Daily Network Monitor

By WUG Team

I was going to feature Sony’s amazingly tiny HDR-TG5V camcorder (it records in full 1920 x 1080 HD resolution to 16GB of internal flash memory!!) but then I noticed this sleek little number’s price tag: $999.99. So while we’re outta luck in the camcorder category, Pentax announced this week they’re poised to make the purchase of a point shoot or DSLR a lot less painful. Pentax is discounting four of their popular models for the next week. The Optio E70 and P70 both had $20 knocked off and are now going for $120 and $180, respectively. The Optio W60, one of Crunchgear.com’s top picks for best gadgets last year, is now $50 cheaper at $250. And Pentax’s entry-level DSLR, the K2000, also had $50 knocked off and can be bought for $550, 18-55mm lens and flash included! The sale begins today and ends April 11.

 

INCHworm Shoes

Got kids? I don’t. But if I did you can bet I’d be buying those rug rats a pair of iFit’s INCHworm shoes. These shoes actually grow with your children’s feet! The genius is in the shoe’s accordion-like material around the arch of the foot. Just press the button on the side of the sole and this material can be pulled outward to increase the length of the shoe up to a full 3 sizes in ½ size increments. Oh, and if your little ones are particularly rough on their kicks, not to worry; the company insists these are some of the toughest shoes out there. So save yourself the hassle (and the dough) of heading out to Marshalls or Payless four times year in an effort to keep up with your kids ever-growing feet and pick up a pair of INCHworms for the fair price of $39.99.

 

Infrared Flashlight Video Recorder

Ever wish you could record your surroundings while you wait patiently in your backyard for the aliens to land? No? What’s that – you don’t believe in aliens? Well, should you change your mind, thanks to Hammacher Schlemmer’s Infrared Flashlight Video Recorder you’ll be able to catch live footage of them disembarking their space craft. Under its matte black exterior this heavy duty tactical flashlight boasts 17 infrared LEDs and a video camera capable of capturing video and audio up to 13 feet away from the gadget itself. Both video and snapshots are captured in VGA (640 x 480) quality, and while only 15 seconds can be logged on the 128MB of built-in memory, the miniSD expansion slot opens that up immensely. But here’s the catch: A device like this will set you back $399.95. And you’ll need to stock up on C-sized batteries.

 

Third Party HDMI Connector

I’ve been dying to stream my Watch Instantly Netflix queue into my new Sony 46” Bravia XBR LCD Flat Panel HDTV via my MacBook but every time I see the price tag on an HDMI connector I balk at shelling out the up-to $120 bucks. So imagine my excitement when I heard Monoprice, a third party online retailer, would be selling these fancy little connectors for an easy $14 bucks! Now, with this piece of technology I (and you, naturally) will finally be able to watch protected HD content on almost any HD display I (and you) want. Oh, and BTW, Monoprice is also selling Mini-DisplayPort-to-DVI and Mini-DisplayPort-to-VGA for $15 and $19 respectively. Or you can go to Apple and pay $29 for the same thing. Your choice.

 

Mid-Range NVIDIA GTX 275 Graphics Card

Looking forward to 5 o’clock when you can rush home to continue your Fallout 3 game on your PC? Does it make you die a little inside when realize how phenomenal the post apocalyptic landscape would look if you could afford a state-of-the-art graphics card? Well, the gadget gurus at OhGizmo.com have found the solution for you. NVIDIA announced their new mid-range video card called the GTX 275 Wednesday and claims a 10-35% performance edge over ATI’s offering in various benchmarks and tests. Oh, and it sells for about $250, nearly half the price of most of top-of-the-line gaming cards.  The GTX 275 offers 240 processing cores running at 1404MHz, 80 texture processing units and a 448-bit memory interface with 896MB frame buffer. The exact availability date isn’t offered, NVIDIA just says that the card will be available on or before April 14.

 

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