Wishing you all the best in 2009!

All of us here at Kickstartnews would like to wish our readers around the world a Happy New Year! We look forward to bringing you new and exciting product reviews in 2009. Thank you for making us a part of your daily routine.

Cost of Digital Cameras dropping faster than the stock market

Well maybe not that fast... It seems that the price of entry level point-and-shoot digital cameras are dropping by the week. Over the Christmas holidays I managed to pick up a blue Canon SD1100 IS to replace my aging SD300. I remember the Canon SD300 costing over $450 just three years ago and it only boasted a 4.o mega pixel CCD. Now the latest Canon SD1100 IS costs a mere $160 and has an 8.0 mega pixel CCD, has image stabilization and face detection technology. It's small, light weight, and easy to use and provides great results. Grab yours here.

Palm's last stand?

Last week Elevation Partners, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based private equity firm was generous enough to give Palm another $100 million dollar cash infusion. This was in addition to the $325 million that they gave earlier last year bringing their equity stake to over 25% ownership of the company. Palm has been struggling lately as sales of the Treo device have been tanking - shrinking 13% last quarter and reported a net lost of $506 million. Palm is basically at the mercy of the cellphone carriers who ultimately decide which devices that they will be carrying. Apple's iPhone and various Blackberry models in the cellphone space are a tough act to follow so all eyes are on January's CES show in which Palm is to debut their new OS named Nova. The one bright spot that Palm has is the current user base of approximately 8 million Treo users that the new OS could be targeted to. Does the Treo interest you? Check out these Palm devices.

Year-End Gadget Deals

Save on thousands of electronics with special year-end discounts in our Amazon Outlet. Click the link below for great deals in Camera, Photo & Video, Audio & Video, Computers & Accessories, MP3 & Media Players, Car Electronics & GPS, or Cell Phones & Accessories! Check out our Year-End Gadget Deals! Hurry these deals won't last long!

Happy Holidays from Kickstartnews

Season's Greetings from all of us at Kickstartnews - wishing you all a safe and happy holiday.

Kickstartnews "available on the go" on your mobile phone

Did you know that in addition to subscribing to our RSS feed on your PC you can take Kickstartnews.com with you on your mobile phone? That's right - you can subscribe to our RSS feed and keep up to date when you're out. Using Opera mini, Google mobile, Viigo, or your favorite mobile RSS reader, you can just add this link to your phone's RSS reader http://www.kickstartnews.com/rss.xml and take us with you. We are big fans of Viigo - its free and is designed to run on most mobile phones and Blackberry devices.

2008 - Death of the retail Audio CD according to Gartner

Gartner Research thinks that 2008 will be the last year of the retail CD. They have concluded that the music industry must move away from the retail CD as a primary source of revenue and focus on an online distribution method. The report states that the worldwide sale of music CDs which peaked in 2000 is dropping rapidly and they believe that the current level of sales will never regain market share. They are suggesting that the music industry must provide a digital first or a burn-on-demand process that would see music being made available online and for portable devices such as ipods first before being made for retail release. I guess we'll have to wait and see how 2009 turns out before we can say that Gartner was right.

Smart Plug to save you up to $150 in energy costs per year

Innergie is going to be introducing a smart plug named mCube90G that will potentially save you between $50-$150 in hydro costs per year. The unit which will debut at CES 2009 will automatically cut off power to cellphones, laptops and other electronic gadgets when they are finished charging - thus helping reduce the draw of phantom power and saving you a few bucks in the process. The unit will adapt to the energy demands of individual electronics and channel the charge to the gadget that requires the most topping up. There is no word on pricing yet, so keep an eye out for additional information from Innergie.

YouTube adds High Definition feature to its website

In keeping up with the competition, YouTube has made some significant changes to its website. Visitors now have the capability of viewing videos in a 16:9 HD video format if it can be accommodated. In addition to this new feature, YouTube will be making it easier for users to search for HD content. So far, visitors have been very pleased with the quality of the HD videos and it's a welcome step forward in the online video revolution. One thing that should be interesting to follow is to see if YouTube and its parent company Google can augment its revenue by the introduction of these new features.

Windows XP gets stay of execution

On the heals of Microsoft's $300 million Vista ad campaign it looks like the software giant has caved in to its distributors and has extended Windows XP's life cycle. The January 31 deadline for distributors OEM orders has now been extended until May 30th, 2009. So that means that you will still be seeing the availability of XP on your favorite Dell, Gateway and HP computers in the months to come. Looking to grab a retail copy before it disappears? You can here: Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Logitech ships 1 billionth mouse

Earlier this month Logitech announced that it shipped their 1 billionth mouse. It took them 28 years to reach that milestone. The mouse has since evolved from the early days to now include wireless laser and bluetooth technologies. I'm currently a big fan of the Nano series that is currently in production for use with laptops. The mouse is very precise and comfortable to use and it has a slightly smaller form factor that makes it easy to store and carry with your notebook. Gone are the days of fumbling with USB cables, bulky wireless mouse receivers, and oddly shaped USB stick receivers. The Nano series has a tiny USB 2.0 receiver which basically is meant to be plugged into an available USB slot and forgotten about. If you're interested in finding out more about these great devices, check out the Logitech V450 Nano Cordless Mouse

Acer leads Netbook market share

The one bright spot in the computer sales market is in the demand for Netbooks. So what is a Netbook you ask? A Netbook is basically a small laptop that is about 2-3lbs and is defined by price, horsepower, and operating system. These mini laptops are great for those who want to travel light and still be able to check e-mail, surf the web and work on the go. In newly released data for Q3 2008, DisplaySearch stated that Netbook shipments grew by 160% with Acer leading the way with 38.3%, followed by Asus with 30.3% and HP with 5.8%. Check out the following link for the top selling Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Netbook

Blackberry Curve 8900 Launches in UK and Canada

The latest and greatest Blackberry has launched in the UK today via T-mobile. The GSM unit launched in Canada last week on the Rogers network. I managed to play with a demo unit last week and I must say that I'm very impressed and it is a nice update to the Curve series. It is a cross between the old Curve and the new Bold. More information can be found at blackberry.com