Some math: Gmail – ads + contact social info = ?

Ok – so browser plugins aren’t really something I usually write about here – but this one here’s an exception. To jump right in, I love rapportive. Love it. It’s just cool.

Backing up just a bit. Gmail users – you guys all know the ads on the right side of emails you read, right? Well, rapportive is a Firefox and Chrome plugin, that simply replaces them. Now that’s nice, but not only does it get rid of the ads, it replaces them with something pretty useful: a contact profile of the person who sent the email you’re reading, based on public profiles. And for the most part, it installs and runs very smoothly – just go to the site, install, and a few painless seconds later, you’re ready to roll – just go to Gmail, read an email, and rapportive’ll do the rest – showing info pulled from their Google Profile, links to Facebook, Twitter, flickr etc, if they have that info publicly available, so it’s pretty neat for connecting with the people you talk to. Also, a nice feature exists of being able to jot down a private note about the person for yourself for the next time you talk with the person.

It’s not perfect – not everyone I talk to has a profile – but overall, its pretty nice. rapportive is available for my favorite price of “free”  – as a plugin for Firefox and Google Chrome, with IE support on the way. Check it out here.

Have you seen James Cameron’s Avatar? If you were impressed by the usage of 3D by Cameron to immerse you in the world of Pandora, then you will be amazed by sports and TV in 3D. One of the big themes last week at CES was 3DTV’s in the home and coming this June DirecTV will begin broadcasting a few channels in 3D and one of the big headlines here, is that sports will also be in 3D. Fox Sports and ESPN are already on board to begin showing some games in 3D this summer, though if sports ain’t your thing, don’t worry a number of other broadcasting companies will join them including:

• TBS
• NBC
• MTV
• and CBS

To go along with 3DTV there will be also be Blu-ray players that can play Blu-ray in 3D! The first Blu-ray player that can play 3D was announced from Sony last and is called the BDP-S770 (this is in addition to Sony updating the PS3 to 3D)

And finally, to go along with 3DTV a bunch of new TVs have been announced that can handle 3D. One in particular is the Sony Barvia LX900 which will come in sizes ranging from 40 – 60 inches, and will be able to broadcast 3D in full 1080P HD.

Now, you’re probably thinking, out of all the 3D movies I have seen, I’ve always had to wear glasses, do I have to wear them in my own house? The answer is for now, yes. There are glasses that will come along with the TVs that will allow you to see the television broadcast in 3D, though there are a lot of companies working on 3D without the annoying glass.

All of us here at TeenTechBlog want to say thanks for the last 2+ years of support, and wish you all a Happy New Year (and Decade). Here’s to you – the readers, and another year (and Decade) full of happiness, health, and awesome cool stuff. Welcome 2010!

– Your Friends at TeenTechBlog

(Oh, and it’s TWENTY Ten. Not Two Thousand and Ten. Just FYI.)

Well, it’s that time of year again, time for snow, presents, college bowl games, peace on earth and of course, the TeenTechBlog Holiday wishlist.  We thought that, seeing that it is the holiday season, we’d share with you some of the gadgets on our holiday wish list. So what gadgets would we like to get this holiday season? Read on!

Same as last year, here are 3 gadgets on each of our wishlists, with some little reasons why.

Eli:

1. Motorola Droid

Sure I love my iPhone 3G, and AT&T’s network hasn’t been as bad to me as some say it’s been to them– but Android 2.0, a real keyboard, better camera WITH flash, and of course getting Verizon’s 3G network (which is awesome here in the NYC area), is just, wow.

2. Apple MacBook Pro 15 inch

Just like last year, I’d love to get me one of those sick MacBooks.

3. 3D TV

We’ll see a lot more of these next year (particularly with the PS3 and other devices going 3D), but these just are so cool! (And yes I know you still would need the glasses, but still, 3D!)

Chaim:

1. B&N Nook:

Alright, so reviews weren’t so great on it, but common – its an eReader. It has 2 screens. Runs Android. Need I say more?

2. Apple Tablet

Just too cool not to have somewhere on this list – seriously, have you seen the rumors on these things? (That is, provided if it actually turns out to exist….)

3. Optimus Maximum – Again….

Somehow, I didn’t end up getting one of these last year. Shocking, I know. But the Maximus remains the coolest, (and most expensive, at $1593…)  keyboard in existence, with each key being an individual OLED (same as Zune HD) screen, completely customizable by application, or even different languages. Seriously cool.

Charlie:

1. Canon Rebel XT

Everybody these days has a camera and if you’re someone who likes to consider himself a more serious photographer than most — a category of which I am proud to claim membership — an above-par camera is a must. The Rebel, a compactly designed, digital SLR with options and settings that can exhaust the appetites of even the most adventurous stands head and shoulders above its competitors and would be a delightful treat among my holiday presents.

2. Toyota Prius

Hey, if you’ve got the money, why not? As a budding driver, environmentalist (as long as they don’t take away Styrofoam bowls– bare necessities!), and, most importantly, a cheapo who thinks high gas prices shall ultimately prevail, I would appreciate one of these in the driveway in the coming days (colored “mango” preferably, if anyone is interested in sponsoring).

3. Chefstack Automatic Pancake Maker

I’m lazy and I love pancakes. Need I say more?

Zev:

1. Xbox 360 Elite

The 360 is such a fun console and has some of the greatest exclusives such as Gears of War, and Halo. The graphics are incredible and the games are so fun.

2. Apple MacBook
As a student who uses a laptop for every subject in school, its always good to have a reliable and light laptop. The MacBook does all of that. With a glass multi-touch pad and the beautiful screen makes the MacBook as a student on the go, the MacBook really is a must for me.

3. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2 is one of the greatest first person shooters you will ever play. The graphics are beautiful and the multiplayer is just, awesome. A def. must have on my wishlist.

So that’s our holiday wishlist, what’s yours? Anything in particular you looking for? Let us know in comments and of course, happy holidays to all!

We got something here today we think a lot of you will love. It’s a brand new site by Ryan Block and Peter Rojas (the guys who made the big tech blogs Engadget and Gizmodo– they also are our mentors here and have helped get us off the ground, just a little side note) called gdgt (pronounced either g-d-g-t, like saying each letter, or just “gadget”). As we said in the title, it’s a site that mixes both gadget news and social networking. It’s really cool, kinda like a  Facebook/Twitter for gadgets.

It also really let’s you focus on the gadgets you own, and in your profile, you actually can make a list of the gadgets you want, have, or had– and clicking on one of the gadgets in your list takes you to that gadgets page, where theres a whole bunch of information like a basic overview, tips, tricks and hacks for said gadget (do at your own risk!), and even reviews. Speaking of reviews, you also can post your own reviews on the gadgets (though you can’t just write “this iPod is awesome!”, the reviews need to be at least 200 words), and you can also edit information on gadgets on the site if you find them inaccurate, and you can even add another gadget to the site if you find the one your looking for missing (kinda adding a Wikipedia like element to the site).

There are also a lot of discussions on the site, so if your having trouble with something, there may be a good bet you’ll find  an answer to it there– and if you know the answer to someones problem, you can add in a comment to help them out. Those are just a few of the new things at gdgt, you can see a whole video walk through of the site here.

It really is cool and you can check it out for yourselves here. Oh, and friend me and Chaim!

Today is June 12th, which means if you don’t have cable or satellite TV, or a digital converter box, then you probably aren’t getting TV anymore.

Why? Well if you haven’t seen the news recently (or any of the many ads about it both on TV and online), the TV signals will be switching to digital tomorrow from analog, as per a law passed by the government. The reason for the law? Its benefits will very soon be amazing. See, the analog TV previously used till now for the air stations like CBS, NBC, FOX, etc. (stations you can get with an antenna for instance, which are free “over the air”), use something called the 700 MHz spectrum. Basically, the government wanted to clear up this spectrum for a number of reasons, but the most relevant one to you is: Verizon and AT&T will use this for their 4G networks. Not only does this rake in a whole lot of cash –over $1 BILLION! — for the government, but it will allow for plenty of air for Verizon and AT&T to begin their intended rollouts of  their 4G networks later this year and early next year, respectively. Both of their upcoming 4G networks should be INSANELY FAST but we’ll cover 4G networks later in another post.

So what can you do now to adapt to this new transition to digital? For one, you can always use this as an excuse to jump to cable or satellite, and get yourself a boatload of extra channels as I’m sure your well aware of (yeah, we thought you’d want that as your first choice). You can also order a $40 coupon the government is giving out to purchase a converter box to attach to your antenna and TV, which will essentially give you all your current, standard, “over the air” channels in a much better digital, near HD picture. You can read about the transition and order the coupon here, which will arrive in a couple days (I ordered mine about a week ago and got it Wednesday). You can then buy the converter box at a bunch of places, including Best Buy, CVS and Radio Shack among many.

So there you got it. Now go out there and get your converter box, and let us what you think of this new “digital TV revolution”: you getting better picture and sound, exicted for the future 4G networks coming because of this transition?

The Kindle DX. AKA, a REALLY Big Kindle 2.

Amazon, (ya know, that big online store thing?), announced today the latest version of the popular Kindle eReader. The Kindle DX. In English: A really big Kindle 2.

Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Kindle 2 is a really nice eReader, definitely beating out say, an iPod Touch, in terms of readability. And the DX has an even bigger screen than its predecessor, almost standard paper size– which is awesome. While I haven’t seen one in person, this definitely looks like an incredible way to read books. Also intriguing about the DX is some of the new partnerships Amazon’s made to get content to the DX.

First up, and most important to me as a teenager and student, is their new partnerships with schools and textbook makers. Yes, textbooks – those enormous, heavy bricks that are the bane of every student, forcibly lugged to school every day, back and forth- have now been digitized on the Kindle DX. So theoretically, you can just carry one of these around, loaded with all your textbooks and other books (I’m a huge reader), which makes it a very enticing deal for those like me whose bag on average, between books and laptop, and other random stuff, weighs more then a small child. However, while it  seems like a promising option for students, much has yet to be found out about this arrangement: the project cost for digital textbooks as well as the list companies/textbooks to be available for purchase has yet to be announced.

Another new feature allows Kindle owners to subscribe to a variety of newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and others, directly to their device. This is pretty cool, something that’s been seen a thousand times in sci-fi movies, and combined with the DXs large screen looks like it could be interesting. Cost is about $10-$15 a month per paper- about $50 more a year than print subscriptions.

Which brings up the next thing. Price. And I gotta say, this one’s gonna hurt. $489 worth of hurt. Seriously. Not including content– although Kindle books are cheaper then paper ones. Compare to the Kindle 2, which is already expensive at $359, and the restrictively high price (surely according to a student’s wallet) makes the choice between Amazon’s 2 models even harder; especially considering that while the Kindle 2 is smaller screen-wise, it’s $100 cheaper, has most of these features, and is semi-portable (the screen is 6 inches compared to 9.7 on the DX). But for both devices, in my opinion, if Amazon wants to get teens and students to be interested in ‘em, they’re going to need to reconsider prices.

This isn’t to say that the Kindles aren’t excellent products; they are. But quality comes at price, which here is fairly high. The Kindle DX launches in the summer, and you can preorder it online from Amazon now, as well as view Amazon’s comparison between the Kindle 2 and the DX on that page. More info to come as we get it, particularly regarding textbooks.

The Amazon Kindle 2

Some of you may have heard of Amazon’s digital book (called an e-book, and yes people do read books ). Believe it or not- and we know a lot of you probably won’t believe it , the first Kindle was really popular, and they were constantly sold out on Amazon’s site.

The original Kindle  let you read countless books on one small, thin device and let you download new books, magazines and newspapers straight to the Kindle using Sprint’s 3G network– all without charging you a monthly data price.

Now the Kindle, as we said, was really, really popular, and this past week Amazon announced the next generation version  of the device, cleverly named the Amazon Kindle 2. So what’s new in the Kindle 2 and why should you care? Well, read on to find out!

We’ll break this one down like we break down everything else- feature by feature.

• Thinner Design- This Kindle 2, is 1/3 of an inch thick (or should we say thin!); it’s as thick as a magazine or a pencil!

Ya, we’re talking pencil thin!

• Very Light- This is lighter than most paper back books, so not only do you get all those books, but you get them in something lighter than 1 physical book!
• Built-in Sprint 3G- The Kindle 2 keeps the same great 3G features that let you buy books, and view newspapers, blogs and magazines right on the device.

The New York Times on the Kindle 2

• Updated Screen- The screen on the Kindle 2 is updated, and now pages turn 20% faster!
• Over 230,000 books, available from the Kindle’s store– and counting!- Basically you can read A LOT!
• Better Battery- According to Amazon, you can go DAYS, yes DAYS, of use without charging.
• “Read-to-Me”- Probably the coolest feature on this device. This feature will, you guessed it, read the books to you- so not only can you read it, you can listen to it to! Let the laziness begin!
• Hold’s 1,500 books- Yup, a “library in your pocket.”

So there are the features, what are our own thoughts? Well, I think this is a really cool device. While my reading is more SI and ESPN magazine, online articles, as well as the daily newspaper, and usually not books, I’m not sure this device would be perfect for me (though who knows, maybe having a cool device like this would inspire me to read more ). But for someone who is a “bookworm”, and would love to be able to have 1,500 books in their pocket- this should fit the ticket.

The Kindle 2 can be pre-ordered now from Amazon.com for $359, and will be released on February 24th.

What do you think: you a bookworm and gonna get this? Interested, but don’t want to spend the $359? Not really into books at all and would rather just use that $359 and get yourself an iPod Touch and a book reading app? Let us know in the comments.

We here at TeenTechBlog aren’t only bout technology. Believe it or not, we actually are into other things like sports (and quite passionately I may add as I am writing this I’m getting ready to play in a charity basketball tournament. Go MTA Lions!).

So we wanna ask what’s your pick for the Super Bowl tomorrow- you think the Pittsburgh Steelers D and the awesomeness of Ben Roethlisberger will prevail over the “Cinderella story” of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald and the Arizona Cardinals?

My personal pick? Steelers hold on and lay down the law on the Cards. Yeah, who doesn’t love the underdog (especially after last year’s AMAZING win by my hometown Giants ), but I just gotta believe the Steelers D is too good, and they will be able to contain Fitzgerald and the rest of the Cards (much easier said then done ). Final score: 35-24 Steelers.

So… what’s your pick: do the Steelers dominate, and end the Cards amazing road to the Super Bowl, or do you think the Cards are gonna be like last year’s G-Men and pull off another amazing Super Bowl upset (and end the second longest drought in sports for a professional team without a championship– first are the Chicago Cubs– sorry Cubs fans ).Let us know your picks (and your reasons behind them) in the comments.

Pix from ESPN.com

Yup, it’s that time of year again- the holiday season. Presents, snow, no school, intense college bowl games, and anything else you can imagine. We thought that, seeing that it is the holiday season, we’d share with you some of the gadgets on our holiday wish list. So what gadgets would we like to get this holiday season? Read on!

We each picked three things we wanted, and gave a little reason why we wanted said object as well as a price. We’ll go in alphabetical order.

Eli:

1. Apple Macbook Aluminum

I saw this in the Apple Store a couple weeks of ago, and boy is it awesome. I love the glass trackpad with multi-touch, the screen looks great, and the most important thing for me: it is small and light so it would easy for me to take around. Oh, and the updated graphics don’t hurt for playing games either

2. NBA 2k9 for Xbox 360

I’m a sports nut, and I love the NBA 2k9 series (I find it much better the NBA Live- I’m more for a realistic game than a dunk off), and from what I saw with the demo I downloaded a while back, this new version will not disappoint.

3. 120 GB Xbox 360 Hard Drive

I have one of those old 20 GB hard drives, and while it works for the average game saves and such, it really limits me in terms of saving games to hard drive for playing (one of the new features in the new Xbox Update- see here), as well as saving things off of Xbox Live. A 120 GB hard would suit all those needs and more

Chaim:

(Note: This is not meant to be taken seriously  )

1. Optimus Maximum:

Alright, now that that’s out of the way, here’re my picks – the Optimus Maximum keyboard. Quite possibly the coolest keyboard ever, the Maximum has 113 OLED screens for keys. Each key is customizable, and is just insanely cool. Available at an insanely uncool price of $1593.

2. Telsa Roadster:

Another needlessly awesome thing, the Roadster is an electric sportscar. Nuff said. Only $100,000, provided you can get one of the few that they make yearly.

3. Panasonic 150 inch Plasma Screen TV

Reason: Can you read? 150. Inch. TV. This monster doesn’t display HD – it displays 4x HD! Current Price – if you have to ask…..

Charlie:

Canon Rebel XT

Everybody these days has a camera and if you’re someone who likes to consider himself a more serious photographer than most — a category to which I am proud to claim membership — an above-par camera is a must. The Rebel, a digital SLR with options and settings that can exhaust the appetites of even the most adventurous and a compact design, stands head and shoulders above its competitors and would be a delightful treat in my holiday presents.

Toyota Prius

Hey, if you’ve got the money, why not? As a budding driver, environmentalist (as long as they don’t take away Styrofoam bowls– bare necessities!), and, most importantly, a cheapo who thinks high gas prices shall ultimately prevail, I would appreciate one of these in the driveway in the coming days (colored “mango” preferably )

Flashlight

Any kind is fine really– I just really need that extra assurance that I won’t tumble down the stairs when the power goes out and my phone battery dies and its dark outside unless it is because I want to! So yes, flashlight would be great and I advise all readers to do the same!

Nik:

Blackberry Storm

This was kind of a tough one for me. I really, really like my Blackberry and I also really, really like my iPod touch.  I also wanted to put a new phone on this list so, I picked the middle man, the world’s first touch screen Blackberry.

Sony Playstation 3

Why is this on my list you ask? Well, I’ve never really been much of a gamer — some Madden here and there or maybe some Call of Duty over at a friend’s house — and because of this, my most advanced gaming system is a PS2.

But, this year I want my own next-gen console and when I say next-gen about the PS3, I really mean it. This thing is packed with WiFi, Bluetooth, Blu-Ray and instead of having to pay for a membership to play online, it’s completely free. Also, that new PlayStation Home (see our previous post on it here) feature looks pretty cool.

Apple Macbook Pro

This one is definitely at the top of my list. Apple’s latest offering in the laptop world not only has amazing specs as well as tons of power, it also looks beautiful. Honestly, this thing is gorgeous and I really wouldn’t mind having this baby waiting for me under the tree on the 25^th.

Zev:

1.  Resistance 2

Insomniac made huge improvements an already great shooter, but then again who wouldn’t want to destroy 200 feet tall monsters?

2. iPod touch 32 GB

Single handedly, the best and most stylish MP3 player out there, plus my old iPod is ready to go

3. HTC Fuze

Great texting, great touch screen, and as long as you don’t require Wi-Fi like Eli : ), this is the phone for you.

Okay, so there you have it- some the things on our holiday wishlists. What’s yours? Any of these gifts things you want? Let us know in the comments.

And before we go, we just want to wish all of you a happy Christmas, Chanukah, Kawanza- or anything else your celebrating- and a happy New Year!