Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s face it: Times are tough and you’re not likely to qualify for a multi-billion-dollar bailout. You’ve probably already cut back on shopping, eating out, movies and junk gadgets.

Still not saving enough money? Take a second look at your cellphone. The average cellphone user ends up spending $600 a year on wireless phone service, which means there’s plenty of room in there for some scrimping. While there may be some crazy texters and manic talkers around, it is likely most of us use much less than what we paid for.

Here are five ways to slash your cellphone bills and save more of that scarce moolah:

Unlimited isn’t always good
News flash: Cellphone companies don’t really care about you as a person. What they really care about is ARPU, or "average revenue per user," and how to make it bigger. That means finding clever ways of getting customers to sign up for larger monthly contracts. While Sprint, Verizon or AT&T’s unlimited voice and texting package for $99 a month may seem great, it is likely you will use less than half of what you paid for. How much are you really texting? What about voice calls? Do you yap that much? Sure, if you run over your usage it can be expensive but a lot of us don’t.

As a first step analyze your cellphone usage by looking at the past few months’ statements. Find out how many minutes you really use and then match your plan to that. Or try Billshrink, a new website that claims to help you find the most optimal plan. Instead of the $40 plan go for the $20 plan if that’s all you really need. Less is more.

Go prepaid
Service providers like long-term contracts because they lock you in as a customer for two years. While contracts are often the only way to get the best phones, they can get pretty expensive. For example, $200 for a phone and $60 a month on contract adds up to $1,640 over two years.

Check out prepaid phones that you can buy for just about $15 and use with a prepaid card. If you are not a power user this could really help cut your bills down. Some service providers even offer rollover minutes on their prepaid plans, with the condition that you top up to a minimum every month.

Prepaid plans work well for cell phones users who talk 200 minutes or less a month, says the Telecommunications Research & Action Center, a non-profit organization. And if you have more than once cell phone in the family, try substituting one pre-paid cell phone for at least one post-paid cell phone, they suggest.

Cut out the bells and whistles
Do you really need that data plan? Take another look at your phone, too. It’s nice to have the latest phones but you can save money if you are willing to give up on having the current talk of the town. Cut out downloads of ringtones, games and other online services that your service provider may be doing a hard sell on. Cut! Cut! Cut! Tough times call for tough measures.

Don’t cut the cord just yet
About 16 percent of Americans have only cellphones and no landlines. That means for the other 84 percent, it is time to take another look at the black box sitting at your house or work.

When at home use your landline phone instead of burning up minutes on your cellphone. Instead of calling friends and family during your commute, head home and use your land line. Long distance calling? Don’t touch that cellphone!

Buy online
Websites of most service providers offer an extensive range of phones that often come free with a one-year contract. Some of those phones could cost about $50 in-store with a contract or even more. If you really want your latest phones try sites such as Wirefly or Amazon.com for some good deals. In-store isn’t always the best.

Photo: (Milica Sekulick/Flickr)

In this week’s Wired Gadget Lab Audio Podcast, Daniel Dumas, Brian Chen, and I talk about how the economic recession is forcing retailers to jump start their Black Friday deals on televisions and why this is mainly a good thing for consumers. We also go over the reason why people shouldn’t worry about losing out on even bigger deals down the road if they buy a TV this week.

In addition, we discuss the dirty trick that Apple is currently pulling with their new MacBooks. Mainly, they secretly slipped in some copyright protection that prevents people from fully enjoying the use of their port the way it was meant to be used – to push iTunes movies into giant screens.

Finally, we go over the new features from the latest iPhone firmware update, and review the new BlackBerry Storm. So what’s our verdict on the latest wannabe iPhone-killer? Tune in to find out.

Thank you for listening to the podcast. Please remember, if the embedded player above doesn’t work, you can download the Gadget Lab podcast MP3 file.

Use iTunes? Subscribe to the Gadget Lab Audio Podcast in iTunes.

Like this podcast? Check out the Gadget Lab Video Podcast. It’s got hands-on video reviews of the latest hot products and gadgets from the world of consumer electronics and beyond.

(Credit: Apple)

Update: The promotion is now live on the U.S. Apple Store site.

Apple will be holding a one-day shopping event on Black Friday, according to a teaser up on Apple’s Web site. Every sale on the Apple Store is an event, as it happens very rarely, …

To cut your own boards from a felled tree, you need either an expensive bandsaw mill, circular saw or a bad-ass chainsaw and a bracket to hold the chainsaw parallel to some reference surface. The Alaskan mill attaches to the saw’s chain bar and keeps the chainsaw in line with a flat surface, allowing you to cut slabs as thin as 1/2 inch thick. The Alaskan is easy to set up. There is really only one way the saw can fit into the mill. Then, you adjust the two posts on either end to the desired clearance (make sure both posts read the same distance). To make sure your first cut is straight, you use a slabbing bracket; I used the aluminum slabbing rails made by Granberg. Then, you just adjust the clearance to the width of your slab and use the surface of the previous cut to guide the next cut, and the next, and so forth.

After moving into a new house in a wooded area, I realized a dead, 100-foot Red Oak was just 50 feet from the house. Following a few spells of high winds, I knew it was just a matter of time before it might give out, so I hired a local arborist who methodically cut off the upper part of the tree (a 20-ft. section), then worked his way down, cutting more of the tree into 8-ft sections. We had a nice surprise when we finished: the wood looked to be in great shape and seemed like it might make nice flooring. But I soon discovered the professional sawmills near us won’t touch a log less than 9 feet long. Instead of hiring someone with a sawmill to come to my property, I decided to get my own rig.

There are three different kinds of sawmills: circular saw, bandsaw, and chainsaw. I looked at the Lucas Swing blade, several different bandsaw mills and other chainsaw mills. If you have plenty of space and lots of money, Timberking makes some good mills. Most bandsaw mills and circular saws are portable in the sense you can hook them up to your pickup truck and tow them to the site, but they are not portable in the sense you can pick them up and haul them down the hill and through the woods. My number one consideration for the mill was that I should be able to take the saw to the log since I didn’t think I could take the log to the saw. One thing to consider about a chainsaw mill is that it wastes a lot of wood. If you’re going to build a fixed installation, a bandsaw or circular saw is the way to go. As I’ve learned, though, Red Oak is *heavy*, especially when it is wet. Getting the log to the rig wasn’t an option, so I went with a chainsaw mill. I chose the Husqvarna 385XP saw with a 28-inch bar, along with a 30-inch Alaskan mill. That means the mill can be adjusted to fit any bar up to its maximum size, in this case 30 inches. You can install basically any size bar into a chainsaw. I chose 28 inches since it would be big enough to work with any of my logs (my largest log was about 20 inches in diameter).

What’s impressed me about the Alaskan mill is its simplicity, sturdiness and the geometry of the bracket. The bracket on the mill allows the user to keep the mill flat against the log. With other mills, like the more expensive Logosol system for instance, you attach a bracket to either end of the log and use it to index down through the log. This is probably a better system for indexing, but seems like a lot more work; plus the Logosol also supports the chainsaw only from one end. The Alaskan bracket provides support at both ends of the bar, and it comes in a size as short as 24 inches and as big as 56 inches. Granberg also makes a kit with a bar to allow you to attach *two* 385 power heads to the saw. They also offer an oiler kit to increase the amount of oil on the chain, and they manufacture special ripping chains that make cleaner cuts (I used one). I read one guy’s review where he said you needed three sharp chains before starting a days worth of cutting. Maybe that’s about right; I could never last more that one sharp chain worth of work before petering out. Some reviewers have mentioned the effort that goes into sharpening the chains makes a chainsaw mill unacceptable. I didn’t really find it to be onerous. Since the Alaskan mill is basically the same size as the saw, storage isn’t an issue. I just leave the saw mounted in the mill. (NOTE: I learned the hard way, that it is important to store the saw upright. When I stored the saw on its side one time, the next time I used the saw, it took me about 5 hours to get the saw started.)

A few things to remember about chainsaw mills: This is hard work and the going is slow. On my best day, I only managed to finish two logs. Had I been cutting 1- inch boards (instead of 2-inch ones), this would have been much slower. Admittedly, though, my wood was Oak; maybe, just maybe, pine is easier. Also, the saw vibrates a lot. I exchanged my saw’s plastic handle for a foam grip, which helped some. Lastly, while the Alaskan rig makes the saw safer, you can never forget there is a lethal weapon in your hands. Although I’ve given up on the flooring idea, I still have all this good lumber which I’ll certainly use for a woodworking project.

— Jack Tomlinson

$200
(24-inch)
Available from Amazon

Sizes 30-48-inch also available from Lee Valley

Manufactured by Granberg

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(Credit: James Martin/CBS Interactive)

Well, Verizon Wireless is certainly kicking off the holiday season with a bang. In just the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen the release of the RIM BlackBerry Storm, the Samsung Saga, the HTC Touch Pro, and now, the Samsung Omnia.

The Samsung Omnia …