Do you have some spare gadgets laying around? An old GPS, maybe an old Zune or camera? Why not trade them in for a gift card. Several stores offer this already, but now Amazon is joining them by adding electronics as their latest category for trade-ins.

All you need to do is choose from the 2,550 items currently recognized and describe the condition of the gadget and Amazon will let you know how much credit it can give you along with a prepaid shipping label. It beats throwing it away right?

No surprises here. We knew that the Kinect has been a complete success. Since it was released last year, the motion control device for the Xbox 360 has been flying off of store shelves like crazy. Now it looks like the Kinect has set a new world record too.

In the first 60 days it was on sale, it sold an average of 133,333 units per day, for a total of 8 million units in those 2 months alone. And these figures were units that left the store and went home with customers. Not the shipments that were sent to retail stores. It’s amazing when you think about it. The Kinect beat the iPhone and iPad for the equivalent periods after launch. These numbers for the Kinect will be in the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition book that will be available early next year.

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s how dust gets sucked into laptop vents thanks to the cooling fan. It can clog things up and affect performance and shorten the life of electronics in general. We need to take a cue from this radio. Once every six months, it sneezes, getting rid of dust that has accumulated inside.

It gives it a longer life and keeps things running cooler. Therefore sneezing is the future of electronics. As long as that sneeze doesn’t come with a cough and a runny nose anyway. I ain’t playing doctor to my radio.

Here’s something that really gets the message across concerning e-waste. Best Buy has erected this billboard in New York City’s Times Square promoting their recycling program. Best Buy wants to “e-cycle” all of your old electronic items that you bring into the store.

They promise not to simply make more billboards out of them. We think. Though that would be cool too. Maybe they could start making their store shelves out of all our old stuff. It definitely catches your attention and puts it in your face.

SGP makes metal skins for iPhones, iPods, cell phones, MP3 players, laptops and cameras. The skins are made of 24K gold plating or thin nickel and comes with a precision cut face plate. A word of warning, you better have a steady hand. The company warns, “Handle with Care. Thin and Sharp edge of this product may cause hurt.” You don’t want to experience the dreaded hurt, so be careful.

Each kit comes with skin and accessory stickers at prices between $14.99 and $24.99. They also carbon fiber, wood and leather covers. Maybe it’s just me, but do you really want to cover your beloved gadget in this crap? I mean, if you love your device, you probably love or at least admire it’s looks.

We’ve been hearing from a couple of sources that on Monday, Circuit City will be closing a whopping 155 stores and leaving the consumer electronics business for good. Most store closings are expected to be done by December 31, 2008. A full list of stores will apparently be revealed in the next few days. Not entirely unexpected, but still sad for those CC employees losing a job during the holiday season.

Almost everyone is trying to be more environmentally responsible today. One way that geeks can do their part is by recycling their old used electronic gear rather than tossing it into the trash can when you have had your way with it. The catch is that many recycling programs don’t offer any scratch in exchange for your old gear.

Recycling electronics for many programs isn’t something done merely to help the environment. The gadgets are recycled and with enough bulk, recyclers can get as much gold and other precious metals from the electronics as you get from a small gold mine. RadioShack has announced a new electronic recycling program that takes back certain electronic items like cell phones, MP3 players, laptops and more and gives people some loot on a gift card for their trouble.

Sony Ericsson has won the honor of the greenest electronics company around. They finished on top of Greenpeace’s Greener Electronics Guide, going beyond Energy Star requirements. All of its models are PVC-free and they banned the most harmful chemicals from their phones since January 2008. It was really no competition, as the scores of others plummeted badly.

In fact, surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprising to some, Sony Ericsson was the only company that scored more than 5 out of 10 in the Greener Electronics Guide. The guide judges tech companies on recycling programs, use of harmful chemicals and energy waste. So who was at the bottom of the list? Microsoft and Nintendo, thanks to Microsoft’s very low score on climate and Nintendo’s Wii being an energy pig. There’s always next time if they clean up their act.