Oooo ooma

ooma has revolutionized home phone service with its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service during the past year, and recently more features and services have been added. If you’re a landline user, ooma can save your household $400 to $600 per year by eliminating costly phone services. Keep in mind this is done by just using your existing home phones, phone line, power outlet and a high-speed Internet connection.

“We are excited to unveil new, systemwide updates that continue to expand on the ooma promise of providing a better way to experience home telephone service,” says Andrew Frame, ooma chief executive officer. “The new ooma phone system offers consumers expanded calling capabilities and conveniences that cannot be matched by traditional telephone and VoIP providers at an unrivaled cost savings. Consumers who are thinking about ways to eliminate unnecessary and costly monthly telephone bills should consider switching to ooma.”

ooma’s original features include no monthly fees (after your onetime ooma purchase), unlimited free U.S. domestic calls (and low-cost international calls), caller-ID, call-waiting, voicemail, caller-ID blocking, call return, one-touch access to messages through the Hub/Scout interfaces, E911, and ooma Lounge web portal with voice-mail retrieval and account control.


The added-on features incorporate virtual phone numbers (up to nine phone numbers supported); voicemail attachments (opt to send a copy of voicemails to your e-mail); mobile integration with multi-ring (simultaneously ring your cell phone); personal number and voicemail (virtual numbers can be set up on specific phones with separate voicemail boxes); and call logs, personal and community blacklist (block certain numbers from calling you).

VoIP phones are very common these days, and you’re probably wondering what makes ooma so different than any other VoIP phone. The difference with ooma is that you don’t pay any monthly fees and you can use your existing home phone/phone line with your high-speed Internet. You don’t have to worry about leaving a computer on for the connection.

Setting up the ooma Hub was a breeze. It took me less than 10 minutes (ooma claims average setup time is 20 minutes, but I doubt it). First, I activated the unit on ooma’s website, plugged everything in, and it was working without a hitch. You can choose your phone number with area code, but unfortunately it didn’t let me pick any Hawaii 808 area codes, so I ended up with a San Francisco one. You can port a number over from your current provider for a onetime cost of $79, and it usually takes about three weeks.


If you need to use more than one phone, the package comes with an ooma Scout to connect an additional phone (you can use more than one Scout). I didn’t set this part up since I don’t have another phone. I found it interesting that you hear a special ooma dial tone when you pick up the phone, and I discovered that, when dialing with ooma, make sure to dial “1” before the area code.

Overall, I think ooma is a good product. The sound is crystal clear. It’s quite a bit more expensive than the $40 magicJack, but you can do significantly more without having to leave a computer on all the time. ooma retails for $249.99 with a hardware bundle including an ooma Hub and ooma Scout. You can purchase the optional Premier plan for $12.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Premier includes the Broadband Answering Machine with Real-Time Message Screening, Instant Second Line and Enhanced Call Waiting, and Personal numbers with private voicemail. Find it at your nearest Best Buy (http://www.best-buy.com) or at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com).

In addition, stay tuned for the second generation of ooma - ooma telo - to be featured next month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Note it also was named as a CES Innovations 2009 Design and Engineering Award honoree. It’ll be interesting to see how the ooma telo functions in comparison to the current ooma.

New: Click Chick’s App of the Week

Fellow iPhone/iPod touch users often ask me what my latest and greatest app is. Of course, that could change on a daily basis depending on what has been added to the App Store. From my own thoughts as well as suggestions from others, starting today in my Friday columns I’ll be adding in my favorite iPhone/iPod touch App of the Week. Feel free to send me your suggested faves for future columns.

Since I’m a bird person, Crazy Penguin Catapult is my first recommended App of the Week. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been playing with this creation by Digital Chocolate in every spare moment. The object of the game is to fend off all the invading polar bears by hurling penguins at them using your trusty catapult. It sounds silly, but it’s an easy, entertaining game that I enjoy on my iPhone when I need to pass the time.

Hunting For A Wii Fit

I decided to purchase a Wii Fit for a dear friend of mine when she told me she’s been really wanting one for her three children but could never find one. I knew it would be difficult to acquire one right before Christmas, but I’m always up for a challenge. About three weeks before Christmas, my hunt for a Wii Fit was on.

I began the search by looking on the Wii Fit Tracker website (http://wiitracker.com/wiifit/), since it keeps track of multiple retailers and whether or not Wii Fits are available. It’s actually a pretty good website that’s a subservice of Ben’s Bargains’original Wii Tracking service. It lists 20-25 different sites, what exact Wii Fit product it sees (i.e. just the Wii Fit Balance Board or the bundle, etc.), price and status.

Multiple times a day for an entire week and a half I looked on there and it always said “Sold Out” for all the websites, until one glimmer of hope appeared on CircuitCity.com - “In Stock.” Excitedly I clicked the link and tried to order one, but it was too late, they were already gone. The link on CircuitCity.com clearly stated “Out of Stock.” Meanwhile, I was making daily phone calls to local retailers around the island, but I had no luck there, either.

Thankfully, the very next day the tracker indicated “In Stock” for Dell.com. Again, all excited, I clicked the link, and this time it was actually in stock! I went through the whole process, added it to my basket, put my credit card number in, shipping address, etc. Done, pau. I felt a peace of mind that it was on its way to my friend.

I was wrong. Four days later I received an e-mail from Dell.com stating that my order had been cancelled. I was so angry, steam was coming out of my ears. I can understand it delaying the order to wait for it to restock, but to completely cancel the order after everything already went through was uncalled for. At least the CircuitCity.com site stated upfront that it was not in stock and wouldn’t allow you to add it to the cart.

I called Dell to find out what was going on and all they could say was that it was not in stock and that there was a possibility that lots of people were online ordering at the same time. Yes, I understand that, but they shouldn’t have sold it to me in the first place if it wasn’t in stock! I moved on and found another Wii Fit - thankfully I have connections (Mahalo, Egan!), but it could have ruined Christmas for someone without that advantage.

My point to all this is don’t use Dell.com. You never know what will happen, and I wouldn’t want this to happen to any of you.

HMSA Introduces Online Care

By merging medicine and technology, HMSA is leading the way with its new online care. On Jan. 15, HMSA will become the first health plan in the U.S. to introduce integrated online healthcare to consumers. This solution brings together American Well’s Online Healthcare Marketplace and Microsoft HealthVault, Microsoft’s online consumer health platform. The integration of the two allows you to use your health information to interact with physicians live, online and on-demand from your home or office.

“We’ve signed up more than 100 physicians from around the state in just three weeks, and many more have told us they’re interested in participating,” said HMSA vice president Michael Stollar. “By the time the system goes live on Jan. 15, we may have twice as many physicians ready to go online and meet with patients. We expect more physicians will come onboard next year as the community responds favorably to the ease, convenience and affordability of online care.”

A variety of specialty physicians have signed up to participate, including general practice, family physician, cardiology, internal medicine, OB/GYN, ophthalmology, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery, urology and more. Interested physicians can continue to sign up past the Jan. 15 launch date, and will have the freedom to log on anytime to assist patients.

“The strong interest among physicians in Hawaii to sign up for HMSA’s online service is very positive news, and demonstrates the momentum behind giving people new options for interacting with their care providers when they need to, and from a location of their choice,” says Nate McLemore, senior director of business development, Microsoft Solutions Group. “Microsoft is very pleased to be collaborating with HMSA and American Well to bring innovative solutions to people in their homes, and to make it easier and more convenient to manage their health. We look forward to seeing the impact of the service on the lives of Hawaii residents, and to seeing the American Well service rolled out to other states through innovative health plans like HMSA.”


Microsoft’s HealthVault platform allows you to collect, store and manage your personal health information so you can share it with physicians, family members and other trusted third parties. You can store information from multiple sources, such as hospital records, home-monitoring devices and patient entries. Additionally, American Well’s Online Healthcare Marketplace enables the live communication between you and the healthcare provider.

When the service becomes available next month, be aware that you do not need to be an HMSA member to take advantage of it. You can access it via the Internet or a phone call. Either way, you’ll be able to speak to a physician anytime from anywhere.
HMSA’s Online Care is not intended to replace face-to-face visits with your physician, but is to be used as a convenient alternative when you can’t make it there. Since this is an online service, you can use it after business hours, on weekends, holidays and whenever you need to speak with a physician right away.

HMSA’s Online Care is accessible by logging into www.hmsa.com. For a 10-minute session, HMSA members pay $10; $45 for non-HMSA members.

Tomb Raider: Underworld

I’m a huge Tomb Raider fan. I own all the movies and watched them multiple times, but strangely, I’ve never played any of the Tomb Raider video games until now. Tomb Raider: Underworld came out last month and has been gracing my PlayStation 3 and TV ever since.

”Tomb Raider: Underworld brings to life a realistic world that fully complements Lara Croft’s bold personality,” says Sean Vesce, general manager of Crystal Dynamics."We continue to innovate on the brand that defined the action-adventure genre, and we are excited to introduce fans and gamers to an immersive, believable world that they can explore and conquer.”

Developed by Crystal Dynamics, Underworld is the eighth game in the Tomb Raider series but the third to be developed by Crystal Dynamics. From what I gather, this game is a little darker compared to its predecessor titles. It blends exploration, puzzle-solving and combat, and takes you on an archeological journey to the Mediterranean, Thailand, Mexico, Arctic Sea and more.


You play as the fearless adventurer Lara Croft as you uncover proof of the existence of the Norse Underworld and the mythical Hammer of Thor. This latest adventure of Lara’s introduces you to new capabilities and state-ofthe-art gear (including an active sonar map, multipurpose grapple and an all-terrain motorbike). As you move further along in the game you need to fully master Lara’s moves in order to defeat your enemies.

The game’s artificial intelligence seems to be a little weak.You won’t really see many enemies, but when you do, they’ll stand in front of you as you’re shooting them or beating them up, and they don’t run away. When you do eventually come across enemies, they seem to pop up from the same spot every time. I guess that’s good if you’re lazy, but there’s no challenge.


Furthermore, while I was in the water, I was trying to kill the jellyfish with two bombs so they wouldn’t sting me to death. They were still alive and kicking even after those bombs went off - how can that be after that big explosion?! After the bombs didn’t work, I shot them with my gun. That didn’t work either. All I did was waste bombs and ammo. There were a few other places in the game where there are no responses,too.

Still, these very small drawbacks didn’t stop me from enjoying the game. It has nice graphics, good puzzles, and the fact that you don’t receive objectives keeps the game challenging since you can do what you want. Lara’s energy and various moves also keep things interesting.

Tomb Raider: Underworld is rated “T” for Teen and retails for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at $59.99, the Wii and Games for Windows at $39.99, and Nintendo DS at $29.99. Find it at your nearest GameStop (http://www.gamestop.com), Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com) or Toys N Joys (http://www.toysnjoys.com).

Visit http://www.tombraider.com for more information on the game. In addition, expect to see new chapters available for the Xbox 360 (via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace): The first chapter Tomb Raider: Underworld -Beneath the Ashes (around Christmas - no firm date announced), and the second chapter, Tomb Raider: Underworld - Lara’s Shadow (early 2009). Note the second chapter will introduce a new playable character.

Virus-free With Microsoft’s Morro

Next year Microsoft plans to offer the world a free antivirus solution called Morro. Available some time in the second half of 2009, this will provide protection from malware, including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

“Customers around the world have told us that they need comprehensive, ongoing protection from new and existing threats, and we take that concern seriously,” says Amy Barzdukas, senior director of product management for the Online Services and Windows Division at Microsoft. “This new, no-cost offering will give us the ability to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the growth of malware.”

Microsoft’s current protection solution is Windows Live OneCare, and it has been selling as a subscription service since 2006. OneCare basically provides you with antivirus protection, centralized file backup, computer performance optimization and home network management. Other features include antispyware and firewall tools, online identity theft protection, performance tune-ups, file backups (to your choice of a CD, DVD, external hard drive, hard drive or USB drive), and activates your Phishing Filter in Internet Explorer 7.


OneCare will be discontinued after June 30, 2009, and will be gradually phased out as Morro becomes available. If you have a OneCare plan that runs past this date, Microsoft ensures you will remain protected throughout the life of your subscription. Morro takes advantage of the same core anti-malware technology that currently fuels OneCare, and received the VB100 award from Virus Bulletin, Checkmark Certification from West Coast Labs and certification from the International Computer Security Association Labs. Morro will provide you with the essential protection you need without overusing your system resources.

Basically, Morro will give you a free security solution to protect you against the major online threats while using fewer system resources than OneCare does. With the fewer features, it’s designed primarily to protect PCs that don’t have any protection right now.

“Because uptake of standard anti-mal-ware is low around the world, particularly in developing nations, the availability of basic protection for anyone who wants it is all the more important,” says Roger Kay, founder and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. “By offering such basic protection at no charge to the consumer, Microsoft is promoting a safer environment for PCs, service providers and e-commerce itself, since it is through unprotected PCs that the worst threats are introduced to the system as a whole.”

Since Windows is the main recipient of these virus attacks and now it will be putting out its own protection, it will be interesting to see what happens among the competitors - Symantec, McAfee, etc. When it launches, Morro will be available as a free download, compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It will not be bundled with any new Windows operating system, but it will give you a no-cost security solution against most online threats. It’s not quite clear as to how Morro will be offered, but visit http://windowsonecare.spaces.live. com for more information and updates.

Thinking outside the boxee

Boxee is one of the greatest software innovations I’ve seen recently. Successfully launched early this summer, boxee is a free, open-source cross-platform media center based on the Xbox Media Center (XBMC). This is the first software to incorporate Internet TV/movie websites such as Hulu, Netflix and many more, potentially bringing tens of thousands of free shows and movies to you with just a few clicks.

Created by a startup company consisting of a small team of developers, boxee incorporates your Internet content services along with what’s on your hard drive’s library (including music and pictures). In addition to Hulu and Netflix mentioned above, some of boxee’s incorporated services are MySpaceTV, YouTube, Warner Bros Television Network, CNN, CBS, Comedy Central, NBC, MTV Music, BBC News, BBC radio, movie trailers from Apple, Flickr, PicasaWeb and NPR.

An account is required to use boxee and it also can be used as a form of social networking. While you’re logged in, you can keep an eye on what your family and friends are up to and follow their recent activity. Your own activity can be exported to other social networking sites such as Twitter. This is one-sided since you can’t monitor your Twitter feeds from boxee (yet).


Boxee is available for Mac, Linux and Apple TV (hopefully Windows, too, in a few weeks). If you own an Apple TV, this is a must-load! Here are some quick steps on how to install it:

1) Download ATVUSB-Creator from http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator

2) Insert a “bootable” USB into your Mac (has to be a Mac) Run the ATVUSB-Creator and select which plug-ins you want

3) Remove USB drive and plug into your Apple TV

4) Power on your Apple TV, and the patchstick will run the ATV bootloader

5) After bootloader finishes, remove it and restart your Apple TV

6) Options for boxee/XBMC are now on the main menu

7) Click on boxee and select “update” - it will download boxee from the Internet

8) Once boxee is done installing, restart Apple TV

9) Disable Apple TV screensaver and set to “never”

10) Click “boxee,” select “boxee” in the sub-menu to start it

If you need a visual on the above, visit the boxee blog: blog.boxee.tv. Unfortunately the Netflix portion doesn’t yet work on the Apple TV, but for now it looks great on your computer. This could perhaps replace your Roku box, and you don’t have to wear out your Xbox 360 to watch Netflix now. Additionally, there are rumors of boxee eventually having its own hardware. We shall see ...

Check out http://www.boxee.tv to sign up for the free boxee alpha.

Warning: It may take a few weeks to receive your invite and start using the service - it took about two weeks to receive my access. Since the program is still in the testing phase, expect to see some bugs and crashes occasionally. It will keep improving with time and testing.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is one of the games I was looking forward to this year, and it came out in mid-November. It’s a fighter-type game that makes you feel as if you just stepped into a comic book. You see your favorite Mortal Kombat characters (i.e. Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang) as well as DC characters (i.e. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker) while battling all over the place. This game brings together all those heroes, anti-heroes, villains and vigilantes in the distinctive Mortal Kombat style.

“Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe brings together iconic characters from both the DC Comics’ and Mortal Kombat video game universes to give gamers the opportunity to take part in extraordinary battles,” says Scott Johnson, vice president of business development for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Working with Midway, we are allowing fans to control the destiny of famous heroes and villains with enhanced graphics and combat.”


There are 22 playable characters to choose from either side. If you’re used to fighter games, you’ll immediately pick up on the basic moves - kicking, punching, throwing and blocking. It takes a little while to figure out the key combos, but after a few fights you’ll learn them fairly quickly. Each character has his/her own specific moves to take down opponents in his/her signature style. Or you can always use the RAGE to make yourself very powerful for a short period of time.

Although the action is fast-paced, the characters move slowly in relation to how fast you’re pushing the buttons on your controller. For example, Flash moves very sluggishly when he’s supposed to be speedy. In fact, all the characters seem to move at the same slow speed, and there doesn’t seem to be any differential between them. Despite that, the attacks at least look powerful and, as the blows come, you even see clothing getting ripped and skin bruised and bloody. An interesting fighting mechanic introduced in this game is Freeball Kombat.


This allows you to fight in mid-air while falling from one arena to another. This usually happens when you push your opponent through the barrier of the arena you’re fighting in. You can usually do a good 30 percent damage from one of these.
Past Mortal Kombat titles have been known to have gory game-play, but you won’t see that in this game. It’s very mild. Everything takes place in 3D, so you can move left to right as well as back and forth. The majority of your moves are left to right, which reminds me of the original Mortal Kombat.

Overall, this is enjoyable to play, especially if you rotate through the characters to keep it diverse. The two storylines keep you interested, but short. Playing through the arcade mode becomes a little boring after awhile, but serves as good practice to learn your moves. Playing online keeps your game-play varied since you’re dealing with people on all levels.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is rated T for Teen, retails for $59.95 ($69.95 for Kollector’s Edition), and is available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Find it at your nearest Best Buy (www.bestbuy.com), Toys N Joys (www.toysnjoys.com) or on Amazon (www.amazon.com). Visit www.worldscollide.com for more information on the game.

Click Chick's Christmas Gifts Part II

If you aren’t broke from Black Friday shopping, here’s the rest of my top Christmas gift picks for the techie in your life (in no particular order):

* Blackberry Storm. A couple of weeks ago Verizon Wireless released the BlackBerry Storm (Model 9530) into the market. This is BlackBerry’s first touch-screen phone and features a “clickable” touch screen similar to the iPhone - the difference is that you’ll feel the screen being pushed and released instead of just hearing a click when you touch the screen.

If you already use a BlackBerry, the familiar common navigation keys (phone, menu and escape) are there along with support for multi-touches, tapping, sliding, and the ability to highlight, scroll, pan and zoom for navigation. It also has an accelerometer so your screen can rotate back and forth between landscape and portrait views.

This is a great “iPhone alternative” and sells for $199.99 (after a $50 mail-in rebate) at your nearest Verizon Wireless store or online at http://www.verizonwireless.com. Note this is the price with a two-year agreement. For more information see http://www.verizonwireless.com/storm.


* Rock Band 2. Time flew by since the first Rock Band came out more than a year ago, but already the sequel, Rock Band 2, hit the shelves in September (only 11 months after its predecessor). This is a great game to play at a party, and a perfect gift for the music lover in your life.

Eighty-four songs are included on the game disk and you can download many more, including 20 for free. As with the first Rock Band, you can create and customize your characters, choose your difficulty level as you sing, drum or jam on the guitar.
Rock Band 2 is rated T for Teen and available for the PlayStation 2 and 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii (Dec. 22). Pricing varies from $49.99 to $189.99, depending on platform. Visit http://www.rockband2.com for more information.


* Flip Mino HD. You may remember a story I did a few months back on Pure Digital’s Flip Mino ultra-compact video camera. Since then, the company came out with a High-Definition (HD) version - the Flip MinoHD. This is the world’s smallest HD video camera.

The MinoHD builds on the success of the Flip Video and holds up to an hour of HD video with its 4GB of internal storage. Ideal for your YouTube page (or other video sharing on your social networks), this camera is the only custom-designable camcorder. It has a 1.5-inch anti-glare LCD screen, a resolution of 720p, weighs 3.3 ounces and has a digital zoom with one-touch recording.It retails for $229.99 and is available in black as well as your custom design at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com), Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com) or http://www.theflip.com.


* Roku. Earlier this year Netflix announced the Roku Player that instantly streams movies to your TV. This is one of the greatest gifts you could give someone who loves to watch movies. This little box gives you instant access to more than 12,000 movies and TV shows. The video quality is good as long as you have a decent Internet connection.

The player is $99.99 and the user requires the minimum of the $8.99/month plan to qualify. How it works: Add the movies into your Netflix queue online, and then you immediately see it on your Roku player. See http://www.roku.com/netflixplayer for more information.

Note: If you have an Xbox 360, you can stream your Netflix movies from there as well.

Money-saving Sites For Shoppers

With the economy on the down these days, learning how to stretch your dollar is important but a bit difficult with all the shopping you might want to do for Christmas gifts this month. Below are some useful websites and services that will help you save some money this season (and anytime).

In addition to the coupons you love to find in MidWeek and our sister newspaper the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, there are places on the web where you can download coupons and coupon codes for both regular and online shopping.

Here are some of the best ones to visit:

* Fat Wallet (www.fatwallet.com): Out of all the sites out there, this is probably the best one.

* E-bates (www.ebates.com): This one is my next favorite, and I’ve received nice checks from them in the past few years.


* Cool Savings (www.coolsavings.com)

* Valpak (www.valpak.com): This is pretty good at searching by area when you enter in your Zip code. You’ll find a multitude of items from pizza to oil changes to window cleaning.

* eCouponsHawaii.com: A great local website to check out the deals around town.

I also noticed that Google Maps has coupons available by location, but there isn’t much for Hawaii.

Remember that online stores do accept coupons via codes. The common misconception is that you cannot use coupons while you’re shopping online. You can redeem some pretty good deals with the codes you find. For example, at the time I’m writing this, I found 25 percent off Victoria’s Secret, $10 off $100 at Home Depot, $10 off $75 at Macy’s and 10 percent off at Kmart. You’ll usually see offers for free shipping or BOGOs (buy one get one free). If you’re a loyal customer, the retailer will most likely send these types of offers straight to your e-mail. Other than the aforementioned, here are some sites that offer coupon codes:

* Retail Me Not (www.retailmenot.com): Find coupons for more than 20,000 stores by entering in your search subject in the large, easytouse search box in the middle of the page.

* Coupon Cabin (www.couponcabin.com): Offers about 2,700 printable coupons, codes and direct links to savings.

* Current Codes (www.currentcodes.com): This one isn’t bad, but you need to use the drop down menu or browse alphabetically. The other sites are a bit easier to use since you can just type in what you’re looking for.

The use of price-comparison sites can be to your advantage since some stores will match a price you find online. If you want a really good deal, make sure to print out your best online price and take it with you to the store to show to the manager. You can find this function in Fat


Wallet as well, but here are other sites that will do price comparison:

* Price Grabber (www.pricegrabber.com)

* NexTag (www.nextag.com) Shopping.com

* Cheap Uncle (www.cheapuncle.com)

As long as you have access to the Internet, I encourage you to take advantage of these deal websites!