The One (And a Half) Month Later iPad Review.

So the iPad has been out for a over a month now and I have been using it that entire time.  You knew that I would have one of these right out of the gate or what kind of Gadget Geek would I be?  I wanted to wait a bit to write this because a lot of the reviews that came out right when it launched were either geek-fueled love-fests or Apple hating diatribes about everything wrong with not only the iPad but Apple itself.  Also, I have written many a review of a gadget only to change my opinion (sometimes for better but mostly for worse) less than a month after using it.  So, I decided to put the iPad through its paces to see if I would actually use it or whether it would be a really expensive paperweight.

First off, let me say that I was really torn at first on whether or not to get an iPad.  The gadget addled part of my brain that is always looking for the ultimate geek toy didn’t question the fact that I wanted, nay, NEEDED the iPad.  The practical side of me questioned if I really needed what was arguably just a huge iPod Touch, especially considering the fact that I already have a desktop computer, a laptop, and two iPods.

Like everyone else (well every other geek at least), I was stoked about the rumors of an Apple tablet, but the supposed specs for the then unnamed iPad got really out of control.  People began to think that this would be the ultimate personal computer and you would never need anything else.  The Kindle would be dead, people would all cancel their cable TV, and world peace would commence shortly after it launched.

When Steve Jobs finally showed his ‘magical’ device to the world, everyone couldn’t help but to be disappointed (including myself).  Apple had let the fervor get a little out of control, and while it did give them great ‘buzz’ it kind of bit them in the rear.  People complained about everything from the lack of a camera, to the size of the screen, to even it’s name (I actually assumed that is what the name would be before it even launched, if fits with the Apple naming scheme).

I was so disappointed that I wrote the whole thing off and actually spent the money I had saved up for the iPad on a new camera instead (well, PART of a new camera).  But then Apple started showing little bits and pieces of what the iPad could do in interviews and on the web.  I got hooked all over again – though still with that nagging voice in the back of my head saying that I didn’t really need it.

Eventually, I made a deal with myself and just said that I would wait until my birthday in the summer to get one.  That would give Apple time to come up with accessories for it and for developers to come out with really cool apps (plus, I wasn’t sure if I wanted the regular version or the 3G enabled one that only just launched about a few weeks ago).  My wife gave me two months until I broke down and bought one, it ended up being three days.  I couldn’t buy the iPad on launch day since I was out of town but I did get to play with one two days later (Monday) and the next day I owned one.

I haven’t regretted a single day since.  I can wholeheartedly say that the iPad is my favorite gadget of all time (until the Apple comes up with the next big thing that is).  I use it far more than I ever thought I would.   Even my wife, who was pretty skeptical about me getting one (since she has on more than one occasion given me an ‘I told you so’ after I regretted buying some new gadget or another) wishes she had one.  Though the fact that for the price of an iPad she could buy a pair of designer shoes prevents her from getting one.  I use it a lot at night in bed while my wife is watching TV and when I would either be reading a news magazine, or a book, or be surfing the web on my laptop.  Now I can do both with one device that is eminently more capable than the sum of its’ parts.

The iPad is so much more than an oversized iPod Touch.  All you have to do is surf the Internet on an iPad and you will see just how different they are.  Surfing the Internet and touching links with your fingers instead of using a mouse just feels ‘right’.  I don’t know what it is, but just doing pretty much anything on this thing is really cool, even typing a review article.  I have typed this entire article using the Pages App and the on-screen keyboard.  While it took a bit of getting used to not having keys click under my fingers, I got to the point rather quickly to where I was typing almost as fast as I do on a regular keyboard, which is pretty darn fast.

No matter how fast the iPad is, it wouldn’t matter if it didn’t have great Apps to run really fast.  Apple and a lot of other developers have delivered them in spades and it has only been out for a little over a month!  I can’t wait to see what kinds of games and Apps that are out for this thing by this fall.  One note, Apple made a big ballyhoo about being able to use iPhone Apps on the iPad but I wouldn’t bother.  Even when blowing them up to the full screen size, they still don’t look right and don’t perform nearly as well as Apps that are made specifically for the iPad.  Just wait for them to update the iPhone version, it will be worth the wait.

One of my favorite Apps for the iPad is a cookbook – believe it or not.  Actually it is two cookbooks, Epicurious and BigOven.  Both tap into huge databases of recipes, many with pictures, and serve them up on this beautiful screen and it is so much more fun to ‘surf’ than a real cookbook.  You can then buy a stand for your iPad and have it right next to you while you cook and during really boring lulls in the cooking, you can play a game or two or just surf the web.  Another cool App is Star Walk, which is an awesome planetarium and star map right in your hand.  It even uses the compass in your iPad to change the view if you hold it up and turn different directions, so you can use it to figure out what star it what when outside at night (it even can change the screen to red on black to help preserve your night vision).

If you love your Kindle or have been thinking of getting one, the iPad outdoes the Kindle in virtually every way (other than reading outside in bright sunlight, and even that is not that bad). Amazon has a Kindle App for the iPad so you can read all the books you have already bought and Apple has their own iBooks App that has its’ own bookstore in iTunes.  Both are very similar when it comes to reading books and even buying them, though the iBooks titles are typically pricier than the Amazon ones (which is a whole other issue that I don’t have time to go into here).

A lot of tech pundits said that the iPad was too basic for a techie like me and too complicated for everyone else; I couldn’t disagree more.  The iPad has turned into a prefect companion device for me and has been seeing a lot more use than my laptop over the last month.  As for tech neophytes, the iPad is simple enough and feature rich enough to take the place of many peoples’ home computers or at least their netbooks.  If you are really thinking about getting a netbook computer, reconsider and check out an iPad first.  If all you ever use a computer for is surfing and checking your email, I can’t think of a better device for doing just that, than an iPad.  Anyone who uses a computer for pretty much anything short of full on graphics applications or bleeding edge gaming can probably do everything they do on a desktop or laptop computer on an iPad.  A friend did point out to me that you do need a computer to sync up your iTunes music and transfer over your pictures.  Though if you are just starting out and don’t have an iTunes library, you can just buy you music and download it directly to the iPad, and as for your pictures, there is a new adapter that allows you to download your pictures straight from a SD memory card and into your iPad.

Pictures are another place where the iPad really shines.  Flipping through a virtual photo album and showing off your vacation pictures on the iPad screen is nothing short of a ‘wow’ moment.  In fact, the iPad can double as one of those digital picture frames with the press of a button.  You put your iPad in a stand and it will run a slideshow of all of your pictures for anyone to see when you aren’t using it.

I could go on and on about the virtues of the iPad, but really all I have to say is that you owe it to yourself to take a look at one at your local Apple store or certain Best Buy stores, especially if you are in the market for a new laptop or netbook.  I haven’t even scratched the surface on everything the iPad can do or will be able to do as soon as someone writes an App for it and it is already my go-to computer in my house.  I bet for most people, it would end up being the same for them as well.  Here is a link to one of my favorite websites, Gizmodo and their take on an iPad replacing their laptop (Gizmodo Article).

The iPad is priced as follows:

Wi-Fi only

16GB $499

32GB $599

64GB $699

Wi-Fi + 3G (3G data plan sold separately).

16GB $629

32GB $729

64GB $829

Unless you are going to be using this a lot for surfing the web where you know you won’t have Wi-Fi available (which has become pretty widespread and will only continue to get better) I would recommend that you get just the Wi-Fi version.  The 3G data plans, while somewhat reasonably priced and not tied to a contract, are a tad skimpy with their bandwidth.  Plus surfing the web using the 3G network on your iPad after blazing around using Wi-Fi will make you feel like somebody broke your iPad.  Plus if you really need to check your mail or the web while away from a Wi-Fi hotspot, just use the phone in your pocket.

As always if you have any questions, or would like me to review a certain gadget, feel free to write me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.  Have a great summer!  If you can tear yourself away from your cool new iPad!

Gadget Gift Guide 2009

Woo Hoo!  It’s that time of year again, when Gadget Geeks all around the world tremble with barely contained excitement over this year’s crop of gadgets, in hopes that one (or all) of them will make it under the tree this year.  This year saw some huge jumps by certain manufacturers to solidify or regain their leads in their respective sectors.  There may not be as many new gadgets this year as in years past, but this year’s collection easily offers the best bang for the buck, especially in the categories of cameras and MP3 music players.  For this year’s guide, I’m going to focus on the best in digital cameras, MP3 players, and the best video games for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii.  So lets kick things off with my favorite gadgets, digital cameras!

Digital Cameras:  Last year Nikon handed my Canon boys their rear-ends in the SLR camera department, but this year Canon pulled out the stops and in my humble opinion retook their lead as the top digital SLR leader on the market (before you Nikon Nerds blast me with emails, this is not a knock against Nikon as a whole which makes fabulous cameras, it is just that right now, Canon owns the top spot in almost every sector of digital SLR market).

Pro-Level D-SLR: While Canon did just come out with the 1D Mark IV recently, and it is a beautifully capable camera for sports photography, I still have to say that for overall versatility, last year’s late entry the 5D Mark II is still the best in class.  People a year later are still marveling at its 21-megapixel quality.  Also, while I considered its ability to shoot 1080p HD video at a movie 24 frames per second (think big screen movie style) to be a kind of cool, what some budding and professional cinematographers have produced with this camera is nothing short of stunning.  While it would still be great if they could find a way to work autofocus into the movie shooting, it obviously hasn’t hampered the pros in how they do their business.  It still isn’t cheap by any means at $2500 but what you get with this camera beats out cameras that cost three times as much.

Semi-Pro/Serious Amateur D-SLR: Canon’s new 7D, which only hit the street a few weeks ago is my new object of lust.  While it may not pack the 21 megapixel, full-frame sensor of the 5D Mark II, the 7D certainly breaks ground as the first camera in a new series by Canon in a decade (it fits between the 5D series and the xxD series, of which the 50D is the current model).  The new 18 megapixel APS-C sized sensor (smaller than a 35mm film frame and identical to the xxD and Rebel series cameras) seems to violate the laws of physics by packing a ton of pixels onto the same size chip without the usual explosion noise that many sensors tend to exhibit once you reach a pixel density like this.  It has to be the work of the camera’s software that makes this possible but whatever it is, this camera turns out some stunning photos even in really low light situations (still can’t beat the 5D Mark II but it costs a &1000 bucks less).  The real beauty of this camera lies in its improved ergonomics and new 3” screen, which improves its usage in outdoor situations.

A real first though is the new viewfinder for the 7D, which now provides 100% coverage of the frame (most only show you 95% of the frame and you sometimes get elements you didn’t want in your picture that you have to crop out later).  The other really cool thing about the viewfinder is that it now has a transparent LCD screen overlay that allows you to turn on and off information that is shown in the viewfinder such as horizon lines, a real boon if you are like me and seemingly unable to maintain a flat horizon in your pictures without assistance (perhaps I should just lay off the booze while shooting photos, but that takes away half the fun).  The 7D has the same cosmic movie shooting capability as the 5D, though without the full frame sensor, but it should start producing similar stellar results.  The 7D isn’t cheap at $1750 (body only) or $1900 with a 28-135mm lens but this camera should meet the needs for many photographers for years to come.

Super-Zoom Compact: The Panasonic FZ-35 is yet another upgrade to the whole FZ-18/28 line and continues to have all the features that keep it continually at the top of almost any super-zoom review list (such as a superb Leica lens, great image quality, and a very good viewfinder).  They also continue to add refinements that keep it just one step ahead of their competition (to include Canon).  This year, just like every other camera it would seem, video is where it seems to be.  The FZ-35 is not a slouch here and provides 1080p High Def video with stereo microphone inputs cleverly situated right in front of the flash.  The sensor is a respectable 12 megapixel sensor, and while other superzooms may go up to a 20 times zoom factor, the FZ-35 kept theirs at 18 times zoom, which probably explains why it continues to still produce good photos while a lot of those pushing the zoom envelope actually saw a drop in quality (there is only so much you can ask from the lenses in these cameras).  The great thing about this camera is that you can easily find it for just a little over $300 on Amazon and it beats out cameras that are hundreds of dollars more.

Compact: This category actually is the story of one sensor in two cameras.  Canon decided to buck the trend and instead of cramming more pixels into every camera they made, the sensor they use in both the G11 and S90 actually has fewer pixels than the previous generation (they went back down to 10 megapixels from 14 megapixels).  With that extra breathing room they made the sensor more sensitive to light and made it produce good quality shots where other cameras would just produce noise.  This is a move I have been waiting for years for a major camera manufacturer to make. I’m glad to see Canon took the lead on this one.  The megapixel race has run it’s course and really they need to focus more on the camera’s low light capability since most people use their cameras indoors at parties or during the prime outdoor shooting times of dawn and dusk.

G11: The G11 is the (reasonably) compact camera that every owner of a D-SLR wants when they can’t lug around their big camera and all of the equipment and lenses that go with it.  This line of cameras has often been cited by pros as the one they most often pull out when an SLR is either too bulky or obtrusive to use.  This thing is built like a tank and has tons of knobs and switches, which may seem counterintuitive for a pro-camera, but the pros don’t have time to go digging into menus on their camera’s screen to change settings, they need to be able to switch them quickly and shoot.  The G11 makes sure that you rarely, if ever, have to dig into a menu to change an important setting.  The camera also took a step back in the screen size on the back (down to 2.8 inches from 3 inches) but brought back the swivel screen which allows for shooting from a greater number of angles and allows you to swivel the screen so it is against the body of the camera and protect it better (helping to maintain it’s tank-like ruggedness).  I got this camera the day it hit the street in November and I see it going with me many places. I would have missed a lot of photo opportunities just because I didn’t want to lug all my SLR gear.  Unfortunately the G11 is priced like an entry level D-SLR at about $500.

S90: The S90 is the super-sexy version of pair and boosts the sensor’s already impressive low-light capability by pairing it with a very fast f2.0 lens allowing for a ton more light to get through to the sensor than virtually any other compact camera out there.  This is the camera you want in your pocket or purse if you are always taking pictures at indoor parties.  You will be able to get blur-free photos where everyone else just has smears of color on their screens.  This camera is arguably the king of the compact cameras (for a few months at least until someone comes up and trumps Canon) and would be an awesome camera for anyone who wants a truly compact camera to take with them wherever they go that will not let them down in virtually any photo situation.  The S90 is a tad expensive at $400 but you will not find any compact that can do what the S90 can do with even half of the quality for less than this.

MP3 Players

I’m going to reiterate my statement from last year and just say there is NO reason why everyone should not just go out and get an iPod.  While I might have made a few caveats last year saying that the boys and girls at Apple need to get off their duffs and add in a few features (such as an FM radio tuner, for gym use not because anyone really listens to the radio any more) that many other brands include in their players; those same boys and girls answered all of my gripes and even one-upped me.  The new iPod Nano line has the FM tuner I have been squawking about for years and just like every other gadget in the world this year, they added a camera!  (Just as a side note, is there going to be ANY device in the next few years that doesn’t have a camera on it?  Do I really need a camera on my bread maker showing me bored for hours waiting for the bread to mix and bake?)  Not only is the Nano a pro at taking pictures, but it also shoots great video clips as well, as if it were possible for you to miss that little fact after Apple’s iPod advertising blitz this season.

With the addition of the FM tuner and the integration of the Nike+ system into the Nano without an attachment, the Nano has become the hands-down winner of the best MP3 player for the gym since you can now use it to tune into the broadcasts that many large gyms use for the TVs in front of all the cardio equipment as well as use it with your Nike+ shoes to track your exercise routine in or out of the gym.  The camera though is actually a step back for it in this realm since I really don’t think we need any pictures of ‘naked hairy guy’ from the locker room posted on the web.  The Nano is still a steal at $149 for the 8GB model and $179 for the 16GB model.

As for the rest of the iPod lineup, the Touch remains a great iPod for those who want the Apps of the iPhone without the Phone (though it was surprising to see that it didn’t get a camera as well, but sources would have you believe that that will be corrected in the spring of next year) and the Shuffle got a new sleek form factor and a bump up in capacity with a loss in its ease of use and battery life.  The 64GB Touch is $399 and the 4GB Shuffle is $79 ($99 if you want the cool polished stainless steel look).

Video Games

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – (Mature; Very, VERY mature) This game is the First-Person Shooter to end all First Person Shooters (at least until Modern Warfare 3 in 2011).  This game made $530 million dollars in its first week on sale!  That beat the opening week of any movie ever made by a couple of hundred million or so.  This game has so many jaw-dropping moments in it’s single-player campaign that alone justify it’s $60 price tag but you more than get your money’s worth with the multiplayer that will keep you playing till all hours of the night just to rank up one more level and unlock that next cool weapon or item for you to use.  Be warned though, there is one level that the game gives you the option to skip if you are faint hearted.  I’m not squeamish by any means, but even I found myself taking a bit of a ‘gut check’ playing it (I won’t give it away for fear of ruining it for you or your gamer loved one, but it is a doozy).  It is out for the 360, PS3, and PC.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2 – (Everyone 10+) The first LEGO Indiana Jones game was a hoot even for older players (maybe more so since we remember seeing the good Indiana Jones movies  in the theaters- you know, all the ones other than the last one).  While this game focuses primarily on the rather lame ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ movie, it does still hit on all the old favorites and provides a lot of the antics that the LEGO games are famous for.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – (Teen) The follow-up to 2007’s smash hit, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2 follows Nathan Drake’s continued adventures in search of lost relics (think of him as a male Lara Croft from Tomb Raider) and continues to serve up some of the best graphics and gameplay of any game on the PS3 system.  It is only available for the PS3 but it, and its predecessor, are such good games they are almost worth the cost of a PS3 to play.

So that is it for this year’s annual gadget guide, I hope you or your loved one gets all the gadgets their little geeked out heart desires.  As always, if you have any gadget question, or request for a review, feel free to write me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.  Have a very happy holiday!

Gadgets & Gear: September 2009

Anyone who knows me or has read this column for the last several years knows that I have never been a big fan of Apple. Though if you’ve been paying attention, you will have noticed that my anti-Mac / anti-iPod stance has softened significantly over the last year or so.

In fact, I have pretty much said in this column that there really is no reason for you to have an MP3 player that is not an iPod. As I’ve said in the past, it was never because I thought that Apple made bad products, but that I never really bought in to their ‘I’m cool because I have a Mac/iPod’ conceit. But now things have taken a radical change…

I’ve officially gone to the Dark Side.

Not only do I have an iPod, but also the iPhone, and now I have replaced all of my computers (two laptops and one desktop) with Macs. It was a slow process at first, kind of like the Emperor from Star Wars whispering little things in Anakin Skywalker’s ear that started him down the path towards becoming Darth Vader.

First, my wife got an iPod Nano for Christmas a few years back which I had to set up for her since she didn’t know how, and I noticed how nice it was to navigate and use (though iTunes still sucked on PCs at the time). That led to me buying an iPod Shuffle for myself, which is still my favorite little music player.

Later I bought the iPod Touch when it first came out, then early this year I bought iPhones for both of us. Finally, after heading back to school to start my Masters degree, I was tempted by all the Macs I saw around me in class and so I bought MacBooks for my wife and I. It took three weeks of using my MacBook to convince me to ditch PCs forever and that is when I chucked my 2-year-old PC for a sleek new 24” iMac.

And I’m never looking back.

I thought I might miss that old computer system that I have been using since I was a little kid and ran on BASIC or the earliest versions of Windows, but I really don’t.

The ease of use of these Macs is just amazing. Loading programs takes just the time to transfer the data off the disk to the hard drive and doesn’t require writing entries to a registry and all that junk. Uninstalling a program just requires that I drag the icon to the trash bin and it is gone! I spent two days cleaning up my old PC to give to a family friend mostly because all the programs took FOREVER to install/uninstall with numerous re-boots all the time. Every hassle that I have had with my Mac has usually been because I was trying to make things more difficult than they really were; in other words, I was trying to do them the Windows way instead of the Mac way.

Now granted, many of my original arguments against Apple/Macs still stand. Want to upgrade your iMac or MacBook? Grab a sledgehammer, destroy the old one, and then go buy a new one (it’ll be easier that way). Want to buy accessories for your Mac? Be prepared to pay the Apple Tax, which inexplicably adds about 20-40% to the price of an equivalent piece of equipment for a PC. And I would still argue that if Microsoft only had to design a software package for a single design spec like Apple, they could make something that works just as well as the stuff from the geniuses at One Infinity Way. They probably wouldn’t be as slick looking (though the new Zune HD from Microsoft shows that they can make an incredibly slick device when they want), but I guarantee you Windows would work better if they didn’t have to make it work on thousands of different computer configurations.

I have gone from being a naysayer to an advocate with all the fervor of a convert! There isn’t enough time for me to write about all the little things that I love about my Macs, but I can sum them up with just a simple phrase: THEY JUST WORK.

Like I stated earlier, doing things on a Mac is much more straightforward than anything on a PC. All the little maintenance things that I had to do to keep my Windows Operating System from eating itself alive to all the little back-door workarounds to get something to work are no longer needed. One of the biggest knocks on Macs by ‘power users’ of Windows systems, is that they don’t feel that they have enough access to the system for their taste. While it is true that many of the things that Windows users are used to ‘tweaking’, are a little more deeply buried, they are still there if you know where to look. The beauty is though, you don’t have to use them.

I was a ‘power user’ myself and I knew tons of little tricks to make Windows work smoother, but I haven’t really missed not having to do that. It is almost like going from a manual to an automatic transmission, I can focus less on getting the car to move and focus more on driving (but there will always be those who don’t feel they are really driving unless they are in a stick-shift).

There are a couple other ‘drawbacks’ to the Mac compared to the PC in addition to the ones mentioned above, and those would be a relative lack of software and very little support for gaming. There are some software packages that only run on Windows and if you need one of those programs, you probably will not want to switch to a Mac. You can always load Windows on a Mac using Boot Camp, which comes already installed, and run Windows on your Mac when you need it, or better yet use a program like Parallels or VMware Fusion to run Windows (in a window, go figure) on your Mac.

If you are a big gamer on your PC, you are going to be sorely disappointed in the quantity and quality of the games available for the Mac. Sure you can play The Sims 3, but forget about a bunch of the Massively Multiplayer Online games or a lot of the shooters (though they do have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare which is arguably the best shooter of all time).

If you are worried about the compatibility of files for going between work and home, you can always get Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, which I personally believe is the best version of Office I have ever used, and I have been using Office from day 1. It beats the snot out of that abomination they call Office 2007 on the PC.

So there you have it from the man who swore he would never ever give Steve Jobs a single red cent of his money. I have gone to being one of Apple’s biggest supporters. Do yourself a favor and just go play with some of the computers at your local Apple store. Sure, you may not recognize where everything is at first, but the learning curve for Apple products is significantly easier than the PC one.

So if Apple is the Dark Side, and Steve Jobs is the Emperor, I guess that would kind of make me like Darth Vader…

I’m cool with that (as you can see from the picture below).

As always, if you have a gadget you would like me to review or some techie question you would like answered, feel free to email me at: jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Review: FSS BlueMax 70 Light

Let There Be Light!

Do you start getting depressed and lethargic about half way through the winter months? If so, and you are not normally like this the rest of the year, you may have Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise known as S.A.D. (of course it is). So what are you supposed to do if you do have S.A.D.? Well, if you can’t spend the winter months somewhere down south, one treatment option is anti-depressants; another treatment option is light therapy. You read that correctly, light therapy, and there is quite a bit of scientific data to back up its effectiveness.

So how do you get this light therapy? Well, fortunately you don’t need a prescription, though if you are feeling depressed you should see your doctor just to confirm that it really is S.A.D. and not something else. You also don’t need a degree in thermonuclear physics so that you can create your own mini-sun in your living room (let me know how that works for you though, if you try). Really, you just need to get yourself a light therapy unit from many of the companies that are out there. They come in all shapes and sizes, from literally a little light box, all the way to a huge floor lamp that can flood an entire room with simulated daylight.

One of the companies that has probably the best and most stylish collection of lights would be Full Spectrum Solutions, which is based here in Jackson, Michigan. The folks at Full Spectrum Solutions sent me two of their BlueMax 70 watt High Definition Full Spectrum Desk Lamps to test out. I have been using one unit on my computer desk down in the basement of my house and the other unit has been used as a bedside lamp for my wife, the estimable Dr. Lockwood who most definitely gets S.A.D. every winter.

So the question is do they work? Well, I personally think that the literature in the medical journals put that question to rest quite a long time ago but from a personal standpoint I would have to give a slightly reserved yes. Now this isn’t to say that I haven’t been extremely happy with these lights, it is just that I don’t really get into my S.A.D. funk until about February so I can’t really assess how well the light does at bringing me out of that funk. I can definitely say though that I feel better now after using these lamps for two months than I normally do at this time of year and my wife agrees that she feels better as well.

So how does light therapy work? Typically you get a light that simulates the full light spectrum of the sun (the lamps you normally have in the house only put out light in a rather narrow band) and sometimes even blue light is used. Typically you just need the light next to you (you aren’t supposed to stare at it or anything like that) for about an hour a day. Some doctors may also recommend that patients use a dawn simulator that gradually brings up the light as they get close to their waking hour so that it is a more natural way of waking up.

I have been using it for several hours every day since I spend most of my non-working/sleeping hours down in the basement either on my computer or on my Xbox which is right next to my computer desk (I literally have a guy cave). I couldn’t think of an easier way to use this light since I have to have a light on next to my desk anyway even during the day. This is by far the easiest and most passive medical treatment I have ever used!

While my recommendation for the lights’ usefulness in S.A.D. may be on the reserved side, my recommendation just as a normal lamp is not reserved in any way. These are by far the best lights I have ever used. I kind of scoffed when I read in the literature they sent me about these being High Definition lights since everything seems to be HD nowadays, but for once I was genuinely surprised by a product I tried out. When I first turned on these lights in my house, I almost had to pick my jaw up off the floor. The quality of the light is like nothing else I have seen, they really are like having perfect sunlight (without the nasty UV rays) in my house. My wife even commented that once she thought she had left the blinds open in our bedroom and the sun was coming in, when really the light streaming into the hallway was from the lamp.

When they say High Definition, what they really mean is that since the light is like what your eyes were intended to see, you really do get a different look at things in your house. Be careful though, you will find all kinds of things in your house that you might have overlooked using dingy incandescent lights. I’m already a neat freak and unfortunately now I see dust the minute it shows up, though I do have to say that I’m keeping my house even cleaner than I normally do. Also if you are like me, you will have a much easier time reading under this light and I already have 20/10 vision.

Now you might think that these lamps must draw a ton of electricity to mimic the light of the sun, but really these lights use special fluorescent bulbs that utilize unique phosphors that are ‘tuned’ to mimic sunlight. So not only do you get a great light that can help ward off S.A.D. but you are also helping the environment and your pocket book by using less electricity. Also like any other fluorescent light, these bulbs last thousands of hours longer than incandescent bulbs.

Being the amateur photographer that I am, I also wondered how these lamps would do for photography. Many professional photographers use ‘daylight balanced’ bulbs in their photography and I wondered if these would work the same way, and indeed they do. While the models I have are desk lamp sized, they were great for doing some still life work in my little home studio. Full Spectrum Solutions does sell daylight balanced bulbs in the normal compact fluorescent spiral form we are all used to, and I’m going to see about buying a few of these for use in a full photographic light set-up.

As I stated at the beginning of the article, Full Spectrum Solutions has a huge variety of shapes and sizes of their lamps as well as bulbs for use in your own lamp fixtures. They have everything from those dawn simulators, to personal light boxes, to desk lamps, all the way to large floor lamps and torchieres. Now I will say that these lamps are a bit more expensive than your average table lamp but here you truly get what you pay for. Those other cheap lamps only give you a part of the light spectrum and here you get the whole shebang. Once you get one of these lights you are going to want to replace all of your lights with them since you will really notice the difference between your Full Spectrum lamp and your other lights.

If you are interested in learning more about these lights, I encourage you to check out their website at www.fullspectrumsolutions.com or give them a call at 888-574-7014. Remember that they are also a Michigan company so not only are you getting a great light, you are also helping out the Michigan economy.

As always, if you have any questions about this article or any other gadgets, please feel free to write to me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com. Have a great new year!

It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Gadgets!

It’s that time of year again, when gadget geeks all over the world hope and pine for the latest and greatest in electronic gizmos and when Santa (i.e. loving spouses and parents) go nuts trying to figure out what to get their incorrigible little gear-heads. Of course I’m here to help you with my second annual holiday gear buying guide, because that’s the kind of guy I am. No thanks are necessary, it’s worth it just knowing that I’m helping to bring a smile to a little gadget geek somewhere.

I do have to say though that this year is much harder than in the past, due to the fact that there hasn’t been anything really big and new this year. Mostly, we have just seen incremental upgrades or significant price drops from last year. If you held off from buying some of the hottest gear from the past couple of years, the manufacturers have really sweetened the deal with some serious bang for your buck this year.

So here it is, my list for some of the best gadgets and gear for the holiday season.

Game Systems: Nothing really new here per se, but 2008 saw some significant upgrades to the current generation of game hardware and in some cases, some serious price drops. We have also had more than a year to add some incredible games to libraries of all of these systems, making a game system pretty much a no-brainer – if you don’t already have one.

Xbox 360: A huge price cut and a bigger hard drive, plus some free games to boot? I would still argue that the 360 is the dominant game console of the generation, perhaps not in total numbers sold – that honor would go to the Wii – but definitely in overall game experience and bang for the buck. The 360 Arcade version is now the cheapest game system at only $199 and while it doesn’t have a hard drive, it does come with some great games for kids and it gets you into the next generation on the cheap. The 360 Pro version is, in my opinion, THE system to own because $299 buys you the unquestionable system leader for the hard-core gamer, with the new 60GB hard drive and two free games (Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda, the first of which is awesome, the second… not so much). There really is no reason to shell out another $100 for the Elite version unless you really need another 60GB of hard drive space or really want a black Xbox.

Also, by the time you read this, Microsoft will have released the New Xbox Experience which adds some decidedly Wii-like game avatars and a completely upgraded interface. Unlike the previous software tweaks, the new Experience really is a game changer both literally and figuratively. With support now for you to rip your game from the disk to the larger hard drive, you can eliminate the need for the system to keep the disk spinning in the drive which drastically cuts down on system noise and can speed up load times (though you still need the disk in the tray to play it). Also, if you have a Netflix account, you can stream your movies straight through your Xbox now, totally eliminating any need to get off the couch or even leave the house for that matter! Finally, Xbox Live! remains the leader in online play and with the latest crop of games, your little gamer is going to be fragging n00bs from all over the world, w00t! (For a translation, read the Oct 08 G&G).

Playstation 3: While the PS3 has come down in price over the last year (now $399), I would argue that should be expected when you actually take stuff away from the console. The system is no longer backwards, compatible with literally hundreds of games from the PS1 and PS2, and they have removed some of the card inputs from the 1st generation, though admittedly those were pretty useless in the first place. While the PS3 does push out some beautiful visuals, it still has not delivered in the games department. There are only a handful of truly awesome games that can only be played on the PS3 and the Playstation’s online system still has not delivered on its promised upgrade that was supposed to be out this time last year (showing that while the PS3 online service is free, you get what you pay for). Also, one of the most compelling reasons for buying a PS3, the fact that it was the cheapest Blu-Ray player you could buy, is no longer the case. The PS3 is a very good game system; it’s just not the best (that would be the Xbox 360).

Nintendo Wii: The Wii has not come down in price or added anything really new, but why should it, since for the last two years Nintendo has been able to sell every Wii system it has been able to crank out. The undisputed leader in terms of total number of units sold, it is still by far the weakest system as far as performance and quality of games goes. Now, there are some Nintendo fan-boys out there that will squawk about Super Mario Brothers Galaxy, but for every must-have game for the Wii, I can put up five must-haves for either the 360 or even the PS3. Still, for $249 you do get a cool system with some thoroughly cool games to play with friends and family, but serious gamers will be left wanting.

If you already have one of the above systems or are looking for some games to go along with your new system, here are my picks from this year’s crop (game rating in parenthesis):

Fallout 3 (Mature): From Bethesda Softworks, the makers of the 2007 smash hit, Oblivion comes a game that can best be described as a post-apocalyptic Oblivion. Don’t worry if you or your little gamer (well they shouldn’t be too little since this IS a mature-rated game) never played Fallout 1 & 2 (though they were great), this game stands on it’s own with an awesome story and fabulous game play. I have already lost several days of my life to this game! (360 and PS3)

Dead Space (Mature): In space, no one can hear you scream, but my wife has no problem hearing me scream like a little girl whenever a necromorph springs out of the shadows to scare the bejeezus out of me. This is the sleeper hit of 2008 (much like Assassin’s Creed was last year) and will go down in history as one of the scariest games ever. (360 and PS3)

Lego Indiana Jones (Everyone 10+): Anyone who loves the Indiana Jones movies (we’ll ignore this year’s movie) will love this game. Yes, it is cutesy with all the Lego characters running around, but it delivers in both gameplay and in sly humor for those adults who are fans and are paying attention. This game is one of the few games for which I have a perfect score, because I wanted to explore every nook and cranny. (360, PS3, PS2, and Wii)

Tom Clancy’s Endwar (Teen): For your armchair generals, this game will suck up hours upon hours of their life. This is one of the few games to really use voice commands and really do it well. You can pretty much play the entire game without ever touching the controller; though that does mean that you are going to have to hear your little general yelling ‘Team 1, attack Hostile 2!’ which may or may not be such a good thing. (360 and PS3)

Little Big Planet (Everyone 10+): Arguably one of the cutest games of all time, this one also has a lot of creativity going for it, to which you can add your own by custom designing levels for you and your friends to play. (PS3 only)

Gears of War 2 (Mature): I really wasn’t a fan of the first Gears game but I do have to give it praise for its superb graphics and frantic gameplay. I am an outsider on this one, virtually 99% of all gamers love this game, but for some reason it just did didn’t grab me, though there is a very good chance that your gamer will love it. (360 only)

Metal Gear Solid 4 (Mature): The Metal Gear series will go down in history as one of the best game series of all time and rightfully deserves the reverence that people reserve for movie classics such as ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Schindler’s List’. This is supposedly the last chapter of this sometimes strange but always engrossing story, and it unfolds through bleeding edge graphics that will make your High-Def TV whimper for mercy. (PS3 only)

Cameras: 2008 has seen some decent upgrades to some top cameras of the past few years and here are my picks for best camera in each of the different classes:

Compact – Sony Cyber-Shot DSC T700: Sony has always been one to make stylish cameras and the T700 is no exception. With its incredibly thin form factor and brushed aluminum casing, you would be hard pressed to find a sleeker camera. The real beauty of this camera is the fact that it can also double as a portable picture album. The memory of the camera has been bumped up to 4GB which pretty much eliminates any need to buy a separate memory card and allows you to hold literally thousands of pictures in the camera. With its 3.5 inch touch screen on the back you can then show off all your photos to friends and family right there on the back of the camera. One drawback to the touch screen, as is the case with virtually all touch screens, is the fact that you will have a ton of fingerprints on the screen. Carry a screen cleaning cloth with the camera though and you have a great camera and portable photo album all in one.

Superzoom – Canon SX10 IS: The current king of the superzoom class with a 20x zoom on it, the SX10 is the first real upgrade to this series of camera since they were created. With a 10 megapixel sensor, a 2.5 inch screen that can be rotated so that it is protected by the camera body, and a zoom equivalent of 28 – 560mm, you really would be hard pressed to find a better all-in-one travel camera. Granted, you are giving up some photo quality by packing that much zoom into one lens but you are also cutting out about 15 pounds of camera gear at the same time, if you were to try to cover the same range with an SLR camera. Though the Panasonic FZ-28 (which I also mentioned in last months article) is also a serious contender in this class, I gave the SX10 the nod mostly due to the 20x vs. the 18x zoom and the better ergonomics (the FZ-28 is a bit small even for my medium sized hands).

Entry Level D-SLR – Canon Rebel XSi: With its 12.2 megapixel sensor, 3 inch screen, blazing speed, and huge lens line-up, the XSi is easily the best of the entry level D-SLRs. There may be others that are a little bit cheaper, or may have a higher resolution screen on the back, but none can match the whole package that Canon put together in the XSi. Now I fully expect Nikon, Sony, or Canon themselves to come up with something that will blow the XSi out of the water some time next summer, but until then, and even after, you would be well served by the outstanding Canon Rebel XSi.

Semi-Pro D-SLR – Nikon D90: Being a Canon fan-boy myself, it pains me to say this, but Nikon handed Canon their rear-end in this class of cameras. My Canon 40D and even the newer 50D have been trounced by this beautiful camera. While the 50D might have outdone the D90 in terms of the quality of the LCD screen on the back (and just barely at that), everything else about D90 trounces anything Canon has put out in the same class. While the D90 might have a smaller megapixel sensor than the Canon 50D, that is actually not a bad thing because I think that both the Canon XSi and the D90 have proven that 12 megapixels is the sweet spot for this class of cameras (remember more pixels does not necessarily mean better). This camera almost makes me want to switch to Nikon… almost.

Professional D-SLR: Canon 5D Mark II: While Nikon really stepped up their game in the full-frame sensor arena with the D3 and the D700, the Canon 1Ds Mark III blew the D3 out of the water (if you can get a second mortgage to afford it) and the 5D will do the same to the D700. The 5D Mark II trounces the D700 and in some ways even the D3 with a huge 21 megapixel sensor! 21 megapixels I tell you! That is up there with the medium-format cameras that the professional fashion photographers use in their studios. For those photographers who need a full frame sensor, the 5D Mark II is a no-brainer even when compared to the 1Ds Mark III because you can use the $5000 you saved on some sweet lenses!

MP3 Players: I’m going to make this one easy, just go get an iPod will you? I don’t care which one, because quite frankly your little geek is going to be happy no matter which one they get.

iPod Touch: With the software upgrades to the Touch this year and the boosting of the memory up to 32GB all with a decreased prices, you will not find a better all-around media player. Cover Flow is still the coolest music interface and watching TV and movies on the Touch is still stellar. Also, now that the Touch can use programs from the Apps Store on iTunes, you can get some of the cool new programs that the kids with the iPhones have been playing with, including some really neat games.

iPod Nano: The Nano went back to its slender form of the 1st and 2nd generations but added a widescreen display, a better interface, and a cool new oblong body. While the screen is still pretty small, you would be surprised how easy it is to watch video on it even for extended periods. Something new is the ‘Shake to Shuffle’ feature that puts the Nano in shuffle mode just by shaking it vigorously (don’t worry, you have to really try to put it in this mode, it won’t just do it from normal movement). Also, you can get the Nano in a bewildering choice of colors that would even make a peacock stand up and say ‘whoa’ (that is if they had lips to make the whole ‘w’ sound, but I digress). That and an overall increase in memory for the same price, makes this the go-to iPod.

iPod Shuffle: With the increase in memory from 1GB to 2GB (though you can still get the 1GB for about $20 less than before), this remains my pick for best gym music player, heck for just plain all-around music player for that matter. Out of all the music players I have ever owned (and that’s a lot), the Shuffle is still my favorite and most used player EVER. While the Touch is cool to show off, the ease of use and diminutive size of the Shuffle just makes it my all time favorite music player.

So, that’s it for this year’s gadget buying guide. I could have gone on forever on a ton of different items (flat screen TVs, headphones, GPS units, cell phones, etc.) but I only have so much so much space in which to write. If you have any specific questions on some gadget this holiday season, please feel free to write me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com. Have a great holiday season!

‘Techs’ and the City

So there you are, a well equipped gadget geek (which of course you are, since you read my column every month) heading out on a grand trip to New York or some other vacation hot spot. What to take, and how do you protect your precious gear? Well, me being the world traveler and consummate gear-head that I am, I have a bit of advice for those of you taking your gear on the road.

What gadgets should you take with you on your trip? Well, of course you are going to want to record all your exploits and adventures so you will want that digital camera. A couple of new cameras that are available now are a great choice for their versatility and relatively compact size. The first is the Panasonic DMC FZ-28, which is the follow up to one of the best reviewed ‘super-zoom’ cameras, the FZ-18. The new 10 megapixel FZ-28 not only has a tremendous 18x zoom range but has added some new low dispersion lenses that help control chromatic aberration (color fringing) that can ruin photos at the extreme end of the zoom range. This combined with the new Venus IV processor and the rather impressive ‘Intelligent Auto’ mode, will provide you with great pictures from close up and REALLY far away. Another brand new super-zoom is from Canon and is a huge upgrade to the S5 IS model. The new Canon SX10 IS not only bumps up the megapixels from 6 to 10 but also the longtime 12x zoom to a phenomenal 20x making it the current super-zoom king as of this writing. One of my favorite things about the SX10 is the 2.5 inch swivel screen that allows you to flip the screen towards the camera to help protect it when not in use.

If you insist, as I do, on taking your big photo gear like your digital SLR with you, how do you keep it safe but easily accessible? A favorite of mine are Lowepro bags. Their Slingshot and new Fastpack series of backpacks are a great way to take your SLR and quite a bit of support gear (lenses, flash units, and extra batteries/memory). With a single strap that crosses your chest, it’s simple to swing the bag around to the front and access your camera and gear. If you want something even more compact, you can get one of the Digital Holster series from Think Tank. The Digital Holster 20 is just the right size for a semi-pro camera (such as the Canon 50D or the Nikon D90), and the Digital Holster 40 is great for a pro sized camera (such as the Canon 1Ds Mk III or the Nikon D3) or a semi-pro camera with a battery grip attached. They cradle the camera very nicely and even have an expandable bottom to accommodate longer lenses. There is also a really nice flap inside that protects the back of your camera and the screen from the folded up strap and a side pocket to hold an extra battery and memory card. I used the Digital Holster 20 for a whole week traipsing up and down Manhattan and it is now my favorite bag of all time for my camera. My only complaint is that there is not a loop on the side that would allow me to throw a lens case on as well for a second lens, though I did pretty well with my 18-200mm ‘walk-about’ lens.

Speaking of ‘walk-about’ lenses, if you happen to have a non-full frame Canon or Nikon Digital SLR, Tamron has just developed the first zoom lens with a 15x zoom range. The Tamron 18-270mm Lens has their proprietary Vibration Compensation mechanism that works to minimize lens shake. The huge range and very good image stabilization system make it an ideal single lens solution for any trip. It is not currently out as of the time of this writing but should be available by the time you read this.

If you have been waiting for the perfect time to pick up an iPod Touch, or better yet, an iPhone, just before your trip is a great time to pick one up. With the new update to the Version 2 software for the both the Touch and iPhone, you now have access to a whole slew of new applications that can make your travel a lot easier. The original software and equipment were already great for a trip to browse the internet and check email but with the addition of some really great travel oriented applications, some of them free, your Touch or iPhone can turn into a tour guide right in your pocket.

Why bother trying to carry around a big folded up map and trying to figure out where you are when you can just call up a city guide on the screen? Better yet, the iPhone can use its GPS functionality to point out exactly where you are on that map and how to get to hundreds if not thousands of points of interest. Another advantage of the Touch/iPhone is that while you are waiting in line for whatever tourist attraction or bored out of your skull looking at yet another piece of artwork in some museum, you can watch a movie or TV show. Or you can do what I do and throw on a really rockin’ album and make your own little soundtrack for the museum (Metallica and Monet or maybe some Def Leppard and Degas).

These are just a couple of bits of advice for the tech-savvy traveler. Next month, will be my holiday gear guide where I will have some more in-depth reviews of some of the items mentioned in this column, as well as a bunch of others to make your inner geek squeal like a little girl at a Jonas Brothers concert.

As always, if you have a questions or have any requests for gear you would like to see reviewed, please write to me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Kindle2: The Book Made Better

So you may remember a few months back (actually quite a few months back) in our Apr 07 issue, I wrote a review of the Sony Reader, which was one of the first devices to use the new eInk screens. Overall the Sony unit and its slightly modified second gen model performed admirably but were hampered by their less than fantastic ergonomics and a quite poor online store for purchasing the books to read on it. While I gave the Reader a good review at the time, I soured on the device after a very short time due to the previously mentioned problems.

With that said, there was still a call to make a device that can truly replace the printed book, and wunderkind Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com stepped up to the plate with the Kindle. While the Kindle has now been out for almost a year, it sold out so many early production runs, that I wasn’t able to get my grubby little mitts on one until just a few months ago (I also wasn’t looking to repeat the burn I got with the Sony Reader).

The Kindle addresses most of the grumbles that I had with the Reader and actually makes Sony’s job darn near impossible, because there really is no reason to buy the Reader now that the Kindle is out.

First off, the design of the Kindle, while not perfect, is still head and shoulders better than the Sony device. While the Sony Reader had multiple ways to ‘turn’ its pages, they were still smallish little buttons that weren’t quite as easy to press as they should be. The Kindle addressed this in a big way (really big) and made both the left and right edges of the device into big back and forward buttons. Actually the left side that would fall under your left thumb has both buttons with the back button on top and the forward button being just where your thumb would fall. The funny thing about this set up though is that the upper back button is about three times the size of the forward button (which is the one that you will probably using the most unless you’re one of those people who likes to start at the back of a book and work your way forward). Either way, it can almost be TOO easy to flip the pages, and since the eInk pages take a second to change it can be a bit of a distraction if you accidentally hit either button while in the middle of the page.

The rest of the Kindle’s design is nothing short of genius. While the Sony reader came in midnight blue and the second generation came in either blue or silver, it never really blended in, and you always felt like you were holding an electronic device. The Kindle on the other hand is a crisp white color and has a bit of a wedge shape, with the thick end on the left side so that it perfectly balances in your hand. Both the thick left side and white color help to immerse you in the illusion that you might just be reading a paper book with the front cover folded back.

The Kindle is an absolute joy to hold just by itself but if you are going to take it out and about, you are going to want to either use the included cover or go out and buy one of the third-party offerings that are out there. While the included cover is nice and quite functional, it does less than a stellar job securing the Kindle and it always feels like it is on the verge of falling out. If you want a serious upgrade to the supplied cover, take a look at M-Edge Products at www.buymedge.com. Their executive jacket is nothing short of superb for your Kindle. Using real leather and a much better system for securing the Kindle, it really is a must have if you are going to spend the kind of money that Amazon is asking for the Kindle. With the Kindle in one of the M-Edge covers it almost feels like you are carrying around a nicely leather bound edition of your favorite book, when really you are carrying around 100 of your favorite books!

Just like the Sony Reader, the main reason for owning an electronic reader is for that person who is the voracious reader who doesn’t like hauling around twenty pounds of books on vacation or for their morning commute. Even with the Kindle’s built in memory, you have enough room for well over a hundred books and with the built in slot for an SD Card, you can expand that to thousands of books!

So other than the better ergonomics and slightly better functionality, what it the real reason for buying a pricier Kindle over the Sony Reader? That reason would be Whispernet. The real beauty of the Kindle that actually makes it a must have device for anyone who loves to read is the fact that you can get almost any book, at any time, no matter where you are. That’s right, when you are finished reading your novel on the beach and are nowhere near a bookstore or a computer for that matter, you don’t have to worry; just fire up your Whispernet connection and browse over 150,000 titles on Amazon.com and download it with just the click of a button! Considering the fact that Whispernet uses the Sprint network, you will most likely have a connection no matter where you are. With the Sony Reader, you had to use their painfully slow and unintuitive bookstore from a computer and then download the books you bought onto the Reader. On top of this they charged an outrageous amount for a book that they didn’t even have to print on paper or store in a warehouse. Sometimes you would only save $5 off the cover price of a current bestseller!

The Kindle makes it a breeze to find any book you like from the Amazon library since it has a built in keyboard at the bottom of the device that you can use to enter in any search you like, or you can just browse through their collections with the easy to use scroll wheel. The best part is that New York Times bestsellers typically are only about $10, which is a considerable savings over their cover price and much more reasonable for a digital version. You can even download a sample of the book to check out first before deciding to buy it.

Where Whispernet really shines though is in the delivery of periodicals such as newspapers and magazines. You heard right, tired of stacks and stacks of newspapers piling up in your garage, or the thought of cutting down whole forests just so you can get your daily news fix? Well the Kindle will download the latest edition of such venerable favorites such as the New York Times or the Washington Post while you sleep and when you wake up, it will be waiting for you to peruse while drinking your morning coffee with no annoying newsprint to smudge on your hands. There are a little over a dozen newspapers (unfortunately the Free Press or Detroit News are not on the list yet), and about the same number of magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and Fortune that you can subscribe to, all for much less than their print versions. I do have to say that while this is an undeniably cool feature of the Kindle, they do need to work on the interface for the newspapers since it is not nearly as intuitive for browsing as flipping through the paper skimming the stories to find one of interest.

If you love books or read lots of periodicals, you really need to take a look at the Kindle. While it is quite pricey at $359 (it was $400 when it launched), the money you save on books and especially newspapers, can quickly make it worth it. You also need to factor in the convenience of being able to haul your whole library while also having access to the whole Amazon catalog in one little device. Also, if you or someone you know has trouble reading normal size print and has to wait for the large print editions to come out, they no longer have to wait since the Kindle can change the size of the font on the fly.

At the time of this writing (early August), there is a rumor that Amazon has its second generation Kindle waiting to be launch right about the time this article is published. There are also rumors that they may also come out with a larger 8.5″ x 11″ version (the regular Kindle screen is 6″ diagonally). This larger version would make it easier to display newspapers or textbooks. Imagine every student with all their textbooks in one device that weighs about a pound!

That is it for this month, and as always, if you have any questions or would like to see something reviewed here, let me know at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

OMG! U R a N00b if U don’t know 1337 speak!

If you understood what I wrote for the title of this article, you are either a computer hacker by trade, or were born after 1990 (give or take a few years). The literal translation is, “Oh my gosh! You are a newbie if you don’t know elite speak!”

Every parent since the dawn of time has decried the fact that they can’t understand their children half of the time, so nothing is really new here except that a whole lot of consonants and vowels have been lost and sometimes a few numbers stand in for letters. Elite speak, typed as 1337 or l33t, was built up many years ago by those who really knew their way around the internet in its early days. It uses symbols and numbers to replace their alphanumeric counterpart. Internet/chat slang though is just an extension of any other shorthand from the military or medicine and is designed to convey the most amount of information in the most compact form. It mainly grew out of the difficulty of typing complex sentences while either playing an online game, conversing in an online chat room, or having to type on a phone’s numeric keyboard.

Since this is our children’s issue I thought I would help those of you who don’t spend every waking hour texting their friends, chatting online, or playing World of Warcraft, with a quick little primer on some of the more common internet/chat slang words. I do this for no other reason than to help you understand your kids a bit better but also to help keep them safe if you think there might be some inappropriate conversations going on.

Here is a quick list of some of the most common words and phrases:

1337 – Derived from the word elite, often used in reference to one’s self; opposite of n00b.

10q – Thank you.

AFAIK – As far as I know.

AFK – Away from keyboard

ASL – Age / Sex / Location. A way to find out who is in the chat room. Be wary of people who ask this a little too often in chat rooms, they are looking for something, and most likely not a pen pal.

ATM – At the moment.

BCNU – Be seein’ you.

BFF – Best friends forever.

BFN – Bye for now.

BRB – Be right back.

BTDT – Been there done that.

BTW – By the way.

CU – See you (later).

Flamer – Someone who make inflammatory or abusive remarks. Typically typing in ALL CAPS

is considered to be ‘flaming’ someone.

FOAF – Friend of a friend.

FUD – Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (purposefully spreading misinformation).

FWIW – For what it is worth.

GFU – Good for you.

GFY – Go F*** yourself.

GG – Good game, typically used at the end of an online game match and is good-sportsmanship.

GTG or G2G – ‘Got to go’ or ‘Good to go’.

HAND – Have a nice day.

H4x0r – A computer hacker in 1337-speak.

HTH – Hope this helps.

IDK – I don’t know.

IMHO – In my humble/honest opinion.

IRL – In real life (all the rest of the time that isn’t in front of a keyboard).

JAS – Just a sec.

JK or j/k – Just kidding.

KTHX – OK, thanks.

KTHXBAI – OK, thanks, goodbye. A way to cut short a conversation or to express displeasure

at being cut off.

L8R- Later, as in ‘see you later’.

LFM – Looking for more. Can often mean that someone is looking for more than just a chat

partner online.

LMAO – Laughing my ass off.

LMIRL – Let’s meet in real life. When a chat room member wants to meet in person and can be

a serious red flag if the parents aren’t there to accompany their child.

LOL – Laughing out loud.

lurker – Someone who hangs out in chat rooms without participating in discussions.

LYLAB/S – Love you like a brother/sister.

MMORPG/MMO – Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.

MTFBWY – May The Force be with you (my favorite).

MYOB – Mind your own business.

N1 – Nice one, mostly used in gaming.

Newbie, newb, or n00b – An inexperienced player of a game or an annoying person.

NIFOC – Naked in front of computer. Typically used as a joke but sometimes not depending on

the discussion, another red flag.

NP – No problem.

O RLY – Oh really?

OMG – Oh my god.

ONOZ – Oh no!

OTP – On the phone.

PAW – Parents are watching.

PITA – Pain in the ass.

POS – ‘Parents over shoulder’ or ‘Piece of S***’.

pr0n – Intentional misspelling of porn.

pwned – Intentional misspelling of owned, typically used in gaming to say that you ‘owned the

other team’.

QWP – Quit whining, please.

ROFL – Rolling on the floor laughing.

RTFB/M – Read the F***ing book/manual. Telling someone to read the instructions before

asking stupid questions.

SOHF – Sense of humor failure (someone didn’t get the joke).

TBH – To be honest.

THX, TNX, or TX – Thanks.

TMI – Too much information (sharing too much personal information).

TTFN – Ta ta for now.

TTYL – Talk to you later.

w00t or w00T – An expression of exuberance or ‘We own the other team’.

W/E – Whatever.

WTF – What the F***?

WUBU2 – What have you been up to?

W8 – Wait.

ZOMG – An intentional misspelling of the acronym for ‘Oh my Gawd’, typically to make fun of someone who overuses OMG.

Well, I hope this helps some of you parents and grandparents understand your children/ grandchildren a bit better. If you really want them to stop using these shorthand terms, you could start using them yourself, and in no time they will start using such perfect English that it would make Shakespeare cry. That is it for this month’s Gadgets & Gear, and as always if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write to me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Is That a Computer in Your Pocket or are You Just Happy to See Me?

When many people talk of awesome technological achievements, they often cite landing a man on the Moon or launching a fleet of satellites that can pinpoint your position to within three feet anywhere on the planet. I personally think that one of the most awesome technological achievements of mankind is right under many people’s fingertips every day (maybe even yours right now if you are reading this online at www.healthandleisureonline.com). That technological marvel is the computer, but more specifically, mobile computers like laptops and the new classes: notebook computers and Ultra Mobile Personal Computers (UMPC).

Many people take these wonders of technological innovation for granted. But when you consider these innovations have more power than many supercomputers of the not too distant past, do not take up an entire room or weigh in at several tons, but in fact can rest comfortably in your hand and can weigh as little as ONE POUND; that is amazing!

First off, I would like to thank faithful reader Johnny B. for writing in and requesting that I review some of the latest and greatest in ultra-mobile computing. A lot of people get confused on the different classes of mobile computers; is it a laptop, or a notebook, or is it a UMPC? A quick rule of thumb is that if you really do need to put it on your lap, or better yet, a desk to use it, it’s a laptop computer (though some of these ‘laptops’ can weigh in at over 10 pounds which means you better have a well padded lap to use them).

A notebook computer typically weighs less than four pounds and may also be called an ultraportable computer since now every computer manufacturer wants to call their laptop a notebook because it sounds lighter even if it still weighs 10 pounds. The ultraportable designation is more accurately used for the new class of low powered computers that are intended as second portable computers (or first computer for kids) and are an offshoot of the One Laptop Per Child initiative. The other major class of portable computers is the UMPC and these can typically weigh much less than two pounds and can be seen as either a really tiny laptop or a really big smartphone (without the phone capabilities).

So let’s take a look at some the best from the two smallest categories, the ultraportable and the UMPCs.

Ultraportable Computers

These computers are best suited for students and business travelers who don’t need monster computing power to get the job done. All they really need is a platform to type notes on or to do some web surfing.

Asus Eee PC 4G

The first Eee PC was launched last year to fantastic reviews and really helped to define the ultraportable, low-cost, low-power computer. The 4G is the updated version that now uses the Windows operating system instead of just Linux making it much more mainstream. The 4G sports a 7” screen, 512MB of RAM, a 4GB solid state drive (SSD) which has no moving parts and uses a lot less power than a traditional hard drive, and Windows XP Home edition. With specs like that, you are not going to be tearing up the world in high end video games or doing serious graphical work in Photoshop, but it will give you more than enough “oomph” to run Word, or Excel, and your favorite web browser.

The biggest drawback on the 4G is it’s very small storage capacity of only 4GB (only half of which is available due to the software already loaded on it) which you can fill up very quickly with very little effort. The great thing is that the 4G does have a SD card slot so you can easily double the memory for less than $50. The next biggest drawback would be the keyboard. The 4G is only 8.8 by 6.5 inches and that doesn’t leave a lot of real estate for a good-sized keyboard. While not as bad as a keyboard on a Blackberry, it definitely takes some getting used to if you are used to a full sized keyboard. Also, the 7” screen, while more than useable, does only have a max resolution of 800 x 480 so you will have to do a lot of scrolling, especially on web pages.

The beauty of the 4G is the fact that you get a very usable computer that can fit in a large pocket or small bag, weighs only two pounds, and best of all only costs $399 (which is about the same price as a 16GB iPod Touch). If you are looking for an inexpensive and small computer for either a student or yourself, you can’t go wrong with the Asus Eee PC 4G.

(Note: By the time this is published in July there ought to be a newer version of the 4G called the 12G widely available, with a larger hard drive (12GB for the windows version), a 9” screen, and an upgrade to 1GB of RAM. The keyboard is still the same size and it also costs about $200 more. They were limited in supply at the time of writing this and I was not able to play with one.)

HP 2133 Mini-Note PC

For $200 more than the Asus Eee PC 4G you can take care of a lot of the Eee’s biggest drawbacks. The HP 2133 replaces the mostly plastic body of the 4G with a magnesium alloy chassis making it feel like a much more substantial device. The HP 2133 also sports a 120GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, a 9” screen with 1280 x 800 resolution, and best yet an almost full sized keyboard while only adding about .9 pounds to the weight and two inches to the width.

The HP 2133 takes the ultraportables and makes them extremely useful. While you still won’t be scorching any heavy duty programs with it due to the underpowered processor, you do get more than enough power to run Office programs and your web browser. The Hp 2133 does use Windows Vista Home Basic and could have gotten a bit more performance if they had stuck to using Windows XP. The HP 2133 does have an upgrade version for $749 in which you get a faster hard drive (though not more space), an extra GB of RAM (for a total of 2GB), and Vista Business (not sure if I would call that an upgrade).

The two biggest drawbacks for the HP 2133 are it’s processor and it’s battery life. The processor isn’t even an Intel based chip and in many ways underperforms some handheld devices. It would have been nice if HP had either used a slightly more expensive low-power chip or waited until the new Intel Atom chip came out later this year which is specifically designed for ultraportables. The battery life isn’t nearly as good as the Asus Eee and therefore, turns in about two hours of work time before needing to be plugged in. This is mainly due to the larger screen and traditional hard drive. You can double this power with an upgraded battery but this destroys the sleek form of the 2133 and adds quite a bit more weight.

While the HP 2133 is definitely a looker and has the best ergonomics out of the ultraportables, I would hold off and wait until they upgrade the processor to one of the current Intel chips or the new Atom chip this fall.

Ultra Mobile Personal Computers (UMPC)

So what is the major difference between and ultraportable and a UMPC? While the ultraportable computers mentioned above are really just very svelte laptops, the UMPCs that I am going to write about here are really more like a Blackberry on steroids. Oh yeah, and about a $1000 difference in price! Hey, that ‘roid habit is an expensive one!

Sony VAIO UX390

The Sony UX390 is less like a Blackberry on steroids than it is like a Sidekick on steroids. At 5.9 inches wide, by 3.7 inches deep, by 1.5 inches thick, the UX390 is easily the smallest of the UMPCs that is still a fully functional computer. While only weighing 1.1 pounds, having all that weight in such a small device definitely makes the UX390 feel, well…dense, to say the least.

You have to give it to Sony when it comes to designing devices with flair. In fact, I would only rate them behind Apple for their design department. While implementing a feat of engineering and design genius with the UX390, Sony did drop the ball on the whole ergonomics thing. I had always thought that it would be easier to type on my smartphone’s keyboard if it were just a bit thicker so that I could keep a better hold on it, but the UX390 proved me wrong. The keys feel about the same as those on a smartphone and have about as much tactile feedback, which is to say they have virtually none. Also, the keyboard has a slightly different layout and is missing what I consider to be some very important buttons such as a shift key on the right side (you try hitting the @ symbol using your thumbs while only having a shift key on the left) and the page up/down keys which are imperative with such a small screen for scrolling webpages.

The screen on the UX390, while small at only 4.5 inches, does look beautiful. I have to point out though that I have 20/10 vision and have no problem with small type, while someone with 20/20 or less might have problems reading much of the text on the screen. The screen is also touch sensitive which is helpful since the only other method for moving the cursor on the screen is a rubberized thumb stick on the right side of the device, which isn’t as useful as you might think (though to be fair, you might get more proficient with it over time).

The Sony UX390 actually does pretty darn well running a lot of programs thanks to the Intel Core Solo processor, the 1GB of RAM, and the 32GB SSD. The UX390 actually runs Windows Vista Business fairly well and can actually handle several programs open at once, unlike the ultraportables mentioned above. Also, for such a small device, you get a decent amount of work time out of the battery which clocks in at about three and a half hours of use.

The biggest drawback for the UX390 is its price which is supposed to be about $2,500, though you can find them on Amazon for about $1200 as of my writing this column. It does look like Sony might be moving on from the whole UMPC platform so if you want the UX390, you might want to move on it now.

Samsung Q1 Ultra

The Samsung Q1 Ultra really is a Blackberry on steroids. It is just too bad that the keyboard didn’t receive a few doses itself. The keys are very similar to those on a Blackberry with the exception that one half are on one side of the screen while the other half is on the other side which, after holding the Q1, makes a lot of sense (doesn’t make it any easier to type but the keys at least fall under both thumbs). The Q1 features a 7” touch screen, a 60GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and is loaded with Windows Vista Premium – which this thing has no business running. Perhaps if they had bumped the memory up to 2GB of RAM, the Q1 might have pulled it off, but with only 1GB it needs to be using Vista Basic at best or better yet, Windows XP. (There is a version of the Q1 called the Premium XP which has an 80GB hard drive and does utilize Windows XP, though I did not get my grubby little hands on one so I can’t say for sure that it runs better than the Ultra but I’m betting dollars to donuts that it does.)

At only 9 inches wide, by 4.9 inches deep, and .9 inches thick, the Q1 is larger than the Sony UX390 and even though it weighs more at 1.5 pounds, it doesn’t seem as heavy because it doesn’t feel as dense as the Sony device. Most of the real estate on the Q1 is taken up by the 7” screen, hence the teeny-tiny keyboard but it does show off its best feature which is the beautiful screen that does a great job displaying documents and websites since it uses a resolution of 1280 x 600.

The only other thing of note about the Q1 is the interesting layout of the other input buttons. The thumbstick is on the left side while the left and right mouse buttons are on the right, which is a bit backward from similar layouts on other devices such as the Sony UX390. Most people gravitate towards using their right hand for moving a mouse since that is what they are used to but it doesn’t take long to get used to this set up (well for me at least, but I am left handed). There is also a little four way input device on the right side that acts as your arrow keys on a typical keyboard, this combined with the touch screen makes for many different input options to suit many tastes.

The Q1 Ultra is priced at about $1200 but it can be found for as little as $750 online. If you think that this is the perfect device for you, I would highly recommend you search out the Premium XP edition, though I did not see any real deals for it and it actually costs a bit more at $1350. I did notice online that there are quite a few websites that show how to upgrade the Ultra to make better use of Vista. If you are the type that doesn’t mind cracking open the case of your computers. It might be in your best interest to buy it for $750 and for about $100 and a few hours of your time, make the Q1 Ultra the way it should have been made.

Well that is it for this month. Thanks again to Johnny B. for the idea (keep them coming folks), and as always if you have any questions or comments, feel free to write me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Gadgets & Gear: “Wii” All Want to Get Fit

Several months back I wrote an article about how video games aren’t just for the couch-potato, Doritos-munching crowd but in fact, can be used to help get into shape and have fun with it at the same time. In that article, I mentioned that Nintendo had really taken notice of just how many people were using the Wii Sports game to help get fit and was planning on releasing a fitness themed game. Well that time is now (mid-May to be specific) and that game is Wii Fit.

The Wii Fit system consists of a balance board and the game disk. The balance board performs a variety of functions. It monitors your center of balance, your weight, and where you are standing/pressing on the board. It uses this data to help you control your on-screen character in the games as well as track your overall fitness.

You start out by telling the system some basic info about yourself such as your age, height, and sex. It then measures your weight and calculates your Body Mass Index (BMI). If you happen to fall into one of the overweight categories it will even adjust your Mii (your onscreen avatar) to be a little more plump! You can then tell the Wii your fitness goals – be it to drop two points on your BMI or to lose ten pounds – and the Wii will keep help develop a plan to get you there using the exercises and games on the disk. You can even input data from exercises you do away from the Wii to help keep track of everything in one place.

The Wii will also keep track of the stats for everyone in the family, so that you can make it a project to all get fit together and add a bit of competition to the mix.

The fitness games are grouped into four categories: yoga, muscle-building, aerobic, and balance. Some examples of the games are a skiing simulator that has you swooshing down the slalom by shifting your weight back and forth on the board, to doing push-ups, to step aerobics, to performing yoga postures such as tree and warrior. All-in-all there are about 40 different activities included in the system. You start with the more basic routines but as you get better, it unlocks some of the more challenging activities.

So if you are still hemming and hawing about getting that Wii for the little ones, just know now that in addition to a little family fun, you (and the kids) can now use system to get into better shape. The Wii Fit package will cost about $90 when it launches on or about the 19th of this month. Better reserve one quick because they will probably be in just as short supply as the Wii itself.

That’s it for this month. As usual if you have any questions or ideas for future articles, feel free to write me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

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