The Gadgets Page

I’ve never seen anyone complain about this, but I used to have a devil of a time with heart rate monitors. I would strap them around my chest, but I usually wouldn’t get an accurate reading until I was dripping wet with sweat. I tried wetting the contacts with water, but it didn’t seem to do much good.

A few weeks ago, I got my answer from a Black Eyed Peas song. I happened to be running and frustrated with my heart rate reading when the song, “Disco Club,” came on my random mix. The lyric that helped me was, “Rub it on your belly like an ultrasound.” They usually use some product like KY Jelly or Astroglide with ultrasound devices to get a better reading. I thought that it might work for my heart rate monitor.

The next time I exercised, I applied a thin coating of Astroglide to the contacts of the heart rate monitor. From the moment I put it on, I got an accurate reading. No more frustration while I’m waiting to get sweaty enough to get a correct reading.

The ThinkOutside Bluetooth keyboard is designed to be a true keyboard for PDAs, mobile phones, and Tablet PCs that don’t have their own keyboards. Does it work? Is it as good as a regular keyboard? We put one to a long term test. Read on for the report.

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Logitech has released a series of Bluetooth wireless headphones for iPod, PC, and MP3 players. The three types are essentially the same stereo Bluetooth headphones with three different adapters; the headphones are also resold by HP and Toshiba—we haven’t figured out who actually makes them yet. We tested them with an iPod, Archos 420 video player, and Powerbook.

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