A Fun-Sized All-in-one Best Friend

Sony PSP, A Girl’s Best Friend. What more could a girl ask for — music, movies and video games in an all-in-one device that can fit into my purse. I couldn’t dream of anything better than this Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) that came out this week. It’s definitely more than just a game machine.

The PSP, also known as the “21st Century Walkman,” has a 4.3-inch LCD screen and can be used to listen to music, watch movies and best of all, play games with its ultra-compact size. It uses Sony’s new proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD), which is only 60mm and has 1.8GB of storage space. The first release of UMD movies on April 19 include Spider-Man 2, Hellboy, Resident Evil 2, House of Flying Daggers and Once Upon a Time In Mexico. There are also around 100 game titles available for the PSP.

If you’re into multi-player game play, as I am, you can play via wireless Internet through your LAN or a Hotspot. The only drawback with using a Hotspot is that if you need to access it with a webpage, it will not work. You can also play wirelessly in the ad-hoc mode, which allows you to  hook up to 15 other PSPs in your vicinity. In addition, you can transfer software and other data wirelessly and store it onto a Memory Stick Duo.

The average retail price of the PSP is $250 and it’s available at either of the Toys N’ Joys locations (Kaimuki: 735-4546 or Pearl City: 487-8697) or at www.toysnjoys.com. You can also find it at one of the three Toyriffic stores (Waialae: 739-9677, Kapolei Shopping Center: 674-0880 or Mililani Town Center: 627-0077).

If you want one, make sure you call the retailers ahead of time. PSPs are in great demand and short supply, and there may be long wait lists. This game girl can’t wait to get her hands on one — I’ve been waiting over a year for it to come out!

A Personal Trainer In Your Xbox

When I’m not in front of my computer playing games or surfing the Internet, I enjoy working out at the gym or going for a long run and doing some pushups. You see, after playing three or maybe even four hours of Halo 2, I start to feel a little guilty and have to loosen those muscles with a workout.

I found the perfect marriage of the two with my lifestyle. It’s called Yourself!Fitness. . . a workout you can play off your Xbox, PlayStation 2 or PC.
This represents a new genre in the gaming industry as the first game title created solely to improve the health and fitness of the user, instead of just giving your fingers a workout.

Yourself!Fitness, brings the expertise of a personal trainer into your home. When you “make the commitment to yourself,” you build the fitness program that’s right for you along with Maya, the Yourself!Fitness personal trainer. She will help keep you motivated and assist you with achieving the results you want.

No two workouts are the same, and Maya builds the routine based on your progress and commitment level using 500 unique exercises. The different training sessions feature yoga, Pilates, cardio fitness, strength training, flexibility exercises and targeted weight loss routines. As far as fitness equipment, Maya will integrate what you may already own into the workout, so buying extra gear is optional. Meal planning is also an option with the program.

Highly recommended by Shape and Women’s Fitness magazines, Yourself!Fitness sells for $34.99 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and $29.99 for the PC version at www.yourselffitness.com. This is a good exercise alternative if you don’t have a gym membership, and a great deal for a personal trainer. With a positive attitude and good self motivation, you too can get into shape with Maya.

The Digital Roller Coaster

Finding a good digital camera can be confusing with all the many choices out there. A couple of years ago I was faced with replacing my digital camera while on vacation after it flew off a roller coaster. How did that happen?! Well, my camera was in a bag strapped to my waist, the snap came undone, and it flew off me with great force. The roller coaster was moving so fast that I didn’t even feel the bag come off. Once the ride was over, we spent about half an hour frantically searching for the bag, knowing my wallet and camera were both in there. Thankfully no one ran off with it. All the contents were still there, but my poor camera was toast.

We ended up going to the nearest Best Buy and purchased a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T1, which I absolutely love. It’s an awesome camera with its very compact size, big screen and 5 Megapixel resolution. Since then Sony has come out with the second generation DSC-T3 and soon we’ll see the DSC-T7, which I’m eyeing, and trying to figure out a way to get. Maybe I’ll have to ride another roller coaster.

Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-T7 is Sony’s thinnest, fully featured camera at only a third of an inch thick, and about the size of a credit card. Afew of its features include 5.1 Megapixel resolution, a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens with 3x Optical Zoom, a large LCD screen to make pictureviewing easy, and it uses Memory Stick Pro. The DSCT7 will be available in May for approximately $500 at www.sony.com or at any other
participating retailers.

Growing up around SLR cameras, my other favorite is the Canon EOS Digital Rebel. I had an old analog version of the Canon EOS Rebel, but unfortunately, film is out and a hassle to deal with after being digitally spoiled. Canon has a wide variety of the Digital Rebels, the most popular being the 300D and XT. The Canon EOS Digital Rebel 300D and XT both include a built-in flash and the option of manual or automatic focus. The difference between the two is that the XT is the latest version with 8.2 Megapixel resolution, Compact Flash Type II and it’s slightly more expensive. The 300D has a 6.3 Megapixel resolution and retails on average for about $700 and the XT for about $1,000. After all my camera searching was done, my lesson learned is don’t take a camera with you on a roller coaster, unless you want a new one.

Digital Printing

Living in the digital age, film processing is quickly becoming a thing of the past. We are faced with how to output digital pictures into actual paper photographs. There are so many printers to choose from and so many places you can go to have your photos printed. Where do we begin?

For starters, high on my recommendation list for inkjet photo printers is the Epson R300. It’s what I use when I just need to print one or two 4-by-6 photos here and there. The really cool thing about this printer is that it can print directly onto CDs and DVDs. The color quality is good, and you can also insert your memory stick or
Compact Flash cards directly into the printer to edit/print. It uses six ink cartridges to ensure color quality and good skin tones, it’s compatible with both PC and Mac, and you can print wirelessly. This printer goes for $179 at the Apple Store in Ala Moana Center or at www.epson.com. A second choice, if you don’t need to print on CDs and DVDs, would be the HP Deskjet 6540. Its toaster oven shape and
mirrored sides makes it interesting to look at, and the front mounted controls makes it easy to use. As with the Epson, the Deskjet 6540 uses six ink cartridges, is compatible with PC and Mac, and allows for wireless printing. If you need to print large pictures that won’t fit inside your printer or have a lot to print from a vacation or special occasion, log onto www.walmart.com. You can conveniently upload all your pictures, place an order, then pickup your 4-by-6 photos in an hour from your nearest Wal-Mart for 19 cents print. In addition, you can share those same photos with your family and friends and they can order and pickup photos the same way. Walmart.com also has a wide variety of other photo services such as cards, mugs,calendars, magnets, posters, photo books, T-shirts and more.

Also, Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com) offers the same photo products as Wal-Mart. Shutterfly’s 4-by-6 prints are also 19 cents each. The difference between the two that is you can’t pickup your items anywhere locally in Hawaii with Shutterfly, and you have to pay for shipping. If you don’t mind springing the extra money for shipping, Shutterfly’s quality is pretty good.

An Invitation to Gmail

These days, what would people do without e-mail? I rely on e-mail the most to correspond and communicate with friends, family and work. In fact, while I was recently away at basic military training for a couple of months, I was going through some serious technology, and especially e-mail withdrawals not being able to get near a computer. I can’t count on one hand the number of e-mail addresses I own. I have at least five for personal use and two for work.

Out of all my e-mail accounts, my favorite is Gmail, a free service offered by Google, the popular Internet search engine. Gmail was launched in 2004 and is offered to users by invitation only. I got mine thanks to my brother, who sent me an invite after I did some serious begging.

The web-based Gmail offers me a whopping 1GB of storage space! This gives me ample room for my messages and attachments without worrying about filling up my computer’s hard drive. That leaves me plenty of room for all of my important stuff such as music files, digital pictures and games.

With Gmail, you don’t get any of those large, annoying pop-up ads. You’ll still see some text ads, but they’re small and unobtrusive. Gmail automatically scans the message text and displays ads that are relevant to the message’s content.

For those of you a little creeped-out about your e-mail content being scanned by Gmail, there’s always the other two popular free e-mail providers: MSN’s Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail. Both offer 250MB of storage, and you don’t need an invite to join either. Both services have fairly decent spam filtering and virus scanning, but you still need to put up with the obtrusive ads. If you don’t need a whole lot of space, or can’t seem to get your hands on a Gmail invite, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail are more than sufficient.

Gmail is by far the best free e-mail service you can get out there. Once invited, your new account will give you five invites, and after being a Gmail member for awhile, you’ll receive more and more invites over time. That will make your Gmail-wanting friends very happy or you can sell them on e-Bay. Yes, e-Bay. G-mail is so popular that people are actually buying and selling invites on e-Bay.

E-mail me if you want an invite to Gmail, but you better hurry because I only a few left.

Laptop Survivor

Having a good laptop case is very important. I discovered that for myself after a beautiful brand name bag, given to me by a friend, failed on me. One day while walking through the parking garage, the strap suddenly snapped off and detached. This caused my bag to turn upside down and fall off my shoulder. I stood there horrified with my jaw open as my precious PowerBook G4 laptop violently smacked down hard on the cement ground. I’ll never forget that sound – BAM! It all happened too fast for me to break the fall. “At least it’s still in one piece,” I thought to myself. The screen was severely cracked, but amazingly, there was no damage to the computer’s internal workings. Thankfully it was still under warranty.

Okay, that means it’s time to go shopping for a new laptop case! Most places that sell cases do not offer anything more than a black, plain boring bag. I found a couple places that offer stylish alternatives that fit my needs.

At the top of my list for cute is The Tote from Acme Made. It looks really attractive, and it has a fully padded computer pocket that fits most small and mid-sized laptops (unfortunately doesn’t fit 17” laptops). It’s also made with a quilted satin lining, zippered accessory pocket, imported leather handles/trim and comes with a one year warranty.
Prices range from $265 to $299 at www.acmemade.com.
Acme also offers iPod cases and computer covers.

For my tomboy side, I really like the Mamba.XS made by BOOQ. You can wear this three different ways: across your chest, over your shoulder or like a backpack. That’s perfect for my active lifestyle. This protects your laptop with half-an-inch of molded foam padding, but still leaves you ample room for books, a power adapter or whatever else you may want to throw in there. $79.95 at www.booqbags.com.

Razr Envy

If you went to this year's 77th Annual Academy Awards, you may have been lucky to catch a glimpse of the special edition Motorola Razr V3 cellular phone that was handed out with the lavish gift baskets. This phone is black, instead of the metal finish on the regular V3.

Tech goodies seem to be a must with the high-profile awards these days. Previous years’ baskets included items such as a Samsung high-definition television with a one-year subscription to satellite HDTV, and a TAZ I personal video and media player from Tight Systems. Past Grammy gift bags reportedly included an Apple Computer 20GB iPod, a Siemens mobile phone and a Logitech digital camera. Still, I think this special edition Razr V3 will take the cake.

Because of its high success and popularity, it’s rumored that Motorola plans to extend the Razr V3 into a line of high-end devices sometime later this year. Motorola is hard at work on a whole family of Razr-like phones in various shapes and colors, including the Sliver, a candy-bar-shaped Razr.

As I eagerly wait to see the “Oscar V3,” for now I have to settle for the thin, sleek metallic version, which includes a bright LCD screen and a VGA camera with a 4x digital zoom. The Razr V3 is also a GSM quad-band world phone with speakerphone, Internet browsing and Bluetooth capable. The keypad is chemically etched into an electro-luminescent strip, which gives it a light-blue glow in the dark. The whole phone is only 13.9 mm thick, 2 inches wide and weighs 95 grams — truly a design and engineering marvel.

Since it hit store shelves in November 2004, Motorola has shipped an estimated 750,000 Razr V3s. It is available at all Hawaii Cingular dealers, Cingular locations, and online at www.cingular.com. Prices range from $289 to $729, depending on what mobile plan you purchase with the phone.

iPod Superiority

I love listening to my Apple iPod when I'm exercising. It holds my entire song collection on its 10GB hard drive. I've had my beloved iPod since 2002, and lately, my husband's been teasing me about it.

You see, I was content with it until Apple introduced the iPod mini, which I gave to my hubby for Valentine's Day 2004. Since gaining that iPod
superiority, he has been teasing me about the “brick” that I wear on my arm. “Doesn't your arm feel like it's gonna fall off? That's a nice brick on your arm. Gee, your right arm is gonna be buffer than your left arm soon.”

The final straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back comment (honestly meant to be a compliment) was when I participated in a group run and one of my fellow runners said to me, “that's a cool heart monitor you've got there.” I was then and there 100 percent sure it was time to get something new.

After much thought, two devices came to mind — the Apple iPod shuffle and Creative Lab's MuVo Micro N200. Because of their small size, both are ideal for active, on-the-go users and runners such as myself, and both are also highly affordable. The 512MB iPod shuffle is $99 (120 songs) and the 1GB is $129 (240 songs). The 512MB N200 goes for $130, and the 1GB for $180, but it also has an LCD screen, FM tuning and in-line recording. Both include a lanyard and earphones, but the N200 also comes with a belt clip and an armband. If you want an armband for your shuffle, it's $29.

Surely with either one of these, I will never be teased for wearing a brick around my arm or complimented for my nice heart monitor.

Aloha!

Welcome to my Click Chick website. Here's to digital technology from my point of view. All these stories appear in MidWeek The Weekend - Everybody Reads MidWeek! Mahalo to everyone who help make this column happen - all the great folks at MidWeek and my husband Alan Stewart.