I came across Wabbadabba a while back but never looked in any great detail. I've just received a press release though exclaiming that they have almost given away 3000 prizes in their first six months of operation - just for searching. The 3000th prize will be a Nintendo Wii.

I know there are a few GadgetSpeak members that like the odd prize draw so thought I'd mention it here!

Previous prizes include iPods, cinema tickets, Amazon vouchers, a flat-screen TV and a Nintendo Wii (obviously popular).

Search results are provided by Yahoo - and there are apparently 45,000 users each week (not sure what that says about the chances of winning!)

I've just done a few searches - obviously not my lucky day and I didn't win anything - maybe you'll have better luck?

Of course you may well stand a better chance with the GadgetSpeak prizedraws - you are a member aren't you? No? Why not sign up?

It's always good to see common sense work it's way through the thick walls of the music industry. Warner have seen the light and realised (finally) that DRM (Digital Rights Management) is not the way to go and have started to open up their music library in partnership with Amazon's MP3 shop.

The view of the music industry over the last decade seems to have been to attempt to screw more money out of legitimate customers for an inferior product with significantly more restrictions. Today you can buy a CD and be free to copy that music for personal use onto your MP3 player, your tape machine or even your computer. Alternatively you can download a DRM protected track at virtually the same cost (but much bigger profits for the music industry) and have your ability to use that music severely curtailed (no - you can't put it on a CD to use in your car, you can't put it on your non-DRM MP3 player, you can't..., you can't).

It's a wonder the environmentally friendly download industry ever got off the ground!

DRM of course only restricts the rights of individual buyers. It in no way stops illegal copying of music - just search Google for ways of circumventing DRM and you'll see just how badly this technology works!

So... it is great to hear that some clear thinking has been happening at Warner and that they have joined the growing band of music publishers that are seeing the light. Amazon already has partnerships with Universal and EMI so now the only major publisher left out in the cold is Sony!

Here in the UK of course Amazon do not yet have an MP3 shop - so we'll have to wait for the light to reach us!

Hello everyone,

we've completed the first 3 days draws - winners are gradually being informed and will be added to the winners page. However we've noticed that quite a few people aren't completing the minimum required information in their profile to be entered.

As a reminder - you must include a minimum of your name and phone number. You must also check the email boxes for our newsletters (sent about once a month when I get round to them!) and for our automated weekly updates that include a summary of reviews from the last 7 days. They aren't spammy - don't include any advertising - and we've been told are actually a little interesting :-)

To help you out we've put together a special entry checker page. It's here.  If you haven't entered the correct information then it'll tell you what's wrong and let you correct it.

Hope everyone is enjoying the competition - and are taking the chance to look around GadgetSpeak :-)

The downside of being an ardent gadget fan is that one tends to be responsible for a fair level of energy consumption - something that these days is starting to be frowned upon. Well - there's no need to give up the gadgets - but we can all be careful in how we use those gadgets in order to minimise the amount of power (and other resources) that we use.

The Energy Saving Week is an annual event hosted by the Energy Saving Trust. The idea is to encourage as many people as possible to cut their energy consumption by 20%. May sound like a lot, but it isn't - turning off unused light bulbs, using low-energy bulbs or simply turning down the thermostat by one degree - little things can make all the difference.

If you're interested (which let's face it you should be) then they have page where you can make your own pledge.

Don't forget though - global warming is only one of the ways in which we're damaging the environment and unfortunately many of the products aimed at reducing carbon emissions themselves have other signficant and potentially worse environmental impact - for example depleting valuable, non-replacable mineral resources. As with all things - applying a little commonsense can go a long way. Those compact flouresent bulbs you're going to have to buy soon take more energy to make, contain mercury and have to be disposed of in special recycling facilities (that take more power). Oh - and in my experience many of them last a lot less than the claimed 10 years!

As part of the Energy Saving Week - we have reviews of a couple of gadgets to help you do just that - be sure to come back and take a look!

Continuing the trend of ultra-realism Sega officially launch this latest version of their rally racing game on the 28th September for XBox 360, PC, Sony PSP and PS3. If the promotional video is anything to go by the graphics this time will be stunning. The little video to the right is a very small teaser of what to expect!

For those of you on XBox Live, Sega have already posted a demo featuring two sample race circuits, one in a steep sided canyon and the other in a mud-splattering tropical environment. If you give it a go please come back to GadgetSpeak and leave a comment to tell us what you think!

We're hoping to lay our hands on a copy shortly and let you know whether it manages to live up to the high expectations being set by Sega!

If you're not on XBox live, and just can't wait until the 28th then click here to pop over to the Sega Rally site where you'll find many more images along with higher quality video.

(This is our first attempt at adding video to the site and we'd welcome your feedback. Did it work on your computer? How long did it take to download? Would you like to see more video in future?)

Microsoft's Zune media player has been a pretty low-key affair so far, making very little impact on the media player market and even less on Apples dominance of that market. Microsoft however plays the long game, and often wins! Remember how long and how many iterations of Microsoft's hand-held operating system it took to take down the Palm Pilot? Palm had almost 100% market share for a long time and virtually created the market.

New versions of the Zune are launched today. There are three additions to the range : a 4G, 8G and 80G byte model, coincidently the same basic capacities as the new Apple range. The whole range has WiFi built in so you won't need to physically connect to a computer to download. Apart from WiFi though they don't look particularly innovative. Have Microsoft been thrown by the new look iPod Touch?

As with most Microsoft products, the Zunes integrate with Windows, both to synchronize music and to share TV programmes you may have recorded onto your computer.

It looks like Microsoft are still experimenting though - with a launch in the US in November and no UK launch date, so no competition for Apple this Christmas!

It took years for Microsoft to effectively compete with the dominant Palm, but when it did - Palm lost out. Should Apple be worried? Post your thoughts below!

I've been a little quiet on here recently - my head down improving the site for all of you. The changes are now live so I thought I'd let you know what's been keeping me busy!

The biggest addition is the new "gadget finder" function. There's a link to it from the top of the page, or you can get to it from the various links around the site.

The Gadget Finder brings together products from a number of reputable sources into one searchable place. It's a great way to look for that ideal gift, or if you've read the review and want to find stockists then take a look.

You can search based on price, description, supplier or a combination of all three, or simply browse through the hierarchical product tree.

We're going to be refining the products in the directory over the coming weeks and hopefully adding in a few additional suppliers. We'll also be tying the things in the product finder more closely with the reviews our members write so that readers can quickly locate a supplier.

Reviews remain, as always, completely independent and unbiased - and anyone can add new articles or comment on those that exist if you don't agree!