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RTL’s Gift Guide for the Last Minute Shopper – #4 Prada Infusion D’Homme Cologne

William — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:12:17 +0000

I’m a day late with this one due to some unforeseen issues, so Monday will have the #3 and #2 last second gift guide offerings. Sorry for that guys.

With that said…

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to the Scent Aficionado:

If your idea of a cologne is Axe body spray, it’s time to graduate to something less offensive and more intimate. Prada Infusion D’Homme is a very clean, close-clinging scent that smells very fresh, almost like good, french milled soap with a hint of incense and citrus. And once sprayed on, it dies down to a point where if you hug a woman, or get close enough to make contact, you’ll be smelled gently; not something that announces your presence like some of the more bright, loud colognes out there right now.

The only drawback though, you’d better be a confident man with the ability to be “sophisticated” – holding out your pinky finger while eating a Big Mac does count – to pull this scent off. There’s a bit of a hint of iris in the scent too. So think of it as you’re the nice, sophisticated man with a clean scent… that had a run-in with a fresh cut bouquet of flowers. It’s not overly flowery, but it’s there.

As of the last week or so, this has easily become my favorite scent in ages. It’s replaced Jack Black Blue Mark (Japanese Juniper and Ginger Essence) as my prior favorite. Before that, I was big into Thierry Mugler’s Cologne. So I tend to gravitate towards clean, crisp scents.

And here’s a hint. If you’re buying, get the holiday gift set. You get the 3.4 oz. that normally retails for $74.00 and the splash aftershave (same size) for only $78.00.

[ Prada ] [ Amazon ] [ Now Smell This ]

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RTL’s Gift Guide for the Last Minute Shopper – #5 Epson WorkForce 600 All-In-One Printer

William — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 02:57:56 +0000

And on the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to the Home Office Warrior:

Thanks to the kind folks over at Epson, I’ve had this printer for a while, and given my normal dislike for printers, the Epson WorkForce 600 had a lot to prove. As a home office worker, if anything could stop my rampant visits to Kinko’s would be a welcome change. Nothing against Kinko’s… but the coffee there isn’t top notch. I like my own coffee maker at my home office much better.

So how good is the Epson WorkForce 600? I won’t be drinking any more Kinko’s coffee. Let’s start there.

As an all-in-one, historically they tend to get some things right, some things very wrong, or just forget what “all” really means. My old HP PSC 750 did copies, was a decent printer – as long as I didn’t print from Adobe Photoshop – and was quite sturdy. The scanner… eh. It scanned. Sometimes. And it was always tethered to the main machine. Oh… and it was huge. A lapbuster.

Now the Epson WorkForce 600 isn’t exactly a small little guy, but it’s not as heavy, therefore not as move-unfriendly as the PSC 750. It supports a few other things that the prior “all-in-one” I had also seemed to have forgotten; namely fax. Oh, and after you’ve installed the drivers on the main machine, set up takes only a few painless moments, you can use it’s built-in wifi connectivity too. Yes. I can place this thing where my aquarium used to be.

Talking about my missing aquarium – long story there – Epson uses the Dura-Bright Ink in individual cartridges. So if magenta runs out, you replace just magenta… not a combination of magenta/cyan/yellow, like my old HP PSC 750 forced me to. And the Epson Dura-Bright Ink is also water proof. Yes… water proof. Now if only I had the constant threat of my aquarium dumping water on my images… still though. The fact that the ink will quickly dry on matte, gloss, or special paper quickly and not run is something I never knew I missed until I got that feature.

The only con so far – and I’m finding this really a nitpick – is the fact that it has a very shiny black finish. It’s the same type of finish that’s on the fingerprint and dust magnet Sony Playstation 3. It looks great when clean, but now since I can place this thing where I wish, it means more use, thus more fingerprints and dust.

The print quality is a ton better than my prior printer. In fact, in a few cases, I’d almost call this near laser-quality. I saw some banding on some colors, but nowhere near the amount I had gotten used to. But legibility is tops. And I mean to the point I’ll not be ashamed of any prints that I take with me to meetings from home.

With a fax cache of 180 pages, it also feeds my need to use a fax machine. It has built-in double-sided printing. There’s a full-color 2.5 inch LCD that swivels out for better viewing to go along with the internal memory card reader so I can pop in my compact flash, SDHC card, from my camera and it reads from there without any issues. And I can print without even firing up the computer.

So let’s recap. The Epson WorkForce 600 is a darn good: printer, fax, copier. It connects to my network via ethernet, wi-fi, or connected to a computer via USB and shared that way. And it can copy up to 100 pages once I just set it and go. It has double-sided printing and an automatic feeder that can handle up to 30 pages. The ink cartridges are high capacity, water-proof and after a month of using this printer, the quality hasn’t dropped at all and I’ve gone through a full ream of high-quality ink-jet paper.

And most importantly, it will keep me from drinking that yucky coffee at Kinkos.

Yes. I like a printer. There, I said it. And your home office warrior in your life will also like it too – 4.5 out of 5 (“A Must Buy”).

For more information about the WorkForce 600 please click here.

Right now, at Epson and Amazon both have this normally (list price) $200.00 – $280.00 printer for the low price of $149.99. Jump on it. Epson’s instant $50.00 off special is located here and Amazon’s special price – you have to add it to your cart to see the price – is located here.

[ Amazon ] [ Epson ] [ Epson WorkForce 600 ]

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RTL’s Gift Guide for the Last Minute Shopper – #6 Oral-B Triumph 9900 with SmartGuide

William — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:57:53 +0000

And on the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to the Dental Hygienist:

Ever brush your teeth so hard that you see “pink in the sink”? Do you sometimes brush your teeth too quickly and in under 10 minutes get that not-so-fresh feeling again? Not everybody brushes their teeth properly. Too hard, too fast, too little… you get the idea. It’s not all about bad breath but more about proper dental health. Enter the Oral-B Triumph 9900 with SmartGuide.

If anything, I’m the type that brushes for far too long and far too hard. I don’t mean to do it, but with my current toothbrush, I just felt like I was not getting clean enough. After a brief read – I mean, c’mon, the thing has a wireless remote display – and making a neat little spot for it on my sink, I gave it a quick whirl.

Armed with my favorite toothpaste, Jason’s Natural Sea Fresh plus CoQ10 gel toothpaste, I started in and immediately I was alerted that I was brushing too hard. The toothbrush has a pressure sensor. Imagine that. Then I was instructed to move to another part of my mouth – shown in quadrants on the remote display – and brush there for the next 30 or so seconds. All in all, I was in and out, minty fresh in 2 minutes. The top right, top left, bottom right and bottom left… 2 minutes. And once I finished, no pink in the sink either.

Who knew that I was doing it all wrong this whole time!?

A very good purchase for the person that’s worried about their dental health – which, if done right, you will avoid plenty of other problems in the future. Talking about the future, if you purchase the Oral-B Triumph right now, Oral-B has a $15.00 mail-in rebate that’s good through 12/31/2008, click here for details.

[ Oral-B ]

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RTL’s Gift Guide for the Last Minute Shopper – #7 Mint DS 220 iPod Dock

William — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:30:26 +0000

And on the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to the Music Lover:

I’ve already written about the Mint Digital Music Station 220 here before at RTL; it remains one of my favorite little things ever. It can dock and charge up your Apple iPod or iPhone while playing tunes that are on it. And if you’re anything like me, you probably have a sizable MP3 collection that resides on your main PC.

You’re in luck. With the Mint USB wireless transmitter, you can listen to whatever streams on your PC directly on the Mint 220 up to 45 feet away via their Mint Di-Fi™ technology – which means honestly that your music will stream over the air without any loss of quality whatsoever.

From the build quality – it’s surprisingly heavy, to the sound – it’s honestly deeper in bass than I expected and able to handle even Barry White at full volume, it’s a good little dock that matches the finish of my Sony Playstation 3 and fits in well into most any other room by just “fitting in” and not sticking out.

Back to the wireless PC music part. Just plug in the supplied Mint USB Wireless transmitter into your computer and once your machine finds it – my PC found it in like 15 seconds – it’s already streaming music and sounds out to the receiver. That’s it. And yes… it works on Mac or PC.

Currently, the Mint 220 can be bought at your local Best Buy, but at the moment you can buy it online at Mint’s website for an additional $20.00 off using the code DS220 at checkout bringing the price down to $129.99.

Definitely worth the purchase for the music lover in your life.

[ Mint DS ]

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RTL’s Gift Guide for the Last Minute Shopper – #9 KOR ONE Water Hydration Vessel

William — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:58:57 +0000

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to the Environmentalist:

The KOR ONE – all caps like MF DOOM – is a BPA-free hydration vessel. Yes, hydration vessel.

Don’t you dare call it a mere “water bottle”.

Currently on sale at KOR ONE‘s website and Amazon.com, this $29.99 hydration vessel is stylish enough to make you stand out, yet environmental friendly enough to show that you care – less water bottles in the landfill is a very good thing ya’ll.

The 750ml (very solid) plastic container with a very wide mouth is easy to refill – and I can slide in ice cubes as well. Seriously, the mouth of this thing is sizable. And while you flip the KOR ONE lid, you’ll be greeted with a personal mission statement on the replaceable KOR Stone inserts. A good way to personalize your experience.

After getting my personal water cooler in my house, where I trade in the 5 gallon water bottles, I’ve seen that I’ll buy one water bottle while out, come home, refill it for a while. The price is $29.99 and as many bottles as I’ve gone through, to me it’s worth well it mainly because I will keep that many more water bottles out of the landfill. And currently at KOR Water’s website, you can get free shipping until 12/31/2008.

[ KOR Water ]

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