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Girlfriends love to connect with each other, and your girlfriends at Buy-Her are no different! Come find us all over the Web:

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Give us a like and get daily sales alerts; post updates; interesting tidbits about fashion, beauty and tech; discover new smartphone apps; and interact with us. This is the place to give us feedback and make suggestions or requests. What do you want to see on Buy-Her?

 

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Our newest obsession. We’;re having a ball sharing some of our favorite things as well as the things we want right now (check out our newest board, “Covetous”). Plus get to know your Buy-Her contributors: Each of our lovely ladies has her own board where she shows you things that light her fire. We’d love to follow you, too.

 

Featured photo credit

Sony Dash, Man

Just after Christmas, I was looking through the sale flyers and saw that Best Buy was offering  a Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer for over $50 off.  So, off I went  to check it out.  There was only one left,  and I picked it up for my kids. Let me give you some history first so you’ll know why.  You see, I had ordered them a nice used laptop for Christmas for a great price, but it wouldn’t turn on when it got to my house.  With no time to do anything about it,  I had to tell them the delivery man broke it, after they opened it up on Christmas morning.  What a great gift, huh? At least the company had very good customer service, and I sent it back and got a refund quickly. But, then I wasn’t sure I wanted to get them another laptop. We have an iTouch. We (I) have a netbook.  They fight over who gets what, no matter what. Therefore, I decided I would give them my netbook, order myself a new bigger laptop, and then get the Dash item, even though I had no idea what it was exactly.  It was $129.99. All the apps were free.  It was based on Bravia. It was a Sony.  And, if it was a horrible device, we could just return it, right??  Plus, I was getting a new laptop. Win-win, people.

Here are the Dash particulars:

• 7″ LCD touch screen displays crystal-clear photos and videos at WVGA 800 x 480 resolution and automatically adjusts the display for upright or tilted orientation
• Access weather, traffic, social networking, music and more with more than 1,000 free apps available
• Built-in 2.4GHz high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g) lets you connect to the Internet with the security of WPA, WPA2 and WEP encryption
• USB 2.0 interface allows access to audio, video or photo files stored on most USB devices
• Listen to Internet radio with the built-in stereo speakers
• Loads and displays photos via USB or from most online services, including Photobucket
• Customize the home screen with your favorite apps and a theme for personalization
• Set effects, rotate and zoom in on photos and play and pause photo slideshows with the touch-screen interface
• Access content from Sony, including movie trailers, minisodes, music videos, game trailers and celebrity themes
• Stay punctual with the built-in clock with battery backup and customizable alarms
• Requires broadband Internet and a wireless network connection

In summary, the Dash is a tiny full touch screen TV  you can play games on and it kind of looks like an alarm clock (you can even use it as one!). The downsides are it has to be plugged in to use, and requires wi-fi to work. There are limited parental controls, like for YouTube. But, if you are diligent in monitoring, then you will be okay.  There is also no direct Internet access, even though it’s called an Internet viewer, there is no “web surfing” with a browser. I see this as a good thing, though some of you may not. It’s good if your small kids are using because they just can’t browse around.  Upsides are you can download hundreds of things for your kids to play like chess and checkers, and of course other crazy things they will like all for free.  But, by far our very favorite feature is Netflix.  Anything in our Netflix queue can be watched instantly. No more DVD’s to scratch or buy!

I am definitely recommending this, though I wouldn’t pay more than what I got it for at $129, just due to it’s limits. It’s definitely a fun addition to the electronic choices around our house.  My kids are enjoying it so much, and I don’t even feel guilty I am typing this post from my big shiny new laptop.

DeleteMe Resolves to Clean Up the Virtual You

New Year’s is just around the corner. Here’s a suggestion for your 2011 resolution: Clean up your online visibility. Abine, a company specializing in online privacy, offers a new DeleteMe service to remove unwanted information about you from the far reaches of the Internet.
Having trouble getting a job or advancing in your career because of “questionable” online activity? Feel like there’s too much about you out there in the land of social networking and want less people to be able to find you? Do you see too many advertisements that are targeted to your online buying habits? DeleteMe comes to the rescue! They can delete entire accounts or remove individual items from search results and databases. They also can control what personal information is viewable to the world.

Here’s a fun informational video about what they do:

For an individual service the cost is only $10.00. Don’t see a service offered? You can get an estimate for the DeleteMe work you need done! Their featured service is to find all your old accounts for you so you know which ones you want deleted! There is currently a waiting list for this service because of its popularity, which doesn’t surprise me. I don’t know about you, but I don’t necessarily remember every single account I’ve ever opened in the almost 20 years that I’ve been using the Internet.

For more information about exactly what Abine‘s DeleteMe service is all about visit their What We Do page. For other awesome privacy features offered, such as their downloadable online privacy suite, check out Abine’s site.

Featured photo: Michael Francis McCarthy

Give Her the Gift of Apple TV

Need a great stocking stuffer or that perfect big gift in a little package? Give her an Apple TV! It retails for $99.00 and is the show stopper gift for a holiday or birthday.

Apple TV allows you to access Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe, and iTunes Store content in high-definition directly on your television. How does it do that?! By connecting to the Internet via your home wired or wireless network! Simply set up accounts for each service from a Mac or web enabled device then join your Apple TV to an existing account for each service and you’ll be enjoying movies, TV, photos, and music in no time!

If you already have movies or TV shows downloaded to your Mac or PC’s iTunes you can point your Apple TV to your computer’s iTunes collection and then watch the movies from your Apple TV! The Apple TV allows you to join multiple computers to it. In our home we have two computers with iTunes collections and our Apple TV sees both collections! In addition to movies and TV shows, you can also access your iTunes music, podcasts, iTunes U, and photos from the Apple TV‘s Computers menu. Just make sure that you have iTunes 10 or newer open on the computer your iTunes collection resides on so the Apple TV can display the content!

The Settings menu on the Apple TV allows you to control the Screen Saver for when your Apple TV has been idle for a pre-determined amount of time. And before you change your television source from Apple TV back over to your DVR, DVD player, or other viewing device you can choose the Sleep Now option in Settings to put your Apple TV to bed until you’re ready to use it again. That saves power, preserves the life of the Apple TV itself, and it’s always good to tuck your devices into bed.

A cool feature that’s coming soon: If you have content on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad that you want to want to see on your TV just start viewing the content on your mobile device then tap the AirPlay icon and choose Apple TV. Streaming to your television begins immediately!

The Apple TV itself is a sexy, sleek little black box that sits near your TV just like your cable or dish box does. A simple-to-use Setup Guide with pictures is included with the Apple TV to navigate you from unpackaging to watching your favorite movies. A Troubleshooting section is included for any of the common hiccups new Apple TV users might experience. Make sure to purchase the HDMI cable to connect your Apple TV to your high-definition television. We bought the HDMI cable offered by the Apple store for $29.95. Note: If you don’t have a high-definition television set you need to purchase one to go along with your Apple TV!

If you have a home theater sound system you can connect it to the Apple TV using its Optical Digital Audio Port. SubWOOF! There is also a Micro USB Port which is only used for service and diagnostics — sorry, no direct external USB device connections! Add those to the computers you have joined to your Apple TV instead!

Using the Apple TV remote control is a little confusing at first because it’s so simple. It has up/down/left/right arrows, a “select” button, a Menu button, and a Play/Pause button — that’s it! So what do you do when you want to navigate backwards from the screen you’re on? You press the Menu button, of course! Easy to get used to, but if you’re scared of pressing buttons I promise you that you can’t break anything on your Apple TV by pressing these buttons so go ahead and experiment.

One tiny (pun intended?) complaint I have about the Apple TV is that the remote is so small that it will get thrown away, dragged off by your child or pet, or irrevocably lost in a pile of papers before your Apple TV dies. Apple knows this so they offer an Apple TV remote app on their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Simply download the Rowmote (99 cents) or Rowmote Pro ($4.99) app from the App Store to control your Apple TV the exact same way the remote controls it.

Also, a time and relationship saver tip: If you’re trying to watch Internet content from your Apple TV but it keeps stalling/freezing don’t argue with your significant other about why it’s happening, just go reset your DSL modem and the wireless router. Clears the problem right up!

It’s a very good idea to purchase AppleCare with your Apple TV so that if there are any problems with it Apple will cover repair or replacement under warranty. The 2-year AppleCare plan is only $29.00.

Purchase your Apple TV from Amazon or directly from the Apple Online Store.

Get Your Geek On: Shirts & Gifts For Bloggers

The Internet is a strange and wonderful place, filled with strange and wonderful people.  And not all of us are living in our parent’s basement anymore.

While blogging and the blogosphere haven’t gone completely mainstream yet (we all still have friends who “don’t get it” and use air quotes when talking about “the Internet”), our cool factor has definitely gone up in the last few years.

Here’s a few products to help you embrace our geek chic.

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