Ultra Cool Gadgets

Redefine your audio listening experience with the Creative GigaWorks T40. This new class of performance desktop speakers features a three-driver design for audiophile-like audio that injects new life to your desktop music-listening experience. Like the GigaWorks T20 the Creative GigaWorks T40 features the same hallmark of quality the GigaWorks series of speakers is well-known for–guaranteeing you a rich and defined performance. The GigaWorks T40 features Midrange-Tweeter-Midrange (MTM) driver configuration that improves the overall audio balance with deeper and richer bass effects, giving you music that sounds fuller, warmer in tone and closer to the original audio.
With quality components, such as the dual woven glass fiber cone driver, the cloth dome tweeters, BasXPort technology and the convenient control and entertainment extension, the GigaWorks T40 truly delivers its promise of acoustic audio quality with a style that complements any setup.

Technical Details:
Product Type – Speaker
Localization – Eng/Fr
System Components – 2.0 Speaker System
- Dual woven glass fiber cone
- Cloth dome tweeter

Customer feedback:

1. My curiosity got the better of me with these and I had to try them out. With the Creative GigaWorks T40 Premium 2.0 Speaker System they are really forcing consumers into some tough decisions, and that’s a good thing. The bottom line is that this update makes the T40s the best speakers in a 2.0 Bookshelf body type. Just like Creative’s GigaWorks T20 2.0, these speakers are very efficient, getting clear and impressive sound out of a set that has moderate power ratings. They are also well designed and pleasing to the eye, with slightly taller bodies in the same sleek style of the T20s.

Pros
+ Expanded design adds clarity and range with an added mid-woofer pair
+ Nice looks in a sleek form factor
+ High quality ports and cables allow for nice connection options
+ Extra cable
+ Nice adapter for RCA inputs (TV, receiver, etc.)
+ Decent low-end range and base with fantastic mid-range and high end sound
+ Nice more sturdy housing with good controls
+ Great sound output for limited power consumption and in a small 2.0 footprint

Cons:
- Bass XPorts on top will collect dust
- Cost is higher than the smaller T20s or Klipsch Promedias
- Price puts this set closer to 2.1 sets and some low end 5.1 sets

2. I’ll admit that I was drawn to these speakers by their striking appearance. They are very attractive speakers and also seem very well built, as if Creative had spared no expense on the casing and yellow woven drivers. So that said, how good are these speakers? First off, when watching movies or television on my laptop, these are fantastic. They sound like surround sound and are very clear and very loud. I don’t know how Creative got such great results from such a meager power rating (28 watts) but they did. These would be great for a living room if you wanted to attach them to a television. For music, you get similar clarity and volume. The bass is also very impressive and my friends did not believe me that there was not a subwoofer in there somewhere. That said, I noticed something that annoyed me when listening to music: the music sounded hollow somehow. It’s a small complaint to an otherwise great set of speakers, but it is still annoying. For audiophiles, this will probably be an important issue so I would recommend my previous speakers (Philips MMS321 2.0, $65 on Amazon) as a better alternative. They are not quite as loud but the sound quality is comparable. The Philips also have more watts (40) and are considerably less expensive.

The newly released Mastech MS8268 is an auto/manual ranging digital multimeter. It is packed with many nice features such as sound and light warning for the jacks and back-lit LCD Screen. This meter powers on three AAA batteries. Accessories include test leads & user Manual.

Technical Details:
- AC/DC 1000V/10A 200KHz 200uF 40Mohm Relative Measurement hFE Diode Check Continuity
- LED / Sound Warning when incorrect banana jacks are used relative to function switch setting
- Auto and Manual Ranging with Relative measurement (all ranges except frequency)
- All range fused (resettable) with 1 Year Warranty
- Auto power off (could be disabled) & Blue LED Back-lit LCD displa

Customer feedback:

1. In general, this is a great device for this cost range. It has all features required for daily usage. Description of multimeter can be found in internet. Here are some specific features:
- In any range two terminals to be used are illuminated with red LEDs (see foto). LED is swithed off when lead is pushed into terminal. If lead is pushed into wrong terminal for this range then correct terminal blinks and beeps.
- Automatic range; manual range selection with button.
- Wide set of ranges, including 400.0 mV and 400.0 uA
- Relative measurements and display hold. White backlight (5 seconds)
- Resettable fuse for current ranges (non-resettable for 10A range)
- Display data refresh: 3 per second.

Imperfection:
- Frequency measurement accuracy is low: 2%
- In accordance with manual, package must contain “Special Multi-Function socket” (required for hFE measurement). There was no such device in my package.

2. I’ve been getting back into electronics and I needed a more modern meter that has capacitance and frequency measuring abilities in addition to the usual Voltage, Amperage, Resistance, etc. I haven’t shopped for a meter in about 15 years, so after reading up a bit I found this one to have all the features I needed and it was very inexpensive. The quality is good, comparing favorably with some other VOM’s I have lying around. It included an adapter for measuring transistor hFE which was not mentioned in the description and is a nice bonus. The only negative is that the continuity test buzzer is pretty quiet and might be hard to hear in some environments. Overall, I’m extremely pleased with this meter.

Ten outlets work together, autoswitching your devices on/off automatically, to save you money on your electric bills. 2875 joules of surge protection keep your equipment safe from even the harshest power spikes. Conveniently-spaced outlets and a 45-degree, angled space saver plug make the Smart Strip a friendly addition to your electronic systems.

Technical Details:
- Superior EMI/RFI filtering
- Up to 60db line noise reduction
- 84,000Amp, three-way protection
- 4 way wall mountable
- 2875 joules three-way protection

Customer feedback:

1. Works perfectly! I’m sure I’ll start seeing savings right away since I have plethora of equipment. Setup is simple, just plug the TV i it into the controlling outlet and then the DVD player, xbox, etc… into the switching outlets. Now when I power off/on the TV everything shuts off/on with it. The nice thing about the power strip is that it has a couple of always-on outlets for recording devices – so they don’t lose the date and time. This is a well thought out and simple product.

2. If you want something to help you save a few buck on your energy bill while also prolonging the life of Equipment, this is the tool for you. I had an idea what this SmartStrip could do but i really wanted to see it for myself. This guy is as simple as it sounds and just as convient. You have 1 outlet that you plug your switching device in. The switching device is the device that when you turn on or off turns everything else on or off. You also have 2 Always ON outlets (for DVR boxes or Broadband Modem, etc). And 4 “Controlled” outlets, 1 of which is an extra wide one. Now, the 1 outlet for the switching device is an Always ON outlet.
There is a little knob on the side for helping you tweek the switching setting that power off everything else when you put the main device into a low power state or off. Because some things draw power even when turned off so you may need to tweek it.
I bought this to try it out at work. If you want something to definitely help at home or at the office, this is perfect. At work, i had my Laptop at the switching port. I plugged the Monitor, the Speakers, the Desk Lamp, my cell chargers, any and all accessories into the controlled ports. I tweeked the knob on the side so that when I put my laptop into Standby, that it will also shut off everything else as well. To tweek it, you must put the computer into Standby mode and adjusted the knob until all the devices turn off. This is great because the moment i shutdown the computer at night, it turns everything off and i don’t have to forget about turning anything off. All that littles of electricity its saving is great.

Electric bills can be murder. But now you can cut down on costs and find out which machines are actually worth keeping plugged in. Simply connect your appliances to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor and it will assess how efficient they really are. The unit’s large LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour, the same as your local utility. You can calculate your electrical expenses by the day, week, month, or year while also checking the quality of your power by monitoring voltage, line frequency, and power factor. Now you’ll know if it’s time for a new refrigerator or if that old air conditioner is saving you money. Don’t be another casualty. With the amazing Kill-a-Watt, you’ll have wasteful devices pushing up daisies.

Technical Details:
- Electricity usage monitor connects to appliances and assesses efficiency
- Large LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour
- Calculates electricity expenses by the day, week, month, or year
- Displays volts, amps, and wattage within 0.2 percent accuracy
- Compatible with inverters; designed for use with AC 115-volt appliances

Customer feedback:

1. I absolutely love this thing. Having recently moved out on my own, and generally just enjoying statistics in general, I bought this to monitor my electric costs after two high electric bills in a row. The various results I found were quite surprising.
My air purifier, which I bought here on Amazon, uses 85 watts all the time… 85 * 24 hrs * 30 days / 1000 watts = 61.2kWhr * $0.20 = $12.24 a month. Well, that’s quite a costly monthly addition I never thought of. And that’s just the begining.
My Vornado fan uses 45w… my air conditioner, on high 6 (out of 12) spikes up to 1200 watts. Jeez. My computer, at idle with external drives, uses about 250w. When doing extremely intensive things, like encoding a video, 310w. My light behind my computer desk, with five, 10-watt bulbs, doesn’t actually use 50-watts total. No, it uses 50-watts for the bulbs, PLUS 30-watts apparently just for the light unit to function.
You too will find out all these things you never knew, and possibly save money by cutting out, or replacing energy guzzlers.

2. Two years ago, my electricity consumption jumped about 40% and I ignored the problem until this fall’s rate increases. I wanted to find out what I bought back in 2003 that’s still eating power today. Enter the P4400 Kill-A-Watt unit, which is the only low-cost product of its type on the market today. I tried but failed to find its specifications online. So I bought a couple of these things to try them out. Here are the details on what it can do.
* How big is the display: 4 digits.
* What are the front-panel button capabilities: volts, amps, watts, volt-amps, power-factor, frequency (hz), KWH, timer (since reset).
* Does it lose its data in a power failure: yes.
* You have to plug the unit into a nonswitched wall outlet, it can’t measure overhead lighting or large appliances.
* It will report the amount of time (hours:min up to 99:59, then hours for about a year) since last reset but won’t tell you how much of that time the attached device was powered on.