Daily gear deals – $99 lifetime traffic TomTom GPS, $20 Jawbone headset and more

by Scott Carmichael on

Here are the hottest gear deals for today, Wednesday November 3, 2010. Remember, these deals are often valid for just one day, so act fast before they are gone.

Today’s first deal is for a TomTom GPS unit. This wide screen navigator features spoken street names, IQ routing and over 7 million points of interest. It also comes with a traffic information receiver and lifetime traffic updates. On sale for $99.99 for the next three hours. Click here for this deal.

Next up is a 7-in-1 Belkin cable kit. In the kit, you’ll find retractable USB cables, a network cable and a phone cable, along with an assortment of adapters and other plugs. On sale for $18.32. Click here for this deal.

Today’s third deal is for the highly rated Jawbone 2 Bluetooth headset. This stylish gold headset features a variety of noise canceling features, designed to make your calls sound better. On sale for $19.99. Click here for this deal.

And finally in today’s lineup is a 3M MPro120 pocket projector. Bring this compact projector on your next trip for some in-room entertainment, or to impress people with your Powerpoint skills. On sale for $129.99. Click here for this deal.

Archaeologists discover buried wall around the Sphinx

by Sean McLachlan on


Archaeologists excavating at the Sphinx have discovered a 3,400 year-old wall around the famous monument.

The wall was built by the pharaoh Thutmose IV (reigned c. 1401-1391 BC) who had a dream in which the Sphinx told him it was choking on sand. The Sphinx itself was probably built during the reign of the pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558-2532 BC), who also built one of the nearby pyramids at Giza.

The archaeologists also found part of a settlement believed to have been for priests tending the cult of Khafra. Egyptian pharaohs were worshiped as gods and had temples dedicated to them. Some Roman Emperors also had mortuary cults and temples.

Now a modern wall is going up around Giza. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the number one tourist draw in the country, the Supreme Council of Egypt wants to keep away artifact hunters as well as the pushy touts who are one of the few downsides to a trip to Egypt.

[Photo courtesy LadyExpat via Gadling’s flickr pool]

%Gallery-65553%

Send your stuffed animal to Paris with Furry Toys Tours

by McLean Robbins on

Sure, we at Gadling talk a lot about travel – but travel for yourself, your loved ones, and your friends. What about sending your stuffed animal on a trip? Tour company Furry Toys Tours is aiming to change that, offering special Paris tour packages just for the special furry loved ones in your life. When you consider a recent survey by British company Travelodge reported on MSNBC that shows up to 35% of adults still sleep with a stuffed animal or “lovie,” well, this may be a potential gift for more people than you think.

In theory, this sounds like a great holiday gift – a “Flat Stanley” type adventure for your precious stuffed animal. The company was founded after being inspired by Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 movie “Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain“. In the movie, Amélie secretly steals her father’s garden dwarf and sends it travelling the world (thanks to her friend who works as an airline steward). Shortly after the dwarf’s disappearance, the father starts receiving mysterious pictures of it in various locations around the world.

The company website suggests the tour as a way to “reward your cuddly toy, or play a trick (but also offer a wonderful gift) to your kid, partner or friend.” Perhaps for someone who doesn’t own a special toy this might sound like a good idea. But as a writer who also has a furry friend – we’d be livid if someone who purported to be a “loved one” removed our bear without our consent, particularly to send them on a multi-day European jaunt. So … um, perhaps you should ask before doing this.

Your furry friend will enjoy an extensive Parisian tour with optional four-day extension packages, and enjoy photos taken in front of sites including La Tour Eiffel, Les Champs Elysées, L’Arc de Triomphe, La Cathédrale Nôtre Dame and more.
Packages include 30+ photos for Paris Essentials Tours, printed to 9x13cm, glossy, with a white border taken on a 10m pixels digital camera, and will also be saved on CD for further editing. The website promises that photos will also include pictures taken during your cuddly toy’s daily life in Paris, aside from sight visits (relaxing at home, recreational activities) as well as daily e-mails and pictures to keep you updated on your furry toy’s journey. Furries will also be posting on the Paris Furry Toys Tours Facebook Page daily (go social media!). Your friend will also bring back a little Parisian souvenir and the official and personalized Furry toys Tours traveling certificate edited on premium paper.

Friends will begin their tour on the Monday following their arrival and will be returned via a secured and insured parcel. Basic tours cost €100.00 with extra extension tours starting at €50.00, and additional furry friends are allowed to accompany the journey for a reduced fee of 50% off.

What do you think, readers? Is this a holiday gift you’llbe purchasing for you or your children anytime soon? While the trip sounds fun and well-organized, we’re not sure we want to part with our furry friend for that long – or risk the wrath of a loved one if we “borrow” theirs.

We do, however, love this disclaimer: “We carry a fully non-discriminative policy and can accommodate for all kinds of furry friends, no matter their age, species, race, colour, gender, nationality, condition, as well as religious beliefs and practices.”

Review: Logitech Alert home security HD camera system

by Scott Carmichael on

A review of a home security camera system may not immediately make sense for a travel site, but just because you are on the road, does not necessarily mean you can’t keep an eye on what is going on with your home. We have looked at other camera systems in the past, but the new Logitech Alert is the first HD security system specifically designed to install yourself.

In this review, we’ll take a closer look at their outdoor master system. The Alert 750e master system consists of a rugged and waterproof HD camera, a powerline transmitter and receiver and an assortment of accessories and cables.

Installing the camera system is a breeze – you place the camera where you want, then connect it to the outdoor powerline transmitter. This obviously means you will need a power outlet outside, or you’ll need to find a way to route the cable inside.

Then, you plug the powerline receiver into an outlet, and hook it up to your home router or modem. The best part of a powerline solution is that you do not need to pull Ethernet cables to the camera.

To get the whole setup working, you then install the Logitech Alert software, and provide a few pieces of information. From start to finish, I had the system up and running in about 15 minutes.

The biggest selling point of the camera is its video quality – and it really is something amazing. The camera monitors your home in HD video, using a wide angle lens. At night, the system switches to night vision, which is powerful enough to monitor a dark driveway for about 45 feet.

The camera includes a variety of mounting materials, and a screwdriver is all you need to attach it. A rubber cover protects the screws from the elements. The camera itself is very rugged – with a strong metal housing and waterproof cover for the cable and memory card.

Behind the rear cover is the connector for its power/communication cable and the MicroSD memory card slot. This memory card is used to record video when motion is detected. The camera comes with a 2GB card, but you can expand that with any card you want (up to 32GB). Recordings are stored on the camera, or in the desktop software package (more on that in a moment).

The Logitech Alert Commander is where you can view live video, configure settings or monitor multiple cameras (if you add more than one). Video is very smooth and the application is simple to use.

Inside the Alert Commander, you can configure how motion detection is used – it can monitor the entire area, or you can draw your own zone. This is handy if you have parts of an image you don’t want to monitor, or if part of the screen has things that move on their own (like a tree).

Inside the app, you can also view recordings. Since the camera only stores 2GB, you can tell the application to copy camera based video to your PC for archiving. If you are worried about crime in your area, having a place to store video could come in handy, as long as your computer isn’t stolen in the process.

Now, none of this is especially interesting for travelers – so Logitech also allows you to access your camera using the web or a mobile application. Almost every feature of the desktop based commander can also be accessed inside your web browser – anywhere in the world.

The alerting option can send you an email when motion is detected – and it can include a snapshot of the recording, along with a time stamp.

Mobile applications are available for the iPhone, Blackberry or Android devices. These apps are all free of charge. Included with every Logitech Alert package is free remote viewing. If you want access to remote or web playback of recordings, you’ll need to upgrade to the Web and Mobile Commander version for $79.99/year.

Night mode is probably one of the most impressive features of the Logitech Alert – as soon as daylight is gone, the camera automatically switches to this mode. With an array of infra-red lights and a sensitive camera sensor, even the darkest of porches will be perfectly viewable.

The Logitech Alert system comes in two versions – indoor and outdoor. Both systems include one camera and the powerline receiver. The indoor package costs $299.99 and the outdoor package costs $349.99. Additional cameras can be added without the need for extra powerline receivers – an extra indoor camera is $229.99 and the additional outdoor camera is $279.99.

The travel related uses for this system are endless – you can use it to monitor for packages, record suspicious activity or even watch your child(ren) play in the back yard. Image quality is the best I have ever seen for any consumer camera system, and the installation is a breeze.

To learn more about the Logitech Alert system or to place an order, head on over to the Alert product pages.

Shop the Bakaara Market: five gifts from Somalia

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s always hard to figure out what to get your friends when you’re on vacation. I usually just give up, and they’ve learned to accept that my gift-giving ineptitude has led to laziness. There are some trips, however, that leave you with no excuses. If you decide to head into Mogadishu, for example, you’ll be expected to bring home plenty for your friends and family.

In a place like Somalia, it can be hard to figure out where to shop, let alone what to buy. Fortunately, you can start in the capital’s shopping district (the last three words used very loosely), the Bakaara Market. This spot was made famous a little over 17 years ago when a U.S. mission went awry, and it remains incredibly unsafe for outsiders everybody. When you can’t ignore your obligations to the folks back home, though, this is probably the best place to start.

Keep in mind that the Bakaara Market is a dangerous place. Only two weeks ago, fighting broke out between the Al-Shabab and Hizbul groups, leaving five dead and more injured. According to SomaliPress.com:

The movement of the market was halted for a while shortly as the gunfire spread further into different sections of the market according to the businessmen adding that the clash was ceased as officials from both sides started mediating them.

It pays to be careful.

To help you make the whole process easier, here are five gifts to get at the Bakaara Market for the person who already seems to have everything:

1. Weapons: you can get all kinds of firearms in Somalia, including AK-47s, favorites of insurgents, terrorists and combatants around the world and since its introduction in 1947. For those truly special to you, splurge for a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher. You may get better deals outside the Bakaara Market, but you may be putting yourself in even more danger.

2. Counterfeit Currency: real cash isn’t good enough for you? You should be able to get some of the fake kind in this part of town. There was a big problem with counterfeiting in 2001, when U.S. dollars were the standard for trade, but this caused prices to skyrocket.

3. Memories: there are many photo opportunities – especially since you aren’t likely to make a repeat trip. Take as many pictures as you can, but do be smart enough to remain unobtrusive. You don’t want to attract the sort of attention that could lead to a kidnapping. Wait until you get home to have the shots framed.

4. Influence: Somalia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, so there’s a good chance you can use some cash to buy influence and favors. But, don’t expect to find any honor among thieves.

5. A Big Payout: make sure your life insurance policy is up to date before you leave – and that the company will write a check if you do something stupid that costs you your life in Mogadishu. You won’t be around to see the smiling faces of your beneficiaries, but you can meet your end knowing that a boatload of cash will be delivered to them.

[photo by ctsnow via Flickr]