Firstly, the heating irons are heated using infra-red. Remember when that was the stuff of science fiction? Well now it’s just part of every day things like these straighteners. Using infra red means that the heat is transferred through the heating elements a lot faster and lasts longer.

One of the criticisms that have been levelled at GHD hair straighteners down the years is that it is all too easy to leave them turned on and come back from a chat or a cuppa to find that they were merrily burning a hole in your work surface. Now, they include an auto shut-off feature which kicks in after 15 minutes of non-use.

On a less obvious note, multi-country adaptors are included with every set – which is something we think that almost any manufacturer of portable electronics should take heed of.

So, if you are in the market for such things, GHD hair straighteners are probably the state of the art. They’re a product that have been much copied by shady manufacturers in the Far East and the market is still full of unofficial products that can have serious (and even dangerous) manufacturing flaws.

If you’re buying online, visit the official GHD site where there is a website verification tool that gives you a way to check that you’re buying the real deal. If you’re buying on the high street then make sure you buy from a reputable high street stall and avoid too-good-to-be-true deals on markets or from back-street traders.

The Satski from Satsports is another gadget that is fast gaining in popularity with skiers. For those who are familiar with the soggy pistes map that ends up torn and unreadable when you are trying to the decipher where you are on the maze of runs will soon be no more. In a few years’ time we will all use satellites to tell us where you are on a downloadable map, much like in-car devices do now, Satski is here and the answer.

Forward looking ski holiday companies are offering these and other gadgets so when you return a hired GPS system at the end of the day, you are given a map showing the runs you skied, how fast you went and so on. All good fun and maybe a bit of one up-manship in the chalet over that delightful dinner you are enjoying. Check with your holiday operator when you book your ski holiday.

Satski

I downloaded my 30 day trial version of Advanced Web Ranking a couple of weeks ago now and I must say, I am very impressed.

I started off by using our set of keywords to see what kind of data we could get hold of through Advanced Web Ranking. Within minutes we had a rank check for all the keywords in Google.co.uk – with the option of choosing other search engines such as Google.com, MSN, Yahoo and many more. Not only this but you can also check in search engines all over the World. So if you want to check Google.co.uk, Google.fr, Google.com.au – you can!

One of the major advantages is that it can track your keyword rankings over a period of time so you can see what effect your SEO strategy has had over time.

Reporting

You can also schedule updates and automate it so it sends out reports straight to the client in many different formats (PDF, HTML, CSV) – it also allows you to customize these reports with your own corporate identity.

Not only this but you can many different types of reports, for example I enter a website, and one of their major competitors – I can set it to check them both for their target terms. I could then email a report on this automatically. I can also create graphs showing how rankings rise and climb over time, which is extremely useful for spotting problems that may have occurred.

Google API Support

Also you can use the Google API key if you wish, in fact you can use multiple ones – so you can make more than 1000 requests to Google per day – if you have an API key of course. Unfortunately I didn’t have one – but I haven’t had any problems with Google so far, and I doubt I ever will.

Always Up-to-date

One thing that really impressed me is that the day Bing was released Advanced Web Ranking had an update to replace the multiple MSN/Live search engines with Bing instead. They keep everything up-to-date and they support so many search engines.

Set Triggers

You can also set triggers to produce a report when certain criteria has been met (e.g. dropped off page one, or dropped a ranking). Which is very handy if you have lots of projects and thousands of keywords to monitor.

Overall

Overall Advanced Web Ranking is extremely powerful – it has literally saved me days of work over the past month and we have been able to obtain rankings more often allowing us to provide better service to our clients. Overall I would give Advanced Web Ranking 9/10 (I’d give it 10, but obviously rank checking inflates reported search volumes). I recommend you try out the 30 day trial, just visit www.advancedwebranking.com

You can now get the Green Mobile Phone Charger which even when turned on at the mains doesn’t use any electricity and when your mobile has finished charging then the device ceases to use any electrical current.

This is a great gadget for any eco friendly person that still needs to charge their mobile phone often, these are now priced at around £13 from various online retailers.

Green Mobile Phone Charger

The SPVE650 has everything you need and comes with the new Windows Mobile 6.0 for even more versatility. The SPV’s are improving all the time as they have moved on from the SPV C550 and the SPV M600. The introduction of the keyboard just adds a new dimension to the phone use.

The other key features of the Orange SPV E650 include a 2 mega pixel camera, blue tooth, activesync email, conference calling, video download, video playback and GSM. It has 5 hours talktime and 7 days standby on the battery and comes with Micro SD and Mini SD for external memory. A overall great business phone from Orange.

We’ve had a break over the Christmas holidays so that we can have a really good play with our new gadgets, and to fix the bugs that some of us have been experiencing with our own NWA3000′s! Plus we have spent lots of time researching what will be hot in the coming year. So keep checking out Techlounge and let us know your views.

We’d also like to wish the other Blabber Bloggers a great Christmas including, Dr Rock, Mr LetMeBuildIt, Artistica, Mivox, DaveN & Pink Tutu. We hope to welcome more blogger to the Blabber Network in 2006.

Well it’s time to get to the pub for festivities, and we hope that you all get great gadgets for Christmas and not just a crappy pair of socks!

Techlounge.