GPI

CES Revisited (Revued)

2009-01-20T00:12:00.001-08:00

Every year I look forward to the time I spend at CES. It’s great fun as well as informative and inspirational to tour through the vast spaces totally filled with products, concepts and hope for the future. Most years I am able to spend the entire 4+ days traversing the maze-like aisles. This year I was limited to 2 days due to other commitments so I didn’t get the full flavor of the adventure. But I was able to take in most of it.

I liked the idea that the Sands had an area just for ‘kids’ gadgets, toys and learning aids, although I did find some larger displays in the main hall. The ear buds seemed to be the most represented product. There were several exhibitors that offered decorative options for ear buds, sometimes called jewelry for ear buds.

There were exhibitors with information about books and programs to help students prepare for college entrance exams or GED preparation or for advanced degrees and such tests as the GMAT or LSAT or GRE.

Many had products or information about internet safety for kids. There were pamphlets about how to talk to kids about internet safety and what parents could do to monitor and maintain safe internet use for their children.

Several companies offered tracking devices for children. They ranged from watches to badges to just individual tracking items placed into pockets or backpacks, etc. Some were interactive to hosting sites and some were just between home and the device, like a 2-way radio.

There were products geared toward seniors and for those who care for seniors, too. One product I observed was a pill monitor. At first glance it appeared like any other dated pill holder, but it offered more. It could keep track of pills taken or missed. It could notify when pills were missed and when the holder needed to be refilled. The information was kept on a central station that recorded and kept track of all required data.

One product that I will actually have the opportunity to use and review is a clock that reflects the time, date, weather, etc onto the wall or ceiling. I will let you know how that goes.

Well, now the CES 2009 is in the past, I can have fun reviewing and reliving the experience. But I’m already looking forward to CES 2010.

Grandma Geek

Looking Forward

2008-11-16T14:21:00.001-08:00

As the year winds to an end we are planning our reviews, tech tips, and editorials for next year. With the Consumer Electronic Show fast approaching and SEMA just past and new model has surfaced for us to adapt.

Starting early next year we will introduce three new sections; Senior Experience, Pre-School Adventures, and Photo Reality. These new sections will review and write about gadgets, goodies, and tools for each of the new subjects.

For the Senior Experience we'll have "how to's" and reviews geared towards those with more life experience. These will be written by and for those of our readers that are approaching or are in their "Gold Age."

Pre-School Adventures is written for the parents of post toddler age children. We are trying to focus on educational or developmental toys and activities.

For Photo Reality we have new writers that spend most of their waking hours behide some mighty nice cameras both digital and film. They'll cover everything for lenses, setups, and the must have tools to photo restorations and hand coloring.

Please stay tuned for more informations as we get closer to launch the new year, CES, and our new sections.

Thanks for looking in...

Submitted by Alexander (Chief Geek)

More Stuff and New Home Page

2008-08-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

Well we now have some reviews up. Some on their way (a bluetooth headset and some green drives to name a few).

We now have our Splash Page repaired too.

Looking forward to new articles in the Automotive, Storage, Networking, and Video sections.

Still more to come so check back often.

Submitted by Alexander (Chief Geek)

Delays Delays OOPS

2008-06-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been quite some time since we've added anything new. Our hosting for our "splash" page was compromised and needed to be redirected.

We have been negotiating with some of our contacts to bring new gadgets, goodies, and geekly items for you read about and win.

Some new topics include Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicles, LCD HDTV's, 21 Terabyte Home Media Storage Array (only for the really geeky), and maybe an automotive restoration tip or two.

Thanks to all the reader who keep looking and we're back!

Submitted by Alexander (chief geek)

NAB Here We Come

2008-04-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well we're all packed and ready to trek to Las Vegas. NAB happens this week and we'll be reporting from the show.

When we return we'll officially lauch our raffle program and have a few more prizes too. Keep reading as there will be a test on this stuff later.

Submitted by Alexander (Chief Geek)

New Catagories...

2008-03-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Today we unvieled the newest of the Geeks' Catagories, Fitness. Please stay tuned as we finalize the rules for our drawings and get our "help" lines working.

More good things are coming soon!

Submitted by Alexander (Chief Geek)

Welcome to Geeks' Product Investigations

2008-03-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

We're open for business! Some of our features are still not ready but we are writing about and reviewing technologies and products.

The navigation on the right will take you through the site. Please check out the different catagories.

Soon there will be a contact page up with ways for you to request technology or product reviews. We look forward to helping you find answers for your projects and toys.

Our contests will start soon and first on the prize list is a Rucksack/Notebook case from CES!

More information will follow!

Submitted by Alexander (Chief Geek)

Fortnight and Counting

2008-02-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

With two weeks left, we still have some categories and features to add. We have a "Senior" category coming for those readers who think there are older. Also coming will be a technology help line for assisting our reading with cutting through the confusion. We are putting a product request line for requested reviews too. Each of these lines will have a category for them.

We have a wonderful "Automotive" category which will soon have some fresh video and reviews of the BMW Pit Stop Park.

We hope you're looking forward to reading as much as we are looking forward to writing.

Submitted by Alexander (Chief Geek)

New Categories and New Features

2008-02-17T13:11:00.000-08:00

We are adding content and features as quickly as we can. Our Automotive section is growing with an article on Hybrid Cars. We are adding a Video Technologies category for video production software and hardware. Also coming today is a "Gadgets" category for those neat little toys that we all love and cannot live with out.

One of the up coming features will include a "comments" contest. We will be giving away things we've had sent to us for evaluations as well as CES goodies and maybe some other surprises.

Also a new requests line will be set up for our readers to ask for specific technologies and products to be reviewed. After all, we're Product Investigators.

Submitted by Alexander (Chief Geek)

Soft Lauch With New Site

2008-02-06T18:52:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Sorry for the long silence. We had a discussion with the people at TWG.COM and thought it would be better to change our name rather than have either confused readers or a protracted battle over a name... We are keeping "theweeklygeek.net" but have changed our name to Geeks' Product Investigations.

GPI on the web at http://www.geekspi.com/

We have targeted the Ides of March as the official launch date. Stay Tuned and watch for new features as they come online.

Thanks again!

Submitted by Alexander (chief geek)

Senior Geeks @ CES

2008-01-07T22:22:00.000-08:00

After spending my first day at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, I found myself truly overwhelmed with exciting concepts. Some were new and some were not. But all offered some benefit to improve and/or enhance lives. There were items for health improvement or even to help maintain status quo. Products were displayed to make our homes and cars and lives safer. There were products that helped enhance the earth and offer a better world for the future. And, of course, a good many were designed to just plan make life more fun.

There were so many it was difficult to pick one to tell you about. But the one I think that I got a big kick out of was called MoBeam. MoBeam was created and marketed by Ecrio Inc. It is being marketed, among other ways, as a way to help the environment. I found it to be something that could save a bit of money and possibly a bit of aggravation.

The device looks like a USB flash or memory drive. It is plugged into a USB port and then downloads coupons from a web site. It stores the barcodes and then when the item is purchased the scanner at the retailer reads the information carried by the MoBeam. Once the item is read the coupon is deleted and the coupon value is deducted from the price of the item purchased

The MoBeam device is the size of a keychain ornament, making it easy to carry and keep handy. And the digital creation and subsequent reading of the coupons and other barcodes it ‘carries’ can eliminate the need to print coupons. Thereby, saving trees and other environmental concerns. Besides, I think it sounds like fun.

Submitted by Paula – Grandma Geek

Adventures in Showstopping

2008-01-06T21:09:00.001-08:00

First off I wanted introduce TWG to everyone. This blogsite is run by several professional engineers within the technical and consumer products manufacturing and service fields. Our goal is to inform you, our readers, on products, services, technologies, and other cool exciting things that come our way. As long as you find some benefit from our blogs and reviews we are doing our job.

As I write this I am on my way to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with some of my fellow “geeks.” We are going to search through and bring you pictures, video, audio interviews, and more from our “adventures” there. Hoping to find new things that will peak your interests we will run ourselves ragged.

Many of you may know about CES and its many after show events. We have been attending many of them for the past six years or so. Recently however one of those after events asked us not to attend. Initially I was crushed and even a bit insulted. Well just to show that through setbacks great gains can be made, Steven’s revocation of invitation has pushed us to start the site earlier. For that we thank him and work so that his efforts (while totally unintentional) to push us create the best site for our readers.

We’ll start our reviews with items we received last year but are being showcased this year. BlueAnt was kind enough to send us some of their Bluetooth Wireless devices. With giving away too much of the review, the Supertooth Light hands free speaker phone was one of the best we’ve tested. We’ll also have reviews for Home Server by Microsoft, personal storage devices by Western Digital and Seagate, as well as bare bone computers from MSI and Asus. And to diversify we also have some product from SEMA for your cars too.

Please stay tuned and we promise to educate, entertain, and at least inform you about as many geekly things as we can. We'll have BMW F1 team stuff tomorrow!

Submitted by Alexander (chief geek)

What is the Geek

2008-01-05T21:34:00.000-08:00

This is the first post of TWG. We're on our way to the International Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. Our goal is to find new products, technologies, and of course toys to tell you about. Please check back as new things will happen soon.

- Submitted by Alexander (chief geek)