Stuff Geeks Want

Do you have crappy cell phone reception in your own house or apartment, or in your office building? Yeah, so do we, and it sucks balls. Why don’t cell phones work better everywhere like they’re supposed to?

Enter the ZBoost Cellphone Signal Extender.

With a ZBoost, you can take your one bar of cell phone reception and boost it up to normal levels so that you can actually use that cool Apple iPhone you bought with crappy AT&T cell coverage in your area.

There are three models. One that works with AT&T, Verizon and Alltel. One that works with T-Mobile, Metro PCS, Cricket, Suncom, and Sprint. And a dual-band version that works with all phones except Nextel. Why would anyone be a Nextel customer anyways?

Go to ThinkGeek, pick the model that works best for you, order it, spend five minutes installing it, and sit back and bask in the glory of your geekness. Then invite all the girls over that you had over that one time that couldn’t get good cell reception either, and have a party.

Price: $250 – $350 from ThinkGeek.com (search for “Cellphone Signal Extender”)

HELIUS Solar-Power Backpack

Do you ever wish you could charge your iPod or cell-phone without having to find a power outlet?

You need a Helius Solar-Power Backpack from V-Dimension.

It’s got a little solar-cell on the outside of the pack and comes with adapters for iPod and iPhone, Mini-USB (for Blackberry/Motorola Razr V3), Samsung, LG, Nokia, and Motorola phones. It also has an ear-bud hole, so you can listen to your music while the iPod or iPhone are charging in the pack.

Approximate charging times for various devices in full-sun are:

• Internal Battery Pack: 7 Hrs
• iPhone: 7 Hrs
• iPod: 3.5 Hrs
• Cell Phone: 3.5 Hrs
• GPS: 3.5 Hrs

It won’t charge your laptop (just can’t provide enough electricity) but as we all start using our iPhones for more and more of what we do online, that’ll be much less of an issue.

Bottom line: it looks great, carries your stuff well, and will keep your iPod and iPhone charged when you can’t find an outlet.

Price: $125 on Amazon.com

7-Eleven has a real problem on its hands: Apple fans will forever equate the number with the launch date of the iPhone 3G, not the convenience store chain. So much for branding!

Not that we care, mind you; we’ll take the phone over a Big Bite Hot Dog any day of the year.

Unlike the first iPhone, the 3G version has everything you could possibly want in a phone. That means it has 3G high-speed connectivity (vastly faster than the EDGE connection of the original iPhone) and GPS, the two most glaring omissions of iPhone 1.0.

It can also run what will soon be thousands of applications (see our iTunes 7.7 post) and is available in almost every country that capitalism thinks matters (i.e. those with people who can actually afford an iPhone).

Our only problem? As original iPhone owners, we’re not sure the $199 (8GB) or $299 (16GB) is really worth the cost of upgrading. Those handset prices are reasonable, but the iPhone 3G has different service plans. You’ll pay $10 more 3G data ($30 vs. $20 for EDGE) and no text messages are included (it’s $5 for the 200 messages the original iPhone included free, or $20 for unlimited). Add up those two extra costs, plus tax, and you come out to about $20 a month extra… or $480 over the two-year contract.

Of course, if you didn’t jump on the iPhone bandwagon in the last year, the decision is simple, even if finding one is less so: they’re only available in retail stores at launch, but will soon be sold through the Apple Store online, no doubt.

Every Bluetooth headset we’ve plugged here to date has cost around $100, if not more. That’s because—in our opinion—ones that cost less simply aren’t worth it, as they usually delivery only mediocre performance, either for you or the person at the other end of the connection.

Plantronics’ Discovery 640E Ultimate Bluetooth Headset originally sold for around $100, but can be found these days for half that, making it a contender for performance and value.

Customer reviews are generally very positive for the Discovery 640E, although there are some complaints that the charger is a bit of a nuisance to use. Short of that, the headset delivers some solid features:

• up to 5 hours of talk time
• up to an additional 10 hours of talk time using the tiny portable AAA battery-powered charger
• up to 70 hours of standby time
• carrying pocket delivers svelte protection and vibrates when there’s a call
• soft gel ear tips (3 sizes)
• optional ear stabilizer
• controls: volume, mute, last number redial, voice activated dialing

All in all, the Discovery 640E is a very compelling package, especially since you can pick it up for $45.02 shipped from Provantage or $54.99 shipped from Amazon.

Ordinary batteries are cheap, plentiful, and probably incompatible with your modern gadget. IOGEAR’s new GearJuice Rescue Charger is a small device that accepts a AA battery and gives you a mini USB plug to connect it to your phone, music player, or anything else that charges from a mini USB connector.

We like the GearJuice Rescue Charger because it weighs less than an ounce, and costs less than 15 bucks, meaning you can stash one in all your glove boxes and bags.

But we don’t like that it only provides about 15 minutes of talk time, according to IOGEAR, meaning it’s probably a bit less than that in real-world use and even less if you have a smartphone that’s getting data at the same time.

Still, it’s better than being forced to buy a car charger at retail ($30 at Radio Shack vs. $3 on eBay) when you’re in a bind and need to make a call.

If you want to try turning the world upside down, pair a GearJuice Rescue Charger with a USBCell battery… great success!!

Price: $12.24 from Buy.com (even though IOGEAR lists the price as $11.99 on its site, Buy.com is the cheapest place to get it).

The original Jawbone headset captured headlines with its “military-grade” active noise canceling technology. Less than two years later, Aliph has updated the Jawbone with a smaller, sleeker version.

The new Jawbone weighs in about 50 percent smaller before, and also looks like it’s more comfortable than its predecessor with its leather wrapped ear loop. A new slim loop also lets the Jawbone work better with glasses on.

Functionally, it’s pretty similar to before:

• weighs 10 grams
• up to 4 hours of talk time
• up to 8 days standby time
• charges to 80% in 35 minutes (100% in under an hour)
• new magnetic charging cable
• 3 ear-loop sizes for each ear
• black, silver, or rose gold colors
• MSRP $129.99

Currently, the new Jawbone is available exclusively from AT&T for full price, but expect prices to drop in the future as more resellers get it (we’ll keep you posted).

Or pick up a first-gen Jawbone (which also sold for $129.99 originally) for just $77.14 (black) or $74.49 (red) from Amazon.

update:The New Jawbone 2 is now available from Amazon.com for between $115 and $130 (depending on when you buy it).

Fresh from the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that-first department comes Driinn, the simple piece of plastic with the funny name.

Driinn cleverly solves the problem of how to keep clutter to a minimum when you’re charging your phone, iPod, or other small device from a wall outlet.

Of course, it also creates the problem of where to store Driinn when you no longer have the wall charger plugged in, since that’s sort of required for it to work.

But we’ll forget about that and marvel at the simplicity that is Driinn, while we also try to figure out if the product was named by a rogue IKEA designer.

Driinn is available direct online in multiple colors for €5, which means it increases in price every day if you’re paying in dollars, so pick one up from a third-party through Amazon:

Yellow ($5.55), Pink ($7.65), Red ($6.50), Black ($6.99), or Lime ($7.75). (Prices exclude shipping.)

Like radar detectors, most Bluetooth headsets serve only to prove that you get what you pay for. Sure, you might be able to hear the person you’re speaking to just fine, but to them you probably sound distant, tinny, or full of static.

Enter Motorola’s H12 Bluetooth headset, the company’s finest offering in a sea of mediocre ones. The H12 features two microphones that work in tandem to create the magic behind what’s called CrsytalTalk, a fancy name for background noise cancelling.

It also ships with three ear cushions that together comprise TrueComfort, another catchy moniker that basically means the thing isn’t a pain to put on or wear, even with glasses.

The H12 also features the look, fit, and finish of a quality product, and ships with a desktop charger and carrying case. Talk time is rated at up to 5.5 hours and standby time is pegged at 8 days.

The retail price on the H12 is close to $200, but as usual Amazon delivers one of the best deals on the Web at just $77.56.

Got an iPhone? (and an iPod Touch, iPod Classic, iPod Nano 3rd Generation, iPod with Video, Zune, or Sansa e200 (why would you own either of those last two?))

If you do, then these portable speaks from DLO might just be what you’re looking for, if you like to go places and want or need to take some speakers with you to listen to your tunes or movies without using a pair of earphones.

The removable, rotating stand holds the iPhone upright or horizontally for the ideal portable movie-viewing experience

The speakers are powered by four AAA batteries, or an included AC adapter, so you can pretty much carry these babies anywhere, and the sound that comes out of them sounds like its coming from an extra-wide stage thanks to the engineering DLO put into them. The bass vents built into the speakers also provide for surprisingly deep base for such a compact and portable iPhone speaker system.

And these speakers won’t give you any of that ugly mobile phone interference you hear when you place your iPhone close to an older speaker system because they were designed with the iPhone in mind and digital interference free amplifier.

Probably the coolest feature of these speakers is how portable they are.

When you’re done using them, just pack the base and cables inside the speakers and roll them up into a nice little six inch diameter ball for easy packing:

Pick them up from Amazon.com for a cool $38 as of the time of this writing.