The folks out at HumanToolz sent on a pair of their Sound Budz XS earbud headphones for me to review for you, and so we do. If you actually try a pair of these on, brace yourself–you’ll likely be as surprised by them as I was.

The HumanToolz Sound Budz XS earbud headphones offers thirty two ohms impendance, a frequency range of twenty hertz to twenty thousand hertz, gold plated 3.5 mm connector, just over three feet of cable, a storage pouch, cord winder, and a pocket sized Movee Stand for keeping your PMP vertical whilst sitting on a tabletop so you can watch videos in hands free conditions.

I tried these out on both laptop and MP3 player, with various songs, and found that the sound was a little tinny but it otherwise did a good job of reproducing sound. Obviously earbuds will only do so well, and these are probably among the better earbuds I’ve heard. They’re almost unfathomably light, though, and come with plenty of extras. So really, the earbuds are great not because of the earbuds themselves, but rather because of the earbuds and everything that comes with them.

Considering you can get these for fully eighteen bucks out at Amazon, it’s definitely worth your time to take a look at a set, if for no other reason than the numerous extras you’ll get with a set of HumanToolz Sound Budz XS earbud headphones.

The Good

Loads of extras

Good price

The Bad

Merely decent sound quality

Score 7 / 10

Just in case you needed another eReader option for your iOS device, Google has officially launched its virtual bookstore. Called simply Google eBooks, the cloud-based service is promising to be a more open-source offering than the offerings from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or even Apple’s own iBooks.

“We designed Google eBooks to be open,” said Google in a statement. “Many devices are compatible with Google eBooks—everything from laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones to e-readers. With the new Google eBooks Web Reader, you can buy, store and read Google eBooks in the cloud. That means you can access your ebooks like you would messages in Gmail or photos in Picasa—using a free, password-protected Google account with unlimited ebooks storage.

“In addition to a full-featured web reader, free apps for Android and Apple devices will make it possible to shop and read on the go. For many books you can select which font, font size, day/night reading mode and line spacing suits you—and pick up on the page where you left off when switching devices.”

Those interested in purchasing new reading material can grab a book from the official Google eBooks store, or buy them from independent retailers such as Powell’s, Alibris or any store listed in the American Bookseller’s Association. In total, Google eBooks claims to provide access to over 15 million books from 35,000 different publishers. Not a bad library at all.

It seems like Google is setting out to do to e-reading what it did to search engines, basically kill all the competition and drive everyone into the massive Google tent. It’s not a bad thing by any stretch, but it’s sure to annoy the other online booksellers and potentially change the way we consume digital reading material. Furthermore, this new model could well be a threat to the traditional brick and mortar booksellers and even libraries. If you can read any book on any device at any time, why ever go to Borders again? Put another way, why buy a standalone eReader from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Sony when you can get these books on every device you can possibly imaging, including these very same eReaders? It’s an interesting time in eBook history, and you’re right here with us.

FREE!

Google Books

+ Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-12-06 :: Category: Books

[via Google]

[ Google Officially Launches Google Books App is a post from 148Apps ]

You know how Oprah likes to give away things on her show? The last time she gave away the Kindle, it was sold out for weeks.

You might want to get your Kindle before Oprah shows it off like the iPad or the Motorola Defy. Funny that I didn’t hear about any sold outs on those particular products, but I guess Amazon wasn’t prepared for the Winfrey effect.

Seriously, that lady has too much power. I guess she’ll be showing those Kindles off later, so watch it if you like it.

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For those of you who were hoping to get the Droid Pro for the holiday season will get your wish, at a lower price.

Right now, the hip smartphone is on say at Best Buy Mobile for $50, and if you want it even cheaper, you can get it on Amazon for about $20.

The contract still applies, and I suppose this is part of Best Buy’s commitment to good deals, like their free smartphones that they have been offering recently.

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Some of you might remember when we covered Amazon Prime being free to college students, and you can still get it for about $79 a year.

What you might know about this service is that you can get free two-day shipping on many items in the catalog, but what you don’t know is you can share this service with four household members. The reason why you might not know about it is because it is pretty well hidden without the “Your Account” screen. Just check out the “Settings” section and find the “Manage Prime Membership” tab.

This might be a little pre-gift for those for the holiday season to share with others to help with their gift-giving.

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