This little gadget has both form and function for carrying your data around. Our list of 10 Cool Gadgets wouldn’t be complete without a flash drive of some kind thrown into the mix!

But, this isn’t just any flash drive. The Cyanics 2GB i-Passion U22 USB Flash Drive features elegant design and is decorated with rose colored Swarovski crystals. It is compact, lightweight and it has fast data transfer. Supports USB 2.0 and Compatible with Window (2000 or after), Mac and Linux

You can wear it around your neck, on your wrist, on your keyring, or carry it discretely in your bag until you need it. You’re going to carry data anyway, you might as well carry it in style!

This is actually my Logitech headset that I use at my desk! It works great for both listening and chatting.  I use this during webinars, chat sessions on Skype, playing World of Warcraft, and listening to audio files to transcribe. It also comes in pretty handy when I want to make a screencasting tutorial using CamStudio.

If you need a headset for any reason I highly recommend just about anything from Logitech. This is one area where they really excel and produce a high quality item.  I’ve been using their headsets and microphones  exclusively for several years now.

I only hadto replace my last headset because the puppy chewed through the cord! It was still working perfectly after 2 years ofuse for transcription and daily use.

Next on the list of 10 Cool Gadgets for $100 is the portable hard drive. I chose the eGo, which is what I have. I love these things so much I’m thinking of getting a second one that we’ll use just for picture storage.

These shiny little gadgets come in a large assortment of stylish colors for you to choose from. You can even have his and hers portable drives ;)  The one I have is actually pink, and I’m thinking of getting the red one to use for our picture storage that I mentioned earlier. There’s plenty of space on the one I already have, but I want to keep our pictures separate from all my business stuff and writing so that I’m not always carrying them around with me.

Prices on these are going to vary, but you can grab at least a 360GB in our target price range, no problem!

Take files anywhere, in style, with the Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 - an extremely durable drive which includes patent pending Drop Guard feature to withstand the toughest of travel environments. Available in 320GB capacity, it holds up to 1,280,000 photos, over 5,920 hours of music and 480 hours of video. Plus, the Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive requires no external power supply and includes a free EMC Retrospect HD backup software license.

I don’t know about you, but my desk tends to get pretty messy. The kids come home from school and pile it up with papers to be signed, and just general stuff seems to accumulate here. I guess you’d say my desk is the hot spot in the house for clutter. Everything ends up here from junk mail to pens to empty containers. I’ll also admit to late night blog surfing with the occasional snack in hand.

All the stuff can lead to dust and gunk in your keyboard fast. No one wants a keyboard full of gunk! Have you ever gotten a crumb or scrap of paper stuck between your keys? It’s a pain in the rear to get that kind of thing out of there sometimes.

Dirt Devil, the king of clean, has come up with a great gadget to solve this ongoing problem. The KWIK desktop vacuum. This cute little vacuum comes with a USB adapter so you can keep it handy right where you need it, on your desk! You can quickly suck up crumbs off your desk and get the dust off your usb devices.

Of course, cleaning the crumbs off your keyboard isn’t all this little gizmo can do. Because this stylish desktop utility vac is specially designed to clean and dust in tight spaces and protect expensive electronics equipment, the KWIK is perfect for dusting out the DVD player, home theater systems, all those pesky little plugs on the side of your TV, and so much more. The included dusting brush and crevice tools make it easy to get into all those little spaces of your electronics where dust likes to hide.

The guys need a fun Mimobot flash drive with their childhood hero too! Who could be cooler than Han Solo? If, at the height of his smuggling days, you told Han Solo that he would be a hero of the Rebellion, fall in love with an Alderaanian princess, and become a general in the Alliance, he would have had no shortage of smart remarks for you. But, as we all know his life turned into a happy ending after all.

Look at that coy little smile. How can you resist storing your data on this cool little fella. You know files are going to be safe and secure in Han Solo’s hands. No space pirates are going to kidnap this precious cargo from your locker or briefcase. This particular one is the 4GB storage size, but other sizes are available as well. Plenty of space for everything you need. Pair it up with the Princess Leia Mimobot I showed you yesterday for the perfect his and hers set of flash drives!

This could be a Valentine’s Day gift if your gal wanted to be Princess Leia when she was a little girl. And hey, what geek girl didn’t, right? Okay. Now that I have confessed my childhood secret (please don’t tell my husband, he’ll gloat with joy over it since he is Star Wars obsessed!) let’s move on to the cuteness of the gadget!

This little Mimobot is created in Princess Leia’s likeness, complete with blaster in hand. I think that’s why I loved Princess Leia so much. When we were kids and Star Wars was in theaters there just weren’t that many girls in movies that took control and kicked butt like that, and she looked cute while she did it.  Rock on Princess Leia!

Princess Leia here is actually an 8GB flash drive underneath all her cuteness, so she’s still kicking butt in her own little way. Perfect for storing up your vacation pictures, or toting your school notes back and forth. Whatever you need handy and portable, it’s in good hands here.

… or something like that anyway. It sounder much funnier in my head than it did in writing. These little heart shaped flash drives make a great Valentine’s Day gift for the tech based gal in your life.

A heart shaped pendant might seem like a traditional classic Valentine’s Day gift on the outside. But, this shiny little beauty is anything but traditional. Open it up and it’s a flash drive ready to get to work storing your data, photos, and whatever else you want to save (under 1GB.) It includes password protection and specially designed and easy to use software just like any other flash drive you might expect to buy.

Beautifully polished stainless steel on one half and Silver Shade crystals set in ceralun on the other half make it a sparkling gift that she’s sure to appreciate. Price tag wise this shiny trinket won’t run any more than that classic traditional heart shaped necklace we mentioned earlier. You can snag one of these for around $100 and leave a big impression this Valentine’s Day with this stunning and functional gift.

This weekend I got the cutest birthday gift from my friend Angela, who blogs over at WoW Raid Leader. I love this cute little gizmo and I was super surprised when UPS delivered the box to my door. I had been hoping that my birthday would come and go quietly since this is one of those years that ends in -0. Oh yes, it’s the year of 3-0. So, in never-want-to-grow-up fashion, I present to you the USB Robot Owl.

That’s it. No chatter about all the cool features. It just sort of sits on your computer and looks quizzically at you while being adorable. My cutie pie is a brown owl, but USB Robot Owl comes in 4 different colors; brown, white, grey, and pink.

It definitely added a bright spot to my 30th birthday, and I’m sure it will bring a smile to whomever you give this fun little gift to as well. Enjoy, and please take some of this leftover birthday cake away before I eat it all!

Good morning, sunshine! I started Christmas shopping this week for my four boys. A big thing on my list is MP3 players.

First, a quick back story for you. My oldest two sons have iPods that we picked up as “refurbished,” basically they were as is with no warranty. I won’t make that mistake ever again. They are both pretty much dead in the water and if I send them back to Apple to get fixed they’ll charge me the cost of a new iPod, so what’s the point in repair, right?

It left me with a bit of a predicament. They really enjoyed having them while they lasted, but they were more hassle than they were worth. My husband’s iPod, which I bought straight from Apple brand new doesn’t have any problems, but these refurbished 2nd generation models just don’t cut it. They freeze, they erase themselves, and one of them refuses to be turned off, it’s just on 24 hours a day, so of course needs charged constantly.

So, my shopping spree to replace these lovely little things began. I figured I would pick up iPod shuffles to replace them. Then my 10 year old said magical words to me, “Mom, I don’t care if it’s an iPod or not, I just want music.” Dang, I love that kid.

His biggest complaint about his iPod, other than freezing screen, was that it didn’t have an FM radio to listen to. I thought about getting him just a small am/fm radio that he could stick in his backpack and listen to, but that just wouldn’t be as much fun if he couldn’t add his own music to it as well. After all, I’ve grown pretty fond of him cleaning his room and singing Kidz Bop songs on the weekends.

The Active Range Sport MP3 Player from Phillips solves a lot of that problem for me. And it comes in orange, which just happens to be Luke’s favorite color on the planet. It’s only 1GB, which is still a lot of songs. Who needs 8GB anyway? I’ll admit here that I’d like to see it be at least 2GB, because the boys do like to put audio books on their players, and the Harry Potter books are pretty big files. I don’t think those would fit onto 1GB. But, in defense of the player it does have a mini SD card slot for memory expansion, which is quite helpful.

I found the shape of this player quite intriguing, it’s round unlike the usual MP3 players that are square, rectangular, and pretty much any shape except for round. It also has a built in stop watch for those early morning runs, making it a little more sport than usual as well. So far there are some interesting features on this little wonder.

My favorite feature is still the FM tuner that’s built into the player. Digital files and a radio all in one little round piece of orange technology. However, with all this great stuff happening I found it odd that it runs on 1 AAA battery. I don’t know if that’s because of the FM tuner being part of it, or if there’s some other reason for it. I’m not sure how that all works inside, but it definitely has my attention.

A flash drive is a necessity for many of us. I actually have three that I use for work myself, and my kids each have their own that they use to bring assignments home from school on. It’s one of the most useful things you’ll ever buy in addition to your computer.

This particular flash drive from SanDisk is 8GB, so there’s plenty of room for all your files. The titanium casing not only looks great, but it’s crush-resistant to over 2,000 pounds! Having had not just one, but two of my previous flash drives get broken and losing all those files, I can tell you that having a crushproof flash drive is a fantastic feature.

If 8GB is too much for you, you can get the same great features in the 4GB titanium flash drive from SanDisk. Both sizes are crush-resistant and come with SanDisk’s popular U3 smart technology, making them easy to use for managing all your files and programs. You can even use U3 to take your internet bookmarks with you. In addition to the many included features of U3 smart technology, you can go online and download add ons to make your flash drive work even smarter for you.