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I draw your attention to the new Cobalt/Black Nintendo DS (which just made its launch in stores and is already flying off the shelves) - quite possibly the sexiest color scheme since…the one I own.

The Nintendo DS Lite is a high-powered handheld video game system in a sleek folding design loaded with sexy features. It’s hours and hours of entertainment you can carry in your pocket. If you haven’t noticed already, I am mildly obsessed with my Nintendo DS Lite (and at this point, my number of games exceeds my pairs of boots!) and the last time we gave it away, it was huge. There was even some mild mud-slinging! So, lets rock the fighting spirit (It was just a triple-header Super Tuesday after all) and try it again!

Combining two of my three favorite colors, just like the hottest new cell phones and MP3 players, it combines incredible functionality with a sweet look: deep blue coupled with smooth black. Yay! And, this time, we are bundling it with a brand-new game, Master of Illusion. Master of Illusion puts an entire magic show in front of you! (Or actually in your hands.) It contains step-by-step tutorials on more than 20 different tricks, allowing budding magicians to master the nuances of performance long before show time. Tricks use all facets of Nintendo DS - magicians will draw faces that speak the name of the audience’s card, or audibly instruct a dog to fetch a selected item. There are also several solitaire games for downtime between performances. That makes it like a gift with purchase (without the actual purchasing!).Do you know any tricks? Share them with us. The absolute best trick (and by that we mean cunning AND fun and maybe a little naughty!) wins this bundle! Deadline to enter, March 15.

I think we are spending more and more time in transit these days - whether chugging along on a subway commute or gripping a wheel through hours of traffic to get to the job we don’t actually wish to be at in the first place. And people who spend so much time in the car tend to make a pig sty of it.

Stains that range from a spilled latte or dropped mascara wand to the leftover Thai takeout that spilled onto your carpet can make your car more of a nightmare prison than a home away from home.

And let’s face it, no matter how great your hair cut and your new coat, if you are driving away in a dirty, smelly, mess…it’s going to reflect on you. In fact, a recent survey by YES Essentials show that nearly eight in ten drivers (77%) believe that the inside of someone’s car tells them a lot more about a person’s interests and lifestyle. When it comes to women’s “inferior interior” in the car, the study shows they are more sensitive to this issue than men. More than one in two (53%) have issued a warning to potential passengers, vs. just 43 percent of men. In fact, nearly two out of five drivers (37 percent) admit that they would be embarrassed to drive around someone who they wanted to impress!

There seems to not be a ready solution to putting an end to our hurried lifestyles (alas, I may never have a weekend off again!), but my awesome new friends at YES Essentials do have the answer to keeping the interior of the car (and perhaps thus our scattered heads) clean! The proprietary technology is engineered into the fabric, not sprayed on. YES Essentials is the only high-performance line of automobile fabrics and carpets that resists stains, odor and static and for the first time, custom-made seat covers and floor mats are available at YESessentials.com. (Check out Splatthemat.com to see how messy YES Essentials fabric can get, and still look new!)

YES Essentials has a special surprise for our crazed and haried Alytude readers - one grand prize winner will receive a complete set of floor mats and seat covers for the winner’s vehicle (worth $500+!). The products are custom-made, so the winner will have to submit the make, model, year, and interior color of their vehicle when notified of their prize. And two runner-ups will receive an awesome prize as well - - one for a complete set of floor mats, and another for a complete set of seat covers!

I will choose the winner by March 10th based on the following info:

1 - Send me a tale of the absolute grossest mess you ever created in your car - or saw in someone else’s. (Extra credit for photo recreations.)

2 - Show you love me (well, at least more than your clutter)! Scroll back and tell me three topics I have written about in the last week, and what, if anything, you learned from any of them.

This is a *really* good one, so feel free to bribe and flatter at will…

PointsandPrizes.com Keyword: HURRIED worth 25 points good through 03/09/08.
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Attention all co-MAC-addict friends and readers,

Just about six months ago, beautiful little iZac came into my life. Never, not once, did he have a problem. Not even the slightest freeze or lag or smudged key. He was, he is, perfect.

Tonight, as I was doing some content work in the CMS for one of my editorial jobs, iZac suddenly froze. I could not shut down, I could not force quit, I could not restart. Nothing at all worked.

My heart started palpitating. Pains started to shoot through my arm. (This has nothing to do with the latte, two cups of coffee, and one cup of kombucha I had today.)

I had no choice but to shut down via the power button. I tried to turn it back on. STILL nothing worked. Finally, because I had no idea what else to do, I put put in the install disc so I could do a hard disk problem check, and it claimed no problems were found. I turned off again. Waited 10 minutes. (Pacing.)

And then it started up again…seemingly fine.

I was traumatized enough that I immediately backed up my entire hard drive. But still…as my computer contains my entire life, and without it, I cannot work…I am still having heart palpitations. Has anyone ever had anything like this happen before??? Is it a sign of impending apocalypse? Should little iZac be writing out his little will???

I could really use a drink.

PointsandPrizes.com Keyword: IZAC worth 25 points good through 03/02/08.

Eek…check out the most adorable gift that just arrived in the mail!

From SimpleTech, part of the Fabrik family, check out the adorable Bubblegum pink portable high-speed USB 2.0 drive. It holds 250 chomping GBs!

It is MAC-friendly, and provides two layers of protection — it offers both local backup software and online backup one place.

Check it out here!

No, I’m not giving any away this time. It is all mine! Feel free to help me name it though.

PS: It comes in other colors, for those of you who are into that sort of thing.

PointsandPrizes.com Keyword: PORTABLE worth 25 points good through 03/02/08.

There’s something of a cycle of plague within my circle of friends. We keep on getting sick. And passing the germs back and forth, allowing it to mutate into a whole other animal altogether. The end result is that we are a bunch of cranks with a whole hoard of tea and Airbourne by our side at all times.

Being that another leg of the circle of germ warfare has recently instituted itself, it seemed timely to add another item to our arsenal.

Dry winter air can contribute to uncomfortable dryness and irritation of the nose, throat, lips, and skin - my own skin is currently resembling aged parchment, and my lips are feeling distinctly unkissable.

The Honeywell Hut-102M is a sleek, compact humidifier that is perfect for a bedroom that is even as tightly packed as mine. I haven’t had one since I was a kid (humidity is not the friend of the frizzy-haired), but recent aforementioned weathered conditions have made me reconsider.

You can use a humidifier three seasons of the year to keep you skin hydrated and youthful looking.

Honeywell has been kind enough to offer five of these humidifiers to lucky Alytude readers. To have your chance to win one, please tell me the tale of your worst winter bug ever. Do you have experience with a season plague of your own? Deadline February 25.

Points and Prizes Keyword: DRY worth 25 points good through 02/24/08. 

I’m having serious budgetary concerns today: mostly rooted in way over-texting the last few weeks and thus, exceeding the limitations of my monthly contract allowance. I was, ironically enough, notified of this via text message. I wonder if that will get added to the tally?
It’s very easy to get carried away gabbing away on your cell phone and before you know it, run into pages upon pages, of overuse charges. And get trapped in a contract that will last way longer than your relationships…no matter how hard you try to break free.

Nothing like a sexy pair of reins to pull you back under control.

A great option for you commitment-phobic phone hogs would be the Wild Card phone by Virgin Mobile USA and Kyocera. Its dual screen, QWERTY keypad is perfect for chatting, texting, emailing, or IMing. Its Bluetooth-enabled and loaded with Yahoo!, AIM, a streaming music application, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and addictive games like Tetris, Need for Speed, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Block Breaker Deluxe.

Pay-as-you-go is the best key ever to avoiding gluttony – and you get to have fun as you do it!

Virgin Mobile has generously agreed to award three of these phones to Alytude readers. To have your chance, leave a comment telling me about your scariest phone bill ever – and how you racked up those charges. Winners will be notified on (of course!) Valentines Day!

Learn more about Virgin Mobile and the Wild Card at virginmobileusa.com

Contrary to popular belief, there’s more to computer art than browsing porn.

One of the pioneers in the graphic software industry is Corel, and they were kind enough to send us some of their most popular packages to try out.

Whether the photos you are editing are of you picking daisies by the shore or pole-dancing NYE, you will love the latest edition in the Paint Shop family, Paint Shop Photo X2. . It’s filled with everything from easy automatic photo fixes to precision editing tools. It even includes a built-in Learning Center to help new users get started right away - perfect for the dark room of anyone, novice to pro.

I think we would all agree there’s only one comparable industry competitor for Paint Shop Pro (which will will not name here, but this other product costs double, is harder to use, AND freezes my computer). c

Another bit of software gadgetry I find myself having lots of fun with is Corel Painter Essentials 4 (which works on PCs AND MACs!) This rocks and it’s totally easy to use: Basically, it turn your photos into paintings. Whether you’re turning a photo into a painting, or sketching and painting on a blank canvas, there’s a workspace in this package you can play with.

Finally, in my hot little hands is Corel Ulead VideoStream 11 Plus. Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus. It is video editing and DVD authoring software simple enough for even me to follow, and lets you easily create professional-looking videos, slideshows and DVDs. My favorite part? You can even create Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio tracks, and add pro-quality titles and transitions and share your movies everywhere, from iPod to DVD to YouTube!

I’m going to award one of these products to each of three readers - for your shot, tell me which one you most want, and how it newly dwelling in your computer will make life better for you or, well, the rest of us. Most convincing story wins! Deadline February 10.

Points & Prizes Keyword: TOOLS worth 25 points good through 02/11/08

There’s just about one thing that can make epic commutes bearable.

Check out my sexy new phone!

Just a few hours out of its box, me and Pearl are already the best friends. Meet the brand-new Verizon (pink!) Blackberry Pearl! Its features include wireless broadband connectivity, voice activated dialing, 2MP camera with 5x zoom, media player, and microSD expansion plus Bluetooth connectivity.

It is, as my maiden text-messagee exclaimed, “hot!” and just may be the most perfect way ever to mark Valentine’s Day.

Points & Prizes Keyword: PEARL worth 25 points good through 02/11/08

The hypochondriac in me is harboring a slight concern I am slowly going deaf (lets just say an underwater effect has been brewing of late, coupled by increasing warnings by wise friends that one should not prostrate themselves atop a speaker at a rock show….sans ear plugs…ever)…so, it may seem ironic that there’s going to be an oddly sonic theme to the next few gadget-centric posts.

I’m a glutton for punishment.

That said, perhaps if I had been using the right products and following said advice all along, I wouldn’t have anything to be neurotically fretting about now.

Sennheiser’s CX300, CX400, and CX500 ear buds are the ideal ear buds for use with portable MP3, CD, MD, DVD players and many other portable devices with 3.5mm headphone sockets. Soft silicone-rubber ear adapters in three different sizes are included to ensure a perfect fit, high wearing comfort and an excellent attenuation of ambient noise. These ear buds, with their in-ear, sound-isolating design, offer powerful, bass-driven stereo performance. Extremely small and lightweight — they weigh a bit more than an ounce — they will go wherever you take them.

The right fit, and noise isolation means I may just be able to avoid blasting my music to block out the noises around me. And maybe will save my ear drums from rebelling any further.

“Canal buds” are actually already pretty prevalent on the market, but Sennheiser’s version is designed to be the canalphone for people that don’t like canalphones. Unlike most in-ear headphones, this remains mostly outside the inner ear. Most canalphones fit like earplugs (which, as previously noted, I hate), wedging themselves deep into the ear canal, scaring off many people and often making sounds all muddy. Rather than placing the driver in the ear canal, with these models, the entire unit remains outside, piping sound through the sleeve.

I read in PC Magazine that “from bass lovers to subway commuters” these buds rock. I’m inclined to agree. And thus, I have a pair of the CX300 in pink (of course!), and I have a few pairs to pass on to you.

I have a CX 300 in pink, CX 400 in silver, and a CX 500 in white - one of each to be awarded to each of three winner who best answers the following questions:

1 - Within the last few days, I’ve posted a few URL links to recent articles. Pick two and tell me what the article is about.

2 - One of your prize options will be the CX500. Check out its spec sheet here, and tell me what accessories will be coming with your unit if you win it.

3 - I assume you are wise (you read Alytude!). Do you think my stupid non-ear-plug-wearing-at-rock-show ass is doomed??

Help! And good luck

Points & Prizes Keyword: GLUTTON worth 25 points good through 02/04/08