Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on June 12, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

RSS feeds are a wonderful thing that have revolutionized the way many people read news. If you use feeds to keep up with your news, think about how difficult it would be to follow all of the sites your subscribed to if there was no feed available.

I use FeedDemon (our review) to keep up on all of my news, and it was definitely worth the $30 I had to pay to get it. Keeping up with 400+ sites would be a huge chore if I didn’t have a great desktop application to use, which is why I’m grateful to have a program like FeedDemon. If I didn’t use FeedDemon I think the next best thing would be Google Reader.

Now you just have to find the feeds that will be the most beneficial to you, and that’s why we’re here. We’ve compiled a list of what we believe to be the top-10 most useful feeds. They’ll increase your knowledge, save you time, and they are just plain awesome. Check them out, and get your feed readers ready!

–This Day in History (Feed URL)–

We all like to get some interesting facts from time to time, but what about getting one each day? The Encyclopedia Britannica offers a cool RSS feed that tells you what interesting things have happened for each day. It reminds me of something you would see on one of those desktop calendars that you flip through.

–Amazon Price Monitor (Feed Generator)–

Seeing that Amazon guarantees the lowest price for up to 30-days after your purchase, it might be in your best interest to monitor for price changes. After you buy something, you probably never think to check the price again, but it can be greatly beneficial if you do.

If you’re skeptical of prices flucuating that much, just checkout the feed for the full version of Vista Ultimate. Since the beginning of March the price has dropped $60!

All you have to do is provide an Amazon URL or Wishlist to this feed generator service to monitor for price changes. Each time the price goes up or down you’ll receive a notification in your feed reader.

–Tracking Airfare (Feed Generator)–

With the rising cost of airfare we all want to make sure we’re getting the lowest price possible. Thanks to Farecast, it is possible to track the prices of airfare using your feed reader, and they will even tell you whether the price keeps going up or whether it has been going down.

–BitTorrent Search Feed (Homepage)–

BitTorrent is a wonderful tool that is used by millions of people everyday, but have you ever been guilty of sitting around waiting for a torrent to get posted? You sit there refreshing, refreshing, and it just never pops up. Eventually you forget about it and check back a week later at which time you notice that it has already been available for a few days.

Don’t go looking for the torrents, instead let them come to you with an RSS feed! If you go to the BTJunkie.org homepage and perform a search there will be an orange RSS icon located at the top of the results. There’s your RSS feed, just subscribe to that and you’ll automatically be notified via the feed as soon as a new result is posted.

–Word of the Day (Feed URL)–

This is kind of like the “this day in history” feed in the sense that it provides knowledge that can actually make you smarter. Not only that, but it is also fun to impress your friends with big words.

–eBay Auctions (Homepage)–

At the bottom of every eBay search is a small discrete RSS button. It’s almost as if they didn’t want you to know that you can use RSS to monitor search results, but it works wonderfully. You can monitor for newly added items that match your search results…this is another great tool to hunt down deals!

–DHL, FedEx, and UPS Package Tracking (Homepage)–

This is one of the most useful feeds that I have. The site offers package tracking for a variety of shipping services, including UPS and FedEx, and also provides an RSS feed for keeping up-to-date with the status of your package. In fact, I somehow get the status updates from the site before they are even available on the shipper’s website.

–Weather (Homepage)–

We all want to know what the weather is like right now, as well as what to expect in the future. After all, that is probably the most used gadgets on computer desktops and personalized homepages. Now you can bring it to your feed reader! Just go to the Yahoo! Weather homepage, enter in your area, and click the RSS button.

–Using Google Calendar for Cool Feeds (Homepage)–

You probably already realize that you can retrieve a feed for your Google Calendar, or for any calendar that you’re currently subscribed to. The usefulness of subscribing to your own calendar might not be apparent because after all, you can send yourself email reminders along with several other notification options. I, however, use it for other purposes.

For example, I subscribe to the Mozilla Developer Calendar so that I can see when they add anything new to it. After subscribing to an iCal calendar, all you have to do is go into the Google Calendar Settings -> Calendars and then click on whatever one you want to subscribe to. You’ll then be presented with an XML address which you can use with your RSS feed reader.

Apple has a nice list of iCal’s that you can subscribe to in Google Calendar. They include things like DVD and movie release dates as well as the top iTunes songs. By subscribing to these you’ll be one of the first to notice the new content.

–CyberNet News (Feed URL)–

If you’re not already subscribed to our feed, there has never been a better time! We are constantly providing cool tips on using Vista, Ubuntu, and a ton of freeware applications that are sure to save you some money. What, did you really think that we wouldn’t include our own feed?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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It’s no back to school roadmap because, hey, you’re already there. Still, this leaked sales sheet from TmoNews shows Magenta stacking its shelves for an abundant fall mobile harvest. So, let’s dive right in as there’s a lot of two-year contracted bounty to cover. Starting things off on October 19th are a trio of high-end, 42Mbps-capable 4G handsets: the HTC “Ruby” or Amaze 4G at $259, Samsung Hercules (that would be this) at $229 and the Huawei Wayne at $99 (which comes pre-loaded with Spaghetti Westerns, we presume). Following just a week later, is Samsung’s Arnold tablet — a.k.a the Galaxy Tab 10.1 — which’ll run along the carrier’s faux-G and retail for $399. But the real wireless bonanza takes place on the 2nd of November, when six new phones will bow. LG’s Maxx QWERTY and Maxx Touch at $129 apiece are the sole 3G-only units in the bunch, leaving the HTC Omega (better known as the Radar) at $199, LG Flip II at $149, Huawei Tallsome slate at $199 and the low-end Samsung “Ancora” to surf along at 4G speeds. Making a late appearance to this Autumn party are the last two of the bunch: Samsung’s Robin (which looks to be the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus) at $299 and RIM’s Dumoine QWERTY slider. That enough options for you? We thought so.

T-Mobile’s fall roadmap leaks, cornucopia of mobile goods on the horizon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re all hot and bothered by today’s announcement from Apple, there’ll be a new way for AT&T customers to snatch up the iPhone 4S. Later this evening, Ma Bell expects to introduce a gem into the App Store that lets users check their upgrade eligibility, and beginning Friday, October 7th, customers will be able to pre-order the A5-wielding beauty from the comfort of their current iPhone. Of course, we’ll be sure to provide an update as the final details become available. Who’d have thought your current handset would play such an active role in its own demise?

Update: As expected, AT&T’s Upgrader app is now live in the App Store. Just take a peek at the source link to get your download on.

Update 2: Apple giveth, and Apple taketh away — in other words, the download has been pulled. Better luck next time? In the meantime, all AT&T customers may check their upgrade eligibility at the carrier’s website.

AT&T goes meta: your iPhone 4S upgrade is just an app away (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Help for the lost: a fabric antenna to keep you from being a castaway originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ZTE hasn’t made much of a splash stateside, seeing as how the OEM was content to churn out white label devices. All that’s changed now as part of the company’s strategy to dispense with the anonymity and join the wireless rat race. Making good on that promise is the outfit’s ZTE V55 tablet that just reared its touchscreen face over at the FCC. Back in July, a leaked Sprint roadmap had tipped us off to a possible 1st quarter 2012 bow for the slab, and with this unveiled Commission filing, that launch date seems likely. Aside from the de rigeur WiFi b /g and Bluetooth support, not much else can be gleaned from this mystery slate — apart from its apparent Android leanings. Curiously, the documents refer to ZTE’s device as a CDMA tablet and, sure enough, we couldn’t find any indication of a 4G radio. We’ll keep you posted should this pop up once again with additional bands — WiMAX or otherwise. Hit up the source below to peruse the federal findings for yourself.

ZTE V55 tablet shows off its derriere at the FCC, Sprint branding in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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