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Wow - doesn't time fly. Five years! The site has changed a lot since we first created it - and hopefully it's now more useful and relevant to you all!

Just click on this link to get started

It would be really good to get a LOT of replies - this is your chance to tell us what you think about your favourite gadget site!

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?

November's prize is the excellent Roberts Gemini RD-55 stereo DAB radio. We reviewed this back at the beginning of September - you can read the review here. Basically we liked it - so we're very pleased that one lucky GadgetSpeak member will win one in our November prize draw!

Remember - existing members all you have to do is make sure you are accepting our email newsletters and have your name and phone number in your profiles so we can identify the winner (this helps us detect people trying to register multiple times with different email addresses - so helps you all stand a fair chance of winning).

I do say only - because once more in October we had a few people that didn't provide that information so they weren't unfortunately included in the prize draw.

As a reminder you can see all the previous winners on our winners page.

Just in time for Christmas!

Fed up with not having your entire music collection available in your car despite all the effort to get your CDs onto your MP3 player?

There has been a solution around for a while in the form of 'low-power FM transmitters'. These plug into the headphone socket on your MP3 player. You then tune the transmitter to an unused FM frequency and then tune your car radio to the same frequency and hey-presto - you have your own mini radio station right there with you.

The only problem up until now has been that these transmitters, despite only having a very short range, have actually been illegal in the UK. That doesn't mean that you haven't been able to buy them, but you did run the risk of being prosecuted (not that anyone has of course).

With the change in law through the Wireless Telegraphy Regulations 2006 that risk has now been removed.

So if you're still looking for something both a little different, new and actually useful for this years Christmas, then these devices are an ideal option.

GadgetSpeak member and contributor 'bigal' has reviewed two such products - the 'Griffin iTrip FM transmitter' and the 'Cygnett GrooveRide FM Transmitter for MP3 players'. He was in no doubt about the better product.

If you've tried any other products in this area then please come and share your experiences with other members.

Ebay was a great concept and virtually created the on-line auction paradigm.

Like many successful organisations that grows fast - there is a danger of loosing sight of what makes their business successful. If my friends experience is anything to go by ebay is entering that arrogant phase that very rapidly growing businesses seem to go through just before they have to eat some humble pie.

How do ebay make their money? By selling things - except unlike most businesses the things they sell are not their own and they are not buying from bulk suppliers. They are simply a middle-man sitting squarely between the seller and the customer. They provide a channel and should consider keeping both ends of that channel happy.

It would appear that bay is loosing sight of this - particularly of it's relationship with it's sellers. My friend, an occasional ebay user, sells various things on a non-commercial basis through ebay and has done so on and off for a number of years. She has a 100% reputation and no negative marks.

Today she received and email entitled "eBay Listing Removed: Keyword Spamming". At first this was taken as spam itself - but a quick check at ebay showed her listing had in fact been removed - completely - deleted. A message in her in-box explained why - in ebays unilateral opinion she was 'spamming' - for which ebay has a different definition to the rest of the world :

"Keyword spamming is using brand names or other inappropriate keywords in an item title or description for the purpose of gaining attention or diverting buyers to a listing"

The offending keywords? "as new" in the listing title. This product has been out of the box once - used once - then put back again. It is "as new". Specifying something as new is not listed as a banned description on ebays spamming page, neither does that fall clearly into any of the practices that are not allowed.

How else is one to describe a product 'as new'? On Amazon 'as new' is a whole category! Yes, it will make that listing stand out from others that are maybe a year old and been in continuous use. Maybe 'old and well used' would have similarly fallen foul of these arbitrary rules.

As for "for the purpose of gaining attention or diverting buyers to a listing" - ebay is a shop front. You want people that want to buy an X to find your listing. I guess listing something and then in the title just say 'I have something for sale' would be fine here - no way that's going to stand out in ebays listing!

The process by which ebay distributes it's justice is similarly authoritarian. An email and automatic removal. Not just de-listing - but deletion without the option to edit and repost. Anyone that has used ebay knows how time-consuming their interface is to get anything listed in the first place especially if you take pictures (which of course should be similarly banned because that makes your listing stand out from others).

There is no opportunity to appeal - no warning beforehand - no automatic checking when you post a listing and no one to talk to. No recourse at all.

In this case the product had been listed for 3 or 4 days, and had attracted 6 bids.

Of course ebay have added the immortal words "We value you as a member of our community and wish to continue this relationship, so we must ask you to refrain from further breaches of the User Agreement and eBay policy" - so that's OK then.

She has now closed her account on ebay and they have lost all her future business. Not much admittedly, but if ebay continues to treat it's suppliers with this level of contempt it's likely to loose more.

My friend also sells on Amazon. Apparently it has a much friendlier interface, is easier to use and seems to have some respect for people that list products, which is strange given that Amazon could quite happily survive without individual suppliers, whereas ebay arguably couldn't.

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!

I hope you've all had a great Christmas! I'm pretty sure I shouldn't eat anything else until at least 2008, but somehow think I will!

The sales have of course started - many of the on-line retailers not even waiting for the festivities to end with sales starting on Christmas Eve. The term 'price slashed' has traditionally meant 'price lowered a little bit' - although this year that meaning seems to have fallen by the wayside. The prices of some of our favourite gadgets have indeed been slashed!

When we reviewed the Funkeys back in September the recommended price for a starter pack was £25 - and the best price we could find was Amazon at £17.99. The price now from Amazon is £6.99. The Oral-B Triumph toothbrush recently reviewed, already at around half the RRP is now only £49.99.

With these reductions it's not surprising people are waiting until after Christmas to buy their gadgets - if you're not seeing your family on Christmas day itself then why pay potentially double for something?

We've posted some sale offers we've come across on our 'offers' page.

Tell us how you've got on in the sales: are you taking part? Looking for anything in particular? Found a bargain you're especially proud of finding? Use the comment area below to leave your comments.

Wow - on the one hand 20 days seems to have flown past and on the other...

...if I'd known then amount of work involved I'd have started preparations a month earlier!

I really hope you've enjoyed the competition. If you have then please let us know and maybe we'll run it again next year!

If you haven't won then I hope you've enjoyed the fun - and maybe even discovered how useful GadgetSpeak can be. Maybe you'll pop back next time you're on the hunt for that new gadget, or mention it to friends and family

We've had winners from many areas of the UK - I think the record for most distant goes to 'kirstralia' up in the far reaches of Scotland who won the fabulous Humax hard-disk video recorder.

One more day to go - and two more prizes. No-one has yet been lucky enough to win the Teletubby - or the fantastic Pure Siesta DAB radio!

Difficult to believe we're already at day 10 in our 20 day Santa's Sack give away! It's getting more and more difficult to think of something witty, entertaining, coherent, intelligent and informative to say in the daily competition email (particularly as I'm sure most would agree I've not managed that in the first 10 days email!). Any suggestions on a post card - or just leave a comment down below!

Hope you're enjoying the competition so far - we've had some great prizes so far including the excellent 160G byte HDD video recorder from TopUp TV and the Myvu Media Viewer glasses that aren't even easily available in the UK yet.

The best is arguably yet to come though with the excellent Humax PVR, another chance to win the Top Up TV video recorder, the cool Chronos II DAB radio from Pure and of course, our top prize of the Polaroid Digital TV.

For a full list of what's still to be won, please check our special in Santa's Sack page!

Our winners page is also filling up nicely. We've still not heard back from one of our Logi3 i-station winners though - so please do check your email!