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Move over bacon, here comes beer-can chicken

I'm going to make a bold prediction: bacon may well have been the favorite food obsession of the Internet during 2008, but beer can chicken is going to wrestle the mantle away this year. Of course, we won't know the results of this delicious statement well until mid-summer, but all the signs are there. We have seen a recent explosion of interest in the cooking method, and now we are seeing more products designed to deliver the classic meal. From ceramic cookers looking to mimic the process to simple devices resembling colanders or mesh steamers, the fact is … Read more

Alternatives to the third-gen iPod Shuffle

Rarely has a device so immediately inspired as much scorn as the latest Apple iPod Shuffle. Within 12 hours of its release, the third-generation of the littlest iPod had no shortage of complaints railed against it. It's too small, shuns compatibility with third-party headphones, and doesn't have a screen or even any buttons. At least one tech editor has even gone so far as to call it a disaster. Still, like most things, the iPod Shuffle undoubtedly has a few redeeming qualities, and some people have come to its defense.

Having spent some hands-on time with the teeny … Read more

Better copy and paste utility

CopyPaste Pro is a utility that greatly enhances the clipboard functionality of the Mac OS. The program not only lets you maintain multiple clipboard items ("clips") for easy pasting across all applications, but it also keeps a history of copied clips and stores custom archives for static subsets of clips that you use frequently.

Like other good efficiency-enhancing apps, CopyPaste Pro provides a lot of different ways to access its deep functionality, with plug-ins for the menu bar and contextual menus, a comprehensive complement of hot keys and drop-down menus, and mouse-and-key combinations for pulling up your clip … Read more

Best MP3 players you can wear

As MP3 players keep getting smaller, cheaper, and more colorful, some of them have become fashionable enough to wear.

There are MP3 players you can clip to your shirt, hang from your neck, strap to your wrist, or even wear on your face. Most of these itty-bitty MP3 players are light on features, but no one ever said fashion wouldn't require some sacrifices.

Take a look at CNET's top wearable MP3 players.

SoundClip makes your iPhone 3G sound better

Ever since the hands-free calling legislation went into effect in California, I've often found myself using the cell phone's speaker phone while driving. While my iPhone 3G's speaker phone works relatively well, it sounds a little distorted when turned all the way up and yet still not loud enough.

That might now change with the SoundClip, a new little accessory Ten One Design introduced this week that amplifies the iPhone 3G's external audio by 10dB between 5kH and 20kHz.

As the name suggests, the device is a clip that fits securely in the 30-pin dock connector … Read more

Faker, not Maker

Windows Movie Maker 2 is so easy a child could use it--an incredibly patient child born to filmmaker parents who didn't mind restarting this application every few minutes. From the get-go, you get the feeling that this isn't going to be an easy program to like; Microsoft's installer doesn't play nice. It gives the user no input on program location or other options. The plain interface promises simplicity with drag-and-drop storyboard options, though during testing, it was more like drag and freeze. The program typically froze while importing MPG video files. If importing worked, Movie Maker … Read more

SanDisk firmware update adds OGG, FLAC support to Clip and Fuze

Awhile back, SanDisk released some fairly major firmware for both the Sansa Clip and the Sansa Fuze. Well, technically, the update for each is a different piece of software, but most of the fixes and enhancements are similar, so I'm treating the two as one here.

I finally got around to installing the new firmware on the Clip and I have to say that it's definitely a worthwhile install (most firmware is). If you haven't done it already, make sure you do--I've included some basic steps for updating Sansa players below.

Perhaps the most exciting thing … Read more

VuClip: Mobile video search and playback for all

VuClip, a start-up presenting at Wednesday's Under the Radar Conference, has a simple concept, but a good one: start with any Internet-ready phone. Search for a video by keyword, then select the video from the list of returned results. VuClip transcodes the video on-the-fly for your specific phone--screen size, video format, bit rate, and so on.

Right now, two things set VuClip apart from competitors: the fact that it's designed to search for any video hosted on the Web, and that it focuses more on mass market Java phones than it does on high-end smartphones, unlike most of … Read more