I have used it when taking road trips so I can watch videos or listen to music or audiobooks.  It keeps any photos and will display in slideshows of your choice so it is also works as a small digital picture frame. It plays FM radio stations and has a date/time. clock/alarm, and an organizer feature. It also has a microphone for recording notes and things.

This is my Zen. It came with the short mini USB to USB cable. I believe it also came with some earphones. I added a set of earphones that store very well without tangling (they pull out and lock and then zip back into the round case). I got them in a Brookstone store at the airport for about $25.  I highly recommend buying the Creative Hard Plastic Case for Zen, Zen MX (Clear) to protect your zen. I attached a lanyard to mine so I can hang it around my neck. It is about the size of a conference name tag.

I have the Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black). It is not the latest version of the Zen nor does it have the most storage, even for the regular Zen.  But it has everything I need or want.  The Creative Zen X-Fi 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) has wireless access, built-in speakers and improved audio. The X-Fi stands for Xtreme Fidelity Audio technology. You have to get at least the 16 GB version to get the wireless lan capabilities. It is described: You can now stream music and photos wirelessly from your PC to your player within a home network. With the Zen X-Fi, experience the sound of perfection wherever you go. Stay connected with friends on Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger on the go (at region-specific public wireless LAN hotspots). This is interesting sounding but I think it is a very basic access and not that worth it to me. It is easy to transfer files with mine and the rest doesn’t cut it since we have a Droid that does much, much more than that.

I have the 4 GB version and I added a 2 GB SD card for extra storage.  This is plenty enough for me.  On the basic 4 GB drive I have 5 audiobooks, 9 full length movies and am loading a zencast video at the moment (to try it out).  On the memory card I have about 55 pictures, 4 audiobooks and 2 movies and have about 550 meg left. I just have no need for more than this. On the Creative website they have a comparison of the different Zen players to help you decide which is right for you.  Mine is not on there since it was the very first version. You can still buy them though.

This is a picture of my Zen on a piece of paper to get an idea of its size.  The bag is a bag I use to carry it and it’s bits in.  It is just a small makeup bag.

I like almost everything about my Zen. I think Creative is a good company that makes solid products. The one thing that is a little awkward with my original Zen is that the memory card is not integrated into the rest of the storage.  In order to load it, you have to put the Zen on Memory Card/Removable Disk and then it connects as a regular drive.  The regular drive on the Zen attaches to the PC with the different directories for videos, music (audiobooks), etc.  The memory card has all the different styles of content all mixed in together and is not as well organized.  In addition, I had a problem listening to my WMA (iPod compatible) audiobooks from it. It gave an error that it was copy protected.  The MP3 audiobooks worked fine from it and both kinds work fine from the regular storage. It is nice that it will play both since I can download both versions from our library and not all audiobooks come in both versions.

There is a lot more information on the Zen that you can view on the Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black) page. Just look through the customer supplied images. They show many different functions and have descriptions that describe the Zen thoroughly.

To get the media from the PC to the Zen, the easiest way is to attach the Zen and go to Explorer. The Zen shows up as My Zen. Go into Storage Media and the different folders relate to the different options on the Zen.  This is an example of my audiobooks that I had copied to my Zen. Click on the image to get a full size view.

Most people have downloaded audio files to an MP3 player, but it is a little different getting video content.  To see how to download content such as movies, etc. to your PC and then to your Zen, see my upcoming/next post.

Ommm, baby,

~Susan Mellott

And let me say, if you haven’t realized it already, that I am very budget-conscious. I don’t recommend or want the highest end things, I recommend the things that are the best bang for a regular person on a budget.

UPDATE 12/10/2009: If you read this before, you didn’t see this item. But I had to go back and add it because it is just too good not to include and I had just forgotten to add it in the first place.  And what is that item?  It is the Gboard: a Keyboard just for Gmail.  You may be thinking that sounds like a gimmick, I thought so too.  But after reading Mashable’s review of the Gboard and given the super-reasonable price of $19.99, I think this is a great stocking stuffing and useful gadget for people who use gmail regularly. It does all the functions that can be done with keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, but doesn’t require you to memorize all the shortcuts and is easier to use. Mashable says: “Overall we’re impressed with the Gboard. It does what it says it will do, the keys are laid out in a way that makes sense, and, for heavy Gmail users, shortcuts can save a tremendous amount time throughout the day.” For $19.99, if I was a Gmail user or knew someone who was, I’d consider this as a gift.

The Droid by Motorola. I have a Verizon cell phone old-style that I got in 2004 and it has been just fine for me.  It does everything I want, takes decent pictures and videos, good signal for calling, good battery life, voice calling, etc (no bluetooth but that isn’t a big deal to me).  I have never had a desire to upgrade because I never saw a phone that I wanted or that seemed all that exciting.

The iPhone never did it for me at all. Too expensive, too proprietary and on AT&T so fugetaboutit. I never really got the iPhone buzz.  But then the Droid came out. I’d heard rumblings about the Android operating system that sounded intriguing, but didn’t see the definitive phone that ran it.  Until the Droid.

My husband just got one for work and he brought it home for me to check out. I haven’t even looked it over to speak of and I’m am starting to want it. I was looking at it and thinking, “OK, it’s nice. Keyboard is still too small for my fat fingers. Not seeing anything special”.  Then I stumbled on the Google voice command lookup. I said “papillon” and it brought back a search list. I said “getting wine stains out of carpet” and it brought back instructions. I said “directions to Newcastle Indiana” and it gave me map and step-by-step instructions using GPS.  That started getting my attention! I’m really starting to get the itch now. And I can get it for $99 with Verizon 2-year renewal. The only sticking point is that I am hesitant to pay more a month for web/data access. I don’t go out that often to where I would not have my computer or my netbook and paying a fair amt more for the web when I can usually get it for free is hard. And I have a GPS that is free access. I don’t really need it and I have most everything it offers, but I do kind of want one.

Next are a few tech tools for easily converting your old negatives, slides and photographs to digital pictures. I know everyone has a stack of photographs laying around that they have taken over the years and would like to scan them in digitally but using a regular scanner, it is quite time-consuming. I wanted something that I could just feed photos into while watching TV or the like. Something easy and not too labor intensive. I did some research and decided on the Pandigital SCN02 PhotoLink One Touch Scanner w/Memory Card for a quick, easy and reasonably priced photo copier. I love this and it is definitely on my wish list. It is $85.68 on Amazon.

And an item that I have recently purchased is the Innovative Technology 35mm Negative and Slide Converter to PC. I love it and recommend it for a reasonably priced negative and slide converter. I am not going to go into great detail here because I wrote a post on how to use it and showing the results. But I will say that I think it was a very worthwhile purchase and was only $49.99.

Another item that I found and want is a pocket projector. If you travel at all, for business or for pleasure, this is sure to please. You can connect the pocket projector to your laptop or netbook and watch TV shows and movies projected on your hotel wall with a picture up to 60″ that is both clear and vibrant. (a good place to watch online is hulu.com or any of the TV station websites). Or give a presentation or slideshow for business without having to lug a huge projector around. Or play your video games in big picture.  Or hook it up to your phone (can’t quite see why, but I’m sure there is a good reason). Or collaborate with someone and not have to crowd around the little computer screen. And with the cost of adding luggage to your airfare these days, the less you have to carry, the better.

The Optoma EP-PK-101 PICO Pocket Projector- 4 oz.. is somewhat expensive, at $219 but it’s just a clever little thing. It connects to a wide range of things.
Connects to:
a) iPod, iPhone, and iTouch with included bundled connection kit
b) Camcorders, DV-Cams, and Digital Cameras enabled with standard composite AV Out with included composite cable
c) DVD Players and other video players enable with standard composite AV Out with included composite cable
Note: This product does not connect to notebook computers, PCs, PDAs, cell phones, or other devices unless the device has composite output. Please make sure to consult your device’s owner manual.
and it only weighs 4 oz. It projects an image size up to 60 inches. You can recharge the battery via USB or included AC charger. It was listed in the Time’s best travel gadgets of 2009.

While that sounds decent, I personally would bite the bullet and spend $299 and get the Cinemin Swivel Multimedia Pico Projector which is another pocket projector that looks very good and has all the connectors and everything to connect to a wide variety of devices (without requiring a video composite connection). With this, a netbook and this pocket projector and you are good to go! And it is made by Wow Wee, who have been making the most incredible and innovative toys and gadgets for quite a while.

As a matter of fact, if you have a minute you might just pop over to their site and see if anything else catches your eye.  Their robotic toys (and all their toys) are really something. And not nearly as expensive as you’d think. Check out the Rovio, a mobile webcam robot that you can control from anywhere in the world. And you can hear what is going on whenever it is and also say things over it’s speaker. Can’t you see a little Rovio wheeling up and swiveling it’s head towards someone and saying something to them while you watch and talk and control it’s movement? Or that makes it’s security rounds that you have programmed it to do? If I didn’t have pets, I might be interested more but with pets, it would last about 2 seconds around here. But watch it in action: The WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled Robotic WebCam is available on Amazon for a budget-busting $209. Too much for essentially an adult toy, unless you have that kind of money and don’t know what to get the person who has everything.

If you know anyone who does not own a pocket camcorder, they may be interested in one of the various ones on the market.  The main ones are the Pure Digital Flip Mino and Ultra, the Creative Labs Vado and the Kodak Zi6 or Zi8. Consumer Search has two full reviews of these: digital camcorders and HD camcorders and you can judge for yourself which one works best for you. You can also see their reviews of each specific one and they are very good. They also include some regular camcorders (not the Flip style) but I would not get one of them, I would go with the pocket camcorder unless there is a compelling reason not to. They are super-easy to use and they plug right into your USB port to upload. All the other camcorders I have owned were difficult to use and especially difficult to upload to your PC. And I was always hunting for the proper cables and it was too much work for me. The pocket camcorders have very limited features (they basically just record and play) and no editing capabilities but you can do all the editing, cropping, splicing, etc. that you would want when you get the video on the PC and it is really how you would want to do your editing anyway. The pocket camcorders are all very similar and in my opinion, just figure out which feature is most important to you (price, HD, etc) and pick the one that matches it best. I got the Kodak Zi6 because it was a good price and most importantly to me, the viewing screen is larger than the others.  I don’t see as well as I’d like (getting old, y’know) and that was the deciding factor for me.

If you or someone you are buying for already has a pocket camcorder, then they may like some of the accessories for them, like the waterproof case so you can use them underwater. Flip Video AWC2T Underwater Case for UltraHD and Ultra 2nd Generation camcorders (Clear), Flip Video Underwater Case for 1st Generation Flip Ultra Camcorders, Creative Labs VA0580 Vado and Vado HD Waterproof Pouch (Blue), Aquapac 404 Mini Underwater Camera Case, these are a few on Amazon. Another way to find them is to just do a google-type search on “underwater camcorder case Kodak Zi6” but replace the Kodak Zi6 with the specific camera case you are looking for.

Another thing that I already have, but could not live without, is a GPS with voice instructions. My whole family has them and swears by them. My sister moved temporarily to Orlando and it was a godsend.  I have an old Garmin C530 that is the pre-nuvi version (similar to the lowest end nuvi but smaller screen). It works just fine for me. The nuvi versions have a bigger screen, but with the voice instructions, you don’t really need to look at the screen. The most important part is that they have voice instructions and especially that they have text-to-speech.  That means they say things like “In 300 feet, turn left on Winchester Road”. They tell you the road name, not just to turn left in 300 feet (and you don’t know for sure which street).

An interesting question for some of these gadgets is: How long will it be before they are outmoded because the functionality is included in a all-in-one smart phone. The Droid and other new phones have built-in voice GPS and I believe they may be all you would need (I have to test on my husband’s Droid) and they can also take pictures and record like the pocket camcorders. The quality may not be quite as good, but if all you are doing is uploading them to the internet, which is what a lot of people do, you will barely notice the difference. Especially for the $100 – $300 you would save by not buy a dedicated camcorder. They have pretty much definitively replaced the Palm and other handheld devices.

If they had a more functional keyboard, they could replace all kinds of things. There is a rumor about a Tablet PC by Apple in 2010. If it is as expected, it will replace a number of gadgets (how many are unknown at this point). One thing it is supposed to be able to do is act as an e-book reader. If you know me, you will know that I am a very big reader. You might wonder why I didn’t have an e-book reader on my gadgets list. It is mainly because I don’t want to pay the prices they charge to download books and there are very few good free e-books out there and our library does not lend e-books yet. If the prices came down (significantly, or had a cheap subscription plan) or especially, if our library gets e-books, I will reevaluate my decision. At least the e-book readers like the Barnes and Noble Nook and the new Kindle 2 are non-proprietary. It appears they are settling on a standard and that is important. That is a huge downside of the Apple Tablet. Everything they do is extremely proprietary and they don’t open source. That is pretty much why I don’t have much to do with iPhones, etc.

One last tech-ish item is the Nintendo Wii. We do not own a Wii or for that matter, any of the latest game systems. We have a Playstation 2 and enjoy it when we have people over (infrequently). We have Dance, Dance, Revolution dance pads and Guitar Hero with guitars. We haven’t had any reason to upgrade though. But the Wii has a lot of things that I have not seen with the other game systems. The other game systems are pretty much limited to gamers and kids. The Wii has afficienados of all ages and interests. My uncle belongs to a Wii bowling league at his independent living apartment complex. A friend’s mom (and their whole family pretty much) use it to exercise. It looks like a lot of fun and very interactive. I like that kind of thing, but most all of the serious games for gaming systems are just too complicated and difficult for me. And now you can get one easily for $199 and with some looking, some places will throw in a $50 gift card.

And of course, if someone already has one, there is a plethora of accessories for the Wii. That is the drawback of a wii, the system is reasonable but the games and accoutrements easily cost the price of one apiece. Rather than list them all, wii and accessories will show you a list from amazon.

The Wii MotionPlus accessory for Nintendo Wii ($20, or $50 with a game, available at bestbuy.com and elsewhere) is an attachment for the original “Wiimote” controller. The MotionPlus makes the motion-sensing controls more sensitive and precise, so a flick of a wrist can turn your virtual tennis racket and spin your bowling ball. If your gift recipient doesn’t already own “Wii Sports Resort,” it’s worth throwing that in, too — it adds frisbee-throwing with a dog, water-scooter racing, sword fighting and other new games and comes with one MotionPlus attachment.  Here is a writeup that includes this and more tech gift ideas for $100 or less.

Anyone who has a wii would probably really appreciate a game or accessory for it since there are so many things it can do. And they come in all price ranges.

Well, that is it for my budget friendly tech toys and gadgets for 2009. I’m sure the people on your list would love at least one of these items and you probably may too.

Happy Holidays!

~Susan Mellott

(Or at least I should have them,  I’ve kept them safe and specially put away ever since 1974, hoping I’d find a way to print them back then, or make a digital print now.  But I got this, went to look for them, very excited to convert and I can’t find them. They are not where I keep all my important memorabilia and I don’t know why. I’ve looked all over and can’t find them. It makes me very sad. But anyway…)

My dad also recently died and he had lots of negatives that I was interested in.  And when I was a baby/toddler, my dad had a 3D camera that took the slides that are double and when you view them in a viewer you see the picture in 3D. So I wanted to convert those as well (not to 3D unfortunately, but actually, my eyes do not focus together properly so I don’t have 3D or depth perception anyway. I seem to function fine though although you’d think it might be problematic).

I’d been thinking about this for a while, so when I saw a negative and slide converter on Woot!, for a very cheap price it seemed (about $50), I went off and checked the reviews on it to see if I wanted to buy it.

In the process, I actually found that it had so-so reviews, but that the Innovative Technology Negative and Slide Converter had better reviews for about the same amount of money. Not necessarily fantastic reviews, but it was one of the least expensive and easy and got 3/5 on Amazon (none of the others got much better and a lot were worse, even though they were more expensive) and that worked for me. If you go to the Innovative Technology website to look at this, you might also want to check out their other products. They have a lot of really interesting products, from other analog to digital converters, to cool retro items, to leading edge, really innovative items. BTW, Innovative Technology 35mm Negative and Slide Converter to PC
Amazon is where I bought my IT Converter.

When I got it, I opened it up and it was very easy to use and understand. It has the base/reader that plugs into your USB port and 2 trays (one for negatives and one for slides) that you click through the converter to read the pictures onto your computer.  It comes with film scan software that shows the picture for what is currently in the converter and lets you copy and save it as a digital image.

To load the tray, you just click open the cover, put in your negatives strip (or 4 slides in the slide tray), close the cover and put the tray in the slot on the side of the converter.  The trays have guides that make it easy to load them correctly.

negative tray

slide tray

And although most people probably don’t have 3D slides, I was able to load them in by putting two side by side and just printing one of each.

The trays hold several negatives/slides at a time and you manually click the tray through the converter one at a time to capture each picture. It is easy though and not really any more time consuming than anything else.  Actually, it is quicker than trying to scan pictures in and save them, at least if you are using a regular scanner.

And as an aside:

I’m sure the dedicated photo scanners are quicker and someday I’d like to get one, especially if you could load in several photos at a time and it would run them in and scan them automatically. The Pandigital SCN02 PhotoLink One Touch Scanner w/Memory Card for $86 on Amazon looks interesting and got very good reviews.  But that is for another day.  It’s hard to justify spending money for that when I can do it myself with what I have.  But the negative and slide converter is something I was unable to do until now.

So back to the topic of this post …

With the software you can capture the pictures, view them, rotate the image,  change to mirror image (if the negative or slide was reversed) and save them in a bunch instead of one by one (saving you time by not having to wait for each one to be saved which is somewhat slow). The software is extremely intuitive and easy to use.  It has very limited functionality, but you can do all the editing you want to the captured pictures after you have saved them by using any other editing program. The filmscan software is also very slow so you have to have patience.

Filmscan.exe

a baby picture of mehang-gliding

Here are some of the pictures I captured (I just did a couple of each type so these are not by any means the best of the captures).  The first one is from a 3D slide of me as a baby. Thennext one is a slide taken about 1980 when we went hang-gliding.

This picture is me when I was a baby, about 1956. It was copied from a negative.  None of these captures were edited (except for cropping my baby picture) so this is how they came out.  The negatives and slides have been thrown in boxes, kept in sandwich bags and just generally not taken care of. The negatives that were more recent looked better, like the more recent slides (by more recent, I mean the ones taken around 1980).

There is also photo editing software you can buy that will go a long way towards cleaning up the pictures after they are scanned. And it is just that easy.

Keep your memories and take care,

~Susan Mellott

I also wanted something I could put on my car so that when I lost it in the parking lot, I could push a button and it would make a loud noise so I could find it. And of course, there are many other things I lose and could use help finding such as my keys, my purse/wallet, etc.

But there isn’t really any devices specifically for locating luggage so I thought that a key finder/locator would work to put in the outside pocket or on the handle.

That sounded like a great idea, but all of the key finder devices I could find had really poor reviews and/or were very expensive and many of them worked like “The Clapper” where you made a noise and they supposedly responded. But I guess in most cases, they either don’t respond at all, or they go off with every little noise.

I found Mommy I’m Here cl-103br Child Locator, Brown for $27.99 that I thought I could use. It says “Simply attach the Teddy Bear Receiver to your child’s shoe or belt. If you lose sight of your child press the Keychain Transmitter and the Teddy Bear chirps, alerting you of your child’s whereabouts, while drawing attention to the dangerous situation your child may be in. Both units are water and shock resistant, with long-life batteries already installed. Available in Pink or Brown.”

But I was not sure about it so I kept looking. And I found several recommendations for a device called KeyRinger. KeyRinger is $29.99 for two units. They do not require a base unit so either device will ring the other (and any other KeyRinger devices). Here is a scenario they present in which you might use the KeyRingers:

“In a typical application, you might put one KeyRinger on your key chain and attach the second KeyRinger to the TV remote using the included double-sided tape. If your keys are missing, you would use the KeyRinger attached to the TV remote to find the keys; and if the TV remote is missing, you would use the KeyRinger attached to the keys to find the remote. Or you could keep one KeyRinger handy at all times on your refrigerator using the included stick-on magnet.”

It has a flashing light and loud sound (~106 db) to help you find your missing item. The two 2032 lithium batteries last approx. 12 months and can be replaced at most hardware or electronics stores (or online through their website). It weighs 3/4 ounce. It can locate the other device up to 300 feet and is supposedly durable enough to withstand being run over by a standard-size car. Here is the KeyRinger FAQ page.

In response to the question, “Will the KeyRinger ever false alarm?”, it says:

“Yes, but extremely infrequently compared to devices that respond to whistling or clapping. The clap or whistle type devices have to accept a wide range of sounds to accommodate variations in different people’s claps or whistles. But because they have to respond to such a broad range of sounds, they respond (false alarm) to various random sounds as well. The KeyRinger, on the other hand, is listening for the precise microprocessor-controlled tone sequence generated by the another KeyRinger. Because the KeyRinger can reject all other sounds, it is far less susceptible to false alarms. When the KeyRinger does false alarm, however, it is usually as the result of a hissing type sound such as that produced by a loud exhaust or air conditioning fan, or the water running in a sink.”

The KeyRinger is $29.99 for 2 units plus $4.95 S&H. You can order it here. Interestingly enough, I also discovered another use for this. In this thread from RC Hangout (for Remote Controlled Airplanes), they were discussing how to find a downed plane and one person attached the KeyRinger to their plane. It is amazing how many things you may need to locate.

Another key/item finder is by Loc8tor. The Loc8tor system is supposed to be very good too, but it is considerably more than the KeyRinger. The Loc8tor Plus is $169.99 plus S&H. It is pretty impressive sounding though. Here is what it says:

The Loc8tor Plus is the ultimate tool that will help you keep tabs on your children, pets and possessions and is ideal for use at home, out and about or for business.

The Loc8tor Plus has two main functions; Locate and Alert mode.

Locate mode – Is for Finding. To find an item, simply select from a drop down list on your handheld which tag you want to locate. Directional audio and visual cues from the handheld will guide you to the exact location of the missing tag. It will literally take you minutes (even seconds) to find things that would normally have you hunting around for hours and maybe never found at all.

With amazing accuracy you will be guided to within an inch/2.5cm whether you are indoors or out, in complete darkness or in a noisy room.

To find your item turn around in a full circle then walk in the direction the handheld indicates has the strongest signal – It’s as easy as that!!!

Alert mode – Helps stop things getting lost. Enables an invisible boundary to be set around the Loc8tor (you) and warns the moment any tagged item goes out of your preset safety zone (Alert Alarm) with a vibration alert, audio alarm and handheld display showing which item/s wandered off or has been stolen.

Select from three present safety zones – near, medium or far each of which can be further fine tuned to help define the distance required.

The Panic Tag (when used in Alert mode) contains a Panic button enabling a child or dependant to call for help. When pressed it activates an Alert Alarm on the handheld advising which child activated the Alarm. This is ideal as a personal alarm for a child or dependent and can be used on a beach, in a park or shopping centre to name but a few.

The regular Loc8tor pack is $99.99 plus S&H. It only has the locate mode, not the alert mode (as described above).

I’m sure these are very good too, but for the price, I’m going for the KeyRinger.

Happy Shopping!

~Susan Mellott