Room-to-room tunes with Eos Wireless

A little gift my husband brought back for me from Macworld was IntelliTouch’s Eos Wireless, a multiroom speaker system for iPods. I’ve always wanted a way to stream music throughout the whole house, and this Eos Wireless does the trick. It transmits your iPod’s music to any room with up to four speakers (150 feet range). All the units have a built-in surround sound and a sub-woofer.

It was intriguing to rip open the box, since most iPod docks are meant for use in one room only. I set up the main console in the kitchen and the other three speakers in the living room, bedroom and upstairs hallway. It was an absolute breeze to set up - a truly easy, out-of-the box, complete house sound solution. While plugging in the remote speakers, the first thing I noticed was each antenna blinking blue, immediately recognizing the wireless signal from the base station.


At first I turned the speakers up all the way to see what the system could do (each speaker’s volume is controlled individually and manually by turning the knob). The Eos Wireless’ concept of having wireless speakers work all over the house is great. The wireless works flawlessly, but the sound quality is not so great if you play your music loud. There is almost no bass, and you can’t adjust it or the treble (it also depends on the song). In addition, it does not charge an iPhone 3G, but it charges the first-generation iPhone or an iPod touch with no problems.


If you have it playing somewhat softly as background music, it sounds really nice. But again, if you’re really listening to your music and rocking out to those sounds, the speakers are not the best, but good enough for functionality. If you don’t care that much about the lack of bass and are more interested in the concept of listening to music wire-lessly anywhere around your house, then this will work for you as a relatively inexpensive way to set up entire-home audio.

Eos Wireless comes in black or white and retails for $249.95 on its website (http://www.eoswireless.com) or Amazon.com. Right now there’s a $169 special if you purchase a white one. This includes the base station and one satellite speaker. Each additional speaker retails for $139.95 ($99 each for the white special).

Click Chick’s App of the Week: iSteam

When I was a kid, I looked forward to bath/shower time, partially so I could wait for the mirrors to fog up and draw pictures all over the place. For those grown-up kids who still do this, you can now create the same effect on your iPhone touch with iSteam. It has absolutely no practical value, but it’s fun and made a ton of money for its creators, with the download mark at well over 1 million.

You can choose your own background picture from your photo library, and to “fog up the glass,” you blow on the microphone (sorry, can’t do that on the iPod touch since there’s no mic). The harder you blow on your microphone, the quicker the haze forms. This makes your whole iPhone interface fog up with steam, complete with condensation and drips (thanks to steamX physics). When you write something on it, you’ll hear the finger squeaking sounds as you would on a real mirror - good sound effect.

You also can shake your iPhone to completely clear the screen. This app costs 99 cents and is well worth it for a little pointless fun (if anything, it’s a fun way to pass your friends notes).

MacSpeech Dictate

MacSpeech Dictate first came out at last year’s Macworld , but I never did have the opportunity to test it out. Well, I’m testing it out right now as I am “writing” this. I have the headset on, the microphone is close to my mouth and my hands are not even touching my keyboard. This is an awesome way to do my writing!

“MacSpeech Dictate empowers Mac users to create documents with their voice instead of typing,” explains Andrew Taylor, president and CEO of MacSpeech Inc. “MacSpeech Dictate delivers fast setup, quick command recognition, high accuracy and increased productivity even for those using MacSpeech Dictate simply to make their life easier.”

Setting up MacSpeech Dictate is quick and simple. The program takes you through a few screens and has you read off multiple paragraphs so it can become acquainted with your voice. During this process, it’s best to make sure the microphone is relatively close to your mouth and that you use a natural voice while speaking clearly and continuously.

I noticed the program has a difficult time recognizing certain words, so they won’t come out the way you want (such as Hawaiian words or contractions). It won’t help to yell into the microphone because you’ll just keep seeing your wrong word appear over and over again.

The instructions say you’re not supposed to alternate between dictating and typing, as it may lead to unexpected behavior from MacSpeech Dictate, but I did it on and off throughout this story to fix the inconsistent words and a few spacing issues. Otherwise, I hardly had to touch the keyboard to write this. Even deleting words is easy - all you need to say is “scratch that” or “forget that” and it deletes the last phrase you stated.

I’m enjoying the fact that MacSpeech Dictate talks to all of the programs I have loaded on my computer. I can use it with iChat, Storyist (the book-writing software) and, of course, Microsoft Word, which is what I am using to “write” this. A menu appears on the right side of your desktop and you can choose what program you need MacSpeech Dictate to work with.

I can see this being extremely helpful for individuals struggling with carpal tunnel syndrome since you don’t have to use your keyboard. There are other speech-recognition programs out there, but MacSpeech Dictate is the most intuitive one I’ve seen. Using this program, it took me half the time as usual to write my column. This is definitely a time-saving winner for all of my writing projects. MacSpeech Dictate costs $199 and you can find it at your nearest Apple Store (www.apple.com) or online at Amazon.com.

Mobile Gamer Guys roll into your party

Last weekend I had the pleasure of checking out the Mobile Gamer Guys’ (MGG) buses they had set up at the Great Hawaiian Dodgeball Challenge. How fun - playing your favorite video games in a cool, air-conditioned bus while you’re at a party or gathering with your friends and family! This whole concept was the brainchild of Kalani Miller, Chris Gongora, Shawn Haruno and Caesar Paet (not pictured).

The guys have equipped the inside of each bus with eight Xbox 360 stations (with wall-mounted 19-inch TVs), and on the outside is a 42-inch TV with a Nintendo Wii (with an option to watch your favorite pro game on ESPN). At your party, all the games and hardware are provided, including favorites Halo 3, Call of Duty 5: World At War or Guitar Hero, or classics such as Pac-Man.There’salways an MGG guy around to run and monitor your games so you don’t have to worry if you don’t know what you’re doing.


So far there are two buses here on Oahu, and when you book them together you can play one bus against the other (up to eight against eight players) - perfect for game tournaments. I thought the buses would have been connected to each other wirelessly, but there’s a CAT-5 cable hooking them together to create the local area network (LAN). Each bus is self-contained with electricity (via generators) and air-conditioning. No worries, it won’t use up your power, but if you’re far away (25-plus miles away from 96817), you’ll pay a small fuel surcharge.

According to Miller, MGG is planning to expand in the near future with two buses on both Maui and in Kona, and to purchase more buses for Oahu. In addition, MGG is gearing up to add more features such as Internet service (Wi-Fi hotspot), expanded TV service, gift bags and even catering. So far MGG does-n’t have PlayStation 3 capability, but perhaps in the future, guys (hint, hint) ...

Prices vary depending on the day of the week, how many hours you need it and the number of buses you use. As long as you have space for the bus(es) to park, you can turn just about any party into a video game arcade. Visit www.mobilegamerguys.com for more information and to view the calendar for available dates, or call 692-2729.

Palm Unveils Its Pre At The CES

Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) there was one rock-star phone that stood out above the plethora of same-old phones you see all the time - the Pre. Of all companies, Palm came out of the woodwork and announced its new Pre phone to be available exclusively with Sprint sometime in the first half of this year. Even though Palm didn’t even have a booth at CES, its stock went up since this announcement, and the Pre won CNET’s Best in Show Awards. There are buzzings as to whether or not this will be the iPhone killer, but I doubt it.

“Palm products have always been about simplifying lives and delivering great user experiences,” says Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer. “webOS and Pre bring game-changing simplicity to an increasingly mobile world by dissolving the barriers that surround your information. It’s technology that seems like it’s thinking ahead to bring you what you care about most - your people, your time, and your information - in the easiest and most seamless way.”

The Pre is the first of Palm’s phones to use this new webOS mobile platform, yet it shows a few iPhone ripoffs - a touchscreen with multi-touch functionality, the pinching to zoom in and out, flicking to your next photo and an online software catalog (trying to copy the App Store). I guess it’s not all that surprising since this project was led by Jon Rubinstein, the engineer executive who was instrumental in creating the iPod and iMac line with Apple.


“Pre continues Sprint’s leadership in open access to the content customers want for a great web-connected experience,” says Dan Hesse, Sprint chief executive officer. “We look forward to bringing this remarkably innovative device to our customers on America’s most dependable 3G network.”

Some of the other cool features that set the Pre apart from the iPhone include a slide-out thumb keyboard (people sometimes gripe about the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard), wireless charging with the Touchstone charging dock (to be sold separately), Synergy (pulls all your contacts from Outlook, Google/Gmail, Facebook). The Pre will support various Sprint services, including Sprint TV(live and on-demand programming), Sprint Navigation (GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions) and Sprint Radio (150+ channels and streaming radio). Some other main but not-shocking features are a 3.1-inch touch screen (320x480 resolution), 8 GB of internal storage, three-megapixel camera, removable battery (you can’t remove the iPhone’s battery) and the integrated GPS.

As far as the Pre being an “iPhone killer,” I think just about every major company that makes a phone has its signature “knock-off iPhone,” and for Palm, this is it. This Pre appears to be good phone, but it’s difficult to make a judgment call without actually being able to play with it myself. For the diehard Sprint user who does-n’t want to switch to AT&T to use an iPhone, this would be something to consider.

The price for the Pre has not been determined, but since it’s comparable to other smart phones, it could perhaps cost $200-$400. We shall see when it finally comes out. Visit www.palm.com/store to learn more or be added to Pre’s notification list.

Sony’s VAIO P Series Lifestyle in your pocket

One of the hottest items at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2009 was Sony’s VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC. This amazing little 1.4-pound notebook won CNET’s Best of CES 2009 award in the Computer and Hardware category, and is so small you can fit it into your purse or pocket. It sort of reminds me of the competing Asus Eee PC I wrote about almost exactly a year ago, but this is way better!

“The VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC is your portal to the world, delivering entertainment and computing in a head-turning device that’s small enough to put in your pocket,” says Mike Abary, senior vice president of VAIO product marketing at Sony Electronics. “Designed for the fashionista in all of us, it’s the ideal companion.”


Sony used its Lifestyle PC to inch its way into the popular mini laptop market (competing with the aforementioned Asus Eee PC or Dell Mini 9), and features Sony’s XBRITE-ECO LCD technology. The display is an eight-inch, high-resolution 1600x768 LED backlit screen, and the tiny full keyboard is about the size of a standard envelope.

One of the best features of the P series is that it has a real-time GPS functionality without the use of an Internet connection (within the United States or Canada). You can find your favorite restaurant or long lost friend’s house by simply typing in the address or keyword. It then will give you turn-by-turn directions to include estimated drive times to let you know how far away you are from your destination.


In addition, it has a built-in wireless WAN 3G Mobile Broadband, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You can use your 3G (via Verizon Wireless (subscription required) outside the reach of hotspots, and the Bluetooth to connect to your peripherals. There’s an instant-mode option that launches the Xross Media Bar, which lets you boot up rapidly and access music, videos, photos and the Web. There’s even a built-in webcam - perfect for video chatting with friends and family.

The VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC will come loaded with Windows Vista and will be available in black, white, red or green. The retail price is slated to start at $900. Options include a 128GB solid state model, carrying cases, Bluetooth color-coordinated mice and a large capacity battery (gives you eight hours instead of four). You can preorder a Lifestyle PC online at http://www.sony.com/pr/pseries. It will be available in stores late January to early February.

Click Chick’s App of the Week - FooPets

If you are a dog lover, you may want to download and adopt FooMojo’s FooPets Marley Puppy. The little doggie is derived from the autobiographical book (and popular movie) Marley & Me by John Grogan. He’s an interactive replica of the movie’s Labrador retriever with his own personality.You can pet, feed and play with your virtual dog, and he’ll provide you with a ton of entertainment.

I enjoy this app because this virtual pup reminds me of the dog I had while growing up. The app could use some work - it would be nice if you could take him for a walk, groom him, watch him grow up or interact with other people’s Foopets online. Additionally, in the middle of playing with your dog you’ll see a Marley & Me ad pop in there every so often. If that’s the case, the app should be free, but it costs 99 cents. Despite that, I still recommend it - it’s too cute!

Apple's Latest Stuff

Since I couldn’t make it to Macworld this year, I asked my husband, Mr. Click Chick, to gather as much information as he could, along with items at the Consumer Electronics Show. Here’s a start:


iLife ‘09: iLife ‘09 features major upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, and includes iDVD and an updated version of iWeb (new iWeb Widgets: iSight video/photos, countdown timer, YouTube video and RSS feeds). “iLife continues to be one of the biggest reasons our customers choose to get a Mac,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With iLife ‘09, we’ve made working with photos, making movies and learning to play music a lot more fun, and iMovie users are especially going to love the advanced but easy-to-use new features.”

The new iPhoto allows you to browse and search photos based on when they were shot (Events), who appears in them (Faces) and where they were shot (Places). It automatically scans photos to detect people’s faces and assign a name to any face, and iPhoto will find more pictures of that person. Your library can be searched by name or browsed with the Faces View. Places imports photo location data from your iPhone (or any GPS-enabled phone), or assigns a location to a photo, group of photos or event. Once iPhoto knows where your photos were taken, you can explore them with a search on an interactive map.


Your photos already on Facebook include assigned names, and the nametags you add on Facebook sync back to iPhoto. iMovie allows you to quickly create a movie and add refinements and special effects. You can drag and drop one clip on top of another to reveal the new, advanced editing options (replace, insert, audio only, picture-in-picture or green screen). Using its Precision Editor, you can skim on a magnified filmstrip to view clips and fine-tune an edit. iMovie’s ability to analyze video and reduce camera-shaking in clips, along with the new titles, transitions, cinematic effects, speed changes and animated travel maps, add a professional polish to your movie.

Lastly, GarageBand offers a new way to help you learn piano and guitar with lessons at your own pace (Basic Lessons). Artist Lessons feature original artists (Sarah Bareilles, John Fogerty, Norah Jones and more) and are sold at the GarageBand Lesson Store. iLife ‘09 is included with every new Mac purchase and will be available later this month for $79 upgrade for existing users. You can find it at your nearest Apple Store (http://www.apple.com) or Mac Made Easy (http://www.maceasy.com). Note: It will run only on Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later. iTunes Store Changes: Apple unveiled a new 17-inch MacBook Pro, which features a new builtin battery that delivers up to eight hours of use and 1,000 recharges (more than three times a conventional notebook battery). It has a 1920 x 1200 display with 78 percent more pixels than the 15-inch MacBook Pro. It comes with Intel Core 2 Duo processors (available up to 2.93 Ghz), up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, and a standard 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive (or optional 320GB 7200 rpm, and 128GB/256GB solid state drives).


The new 17-inch retails for $2,799, and will be sold at the end of January. Adepleted battery can be replaced for $179 (same vendor information as above). iWork 09: iWork 09 is the latest version of Apple’s productivity suite similar to Microsoft Office. An iWork.com public beta is out there to develop sharing iWork 09 documents online. As for the applications, “Keynote” allows you to apply a simple transition to animate the position, scale, rotation and opacity of an image, graphic or text that is repeated on consecutive slides. “Pages” lets you focus your document and reveals menus, format bar and page navigator only when you need it. Lastly, “Numbers” gives you a way to quickly categorize your data by column, and gives you easy formula writing. iWork costs $79, or $49 with the purchase of a Mac (same vendor information as above).

Sonic Unleashed

Sonic is back with Sega’s Sonic Unleashed, released last month. The game is available for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 and 3; I played the PlayStation 3 version. Powered by the new “Hedgehog Engine,"the game merges the classic 2D Sonic gameplay with 3D visuals.

As with previous Sonic releases, it’s pretty much the same as far as Sonic trying to save the world from Dr. Eggman. You’re on a journey across the globe after Dr. Eggman acquired the Chaos Emeralds and used them to activate a super weapon that split the earth apart. This event physically changed Sonic into a beast. The Sonic beast, called a “werehog,” comes out at night and changes the way he moves and reacts to things, in contrast to the regular Sonic we’ve all come to know and love.

The game levels are split between night and day. The daytime levels look somewhat similar to the original, but a bit spiced up in comparison to the16-bit 2D Sonic. You’ll see the classic Sonic speed runs in the daytime, and the nighttime Sonic reveals a more beat-’em-up type of personality. The nighttime werehog allows you to fight the enemies, complete with combo attacks and the ability to perform finishing moves on certain opponents. The battles with the bosses at the end of these levels keep things a bit interesting.


Even with that in mind,I still prefer the day levels, since you play as the regular Sonic and the graphics are fairly nice. For whatever reason, the night levels seemed to load up slightly slower on my PS3. Actually, I think I could live without the nighttime levels altogether. I wasn’t too thrilled with Sonic the werehog.

Another observation: The game’s music is the same as the classic Sonic along with some additional sound effects thrown in.
The daytime levels are the most similar to the old Sonic with which I’m familiar, and after playing Sonic Unleashed, if I’m going to play Sonic, I still prefer the original Sonic the Hedgehog from the 1990s on the good ol’Sega Genesis. Unfortunately, there’s no replay value with this game. Since it’s highly unlikely you would want to go through the whole thing again, it might be better to rent it. The total gameplay will probably take you about 10 to 12 hours to complete.

Sonic Unleashed is a one-player game, rated E10 for players age 10 and up. The price ranges from $29.99 to $49.99 (depending on the platform). You can find it at your nearest GameStop (http://www.gamestop.com), Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com) or Toys N Joys (http://www.toys-njoys.com).

Click Chick’s App of the Week: HP iPrint Photo

The first app of its kind, HP iPrint Photo is free and gives you the ability to easily print photos to any HP inkjet printer connected to your Wi-Fi network (make sure it’s an inkjet printer - it will not work with laser printers). You can quickly print borderless 4-by-6 photos directly to your printer with a few touches to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

This application is fully compatible with Apple’s Bonjour technology, which automatically identifies HP wireless printers or other HP supported printers available on your network. As long as you have the iPhone 2.0 Software Update, this will work wonderfully with your device.

Apple & Macworld 2009

Happy New Year!

A new year for me means new gadgets, video games and innovations. This week, the two biggest technology shows that I love to attend - Macworld Expo (Jan. 5-9) and the Consumer Electronics Show (Jan. 8-9) - are kicking off my tech year. Unfortunately, I cannot attend either show this year because of my duty to Uncle Sam, but through the coming months I’ll keep you informed about whatever I learn and all the cool stuff my husband (aka Mr. Click Chick) sees there.

Adding to my disappointment is that Apple is pulling out of Macworld in 2010. The official announcement stated: “Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s retail stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com web-site enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways. Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.” I suppose everyone is scaling back in some way because of the bad economy these days, but Apple pulling out of Macworld?! I think that will pretty much kill all future Macworlds. And, on top of that, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs will not give one of his famous keynote speeches at this likely final Macworld.


Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, will be the fill-in. My guess is it’s because Jobs is ill and unable to do it (so the rumor mills say). I do hope he’s all right, but no official announcements have been released. Too bad I can’t see what happens with the Macworld silent protest, too (it’ll be over by the time this publishes). A bunch of angry Mac fans are upset about the Jobs-less Macworld keynote.

The attempt is led by Lesa Snider King, and this is what she says on her website: “By announcing their departure from this beloved show hosted by IDG, Apple is sending a message to the entire community - professionals, hobbyists, media, Mac User Groups and even IDG themselves - that they care nothing for the community who supported them through thick and thin.” King’s website is http://www.silentkeynote.com.


All the Apple/Macworld drama aside, I expect CES to be as good as always. I’ve already received pre-announcements for a multitude of cool stuff, but I’m still sad I can’t see any of it right away. I do feel a tad better knowing that CES probably won’t be as grand as it was in past years, since a few big-name participants have dropped out or scaled back their booths/tents. Additionally, attendance is down about 8 percent.

CES’s main highlights will include thin TVs (i.e. Sony’s OLED TVs), web-connected TVs, products with new wireless standards, green technology and wireless power, just to name a few.

There will be 2,700-plus exhibitors total, with 300 of those first-time exhibitors, including Blockbuster, Chumby, Electronic Arts, EyeFi, Huawei, Hyundai/Kia, Mattel, Phoenix Technology, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Verizon Wireless and ooma (featured in my Dec. 31 column).

Perhaps Apple will join in on CES next year if its not going to do Macworld.

We shall see ...

Cool tools to survive the next power outage

When the power went out last week, I was sitting in a theater waiting for a movie to start. Just when the opening credits started rolling, everything went dark and the theater’s emergency lights went on. Little did I know the outage was nearly islandwide and would last the entire night.

By checking the Twitter posts on my iPhone, within under a minute I learned the different areas the outage struck and that it was almost islandwide. The power of Twitter (http://twitter.com) is absolutely amazing. It was interesting, informative and sometimes entertaining reading everyone’s tweets and what they were going through during the outage. Kudos to all my fellow Twitter folks for keeping each other updated during this! It was just a portion of what kept me going through the night.

It took about an hour-and-a-half to drive home with all the traffic, and we managed to stop to acquire some ice for the cooler along the way, all the while listening to Perry &Price on AM 590 - thanks, guys, for an awesome job keeping everyone up-to-date! I must say that everyone on the roads with no traffic lights seemed to be cooperating and courteous at four-way stops.

After finally getting home and having to manually open our garage door, I whipped out some of the items from my emergency/hurricane cabinet. I refused to give up my gadgets along with Internet connectivity and ran them with backup power.

Besides the obvious candles and Maglite flashlight, to the right of my MacBook Pro you’ll see in the accompanying photo an extra laptop battery and a wind-up LED lantern - one of the greatest assets you can have in an emergency kit. Along with those candles, that little lamp lit up our house with no batteries - just lots of winding. I’ve had it for a while now, but you can find similar ones on Amazon.com by typing “wind-up LED lantern"in the search box. There you also will find wind-up flashlights and radios (we have a wind-up radio, too, but I didn’t include it in the photo).

My favorite part of the whole night were the iPhone battery backups and my Sprint card. We were using two different iPhone batteries - the more-thing Rechargeable Emergency Battery (http://www.more-thing.com, $30) and the Turbo Charge TC2 Portable Charger for iPod and iPhone (http://www.turbocellcharge.com, $24.95). More-thing’s device lasts two to four hours and can be reused up to 300 times. The only issue with this is it has to be charged up in order to work - good thing ours was.

The TC2 runs off two AA batteries, so it’s a little more flexible. Those two batteries are able to fully charge your iPhone/iPod up to three times, so I didn’t have to change out the batteries even once during the outage.

Thankfully, mobile phone service was not affected by the outage, so my Sprint card was working to give me Internet on the laptop (until my two batteries died). I have the Compass 597 ($249.99 - waived with a two-year agreement), and pay a little more than $60 for the service. Having it during travels and power-outage nights makes the fee worth it. If you’re primarily here on-island, the other alternative is Mobi’s Hele Wireless Broadband service ($34 per month, no contract required). Whoever had Mobi cards stayed connected as well.

Our power was finally restored about 4:30 a.m. Saturday, and the above items are what kept me going through the night, and are just a small bit of what you can do to prepare for an outage or other emergency if you can’t seem to give up your electronics. I still need to buy a generator for the house, too, one of these days - after going through the outage, it’ll probably be sooner than later ...

App of the Week: SnapTell

The free app SnapTell lets you snap a picture of the cover of any CD, DVD, Blu-ray, book or video game, and you’ll see a rating along with where you can buy it close to your physical location as well as online with the complete range of prices. I found that after you snap a picture, it takes an average of 30 seconds (on my iPhone 3G) for it to find the product. You’ll see faster results using a WiFi connection.

Only products sold in the U.S. are supported currently, but international items soon will be added to the product categories. Since the iPod touch doesn’t have a camera on it, you’ll only be able to use SnapTell with an iPhone. Visit http://snaptell.com for more information and demos.