The Gadgets Page

This year at CES was the year of the iPod Throne. Most of the thrones had speakers or chargers attached, but this company, Prosperity Tree had an array of beautiful iPod thrones that were just for show: the iSeat.

There are no speakers, chargers or anything electronic to the iSeat. It is merely a place to rest your iPod, iPhone or cellphone when it isn’t in your pocket. That’s part of the beauty of the iSeat. At the Consumer Electronics Show, they were one of the few products that contained no electronics whatsoever.

Their bottom of the line were simple plastic thrones. They can be engraved with your logo or name. They are being heralded as great giveaway gifts for employees or customers. I liked their simple design and their bright colors. It felt a little like 1986 all over again seeing hot pink and bright yellow in one spot together.

With a minimum order of three, these plastic iSeats are about $12 each, so actually ARE an affordable giveaway for customers that you REALLY like, but they weren’t what attracted me to the booth in the first place. I fell in love with iSeat because of their executive series. You can see them here:

They are like glass paperweights with iPod thrones attached. When I saw these at their booth, I had a vision of my grandma with her paperweight collection and my vision instantly transported to the future where I’M the grandma and I have a huge collection of glass iSeats for all of my gizmos. Here is a closeup:

These units are approximately $20 each with an order of three, so they don’t come cheap, but they are a beautiful addition to your desk. They may not be as useful as the iPod thrones with speakers and chargers, but they are the loveliest we saw at CES this year.

We love the video game, Rock Band, but as with any new hardware, being an early adopter has its ups and downs. In particular, the first guitars that shipped with Rock Band had a common issue where the strum button would stop working correctly:

• Kotaku: Rock Band Guitar Controllers Failing

Although this problem has been known since November 2007, our Rock Band game purchased in January quickly developed the problem: you could strum up, but not down. Since I only strum downward, this put a serious crimp in my already amateurish playing.

Fortunately, Electronic Arts has a convenient warranty page that promised to quickly set me up with a new guitar:

• Rock Band Warranty page

The warranty process took five minutes and a credit card number, which theoretically won’t be charged if you return the defective guitar. Unfortunately, I started this process on January 20th, and I’m still not happy with the result:

• I was immediately sent a UPS tracking number, but they never dropped off the guitar for shipping.
• A month later, they charged my card $125 because I never returned the old guitar. (I couldn’t, since they were supposed to send me the new one first.)
• After dealing with form-letter responses from their online support people for a month, I finally called EA. They were very helpful, apologized, and started the whole process over. This time the guitar was actually shipped, and I received it a few days later.

So now we have a new working guitar (finally!) but EA still owes us a $125 credit. I’ll have to spend some more time on the phone straightening this out.

Got a Rock Band guitar with a strum problem? Here’s my advice:

• Try to return it to the store where you purchased it. EA discourages this, but a good retailer should exchange it.
• Call EA on the phone rather than using their online service. They’re more likely to get it right. The number is 1 (650) 628-1001.
• You may want to consider fixing it yourself—this will probably void your warranty, and it seems like a waste of time to fix something that EA should replace, but I’m wishing I’d done it myself at this point.
• If you use EA’s warranty service, keep a close eye on your credit card.

I love Rock Band—it’s probably my favorite video game of all time—but when I pay $160 for a video game, I expect better customer service. Here’s hoping EA gets their act together in time for me to buy the sequel.

Here’s a video of us and our friends enjoying Rock Band together (with borrowed guitars):

I’ve been playing Animal Crossing for a year and a half and for the first time ever, I was able to shoot down the UFO. It has flown across my town probably a total of ten times in the last eighteen months, and last week was the first time I was able to shoot it down.

After I shot it down, it crash landed in my town and I was able to talk to Gulliver. He didn’t realize it was ME that shot him down, but he asked me to help him fix his craft so he could leave again. It was the least I could do.

You can see my encounter here:

It’s amazing that I can play a game almost EVERY day for a year and a half and it might still have something new to show me. Kudos to Nintendo and the creators of Animal Crossing. Once again, you have given me a pleasant surprise on what I thought was an ordinary day.

These videos from MammaMia19 show a little more of an encounter with Gulliver:

I have no idea how MammaMia19 knew to film on the exact day when Gulliver flew over their town.

“So I was just recording myself playing and Gulliver’s UFO flew by the top screen. Figured i would show you guys. I shoot this guy down left and right. No UFO’s get away with flying by MY village!!”

This video shows what it looks like to shoot down the UFO:

To read my other reviews of Animal Crossing, see here:

• Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing

• Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing Update

• Gadgets Page » Animal Crossing: How To Complete Your Catalog

Sanrio is creating a massively multi-player online role-playing game (mmorpg) called Hello Kitty Online Game.

Applications for the BETA are now closed and those of us that applied have been asked to create a video saying why we should be chosen. So, I took a few minutes and filmed a video of myself.

I imagined a game of pure unadulterated cuteness without any violence or anything scary, but apparently, there will be monsters. According to their website:

“This game is not just about fighting monsters – there are many activities for players to choose from. Aside from the monster-filled adventure areas, players can dig for ore in a mine, or range the forests to pick fruit from trees. Farming allows you to plant, grow and harvest your own crops; be sure to take good care of your crops so you will have a good harvest, and if you have a healthy farm you can even show it off to your online friends! You can use many other skills like cooking, tailoring, making furniture, and building houses. Commerce with other players will allow you to make a living and – perhaps – even get rich!”

I’m alright with monster-filled adventure areas as long as I can avoid them and just harvest my crops and say hi to Badtz-Maru every day.

“Not only do you have the ability to own a house, but you can arrange it with whatever furniture you want. You can also own pets. When certain monsters are defeated, they may drop “pet cards”, that once used will give the player that particular monster as a pet. As a special treat for players, some Sanrio characters may also become your pets. It is certainly fun to watch them follow you around, but they will also be helpful to the players in various ways, such as for item storage.”

I like the idea of having a trail of pets following me everywhere. Maybe it might be worth it to fight a few monsters if they end up my pets in the end.

Here are some screen shots:

Via: little. yellow. different. – Hello Kitty gets an MMORPG

On our trip to Swami’s Beach to look at the tide pools, I finally tested my Sanyo Xacti E1 under water.

Here is a video of the first time I ever put it under water:

Download this video for your iPod

I got a lot of great footage with the Sanyo Xacti E1. You can see the best of our tidepooling adventure here:

• Starling Travel » Swami’s Beach, CA: Tide Pool Video

Seeing this car in action just reminds me of all the cool cars that James Bond drives. He’ll be begging Q for the Rinspeed Splash.

It’s a two-seater car with no room for even a metal suitcase full of diamonds in the back. I guess you’ll just have to jettison the girl (she’ll probably stab you in the back anway).

With just a few changes, the Rinspeed Splash can take to the water.

Best of all, it’s powered by natural gas, so it’s a little more earth-friendly!

You can see it in action here:

Via: The high-speed sports car that turns into a boat at the touch of a button | the Daily Mail

If you have ever played Guitar Hero or Rock Band, then you have imagined yourself to be a Rock God with the game. The Guitar Zeros, however, are a real band that have harnessed the power of the Guitar Hero controllers and are creating real music with them.

• THE GUITAR ZEROS

You can see them in action here:

They have the complete instructions on how to turn your own Guitar Hero controller into a musical instrument here:

• THE ZERO GUIDE

Using just a laptop computer, a Guitar Hero controller and some software from the Guitar Zeros, you can play music too. You don’t have to take apart your controller and it will still work to play your favorite game. It will just have super-hero abilities when you plug it into your PC.

Via: Guitar Zero is a band that has repurposed the Guitar… (kottke.org)

Once again, Jerry Van Amerongen, the author of Ballard Street, hits technology on the head.

Larry has come to learn his computer is capable of great cruelty.

I see the tears running down his eyes and I remember every time I’ve accidentally saved an altered photo over the top of the original. Or maybe I remember all the times a power flicker demolished hours of writing. How about those times when I’ve written something online and a glitch with the site eats my entry. Just thinking about it makes me click on the save button.

Here are some tips to prevent accidental sacrifices to the Technology Gods:

Always use Save As… instead of the Save option

Whether you’re working on a photo or using an old document for a template, the FIRST thing you should do is click File – Save As… and save the document with a different name as the original. Even if you think you’ll never need the original, do this. There have been so many times that I have mortally wounded something and have had my butt saved because I used Save As… instead of Save.

Save Often: Control+S Command

When I was a kid, I learned to program on an Atari 800. The first year we had these computers at our school, there was no way to save. If you wanted to load up a program, you had to type it in and run it. By eighth grade, we got some tape players that attached to the computers where we could save our programs. It was lovely being able to just load up something I had typed in class a few days before and all I did was buy a cassette tape.

After that, it was only power glitches that stole my work away from me. Since I lived on a side of town that had spotty power coverage at best, I learned to save every couple of minutes or so. I would listen to the tape machine grind away at saving my hand-typed program. It took FOREVER to save something back then. Now, it only takes a couple of seconds.

Get into the habit of pressing Control+S (on the PC) or Command/Apple+S (on the Mac) to save your work often. Where I live now, power glitches are few and far between, but saving often prevents me from losing things when the computer crashes.

Save Before Submitting: Control+A, Control+C, and Control+V Commands

With the advent of the online world, I found entirely NEW ways to make inadvertent sacrifices to the Technology Gods. For example, I would be writing up a scathing comment on a blog, send the submit button and something would screw up and lose my “brilliant” retort. Sometimes it was a stupid captcha filter, sometimes it was an incorrect password, sometimes it was just a weird problem with the Internet. Whatever it was, my comment was lain on the alter of the Technology Gods and ritualistically slaughtered.

To avoid this, I have learned a new habit. Before pressing the submit button, I press Control+A (or Command+A on a Mac) to select all I have written. Then I press Control+C (or Command+C on a Mac) to copy whatever is highlighted onto the clipboard. Then, if my comment is eaten by the Technology Gods, I am able to just Control+V (or Command+V) to paste it back in and try again.

Your Computer Is Capable of Cruelty

Once you realize that your computer is capable of cruelty, you have the ability to protect yourself from it. With just a few little keystrokes, you can learn habits that will save you and you will never have to cry in agony at the computer screen.

Joan and Henry from The Smart Show learn about alternative energy sources from Ben Luce in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Joan: How come we’re not completely solar and wind powered?

Ben: We have to overcome a 150 years of tradition of producing power from coal, uranium, and sources like that. You can make giant solar farms which could power entire cities. It would only take an area of 59 by 59 miles to provide all of the energy for the United States. We actually have the means to do this.

A swath of land 59 miles by 59 miles is HUGE. Really, Ben? Would it really ONLY take an area of 59 by 59 miles? Are YOU willing to give up that much? What about the beautiful wild areas near your home town of Santa Fe? Are you willing to put a gigantic black square on the face of your state between Santa Fe and Farmington?

Ben Luce has worked hard in New Mexico with the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy to help get the state running on cleaner fuels. Solar power is an alternative and adding a panel or two to your home would certainly help keep your footprint lighter, but the biggest problem is that adding solar panels to homes is difficult and expensive. We’re not trying to overcome 150 years of tradition. We’re trying to overcome the costly and complicated process of adding solar power to our homes.

The best use of your time, Mr. Luce is to work with a manufacturer to create solar panels that are EASY to install and work EVERYWHERE, not just sunny climates like New Mexico. Fighting against legislation is just a waste of effort.

One of the highlights of the Ion Audio booth at this year’s CES was the Rock Band video game. Now, Guitar Hero and Rock Band were probably featured in about 50 booths this year—many companies faced the fact that a video game was far more exciting than their own products—but Ion had a unique take on it.

Ion made a professional drum kit for use with Rock Band. This kit not only has higher quality drums than the ones that come with the game, it also has separate cymbal pads you can use for authenticity. (The game doesn’t know about the cymbals specifically, but each one is the same “color” as one of the lower drum pads.)

Ion makes “real” drum kits—electronic drums that can trigger samples—and here they’ve adapted one of them to play Rock Band. This was a prototype, but with any luck they’ll turn it into a real product. The only potential issue is that electronic drum kit prices start at about $300, but they can probably get the cost reduced. I’m sure there are a few Rock Band fanatics out there who will want it regardless.

[That’s Dan Amrich of the Official XBox Magazine playing the drums. I tried them myself, but Dan is a Gaming Professional and did a much better job.]