I just stumbled upon these crazy inventions and had a chuckle – but I just had to share these.  A treadmill desk, and an exercise bike with a laptop stand… genius!  These products are funny, but if you’ve got a job where you’re glued to a computer 8-10 hours per day, then they make a lot of sense.  I’m not so sure they’re as practical as they are intended, or ergonomic, but for an hour or two I am sure they would be a nice break to your normal “BIC” (Butt In Chair) routine.(Butt In Chair) routine.

It’s funny – there’s another way you can easily make a setup like this, on the cheap.  I used to use our ironing board as a laptop table, and it fit just across my legs on my recumbent cycle.  Those are the types of exercise bikes where you are seated in a chair, and the pedals are just in front of you.  I had picked the exercise bike up for $100 second hand on craigslist, so I’d have something that would work for when I didn’t feel like going to the gym (I feel that way a lot).  It looks ridiculous, but don’t knock it until you try it!

Ah, Mondays.  Waking up in the morning is not on the top of everyone’s “favorite things to do” list.  Fortunately, there are some really creative product designers out there making alarm clocks and the act of rising and shining “fun” again.  Take a look at these top 10 coolest alarm clock designs and let us know what your favorites are in the comments section below! By now we all probably have seen those certain projector digital clock radio alarms with the projection features, where the time gets projected onto the wall or the ceiling.  Some of these alarm clocks move off the night stand, roll around your floor and raise ruckus so that you have to get up to turn them off.  Another one actually flies!  Here are 10 of the most fun, creatively designed, and feature rich alarm clocks on the web. Usefulness is debatable on some of these alarm clocks, but overall they all have at least good novelty use.  They are all pretty cheap, as well – so they’re also definitely a great gift idea for the techie geek in your life.

1. Gun Target Alarm Clock

It’s cool because you have to shoot the target in order to turn it off.  Will you be able to do this from across the room, half asleep?  I don’t know.  It might not get you out of bed that easily, if you’re within shooting range.

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A while ago, I realized that I really liked shooting with a monopod for added stabilization in certain lighting conditions.  Monopods are just one legged tripods, just like they sound (mono meaning one).  You might think to yourself, what good is having just one leg?  It’s interesting to note that 90% of camera shake is vertical, for obvious reasons.  There’s this thing called gravity, which is keeping you from floating around the room or cafe you’re currently sitting in. The monopod braces all vertical movement, also making it a very easy to use tool for photographic techniques such as panning, where you use a slower shutter speed and move with your subject as it moves past you.  I love panning in sports photos, as well as with cars.  You can pan anything that is moving, but it takes a lot of tries and practice to nail panned images.  Your subject will be in full or in part tack sharp, with some motion blur at the edges, and the entire background will show motion blur.  Tripods are also useful in panning and landscape photography, but a bit more cumbersome to me.  My lightweight monopod is a lot more portable, and easy to carry along with me on the outside of my camera bag. The biggest advantage of a tripod is the ability to shoot while not holding the camera, or even being anywhere near it.

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Working in the creative field, we are hooked on our technology.  We need it, we use it, we breathe it.  Digital media runs in our blood, so it’s important that we’re always connected.  We like to show people things on our phones, and be able to work on the go without lugging a laptop or finding a wifi hotspot.  Regarding prepaid phone plans, in general – they’re known to usually be crap, right?  Smartphones and data plans are almost always going to cost about $70-100 per month, right?  Wrong.  Not anymore – now you can get the new LG Optimus V smartphone with Android 2.2 Froyo on it, on a major network (Sprint), for just $25 a month.  No contract, and no hassles.  Did I mention the $25/month include unlimited text messaging, MMS, and internet data?  It’s pretty wild.  This phone is going to be a game changer, for many that are paying more and getting less with their current network providers. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re like me, and you’re the type that’s particular about the mouse you’re using, then check out the Logitech G9x.  I spend a lot of time each day on a computer, so the pointing device I use makes a huge difference in my faily workflow.  I enjoy my Wacom tablet as well, but I only whip it out when I’m doing some major photo retouching or if my wrist starts to bother me.  The G9x mouse was designed with gamers in mind.  Even still, graphic designers, photographers, video producers, and anyone else spending a lot of hours on the computer will love this mouse for their daily design and editing tasks.  Whether on a Mac or a PC you will love it.  It’s the updated version of the ever popular Logitech G9. Read the rest of this entry »