Levin Giant+ Solar Panel Charger 12000mAh

So I got this cool 12000mAh Solar Panel Charger thing.

You know, you charge it up and toss it in your bag so when you are out at the lake (or in my case, at the Grandson's baseball game) and your phone dies, you can just plug it in a recharge on the go.

This one is pretty nice. It has 2 USB ports so you can recharge 2 devices at once.
It has a built in flashlight (that has an emergency SOS mode, very cool).
And of course, best of all, it can be recharged using the sun!

Now in fairness it does take SEVERAL days of FULL SUN to charge it back up (actually you can never fully recharge it in the sun) but even just one day of sun will give you at least 20%-30% charge on an iPhone. That's not bad.

Just Ask Alexa

NEW – Audible: Play audiobooks from Audible with Echo. Plus, Echo supports Whispersync for Voice to continue right where you left off.

NEW – Calendars: Check your upcoming schedule by asking what’s on your Google calendar.

NEW – Shopping: Restock on previously purchased items by re-ordering Prime-eligible products in your Amazon shopping history.

NEW – Connected home: Control compatible WeMo, Philips Hue, and Wink devices with your voice.

NEW – Traffic: Hear commute time and the fastest route to your destination.

NEW – Sports: Ask for sports scores and schedules from the NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB, NHL, NCAA, WNBA, and more.

NEW – Pandora: Listen to and discover music from Pandora's library of over 1 million tracks.

And now Alexa (The Amazon Echo) can handle multiple timers and alarms!

Amazon Echo, your very cool personal assistant.

So now everyone can have an Amazon Echo of their very own.

This was just posted to Amazon's home page!

Dear Customers,

Today, we are excited to announce that Amazon Echo is available to everyone.

We launched Echo as an invitation-only program in November to learn how customers would use and enjoy it most. The response has been overwhelming.

Echo was born from a simple idea: create a computer, controlled entirely by your voice. This idea required some incredible invention. It had to understand natural language requests, from many voices, from across a room, even when music is playing. It also needed to be informative, entertaining, and useful—while always getting smarter.

With seven microphones, beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation, Echo achieved this goal by enabling far-field voice recognition. And Alexa, our cloud-based voice service that powers Echo, provides information, music, news, weather, and more—and she is constantly learning new skills.

Since launch, we have added streaming music from Pandora, audiobooks from Audible, calendar access, live sports scores and schedules, traffic reports, Amazon.com re-ordering, control of connected devices such as lights and switches from WeMo and Philips Hue, and more. Many of these features are a result of feedback and suggestions from our customers—thank you.

I am excited by what the team has done in a short period of time with your help—and we're just getting started. We hope you enjoy Amazon Echo.

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO

P.S. — See what some of our early customers are saying about Echo.

Amazon Dash Button

So I finally managed to get my hands on a Tide Dash Button


Very easy to setup!

The Dash Button is simple to set up. Use the Amazon shopping app on your smartphone to connect to your home Wi-Fi network and choose the product you want to reorder with Dash Button.

Now here's the catch. There are not a lot of choices. We prefer to use Tide liquid but that wasn't one of the options. We don't use Tide Pods so we went for the one choice of powder they had (glad we like that scent).

Once connected, a single press automatically places your order. Amazon sends a notification to your phone confirming your order. And to make sure the kids don't just keep hitting the button and reordering stuff, be default Dash Button responds only to your first press until your order is delivered (you can change the setting in the app).

Place it. Press it. Get it.

Dash Button comes with a reusable adhesive and a hook so you can hang, stick, or place it right where you need it. Keep Dash Button handy in the kitchen, bath, laundry, or anywhere you store your favorite products. When you're running low, simply press Dash Button, and Amazon quickly delivers household favorites so you can skip the last-minute trip to the store.

My wife pressed the button and two days later (Sunday no less), there was the box on the front step.


We're still waiting to get low on Paper towels so I can mash the Bounty Dash Button that I got too!

RADIOSHACK 2.4GHZ RC SURVEYOR DRONE

This is very cool!
I got one for Christmas and it rocks!
Real R/C (not infra red controlled) with Camera and Stunt mode.

Insert a Micro SD card into the slot, charge up the battery (usb charger included) and off you go.
You can record Video or Still pictures using the controls on the remote (you can turn them on and off).

Check out the video it took from in front of my house.

Put it in Stunt mode and do flips and barrel rolls with the flick of the controller.

For being so small it's very stable and easy to fly.

One thing I will add though.

It records audio and I have no idea why because all you can hear is the sound of the blades humming.

I turned down the volume on the video I recorded because you would not believe how loud it was on the recording!