In this episode, we show you how to install and upgrade the RAM in your Apple MacBook Pro, in less than five minutes. In case you weren’t aware, the last couple generations of the notebook actually support up to 4GB of RAM. We are still trying to wrap our head around that number, because for a portable, that is insane. Even better, though, is the fact that this is such a cheap upgrade when you look at the very nice boost in performance it’ll net you in return. You can buy 2 2GB RAM chips for your MacBook Pro for just over $100 USD. Again, an easy way to get more performance out of your notebook at an inexpensive price.

Check out the video for the full tutorial. If you need to buy RAM for your MacBook Pro, hit up Crucial for a great deal.

A big thank you goes out to HP for sponsoring this episode.

The HP Garage is recognized as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. We got the rare opportunity to get inside of the Garage (thanks to our sponsor HP) to bring you a look at an important piece of tech history. Be sure to also check out our HP Garage photo tour. We also have a bunch of images in our HP Garage photo gallery.

We give you a peek at the rich history behind HP - if you are into tech, this is definitely one to watch. We get the story of how two men took HP from your average startup, to what we see today.

A big thank you goes out to HP and Verizon FiOS for sponsoring this episode.

At Gear Live, we use ExpressionEngine to manage our vast array of sites, authors, and blog posts. Things like MovableType, WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal just don’t cut it for us.

During SXSW, we got the opportunity to get an early looks at ExpressionEngine 2.0. If you have a blog, or want to blog in the future, you need to watch this video to see what is coming soon from the crew over at EllisLab. Seriously, we can’t praise these guys enough for what they do. If you’ve never heard of the product and want to give it a shot, you can download the free Core version over at the ExpressionEngine website. If you go for the full version, you have access to all sorts of upgrades.

Of course, ExpressionEngine 2.0 isn’t available just yet, but something tells us we will be seeing it sooner rather than later.

A big thank you goes out to HP and Verizon FiOS for sponsoring this episode.

We hope you’ve all enjoyed our CES 2008 video coverage. We’ve gone through our hours of footage, and picked out some of the best bloopers that our staff experienced. We know how disappointed you all probably are to realize that we aren’t perfect, but we think you should have gathered that from the Gear Live documentary.

Anyhow, have at it. We look forward to making fools out of ourselves again come CES 2009. Oh, and next year we will have to try and beat “hot dog guy” in the category of overall buffoonery. You’ll have to watch the video to see what we mean.

Have you ever wanted to play your Wii without having to have that pesky Wiimote in your hand? Reactrix hopes that their WAVEscape product might come close to providing that experience. We got a look at it during CES.

The WAVEscape contains a camera that can track the motion of multiple people, distinguishing each person individually. Everyone can use “natural” motion to interact with different things on the screen, including games.

Now, we aren’t sure when, if ever, the WAVEscape technology will be available in the home. It is more designed as a cool diversion that can be used commercially. It’s all about the “engaging advertising experience” - you know, punch the panda and maybe get a coupon?

WAVEscape is the brainchild of Reactriz and TYZX. They plan on having over 100 of these out and about by the end of the year.

If you’re into High Definition technology, check out the DV520HD from Mustek. It records videos and photos in 1080i high def. This makes it easy to point-and-shoot, hook up to your entertainment system, and easily enjoy. You can now re-live those lovely vacation sunsets on your HDTV. Available this month for $199 USD, which isn’t bad for an ultra-portable high definition camera at the consumer level.

As for the rest of the stats, the device also has a 5.0MP CMOS, 2.5” Swivel LTPS LCD, 2X Digital Zoom, USB 2.0, and 46MB Internal Memory. Yeah, for HD recording, we are thinking you might want to pick up an extra SD card or two.

In this video, we bring you a whirlwind tour of the Monster Cable booth at the 2008 CES event. We are accompanied by Seth Combs and DJ Irie.

Monster Cable CEO Noel Lee made a slew of announcements at his 2008 CES press conference. Some of the new products on the way include five different speed-rated HDMI cables, also Outlets to Go 3, a power strip that includes a USB port for recharging electronics. iSoniTalk is an adapter for the iPhone that allows any headphone to be used with the ever-popular iPhone, while the iCarPlay Wireless 250 is billed as the “World’s Most Advanced iPod FM Transmitter”.

The big announcement was made in person by renowned rap and music producer Dr. Dre and music impresario Jimmy Iovine, CEO of Interscope Records. Together they introduced “Beats by Dr. Dre”, headphones designed for the iPod generation—and to specifically replace the earbuds that come with the iPod. Dre said he has been asked to put his name on many headphones in the past. But he endorses “Beats” because they have the newest technology, for a listening experience this is low-bass friendly with high-quality clarity. Because as Dre put it, “...music should be heard the way it’s intended”. When asked what he liked most about the headphones, Dre simply replied, “the sound.” ‘Nuff said! Look for the state-of-the-art headphones in June, for $400 USD.

Retrevo.com presents a unique take on gadget comparison shopping. By spidering a veritable avalanche of shopping comparison sites, they compile a near-comprehensive snapshot of just about every gadget they can, including feature sets, average reviews and price points. They plot these into neat regression charts that outline a given gadgets “value” as determined by its number of features plotted against its price. They’re also able to sort things into cost points like “high end”, “mid range” and “budget” and make comparisons based on these facts. Since their spider is constantly compiling and recompiling new data points, they’re able to recategorize a given gadget as its prices change and as more reviews become available.

The site is engineering to be a definitive way to get a good look at a given gadget’s feature sets and your value for your dollar. Since they bring in quick access to reviews from all over the net and include product manual searching and archiving, this becomes a pretty useful tool for techphiles.

Take a look at our video to learn a bit more about the service and how it works.

So you already have a phone, but you’d still like a gadget to surf the Internet, view photos, listen to your MP3s and watch your videos. While not an iPhone, Mustek’s MMP 240 (and MMP 350) will do the job. With a 2.4” and 2.5” screen respectively, you can enjoy (and showoff) your multimedia goodness from only $99 to $199 USD.

Oh, and even if the product doesn’t look interesting - you have to take a listen to the PR person showing off the product. He may have been drunk. Or he may have simply been hoping to find a way to spice up what otherwise was simply him showing off an iPod touch knockoff. You be the judge. Hit us in the comments with your thoughts.

While not the fuel cell battery replacement for gadgets we keep hearing about Horizon is promising some very cool technology nonetheless: portable, enviromentally friendly power on demand - just add water! Their portable generator technology is aimed at disaster relief, outdoor, and developing countries. The totally recyclable cartridges have an infinate shelf life until activated, and can be activated by adding plain old water - no filtration neccesary. Check out the video for more details on this cool new tech.

We couldn’t quite get our hands on the LG Watch Phone concept (and they were stopping all non-press individuals from even taking photos, which always seems strange to us) but we did get to talk to an LG rep about what the concept may evolve into and what features are working already. The screen is gorgeous and they’ve built the system to work with just three buttons, including a jog button of sorts, which lets you scroll easily. The concept sends and receives texts and is currently built to work on GSM but they said they haven’t finalized providers or networks yet, and could easily be made to work on CDMA. No word yet on battery life, but the watch *will* apparently include a built in mic and speaker (for “Dick Tracy"-style communication, ostesibly) but will be primarily for use with Bluetooth. Since this is just a concept, they were also mum on any sort of release date, but LG sounded like sometime this year or early next year would be reasonable.

What’s your opinion on the utility of a watch phone? Would you want something with stripped down functionality like that? (Text messaging would be a nightmare I think, but you could store templates and recall them I suppose.) As a user of the Fossil FX-6001, I absolutely love having my watch integrate with my phone, but it only tells me when I receive a call or text, and who’s calling. And that’s enough for me. I much prefer the phone as a separate device, I think.

Check the video for some close-up shots of the clock on the watch in operation and the nice screen and sleek design.

Etymotic is out with some new earphones this time around at CES.  Developed specifically for gamers, the EDGE (an acronym for Enhanced Definition Gaming Earphones) Acoustics line of earphones has been created to give gamers an edge (har har) by using spatial cues to make them more aware of what’s going on around them within a game.  The earphones have a microphone and send switch, so they eliminate the need for separate microphones on the desk and are also compatible with most standard VOIP hardware.

Etymotic’s HF2 earphones are based on their ER4 model, but feature a microphone with a mic and a send switch plus a 4 barrel plug making it fully compatible with the iPhone.  Retailing at $179, these earphones look to be a great value and will be available soon.

Last on the list from Etymotic is a Bluetooth headset with a detachable boom.  Because the boom extends almost all the way to the wearer’s mouth, it broadcasts 28 to 30 decibels - still within the safe range of volume but a lot easier to hear for the person on the other end of the line.  The headset will be available soon for an MSRP of $129.

Everyone loves iPod speakers.  At least that’s what I’m thinking, after taking a look at the market.  Jensen’s newest offerings, the JiSS 550 and JiSS 330, retailing for $129 and $99 respectively.  Both docks include side flow bass ports for crisper sound and remote controls, and both are available now.

Another, newer offering from Jensen is an HD radio enabled iPod speaker.  Along with all of the rest of the cool tricks that HD radio receivers have (FM multicasting, digital sound and station information services, among others), Jensen’s newest HD offering features an iTunes tagging function - when you hear a song on the radio that you know you’re going to want to hear again, repeatedly and whenever you want, with the touch of a button you can send the song information to your iPod.  On your next sync, you’ll get a prompt from iTunes reminding you that you wanted to buy the song.

Available in April, MSRP on the HD radio iPod speaker will be coming in at an estimated $179, but rumor has it that if you head over to Target when the speaker is released, you could save yourself enough to buy a couple of albums worth of songs you tagged on the unit.

Slacker Internet radio is going portable!  Slacker offers free, sponsored Internet radio with 1 to 2 minutes of interstitial ads per hour.  In its free service, Slacker allows 6 skips per hour per station, but with over 100 genre stations to be listened to (working out to the ability to skip 600 songs per hour), even the most skip-happy listener can satisfy their urge to get to the next song quickly.  Slacker’s Premium membership offers unlimited skips and saving and replaying favorite songs starting at $7.50/month.

Slacker Portable is Slacker’s companion personal media player.  Available in 2, 4 and 8 gig models (translated to 15, 25 and 45 stations), Slacker Portable fills itself from the user’s favorite stations every time it’s synced.  Not only is the music on the player, but anything available from Slacker’s site is available on the Slacker Portable, including artist bios, reviews and album art.  Because Slacker Portable isn’t constantly connected to Slacker’s HQ, there’s no cutout when a listener enters a subway train, goes into a tunnel, or anywhere that a signal would be lost with an FM or a satellite radio.  And if you can’t live without that certain album at your disposal at all times, Slacker Portable allows you to load mp3’s from your own library.

Among their plasticky robotic things, WowWee introduced their new Alive line of cubs.  The panda, white tiger, polar bear and lion cubs are actually articulated robots with sensors that detect the angle at which they are being held and where they are being touched.  The Alive Cubs will be available this Spring at an MSRP of $59.

On the plasticky side of things, in addition to the Mr. Personality robot just released, WowWee has three robots on deck: the Tribot, the Rovio, and the Bladestar.  The Tribot is a remote controlled, 3-wheeled robot which features an alarm clock and can move in almost any direction.  Tribot will be available this spring for an estimated $99.  The Rovio is a roving robotic video and audio recorder which can be controlled remotely through its own website.  The website also broadcasts Rovio’s video and audio feeds.  Rovio will be available in the fourth quarter of 2008 for an estimated $299.  The Bladestar is the next generation Dragonfly - a super capacitor powers the wings, and an infrared signal bounces off obstacles (walls, ceilings, exceptionally large headed friends) to make sure Bladestar stays on an unobstructed flight path.  Bladestar will be available in February for an estimated $49.

It’s 10:00.  Do you know where your dog is?  Or your car, or the loved one who is responsible for the car?  Zoombak is aiming to make sure you never have to look far to get the answer to that question.  Their advanced GPS locators come in two sizes, one perfect for placing in an auto and one made to clip on to the collar of a dog weighing 12 pounds or more.

Both versions of Zoombak offer the ability to set up “safety zones,” via the Zoombak website.  When the auto or dog that is wearing the Zoombak GPS unit leaves the safety zone, Zoombak will send a text message or an email with the location of the unit, and the location can be tracked live on Zoombak’s website.

Dog and Auto units retail for $200 and $250 respectively, and Zoombak’s monthly service starts at $9.99 a month.

Cordless extension cords?  Powerbeam has it covered.  Right now, Powerbeam is perfecting a wireless, laser-based power transfer system that can act as an extension cord to power devices using a line-of-sight system that will send power as far as you need it to go.  The lasers are about the size of pepper flakes, and will transfer tens of watts of power, and in the future could transfer more.

Powerbeam has patented a battery powered safety system on the back end of the product that will stop the laser (which creates a warm feeling where it comes into contact with a person, nothing ray gun-esque here) when someone crosses its path.

Powerbeam estimates that their power transfer system is 12 months out to the consumer market.

We gave you the details on how to jailbreak your 1.1.3 iPhone on OS X, but don’t think we forgot about people running the trusty Windows OS.

Luckily, we have a special edition of iBrickr, which will allow you to jailbreak your iPhone very easily, all you need is a little patience. In case you missed it, check out our iPhone 1.1.3 video tour.

By the way, if you are looking for an excellent program to create custom ringtones for your iPhone, check out iPhone RingToneMaker.

Now that we know that the iPhone 1.1.3 jailbreak method has been released, we figured it would be good of us to give you a video tutorial showing you how to get it done. After all, you all enjoyed our old-school 1.1.1 jailbreak video, right?

In this video, we provide step-by-step instructions that will help anyone upgrade their iPhone to a jailbreaked version of the 1.1.3 firmware. This should keep you tided over until that pesky SDK is released, right?

By the way, if you are looking for an excellent program to create custom ringtones for your iPhone, check out iPhone RingToneMaker, who sponsored this episode.

One of this year’s hottest topics is storage.  It seems like we’re about two steps away from getting flash drives as prizes in cereal boxes.  With the release of OSX Leopard and its Time Machine app, backing up computers has become easier than ever.  Enter Data Robotics’ Drobo storage robot.

As easy to use as a flash drive, the Drobo has four slots to accommodate 3.5” SATA I or II hard drives, and automatically makes redundant copies of data in order to protect from single drive failure.  Drobo uses USB 2.0 to make backing up quickly, and is fully operable with OSX and Windows 2000 and up.

Retailing at $499, Drobo comes with everything you need to get started except the hard drives.  It’s available now from online retailers.

Bowers and Wilkins has long been known for their stunning audiophile loudspeaker and home theater equipment so it’s no surprise that their foray into the iPod/iPhone speaker dock territory is an impressive one. The new Zeppelin dock features a subwoofer and two midrange/tweeters all in a single compact unit. The odd football shape does indeed bring to mind it’s airship namesake with a look that is sure to draw a second look for passers by. The downside - it’s $600; or $200 more than you spent on the iPhone that goes in it.

In the video we show off the product, and even demonstrate how it handles an iPhone taking a call while in use. Amazingly, there is no GSM interference to be found. Definitely a plus.

Outback hikers and urban explorers alike are often faced with a common problem: how to grab some juice on the go for power-hungry devices. These new backpacks and soon to be briefcases offer a potential solution by pairing next generation solar cells with a battery to enable on the go charging. While the charging might be slow (all day to charge a laptop) it’s certainly a great option in the face of an otherwise completely drained cell phone or laptop.

We chat with Neuros’ Joe Born about what Neuros has in store in the near future and about their approach to making their media players open source. We also discuss how they’re the only embedded media device company open sourcing their software for the devices and what that means to them. They’ve seen a great deal of tech community involvement and more from bringing their devices into open source. See the video, recorded from Showstoppers at CES 2008.

Home automation is becoming a big theme at consumer electronics trade shows like CES. Many companies have been promising the ‘smart house’ for years – a house that automatically anticipates and responds to its inhabitants wants and needs. HawkingTech was showing off some preliminary tech which could help hearken the days of the smart house with a variety of available now products – check out the video for a demonstration of what is to come.

Typically we find that most manufacturer’s who focus exclusively on Apple products choose Macworld over CES, since the two are scheduled to close together. That didn’t stop iPhone, iPod, and other Mac products from being a reoccurring theme at CES. XtremeMac was there in force showing off a collection of iProduct accessories – check them out for the full skinny.