Hasta La Gadget!

@Cosme is Japan’s most popular “kuchikomi” (word of mouth) cosmetics information and ranking website. On March 10th the website released a cosmetics guidebook called “1,200,000 Nin ga Eranda Cosme,” or “The Cosmetics Chosen by 1,200,000 People.” As the title suggests, the book showcases the top products as selected by the site’s 1,200,000 users.

From over 60,000 products discussed on the website in over 6,600,000 user rating entries, top items in categories such as skin care and make-up get mention in the book. The products themselves are surprisingly varied, from $200 face creams to drug stores staples like witch hazel and Vaseline—a reflection of the different users of the site.

Each product entry includes the category, ranking, brand, product description, age demographic breakdown, and select comments from the site. An additional “ranking points” is awarded to each entry based on the sum of all consumer rankings, meaning products move up in the ranks not only on the basis of high consumer rating (on a scale of 1-7) but by the number of consumer ratings as well.

There are other interesting bits of information gleaned from questionnaires on the website, such as how long users spend putting on make-up in the morning and tips for a flawless French manicure. The front of the book also looks at years past, showing the top items from 2006-2008.

“The Cosmetics Chosen by 1,200,000 People” is a “mook,” the curious Japanese word for a cross-between a book and magazine. More casual than a book, but not as disposable as a magazine, mooks usually enjoy an initial display on the magazine shelves at the bookstore before retiring to the appropriate book section.

Like other crowd-sourced products and self-publishing “keitai novel” sites that have proved hits lately, this does a nice job of making users of the site feel like they are really part of something greater—ensuring that a good number of them will feel vested enough in the creation process to purchase the book not only for the information but also as a “souvenir.” The layout of the book itself resembles the beauty section in fashion magazine, yet with the prominent “rating points” and “members comments” reminding readers that they themselves are part of the collective editorial voice.

“The Cosmetics Chosen by 1,200,000 People” retails for ¥1,000 and is published by Kodansha, the company also responsible for popular women’s magazines Vivi and With.

Many car buyers look at hybrids because those autos are marketed as being better for the environment. “Green” is certainly a selling point–and now, manufacturers are using the same tactics to sell their TVs, highlighting the fact that some models use less energy and have less “bad” stuff like mercury inside. Research firm iSuppli just released the results of its U.S. TV Consumer Preference Analysis survey and found that 27.5 percent of LCD TV buyers listed green factors as an important influence, while an additional 23.1 percent further responded that green features were something they looked for in an LCD-TV.

Furthermore, more than 40 percent of respondents indicated that their TV set incorporated power savings and/or Energy Star features. But only 16 percent of respondents highlight the set’s recyclability. So while consumers are considering the power usage, end of life isn’t as much of a concern.

This is worth mentioning, because the California Energy Commission’s proposed legislation to require large-screen TVs to use 33 percent less power by 2011, and 49 percent less power by 2013 has come under attack since it was announced two weeks ago. The commission has highlighted that the new energy standards for the sets would reduce global warming and save consumers $18 to $30 a year. Yes, you read that right… $30 a year, or the savings you’d get if you just watch an hour less every week. The problem, says the Consumer Electronics Association, is that these regulations could result in a flat-out ban of large-screen sets in California (no pun intended), as most sets made today are simply not compliant.

But the point is that clearly everyone, including state regulators are looking at the small picture (again, no pun intended) of the short-term energy cost and savings. The bigger issue remains that all TVs, even the really big and expensive ones, will eventually have an end of life, And how this is handled is something that consumers aren’t thinking about, and companies are only now starting to address.

For company-by-company instructions, check out GoodCleanTech’s Electronics Recycling Superguide.

Post by Peter Suciu

Here’s how it started: David Pogue is one of the country’s best-known tech columnists, and as a great writer and a respected personality, he quickly built up a lot of Twitter followers. Pogue gives a lot of paid talks, and several months ago he discovered that if he asked his many followers questions during a live talk, they would answer. People in the audience learned the valuable lesson that if you’re a celebrity with hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers, they’ll send puns to you upon request.

But when Pogue tapped his followers looking for parenting advice, he was shocked: “the masses” (quoting the Web site) offered “practical information and real emotion” (again quoting the Web site). Wow, the masses sure can be smart.

To harness all that wisdom, Pogue is compiling the first tweeted book. Every night for a few weeks he’ll pose a question to his Twitter followers, something like “Anyone seen any good bumper stickers lately?” The masses can then send him some practical wisdom and real emotion in 140 characters or less. If Pogue uses your reply in this “extremely hilarious little book” (quoting the Web site) you’ll get a free copy. If you are part of the masses and would like to share your own practical wisdom and real emotion, you can follow Pogue here.

From the French company Be.ez (which is meant to be pronounced “be easy”) comes a stylish line of netbook sleeves for your favorite portable. The LArobe line comes in either 10.2-inch or 8.9-inch sizes and should fit a variety of netbooks. The sleeves are available in nine colors, some all-business and some that look like they’d glow when the lights are off.

The 10.2-inch LArobe sleeves comes in the more electric shades and fit MSI WIND, ASUS 1000, ASUS S101, Medion Akoya mini E1210, ECS G10IL, Samsung NC10, and Samsung 310 netbooks. The 8.9-inch sleeves come in more conservative tones and fit the Aspire One, Dell Inspiron 910, Fujitsu Amilo MiniSize and HP2133 netbooks. All the sleeves list for $19.99. You can purchase them on Amazon or learn more from the Be.ez site.

If you’ve sat in a coffee shop for hours using the free WiFi and you don’t even drink coffee, you might be a cheap geek (I’m working on my stand-up routine).

1. Yes, you can afford a sweet digital camera, because Buy.com is offering the Samsung SC-DX103 for $119.99, and that’s with free shipping. This compact model has a big 34x optical zoom (might want to take some of the money you’re saving and buy a tripod) and records to SD or MMC cards. 

2. If your computer can barely keep up with the demands of your 3D games, try them with the GeForce 9500 GT graphics card. Micro Center is practically giving them away, since they’re $14.99 after the mail-in rebate.

3. As a cheap geek, there’s one word that excites me like nothing else: terabyte. When it’s combined with a price tag well under $100, I get all tingly. ZipZoomfly is offering a Samsung Spinpoint 1TB internal drive for $87.90.