MyGadgetFinder.com

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…

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed for more news and offers. Thanks for visiting!