The Gadgets Page

We wrote about the My Musix MP3 player a couple of months ago. It’s a 1GB player made exclusively for Radio Shack and priced at a cheap $99. This year’s holiday season will probably be remembered as the time when cheap but usable MP3 players started showing up all over the place, starting with this lovely model made exclusively for Walmart.

Like Radio Shack’s entry, the ilo 1GB MP3 Player has 1GB of memory and costs $99, but while the My Musix player takes SD cards and comes with a 1GB card, this one has 1G built-in plus an SD card slot. Also, unlike Radio Shack’s model, the ilo comes in red, white, blue, yellow, and Pepto Bismol ™ Pink. It runs on one AAA battery.

It also comes with twelve preloaded tracks from Alien Crime Syndicate, The Fitness, Maggie’s Choice, and The Grift. I had assumed these would turn out to be unknown bands chosen because they could be included without paying royalties, but was surprised to find that Amazon carries albums from all four—so I guess I’m out of touch. But regardless of popularity, kudos to Walmart for including some songs. One of the barriers to MP3 players becoming mainstream is the fact that you have to install software, rip CDs, and so on before you can listen, and the default songs will make it easy to try it out right after ripping off the wrapping paper.

One more thing: this player supports Microsoft’s PlaysForSure DRM, which means it will work with downloaded music from Yahoo Music or Walmart’s own music store. I don’t believe it works with subscription music, though.

[via Engadget]

[Update 11/30/2005: This player does have an SD card slot. It’s also out of stock at Walmart.com, but maybe your local store has one.]

On Monday, Salt Lake City finally got an Apple store. Mike and I usually have to drive all the way to Vegas to sidle up to a Genius Bar. Now, we have it right in the heart of our city. The locals were very excited about the opening and camped out in the 27° weather to be the first in line. There is a link to a V-Cast of the event on Blurbomat’s site:

• Blurbomat | Meth

I like Apple products. I think they have the best design around, barely narrowing Sony out of the picture. I just don’t need any iPods, PowerBooks, or iMacs right now. I usually save those purchases for a trip to Vegas or San Diego. Being able to walk in and buy an Apple product straight from the source in my hometown is a strange feeling for me.

All I know is that I’m avoiding the crowds until after the Christmas Season.

The minute I found out this game existed, I called my local video game shop to see if they had it in stock. Karaoke Revolution Party for the Xbox is a surprising combination between Karaoke Revolution, a Konami game where your signing is judged based on timing and pitch, and Dance Dance Revolution, another Konami game where your dancing is judged based on timing and steps. I couldn’t wait to get this game home.

Anyone who has ever seen Madonna perform knows that singing while dancing are very difficult to do at the same time. That’s why Britney Spears and Ashley Simpson lipsync at important performances like the MTV Video Awards and SNL appearances. If you are busting your butt well enough to dance, there is hardly any breath left to sing.

That’s what makes the Dance and Singing challenge so difficult on this game. You have to watch the screen for arrows (which run along the bottom of the screen instead of scrolling up like DDR) AND watch the screen for the words of the song. I was unable to really do well on the songs that I hadn’t memorized the words for. It wasn’t too hard for me to play, but I knew most of the songs by heart and I’ve been playing DDR for years. Once I was able to get used to the sideways scrolling, I was able to play pretty well, but I still haven’t earned a Gold or Platinum on any of the songs.

In addition to the Song and Dance mode, there are One Microphone and Two Microphone Party options that add more variation to the game. They allow people to sing duets and “true” duets, where the parts are different from each other. The fact that they allow two microphones on this game makes it so much more fun than the previous Karaoke Revolution for the Xbox was.

One thing I miss from the old game was the game mode that allowed you to have a singing career. You had to earn at least a gold medal in each arena in order to complete the “career.” I played karaoke all by myself for hours until I got a gold or platinum on every single song in the list. I miss that mode on the new game, but I like being able to sing with someone else using two microphones.

Both games allow for customization of your avatar, although the newer game, Karaoke Revolution Party, has far more customization, including making your avatar fat, which is something that not even Yahoo! Avatars has figured out yet.

Like many other Xbox games, there is a lot of content available for download on Xbox Live. There is currently one song pack that is free to download and approximately twenty others available for $5 a piece. I haven’t gotten sick of the songs that are on the game yet, but when that happens, I’m going to download them all.

I’m loving this game right now and I’ve been trying to convince people to play it with me on the duet modes. Not too many people are willing, so I guess I’m just going to stay at home, earning Gold and Platinum records on all of the songs. Alone or with friends, it’s a fun game.

The box says that I will get up to 8 months of battery life on this cordless mouse. I’ve only owned it for a month and all of a sudden, I don’t care if I get 8 months or not. I’ve never had a cordless mouse before and my mouse-life is entirely different now that I have one.

I didn’t realize how much of a pain in the butt that cord was. Now that my mouse is cordless, I don’t have that weird drifting that happens when I let go of the mouse. It stays put. The cord minder that I had kept the mouse from being pulled off the keyboard drawer by the cord, but there is no risk of that now. The only risk is of me dropping it.

The Logitech LX7 has the features that I refused to live without: scroll wheel and five buttons. In addition to that, there is a tilt wheel that lets me scroll side-to-side for those horribly designed websites that don’t resize for my screen or those really big photos that need editing. This mouse is also ambidextrous, so I could use it with my left hand if my right hand got sore or overworked. Another feature that I didn’t realize I’d like so much is that I can pick up the mouse without accidentally pushing the “back” button. I had trouble with that with my previous mouse and didn’t even try to choose a mouse that placed the “back” and “forward” buttons on the top of the mouse instead of the side. I actually thought that was going to be a detriment, but after a little re-training, I’ve been really happy.

I had trouble with the mouse tracking on my woodgrain desk. I had to reintroduce a mouse pad so I could get a good feel for the mouse. At first, I thought it was broken, but once I brought the mouse pad up from the dusty basement, it worked perfectly.

It has an on/off switch underneath the mouse (you can see it on the top picture). I haven’t tried to conserve battery life by turning it off, though. The eight month battery life estimate is supposed to based on leaving it on all the time and I could get more battery life by switching it off. I don’t really feel like fussing with that, so I’ll see how long these Duracells last.

So far, I really love this mouse. It’s a huge step up from my wired Belkin mouse I had before. Lets see if it lives up to its promises on battery life in a couple months.

Scosche has created the ultimate iPod remote control aptly named, The Schoche Remote Control Your iPod From Your Wrist. I can’t imagine using this with the Nano, but larger iPods could benefit from hiding in the backpack and being controlled by a remote like this. At the price, however, I think I’ll just get my iPod out and change the song.

Via: Engadget – Scosche remote puts iPod controls on your wrist

My dog, Sid, can pull me on my bicycle going 12 mph for over five miles before he starts to slow down. The only problem with exercising him this way is that he’s a little excitable and if he sees another dog, he’ll just pull me over and head toward the other dog. This dog scooter looks a little safer.

• The Original Dog Powered Scooter

For someone who has a large and energy-filled dog, this looks like a feasible way to exercise your dog without killing yourself, either by being pulled over on your bike or trying to keep up with him. Inventions like this make me want to invent my own doggie harness that can be attached to my bike. They bring out the inventor in me.

Via: Give The Dog A Bone, Let Him Walk You Home – Gizmodo

As I made my breakfast sandwich with this little gadget, I felt a sudden gratitude for it. I have been “squishing” sandwiches with this toastmaster Snackster for over four years now and it works just as well today as it did the day we bought it. I love its simplistic design. To turn it on, you plug it in. To turn it off, you unplug it. The red light tells you that your sandwich is still cooking and the green light tells you it’s ready. There is a latch to hold the lid down once you’ve squished your sandwich. That’s all.

I can’t imagine making a grilled cheese sandwich any other way now. I remember making them in a frying pan and lots of butter on the outside slices of bread (to prevent sticking). Now, my cheese indulgences are actually less calories because I don’t need butter, margarine or Pam.

Grilled cheese isn’t the only thing that’s good in the Snackster. You have never known joy until you’ve squished a Nutella sandwich. It’s like a melted chocolate bar between two slices of bread.

Considering how many sandwich squishers I see at the thrift stores, I can only guess that Toastmaster must make a really good one. I’ve never seen a Snackster given away. The owners must use them until they don’t work anymore, which is longer than four years, based on the longevity of my model.

This picture of a beautiful couple was taken over fifty years ago. A few shots were taken with an Argoflex camera, the rest were waiting for exposure, but they never got their chance. The camera was abandoned, then found at a flea market or an estate sale, then ended up in the hands of Gene McSweeney.

• Film Found In Old Cameras

Gene rescues old film from old cameras and carefully develops them, displaying the photos for us to see. He philosophizes about the discarded cameras, photos and film, wondering where the subjects are now.

“There’s a marked sadness to photographs like these. Photos that are lost. Photos of long-dead people that stopped for a moment and smiled for the camera.”

I also see ghosts in these neglected photographs. Was the film undeveloped because film and developing was deemed more valuable than the image of those photographed? What would the families of these subjects feel if they saw those lost photographs now? Would they even recognize the faces?

Gene and I exchanged a few emails and he stated beautifully why these old cameras can still compete with the technological beasts of today:

“I’ve got more cameras than you can imagine. Some of them are very expensive and complex. I use the complex ones every now and then but I prefer the “junk” cameras as they free me from all the technical stuff. Junk cameras boil everything down to light and form. The basics of photography.”

I am so grateful that I live in the digital age. I can click a photo whenever I want without guilt or even contemplation of the expense of film and developing. These photographs remind me how it used to be before we carried cameras and telephones in our pockets.

Via: Boing Boing: Photos from undeveloped film in antique cameras

After you’ve uploaded all of the images in your digital camera’s memory, what do you do?

• Use the camera to delete the files (Erase All)
• Use the camera’s “Format” option to erase the photos
• Use the computer to delete the files

Derrick Story recommended that you Erase, Don’t Format, apparently because using “Erase All” gives you a better chance of recovering deleted files, but later updated his post after comments confirmed that a formatted card is also recoverable.

What do I recommend? First, forget about recovering files. Don’t erase files or format the card unless you’re quite sure you have a good copy of all of the photos on the computer, and don’t ever assume you can recover a deleted photo.

Taking file recovery out of the equation, either Erase or Format will work, but some cameras will reset the filename sequence to 0001 when you reformat, so you may want to avoid that. The only other reason I can think of to avoid formatting is if you’ve been using the card in other devices (mobile phone, Palm, etc.)—formatting will delete all files, not just pictures, which may be more drastic than you wanted.

Personally, I just delete the files with my computer. It’s fast and works just fine, as long as you’re careful:

• Depending your settings, the files might go to a “recycle bin” or “trash” folder on the card instead of being truly deleted. This only wastes space, so be sure to delete them properly.
• Don’t format a memory card using your computer. Formatting on the camera ensures compatibility with the camera—both Windows and MacOS can format cards using file systems that won’t be recognized by some cameras.

If you’d rather avoid the potential hassle of deleting files on the computer, just use “Erase All” on the camera. Like Derrick, I also recommend formatting the card every month or two, or when you put it into a new camera, to avoid creeping file system errors.

[via TUAW]

Treo Today mentioned my review for the headphone adapter for my Treo 650.

• Treo Today » Blog Archive » Headphone Adapter for the Treo 650

There was a comment from a reader at the end of the review:

“WARNING – These straight earbud adaptors are very dangerous for the Treo. The slightest torque or pressure on the adaptor will damage the earbud receptor in the Treo. I know this for a fact as I destroyed mine (broke the adaptor off in the Treo, shattered the receptor, and had to get a new Treo). If you want to listen to MP3’s get an earbud set made to fit the Treo, and make sure it’s a short “L” shaped connector. Word to the wise.”

I haven’t had that trouble, but I can easily envision it happening with my clumsy nature. I guess I’m going to go find a “L” shaped connector like the one Amazon sells.