June 6th next Saturday will be the launch day of the Palm Pre and to some it may seem a very odd day to launch a new product, but both Sprint and Palm already expect long lines of people wanting to buy the phone with many camping out for one, me I will be on vacation, but may check the local Sprint store there. Palm and Sprint have already said they anticipate they won’t have enough Palm Pre’s to meet the anticipated high demand, that is a good and bad thing. Good in that there is a demand, bad in that some people won’t purchase it, even at a later date or may even wait for another rumored carrier to pick it up. Still all the capabilities of the device aren’t fully known, but some reviews have surfaced like the one at BGR. Palm and Sprint have been working hard to market this product and have some interesting websites and widgets at their This is Now Website.

What we know so far:

“The Palm Pre takes full advantage of Sprint’s Everything Data plans,” said Avi Greengart, research director for Consumer Devices at Current Analysis. “The Pre has been expressly designed for multitasking among multiple web pages and applications. It also builds on Palm’s heritage in PDAs by managing your digital information – whether that’s on a corporate server or on the web.”  Still no mention about tethering the Pre to a laptop.

Palm Synergy

• Linked contacts – With Synergy, you have a single view that links your contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever. For example, if you have the same contact listed in your Outlook, Google and Facebook accounts, Synergy recognizes that they’re the same person and links the information, presenting it to you as one listing.

• Layered calendars – Your calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view, combining work, family, friends, sports teams, or other interests. You can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.

• Combined messaging – Synergy lets you see all your conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, even if it started in IM and you want to reply with text messaging. You can also see who’s active in a buddy list right from contacts or e-mail, and start a new conversation with just one touch.

This week at The Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference, Palm, Inc. introduced attendees to the latest features of the Palm webOS platform, including Palm media sync, the integration of Twitter in universal search, and a beta version of its App Catalog. Jon Rubinstein, Palm executive chairman, and Roger McNamee, Palm director and co-founder of Elevation Partners, debuted the new webOS features and mentioned some more information like:

• ActiveSync – remote wipe and address lookup – (I am assuming access to the GAL and some server search too?)
• GSM – in a few months so will it be on the rumored AT&T, who wants the Pre pretty badly as well as Verizon, but Bell Mobility in Canada is getting it too.
• OTA Updates – push updates like Android every other phone should do this too (hint,hint)
• 12 Apps at Launch – Pandora, Fandango, Citysearch, Linked In,(more on this below)

Palm Media Sync

Palm media sync is a feature of webOS that synchronizes seamlessly with iTunes, giving you a simple and easy way to transfer DRM-free music, photos and videos to your Palm Pre. Simply connect Pre to your PC or Mac via the USB cable, select "media sync" on the phone, and iTunes will launch on your computer desktop. You can then choose which DRM-free media files to transfer.

"We designed Palm media sync to be an easy and elegant way for you to take the content you own and put it on Pre, and it's just one of the ways we think you'll be amazed by webOS," said Rubinstein. "We've had an overwhelming response since we introduced Pre at CES, and with availability just days away, we can't wait to let everyone see firsthand what the excitement is all about."

Pre also acts as a mass storage drive, letting you side-load your media content. Once connected to a computer using the USB cable, Pre will appear as a drive on the computer desktop. You can drag and drop music, photos or video files onto your Pre, or drag files from your Pre to the computer. And, just like a digital camera, Pre works directly with your computer's default desktop photo software to seamlessly import photos captured with Pre's built-in 3-megapixel camera.

In addition to listening to music transferred from your desktop, you can use the on-device Amazon MP3 store to purchase individual songs or full albums over-the-air. You can search by artist, song and genre, and preview and purchase music files. You can then download purchased tracks when you're connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Twitter in Universal Search

Palm also announced that Twitter search is integrated into webOS universal search.⁽³⁾ Universal search is about finding what you want quickly, whether it's an on-device contact to call, a place you're trying to get to, or a Wikipedia article for encyclopedic information. Just start typing and Pre will figure out if you're looking for a contact, an application, or even let you search the web via Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and now Twitter. Universal search uses Twitter's search service to sort through real-time current events and news, so universal search now covers every aspect of search on the web: general info, location, encyclopedia, and news.

Twitter's ability to show what's going on right now is a perfect fit for what universal search and Pre are all about. You don't have to be a Twitter user to benefit from Twitter in universal search. It's available for all users, even if they don't have an account, so anyone can keep on top of real-time news and the latest trends.

App Catalog

Rubinstein and McNamee also gave conference attendees an advance look at the beta version of the App Catalog, which will be available on Pre at launch. The beta version will feature applications from developers such as AP News, Citysearch, Fandango, Pandora and uLocate.

"We've received excellent feedback from participants in the Mojo SDK early access program and look forward to the SDK's public release. Developers are very enthusiastic about the platform's ease of use and industry-standard development model," said Rubinstein. "We're excited to launch Pre with the beta version of the catalog, which will give a taste of how the overall webOS ecosystem will work."

The App Catalog was demonstrated at the conference using Fandango's webOS application, which takes advantage of Palm Synergy(TM), a key feature of webOS. It also uses Pre's location-based services to find theaters near you, and lets you watch trailers, buy tickets, add showtimes to your calendar and get directions to the theatre.⁽¹⁾ Also included in the beta App Catalog will be Pandora, which makes use of the platform's multitasking capabilities, running elegantly in the background while you're using other applications. It highlights a unique aspect of the notification bar that lets you know what song is currently playing, and control pause and play without having to go back into the application.

The Palm Pre phone will be available from Sprint on June 6 for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and $100 mail-in rebate. More information is available at www.sprint.com/palmpre and www.palm.com. Also be sure to tune into the official Palm Blog and Twitter feed.

Either way the Palm Pre will be a changer in the Mobile handset space and from what we saw at CES 2009 the Pre has a lot of potential and Palm and its investors are betting that it will live up to the hype.

Microsoft has  created a SKU line-up for Windows 7,  where each SKU is a superset of the previous SKU. This means that each higher edition SKU will have every feature lower edition SKUs have with a focus on two primary editions of Windows 7: Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional.

We will continue to offer a few targeted SKUs for customers with specialized needs: for price-sensitive customers with small notebook PCs, some OEMs will offer Windows 7 Starter. For customers in emerging markets, we will make Windows 7 Home Basic available. Businesses have two recommended choices: Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise. Windows 7 Professional is recommended for small businesses and Windows 7 Enterprise is recommended for mid- and large-sized businesses that have a Software Assurance Agreement with Microsoft.

SKUs for Windows 7:

· The SKU lineup for Windows 7 is:  Windows® 7 Starter, Windows® 7 Home Basic (in Emerging Markets only), Windows® 7 Home Premium, Windows® 7 Professional, Windows® 7 Enterprise and Windows® 7 Ultimate.

· For Consumers, we recommend Windows 7 Home Premium for most customers and Windows 7 Professional for customers who want additional features and functionality useful for small business activities.

· For Businesses, we recommend Windows 7 Professional for most customers and Windows 7 Enterprise for medium-to-large business and enterprise customers that choose to license Windows through Software Assurance.

· The features in each version of Windows 7 build upon the one before it. As customers move up from one SKU to the next, from Windows 7 Starter through Windows 7 Ultimate, they gain additional features and lose none

Additional Information:

More information on deploying Windows 7 can be found here.

Today there is only one new contest as part of the HP Magic Giveaway contest.

The Digital Lifestyle

The HP Magic giveaway is about spreading the magic and that is how we are going to do it. So with this in mind all the prizes are going to one winner but the winner must also spread the magic by passing on some of the prizes (and keeping something for your self)

So to win you need to email me magic@thedigitallifestyle.com and tell me who is getting the kit and most importantly why you think they deserve it.

Keep your submission to under 100 words and you can use video (please post to youtube or blip.tv) or pictures to highlight your story

I will then pick out the 10 most interesting entries and pick one at random

So the better the magic the better your chance of winning, it could be a local charity, school or someone else you feel deserves the prizes.

Here are a few conditions for entry of the competition:

1. Entries must be submitted by Thursday 19th December 5pm
2. By entering your agreeing to help me with a follow up story of how the recipients got on with their new kit  (possibly an interview on The Media Center Show)
3. No one associated with this site or families are eligible to win (but free free to enter the other sites competition)
4. The winner will be notified on Friday 20th December by email and must respond in 24 hours or another winner will be drawn
5. Only one entry per person is allowed (Lots of good entries for the Dragon competition got disqualified for this reason)
6. This competition is world wide and open to anyone
7. No complaining if you don't win and no youtube rants!
8. You don't have to be a member of TheDigitalLifestyle.com but if you are make sure you tell me your site user name in your entry

For the rest of the details and rules of Ian’s contest head over to The Digital Lifestyle here.

Today there are 2 additional contests of the HP Magic Giveaway contest.

Digital Inspiration

How do I participate?

This is simple. Just fill out a short survey and wait until next week to know if you are one among the seven lucky winners.

How can I win?

I am looking for your feedback, new ideas, suggestions or constructive criticism on how to improve Digital Inspiration. This will be a strong criteria while choosing the winners.

What are the rules?

You can enter the contest any time between December 14 and December 20. Multiple entries per person are allowed. There are no age or country restrictions.

For more information and rules on this contest head here.

GeekZone

Magic Giveaway
This is a "Magic Giveaway" so we would like the winner to share the luck - and happiness - with someone special. You are not required to do this, but if you want to send one of the prize items to someone else - a relative who would benefit from a new PC at school or university, a neighbour in need, a school or doctor - we can ship that on your behalf, with a card and all expenses paid.
How to enter
To enter our competition you have to just answer this question: "List the names of at least five people behind the blogs Sharing the Magic in this promotion". It's easy, you just need to visit the HP Magic Giveaway official site to find out more about the other participant websites.
Enter the answer in our online form and submit your entry.
We have a discussion about the HP Magic Giveaway going on here. You don't have to but it would be great if you posted a reply in that discussion telling us about you and if you are to share the prize with anyone tell us why. Posting will not increase your chances, and not posting won't reduce your chances.
Good luck!

For more information and the rules on Mauricio’s contest over at GeekZone head here.

Be sure to check out the other contests going on for more chances to win.

Today there is only one additional contest of the HP Magic Giveaway contest.

Student Hacks

The Official Rules

The rules for my contest are as follows:

• You have to be a current college or graduate student to enter.
  
• You have to e-mail me by midnight EST on Wednesday 12/17 with a proposal for how you would play Santa Claus at your school this season if you were to win. In other words, make a pitch for how you would distribute this equipment at your school if you were to win the contest. (Of course, I assume that you’ll keep one of the machines for yourself!) Is there a club that really needs it? Do you have an idea for a campus-wide contest? Do you have a plan to use the giveaway to drum up some media attention or raise money for a worthy cause?
• You don’t have to live in the United States to win.

To select the winner, I will start randomly selecting entries to read. The first proposal that I come across that I consider to be “really cool” will win the prize. The definition of “really cool” is left to my discretion, but my threshold will be really high. Please don’t bother entering if you’re a not a student or if you know me — in both cases you won’t win.

For more details and rules on the contest at Student Hacks  head here.

Today four more sites and blogs have started their contests in the the HP Magic Giveaway contest. Are you ready for some more chances to win and spread some magic?

Eliax

Here is their contest translated into English:

Here it is finally, the official list of which described to compete in the contest of the Magic of Christmas with HP and eliax.

They notice that the offerers whom they have but of a number in the list are because they completed an additional task, like this. They notice that no longer shipments of the Task are accepted but #1, nor to enter the contest.

If your name does not appear in the list it is because you did not send your request before the stipulated date, or because your request did not fill the necessary requirements, or because you did not follow the instructions well when to send the required information.

They notice that it is possible that arises another task but from now until when we publish the winners day 17 of this month, so they are kind. Also they are kind to but the news on the contest in the course of these days, including but engineering data of the prizes, as well as details on as the winners choose themselves.

Meanwhile the important thing that they know is that the number (or numbers) next to your name, is your number of lottery, and if it leaves that number you gain the prize of that drawing. As we mentioned previously, there will be 6 drawings, reason why the possibilities that you win are quite good (approximately one of each 300, or one of each 150 for which they completed the task #1).

Now, some peculiar data:

- 1.222 people are competing.
- 612 completed the first task successful.
- Therefore we have 1.834 numbers in game.
- The offerers represent 27 countries.
- There are offerers of until India and Indonesia!
- The countries with but offerers, from the major to minor are:
Dominican republic - 39,93%
Spain - 11,95%
Mexico - 10,72%
Argentina - 7,04%
Colombia - 6,63%
Venezuela - 6,46%
Costa Rica - 4,66%
Chile - 3,27%
Peru - 1,88%
The USA - 1,31%
- Peculiarly, in daily visits to eliax.com, Dominican Republic it is third party behind Spain and Mexico, and nevertheless in this contest they are those that but are participating!

Luck and we followed in contact!

For more details on their contest in its native form head here.

GeeksRoom

This is also loosely translated  into  English:

It is why the spirit of this contest has like final mission that the person who wins demonstrates her solidarity and shares with they need which it, or a friend, a aid organization, a hospital, in short, always we will find somebody to whom to help and is in you following the spirit of this promotion and contest.

We would like that the one that gains the contest shares some PC and all must be conscientious of which a person is not going to use all the computers and donating one or several of them they can help to whom they need if it.  As or I said in the previous paragraph, a aid organization, a hospital, a friend, a club, in short, all we have near which needs aid and the winner will have the gift to make happy to one or several people.  I clarify to them that they do not have any obligation to do it, but remember that the spirit of this promotion is to help others, to have the power that us dá a prize of this type to be able to make happy to others.  They remember, is not obligation! but it would be a good action from the winner!  In addition, they will see that the desición to donate a PC or several, will give more possibilities them of gaining the prize.

Next they can read the rules to participate in the contest.  They must work just a little bit but he is not nothing of the other world:

1) In order to participate in the contest they will have to send a digital photography in which you with the logo appear of GeeksRoom and the one of the Sponsors, along with the legend in Spanish” I want to share the Magic” or in English “I want to share the Magic”.   They are Creative, but they do not use Photoshop (only for some adjustment of color, brightness, it contrasts, but it does not stop to add other elements to him).  According to its creativity and according to my criterion, they are possible to be won up to 5 entrances (numbers) extra for the drawing!  The logos and the legend must be well visible! and the 150 photographies do not have to exceed Kb (they keep the original ones).

They can unload them to the logos following the connections (they follow the connection All Sizes and they will see the image in his original measurement there):

GeeksRoom logo

Logo HP

Logo Windows

2) Also they must answer 3 questions: A) In which country I was born (it begins with A and it finishes with A), B) in which alive country (if they do not know it to this height, says Cowboy to me) and C) that marks of laptop I have bought the past week.  The first two are easiest and third it is very obvious.

3) All that one that decides to donate one of the PCs, 2 entrances (numbers) to the drawing were assigned to him more

4) If they decide to donate 2 or but PC's receives 5 additional entrances, that is 6 possibilities of gaining the contest.

5) The photo, the questions and if they wish to donate some PC, the name of the person or organization will send, them to the email direction , with subject “GeeksRoom - HP Magic Giveaway”.   In the email, besides the previous thing I will need its complete name, city and country where they reside and email direction that it must agree with the one of the shipment.  The text of the email must contain the data with the following format:

Full name of the participant:

City and Country of Residence

Email:

Question a):

Question b):

It asks c):

In the case of donating part of the prize, the name of the person or organization, email, City and Country of residence.  Besides a small oration with the reason by which they will donate part of the prize! (they do not write a book to me! " src="http://geeksroom.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" /> )

They remember to enclose the photo!

If receipt incompletos data or lacks data and/or requirements, will be disqualified and they will not participate in the drawing.

6) To each one of the entrances arrival of the email will be assigned to him to a number by order.  The same will be the one of the row that occupies in the Excel list which I will take with the object of organizing the contest.  The extra entrances, if to correspond, they were assigned in correlative form.

7) The winner will determine itself by means of the use of the procedure Sequence Generator of the Random.org site.

For the original language post about the details and rules of the contest head here

Living in theory

How?

Each contestant will post their stories on their own blogs or vlogs for all of us to go read or see. Use the Mr. Linky widget below to sign up. Fill out the fields as requested, using the url for your post, not your site. (This is very important... do not link to your blog, but the post specifically written for this giveaway within your blog!!! If you don't know how, please ask in the comments...)

It would be great if all the contestants would visit the other blogs in this contest to show some community spirit. Not saying that I care, but the judges might... Feel free to share your favorite posts back here in the comments section. If you have a Twitter account, follow me and the other contestants. Our hash tag will be #SugarMagic

What?

Tell us what you are doing to make an impact on the lives of others. It doesn’t have to be a Save-The-World kind of story. I just wrote about an ordinary refrigerator that helped me and many others. But saving the world is not off the table, either. Brian Carter will tell you all about One Day for Human Rights today… if you have a minute.

Tell us what you are planning to do with all this great hardware. I mean, there’s A LOT of hardware. More than one person could possibly ever need. How could all of these gadgets impact the lives of others that you know? How could these gadgets help you in personally inspiring or empowering others?

Who?

Winners will be chosen by a secret panel of ineligible (but still pretty nice) people. This group of wise and whacky women will read through all posts and follow the comment trails, so be nice out there…

For the rest of the rules and details on Sugar’s contest head here.

Stop, Drop and Blog

First and foremost, I need to tell you this: while our giveaway is based on a random chance, I want you guys to understand the reason our site decided to participate in such an amazing giveaway. I’ve been blogging all this week about the reasons we are so grateful this holiday season. I will continue to do so throughout the rest of this week. FireDad and I have recognized how truly blessed we have been in the past few years. We have two healthy, happy children. We have a house. We are having a Christmas of our own. We are in love with one another and with our family. We are so blessed. And as such, we want to share that feeling with your family. But we don’t want that feeling to stop there.

We know that we wouldn’t be as blessed as we are if people wouldn’t have taken time to share things with us along the way. The table my parents gave to us when we got our first apartment. The meals the ladies of the church brought to us after LittleBrother was born and I didn’t have enough time to shower let alone cook a healthy meal. The leads for freelancing jobs that others have shared with me because they felt that I would be best suited. The friendship others have extended to us over the years. Without those little bits of sharing, we wouldn’t quite be the family that we are today. And that’s why we believe so intently in the true meaning behind this contest: sharing the magic. While we can’t demand that our winner share the package with anyone, we’d really like to promote that idea. I won’t tell you who and how to share but I will delete all entries that say, “Gimme gimme.” I reserve the right to do so!

All that said: I’ll need you to visit the whole list of rules for the giveaway, of course, but here’s the rundown on how to enter!

1. Leave a comment on this post explaining what winning this package would mean to you and your family in these tough economic times and how your sharing of this package would contribute to the true meaning of the season. This counts as one entry. You may only leave one entry in this fashion. IP addresses are recorded. Obvious spoof IPs will be disqualified.

2. Tweet this contest with this tinyurl ( http://tinyurl.com/sdbgiveaway1 ) and the hashtag #SDBGiveaway. You may tweet up to twice per day. Come back to this post and paste the URL of each individual tweet you post. (I will check every single one at the end of the contest so do not delete.) Each tweet, up to two per day, will count as one entry. (How to get the URL of each individual tweet? Click on the “time” that your tweet was entered. It follows your actual tweet. “3 minutes ago” is an example.) And, not necessary, but feel free to add me on twitter. I’m FireMom!

3. Digg, Stumble or otherwise promote this contest via some form of social media (other than the twitter entry above). Come back to this post and paste the URL of each individual promotion along with your username in case things get confusing. Each promotion will count as one entry. One promotion per social media site.

4. Blog about this contest on your public blog telling your readers a longer version of the comment you left in entry option #1. Meaning: Blog about what this contest means to you and your family this year and how sharing it would impact friends and family. Include a link back to this post. Please come back this post to post the link to your permalinked post just in case my blog doesn’t pick up your track back. You are allowed to do this once and it will count as one entry.

For the rest of the rules and details on this contest head here.

Today there are three more ways to win and spread the magic of giving in the HP Magic Giveaway contest. Some people may consider 13 unlucky, but it will be lucky for 3 individuals.

Gadgetell

Still no information yet, but you can get a start by registering here.

Liliputing

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask you to tell me what you would do with this prize package. And I’m going to encourage your to share at least some of the love by giving one or more of the computers to a friend, family member, or colleague who could really use it or by choosing a charity, non-profit, or other group that you think should receive one or more of the PCs. The contest is open to anyone in the world (fortunately the sponsors are picking up the tab for shipping costs), and we’ll ship the prize package both to the winner and to whatever second site that person choses.

You can find the complete rules for the contest after the break.
OK, so here’s how to enter.

1. Register for an account in the Liliputing Forums. (If you already have an account you can skip this step).
2. Write a post in the HP Magic Giveaway thread explaining what you would do with the prize package. Whether you have a sob story, a funny story, or just a story to tell, let us know why you want to win and how you’ll use the prize package. Make sure to let us know if yo uplan to give away a portion of the prize.

That’s it. Becoming an active participant in the forums will make me like you more, but I’m not going to assign a point value to the number of posts you leave, because I don’t want to encourage lots of mindless posts in the forums. there’s a great community of netbook and mobile computing enthusiasts hanging out at the forums though, and I’d encourage you to participate or at least read some of the interesting discussions thave have been taking place in the forums over the last few months.

Please read the instructions. Entries must be submitted in the Liliputing Forums. I will delete any entries posted in the comments. Please use the comments to ask questions, or, you know… leave comments.

For the rest of the details and rules head here.

SlashDot Review

The Contest
Only one entry per household is permitted.

1. Examine the Award Package carefully, and determine which of the hardware and software items you wish to keep for personal use or gift to a member of your immediate family.
2. Create an account at Seesmic.com
3. Record a Seesmic video, including the script provided by SDRNews, where you personally describe, with your face on camer. Insure that the scene is well lit and that you have good audio.
   1. Your first name, city, state and country.
   2. Which item you wish to keep for personal use or family gift
   3. For each remaining hardware item
      1. What person or organization you will give the item to this holiday season
      2. Why that person or organization is most deserving of that particular gift and support
4. Embed the Seesmic video on a public web site - such as your blog, MySpace or Facebook page
5. Fill out the application at SDRNews including your full name, contact information, embed posting date, and Seesmic embed code.

For the rest of the details and rules head here.

Goodluck in entering these contests

We all can use a little magic in our lives and when you have a little magic, it’s always good to spread it around. Well today you have another chance to do just that in the HP Magic Giveaway contest, but today there is only one site starting theirs.

Student Bloggers

This is finals season (I bet you thought it was the holiday season) so that’s what you’re going to tell me about. The first requirement:

• Tell me your best finals story. What’s the craziest, funniest, most poignant, most surprising, shocking or just plain interesting thing that happened to you during this week that we all look forward to with equal anticipation and dread? I will then share some the best ones (winner or no) on the site at the end of the contest. This can be the time the guy next to you fainted in the middle of an exam, you aced a test because of a fact you heard on Jeopardy, or the time your computer crashed while on the last paragraph of your paper. If you do write about some computer crash story it had better be good. We’ve all heard a ton of those. Keep it fairly short (2-3 paragraphs).

Second, I am not requiring that entrants be college student bloggers this time, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not looking after our community. The next requirement:

• You must make a meaningful comment on at least one blog in the directory. Maybe there’s one from your alma mater or your school’s rival. Maybe someone just has a cool title. This shouldn’t be hard, but it can’t just be “I agree” or “Cool story.” A substantial contribution to the conversation. You might just find a blog you want to keep following. Send me the link to the post(s) you commented on.

Finally, I want you to join the 50 sites doing this business in the giving spirit. This is $6,000 of stuff and not even the biggest nerd among you needs four new computers. No chance. So the last requirement:

• Tell me about the college student or high school senior who is about to go off to college who you would like to share at least one of these computers with. This can be someone who needs a newer computer to compete in their discipline, someone who can’t afford a computer at all and spends his days resuscitating puppies, someone with a physical addiction to World of Warcraft, whatever. Just make it thoughtful and meaningful. I don’t want to hear sob stories though. I sympathize with what your best friend is going through, but I’d rather hear about how they are a good person and would do good things than the string of tragedy following them. Besides, it’s easy to fake a sob story. No begging. Stay positive. Again, keep it relatively short.

Email your entry to studentblogs@gmail.com with the subject: HP Magic. You must get the subject right as I will be filtering these. Oh, and the final rule: no whiners.

I will then choose 10 or 20  great stories and great people (depending on the number of entries) and let random.org do the final selection. All decisions are final. I will not be listing the final group, only the one winner. I do realize that people could just make up stories and people, but I trust that you are aren’t huge turds who would do such a thing. Think of the children.

So three things: 1) Sweet finals story, 2) link to comment on student blogger’s post, and 3) who you want to share it with.

Entries must be in by Sunday, December 14th. As with the last contest, my friends and family may not enter, but they can certainly do so on the other 49 sites.

Good luck and I look foward to reading your great stories! Full details, including info on shipping and taxes, will be available on the HP Magic Giveaway page above.

For more details and all the nitty gritty details on this contest head here.

Again there are some contests ending today, so get your entries in now so be sure to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today as well as entering the other contest from AbsoluteVista, DigitalMediaPhile, PlanetX64, InfoWester, Merlot Mom, Noticias Tech,TechMamas,Geek.com, Notebooks.com, TechieDiva One Day, One Job, Gear Diary, Geeks to go, Geeks!, Carlos Alberto,Down to Earth Momma, La Bitácora de Erwin Ried,and Moosh in Indy.

Today there are 3 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway contest, each site has their own rules so read them carefully and good luck!

AbsoluteVista

For this contest, I have a few very simple rules:

1. My contest is open to all inhabitants of this planet, known severally as Earth or Terra or Sol-3. Please be advised that we tend to favor sapient inhabitants. However, if a troglodyte’s entry is the best, then we have no choice….

2. Create a short animation describing the HP Magic Giveaway, and the good it will bring to you, and a few lucky persons/organizations you so decide to re-gift to this Christmas.

3. An acknowledgement of HP and Microsoft for this giveaway immediately attaches mondo points to your score.

4. Working in a group of more than one, letting us know that there will be more than one enjoyer of this giveaway is a boon.

5. Gratuitously praising me may or may not work.

6. Staying on points 1 & 2 matter more than anything else.

7. Be prepared to assign certain usage rights to me, and by proxy,  AbsoluteVista.com and all our related websites, including but not limited to SmallBizVista.com, and this website, SmallBizWindows.com. My statement of the assigned rights can be found here, and the assignment of these rights are non-revocable. Your submission  of your original content will be taken as agreeing with that assignment of rights statement.

8. If you are an immediate member of my extended family, sorry, you are immediately DQ’d. for you can certainly afford a system.

9. I am going to attempt to review as many of the giveaway items s possible. However, since I want the winner(s) to have their winnings by Christmas day, I will be mindful of the time constraints imposed on shipping, and make sure that the systems are shipped in time for enjoyment of that day.

10. The contest starts at 12.00 am on December 8, 2008.

11. I will receive submissions until 12.01 am on December 14, 2008, and I will make my decision on the winner before 11.59 pm on the same day.

12. Oh, my decision is final.

For the rest of John’s contest details head here, for an update of the rules head here.

DigitalMediaPhile

I’m holding my Magic Giveaway Contest as a WIN AND SHARE THE MAGIC CONTEST. You’ve probably heard the phrase “random act of kindness”. Well, during this holiday season, I’m hoping that some lucky winner will be able to perform “deliberate acts of kindness”.

My contest starts today, December 8^th. You have until Friday, December 12^th at 6pm Eastern Time US to submit your entry.

If you want to enter my contest, here’s the deal:

First, think about your less fortunate friends, parents on social security, local Boys and Girls Clubs, group homes, senior citizen housing with rec rooms and imagine the joy and surprise that gifting multiple people with a new, state of the art computer might bring to them. I guarantee that as you watch them light up, you’ll light up and that THAT feeling lasts a long time. (You can’t fix the economy, but you can sure help somewhat forget it for a while. My hopes are that you’d keep just one of these great state of the art leading edge machines for yourself, but SHARE THE MAGIC and gift the rest.)

Second, you need to post some images on FLICKR or a Video/slide show on YouTube. (And only on those sites) showing the places these new computers will go or a shot of the computers they are replacing (and if you replace a computer, please give THAT to someone who needs it).

Third, after you post your digital entry, send an email to magicgiveaway@gmail.com with a link to the location where you’ve posted this (full URL, no tiny URL or shortcuts allowed) and the subject: I want to share the magic. In addition to placing the link to your content as the first line of the message, please describe in 150 words or less who you want to gift and why. I don’t want to read sob stories. If you don’t use the correct subject or write a novel, you will be disqualified. Be sure to send your email from an address that you check often for incoming mail and add magicgiveaway@gmail.com to your safe/approved senders list so that if you win, you won’t miss the notification.

Fourth, by entering, the winner agrees to provide me, within two weeks of receipt of the prize, at least a 500 word postable story on what happened when they gifted computers. Pictures optional, but would be great to have along with permission to post. I won’t post names without permission or any other information. The winner agrees to allow me to use the content they provide in any manner I choose.

Fifth, winners must provide a bona fide shipping address and not a post office box.

Sixth, the winner agrees, by entering my contest, to allow me to contact their local newspaper/TV station, etc. and ask if they are interested in running a story on the winner and the magic sharing of the holiday season. You’ll get the admiration of your peers and some local recognition. It would be great if, after the winner is notified, that they provide any info they can on contacting local media in their home town.

Seventh , I will pick a 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place entry. I will notify the 1^st place winner via email and they will have 12 hours to respond. If no response is received, I will notify the next in line, who will have 12 hours (etc.). I won’t post info until the winner has accepted. Here is a hint: if you enter my contest, you should check your email every few hours starting on Saturday December 13 so that you don’t miss THE BIG NOTIFICATION.

For more on Barb’s contest and rules head here.

PlanetX64

The PlanetX64/PlanetAMD64/Echenique dot com edition of the HP Magic Giveaway starts right now! Here's what you have to do:

1. Sign up to Animoto (free) and create a 30-second slideshow using your pictures and their holiday music showing the magic of giving - pictures of you and the other person(s) you would like to share the prize bounty with.
2. Post your video to YouTube (free too).
3. Go to PlanetAMD64 and post a link to your video in the "HP Magic Giveaway Begins Now" thread on the home page (requires free membership as well) and include your story (doesn't have to be a novel).

That's all there is to it.

The contest period runs from December 8, 2008 0000 EST to December 13, 2008 2359 EST. The winner will be announced on December 14, 2008 at 1500 EST over at Echenique dot com.

Remember, the HP Magic Giveaway Rules require that you share your prize with someone deserving. The Magic is in the Giving.

Read the rest of Carlos’ rules and enter his contest by clicking here.

Remember some contests are ending, so get your entries in now so be sure to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today as well as entering the other contest from InfoWester, Merlot Mom, Noticias Tech,TechMamas,Geek.com, Notebooks.com, TechieDiva One Day, One Job, Gear Diary, Geeks to go, Geeks!, Carlos Alberto,Down to Earth Momma, La Bitácora de Erwin Ried,and Moosh in Indy.

Well we  have one happy winner on our hands and you can win too as part of the HP Magic Giveaway 4 more blogs and websites have launched their contests today. Here are the details of each:

InfoWester

To be announced.

Merlot Mom

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

ELIGIBILITY:

• My blogger friends ARE eligible.  
• Regretfully family members and IRL friends (in real life for non-bloggers) are NOT eligible for MY contest.  BUT you ARE eligible to enter ALL the other HP Magic Giveaway contests.  See my HP posts or HP MAGIC GIVEAWAY's home page for participating sites.
• International entrants welcome.
• Winners of other HP Magic Giveaway contests are NOT eligible.
• You must have a legitimate shipping address.  P.O. Box addresses will NOT be accepted.  

HOW TO ENTER:

• Make your case!  Tell me why you deserve to win $6000 worth of HP and Microsoft products.  How will you put the equipment to good use?  Who will you share it with and why?  The contest is about the spirit of giving so I ask that you illustrate for me, either in words (250 words or less) OR on video (4 minutes or less) how you will make the most out of this charitable opportunity.  It can be for a friend in need, an organization such as a hospital, a residence home, a school.  Your choice.  Tell me what it will mean to you to have them share in your good fortune.  WOW ME.
• Include a link in your entry to HP Magic Giveaway's home page and to this post on www.merlotmom.com.
• Post your entry on your blog, on Facebook, on YouTube, or in my comment section.
• If you have posted your entry anywhere other than my comment section, please leave a comment with a link to the site of your entry, your name, and a valid email address so I can contact you.

For the rules and more details on this contest head over to Merlot Mom here.

Noticias Tech

To be announced.

TechMamas

When I found out that I was part of the 50 bloggers participating in the HP Magic Giveaway, I did not sleep too well for the next few nights. I had the chance to give away (US) $6,000 in amazing hardware, accessories and software that could really make a difference in someone's life (or a group ). I had so many ideas, so many people I want to share some magic with. Schools(teachers), charities, families and especially moms (parents) that all give so much on a daily basis. Then I saw the CNN Heroes show and was inspired. So I decided I wanted to award my prize package to a "MOM or DAD hero".
CONTEST DETAILS (COMMENTS ARE OPEN, contest has started!!!! Please go to the bottom of the post and comment your "mom hero" story/links):

• You need to be a mom  OR dad
• You can nominate yourself or someone else.
• I prefer that (like many of us) that you can't afford to buy all of this amazing equipment on your own.
• You need to have a powerful use for that technology, that will not only help yourself and your family but a school or charity as well. School and charity are used in loose terms. You can be a mom that works for an underprivileged afterschool program that wants to share some of the package with the program and some at her home to develop curriculum. You can be a mom  or dad that runs a charity that needs technology to take it to the next level or is trying to get their career back on track - and looking to help others as well.
• To enter, just comment on this post with links to as many different types of media  you want to use to tell you story, or just a text comment.
• Please be "for real",  there are people that really need this!
• I request (not require) that you "share" the magic by giving part of your package away to the school or charity that is part of your "story"
• The contest will run from December 7 - December 13. Winner announced on December 14.

For the rest of the details and rules on Beth’s contest head here.

Reminder some contests are ending, so get your entries in now so be sure to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today as well as entering the other contest from Geek.com, Notebooks.com, TechieDiva One Day, One Job, Gear Diary, Geeks to go, Geeks!, Carlos Alberto,Down to Earth Momma, La Bitácora de Erwin Ried, Moosh in Indy, GottaBeMobile, I Started Something, The Gadgeteer.

Again many contests have ended we are still going over all the entries that entered our contest and will be announcing the winner today after a random drawing of all valid entrants. The winners of the GearLive contest is actually giving the HP Mini 1000 notebook, Microsoft Office 2007, Kung Fu Panda on DVD, and Corel VideoStudio away in a contest at GearLive, so  be sure to enter for that. Today you have 3 more chances to win from the following sites:

Geek.com

Now is your turn to register for a chance to win all of that gear. Just fill out our survey and make sure to include your e-mail address at the end so we can contact you if you win.

You can enter any time between December 6th (today) and December 12th. Each person is allowed to enter the contest once.

For more details on Sal and Joel’s contest at Geek.com head here.

Notebooks.com

Today we’re kicking off our HP Magic Giveaway contest and hope you’ll help spread the Magic in the spirit of the holidays. As of right now you can enter the contest and win a prize package that includes $6,000 worth HP and Microsoft gear.

There are a variety of ways you may enter the contest, all of which are free and open to anyone in the world as long as participating in a giveaway like this is legal in your locale.

We thought a lot about how we would pick a winner and decided we wanted to leave it up to chance, but allow our readers to improve their chances by completing a variety of tasks. This means you may enter an unlimited number of times if you reallllllllyyyyyy want to win four computers and the rest of the gear for yourself, your family or your organization.

The more tasks you complete, the more entry points you earn. Think of it like raffle tickets, but instead of buying tickets you jut need to participate in the below tasks.

In the spirit of the holiday season you can earn a significant number of  points by sharing some or all of the prizes with the school(s)/non-profit(s) of your choice. You don’t HAVE to designate any of the prize package to go to school(s)/non-profits, but you certainly increase your chances of winning by doing so.

You can spend as little as 10 seconds entering this contest by subscribing to our email newsletter, or countless hours. It’s all up to you.

How to Earn Contest Entry Points:

A) Tasks to enter by spreading the magic to those in need:

You may only complete one of the following tasks. You’ll earn a significant amount of entries and get a chance to help those in need. This is the easiest/fastest way to earn a lot of entry points, but you have to be the giving type. If you want to keep the entire package for yourself you can skip this section and start at the next section of tasks.

1. Designate one of the PCs to a school or non-profit of your choice. Click here to complete this task. (5 points)
2. Designate two of the PCs to the school(s) and/or non-profit(s) of your choice. Click here to complete this task. (10 points)
3. Designate three of the PCs to the school(s) and/or non-profit(s) of your choice. (Click here to complete this tasks) (15 points)
4. Designate all four of the PCs to the school(s) and/or non-profit(s) of your choice. (20 points)
5. Designate the entire prize package to the school(s) and/or non-profit(s) of your choice. (25 points)
6. BONUS-Designate at least one of the PCs in any of the above tasks to Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland. This is my charity of choice because its staff and volunteers provide patients with Leukimia excellent and compassionate care. (15 points)

B) Ways to enter by spreading the word about Notebooks.com’s contest or contributing to the site:

You can earn points ONCE from completing each of the following
tasks. Please don’t complete any of this tasks more than once or you’ll
be removed form the contest:

1. Comment on this post and tell us what your favorite HP product or Microsoft software/service is and why. (1 point)
2. Become a fan of Notebooks.com on Facebook. (1 point)
3. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/xavierlanier (1 entry point)
4. Subscribe to Notebooks.com’s Newsletter so you can receive updates about the site and alerts to future giveaways. (2 entry points)
5. Subscribe to Notebooks.com’s YouTube Channel. (1 point)
6. Post a video to YouTube or another video sharing site and tell us why you (or your chosen school/non-profit) deserves the HP Magic prize package. Cut and paste a link to your video here (2 points)
7. Register for the Notebooks.com forums and introduce yourself. Tell us what kind of tech gear you use. (1 entry point)
8. Write an article about this giveaway on your own blog, or appropriate web site and include the phrase “Notebooks.com’s Magic Giveaway with HP and Microsoft” so we can find it easily. Link back to this post and to http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/blogger-magic/ . You’ll have to post a link to the article in our forums. (2 entry points).
9. Tweet the following phrase: “I entered Notebooks.com’s HP Magic Giveaway: $6,000 worth of HP computers and Microsoft software! http://tinyurl.com/5t2z5s” (2 entry points).
10. Tell us who you’ll share the prize package with, what you’ll give them and why in the forums. (1 entry point).
11. Tell us about your dream notebook. Which one would pick if you could have any notebook in the world for free? Click here to complete this task. (1 entry point)

C. You may earn an UNLIMITED number of entries by completing the following tasks as many times as you wish.

1. Help build the brand spanking new Notebooks.com Wiki.

• Write a brief Wiki entry here. Each wiki entry must be related to notebook computers factual, substantial and original. If you need some inspiration or to get an idea of what makes a great wiki visit Wikipedia.org
• It must be at least 100 words in length and contain one reliable source. (2 points)
• Write substantial Wiki entry that’s at least 500 words long, link to at least one other Notebooks.com Wiki page and cite 3 sources. (12 points)

2. Write a “how-to” or “top-10″ article that’s related to notebooks or technology and submit it to the forum here. All articles must be original and those that are off-topic, plagarized or are otherwise unsuitable for publishing on Notebooks.com will be disqualified. (5 points)

• BONUS: If we really like your article and feature it on the home page of Notebooks.com you will earn additional entries. (5 points)

For more and Xavier’s contest and rules head to Notebooks.com.

TechieDiva

HOW TO ENTER

It’s all about sharing the magic this holiday season, so we highly encourage you to enter this contest with the intent of sharing your prize with someone you care about, be it a relative, a friend, or a charity. We’d love for you to help us spread the word about this contest on your personal blog or social network to let others know how they too can enter this amazing contest. For this reason, we ask that you write a short paragraph or bulletin on your personal blog, social profile, microblog, or favorite forum telling us what you would do with all those computers if you won the contest. We don’t want you to spam anyone though, so make sure you only post your entry on your own blog/social profile.

In your blog post, make sure you include the following:

1. A link back to Techie Diva and a link back to the HP Magic Giveaway page.

2. A short paragraph, telling us why you deserve to win this prize and what you plan to do with it. Would you be selling it on eBay? Sharing it with your family? Start a business? Donate part of it to a charity? Or keeping it all to yourself? We will be choosing the winner at random so there is no wrong or right answer; BUT the best stories reflecting the spirit of giving this holiday season will be published on Techie Diva and receive an additional entry. This means your name is entered in the contest twice!

BONUS ENTRIES (in addition to entry above)

This is your opportunity to increase your chances of winning this package. Do any of the following, and get THREE additional entries. We ask that you send bonus entries to hpbonus@techiediva.com and include your name, phone number, and email address. Make sure you write in the subject line the type of bonus entry you’re submitting (Charity, YouTube, Bake Off, Video Review). You still have to submit a blog post entry to enter. Make sure you use the same email address since we will verify both entries this way.

1. Encourage a charity, school, or church to enter this contest. Have them send us your name and email address in a separate email to hpbonus@techiediva.com.Your entries depend on it.

2. Create a YouTube video or a Web Cam comment below telling us how you would share the magic if you won this package. We highly encourage charities/schools/ministries do this.

3. Bake a cake/cupcake with the Techie Diva avatar/logo.

4. Create a one to two minute video review of your favorite gadget or HP product for Techie Diva.

5. Link back to this post on five or more social networks (ex: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, Bebo). Send all links in one email to the address above. These all have to be your own accounts. Links in comments section don’t qualify. Please include a blurb of the contest in your post.

SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY

Send your blog post entry to hpcontest@techiediva.com with the following:

1. Short paragraph mentioned above along with a link to your blog post entry.

2 Your email address, full name, phone number, and shipping address. (We will not spam you or share your information with anyone)

For more details on this contest and rules head to TechieDiva here.

Again as before, today some contests are ending so get your entries in now so be sure to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today as well as entering the other contest from One Day, One Job, Gear Diary, Geeks to go, Geeks!, Carlos Alberto,Down to Earth Momma, La Bitácora de Erwin Ried, Moosh in Indy, GottaBeMobile, I Started Something, The Gadgeteer,  Hack College.

Some contests ended yesterday (remember you have until midnight EST tonight to enter ours) of the HP Magic Giveaway Contest where you have a chance from 50 different websites and blogs to win over $6000 in gear and some are ending today. There are still many open so be sure to enter and not only win, but share what you have won with others!

Today you have another chance to win and share over $6000 in gear.

One Day, One Job:

Last week, my business partner, Jason Seiden, and I were talking about the job search training course that we’re working on. I had told him that I recently received “thank you tweets” from two One Day, One Job readers who had landed jobs at companies that I wrote about. We both agreed that there’s nothing more rewarding than helping someone find and land a job. This sparked an idea. Since the HP Magic Giveaway is all about “paying it forward,” we should build a contest where the winner is rewarded for paying it forward (even if it’s with the end goal of winning a prize).

The challenge is simple.

Help a friend with his or her job search. Leave a comment on this post telling us your friend’s first name and exactly how you helped him or her.

Your entry can be as simple as telling us that you e-mailed someone a link to One Day, One Job, or as involved as telling us how you edited and improved a friend’s resume. We’re looking for creativity and a genuine willingness to help (and ideas that we can use in the course that we’re developing), so we’re going to reward those of you who try harder. Entries will be graded on a scale of 0 (so unhelpful that you don’t even get an entry) to 10 (bending over backwards to get your friend a job), and each point will be equal to one entry in the contest.

We don’t expect you to land someone a job in just a few days’ time - that’s nearly impossible (but if you can do it, go for it). We just want you to lend a helping hand to someone who can use it, whether you already have a job or you’re also looking. The average score will be a 1 or 2, so there will be a huge premium for in-depth/creative/bend over backwards entries.

At the end of the contest, we’ll assign numbers to each entry and use Microsoft Excel’s random number generator to select a winner.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Since you’ve already found a friend in need, you’ll be expected to give part of your prize package to the friend whom you helped, since without him or her, you wouldn’t have won.

For the rest of the rules, check out the One Day, One Job site.

Remember today some contests are ending so get your entries in now so be sure to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today as well as entering the other contest from Gear Diary, Geeks to go, Geeks!, Carlos Alberto,Down to Earth Momma, La Bitácora de Erwin Ried, Moosh in Indy, GottaBeMobile, I Started Something, The Gadgeteer,  Hack College, here, Mediablab, Neowin, Morningside Mom, Thoughts on poetics & tech.

Today is the last day to enter of some contests that started the HP Magic Giveaway Contest a little under a week ago, where you have a chance from 50 different websites and blogs to win over $6000 in gear. Today 3 more sites have started theirs.

Gear Diary

To enter Gear Diary’s Give-Away

Now gather ’round and listen up: We want everyone who would like to enter to have a true shot at winning, so our contest will involve answering a series of questions and performing a few tasks. If you can follow directions, then you can win.

Your reply in this thread’s comments section will be your entry, and the winner will be chosen at random from entrants who have answered the questions and fulfilled the tasks we set forth. For the sake of simplicity when judging, please put all of the requirements together in ONE entry / comment.

Ready? Let’s get started.

First, you must register so that you can leave a comment on this site. If this is the first comment you have ever left, it will be moderated. Don’t freak out if it doesn’t post right away, and don’t leave a second comment; I will approve your entry / comment ASAP.

In ONE comment, you must answer these three questions, and post links to prove that you have fulfilled the two required tasks:

1. What is the best gift you have ever received from someone else.

2. What made the gift special?

3. Who would you share a portion of this prize package with, if you were to win?

Next, complete the following tasks and include a link to the completion’s proof in your comment / entry.

- Twitter the following and include a link proving that you did it:

“I promise that I will make a difference in someone’s life if I win: http://tinyurl.com/6j2yml”

- Post a picture of your current desktop or laptop on Flickr (or your personal blog), and include a link back to that picture in your comment / entry. You do not need to be in the photo, but I’ll be even more impressed with your entry if you are.

That’s all there is to it.

*****

The not-so-small-print, AKA “the RULES”:

1. We will be awarding everything to one person.

2. The winner is encouraged to spread the magic by sharing their prize. I am not going to tell you how to do it or with whom, but if you would like me to ship one or two of the prize items to someone anywhere in the world, I will be happy to do so…and HP’s covering it!

3. Anyone, anywhere in the world, is welcome to enter. HP will cover worldwide shipping and any associated US income taxes.

4. If you have already won one of the HP Magic Giveaways on another site, you are not eligible to win again on Gear Diary.

4. Winner will be chosen at random, by me; there will be no whining. If you don’t win here, keep trying on the other sites!

5. We will announce that there is a winner by Midnight PST on December 10th. I will actually be choosing three - read on to see why…

6. Put judie @ geardiary .com in your address book NOW. I will email the winner shortly after choosing one, and if I have not heard from him or her within 24 hours (I will post the time when the first email is sent), I will email the next person on my list. Don’t suffer remorse for the rest of the holidays and all of 2009 because your SPAM filter ate my email!!!

7. Winner agrees to send us a short follow-up post (300 words or less) with a picture within 30 days, so that we can post on how the hardware was distributed. If you don’t want your real name to be used, then it is quite all right. This is mainly so that people can see that a real person won, but sharing lovely stories about giving portions of the package to deserving people or organizations will definitely earn you some “awwww”s and kudos in the comments. We love happy endings; please be willing to share yours!!

8. The Gear Diary Team and past contributors are not eligible to win, neither are members of their families. Sorry guys and gals, it just wouldn’t look right.

To find out more about Judie’s contest head here.

Geeks to Go!

How?

At Geeks to Go we share the magic. Our tech experts provide free tech help in our forums. We share our technical knowledge with others in need. We get a magical feeling whenever we get a heartfelt thanks from someone we’ve been able to help.

This prize package contains an embarrassment of riches. We’re going to ask our contest winner to share the feeling that comes from giving magic. To enter our contest, simply reply in the comments with what part of the prize package you’d share, and with whom you’d share it (no full names please). The winner will be drawn at random from the qualified entries. So, while there’s no need for a long entry, I and others may enjoy reading them.

The holidays are a time for giving. Many organizations and individuals are in need. We recommend a donation to an organization, not an individual or relative, but the final decision is yours. If requested, we can mail your donation anywhere in the world. We also want to hear your story! If possible, take videos or photos of your recipient, along with a story of the donation. We’d like to publish it, and share your experience of giving magic.

When?

The winner will be drawn from qualified comments posted between December 04, 2008, and December 10, 2008 12PM (noon) CST. Our announcement will be posted shortly after noon (CST) on December 10, 2008 (subscribe to our RSS feed). The winner will also be notified via the email address they used to comment. If 24 hours goes by without a reply, a new winner will be chosen.

Who?

This is an international competition. We will ship the prize package, including any donated portion to anyone worldwide (as permitted by US law). Staff members of this site (including GeekU), previous winners from other sites participating in this contest, and employees of HP, Microsoft, and BuzzCorps are not allowed to enter — bummer.

The Rules

1. Entries accepted as comments in this post only. Entries in any other areas of the site will not be counted.
2. ONE entry per person. Those entering more than once will be disqualified (it’s easy to catch).
3. Contest dates and times. Only comments submitted between 12:01am CDT Dec 04, 2008 and 12:00pm (noon) Dec 10, 2008.
4. Geeks to Go is a family friendly site. Any submissions that break this rule will be disqualified, and removed.
5. This is an international competition. As allowed by US law, everyone is allowed to enter. Not allowed to enter are Geeks to Go staff members, and GeekU members. Nor, employees of HP, Microsoft and Buzzcorps. Previous winners of other HP Magic contests can not win again.
6. You must provide a valid email address with your comment. The winner will be notified using the email address provided. If no response to the notification email is received within 24 hours, a new winner will be chosen.
7. A US winner will receive payment from HP, Microsoft and Buzzcorps to offset the tax liability.
8. Geeks to Go reserves the right to change the rules of this contest as needed.

For more details on Blair’s contest head here.

Geeks!

Yes, ONE winner from each site will win this amazing package. I have to thank the people at HP and Microsoft for putting together such an amazing contest. Here are the rules for our contest:

1. Be registered on Geeks.
2. Submit a how-to, what-is, or top-five article on ANY subject.
3. The article must be at least 500 words long, with proper punctuation, grammar, usage, spelling. Remember your PUGS.
4. Articles will not be accepted if they require editing, so have someone you trust proofread for you!
5. Entries will be posted on my blog.
6. Whichever post gets the most comments by December 10th at 10pm CST is the winner.
7. Insipid, short, pointless comments will be deleted.
8. Get people to comment on your article, but spamming will not be tolerated.
9. Your article will be cross-linked with your Geeks account.
10. Email the article to me: chris@pirillo.com

For more details on Chris’ contest head here.

Remember today some contests are ending so get your entries in now so be sure to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today as well as entering the other contest from Carlos Alberto,Down to Earth Momma, La Bitácora de Erwin Ried, Moosh in Indy, GottaBeMobile, I Started Something, The Gadgeteer,  Hack College, here, Mediablab, Neowin, Morningside Mom, Thoughts on poetics & tech, Bleeping Computer, Gear Live, and Windows Connected.

Today you even have more chances to win over $6000+ in prizes not only for you, but share with ones you may find in need as part of the HP Magic Giveaway Contest.

Carlos Alberto

Note this is translated from Portuguese so it may not be exact for the full original contest head here.

First everything I would like to be thankful the HP for supplying to these hardwares incredible. This type of equipment in U.S.A. already is expensive, here in Brazil then nor if it speaks. In according to place, he would like to be thankful Microsoft for the offered products and the aid in the campaign. E clearly, the organizadores of the event! They are of congratulations. searching blogs in Brazil to reach a different public.

Now we go for what you are interested in, the rules of the competition:

1. The prize will be delivers only for a winner.
   I will select only one to winner.
2. This winner, following the spirit of magic of the Christmas, must share one or more products of the package with another person. This another person can be a friend, familiar, institution, etc. This does not matter, the important one is to share the package. We of the promotion cannot force the winner to make this, but we desire that this spirit of magic is kept.
   To winner will share the package with others like family, friends, charity. We can't forces to winner you of that but strongly encourage you of only. It's Xmas and we want you spread the Magic!
3. The winner can be of any place of the world and he is not restricted only for Brazil. The organization of the event will go to sponsor the sending of the products and the winner will go to receive the prize in the door from its house!
   The contest it's open worldwide.
4. Each participant must send an email for myspacemagicgiveaway@live.com with the heading “Wants to participate of the HP Magic Giveaway” answering two questions:
   - As mine blog is come back toward Microsoft technologies, you answer must me how many times I wrote the Microsoft word in mine blog, since my first post until post previous to the announcement of the promotion. That is, valley to count the words of post Nokia Connect USP until my first post that wears was the Devil prada. and you donate Unified Comms.
   It found that this was alone? Nãooo, senão went to be very easy! Not valley: Images (type soon of Microsoft or any product), link URL (www.microsoft.com not valley), heading of the topic or Tag of blog. Valley: command line (C:\Microsoft\test can), address web without link (microsoft.com valley), register entrance (HKLM \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft… can), name of the product (Microsoft Exchange Server can), copied text of another place (Microsoft is trying you.).
   - Next question, which the name of the product of the Microsoft Research that is being vendido in the store online of the Microsoft, that for signal I already spoke on it. A tip, the product works with images! :)
   You enter the contest you have you click on the link below (It uses this form.) and send me the email with only two lines. In the first line you have you tell me how many teamses I wrote the word Microsoft in my blog, from the post Nokia until Connect USP my first post The Devil wears prada. and you donate Unified Comms. And gets to better! (it's you think easy you win this hole package) You have you count only the valid words. Valid: command line (like C:\Microsoft\test), web page address with in link (like www.microsoft.com), windows registry entrys (like HKLM \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft), product names (like Microsoft Exchange Server), text in italic (Microsoft is trying you). Invalid words: images, links URL (like www.microsoft.com), title of the blog post, tag of the blog post, links you embed video (of course, it's link). In the second line you have you tell me what is the name of the Microsoft Research product that is on sale at the Microsoft web store. Tip: image publisher program;)
5. Please, he follows the instructions correctly. An email that will come with the field missed subject, will not enter in the election filter. Example of email:
   Of: xx@yyy.com
   It stops: myspacemagicgiveaway@live.com
   Subject: I want to participate of the HP Magic Giveaway
   Body of the email:
   1024 Microsoft words
   Microsoft Like Image 2003
   It uses this form to send the email correctly!
   Any email with lives than two lines with the answares will not be valid. Only please follow the rules.
6. Each participant will go to receive a number from the email as soon as I to export the Box of Entrance to an Excel (that it will be the number of the line of Excel). Later I will go to select the winner of fortuitous form, using some site in the Internet that generates random numbers. After to select the winner I will go to select more two people, case the winner I do not answer my email.
   Each email will have to number when I export the Inbox you Excel sheet (to number will be the line to number of the Excel). Then I will select to winner at random using adds website like random.org. I will select three numbers.
7. As soon as selected the winner, I will go to send an email for it requesting some personal datas, therefore they are intent to the email as soon as the promotion to finish. In case that the winner does not answer my email in 24 hours, I will go to send a placed email to as, and so on.
   I'll send the email you to winner. If he/she doesn't reply in 24 hours I'll moves on you the next to number I selected to earlier.
8. The winner will have to send me an email counting on who it divided the prize and for which reasons. This is not obligator, but it would be very legal to publish here in the site this email. If to come with photos, better still!
   To winner will be asked you submit follow up email about how he/she split the package with others. Personal Pictures and experiences will be highly encouraged.
9. The requested personal datas are Complete Nome, Complete Address (cannot be alone P.O. Boxes) and Telephone (therefore it is necessary for delivery confirmation). Its data will be safe with me, I will only go to postar in blog nick of the winner.
   I'll ask to winner about personal information you send the package. Real address ploughs required, in p.o boxes.
10. People who already had gained this competition in the others 49 sites automatically will be disqualified. (she goes to have luck thus back in….)
    Who have won this prize at one of to other 49 blogger's websites involved in the HP Magic Giveaway will be disqualified.
11. If you are my friend you forgive, me. Familiar friends and my cannot enter in this promotion. But they are the will to particiar of the others 49 promotions in the participant sites.
    If you're my friend I'm alone sorry but you cannot entry in my contest. But fell free you visit to other 49 blogger's site.
12. The packages that the winner will go to receive can have been open (for me), therefore are part of the promotion I to analyze and to write one review of the product. I am tranquilo, I did not break nothing!
    Or adds boxes bags may have been opened you the write my review. Original Everything has of course been put back into its packaging.
13. My decision will be final and it does not have to be contested.
    Final I will be the sole judge and my decision is.
14. They will only be accepted e-mails until day 9 of December (09/12/2008).
    The deadline is Dec 9.
15. Important OBS: not yet I received some boxes that estao stops in the Federal Prescription. The winner tera that to wait this release. We are making the possible one to speed the process. E after the arrival of the boxes I still will have that to make review of the product and alone then to send to the winner.
    PS: I don't have all the boxes yet but I'm working with BuzzCorp you find solution. This can causes adds delay you to winner. But HP, Buzzcorp and I can guarantee that to winner will receive all the package.

Down to Earth Momma

Many of you know from reading this blog, I am all about making this world a better place.  So, I will make a reader’s world a better place by passing on this entire prize to one of you.  I am asking you to do the same with others.  The ONLY thing I get from this giveaway is the EXCITING THRILL to give it all away (and trust me when I say that I HONESTLY AM BESIDE MYSELF EXCITED TO DO THIS). I want you to feel that same thrill of “paying it forward.”

How do you enter? I am so glad you asked.  Please read carefully.  I will be STRICT about these rules and your entry.  I wouldn’t want you to be disqualified.

• Send an email with the subject “Share the Magic” to hpmagic@dtemama.com answering the following questions.  You may have to do some digging, but hopefully you will find some content you enjoy.  Please organize these in your email to make it easy to read.  (Feel free to comment to other posts as you read as well.  I like comments!  Just remember, your answers must be sent to me via email.)  DO NOT comment to this post with the answers. They will be deleted.
  • 1.)  What was the name of the preying mantis that made my birthday one to remember?
  • 2.)  What did the Wise Guy say when attempting to say “cauliflower? “
  • 3.)  Tell me one thing I consider myself good at.
  • 4.)  Where else do I write?
  • 5.)  How did I teach Sweetie not to throw sand?
• Below the answers to these five questions I want you to write in 100 words or less why you want this prize, with whom you plan to share it, and why.   In other words, the answers to these questions and these 100 words or less must be in the same email.
• You must write this first email before you can enter a bonus entry.
• Bonus entries: Write on a message board or your blog a post about how you have or plan to make the world a bit better.  Have you volunteered?  Are you planning to?   The goal is to inspire those reading it to action.  Paste the link to the blog or message board in an email headed “My Magic Bonus Entry” and send it to hpmagic@dtemama.com.  This email must be sent this from the same email address as your initial entry.

RULES:

• This contest runs from midnight EST December 3, 2008 to 11:59 pm EST December 9th 2008.  All entries MUST be received during this time frame.
• The winner will be chosen at random using random.org from all QUALIFIED entries.  My decision is final.
• My friends and family are ineligible from entering, but are welcome to enter the other 49 HP Magic Giveaways that are running.
• The winner will receive an email upon winning the prize.  That person will have 18 hours to respond to the email with a valid address (international readers are encouraged to enter) and phone number (needed for shipping purposes only…. I will not be calling you).  I can not ship to a P.O. Box.
• If the person has not responded in 18 hours, I will move onto the next winner per list generated by random.org.  I will repeat this as necessary.
• If you have won this prize per another HP Magic Giveaway site, you are ineligible from this giveaway.

Considerations

• I am asking that the winner consider emailing me or blogging a story, photos (you know I LOVE photos), and/ or a video when you receive the goods.  I want to share in your excitement.
• I am also asking the winner consider emailing me or blogging a story, photos, and/or video of the people whom you decided to share your winnings.  I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall for that!
• If you would like assistance in setting up a news story on your gift, I can certainly assist with that.  Good news and happy stories this time of year are always great for the news outlets.  Consider sharing this one!

There you have it!  Go forth and enter.  Share this with others so that they may enter too!  I can’t wait to award this to one of you!  Good luck!

La Bitácora de Erwin Ried

The text below is also translated, the original contest can be found here.

To participate, you must answer the questions related to my site and write a sentence that links HP, Microsoft and my site.  While this is a better phrase, you'll have even more chances of winning the lottery of Dec. 9.

The questions will be true to filter to my readers less fanatical. Anyway I wish you good luck!.  The best sentence would have a score that will be useful to further the draw.

To receive the prize will be necessary to send a short video in which the sentence or say something entertaining.

Click here to participate.

Moosh in Indy

HOW TO ENTER (these are my rules, and they only apply and qualify you for the giveaway here, at mooshinindy.com):

I want to know. Who would you share all this magic with and how would you do it?

1. Compose a post on your own blog, telling me what you would do with $6,000 worth of the latest HP technology. Who would you share with and why? Creativity counts, but it’s not everything. I’m going to be awarding this prize package to whomever captures the magic of sharing the most. Don’t have a blog? Go ahead and compose your entry in 200 words or less and post it here in my comments section, leaving a valid email in the email field. Video entries on YouTube, posts on MySpace and Facebook will also be accepted.
2. Somewhere in your post mention and link to HP’s Magic Giveaway along with a mention and link to this post on moosh in indy. When your post is published, leave a link to your entry, wherever it may be, with your name and valid email address in the comments section below.
3. Contest is open NOW! and will run through 10 p.m. EST December 9th, 2008. Comments will close at 10 p.m. EST on December 9th, 2008. So get to it.
4. That’s it.

THE NOT SO FINE PRINT:

• My family, friends and people I know in real life are not eligible. Sorry dudes. It’s just not fair. But you are more than welcome to enter any or all of the other 49 giveaways. (Although you can only win one.)

• Anyone who doesn’t fall into the above category, in any part of the world, is eligible to enter.

• All taxes will be taken care of by HP.

• You must SHARE part of the prize package with someone who isn’t you, preferably someone who doesn’t even live in your house. While I have no way to police you once the prizes leave my doorstep, I can assure you that if you don’t share, bad juju’s will follow you all the days of your life. Okay, so I can’t even promise that, just don’t be a selfish jerk okay? You’re a lucky fool if you win all this stuff. PAY IT FORWARD.

• The winner must provide me with a real street shipping address, P.O. Boxes will not be accepted. Items you choose to share can be shipped to the person directly at no cost to you (and is actually preferred. Who doesn’t love getting magic surprises in the mail?)

• By entering, the winner agrees to provide me, within two weeks of receipt of the prize,  a 250 word story (at least) on what happened when they shared one or more of the products. Their story will be posted on moosh in indy. at a later date. Stories from those who were surprised with the magic would also be fantastic. Pictures optional, but strongly encouraged. I won’t post any personal information without permission.

• I have been using (reviewing, coveting, checking out) the hardware (dude, I don’t get to keep any of this stuff) but they will all be restored to factory/like new condition before I ship them.

• I will pick and announce a winner December 9th, 2008 at 12 a.m. EST.

I will be the sole judge and my decision is final. I cannot be bought with promises of cookies, lavish riches, goods, products or services. So don’t even try. Okay, so you can try, but just know it won’t work.

For more details on Casey’s contest head here.

Remember tomorrow some contests are ending so get your entries in now so be sure to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today as well as entering the other contest from GottaBeMobile, I Started Something, The Gadgeteer,  Hack College, here, Mediablab, Neowin, Morningside Mom, Thoughts on poetics & tech, Bleeping Computer, Gear Live, and Windows Connected.

The folks at Sling have listened to their users and are proud to announce the public launch of Sling.com, an online video entertainment destination that could easily fill and your dependency on cable and satellite television providers. Users can go to Sling.com to watch a huge selection of clips, TV shows, films, news and sports in high quality, for free, anytime they want. This includes video programming from over 90 content providers spanning 150 content brands. Most of the content looks to come from a partnership with Hulu.com.

“Sling.com is a wonderful combination of premium video content, television viewing, robust editorial and consumer-friendly access and socialization features,” said Jason Hirschhorn, President, Sling Media Entertainment Group. “Users will have a blast watching great clips, full length shows and movies while customizing the viewing experience to their liking."

Sling.com features:

• Robust editorial programming: Sling.com’s editorial team creates great content including blogs, playlists and clip collections.
• Socialization features: Users can subscribe to any channel, show or user to create a feed of programming and activity that reflects your personal tastes and those of your social network.
• Slingbox access: For the first time, Slingbox owners can now access and view their home television (cable, satellite receiver) and DVR via the Sling.com website, making their Slingboxes available without a software client download.

“Our mission from day one was to enable access to content regardless of screen or source,” said Blake Krikorian, co-founder and CEO of Sling Media, Inc. “Sling Media will continue to link and meld video solutions from the television, computer and mobile device to create seamless experiences for consumers.”

Best of all if you have a mobile browser that supports Flash video like Skyfire, you can watch your favorite television shows and movies right on your phone on demand when the mood strikes you.

Today on Day 5 of the HP Magic Giveaway Contest we again have 3 sites starting their contests today so you now have 3 more chances to win over $6000 worth of prizes for you and others you feel are in need of some new technology!

GottaBeMobile

GottaBeMobile.com, we believe that the true blessing in receiving is found in giving. With so many people and organizations facing such a financially challenging time right now, the opportunity to help someone couldn’t be greater and we are thankful to HP and Microsoft for giving us this opportunity.

For our $6,000  HP Magic Giveaway contest, we are accepting entries from people who are nominating others in need or those they want to recognize – people they would like to bless as a result of winning such a huge prize. They win as a result of your winning. How cool is that? It could be a person who is unemployed, a financially challenged family without the means to buy products like these, multiple people with various issues, multiple families in need, an organization in need of mobile computers, a disconnected person that would value from being connected to the mobile social world, a person / organization donating their own time / money / energies to help others in need, a children’s hospital, a church, a soldier, a pastor, a nurse, a hero you want to recognize, etc. You get the idea. You tell us why you are nominating them and, if you win, what portion of the prize package you will give to them. Video submissions are also accepted, and highly encouraged. We don’t expect you to give the entire prize package away, but we are pretty sure you can find someone to help out or recognize. For a complete description of the prize package being sponsored by HP and Microsoft, visit the HP Magic Giveaway site.

Here are the two steps for entering our contest for your chance to win over $6000 in computers, software, and accessories. In addition, be sure to read below for how to earn “bonus points”.

Steps

1) Submit your nomination entry

2) Subscribe to our email news update.

Bonus Points

There are several ways of adding bonus points to your entry. These are completely optional, and the lack of bonus points will not hurt a truly outstanding entry. Who knows, though, it just might be enough to put you over the edge! Conversely, bonus points will not help an absolutely lousy entry, so make sure your entry is up to snuff. Now on to the details about how to earn bonus points.

Entrants who followed steps 1 and 2 above will receive bonus points on their entry for forum participation. Reply to or create at least one topic in either our HP or Vista forum categories. The more participation, the more points.  If you are not already a member of our forums, register here. We think you’ll like our community….

In addition, if you create a video to go along with your entry, that will be looked upon very favorably. It must be unique to GottaBeMobile’s HP Magic Giveaway contest, and mention GottaBeMobile, HP, and Microsoft somewhere in the video. There is a place in the entry form for you to put a link to your hosted video from YouTube, Blip.tv, etc.

Rules

1) Staff and customers of GottaBeMobile.com and Zoe Technologies, Inc. are not eligible to enter GottaBeMobile.com’s HP Magic Giveaway contest. Entrants who have won this prize package at one of the other 49 blogger’s websites involved in the HP Magic Giveaway will be disqualified.

2) The winner agrees to submit a 500+ word article, with pictures, by December 31, 2008, describing how you presented your gift, their reactions, etc. This article will be published on GottaBeMobile.com. News media in your local area may be notified.

3) This contest is open internationally

4) Entries will be accepted through midnight MST, December 7. The winner will be chosen subjectively by various writers at GottaBeMobile.com. Bonus points will be distributed at the sole discretion of GottaBeMobile.com, but will be based upon the criteria laid out above. The winner will be announced on December 8th and notified via email. The winner has 48 hours to respond from the time the email is sent. If no response is received within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen. One entry per person. A qualified entrant must complete steps 1 and 2. A valid email subscription is one that has been verified through the email validation that FeedBurner sends.

5) All taxes and duties, as the result of winning this prize package, will be covered by HP, Microsoft, and Buzz Corps

6) Portions of the prize package will have been previously opened and reviewed on GottaBeMobile.com

For more info on their contest and to fill out their entry form head directly to their contest here.

I Started Something

Today, the HP Magic Giveaway is coming to this very corner of the web. Your chance to win $6000 of the best (sealed and unsmudged) geek toys for this holiday seasons from HP and Microsoft in just a couple of keystrokes and mouse clicks away. For Tablet PC users it’s just a few pen strokes and taps away.

Head over to the istartedsomething.com HP Magic Giveaway contest minisite for the prize package and entry information.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, where no one really has time or effort to do anything, it can’t get any easier than a simple sweepstake. Just register your name and email. But there’s a twist. Users of the Windows Vista (and newer) operating system are given the opportunity to claim a bonus entry. If you don’t use Vista (or tried Vista), might be a good time to head over to a friend’s house and check it out.

The competition runs for 7 days until Tuesday, 9th of December 2008. If the technology works, a winner will be drawn later that day. Good luck.

The Gadgeteer

How to enter - Read carefully

1. Create a completely original piece of gadget inspired techie artwork that includes the word gadgeteer somewhere in it. The artwork can be a painting, a drawing, a sculpture, a carving, whatever you might consider to be art. The sky is the limit, but please be as creative as possible.

2. Take one digital picture of your artwork. Make sure the image is at least 1024x768 resolution. Images smaller than 1024x768 will be disqualified.

3. Email your image to contest@the-gadgeteer.com

4. In the subject line of the email type: HP Magic Giveaway

5. In the body of the email type a short description of your artwork. By short, I mean 10 sentences or less.

6. I will be putting these images up on my flickr stream, so you'll all be able to enjoy them.

Rules and Restrictions

1. This contest is open to anyone on the planet except for family and friends of myself and regular contributors to this site.

2. Enter as often as you like, but each entry must be a completely different piece of artwork.

3. Email your entries to me by 12/08/08 Noon EST.

4. A winner will be chosen by me and announced sometime later in the day on 12/08/08.

Contest Tips

1. Be creative!

2. Be really creative!

3. Impress me with your creativity!

For more on Julie’s contest head here.

Also don’t forget you do have other chances to win as well so be sure to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today as well as entering the other contest from Hack College, here, Mediablab, Neowin, Morningside Mom, Thoughts on poetics & tech, Bleeping Computer, Gear Live, and Windows Connected.

On the fourth day of the contest for the HP Magic Giveaway Contest there will only be one site launching their contest.

Hack College

Here are their contest rules:

The Giveaway

Our new favorite PC manufacturer is giving us more than $6000 worth of gear to make one lucky group of friends' Christmas spectacular. 49 other blogs are also participating in the HP Blogger Magic Giveaway. We are more than excited to be giving away 3 laptops, a desktop and a few other things.

Our Rules

Watch episode 8 for a complete overview:

We want to give our package to a group of 4 friends. Whether you are roommates, housemates or can only tolerate eachother long enough to enter the contest, we encourage everyone to enter. To enter, we're asking each of your 4 team members to join our Facebook page and then report back here.

We will be randomly selecting a fan of the Facebook page on December 8 and announcing the winner on our Facebook page. If the randomly selected winners do not respond to us within 12 hours, we will select new winners.

Enter Your Team

First, head over to our Facebook page with your 3 friends and become fans. Then enter your name, your email and your 3 friends' names in the form here.

Also don’t forget you do have other chances to win as well so be sure to check out the other 50 sites participating at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today and from the other contest from here, Mediablab, Neowin, Morningside Mom, Thoughts on poetics & tech, Bleeping Computer, Gear Live, and Windows Connected.

If you haven’t noticed on our site we have launched our contest for the HP Magic Giveaway Contest, but there are two other websites who have also started their contests today so you can further increase your chances in winning!

Here are the two new contests for the third day of the HP Magic Giveaway Contest:

MediaBlab 

In case you missed the original announcement about this giveaway, each of 50 sites are giving away a $6000 hardware package that includes 4 HP computers and a bunch of other great peripherals. The package also includes a number of software offerings from Microsoft and their Windows Live team. You can see complete details of the hardware and software included on the official HP Magic Giveaway site.

One common thread among the HP Magic Giveaway contests is the idea that this huge prize deserves to be shared. Most of us don’t really need 4 computers at home, but we all know a person or an organization who could really use some help. For my giveaway, I’m asking you to tell me about who you would share some of this great hardware and software with and why. The winner will be selected randomly because it’s too difficult to judge the merit of one person’s reasons for sharing against another. As long as it’s feasible, I’ll be delivering the hardware to the selected winner in person. As a bonus, I’m donating an hour of my time to either help you set up this new gear or solving some existing computer frustration.

Contest rules:

1) You must be subscribed to Jake Ludington’s Digital Lifestyle newsletter on 6 December 2008 when the winner is announced. If you’re not already subscribed, you can subscribe here.

2) You must post a comment to the official contest announcement (this page) about who (person or organization) you would share the prize with and why. Include city, state, and country in the body of your comment. Your real name and the same email address you subscribe to the newsletter with must be used in the comment entry form so that you can be contacted if you are selected.

3) You may receive up to two additional entries by doing the following:
Additional entry #1: Follow me on Twitter, link to the contest page in a tweet by using this link: http://bit.ly/JLHPMagic and #JLHPMagic somewhere in your tweet. Send me an email from your subscribed email address notifying me of your Twitter username.
Additional entry #2: The second way to get an additional entry is to link to this contest page from your blog, Myspace, Facebook, site, or other online presence using the code below. Send me an email from your subscribed email address notifying me of the location of your link.

The winner will be selected at random from those people who meet the entry requirements. The winner will be announced on 6 December 2008. If the winner is from the United States, I will deliver the prize to your door and provide an hour of free computer help barring any unforeseen circumstances. If the winner lives outside the United States, the prize will be shipped to your doorstep minus me and the computer help. I’m footing the bill for the travel (not HP or Microsoft), and while I’d love to roundtrip to somewhere more exotic than 100 miles outside Albuquerque, it’s just not feasible this month.

Go forth and share the magic.

For more information on Jake’s contest head here.

Neowin

Neowin's giveaway begins on the 30th November. We will be asking members to make the Neowin logo out of real life elements and make it look as magical as possible. You could make the logo out of bananas, chairs or anything you can get your hands on. Be as creative as possible and take a picture of the finished product. On Sunday we will publish exact details on how to enter but until then you have an extra couple of days to consider what you will make your Neowin logo out of. Here's an example of a magical Neowin logo from the real world we are looking for:

Everyone who is registered at Neowin.net is free to enter and the prize list can be found below:

• 1st Place - HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC
• 2nd Place - HP Pavilion dv4 series Entertainment Notebook PC
• 3rd Place - HP Mini 1000
• 4th Place - HP MediaSmart Connect
• 5th Place - HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO multifunction and a HP 564 Photo Value Pack
• 6th Place - Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition
• 7th Place - Corel VideoStudio X2
• 8th Place - Kung Fu Panda DVD and a Neowin Mug!

You may have noticed that the HP TouchSmart is absent in our giveaway, we have a reason for this. We plan to donate this system to a children's hospice in the spirit of giving and sharing during this holiday giveaway. We have not chosen the exact charity yet but we are in discussions with several charities in the UK who provide care and comfort to children with terminal illnesses and incurable conditions. Our aim is to present the PC to the charity and document its use. We will provide the system with a test version of Windows 7 for the charity to use temporarily and will interview the children and workers to see what the potential benefits of touch based computing, with Windows 7 and HP's TouchSmart system, could bring. Further details of the Charity and our coverage of this will be forthcoming. Please note if you are a Children's charity based in the UK or have a suggestion for a Charity please contact us.
The competition rules will be:

• Entries will open on Sunday November 30th 2008 at 00:00 GMT and close on Saturday 6th December at 23:59 GMT. Any entries after the closing time and date will not be counted.
• One entry per member
• Entries will be judged by the collective Neowin staff
• Neowin staff and veterans are inelligible to enter - sorry guys!
• The winners will be announced during the week of the closing date; they will be contacted separately with details of claiming their prize
• This is an international competition and members from all territories are welcome to participate
• Creativity and originality is favoured, so entries must be your own work
• Neowin reserves the right to alter the terms of this competition at will

You can also check out the other 50 sites participating at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Good luck entering the contests for today here, Mediablab, and Neowin as well as the ones at Morningside Mom, Thoughts on poetics & tech, Bleeping Computer, Gear Live, and Windows Connected.

On the second day of the HP Magic Giveaway Contest, you now have another 2 chances to enter at three different sites. Each site will be conducting their own contest and you have until December 5th to enter each of them when they announce the winner of their respective contests.

Here are the two new contests for the  second day of the HP Magic Giveaway Contest:

Morningside Mom

Hp and Microsoft has delivered the prize package to me - and as of today, Saturday November 29th - the contest has begun. Now it is my turn to explain the rules to you. Here they are:

1) This entire prize package will be awarded to one person.

2) However, this winner will be chosen based on how they plan to use this prize. To be more specific, I will be awarding this prize to a winner who will put the package to positive change or towards a charitable cause. For example, this person might work at an underprivileged school, the winner might know someone working at an underfunded health clinic, or maybe they’ve heard about a Boys and Girls club that might need a donation. Regardless, this person should plan to have these computers affect lives positively.

3) The winner has the option of sharing this prize, it is their choice. In other words, I can mail part or all of the package to the winner or could mail part or all of the package directly to a cause, charity, etc.

4) Each entrant MUST explain to me in 250 words or less why their cause should be chosen. This explanation must be mailed to morningsidemomgiveaway@gmail.com with the subject heading “My Entry to the HP/Microsoft Magic Giveaway”.

5) The entrant is encouraged to be creative with their submission. You could include a link to a blog post, a Youtube clip or FLIKR images. (Please do not send large files or jpegs attached to the email itself.) Through your submission, show me you are an honest individual who truly cares about the cause or person you support. The more you can show me that your cause is real (and not something made up so you can sell it all on e-bay which I strongly strongly discourage), the better your chances are to win. Please remember: this is about giving and supporting a worthwile cause. Please think hard about what kind of good you can do with this prize.

6) I will not hold it against the winner if they would like to keep a portion of the prize themselves. There is certainly enough to go around and it is up to the winner to decide how to spread the wealth. Just remember, charitable individuals will be rewarded in this contest.

7) Real addresses are required, no p.o. boxes.

8 ) International entrants are welcome.

9) While your address and full name will be protected and kept private, I will be posting about the winner and the cause they represent on the Morningside Mom blog.

10) Additionally, the winner will be asked to submit a follow up post about how the gift package was put to good use. Pictures and personal experiences will be highly encouraged. This follow up will be expected within 2-4 weeks after you received the package.

11) While unlikely, press or media could potentially by involved. If they are, obviously, the winner’s full name or address will not be made public or ever shared with anyone.

12) Winners will be chosen solely at my discretion.

13) Entrants who have won this prize at one of the other 49 blogger’s websites involved in the HP give away will be disqualified.

14) A winner will be announced on December 5th.

15) If you consider yourself a friend of mine - I love ya but sorry, don’t bother entering. However, think about entering at one of the other 49 blogger’s sites! (See above.) But tell a friend about my contest (one I don’t know) to come on over and enter.

16) HP has encouraged me to look over the hardware and review it. Some boxes or bags may have been opened. Everything has of course been put back into its original packaging.

Any questions? Please comment below and I will respond as quickly as I am able to. Check back here on December 5th to for the winning announcement. Good luck to all entrants!

For more details on Caroline’s contest head here and good luck to all those entering!

Thoughts on poetics & tech

This week, I'll be running a promotion and giveaway for $6000 worth of HP computers and other software and hardware. I'll give away the entire package to one person who enters my contest.
I love, love, love the idea of being a Magic Internet Fairy, pouring out an amazing abundance of computers, more than anyone could ever need! It's a gift that, by being too big, inspires generosity.
I want YOU.... my creative, intelligent, beautiful reader... to have a shiny new computer or laptop of your own, for the holidays!
And I want YOU to overflow with computers, like a geektastic goddess, making other people happy, people who also dream of having the Internet at their fingertips!
Keep one of these sleek, fast, powerful beasts for yourself... and then share the magic. Give the rest away!
I thought about "magic" and what my computer means to me. It lets me express all the million layers of my ideas and creativity, and helps me put that into the world directly. Because I do that, I can connect directly with other people and their ideas. The magic for me in this contest is in spreading that empowerment and connection. Who could I make the happiest? Who would put something unique and interesting into the world, given the right tools?
50 sites, listed here on http://hp.com/go/winhpmagic, are EACH offering a chance to win a complete package consisting of three HP computers plus a mini notebook, an HP MediaSmart Media Center extender, a Photosmart printer (and a huge pack of photo paper) plus a ton of software, and a BluRay DVD. There will be some U.S. IRS tax offset compensation, where applicable.
The winner of each site’s contest gets it all. Each site will have their own contest with different rules and you CAN enter all of them.
To enter the HP Magic Giveaway on my blog, Composite: Thoughts on Poetics and Tech, please do these three things:
1) Comment intelligently on any post on this blog!
A) Respond to a post. Pick something that interests you: feminism? disability rights? programming? Gadgets? Maybe a specific poet, one of the poems from my Anthology?
Tell me what you think of what I wrote.
I'm impressed if you are smart, engaged, un-boring, and being real! Make me laugh! Make me think!
B) Tell me briefly, in 3 sentences or less, how you would "Share the Magic" - what would you do with the prize? Who will you give the extra computers to? Please use links if applicable.
C) In your comment, include a link back to your own blog, or some other place on the net.
2) Post a link to that post and your comment, somewhere public on the Internet; on your blog, your MySpace or Facebook, your Twitter account, a bulletin board; anywhere you hang out.
3) Email me at compositehpmagic@gmail.com. Tell me:
* the link to your comment in #1
* the link to your post in #2
I won't include anyone as a finalist who I know in real life, and obviously, not my co-workers or family members.
I will be the sole judge and my decision is final.
By entering, the winner agrees to provide me, within two weeks of receipt of the prize, at least a 500 word postable story on what happened when they gifted the extra computers. Pictures optional, but would be great to have along with permission to post. I won’t post names or any other information without your permission.
For me, the "Magic" in this contest will be the list of finalists; the people who I think are especially interesting and creative! Someone will get a bunch of computers -- and maybe I'll get a new blogroll!

For more details Liz’s contest head here and good luck on those entering her contest as well!

You can also check out the other 50 sites participating at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Boston Pocket PC will be announcing our contest shortly so be sure to check back soon and again good luck entering the contests for today at Morningside Mom and Thoughts on poetics & tech the ones from yesterday at Bleeping Computer, Gear Live, and Windows Connected.

There are three different websites launching the HP Magic Giveaway Contest, so you now have 3 chances to enter at three different sites. Each site will be conducting their own contest and you have until December 4th to enter each of them. Here are the first three contests:

Bleeping Computer

As of today, BleepingComputer.com and two other sites, kick off the HP Magic Giveaway promotion. As of November 28th, 2008 at Midnight, Bleeping Computer is now accepting entries into the HP Magic Giveaway.
From now until December 4th, we will be accepting entries into our contest. The winner of our contest will be selected randomly and announced on December 4th 2008. Our contest is easy to enter, but does have a slight twist. Due to the size of the package, the harsh economic times, and it being the holidays we want our winner to share the magic through the spirit of giving. What that entails is that our winner will be required to share some of their prize package with another person or organization.

In a year when the holidays look more gloomy than magical, HP, Microsoft, and BuzzCorps have partnered with 50 sites to help spread the holiday cheer. Starting today, 50 sites will be giving away a prize of holiday goodies that are more than any one person could need. We are not talking about winning one computer, but 4 computers, and some great great software and accessories to use with them. Unfortunately, we cant give too much detail right now on the contests, but rest assured we will be providing that information soon. As there are 50 sites, there will also be 50 different contests, so be sure to get to know and learn the rules of each site when they announce their contests. To stay on top of all the information and updates it is suggested that you subscribe to this topic.
Bleeping Computer Contest Information:
As of today, November 28th 2008, BleepingComputer.com's HP Magic Giveaway contest is officially underway. The purpose of this contest is to celebrate generosity and the spirit of giving. This incredible prize package was designed to be shared with other people or organizations who could benefit from a new computer. With such a harsh global economy, people losing their jobs, and having the holiday season upon us, we have decided that the winner must share a portion of their prize. Whether it be to an out of work friend who needs a new computer, a local charity, or a school, we felt that that with a prize package this large paying it forward would be the right thing to do.
The rules are fairly simple, and we have gone into more details below. In summary, our winner will be chosen at random and announced on December 4th 2008. That winner must share the prize with at least one other recipient. They must then post to this thread the story of how they shared their prize. Hopefully this will continue to inspire the magic of sharing. Please note, depending on available time, we may use the equipment in order to review it. This equipment will be in pristine shape and at factory defaults before it is sent to any winner.
Good luck and have fun with the contest!
Terms and Conditions and Rules:

1. The sole winner of the Prize package will be awarded at random.
2. The purpose of this contest is to spread a little magic into people's lives during the holidays. With that said, the prize package must be shared with at least one worthy recipient or cause. It is up to you how much of the package you wish to share, and we hope you share more than one item, but at least one computer must be given to another person or organization.
3. After receiving the award, the winner must send the story describing how they shared the gift. Photos are not required, but will enhance your story, so feel free to send them. With the story, you give us your express permission to post the story and any accompanying material. If you would not like us to post your real names, please let us know, or do not include them in the story.
4. The recipient of the prize, and the people you intend to share the magic with, must provide a complete name, shipping address, and phone number that can be used to ship the award. We will ship the prize package to yourself and to the other recipients. PO Boxes will not be permitted.
5. Do not enter the contest with multiple accounts. Anyone who is caught doing so will have all of their entries removed.
6. If you won a prize package from one of the other sites involved in this promotion, you will become ineligible.
7. Depending on the value of the prize, you may be required to fill out a W-9 form. This form will be sent directly to the sponsor of the contest.
8. You must be a member of the site in order to enter the contest. Membership is free and you can create your account here.
9. Staff are ineligible for this contest.
10. The winner will have 72 hours from notification to claim their prize. If the winner does not claim the prize, we will award it to a 2nd place finisher.

Official BleepingComputer.com HP Magic Giveaway Thread

To enter the contest simply go here and click on the HP Magic Giveaway contest link:

Click here to start your HP Magic Giveaway Entry

Gear Live

Yes, you do see four computers listed, as well as a Media Center Extender. No, you aren’t dreaming. Yes, we (and HP) are awesome. You want the goods? Here’s how to enter to win - we are making this super-simple:

1. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Gear Live account
2. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Twitter account
3. Add the Gear Live Twitter account to your follow list
4. On Twitter, post a tweet about our contest and link to this page. In the tweet, include the phrase “#glmagic”.
5. Once that is done, leave a comment here in this post with a direct link back to your Tweet. Be sure you are signed in to your Gear Live account before you leave the comment.

Here’s an example of an appropriate Twitter entry:
“Entering to win a ton of HP gear! http://jk9.qlnk.net/ #glmagic”

BONUS ENTRIES: Want more chances to win? Share the link to our contests on the following sites, and leave us a comment linking to those as well:

• Facebook: Shared Link
• Del.icio.us bookmark
• FriendFeed: Use Post a Link
• Your blog: Have a site? Link to our contest on it!

Remember: The bonus entries are just that - bonus. In order to be eligible to win, you must complete the core Twitter requirements.

Now, as to the actual contest dates. The contest starts today, November 28th. You have until 11:59 PM PST on December 4 to enter your comments here on this post. We will then announce our winner, chosen randomly out of all valid entrants and bonus points, on December 5th. We are also going to encourage (but not require) you to think about donating a portion of the prize package to someone else. It can be a charity, a relative, friend, a fellow contest entrant - anyone. We can even handle the shipping to that third party for you. It’s all in the spirit of giving, and we will let you play Secret Santa, if you so choose.

The contest is open to anyone in the world, which is a rarity. If you are in the US, you’ll even have your tax burden taken care of. What more could you ask for? Now, good luck to all - comments are open!

Windows Connected

Today we are officially kicking off our HP Magic Giveaway.  We are one of three sites selected to kick off this wonderful event. In the spirit of the event and the season we will be giving this exceptional prize package away to the individual that we think can do the most good with it. Entry will be open from today (Nov 28th) until Thursday Dec 4th at 6am.

How to enter:

To enter you must submit a written entry of less than 150 words to hpmagic@windowsconnected.com with details on how you will put all this wonderful hardware to good use.  We won’t be awarding this to anyone who we think we just turn around an sell it.  We want it to go to a place where it can do the most good, so impacting a number of peoples lives with the hardware will get you the best chance to win. Winner will be selected by the bloggers from the site and an announcement will be made on Dec. 4th of the winner.

Rules:

• WindowsConnected's active bloggers and family are not eligible
• If you have won one of the other HP Magic contest you are ineligible
• Winners of the 31 Days of the Dragon contest are ineligible
• Winner agrees to not sell the hardware, yes Zane we are looking at you..how's that tattoo?
• Winner will have 48 hours from time of selection to claim prize or we will move to the 2nd place finisher
• Winner agrees to send us a follow up to post on how the hardware has been used within 30 days of receiving it.
• We are the sole judge and all decision are final

Prize Package Details

Picture of Prize Package

WindowsConnected HP Magic Giveaway Begins

You can also check out the other 50 sites participating at HP's Magic Giveaway site.

Boston Pocket PC will be announcing our contest shortly so be sure to check back often and good luck entering the contests at Bleeping Computer, Gear Live, and Windows Connected.

One of the many things that I have been working on outside of my day job and this site, is an event called CntrStg - pronounced “CenterStage”. CntrStg is a concept that a group of bloggers and online community leaders came up with while attending CES last year. In the past, every Community Leader, Blogger, and Podcaster would be racing up and down the Las Vegas strip rushing to meet with various companies and listen to them talk one-on-one about their plans for the coming year and showing off their latest and greatest. More often than not, we found ourselves crossing paths with one another as we entered and exited these meetings getting the same information and wasting an hour up and an hour back traversing the crowded Las Vegas strip limiting the number of companies you could meet with while at CES. Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to stay in one location and have the companies come talk to all of us in one shot?

CntrStg does just that. We have already signed up companies to present, as well as community leaders from some of the top tech and gadget sites around the Internet to attend. CntrStg will be the place to be during CES 2009! The primary goal of CntrStg is to get more time to write and record stories rather than spending time traveling up and down the strip getting to meetings as well as a place to hang out and relax.

You can read all about CntrStg, including our press release that should be going live on the wire as you read this post, over at the CntrStg website - http://www.cntrstg.com.

Hopefully we will see you there in Las Vegas - CntrStg - the place to be @ CES!

Plastic is the new paper. Amazon sees it with Kindle. Sony sees it with theirs and now Plastic Logic sees it with a new flexible reader in an 8.5 x 11-inch display and is aiming itself at the Business market as an alternative to paper or other electronic readers on the market today.

“Research confirms professionals read much more business content than recreational content. They require access to all formats of digital content at their fingertips, and want a large readable screen,” said Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta.

The Plastic Logic reader supports a full range of business document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and Adobe PDFs, as well as newspapers, periodicals and books. It has an easy gesture-based user interface and powerful software tools that will help business users to organize and manage their information. Users can connect to their information either wired or wirelessly and store thousands of documents on the device.So it looks to have a USB port (possibly a mini USB or micro USB) with Wifi or even better some sort of 3G service like the Whispernet found on Kindle, that recently had $100 off with a Chase Visa offer to drop the TCO to $259. The reader incorporates E Ink technology for great readability and features low power consumption and long battery life. The Plastic Logic reader is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2009.

It’s pretty thin. It is thinner than a pad of paper, lighter than many business periodicals, and offers a high-quality reading experience, but I am wondering how the flexible display is used from the above picture. It is a very intriguing device and looks much better than the Kindle IMHO, but if slate Tablet PCs could ever get this thin and conservative on power it would have a tough market, but it looks like Plastic logic has cut out its own niche.

Check out these videos of it in action.

Hopefully this comes out soon, because Sony has a color flexible screen they are working on that may enter into its E-reader market or gaming platform.

Back on Feb. 6th, Steve Hughes posted on some... um - "irregularities" regarding the now-infamous zzzPhone, which promised a fully-customized phone with lots of bells and whistles, including Windows Mobile for the OS, for only $149. At the time, Steve made some very valid points that led to the conclusion that this was in fact a scam - at least from the point of the price including a licensed copy of Windows Mobile on board.

Turn to today, when I decided to pay a visit back to the zzzPhone web site. Lo and behold - the specs now list the operating system as Windows for Mobiles.

Folks, this is the third time I have seen this operating system change. First, it went from Windows Mobile to Windows Mobile 6. This was not long after there were some inquiries to the "manufacturer" regarding whether or not Windows Mobile 6 was included. On a side note - the radio stack frequencies supported conveniently changed early on after it was noted in some forums that the frequencies listed would not support all US networks. Timing is everything, they say...

I still encourage people to take a good look around the zzzPhone web site. Try to find any copyright notices for operating systems. Any partnerships with OS licensers. Take a good long look at the mockups of the screen for the zzzPhone. It could very well turn out that these phones are running a legitimate OS on them, but Windows Mobile or Symbian? I don't think so.

I will be curious to hear from those who have spent the $149 to find out what they discover. Hopefully, they aren't expecting a refund if Windows Mobile is not on board. You see - the "service guarantee" on the zzzPhone web site states the following:

We guarantee our products to be free from manufacturer defects and will repair or replace your order within 30 days if there are any manufacturer defects in your phone.

A different operating system that works likely won't be considered a "defect", and there is no money back - only a replacement.

As always, ladies and gentlemen - Caveat Emptor...

Mtech Inc. (www.moletech.us), an innovator of automotive and transportation fuel savers, introduced its innovative Moletech Fuel Saver at the CES.  The technology was first launched in Australia and now makes its introduction here in the US.  A universal system, the Moletech Fuel Saver can deliver fuel savings and emission reduction to all fossil fueled engines.

The Moletech Fuel Saver is the end result of 10 years of research and development,  over 25 million miles and three years of exhaustive testing on 300 vehicles in the U.S., Taiwan and China.  Moletech Fuel Saver’s molecule reaction technology works together with a vehicle’s fuel, cooling and air filter systems to maximize fuel efficiency and reduce harmful emissions.

In July 2007, the California Environment Engineering (CEE) Center for Environmental Research tested the Moletech Fuel Saver using Federal Test Procedures (FTP). 

Results from the CEE concluded, “Analysis indicated a reduction in the tailpipe emissions and an increasing improvement in fuel economy using the Moletech Fuel Saver device.  This included a significant reduction in Total Hydrocarbons (THC) and Carbon Monoxide (CO).  The results of the limited but decisive test series is considered noteworthy and verifies with a high level of confidence the viability of the technology, while indicating that more dramatic improvement could be expected and achieved with time.  The device, as tested, provided results that are more dramatic than similar technologies previously evaluated.”

Mtech’s molecular technology incorporates Molecule Reaction Technology to reduce fuel usage and decrease harmful emissions.   Key features of the Moletech Fuel Saver include:

·         Saves up to 20% on gasoline

·         Saves up to 10% on diesel

·         Saves up to 15% on LPG

·         Improves horsepower

·         Reduces harmful exhaust pollutants

·         Lowers greenhouse gases

·         Removes the engine’s carbon build up

·         Easily fitted at Authorized Installers

·         Lasts for more than 10 years

Easily installed in any vehicle, the Moletech Fuel Saver is a simple solution for fuel saving and emission reduction.  The Fuel Savers are small enough to fit in a pocket, yet deliver certified results. 

The Moletech Fuel Saver is a universal product that can be easily installed in any fossil-fueled vehicle including automobiles, motorcycles, diesel engines, trucks, fleet vehicles, agricultural vehicles, and boats.  The Fuel Saver is available in eight different models for all vehicles from scooter to semi vehicles.  The model is determined by engine size and fuel-type including the following:

• Model #M1027 – gasoline engines under 3 liters
• Model #M1058 – gasoline engines between 3-6 liters
• Model #M1010 – gasoline engines between 100cc-1100cc
• Model #M1003 – gasoline engines up to 100cc
• Model #M1034 – diesel engines under 6 liters
• Model#M1041 – diesel engines over 6 liters
• Model #M1089 – LGP engines all models
• Model #M1096 – LGP and gas (dual fuel) engine all models

When the Moletech Fuel saver was professionally installed in the testing vehicles, the increase of the vehicle’s horsepower and reduction of carbon build-up, fuel consumption, and reduction of toxic and greenhouse exhaust emissions was notable and impressive. 

With today’s gas prices and new laws, the Moletech Fuel Saver is a cost-effective and simple solution for anyone environmentally minded or trying to save money.

Now let see if the car companies are going to snatch this up if it s working as they have tested. It would be a small price to pay for the huge environmental benefit.

Moletech Fuel Saver will be available nationwide in 2008 at select dealers and stores.  For additional information on this revolutionary product, visit www.moletech.us.

Many thoughts are going through my mind after returning from the CES in Las Vegas. But as Steven Hughes here at BostonPocketPC is recapping the show in a few words that says it all.

"Evolutionary but not Revolutionary"

With many things to see nothing was that exciting that would give the vibes. A Lot of the technology out there was put towards new and good uses.

For example:
- Live HD radio captioned for the hearing impaired.
- Live video conferencing for the hearing impaired. Maybe next year they will probably be joining together and the hearing impaired will be able to conference with anyone in any way and it won't be a handicap anymore.

With the technology out there that we always wanted, this was the show where the applications using these technologies were able to catch up before a new technology will replace it and everyone can go back to the drawing board

Well we have arrived in Las Vegas for the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show aka CES, which makes this eight years in a row for me of attending the technology preview of things to come in the future of CE. Technology sure has changed over the years and so has the size of the show. This year I was just planning on hitting several events at CES and just leisurely walking the floor, but for some insane reason I am going to be meeting with some companies to show us their latest and greatest and I will be sure to take lots of pictures and share our findings here at BPPC. The we being Johan van Mierlo and Eric Hicks will be joining myself in Vegas and we will be sharing our finds and info with you here. If there is anything of interest you would like to see or hear about give us a shout and will see if we can make it happen like shots of the next largest television at CES, which is supposed to be a good sized bigger than last years winner from Sharp at 108" from Panasonic.

We will also be meeting up with some friends and colleagues as well at several events and will share those as well. Our next meeting I will do another annual slide show and presentation like have done from previous years. So stay tuned.

'Tis the season for holiday specials for Windows Mobile software...

• VITO Technology - 25% Discount
  
  "December is the time of holidays, magic & presents! VITO Technology wishes its customers Merry Christmas and happy New Year and presents a 25% discount for all VITO products*.

25% discount will be available till the end of this year December, 31 at www.vitotechnology.com and www.iwindowsmobile.com. This year was very fruitful for us and we invite you to harvest for the holiday gifts with 25% discount!

This year VITO products again are high on the list among the best of the best Windows Mobile software nominated at the Best Software Awards. Make sure to take advantage of the holiday discount to get your hands on such best-sellers as VITO AudioNotes, VITO SoundExplorer, VITO Voice2Go, VITO ButtonMapper (2008 WINNER) and others with 25% discount.

The discount is also available for our brand-new top quality software with finger friendly interface, fancy graphics and animated menus. Go ahead and discover the new appealing looks of Windows Mobile and its surprising functionality with this new software. FunContact, GoodWin, ZoomBoard are waiting for your Pocket PC at www.iwindowsmobile.com. Give it a new Good Start!

We wish you a wonderful Holiday Season and a New Year filled with Peace and Happiness!"

EDITOR'S NOTE: Be sure to watch for a review of FunContact, GoodWin and ZoomBoard coming soon!


• Handango - Save Up To 20% Sitewide
  
  Handango has two promotions going on for the holidays. The first is a 10% off using code HOLIDAYS10. If you are looking for an even bigger discount, Handango is offering a 20% discount by simply using this page to forward on the holiday promotion to one or more friends (your promotion code will be displayed after filling out the form).
  
  This Handango promotion is also good through December 31st.

If you do alot of online banking with Bank of America you may have noticed several blurbs about their upcoming service for mobile phones. I know this has been a sore point in many peoples sides for some time. Well, they now  launched their new Mobile Banking service to enable its customers to manage their personal finances on the go. Best of all it is free!

The new BOA's new service gives users an ability to check balances on their accounts, mortgages and home equity lines, pay bills, and transfer money between accounts and to other customers of the bank. One of the key issues with mobile banking is security, and Bank Of America promises highly secured environment for all mobile transactions — customers are protected with the bank's SiteKey security service, as well as its Zero Liability Online Banking Guarantee.

To access Mobile Banking, customers simply go to the web browser on your mobile phone and enter www.bofa.mobi. Once on the site, customers enter their Online Banking ID and passcode to access their accounts. For more information and the terms of service head here.

Two bits of news to report here. First - I am pleased to announce that I have agreed to work with Joe Kee and the folks at BuyGPSNow.com as an editor and reviewer. Joe approached me on this a while back. Based upon the fact that I have been a longtime fan of BuyGPSNow.com as a place to find someof the best deals around on GPS hardware and software solutions, I could not help but accept the offer. Joe has written a brief announcement regarding the news at the BuyGPSNow web site.

As a first act in the role of reviewer, I have just finished my review of the new OnCourse Navigator 6 solution. Rather than duplicate the post, you can find the complete review here. One quote from my review may give you some insight into the detailed review -

I have rarely come across a GPS solution for a Windows Mobile device that is user-friendly from "soup to nuts". OnCourse Navigator 6 is definitely an exception. From initial installation to configuration to route planning to usage, OCN6 provides all of the tools to make GPS navigation an enjoyable experience for me.

Be sure to check out the full review, complete with loads of screenshots and information.

Spb Software House has released  Spb Diary 2.5, an update to the award winning Pocket PC PIM Today plug-in. Spb Diary is a feature-rich Today plug-in for your Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, Notes and Messages providing users with the highest level of functionality and usability. 

The new version provides more than 40 improvements requested by users during the last months. The most noticeable changes are the ability to put any Today plug-ins in a form of Spb Diary's tabs and the new horizontal tabs, which made it possible to show all your PIM information in full screen while keeping the rest Today plug-ins one-click accessible. Other improvements cover many different usage scenarios making this upgrade of use to every user of Spb Diary.

Further information regarding Spb Diary 2.5 can be found at the Spb website.

What's new in Spb Diary 2.5 head here.

Accessing e-mail and other data wirelessly while overseas is now much more cost-effective as AT&T Inc. announced today the availability of international data plans that offer greatly reduced data roaming rates to customers using any AT&T-powered smartphone or PDA. The new global rate plans range from $44.99 to $69.99 a month, depending on device class and e-mail platform. They include 20 megabytes (MB) of international data use in nearly 30 countries with UMTS, EDGE or GPRS wireless data networks, as well as unlimited domestic access.  The plans apply to such devices as BlackJack™, the Cingular 3125 Smartphone, Cingular 8525 Pocket PC, HP iPAQ hw6920 Mobile Communicator, Palm® Treo™ 680, Palm® and Treo™ 750.

With AT&T’s new Global Smartphone and PDA plans, customers now have plan options to cover international data usage on any business-oriented wireless device sold by AT&T.  AT&T also offers international data plans for BlackBerry® and wireless laptop connectivity.          

“AT&T already has the broadest international voice and data roaming footprint of any U.S. carrier, and now it is the only wireless provider in the nation to offer global data plans to its entire portfolio of business-oriented devices,” said Jeff Bradley, vice president of wireless business data services for AT&T. “These new plans give our customers much greater control over their international wireless costs. They provide a large enough allocation of data and significantly reduced overage charges so that employees can use their smartphone or PDA to check e-mail, browse the Web or access other data applications when abroad without incurring higher pay-per-use roaming charges.”

 AT&T’s new international data plans for smartphones and PDAs can offer customers significant cost savings over traditional, per kilobyte (KB) data charges for use outside the U.S.  For example, 20MB of international data usage at a standard $.0195 per KB rate would result in a charge of $399.36, some $330 more than the highest tier combined monthly domestic/international charge under the new AT&T plans.

Smartphone Connect Global monthly plans start at $44.99 with a voice contract and PDA Connect Global plans begin at $64.99 a month with a voice plan. Customers can sign up for AT&T’s new international data plans for smartphones and PDAs at any Cingular Wireless retail store, or through AT&T’s wireless business-to-business sales organization.

For more information on the new plans, please go here.

To view countries included in the new international plans, please go here.

CBS Corp. announced today that it has signed a new deal with Sling Media to create the CBS Interactive Audience Network along with several other significant companies including AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, and Veoh.   This announcement is set to position CBS as the most widely distributed professional content provider online. Can you say a move in the right direction?

Sling Media’s role will be to distribute free, ad supported, full length as well as clip-based video content from CBS via Clip+Sling and enhanced SlingPlayer software, which will be launched for both Slingbox and non-Slingbox customers this summer. In addition, Sling Media plans to integrate the same CBS content into additional platforms including its forthcoming SlingCatcher.

"We are excited to extend our business relationship with CBS by offering our current and future audiences access to great long form programming from CBS that covers the spectrum from drama and comedy to sports and news," said Jason Hirschhorn, president of the Sling Media Entertainment Group. "CBS is proving they are a leader in the digital media space by embracing new platforms for content distribution. The announcement is an example of true ubiquity as evidenced by the cast of both new and established partners. We are proud to be working with them on this endeavor."

I can see in the future other Viacom entertainment properties moving in this direction as well like MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1,etc. Content will not be no longer be available as live only, but this brings a whole another direction to place-shifting television and Video on Demand. I have been watching "On Demand" CBS content on my Comcast cable box and I am assuming the same content will also be available. Me and my wife were able to catch up on the whole series of Jericho (a season and a half)in a single weekend and we watched it in HD!  I can't wait to see more and via my Slingbox optimized for my Windows Mobile device no less!

Back in January, we reported on Netwasp's aquisition of KamWare's ThemeMaker. Many people may not be aware that Netwasp also is the owner of PocketThemes.com and its e-Commerce sibling PocketPCMall.com. Well, word has now come that Netwasp has re-launched these two longtime web sites -

In its heyday PocketThemes was the number 1 resource for all things ‘Pocket PC themes’; linked to by every major player in the industry and used by everyone wanting to publish that “must-have” theme”. Due to a number of technical and organizational reasons both sites went down a few years ago and, although the top spot in Google went over to Netwasp’s other community themes site (PocketPCThemes.com) PocketThemes has already proven it can rival the best of them.

PocketPCMall is the eCommerce brother of PocketThemes providing a wide variety of themes and software dedicated to Pocket PC users. The site can boast the largest collection of Animated Today and FlashThemes themes anywhere in the world, as well as themes for FlashThemesPro and the soon to come FlashDash.

If you haven't paid a visit to PocketThemes.com lately, now would be a good time to do so.

With links to nearly 1000 PDA-friendly websites, Pda Home Page makes a compelling argument for being your first stop for Mobile Internet discovery.

I suggest taking a look at Pda Home Page on your mobile device. My guess - it will be the newest addition to your Mobile Favorites  

I saw this over at jkOnTheRun yesterday and gave Google Maps for Mobile a quick go on my trip home with one of my bluetooth GPS units. It worked pretty well and is more designed for a co-pilot or navigator to use than a driver. Since there is no voice direction. It requires an always on data connection like Windows Live Local and Virtual Earth Mobile.

Directions work well with data provided by NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas for the GoogleMaps that many love with live traffic updates. You are represented on the map as a blue icon. GMM also lets you know how many satellites are fixed on you in the upper right-hand corner.

To start using a GPS just select Menu->Track Location(GPS). Here is what it looks like before it gets a fix inside of a building on an overcast day. :(  (If I can screen cap an image outside I will update it) It then downloads the map for your current position and lays it underneath.

You can choose to view with either the map or satellite like in Google Maps.You can Zoom in fairly close and can move around the maps with your directional pad. The center directional pad brings up directions if you placed them in before.

Here is a satellite view of Boston.

A little closer.

Maximum resolution of Fenway Park.

What Google Maps Mobile is really designed for is finding things on a map.

Here is a quick search for pizza around Fenway.

You get detailed information on the place including an address and phone number to call for reservations.

You can also look up other things like Location, Nearby Businesses, Directions based on GPS location, address,etc.

Under the options button you can even lookup contacts.

So far Google Mobile Maps looks pretty good for free.

To download it to your Windows Mobile device go here and it will sniff your browser and give you proper CAB file to download. For more info on the project head here.

DEMO is a paid to present conference for 68 companies in 6 minutes present their new companies, products and technologies. The presenters are picked by hand picked by Chris Shipley and a board of experts and they do a pretty good job of bringing all this technology in nice simple to understand forum. All the presentation are available online for viewing and are pretty impressive. I really like Apollo from Adobe , BlingSoftware, TeleFlip and Zink.

As with CES most of the products are now geared toward the Web and Mobility. If you have the time it is definitely worth checking out.

An alternative "free conference" is in the works by Mike Arrington of TechCrunch and Jason Calcanis here are the details so far a few other members of the board are showing up like Robert Scoble:

1. It will be in the San Francisco area.
2. We will have around 250 people at the event.
3. 20 companies will present over two days.
4. The event will take place in the fall.
5. We are looking for a location that can fit 250-500 people. We arehoping we can find a a University that would host the event, or an affordable conference center. Any ideas please let me know.
6. We hope to put together an advisory board of people we really respect to suggest companies.

I would love to see more Unconferences like this spring up in multiple locations like Boston, NewYork, Chicago,Austin,etc, but no so many that it dilutes the content. More like an East and West like VON does.

Thanks to some digging by Steve Hughes, there is a new Windows Live "toy" for IE Mobile users to enjoy. Windows Live Mobile Web Client allows you to use Windows Live Messenger for IM without the installation of a client. While this functionality has been around for the desktop for some time, it is exciting to see it come to the mobile world!

According to the Live Ideas Beta page, Windows Live Mobile Web Client offers a lot of features.

To access the service, simply point IE mobile to the following address:

http://mobile.live.com/wlm

That's it! You'll be IM'ing with your browser in no time!

Imagine yourself as the owner of a shiny new Windows Mobile device. You've heard that there are lots of ways to customize and enhance your phone, but you're not sure how. Thanks to the folks at Spb Softwarehouse, there is a new and great place to start - Spb Club! 

Signing up is free and easy, and provides access to:

• 50+ free Pocket PC ringtones and SMS-tone (specially created for Pocket PC)
• 40+ free Pocket PC themes (all themes support all resolutions + good usability of all themes)
• 50+ free skins for different Pocket PC programs (Windows Media Player, Dialer, Calculator and Spb programs)
• 200+ free tips & tricks about using Pocket PC
• Information about Pocket PC accessories
• Spb Pocket PC programs and games

So don't delay!