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We run regular free-to-enter prize draws open to all UK resident GadgetSpeak members as a thank you for your continued support. You just have to remember to log-in once during the competition period and make sure you're receiving our really interesting weekly update emails

We haven't run one for a couple of months - the summer got rather hectic with holidays and enjoying the wonderful English summer!

To make up for that we have what we hope you'll agree is an excellent prize for September - a 10.2" digital picture frame from Polaroid. The lucky winner will be able to spend the long winter months looking at slide shows of smiling faces in the sun and be reminded that the weather does improve (ok - this year only for those of you that went abroad!).

As well as having a large crisp high resolution display this photo frame accepts a number of different memory cards to supplement it's internal memory. If you get bored of last years snaps then it will also play AVI video clips and even MP3 music for your entertainment.

If you want to know more then you can read Paul Smarts review here.

Want a chance to win? The draw is open to all qualifying members (free - just complete this form). If you are a member you have to login at least once during the month. Not logged in? Just click here! Remember to check the terms and conditions on the registration and log-in pages!

According to a survey by NDS, 70% of people couldn't live without theirs!

Digital Video Recorders, those rather nifty little boxes that replace your ancient VHS recorder allowing you to record hundreds of hours of TV without a tape in sight, are popular! Just how popular has been illustrated today by the NDS survey of over 1,000 owners. Surprisingly for something so new the DVR is now rated as the third most indispensable household item after the washing machine and the microwave. That's pretty impressive!

We've reviewed a number of these products from a growing number of manufacturers and they are definitely addictive - once you've had one you'll definitely be loath to let it go again!

People in the survey cite a number of reasons for the popularity of the DVR - the two that ring most true with myself are the convenience (no tapes to find - just press a button, time-record something by selecting it in the schedule, record a whole series) and the role of 'peace maker' in a family where everyone has a different viewing taste. In the 'old days' with only 3 TV channels the likelihood of a clash between individuals was pretty slim - not so with the hundreds of channels now available. With most DVRs on the market being able to record two channels simultaneously there really is no reason to miss out!

In the depths of the biggest credit crunch since the term was first coined (last year) people are making savings - and what better way to save than a night in with full cinema experience (and maybe a nice bottle of red) catching up on the weeks TV? Along with the "Staycation" - the DVR is making "Staying in the new going out!".

We'd love to hear your experience of the DVR sitting underneath your TV. Could you live without it? What's your favourite feature? Is it on your Christmas list? Or do you wonder what all the fuss is about? Drop a comment down below and share your views with the rest of the GadgetSpeak community!

I'm not at all happy with Orange right now. I've been a loyal Orange customer for over 4 years, keeping the same handset for all that time and paying them £30 per month on contract. With my phone coming to the end of it's life I wanted to upgrade to the best phone I could get and keep that for (hopefully!) the next four years.

Before I go into my experience - I'd love to hear how you've faired. If you have upgrade stories (good or bad) please either blog them or add comments to this blog.

OK - my story. Popping into the Orange shop there are a wide range of phones clearly available for free on contract. My choice - the Sony Ericsson k800i.

"Sorry sir, that's only available to new customers - you can have that phone for £100." What? The phones on offer for a free upgrade were singularly uninspiring. Phoning Orange and threatenning to leave dropped the price to £89 - the best they could do. They explained that while they would like to upgrade me they had to position their offers to attract new customers.

My understanding of business is that it is much easier to keep your existing customers than to find a new one and that you should *never* neglect your existing customer base. I was until that point a happy existing customer.

Close to moving to a new provider I phoned The Car Phone Warehouse to see whether they could upgrade me for free. They could - and sticking with Orange. Yipee! I was offered a 12 or 18 month contract and was happy to sign-up for an 18 month contract, moving to the Orange Puma 30 plan. I was told I'd get 375 any-network minutes, 450 land-line minutes and 75 texts per month. Great.

First statement arrives and I have 200 any-network minuts, 100 landline minutes and 100 fixed line minutes - that is a 12 month contract. A call to Orange. "Ahh - yes sir - you're on a 12 month contract. When you upgrade and get a new handset your 12 month contract is actually 18 months." Now I clearly had the choice from Car Phone Warehouse of 12 months or 18 months. I clearly requested 18 months and was clearly told the number of minutes etc that I would have.

A call to Car Phone Warehouse. Hmmm - they aren't sure what's happened but the person that dealt with me will definitely call back. Well of course they didn't.

So - have you upgraded with an existing supplier recently? Are they *all* as aweful as Orange? Do they all treat their existing customers as something they've scraped off the sole of their boot? Questions to ask:

• Do they give you the same choice of phone at the same price as new customers?
• Do they lock you into different terms to existing customers?
• Are they up-front with what they are offering? Look around the Orange shop or web-site - they are full of 'free with £35 contract' - no mention anywhere that if you are an existing customer you might as well not bother looking round their shop and may as well bin the Orange brochure they have.

I'd like to know because as soon as this contract is up I'm moving from Orange. They have lost a hitherto happy customer. The rest of my family will follow in due time so that will be 3 lost customers.

My recommendation is never upgrade with Orange. Always move away from them. What is your experience?

Sony have today announced a reduction in its 60Gb PS3 to £349, with a new 40Gb model breaking the £300 barrier to launch at £299 on 10th October.   We'll be following this race very carefully!

With the Nintendo Wii, XBox 360 and PS3 all in the same price bracket, will the Nintendo Wii and Xbox follow with their own price cuts?  Who do you think will win the race for people's hearts and wallets this Christmas?  We are really interested in your views.  If you already have a Wii, XBox or PS3, let us know what you think - and help others to make the right request of Santa!!

Disney hitched their horse to the Blu-Ray bandwagon a good while before HD-DVD finally lost the race. With that uncertainty effectively removed from the market it's good to see more classics being released on the high-definition format. In this case Disney are releasing five additions to their Platinum Collection : Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 and Beauty and the Beast.

If you've invested in a large format TV then high-definition is going to be the best way to make the most of the technology you have. With this collection your kids (or you!) can see all their favourites in crystal clear quality!

So - hands up if your're the proud owner of a Blu-ray DVD player? Which one? Have you bought any movies - or have you only got one because it came as part of your Sony PS3?

I've just had an interesting call from Thomson telephone directories people. This year our parent company decided not to renew our advertising with Thomson - right now they have enough work and didn't actually have any calls through Thomson as a result of last years advertising.

We've just had a follow-up call to 'remind' us that the 118 118 directory enquires service only lists businesses that are advertised with Thomson!! If we don't renew our advertising to Thomson then our number will be shown in the 118 118 service as 'ex-directory'. To my mind that smacks of strong arm selling tactics.

Although technically there may be lots of phone books, I think the understanding of average Joe Public is that if you have a phone number it will appear in the directory unless you have decided to mark it as ex-directory.

This isn't a huge loss for us, but quite an eye-opener as someone that *might* have need of a directory enquiry service.

Knowing now that 118 118 doesn't offer anywhere like as comprehensive directory as the old BT 192 service is a bit of an eye opener. Why exactly was it that the 192 service was opened up to competition? Apparently not to improve the service to the customers.

I think most peoples assumption is that if they call directory enquiries on any of the available numbers then they will have access to the same underlying telephone list. That isn't so.

It would be interesting to know the percentage of business numbers listed by the various directory enquiries numbers. That would seem to be a good advertising idea for the services that offer close to a 100% listing.

So... if you want to find the number of a business, DON'T bother calling 118 118 - you'll be wasting your time unless they have paid Thomson for the privilege!

Paul Smart sat down today with Aaron Powers from Vyke to talk about their new 'FreeTxT' service. The concept behind this new service for your mobile phone is to reduce the cost of texting (SMS messages). Rather than be bound to your service providers tariff for messaging your friends, your install a little Java applet called VykePro (There is a VykeLite as well - but parts of the Vyke site suggests this does not support SMS - while other parts say it does!).

Once you've installed the applet you use that to send SMS messages instead of the usual phone application. If you are messaging another user that has the Vyke application installed and happens to be online the service is 'free' (see below). If the person is not online or doesn't have Vyke then your message is sent to the recipients usual SMS inbox, for which you will be charged 3p.

The Vyke application exchanges data with the Vyke servers via your mobiles data service. This is often not a cheap operation and there is no indication of the amount of data that will be sent - so although Vyke will be charging you a maximum of 3p per text - you need to understand how much your service provider is charging you for data. This should still represent a saving for most people on Pay-as-you-go.

Paul will of course be putting the FreeTxT service through it's paces in the coming weeks and we'll have a full report!

In the meantime you can read what Vyke have to say about FreeTxT (which is currently in Beta testing) on their web site

Hope everyone is enjoying themselves - and congratulations to the winners so far.

I've sent out todays daily update a little while age and I've been checking email errors. It looks like a small number of you have invalid email addresses on your account. You obviously still exist and want to be part of Santa's Sack because you've come in and checked the box to receive daily updates.

Some of the accounts with errors are people that have been members for a long time - so their email address has probably just changed. Please, especially if you've been a member for a while, check that we have the correct email address. To do this - log in to GadgetSpeak and click the 'your account' link in the top left of the page.

There are a couple of people that only joined at the end of November who also seem to have email addresses that don't exist - or at least your servers are complaining that you don't exist! I can only assume they used a tempory email address to join then deleted their email account once activated - assuming we wouldn't notice! tut-tut. We do look at what's happening on the site now and then!

Good luck every body - only a few days left and I can relax. I'm going to need a rest at the end of Santa's Sack!

By the way - we've added a little page so you can invite your friends and family to join in the last few days of Santa's Sack. Just click here to invite them!

OK - it doesn't quite think. This new range of training shoe though does include some hi-tech enhancements you won't find in the average footwear. Much of the technology is in the right hand shoe.

To start with the sole of that shoe includes a sensor that can measure both how fast you're moving and how much weight you're pushing down through your shoe. Of course sensing that is one thing - you then have to do something with the information. This is handled by a small controller with an LCD display that's mounted on the top of the shoe (over the laces).

The controller combines the sensor information with vital stats such as your age, weight, height, gender that you enter when you configure the device. From this the system accurately calculates the number of calories you're burning during your exercise.

The manufacturers, Airun, claim that watching your calorie burn has several benefits. Firstly you can make sure you're burning enough calories to maintain, or attain your desired fitness level. Secondly you can see how your calorie burn increases as you get fitter.

If you do plateaux then the shoe has an additional trick up it's sleeve - weighted inner soles. Two are provided, a light option at 100g and a heavy one at 588g. When combined with the weight of the trainer this will give you almost 1Kg per foot. I must admit that as a runner I'm not sure about the idea of lifting that much additional weight with each step, but it would definitely increase the amount of energy you burn.

This technology does come at a price though - the recommended retail price being £125.

Do they work? I haven't tried them so right now have no idea (of course, any readers that have a pair, please leave your comments below!).The concept certainly sounds interesting for those people that enjoy minutely watching their performance, that need the additional motivation of knowing they are doing themselves a lot of good, or simply wish to know when they have successfully burnt of that cream tea!

If I'm feeling up to it and manage to lay my hands on a pair I'll report back with a full review (wish me luck!).

More details on the Airun web-site