Reader’s Digest has been reporting on life management trends since before most of us were born, so it’s all the more satisfying that the “next big things” roundup in their May issue is not only relevant, but also includes gadgets that we haven’t seen discussed in too many other places. Among them is Intel’s Home Dashboard, a device that communicates with your home appliances and also permits you to control said appliances while away from home via your smart phone or laptop.

It’s worth taking a moment to scan some of the dashboard’s nifty features but there are some particularly cool things worth noting here. For starters, the dash does more than “talk” to your appliances – it manages them. A smart thermostat can adjust the overall heating and cooling in your house (whether you’re there or not) and, according to Intel, adapt “its settings based on the weather conditions, the current energy price and your evolving usage patterns, helping you avoid spikes in cost.” If it actually manages to do that, the other management functions —  including the dash’s ability to anticipate appliance performance problems – are gravy.

The “fun” functions include the aforementioned remote management of the dash, enabling you to toggle on your home security system from the office, say, or toggle off your coffee pot from Aruba. The possible ways to creatively control appliances while away from home are endless.

Reader’s Digest says the dash resembles an oversized iPhone, though a more accurate description might be stately iPad. Interestingly, Intel powers the dash with an Atom processor-based platform, cousin to the better-performing processors found in some netbooks.

A prototype for the dashboard premiered in January 2010, Reader’s Digest notes, and Intel will conduct some pilot programs in selected homes this year.

Image source: Intel

Maybe you didn’t take our advice about not buying an iPad, and you’re running one of its gaming apps right now. Or perhaps you’re nursing a bitter cup of coffee-house coffee as you watch “Fringe” on your laptop. Or maybe you’re just trying to find a song you can still stand on your MP3. No matter what you happen to be doing, we’re almost certain of one thing: at some point today, you probably spent some time trying to untangle your earbuds in an attempt to plug them into the device of your choice.

The solution: Retractable ear buds.

If you’ve ever used a bad tape measure whose tape refuses to retract into its casing gracefully, then you have reason to be skeptical of any retractable gadget. So here’s a strategy: try the Retrak Stereo Earbuds, as sturdy as models that sell for twice that — even models sold by Retrak — and at $9.99, won’t break the bank.

You’ll have about a yard of cord to play with on this thing, as well as clip if you ever use one. And if you manage to  lose these buds, sit on them, or break them, your outlay’s still less than the bitter coffee and sandwich you probably just bought at the coffee shop.

On the bright side: While these things are working, the next time you’re walking down the street, riding the bus, or about to brave the treadmill, think about all the hours of your life you’re getting back by not having to untangle before plugging in.

Image source: ReTrak

The “magical and revolutionary” $499 iPad hits the Apple store today, and with beans has got to side with Fast Company writer Gina Trapani’s caution that you should not run out and buy an iPad just yet.

Trapani’s first point goes to the fact that first-gen Apple products unapologetically come to market in a sometimes half-baked fashion. She points to the early iPhone adopters who felt burned by spending $500-$600 on a product whose price dip was inversely proportional to its performance improvement, to the point where as of this writing, Trapani notes, the iPhone “3G is now on sale for a measly $100, one fifth of the price of the first generation’s cheapest model.”

She goes on to say very eloquently that “next year’s iPad will be faster, cheaper, less buggy, and have better apps and worthy competitors. Let all the deep-pocketed Jobs apostles be your canaries into the iPad coalmine.”

Trapani’s other salient point perhaps goes against the grain of folks who buy gadgets for the sake of having gadgets, but she suggests quite frankly that “you don’t know if you need an iPad yet. If you’ve already got a smartphone and a laptop, the gap in your workflow that the iPad might fill isn’t obvious, and discerning consumers only absorb gadgets that fulfill a need.”

If you all are too young to remember the debut of the first Mac, withbeans.com’s technology correspondent does, because he dropped three grand on the Mac 512K in the early ‘80s, only to watch the Mac Plus come out a few months later. This is what’s classically referred to as “planned obsolescence,” and we’re not afraid to say that Apple is famous for it. So watch out for that little trick, too.

What do you think, dear withbeans readers? Are you inclined to wait to buy your iPad, or in your world is it okay to have a new gadget just because?

Image source: Apple

Bluetooth speakerphones that do double duty as a hands-free car kit and conference speaker are not so common that they’ve become passé but enough have come to market that it’s already a struggle to figure out which of these gadgets is ahead of the pack. Well, if having your Bluetooth go green packs appeal, Scosche Industries unveiled a solar Bluetooth speakerphone at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show that also ended up in a CES travel gadget round-up by Travel & Leisure.

Like most Bluetooth speakers designed with motorists in mind, the solChat, as it’s called, will take a charge from an old-school USB hookup or car adapter, but thereafter can be clipped to the windshield visor or can be suctioned directly to the windshield to soak up the sun’s rays; according to the manufacturer the “integrated solar panel continuously re-charges the lithium ion battery.”

In all other respects the unit functions like most other similar Bluetooth speakers do, so the embedded how-to video, while not absolutely necessary, gives you a good idea of how delightfully small the folks at Scosche managed to make this product.

Image source:  Scosche Industries

Ask a random bystander if he’s into online gambling and he might sniff that he doesn’t waste his money on games of chance. Ask him instead if he ever bought a refurbished piece of electronic equipment from an online retailer and he might say sure, from time to time. Well, newsflash, bystander, that’s online gambling.

Some online retailers will permit you to send back a refurb as easily as you would a new item, issuing you a magical RMA (return merchandise authorization, aka return material authorization). But just as often, you may find that your retailer’s policy is to replace your refurb rather than credit your original form of payment. A “with beans” correspondent recently tried to use a retailer’s online form to return a lousy refurbished phone and the knee-jerk response of the form was to spit back the response that an RMA could not be issued for the item. In so many words, the retailer’s was saying “Either keep your lousy phone or have us send you one that you now have reason to believe may suck just as much.”

Well, there’s a fiendishly simple way to get around that, and it comes down to three magic words: email or call the customer service department and say you understand the policy but that you see this as a customer satisfaction issue. Coolly dropping this phrase works almost every time, because linguistically and otherwise you’ve sidestepped the Draconian return policy and elevated your case to a realm that’s a bit more intangible. In the case of the bum phone, our correspondent sent an email with that phrase and within ten minutes got a response – by phone – from an apologetic rep who never once lectured him about the restrictive, stated return policy and graciously issued an RMA. That’s good news for you, very smart business for them.

Image source: Davide Vizzini via Wikimedia Commons

For the average consumer, going green can be a multi-part question: What green products can I introduce into my daily life, are they really making a difference when it comes to saving energy and the environment, and are these products any good? Answers to all of these questions intersect neatly in an unlikely place – an Amazon Listmania! List on the Best of Green Gadgets and Energy Savers.

A Listmania list can sometimes be self-serving affair constructed around the motivation of the lister – that’s not a cynical comment, it’s just the way it is, as all of the products on the list are for sale. But given that all Amazon reviews have user comments attached to them, the list begins to feel more objective.

The selling point of the green gadgets list, quite simply, is that it’s a good discussion starter for your household. Many of us know there are little ways we could be saving energy, but we’re not often armed with enough information about them. Did you know there was such a thing as a handheld electricity usage monitor that, according to the manufacturer, “shows the operating costs of your household appliances” and “calculates cost and forecasts by week, month and year”? Perhaps you heard tell of such a thing, but does it work? Two hundred customer reviews add up to a cumulative 4 ½ star rating, which, if you’re accustomed to relying on user reviews, is a good sign. The “works great, fast results” type of comment dominates, but look for yourself. As with any product, it’s the details, even within the positive reviews, that call the product’s usefulness for you into question.

Among the list’s items is one that’s decidedly old school –a classic push-reel lawn mower that users say is safer, quieter, and better for the environment. But in the words of one user it requires “a little more elbow grease” especially on hills. So you might want to ask yourself, is that additional exercise going to benefit you in the long term, or will it cause a strain? Hypothetical questions, of course, but all worth asking if you’re thinking about new ways to go green.

Image Source: P3 International

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) still generates enough buzz that CNET’s into its fifth year of nominating products for its Best of CES Awards, and among the gadgets that made the cut for its Best of CES 2010 round-up is the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid.

Hearing the word “hybrid” associated with a car may not immediately generate skepticism about whether and how well it works, but when it comes to smaller gadgets it’s a natural reaction, and CNET raises good questions about this notebook whose screen undocks from the keyboard “to become its own handheld Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered tablet.” CNET makes the point that a Lenovo rep demonstrated the undocking at the show, which makes the reviewers “curious as to how delicate the procedure is and whether the laptop might accidentally disconnect under casual use” and also wonder “will both devices sync well with each other? Will the battery life be suitable? None of these could be determined in the space of a few minutes.”

Those concerns aside, it’s hard to deny not only how cool this thing looks but how cool it would be to utilize it in a presentation if it actually works the way it should. CNET noted that the tablet’s touchscreen performance and video playback was a mixed bag, but the one feature to get excited about is that “the base, when detached, can continue to function as its own Core 2 computer independent of the tablet–a monitor would need to be attached, but it opens up possibilities for the U1 to truly act as two devices in one. Separate batteries and Wi-Fi antennas are contained in both the base and the tablet screen, while the tablet has the 3G and Bluetooth antennas, as well as speakers and a webcam.”

This kind of redundancy, we’ll say again, is exciting, especially when you consider how versatile the hybrid would be if, say, at a trade show you could easily attach another monitor to the U1’s keyboard to let your colleague continue demonstrating an app at your company’s booth while you ran off with the tablet to demo something else. Practically, it would probably be easier to have two separate devices, but that’s where the cleverness of the end-user comes in – how could having this undockable tablet really save me time and energy on a day-to-day basis? What do you think?

Image source: Lenovo

If you’ve ever spent sleepless nights watching infomercials for the Miracle Brownie Pan or Miracle Mop, you’re hit over the head with the notion that you need to take these things you’re already doing, like making brownies or mopping up the ensuing mess — and do them better.

Never mind that every gadget appears to be “miraculous” or “magical” – that’s the marketing department’s handiwork — but if you start with that entirely viable idea of doing something better that you’re already doing and reframe it a bit so that it becomes “How can I take something that I really can’t do at all and do it,” you end up with a gadget like Joby’s Gorillapod, the flexible tripod that permits you to mount your cameras and other devices seemingly anywhere.

There are seven versions of the Gorillapod now, including the original camera mount and models for heavier-duty cameras and handheld devices as well as magnetic version that could turn your car door, say, into a base for a tripod so you can self-time that photo of you and your family at a windy scenic overlook.

One reason Gorillapod seems almost effortlessly life-changing as an invention is that without our realizing it, the makers plant a few possible uses for it in our head and then inspire us to come up with others. The press area of the company’s Web site provides a trove of ideas – take the tree limb with the camera mounted to it; there’s no real context for the photo, but perhaps it’ll put you in mind of the tree in your backyard that can now provide an assist when you want to shoot your family holiday card.

Rather than just make perfect brownies, the Gorillapod can be plugged into almost any situation we get ourselves into – it’s open ended – the mark, one could argue, of an admirable invention.

Image source: Joby