Daily deal – Kensington MP3 car accessories up to 25% off

by Scott Carmichael on

My daily deal for today is an assortment of Kensington MP3 car stereo accessories. These products come with a double whammy of discounts; Amazon has them on sale for up to 25% off, and Kensington will throw in a $10 or $15 rebate.

None of the products in this list have an integrated FM transmitter, so be sure to check whether your car stereo has a line-in jack. If you are looking for an affordable FM transmitter for your iPod, then check out this Kensington device, on sale for just $22 (was $64.97).

The rebates are valid until August 11th, and you can find the rebate form here.

As always, purchases over $25 ship for free, and no tax is charged in most states.

There are four different products included in this promotion:

Daily deal – 2GB Creative Labs MP3 player with FM Radio for $29.99

by Scott Carmichael on

The daily deal for today is for the highly rated Creative Labs Zen Stone Plus 2GB MP3 player. This player is about the same size as the Apple iPod Shuffle, but unlike the Shuffle, this player has a small display. The Zen Stone Plus even has an FM radio, stopwatch, countdown timer and a clock. And if that is not enough, you even get a voice memo recorder.

This player normally sells for just under $60, but if you don’t mind buying a refurbished product, you can buy one today for just $29.99. Refurbished products are usually items that have been returned to the manufacturer and are returned to their “as new” condition. Creative Labs include a 90 day warranty with their refurbished products.

The Zen Stone is available in black, white and blue. The red and pink versions are currently out of stock, but may be available later this week.

At this price, you could pick up a player for your kids and load it with their favorite music to keep them entertained in the car or plane. The Zen Stone features a volume restriction control, to protect their ears and with 2GB of storage space, you should be able to fit up to 500 songs on the player.

The Creative Labs Zen Stone is available in their web store. Shipping is a pretty unreasonable $9.95 for one player, or (oddly enough), just $4.99 for 2. Orders of $90 or more ship for free.

(Hotel) room filling sound from a portable speaker

by Scott Carmichael on

For my first review here on Gadling, I’m going to show off one of my personal favorites. The Altec Lansing Orbit-MP3 is a 5 ounce (144 grams) portable speaker and it is powered by 3 AAA batteries. It can connect to any device with a standard headphone jack, including the iPod, iPhone and many Blackberry smartphones.

The sound coming out of this thing can only be described as “astounding”. When you play your tunes at full volume, you’ll be staring at the little speaker wondering how on earth it’s able to produce such loud music without sounding like a tin can.

When you set your player to “max”, it really is loud enough to fill a large room, or even keep a group of people entertained outdoors. The speaker can be placed flat on a table or upright, thanks to a small flat spot on the side that prevents it from rolling around. If you take it to the beach, you can even put the speaker along with your music player inside a Ziploc bag to help keep the sand out.

The speaker itself is the epitome of simplicity; there is only one button (on/off) and no volume control (volume is set on your device). The audio cord is 9 inches long, so your device will always be close to the speaker. Battery life is fantastic, Altec Lansing quote 24 hours of continuous use, and in my experience it really does last that long. Batteries are the only way to power the speaker as it does not have a power jack, so be sure to carry a spare set of AAA’s.

There are several minor issues; The unit does not have a power indicator light, so the only way to tell whether it’s on, is to check the markings on the side of the switch. You’ll also notice that it’s a single speaker, which means you don’t get full stereo audio, but the speaker mixes the left and right channels, so in reality you won’t really notice a thing. And finally, the battery compartment is pretty hard to open, it’ll take a couple of attempts to find the easiest way to remove the back cover to swap out the batteries. Other than those minor quirks, it’s a brilliant way to listen to music when you are on the road, it’s small and light enough to add to any carry on bag.

The Altec Lansing Orbit-MP3 costs $29.95 (MSRP) and you can find it at your local Bestbuy or at Amazon.com for just $24.94 (price at time of posting).

Two for the Space of One

by Dave Luna on

As a computer nerd, I’m doomed to walk the earth with as many electronic gadgets as possible. In fact, I was once questioned by Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport security why I had two MP3 players and two cell phones. In spite of that (almost) international incident, I think there has never been a better time than now for gadgety-type traveling.

Companies today are marketing products that can charge multiple devices in multiple environments with just one plug. This means one less Blackberry plug in your carry-on and more space for souvenirs!

Gomadic markets a number of two-device chargers for use in either home or auto. These chargers support cell phones, PDAs, and MP3 players. About $40 to $50.

iGo sells dual-device power adapters that can be used on airplanes, on AC current, and in cars. They have models that can charge laptops in addition to a small device like a phone, MP3 player, or PDA. Ranges from $30 to $120.

Finally, the VersaCharger PRO consolidates all of your USB device chargers into one small adapter usable on a plane, in a car, or in a hotel. Around $25 to $30.

By the way, you get extra points if you attach any one of the previously mentioned chargers to the Tumi adaptor Erik mentioned. (Oh, and check the comments of that post to see cheaper Tumi alternatives.)

Creative’s Zen Player

by Erik Olsen on

Yes, you are wedded to your ipod. I understand. But there are alternatives out there. You love your little gleaming white boy of musical and video joy, but let me introduce you to the Creative Zen Vision M mp3 player. At $325 the Zen is a bit smaller than before and it will play not only your music (except the stuff you bought on itunes, of course. But also videos, photos and music All this on a 2.5″ high-definition LCD full-color screen.

The Zen Vision M has a lot of capacity, holding some 120 hours of movies, many thousands of photos, 15,000 songs, and it plays slide shows. And here is something the ipod doesn’t have. The Zen includes an FM radio & recorder, personal Organizer, and voice recorder. So see, there are alternatives to the ipod.