@methodshop

Happy New Year from methodshop.com. Hopefully this baby won't make an appearance at your party tonight. If he does, watch your step.

Thanks for a great decade! Believe it or not, this site turns 14 years old this coming March.

methodshop

Labels: holiday, pics

The OFFICIAL third installment in the "David Blaine Street Magic" series. Blaine sets his sights on the same two effeminate idiots from the last two videos. And unfortunately for them, the third time's the charm.



After watching this, you'll probably want to watch parts one and two.

methodshop

Labels: video

Did you get a gadget gift like an iPhone, Kindle or GPS this holiday season? Make sure you keep your eye on it. Thousands and thousands of gadgets are stolen every year. 12,000 laptops alone are lost or stolen from US airports every week.

So what do you do when your precious gadget is stolen? Unfortunately devices like GPS units and Amazon Kindles can't be easily tracked. Special software, like the application Undercover, can help you track your laptop or iPhone, but you have to pay for this software and install it in advance.

So what happens if your phone gets stolen and you haven't already signed up for a software tracking application like Undercover? Unfortunately US residents are kinda screwed. In the United States, all a thief has to do to take over your phone is replace your SIM card. But if you live in the UK, a stolen cell phone becomes useless as soon as it's reported to the authorities. The UK has a national stolen phone database that prevents thieves from activating stolen phones even when the SIM card is swapped out [video].









Let's hope something like the UK system makes its way over the pond soon. In the meantime, keep a close eye on your gadgets kids.

methodshop

Labels: gadgets, tech news, video

After reading all the parking signs on this pole, you might wonder why they just didn't post one simple "No Parking" sign.

"Someone proposed these. People discussed these. People voted on these. Someone was given these signs. Someone put them up. Someone stood back, looked at this, and said "good". Someone walks by and checks people are obeying this. People write tickets based on not following this. All of them thought this is acceptable."

The photo was originally taken by RaD Man. Special thanks to Walt at ForOrchestra.com for sending it our way.


methodshop

Labels: offbeat, pics

The Nintendo Wii is a great console. It's family friendly, fun and allows you to customize your characters, called Mii's, used in many of the games. Instead of being some generic character in a game, you can be yourself. You can also make a celebrity Mii look alike. So the next time you are playing Baseball on Wii Sports, you might end up with a celebrity Mii on your team like Oprah, Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson or Dwight from the TV show The Office.

This tutorial will guide you through making a Mii and sharing it on the Internet as well as give you plenty of celebrity Mii ideas.

Tutorial: How to Make and Share Celebrity Mii's for the Nintendo Wii


methodshop

Labels: games, tutorial

Do you get a giant stack of DVD's for Christmas? Want to watch them on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV? Here's a tutorial that explains how to use an awesome program called Handbrake to rip DVD's into iTunes friendly MPEG-4 video files. Tis' the season for ripping!

Tutorial: How to Rip DVD's for Your iPod, Apple TV or iPhone




methodshop

Labels: iphone, ipod, itunes, tutorial, video

Here's a fun little Christmas day treat for the whole family... well maybe just the older kids. methodshop.com has a series of Yeti themed games to keep the in-laws busy while you make Christmas dinner.

If you aren't yet familiar with Yeti Sports, then prepare yourself for some of the most humorous and addictive games on the Internet. Below you will find several variations of the Yeti game Pingu-Throw as well as some newer Yeti offerings. One of the more violent variants of Pingu-Throw, named "Bloody" features decapitation, spikes, a big spiky club and mines. Yum!


If Yeti isn't your thing, there are plenty of other games in the methodshop.com Arcade including Chris Hansen Soundboard, Christmas Tree, Duck Hunt, 7 Wonders, Cute Pet Nurse, and many more...

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

Yeti Games

• Yeti Pingu-Throw
• Yeti Pingu-Throw (Bloody)
• Yeti Pingu-Throw (Long Shot)
• Yeti Orca Slap
• Yeti Seal Bounce

methodshop

Labels: games

Santa Soundboard is a fun Flash music game for the kids. Just click on Santa and his reindeer to activate different sounds and add to the song. Merry Christmas!

GAME: Santa Soundboard


methodshop

Labels: games, holiday

"For your safety and ours, please remove holiday masks before entering."

Sounds like a wild party. How do we get an invite?

methodshop

Labels: holiday, pics

Have you ever seen a human rollerblading rocket before? Neither had we until now. The adrenaline junkie in this video is wearing some kind of rocket suit covered in custom mounted rollerblading wheels all over his body.

What exactly does one do with said outfit? How about speed down a giant curvy hill head first while avoiding traffic. For some reason the phrase "death wish" comes to mind.

Want to save this YouTube video on to your computer? Here's a step-by-step methodshop.com tutorial on how to rip video files off YouTube.com and convert them for any iTunes compatible device like an iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

methodshop

Labels: video

Santa's elves need your help decorating a Christmas Tree. Take the globe ornaments from them and place them on the tree as fast as you can. If an ornament doesn't have a hook, then place it in its colored box. Watch out for bombs and don't drop too many globes. You only have 3 lives. Merry Christmas!!!

Play: Christmas Tree [game]


methodshop

Labels: games, holiday

What’s worse than risking your health by eating a piece of raw chicken for a bet? How about bragging about it and being completely unaware of the existence of salmonella. What’s worse than that? Confusing salmonella with salmon.

Some people are just too dumb for Facebook.

methodshop

Labels: internet, pics, social networking

Sirius Releases The History of Howard Stern Act III - Timeline Widget



Got a Sirius satellite radio? Are you a Howard Stern fan? Act III of the award-winning radio documentary series, The History of Howard Stern, premiers December 21, 2009. The series revisits the legendary career and achievements of the self proclaimed The King of All Media.

To help promote the series, Sirius created a fun timeline widget that allows you to scroll through Stern's career and listen to sound bites. The widget covers everything from Cruified By The FCC and Fart Man to Sterns' best selling book Private Parts.

In the mid '90s, the radio pioneer was thrust into the national spotlight as a best-selling author, unlikely political figure and an undeniable pop culture force in both radio and television. The 2-week special features hours of archival clips from Howard's personal vault, plus never-before-heard interviews from The Howard Stern Show staff, friends, family, former colleagues and some of the biggest names in entertainment. It's a must hear for Stern fans everywhere.

If you don't already have a Sirius radio, there's still time to pick one up or subscribe to their web only streaming service.




methodshop

Labels: internet, software

Amazon.com started out as an online book store in 1995. They now sell everything from toys to furniture, but their roots have always been in books. So when Amazon announced the Kindle, an electronic book reader, we were hardly surprised. Amazon's vision for the Kindle is to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds.

The 2nd generation Kindle, the Global Wireless edition, or the K2 as it's been nicknamed by fans, brings the Kindle much closer to Amazon's vision. The K2 has a lot of new features including free global wireless connectivity, longer battery life and PDF support. But how does the Kindle 2 compare to its predecessor or the competition? Let's find out.

REVIEW: Kindle 2 (Global Wireless Edition)



methodshop

Labels: gadgets, review

Do you manage a Twitter account for your company? The next time you get the urge to improvise or to tweet something humorous, you might want to think twice. Your tweet could get you fired. Earlier this month, a Vodaphone employee named Müller Tamás unfortunately found this out the hard way. Tamás worked in Vodaphone's marketing department in Hungry. His job was to update the company's Twitter account and monitor Twitter for relevant trends.

On December 4th, T-Mobile, a major competitor to Vodaphone in Hungry, was experiencing severe network outages. T-Mobile notified their customers of the outage by tweeting the following on the company's @tmobilehungary account:

"Hungary's T-Mobile network partly down, software to blame"

The update did little to reassure T-Mobile customers. Instead, it only fueled their anger and Twitter exploded with T-Mobile related complaints. @tmobilehungary then frustratingly tweeted a second time:

"There will be an official statement (released) about the network problem. Please be patient!"

Tamás was monitoring the social media reaction to T-Mobile's outage carefully and saw an opportunity to promote Vodaphone. Tamás thought it would be clever to retweet T-Mobile's last message about their network problems and encourage T-Mobile users to switch carriers.





Here's an English translation of his tweet:

“OK, give us a ring! ;) RT @tmobilehungary There will be an official statement about the network problem. Please be patient!”

Unfortunately the tweet did not go over well with Vodaphone management. Vodaphone was extremely unhappy with his tweet, and their communications director, János Suba, released the following statement: "The employee’s behavior goes against fair competition and we decided the action called for sacking." Yep, Tamás was fired.

It won't help Tamás pay the bills next month, but users on other social sites like Digg.com are praising him with support and bashing Vodaphone.

"Wow, that really is extreme. People that read it probably found it funny and bought humour to the situation." - LukeZbihlyj

"thats just dumb......how strict are the working conditions there that you cant even send out a tiny humorous joke?" - Withitalready

"Seems like companies want it both ways. They want to be hip to social media but they still want to tightly control the message. Basically, the guy got fired for doing his job." - yellowsnowcone

Vodaphone has a thing or two to learn about social media. By firing Tamás, Vodaphone just made the situation worse. The slightly sarcastic tweet by Tamás would have mostly gone unnoticed. Perhaps a slap on the wrist would have been more appropiate. But now, Vodaphone has to deal with a PR crisis they made worse by trying to fix it [thenextweb].


methodshop

Labels: social networking, tech news

Flip Mino HD puts the power of HD video in your pocket. Flip Mino HD offers all the signature Flip Video features you love—sleek design, simple user interface, flip-out USB arm, rechargeable internal Li-ion battery, built-in editing and sharing software, instant uploads to YouTube and MySpace—plus stunningly crisp, clear HD-quality video. Weighing only 3.3 ounces and featuring a slim, sleek design that fits into any pocket or purse, super-small Flip Mino HD lets you capture life in HD anywhere you go. Weighing only 3.3 ounces, Flip MinoHD features a super-sleek, super-portable design that truly puts the power of HD video in your pocket.

Here's a video of Chris Lesinski and Kelly Sutton from Hack College reviewing the Flip Mino HD in their own special way.




You can find the Flip Mino HD on Amazon.com. If you think HD is overkill and are just looking for a low cost stocking stuffer, then check out the non-HD Flip Mino camera.

methodshop

Labels: gadgets, hardware, review, video

There's a new Ziggy Marley app for the iPhone in the iTunes Store. The app, called Ziggy Marley's Music Mixer, allows users to mix tracks, break beats and create their own dub sounds. There are also a couple features that take advantage of the iPhone's accelerometer feature. Just select one of these options in the app and shake your iPhone or iPod Touch to make instant randomized music.

• "Jackpot Mix" - randomly mixes different sounds
• "DJ for Me" - picks a track and then randomly remixes interchangeable reggae riffs

You can download Ziggy Marley's Music Mixer app from the iTunes Store here.




methodshop

Labels: iphone, itunes, music, review, software

Can't be face to face with your friends and family this holiday season? No problem. Just grab your iPhone and broadcast yourself. Thanks to a new free app called Ustream Broadcaster, iPhone 3GS users can now broadcast live video over both WiFi and AT&T's 3G network.

"This is the first live broadcaster ever available in the App Store, bringing the ability to broadcast live to anyone," said Dr. Gyula Feher, Ustream's founder on the company's blog. "From birthday parties, kids’ sports games and baby’s first steps to your latest vacation, this app enables anyone with an iPhone to share important moments with family, friends and more."

Ustream has even added a one-touch sharing feature that allows users to not only post videos to YouTube, Facebook but it will even announce your new video to your Twitter followers.

The app not only works on older iPhone 3G models, but it enables a video recording work around. Apple hasn't updated older iPhones with software that would allow them to record video. But in addition to streaming capabilities, Ustream Broadcaster lets iPhone 3G users record video straight to their iPhones.

You can download Ustream Broadcaster from the iTunes App Store here.


methodshop

Labels: iphone, software, tech news, video

The timeless holiday film, A Christmas Story, is full of plenty of classic scenes like the Chinese turkey, Ralphie's Black Bart fantasies, the schoolyard flag pole and last but not least... the infamous Leg Lamp.

It took about 20 years, but now you too can own the coveted Leg Lamp. And you don't even have to win a contest like the Old Man to get one. They sell the damn things on Amazon.com, and they even come in multiple sizes!

This half-scale reproduction of the Leg Lamp from the 1983 movie A Christmas Story isn't completely accurate, but for a mere $40 bucks it's probably close enough for most Christmas Story fans. And honestly, it's smaller scale will be more apt to blend in with the average living room.

Full Review: The Leg Lamp (from "A Christmas Story")


methodshop

Labels: holiday, review

Wonder what your cats do while you are at work? Is the nanny drinking again? Don't trust your roommates? Did the dog walker forget to come today? Are the kids throwing a party at your house while you're on vacation? Want to keep an eye on your store employees while you are at home?

There are a million reasons to install a hidden camera at your home or office. Installing a security camera system has traditionally been both expensive and difficult. But not anymore.

The Panasonic BL-C131A wireless network camera sells for under $300 and will do everything from email you a photo when the motion sensor is triggered to to let you watch and control the camera angle live over the Internet.

Unlike a webcam, a "network camera" doesn't need a dedicated computer. Just plug in the power and connect the camera to your wired or wireless network. The Panasonic BL-C131A wireless network camera is about the size of a 16 oz. jar of peanut butter. No clunky tape decks. No frozen computers. And since it's so small, it's easily hidden on a bookshelf or a dark corner. It's also very easy to setup. All you need is a web browser like Safari or Internet Explorer so both Mac and PC users can take advantage of this great camera.

For less than $300, this feature rich network camera can really give you piece of mind.

Tutorial: How to Setup and Monitor Your Home or Office Remotely Using the Panasonic BL-C131A Network Camera


methodshop

Labels: gadgets, review, tutorial, video

Making silly inventions is an extremely popular hobby in Japan. They call it Chindogu. Chindogu inventions attempt to solve a problem or make a task easier. However, despite their attempts, Chindogu inventions usually just create new problems and cause significant social embarrassment. But that's all part of the fun.

Here are some of our favorite Chindogu inventions. Enjoy!

PICTS: Chindogu - Bad Japanese Inventions


methodshop

Labels: gadgets, pics

Looks like Apple did a little Christmas shopping on their own. Over the weekend, news broke that Apple acquired the streaming music service and store Lala.

We've been using Lala for awhile now and love it. Do you like to listen to music at work using iTunes? We got sick of trying to sync our music libraries at both home and work. Lala allows you to upload all your music and listen to it anywhere via a web browser. Let's hope Apple's plans on including this feature in a new version of iTunes.

However, in addition to being bale to upload your music to Lala, you can also purchase streaming "web" versions of songs with unlimited listening for $0.10. We didn't purchase many Lala's web songs, but users who did may get upset. According to TechCrunch, "it’s unlikely that the innovative deals negotiated by Lala will survive through the acquisition... If the deals with the music labels go up in smoke, Lala may lose the right to stream those songs. In other words, all the money users have been spending on web songs may go down the drain."

No one is exactly sure what Lala's future is with Apple. Let's hope Apple extends the streaming music deals already in place with Lala and integrates their engineering talent and technology with the end users in mind [GizmosForGeeks and TechCrunch].


methodshop

Labels: itunes, music, tech news

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This is from one of our readers. Enjoy:

"Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard."

methodshop

Labels: holiday, internet, pics

Attention bloggers. Want to join the BlogAds Network? We have 44 sponsor invites and less than 25 days to give them away. Why? BlogAds.com is discontinuing the sponsorship program. So if you have a good blog with decent traffic and want to join, then email us asap. Membership in the Blogads Network is by invitation only.

If you're not already familiar with BlogAds, it's a premium advertising service which lets advertisers display large ads on your site (text and image). See the ads on the top left of methodshop.com? Those are BlogAds. You can learn more about BlogAds.com here.

methodshop

Labels: advertising, internet

TwitBird Pro is a fast and feature rich twitter client for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It has a lot of common features included in other iPhone Twitter apps but TwitBird Pro brings them all together in one great easy to use interface.

You can download a free demo or the full version for $2.99 from the iTunes App Store.

DOWNLOAD: TwitBird Pro [iTunes]



Unique Features:

● Multiple Accounts
● Push notification for mentions and DM between TwitBird and TwitBird Pro users
● Badges to show number of unread tweets
● Landscape mode supported everywhere
● Landscape inline browser
● Address Book
● Group feature
● Cached tweets for faster loading


Other Features:

● View your twitter timeline, replies, and direct messages
● Manage your favorite tweets
● Browse your following and followers
● Compose new tweets
● Reply directly to tweets and send direct messages
● Follow and un-follow people
● Inline TwitPic image viewer
● Upload pictures to TwitPic
● Unparalleled scrolling performance
● Twitlonger supported
● Uses secure connection (https)
● Custom searches
● Nearby searching
● Save your favorite searches
● landscape keyboard
● Conversational Threaded tweets

methodshop

Labels: iphone, mobile, software