Archive for October, 2008

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work…..

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Yep, it’s All Hallows Eve again. That time of the year when small children dress up in various spooky costumes and it’s actually encouraged to ask strangers for sweets.
I’m a massive fan of ‘scary’ movies, so Halloween TV is great for me. Admittedly this is mainly for their comedic value more than anything else, though I’m not entirely sure what that says about me…? That being the case I decided to have a roam around blogs and sites looking for ‘Halloweeny’ type stuff. Of course on our own website at Gadgets.co.uk we have a few gadgets suitable for scary occasions such as our The Thing Crawling Hand.
The following I feel are the best of the ‘Gadgets’ that I’ve found. First of all there is this great Skull Candle Holder.

What I like about this is that when the candle starts to melt, the wax flows out of the eye sockets giving a blood like effect making it look a lot creepier. Something to shock trick or treaters with is this great ‘Pizza Face’. No, it’s not a spotty teenager, it is in fact this rather disturbing pizza with a face seemingly trying to escape, perfect for surprising the poor unsuspecting individuals knocking on your door, or maybe for slipping into the middle of a pile of pizzas at a party…

Although I couldn’t find any pictures of it I was also impressed, at least in theory, by the ‘Haunted Bush’. You strategically place this in a hedge or similar and is triggered by motion sensors. Upon being triggering it causes the hedge to shake violently, make growling noises, and flash red eye-like red LED’s, giving the impression that your garden plants are either possessed or hiding some sort of gruesome monster!

Whatever you have planned for your own Halloween, all of us here at Gadgets Towers hope you have a spooktacular (Yes, I did say “Spooktacular”… sorry) time, I myself shall mostly be hiding behind the sofa watching scary films. Mostly.

Poseable, Personable, Cute, What More Could You Want?

Friday, October 24th, 2008

One of our newer gadgets is the incredibly popular Bubblehead Webcam , and having got up close and personal with one of the little guys this week it’s not hard to see why.
A combination of cute and practicality combine to give this quirky little desktop tool a unique appeal. Needless to say the pink colour is instantly attractive to those girls who have to have anything in pink, while the green is nice enough. What I am most impressed about with this little webcam is the quality, just look at a still taken from the camera below:

The £24.95 price tag makes it comparable with similar quality (but far more boring) Webcams available, and once I have to give him back I know I’m going to miss having the little guy on my desk to talk to!

Available now at Gadgets.co.uk

The Name’s Bond…..

Friday, October 17th, 2008

With the Halloween release of the new James Bond film “Quantum of Solace” only a couple of weeks away I decided it would be apt to go looking for any Bond branded gadgets on the horizon. What did I find other than the rather awesome trailer?

First up is the ‘Limited Edition’ Seamaster Planet Ocean Omega watch. A replica of what I believe the watch worn by the man himself in the film, though maybe without some of the more innovative gizmos you may expect.

Next is the Sony ’007′ branded Vaio Z-Series Laptop. Now admittedly I have in the past paid extra for my special edition DS-Lite, and GBA-SP, so I’m not going to say that this would be a total waste of money, but that you’d want to be a big fan to pay the extra.

If I was going to pay out on any Bond branded stuff I think that until I’m rich enough to be able to afford some sort of custom Aston Martin I shall grudgingly settle for the Scalextric Quantum of Solace Edition Set.

For those amongst us who want something a bit more ‘gadgety’ Corgi/Master Replicas are releasing a range of Bond licensed products under the “Mission Arsenal” label(Images here). This will feature items such as:

  • Nano Surveillance Camera
  • Pen with UV ink revealer
  • Crypto Decoder Device
  • MP3 Com Link Set
  • GPS Hideout tracker
  • Secret Sender Cell Phones

Relive your 80′s TV fantasies!

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

“Michael Knight, a lone crusader in a dangerous world. The world… of the Knight Rider.”

Keeping my Scanners peeled as per usual whilst cruising around the various blogs my nostalgia suddenly took a Turbo Boost off the scale when I discovered this Knight Rider themed GPS unit. This was released in August 2008 in America, presumably to coincide with the release of the new Television series of Knight Rider.

The unit features the voice of William Daniels who voiced KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) for the original TV series. Not only that but with an element of personalisation the unit contains a database of 300 names so that ‘KITT’ can talk to you directly! Situated either side of the display are two red LED ‘Visual Amplitude Indicator Readouts’ (they move in relation to the volume of KITT’s voice) in place of the originally centrally positioned LED readout of KITT’S anamorphic equaliser.

Have to be careful you don’t end up trying to drive through trailers, or turbo-boost over the traffic jams, but all I know is, I WANT ONE!

Nintendo announces new console!

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Well, sort of. Nintendo announced on Thursday 2nd October that despite it’s portable DS still outselling every other system on the market (and breaking the record for the highest number of consoles sold in the month of August EVER!) they will be launching the latest upgrade, the DSi in Japan in November.

Firstly with the launch only about a month away I’m wondering how they managed to keep this so quiet? There was no mention of such a thing existing or even being planned at the E3 conference earlier in the year, but I suppose goes to show the aggressive stance Nintendo are taking on keeping the lions share of the portable gaming market.

The main differences between the DS Lite and the DSi are:

Gone is the GBA cartridge slot, but in come bigger screens, two cameras for taking pictures, can play audio files, and store all these on the built in flash memory, or SD memory. (which if in line with the Wii will take up to 2GB)
Like the Wii the DSi will be able to download games, some of these will be free, while others will cost up to around £5.

Is it too much to hope that with the Camera and microphone we could be experiencing online play with full voice chat and video before too long?

Please allow me to introduce myself……

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

I’m a man of wealth and taste.* I’ve been writing on this blog now for about 11 months and I thought it was about time I said a little bit about the man behind the keyboard.

I started working for Gadgets.co.uk in September of last year doing various things, mainly copy, and blog writing. I was offered the position of Affiliate Manager recently and after some careful consideration, I was persuaded that as all the folks in the affiliate community are so friendly and such a good laugh that it was a move I should look to make! So here I am, having just launched our 2008 Affiliate Christmas promo. Outside of work I am an avid follower of both London Wasps and Tottenham Hotspur , though with both doing appallingly so far this season I’m not entirely sure why (idea’s on a postcard please!). I also like my video games, many an evening is spent on Rock Band, Mario Kart, or similar. Music features highly in my social list, I’ve been a regular visitor to both Download and Reading festivals, and various gigs in between.

I am also something of an actor, and am infamous about the office and among my friends for this clip in particular, be warned it is not for the faint of heart!

*Statement regarding taste is open to interpretation and any claim to wealth is just a downright lie.

Gadgets.co.uk Christmas Promotion – increased commission

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Christmas is nearly here again, but I’m especially excited this year as I’m lucky enough to be launching our Christmas affiliate promo here at Gadgets.co.uk

First of all if any of you haven’t been to look at our site recently I would highly recommend it, as we’ve completely redesigned the site. Since the new design went live we’ve had very positive feedback from customers and both order levels and conversion have improved.

Anyway, onto the really exciting stuff and our 2008 Affiliate Christmas Promotion.

First up we will be running bi-weekly prize draws giving away a super sexy new 8GB 4th Generation iPod Nano. This will work on a simple raffle basis with each sale starting from today giving you one raffle ticket (the more sales you make the better chance of winning although everyone is in with a chance). The first draw will be Monday 13th October, followed by draws on 27th October, 10th November, 24th November, 8th December and finally 22nd December.

Of course with a limited number of prizes we can only spread so much Christmas cheer, so we are also introducing a special Christmas commission structure. Currently every sale will generate 10% commission for all affiliates. However every affiliate generating over £500 worth of sales in a month will earn 12% commission on that months total. And top performers generating over £1,500 worth of sales will earn 15% on all sales that month, so a 50% increase on our normal commission.

  • 10% – All Affiliate Sales
  • 12% – for monthly sales of £500 – £1,499
  • 15% – for monthly sales of £1,500 +

We particularly feel that with the Christmas rush meaning more sales and bigger basket values this structure gives you a real chance at earning some serious cash and some nice bonus prizes!

In order to help you maximise conversions we will be running a series of special offers all the way up to Christmas which we will be pushing out here on our blog and through affiliate newsletters. We will also be providing some great eye catching creative for you to use which will all be available through Affiliate Window once our highly talented team have put the finishing touches to it in the next few days

So if you’re still reading at this point and haven’t already rushed off to start promoting us I guess you’ll be wanting me to reel off even more reasons why you should push Gadgets.co.uk this Christmas. Right then, deep breath:

  • Fresh New Website
  • 100′s of great gadgets and gifts catering for anyone and everyone
  • 10% basic commission, with our special Christmas tier structure taking this up to a potentially massive 15%
  • Fantastic generic domain
  • Established trusted website that’s been online since 2001
  • Me. Not to be too egotistical but simply put, if you participate in our program you will be dealing with me, and just me. So I can give you that personal touch getting to know exactly what you want/need

Of course I’m always available and willing to help. So if you require anything in addition to what we’ve listed here, or clarification on anything please don’t hesitate to give me a shout. I’m on Email or MSN at – Dirk@Gadgets.co.uk, or you can phone me on 01923750075

Hi!

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Just a quick post to advise that we will shortly be providing details of our fantastic Christmas Affiliate Incentive here, and going forward will continue to provide details of our future affiliate activities here as well, so stay tuned it’s sure to be active over the next few days!

If you aren’t already signed up for our affiliate program what are you waiting for?