Let InvisibleHand guide you to better buying

Oct 21, 2009 by Dan Taylor    37 Comments    Posted under: Technology

It’s not too often that I get really jazzed about browser plugins, but this one, InvisbleHand is simply too genius NOT to get jazzed about. The concept is simple enough, but no one’s gone the distance to actually write the script. Until now.

InvisibleHand is a firefox addon that will let you know when a product you’re viewing is available elsewhere at a lower price. If you’re like me, you might go to one of the big guys first to have detailed product descriptions, images, etc., and then likely begin the Googling to find it at a better price. InvisibleHand does the work for you (and probably does a better job).

When browsing for products on the big ones, Best Buy, Amazon, Overstock, Borders, etc., InvisibleHand will slide open from the toolbar alerting you that the item you’re looking at could be purchased elsewhere on the cheap.

Not only will InvisibleHand give you the absolute rock bottom price, but also present you with options from other retailers, sorted by price.

In this example, I chose a MBP, but the plugin works with a wide variety of popular electronics, toys, games, books, home improvement, DIY gear, etc. The full list is here.

I put InvisibleHand through it’s paces, even looking for some rather obscure gear on Crutchfield, and the plugin performed beautifully. The largest savings I (would have) recorded was a decent $123.87 on an HD video camera. And all of this for free? Bonus!

Check out InvisibleHand today, and get the Christmas savings going on early this year!

Update: the good folks over at invisible hand are doing a great job with their PR, and just sent me (and 200 of you) an exclusive beta key for their upcoming version.  Leave a comment below, and I’ll ping the code on over to you.

Schapple, Bahoogle, Narcorati, and more!

Jul 29, 2008 by Dan Taylor    18 Comments    Posted under: Technology

Schmapple.  It seems as though the PC guys have run out of things to pick on the Mac guys about, and so they can only target one thing: iSmug.

Schmapple, along with a few other outstanding spoofs are made available by writer David McCandless.  McCandless has been published in both the US and the UK including some top titles as Wired, The Guardian, Tank, and The Independent.

He’s recently completed a book: ‘The Internet, now in handy book form‘, and the associated site, www.theinternetnowinhandybookform.com parodies everything from Apple (Schmapple), Amazon (Amasszone), to ebay (kakbay) and technorati (narcorati).  McCandless’s creations are more of a ‘Just go there and check it out’ type deal, rather than having me tell you about them.

However, let me simplify some of the linking structures for you.  Click on the logo to get to the site:

And don’t be afraid to dig a bit deeper into each of these sites.  Not only are the index pages a ball of laughs, but go ahead and try to order something at Schmapple, or find a soul mate on poormatch.

Enjoy!

Logitech NuLOOQ increases productivity

Apr 15, 2008 by Dan Taylor    2 Comments    Posted under: Technology

While my shiny new Mac has not yet arrived, some of the stuff that I ordered to go with it has arrived today. 85% of it is Mac specific, so it’s not really doing me much good on my winblows based machine. However, one of the new pieces of hardware that arrived is truly changing my computing experience right out of the box.

At a suggestion from Bottle, I figured as long as I’m making this big of an Amazon.com order, why not just chuck the Logitech NulOOQ in there as well. And oh how I am glad that I did. Logitech bills the NulOOQ as ‘It’s not a mouse, it’s your mouses’ best friend’, and I can honestly say, it’s all that and then some.

Upon installing the software a bunch of popular programs and associated shortcuts are preinstalled (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier Elements, Firefox, etc.). First stop Firefox. A twist of the scrolling wheel is now rolling me through tabs, while and up and down on the wheel is scrolling me smoothly through pages, and a nudge left or right is moving backwards and forwards in browsing history. Could I have done this with a mouse? Sure, but why all the extra motion when, I’ve now got controls all under my fingertips with my left hand.

Another great feature is that in addition to the presets (which you can remap any way you choose) you can also set up your own custom settings. The iTunes settings were not preset, as I can imagine everyone has their own preferences of how they’d like it to work. Well, I’ve been listening to iTunes all afternoon, and haven’t once had to alt/tab to the program itself to change the volume, play, next track, previous track and/or mute/pause. I have them assigned to touch sensitive numbers on the top of the device (see top image above). Square is play/pause, III is forward, I is backwards. Ready for the super-slickness? The entire top of the control pad functions exactly like the scroll wheel on an iPod. In other words, I can now control iTunes volume just by sliding my finger around the top of the device. Nice.

iTunes is already a preinstalled feature device (but commands left blank). The NulOOQ is also programmable to virtually any program you\’ve got on your machine. Simply go to the main menu of the controls, select ‘add program’ and then start adding keyboard shortcuts. The ‘lOOQ then recognizes which program you’re working in and maps key commands specific to that program. In other words, let’s say I’m working in Ableton Live and want to map a twist of the wheel to a filter effect. No problem. I add Ableton to my commands in the NulOOQ menu, and map the specific keyboard command or mouse gesture to a right turn of the NulOOQ wheel. How cool is that?

This settings can also be exported in case you ever switch machine (or work onsite for a client). This works out quite nicely for me, as I’m mapping custom settings today on winblows, and will hopefully by this time tomorrow be working on a mac. No need to remap, just export from winblows, and import on the mac. I also found this site, that’s offering up a bunch of preconfigured mappings (most are specific to <snicker>Vista</snicker>). Hmmm…now to figure out some mapping for WoW for some SERIOUS pwn ftw!

I’ve only used it thus far with Firefox, Word, and iTunes, I’m sure this is going to get REALLY fun when I start working with it in Photoshop (think magnifiers and brush size) and Final Cut (shutteling through video…oh nice!). Is this object necessary for your everyday computing? Probably not. Is it a wicked awesome cool productive time saving the keys glow blow ultimate geek toy? Abso f#*(ing lutly!

Blu-ray on the cheap

Apr 14, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: Technology

If you happen to own a blu ray player or a PS3, Amazon.com is sharing the blu love for the next 4 days (18 April 08).

“Buy Two Blu-ray Discs, Get One Free

For a limited time buy any two Blu-ray discs listed below and receive a third free. Discount will automatically be applied once all participating items are added to your cart. Offer valid through April 18, 2008. See offer terms and restrictions.

Shop our Blu-ray store for other new releases and bestselling pre-orders.”

And I know…I know…Apple is going to start shipping all Macs with a blu ray installed coming later this year, but I really couldn’t hold out any longer, as the current machine is on its last leg. So I guess we’ll just have to get a PS3 (with that super sexy Gran Turismo 5 package). Damn.