Hasta La Gadget!

Our friends at TechBargains.com compile a list of daily deals to help you save money. Keep in mind that as with any good deal, products are limited in quantity and can sell out quickly – so don’t hesitate to check them out now.

If you’re looking to buy a product from a specific store, save money with updated and verified coupon codes here.

Computers & Peripherals:

• Canon PIXMA PRO-100 Wifi Photo Inkjet Printer w/ 50-Sheet Canon SG-201 Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss 13″x19″ Paper $89 plus free shipping (normally $389 – use this form)
• Acronis True Image 2013 Software + Bling 123 Copy DVD Platinum Software + Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking Home 12 Software $9.99 (normally $219 – use this form)
• Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 Intel i7-3630QM Quad-Core Ivy Bridge 15″ Laptop $829 plus free shipping (normally $1349 – use coupon code: TWTY500)
• Iomega 35887 2-Bay Diskless System StorCenter ix2 NAS $69.99 plus free shipping (normally $149)

Home Entertainment:

• Seiki SE50UY04 4K2K 50″ 4K Resolution LED LCD HDTV $1099 plus free shipping (normally $1499)
• Official Microsoft Xbox 360 Wired Controller $26.99 plus free shipping (normally $39)

Personal Electronics:

• Audio-Technica ATH-CKF303WH FashionFidelity Bijoue In-Ear Headphones $9.99 plus free shipping (normally $35 – use coupon code: TOP2020)
• Obihai OBi202 VoIP Telephone Adapter $59.99 plus free shipping (normally $99 – use coupon code: EMCXRXN52)
• Audio-Technica ATH-M50 Professional Closed-Back Studio Headphones $101.98 plus free shipping (normally $199)
• OEM Beats by Dr. Dre Monster iBeats Urbeats Earbuds Headphones $43.99 plus free shipping (normally $99)

Zapier has a new API status board that helps you keep track of almost 200 popular web services, giving you a central location to keep an eye on your cloud services, making sure your own web app does not go down without you knowing it.

We talked about the controversial practice of 3D printing guns in the past, only the gun wasn’t entirely 3D-printed in that case, it was only a component for an AR-15 rifle. Now, a company called Defense Distributed has now test fired the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun. The weapon in question is a single shot pistol.

The only components of the pistol not 3D printed are the firing pin and the bullet itself. The firing pin used in the weapon is a small nail.

The gun was test fired using a “remote triggering system” consisting of a long piece of string. It fired a .380 caliber pistol cartridge successfully – one time. The second test firing reportedly resulted in a misfire. The people behind the 3D printed pistol project also test fired the weapon using a larger 5.7 x 28 rifle cartridge. The weapon exploded when the larger caliber rifle cartridge was used. Check out the video below to see the gun in action.

[via Forbes]

If you’re not following the calendar, Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday, May 12. That means you need to get mom something cool to thank her for putting up with all of your crap over the years. All you guys with families, trust me when I say you need to get your wife something for Mother’s Day even if she’s still pregnant.

If you want to get something cool for your mom or wife for Mother’s Day, Barnes & Noble has announced some nice price cuts on the Nook HD and HD+ tablets.

The Nook HD can now be had for $149(USD) with 8 GB of storage or $179 with 16 GB of storage. The tablet has a seven-inch display and all the same hardware as before, only the prices been decreased.

If you want something with a bigger screen, the nine-inch Nook HD+ tablet is available with 16 GB of storage for $179 or 32 GB of storage for $209. The special prices are available through Sunday. As a bonus, Barnes & Noble also announced that both tablets now have direct access to the Google Play store.

I’m probably dating myself, but I still have a massive collection of old vinyl records gathering dust in bins in my closet. I actually no longer have a turntable, so other than the few records I purchased as CDs or in digital formats, I haven’t listened to them in a dog’s age. So when Crosley was nice enough to let me take their Spinnerette Turntable for a spin, I was happy to oblige.

I love the retro design of the Spinnerette, which has a carrying handle and a flip-down turntable surface for playing your old 33s, 45s and 78s. To the right of the turntable is a monophonic speaker, along with volume and tone controls, while underneath the turntable are connectors for USB, headphones, and even auxiliary audio in. Since it’s built from plastic, you’re not going to want to throw it around, but records themselves are delicate things too.

The Spinnerette isn’t just any old turntable. It can both play records and convert them to digital files. Just connect the turntable to your PC or Mac via the included USB cable, install the software, and you can copy records to digital audio files – assuming you have the patience to listen to your entire record collection as you rip them into your computer.

The bundled software is actually the open-source Audacity, which is available for both PC and Mac and can record audio via the turntable’s USB connector. I first tested the software on my Mac (running OSX 10.8.3). You’ll definitely want to read the software installation guide provided on the installation DVD, as there are a number of steps to setting up Audacity to record the best quality sound from the turntable. I spent a good 30 minutes trying to get audio that wasn’t distorted and clipped, and I also had to hunt around for something called LAME in order to get MP3s to output from Audacity. Having no success getting undistorted audio on the Mac, I switched to my Windows 7 PC and had much better luck there. It took only a couple of minutes to get up and running on my PC without the clipped audio I experienced on the Mac.

Once you get the Audacity software set up, you hit the record button, put the needle on the turntable, and let the record play all the way through. When finished with one side of your record, you can use Audacity’s “Silence Finder” to automatically detect the beginning and end of tracks. This process is a bit fiddly, and doesn’t work on 100% of recordings, but on most records with definitive breaks between tracks it does the trick. That said, you can manually tag tracks as well. Once the tracks are divvied up, you can bulk-save them as individual MP3, WAV or OGG files.

Overall audio quality of digitized recordings is indistinguishable from the original records – at least to my untrained ear. Here’s an example recording I grabbed from an old Rolling Stones’ recording of Not Fade Away:

Not too shabby, I say. Audacity also provides the ability to normalize volume levels, and clean up pops and scratches if you so choose – though I kind of like the charm of the old scratchy LPs. Speaking of which, part of the fun of the Spinnerette is the fact that it’s a complete, portable turntable, amplifier and speaker, so you can listen to your old records they way they were meant to be heard – on a small, monophonic speaker. I’m not a turntable snob, but there’s definitely something very special about listening to vinyl records this way, versus digital files. I’m not saying it’s something I’d do every day, but it’s a welcome treat. Of course, I’ll have digital versions of my records once I’m done ripping them anyhow.

Overall, I’ve had fun with the Spinnerette. At its core, it does what Crosley says it will – play vinyl records and convert them to digital files. I have to say that while I’ve enjoyed dusting off my old records and listening to them on the Spinnerette, the process of ripping records to digital files is time-consuming and requires a bit of trial and error. And for Mac users, it appears to be flat-out broken. It would be much better if Crosley would develop their own simplified software just for performing the task instead of trying to use Audacity, since the target audience for turntables is probably a bit older and less tech savvy anyhow. Bottom line – if you’ve got numerous records to rip, it could take quite some time and effort to get them converted. On the plus side, you’ll only have to do it one time, and then your vinyl memories will be forever preserved in digital form.

You can get the Spinnerette turntable over at Crosley Radio for $149.95(USD), in either blue or red.

Disclosure: Crosley Radio provided the turntable for review in this article. However, all reviews are the unbiased views of our editorial staff.