Blurb Your Own Photo Book

I’ve been meaning to compile my wedding pictures in some sort of album or book ever since my husband and I were married . . . um, two years ago. It’s not that I’ve been procrastinating or anything. It’s just that photo books you can make are expensive. I’ve been waiting around to see if there are any specials or lower prices to be offered for the amount I need to be printed. Considering it’s our wedding pictures, I want the book to be perfect but also affordable.

I didn’t think about my wedding pictures and future photo book of them until my recent discovery at MacWorld. My patience has paid off . . . at the expo I found a company called Blurb. It’s a company and a community that believes passionately in the joy of books – reading, making, sharing and selling them. You take your digital content – photos, artwork, recipes, blogs, stories or anything you can think of, and print it in a professional quality book. These books are very attractive and will not cost you an arm and a leg.

To get started you download the free Blurb BookSmart software to your computer from www.blurb.com. It works on Mac (OS X 10.4.5 or later) or PC (Windows 2000 or XP), so no worries about platform compatibility. Once it’s installed, you select your images, or whatever content you’re adding in, and go throughout your book and lay it out page by page. It may sound painful, but it’s really not. I did it with my wedding photos, and even with the amount of pictures/pages I had, it took me about three hours to layout the whole book. My hundreds of pictures now occupy 248 pages of a (8” x 10”) hardcover book that cost me about $60. Not bad considering other services, with the same caliber of quality, wanted to charge an average of $130 for almost the exact same thing.

Blurb puts a professional press and global distribution at your hands. The books truly look like something you would find in a bookstore, yet you can proudly say that you made it yourself. The softcover books have a durable binding with four-color 12 pt. covers with an overlaminate. The hardcovers are made with a durable library binding and 8 pt black linen hardcover cases with laminated four-color dust jackets. The paper is 80#-coated, semi-matte, commercial-quality that photos print well on. Current sizes available are Portrait (10” x 8”) and Landscape (8” x 10”). Sizes to be offered soon will be Modern (7” x 7”) and Novel (9” x 6”).

There are a variety of book genres you can choose from – cookbook, poetry, blog, portfolio, photo book (this is what I ordered), text and pictures, text only, baby book, dog book or cat book. Each has its own unique layout look with your customization. If you’re really talented with graphics, you can even make your own layout to further personalize your book. Additionally, if you have a Flickr account, you can easily upload your pictures from there (as opposed to taking up space on your hard drive).

Personally, Blurb is most useful to me for making photo books, however for people who are looking for other opportunities to make their own “real” book, this is a great start. A perfect example is if you love to cook and are willing to share your recipes, you can use the cookbook layout and share your recipes with your book. Order anywhere from one for yourself to hundreds to sell and profit from (bulk discounts begin at 25 units). Figure out your own price, keep the profit, and market/sell your books for free in the Blurb Bookstore. The books are delivered in an average of seven to 10 business days. In case you’re wondering, the content in your book belongs to you once it’s published, so feel free to blog it or publish it elsewhere without any consequences.

If you decide to Blurb your own book, prices range depending on your page count (20 – 440 pages) and whether the book is soft or hardcover. The softcovers start at $18.95 and the hardcovers at $29.95. Use the coupon code mwjan07 (limit one per person, expires February 28, 2007) and it will apply $8.95 to your shipping charge. Check out the website (mentioned above) for more information.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

The moment Capcom’s single player demo for Lost Planet was released back in May 2006, I downloaded it from Xbox Live. I played it over and over again, and can’t even count the number of times I beat it. I eventually downloaded and played the multiplayer demo as well, but now I don’t have to wait anymore for the game’s full version to hit the market since Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is finally here!

According to Capcom, the Lost Planet demos (both single and multiplayer) were downloaded over one million times by the global Xbox community. If you just want to try the game out without having to pull any money out of your wallet, these demos are great. Both are available as a free download on Xbox Live (for the multiplayer you need Xbox Live Gold), and lets you participate in heated online matches with the “Pirate Fortress” stage, up to 16 players.

The game is a fast-paced third person shooter that takes you into the distant future and frozen lands of Planet E.D.N. III. Humans left Earth in to colonize other planets, and the colonization of E.D.N. III seemed successful until they ran into strong opposition from the Akrid, massive insect-like alien creatures. After fighting with the Akrid, the humans discovered a thermal energy source within the aliens’ bodies that can be used as a source of heat and energy – two vital sources that keeps them alive in the frozen land.

Staying motivated to shoot the monsters is easy since they leave behind this heat/energy in the form of little orange things. Picking these up keeps you alive, by sustaining your levels up and if you run out, you die quickly. The more you have, the longer you live, as long as you’re not taken out by an Akrid or don’t fall off a cliff. I find it fun to run around and collect this “orange gold” . . . for some reason it reminds me of collecting gold as in other video games (i.e. the old role playing game Diablo II – yes, I know it’s strange).

Through the game you play in the shoes of Wayne, a snow pirate who was discovered buried under snow and ice. You have little memory of your past, but you remember that your father was killed by the Akrid Green Eye. You set out to hunt Green Eye and avenge your dad’s death. In a way the game offers you two modes of gameplay since you have to either fight the monsters on foot, or pilot a heavily armored Vital Suit (VS), similar to a man-powered mech robot. The VS moves slow compared to you running on your own feet, but the firepower and armor the VS provides make it worthwhile.

The full version of the game is much shorter than I thought it would be. If you go through the single player campaign mode, you can finish all 11 missions of the game in less than a day (around seven to eight hours) if you play straight through. If you look for all the hidden things and go out of your way to collect the orange gold, then it will take a little longer. In general though, just when you feel like things are just getting started, the game is all over (at least in the single mode). That’s when the multiplayer mode is the savior. There are four of those modes to choose from – Team Elimination, Elimination (every Snow Pirate for him/herself), Post Grab (capture-the-flag style by finding each Data Post in your team’s level) and Fugitive (tag). The multiplayer mode is not only fun to play with your friends (and strangers across the globe – servers are not segregated by areas), but you’ll earn points to raise your level. It also allows you to unlock new character skins to use in future matches.

If you like to play action games, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is definitely for you. The tense, lag-free battles keep your mind occupied and your finger constantly on the trigger since there’s hardly any downtime, and always plenty of stuff to shoot at. This game captured my attention back to my Xbox 360. Since I was playing my Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii from a couple months ago, my 360 has been neglected, but not anymore.

The game is rated T for Teen (ages 13+) and is available for $59.99 ($69.99 for the Collector’s Edition) at your nearest GameStop, Toys N Joys or CompUSA. The Collector’s Edition includes exclusive access to a multiplayer map that will not be available to the rest of the world until Summer 2007 (when it becomes a free download on Xbox Live Marketplace).

Parental Controls For The Xbox 360

Perhaps you just purchased an Xbox 360 for yourself and your family for Christmas, or maybe you've had one for awhile. You may not know it (there are surprisingly many I know personally that are not aware of this), but there parental controls you can use to protect your keiki so they’re not viewing or playing with anything inappropriate for their age level on Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Xbox 360's Family Settings is a password protected feature that lets you as a parent (or caregiver) control the access your keiki have to games, movies and television content based on the industry ratings, and who they interact with online. It's one of the first things you should see when you power-up your Xbox 360. The instructions for the Family Settings are clear and simple to follow.

To help promote all this, Microsoft Corp., Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Best Buy Co., Inc. launched a joint effort to provide you parents with the information and tools they need to make appropriate content choices for their family. This program, “Safety is no game. Is your family set?” offers you tips, guidelines and hands-on training for keeping play within appropriate boundaries on the Xbox 360 built-in parental controls features (Family Settings), as well as in the new Windows Vista operating system. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is being highlighted throughout this campaign.

A 20-city bus tour began in October (unfortunately Hawaii is not included) to spread this valuable information to parents across the country. I saw this bus while attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and here are other cities you might be able to catch it in, if you’ll be traveling to the mainland soon: Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle or Washington D.C. These tour stops will demonstrate the parental controls on both the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista.

Chances are most of you probably will not be in one of those cities when the bus stops by, but just know that your Xbox 360 can be password protected with the Family Settings password. This is applicable for both the video games and movies, but remember to use a word/phrase that is easy to remember for you, but difficult for others to guess. Change your password regularly for additional safety measures.

Remember that it is important to sit down and talk to your keiki about their video game / movie usage. You should probably spend time with them to watch them play or just pick up that controller and join in the fun with them. Learning the video game jargon will help you understand the gaming world and what your kid is facing online. You should also understand the ESRB rating system to help you determine which games are or are not appropriate for them. I wrote a story on that awhile ago, but just in case you didn’t see it or don’t remember, you can reference MidWeek’s online archive, my website listed below or www.esrb.org.

To see more information regarding Xbox 360’s Family Settings, general video game safety or complete details on the Microsoft’s bus tour, check out www.xbox.com/isyourfamilyset. There you’ll find detailed instructions on how to configure Family Settings for online friends, communications, gamer profile viewing, gamer profile sharing, online status, online games and member content. Another useful website you can reference is www.staysafe.org.

A Phone Ahead Of Its Time

This year at MacWorld, Apple’s biggest announcement was its new revolutionary mobile phone called the iPhone. After watching a complete demo of it I was thoroughly impressed, and can honestly say that once it hits the market, it will hands-down be the best phone available. In comparison to the Treo, Blackberry, or any other smart phone, it makes these look very plain.

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs gave an exciting keynote speech this year’s MacWorld and said “iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone.” He added that “we are all born with the ultimate pointing device – our fingers – and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.”

The iPhone combines three products in one – a phone, widescreen iPod and an Internet communications device. Its user interface is based on a large multi-touch display and lets you control it with just the touch of your fingers. You can make a phone call by simply pointing at a name or number. The iPhone syncs all of your contacts from your PC, Mac or Internet service (i.e. Yahoo!) so that your contact list is always current.

The phone includes an SMS application with a full QWERTY soft keyboard to easily send SMS messages in multiple sessions. When you need to type, a smart touch keyboard pops up, which is predictive to prevent and correct mistakes, making it more efficient than the traditional small keyboard you would see on any other smart phone.

The iPhone’s sensors are amazing. It sense the ambient light around you and will adjust the display accordingly. It can tell if your face is near it (if you’re on the phone without the earpiece), so your face will not accidentally push any controls on the screen. Unlocking and locking the phone is easily done by just swiping your finger across the bar on the bottom of the phone’s screen.

iPhone’s camera is two-megapixel capable and has a photo management application that allows you to browse your library, and is synced from your PC or Mac. You can effortlessly choose one of your pictures as your phone’s wallpaper, or very smoothly click and drag it into an e-mail you’re composing. A calendar application automatically syncs your calendar with your computer as well.

As an iPod, the iPhone’s wide screen lets you “touch” your music by scrolling through your lists of songs, artists, albums and playlists with the flick of your finger. You can browse your music library by album cover artwork for the first time on an iPod. When you navigate through your music library, you’re automatically switched into the Cover Flow feature by just rotating the iPhone into the landscape position.

iPhone’s large 3.5-inch widescreen display gives you the ultimate portable way to watch TV shows and movies on a small device with touch controls for play/pause, chapter forward/backward or volume. You can rotate your iPhone to watch your display in either portrait or landscape. The iPhone knows which way you’re turning it and automatically adjusts! It will play the same material (music, videos, movies) that you already enjoy from the iTunes Store. This online store offers over 350 television shows, 250 feature films and over 5,000 music videos. `

iPhone’s third function, as an Internet communications device, has a rich HTML e-mail client that checks your e-mail in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services, and displays your photos and graphics right along with the text. The phone is a multi-tasker, so you can be reading a webpage while downloading your e-mail in the background.

Yahoo! Mail is offering a new free “push” IMAP e-mail service to all iPhone users that automatically pushes new e-mail to your iPhone. You can set it up by entering your Yahoo! username and password. iPhone will additionally work with most IMAP and POP based services such as Microsoft Exchange, Apple .Mac Mail, AOL Mail, Google Gmail or other ISP mail services.

iPhone’s browser is Safari for iPhone. Unlike a regular smart phone, the webpages actually appear the way they’re designed to, and you can zoom in to expand any section with a simple tap. This Safari browser includes built-in Google and Yahoo! Search for you to instantly search for information on your iPhone as you would on your computer. In addition, if you have a difficult time finding your way around, iPhone also includes Google Maps and a maps application. You can view maps, satellite images, traffic information and directions – all with iPhone’s touch interface.

As much as we all want the iPhone here and now, it won’t be available until June. The 4GB model will be $499 and the 8GB for $599. It will be available from any Apple Store (www.apple.com) or your closest Cingular store (www.cingular.com). Cingular will be the exclusive provider for this phone.

Solutions To The Blu-ray/HD DVD War

Attending this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week made my head spin with numerous new gadgets that will enhance your digital life. There are too many to fit into one story, so my next few columns to come will cover things that I saw at CES (and MacWorld, San Francisco too).

First I want to share with you two things that will help fight the Blu-ray/HD DVD war . . . LG Electronic’s Super Multi Blue Player and Warner Home Video’s Total Hi-Def (THD) disc. But before I start on that, if you don’t know what Blu-ray or HD-DVD is, in a nutshell, they are both next generation DVD discs. The fight between the two is similar to how it was with Betamax (Beta) and Video Home System (VHS) back in the 1980s.

LG’s player is the industry’s first dual-format High Definition (HD) disc player that blends the latest technologies by offering the convenience to play both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. This new player will go hand-in-hand with LG’s expanded lineup of full HD 1080p plasma and LCD HDTVs with the highest display resolution.

“We’ve developed the Super Multi Blue Player to end the confusion caused by the current competition between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD,” said Dr. Hee Gook Lee, president and chief technology officer of LG Electronics. “Customers are no longer forced to choose between the two formats. As Full HD TV is already gaining ground, we are hoping that the Super Multi Blue Player will play the trigger role in expanding and advancing both full HD TV and the high definition DVD market volume together,” he added.

In addition to offering full HD 1080p picture quality from these high definition discs, the player incorporates interactive functions based on BD-Java, which allows advanced menus and functions to be displayed over the video of Blu-ray discs. This option is unfortunately not available on the HD DVD discs. You can also play all your MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264 video, MPEG 1/2 audio, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital+, DTS and DTS-HD audio formats. You’ll be able to find LG’s Super Multi Blue Player (BH 100) soon, within the first quarter of this year, and it will retail for $1,199.

The second solution out there is Warner Home Videos Total Hi Def Disc (THD). I took my friend Eva with me to attend the extremely informative and interesting announcement presentation hosted by Warner Bros. Entertainment, and we found out that this revolutionary disc will play Blu-ray on one side and the HD DVD format on the flip side. Who can beat that? That will make it easier for you to make a decision when you’re standing in front of the store shelf trying to decide which format to buy. Just buy the one that has both on it.

The demonstration we saw of the THD disc featured Superman Returns, played with LG’s Super Multi Blue Player. If you saw the movie, we watched the gripping scene where Superman stops a crashing plane and lands in the middle of a baseball field. First the Blu-ray side played, then the HD DVD side, and you couldn’t tell any difference between the two. They both looked awesome!

“The Total Hi Def Disc is about giving consumers complete choice, providing creators and artists the greatest possible distribution of their work, and helping retailers thrive in the marketplace,” said Kevin Tsujihara, President of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. “By eliminating potential apprehension over formats, we believe this new disc could help consumers fully embrace the greatest home entertainment experience available.”

The disc itself has the ability to contain single and dual layers for both formats, enabling either 15 GB or 30 GB on the HD DVD side and 25 GB or 50 GB on the Blu-ray side. Since THD was just announced to the world, no titles are confirmed at this time. The price is to be determined, and it will hit the market in late 2007.

Why worry about what to buy? Both options are a win-win situation.

The Mouse For Germophobes

When I heard about IOGEAR’s germ free mouse a few months ago, I couldn’t wait to try it out. I finally have my hands on one, literally. Its name alone would have my friends nodding their heads that this is the perfect mouse for me. My overly clean habits provide them and my husband with lots of entertaining stories to exchange, and earned me the name “Miss Monk,” after the television show Monk, based on a detail-oriented detective with extreme obsessive compulsive disorder.

As I’m writing this, I’m sitting on a plane, on my way to cover this year’s MacWorld and Consumer Electronics Show. An airplane is a place known to be riddled with germs, but I’m doing what I always do . . . sanitizing my hands before I eat anything, avoiding using this aircraft’s lavatory, and I’m not rubbing my eyes with my bare hands. These habits are nothing that I ever think twice about, but with all that in mind, testing this mouse now is perfect timing.

Designed to address the health issue, the outer shell of the mouse is covered in nanocoating that is made out of titanium oxide and silver nanoparticles that prevent or deactivate bacteria with 99% efficiency. The titanium oxide attracts water and oxygen molecules, and when these are combined with the electrons of the titanium oxide and light, free oxygen ion bases are given off. The ions restrain, clean and eliminate parasites while creating water, carbon and oxygen molecules, starting the interesting cleansing process all over again. It is ideal for high-trafficked areas such as libraries, schools or offices.

According to a recent survey from the University of Arizona, your average desk is home to 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat. Despite this, unless you’re me, the average person rarely cleans their desks, keyboard or mice enough to be effective. As a result, the presence of microbes on your desk and its contents contributes to the spread of pneumonia, the flu, pink eye and strep throat, among many other contagious viruses.

The first thing I noticed about IOGEAR’s Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse is the huge USB wireless transmitter to plug into your computer. That thing itself is so big that it’s almost the size of a small portable mouse. Ignoring that aspect, it seems to be a somewhat decent mouse. I would use it on a daily basis. As it is already, I always sterilize (with alcohol) the desk, mice, keyboards, pens or just about anything that use every day. It’s fairly affordable for a wireless mouse, so it’s worth a try.

This germ-free mouse is compatible with Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X (for Mac 9.x or earlier, it only works as a one-button mouse). It is powered with two AAA batteries, has an on/off switch on the bottom and has a six feet operating range. A solid warranty covers three years on parts and labor, and one year limited coverage on the germ free coating. You can find it for $39.95 at www.iogear.com.

Witnessing A PS3 Frenzy

Many people have been asking me about where to buy a PS3 . . . “Does any store have them? Is there a way I can get one?” The answer is I don’t know, you just have to keep on checking, but, I happened to be at the Navy Exchange (NEX) last week and witnessed a much-coveted shipment of 30 PlayStation 3 (PS3) 60 GB units being placed on the floor. Daniel Carbonel (above) was one of the lucky folks to snag not one, but two. “I’m getting one for me and one for my grandson,” he said with a huge smile on his face.

My husband and I watched as those PS3s moved off the rack like hotcakes, and they were all gone in about an hour. Those of you out there still trying to find a PS3 don’t give up hope. You just have to be at the right place, at the right time. In fact, early last week I received a call from a very excited friend saying he was at Best Buy purchasing his very own PS3. They’re all over . . . it’s just your timing.

Becoming A Halo 3 Beta Tester

Lately I received many questions about Halo 3. Especially with the popularity of Halo and Halo 2, people are eagerly awaiting Halo 3. Some very happy troops overseas already received a sneak peek of the Halo 3 beta over the holidays. I signed up to be a beta tester myself awhile ago for this hit game, but I guess I should “spread the aloha” and share how you too can beta test Halo 3 before it officially comes out.

Halo 3 is the third part in the Halo Trilogy, and will provide you the thrilling conclusion to the events that begun in Halo: Combat Evolved, and pick up where Halo 2 left off . . The Master Chief is returning to earth to finish the fight. The Covenant occupation of Earth has uncovered a massive and ancient object beneath the African sands – an object whose secrets have yet to be revealed. Earth’s forces are battered and beaten. The Master Chief’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) companion Cortana is still trapped in the clutches of the Gravemind. A horrifying Flood intelligence, and a civil war is raging in the heart of the Covenant. This is how the world ends . . .

Sounds exciting eh? Well, the first wave of beta registrations came and went over a month ago, but if you didn’t already register, you have another opportunity. You just need to play a minimum total of three hours of Halo 2 multiplayer sessions on Xbox Live (on your Xbox 360) between 12:01 a.m. EST / 7:01 p.m. HST, February 1 through 11:59 p.m. EST / 6:59 p.m. HST, February 3. You can then go to www.halo3.com for a chance to become a beta participant. There is no 100% guarantee you’ll make it, but if you follow the above criteria exactly, and are among the first 13,333 players to register at the site, you’ll have a really good chance.

If you’re unable squeeze your way in on that first option, a way to throw yourself into the Halo 3 realm is to buy a specially marked box of Crackdown (Rated M for Mature) on February 20. This will assure your beta status. Look for it in your closest GameStop, CompUSA, Best Buy or Wal-Mart for $60. You can also pre-order it now at www.gamestop.com or www.walmart.com.

The Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta is slated to arrive this Spring. The game is developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. The release date of the full version, and the rating are both pending. If you’re interested, good luck, and have fun saving the world!

Putting Your Photos On Stuff

So now you have a bunch of new pictures from the holidays that you want to put up around the house. What to do now? There are so many options out there, from printing them out on paper as usual, to making them into almost anything - t-shirts, mugs, calendars, but what about a blanket? Considering it has been a bit chilly lately, at least by our Hawaiian standards, imagine yourself bundled up with your favorite pet, keiki, grandkeiki or even movie star.

I thought of this as I was walking through Best Buy, and saw a cute throw blanket hanging on the shelf. Turns out it was a custom-made blanket of a dog. I’m fond of throw blankets since they’re light, look nice and perfect for a chilly night watching TV on the couch. Making one with your favorite picture just adds to the allure.

There are several options to do this, but the company that makes the one I saw is my-PhotoArt (www.my-photoart.com). Skilled weavers transform your favorite photo into a woven (not printed) masterpiece. Each photo blanket measures 50” x 60” and is 100% cotton that can be machine-washed and dried. This creates a unique and functional treat for yourself or a loved one.

Other products offered by my-PhotoArt include various canvas artwork (sizes range from 8” x 10” to 24” x 36”), tapestry wall hangings (26” x 36”), pillows (18” x 18”) or tote bags (18” x 18”). The canvas option will make your picture look like an original oil painting. The museum quality canvas is hand-painted with archival inks that will not scratch or fade. You’ll have different frames to choose from, and make sure you leave at least a half-inch border separating the subject from the edge of the picture – this is necessary to prevent your image from being wrapped around the side of the canvas.

As with the throw blanket, the tapestry wall hangings are woven, and also fully lined on the back with a red pocket. It comes with a decorative metal rod with all the hardware necessary for you to hang it on your wall. If you order the pillow or tote bag option, it comes with either two woven pillows or two woven tote bags. Each features your photo on the front and back, and note the tote is completely lined.

When I went to the my-PhotoArt website, all the information on the products was there, but unfortunately you can’t order the products from the site. Best Buy offers the 11” x 14” ($100) and 16” x 20” ($120) canvas, and the throw blanket ($125), through a gift box, which contains instructions on how to upload your pictures, etc. It takes six weeks to arrive to you. For the other items mentioned above, you have to inquire on the website.

Here are other sites that offer similar services:
TreasureKnit (www.treasureknit.com)
Keepsakes Etc (www.keepsakes-etc.com)
Blanket Worx (www.blanketworx.com)
Photo Blanket Gifts (www.photoblanketgifts.com)
Gifts Four Seasons (www.giftsfourseasons.com)
Canvas On Demand (www.canvasondemand.com)

Although these sites offer much more than blankets, those are still my personal favorite, and what I would find the most use for. Whichever you choose for yourself (or a gift), I’m sure you’ll be satisfied with it.

Surround Sound From One Box

Since my husband and I moved into our new house about a year ago, all this time we never did set up a good sound system for our TV. Part of that was because of laziness, and we were also looking/waiting for the right sound component for TV while trying to keep the bank account intact.

A perfect excuse to speed up the whole process was the Sugar Bowl. Although we’re loyal UH season ticket holders, we weren’t able to fly there to enjoy the game in person. Soooo, the next best thing was to watch it in the comfort of our living room with some kick butt sounds. The perfect match for our TV and living room was Yamaha’s YSP-3000 Digital Sound Projector, since it doesn’t take up much space.

Some background for you to know ...a digital sound projector is different from a speaker system, since it allows you to enjoy surround sound without having speakers all over the room. It is a single unit that has multiple small speakers, each with its own digital amplifier, and the sound is focused into “beams” with controlled delay times. This tricks your ears to perceive the sound to be coming from additional speakers placed throughout the room, but it’s really only coming from this one piece.

The time delay of each speaker driver is controlled by a Digital Sound Projection circuit, which enables the system to project the sound “beams” and precisely aimed for optimum sound effect. The direct and is reflected sound waves then produce true multi-channel sound to fill your house.

The setup was easy, but still a tad bit more complicated than setting up a regular speaker. You have to place the included microphone in the middle of your room and allow it to automatically calibrate. By monitoring and analyzing your ambient sound, the IntelliBeam automatically sets the best beam angles, while optimizing the level and frequency response of each beam. The trick to the calibration is you do need the room to be absolutely silent for three minutes, which could be a challenge if you have any loud children or pets around.

The YSP-3000 is just one of a few of Yamaha’s Digital Sound Projectors (other models are the top-of-the-line YSP-4000 or YSP-900). The 3000 features 21 built-in beam drivers and two built-in woofers with 23 corresponding digital amplifiers and three Cinema DSP modes. It has a 1080p compatible HDMI interface with two inputs and one output to plug in your other digital home theater components.

Additionally, it has an FM tuner and an iPod dock. When your iPod is docked-in, you can watch and listen to your collection on your TV in all its glory. Each of the YSP models offer additional sound settings, including 5-Beam Mode, 3-Beam Mode, Stereo+3-Beam Mode, and My Beam Mode, which allows you to focus the sound to a specific position without disturbing others in your house. I currently have mine set to the 5-Beam Mode, and you can hear it clearly all over the house.

Sound support for all three YSPs includes Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic III and DTS Neo:6. Yamaha’s CINEMA DSP technology creates realistic soundscapes in any room, and for those late night movies, there’s a Night Listening Enhancer mode that allows dialog and quiet passages to be heard clearly, even at low volumes. The TV Equal Volume mode prevents sudden bursts of sound from TV programs and commercials that tend to sound louder. Moreover, all three feature SRS TruBass technology to provide exceptionally deep and rich bass through the slimly designed subwoofers.

The YSP-3000 is $995.95 (available in silver or black) at www.amazon.com. This price tag may sound slightly intimidating, but it’s well worth it, considering what you would pay for a Bose system. I’m happy with mine, and at this writing don’t know who will win the Sugar Bowl, but at least the sound for my TV is ready for the big game!

Digital SLR Photography Made Easy

Taking pictures has been a hobby of mine ever since I can remember. As a kid, my parents started me off with an el-cheapo camera to run around with and snap pictures of my friends, pets and everything else. Then as I became older I was trusted with the family’s Pentax, and used it for my photography classes in high school. I loved playing with photography so much that I used to go to school early to hang out in the darkroom. Then in college, I bought myself a Canon EOS Rebel, the cream of the crop back then. That thing was my favorite all the way up until I bought my first digital camera five years ago.

Most professional photographers these days prefer an SLR (single-lens reflex) camera. I always wanted to buy a digital SLR, but just never came around to it, mostly because of the big price tag. I was surprised on Christmas morning when I opened a box my husband gave me, which contained Nikon’s new D40 Digital SLR camera. I had my eye on it since it was announced in November, but never would have expected it for Christmas.

While digital SLR cameras are the most popular among professional photographers, some people shy away from these because of complications to the average user. Nikon has addressed these concerns with the D40. Its ultra-compact, lightweight design and simplified features makes it an affordable alternative to a professional camera. It is a point-and-shoot SLR is designed to offer consumers the ability to see higher quality pictures with one push of a button. The images come out up to 6.1 megapixels, and its visually intuitive menu brings this digital SLR down to earth and simple.

What impressed me is that you can keep on snapping pictures without the camera pausing for any delays. One of the things that annoys me the most about my regular digital camera is that pause. Sometimes when that happens, I miss out on good shots. With the D40’s settings at the full 6.1 megapixels, you can keep clicking that button, and it will shoot your pictures at 2.5 pictures per second, non-stop for up to 100 shots. Additionally, the camera reacts instantly to you pushing down that shutter button. Thereafter, the images are rapidly recorded to the SD memory card.

The back of the D40 has a bright and large 2.5-inch color LCD. Sticking with the traditional SLR concept, you unfortunately can’t use the screen as a viewfinder to snap the pictures, but viewing your pictures on the large screen afterwards is rewarding. With it, the camera features built-in help you can easily access at the touch of a button, and view Assist Images that help you select appropriate settings for camera features by viewing sample images typical of that particular setting. You can also do extremely close zoom-ins to the images you took. When I first played with my D40, I took multiple pictures of my parrot, zoomed in on the details of his feathers, and the detailed clarity is just amazing!

Depending on what you’re shooting, the D40’s scene-optimized Digital Vari Program modes allow you to capture just about any type of scene without having to fuss with the camera settings. It includes eight preset modes, including a Flash Off mode that shuts off your camera’s flash and boots the ISO so you can easily take pictures where flash photography is prohibited. I find this useful since I try to use natural lighting with my photos anyway.

Another excellent feature is the Retouch menu. This lets you do in-camera image editing, adding to the camera’s entertainment value and providing you with greater creativity without the need of your computer. The Retouch menu includes D-Lighting (brightens dark pictures), In-Camera Trimming (cropping or creating smaller files for easy e-mailing), In-Camera Red-Eye Fix, Image Overlay (merge files), Monochrome Settings (Black and White, Sephia or Cyanotype) and Filter Effects (Skylight, Warm Filter or Color Balance).

The Nikon D40 Digital SLR camera comes packaged with the new 3x zoom Nikkor lens and is also compatible with all of Nikon’s AF-S and AF-I Nikkor lenses. It is available for $600 at Ritz Camera (www.ritzcamera.com), Circuit City (www.circuitcity.com) or Best Buy (www.bestbuy.com). Note that an SD memory card is NOT included, so make sure you buy one of those as well.