The Gadgets Page

The end of the school year is looming, which means this is the big final test of the year. How are you going to study? Do you even have to study? When you can carry the breadth and depth of human knowledge in your iPod, should you be required to memorize all those dates and names? Isn’t it more important to know HOW to find information from reliable resources? Isn’t it more important to know WHICH information should be included?

Teachers would respond with a resounding, “NO!” Me, on the other hand, I don’t know. I gave up on the educational system a long time ago and I really feel that learning how to solve problems is more important than the specific names and dates of wars long past. Let’s solve a problem, shall we?

How do I get my most important information onto my iPod, so it will be with me everywhere I go? (Continue Reading…)

There are inventive ways to cheat. It seems that some people are willing to go to great lengths to cheat when studying might actually be easier. Take the iPod, for example. A school in Idaho has banned iPods:

• Schools banning iPods to beat cheaters

Instead of crib notes on tiny pieces of paper and ball point pen on the arm, students are cheating using their iPods:

Some students use iPod-compatible voice recorders to record test answers in advance and them play them back, said 16-year-old Mountain View junior Damir Bazdar.

Others download crib notes onto the music players and hide them in the “lyrics” text files. Even an audio clip of the old “Schoolhouse Rock” take on how a bill makes it through Congress can come in handy during some American government exams.

I can do the same thing with my cell phone. Are they banned as well? What about those Fossil watches that are Palm devices? Data storage is getting smaller and smaller. Can they ban EVERYTHING? In the end, you can’t fight the technology:

“Trying to fight the technology without a dialogue on values and expectations is a losing battle,” Dodd said. “I think there’s kind of a backdoor benefit here. As teachers are thinking about how technology has corrupted, they’re also thinking about ways it can be used productively.”

More and more, we are becoming a society that has mountains of information at our fingertips. I don’t know if teaching children that they have to memorize everything is such a good idea. A more important skill is to know HOW to find information from reliable sources. It’s also important to know WHICH information to take with you when space is limited. Tests that make kids regurgitate dates and concepts are the problem, not the fact that a mere 1GB iPod Nano could store all the information a high school student could ever have on a test.

Stay tuned for Monday’s entry: How To Cheat With Your iPod

I cannot believe that I haven’t linked to this essay on the Gadgets Page. I have spent the last few years living by this motto and I thought I had shared it with everyone here, but a thorough search of our website proves that I have been remiss in my duty.

• Your Camera Does Not Matter by Ken Rockwell

If you have been thinking about getting a new camera, you need to read this essay right now. If you have bought a camera that you’re not happy with, you need to read this essay. If you are perfectly happy taking pictures with your camera phone and its dime-sized lens, you especially need to read this essay.

Here are my favorite quotes:

The camera’s only job is to get out of the way of making photographs.
Ken Rockwell, Your Camera Does Not Matter, 2005

No matter how advanced your camera you still need to be responsible for getting it to the right place at the right time and pointing it in the right direction to get the photo you want.
Ken Rockwell, Your Camera Does Not Matter, 2005

Ken took this award-winning photo with a broken camera:

• Mono Lake under Pinatubian Light by Ken Rockwell

This is what he had to say about it:

I bought a used camera that wouldn’t focus properly. It went back to the dealer a couple of times for repair, each time coming back the same way. As an artist I knew how to compensate for this error, which was a pain because I always had to apply a manual offset to the focus setting. In any case, I made one of my very favorite images of all time while testing it. [Mono Lake under Pinatubian Light] has won me all sorts of awards and even hung in a Los Angeles gallery where an original Ansel Adams came down and this image was hung. When my image came down Ansel went right up again. Remember, this was made with a camera that was returned to the dealer which they agreed was unrepairable.

The important part of that image is that I stayed around after my friends all blew off for dinner, while I suspected we were going to have an extraordinary sky event (the magenta sky, just like the photo shows.)

Ken also points us to archangel_raphael’s Flickr site, where he takes amazing photos such as this with a PDA camera:

If Ken can use a broken camera to take a photograph that hung in a museum in a spot usually held for Ansel Adams, then you can take award winning photos with your camera. If archangel_raphael can take beautiful photos with a 0.3 megapixel resolution camera, then your 5 megapixels should be enough. If you have been coveting a new camera, remember, your camera does not matter.

Matthew Reinbold over at Muted Noise has written an excellent review of Google’s new free 411 service.

• mutednoise » 1-800-Goog-411

I’ve been pretty skeptical about the service because I usually would rather pay 75 cents for information than have to listen to an advertisement, but I realized something that made me pretty depressed. Now that Google is going to be sucking up all the 411 calls, the telecoms are going to lose business and to increase revenue, they’ll probably start putting advertisments on their own 411 service. So, I’ll have to pay my 75 cents AND hear a commercial in the future.

I guess I’m willing to try 1-800-GOOG-411 now…

While other companies are desperately competing for content for cell phones, Catholic Mobile has jumped right in to provide guidance… for a fee.

Catholic Mobile provides families and individuals with inspiring Catholic content that will enrich their daily wireless experiences.

Bring your faith to your cell phone. Bible readings, prayers, saint of the day and more…

For $4.99 a month or 49 cents a pop, you can have devotionals sent to your cell phone, but is it the Catholic Church that is providing the content? This is the info from their “About Us” page:

Catholic Mobile is a partnership between Denver, Colorado based JP2 Media and The Missionaries of Faith Foundation (MOFF) , headquartered in San Diego, California.

What do I think about this? I’m not Catholic, so advertising phrases like, “Make your phone 100% Catholic, too,” don’t offend me. Would I like daily inspiration sent to my cell phone? Maybe? Am I willing to pay 5 bucks a month for it? Nope.

I have enough friends on Twitter to have daily inspiration sent to my phone for free.

I AM disturbed that everyone featured in the advertising is so very, very, white. Most of the models are so blond, that even I feel excluded, but don’t fear, they have segregated the races in a Spanish language edition: Móvil Católico.

Via: Adrants – Catholicism: Not a Religion but a Lifestyle

Kevin Garrad’s Kevlar body armor stopped a bullet, but not before it destroyed his iPod. You can read the full story here:

• HavanaLion » Blog Archive » iPod tells soldier he was shot – the real story

This reminds me of the bible that I saw in a WWII museum that stopped a bullet for a soldier. As a child, I was told that the bible stopped the bullet because God was protecting the soldier. What does that mean about the iPod?

Thank you, our holiness, Steve Jobs, for protecting our soldier’s life with your abundant and fervent technology. Thank you also for not asking whether I wanted my music folders screwed up by iTunes and for saving the original photo after I drew all over it using iPhoto. I accept your will regarding file management, photo protection and musical armor. Please spare me as you have spared others.

Via: iPod takes one for the team in Iraq by Home of DigitalThom

Gadgets Page,

If I were going on a trip to Europe, what is the best way to ‘store’ lots (thousands) of digital photos…I have a new HP 425 digital 5.0 mp camera…is this compatible with a SanDisk Standard SDHCâ„¢ Card 4GB…and would I then need another portable storage device (flash or reader) into which to temporarily ‘empty’ those photos (without any access to a PC)…so I can re-use the ‘empty’ memory card again?

Andy

Andy,

Firstly, according to Amazon.com, your HP camera can only use the SD cards that are 1GB or smaller, so don’t spend money on the SDHC cards because your camera won’t recognize them.

Secondly, when you take pictures with your 1GB card, you can put that card into a card reader on a computer, transfer the photos to the computer and remove them from your SD card. After you do this, you CAN use it again. That’s the beauty of digital photography. I hated taking pictures when I knew it would cost me money to have the film developed. Now, I can reuse the film over and over again and only have the photos that turned out developed.

Next, If you are away from a computer and you need to empty out your SD card, there are some devices that will store your photos. This Wolverine ESP 120 GB Portable Multimedia Storage Player looks like the least expensive storage device with the largest amount of storage. You could empty your card 120 times into this device by just putting the SD card into it and transferring the photos. For those of you who DO have SDHC-compatible cameras, I was unable to find any portable media storage players that support SDHC, so these wouldn’t work for you. They cost between $299 and $399.

Funny thing is, Dell is selling refurbished laptops for that same price, so maybe a cheap computer like this pre-owned Dell Latitude would be better for those with SDHC-compatible cameras than a portable media storage device. Then you can just use the card reader that comes with your SDHC card AND check your email while you’re gone.

Finally, Europe is on a different power standard than the States, so you won’t be able to plug in your favorite devices unless you have a converter. This converter from Kensington looks like it would be compact and easy to use. Unless you have a plug adapter, you won’t be able to charge your batteries, run your hair dryer or do anything else with electricity, so this might actually be MORE important than any storage devices because if your camera battery is dead, you can’t take any pictures.

For more information on how to make your digital photos last forever, see this entry:

• Gadgets Page » 10 Ways to Make Your Digital Photos Last Forever

Have fun in Europe!

Laura Moncur

Once again, Apple has released a couple of PC & Mac commercials. This commentary by Chris Pirillo is right on:

• ‘Get a Mac’ Ad Videos ~ Chris Pirillo

The commercials are kind of hit and miss. This commercial, “Security“, is funny and very, very true.

He likes this commercial:

“This is an example of someone in the marketing department understanding a perceived annoyance in the competition’s product. This is an example of a GOOD Mac commercial.”

“Computer Cart” is a little more iffy.

“By watching this, the viewer is led to believe that only PCs have cryptic error messages that halt productivity – or that Macs never need the IT department’s attention. Wrong! Microsoft Windows does not have a monopoly on software errors.”

“Flashback” is just more of the same.

“Genius, especially for those of us who remember playing in DOS. That said, I’m not so sure that my parents would understand why this is funny. Apple should have concentrated more on the aspect of Microsoft apps being all over the map in terms of usability (not to mention the overwhelming lack of lifestyle software in the OS, itself).”

In the end, Macs and PCs are so similar that there is hardly a reason to compare them. They’re just computers. They are both computers and they each have their own way of dealing with things. You get used either one and the other starts looking like voodoo.

If you have some important gadgets floating around in your pockets, you might do some good by protecting them. This company, ShieldZone, has prepared a video that describes the process for you.

Via: Scratch-Proof Your Gadgets – Ash Buckles – Blog A special thank you to Ash for suggesting this! He asked why I haven’t reviewed products like these before and I am ashamed to say that it’s because I’m a slob and just let my gadgets get scratched.

Update: Actually we have previously posted a review of Invisible Shield products last year. Check it out.

If you have seen an episode of Pimp My Ride, then you’ll find this commercial for Zima pretty funny. You’ve got three kids and a loving husband, but from the look of your brand new mini-van, no one would be able to tell. The Zima team is willing to Mom Your Ride and turn it into the mini-van that SCREAMS, “I have three kids and a loving husband!”

Via: Adrants » Zima Doesn’t Pimp, It Moms Your Ride