Tech Gift Ideas for the Holidays

Apple iPad 2 ($499, WiFi) is our top choice. It’s a tablet computer that lets you surf the Internet, send and receive email, double as an eReader, take photos and HD video, display your location, keep your calendar, play games and hundred of thousands of other things using apps available from the App Store free or to buy.

Another good choice: eReaders. Amazon’s Kindle ($79+) and Barnes and Noble’s Nook ($99+) are the most popular. Both offer access to a huge selection of books, magazines and the like. Some versions include Internet browsing capability, photo slide shows and more.

Tablet computers or cell phones users will like the Breffo Spiderpodium ($16+). Eight bendable legs to configure as a stand or wrapped around poles will hold a device in the position needed.





Looking to spend less? Check out USB thumb drives (2GB to 124GB, $10+). They come as a Swarovski crystal pendant, hidden in a Swiss Army Knife, in mini animal or character statuettes, a pen, shaped as surf boards and lots of other shapes.

How about Just Dance 2 or 3 ($40) for the Wii gaming console?   Great for fun exercise or just dancing.

Digital Photo Picture Frames ($59+): Just add photos for a personal gift they’ll love.

It’s OK to give a useful gift too: Rebit ($179, 2TB), a backup system to safeguard all computer files; details in previous posting below.

More on each of these on our web site at www.norma-tony.com.

Easy Backup and Recovery

We’ve been doing manual backups of everything on our computers forever. The process takes a lot of time, but we don’t want to deal with what can happen when you have no backups . .

We wanted a simpler way to secure our computer info and aren’t comfortable just yet with “Cloud” backup, so when Norma switched to the Mac world, there it was: the Time Machine: continuous backup to an external hard drive. No muss, fuss or bother--but a huge timesaver when the dreaded hard drive failure happened. 

 After that, we searched for a similar way to secure Tony’s PC. We found Rebit (Rebit, Inc., 2TB $180, www.rebit.com) backup hard drive and recovery software, which backs up everything on your PC-—and keeps on doing it with every file you create or change. Ditto system files and the like.

Disaster recovery is easy. If your PC suffers a hard drive crash, just install a new hard drive and boot the computer with the included Rebit Recovery CD. You can select the point in time you want to restore from (usually the most recent), and your hard drive is restored exactly as it was at that time.

Rebit is a must have for easy, ease-of-mind backup and recovery. We did notice a modest slowdown in performance in Tony’s PC, but we think it’s a small price to pay for knowing we can recover what we need if we have a computer problem (again). There’s more info at: http://www.norma-tony.com/093011.htm

Google Calendar - Free and Easy

“Free” and “Easy” are part of what makes Google Calender (www.google.com/calendar) a terrific help in keeping you organized. Use it to add single events (Little League game, doctor appointment), recurring events (birthdays, anniversaries, other yearly events), or monthly or weekly activities. Make it fun, decorate with a birthday cake, soccer ball . . . you get the idea.

Display business, personal, organization calendars and the like by different colors, separately or with all calendars together, by day, week or month. Google saves your calendar on its cloud servers, ready to use any time, from anywhere.
 

 

Share your calendar with family, friends, business associates or organization members, sync with your desktop calendar, access it on the go or print a hard copy. It’s available in 40 languages and tracks appointments across time zones.

Need to set up meetings between members of your organization? Just pick a date and time, and Google Calendar checks each member’s calendars; if that time and date is clear, it adds the event to each person’s calendar. If not, it suggests alternate “clear” times for everyone. Saves all those phone calls or emails.

Ditto for a family or school reunions and the like. Or use the calendar to send invitations and track replies.

Google Calender can send you reminders of events via email, text message or a popup window and lets you add a mini-version to your Internet browser’s home page so it is always there.

No excuse not to get organized now. Free and easy works! More info in our column at www.norma-tony.com

Searching The Internet: Tips And Tricks

You know the information is on the Internet somewhere, but with BILLIONS of Web pages and sites, how do you find what you want?

Use search engines -- those specialized Web sites such as Google.com, Yahoo.com, Bing.com or ask.com. Enter words or phrases related to info you want, and the search engine displays a list of Web sites that include your search words or phrases.

Each search engine has its own set of rules so may not display the same results. Try more than one site or use meta search engines, such as Metacrawler.com or DogPile.com, which simultaneously search several search engines.

Or, narrow your search by using:

* phrases in quotes that search for a whole phrase rather than individual words.

* the + or - signs to include or exclude specific words.

* advanced search to specify languages, file formats or other parameters.

* a wild card symbol * when not sure of word ending.

* natural language, such as “My computer locks up when I try to save a Word document to a thumb drive.”

* a comprehensive list of search engines www.search-engine-index.co.uk.

* parental controls for safe searching; also www.askkids.com.

* help menu from each site.

Be patient and persistent to get results.

Explore (surf) the Internet with www.awwwards.com for sites that have won awards for good design and useful content, or try www.stumbleupon.com. But be sure your anti-virus and anti-malware is installed and up to date.

Fun, Creative Story Writing Using Technology

We’ve discovered some terrific programs that can spark the creative spirit in children and give parents and grandparents hours of fun watching what happens:

StoryBird book cover

Storybird (www.storybird.com) encourages building a story from a set of images you drag and drop onto the page and then add text to develop the story. The images are wonderful, drawn by professional artists and are mostly “open ended,” suggesting multiple interpretations. Create as many pages as you want, rearrange or edit and save.

An added value is in getting two or more children to toss ideas back and forth and collaborate on a project. They’ll have a ball doing it. Publish the story free on the Storybird website to share and have others comment on, or pay a fee and have it printed as a keepsake.

Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu) lets you create interactive stories, games, fun animation and more, all while learning some principles of logic programming by snapping together color coded blocks that represent various commands. 

Commands control the actions of on-screen figures, sound, music and narration, take input from the keyboard or mouse and more. Children soon get beyond the nuts-and-bolts of programming commands to the fun of interactive story creation.

Zooburst (www.zooburst.com) lets you write stories and illustrate them with provided images, which can be assembled into a 3-D pop-up page viewed on screen. For even more fun, add pop-up text balloons or record your voice, speaking as a character when clicked or, using a webcam, include yourself surrounded by the 3-D story characters.

These are fun ways for youngsters–or adults--to create stories.

Free Music From the Internet

A great choice of free music is available to stream from music services such as Pandora, or Spotify, allowing you to listen to a vast selection without having to rip CDs or copy files.

Spotify (www.spotify.com) is new in this country and offers streaming music from a choice of more than 15 million songs.

Spotify offers several choices: What’s New details newly-released albums, including album art and track listing. Top Lists show the hottest tracks or albums chosen by other users. Feed connects to other users to share new finds or playlists and the latest news from Spotify.

We used the provided free software to build playlists by dragging and dropping tracks. Play for enjoyment, share with friends using Facebook, or sync the playlists with your iPod, iPhone, Android or (soon) iPad.

Spotify’s free version includes ads and a time limit. Premium version ($9.99/month) has no ads, unlimited access, enhanced sound quality and allows streaming to mobile devices.

Pandora (www.pandora.com) takes a different approach. Custom “radio stations” are created after you enter an artist, song or genre that’s used to match more than 100 characteristics to produce a playlist for you.

Refine the selections by indicating those you like or don’t. You won’t see the playlist, and selections are randomized, but when we used Pandora, we were usually happy with their selections.

The free version lets you set up radio stations and stream music, has a time limit, and includes ads. Pandora One ($36/yr) offers unlimited time, no ads and improved quality sound. Mobile versions are available for iPhone, iPad and iPod.                                   

More Life With An iPad

 We keep finding fun and effective ways to use our iPad, but we’re also hearing from readers who found it helpful in other ways. A reader who has a medical condition that made it impossible to hold books for reading or sit without pain when using a computer found the inherent mobility and flexibility of the iPad helped with both problems. The reader said “the iPad gave me back my books, my computer games and Internet!”

The included Internet browser, based on Apple’s Safari, allows searching, surfing and more. Internet uses open a world of opportunities. We can go to our favorite sites from our iPad with touch ease and enjoy all the Internet has to offer--all with us wherever we are. Also bundled with the iPad is Apple’s Mail program, which can support several email accounts, so we each can check our email and reply, print or delete messages. Internet and email do require being logged on at a WiFi hotspot (including your home wireless network) or having the 3G/4G version of the iPad, and printing requires a network connected printer.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of all we can do, and we’re  still learning. Stay tuned.

More Life With An iPad

We’ve had a great time discovering some of the fun apps that come with our iPad 2, but we also enjoy the ways we can use it to have information at our fingertips, anywhere, any time.

For example, we’ve set up our family calendar and contact list on our iPad. It was a snap to use iTunes to sync our current Mac calendar and contact list into the iPad, so we can see appointments, recurring events, holidays, contact information and more while on the go. Any changes we make on the iPad can be synced to the Mac and vice versa,

Another app we like that comes with the iPad is Maps, which uses the GPS in the iPad to pinpoint our location and provide text and map directions to desired destinations. The GPS also displays a tracking ball that shows your route as you move along. Cool.

Although many smart phones can perform these calendar and map functions, the large, bright screen makes everything easier to see, and the touch screen makes interaction easier.

Now to move on to those nearly 500,000 more apps to explore.

Life With An iPad - photos

One of the joys of having an iPad is that you can show off photos on the large (9.75"), bright display by just sliding your finger across the screen to scroll from one photo to another. The iPad changes automatically from horizontal to vertical view, has easy touch zoom in and out, and shows photos in brilliant color. Oh, did we mention that it does videos too?

So how do we get photos into the iPad? Just use the iPad’s built-in camera (two actually) , take the photo you’d like and it’s ready to display. Another way  is to e-mail photo(s) as attachments and pick them up on your e-mail on the iPad.

Apple also sells a camera connection kit that will connect the iPad directly to your camera or, using the included SD card reader, to the camera’s SD card. Thumbnails are shown for the entire contents, and you can select which you want fully downloaded and ready to view.

But the best way to get photos into the iPad is to install Apple’s iTunes program on your PC or MAC, load the photos directly from the camera or its memory card into iTunes, sort them into albums if you want, edit if needed and “Sync” them into the iPad.

It’s that easy to wow everyone with photos of friends and family, share trips and special events, and much more.

Life With An Apple iPad 2

 We finally did it – we got an Apple iPad. Our excuse was a mutual gift for each other for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Wedding Anniversary. Mostly we really wanted one.

We looked at the Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy and others but none of them had as many features or apps, and they couldn’t match the smooth touch screen scrolling. We settled on the iPad 2 (the  WiFi 64GB version), trotted down to the Apple Store-- only to find they were out. And, with the huge demand, they didn’t know from day to day when they’d be re-supplied.  So we took their suggestion and ordered online. Three weeks later, after eagerly tracking its shipment from China, our iPad 2 arrived. It was all we expected and more.

On our first power up, the iPad found our secure home wireless network and asked for our password and other information it used in registering itself with Apple. We were delighted with its silk smooth finger scrolling and its “just right” touch screen.

Now the fun part – what to do first? Load some photos to show off to friends and family; ditto music; watch our favorite You Tube video or movie; read a book; fill in a calendar; check email while lounging on the patio; browse the Web; or . . . and much more. Check in again in a day or two and we’ll fill you in on some details of life with an iPad.

Stay Fit: - Use Technology To Help

 

Technology-related programs can make exercising fun and even help monitor your fitness level. We’re using Wii Fit (www.nintendo.com/wiifit), a program that runs on the Nintendo Wii video game platform--a fun fitness romp incorporating elements of balance, strength training, aerobics and Yoga.

Use Wii Fit structured (requiring discipline on your part), or random, picking the elements you want (we like random).
To start, you’ll need to enter some one-time info: your age and height and then weigh in on the included Balance Board. The program calculates a BMI (body mass index) score, and uses the board for balance tests, and assigns a “Wii Fit Age” for you. Now you’re ready to get moving.

There are balance games, such as the Tilt Table, where you tilt an on-screen table by shifting your weight on the Balance Board, and Ski Jump, where you hold your balance as your on-screen avatar whizzes down the jump. Or choose aerobics, such as Hula Hoop, where you spin a virtual hula hoop by rotating your hips.

 

More serious categories include yoga and strength training. For either one, you match the moves of an on-screen instructor.

Time spent is tracked so you can earn Fit Points to move on to new activities or increasing levels of difficulty. Graphs chart your progress.

Wii Fit is an easy and fun way to exercise and get you moving, all without leaving your home. We’re definitely hooked.

Making Digital Photography Easier and More Fun

Digital photography makes it so easy to take and share photos that we lose sight of ways to make it even easier, exciting and more fun - by using photo editing software to:

Organize Photos: Retrieval later is easier if you place photos in folders or albums sorted by category (Christmas 2008, California trip) and tag each photo as to image (Sis, trolley car).

Remove Red Eye: Some programs remove it one-click easy; others require manual intervention.

Crop Photos: Zero in on important parts (child’s face, a couple) or crop out unwanted backgrounds. Some programs even allow a circular or oval crop.

Change Brightness or Contrast: Changing brightness and/or contrast of a picture can make a dull or dark scene “pop,” brighten dark faces and more. Do it automatically or manually in photo editors and preview to see the changes before accepting them.

Improve Sharpness and Color Balance: Sharpen fuzzy pictures; change color balance, to “warm” or “cool” the overall look; increase or decrease color intensity.

Easier viewing for emailed photos: Optimize size and resolution manually or automatically so photos upload and download faster and are easier to view in emails.

These are a few of the many features you’ll find in photo editing programs such as Kodak EasyShare v8.2 (www.kodak.com, free), Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (www.adobe.com, $80), or Serif PhotoPlus X4 (www.serif.com, $90). The latter two provide more precise control but require more practice, patience and time on your part. But they all can help improve photos.

 

Wireless WiFi Repeater

We’re using our home wireless network to connect to more and more devices, but we found a weak signal in some areas and even “dead zones” around our home.

We found a solution by using a wireless repeater (also called a range extender), which you place somewhere between your current wireless modem/router and the poor signal areas. The repeater retransmits our home WiFi signal to cover the weak signal areas. The re-transmitted signal quality is commonly slower, but quite usable for most needs.

 
We’re using the High Power Wireless - 150N Smart Repeater from amped|wireless (www.ampedwireless.com). We needed to “teach” it about our home network (configuration, passwords and the like), but a setup wizard stepped us through the rather tedious process of scanning, entering info and such. The repeater sets up as a separate WiFi hotspot that must be logged in to so, as we move around between coverage areas, we need to keep switching between our regular network and the repeater network.

The High Power Wireless - 150N Smart Repeater comes with the option to customize security features such as limiting signal strength, protected setup, and passwords. Included also are five wired ethernet ports that can be used for connecting PCs, Internet TVs and other A/V devices. We think it’s a great addition to our home wireless network.

Pico Cricket Fun

 

The PicoCricket Kit (www.picocricket.com, $299), gives children (and adults too) a way to express artistic creativeness, learn simple computer programing and have a barrel of fun doing it. The kit looks like an arts and crafts set, but electric wires and gizmos give a clue that it’s different.
 
 
A colorful assortment of fuzzy balls, felt pieces, bells, glittery pipe cleaners and more are just waiting to be glued, twisted and strung together along with an assortment of Lego blocks, wheels and pulleys--all used with those electronic parts for interactive creative playthings.
 
The emphasis is play, but you also use the included computer, the PicoCricket, for a fun way to learn programming (really!).


Use Pico Blocks (a graphical representation of programing) on a PC screen and fit them together to form a program stack. The blocks show program flow and allow changes by dragging the blocks around. Voila! You’ve created a computer program to run your creation: turn on lights to a hand-clap, blow out a candle (LED light), make a cake sing Happy Birthday and much more.

The tiny Pico computer has four ports for sensor inputs and action outputs, all directed by your programing. The input sensors are for light, sound, touch and resistance. The output devices include multi-colored lights, a sound box, numeric display and a Lego motor.

PicoCricket Kit is based on years of research at the MIT Media Lab and their Lifelong Kindergarten Lab. We found the Kit sparking lots of trial-and-error learning, a bit of programming and a whole lot of fun.