Everyone’s seen the wonderful new Amazon Kindle - but what about all the other ebook readers out there? There are plenty of alternatives to the Kindle, including several excellent ebook readers from Sony and eBookwise. Before you splash out and purchase a Kindle, have a good look at the alternatives - you might be surprised at just how good they are.

eBook reader
$398.00 - Amazon Kindle Ebook Reader - Sealed & Full Warranty.

With the Olympus VN-4100PC, you can record over 144 hours of uninterrupted audio on the VN-4100PC then transfer files to your PC with speed and ease by way of the direct PC Link. With one simple cable connection, files can be transferred to a computer and be organized, listened to, and even emailed to friends and family. The compact design makes it functional and portable - if you want a simple, no nonsense audio recorder - this is it.

Olympus VN-4100PC
$38.60 - Olympus VN-4100-PC VN-4100PC Voice Recorder 256 MB USB

The TVGuardian is a magic box that connects to your television, and monitors the closed captioning signal of the program you’re watching - it compares those words to a database of ‘offensive’ words and phrases, and when an offensive word is detected it mutes the sound or the sentence, and displays a replacement text on the screen (e.g “Nutty fudgekins”). If you buy one of these, you’re a loser and need to get out more.

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Texas Instruments TI graphing calculators are learning tools designed to help students visualize concepts and make connections in math and science. The TI-84 graphing calculator comes with a USB cable, plenty of storage and operating memory, and lots of pre-loaded software applications - all to help you gain an academic edge from pre-algebra through calculus, as well as biology, chemistry and physics. This is one serious calculator. It looks kinda snazzy too!

Make household communication easy with an easy to install wireless doorbell (or intercom) system. You can use these cool gadgets as a simple doorbell on your home’s front door, or for room to room communication within the house - call your family to the dinner table without leaving the kitchen, or tell your kids to turn the TV down (and go to sleep!) without getting out of bed. Most wireless doorbell and intercoms mount onto your wall with double sided tape, and because they’re wireless, there’s no need to pull your house apart to install them.

Wireless doorbell
$9.89 - New Remote Control Wireless Door bell Doorbell 16 Chime

I’ve just got all my old gaming consoles out of storage and don’t have anywhere near enough inputs on my TV to hook them all up at once. There’s no way I’m crawling behind my TV to unplug cables every time I want to use a different console - so I’ve splashed out and spent a whopping $5 on a cheap little TV input selector box. It’s not incredibly pretty, but I’m going to tape it to the back of my TV unit, so it won’t be visible anyway. Flicking a switch is certainly a lot easier than pulling out my TV and fiddling with cables.

TV input selector
$24.99 - Naki 6 S-Video AV Input TV DVD Auto Selector System New

I’ve decided to take the plunge and buy myself a nice new HD TV (and a PS3 to go with it!). After all the research I’ve done so far, I’m leaning towards a 40 inch Sony Bravia 1080p. The only other contender is the Philips Ambilight, which everyone is raving about - the Ambilight still seems like a gimmick to me, but the Philips does come with a 3 year guarantee compared to Sony’s 1 year. I’ve had a serious look at both of them, and I can’t see any huge difference in the display, but I definitely prefer the front bezel finish of the Sony. I just have to find a showroom that will let me hook up a PS3 to both TVs and compare them side by side. Then I’ll buy one online

After several years of watching DivX movies using the TV-Out from my PC, I finally took the plunge and purchased a no-name DivX hardware player. I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner. It’s so much easier than loading up the moving on my PC, hitting the TV-Out button then running into my lounge room with my cordless mouse to watch a movie. Now I can just take my DivX disc into the lounge room, and watch it like a normal DVD. I feel like a civilized human again!

DivX player
$229.00 - 10.4′ roof car DVD MP4 DIVX TV VGA TFT USB SD Player

Want to hear a score again, need to run to the fridge to refill the dip or pause to take a phone call? No problem! You can even see a list of the last 44 minutes worth of SIRIUS content you listened to and choose to replay a song from the list. If you’re into sports, then these little babies are a must have. Get one now!