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!

A friend of mine currently complained to me for twenty minutes about how much her brand new computer “sucks” because it couldn’t show the most recent episode of Gossip Girl that she had downloaded. (Apparently, being a tech nerd makes me single-handidly responsible in her mind for all technological faults.)

Many of you may be aware of VLC, a media-player for Mac OS X, Windows XP, Vista and various Linux Distributions, being known for it’s ability to play almost any media file in existence. The other day I downloaded an .mpc file (what ever that is), and sure enough, VLC played it. If you have a video or audio file that Windows Media Player or Quicktime can’t watch, invest in VLC.

Alternatively, if you don’t wish to broaden your horizons into VLC, I suggest Perian for Mac OS X, which allows for Quicktime to play a variety of other files. Another handy thing about Perian is that for Leopard, it allows you to preview DivX and other AVI files in QuickLook. Handy dandy huh?

Download VLC Here
Download Perian Here

We here at TeenTechBlog aim to serve you. Not in the street dancing, “YOU GOT SERVED!” kind of way, but more so to help you out every now again to keep up to date about the wonderful world of tech! However, much like a PBS community pledge drive without the monetary donations, we need your help! We have been nominated for the 2008 Blogger’s Choice Awards in the categories of Best Education Blog, Best Hobby Blog, Best Business Blog, and Best Blog About Stuff, and we need you to click click click, and vote for us!

So please, tell your friends, your family, or if you please, business associates, to vote for TeenTechBlog in this years Blogger’s Choice Awards.

Vote here!

We here at TeenTechBlog may often come off as Mac aficionados, but I speak for myself when I say iPods suck. That is, compared to the rest of the market. For a better price, you can buy a player with a greater range of features, and most often, with a greater audio quality! So, I am happy to finally hear word from Creative about an upcoming player. Word from epiZENter.net has it that Creative has unofficially announced the Creative Zen X-Fi. The company has taken an interesting twist in this player in adding some unique features which may pan out to be positive. The X-Fi is a player that assumably will be advertised based on the premise of Creative’s reknowned X-Fi audiocards, appealing to the audiophiles who want to carry their music on the go. Read on!

Features:

• Audio: MP3, WMA, AAC (unprotected), WAV, and Audible
• Video: WMA, MPEG4-SP, Divx 4/5, Xvid, and MJPEG
• Built-in X-Fi technology with two effects (Crystallizer and Expand)– guaranteed great sound
• Wi-Fi for instant messaging (Yahoo! and Windows Live!) and wireless streaming– admittedly not as useful as the full-blown web browser found on the iPod touch, but better than the more comparable iPod classic, which has no internet capability at all
• FM Tuner and Voice Recorder– a feature glaringly missing in the iPod product line
• Built-in Speaker– again iPod decided to skip this one, unfortunately
• SD Support–Far more reliable than the the iPod’s hard drive. There is built in memory too, but they don’t know how much yet. It can be assumed that it will come in 8, 16 and 32 GB sizes as the same has been true for it’s Creative’s other Zen player
• Premium quality earphones included (EP-830)– it may not seem like a big deal, but how many broken sets of junky iPod earphones to you have lying around?
• Battery Life: 36 hours for Audio, 5 hours for Video (May differ depending on X-Fi)– pretty similar to the 80 gb iPod classic, which has a slightly lower 30 and then also 5, respectively.

If you are sick of the constant grievences that are often associated with buying an iPod such as my self (countless batteries and hard-drives have malfunctioned), please investigate the opposition! If you need help, heck, send us an email and we will try to help you to find the best deal possible!

More (epiZENter.net)