2009

LAS VEGAS--Jabra announced a brand-new Bluetooth headset at CES 2010, dubbed the Jabra Extreme. It's named after Jabra's new noise-canceling technology called Noise Blackout Extreme, and it has dual microphone noise cancellation, automatic volume control, background noise reduction, acoustic shock protection, and an overall improvement in call quality.

The Extreme also features multipoint technology, A2DP music streaming, and new "ultimate-fit" ear gels that promise long-lasting comfort. It has a talk time of 5.5 hours. The Extreme will launch this month at Best Buy and BestBuy.com for $79.

Kingsoft Internet Security 9 Plus provides an impressive display of security measures. Though there's something here for practically everyone, many users will feel overwhelmed by its breadth and complexity.

The program includes tons of functions and options, but its interface is easy to understand and navigate, with a professional layout and an intuitive command structure. If there's a criticism that can be leveled, it's that the program actually offers too many quality options, which can be overwhelming to some users. You can set up a firewall, scan with an antivirus tool, and seek out spyware with three … Read more

SystemUp Eraser 2009 is an exciting tool for removing data from a computer. With a professional design and thorough deletion methods, this program provides great security enhancement.

SystemUp Eraser has a professional-looking interface with an efficient design. Not only were all processes simplified, but also the graphics gave us the impression that a great deal of care had been taken in making this an easy-to-use program. We were able to select files, folders, or entire drives to erase. The program let us choose the level of complexity we wanted to apply to erasing. Each level did a masterful job of … Read more

A new coat of paint can do a lot for a Web site. In 2009, we saw more of an evolution, than a revolution for big site redesigns, but there were a few standouts. Below are five notables (in no real order), followed by several honorable mentions.

In terms of its core design, Twitter itself didn't change all that much in 2009. But at the end of July, the company unveiled a new home page--you know, the one you see when you haven't logged in yet.

Instead of trying to explain what … Read more

Hey, has anyone seen 2009? It was here a minute ago. Under the sofa cushions, maybe? No? Dang, guess it's gone for good. That was fast!

Because this is my last post until 2010, allow me to share some of the things I learned this year:

1. Never overpay for HDMI cables Actually, I learned this in 2008, but it bears repeating. If you pay more than a few bucks for an HDMI cable (you know, the kind that connects HDTV to receiver, Blu-ray player to HDTV, and so on), you're getting screwed. Witness this deal from Buy.com: a four-pack of 6-foot HDMI cables for $9.91 shipped. If you just walked out of Best Buy with a $30 Belkin, take it back!

2. Always look for coupon codes Do you often find yourself wishing for a big, juicy coupon code for the checkout page? A quick bit of Google searching may produce one. Or hit up Web sites like DealLocker and RetailMeNot to browse their coupon collections. I can't tell you how many times I've scored an unexpected discount, free shipping, or some other savings.… Read more

At the beginning of 2009, we made a whole bunch of predictions about the next year in the technology space. Turns out, we are really bad at predicting things.

Tom Merritt’s 2009 predictions: One mass media company will push out an Internet-only or Internet-primary hit (webisode). GPS will slowly disappear (except in-dash, Standalone GPS merge into phones). Some sort of big, public security breach that will cause the change of fundamental internet protocol. Android will outsell iPhone. Yahoo will finally be … Read more

This year's best of show is made up entirely of clips sent to us by listeners. We selected and edited them to make a good-flowing show, but the hard work of collecting them was all on buzztown. Great job everybody! You sent some amazing clips. Stuff we would never have dug up on our own. The following people submitted clips to us by email. Thanks for all your hard work.

NOTE: The first release of this episode was incomplete. This is a repost with the additional content at the end. If you are automatically downloading this episode again, that … Read more

This past year felt like a rebuilding year for Firefox add-ons, with two new frameworks implemented to help guide the future of extensions. Personas gave Firefox on-the-fly theme-switching, and users can expect it to be part of the stable version of Firefox 3.6 when that gets released. Jetpack takes a similarly-minded approach to feature add-ons, allowing programmers to create feature-rich add-ons from little more than HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Expect JetPack to eventually be part of Firefox by default.

In no particular order, here are eight other of our favorites:

Weave Sync is another project from Mozilla Labs, although … Read more