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If you looking to cut your home office phone bills this year, check out ooma’s Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills.

According to ooma’s website, “ooma is an award-winning product that gives you free home phone service. Quite simply, no more nickel and dime fees and no more monthly phone bills. Acclaimed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Business Week, and featured as one of the year’s hottest products in Parade and In Style magazines, ooma offers premium home phone service as it was meant to be.”

• Enjoy unlimited US calling, exceptional voice quality, and must-have features with no monthly fees or contracts
• Receive caller-ID, call-waiting, and voicemail at no extra charge; Pay as you go for low-cost international calls
• Hear voicemail and customize settings in the ooma Lounge
• Try out ooma’s enhanced calling features with a free trial of ooma Premier, which includes a free second phone line, real-time message screening, one-touch Do Not Disturb and Send to Voicemail, a second personal number with private voicemail, and more

Currently available on Amazon.com for $219.90

If you are looking to purchase gadgets for work or gifts for this holiday season, here is a great tip from the book Rule The Web by Mark Frauenfelder…

Find bargains on eBay by searching for misspelled items

“Bless our educational system for produciing so many people who can’t spell. Many sellers on eBay accidentally misspell the name of the thing they’re selling. Go to eBay and do a search on “plam”. You’ll find lots of Palm brand handheld computers and cell phones for sale (as well as plenty of “plam” tree art jewelry).  A “plam” is often bargain priced, because it doesn’t show up when people search for a “palm” Pilot or Treo cell phone. Other words to try: “micorsoft”, “snoy”, and “dinsey”.

Even easier: go to the Misspelled Auction Search Engine and enter the correct spelling for an item, and it’ll search eBay using multiple misspelled variants at once. Used in conjunction with sniping, this is the best bet for getting a great deal on eBay.

If the tensions of the season interfere with your good cheer, arm yourself with these simple phrases from the Real Simple Magazine story 10 Things to Say to Keep the Peace by family mediator Laurie Puhn. They’ll help you avoid arguments now—and all year long…

Here is peace keeping tip #10…

10. “Let me get back to you.” Everyone needs a prepared comment to delay a response when he or she is put on the spot. For example, a cousin suggests you prepare a main course for her potluck Christmas party for 20 people or the president of the PTA picks you to head a committee for a year. Keep this line handy at all times, especially during the holiday season. If you don’t want the person to feel as if she is being dismissed, give her a time when she can expect a response: “Let me get back to you by tomorrow afternoon.” And then make sure that you do.

If the tensions of the season interfere with your good cheer, arm yourself with these simple phrases from the Real Simple Magazine story 10 Things to Say to Keep the Peace by family mediator Laurie Puhn. They’ll help you avoid arguments now—and all year long…

Here is peace keeping tip #9…

9. “I’m sorry you’re upset.” When you find yourself frustrated with a friend or a close family member who didn’t take your advice, you desperately want to say something like “I told you so” or “That was a dumb thing to do.” Don’t. Dishing out criticism won’t change a thing. A compassionate response will help you both move forward.

In the spirit of Christmas, over the next few weeks, I thought I would provide several tech gift ideas for yourself or your staff…

I sourced these ideas from the Associated Press story Gift guide: Tech gifts for the budget-conscious by Barbara Ortutay…

Tech Gift Guide - #6 Better Rechargeable Batteries ($12 and up)

Rechargeable AA batteries have been around for a long time, but they’ve had one big weakness: Whether you used them or not, they lost their charge in a matter of weeks. If you plopped them in a camera two weeks ago, they’re already ripe for a multi-hour visit to the charger. But a new generation of rechargeables can keep their charge for up to a year. They’re sold under the brand names Hybrio, Sanyo Eneloop and Duracell Rechargeable Pre-charged. This could be a thrifty standalone gift, or a good accessory if you’re giving someone a battery-powered gadget. You can get a four-pack of AAs with a charger for $20.

In the spirit of Christmas, over the next few weeks, I thought I would provide several fitness gift ideas for yourself or your staff…

I sourced these ideas from the Associated Press story Gift Guide: Fitness gadgets to revive motivation by Jessica Mintz…

Fitness Gift Guide - #5 iBike iSport ($199)

Serious cyclist friends train with power meters, and say it’s more accurate than using a heart rate monitor to get the most out of a workout and to measure progress over time. But true power meters, which measure how much force you exert on the bike’s pedals, can cost $1,000 or more. So for holiday gifts, you might check out the iSport, which looks like a bike computer. It mounts on the handlebars and measures other things, including steepness of hills and strength of headwinds, to come up with similar results. Some reviewers have questioned the accuracy of iBike devices, but iBike CEO John Hamann says the iSport, which just launched, has a newer, faster processor and software that together are better at crunching the data.

In the spirit of Christmas, over the next few weeks, I thought I would provide several fitness gift ideas for yourself or your staff…

I sourced these ideas from the Associated Press story Gift Guide: Fitness gadgets to revive motivation by Jessica Mintz…

Fitness Gift Guide - #4 Rechargeable LED bike headlights ($100-$500 and up)

My frame of reference was a $30 blinky safety light, so I almost fainted when I saw the prices for these bike lights. But after a few spooky autumn commutes on an unlit bike trail, I’m almost ready to take the plunge.

LED systems are brighter, last longer and are more compact than older halogen ones. Early LED systems threw narrow, laser-like light beams, but newer ones offer better peripheral illumination.

Brian Foley, cycling product manager at Recreational Equipment Inc., recommended I get two - one for the handlebars and one for my helmet. When I gulped, he told me to just go with the helmet-mounted one for a better view around corners.

For rides through urban areas with street lights, Foley recommended models that give off 100 to 150 lumens. Pick 200 lumens or higher for dark country roads or trail riding.

Foley has tested all sorts of LED lights on his 18-mile commute to work, but didn’t want to name a favorite. Current best-sellers at REI include NiteRider’s $99 MiNewt Mini-USB (110 lumens), which can be recharged by plugging into a computer, and the $209 MiNewt X2 (150 lumens). Light & Motion’s Stella models (200 lumens, $179 to $249 depending on battery type) can be mounted on either helmet or handlebar.

In the spirit of Christmas, over the next few weeks, I thought I would provide several fitness gift ideas for yourself or your staff…

I sourced these ideas from the Associated Press story Gift Guide: Fitness gadgets to revive motivation by Jessica Mintz…

Fitness Gift Guide - #3 Finis SwiMP3 v.2 ($140)

I looked like a total doofus wearing this waterproof digital music player. But when I got it working, I honestly didn’t care. Having tunes in the pool was awesome.

The music player is made of two large plastic headpieces connected by a cable. They rest against your face, secured with clips to goggle straps, and send sound through your bones.

Loading up the small 256-megabyte hard drive with music was easy enough. It has a built-in USB plug and showed up on my PC like a regular thumb drive. I already have music stored on my computer, so I skipped the SwiMP3 software and dragged about 60 songs over to the gadget.

Amazing: It’s impossible to overstate the size of my grin as I swam my first lap to a Beatles song, and I liked that there was no separate media player to strap onto my arm.

Awkward: SwiMP3 isn’t sleek or pretty. It’s hard to get the headpieces in place and find the buttons that control tracks and volume. I recommend practicing in front of a mirror first. It was also hard to get the volume just right - loud enough to hear over my breathing, but not so loud that it hurt my head. And other swimmers thought I was nutso when I asked in a too-loud voice if they could hear the music. (They couldn’t.)

In the spirit of Christmas, over the next few weeks, I thought I would provide several fitness gift ideas for yourself or your staff…

I sourced these ideas from the Associated Press story Gift Guide: Fitness gadgets to revive motivation by Jessica Mintz…

Fitness Gift Guide - #2 Nike + iPod Sport Kit ($29)

This is an inexpensive way to get excited again about walking and running with an existing iPod Nano or an iPod Touch. When synched with a sensor in your shoe, your iPod’s screen shows time, pace and calories burned. A voice interrupts the music to announce when you’ve reached a goal or have a few minutes left in a timed workout.

Setup with my first-generation Nano was simple: I plugged the gadget into the iPod and taped the sensor to my shoe, selected the “basic” workout and hit the road. (You don’t need tape if you have Nike running shoes, which have a hole in the sole to stash the sensor. If you don’t want to use tape, Amazon.com sells sensor pouches ranging from $2 to $10; do-it-yourself bloggers also recommend sticky-backed Velcro dots.)

Pros: The iPod can automatically send data to a gorgeous, free Nike+ Web site when you do you regular docking of the player with your computer. The site stores details of each workout; you can also build a personalized training program for an upcoming race, browse workout mixes (to buy on iTunes) and connect with other people who use Nike+.

Cons: Only useful for walking and running workouts. No heart rate monitor or auto-pause.

In the spirit of Christmas, over the next few weeks, I thought I would provide several fitness gift ideas for yourself or your staff…

I sourced these ideas from the Associated Press story Gift Guide: Fitness gadgets to revive motivation by Jessica Mintz…

Fitness Gift Guide - #1 Garmin Forerunner 405 ($300)

Even though I had never used a GPS watch or a heart rate monitor, a few minutes with the quick-start guide were all I needed to get this oversized sports watch into action, tracking how far and fast I was going.

Cool: It wirelessly sends workout data to a PC if you plug an included USB stick into the computer. The free software I downloaded from Garmin’s Web site looks a little outdated, but organizes workouts by date, displays routes on a map and draws charts for heart rate and speed over time. Useful for all land activities, including walking, biking and gym workouts (as a heart rate monitor). It can pause automatically when you stop moving. And there’s lots of room to grow with advanced settings, like custom workouts with heart rate or pace goals.

Confusing: The watch has two buttons and a bezel that’s sensitive to touch; navigating menus involves a frustrating combination of pushing buttons and tapping and swiping the bezel. The menus themselves aren’t intuitive, so reading the whole manual is a must.

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