It’s not the week leading up to Christmas, and retailers are ramping up their promotion campaigns, hoping they catch shoppers trying to fit in some last-minute Christmas shopping into their busy schedules. So they make sure the market knows all about these bells and whistles.

Like engravings on iPods. It’s a great way to personalize Apple’s popular media player for a friend or loved one. Just in keep in mind that it’s impossible to return an engraved iPod!

Makes sense actually: Except for those who originally bought them, these engraved iPods have virtually no resale value, and Apple definitely can’t provide refurbished units with “WORD 4 LIFE” engraved at the back of them, can they?

Still, this is something to keep in mind dear readers! There’s a reason after all why retailers like Apple provide engraving for free—it frees them from a potentially significant after-sales support option from the get go.

If you’d still like to get an engraved iPod, you can do so through the Apple Store.

Feel free to call me an old fogey who’s slowly turning into the harrumphing adult, the kind who was irritating when I was kid. But when did kids start thinking that sending “nude or nearly nude” photos of themselves to friends was an ok thing to do? A probably late news report summarizing the trend:
It’s like what JayeCuevas on YouTube said: “hey i have an idea! DON’T TAKE THOSE KIND OF PICS IN THE FIRST PLACE! now there’s a concept”. In any case, even adults need to learn that keeping a record of incriminating pics or text is simply asking …read more

The home page of goo.gl, Google’s new URL shortening service, claims that it’s “not for broader consumer use”. But thanks to Alexandre Gaigalas, who created a third-party goo.gl URL shortener, that’s not true.
Visit http://gaigalas.net/lab/googl, type in any URL and press “Shorten” to get your very own goo.gl URL!

Thanks for the tip Andry!

A quick face-to-palm worthy moment: The Register reports on a company suing Apple, Microsoft, and other big operators like Sony for infringing on their patent—or the “standard activation software used by a vast array of software”.
Consider this your monthly dose of patent trolls (BetaNet LLC in this case) seeking to profit off the hard work of others.

A development that will surely worry Barnes & Noble execs at best, and force the book retailer to come out with a firmware/software update at “worst”, a group of developers have managed to turn the nook e-reader into a sub-$300 web tablet—with free 3G access via B&N’s network access.

The process, which predictably violates the nook’s warranty and user agreement, first involves removing the e-reader’s internally stored 2GB microSD card. The next step requires connecting this card to a PC running Linux or Unix, editing an initialization file, and simply replacing the word “disabled” with—you guessed it—”enabled”.
However, that’s not the end …read more

Just in case you missed them, two rumors about the upcoming Google Phone (AKA the Nexus One, Dream, or the HTC Passion). From Android Guys:
Here’s the price: $199 unlocked in stores. $100 rebate online if you have an active and old Google account. That $100 rebate is either to buy it $99 online from Google’s online phone store, for using on Android Marketplace or for using on any Google Checkout stores. Can also be used for T-Mobile or AT&T pre-paid Data SIM card service at $29 per month, no contracts required.
From Reuters:
The phone, manufactured by HTC, has a number of …read more

Out of the 6000 plus fans of the Tom’s Hardware Facebook page, 94% are probably males (this according to the page’s admin, who I know personally). That’s no surprise, but I’d still like to see more women getting into computer hardware. This isn’t another drool-induced rant pleading for hotties to turn into geeks and spice up our socially-challenged online lives, mind you.
Nothing makes a community livelier than diversity, and geek circles desperately need a woman’s touch. So how do we get more women drooling over specs and components? Here’s my five-step plan.

A few weeks ago, right until the Black Friday-Cyber Monday retail orgy, Microsoft was selling a 3-pack of Office 2007 Home and Student edition at a discount. Pretty good on the surface, until you ended up on Microsoft’s shopping page, and see that there was an “optional” $10 addition to the final bill.

In any case, three licenses of Office 2007 Home and Student edition are still available at a discount, though at a higher price of $110 (compared to the previous discounted price of $90). That’s a bit below $40 for each license, the only limitation being that the three …read more

No worries, in case you haven’t taken advantage of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday promos recently featured on The Gadget Blog. Those retailers still want to move stock, especially as Christmas nears, so check out what Dell and HP have made available.

While estate planning is a must-do for anyone, especially for rich dudes who want to keep squabbling heirs in line, how many take the same approach with our online profiles? Inevitably, Swedish company My Webwill caters to this need (or “need”, for those who aren’t active online anyway).
There are already various online services that automatically send emails on the behalf of the dearly departed. Yet My Webwill hopes to differentiate itself by asking customers for access to their respective social networking accounts. A Facebook user could have his account deactivated upon his death, for instance.
My Webwill is free, but for …read more