MyGadgetFinder.com

Great news for anyone looking to buy home entertainment products. Bennetts Electrical is offering MyGadgetFinder readers the opportunity to save £20 on orders of £250 or more.

So, what’s on offer? Quite a lot, actually, as this retailer has a spring sale on as well as this extra offer. And there’s finance available with a ‘buy now, pay in a year and a day’ deal on everything over £99.

Here are some offers that might catch your eye on the Bennetts site at the moment:

• Sony KDL32D3000U – 32in HD-Ready LCD TV plus DVD Recorder – save £87 when you buy these two products together as a package. Now £788.99
• Samsung HTX200R Home Cinema System – includes three wireless speakers, a DVD and CD player plus Dolby digital sound. Now £327.89.
• Philips 42PFP553 Plasma TV – This stylish 42in HD-ready plasma TV includes integrated Freeview and offers absorbing, high-quality images. Was £798, now £698.

Check out the full Bennetts entertainment range here >>

To claim your £20 discount, enter the code 20EMAIL03 at the checkout when purchasing online. The voucher is valid until March 23 and excludes purchases of laptops or iPods.

If your idea of bank holiday heaven is a host of new gadgets and games, then keep an eye on the Woolworths website.

This retailer has let us know about some hot seasonal offers – here are the best of them…

• Portable DVD player with 7in LCD screen – was £69.99, now £59.99. With widescreen display for a bright, sharp picture and Dolby digital sound. Easily portable with built-in speakers, a car plug adapter and a wireless remote control.
• Pre-order Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii – £34.99, free delivery, available April 11. New tracks, new racers (including Miis), new rides and 12-player racing via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection makes for the ultimate Mario racing experience. Plus, all your favourite Mario Kart franchise features return, such as classic tracks, cup modes, battles, boosts and ghost data.
• Pre-order Wii Fit – £69.99, free delivery, available April 25. Now you can involve your entire body in the Wii phenomenon, using the pressure-sensitive Wii Balance Board to control on-screen players and take part in fun, dynamic activities including aerobics, yoga, stretches and games.

Here’s one of those fantastically daft products from IWantOneOfThose.com that the retailer tells us is fast turning into a sneaky best-seller – the Sound Asleep Pillow.

Making its first appearance in the UK, it works on the basis that lying in bed and drifting off to sleep listening to your favourite music is a great experience, whatever you like to listen to.

However if the fear of disturbing your partner or the uncomfortable sensation of headphones jammed into your ears, with the cord wrapped around your neck, is putting you off then you’re not getting the best from the experience.

Here’s where the Sound Asleep Pillow comes in. The retailer says that, as well as being very good at what it’s designed for – a superbly comfortable pillow – it also has a speaker buried deep enough inside to only be heard by the person whose head’s on top of it.

The pillow has a jack at one end to plug into an iPod or MP3 player, and will serve up the sleeper’s chosen music gently enough through the pillow that no-one else need ever hear a note of it.

Self-indulgence? Or the perfect pampering gift? Only you can decide…

Learn more about the Sound Asleep Pillow here >>

The BBC is reporting that its iPlayer software is now available for the iPhone. This is an interesting development given the huge controversy over the corporation’s initial decision to produce it for Windows users only.

iPlayer is a new development that allows users to watch TV programmes on demand via the internet for a limited period of time – but not to save programmes for later playback.

Unfortunately the issue of whether the Digital Rights Management (DRM) software that stops users doing this is still in place is now very confused – it may have been removed, possibly inadvertently, in the player’s latest release in order to produce the MP4 files that the iPhone can handle.

And what on earth is the point of DRM from a publicly-funded broadcaster when users are perfectly free to make copies of programmes using VCR or DVD recorders anyway?

Read a BoingBoing article on this subject >>

Here’s what the corporation has to say about the latest developments;

BBC iPlayer comes to the iPhone

…it is the first time the service has been available on portable devices.

The iPhone and iPod touch are able to stream shows from the iPlayer website over wi-fi networks. The iPhone cannot stream BBC video over the cell network. A BBC developer said that the corporation was currently working on other versions of the iPlayer for “many more” devices.

Anthony Rose, writing on the BBC internet blog, said: “We started with iPhone because it is the device most optimised for high quality video currently available.

“It displays the BBCiPlayer site and BBC programmes nicely.” Read full article here…

Learn more about the iPlayer here and about digital rights management issues here.

Halfords has been in touch to let us know about some special offers it has on in-car tech – including the following price reductions on satnavs:

• LG N10 – now £79.99. An affordable, entry-level model that comes with preloaded street level maps for the UK and Ireland, features an easy-to use colour touch screen and boasts an ultra-slim design – perfect for everyday navigation.
• Navman S30 Deluxe – now £99.99. Another entry level model that has all the basic features you’ll need plus a slim stylish design, a leather case and home charger, intuitive controls and minimal set-up.
• TomTom ONE UK & ROI – now £119.99. This popular and up-to-date model is now out in a new edition featuring award-winning TomTom navigation software, door-to-door planning and an anti-glare screen.
• TomTom ONE Europe V3 – now £159.99. If you’re looking for a model with Europe-wide coverage, this may be the satnav system for you.

See full discounted satnav range here >>

There are also some deals on car CD and DVD/MP3 players on offer with prices starting at £49.99:

• Refurbished Ripspeed CMR-2000 with AUX-input, USB and SD Card Slot – &pound49.99.
• JVC KD-G431 with AUX-Input for mp3 connectivity – £69.99.
• Refurbished Ripspeed DVD722B CD and DVD player with 3in screen – £59.99.
• Alpine CDE-9871RHAL with AUX-In and iPod cable included – £129.99.
• Sony MEX – BT2500 TMR with stereo music streaming and TMR-BT10 bluetooth transmitter – £129.99.

Some of these deals are while stocks last, so check them out fast if they sound appealing!

See full discounted car stereo range here >>

Interesting story on the BBC’s dot.life blog about potential challengers to Apple in the music download sector. The correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones has been looking at the chances of a new entrant into the market called 7digital:

Taking on iTunes

Could a tiny business based in London’s Shoreditch take a bite out of Apple’s digital music empire? It seems unlikely and even 7digital will admit that it’s a David facing a Goliath. But this week’s deal between the download service and Warner Music could at least make Apple sit up and take notice.

The seamless integration between the iPod and iTunes – and the manner in which the Apple ecosystem makes rival devices and services less useful to music fans – has made Steve Jobs the most powerful figure in digital music, with Apple commanding around 80% of the market. The big four labels – who saw iTunes as a saviour when it arrived promising users a viable alternative to pirated tracks – are now chafing at the bit.

They don’t like Apple’s insistence on a single price for tracks and albums, and they’re waking up to the fact that they’ve handed the retail end of their digital business to one player.

So Warner is striking a blow for the whole industry by offering its catalogue DRM-free and in MP3 format to 7digital. Read full article here…

Interesting times…

Whether it’s the future of personal computing or of the way we build relationships, of the humble headphone or the printed word – here’s a look at some of the thoughts and happenings coming out of the tech blogosphere this week:

• Over at Circuits, NY Times technology writer David Pogue is on the trail of wireless earbuds (we think that’s up-to-date American-speak for what we Brits used to call ‘headphones’) after seeing them featured in the movie Definitely, Maybe. He concludes: “Yes, they exist… Most of them are a bit bulky around the ear, as you could probably guess [and] like all wireless ear gear, come with a transmitter than must be attached to your iPod or whatever.” Great for listening to the TV if you’re the only person in the room that wants to hear it…
• Stephen Fry is begging for someone to Deliver Us From Microsoft in his latest column for The Guardian’s Dork Talk slot – and he thinks he can see the saviour coming: “The two great pillars of Open Source are the GNU project and Linux. I shan’t burden you with too much detail, I’ll just make the outrageous claim that your computer will be running some descendant of those two within the next five years and that your life will be better and happier as a result.” If you’ve ever chewed your fingernails to the quick in frustration with Windows, Explorer and Outlook, then Fry is the columnist for you.
• The blog of writer Neil Gaiman is probably not where you’d usually go for cutting-edge tech and entertainment news. It’s like a creaky old Gothic mansion full of shadows, spiderwebs and things that disappear unaccountably round corners when you look straight at them. However something is happening over there that is big, very big. Gaiman’s a hugely successful writer with a very mainstream publisher in Harper Collins. This same publisher has consented to experiment with making Gaiman’s novel American Gods available free online, unabridged and with no strings attached, to see whether it will boost sales of the hard copy and of his other books. See for yourself, the first few grains of dust that could start an avalanche.
• Over at The Guardian’s games blog Aleks Krotoski is investigating how gaming made it into mainstream thinking. She says: “I set about waiting for the medium to come to a place where adults outside the industry would look upon games as creatively inspiring, culturally challenging and an asset in the quiver of innovation. That has finally arrived. Since 2001, games have undergone a transformation. There’s a flurry of excitement about them from the outside: the internet and traditional media industries, boosted by the maturation of the web, are watching these enfants terribles closely for best-practice clues.” Tell this to anyone who accuses you of having wasted the last decade in front of your console of choice.
• Do you lie awake at night wondering if the Internet is altering your brain? In which case a recent post on Salon’s Machinist blog might not be for you… OK, seriously now, maybe not your brain. But definitely your relationships, opinions and ways of relating to the world. In which case its interview with Clay Shirky, the author of a recent book on the subject, should be required reading. Check it out…
• Tom Reynolds is an employee of the London Ambulance Service, and mainly focuses on that in his acclaimed Random Acts of Reality blog. But he’s also a self-confessed “nerd and a shameful first adopter” and frequently writes about tech issues. Today, on his return from a holiday in the US, he explains how he’d love to pay for e-book downloads for his shiny new Sony PRS505 Reader – but, as a Brit, the company simply won’t sell them to him. His only option? Illegal downloading, even though what he really wants to do is hand over cash…

Heal’s department store has a great special offer for MyGadgetFinder readers running from March 8 to March 16 – 10 per cent off all the products on its website.

Which is great news if you’re looking for furniture or storage to complement your gadgets and home entertainment systems – and the odd silly thing to make you smile too. We suggest checking out the following:

• Audio-visual furniture – in a wide range of styles from contemporary chrome and glass, light and dark wood, sleek wenge oak veneer or even a retro 1960s look.
• Console tables – including the amazing Mitre Mirror range and the Span console table engineered from a single sheet of glass
• Storage – including the matching Art CD and DVD tower racks
• Do-it-yourself wall clock – wall-mounted hands and separate individual numbers that stick directly to the wall – in any pattern you want! Whether it tells the time at the end of it is up to you…
• Tom Dixon Mirror Ball Silver Pendant Light – this stunning globe-shaped object is made of plastic polycarbonate metalised with real chrome metal, creating a mirror finish. See also the Tom Dixon Copper Pendant Shade.

To claim you discount, simply enter the promotional code PD1019 when prompted at the checkout.