Goofy For Kingdom Hearts II

Being a huge Disney fan, and recently visiting all the Disney parks in Florida, I am looking forward to Square Enix’s / Buena Vista Games’ (interactive arm of Disney) latest game, Kingdom Hearts II. For those of you who have not heard of it, it’s the sequel to the Kingdom Hearts, one of the top 10 best-selling PlayStation 2 games of all time, with shipments to North America totaling more than 2.6 million.

I was fortunate to play Kingdom Hearts II at last year’s E3 Expo 2005, and after I saw how good it was, eagerly awaited it for almost a whole year to hit the store shelves. Well it finally did this week on March 28th. As with its predecessor, it is a one-player role-playing game (RPG) made exclusively for the PlayStation 2. The game follows the main character Sora, Donald and Goofy on their continuing quest following Kingdom Hearts. Sora is looking for his lost friend Riku, while Donald and Goofy are searching for their missing king. Sora and friends are joined by a vibrant cast of characters, including the king himself, and together they encounter countless dangers in both familiar and brand new worlds.

Kingdom Hearts II features a new and improved real-time battle system, which provides you an increased selection of commands, such as performing special attacks and cooperative attacks with members of your party. This adds strategy to your gameplay. You can also use “Drive” to transform Sora into his various forms that alter his skills and abilities. For example, the Brave Form allows Sora to absorb the power of Goofy, which allows him to use two keyblades. The Wisdom Form lets Sora absorb the power of Donald, increasing his magic power, and in the Master Form, Sora absorbs powers from both Goofy and Donald, increasing attack and magic powers.

The game includes an all-star voice cast led by Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense and A.I. Artificial Intelligence) as Sora, and is joined by David Gallagher (7th Heaven) as Riku and Hayden Panettiere (Racing Stripes and Raising Helen) as Kairi. There are countless other well-known voices in there as well, including Christopher Lee (Charlie and the Chococlate Factory and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Steve Burton (The Last Castle and Taken) and Ming-Na as the voice of Mulan (ER and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within) to name a few.

I highly recommend Kingdom Hearts II, as it will provide you with hours and hours of entertainment. You can find it for $49.99 at CompUSA, Software Etc. or Toys n’ Joys if they’re not already sold out, or definitely online at their respective online stores: www.compusa.com, www.gamestop.com or www.toysnjoys.com. It is rated E10+ for ages 10 and up. Go to www.kingdomhearts.com for information or to find out more history about the game.

Downloading Music For Free – LEGALLY!

Downloading digital music off the Internet became the latest trend in around 1999 when companies such as Napster allowed home users to download free, but illegal, music using their respective peer-to-peer (P2P) software. You may remember the big legal battles that these companies went through against the music industry, then shortly after were shut down for a period of time.

iMesh was a part of those legal battles, however unlike Napster, Grokster and Kazaa, iMesh prevailed with a $4.1 million payment and continued on. iMesh recently launched a new service that enables users to share about 15 million free songs and videos with P2P file sharing that is 100% legal. Over two million are original high-quality songs licensed from the record labels. iMesh is able to do this because of an agreement it signed with digital music distributor MusicNet to supply it with songs. MusicNet’s collection includes inventory from Virgin, HMV, Yahoo!, and AOL.

Unfortunately you won’t find all songs on there for free, but the ones that do not have licensing agreements (are copyrighted), you have to pay $0.99, the same price that Apple’s iTunes sells its music for. All the songs that I happened to search for on iMesh came up free. If you anticipate downloading a lot of music, and are a more discriminating music downloader, you can pay $6.95 a month for the Premium Tracks. Or, if you’re like me, you can just stick to the free P2P and disregard the monthly subscription fee.

iMesh will definitely be a competitor to the iTunes Music Store, RealNetwork’s Rhapsody and Napster (no longer a P2P service). Why would you want to pay $0.99 a song when you can legally download it for free? Don’t get me wrong, I still like iTunes, but I guess I’m just a little bitter that over the years, they’ve collected a few hundred dollars of my money over from so many downloads . . . ouch! Oh well. Additionally, I’m impressed with iMesh’s download speeds. I’ve downloaded songs as quickly as 30 seconds, and entire albums (containing 10-12 songs) within two minutes. That is much faster than I’ve ever downloaded anything off of iTunes. A soon-to-be competitor to iMesh is MashBoxx. It will offer legal P2P services very similar to iMesh. There is no official launch date on when this will launch, but you can sign-up to be a beta tester at www.mashboxx.com.

If it makes you feel any better for the artists’ sake, iMesh’s website includes a link for artists to register with them for the ability to monetize their content or prevent it from being traded on the iMesh network. Mesh your own free music together from www.imesh.com. Sorry Mac users, iMesh is only available for the Windows platform at this time.

Keyboard And Mouse Combo For Mac Fans

There are so many desktops (keyboard/mouse combos) on the market, but very few are available for Macs. You Mac fans will appreciate Logitech’s new Mac-specific keyboard and mouse combo. The Logitech Cordless Desktop S 530 Laser for Mac is a stylish white and silver upgrade from the plain standard Mac keyboard and mouse. It is a perfect addition to any Mac, especially a Mac mini (which doesn’t come with a mouse or keyboard).

My favorite functions are the iTunes and iPhoto buttons. Pushing these gives you instant access to your music and photos. There are other dedicated keys you can custom program (with the included software) to launch Safari, Mail, Spotlight or whatever you prefer. The keyboard is ergonomically shaped and ultra-flat (less than ¾ “ tall) designed to minimize wrist extension and the built-in palm rest provides added support.

The sculpted laser MX 600 laser mouse features a tilt wheel that lets you scroll pages top-to-bottom or side-to-side. It also has five re-programmable buttons that you can use to control volume and your web browser (back and forward) without taking your hand off the mouse. The USB mini-receiver plugs in easily to any Mac, and its small size is particularly convenient for laptop users such as myself. The included USB stand provides a convenient place to store it and sits neatly tucked away in the corner of your desk.

The keyboard uses two AAA batteries and the mouse two AA batteries. On both devices the battery life is approximately six months each with Logitech’s built-in extended battery life management technology in both. Both keyboard and mouse include LED battery level indicators. When it’s flashing, the LED gives approximately ten days notice before the batteries need to be changed. The mouse has an on/off switch to further the battery life.

The only couple of drawbacks I found is that it did not work with my husband’s MacBook Pro because of the Intel chip, but worked fine with my trusty 15” PowerBook. I would imagine it will not work with any Macs with the Intel chip. Perhaps that bug will be worked out in a future software update from Apple. I would have guessed that some programs and peripherals wouldn’t work properly with the new Apple Intel chip. My other issue with the S 530 is the fact that the wireless range doesn’t seem to be that far. The wireless is the standard RF (radio) and not the 2.45 GHz (Bluetooth) that other Logitech products have. If you’re right next to your computer though it doesn’t really make huge difference.

The Logitech Cordless Desktop S 530 is available from www.logitech.com or CompUSA for $99.99. It also includes a five-year limited hardware warranty.

PlayStation 3 Update!

How long has it been since I’ve been waiting for the much anticipated PlayStation 3 (PS3)? I say too, too long, especially since it’s been in development for about three years now. Much to my disappointment Sony recently announced that the PS3 will be released in November 2006 instead of Spring of this year, as was previously announced. The PS3 will hit North American, European and Japanese markets simultaneously at this time.

The PS3 consoles will come standard with a 60GB hard drive out of the box. An essential use for the hard drive will be Sony’s online service, which will offer downloads similar to Microsoft Xbox Live. There will be about 30 game titles available upon the PS3’s launch, including the successful and popular Metal Gear Solid 4, Fight Night Round 3, Final Fantasy PS3, Devil May Cry 4 and Tekken PS3.

I suppose Sony is spending extra time perfecting its performance with that insane 3.2 GHz Cell super computer processor that will give it graphics capability. It is thought to be one of the most powerful among the next generation consoles and definitely the most expensive. It will have 256MB of XDR memory, 256MB of GDDR video memory, six USB ports, three Gigabit Ethernet ports and Bluetooth capability.

Most of the PS3’s delay is probably from the struggle of trying to perfect the Blu-ray component. Sony will incorporate the Blu-ray Disk (BD), which has a maximum capacity of 50 GB of space. To give you an idea, that’s about five times the space of today’s PlayStation 2 game on a DVD. BD is a highly anticipated storage medium that will deliver game and movie image quality at levels we’ve never seen before. Sony projects this leap in graphics will allow the PS3 help popularize the Blu-ray format. Currently Toshiba is Sony’s only competitor with the Blu-ray format.

Sony anticipates producing one million PS3 consoles per month by November, and plans to make six million by March 2007. With the PS3 launching in the Fall, and losing out on early 2006 sales, at least Sony can catch this year’s Christmas season.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is benefiting off this delay with its non-stop competitive Xbox 360 sales. In fact Microsoft expects to sell five million 360s by June. There is no official price set for the PlayStation 3, but expect to pay about $400-$500.

Computer Protection With EZ Armor

When I’m using my PC, I make sure my virus protection is thoroughly updated. Typically in the past I’ve always had Norton software installed and constantly updated. With all the nasty viruses and worms out there, I wouldn’t want my system to be unprotected. Being a Road Runner customer, I recently discovered the EZ Armor security software.

If you subscribe to Road Runner for high speed Internet, did you know you are entitled to receive EZ Armor Security Software for free? Road Runner and Computer Associates have collaborated to bring Road Runner customers eTrust EZ Armor, a personal Internet security service that will protect your computer. Included in the software package are anti-virus protection, anti-spam, firewall protection, product upgrades/updates and web support.

EZ Firewall lets you block intruders, stops pop-up ads and will protect your crucial information such as your bank account information and credit card numbers. EZ Antivirus scans your computer for viruses and allows you to remove them easily and safely. EZ Anti-Spam will block e-mails from any senders you don’t approve of. It cleans up your inbox and stops unwanted spam. The Pest Patrol Anti-Spyware finds spyware on your computer and allows you to permanently delete it.

Although there are various anti-virus/security programs out there, I noticed that EZ Armor runs much faster than Norton or McAfee. After I downloaded EZ Armor from Road Runner, I immediately saw a difference between the Norton software I had been using to this. There is definitely less system drag when I use EZ Armor. It barely used my computer’s resources, therefore there was minimal drag while it was performing the background scans. If you’re picky about your computer’s speed you will appreciate this.

To prepare for your installation, you’ll need 35 MB of disk space and need to be running Windows 98/ME/NT (233 MHz or higher) or Windows 2000/XP (300 MHz or higher). Unfortunately EZ Armor is not available for Mac.

If you are a Road Runner subscriber, I would urge you to take advantage of the opportunity to get EZ Armor for free. For you non-Road Runner subscribers, you can purchase it from Computer Associates (www.my-etrust.com/microsoft) for $29.95. If you’re just looking for anti-virus software, a free trial version (good for one year) is also being offered.

Bestseller Books

Being an avid (when-I-have-time) reader, I enjoy hanging out in bookstores such as Borders or Barnes and Nobles and sitting there for hours and hours with my computer, a book, magazines and lots of coffee. When I don’t have that luxury for time to do that, I’ll usually purchase my books online.

If you enjoy reading books and shopping online, you will have fun bargain hunting surfing. There are more book sites out there than your already well-known Amazon (www.amazon.com). But if in case you’re not in-the-know, on Amazon, you can find new books along with used ones. If you’re not picky about having a used book, you can save yourself some money by clicking on the link for a used copy. It will usually list the number of available copies and a starting price. The link will also state the book’s condition and any special notes. Although you may be purchasing it through a third party through Amazon, you would purchase the used book the same way. Amazon processes the payment and the third party seller ships your book directly. If you’re not comfortable with doing this at first, check out the review, ratings and comments that were left by previous buyers.

If you don’t want to deal with all that extra stuff that Amazon has, try Alibris (www.alibris.com). They specialize in books and hooks up independent booksellers to buyers. There is a wide selection to choose from. You can also purchase books from independent sellers from Abebooks (www.abebooks.com) or Barnes and Noble (www.barnesandnoble.com). The sites do not take possession of the books, but they just facilitate the transactions. I personally enjoy ordering from Barnes and Noble because If you spend over $25 you get free shipping. In addition, I’ve often found hard-to-get books there.

If you feel up to playing the bidding game, you can check out good ‘ol eBay (www.ebay.com) or Half.com (www.half.com), which is eBay’s subsidiary. The books are grouped by condition and sellers can leave special notes for buyers. People searching these notes are usually looking for the latest releases at a heavily discounted price.

If you’re a college student on a budget, these sites are also excellent to find yourself some used textbooks that may be cheaper than in the school’s bookstore. You can also make some extra money by selling your slightly used books. Amazon, Half.com and eBay make it simple to do that. Their commissions are low, so you will most likely make more money than if you sold it to a used bookstore. In the “Sell Yours Here” link on Amazon, you will be charged 99 cents plus 15% of the sales price and a low closing fee that is usually less than $1. You will get a credit to cover shipping and pay when your book sells. If you decide to use Half.com, the percentage varies based on the selling price. For items under $50, the charge is 15%, but your shipping costs are reimbursed.

Enjoy your book bargain hunting!

A Trash Can For Germophobics

Whenever I throw things away, I’m always very careful not to touch the trashcan. I’ll usually use a napkin to push the lid open or sometimes my use my foot to prop the thing open (from the side or top, depending how it’s configured), but often get funny looks from people if I’m in a public place. I’m just totally and completely an obsessive compulsive germophobic. I just refuse to touch that germ-ridden trashcan! I used to think those step-on trashcans you use at home were the best thing since sliced butter, but now there’s a trashcan that will sense you coming and open-sesame for you when it senses you near.

The Touchless Trashcan has been around since for four years since it won the 2002 Invention Show New Household Product award, however it is finally available for purchase since mass production began and it’s been out on the market. This trashcan is a 100% hands-free operated wireless, lidded waste disposal system. It uses a built-in infrared AI (artificially intelligent) Smart-Chip that knows when you need to open the trashcan. It will open and close for you without having to touch or step on anything. If you place your hand/opala about six inches away from the infrared sensor located near the lid, it will instantly open and close automatically approximately three seconds after your hand moves away.

The Touchless Trashcan has a 13-gallon/49 liter trash capacity and has a removable top for easy cleaning. It will fit any standard 10, 14 or 16-gallon garbage bag and comes with a garbage bag fix ring. The specially designed fix ring tightly holds the edges of the bag to prevent it from falling/sinking into the can. It allows you to also use grocery bags in addition to standard garbage bags. There is no need to purchase special garbage bags, which many high-end garbage cans require.

Four D-sized batteries will support up to 10,000 consecutive open and shut actions, or over one year of use in non-frequent situations. In laboratory tests, the Touchless Trashcan will outlast most of the hand-touch or step-on trashcans. If you open your Touchless Trashcan 20 times a day it can last you over 10 years. If you have keiki running around this is a perfect trashcan since it provides a germ-free, odor-free automated environment. It keeps your hands free while handling them, or while cooking. It could also make throwing away trash fun for the keiki.

Go to www.dynadirect.com to experience a cleaner way of opala disposal. The price isn’t bad I thought it would be at $99.00. If you happen to purchase it and are not satisfied with it, you can return it within 60 days and your money will be back in-hand.

Recovering Deleted Photos

I’ve had this question come up all the time, from work, friends and just random conversations: “Is there any way I can recover pictures off my camera’s memory stick/flash card if I accidentally deleted them?” It’s not as idiotic as it sounds. It’s sometimes easy to make the mistake of pushing “Delete All” instead of just “Delete” if you’re trying to get rid of one bad picture. But, the answer is YES you can recover your deleted photos.

Deletion of data on flash memory works similar to how it does on a hard drive. The data is not erased immediately, but is overwritten by the next bit of data that needs space (the next batch of pictures you take). You can use special software to help read this “hidden” data. PhotoRescue, made by DataRescue, is one of the most popular options and my personal favorite. As long as you have not written new data on your card (took new pictures since your accidental deletion), the software should be able to recover all your deleted photos. The program may be slightly difficult to use for a non-savvy individual, but it’s worth dealing with and figuring out considering its capabilities. A drawback is the program also takes awhile to gather your supposedly lost files. You can set it to run, go eat your lunch and come back and check on it in an hour. By then it should have had time to recover your photos.

PhotoRescue will work directly with your camera’s internal memory. As long as it can read something that is plugged into your computer from an external source (i.e. dedicated USB or Firewire connection), it should work. The software is optimized to work with jpeg, tiff and other typical RAW (not yet “cooked” – not processed and ready to be used) file formats. PhotoRescue also works beautifully even after other attempted recovery methods have further corrupted your card.

Backups of card image files can additionally be created with PhotoRescue. This is a good tool to have and utilize, especially if you’re an avid photographer. I use this to backup my memory stick often. PhotoRescue offers three levels of usage: Wizard (easy), fully controllable Expert (mid-level) and specialist (Advanced) version.

You can download a free demo of PhotoRescue to try (www.datarescue.com/photorescue). The full version of the software is available for $29 (both PC and Mac). It’s a small price to pay to save your priceless picture memories. To see more options on image recovery, check out www.ultimateslr.com/memory-card.php.

Gorilla Pod Fun

I find it difficult to go anywhere without my trusty camera. I’m one of those people who are always trying to take pictures of myself along with my friends/family by finding the perfect place to position the camera. I’ve done just about anything from balancing my camera on a pile of books, clothes, on the car, between rocks or in a tree. I discovered the neatest tripod for that still lets me do all my fanatical cropping, but just a little easier, and without the fear that my camera will fall.

The Gorilla Pod, made by Joby, is the answer to my crazy camera habits. If I had to take an educated guess, they probably named this neat little invention after the fact that it will do almost anything by clinging and hanging, as a gorilla would, to take your perfect pictures. It looks like something that came out of a sci-fi movie, yet it’s tailored specifically for compact digital cameras with its built-in removable slim-line attachment. The little doohickey stays in your camera (screwed into the bottom) to allow for nearly instant setup each time you use your Gorilla Pod.

The flexible joints of the Gorilla Pod rotate 360 degrees to form your perfect camera angle. Its ring and foot grips provide extra gripping power for most surfaces, so it’s fairly difficult for it to slip around and fall while you have it propped somewhere. Most importantly, the lock ring right below the attachment provides extra security for your camera to ensure that it is absolutely attached to your Gorilla Pod.

Weighing in at only 1.6 ounces and approximately six inches long, it is definitely not your traditional tripod. This is something you can have fun with since it’s so portable and lightweight. It also doesn’t require an elevated or flat surface, so it’s really an anytime, anywhere and everywhere addition to your camera. It has already significantly helped me with all my nighttime open shutter pictures that I love to frame. Previously I would always have a difficult time finding a place to put the camera, and I do not enjoy lugging around my tripod. Even the standard compact tripod isn’t all that portable. Now my picture taking power is infinite!

Discover more about the Gorilla Pod for yourself at www.gorillapod.com. It is $23.95 for the unpackaged version or $26.95 for the nicely packaged version.

Surfing, Snowboarding And Skateboarding At Your Heels

Living in our island climate and environment, most of us probably enjoy surfing and skateboarding. It’s mostly free except for the cost of the boards and minor peripheral equipment you may need to purchase. There are also those of us who use all our vacation time and blow our money on snowboarding every winter season, sometimes several times during the season . . . biggest example of that being my brother). For those of you crazy enough to go snowboarding every year, you may not always have the money to make the trek across the ocean, so you’re stuck at home. What to do, what to do?

If you don’t mind stationary snowboarding (or surfing/skating), the new iJoy Board, made by Interhealth, could be an alternative for you, rain or shine. It is a motorized “balance trainer” and it is designed to give you the alternative to boarding fun, no matter if you’re a surfer, skater or a snowboarder. It is definitely more creative than any piece of fitness equipment you’ll find out there, and it will help to keep your legs toned, strong and ready to take on the slopes, catch a wave or grind a rail even if you can’t do the real thing. Even you’re not a boarder of any sort, and you just want some good exercise, the iJoy Board will give you a good workout.

The board has three speeds (slow, medium and fast) that you can test your skills at. It comes with a battery-operated IR remote control to make it easier for you to utilize, but there is also automatic shutoff after 15 minutes of activity. It also gives you the option of using the pre-programmed routine that gives you 15 minutes of challenging action at an unpredictable mix of speeds.

The iJoy Board has a non-slip platform so you can maintain a solid board stance while increasing your core balance and coordination skills. It is also fairly portable, weighing in at around 50 pounds, so you can set it right up in front of the television and tuck it back under the bed when you’re finished. I realize that this motorized board is not the same thing as experiencing a big wave, fresh powdery slopes or a jump in the half-pipe, but its simulations are close and should keep you somewhat satisfied till you can make it out there. If anything, your boarding muscles will stay sculpted and toned, and you’ll be in shape and ready for the real thing.

Excellent for all ages, explore an iJoy Board for yourself for $399.95 at www.interhealth.com or Sharper Image (or the online store at www.sharperimage.com). Admittedly it’s a bit pricey, but think of the fun it will be, not to mention the saved money on a plane ticket to the slopes.