6 Gadgets To Keep You Warm This Winter

We’re aware that not everyone is suffering from cold frigid temperatures this time of year but take into consideration that some of us are currently snowed in — myself included. The following 6 gadgets were designed to keep you nice and toasty until spring:

Milwaukee M12 This reasonably priced jacket aims to keep you warm outside up to 6 six hours. It’s called the Milwaukee M12 which kinda sounds like more of a weapon than a jacket. Think of it as your weapon against the cold. The M12 is a cordless water & wind resistant heated jacket that heats the body through the three carbon fiber heating packs sewn into the jacket. Additionally it has various settings to adjust the heat; warm, hot and there’s a fire in my coat. This product ships with a charging unit that the coat plugs into after the 6 hour charge has run out. Our sympathies to anyone working outside this season, roofers, construction workers, doormen this jacket’s for you. You can pick this jacket up from Home Depot for $169.

Hot Boots Ever consider zapping your socks in the microwave? It’s a bad idea, trust me. But, these Heated Boots provide a safe way to heat up your slippers/boots in the micro without the fear of a possible catastrophe. They also exude a lavender scent when heated, that’s meant to put you in a relaxing state of Zen while avoiding the type of unpleasant smells you’d imagine you’d get from heating your slippers. There’s a recommend time of 90 seconds for microwaving, a direction that users should probably carefully follow. These boots retail for $29 and come in both blue and pink.

Thanko’s Heated Kitty Slippers If for whatever reason you don’t like the idea of heating up slippers in the microwave, you can heat these babies up using USB. Designed for the cat-lover, Thanko’s heated slippers are equally as cute as they are hideous but at the end of the day, your feet will be warm. They work with a USB-powered carbon heater liner and appear to come with a heat-controlling hand switch.

ValueRays Warm Mouse

These USB heated mouse ensures your mouse-hand stays cozy regardless of how cold your boss keeps the office. The warmth from the mouse is also meant to sooth muscle and joint aches that sometimes result in using the mouse too much. The mouse uses a 5V and heats up to 99-104 degrees Farhenheit. Users can of course adjust the heating levels down to a more comfortable temp from the heating switch located on the cord. This will no doubt keep your mits warm in the winter but I think for the therapeutic reasons alone, the warm mouse may be your cure for finger stiffness and pain — a clear indication you’ve been on the computer too long.  The Warm Mouse is was designed to suit both left and right handed users and retails for $30.

There’s only one thing that would make me take off my gloves in zero below weather — the iPhone/Android. Sadly, devices sporting multi-touch surfaces don’t work while the user is wearing mittens, a major annoyance for anyone living in a colder climate. But, if you pick up a pair of touch screen-supported gloves like the Dot Gloves you can be sure to avoid a painful case of frostbite.

North Face E-Tip Gloves

The North Face E-Tip gloves also work with multi-touch surfaces but these ones look as though they were taken from wardrobe, off the set of TRON.

The E-Tip glove was designed with medal tips on the thumb and index fingers and what appears to be electrical circuits all over material — an ultra-techy design. These gloves are $40 and seem to fit the hand nicely, they’re made mostly of polyester with additional silicone on the palm for gripping.  Mobile users could always save some cash by simply cutting the fingers tips off your current pair of mitts. Just a thought.

Hammacher’s Heated Mattress Pad Blankets just not doing it for you? The Hammacher heated mattress pad delivers six warming zones that can be individually adjusted to various parts of the mattress. It’s 100% cotton with a 200 thread count and it’s filled with 7 ounces soft cushioning. The heating elements woven into the mattress pad can independently be turned on to solely heat up one area; torso, head, legs. It can even be set to bring different levels of heat to each sleeper. Each zone has 10 temperature settings that can be tweaked by using a wireless controller and the pad itself plugs into AC. They’ve taken some precautions in case the user forgets to turn it off so the pad will automatically turn off after 10 hours. Hammacher’s pad is available for twin($100), queen($200) and king size ($250) beds.

Podcasting Microphone Showdown: 3 Blue Mics Compared

It’s almost a new year and maybe you, like many, are considering doing a podcast. While this isn’t the time or place to go into the finer details of podcasting, it’s certainly the time and place to look at your most important piece of equipment — your microphone.

While many people simply settle for the included microphone on their laptop, or maybe spring for a $20 headset from the local Target, you’re not one of them. You want good sound, right? We thought so. You also want portability, so you’re likely going to use a USB mic that will offer you both quality and the ability to pack it away and get on the road. That said, when it comes to USB mics, it’s hard to beat what comes out of the Blue Microphones company.

We’ll take a look at 3 of Blue’s best USB mics and then you can decide which one is right for you. From budget-friendly to “please get me this for my birthday”, Blue makes mics that are some of the most impressive on the market, and the company’s USB mics are no different. Each of the embedded recordings below was recorded at the same time, using a bit of trickery on the part of my MacBook Pro. So what you’re hearing are 3 identical tracks, saved with the exact same standards and compression, for a true side-by-side comparison.

$59 MSRP

The Snowflake is the entry level microphone from Blue. Designed to be portable and stashable while still offering great quality, it does a pretty decent job. I initially purchased the Snowflake a touch over a year ago as an alternative to lugging around a Snowball which is far less bag-friendly.

It’s a cardioid condensor microphone which means that it’s going to pick up background sound considerably more than what you’d find in a typical handheld microphone. However, that’s also good for setting the Snowflake on top of your laptop’s screen while you podcast. It folds up rather compactly, and even stashes its USB cable into its base. Now that is bag-friendly. Want to hear it? Here you go:

$99 MSRP

For the past few years, the Snowball has stood as the standard for many podcasters. It’s unique, in the fact that it’s a switchable microphone that will allow you to do either omnidirectional (sound from everywhere) or cardioid (sound from in front of the mic) patterns. It even includes a 3rd position to the switch which will give you a -10 dB pad (lowers the recording volume) in omnidirectional mode.

Roughly the size of a softball, the Snowball isn’t as portability-friendly as the Snowflake. Rather, it’s intended to sit on your desk, via a tripod stand (there are shock mounts available, as well) and not be moved around too often. If you’ve listened to The Next Web Podcast, I’ve recorded a few of the episodes on the Snowball and I’m a big fan of its sound, for the price. For most podcasters, it’s a great choice. The sound? Here it is:

$149 MSRP

First thing’s first — the Yeti is a beast of a microphone. It stands tall, at nearly 1 foot in height and weighs a touch over 3 pounds when attached to the included stand. It is a multipattern, THX -rated microphone that is good enough for even discerning audiophiles to enjoy (speaking from 15 years of microphone experience, it’s amazing). Inside the top, you’ll find 3 of Blue’s 14mm condensor capsules which can be switched into a multitude of functions via a knob on the back.

Cardioid, Bidirectional, Omnidirectional or even Stereo modes can be selected simply by turning the knob. While you’re recording, you can use the included zero-latency headphone jack on the bottom of the microphone to hear what’s going on. The sound from the mic is, quite literally, second to none. The depth of sound that can be picked up via the Yeti is astounding. Need proof? Here you go:

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed in the Snowflake. It simply didn’t offer the bottom end of the frequency range that I’d like to have seen. In fact, for the price, there were headset microphones that were simply better. But if you really want a Blue mic and you want one that’s easy to take on the go, then the Snowflake is great. Otherwise, save a few more cents and go for the Snowball.

The Snowball is still a favorite of mine. I’ve played with a lot of microphones over the years, and it’s honestly hard to beat the sound that you’ll get from a mic that  you can pick up for less than $50 (if you shop around). Combine that with the sexy factor that it has on your desk and the Snowball is still a winner. You just can’t go wrong with this mic.

The Yeti? It blew me away. I’ve heard, literally, thousands of microphones over the years. I’ve never in my experience heard a microphone that sounded this good and had this many features for $150. While there are other great choices on the market, from other manufacturers, I’ve yet to see one that can offer the same quality and price point. If you’re serious about podcasting, but you don’t want to do a full-fledged mixing board setup, the Yeti absolutely can’t be beaten.

So there you have it. Three microphones, side by side, so that you know what they sound like before you make a purchase. Have something else you want us to review? Let us know in the comments.

Windows Phone 7 Reviews Round Up

The first batch of Windows Phone 7 developer devices are being made available to application developers and some industry heavyweights to review. The reviews are mixed, there’s a lot of scepticism given Microsoft’s not so good track record.

Everyone seems to like what they see and given the build on these devices is Technical Preview, there is lot of room to fix the bugs till October which is when the handsets are expected to be in market.

Here’s a round up of the (lengthy) reviews across the web:

Engadget :

Gartenberg on Windows Phone 7:

Fast Company :

Wired ’s short take:

Paul Thurrott is the one who has spent more time on the platform than the rest. He’s writing a book on this after all.

CNet :

ZDNet :

Boy Genius Report seems to hate pretty much everything about the phone, the entire write-up seemed prejudiced. Here are some excerpts:

Update

Gizmodo published their first impressions, long story short, the love it.