Gadgets & Gear: March 2008

Thank you to the numerous readers who have either written in or I have met on the street for saying such nice things about my humble column, Gadgets and Gear. I’m glad that I have been able to help so many of you make sense out of all the techno gibberish out there and help you buy the right item to best fit your needs. I also appreciate it when you help me come up with a topic for my article; especially, when my editor is breathing down my neck and I’m banging my head on my desk trying to come up with a topic that isn’t just cool to me (I can’t write every article on photography or video games).

In just the last month, I have received an overwhelming request for a review on digital camcorders and since I aim to please, I have spent many hours distilling the sea of information out there to something you can actually use.

The Nuts and Bolts

What are the main considerations you want to think about when buying a camcorder? You might think that there are tons of things you have to research before picking the right camcorder for you, but believe it or not, when you take a step back and look at them all, they have a heck of a lot more in common than a lot of other electronic gear out there.

The first thing you have to ask yourself is: “What do I plan on doing with all the video I shoot with this thing?” Now, be honest with yourself on this one. I know several people, who will remain nameless, that shoot more video than Stanley Kubrick on speed but have yet to ever watch a single frame of said video. I know a lot less people who actually will take their video, edit it (the most overlooked but probably most important part next to taking good footage in the first place), and make an actual coherent ‘film’ out of their work. This question doesn’t have to be an either/or, it is a bit of a spectrum. But, you need to figure out where you fit in that spectrum if you are going to make the best purchase for yourself and get a camcorder you will actually use.

I’ll be honest with you, I don’t own a camcorder. I have coveted many of them, have spent hours ogling them in the store, and even more hours researching them, but I know where I lie on that spectrum I just mentioned above. I would be the one who would take the time to edit all the video I took down to a cohesive film. Problem is, I already spend a ton of time working on my photos, so much so that I don’t get to spend near enough time taking them. I don’t need something else to take away from my time behind the lens of my still-camera. I’ll stick to being a photographer and not try to also be a videographer.

So, why is this such a big question; because the answer to this one question will eliminate about half, if not more, of your possible selections of cameras. It will determine the format you save your video to and how easy it is to edit.

If you are one of those people who has little kids and just wants to archive (read: film but rarely watch again) all the little ‘firsts’ in their life, you are probably going to want to look into a camcorder that uses mini-DVDs for your recording format. That is because the DVDs are already an archival format and when you do want to watch them, they are readily played in most DVD players. If you want quick little video snips of parties or your vacation, you may want to consider a memory card based camera due to their easy portability and the fact that you don’t need a ton of recording time. If you plan on doing some editing on your home computer and later burning DVDs for the whole world to see, I would look at either the MiniDV or hard drive based models (nowadays I would lean towards the hard drive unless you are really on a budget).

Something else that I get asked about a lot regarding camcorders is about using them to take still pictures. My advice for this has pretty much stayed the same over the years; don’t buy a camcorder for its photographic ability. You would be much better served to have a small, inexpensive digital camera, with a much higher resolution, than to try to use your camcorder to take pictures. Now that isn’t to say that you can’t use that feature when something interesting comes up and you only have your camcorder available, but as a rule I wouldn’t make much use of that feature if I were you.

Also, in the past I would have harped on making sure you get a camera with a nice viewfinder and not just a big playback screen, but following the path of most digital still cameras, many new camcorders don’t even HAVE a viewfinder! No matter what the manufactures claim, I still consider this a bad thing but I have been out-voted.

Finally, if there was one specification that I would pay the most attention to on the box next to the resolution would be the camcorder’s low-low light capability. I’m not talking about an infrared mode, unless you like your home movies to look like Army combat footage, but how well it can tape in normal mode in low light. I would be wary of any camcorder that says that it can shoot down to 0 lux (lux being a unit of measurement of light, with a candle producing about 10 lux from one foot away). If you can find something between 2-7 lux, that would be good, and you can bet that the pricier models will come much closer to actually giving you good quality at 2 lux versus a $300 camcorder.

The Camcorders

High End

The Sony HDR-xx7 Series: Hand it to the guys and gals at Sony to try to figure out a way to corner the entire camcorder market by covering the entire spectrum of media formats in one series of camcorders. These cameras are Sony’s current top of the line camera and include the hard drive based HDR-SR7, the memory card based HDR-CX7, the MiniDV based HDR-HC7, and the mini-DVD based HDR-UX7. All of these units with the exception of the UX7 are high-definition camcorders and all have a very good viewfinder, with the exception of the CX7 which doesn’t have one at all. Sony is really trying to tout its 2.7 inch 16:9 touchscreen interface but all the levels of menus that you have to dig through to get to some of the most basic controls make these cameras less than intuitive. Never the less, if you have the money (all of these units are on the pricey side) Sony will deliver the goods in the video quality department.

Panasonic HDC-HS9: A very nice hard drive based camcorder (actually most hard drive recorders also have a slot for a memory card but that is mostly for taking still pictures and not for video) that gives you a lot of features, but also costs a pretty penny. Panasonic has built its camera and camcorder line around top-notch Leica lenses and this pays off with units that deliver top notch clarity and sharpness. Panasonic is also known for their outstanding Optical Image Stabilization (O.I.S.) system which will help prevent you from producing a nausea-inducing film a la ‘The Blair Witch Project.’ The 60GB hard drive will give you about eight hours of high definition recording time and almost twice that in standard definition.

Mid-Level

Panasonic PV-GS320: This MiniDV based camcorder delivers on both the image quality and value for the dollar. While MiniDV based cameras are on the way out, it will still take some time before the hard drive and memory card based systems completely dominate the market. In the meantime, units such as the GS320 continue to deliver top notch video in a unit several hundred dollars less than the high end units. The key to the GS320s quality is the fact that it uses three sensors instead of just one to record the video data. While this is common in quite a few camcorders, at this price range you could expect only a single image sensor. The GS320 also incorporates the above mentioned O.I.S. system so you get top notch video that doesn’t jump around, unless of course, you really are jumping around.

Canon DC50: If you absolutely must have a camcorder that can also produce decent quality still photographs, this is the camcorder for you. While a little pricy for a standard definition camcorder, you are getting a lot more depth and control of your still images in addition to very good quality video. The other reason this model costs more is that it uses optically based image stabilization like the high end camcorders and not the software based ones that are in most of the lower end units. If you really want a DVD based camcorder and really, really want it to be able to do still photos as well, the DC50 is a no-brainer.

Low End

Panasonic PV-GS90: A good, basic standard definition MiniDV based camcorder which boasts the Panasonic O.I.S. system. If you are looking for an easy-to-use, relatively compact camcorder that can turn in some decent video footage without making you wince at the checkout counter, the GS90 should be on your short list.

Canon ZR950: Very, very similar to the Panasonic GS90 in form and function, the Canon ZR950 will provide you with a nice camcorder that is more than able to get the job done. With a 37x optical zoom and a 2000x digital zoom, you will be able to easily pick out your kid on the soccer field from all the way out in the parking lot!

So there you have it – my recommendations on the best digital camcorders for your money. Before you go out and buy one, remember to ask yourself what kind of videographer you really think you’ll be since you will save yourself a lot of time and money by being honest with yourself. Thanks again to all of you who requested the article on camcorders, now can you help me out with the April issue?

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to write to me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Gadgets & Gear: Personal Trainer in Your Pocket

Happy New Year! I hope you’ve been having fun playing with all the cool toys you received for the holidays (which if your loved ones were reading this magazine last month you should have gotten some very cool gear)!

January not only ushers in a whole new year, but for many of us it also brings several New Year’s resolutions. If one of your resolutions is to get in shape, and if you happen to have gotten a new iPod (or even have an old one for that matter), this article is about how you can use your iPod to get better results with your resolution.

iPods and MP3 players in general are a great tool to help you stay motivated to do that extra mile on the treadmill or that extra rep on the weight bench. At the very least they provide music to help take your mind off of just how much your muscles hurt or how much you really don’t want to be there. Perhaps you didn’t know this, but that little iPod can be more than just a distraction. It can be a tool to help take your workout to the next level and help you see some serious gains, or losses, depending on your goal.

There are two things for your iPod that I would like to highlight in this article that I really think can turn that fun little gadget into a virtual trainer. The first item is the iPod + Nike system and the second is a whole group of websites that provide workout Podcasts for you to download.

iPod + Nike

Now this system has been around for some time but with the new generation of iPod Nanos and some new Nike shoes that support the system, I think it has finally hit the tipping point and the system is starting to take off. Unfortunately, this system is designed to be used with the Nano and not the iPod Classic, Touch, or Shuffle, but it does work with all generations of Nanos. The latest generation of Nanos with its phenomenal screen and diminutive size is what really made me stand up and take notice of the iPod + Nike system.

So what is involved with the iPod + Nike system you ask? As I stated earlier, you need an iPod Nano. You then need to go to the Apple store or to a local sporting goods store to pick up the iPod + Nike Sport Kit which has the transmitter and receiver set you need. This costs about $29.00. Finally, you need to go to your favorite shoe store and look for a set of Nike + shoes. These shoes are just like any other set of Nikes but these have a small space under the arch of your left insole where the transmitter goes. You then plug the receiver into the dock connector of your Nano, and you now have a state-of-the-art training tool.

Now, what does the whole system do? Well that transmitter in your shoe is a very cool little pedometer that transmits all its data to your iPod, which then can display all kinds of information about your workout such as your pace, how many calories you have burned, how far you have run, and how long you have been going. Don’t feel like fidgeting with an iPod while you are running? Don’t worry, the iPod not only displays all this information on the screen but will also talk to you through the headphones (adjusting the volume of your music when it does). It will even congratulate you when you have achieved a personal best time or pace.

The thing I think is one of its coolest features though is the PowerSong feature. What this lets you do is select one song that really gets you pumped, and when you press and hold the center button on the Nano, it will interrupt your playlist with this song. When the song is finished, the Nano will go back to your previous music. This is great when you need that last little kick to really pour it on and finish hard.

Even if that is all the iPod + Nike system did, it would still be a great tool for your cardio workout, but it gets even better with its synch capability. Once you get home from your run or walk, you can plug your Nano into your computer and synch it with iTunes and the www.nikeplus.com website to keep track of your progress. It can track everything from your total time out, total miles ran, and total calories burned, and can even break it down by day, week, month, or year. It uses a very straight forward graphical system that readily shows you where you stand and how far you have to reach your goals. If you are the really competitive type, you can even challenge your friend on the other side of the country to a virtual race and upload your data to see who wins!

So if you have an iPod Nano, and you are in the market for a new pair of running shoes, pick up a set of the Nike + shoes and the Sport Kit and start putting that Nano to really good use!

Podcasts

Now this “tool” is very straight forward. There are several websites out there that provide instructional video or audio Podcasts that you can use to help make your workouts either more productive, fun, or hopefully both. This truly is like having a personal trainer in your pocket except you don’t have to worry about running into him on the street with that disapproving look when he sees you with that triple scoop of Baskin-Robbins in your hand. Here is a list of several sites that you may want to check out. Two of these sites charge per Podcast, and the other is subscription-based. There are a few other sites that provide some free audio podcasts though their quality is commensurate with what they charge.

www.fitwisetraining.com

This site has video Podcasts on everything from strength training to yoga. Each video is $1.99 for a certain exercise/posture or they have packages that provide a complete workout for $9.99. It is very easy and straight forward and the only one on this list that is video-based.

www.podfitness.com

Now this really is having a personal trainer on your iPod or MP3 player because once you sign up with this subscription-based service, you put together a plan with a real life trainer who then develops a program for you. This program is downloaded either through the free iTunes or Zune software and then uses the music that you pick to create a whole workout session. The subscription rate for podfitness.com is $59.85 every thirteen weeks. It may sound like a lot, but you can’t even get one session with a personal trainer for that in most gyms.

www.itrain.com

Here they offer a bunch of different audio Podcasts with music for a variety of different workouts. The trainers can offer some pretty cheesy “motivation” at times, and the music is from their own collection of generic high energy music, but I really could imagine that I was in a studio with a trainer with their Podcasts. Prices vary, but each Podcast is a full 15 minutes to one hour workout for anything from $4 to $10.

Well, that’s it for this month. I hope this article has helped give you some ideas on putting that iPod to good use and that it helps you reach your fitness goals this year. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Gadgets & Gear: December 2007

Wracking your brain trying to figure out what to get the Gadget Geek in your life for the holidays? Have no fear, this month’s article is all about some of the season’s top gadgets, any of which would put a silly grin on your little geeks face when they open it.

It has been a busy year for a lot of electronics companies. I can’t remember the last time I have seen so many extremely cool gadgets all out at once. There are some serious battles brewing among a lot of different companies to try to earn your dollar. Everything from MP3 players to cameras has seen some major cool factor injections and some serious upgrades to capabilities; all while keeping prices the same (if not a little less). So here are some of my top picks for the best gadgets of the holiday season.

MP3/MEDIA PLAYERS

Got a call from Lucifer the other day, and it seems he is a bit peeved at the sudden decrease in temperature down there. What happened? I bought my first iPod and switched my main MP3 player to Apple. More than one friend of mine asked if I was OK since I said it would be a cold day down there before I switched to an iPod. Well, I’m eating crow and believe it or not, it really does taste like chicken (it is a little bitter though).

For those of you who have been readers since our first issue this January, you will know that I was not a particular fan of Steve Jobs. While I have always thought that iPods were undeniably stylish, I’m also one of those who refuse to go along with the herd. Well, that article was written some time in November ‘06 and since then my wife got her little pink Nano (the last generation), and after seeing that Apple did make some serious improvements to iTunes for Windows users, I broke down and purchased an iPod Shuffle (which I did rate very highly in my review of best music players for the gym). It became my favorite music player for when I work out and actually took over as one of my main players. It is so easy to use and so incredibly well designed that I was sucked in. I still held on to my SanDisk Sansa player for my main player (meaning the one with my entire music library) but started having serious thoughts of moving completely over to iPods this summer. Apple cinched the deal with my #1 pick for must have gadget this season.

iPod Touch: This thing brings a grin to my face every time I use it. From the incredibly cool cover flow feature that lets you ‘flip’ through your music collection like flipping through a stack of LPs (for the younger readers out there, those are the things that look like really big black CDs) to the huge screen which is incredibly gorgeous when showing off pictures or watching movies. And, believe it or not, it does a great job showing off web pages. Shortly after the iPhone came out, I had said that if they ever came out with one without the phone feature (which has been a letdown for some people), I would be the first to buy it. I was one of the first people to get one of the first shipments to the local Apple store.

If you thought the iPhone was super sleek and stylish, the Touch outdoes it by being even more slender and stylish (I personally prefer the black bezel around the screen vs. the iPhone’s stainless steel). My mother, who is not a gadget geek by any stretch of the imagination, was even grinning like a little kid when she saw all the cool things the Touch can do. Even beyond playing music and movies or TV shows, I have to say the features I use the most are the web browser and the picture viewer. While you can only use the web browser at Wi-Fi hotspots and not everywhere like with the iPhone, it comes in pretty handy when you need to look up something on the internet and don’t have your laptop or don’t want to use the more truncated version on most cell phones.

This isn’t the internet you have seen on most phones, it is the real deal and uses Apple’s Safari browser just like the Mac computers. While it can be a little hard sometimes to hit some of the really small hyperlinks on some pages, all in all it works like a charm. As for pictures, the Touch is like carrying around entire picture albums. It is so cool to hand the Touch over to a friend and let them flip through the photos from your last trip. You can even zoom in on the picture with a little ‘finger-spread’ motion on the touch screen or shrink them down again with a ‘pinch’ motion.

While the Touch doesn’t have the gargantuan hard drive capacities of the new ‘Classic’ iPod, it does come in both an 8GB and 16GB capacities and cost $299 and $399 respectively. The 8GB version is probably a bit small unless you have a relatively small music collection. I have a decent size music collection, a movie, a TV show, and about 500 pictures loaded onto mine, and I have 7 out of the 16GB left on my Touch. Oh, and when you are at the store, pick up a case for the Touch, because while it is awfully pretty and sleek, it is a finger print magnet.

The Rest of the iPod Lineup: Okay, I already gushed about the Touch, but I have to give a quick shout out to the rest of the iPod lineup. Apple has made some very cool changes to the rest of the iPod line. Now the Nano is even smaller but has a bigger screen and supports video (in fact the screen on the Nano has the highest resolution out of any iPod) and comes in 4GB and 8GB flavors ($149 and $199 respectively). The now ‘Classic’ video iPod comes in 80 and 160GB versions ($249 and $349), and both are still very sleek and now have an anodized aluminum front which doesn’t streak up with finger prints like the last several generations of iPods (can’t say that about the stainless steel back though). Both the Nano and Classic have updated their interfaces and support their own version of Cover Flow, not as cool as the version on the Touch, but still pretty cool. Finally, the still very cool Shuffle comes in some new colors but otherwise is unchanged and still only costs $79.

Sony Walkman NWZ-A818: “Ding dong the witch is dead, the wicked witch is dead.” Not really, but Sony’s SonicStage software is. The albatross that has been hanging around Sony’s neck for the last several years of digital music player history is finally gone and with it Sony’s proprietary music format. The ATRAC3 music format was actually not bad but it never got much support out of anyone other than Sony, so it kind of died on the vine. Now Sony music players will support both unprotected AAC (music encoded using iTunes though not purchased from there) and both protected and unprotected WMA (so it supportS all the other music sites such as Napster and Rhapsody) as well as MP3. On top of that it also has a slide show viewer for pictures and can even support some video formats. The killer is that it has tremendous battery life compared to an iPod (almost 36 hours) and the fact that they actually ship with a nice set of earphones not the junk ones like with the iPod which is even better because music on the Sony sounds fantastic. The new Walkman comes in 2GB ($120), 4GB ($150), and 8GB ($200) versions. Finally, Sony is back in the music game.

Archos 605 Wi-Fi: This is the media gadget to end all media gadgets, though you will pay for it. The Archos 605 is a full-blown media center in your pocket, albeit a very large pocket. Sporting a 4.3 inch touch screen, 30, 80 or a 160GB hard drive, a music player, a video player, picture viewer, and basic Wi-Fi connectivity right out of the box is impressive enough. Where the Archos really shines, and takes a bigger bite out of your wallet, is in the applications you can buy for it. For an extra $20 each you can get high-def video playback or internet radio; for an additional $30 you can buy the Opera web browser plug-in and get full internet connectivity with Flash video support (for sites like YouTube) and out of the box it supports MP3 and protected WMA. You can buy the plug-in to support AAC but not the protected files from iTunes. The add-on that is the real sweet deal for this machine is the $99 DVR Station. This gives your Archos the ability to download TV right from your cable box and have them available for you to watch where ever you want. It includes the base station that plugs into your TV, and you even get a very good program guide to select which shows you want it to record. You don’t have to just watch the shows on the Archos player though since it can act as your TVs main video recorder.

The only thing holding the Archos back from being the mother of all gadgets is the rather short battery life, though Archos will be glad to sell you an additional battery for $49. The 30GB version retails for $299, the 80GB for $350, and the 160GB for $400 without the add-ons.

CAMERAS

Canon 40D: This is my new baby. I love this camera. I would marry it if it weren’t illegal in most states, though I might be able to get away with it in Nevada – you can get away with anything there. With a 10.1 megapixel sensor, blazing fast shooting speed, a three inch screen with the ability for live view (which is great when you can’t put your eye to the viewfinder), as well as 14-bit A/D processing and a new weather sealed body this camera is at the pinnacle of semi-pro cameras.

While other makers may have just released cameras with bigger sensors, or image stabilization in the camera body, or higher resolution screens, the one thing they can’t match is the Canon selection of lenses. Not only does Canon have the largest selection of lenses, but it also has the largest third-party support as well. So, if there is a focal length you need, you can get it for the Canon. While watching your favorite football game look at all the cameras with the big white lenses on them, those would be Canon lenses.

While shooting with a digital SLR is a little more complex than your regular point-and-shoot, once you learn how to use an SLR you will be amazed at the things you can do with it. The 40D sells for $1300 for the body only (which is great if you already own Canon lenses) or $1500 with a lens kit.

Canon S5 IS: The fourth generation in a line of very good cameras the S5 isn’t so much of a revolution, or even an evolution, it is more of the same with a little touch up. Still it is probably the best of the super-zoom class currently on the market. With an 8 megapixel sensor, a 12X zoom, and a 2.5 inch screen, this is the closest thing you can get to owning an SLR without having to buy all the lenses.

While other super-zooms, namely Sony’s H9, have a bigger sensor and screen, they also took a step back in ease of use. The Canon has kept it’s simple design and top-notch interface. If your geek just wants a camera with a little more ‘reach’ than your typical point-and-shoot, or if they just want camera that has a few more advanced features, the Canon S5 IS would make a great present. You can get the S5 for $400, though if they don’t need the two extra mega-pixels and half an inch of screen, you can get the S3 IS for a steal right now.

Sony DSC-W80: A great pocketable camera with an incredibly easy to use interface and great performance in a wide range of situations, though to be fair, like many compact cameras with their tiny sensors, it’s image quality does suffer a bit in indoor/low-light situations. I spent weeks to find the best camera for my wife that was easy to use, had a nice size screen, and was stylish enough for her to carry around. The W80 is very easy to use, has a fast start up time, a 2.5 inch screen, a picture setting selector that tells you on the screen what each setting is best for, and best of all, it came in pink (my wife’s favorite color) as well as a host of other colors. The Sony W80 is a great little camera for everyday use and you can pick it up for $230.

GPS DEVICES

Garmin Nuvi 660 or 350: Want your lovable geek to make it to the holiday dinner on time and not end up somewhere in Ohio? Then maybe give them an early present of a GPS navigator. Garmin is by far the leader in the GPS market and makes units with very powerful receivers and a ton of features. The problem is that you pay for that power and versatility. Both devices can give turn-by-turn voice directions and can display maps in both 2D/3D. Both can also get current traffic updates and come with a 90-day trial subscription, but after that you (or they) have to pay. You can get the Gamin Nuvi 660 for $800 and the 350 is $500. If you are looking for a unit that is a little less expensive, you can look at the units made by TomTom, especially the XL-S which provides a lot of great features for about $100 less than the Garmin 350.

Well, I’m about out of space, so I guess I have to end it here. I could go on for pages though on all the latest games and toys that the geek in your life would just love this holiday season. It surely is a great time to be a gadget geek.

As always if you have any questions about this article or any gadget at all, please feel free to write me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Gadgets & Gear: November 2007

In honor of National Diabetes Month I thought I’d review some of the blood glucose monitors out on the market. Fortunately, I don’t have diabetes and have never had to use one of these increasingly sophisticated devices, but many people in the US (about 20 million at last count) do need one – though about a third of those don’t know it yet.

Now, I will do a lot for our readers but I was not about to turn myself into a human pincushion to test the whole gamut of monitors on the market. It really wouldn’t accomplish much anyway since we are all aware that it gets easier, especially with alternate site testing – more on that later. So why do this article at all? Well, even though using these blood glucose meters (BGM) may be pretty straight forward, there is a dizzying amount of meters on the market (over 25). Each has different features and it may be hard to decide which is best for you. So what I hope to do with this article is to explain what all those features are and highlight some of the most popular meters on the market.

Now many people with diabetes didn’t even get to pick out the meter. For most, the doctor or nurse came into the room and handed you one. The doctors are supplied these meters from the manufacturers to give out to the patients for free. Before you get thinking that these meter manufacturers are so nice for giving out free meters to people; it’s really business. It is not unlike how inkjet printers are sold well below their actual cost, since the manufacturers know they will more then make up for the loss on the front end when you go to buy the ink (which for some systems can cost more than said printer).

With blood glucose meters you are going to have to buy their testing strips and that is where they make their money (2-3 strips per day for the rest of your life adds up to a lot). Even if your doctor doesn’t hand you one, virtually all insurances will cover one, and if you really don’t like the one you are given, you can actually pick one up at a pharmacy without a prescription (though you do need a prescription for the strips).

So what are some factors to consider when choosing a blood glucose meter? Here is a quick list of some different items to compare and what they mean to you.

Size: This one is easy. Is the meter (and its test strips and the lancet to draw the blood) easy to carry around? Virtually all of these meters have a case to carry all of these items together or you just may want to stash items where you most commonly test (i.e. home and the office).

Battery: Important but most likely not a deal-breaker. Some units use easily replaceable AAA batteries while others use a watch type battery. The only issue is if you really need to do a test and it conks out on you and there is not a pharmacy around.

Testing Time: This is an easy one. How long do you like to wait for your results? Most meters run anywhere from 5-60 seconds. A shorter time is probably better if you test a lot in public and don’t want to draw a lot of attention to yourself, but it has no bearing on the quality of the results.

Sample Size: How much blood do you want to give up each time you test? Me? I like keeping as much of my blood as I can. In the past, meters required quite a large drop of blood but now you can get away with as little as 0.3uL (microliters) and with very few meters requiring over 1.5uL. The advent of these smaller sample volumes helps prevent a lot of extra pokes due to unproductive pricks.

Alternate Site Testing: Again, due to the reduced amount of blood required, people are now able to poke themselves in places other than their fingertips. These other locations (like further up the arm) tend to be less sensitive and will hurt a lot less. There is still some question as to whether the blood drawn from alternate sites will accurately reflect sudden changes in blood glucose levels. Either way, you should only use alternate sites if the device has been approved for it and your doctor agrees.

Meter Calibration: Every new batch of test strips you use will be minutely different than the previous batch and so to insure continuity of results, the new batch will have to be ‘coded’ into the meter. Many meters do not require any input from the user, while others will need you to input a code from the bottle, while others will require you to first use a test strip to calibrate the machine.

Download Capability/Memory: Virtually all meters have some memory; anywhere from 50 to 3000 of your tests. This allows you to track over time how well you are controlling your diabetes and combined with other information such as what you ate and did each day, can help you further control your diabetes. Many meters will also allow you to download all your test data to a computer to better help you manage the information.

Other Features: Some meters have easy to read screens, while others hold all the testing strips in a disk or drum in the machine. Others have strips that may be more comfortable/easier to use. These vary radically between meters so you will have to see which features matter to you the most.

Please see the chart below for some detailed information on a few of the most popular meters.

As always, feel free to write to me about any questions you might have or if there is something you would like to see me write about. You can email me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Gadgets & Gear: October 2007

Okay, so after reading last months’ article on buying a digital camera, you went out and got yourself a snazzy new camera and have shot tons of pictures with it, right? If not, what are you waiting for? It’s OK, I’ll wait here while you run to the store… Got it? Alright, now you have a memory card full of pictures looking at you as if to say “now what hotshot?” (Memory cards can be rude like that, film was always much more polite).

So what do you do with all those pictures? If you take all your pictures in JPEG format, you could just pop that card out and take it to the store and print them out if you want, but no matter what, you are probably still going to need a way to touch up some of those pictures and also a way to index and save them. If you have a DSLR camera and shoot in RAW format, you are going to have to “develop” all of those files before you can print them. If you are shooting in RAW, you probably already have a favorite program for your photos, and I may do an article on some of those programs in the future. This article is for those people with a point-and-shoot (P&S) camera who shoot in JPEG and need software to help their pictures look their best and to help keep track of them all.

Almost every single P&S camera saves your pictures after processing the image internally to a JPEG (which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group) file which you can then immediately get printed. The problem comes when you get home from that party and after downloading the pictures on your computer, you notice that all your friends look like they have satanic red eyes. Now if this is normal for them, you might want to think about getting some new friends… just a suggestion. If this is not normal for them, you will want to use some software to get rid of the red eye.

Some other problems that these programs can help with to some degree are: underexposure (not as easy to recover from overexposure – just ask Britney Spears), softness (not blurriness), color casts, skin blemishes and a host of other problems. So here is a short list of a few programs you might want to consider for making your pictures look their best.

Google Picasa: This program from the boys and girls at Google is probably my favorite “quick fix” program. Picasa also does a great job of organizing your pictures and makes it very easy to put together all sorts of gift items or even just get them printed online. The interface is incredibly easy to use and scrolling through your pictures is a joy.

Don’t let the clean interface and simplicity fool you, there is some serious software under the hood, and Picasa does more than an admirable job touching up photos. The easiest thing to do is select a picture and hit the “I’m feeling lucky button” (I’m not kidding, that is what it is really called), and nine times out of ten you will have a much better picture (this is subjective of course). You can also straighten and crop pictures as well a host of lighting functions. About the only thing you can’t do with Picasa in the “quick fix” department is take care of skin blemishes.

The best part of Picasa is the cost – it’s FREE. You heard right, Picasa is not only a free program, it is an incredibly well done program and doesn’t even make you put up with ads to pay for it. Even if you have another program that you like to use for the heavy duty photo adjustment, this program deserves a spot on your hard drive.

Photoshop Elements 5: “Photoshopping” a picture has become so commonplace now that it has become its own word. The full version of Photoshop is more than what 99% of photographers would ever need. Adobe realized this and created Photoshop Elements which is now on version five. It takes out the drawing tools from Photoshop and leaves much of the powerful photo editing tools that Photoshop is famous for. In fact, Elements even has a few tools that Photoshop doesn’t have. Best of all, these tools are made much easier to access and implement in Elements.

I consider myself to be very software savvy and even I got intimidated by the full version of Photoshop. Elements can do everything from the “quick fix” to putting your head on the body of a supermodel; not that I would ever do that. Making incriminating pictures of my editor? That, I will do.

In addition to very powerful image editing tools, Elements also has some very sophisticated tools to organize your photos. You can add all kinds of ‘tags’ to your photos so that you can look up your pictures by who is in them, or by when or where they were taken. Elements also has the ability to make some pretty impressive gift items for friends and family. You can make everything from slideshow DVDs with soundtracks, to flipbooks, to full-on printed and bound photo albums. If you also happen to maintain a family/personal website, Elements has a lot of tools to help format your images to best fit your site and can even help you post them to your domain.

If I were to recommend one image editing program that will do what just about everyone would ever possibly need, it would be Photoshop Elements 5. It can do everything from the quick fix to the really intricate work. Elements list for about $100 but you can find it much cheaper online or at Costco, where it is about $60.

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo: For the longest time Paint Shop Pro was viewed with just a little bit of distain as the “cheap” rip-off of Photoshop (meaning that the full version of Photoshop costs about $600 and Paint Shop Pro went for about $100) but for the most part that was the only difference, the price. Paint Shop Pro can do almost everything that the full version of Photoshop can do, and in some cases, even do it better. I have always liked Paint Shop and was always happy to save $500 over Photoshop. Paint Shop used to be produced by a company called JASC but now has been acquired by Corel.

Corel took Paint Shop Pro and made it more like Photoshop Elements than Photoshop, meaning it now focuses more on image editing vs. editing and creation, hence the Photo in the name now. This is actually a good thing since the majority of consumers are doing just that, editing and not drawing. The current version of PSP Photo is version XI but by the time this is printed, they will have come out with version X2 (I guess the roman numerals get too hard over eleven). From what I have already seen on version XI and what looks like is being added to X2, PSP Photo is looking to be a very nice program.

My only hesitation with recommending Paint Shop Pro Photo as THE photo editor to get is the learning curve. While not as steep as the one for Photoshop, there is still a lot to learn to get the most out of the program. If right now you are using a point and shoot camera and mostly playing around with JPEGs, but think that in the near future you might move up to a DSLR and start shooting in the RAW format, purchasing PSP Photo X2 might be a good choice since they have added a ton of new features to help with RAW processing.

Corel’s Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 will be going for about $99 when it is released at the end of September, but they often have an upgrade rebate that counts just about any other image editor as a qualifying update source. After rebate, you can look at it costing about $59.

Okay, I can’t help it. I know I wasn’t going to say anything about the more complex programs for DSLR users, but writing about PSP Photo X2’s RAW support makes me want to at least give a small blurb to my favorite image editing program…

Adobe Lightroom: I LOVE this program! I’m serious. My wife is jealous of a computer program, but it had me at install. I’m not one for doing a ton of “creative” work with my photos. I don’t like to cut and paste people in or out, nor do I like creating funky pictures with crazy colors or warping. I like to take the best picture possible with my camera and then use the tools in Lightroom to help make the picture a little more like the way I saw it through my eyes. I like to punch up the sharpness (since DSLRs shooting RAW don’t do any in camera sharpening like a Point and Shoot, the images can look a little soft). I also like my pictures with really vibrant colors that virtually jump off the photo. The only really “creative” thing I like to do to some of my photos, is to turn some of them into black and white. In all these areas, Lightroom does a superb job and does it with such an elegant layout and interface that it makes it a pleasure to work with. I had over 600 photos after getting back from my vacation to London and Paris, and Lightroom made it incredibly easy to help pare that down to about 400 of the best photos, and then from there, process them to be the best they could possibly be. If you already own a DSLR and haven’t given Lightroom a shot, I would recommend you give the demo a try, it is not a huge program, and I think you will be really impressed at how it can improve your workflow. This was a program written for photographers by photographers.

So that’s it, a quick list of just a few of the programs out there to help make your pictures look their best. Learning to have better technique when taking pictures is by far the best way to make them really shine, though sometimes even the best photo can use a little touch up.

As always, feel free to write to me about any questions you might have or if there is something you would like to see me write about. You can email me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Gadgets & Gear: September 2007

Photography. All of us fancy ourselves as a photographer at some time or another. There is something about photography that calls out to just about everyone. People much smarter than me have debated what it is about photographs that draw us in so much. Some say that it is our way of freezing time in our inescapable march towards death (that depressed me just typing it). Some say that it ties into our human need to document what we have done in our lives (cave paintings were just early versions of photo albums). Either way you look at it, virtually everyone loves photos, except maybe when sitting through Aunt Millie’s slideshow of her 15 cats… “Here they are licking themselves, here they are sleeping, here they are coughing up a hairball, isn’t that just the cutest thing?”

This is the first in a two-part series on photography, digital imaging to be specific since hardly anyone uses film anymore. This article is on how to buy a digital camera and next month’s will be about the software to use with your digital images. You might have noticed that I said HOW to buy a digital camera and not WHICH digital cameras to buy. Normally, I would give recommendations on products but I am going to refrain this time. Photography is a very subjective field, and people are very picky about what they like and some people are VERY territorial about their cameras. On some of the online photography forums you can get away with disparaging their mother, but never their camera. (Insult: “Your mother was a witch and you shoot with a Nikon!” Response: “How dare you, I have NEVER used a Nikon!”).

All cameras take photographs differently, even different models from the same manufacturer. Some take photos with super-saturated colors, some take very softly focused shots, some take very sharp, almost 3D photos. The thing about it is, some people will love the effect, others would think their camera is broken. My very first digital camera was from Sony, and it took very good pictures, but it was one of those that produced super-saturated colors, which I thought looked quite nice. Other people hated it because it wasn’t true to life. You are going to have to decide on your own personal tastes. What follows are the two questions I ask everyone who asks me for advice on which digital camera to buy (which is second only to which MP3 player to buy).

How big are you going to make the prints?

A camera that has a ten megapixel sensor has got to be better than one with a measly six megapixels right? Wrong! The camera companies have trained everyone to think this way so that you will run right out and sell your old camera on eBay as soon as the new model comes out with one more megapixel and not much else different.

The truth is, some very high megapixel cameras turn out far worse photos in a very objective sense than those with far less megapixels. Granted, some of these problems are due to other factors such as the quality of the lens and the software in the camera and not the sensor. The problem is, as you pack more and more sensors onto a chip, you have to make them smaller and smaller to fit or you have to increase the size of the chip, which is expensive and can change the form factor of the camera.

As you pack more and more of those sensors closer together, they can create all kinds of problems, not the least of which is “noise”. This is the thing that can make a digital image look “grainy,” like you would get with the old high-speed film. Now graininess may be something you like in an artistic way, but digital noise oftentimes doesn’t just introduce graininess. It can also produce other image problems that can destroy a picture. That just proves my point, that it’s not the size of your sensor, it’s how you use it. Actually, it is the whole package that really matters.

So how many megapixels do you need? That depends on how big of a picture you are going to produce. Ninety-five percent of the people on the planet would never need a camera over three megapixels, let alone six. Who are those 10 and 12 megapixel monsters made for? Pros typically (at least in the digital SLR arena). And, suckers (for those getting a point-and-shoot camera).

If you are never going to print a picture bigger than the typical 4 x 6” print, you don’t need any more than three megapixels! If I take a picture with a ten megapixel camera and you shoot the same picture with a three, and we both print a 4 x 6” at the same photo lab, they will both be really nice pictures and any difference between the two is probably going to be more due to the lens or the software than the sensor.

In truth, your picture may look better than mine; there is that whole subjective thing again. So here is a little guide on how big of a sensor you need according to what size of print you are going to make:

• 3 megapixel = 5 x 7” (you could even blow that 4 x 6 up to the next size and it would look great)

• 4 megapixel = 8 x 10”

• 5 megapixel = 11 x 14”

• 6 megapixel = 13 x 19”

• 8 megapixel = 16 x 20”

• 10-12 megapixel = 24 x 36”

So, unless you are planning on printing out a poster that is 2 x 3 feet, you really don’t need that super megapixel camera. You would be much better off buying a higher quality camera with a smaller sensor.

How do you plan on using the camera?

This is the easiest question to ask yourself; “Am I just using this camera to take quick shots of people/events, or do I really want to get creative with my photos?” If you are just planning on taking basic pictures of your kids, your spouse, and the trip to Hawaii, all you really need or probably want is a point and shoot (P&S) camera. What I mean by a P&S is a camera that is typically very compact and does not allow you to switch out the lenses. These are what 90% of the cameras at Best Buy or any major retailer would be classified under. That’s not to say that you can’t do a lot with these cameras – some of them have special modes in them that are pretty advanced and you can get somewhat creative with your pictures (adjusting shutter speed, maybe adjusting the aperture for less depth of field) – but mostly they were intended to be used in “Full Auto” mode most of the time.

Most of these cameras are great and will take pictures that you will most likely be very happy with. Also, they are typically very easy to put in a small case and put into a pocket or a purse. If you are a casual photographer, find one here that feels the easiest for you to use, has a screen you like and has any special features that you like (i.e. Kodak and several other brands have cameras that have little printer docks that can print out your 4 x 6” prints all in one package).

If you fancy yourself as the next Ansel Adams or Annie Leibovitz, you might want to consider a Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. It will be very hard to get sweeping panoramas or portraits that almost jump out at you with a P&S camera. With power comes complexity, and while almost all DSLRs have a basic mode (you can get a DSLR and keep it in its basic mode all the time but you will basically have a very powerful and expensive P&S), they really shine when you put them into their “creative” modes. This is where you can play with the shutter speed to make a waterfall or a stream turn into a white “otherworldly” substance or freeze them to where you can see every drop. You can play with the aperture and get tack sharp focus from the camera all the way out to infinity, or open it up to take a portrait with everything but the person’s face beautifully out of focus to really draw attention to them.

Like I said above, some P&S cameras can do this to some degree or another, but none of them excel at it the way a DSLR was designed to do. Also, with a DSLR you have the ability to swap out lenses to suit the type of photography you are doing. Shooting sports? You can get yourself one of those wicked cool white Canon telephoto lenses. Want to take in a wide cityscape or interior of a beautiful cathedral? Go out and get a super wide angle lens. Want to take close-ups of a bee perched on a flower? Go grab yourself a nice macro lens (though I have to admit a lot of P&S cameras have some pretty impressive macro modes, though none will match the quality of a dedicated macro lens).

One thing about DSLRs that throws a lot of digital P&S owners is that you don’t compose the picture on the LCD on the back (that is only for reviewing the picture and menu functions), with a DSLR you go back to sticking the camera to your face and taking the picture through the viewfinder. This is due to the design of all SLRs, digital or not, and while some new DSLRs offer what they call a “live view” on the LCD screen, it’s not the best, and you should just use the viewfinder.

Quick note here on a class of cameras called “Megazoom” cameras. These are cameras that typically look like a hybrid of a P&S and a DSLR. They are more compact than a DSLR but have a bigger lens than a P&S. If you aren’t quite ready to make the jump from a P&S to a DSLR you might want to consider one of these cameras because even though they are still P&S cameras, they tend to have a little more options in the creative arena. Some of these cameras function almost identically to their DSLR big brothers with the exception of swapping out lenses (you really don’t need to though because the lens on many of these cameras cover the entire gamut of lenses you can buy with a DSLR).

That’s it?

Yep, those are the two questions I ask people when they ask me for advice on what digital camera to buy. There are just too many different features from each maker, and even within each product line, to go in-depth about all of them. Once you know how big of a sensor you need and which type of camera you are looking for, then you need to go out and find the one that fits your hands the best, has a big enough screen for you, and is easy enough for you to take around with you.

If you are looking for some specific camera reviews from some good sources, here are a few sites to look up. My favorite site is www.dpreview.com. This is a camera site for photographers by photographers. These guys give you multi-page reviews with comparisons to other cameras in the class and sample photos. Another good site is the one for the magazine Popular Photography at www.popphoto.com. You can also go to www.cnet.com and look under their reviews section. They are usually pretty good on all tech reviews though I think their camera reviews are their weakest section (I don’t think any of them are a real photographer nor do they use the real lab equipment to test the camera like DPReview and PopPhoto).

Have fun and see you next month when I’ll be writing about all the little software programs to play with all those photos from your new camera. As always, if you have any questions feel free to write me at jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Gadgets & Gear: April 2007

I’ve always said that video game consoles could be good for you. I personally believe that when you have age appropriate games, kids (and adults) can learn a lot about themselves and others by playing video games. You also can develop hand/eye coordination, problem solving skills, and fine motor skills. Now as it turns out, you can also get yourself into shape using your Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Wii, and Sony Playstation.

Games that get you moving are nothing new, but up until a few years ago you only really found them in arcades. The big game that a lot of people know is Dance Dance Revolution (otherwise known as DDR, go figure). Ever since DDR and its sequels hit the Playstation 2 a few years back, kids and adults have been working up a sweat and mastering dance moves that would make John Travolta cry. A few other games have hit the consoles since then, but with the advent of the Nintendo Wii and it’s innovative controller, the attention has really been drawn to what can be done with a video game console.

A few weeks ago both local and national news covered the story of a man in Philadelphia who conducted his own little Wii fitness experiment. Over the course of six weeks, he played the Wii Sports game 30 minutes a day and kept the rest of his routine the same. During the “experiment” he tracked a wide variety of fitness measures to include weight, Body Mass Index, calories burned, and body fat. What happened was pretty amazing.

At the end of the six weeks, he had lost 9 pounds, his BMI went from 25.1 to 24, body fat went from 19% to 17.2%, and he lost 3.5 inches from his waist! Now the nine pounds may not sound like a lot, but I’m betting that he added some muscle to himself which countered a bit of fat he lost. I was most impressed at the 3.5 inches off his waist. He did this by playing four of the five games on the disk (which comes bundled with the Wii): bowling (yes, bowling), tennis, baseball, and boxing. He didn’t play the golf game since he didn’t think he could get enough into the game to burn a lot of calories.

As part of the experiment he also measured how many calories he burned during each of the games to find which gave him the best workout. The device he used is good for measuring calories burned, though there is some argument over whether it accurately measured everything. Either way it gives a good idea of how many calories you can burn playing each game. Here is what he found (each is calories burned during a 15-minute interval):

• Wii Baseball: No Data

• Wii Bowling: 77 calories

• Wii Tennis: 92 calories

• Wii Boxing: 125 calories

Granted he played each of these rather aggressively with full motions and was even doing the dodges and hopping/bouncing like a real boxer would, but these are still some pretty impressive numbers. And to think, he did it all in the comfort of his own living room. He didn’t have to drive to a gym or hire a trainer, and the best part is that he had fun doing it. I think that he may have changed his lifestyle a bit to get these results in just six weeks, but I still think that the Wii Sports helped a lot.

There is another story of a girl, now 21, who over the last four years has played Dance Dance Revolution and burned off over 95 pounds! She credits the game for being so fun that it added movement to her rather sedentary lifestyle and that she enjoyed it so much that it just became a regular activity. She is going to be working with a national group to help teach kids about adding activity to their day to help lose weight and stay fit.

Now I’m not saying that all games, or even most games, are going to do much for you fitness-wise but most of the game systems out there have one or two games that can help give you a workout and be a little fun at the same time.

Here are a few programs and the systems you can find them on.

Dance Dance Revolution (Playstation, Playstation 2, Gamecube, Xbox, Xbox 360, and coming soon to the Wii) – This is the one that got the movement going (pardon the pun). Using a pad that you put on the floor in front of the TV, you try to match your foot movements (by stepping on one of four directional arrows) to the beat and the commands on the screen. This game is not only fun by yourself, but the fun factor goes up exponentially when you have a group of people and goes up even more if you have two of the pads so that you can duel. Only drawbacks to this game are the seizure inducing graphics, “interesting” song choices, and making a fool out of yourself in front of your children and friends.

Wii Sports (Nintendo Wii) – As mentioned above, this game comes bundled with the Wii and has five different sports from which to choose: baseball, golf, boxing, bowling, and tennis. Depending on how much you put in to each of these games, meaning how much you move your entire body, you can get one heck of a workout. Just watch out because they are already talking about ‘Wii elbow’ from people getting repetitive use injuries from these games as well as injuries from flying controllers!

Yourself Fitness (PC, Xbox, Playstation 2) – This “game” never really took off, even though it is executed very well and has a very good exercise program. Perhaps the problem is that it is quite obviously an exercise program (hence the fitness in the title) and people like to be tricked into working out.

Anyway, this program has a virtual trainer named Maya who leads you through a fitness routine of your choosing and even shows you how to properly perform each action and after getting feedback from you, even adjust the program to suit your goals. The program has over 500 different exercises and over 2000 recipes to help you lead a healthier lifestyle. Hopefully they will give this program an update and try again because it really was a great idea.

You may have to hunt for this program since the game platforms (with the exception of the PC), are all last generation and the supplies of games for them are drying up.

Video Camera Games (Playstation 2, Xbox 360) – There are actually a few different games under this category. Both the Playstation 2 and Xbox 360 have little web cameras that you can plug into them. The Playstation 2 device is called the Eye Toy and has a whole suite of games that allow you to interact with the game on the screen. The Xbox 360 has the Live! Vision camera which right now really just adds video messaging and video chat to the system, but it does have one game, TotemBall. TotemBall requires you to hold your arms out in front of you and move them up or down to help steer a ball around the screen. I played this for about 15 minutes and at the end of that time I thought my arms were going to fall off! The Eye Toy games have a lot more variety to them, though only a few of them have the potential to actually give you a workout.

As you can see, video games aren’t always about shooting aliens, blowing things up or driving around a city committing crimes. Some games can help get your rear end off the couch and even burn off a few pounds from said rear end. This is only the start of this trend; Nintendo has already announced plans for a Wii Fitness game that will help expand on the publicity it has gotten from the Wii Sports games. Never ones to turn away from tons of money, I’m sure Microsoft and Sony will have something out as well in the near future. Who knows, perhaps in a year or two, parents are going to be telling their kids to play their video games or better yet, fighting them for the controller.

Gadgets & Gear: March 2007

As a man who needs pretty much every gadget as soon as it comes out, just for the sake of having said gadget, this was a no-brainer for me. I was really looking forward to getting this gadget though, because my other love – other than gadgets – is reading.

So, tell me I can have something that combines both? I’m in heaven.

Actually, I already had one of the older digital readers, the Rocket eBook, but it never really “took off” (pun not intended). If there is any device that has the possibility of putting a digital reader in the hands of millions of people though, it is the Sony Reader.

Incredibly svelte at 6.9 inches tall, 4.9 inches wide, 1/2 inch thick and less than 1/2 pound, the Sony Portable Reader makes taking a virtual library on the road an almost stylish task.

It comes with a satin-like black cover that does a great job of protecting the Reader (it has a little magnet in the corner that sticks the cover down when it is closed, a nice touch), but you can replace it with a leather cover in three different colors if you so choose.

The Reader is a marvel of engineering.

It uses the new E-Ink technology that makes the screen look just like a printed page. This is because the E-Ink system uses little microspheres that are embedded in the screen and when voltage is applied, each ‘pixel’ turns either white or black. This system gives the Reader its top notch clarity and contrast.

Another benefit is its minimal battery useage. It only uses power when you turn the page. You can get over 7,500 page turns with just one charge, which will come in handy when you feel like reading War and Peace five times.

Also, when reading a book on your Sony Reader, you can walk away from the reader; come back a week later, and the same page you left will still be there on the screen.

The Sony Portable Reader can also play music (either in MP3 or unencrypted AAC format) though this will drain the battery much quicker, and the headphone port is on the bottom of the device. The reader has about 64MB of internal memory which won’t hold much music (but it will hold a ton of books), but it supports both Secure Digital memory cards as well as the Memory Stick so you can add a lot more space for music or books. The reader can also show off pictures if you so choose but they are in black and white and it is not really the Readers’ strong suit.

This thing really is the ultimate beach reader. You can just imagine yourself sitting on a beach somewhere in the world with a good book on the screen, some great tunes through the headphones, and a beautiful view all around you.

If there are any drawbacks with the player, that would be in the content area. You download books from Sony’s Connect store through the software that comes with the Reader (this is also how you transfer music and pictures to the Reader) but the selection on the site, while good, is not like going to your local Borders and picking up any book you want. Though, with the way this device has been selling out, more and more publishers are bound to take notice and make sure they get a lot of their catalogs on the Connect site. The eBooks are typically priced much less than their paper counterparts and once you download them, you own them forever, even if your computer crashes or you lose your Reader. You can also import Word documents and PDF files, though the formatting of some PDFs may or may not look so good on a 6-inch screen. Also, when the Reader is ‘turning’ pages, the entire screen will flash black and then display the new page. Frankly it doesn’t bother me a bit, but my wife thought it was a tad annoying.

So if you are looking for the ultimate gadget for the person who loves to read, this is it. If you yourself are an avid reader and you always weigh down your suitcase with tons of books, this device can solve that for you. You can purchase the Sony Reader at either your local Sony Style store (if they are in stock) or you can order it online from www.sonystyle.com. It isn’t cheap at $349.99, but you will be the coolest bookworm on the beach.

Gadgets & Gear: February 2007

Welcome back to this month’s edition of Gadgets-n-Gear!

Every year, I smile at the influx of new members at my local gym, only to see them disappear by the time March/April rolls around. This is great for the gyms since they get so many new members who enroll, go for a short time, stop going, still pay their dues and tell all their friends that they have a gym membership!

The key to staying with any exercise regimen is keeping up your motivation. Last month, I reviewed several MP3 players that can help keep you entertained as the treadmill rolls past your feet, and that can immeasurably help you stay with a program.

The thing that will motivate you the most though, is for you to see results from your workout. Nothing is more demoralizing than being sweaty and sore and not seeing any benefit from it.

That’s why my other “must have” gadget for the gym is a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) watch. They are also referred to as running computers but what sets it apart from a regular running watch is that it comes with a telemetry strap (the band that goes around your chest). This allows it to keep track of your heart rate throughout your workout.

Some of the more inexpensive watches have little sensors on them to put your fingers on to check your heart rate, but I don’t recommend these watches. Not only are they awkward to use while running on a treadmill, but having a constant monitor of your heart rate will give you better data to work with.

If you had told me several years ago that I was going to be a gym rat, have expensive running shoes, and have a HRM watch, I would have laughed you out of the building. After years of running in combat boots, I told everyone within earshot that the only time they would see me running again is if something big and scary was chasing me, or there was a Dairy Queen at the end of the street!

Running was very popular in the Air Force and I saw lots of people with their HRM watches. To tell you the truth, I thought they looked like pretentious dorks. I know now that they were working out smarter, not just harder – so at least they were smart, pretentious dorks.

I worked out for a long time without ever feeling the need to get a Heart Rate Monitor. It wasn’t until I realized that I had hit a wall in my workouts. I was getting diminishing returns from my time on the elliptical machine and from the strength training.

I asked one of the trainers in my gym for some advice. I assumed that he would offer his services at $75/hour, but he actually said that I should get a HRM watch. So I did.

The beauty of the HRM watch is that it allows you to do heart-rate based interval training. What does that mean? It means that instead of just putting in 30-40 minutes on the treadmill, elliptical, or cycle, you can break that time up into chunks and work out at different intensities.

Want to lose weight or train for a triathlon? Once you know your heart-rate zones, you will be able to optimize each workout to get you the result you want to achieve.

So what HRM watch should you buy? The leader, nay, OWNER, of this market is Polar. I thought about talking about some other manufacturers, but there really is no point in doing so. Polar is the best and has enough variety in their products (34 models at last count) to match any person or budget. You could spend $40 for a glorified pulse counter and not get much more than that, or you can spend a little (sometimes a lot) more and get something that will give you the tools to make the most of your workout.

I bought my Polar RS 200 at my gym. After I configured the screen to show me the time, what heart-rate zone I was in, and my heart-rate, the trainers helped me calibrate it. Calibration involved monitoring my heart-rate on a treadmill over a period of time with increasing speed/incline. There is an ‘easy’ calibration feature, but I recommend that you do the treadmill, because it only takes about ten minutes and it gives you much better data. Now that my watch is calibrated to me, I can monitor how hard I’m working throughout my routine.

Another benefit of the HRM watch is that it gives me a much more realistic estimate of the calories that I burn during my workouts since it is calibrated to know my cardiovascular fitness level, my age, my weight, and my body size.

The gym’s machines that have you just enter your weight don’t incorporate any other factors about you, thus giving you less accurate estimates on your calories burned.

Most machines I’ve used in the gym tend to over-estimate the calories burned between 20-25%. While I’m sure that helps people feel better about their workouts, it doesn’t help someone who is serious about losing weight.

This was a huge reason for the ‘wall’ I had hit. I had calculated my calories burned based on the machine’s totals and planned my calorie intake accordingly. But, I was way off and didn’t lose any more weight.

So, how did the heart-rate watch take me to the next level of working out? In addition to giving me a graphical representation of just how hard I worked out and how many calories I had burned, it also keeps records for several weeks that let me see how well I’m progressing. The Polar system is really nice because it has a website (www.polarpersonaltrainer.com) that allows you to transmit your data from some of their watches to their database. This feature allows you to track your progress according to the type of workout you set up on the site. If you want to lose weight, keep it in zones one and two; increase your cardiovascular fitness, use zones three and four; build serious athletic endurance, push it to zone five.

This is extremely helpful for someone who wants to see exactly what they have done and how they are improving. If you follow some of the plans they have on the site, you will start seeing results. At the very least, just having the watch and using the data it provides can help give you better results.

I also chose Polar over other HRM watches because they have the best technical support.

Most cardio gym equipment with heart-rate monitors (those bio-electric metal contacts on the machine), also synch with Polar telemetry straps. This allows you to bypass the heart-rate sensors on the machine – which can be awkward to use. As a result, you get the readout on the machines’ screen so you don’t have to look at your watch.

Polar’s 34 different watch models cater to any level of workout, budget or geek factor. I had a very hard time selecting which models to showcase here since there are so many to choose. I decided on three models: an entry level watch, an enthusiast level watch, and one for a pro. I highly encourage you to take a look at their watches at www.polarusa.com and find the one that matches your needs the best.

THE WATCHES

Entry Level –

Polar F6. The F6 isn’t Polar’s lowest model in specs or price. However, it is probably the most basic HRM watch that I would recommend for someone who is just starting a serious workout routine and plans on sticking to it (well, everyone PLANS on sticking with it).

The F6 comes in four different colors to match anyone’s taste and has all the bells and whistles to get serious results. It features “OwnZone” and “OwnCal” to calculate your workout zone and calories burned. It also has a coded telemetry strap to ensure that there is no overlap with other HRM watches. You can download your data to the Polar Personal Trainer website and update your watch with your settings through your home computer. MSRP: $109.95

Enthusiast Level –

Polar RS200/RS200sd. This is the model that I own (RS200). Not only does it have OwnZone and OwnCal, but also OwnIndex, which can tell you your real fitness level. This model also has the SportZone system which makes it easier to monitor your workout level (those zones 1-5 mentioned earlier).

The RS200 features a stopwatch and lap timer. It can tell you your average, and maximum, heart-rate for the workout as well as the time you spent in each zone.

The difference between the RS200 and the RS200sd, is that the RS200sd also has a foot pod that attaches to your shoe that adds speed and distance data to your workout. This feature is best for those who like to do their running outside.

I prefer to stay warm, dry and off the hoods of passing cars, so I stick to the machines in my gym and they tell me how far and fast I ran. The RS200 can also transmit and receive data to/from your home computer. MSRP: $149.95 (RS200) & $239.95 (RS200sd)

Pro Level –

Polar S625X. In addition to all the bells and whistles of the RS200sd, the S625X also gives altitude and ascent data for route profiling. The S625X adds the OwnOptimizer to let you know if you have rested enough before your next training session. The watch also supports the Polar bike accessories. A tri-athlete can store all the data they need to properly train with this watch and with the built-in infrared transmitter, it is even easier to transmit your workout data to your computer and the Polar training website. MSRP: $369.95

As I stated earlier, these are just a few of the huge array of models that Polar offers. With so much to choose from, you will find one that matches your goals and your budget. They may be a little more expensive than some other HRM watches, but you will be hard-pressed to find a watch that matches the tools and support of a Polar watch.

If you find yourself hitting that wall in your workout, you should see if a heart-rate monitor watch can help you leap over that wall and help you reach your real potential.

As always, if you have a question or comment on this topic, or any other gadget or gear topic, please feel free to write to me at: jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

See you next month!

« Previous Page