A Zero Gravity Massage

After running the Great Aloha Run last week, then doing my annual Air Force PT (physical training) test the very next day, I admit that I’m kind of sore. Okay, maybe a lot sore. I need a massage! Hands are always the best, but when the husband masseuse is too tired, the next best thing is a massage chair. We have one, but it doesn’t come close to the one I saw at the Consumer Electronics Show this year.

After walking all over the show floor while lugging around lots of stuff from different exhibitors (not to mention wearing high heels too), my back and arms were sore. When I hit the Sanyo booth, I was relieved to see the HEC-DR7700K Zero Gravity Massage Chair sitting there calling my name. As soon as I sat down in it I had instant relief from my aching body.

With the touch of a button my body moved into the less stressful zero gravity position. You may wonder what this looks like . . . it’s like being in a really comfortable recliner with rollers, and it’s the position identified by our space program as the least stressful position for astronauts to use during take-off. This chair recreates the position the human body naturally assumes under the micro-gravity conditions of outer space. The chair maintains support to your back and the footrest elevates the your legs above your heart for maximum benefit and relaxation.

This smart chair has built-in sensors that measure your pulse and perspiration through photo-sensory and galvanic skin response to detect your personal areas of stiffness and tension. Based on the results of the sensors you’ll receive a customized massage that focuses on your stiff and tense areas. When Sanyo’s Marketing Manager Derek Hines explained this all to me, I didn’t really believe him at first. But after sitting in the chair for awhile, there was definitely a change of pressure in my most-sore, very stiff, lower back area. So, I knew it actually worked then.

There are two different zero gravity positions. With Position One, the backrest, footrest and seat adjust automatically to the body’s perfect and natural position. All your massage functions can be used in this position. Position Two is reached with the push of the button and your legs are further elevated and the backrest is reclined for additional relaxation and circulation benefits. An air-only comfort course delivers gentle stretch and compression massage to your lower back, hamstrings, calves, ankles and feet via 14 independent airbags. These airbags deliver deep and penetrating massage that provides great relief, and a heat setting can also be used to further promote circulation and relaxation.

You’re in good hands while sitting in this chair since its GK (grasping and kneading) rollers are designed to replicate human hands and thumbs reach out and comfortably squeeze your neck and tops of your shoulders, emulating the grasping and kneading of a live massage. It’s very much a close second to the hubby’s hands. Additionally, the chair has adjustable leg extensions to fit most body types, a reversible control panel with a large mutli-color display (to inform you of your massage status and your areas of stiffness), five automatic massage courses for targeted relief, 83 combination manual courses to include grip, shiatsu, kneading, tapping and various stretches, five massage speed settings, five width settings for different body types, and more.

There is no firm price yet for Sanyo’s HEC-DR7700K zero gravity chair, but according to Hines, it will cost you about $4,700-$4,800 in April 2007. In the meantime, check out www.sanyomassagechairs.com to see the rest of Sanyo’s chairs (unfortunately this zero gravity one is so new it’s not posted there yet).

Virtua Fighter 5

Since Sega’s first Virtua Fighter game came into the video game arcades in 1993 it has been part of the foundation of the 3D fighting game genre. It was actually the very first 3D fighting game in the industry, and its fame hasn’t ceased (especially in Japan). It’s even on display in the Smithsonian Institute’s collection of Information Technology Innovation. This apparent popularity continues as Sega released its latest Virtua Fighter 5 into the market this week on February 20.

With Virtua Fighter 5, this series keeps you fight fans at the top of your game. Some additions include improved AI (artificial intelligence), new offensive move (attack from the side or back), new fighting styles, real-time commentary, greater customization (unlock new items never offered before in other Virtua Fighter games) and on-screen comments (enter in your personal statements or a rally cry).

In previous Virtua Fighter games I’ve enjoyed playing the characters Pai Chan (action star), Akira (kung fu teacher) and Lei Fei (monk). Virtua Fighter 5 adds on two new fighters to the elite group, bringing the total to enter this Fifth World Fighting Tournament to 17. The new gal Eileen (whom I mostly played for testing purposes) has two special moves – the Kou’ou Roukyu, a fast take down throw with good range and surprise elements, and the Jinrai Santen, a basic one-two-three-hit combo that will knock an opponent down in the end. The second new personality you’ll see is El Blaze. His two special moves are the Shutdown Knee, a one-two-three combo that staggers the opponent at the end allowing for a good follow up, and the High-Speed Huracan Rana, a fast take down throw that has very good range and surprise elements.

Whoever you decide to pick, you can outfit them in the costume of your choice. The more tournaments you win, the more money you will earn to buy items from the in-game shop. The AI in the game becomes significantly more difficult as you progress through the game. If you train in the Dojo quite a bit, you’ll be good to go, and ready to face the big league national tournaments to take your opponents down.

Gameplay modes include Arcade (seven stages against a variety of computer generated opponents), Versus (play against a live friend/opponent), Dojo (training) and Quest. The Quest mode is interesting since it takes away potential monotony of just beating your opponents up. This gives you a role-playing game type of experience that allows you to travel to other locations and face other AI opponents with varying skill levels. Success in these battles will advance your character’s rank, earn money, unlock emblems and win items to equip your fighter.

You definitely cannot complain about the impeccable graphics it shows off. You can see every last detail on Eileen’s face, down to individual eyelashes. On the downside, the game seems to lag a little bit. If I had to compare it to Tekken 5 (another 3D fighting game), it moves a little slow. If you’re looking for a huge leap of a change from Virtua Fighter 4, you won’t find it. It seems Virtua Fighter 5 was a big improvement process rather than a jump to something different. Despite that, it won’t stop me from admiring the Virtua Fighter games, or this latest addition to the series.

Virtua Fighter 5 is currently available exclusively for Sony’s PlayStation 3, but an Xbox 360 version will be out there soon. You can find it at your nearest GameStop (www.gamestop.com), CompUSA (www.compusa.com) or Best Buy (www.bestbuy.com) for $59.99.

How To Recycle Your Tech Trash

You may remember my story over a year ago about recycling your computers with the Hawaii Computers For Kids Program. That is a great program, but since then I’ve received many questions from you about how/where to recycle other items such as printers, toners, batteries, etc. There are multiple sources, but in some cases, keep in mind that it may cost you a little money. To do your part in saving the environment, it’s worth it, don’t you think?

I felt a little guilty when I saw the HP booth at the Consumer Electronics Show this year and the clear CPU full of shredded stuff that will eventually be made into other goods (shown in picture). I admit out of laziness I throw away my printer’s inkjet cartridges without a second thought. Not only that that, but in the past I’ve thrown away many other things that I probably shouldn’t have. It won’t happen again now that I re-realized how easy it actually is to recycle and not just waste these things.

HP has a comprehensive recycling program that includes inkjet/LaserJet cartridges, computer hardware and rechargeable batteries. If you ever purchased an HP toner (LaserJet) cartridge, you know that it comes with a postage-paid return shipping label to send it back when you’ve used it all up. That’s easy. The little inkjet cartridges are a different story since they don’t come with that, so it makes it tempting to just toss it in the trash. Don’t do it!

Visit www.hp.com/recycle, and there you can order free return inkjet labels to send those things back, guilt-free. Then for your rechargeable batteries (found in laptops, handheld devices, most cameras and some printers), click on the “Recycle rechargeable batteries” link and it will take you to HP’s partner (Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation – www.rbrc.com). You type in your city/state/zip code, and it tells you the closest place you can drop off at (for free). I did several searches, and it seems just about any Radio Shack will take these. I noticed that the Home Depots were participants in this too. This is fairly widespread with a total of over 32,000 retail drop-off locations in the U.S. and Canada.

If you’re looking to recycle your computer or other hardware through HP, this is where costs are involved. Your amount will depend on what you need to rid yourself of. Click on the “Recycle computer hardware” link, and you’ll need to describe your hardware, weight, packaging, etc., then your customized quote will be generated. Your price will range from $17-$46 per item, depending on what it is, and you will also receive a coupon from HP (ranges from $20-$50) off your HP purchase (minimum purchase of $10 over the coupon amount). If you would like to speak with an HP Planet Partners representative for more information, call 1-800-340-2445.

Another recycling option is through Apple’s Electronic Recycling Program (www.apple.com/environment/recycling/nationalservices/us). It partners with Metech International, and for $30, a UPS label will be mailed to you. When you’re done packaging everything up, you take it to the nearest UPS location to rid yourself of the old stuff, without guilt I might add.

If you want to make sure your donation is going to a worthy cause, visit the National Cristina Foundation’s website (www.cristina.org). Your available goods will be matched up to what the needs are. The organization gives your computer equipment and software a second productive life by placing your resources with charities, schools and public agencies, and to provide training to students at risk, the economically disadvantaged and people with disabilities.

I encourage you to do your electronic part in saving the environment . . .use one of the methods above to dispose of your techie trash.

Recapturing Your Lost Digital Photos

Have you ever accidentally deleted digital photos off your camera’s memory card/stick? You could easily delete these unknowingly if you’re not paying attention to what you’re doing. Perhaps you thought the photos were copied off to your computer, yet you already deleted the valuable pictures. Whatever you did, you don’t have to be frustrated at the thought of losing these photos forever. You can very easily retrieve them back with PHOTORECOVERY.

There are several software programs you can use to recover photos, but I discovered LC Tech’s PHOTORECOVERY for Digital Media at this year’s MacWorld. I think it is one of the most easy to use recovery programs out there. It’s definitely must-have user-friendly companion for the absent-minded photographer or camera enthusiast. Once you have the program installed on your computer, the whole process is as simple as inserting your card/stick into the computer and then running PHOTORECOVERY on the media. You’ll then see your once thought to be lost forever photos magically appear in the window.

PHOTORECOVERY was developed as an easy to use application designed to recover images, movies and sound files from all types of digital media. It was designed for compatibility with Memory Sticks, SmartMedia, CompactFlash I/II, Micro Drives, SD/XD cards, multimedia chips, floppy disks or just about any form of digital film. The software has been further developed to recover many more file types from digital media used in just your digital camera. Furthermore, recover documents, spreadsheets text files, etc, and make an image backup of your card to allow full recovery.

PHOTORECOVERY will work with most brands of cameras, cards and readers. Note that to preserve the data on your drive with the deleted files, all recovered files must be saved to a different drive. You don’t want to download the software onto the drive that you’re trying to recover, and certainly do not try to save the files back onto the drives that you’re recovering from.

If you require the software in another language, it is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Turkish, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

You can download PHOTORECOVERY for Digital Media as a free demo at www.lc-tech.com. It is available for both Mac (OS X 10.1.5 and above) and PC (Windows 98 and higher), and costs $39.95 for the full version. If you’re interested in this for business or photo lab use you can purchase a professional license. Additionally, if you have no luck with the software, an in-house recovery service is offered. You send in your card, your photos are recovered, placed on a CD and sent back to you.

Some of the other useful products LG Technology (viewable on the website) has to offer are:

- FILERECOVERY for Windows: Safe and affordable do-it-yourself data undelete solution designed to recover deleted files from all types of media from hard drives to various removable media, $59.95

- Digital Media Doctor (Windows): A utility to test, benchmark and produce reports on nearly all types of removable digital media, $14.95

- FILEXTINGUISHER (Windows): Completely delete what you really want to delete, $39.95

What’s N-ext in Wireless

If you haven’t already heard about it, the next wireless Internet standard is 802.11n. If you have wireless Internet at home, you may or may not know what you use now, but most people I know still use the old 802.11g, or even older 802.11b. This new 802.11n utilizes MIMO (Multi-In, Multi-Out) technology, which flies past b or g versions, and gives you more range. There’s a boatload of solutions for 802.11n, but I’ll focus on the NETGEAR and Apple products that caught my eye at the recent tradeshows I attended.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) NETGEAR debuted an array of products, and part of that was NETGEAR’s RangeMax NEXT technology. It extends the possibilities of your home network by providing you with a Steady-Stream of 270 Mbps. If you have other products with Intensi-fi, such as the RangeMax NEXT Wireless Notebook Adapter card (WN511B), this will optimize your performance speed.

Out of NETGEAR’s models, I tested out the RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N Router (WNR834B). It has a nice white contemporary look with its 8.9-inch height. It fits nicely into the corner of my network closet and has four 10/100 Ethernet LAN ports, one Ethernet WAN port, a NAT (Network Address Translation) firewall (this is help to hide PCs and files from outside users) and a SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) firewall to deny outside requests for personal information.

The SmartWizard makes the setup painless by automatically detecting and configuring your router for virtually all your connections. Touchless Wi-Fi security makes creating the highest level of security simple and includes WEP, WPA/WPA. This (WNR834B) router is yours for about $140 at www.netgear.com. If you want the slightly faster model, the Gigabit Edition (WNR854T) goes for $160.

At MacWorld Apple announced its 802.11n solution with its new Airport Extreme. It gives you up to five times the performance and twice the range of the previous Airport Extreme. The look of it has moved away from the traditional manapua-looking thing to a sleek 6.5-square box.

The new Extreme uses MIMO smart antennas and has the ability to operate in either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz wireless frequencies. The possibility of interference from appliances and cordless phones is reduced with the Airport Extreme. Most importantly it is backward compatible with your Mac and PC if you’re using previous generation 802.11b or g. Additional features include three Ethernet LAN ports, one Ethernet WAN port, a built-in NAT firewall and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA-2) / 128-bit WEP encryption.

To me the best feature of the new Airport Extreme is the USB port. There you can plug in a USB printer so you can print wirelessly, or an external USB hard drive to turn it into a shared drive, making file backups and sharing simple. For a business, or if you’re having lots of people over for a party, the new Airport Utility software included will allow you to easily setup a wireless network for up to 50 simultaneous users. For home-oriented use, you can set security restrictions, including Internet access limits on your keiki’s computers.

Apple’s new Airport Extreme Base station will retail for $179, and will be available soon this month at the Apple Store (Ala Moana Center or the brand new Kahala Mall location), or online at www.apple.com.

What you can find with NETGEAR and Apple are just the tip of the n-iceberg, but you can find other solutions from Belkin (www.belkin.com), D-Link (www.dlink.com) or Linksys (www.linksys.com).

Find Your Path With Casio’s Pathfinder

Another thing that caught my attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year was Casio’s new line of watches, particularly the latest Pathfinder series. Although the watch I received was cool, it’s more of a guy’s watch, so I asked my husband to do the “difficult job” of wearing it and playing around with it for a week.

Casio makes various Pathfinder watches, but the one we reviewed was the PAW1300-3V (with the green wristband). I call it the BDU watch, since it matches my green BDUs (Battle Dress Uniform) that I proudly wear every day. I’m disappointed that one of the best features of the watch, atomic timekeeping, does not work here in Hawaii. Atomic timekeeping is designed to pick up the time calibration signal transmitted in Germany (Mainflingen), England (Rugby), United States (Fort Collins) and two points in Japan (Fukushima and Kyushu). It receives the time calibration signal automatically from the applicable transmitter and updates the settings accordingly. If you’re on the mainland, or elsewhere closer to one of the stations, you’ll have better luck, but I guess since we’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean here, you can’t see any of them from here.

Despite that, I love the fact that it runs on a solar battery so you don’t ever have to worry about changing your battery. Whenever you go out in the light (either natural sunlight or the lights in your home/office) it will automatically charge. On a full charge your watch will keep your time for up to five months. If you happen to store it in a dark place, the power saving function will kick-in and the watch will slip into sleep mode to conserve power and energy.

If you find yourself in the dark, with the flick of your wrist, the watch’s face lights up with its electro-luminescent (EL) panel. It’s useful at a boring movie, and you’re dying to know what time it is without having to squint your eyes in the darkness. Note that this auto light is disabled during any sensor measurement, while an alarm sounds or when the watch is receiving any information.

The Pathfinder’s compass will keep you from getting lost and guide your path straight with its compass. You’ll see a direction indicator, angle value along with the four direction pointers. It will also let you know how high you are with the built-in altimeter. It detects the air pressure around you and estimates the altitude. The highest we took our Pathfinder was to the plains of Kunia, and it measured in at 218 feet.

When the weather takes a turn, your Pathfinder will sense it before you do. It monitors the changes in the atmosphere to calculate the barometric pressure. It measures for this every two hours and produces a graph and differential pointer readings. You can see temperature readings off your watch too. As long as you take it off your wrist and keep it away from direct sunlight and moisture while you’re taking a reading, it will give you the accurate temperature. The built-in thermometer automatically checks the temperature every five minutes. The more advanced Pathfinders can predict the tides (Tidegraph), have depth gauges, or for the advanced diver, has a diving log (stores up to 60 log memories).

Check out www.casio.com to check out all of Casio’s new Pathfinders and find a retailer. Prices range from $199 to $550.

Laptop Keyboard Goes To New Heights

As much as I love my laptop and use it for everything - writing, pictures, videos, or just about anything electronic you can think of, I also wouldn’t mind using it with a full-sized keyboard. You may think that a keyboard is a just keyboard, but not this one I found. I can comfortably carry this new Logitech Alto along with my laptop in my backpack without a second thought to its size or weight.

Logitech recently launched the Alto, a new one-piece notebook riser with an integrated full-size keyboard. If you ever tried to use a regular flat full-size keyboard with your laptop, you know that sit a mile away from it, so the screen might be hard to see if your eyes are bad, plus you’re looking down at it, instead at eye-level. The Alto’s riser feature is nice since it brings your laptop closer to you, and lifts the entire thing up at a good eyes-on angle (while providing good cooling benefits for your machine too). As long as you have a flat surface to spread the Alto out on, it levels the notebook screen with your eyes and gives your hands freedom from a small laptop keyboard.

The Alto is a complete standard keyboard you’re accustomed to that includes a number pad and a media panel. Setting it up is the easiest thing in the world. It takes less than 30 seconds to flip it open, place your laptop on the stand (supports up to nine pounds), and plug in the built-in USB cable. Putting it away is just as easy, and it folds into a nice portable 9.33” x 16.84” x 1.41” size to slip into your bag or in a crevice somewhere. It’s convenient to have the freedom to use Alto at the kitchen counter, dining room table, or conventional desk.

It seems as laptop computers are becoming more and more popular, and with that you end up with awkward postures that could make you hurt later on. “Notebooks offer a tremendous advantage because people can use them around the house and take them on the road – but when it comes to sitting and using a computer for an extended period of time, people miss the comfort and advantages of the raised monitor and the full-size keyboard that a desktop PC offers,” said Denis Pavillard, Logitech’s vice president of product marketing for keyboards and desktops. “The Logitech Alto notebook stand helps solve the comfort problem. And unlike a more complex and expensive docking station, Alto is simple to fold up and stash away when the notebook is not in use, so that can also enjoy the benefits of open desk space.”

Not only is the Alto compact, it’s comfortable to use. I can type faster with less hand/wrist fatigue (helpful since I have slight carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrists). The integrated soft palm rest provides extra wrist support while keeping your hands nice and cool away from the heat of your computer. If you have multiple USB devices to plug in, it has three high-speed USB 2.0 ports around the right corner tip. You can use these to plug in your favorite peripheral devices . . . webcam, printer, external drive, etc. Note that if your USB device has a high power requirement you may need to use an external power adapter.

One-touch hot keys are a convenient feature of the Alto. You can have quick access to your favorite applications, folders, webpages, and control your computer’s volume. If you use a Mac as I do, these will not work unless you’re using the Windows side of your Mac. Additionally, a convenient lock switch prevents anything from being typed in while you’re away. I find this especially helpful when my parrot decides to take adventures on my keyboard.

The Alto is the newest companion to my laptop bag, and I love it! I only have one (very) small gripe . . . you can’t use your laptop’s touchpad mouse area easily. But that issue is fixed easily if you just plug in a wireless mouse and use it as a regular keyboard/mouse setup (a good compact one is Logitech’s V450 Cordless Laser mouse for notebooks).

Logitech’s Alto is available for $99.99 at www.logitech.com and includes a five-year limited hardware warranty. The V450 mouse mentioned above is $49.99 on Logitech’s website as well.

The Next Gen House For A High Tech Lifestyle

Since my husband and I just bought a house recently, we’ve constantly been toying with ideas on how to upgrade it to cater to our high tech lifestyle. We haven’t done anything drastic yet, but I was definitely impressed with the Next Gen House that was on display at the Consumer Electronics Show.

When you walk in this house, you can tell it “hello,” and it will turn on music, the temperature will change and the lights turn on, or whatever you program it to do. When you say “goodbye,” it will do just the opposite. In fact you can pre-program up to five hello/goodbye settings to shape your life.

How does this all work? Well, there are a few different companies involved that make this package complete. Best Buy For Business (BBFB), in conjunction with HP and Life|ware home automation software and hardware, developed this next gen solution called ConnectedLife.Home. It’s a digital home solution recently made available for you to actually purchase. It’s the first “affordable” option that can be retrofitted to an existing home, or installed into a brand new structure. It is built on Life|ware software, which centralizes the control of surveillance, lighting, heating/cooling and home entertainment.

ConnectedLife.Home connected features six main aspects: Next Generation TV (watch recorded TV from any connected TV in your house), Digital Music and Audio (listen to Internet radio on throughout your home with a few clicks of the remote), Photos and Home Videos, Lighting (presets for away time, parties or watching movies), Climate Control (adjust thermostat settings by schedule or remote Internet access) and

There’s a Remote Access feature that you can use to play with your house’s functions while you’re sitting on the beach using your cell phone or any computer. If you forget to do something, control the lights, thermostat, adjust your DVR’s schedule or spy on Fido with the home’s surveillance cameras to make sure he’s not chewing on the couch.

With Life|ware 2.0 and Windows Vista Media Center, the convergence of your home entertainment devices are consolidated by storing and sharing photos, recorded TV, home videos, music, etc. in one device. Note that the full version of Windows Vista was finally launched this week, and you can purchase it at CompUSA (prices vary from the $100 upgrade to the $540 full version).

ConnectedLife.Home is powered by Life|ware 2.0, and runs on an HP Digital Entertainment Center (DEC). The DEC is then connected to a TV, which becomes the dashboard for controlling your lights, climate, security and digital entertainment throughout the entire home. If you’re an Xbox 360 family, it’s a plus since you can control the media center with your 360 controller (via Xbox media center extender) too.

In addition, the complete package includes one Premium Media Center Home Server, one Life|ware Home Automation software package, five Life|scenes personal home ambiance settings, one Corinex Any Wire Networking Kit, one premium gigabit router, one Wireless N access point, one Premium Media Center Extender, one programmable remote control, two Panasonic surveillance cameras, one digital thermostat (bi-directional communicating), one HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning – aka climate control) interface (bi-directional communicating), five in-wall lighting dimmers (communicating), five in-wall lighting switches (communicating), and two programmable in-wall six-button lighting keypads. It also includes the installation and training, one-year Life|support Remote Home Support & Guidance and a 30-day Remote Home Access Service Trial (afterwards it’s $19.95 a month).

ConnectedLife.Home is simple to install since it does not require any cables to be pulled or walls to be dug out. It’s an ideal retrofit, remodeling or builder solution. All installations are handled by the Best Buy For Business installation team, and the average install time is one day. This package is an interesting option to new homeowners such as myself. I am highly considering it, but need to get the funding together first.

But, if you have $15,000 to spare, this house upgrade can yours now. Check out www.bbfb.com/connectedlife to order it, or for more information and to view the demo. You can also call 800-962-9072 to speak with someone about your options. The package can be installed within five days of ordering, but unfortunately no product substitutions are allowed.