RIP, Flip camcorder. Today your parent company, Cisco, announced it is will be ceasing your production.

Cisco’s announcement puzzles Spot Cool Stuff at bit. Flip was a trusted brand with strong sales—at the time of writing its products ranked 3rd, 7th, 8th and 10th on Amazon’s list of top selling camcorders. Perhaps with camcorders being incorporated into an increasing variety of products—netbooks, tablets, smartphones, ultra-compact cameras, and so on—Cisco felt the Flip couldn’t keep up.

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Amazon offers two “current” versions of its popular e-book reader: the Kindle 2 and, as of July 2010, the Kindle Graphite DX.

Both Kindles are among Spot Cool Stuff’s favorite gadgets, especially for traveling. But why? And what’s the difference between the two Kindle models? And which one is better?

For the answers, Dear Reader, continue on . . .

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Amazon offers two “current” versions of its popular e-book reader: the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX.

Both Kindles are among Spot Cool Stuff’s favorite gadgets, especially for traveling. But why? And what’s the difference between the two Kindle models? And which one is better?

For the answers, Dear Reader, continue on . . .

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Move over Apple MacBook Air. The thinnest laptop on the consumer market is now made by Dell: The Adamo XPS.

Measuring in at a mere 10mm (0.4 inches) thick, and sporting a bright screen and slick form factor, the XPS just looks cool. But is it a novelty item or a netbook worth buying?

Spot Cool Stuff’s verdict:

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Is the Apple iPad a revolutionary device every tech savvy person should own? Or is it an over-hyped over-sized iPhone?

The answer is: a bit of both.

Here’s Spot Cool Stuff’s take on the 8 best and 8 worst features of the iPad:

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The S5 is the smallest consumer device capable of running a full version of Windows

In our holiday review of 10 Superb Travel Gifts we suggested a cool MID (Mobile Internet Device) with built in wi-fi, GPS and HD 720p video playback functionality, a 4.8-inch screen and a long battery life:

The Viliv S5.

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In tough economic times there’s a special need for gifts that come at a cheap price but that feel expensive. So here are 10 items with a low cost and high WOW factor. As with our other gift guides, friends and family of Spot Cool Stuff are advised to read no further lest you ruin the surprise of your gift this holiday season. The rest of you, carry on . . .

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Regular readers of the Spot Cool Stuff Tech blog know what huge fans we are of the Kindle. They also know that our Kindle enthusiasm comes despite harboring a few gripes about Amazon’s e-book reader.

Well, today that list of gripes grew shorter by one: The Amazon Kindle is now available in an international version.

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