SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny For PSP

Namco Bandai Games recently released SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny, its latest in the SoulCalibur series - but this one is exclusively for Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP). Broken Destiny is the title’s handheld iteration that gives you the signature SoulCalibur weapon-based fighting formula on the go.

You have 28 characters to choose from and they’re available right from the beginning without having to unlock anything. If you’re a SoulCalibur follower, you’ll see some of your old favorites along with some new faces - even a special appearance by Kratos from the God of War game. I was surprised to see him in there, but it’s fun to play his character. In addition, you can create your own character from scratch with the customization tool for physical appearance, apparel and gear. Unlike the characters, these other options need to be unlocked. They’re purely aesthetic since there are no point bonuses associated with what you’re wearing.


For the average user. this game is very easy to grasp right from the start. All you need to do is experiment with the buttons while you’re fighting your opponent, and you’ll eventually figure out the basic horizontal/vertical attacks, kicks and swings with whatever weapon you’re armed with.

Chances are, without reading the manual, you won’t know what every button does, but if you hit the square button (when you’re in the character select menu), that will give you information about your character along with combinations to special moves. Additionally, if you don’t feel comfortable jumping right into the fights, you can practice your overall strategy with over 80 exercise missions, and use your fighting skills and advanced techniques/combos in the training mode.

Overall, I think SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny packs a powerful punch and is a must-have PSP game. The fighters are detailed with smooth/natural animation, the ad hoc multi-player mode works well, and the best part is that I can have SoulCalibur available to play right in my purse. The only disappointment I have with the game is the lack of online play, but at least there’s an option to play against your friends with the ad hoc mode.

SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny is rated “T” for Teen and retails for $39.99. Find it at your nearest GameStop (gamestop.com), Toys N Joys (toysnjoys.com) or on Amazon.com. Check out namcobandaigames.com or soulcalibur.com for more information about the game.

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: MewMew Tower
MewMew Tower has been out for awhile, but I didn’t find it until last week when I saw it on my brother’s iPhone. It’s such a simple game, but so addictively fun. Your goal is to stack as many cats as possible on top one another without making the whole pile topple over. The key is to heap the kitties in a straight line to maintain good balance. Don’t move your iPhone/iPod touch around too much because it affects your tower’s integrity. In the beginning of a game, you’ll see small cats and think to yourself, “Oh, easy.” Then after stacking several of those, the game will throw in some fat cats. Watch out - if you’re not careful, those tubbies are the ones that will make your kitty masterpiece come tumbling down. Find MewMew Tower (aka Tumi Neko) for 99 cents at the iTunes App Store.

The World's Smallest Camcorder

Of the all the announcements from Apple in the last couple weeks, the new iPod nano is hands-down the best one. The capability of this new nano reminds me of the compact Flip Mino camera I reviewed a little over a year ago - but it’s much smaller, and has a greater space capacity and more functionality. Not only did they add a video camera to it, there’s a built-in FM radio with live pause, iTunes Tagging and a pedometer. If you were following the rumor mills, sorry, disappointingly, there’s no iPod touch with a camera yet.

“iPod nano is the world’s most popular music player with over 100 million sold,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And now we’ve added a video camera to its incredibly thin design, without any additional cost to the user.”

This new nano is exactly the same size as the previous one: 3.6 x 1.5 x 0.2 inches. It has a microphone the size of a pinhole and a speaker perfect for on-the-go footage for your blog or Facebook page, or if you’re traveling and don’t want to lug around a huge video camera. The 2.2-inch screen makes it fairly easy to see your images. There are various video effects you can do for fun - black and white, X-ray, thermal, security cam, cyborg, sepia and more. Sadly, its camera does not take still pictures, only video. The speaker isn’t anything special, but good enough for you to play back your videos or audio if your ears are near it.


A few drawbacks on the camera piece: The video quality isn’t as good as a regular camcorder, but it’s certainly better than a typical cell phone. The nano’s video produces standard definition (no HD capability) and there is no image stabilization, so you’ll need to have a steady hand to keep your footage looking good.

As far as the FM radio, Apple is a little late on this capability compared to other music players. I wish the iPhone had this too. Your headphones act as the FM antenna and you can pause live radio for up to 15 minutes by pushing “play” after a phone call. Your music/show then continues right from where you paused it. Theoretically, you can tag songs as you’re listening (to later purchase in iTunes), but so far Clear Channel radio stations are the only ones that transmit this special iTunes tag to make it work.

In addition, the pedometer counts your steps and counts your burned calories. It’s supposed to help you meet your fitness goals. You can also upload your workout data to the iPod+Nike website for complete analysis and/or to compete against others.

The new iPod nano retails for $149/8GB (2,000 songs or eight hours of video), or double your capacity for just a little bit more $179/16GB (4,000 songs or 16 hours of video). Available colors include silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange, pink, and PRODUCT RED and yellow online only. Find the new nano at your nearest Apple Store (apple.com) or Mac Made Easy in Kailua (maceasy.com). Other Apple updates include a new iTunes (iTunes 9), an updated iPod shuffle price ($59) and an iPod touch lineup geared more towards games.

Cell Phone Use and Cancer

I have a friend who is convinced we’ll all end up with brain cancer because we use cell phones. Perhaps there might be some truth in that, but we probably won’t know for sure until several years down the road. In the meantime, the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) research team just released a comprehensive guide to cell phone radiation that rates more than 1,000 cell phones sold in the United States.

“We would like to be able to say that cell phones are safe,” says Olga Naidenko, Ph.D., EWG senior scientist and lead author of the study. “But we can’t. The most recent science, while not conclusive, raises serious issues about the cancer risk of cell phone use that must be addressed through further research. In the meantime, consumers can take steps to reduce exposure.”

There have been concerns about radiation and cell phones for years, but there is no scientific evidence that makes a solid link between cell phone usage and cancer. However, the EWG claims that recent scientific studies have produced evidence that shows an increased risk for brain and mouth tumors linked to cell phone usage. Public health officials’ concerns about the possible dangers of radio frequency emissions are intensifying as the number of wireless devices continues to grow. There are about 270 million Americans who are wireless subscribers (as of December 2008), which is a 30 percent jump in three years.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that all cell phones be rated at 1.6 watts per kilogram (W/kg) or lower. According to the EWG’s guide, the highest-rated phones are T-Mobile’s My Touch 3G, Motorola’s Moto VU204 and the Kyocera Jax S1300, all at 1.55 W/kg. I don’t feel too bad, since my beloved iPhone is right in the middle at 1.19 W/kg. The best phone to own is the Samsung Impression SGH-a877.

Check out www.ewg.org/cellphone-radiation to see the full report, compare where your phone is rated and read some tips on how to reduce your exposure.


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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: reQall
reQall has been around for awhile, but it was just reintroduced with new features and a Pro version. It’s an effortless personal reminder and organizer system that’s perfect for your iPhone. In a nutshell, reQall transcribes what you utter into your iPhone and reminds you via e-mails, text messages, instant messaging or logging onto the Web site. It’s so innovative, it can even use your phone’s GPS to tell you where you parked your car or remind you to buy groceries at Foodland as you’re walking past it.

Download reQall for free at the iTunes App Store. The service for the Pro version will cost you $24.99 per year, but if you stick with reQall Standard, it’s free. Visit reqall.com for more information and to sign up for a free account. When you register for an account, it’ll automatically give you a free 15-day trial of the Pro service.

A side note: Good news for iPhone 3G/3GS users: Multimedia messaging (MMS) will (finally!) be available beginning Sept. 25 through a software upgrade - geez, it’s about time! Unfortunately, this update won’t work with a first-generation iPhone.

Apple's Snow Leopard Upgrade

If you’re a Mac user, chances are you already know about or may have already installed Apple’s latest upgrade that hit the shelves about a week and a half ago: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It came out a little earlier than I thought it would. Perhaps Apple was trying to beat Microsoft’s release of Windows 7 in October.

“Snow Leopard builds on our most successful operating system ever and we’re happy to get it to users earlier than expected,” says Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “For just $29, Leopard users get a smooth upgrade to the world’s most-advanced operating system and the only system with built-in Exchange support.”

Snow Leopard doesn’t have any “new” features to boast about. It’s more of a huge refinement to the already smooth-running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system. But before you even think about installing it, make sure you have a good backup! If you are currently using Time Machine, that’s perfect. Just be sure to capture the latest image before you do the install/upgrade. Once you have it installed, you’ll notice it’s truly an optimized version of Leopard. The startup time is faster, and you’ll have some free space on your hard drive (varies depending on what type of machine you have). I now have an extra 18 GB on my hard drive, but some people on the forums are claiming to have freed up 40 GB.


Apple engineers have spent loads of time working on improvements for Snow Leopard. Some of the refinements you’ll see include a more responsive Finder, Time Machine backups up to 80 percent faster, a Dock with Expose integration, QuickTime X (with a redesigned player that allows you to easily view, record, trim and share video), and a 64-bit version of Safari that runs up to 50 percent faster and is resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins.

For the first time, some of the applications are 64-bit and make use of large amounts of RAM, increase performance and improve security while still remaining compatible with 32-bit applications. Important for business folks, there is built-in support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 directly in Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal to send/receive e-mail, create/respond to invitations and search/manage contacts with global address lists.

Among other things I discovered on my own is the clock - when you travel, it works as a mobile phone and adjusts the time automatically in time zones. The menu bar shows the date, not just the day of the week. See the strength of nearby wireless hotspots and go through a pdf document or watch a movie right within a file’s icon. Common text substitutions let you create shortcuts for items you use frequently and expand as you type (i.e. changing (c) to a © symbol).

Bottom line: The very affordable $29 price is worth it. If you need/want the additional software, you’ll have to pay a hefty $169 for the Mac Box Set (includes the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, iDVD and iWork 09). Note you’ll need a Mac with an Intel processor, at least 1GB of free disk space and a minimum of 1 GB of memory.

Find Snow Leopard at your nearest Apple Store (apple.com) or at Mac Made Easy in Kailua (maceasy.com).

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: Facebook’s New Look
The updated Facebook iPhone/iPod touch app makes a world of difference since it now closely mirrors the functions of the actual Web site. The first thing I noticed after I did the update was the new icons. They’re now easy to see, which makes it easier to navigate. Landscape mode is supported and it’s easier on the eyes.

Other notable features are the ability to quickly dial or text your friends and see their birthdays, sort through your friends either by first or last name, perform easy searches for people and pages, upload photos to any album (not just your mobile album), upload videos from an iPhone 3GS, create shortcuts to your favorite friends/pages, and more.

You’ll need the iPhone OS 3.0 or later to run this app, but if you’re a chronic Facebooker, you’ll want to download this. Find it for free at the iTunes App Store.

TrickleStar - Power Savers

I’ve seen my power bill fluctuate up and down over the past couple of years, and I do everything I can to try to save electricity. Recently my monthly bill has gone down from the average of $400 I was paying to about $250 now. I’m all about turning off the lights when I’m not using them, and I’ll even sit in the dark while I’m watching TV or using my computer. Hey, every little bit helps, right?

Going even further with saving money, TrickleStar makes a line of easy-touse standby power products that help you conserve electricity used by little things you probably wouldn’t think of as power wasters: computers and televisions, along with their peripherals (i.e. printers, cable modems, speakers, scanners, DVD/Blu-ray players, game consoles). TrickleStar stops the flow of standby power when these items are in “standby” mode.

“When you consider that standby power has been estimated as contributing to as much as 12 percent of consumers’ electricity bills - in the home or office environment - you realize just how much standby power costs, not just for the impact it has on our hip pockets, but on the electrical grid and the planet,” says Bernard Emby, founder of TrickleStar. “We have developed a range of industry-leading products that will give Americans the peace of mind that they are putting a stop to the constant flow of standby power - and at the same time are reducing their power bills and their environmental footprint.”


The two products I plugged in at home are the PC TrickleSaver and the TV TrickleSaver. You need to plug each into a power strip to manage multiple connected devices, but there is no need to replace your existing power strips. The PC TrickleSaver connects to your computer via a standard USB cable and detects the power status of your system via its USB port. Likewise, the TV TrickleSaver has built-in current-sensing circuitry that senses when your TV is on or off. Both are extremely painless to plug in and set up.

In addition, the TrickleStar Web site (www.tricklestar.com) has a standby power calculator to help you figure out how much you can save. Adding on all of my components (including my PS3) and the amount of time I use, it indicated I can save about $129.26/year for my TV component and $54.94/year for my computer. Not bad for little things.

For more information and to purchase the TrickleSavers, visit the TrickleStar Web site. The PC TrickleSaver is $24.95 and the TV TrickleSaver is $34.95.

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: Sheep Launcher
Sheep Launcher is one of those addicting yet simple iPhone/iPod touch apps that keeps you occupied for long periods of time. You push the big red button to launch your sheep, and you keep tapping him as fast as you can to boost him higher and higher in the air. On the way up, you can collect power-up items such as a helium tank, a rocket pack or a flying saucer. Additionally, pick up as many stars as you can to increase your final score.

The higher you climb the more challenging the game becomes, and you can even compete against other players worldwide to try to be one of the top 50 players. If you purchase the full version (Sheep Launcher Plus!) you’ll see a few more features, plus be able to go beyond our solar system to discover what’s out there. Sheep Launcher Free! is free, and Sheep Launcher Plus! costs 99 cents at the iTunes App Store.