The Gadgets Page

Treonauts has a funny conversation about his friend and the small problem of forgetting that you’re using a Bluetooth headset.

• Treonauts | Silent Conversations With A Blueetooth Headset

After not being able to get a hold of his friend, he finally sent him an instant message. The explanation was funny.

“Like most Treonauts he was using a Bluetooth headset but had answered the call on his Treo forgetting that his calls were being automatically routed to the BT headset instead of the smartphone… Thus no matter how loudly he would speak he couldn’t hear a word of what I was saying as my entire conversation was coming through loud and clear but to the headset on his desk instead…”

Although you can route the call back to the phone by selecting the option on the screen, you may lose your caller before you notice. It’s an interesting problem that doesn’t have a solution yet.

I have yet to jump on the BT headset bandwagon. When I was a real estate agent and on the phone constantly, I used a wired headset. It worked well for me and I used it constantly until it broke a few years later. Now, however, the only calls I receive are rare, so a headset is useless for me.

I’m actually very grateful that I’m not tied to my telephone anymore. It got to the point that the sound of the ring was an irritation to me. Now, my phone ring means something fun is going to happen. The life of a writer is far quieter than the life of a real estate agent, but it doesn’t pay as well. Of course, I don’t have to spend all that extra money I was earning on lock boxes, signs, advertising or BT headsets…

I’ve heard people talking about the new Mac commercials where they compare themselves to PC computers. I just finished watching them all and they’re funny.

• Apple – Get a Mac – Watch The TV Ads

My only problem with these commercials is that I end up feeling sorry for the PC. The Mac guy is like one of those “Too Cool For You” guys, but the PC is all dressed up in a suit and tie. It seems like Apple is trying to convey that their computers are cool, stable and easy to use, but in the end, I just feel sorry for the PC guy and want to kick the Mac guy in the nads for being so smarmy.

The final kicker is the WSJ ad, in which the Mac guy is excited because the Wall Street Journal said that he’s the best computer ever. What does the Wall Street Journal know about computers? Who gets their computer recommendations from the Wall Street Journal? I just felt like throwing that newspaper back in that smug Mac guy’s face.

Sometimes I wish the PC manufacturers would strike back at Apple and make commercials that tell the real story.

• Sure there are lots of viruses out there for PCs. That’s because there are tons more PCs out there than Macs. It’s the same reason there are lots more Shareware and Freeware programs out there for PCs.

• For the record, we’ve had to reboot our iBook just as often as we have to reboot our PCs. Ever since Windows XP came out, PCs have been just as stable as Macs. It was the software, not the hardware that was causing that problem.

• My PC came bundled with a bunch of software that’s about as useful as the iLife programs that came with our iBook. Windows MovieMaker sucks just as much as iMovie. Trust me, I’ve tried to use both of them. Mac’s iLife programs aren’t “better,” they’re bare minimum just like the Windows software. Plus, this is another software issue instead of a hardware issue.

The real truth is that now that Apple is using the Intel Core Duo chips in their computers, they are THE SAME as PCs. The only thing that sets them apart now is that they are “cool.” I’m not willing to pay a premium price for “cool.” I’ll just stick with my nerdy PC with his Bill Gates glasses and suit. Nerdy is more my style.

This guy may appear to be a little portly, but in actuality, he’s just sneaking twelve dollars worth of soda into the movie with the aid of The Beer Belly.

• The Beerbelly

This gadget seems completely useless to me. If you really want to sneak beer or soda into a movie or football game, there are the CamelBak products that do the same thing without making you look like you’ve “let yourself go.” It’s much easier to sneak in under a jacket and it’s half the price.

Via: PixMedial — Design & Geek » Porta Cerveza

Earbuds usually don’t work in my ears. A few years ago when the white iPod earbuds were so cool to be wearing, I had to go with different headphones with my really cool iPod because the stupid things kept falling out of my ears.

The Shure earbuds that I tried out at CES were the first to ever fit in my ear AND stay in my ear despite running and bouncing around the Shure booth like a crazy girl. The only problem is that they are 200 bucks. I’m not shelling out that kind of green for listening pleasure.

These Sony Fontopia Earbuds are the perfect compromise between something that works and something that costs a lot of money. At $40, they are a steal compared to the price tag of the Shure earbuds and they are just as stable in my ear. I have walked and ran and sat at my computer with them. I’ve even pulled them out of my ears by just yanking on the cord and the little plastic bits didn’t stay in my ears (unlike the Akai earbuds I got for twelve bucks at the music store).

I can’t wear them for longer than a couple of hours because they eventually make my ears itch, but that time limit works for me. I have my huge headphones that I use for marathon music sessions.

As far as sound quality, they sound great. I can’t tell the difference between them and the Shure earbuds that I tested at CES, but I’m not one of those audiophile people who can taste the earthy undertones of music. I’m sure that there are people who could tell the difference blindfolded, but I’m not one of them.

All I want is to be able to hear my music, block out a little ambient noise, stay in my ears and come out when I yank on the cord without leaving any parts behind. The Sony Fontopia earbuds are able to fill all of those requirements AND they aren’t in poser white.

ColdHeat bills the Freestyle glue gun as the first true rechargeable cordless glue gun. While that’s technically true because they used the word rechargeable, other cordless glue guns are on the market. Disposable battery glue guns are hawked on TV, but they burn through batteries at a prodigious rate. Butane glue guns also exist, but they’ve got serious convenience problems and are rather more dangerous than the ColdHeat gun.

The gun arrived with a sample pack of low-temp mini glue sticks and a rechargeable battery, charger, and idea book. The gun is designed just like a miniature cordless drill, with the removable battery attached to the bottom of the gun handle, a two-finger trigger, and a horizontal glue chamber with a clear window to indicate when you should add another stick (which is easy to tell anyway when the trigger stops releasing glue). My first impression was that the device was both well designed and rather high-tech looking compared to a traditional glue gun. The battery attaches and detaches easily, and fits into the external charger with no trouble whatsoever.

Charging the battery took three hours exactly, and charging is indicated when the charge light stops flashing and remains solid. The first time I squeezed the trigger, I pinched the skin on my third finger between the trigger bottom and the trigger guard, which was too short to protect my large fingers. It’s easy to avoid the problem by positioning your fingers correctly once you know about it, but with the current design, everyone would eventually pinch their finger at least once. Cold Heat has assured me that they’ve already redesigned the trigger to protect against this.

When you turn the gun on (there’s a low and high temp setting, but I couldn’t discern any significant difference between them and the manual indicates that they’re essentially the same), a white LED below the nozzle indicates that the gun is on and provides spot illumination for the work area. It’s actually handier than it might seem, and is an idea they brought over from their soldering iron. Two LEDs on the back of the gun indicate sleep mode and low battery. The gun goes to sleep and begins cooling off after 10 minutes of inactivity, and immediately begins reheating when moved.

The gun heats up and is ready to use in about a minute—considerably faster than any other glue gun I’ve used, and so fast that it’s basically ready as soon as you’re prepared to use it—a major convenience. It uses standard low-temp or multi-temp mini glue sticks, and as with any low-temp gun, the working temperature is a tradeoff—it heats quickly, cures quickly, and can’t burn you, but it doesn’t flow as smoothly as high-temp glue, and you’ll deal with spider-webbing quite a bit more than you will with a high-temp gun. And you’ll go through mini sticks much faster than you would with the standard size—a typical shoe repair for example will probably take an entire stick, for example. These tradeoffs are typical of all low-temp mini glue guns.

The gun works really well, but it doesn’t heat the glue quite as quickly as a traditional corded gun. This makes for slightly harder triggering and slightly slower dispensing, but it’s not enough to be annoying or problematic. You wouldn’t notice if you didn’t have a corded gun to compare it to, but you can’t burn yourself with this gun the way you will with a high-temp gun.

The battery lasts about 45 minutes on a charge, which is more than long enough for typical around-the-house hobby and repair work. Unfortunately, it takes longer to charge a battery than the battery lasts, so you can’t work continuously by swapping batteries between the gun and charger. If you need to work longer than 40 minutes at a time, you’re better off with a corded glue gun.

The gun has a swing-out wire stand similar to all glue guns, and like all glue guns, it’s a bit drippy from the nozzle when it sits on the stand. It would be nice if the bottom of the battery were flat so the gun could stand on it reliably, but there’s a strength member on the outside plastic that makes the gun somewhat wobbly when standing on the handle. That’s too bad, because the gun doesn’t drip when the nozzle is pointing up the way it can when it’s on the swing-out wire front stand. I put sticky rubber feet on the bottom, which worked well to stabilize the gun while standing on the handle.

Overall, this is an excellent glue gun. The cordless portability and useful battery life provides far more utility than a typical glue gun. You’ll start finding uses for it well beyond what you typically use a glue gun for because it doesn’t have the setup and warm-up time hassles that you have with a traditional glue gun. It’s basically carefree. The only thing that could make it better are a run time equal to or longer than the charge time so that you could work continuously by swapping batteries, and a flat-bottomed battery to support the gun on the handle. It’s a great product.

Wil Wheaton has written an excellent review of Guitar Hero for PlayStation 2. I’m having Sony-Envy again. When is PlayStation 3 coming out and will I be able to play Guitar Hero on it?

• WWdN: In Exile: i wanna rock

His evaluation of the game isn’t like some of the guitar geek reviews. He actually uses the phrase, “flippy lever thing.”

“The game is outrageously fun: you have a mini guitar controller (which you can outfit with stickers, including a totally rockin’ skull and some ass-kicking lightning bolts) that plugs into your PS2. There are five color-coded buttons on the fretboard, and a flippy lever thing on the body. You play along with the songs, DDR-style, by pushing the correct button (or combination of buttons) as they stream down the screen at you, while you strum along on the flippy lever thing. You get points and bonuses, including the totally rockin’ star power bonus, the more accurately you play.”

I love his final evaluation of the game:

“Did I mention how much more fun this game is when you play with people who aren’t afraid to be total dorks about it, and talk in a bad english accent and yell at the “audience” who are deep inside the TV?”

I have long been a fan of Konami and their DDR and Karaoke games. Guitar Hero sounds like it’s right up my alley and I’d love to play it, but it’s only available on PS/2 right now.

In the end, I bit the bullet and bought Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0. Of all the software, it worked with all video types and didn’t crash once, no matter what I tried to do with it. With this product, I feel like I can do so much more than the others. I feel like it has more capabilities than I will ever really need.

The fact that I have enjoyed Photoshop so much is another reason I was willing to plunk down the 100 bucks. I always have been able to do anything I’ve needed to do with Photoshop, it just took me a while to learn how to use it. I find the same true for Premiere, except the ease of use has been amazing.

To evaluate Adobe Premier Elements, I downloaded the trial version just like I did with all the other software I tested. The trial version is a little crippled because it adds a watermark to the upper lefthand corner of the screen if you burn a DVD or use and NTSC exports. It let me do a lot of editing and exporting with no watermarks, however. I was able to create this video using the trial version of Premiere Elements.

• Pick Me! » Time To Cut The Grass

The title at the beginning was a pre-made title that was one of many that Premiere provides. I created the entire video in less than half the time it would have taken me to do it with QuickTime Pro. Of course, it costs three times the money, but you really get what you pay for in this case.

I tried burning a full-length DVD and the warnings that they give are not exaggerations. It took over eight hours for my computer to encode and burn the DVD. This seems a little long considering that there is other software out there that can encode and burn a DVD in an hour or two using the same computer, but the DVD that I made worked in my Xbox and the DVD by the treadmill, two very picky machines that will reject DVDs without reason at times.

I’ve been really happy with Adobe Premiere Elements and I plan to use it for all my video editing. As soon as I learn to use it for capturing video from an old-school VHS machine, I’ll give you a step-by-step review of the ease (or frustration) of that process.

The next software I tried when editing video was Nero 7. Nero Vision is the video editing software that is part of that suite. I was easily able to edit the clips and add titles and credits. It crashed a couple of times, but they were simple crashes that could be easily fixed with a reboot.

I was very happy with Nero Vision while I was using it. Compared to QuickTime Pro, it was insanely easy to add clips and titles. I was eagerly learning how to use it and edited the entire Starling Fitness Video Confessional with it.

Then came time to export the video to a format that could be used on the web. This is where I ran into trouble. I tried the “Portable AVC” export, which would be good for an iPod or my Treo, but it was too small for the web. Then I tried the “Standard AVC” export, which is the one that worked for my Starling Fitness Video Confessional. I ran into problems when I tried the “Cinema AVC” export. It hard crashed my video driver, leaving me with a blank screen, unable to even Ctrl+Alt+Del reboot.

I had to turn off the computer and scan the disk to make sure everything was alright. My computer was fine and my video was unharmed, but I cannot use software that causes hard crashes like that, so Nero Vision was disqualified, which was a shame because it was so easy to use.

Nero Vision might work for your computer. If you want to try it out, you can download a trial version here:

• Nero 7 – Trial Download

The second software I tried was Windows Movie Maker. It is included with the Windows XP Service Update Pack. It was already installed on my computer and I didn’t even know it. I had to disqualify it immediately, however, because it doesn’t work with .mov files.

Because my camera creates .mov files, I would need to find another program to convert my file before I would even be able to use the Windows Movie Maker, so I didn’t go any further with that software.

The same was true with Pinnacle Studio, which is a shame because it was bundled with a really good video capture device that would have worked really well for me. If your camera makes videos in a different format, you can download a trial version of Pinnacle Studio here:

• Pinnacle Systems – Studio version 10.5 – Trial Download

The first software I tried was QuickTime Pro for Windows. It cost me $30 and I wish I could get my money back because it wasn’t worth it.

It’s probably very likely that you have Apple’s QuickTime on your computer already. If you look on the menu, however, a lot of items are blocked from use because they are QuickTime Pro menu items. When you pay the 30 bucks, they give you a key to open those options.

The problem I ran into was that it was difficult to add a title screen. I ended up creating a .jpg in Photoshop and adding it many many times so that a title would show up on the first screen. This is very time consuming and unnecessary if you have REAL video editing software.

Additionally, I had trouble with QuickTime Pro crashing several times when I was trying to edit a video. They were simple crashes and I was able to just re-run the program and get back to work. They didn’t damage the video I was working on or hard crash my computer, but they were annoying.

If you want to add video to your weblog, I wouldn’t recommend paying the money for QuickTime Pro. It allows you to do little things like cut, copy, paste and rotate, but other than that, you’re left with not much else.