Twelve years ago this month (give or take a week or two) I started The Gadgeteer as a goofy little review site on the then free webpage hosting service Geocities. People seemed to like my reviews, so I registered the domain name four months later, moved to a real hosting site – and the rest is history!
I want to celebrate this 12th birthday with all of you, because without you (and my awesome team of contributors), the site would never have grown to what it is today 
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
For a chance to win an HP Pavilion dv4 laptop and lots of other goodies from (Vaja, Livescribe, Tom Bihn, Seagate, TokyoFlash, NZXT and FlipSide), keep reading!
Prize Details
1st place winner (1) will receive -
HP Pavilion dv4 (1145go) laptop with a 320GB hard drive and 4GB of memory
Tom Bihn ID Messenger bag and Brain cell sleeve
NZXT Cryo S laptop cooler
NZXT Avatar mouse
Livescribe SmartPen
Seagate FreeAgent Go hard drive (Red)
TokyoFlash Saishin Retsu (Gunmetal+Green LED) watch
Flipside wallet
$80 Vaja gift certificate
2nd place winner (1) will receive -
TokyoFlash NI (Stainless Steel+White LED) watch
Flipside wallet
$80 Vaja gift certificate
3rd place winner (1) will receive -
Flipside wallet
$80 Vaja gift certificate
4th place winners (7) will receive -
$80 Vaja gift certificate
How to enter
1. Between now and Sunday 08/09/2009 11:59PM EST, sign up with twitter and follow @thegadgeteer
2. Then send the following tweet:
RT Win an HP laptop and lots of other goodies @thegadgeteer Full details at http://tinyurl.com/lyybcv
3. Come back here and leave a comment with your twitter name.
4. At some point on 08/10/2009, I’ll pick 10 random winners using random.org. The winners will be contacted by email and will have 48 hrs to accept their prize. If I do not receive an answer, I’ll do other random.org drawings till all the prizes are gone.
Rules
1. One entry per person.
2. Must provide a US address for shipping.
3. Writers and friends of The Gadgeteer are exempt from entering this contest.
4. the-gadgeteer.com is not responsible for any lost packages or incorrect shipping addresses.
I want to give a HUGE thank you to the sponsors for this contest: HP, Vaja, Livescribe, Tom Bihn, Seagate, TokyoFlash, NZXT and FlipSide
Update 8/10/09 Winners Chosen:
Vaja Certs
1 Robert_j_m
2 Brett Q
3 Phil
4 FubarGuy
5 Sjan Evardsson
6 Dragan
7 Michele Pineda
3rd place
Jason
1st place
Vickie Bartlett
{ 264 comments… read them below or add one }
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Congratulations on 12 Years! Posted on Twitter as @texaszman.
Posting as @raberg – congratulations on 12 years! Impressive!!
Thanks for the great info! I love it! Posted on Twitter as @flyfishwa.
chrismc – Way to go. How many products is that?
Many more birthdays to come. One of the great websites to visit!
Many more birthdays to come. A great website to visit. Posted on Twitter as @rlu2
Tweeted as @eliteh4xx0r. This giveaway looks sa-weet.
@chris A couple thousand reviews
Tweet name: emtgirl
It would be nice to have a new computer…
Posted on Twitter as @broache. Congrats on the longevity.
tweeted as @fireman13. 12 years is a long time in this business
Posted on Twitter as @JasonAnderson74. Happy Birthday!
Hi, congrats on 12 years!!
i posted on twitter as @phatma13
Congrats and Happy B-Day! Posted as DougCharavay on Twitter.
my twitter name is aalbinger.
ReTweet submitted!
Congrads on making to it to top of the tween pile. One suggestion, many of us follow you via the web rather than twitter. I personally would love to enter my name for the prizes, but am unwilling to join in to another medium to enter. I am afraid that twitter will take as much of my time as email, and sms and facebook and…
@Rod Abrahams You don’t have to keep up with twitter after you post about the contest.
Congrats on 12 years, here’s to another dozen and more! Tweeted at http://tinyurl.com/n8zaku by @lucascantor
Way to go!!
Congrats on these latest milestone!
@thegadgetpastor
Congratulations! Tweet left as @dimsumham
I dont have a US shipping address but Happy Birthday from Scotland.
I love this site as every product i consider purchasing, it seems has already been reviewed by Julie.
Great jobs guys, and guyettes.
Rob
Congrats on 12 years, maybe on 13th birthday UK people will be able to enter the comps? we always miss out
Wow, congrats Julie and your contributors! I think I’ve been a regular reader almost that long. Twitter @nerdkub
Congratz on 12 years, Julie! @nomaded.
Happy Birthday!
@mattparker
@jmkowalski
Your review of the FlipSide wallet convinced me to buy one. I’ve search far and wide for the perfect wallet, I used a Jimi, an ATT ELL, a BigSkinny, a binderclip, a moneyband, a tyvek self folded, and a traditional leather bifold.
Keep up the great work!
Congratulations on 12 awesome years. I remember the GeoCities pages! posted the retweet, Julie! @chrisspera
My twitter name is “dotelpenguin”
Twitter your life away, or drink an RC cola, words to live by
Happy Birthday Gadgeteer! Been with you for 11 of the 12 and it just keeps getting better! @hauseda
Happy Birthday to you! from @amason61
Congrats on 12 years.
My Twitter name is danielajones
Twitter name dolarhyde2006 hey keep up the great work here on gadgeteer.
Congrats on 12 yrs. My name is @mcdanal on twitter.
Congratulations!
twitter name: sbouasri
Happy 12th and best wishes for another 12!
My twitter: @jerryprusa
Wow happy birthday! Awesome accomplishment, 12 years; here’s to 12 more. My twitter name is lloydviente
Posting as @ndbeinhoff , happy b-day
Congratulations!
Twitter name – Kelly6136
Happy Birthday!!!! I’m on twitter as @bcoutlander
I’m @alanh42…. Congrats, and best wishes for continued success.
Happy Birthday to the Gadgeteer! Congrats Julie!
I’m on twitter as @fredfx
Twitted by gadgetryan
Woohoo!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Gadgeteer!! Love the site
Congratulations! I certainly remember Geocities.
I retweeted and I’m @GoluboiPHL on Twitter.
Congrats on 12 years! You’ve guided me through three purchases so far, and I’ve been thrilled with them! I don’t do the twitter thing, so I guess I’m out of the running for the prizes, but congrats on your anniversary!
Eric
Wow!! 12 years, I look forward to your reviews daily. Here’s to many more years to come. Thanks
Happy birthday! @mcf0507
Congratulations to 12 years gadgeteer.
Twitter name: acnst
Would be really cool to win
Congrats!
@georgi777
Nice happy Birthday!
Congratulations. I tweeted @beckerph.
Wow, 12 YEARS? Goodness grassyness.
My twitter is @TONYBOSTONY
Hapy Birthday The-Gadgeteer and Julie TOO!
Congratulations and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE & THE GADGETEER!!!!
My twitter name is (@barbarabaker) and I’ve retweeted the message about this phenomenol giveaway!!!!
Here’s my status page:
http://twitter.com/barbarabaker/status/3109509754
-barbarabaker
Congratulations on 12 years! I don’t remember exactly when I started reading the-gadgeteer.com, but was around the time I bought my first PDA, a Palm III.
Tweeted as @jb_henry
Congratulations on 12 years. I have enjoyed your site for many years. Tweeted as @lhofschu
Congrats on the birthday! I enjoy your site. Tweeted as @smileystorm.
Happy B’day !! @ptrhead99
You lasted longer than Geocities. Congrats!
@charkes
Happy 12th birthday and congratulations Julie! muin_e has faithfully retweeted.
Happy birthday! Way to go, and here’s to many more! tweeted as @dubsar
Congratulations! And here’s to many, many more!
Tweet @poqeteer
Congratulations Julie!
I twittered the message and my Twitter name is Anthrobug….
Congrats Gadgeteers! Tweet @dantweetstunes
dantweetstunesRT Win an HP laptop and lots of other goodies @thegadgeteer Full details at http://tinyurl.com/lyybcvless than 5 seconds ago from web
Happy Birthday, the Gadgeteer.
The Gadgeteer rocks!! Happy Happy Happy Birthday! Tweeted from @arthurmctaggart
Congrats, Julie! I’m a regular reader since 2003 when a I bought my first PDA, an iPaq 1910, after it was reviewed by you. Since then I could never have a day without checking your news through my newsreader.
Unfortunatelly, I won’t take part of the giveaway cause I live in Brazil.
Happy 12 years!
You’ve been a “go-to” source for me for all of them.
Woo hoo! I’m in! Congrats on 12 years! I’ve been a fan for 9 out of the 12.
@_macgirl
I forgot my Twitter name.
@lgreenberg
Happy BD!!!
@kioteh
Holy cow. 12 years. I can’t imagine! Twitter name is: @gorkon
I’ve been following you most of those 12 years! Congratulations on 12 amazing years! @mdlsimpson
Happy Birthday to such a great review site. Ahhh… this brings back memories of the glory days of Palm OS
Retweeted via @SeahorseSoft
Hello Julie, happy b-day! You have made my life much better!! I have read your site from my palms, jornadas, ipaqs, laptops, desktops, treo,cookie and itouch! after reading my email your are the next page I visit. I miss the ipaq, ipod and laptop reviews though but you are excellent, you make everyone feel like we are right there with you checking the new hardware. Please re-charge your batteries and keep doing new hardware reports for another 20 years at least! good luck and thank you! from Mexico! Los Mochis.
Julie , Happy Anniversary
@jjsink on Twitter http://twitter.com/jjsink
congrats on the 12 years.
@huarngmi
Great job on the 12 years!
@jenningschris
Congratulations, here’s to another 12 years. Tweeted from @kennymac29
I love the gear bag reviews. They always help me make informed decisions. Happy birthday!
@johndakar
12 computer years is like 120 human years. Congratulation.
@haivu
Congrats on 12 years – one more and we’ll have to throw you a Bar Mitzvah!
Happy Birthday!
@hcmarks
Your site has been one of my goto sites for years @rreif
Posted as @AndySoc1al
Happy Birthday The Gadgeteer! Congrats
Twitter: zweevu
That means I’ve been reading you for just as long @scruz
Congrats!
@Foldedspace
Once again thank you Julie! @enriquemex
thanks for the info and prizes. You have an excellent site on gadget reviews. @tonester99
Congrats on 12 years!!!! Awesome work!!!
@rubcn
What about people who used to write a long, long time ago…like me??? Can I still enter?
Happy Birthday! @dsmking
Congrats!
@Rooster_13
Happy Birthday! 12 years, that is great! I am already a twitter follower and tweeted username is @micaela6955 Love getting your tweets and reading reviews on site.
Twitter name: hawaiianbrat96
Posted on twitter as lodschmod ! I’m here from gear diary, but I hadn’t realized this was the kind of blog I’d totally be into–you’re on my rss now!
Tweeted.
Twitter-name is the same @Aybara
I can remember when I started reading back in middle school in 1998!
Twitter name is @trokair
Congrats, this is one of my favorite reads. @apinaud
Been reading since I got my first Palm… an m505.
¡feliz aniversario!
Tweeted, @bTuna.
Congrats of lasting this long, it’s a rough industry sometimes,
Posted as @SBBurzmali
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