Oh! Gizmo

By David Ponce

We’ve covered Neuros Technology in the past. They make an awesome device that allows you to record video and reformat it to mobile formats on the fly, altogether bypassing the PC. It’s dead easy to get video on to your cellphone, PSP, iPod or whatever else. Think of it as a digital VCR that’s as small as a pack of smokes. Or a little media center. And it’s all DRM-free.

A while ago, they came out with an updated version of the recorder, called the Neuros OSD. It’s got a bunch of new features, including the ability to watch YouTube videos. Matter of fact, the feature list is quite long and definitely worth a look. It’s only $230 or so.

Well, the Holidays are just around the corner, so we figured we’d get Neuros to give one device to a lucky reader. How do you win? Leave a comment in this post telling us what you’d do with your Neuros OSD: what will you record, what will you watch it on, how much of your life will you waste watching video instead of doing something productive? Or anything else you think we might find interesting. We’ll pick a random winner Sunday the 4th of November at 11:59 EST.

By David Ponce

This guy. His name is Mike, and he made a post to Slickdeals on December 7th. We used Random.org to generate a random integer between 1 and 190 (we got that many entries), and 75 is the number that came up. Mike, that’s you. Congrats! And Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or whichever non-denominational end-of-year greeting you’d like. We’ll be in touch shortly.

For everyone that particiated, thank you. My sincere apologies that we couldn’t get every single one of you something, but don’t worry: we got tons more contests just around the corner, so stay tuned.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering what’s in Mike’s giftbasket, keep on reading.

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By David Ponce

[I'm bumping this back up because it's been updated. And because I can. -Ed.]

So, this is it. For those of you that didn’t win in our last giveaway, we told you we had something coming up; jumping off that ledge wasn’t necessary. It’s the Holidays, and what better way to enjoy them than by pimping yourself out with thousand(s) of dollars worth of gadgets? We got products from Neuros (again), Tokyoflash, Wicked Lasers, Vaja, Tom Bihn, Ice Jacket and Fossil. We also are working on getting confirmation on tons of other products from several manufacturers, but we just can’t wait until everyone gets their PR coordinated, right?

The idea? We’re not going to dole the stuff out, bit by bit. No, no, that would suck. We’re going to make one huge bundle, and one lucky winner will take home the loot. Everything. And how do you enter? Well, you didn’t expect us to make it easy, now, did you? It won’t be rocket science, but it requires some effort. You enter by spreading the word. Simple as that.

For all the details, keep reading.

[ Update: Presto have agreed to pitch in a printer. For the details on this, read on.]

[ Update: IncipioBud has been added... along with an iPod Shuffle! ]

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Okay, well, it’s Monday. That means we get to announce the winner of our Neuros Giveaway. Well, it’s “Vi”, with this comment. And, we chose it entirely randomly. We scrolled the mouse and stopped somewhere on the screen, and the cursor was on Vi. It was random, except that Vi, being persistent, entered three times, thus increasing her chances. Of course, if she had entered thirty times instead, we would have gotten pissed and excluded her altogether. There’s a line between persistence and spammance, and we’re glad no one abused. We got about 135 comments, which is pretty sweet. A lot of creativity, and we liked that, but in the end we decided that we wouldn’t have time to deal with all the hate mail if we chose one joke, stupid comment, copy-pasted short story (yeah, monkey boy, we Googled it and we know it ain’t yours) over another. So, to be fair, we went random.

And for those of you with the blues, don’t despair. We got something coming up, and you’ll almost be glad you didn’t win.

By David Ponce

Ho, ho and all that stuff. The time of giving is near, and we’ve got plenty of stuff in store for you all. Andrew’s doing something (he’ll tell you soon, as some of you may already know), and I’m going to be doing something as well. I won’t say what, just yet, but to whet your appetite, allow me to give away a brand new Neuros Recorder 2 Plus, valued at $129. For those of you who don’t know what it is, let me tell you.

It’s basically a little VCR that will convert your video signal into a variety of formats so you can play them back on pretty much any device: PSP, iPod, smartphones, you name it. Just plug your TV (or whatever video source) in, insert your memory, choose your settings (based on where you want to play the stuff back) and record.

And, since we’re feeling nice, we’re going to make it really easy for you to get one. Just leave a comment, with your email address so we can contact you (don’t worry about privacy, just read our policy on this). You can say whatever you want; we’re not saying how we’re going to choose a winner. Either randomly, or based on the funniest, smartest, stupidest comment. Not sure. We’ll be tyrannical about this, and will let you know eventually. But what’s for sure is you won’t win if you don’t comment.

And that’s it folks. You have until Monday, November 27th, to leave a comment.

By David Ponce

The sweat, the tears, the long hours spent looking over old articles, squinting at the screen, cursing us for making this so hard… and yet, despite it all, we have a winner! Vincent Cammarota, you already got an email from me… congratulations, you just won yourself a Neuros Recorder 2!

Yes, the hidden message was “Portable Video Made Easy”. Most of you got it right, after prodding. The values Neuros stands for are “Openness, community, innovation”, and, well, the size of the unit you can find on the product page.

Finally, one big “Sorry” to everyone who entered and didn’t win. We can’t make everyone happy. There is, however, one last way for you to win something. In this case, it’s a Sendstation USB Line-Out PocketDock, and all you have to do is complete our lovely reader survey to be automatically entered (provided you give us your email address, never to be shared with anyone).

By David Ponce

There’s a sparkling, shiny, delicious new Neuros Recorder 2 itching to be given away. You know that, right? Yet, despite my audience’s undeniable wit, smarts and undying love for all things gadget… I’ve yet to receive one right answer in our giveaway. It’s not “Dan Brown”, nor “Best Media”!

Perhaps y’all aren’t into code breaking… So, let me make things easier for you. There is a hidden message in the posts from May 9th, to May 16th. This message is made from letters either improperly capitalized, or strangely colored. And, to make it even easier, here’s how the message spells out: “P- – - – - -E V- – -O M- -E E- -Y”

Can’t get much easier than that, right? For the rest of the rules, and how to send in your entry, read this post.

By David Ponce

It’s time for a giveaway! Some of the more observant among you noticed something was up. Others went about their life, blissfully unaware than anything was cooking. Yet, for the last week, we’ve been setting this up, and now it’s time to go hunting for clues. And there’s a Recorder 2 from company Neuros Technology up for grabs, a $150 value. For those of you that don’t know the product, it’s a kickass digital VCR that gets shows onto your PSP, your Windows smartphone, etc, all legally.

You may have noticed some strange things in our posts lately. Things that didn’t look right, but you chalked them up to coincidence, or some glitch. Well, no, my friends: they’re clues. That’s right. In the spirit of The Da Vinci code, we’re playing little game of our own. You want to win this? Come inside and read the rules.

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By David Ponce

The company iLoad has been lambasted in the past for making products many people claim are, well, pretty crappy. What’s more, the owner, one Sanford Schupper, 56, is quite possibly a fraudster who allegedly swindled some family for as much as $872,000. For more on this hilarity, read this.

The point is, this guy made a little gadget called the iLoad, whose only point was to rip CDs directly to an iPod. And now, he’s released the iLoad-v which (you guessed it), loads videos directly to your video iPod. The $150 device

connects to your cable TV or catellite (sic) box and records your content onto an iPod and/or external USB drive or flash disk

Seeing as this is coming from a company owned by what seems to be a very strange individual, I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t just get an equally priced Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2 instead.

[iLoad-v] VIA [Gadget Review]