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Enter for a chance to win this Technical Pro PM-22 Podcast System

(Credit: Technical Pro)

If you're a CNET fan, you probably check out some of our many podcasts. But like so many other things these days, digital technology lowers the barrier of entry: now you can make your own podcasts with products like the Technical Pro PM-22 Podcast System, an all-in-one podcast studio. And we're giving you a chance to win one, courtesy of CNET's Crave.

We'd also like to give a shout out to Shopper.com for helping set up this Crave giveaway. Shopper.com powers CNET's price-comparison engine, and it's a great site for finding the best prices on products. (See all of Shopper's deals, coupon codes, and rebates).

Normally, the Technical Pro PM-22 Podcast System would cost you about $200, but you have the chance to get it gratis.

So, how do you try to win this Technical Pro PM-22 Podcast System? Let me enumerate the basic rules. Please read them carefully; there will be a test.

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the "Join CNET" link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.
• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
• Leave only one comment. You may enter this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive (1) Technical Pro PM-22 Podcast System. Approximate retail value is $200.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Tuesday, December 22 at 6:59:59 a.m. EST.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 6:59:59 AM ET on December 22, 2009. See official rules for details.

Good luck.

Come back Tuesday for our next holiday giveaway, which will be a Flip Video MinoHD.

As Eric Jones fought off cancer a few years ago, his weakened immune system left him vulnerable to strep pneumonia and sepsis, which developed into the blood-clotting disorder known as Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation.

Without enough blood supply to his extremities, he wasn't expected to come out of a month-long, medical-induced coma and be able to keep his arms and feet.

Eric Jones, who lost the fingers and thumb in his right hand as he battled cancer, holds a Lego block with his ProDigits prosthetic.

(Credit: Touch Bionics)

Jones was fortunate to fare better than expected, but he did lose movement in his left hand, his right hand's fingers and thumb, his toes, and parts of his feet. Even with intensive physical therapy and the aid of crutches, his mobility was severely affected, and he was unable to do such previously simple tasks as walk while holding a coffee mug, play Legos with his kids, or perform on the piano.

Enter ProDigits, believed to be the world's first powered bionic finger solution, whose commercial launch developer Touch Bionics announced Tuesday. With a silicone skin designed specifically to fit around his right hand, the ProDigits prosthesis gave Jones, who began to use the latest model this summer, a movable thumb.

In other words, it gave him opposition, without which the hand is considered to be 40 percent impaired.

"I didn't want to wait even one more day before I could start using it," Jones says. "ProDigits offers me functionality that I can't get anywhere else; it offers me the ability to grasp... I can pick something up and walk out to the car with it, rather than have to put it in a bag. Most importantly, I'm able to take care of my kids--play games with my kids, take them to school, make dinner."

Prosthetic fingers aid fine motor skills (photos)

Touch Bionics is probably best known for its i-Limb Hand, a full-hand prosthetic with five individually powered digits released in 2006. ProDigits takes this prosthetic a step further, because it caters to patients like Jones with partial hands on a case-by-case basis. The sockets themselves are custom-designed by clinicians to suit individual needs.

Apple products have topped the list of the most popular computers sold in U.S retail in October, an analyst for market research firm NPD Group told CNET on Friday.

(Credit: Apple)

The recently introduced 21-inch iMac was the top-selling desktop for the month, Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, said in an interview. Apple's high-end iMac 27-inch model took the No. 3 spot in the desktop category, he said.

"Apple gets a bounce whenever they come out with new computers," Baker said. "For the most part, October was a down month on the Windows side because [PC manufacturers] were working through inventory before the Windows 7 launch."

The company also took the top spot in the notebook category in October, with the $1,199 MacBook Pro, Baker said. Overall, Apple took 4 out of the top 10 positions for notebooks in U.S. retail for the month, according to Baker. In addition to the top-seeded MacBook Pro, Apple also secured the 8, 9, and 10 positions.

"[The $1,199 MacBook Pro has] always been a great seller," Baker said. "It's priced pretty aggressively for Apple, but to some extent, it also benefited from the same slowdown on the Windows side."

NPD has not released an official report on the sales data, and Baker declined to give CNET a rundown of the other computers in NPD's top-10 lists for desktop and notebook retail sales in the United States in October. It is important to note that while the NPD data includes online and retail stores, it does not factor in direct sales.

Sales of computers in October were obviously very good for Apple, but Baker doesn't feel that the so-called "halo effect" from the iPhone or iPod is what is driving sales. Rather, he points to the overall consumer experience.

"Over past few years, Apple has continued to gain share in the market, and there are a lot of ways to explain that," Baker said. "It could be the stores, the computers themselves, the iPod, or iPhone. I think it's a combination of all those things."

Apple on Friday quietly updated its high-end Mac Pro computer with an option for a faster processor.

(Credit: Apple)

First noted by AppleInsider, the 3.33GHz quad-core Intel Xeon option will add $1,200 to the price of the base configuration, which currently sells for $2,499. An option for the 2.93GHz processor, introduced in March, is still available for an extra $400 over the base model.

The current Mac Pro base configuration ships with a 2.66GHz quad-core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor.

The custom configuration options for the Mac Pro also enable buyers to add up to 16GB of RAM, as many as four 2-terabyte hard drives, and a variety of graphics cards, in additional to other components and software.

When it introduced the Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro in March, Apple added options for the Nvidia GeForce GT 120 and the ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards, as well as three channels of memory designed to cut latency by up to 40 percent on the machines.

While Apple's iMac and Mac Mini are recognized by most consumers for their design, the Mac Pro is the machine of choice by many IT, graphics, and audio pros for its superior power.

The Motorsports HD Hero comes packaged with a bunch of bits for flexible placement.

(Credit: GoPro cameras)

On paper, the GoPro HD Hero is hitting on all cylinders. It's rugged, it's compact, and--to top it all off--it shoots in five modes of video (four of which are HD) and high-resolution still photography. But then you go to use it and things start to run a little less smoothly.

The HD Hero's weakest point lies with its thumbnail-size LCD screen and pinhead-size icons. With only two buttons and a cryptic menu system, the Hero's options screen probably shouldn't be tackled without an instruction manual close at hand. How else are you supposed to know what odd abbreviations such as "ALL" or "DAT" are supposed to mean? (Here's a hint: one of them formats your media, the other is a more benign function.)

Fortunately, the GoPro HD Hero fixes a number of issues that we had with the previous Hero camera system (such as the finicky AAA battery pack), but does the good outweigh the bad? Check out our full review to find out.

If you've wished you could connect your external hard drive to your computer without having to use the USB cable, now you can.

Imation announced Thursday the availability of the first wireless USB external hard drive, the Pro WX. The hard drive works just like any other USB hard drive, with one exception: it doesn't require a USB cable.

The Pro WX wireless USB external hard drive.

(Credit: Imation)

Wireless USB has been under development for about five years, and some of the first products were demoed at CES 2009. This technology allows you to connect USB 2.0 devices to a computer wirelessly from up to 30 feet away with a throughput speed of up to 480Mbps.

According to Imation, the Pro WX wireless USB external hard drive offers less than that, with speeds of up to only 120Mbps or 15MBps; this is about three times slower than regular USB 2.0 hard drives. At this speed it can finish copying the entire content of a CD-ROM (roughly 800MB) in about 50 seconds. Other than that, this drive is based on the 3.5-inch desktop hard drive and offers 1.5TB of storage.

The Imation Pro WX features a sleep-mode feature to conserve energy and a one-touch, backup sync button for you to manually start a backup when needed. The device is compatible with both PC and Mac operating systems

In order to take advantage of the wireless USB, your computer needs to support this. As most computers don't have built-in wireless USB, there are adapters that you can add to the machine. It's unclear if an adapter is included with the Pro WX.

What's clear, however, is the fact that this is going to be one of the most expensive external hard drives you can find. At the estimated price of $500, about three times the price of regular external USB hard drives of the same storage capacity, I am not sure if it's worth it when the only benefit is losing the USB cable.

Tony Hawk on CNET's The 404 Podcast

CNET's The 404 Podcast is very proud to welcome Tony Hawk to the studio today! The man who rode skateboarding to mainstream success sits down with us for a chat about his expansive video game franchise, skateboarding being added to the Olympics, and, of course, his newest game, Tony Hawk: RIDE.

All of us have been huge fans of the Tony Hawk video game franchise since the first Tony Hawk Pro Skater, but his latest game, Tony Hawk: RIDE, brings a new level of entertainment to the series with a physical skateboard equipped with a contoured base, infrared sensors, and four smart motion sensors that help you push, turn, lean, and pull off unbelievable tricks within the virtual environments. Tony tells us all about the creation of the board and the prototype decks that didn't make the cut. He also explains the motivation behind making the switch to a physical board instead of the hand-held controller that propelled the original games into instant classics, making comparisons to the Wii Fit Balance Board to show how much extra work went into the dual accelerometers.

(Credit: Activision)

After getting the full scoop about the game (in stores tomorrow for $120), we're all very excited to see him in action with a live in-studio demo on an Xbox 360. Tony shows us how the accelerometers pick up the movement of your feet on the board and how to grab the nose by simply bending over and reaching toward the front of the board. After he goes through some of the basic moves, he hands the board over to me to give it a shot. Obviously, Tony Hawk himself is a hard act to follow, but I think I pulled off a few tricks before face-planting onto the concrete. Be sure to check out the video for all the action.

After the break, we talk to Tony a bit more about the game and how influential the series has been on bringing the sport to mainstream popularity, the eclectic music choices in the soundtrack, and some of the active characters you can choose. And, of course, we have to get Tony's take on the future of skateboarding and whether or not the sport will ever go the way of snowboarding to make it as an official event at the Olympics.

There's a whole lot more to talk about with Tony, a few Calls From the Public, and some insightful questions from the chat room, so be sure to listen or watch the entire episode for the full scoop. Much thanks to Tony for coming on the show and keep listening for a chance to win a copy of the game!

Due out later this month, the Voyager Pro UC lists for $199.99.

(Credit: Planatronics)

Plantronics trotted out a new Bluetooth headset on Monday, the Voyager Pro UC headset, which adds a plug-and-play Bluetooth USB adapter "to deliver richer wideband audio on softphones along with Voyager Pro's superior noise and wind cancellation on both mobile phones and softphones."

On the consumer front, the Voyager Pro UC is geared toward Skype users and has some firmware in the dongle that lets you answer Skype calls or swap between a cell and Skype call by simply pressing a button on the headset. Additionally, Plantronics says the dongle helps improve audio quality and range.

The Voyager Pro UC (the UC stands for "unified communications") is also compatible with enterprise softphone applications from Avaya, Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft, and works with Google Talk, though you'll have to use your PC's mouse to answer and end calls (in other words, there are no special features geared toward Google Talk users).

In case you're wondering, you cannot pair the original Voyager Pro headset with the dongle. It's also worth noting that this "UC" version is enhanced for PC communications but should sound the same as the identically styled Voyager Pro for cell calls.

The Voyager Pro UC will be available this month and carries a list price of $199.95. For a complete list of supported softphone applications, visit www.plantronics.com/personosuite.

Anybody want one? Should we do this as a Crave giveaway of the week?

You probably haven't heard of Envizen, but it's one of several off-brand companies putting out new digital portable TVs to replace all the obsolete analog units that were toted to sporting events or kept around for emergencies when the power went off. As implied by its name--the Envizen Digital Duo Box Pro ED8850A--this model is actually two products in one: a portable DVD player and a portable DTV.

The ED8850, which costs around $150 online, looks and feels like your typical inexpensive portable DVD player. To put it politely, there's nothing sexy or slick about it. That doesn't mean it's ugly, just that it's very basic and generic-looking (at least it's black and not silver). But we did like what the ED8850 offers in terms of features.

Read the full review of the Envizen Digital Duo Box Pro ED8850A.