iPod dock. The system is made up of two tall-boy speakers that sound fatter than they look, four small speakers for the surround/surround-back channels, a center channel and the subwoofer.

The receiver uses Panasonic’s VieraCast system that lets you download additional content via the Internet from services like Amazon’s Video On-Demand.

It’s a well-thought-out system that combines the same excellent video quality of the standalone Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu-ray player with a solid ‘above-par’ 7.1 surround-sound speaker package.

Buy for $489 from Amazon

Altec Lansing has announced the latest addition of its inMotion family – the iMT620 inMotion Classic – and it’s getting some early accolades for good quality and advanced thinking.

It’s a portable music system designed for the iPod and iPhone. It features a built-in FM radio tuner with four station pre-sets, built-in carrying handle (which few have), an LCD display that shows source, song and artist info, a handy remote that clips on the back for easy storage, a rechargeable battery with a five hour life and the ability to charge the handset while you listen.

Various early reviews we’ve seen sing this portable boom boxes praises: from great sound via its digital processing and twin three-inch drivers, to it’s clean sound with no iPhone interferance, to it’s compact size and ability to fold flat for packing.

Kudos to Altec Lansing for a great product with some ingenious thinking.

Buy for $142 from Amazon

Out goes the ‘beep’ or ‘buzz’. In comes the ‘light alarm’. Philips has branded it the Wake-up Light With Dock for iPod and its meant to gradually wake you as well as gently drift you to sleep with light and sound. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.

Philips says “The senitivity to light differs a lot per person. In general, when using a higher light intensity a person needs less time to become fully awake.” That’s why the Wake-Up Light gradually increase in a 30 minute period up to 300 Lux. “Light falls on your eyes and positively affects your energy hormones, preparing your body to wake up. This makes waking up a more pleasant feeling,” their Web site says.

It also includes an iPod dock so you start waking up slowly to your own tunes or live programming via its built-in FM radio.

Buy for $200 from Amazon

What if there were an iPod that cranked the tunes and floated in the pool with you? You then have the small problem of water turning your speaker into a worthless plastic brick. Back to the drawing board.

So here’s an interesting solution…a floating, waterproof, wireless speaker you can use with an iPod, iPhone, MP3 player, computer, home stereo, TV, ANY audio source. It’s the PoolPOD from Audio Unlimited and it’s got a 900MHz wireless connection for up to 150 feet to a docking station where you simply plug your device via a 3.5mm or RCA output.

The sounds isn’t fantastic but hey, would do you expect for a waterproof speaker in a ball? We thought it sounded pretty good for a $72 wireless speaker that says no to water.

Buy for $72.00 from Amazon

CNET last week called HD Radio one of the decades biggest tech flops and it’s hard to argue that point. Put together the facts that radio stations failed early to make the financial investment in broadcasting equipment and HD’s creator, iBiquity, failed to mirror XM Radio’s smart move of getting sat-ready radios in cars years ago, and HD has had a tough road. That’s now changing with the first handheld HD Radio just out from Best Buy.

Made by KRI and sold by Best Buy under the Insignia brand name for just under $50, this little handheld beauty gives you regular FM stations as well as those enhanced with HD channels – which if you didn’t know are radio stations that piggyback onto an FM station and broadcast additional content like music, talk, sports and more for free, most of it commercial free.

The first thing you notice is the audio difference between analog FM and HD is dramatic. The frequency will first lock in on the analog signal and then the digital kicks in two to three seconds later with an ‘HD’ symbol confirming the station.

It’s got 10-station presets, a nice, bright, 1.5-inch LCD color screen, a 10-hour, built-in rechargeable lithium battery, an included USB cable for charging, headphones and arm band.

This unit works best outdoors depending on the signal strength of the station your listening to. It sounds great, is cheap enough and it’s lithium-battery holds an acceptable eight-hour charge in our tests.

Buy for $49.99 from Best Buy

ShareBuds are almost a product that answers a question no one is asking… almost. They’re just two pairs of earphones fused together with a single mini-jack, so that two people can listen to the same audio source.

Why would you want to get this when you can just buy a headphone splitter for a fraction of the cost and use your existing earphones with them? Because it means you only need to keep track of one piece of kit instead of three.

It also means if you just carry around a splitter and your own earphones that your pal won’t be jam-less because they didn’t bring theirs.

But at the same time, it means when you want to rock out solo you have to tolerate the extra sonic doppelgangers.

Buy for $39.95 via Amazon (or $49.95 with retractable cables as shown), plus about $5 shipping.

You may have heard of the Amplifi Speaker System when it debuted more than 2 years ago and, yes, this is that exact same model.

So why do you want it now? Because instead of costing you $149 like it would have before it was recently discontinued, you can pick it up today only for $44.99 shipped from Woot Sellout.

There’s no catch really, either. The unit is brand new and identical to what Amazon is selling for $100.85. While you’re comparison shopping, check out the 4.5/5 average rating Amazon customers gave the Amplifi. The reviews are simillarly positive over at Newegg, although the price there is $129.99.

All this makes for a great opportunity to pick up a speaker system on the cheap for the kitchen, bathroom, garage, or other extra room.

Two caveats: For mysterious reasons it won’t charge 6G iPods (”iPod Classic” models) but it can play them fine, and it’s not shielded, so listening to an iPhone will resort in occasional distortion unless you turn it to Airplane mode.

Buy for $44.99 shipped from Woot Sellout.

Apple did a funny thing last year when it updated its iPods: it replaced the 80GB and 160GB iPod Classic models with a single 120GB version. For media whores, this was simply unacceptable.

But you can right Apple’s wrong by putting together your very own 240GB iPod.

Start with a 60GB or 80GB 5th generation iPod (the model right before the Classic debuted, which was available in black or white). The 30/40GB versions are too thin, so don’t waste your time with those.

Crack the iPod open and swap out the hard drive inside for Toshiba’s newest 240GB 1.8-inch hard drive, which you can buy from Now Direct for about $200.

Think getting inside an iPod is tricky? It’s really not, provided you have the right tools and instructions. For both, turn to iFixit. First, buy yourself a new battery for $15, if only so you can get the 2 necessary spludger tools. Then follow their detailed hard drive replacement instructions.

It won’t be a walk in the park, but it’s not terribly difficult, either.

As a bonus, try to score a 5th generation iPod on eBay or Craigslist that has a broken hard drive—you might walk away with a 240GB iPod with a new hard drive and battery for about the same price as Apple charges for the new 120GB iPod.

Now that’s classic!.

In the past, we’ve shown you a couple products that can digitize your old record collection.

The new TapeLink USB from Alesis will do the same, except for cassette tapes rather than vinyl.

The dual-cassette deck is equipped with a USB audio interface for connecting it directly into your Mac or PC. Features include normal and high-speed dubbing modes, noise-reduction circuitry, LED level meters, auto-stop, and software for cleaning up those recordings.

$199 with free shipping from the reliable folks at Abe’s of Maine