I might be a blogger, but I still love magazines. A little while ago we gave away subscriptions to MAGHOUND, a new service that can best be described as Netflix for Magazines. For a monthly fee as low as $4.95, you can get 3 magazines delivered to your mail box. But what makes MAGHOUND special is the fact that each month you can switch around which 3 magazines you receive. So if you're someone who doesn't like the idea of 12 month magazine subscription commitments, and you appreciate having variety, MAGHOUND is for you. Alternatively for $7.95  month you can receive 5 magazines or 7 for $9.95 a month.

Last week, Intel, the microprocessor manufacturer fell under fire for possibly violating monopoly laws and subsequently announced that it would settle with long-time rival AMD by paying them $1.25 billion dollars. The legal battle stems from Intel's business practice of paying for consumer rebates on computer purchases in exchange for the computer company's use of Intel microprocessors. By offering the consumer huge rebates, Intel was able to capture 80% of the market, therefore the company was considered to unfairly bar AMD from a truly competitive market. The terms of the settlement state that Intel will cooperate with AMD to make sure that they are never unfairly barred from the market again by holding quarterly meetings on practices and cross-licensing their products to give AMD greater freedom to produce their chips at different factories worldwide. Intel states, “We have never wavered in our position that Intel did nothing outside the law,” said Intel’s chief executive, Paul S. Otellini. “It made sense to step back and find a way to settle this.” The legal battle, that has been going on since the 1980s, was brought to a head when Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed antitrust charges against Intel in early November 2009. This recent settlement between AMD and Intel does not end their dispute, as both the European Union and New York state governments will still pursue Intel for monopolistic practices.

I love scented candles, but they never are able to make my home smell like it does in Bed Bath and Beyond, unless I wanted to start a fire! The Scentbug from Slatkin & Co is the latest in fragrance technology. Theses colorful little oil fans can be placed around your home and when you insert the oil, it will disperse the smell throughout your home. The Scentbug comes in 6 different colors from pastels to dark tones and its design will fit in with any home. The Scentbug  retails for $12.50 and each oil retails for $4. That is not a bad investment for making your home smelling ...

It was announced mid last week that Microprocessor giant Intel was being sued by New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for violating United States antitrust laws. Intel is accused of coercing computer manufacturers such as Dell and HP into purchasing Intel microprocessor chips in exchange for payment. Rather than paying the companies directly, Intel offered to pay for the manufacturer's consumer rebates, giving these companies a competitive edge and a huge incentive to purchase the Intel x86 microprocessor. Cuomo and the New York State government argue that this violates antitrust laws because it discourages competition in the marketplace. But why is the government ready to spend millions of taxpayers dollars now, especially in the middle of a recession? Could it possibly be because Intel's main competitor AMD is struggling to stay afloat, grappling for a tiny piece of the market? When is it the right time to prosecute big business and when does it simply disadvantage the consumer?

Atleast there is some benefit for those who have to endure watching the Knicks  lose another season, Optimum WiFi will be providing free wireless internet access in Madison Square Garden. More than 100 access points are installed within The Garden, so you will be able to surf the net while some crappy opening act plays during concerts. Free Wi-Fi will be  in the arena, main lobby, concession areas and restaurants. Those with Smartphones can experience limited free access to Optimum WiFi, while Optimum Online customers will be able to have unlimited access.

Everyone and their aunt's uncle is coming out with a Flip competitor nowadays, and Vivitar is no different. But atleast their alternative to the Flip sports some unique features. For starters it is waterproof up to 5 meters underwater. What is also neat about the Vivitar DVR 510 is that it features Infrared Night Vision, and it also comes in four colors - violet, pink, blue and black. Other features include a 1.8" LCD screen, a webcam mode, 8X digital zoom, TV out, 2GB of built-in memory which is expandable via an SD slot, and and a direct USB connector. The Vivitar DVR 510 retails for ...

You might say that Intel as of late, has become obsessed with mobile Etiquette. This all started a while back when a bunch of Intel employees discovered a woman camped out on the floor of a stall in the ladies room, she was busy using her laptop. The situation was so ridiculous that it inspired them to think more about mobile etiquette and all that it entails.  Since then they've conducted several surveys about mobile etiquette an behavior. Their latest survey in particular, "Intel Holiday Mobile Etiquette" finds that most U.S. adults won't tolerate mobile technology etiquette violations, especially during holiday gatherings.

Many of us have been using Flickr, Snapfish, Picasa for our photo sharing needs. Well Kodak wants to remind us that they too have all the photo sharing capabilities of their competitors as well as the ability to create custom goods for you too. The Kodak Gallery has been totally rebuilt and relaunched to give users a better experience than ever. We got a chance to be at Kodak's relaunching of the Kodak Gallery last week and none-other than Housewife of New York, Jill Zarin, was there to host the event. Kodak has improved the upload times so you can upload hundreds of images to your gallery account. There are new ways to share and make slideshows for family and friends and you can track to see if they actually take a look at them.

For those of you that have been following Chip Chick lately, you probably know that I spent an amazing week in Finland profiling Nordic startups and Finnish culture with a group of BADASS bloggers from around the world. So I was clearly excited when I saw that Finland was in the headlines today! The Finnish government announced that it would be the first country to provide broadband Internet to the entire nation by law: all 5.5 million of them.  According to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the law states that by July 2010, each person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabyte broadband connection, and by 2015 it will be more like a 100MB broadband connection. So basically, by 2015, Internet access will be available throughout the country to all its inhabitants. Although the broadband will not be for free, it will be available if you choose to cash in.

WikiReader is the first pocketbook electronic device dedicated to containing all of Wikipedia's English database. The Wikireader can easily slip in your bag, and almost slip in your pocket. The device sports a touchscreen monochrome display that although not very bright, it is easy to navigate and it will even operate in sunlight. Navigating the device's touchscreen is easy, you can scroll through articles with the stroke of a finger and select hyperlinks with a simple tap. On the face of the device are three dedicated buttons - Search, History, and Random. The WikiReader also turns on instantly and will run for months before needing its two AAA batteries to be replaced.

Helsinki, Finland’s RunToShop Ltd. is a company changing the way consumers  purchase online. Buying is about trust. Is what you’re selling me really as good as you say it is? Obviously a shopper would trust an expert or friend more than a product page or sales person. Based on the concept of trust to enhance online shopping, RunToShop is an online tool that integrates with any e-commerce store and lets customers recommend, compare and ask questions about different products through social networks.  This active sharing is designed to enhance trust and increasing online sales. So here’s how it works: companies can purchase the RunToShop widget and integrate it into their e-commerce store. When customers are looking at a particular product in the store, they can easily pull up information about what other customers are saying about the product including reviews or recommendations.  If they want to leave a review or recommendation, the customer

If you know me personally, then you know that I’m a huge Twitter addict, but I have to admit that some of Twitter's usability is a little lacking. 140 characters limits long-winded-self-promoters to just a few words, which prompts the use of shortened URLS for the maximum tweetage. But with the use of shortened links, tweets may contain links to either really cool content or spammy websites and self promoting blogs. So how can we know for sure where those shortened links are taking us without clicking on them? Also, is that twitpic your friend just sent of his breakfast worth taking the time to open up in a new window? If you struggle with these dilemmas everyday like I do, then Brizzly is here to help. An enhanced way to experience Twitter, the site pulls in your Twitter feed and takes its usability to the next level. Plus its mascot is a really cute grizzly bear.

When filmmakers in Tampere, Finland decided they wanted to make a movie in their friend’s basement, little did they know that it would become worldwide phenomena available in 30 languages, with Hollywood quality special effects, that Universal would eventually buy the rights to. Fat chance. Well, it happened. A movie with no real actors, no real budget, that took seven years to film became an online sensation thanks to the passion of its creators and their somewhat different distribution plan. Most movie makers hope to make it big in Hollywood

You can diss and judge Mariah Carey all you want, but to many she is still a Diva and superstar no matter how well her records sell. If you ever wanted to catch her concerts live and could never go, this may be your chance.  On  Saturday, Oct. 10, her performance “Mariah Carey Live In Las Vegas” will be simulcast to mobile (internet enabled phones) and other digital devices worldwide. You can view it at www.iviago.com. It will be accessible in over 200 countries via more than 235 mobile as

Internet addiction may be more susceptible to children and teenagers who are already suffering from depression. After a new survey was conducted on 2,293 seventh grade students from Taiwan, 10.8 percent developed an Internet addiction. The researchers in Taiwan, followed the children for two years and found that ADHD and hostility were linked to Internet addiction as children focused their energies and escapism to online. In girls especially social phobia and depression enhanced the addiction to the internet. However, boys are at a higher risk than girls to become addicted especially if they use the internet more than 20 hours a week. Asia seems to be more concerned about this currently than the US. But as the internet becomes more

Floobs, is a multimedia company based that offers a live streaming video tool. Floobs lets you create your own video channel in which you can broadcast live content directly to the Internet. You can stream live from a DV camera, webcam, or your mobile phone and your viewers can check out your channel on your webpage, Facebook, or MySpace. Not yet available on iPhones, the Floobs tool works on various other smart phones. The idea was born when founder Joonas Pekkanen set-up a webcam in his girlfriend’s horse stable so she could say goodnight to her horse without having to walk down to the stable. From what began as a “pet project,” has turned into a start-up on the cutting

From the outside of this average looking office building, no one would suspect that it's the site of Nokia's most secretive research and development lab. Guarded by a frosted glass door labeled "no entry" hides Nokia's inner sanctum of new product development, cutting edge ideas, possible failures, and future technology. This place is where the next big ideas are researched, developed, and tested. When Chip Chick was granted access into Nokia's inner sanctum located in Helsinki, Finland, I didn't see elves or robots testing the newest products, but instead the clean, simple designs that we have come to expect from the Scandinavians. This international team of rock star visionaries that work at Nokia are combining trends with the newest in mobile phone technology. For example, there was a huge

As you can see between yesterday and today we have been posting items about Finland. Why you may ask has Chip Chick gone Finnish? Well when media agency Finnfacts approached Chip Chick with the opportunity to visit Finland to meet with the movers and shakers of the Finnish tech world, we obviously jumped at the opportunity. Finnfacts, an agency that has been inviting foreign journalists to Finland for 30 years, hosted the first ever blogger tour (woot woot!) with bloggers from TechCrunch, The NextWeb, HenrietteWeber, ReadWriteWeb, StartupMeme, and TechPulse360. Focused on social media and Web 2.0, we got an inside look at how Finnish start-ups are trailblazing in the world of tech.

if you've been waiting to publish your romance novel, or an autobiography, or maybe those two are the same for you, then there is no better time than the present to jump on that if you decide to use FastPencil. FastPencil guides you through each step of the publishing process, from content creation to completion. The service provides free online tools for you to write and edit your book, and it also lets you collaborate with friends so they can give you their two cents as you work. Once you're done with your masterpiece, FastPencil will get you set up with a design for the cover. And when the book is completed, you can choose from having just 1 copy printed or thousands - that is up to you. To top it all off, FastPencil will even distribute the book for you at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and other retailers. They also offer self promotion pages, community interaction, and the ability to publish to ebook formats for the iPhone and Kindle.

Desk Lamps tend to not be the most exciting of gadgets, if you can consider them a gadget at all. But the Learning Light is a lot smarter and cooler then your average drab desk light. Have you ever spent hours studying at your desk and ended up with a headache from the glare of the lamp? The Learning Light has been designed to ease the strain on your eyes. The Learning Light also features cutting edge tech that is designed to "provide a low heat, low glare, natural illumination which helps reduce eyestrain and create a comfortable environment for studying, reading, computer work, and close up/detail work." The lamp comes in several different colors, including red, purple, silver, white and yellow and it retails for $24.99. Also, each lamp comes with fun stickers for you to customize and decorate the lamp with.

Like to dance? Like rhythm games? Well then you have come to the right place, because we are giving away 50 Beta keys for those who would like to test out the newest multiplayer online rhythm game - Dance Groove Online.  Controls are easy enough for the casual user, but for the hardcore, it's all about the 8 button mode. While battling others, the better your character or crew performs, the bigger the spotlight you'll get. What sets DGO apart from other dance games is its personal character progression with avatar customization. With hundreds of different looks, you choose how your character or crew will stand out from the others.