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Review: Bill Reminder Free BillManager helps you track your payments

If you're buried under a sea of bills, this app might help you dig yourself out. Bill Reminder Free BillManager will remind you when it's time to pay any bill you tell it to. It's nowhere near as helpful as a full budgeting app or even Google Calendar, but it does what it says on the box.

Bill Reminder Free BillManager lets you create multiple templates and bill reminders for days or months. Sadly, you can't set bill reminders to reoccur on the same day every month. You have to create them every single month, which … Read more

Easy Keyboard v1.03 Review

Finding the perfect keyboard for your smartphone can be a challenge. Easy Keyboard offers a whole new way to look at texting on your phone. The only problem is that it's not one of the most convenient ways to text.

As with any other keyboard app on Android, your gadget tells you that the app can track what you type and more. During testing, there was no indication that Easy Keyboard was actually doing that, though. Once you get it up, it takes up almost half of your screen. To type anything, you need to touch the key you … Read more

Transfer files from computer to mobile iDevice with iFile

iFile is an app designed to allow you to move files from computers (even between different operating systems) and your iPhone or iPad. The iFile app is available from iTunes for $1.99.

To use iFile you need to connect your iPhone or iPad to a Wi-Fi network, then open the iFile app and record the IP address it is using. Then, on your Mac, Windows, or Linux computer, open a browser window and enter the IP address as the URL. If the two can connect cleanly, an upload window is displayed. From there, select the file you want to … Read more

Play your music through an FM station with the FM Transmitter Case

FM Transmitter Case is an app that allows you to play music from your iPhone or iPad over any FM frequency, for use in your car or home. You can access your full music library on your mobile device, sending it through an FM transmitter to any FM radio.

The FM Transmitter Case interface is clean. It shows a rotary dial with FM frequencies displayed on it, as well as a digital readout in the center. There's a set of buttons at the bottom for favorite FM frequency presets, as well as control for your music streaming. However, to … Read more

Monitor your Hikvision security equipment from anywhere with iVMS-4500

iVMS-4500 is an app for remotely monitoring Hikvision DVRs and their attached cameras. Designed to allow you to log in to your security system from anywhere, iVMS-4500 lets you see what the security system sees, and control the cameras. iVMS-4500 is available from the publisher's Web site as well as other sources.

iVMS-4500 is designed to work with Hikvision products although it will communicate with other vendor's equipment, too. Using iVMS-4500 you can see up to four channels at a time of line video on your iPhone or iPad and use touch-screen control to move the cameras around. … Read more

Facevision releases budget Skype-certified HD Webcam

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LAS VEGAS--A year ago, Facevision introduced the first Skype-certified HD Webcam, the FV TouchCam N1, that was capable of streaming high-definition video over the Internet, turning video chat into a much better experience. It was one of a few HD Webcams at the time.

For this reason, the FV TouchCam N1 was rather expensive, costing around $120 when first released (it now has a street price of about $100).

Today, the company announced and demonstrated at CES 2011 a new version of the Webcam that offers the same capability but at a significantly lower cost, the TouchCam V1 720p HD … Read more

Amazon.com has the Creative Zen V 1GB Portable MP3 Player for $89.96, after $30.03 savings.

Save $30.03 on the Creative Zen V 1GB Portable MP3 Player from Amazon.com >> Regular price is $119.99 >> Sale price is $89.96 >> Savings $30.03 (25.03%) >> Click here for deal

A truly hands-free Bluetooth headset

Darrell Huff, a 51-year-old automotive technician from Centreville, Md., wanted his quadriplegic son, Joshua, to be able to make calls on a cell phone. Unfortunately, all cell phones require button pushes, so Huff quickly thought of Bluetooth headsets as a solution.

He was especially intrigued by the BlueAnt V1, which has a unique voice-control interface that lets you make and answer calls with voice alone--there's even a voice-guided tutorial if you need some guidance. (The V1 is the predecessor to BlueAnt's more recent BlueAnt Q1).

But even the BlueAnt V1 wasn't 100 percent hands-free; you still needed to press the button to activate it. So Huff set out to find a way to activate the switch without the need for hands.

"I tried different things," Huff said. "It occurred to me a mercury switch might work, but my research soon showed that mercury is all but banned in the U.S. and I also began to worry about the user's perception... I tried using a roller ball-type tilt switch, but it is difficult to find one small enough and my experiments showed the connection with this type of switch was erratic."

After a lot of trial and error, Huff finally decided to use a magnetic switch.

"I opened the headset and replaced the push button switch with a magnetically controlled switch," Huff explained. "The modified version of the headset has a switch that is closed when in the presence of a magnetic field. So when the headset is not near a magnet, the switch is open...If you move the headset near a magnet, then the switch closes--this is like pushing the button."

In case you need to push and hold the button, you would just keep the headset near the magnet for a few more seconds. Huff is careful to note that the switch itself is not magnetized; it just responds to a magnetic field.

Now all Huff had to do was mount a magnet so his son could move his head conveniently to activate the headset. He created one that is on the end of a 29-inch long and flexible rod that can be mounted to a wheelchair. At last, Huff had created a genuinely "hands-free" Bluetooth headset. … Read more

Ears-on with Sony's weird PFR-V1 headphones

Japan is rightly feted for its wonderfully peculiar innovations, but we've got hold of the most unusual in the mainstream audio market since Rolly. Sony's new PFR-V1s aren't headphones if Sony has its way--they're "Personal Field Speakers." Whatever you call them, they look bloody weird, but they sound hella sexy.

Kudos to the bloke who designed these, because he thought a little outside the box and attacked the headphone market at an unusual angle. True, the result makes you look like you forgot to take that morning's brain medicine, but audio connoisseurs will … Read more