My Best Toys

Superb accessories they won’t already have

What do you buy for the (wo)man who has everything? The answer is a bunch of less expensive things to go with them. That’s the premis of our Pocket-lint Christmas gift guides for 2009.

So far, we’ve focused on the Apple fanboy/girl in your life, the photographer, laptop addicts, the console gamer, PC gamer,? the AV lover and the music geek. Today is the time for one of the most obsessive of all creatures in the tech world - that of the iPhone insaniac. Read to make their day.

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iPhone Soap

One soap maker has taken their love affair with the the iPhone in an interesting direction with the launch of a Bourbon and Coke scented soap that looks just like one, UI and all. Etsy, through seller twoeggplants, is now selling the iPhone soap, for those who fancy rubbing their favourite gadget all over themselves.

We see the thought process: you love your iPhone you don’t want to be separated from your phone, trouble is you can’t take your phone into the shower. The bar is phone-sized, it’s made from Shea butter, weighs around 3oz and it ships worldwide from $13.

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Notepods

Coming at you out of Melbourne, Oz, “Notepods” are notepads shaped like an iPhone. With the sell “App idea? There’s a page for that”, the Notepods have been created to help designers mock-up how iPhone apps will look, in an off-line kind of way. That, or they could just be used by iFans - “perfect for notes or jotting down the phone number of a hot geek”.

They measure 60 x 110mm and a three pack will set you back $17.95 in American money viaPayPal. The company will post them worldwide and guarantee timely arrival if you make you order by 7th December.

Covers and Cases

There are billions of these things out there but the bonus is that you can never have too many of them. It’s easy enough to get some fairly standard looking ones from Griffin and Belkin and such but the best are the usually the custom made.

Once again, Etsy is a great place to go on the hunt for this kind of thing but a few great ones with a nice geeky twist include - the old school Apple logo, one for the Horde, a Mario mushroom, a Zelda cover, a LOL Cat, a cassette tape, an Xbox, a CND symbol or a tyre tread for petrol heads. While your there, you might want to pick up some iPhone cuff links too.

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Mophie Juice Pack Air

At the other end of the spectrum, you can go for a case that’s completely ugly and doubles the thickness of your loved one’s beautiful, svelte handset. Why? Because it will also extend the notoriously power-hungry phone’s battery life up to three times! Yes, that’s what they call a whopper, or a life-saver or other things positive. You’re going to feel the Mophie Juice Pack Air in your pocket but it’s well worth it for the ?55 that it costs.

The idea is that you remember to charge the case up - remember to do that or it won’t work. Then slot your iPhone into it where it’ll use up all the juice. When it’s done. You can then go back to your thin iPhone and the full charge that it carries itself. Very nice indeed.

iTunes Gift Cards

It may not seem like the most thrilling of gifts but an iTunes voucher is probably the best thing you can give to a die hard fan. There’s no chance that they’ll complain that they’ve already got one and, best of all, it gives them the opportunity to buy more of one of the big reasons that they probabloy bought the Apple handset for in the first place - apps, and lots of them.

Of course, if and when they get sick of those, there’s plenty of music, films and TV that can be purchased with the credit as well. The cards come in ?15, ?25, ?50 and even ?100 denominations, whichever you choose, make sure it’s read and Apple will send some of the proceeds to charity.

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Etymotics Custom Hf2

So far, we’ve had a limit in our Christmas gift guide series that we won’t suggests gifts over ?100. Once or twice, we’ll admit, we’ve been a shade over. The Etymotics Hf2 noise isolating earphones complete with indivdually customised ear molds and a speaker and control to go speically with the iPhone is where we but our hands up and just say, “We’re sorry, but you simply have to spend the money”. These things are too good to ignore.

The Etymotics Custom Hf2 cost around ?180 in full. That’s ?99 for the Hf2s themselves and another ?80 to get your ear molds done. The ear molds are what it’s all about though. One option to keep the costs down is to go half way. Buy your giftee the initial part of the present and explain to them that they need to get the molds done.

However, it’s not them reading this. It’s you. They will not understand the importance of getting these molds or they might but they might be too lazy. So, probably the best thing to do here is claim you’re buying for their Christmas and birthday gifts rolled into one. Then forget and by them a birthday present all the same.

You can get your Hf2s at the Apple Store but if your giftee is already attached to their own headphones then you could always go direct to ACS and see if the compant can make some molds to match.

Spotify Premium

So, they’ve already got an excellent set of headphones? Then how about a Spotify premium subscription? It’ll cost you 9.99 per month but means that you giftee can then download the Spotify for iPhone app and get a free and enormous catalogue of songs on the move wherever they are to listen to as they will. Almost limitless music at their fingertips. A true friend you would be.

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MovieWedge

We’ve all seen stands for the iPhone before but none are quite as cute, flexible or appropriate as a stocking filler then the MovieWedge mini bean bag. Made of soft microsuede, that can also double as a screen wiper, the squidgy device gets a little lip to hold the gadget in place, but then contours to whatever you’ve placed it on. That way you can position it on whatever surface and whatever angle you need. Not bad for under $10 and, yes, they do ship world wide.

“Kiss My Apps” T-shirt

Either you’ll find this hilarious or not at all but think seriously about whether your giftee would wear it. It’s a t-shirt, it’s very much non-Apple official and quite simply it reads “Kiss My Apps”. Everything else is a footnote. ?8.99 on eBay. It’s that or some slide to unlock underwear. The choice is yours; the pain theirs.

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An Upgrade

Nothing will grind more with an iPhone fan than when their model of the Apple handset becomes obsolete as it may have done some time around June this year. What you might be able to do for them for Christmas is to help them out with an early upgrade. They’ll have a contract either with the Carphone Warehouse or O2 itself and they’ll only be part way through it. You’ll need to enlist their help here because you won’t have the necessary details or authorisation, so no element of surprise to this one.

Hopefully, the contract will only have six or so months on it left, in which case it’ll be somewhere between cheap and free to get an iPhone 3GS - plus another 18 months or so on the contract, of course. Otherwise, it’s going to be more expensive.

If the salesperson quotes you too much, then try another one. You may find it’s the same across the board but, as a last resort, it’s worth giving any one of Tesco, CW or O2 direct that you haven’t already tried and see if they can help out. Just mind you don’t end up getting sold a phone for yourself too.

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And finally…

You can of course buy your loved one a MP3-player/PMP as well. So, to choose the best one for your budget and your giftee’s needs, then head over to our Top Products area where we’ll help you find the one that fits. Good luck.

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Tags:
Phones Mobile phones iPhone iPhone accessories Apple Christmas Features

10 perfect Christmas presents for…iPhone insaniacs originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:50:16 +0000

Parents clearly have a lot to answer for. Go easy on us kids

Any of you out there who have started down the weird and wonderful road of parenthood might have started to think a bit like I have. Right now, my little girl is only six month old, so the clothes I wear and the music I listen to and the car I drive all seem perfectly acceptable to her. I mean, she doesn’t really express opinions beyond “yes that amuses me” or ”no, get that out of my face” at the moment. But that’s going to change, isn’t it?

Catching site of this blog has answered my question – kids are always going to look back at what their parents were doing, wearing, driving, and basically laugh their backsides off.

I’ve got all this to come and so much more…

www.myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com

If you have a website that you want to tell us about email us via the feedback form.

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WebsiteOfTheDay Websites Software Online

WEBSITE OF THE DAY ? My Parents Were Awesome originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Parents clearly have a lot to answer for. Go easy on us kids

Any of you out there who have started down the weird and wonderful road of parenthood might have started to think a bit like I have. Right now, my little girl is only six month old, so the clothes I wear and the music I listen to and the car I drive all seem perfectly acceptable to her. I mean, she doesn’t really express opinions beyond “yes that amuses me” or ”no, get that out of my face” at the moment. But that’s going to change, isn’t it?

Catching site of this blog has answered my question – kids are always going to look back at what their parents were doing, wearing, driving, and basically laugh their backsides off.

I’ve got all this to come and so much more…

www.myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com

If you have a website that you want to tell us about email us via the feedback form.

Tags:
WebsiteOfTheDay Websites Software Online

WEBSITE OF THE DAY ? My Parents Were Awesome originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Subscriptions, audio gadgets and quality headphones they won’t already have

Welcome to the audio side of our Pocket-lint perfect Christmas gift guide installments. If there is a music geek in the family or a loved one itching to be just that, then you’re in the right place.

You’ve already done the shopping for the Apple fanboy/girl in your life, the photographer, laptop addicts, the console gamer, PC gamer and the AV lover as well. Now is the turn of the avid listener. Enjoy.

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Etymotics Custom Hf/Sony MDR-XB700

Good headphones are a must; beyond a must, they’re integral to the music geek experience. You can get a decent set for under ?50 but for between ?10-40 more you can really get something special. A good on-ear solution are the Sony XB700 on-ear closed cup headphones. They don’t give a particularly balanced sound - the XB stands for extra bass - but they’re a high quality build and are really good noise cancellers. They’re also rather swish. You can pick them up for a very reasonable ?70.

For the in-ear solution though, it has to be the Etymotics Custom Hf2. Now, the trouble is that the headphones themselves cost around ?90 and the custom made ear molds cost about the same again. So, either you need to be happy to fork out ?180 or your giftee needs to understand that they have to supply the extra cash. This may seem like a faff but these headphones, or more to the point, the tailor made molds are absolutely amazing.

The Hf2 is the one to go for if your loved one uses an iPhone otherwise it’s the hf5. The other option is to find out what headphones yougiftee already uses and then contact ACS , who make the molds, to see if they can do a pair to fit those instead. It’ll take some investigating but it’s well worth the trouble.

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Creative Gigaworks T3 PC speakers

Described by Creative as a “high-end 2.1 speaker system” the T3’s are an excellent desktop solution. The sub will need to sit under the table, most likely, but the pair of satellite speakers and a twisting volume knob will be at arms reach while you pump the tunes. All the cables you need are in the box and they’re a great way of playing music from your computer without having to put it through an amp or send it round to other rooms in the house or however else your loved one might have their system set up.

The Creative Gigaworks T3 PC speakers are a smidge over our notional budget at ?134 but, no doubt about it, these things are worth the extra money. Make someone’s day.

iTunes/Amazon gift card

Record tokens are 80s but the music credit system for today is the iTunes gift card. You can go to just about any music download provider you prefer to get these kinds of things but Apple has a good selection and your giftee can always just take the music to their own media player after they’ve bought what they wanted.

You might find that Amazon gives a better tunes per pound ratio but it’s not worth sweating over. Just avoid Apple if your loved one happens to have it in for all things Jobs.

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Spotify/Last.fm premium subscriptions

If you want to be a little smarter and more 2009 about these things then the gift of a premium subscription is definitely the way to go. The Spotify premium costs ?9.99 per month but means the end of the irritating adverts, a few exclusive downloads, offline playlists, higher quality sound and, best of all, the use of Spotify apps on your mobile phone.

For Last.fm, it’s much cheaper at just ?3/month and you get uninterrupted radio listening, ad-free browsing and streaming, recent visitors to your profile and prestigious black icon. All very nice.

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A to Z CD dividers/MP3 labelling software

Your music geek will of course have bookcases full of CDs somewhere about their living space. Although they might have been organised enough to have alphabetised or categorised it, chances are that they won’t have gone to the lengths of getting a set of dividers for the purpose. Take them that extra distances with a pack of A to Z CD dividers lovingly scuzzed up to look like record shop authentics. They’re made from black polypropylene, printed on both sides and come in packs of 30 for just ?14.95.

While you’re at it, you may as well throw in some digital music organising software too. You can bet there’ll be a mess of a catalogue of MP3 files stored away on some hard drive somewhere with labels awry. Both MP3 Tag and Music Brainz Picard are both excellent bits of free software that’ll sort out the mess for you to make sure the entire collection looks the same and sits on order on your media player.

Recycled Vinyl

We could have written a 10 perfect recycled vinyl list all of its own but go to Etsy “record” and you’ll find an Aladdin’s Cave of gift ideas for the music music geek in your life. Some of the favourites in these massive lists include - coloured cuffs ($6), LP rings ($5), record cufflinks ($12), vinyl clutch hangbag ($20), Kenny Rogers Just Dropped In record bag ($45), dripping vinyl wall decal ($35) and Santana GrooveBowl ($25). For something really special and quite hard to get hold of, then the recycled cassete tape neck tie for $120 will require some nifty international shipping.

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Musical Ruler

Yes, you read right. The Musical Ruler. Naturally, there’s a certain amount of novelty factor to this one but at ?6.95 it would make an excellent stocking filler. The idea is that you put this 30cm device flat down over the edge of a table and ping the overhanging end to make a note. The ruler has markings on it for the eight whole tones in a complete octave meaning that you can basically play any tune.

It comes with a step by step guide from ruler playing master Dan Wieden and includes tips on solos, Rock ‘n Roll, Folk, Jazz and special effects. Possibly the silliest present you’ll see all year but, when you grow tired of the fun, it’ll still work as a gadget for measuring short distances and making pens and pencils run straight.

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Stylophone Beatbox

Following the relaunch of the retro Stylophone, the Beatbox edition produces several different percussion sounds, from bass drum all the way to hi-hat. With different sound “palettes” - percussion, actual beatboxing (provided by beatbox champion MC Zani) and bass tones - this gadget lets you create a percussion loop, which means you can form a beat over which to improvise with other voices.

There’s also the option to connect up your MP3 player to the Beatbox via the headphone socket and tap along with your own records. IWOOT is offering the musical gadget now for ?19.99. Silly but fun and probably quite addictive.

Lecci Mini Mixer

Wannabe DJs take note - there’s a nifty little gadget which could make it easier to play off a couple of iPods. The Lecci Mini Mixer is basically a two-channel mixer that allows you to crossfade between a couple of audio sources. Those sources could be iPods, CD players, laptops - anything that outputs to a 3.5mm jack.

There’s gain controls on both, a great big crossfader, and cue buttons so that you can check what a track sounds like before switching to it. Output is to either an audio-out jack or there’s an internal speaker if you’re DJing to a very tiny party. The Lecci Mini Mixer is available now from the Gadget Shop and costs ?20.

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Rock Band/Guitar Hero/DJ Hero

This isn’t going to work if they don’t own a games console but if your music geeks doesn’t already have one of these titles, then buy one for them - particularly if they have no actual music playing skills of their own.

These games are easy enough that you don’t need any real talent to be able to play them but hard enough to feel like you do. What they offer most of all is the chance to rock out to whatever it is that you love. You actually get the chance to be Brian May/Jimi Hendrix/Ry Cooder if only in your front room. Find the version to suit your giftee best from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero 3, 4 or 5, Band Hero, DJ Hero and all the band specific ones - The Beatles, Metallica, etc. Hours of fun.

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And finally…

You can of course buy your loved one a MP3-player/PMP as well. So, to choose the best when for your budget and your giftee’s needs, then head over to our Top Products area where’ll we’ll help you find the one that fits. Good luck.

Related links:

• Feature - 101 life-saving Christmas shopping websites

Tags:
Audio Features Christmas Sony Etymotic hf2 Custom fit Headphones Earphones Lecci Mini Mixer Stylophone Rock Band 2 Guitar Hero Spotify Lastfm

10 perfect Christmas presents for…music geeks originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:46:01 +0000

First three-dimensional movie to get “accessible” screenings

Disney has announced that it’s going to be the first movie studio to release a 3D movie with subtitles. And not just flat subtitles either - the letters will be in full 3D too. The company claims that the technology to do this has only just become available.

The film that’ll be getting the subtitles is “A Christmas Carol”. It’s taken ?9.5m at the UK box office, with 79% of those takings coming from 3D screens, however those screenings were previously inaccessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing. That stands at odds with Disney’s membership of the?UK film industry’s Disability Working Group.

Disney Studio’s technical executive director, Saul Mahoney, told Pocket-lint that the company has “worked with the UK film industry and charities representing people with hearing or sight loss, to ensure that the 3D cinema experience can be enjoyed by as many people as possible”.

The subtitled screenings are starting from 29 November, and available in cinemas across the UK - you can check for your nearest one at accessible cinema site Your Local Cinema.

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Home Cinema Movies Disney A Christmas Carol 3D

Disney planning first 3D subtitles originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:44:14 +0000

Droid confirmed as arriving on 7 December

Further to our reports several days ago that the Motorola Milestone - formerly known as the Droid - would be arriving on 7 December, it’s been confirmed that online retailer eXpansys will get an exclusive on the phone until the end of the year.

Previously, retailers Clove and Super eTrader were listing the handset as available for preorder, but Clove has now taken its page for the device offline, suggesting this represents a last-minute deal that eXpansys has made with Motorola. Super eTrader’s page for the handset remains online, claiming “stock due 7 December”.

eXpansys has bumped up the price for the handset - Super eTrader was offering it for ?425, and Clove had the handset for ?401, but eXpansys is charging a whopping- ?450. Delivery costs an additional ?6.61. It’s being offered SIM-free and unlocked, and the exclusivity means that it won’t be available bundled with a contract until early in the new year.

We’ve already posted a full review of the US variant of the handset, which is identical in everything but name. We rated it 9/10, praising the docking station, the ease of setup and the sheer list of tech specs. Stay tuned for more info on network deals, which we’ll reveal as soon as we get them.

UPDATE: Treeman has pointed out in the comments that if you put the handset into the basket, you get the option of an 18-month ?35/m T-Mobile contract. The phone itself costs ?50 if you do things that way. We’re trying to get in touch with T-Mobile to find out whether this deal will be offered on its site too.

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Phones Mobile phones Motorola Android Motorola Milestone Motorola Droid

Motorola Milestone exclusive to Expansys originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:23:11 +0000

Animated advertising for Christmas

A new Nintendo advert for the DSi handheld has been unveiled from Wallace & Gromit creator Aardman Animations.

As well as advertising the device - with a little kid sticking it on his Christmas list - the video also showcases Fipnote Studio - a free downloadable application for the device - as that’s what Aardman used to create the clip.

Hit play now to see the ad, and yes, you’ll be pleased to hear, there is a happy ending.

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Gaming Nintendo DSi Video Aardman Advertising

VIDEO: Aardman makes Nintendo DSi ad with Flipnote Studio originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:16:41 +0000

DJ staple could be for the chop

We’ve seen a couple of reports on message boards that seem to indicate that the iconic Technics SL-1200 and SL-1210s may be about to be discontinued. If true, it would be a surprise, as both models represent iconic turntables and are widely considered the industry standard in nightclubs.

The rumours appear to originate from a New Zealand DJ shop called DMC World, which says on its product page: “Panasonic (the manufacturer of Technics) have announced that production of the world famous Technics SL-1200 and SL-1210 DJ turntables will stop at the end of February 2010″.

The turntables have been around for more than 35 years, and are featured in the London museum of Science and Technology as an important step in how music has been played and presented over the last century. Their popularity has ensued due to their tank-like construction, high torque and effective insulation from acoustic feedback.

Another DJ shop - storedj.com.au - reportedly told recipients of its email newsletter: “You hear parents talking about where they were when they heard that JFK was shot, or that man landed on the Moon. For DJs, this news will come with similar surprise. The gracious founder and mother of all DJ equipment, the Technics SL-1200 is being put to bed and will no longer be produced”.

And an Australian dance music website, inthemix.com.au, has a quote from a Panasonic spokesman - Ian North - who says: “It is a sad day today but due to low sales globally in analogue turntables a decision to stop production has been made on Technics Turntables. For Australia this means we will receive our last shipment in March”.

There’s a few question marks over this story - “Why?” is the biggest. Even though DJs are increasingly shifting to CD players and computers to mix on, the 1200s always appear highly on DJ shops’ best-seller lists thanks to their reputation, and despite their sky-high price.

Also, the rumour appears to come exclusively from down under, so the withdrawal could be limited to the Antipodes. We’ve contacted Panasonic’s press office for clarification about what’s going on, and we’ll update this post when we hear more.

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Tags:
Audio Panasonic Technics DJ Tech DJ Technics SL-1200 Technics SL-1210 Turntables Rumours

Panasonic discontinuing Technics 1200 turntables? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:50:48 +0000

Alternative e-reader

iRiver has dropped us word that it’s bringing its “Story” e-book reader to the UK. The South Korean manufacturer, famous for its MP3 players, says that the Story is “stepping up to challenge Sony’s version and Amazon’s new Kindle”.

The reader has an e-ink display like many others, and can get 7000 page turns from one battery charge. It works with epub, pdf and txt formats, and also displays office files like doc, ppt and xls, and image formats like jpeg, bmp and gif - though images will only display in greyscale.

Interestingly the Story has a full QWERTY keyboard, with which the user can interact with an on-board diary and scheduler. It has a voice recorder and headphone jack, too, and a built-in speaker, which can play music or an audiobook, and continue playback while reading other things on the screen.

The device has 2GB of on-board flash memory, along with an SD card slot. That’ll fit around 1500 ebooks, iRiver reckons. There’s optional Wi-Fi, and it connects via USB 2.0 to your computer for loading content. It comes in matte white design only, and costs ?230. It’s available now.

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Gadgets eBook readers ebooks iRiver iRiver Story Video

iRiver Story comes to the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:08:47 +0000

Premium, paid-for accounts due in 2010

While here on the Western side of the globe, Twitter’s plans for profit include commercial accounts with a special layer of analytical access, in Japan, the micro-blogging site has revealed plans to charge consumers.

The paid-for, premium accounts will see a tiered payment model that will charge users to view tweets and related text, images and links of “certain premium Twitter accounts”.

In Japan Twitter is a subsidiary, operated by Twitter investor Digital Garage, and operates separately from the main Twitter service we use in Europe and the US.

The paid subscription options are due to go live in Japan in January 2010 with pricing due to range from 100 yen (70p) to 1000 yen (?7), presumably on an access/time basis, with Twitter said to be taking a 30% cut.

It’s almost certain we will not see a similar plan. Twitter has always maintained it will keep the site free for users, with the service’s co-founder quoted just this month as stating: “Twitter will always be free to everyone whether it’s commercial or personal”.

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Software Websites Twitter Biz

Twitter to charge in Japan originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:46:48 +0000