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Turn that cavity into a microphone

Talk about a bad case of cell phone addiction. Chinavasion describes this as the ultimate hands-free device, and for good reason: It's a tiny microphone designed to be embedded in the teeth.

If we weren't told otherwise, we'd swear this was an April Fool's prank. But the "Bluetooth Dentacom" is apparently for real, a "composite resin filling" that will "pick up sound and vibrations from your mouth to produce incredibly clear sound," according to GeekAlerts.

But take note of the distributor's advice: "All dental work should be performed … Read more

Pricepinx intelligently watches for price drops online

I've looked at a handful of price watching services, but this one has got to be the coolest. It's called Pricepinx, and it's been designed to work on any site--not just some of the big retailers.

All you have to do to get going is add a small bookmarklet to your browser, highlight the price of the item and click on the bookmarklet. If there are any changes in price, you'll be notified by e-mail. As an added bonus for those who register with the service, added items are pooled together in a list. You can … Read more

How to get free shipping on almost everything you buy

There's a new Web site in town that has Cheapskate written all over it: Free Shipping On. Terrible name, great service: It enables you to search Amazon and eBay for only those items that have free shipping. It also corrals free-shipping deals from over 500 other stores, from Apple to Home Depot to WebUndies.com.

I particularly like the eBay search tool, as it drives me nuts when I find a seemingly great deal on something and then discover a ridiculously inflated shipping charge. Both the Amazon and eBay tools can be added to your browser's list of … Read more

eBay's latest buy: New CEOs for Skype, Shopping.com

eBay announced Monday that it has appointed new CEOs to its Skype and Shopping.com properties. At the helm of telephony company Skype will be current Shopping.com president and former Evite co-founder and CEO Josh Silverman; taking his place at Shopping.com will be Andre Haddad, who joined eBay in 2001 when it acquired his start-up, the European marketplace site iBazar.

This continues an extensive management shakeup at the online commerce giant, which saw the departure of longtime CEO Meg Whitman in January. eBay itself has been going through some tough times, with seller dissatisfaction leading to a boycott over fee hikes and new rules.… Read more

No PDA? Tattoo your to-dos

Here at CNET, many staffers can't bear the thought of life without their Treo, Blackberry, or iPhone. But for those who haven't jumped into the digital era, here's a new take on the old-fashioned to-do list written on the back of your hand.

With the To-Do Tattoo, you can write out your shopping list and then transfer it to your hand (or other body part of choice), where you know you won't lose it, drop it, or have it unexpectedly run out of battery life at the grocery store.

The To-Do Tattoo comes with an ink … Read more

Social-shopping site ThisNext rakes in venture cash

When it comes to social networking, some investors seem to think that shopaholics are the next big thing.

ThisNext, a social-shopping site where users create lists of products they recommend and schmooze with others, has pulled in $5 million in second-round funding, according to Private Equity Hub.

Earlier this week, another social shopping site, StyleFeeder, announced that it had netted $2 million in first-round funding.

StyleFeeder is recommendation-driven, a sort of Last.fm for shopping. By contrast, the reviews- and list-focused ThisNext has a model more like that of business-reviews site Yelp.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based ThisNext, which was founded … Read more

Social shopping site StyleFeeder nets $2 million in funding

StyleFeeder, a social shopping site that aims to do for the retail sector what StumbleUpon did for browsing or Last.fm did for music, has announced that it's pulled in $2 million in Series A venture funding from Highland Capital Partners and Schooner Capital.

The start-up, based in Cambridge, Mass., plans to use the $2 million to hire more employees.

StyleFeeder, which has operated until this point on seed funding, operates a "recommendation engine" for fashionistas based on which products users rate and then purchase through affiliates. Much like other recommendation sites, StyleFeeder then suggests related products … Read more

Anarchist Shopdropping for Christmas

Oooh, look what I got for Christmas, an anarchist doll complete with Molotov cocktail!

No, it's a fake gift, the latest in a funny and subversive series of "shopdropping" by a group of artists. Shopdropping (instead of shoplifting) means placing fake products into real stores to confuse the store management and raise questions about consumerist society. Watch the video as the befuddled Walgreens manager tries to price the anarchist doll, complete with its convincing packaging.

The anarchist doll specifically is the work of Oakland, CA based artist Packard Jennings, who has also produced a line of PEZ … Read more

Amazon reports its best holiday season ever

Online shopping was more prevalent than ever this holiday season and Amazon was right there to cash in. Today, Amazon issued a press release, with some interesting numbers and facts about its "best season ever."

Their busiest day was December 10th, on which they sold 5.4 million items, that's 62.5 items sold per second. Amazon also shipped items out to over 200 countries this season. Here's some more interesting facts and bestsellers that Amazon shares with us.… Read more

Christmas hits, and lumps of coal?

The buying is done, the presents have been unwrapped, the after-sales have yet to begin. I've dragged myself out of my Christmas-dinner-induced food coma long enough to ask which Christmas gadgets were hits, and which were disappointing lumps of coal?

Good thing this is a family blog because most of our gadgets were toys. Our 8-year old loved the WowWee Flytech Radio Control Dragonfly. She was able to overlook the fact that this toy was marketed to boys. After all, who wouldn't love a dragonfly? I spent the day wondering whether we'd make our way up the learning curve to work the controller before the dragonfly self-destructed during normal use. Yes, the dragonfly has to be ultralight, but with a styrofoam body and plastic fasteners (key elements that repeatedly popped off on "landing") we'll be lucky if the dragonfly lasts until New Year's Day. I was truly unimpressed by the remote control's engineering, particularly the connection between the remote's power cord and the dragonfly's body. The microscopic connection was hard to see and difficult to engage. Within a couple of hours I had to straighten out the connector pins. The good news is that dragonfly does fly, and one one spectacular run I actually got it stuck on our house's roof. My bad--thankfully we were able to back it out of the gutter via remote. My daughter is thrilled with the toy. I found it disappointing but maybe that's because at $40 a pop I am wondering how many minutes of fun we'll get out of this purchase. … Read more