The vast majority of laptop chargers on the market have one thing in common, no matter if the battery if fully charged or absolutely dead, they send the same amount of power to the system. The amount of power a notebook uses can be greatly reduced by eliminating vampire power sent to a system when the battery is full.

A company called iGo is set to debut a line of new chargers and devices at CES 2009 in a few weeks that promise to reduce power consumption by notebooks on the charger up to 80%. The iGo Laptop charger has built-in technology that reduces the power going to the laptop when the battery is fully charged.

I have seen soundbars for home theater sets ups that provide good sound and a clean install look. They place speakers inside a long, slender box that is designed to sit under the TV in your living room rather than boxy speakers that are designed to stand beside the TV.

iLuv has introduced a new 2.1 speaker set for PC that looks like a soundbar. The long and slender device has a pair of speakers inside with a subwoofer. The system uses SRS-XT technology to simulate surround sound for movies and games.

When I think of a netbook, I envision a small, lightweight machine offering lower levels of performance in exchange for longer battery life and a lower purchase price. Most of us expect the same things. Some people aren’t happy with the battery life of the Eee netbooks and look to the aftermarket for more run time.

A new battery for the Eee 1000H and the 901 is now available that is in simple terms insanely ugly. The battery is wider than the netbook itself and features 10-cells to provide power for the little rig.

It seems like everyone has an iPod today. When I take my son to school, even the second and third graders are listening to them. Many people like the iPod but wish for better sound, which is what SRS Labs is promising with its new iWOW products.

Two products are in the iWOW family with one being an adapter for any iPod using a 30-pin connector. The other product is the iWOW software plug-in for iTunes. The iWOW devices are intended to improve the quality of sound form iPod and iTunes.

I can think of lots of pets that I wouldn’t want to own. Things like a big snake, that huge dog from Cujo, and a spider monkey that’s always whacking come to mind. Perhaps the worst pet you could ever own would be a lawyer.

If you feel differently, you can adopt a lawyer just in time for the holidays. The My Pet Lawyer doll thingy is a remote controlled gadget that will blurt out nine different saying like “You talkin’ to me, sharkbait?!” to “Pro Bono? Never heard of him!”

The iPod is the most popular digital music player around and there are scores of products that dock the iPod to a home stereo to allow music playback through the audio system. Many of the solutions for docking require hard-wired docks the iPod has to stay connected to.

Audioengine has announced a new wireless W2 Premium adapter of the iPod that streams music from the iPod wirelessly to the home stereo from up to 30-feet from the receiver. The system ships with the transmitter that connects to the docking adapter of the iPod and a receiver that connects to your home stereo.

The iPod is so popular that there is a huge amount of accessories and gear to go along with them. Typically, accessories revolve around speakers, earphones, FM transmitters and the like. Sometimes we see a few more exotic accessories like voice recorders.

Today a new iPod accessory was announced that takes the strange gadget cake called the iBreath iPod Breathalyzer. A fold out breath tube lets users blow into the device to see the blood alcohol level and decide if they have had too many drinks to drive.

Mac computers are gaining popularity all of the time. it hasn’t been too long since Apple announced the newly updated aluminum clad MacBook and MacBook Pro computers. If you dropped the coin needed to grab yourself one of these sexy new notebooks, you probably want to be sure it stays scratch free and protect it from drops.

Speck offers up a new case for the aluminum 13-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro that uses a hard shell design for extra protection. The case uses what Speck calls a soft touch See Thru Sating design. The exterior of the case is translucent allowing you to see the Apple logo and some of the case though the protective covering.

If you’re like me, there have been many times when a tripod would have come in handy for picture taking, yet for some reason I haven’t bought one yet. This Bottle Cap Tripod is a handy solution and it doesn’t require you to tote anything heavy around. And chances are you have a soda bottle nearby. This gadget screws into the mounting screw on your camera, then you just put it on a bottle cap. Instant tripod. At only $10, it keeps you from being weighed down with larger equipment.

Most of us are probably familiar with the series of books called For Dummies. The books try to teach various topics in formats easy for the new user to understand. The For Dummies series is branching out with a new non-book offering.

The HDTV Cable Kit for Dummies and the HDTV Premium Cable Kit for Dummies are now available to purchase. The kits promise to provide all of the cables a user needs to connect an HDTV to components. The normal kit retails for $99.99 and includes two 8-foot HDMI cables, one 8-foot component cable, an 8-foot coax audio cable, and three management ties along with a book the help with connections.

Most pet owners have wondered what their pet gets up to when they are out and about or at work. Before I had kids, my wife and I had a dog that would often come home colored pink. To this day we aren’t sure how he would get that color. It would have been interesting to monitor his activity.

If you are the type of pet owner that has to know what your animal does while you aren’t around, the Snif Tag will help you keep track of the dog. The little tag connects to the collar of your pet and lets the owner know if the animal has slept, walked, or played while they are away from home.

Christmas will be here before you know it and one of the things on my wish list is the Amazon Kindle reader. I really like the idea of not having to trek to the bookstore when I want a new book. One of the best features of the Kindle is the E-Ink display.

At the same time, the display has no backlight so reading in the dark is impossible without light. One of the best new accessories for the holiday season to go along with the Kindle is the Periscope Lighted Folio.

You may not have heard of Blue Microphones before, but they make some of the best microphones for home and studio recording available. I have one of their USB mics called the Snowball for my computer and it is fantastic.

Blue has announced a couple new products called the Mikey and the Eyeball. Mikey is a recording device that turns a normal iPod into a recording device for lectures, live music, interviews and more. The Mikey plugs into iPod 4G, 5G, and 6G models. It also supports the Nano 2G and 3G as well as the iPod classic. The mic features three user selectable gain settings, positionable head, built-in speaker, and Blue stereo condenser capsules.

Every time I buy something online, I worry about the safety of my credit card information. Many feel the same way and one of the things needed to make consumers more comfortable is additional security for credit card transactions.

Gemalto has announced what it calls the world’s first optical reader for online banking that is sized to store inside the wallet of users. The small credit-card size optical reader means that customers can have the reader on them at all times.

Every time I look up it seems like someone else is introducing a new set of earphones. I guess considering that the quality on most MP3 player or music phone earphones are seriously lacking it’s no real surprise at the wealth of aftermarket options.

The latest aftermarket offering is from a company based in Switzerland called Stafa. The earphones are the Audeo earphones and they claim to be some of the most comfortable earphones on the market. The manufacturer promises that the earphones can be worn for hours without getting uncomfortable.