The Gadgets Page

This comic says all I have to say about the Zune…

Here is some unverified rumor stuff about Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Wii. It looks like they are looking at more functionality with Nintendo’s connectivity. This is an interview with Katsuya Eguchi, who was the developer for Animal Crossing for the Gamecube and DS. He is excited to expand the capabilities of the game.

• Gamasutra – Interview – “Crossing into the Mainstream: Katsuya Eguchi on Animal Crossing”

If find it interesting that they talk about time traveling. If you change the date in your Nintendo DS, it will change the date in your town. You can go back in time and visit Nook’s store when he was selling something rare. You can travel forward in time and gather the interest on the money in the bank. There are consequences to time travel. The Animal Crossing forums are very split on time travel. Most people believe that it’s cheating, but it appears that the developers knew that time travel would be used:

“Well the first thing is that we knew people would be time traveling – and that’s ok! That’s one playstyle if people want to do it. But the thing to remember is that the game’s in a natural setting, so if you move forward in time, weeds are going to come, plants are going to die, and things like that. So what happened in this case is that when you turn your game on, the game saves where you are. So it saved his progress three weeks into the future, and the game considered that nothing had gotten water for three weeks. It’s not built in to punish people, it’s just by way of saying that time traveling is dangerous!”

Unless you count Daylight Savings, I have never time traveled with my Animal Crossing game. I avoid it mostly because I feel like my animal friends are real people and I imagine them sitting alone for months on end when I travel within an instant. I imagine them being alone and moving away thinking that I had abandoned them just because I wanted to buy a crown now that I finally have enough money to do it. It’s not worth it to me. The weeds and turnip prices aren’t as much of a deterrent as imagining my new animal friends alone and thinking I abandoned them.

Via: Animal Crossing (Wii) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I am currently keeping six small electronic devices charged. That’s six wires, adapters, or cradles that I have to make sure are plugged in, otherwise, my phone or iPod runs out of juice at inopportune times. Wouldn’t it be great if they could just sit in my house (or at a coffee shop) and draw a charge from the air? A team of physicists are working on just that.

• BBC NEWS | Technology | Physics promises wireless power

I once asked an electrical engineer why we didn’t have wireless power and he said, “Because it would cook anything in its path.” I’m interested to see how this “long-lived resonance” works. I wouldn’t be surprised if we DO have wireless power within my lifetime.

Via: Meriblog: Meri Williams’ Weblog » links for 2006-11-15

I love the advertising copy for this jacket:

• Twill Presentation Jacket – Duluth Trading Company

“Even in these days of Business Casual, there are times – like dealing with the Suits at the bank or introducing yourself to a new client – when a sports jacket adds a touch of professionalism. Thus, we developed the Duluth Presentation Jacket, designed to go with jeans or khakis and requiring no special care.”

Of course, I wouldn’t be looking at this men’s jacket if it hadn’t been recommended by a gadget freak. What he had to say was far more interesting:

• Cool Tool: Duluth’s Twill Presentation Jacket

“In the last month, I have worn it everywhere from going to the movies to staying two days in a swanky hotel in Morocco for business meetings, hiked part way up an 11,000 ft mountain, and slept on a long flight. As this implies, it is a dreamy traveler’s jacket — never looks wrinkled (it is treated to resist wrinkles and stains), is tremendously comfortable, and has 13 pockets including zip-up pockets inside the outer patch pockets. Enough space to fit a moleskine in an outer pocket, a cell phone inside, a wallet safely zipped-in, some pens — and suddenly I don’t have to carry a backpack when I am going out for a quick meeting.”

That’s the sort of recommendation I can love. I’m tempted to buy one for myself, except that I promised myself to stop cross-dressing. If you’re a guy in need of a jacket that can take you from the mountain to the board room, the Duluth Twill Presentation Jacket just might do the trick.

I’ve seen lots of advertisements for Microsoft’s new MP3 player, Zune. They all show the brown one turned on its side showing a picture, or maybe it’s a video, I can’t really tell from a print ad. I didn’t even bother looking at the price to see if it was worth it. Somehow, the Zune isn’t attracting my attention.

I feel like I SHOULD care… I write for a gadgets weblog. Shouldn’t I care about an MP3 player created by the most successful company in the world? Somehow it just seems wrong that I don’t.

To be honest, I wasn’t jumping up and down waving the Video iPod around when it came out. I looked at it and thought, “It’s about time. My Treo has been playing videos for months.”

Honestly, I don’t watch videos on my Treo anymore. I don’t even listen to music on my phone anymore. I just use it for contacts, calendar and answering calls. I listen to music on my computer more than anything else. I own an iPod Nano and use it for exercising, but really, I’m at my computer all day and out there running on the road for maybe 30-45 minutes a day.

Can Zune compete with iPod? I think a better question is can Zune compete with my laptop. Quite frankly, my little laptop has it beat. It has its own speakers, it can show video on a MUCH larger screen and it has far more usability and versatility than the Zune.

Plus, my laptop isn’t puke brown…

Just a couple months ago, we were buried in stories on the mainstream media saying, “Where are the women gamers?” I kept jumping up and down yelling, “Hello?! We’re right here! Can’t you see us?!” Guess what, mainstream media just barely found women gamers.

• Games: They’re not just for kids anymore – Games – MSNBC.com

• Women outnumber men in online games, survey finds – Games – MSNBC.com

• “Non-gamers” may decide winner of console wars

It seems that the Electronic Software Association just released a survey that shows that 38 percent of all gamers are women over 18. Yeah, you know those women that the gaming industry can’t see and doesn’t make games for, THAT 38% of the market. Funny thing, the market that 90% of the games are created for? You know, the boys under 17? Yeah, we OUTNUMBER them.

All along I’ve been saying that there are plenty of women out there wanting to play video games, but Grand Theft Auto isn’t going to do it for us. We really don’t want to hang out with prostitutes, steal cars and shoot people. We want casual little games that we can pick up when we have a free moment. We want games that allow us to create relationships. We want something to turn to when insomnia hits at 3am. I don’t want to shoot zombies at 3am. I have enough bad dreams as it is.

Now that there is a survey showing that women gamers are out there, wishing they could spend money on a video game if only they could find something as relaxing as Bejeweled, I wonder what the video game manufacturers are going to do. And hey, to all you women out there wondering what’s good, here’s a list of games I’ve found to keep my interest and the zombies at bay:

• The Gadgets Page » Try Out Tringo For Free

• The Gadgets Page » ZYRX – Fun Online Game

• The Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Brain Age

• The Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Big Brain Academy

• The Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing

• The Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing Update

• The Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Mario Kart

Back in September, I wrote about buying a silicon case for my Nintendo DS Lite:

• The Gadgets Page » The Nintendo DS Lite in Black and Pink

It has been a couple of months now and I’ve been playing with my DS a lot because of Animal Crossing, so I thought I’d give a more detailed review. I actually LOVE this case. Here’s why:

• The cover is sticky: I like that the cover makes my DS a little more “grippy” so it won’t slip off the table. I was worried that the cover would attract dirt because it’s kind of sticky, but it looks as good today as when I bought it back in September.

• The smell goes away: The silicon had a strange smell when I first got it, but it went away in a couple of days.

• I can tell my DS apart from Mike’s: I like that it differentiates my DS from my husband’s. It makes it really easy to tell which one is mine. This is especially important now that I’m playing Animal Crossing on both. I have two Animal Crossing towns, so now I can tell which one is which by just looking at the machine.

• It cushions my hands: I can really tell when I’m playing with my DS with the silicon skin and when I’m playing with Mike’s without one. Mine has more of a cushion and doesn’t hurt my hands when I’m playing for a long time.

• One minor problem: There is a little bit of a problem with the design of the cover. When you have the charger plugged in and open the case, the silicon cover bunches up kind of funny. Sometimes it actually pushes the top part off a bit, covering part of the screen. This ONLY happens when the charger is plugged in, otherwise, the skin folds nicely and stays in place. I don’t play with the charger plugged in that often, so it’s not much of an issue for me.

When they came out with the Pink and Black Nintendo DS Lite, I felt kind of sad that I hadn’t waited. Since I’ve had this cover, which makes my DS green, I haven’t cared one bit about the pink one.

I love to hear about cars that have incredible gas mileage, are smaller and more efficient or run on alternative fuel sources. That’s why I write about so many different transportation methods here. You can understand my excitement at finding this:

• Green Car Journal Online – Your Source for Hybrids, Hydrogen and Alternative Fuel Vehicles

They have reviews of all the alternative fuel and hybrid cars that are and aren’t available. You can get your green car fix once a month with them and read their articles online all you want. They also have a pretty interesting forum that is active. I found this subject to be pretty good:

• Electric Vehicle Pros & Cons – CarSpace Automotive Forums

The worry about a car that can’t travel a long distance seems to be a common one that hasn’t been solved yet. Have fun investigating. I sure did!

The scare of worker’s compensation claims because of overuse injuries relating to texting and emailing with Blackberrys provided by your employer sounds like a trumped up charge to me. Did none of these adults play Intellivision when they were kids? Are they not playing Nintendo DS games now? Intellivision Thumb was around a lot longer than Blackberry Thumb. Maybe it’s not all Blackberry’s fault.

• Growth of PDA injuries a concern for companies – USATODAY.com

When I worked in a busy office processing claims, I was amazed at the carpal tunnel claims from one woman in our office. She wore braces, had a special desk and they even moved her to a position that had less typing and data entry. One day, we were just shooting the breeze and I asked her what she did for fun. She knitted. She was so happy to know someone else who knitted that she started showing me her projects.

That carpal tunnel syndrome was caused by knitting, NOT data entry.

If worker’s compensation claims are being made on Blackberry Thumb, it would be wise to find out how much other gaming the employee is doing and has done in the past. It might turn out to be a bad case of Intellivision Thumb instead.

As always, remember, if you are having hand pain from ANY gadget, lay off for a while. Take breaks. I know the game is REALLY fun, but you need to take a break if you want to use those fingers for anything else. Same goes for you Crackberry Addicts. That email will wait until you can get to the computer, I promise. I know the game is REALLY fun, but you need to take a break if you want to use those fingers for anything else.

I am constantly looking for an option to make waking up less of an ordeal. This lamp/alarm clock slowly dims the lights and reduces the volume of the nature sounds while you are going to sleep. Before the time to wake up, it reverses the process and slowly brightens and increases the volume until it is at its full level when you are supposed to rise.

• Verilux Rise & Shine Natural Alarm Clock

I am always enticed by these sorts of alarm clocks, but not by their price. For $150, I think I will have to make due with my current waking methods. I refuse to pay that much money for an alarm clock that doesn’t even play my favorite music.

Via: Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women