Hasta La Gadget!

We love to write and read. So, if you’re looking for a bunch of good books to read this holiday season, Amazon has prepared a nifty list of best-selling books for you to read. Today, Amazon is announcing the top 10 best-selling books of 2012 overall (print and Kindle combined), as well as the top 10 Kids & Teens books. This year is different. If Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs was the best-selling book last year, this year seems to be “the year of the billionaire bad boy in romance.”

Sara Nelson, the Editorial Director of Books and Kindle at Amazon says, “While E. L. James published the first two books in her Fifty Shades trilogy in 2011, so they aren’t eligible for our 2012 list, the series really took off this year and propelled the third installment and the omnibus edition onto our top 10 list. It’s also interesting to note that four of the five contemporary romance titles in the top 10 list, including the Fifty Shades trilogy, were originally independently published and went on to become huge best sellers.” Check out the list after the break. (more…)

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Everyone and their dog knows that Christmas is coming, and this would mean a frenzied shopping season needs to kick off (which can be a good excuse to the missus that you are just doing your patriotic duty in stimulating the local economy, of course). Well, giving gifts have just one level of excitement – when the box that the gift comes in is carefully wrapped in present paper. Well, how about increasing the level of suspense by another one, while eliciting a surprised look from the recipient’s face? This is where the Prank Pack Pet Sweep comes in handy.

Basically, the Prank Pack Pet Sweep has been described as a package that comes with four tiny mops that can be attached to your dog’s paws, allowing it to clean up your home as it moves around indoors. Good luck getting your dog to wear all four of these without nary a form of protest! All you need to do is pack the actual gift within, and watch the expressions of dismay on the recipient’s face when he/she rips open the wrapping paper only to see this – and he/she doesn’t even have a dog in the first place.

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Sports fans who have taken their obsession to know anything and everything sports related via their Xbox 360 will have more control over their experience as ESPN has announced it will be updating its application to support Microsoft’s SmartGlass application available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices.

The updated ESPN application will allow users to pick highlights, change video streams and look at statistics from their mobile device running SmartGlass with the content showing up on the user’s TV. Instead of your screen becoming cluttered with on-screen information, everything will be moved to your mobile device’s screen leaving the program taking center stage on your TV screen.

For those who have been looking for a two-screen experience to go along with their ESPN watching, the upcoming ESPN app update on the Xbox 360 will be something we’re sure sports fans will be looking forward to. The update will hit the Xbox 360 some time later this month. Let’s just hope it’s before all of those Christmas Day football games that we’re sure you’re counting down the days until, since not should Christmas be full of presents and holiday cheer, but obviously football as well.

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Have you used Best Buy’s “Buy Back” program to trade in your recently purchased gadgets for a percentage of its cost back to Best Buy and thought, “Hey! This doesn’t seem like an original idea to me!” Well, you’re right as Best Buy has been hit with a $22 million fine in damages for stealing trade secrets from San Francisco startup, TechForward.

A jury ruled in favor for TechForward, who originally came up with the program and worked with Best Buy to implement the service to its customers starting in 2009. After months of working with TechForward, Best Buy decided to cancel their deal with the company to pursue its own version of their buyback program. Unfortunately for Best Buy, TechForward didn’t take the cancelation sitting down, filed their lawsuit and won.

TechForward co-founders Jade Van Doren and Marc Lebovitz had the following to share in regards to today’s news:

“We are extremely pleased that the jury recognized Best Buy’s misconduct, and we hope this verdict puts large companies on notice that there are real consequences to illegally exploiting start-up businesses like ours”

As of now, Best Buy’s “Buy Back Program” no longer seems to be accepting new customers, but will honor existing Buy Back customers for up to 24 months of when their product was purchased. When you consider it cost Best Buy $27 million in fines, they should at least be able to continue using what they stole from TechForward.

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Experts are now considering the option to use shipping containers as home shelters. A shipping container is built to withstand the perils of traveling at sea. Because of their sturdy design, they also make good homes, at least that is what the Bloomberg administration is planning. Authorities in New York city are now using shipping containers for its disaster housing program. If another hurricane that is similar to Sandy will threaten the city sometime in the future, residents in New York will no longer use tents or high school gymnasiums. Instead, shipping containers will be used as emergency quarters.

The city’s disaster housing program will utilize stackable shipping containers that will form into apartments, complete with the basic home amenities. Meanwhile, in U.K., particularly in Brighton and Hove, developer QED is converting shipping containers into temporary houses for homeless men and women in the area who are unfortunately facing housing crisis. Around 36 shipping containers have been transformed into self-contained studio flats, and they include bathrooms and kitchens. Andy Winter, the Chief Executive of Brighton Housing Trust, says that imaginative solutions are needed to solve the desperate housing situation in the city. “I have to admit that when it was first suggested to me that shipping containers be used for housing, I was a bit skeptical,” he adds.

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