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December 28, 2003 |
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
A $40 personal video player?
This week's news |
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NEW NAME. SAME GREAT HANDHELDS.
The name palmOne was chosen following interviews with a broad spectrum of Palm customers, partners, employees, naming consultants and industry influencers.
When people inside and outside the company reflect on Palm's essence, three ideas emerged consistently: the company's heritage as a pioneer in handheld computing, Palm's worldwide leadership, which it has retained despite an influx of competitors; and the conviction that Palm always would place customers first, thereby delivering what matters most to them.
Continue to palmOne.com |
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PRODUCT REVIEW
VideoNow, a $40 personal video player for kids
By James Booth
How many of you have taken a trip with the incessant nagging of children from the back seat getting on your last nerve? Oh, don't act as if I'm the only one, you know what I'm talking about. There are portable DVD players to the tune of $400, but who wants to spend that much? I know I sure don't. I can think of better things to spend $400 on than something to quiet the kid on a trip. Then you have to buy the kid-oriented DVDs on top of it. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a less costly alternative? There is -- it's a $40 product called VideoNow from Tiger Electronics and is distributed by Hasbro.
VideoNow, shown in Figure A, is a personal handheld video player (see http://www.hasbro.com/videonow/) aimed at ages 6 and up.
FIGURE A
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VideoNow is a personal handheld video player aimed at kids. Click picture for a larger image.
Given the programming currently available, the "and up" of "ages 6 and up" would suggest suitability for kids aged 6-10. The player runs 3" videodisks in a proprietary format, so they only work on the VideoNow player. To date the disks come mainly with Nickelodeon programming.
"VideoNow packs great value in a small package for a great price."
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We aren't talking ultra high tech here. VideoNow has a 1.7" by 1.3" monochrome, 80 x 80 pixel, 4-bit grayscale screen (that's 1/4 the size of a monochrome Palm screen) that displays an amazingly decent picture for what the unit and disks cost. The screen is contained within the unit and protected by a clear plastic lens, so the risk of breakage is rather slim.
VideoNow packs great value in a small package for a great price.
The unit itself measures 6 1/2" long by 4 1/2" wide and is 1 3/8" thick -- just the right size for those small hands. It has a built in speaker that delivers clear audio for the size. There is also a headphone jack for those times when you want total solitude but the kids need to be entertained. There are a few other accessories available at this time, such as the ever important carrying case and a clip on light for watching in the dark (which, if you're following along, means that the little LCD isn't backlit).
The unit runs off of two AA batteries that will provide about 8-10 hours of continuous play. It also has contrast control, but would benefit from a brightness control as well. I've noticed, in some lighting situations, it can be difficult to get a good balance of light, dark, and contrast.
Each disk contains 25-minutes of programming. With programming such as SpongeBob Squarepants, Rugrats, Jimmy Neutron, and The Fairly Odd Parents, that amounts to two full episodes per disk. There are also titles such as The Transformers, Scooby Doo, Hillary Duff, and Fear Factor. But as you can see, most of the programming is geared toward the younger crowd [and, sadly, most of your esteemed editor-in-chief's adult friends -- DG]. VideoNow isn't really something you're going to want for yourself. Then again, maybe it is, I like SpongeBob and having a six-year-old is a great excuse for watching.
I bought my daughter one of these VideoNow players for her birthday last month and it was by far the best $40 I ever spent. She takes it everywhere we go and has almost all of the current SpongeBob collection, a Fairly Odd Parents single disk, and a Scooby Doo single disk. Each disk contains two episodes and the single-disk sets go for about $5. The three-disk sets, two episodes per disk as well, but three disks in a box, go for about $15.
For a total of $90, that's the player and all those videos, and I was able to get a portable video entertainment solution for my daughter that keeps her happy and out of my hair (what little I have left when I don't shave it off).
This unit isn't going to win any awards for spectacular graphics, but what do you expect for $40? It's definitely not on a par with a DVD player, but then again it's not intended to be. It'll satisfy the age group for which it was intended though. If you're looking for a low cost portable video device for your kids, the VideoNow may be worth taking a look at. I give the VideoNow unit 4 out of 5. It certainly does what it is intended to do, at a very reasonable cost too. My final word: it could really use a brightness control to balance out the picture a little better.
OUR RATING: 4 of 5
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James Booth is a self-taught PC and Palm device user that dabbles in graphics and photography. He can be reached at address@hidden.
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COMPUTING UNPLUGGED NEWS CENTER
This week's news
Want to get the very latest mobile and wireless news? The Computing Unplugged News Center is updated every day with news of product releases, industry info, tips, techniques, and pointers to great mobile and wireless resources on the Web. Here's this week's news:
Happy Holiday
The elves have informed us that there's some kinda big shindig going on throughout much of the world. We, being the glorious geeks that we are, usually find this stuff out because someone tells us what we got someone else for a gift. This holiday is not all that much different. We do wish all our readers, advertisers, constituents, and the weird guy who keeps sending us (...well, him...not so much) a very happy holiday and a great new year.
News Editor Heather's traveling this holiday season, so news coverage will be spotty until the new year. 'Course, there's not exactly a ton of news between now and then anyway, so if you've got something big to announce, save it up and we'll write about it in a couple of weeks.
We will be publishing full issues on December 28 (yeah, lucky us!), so stay tuned to your email. We've got some great stuff heading your way, giving you food for thought during this great holiday break.
Finally, we wish everyone, world-over, peace, love, joy, toys, gadgets, and cheese. Big, honkin' blocks of cheese. Joy to the cheese.
Wireless nightlife directory
Radical-Tek.com has launched a wireless nightlife/gambling travel directory service. Subscribers can access listings for bars, strip clubs, world-class casinos, racecourses, dog tracks, motor speedways, and other entertainment and services from any wml-compatible WAP mobile communications device. As a bonus, international reference dictionaries for street slang terms, gambling slangs; and a portal to wireless race handicapping and sportsbetting are also included.
Remote access to your PC
A Canadian company, 01 Communique Laboratory Inc., has some software for the PC called I'm InTouch. And when it's installed on your office PC, you can access it from anywhere in the world where you can fire up a Web browser.This review by the AP says that when in use, all the applications, from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Office and some homebrew software were there and worked exactly as though the writerr was at AP headquarters.
Fitaly Keyboard for Tungsten T3
Textware Solutions is pleased to announce that the Fitaly Keyboard for the palmOne Tungsten T3 handheld is now available. This version, called FitalyVirtual, has been designed specifically for use in the T3 virtual input area. The FitalyVirtual Keyboard is an ergonomic replacement for the standard QWERTY on-screen keyboard.
Gametrac to appear at CES
The Gametrac Group confirmed that the first working demonstration of its mobile entertainment device, Gametrac, is to be unveiled on the Microsoft stand at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from the 8th to 11th January 2004. Gametrac offers pocket-sized, high quality gaming using Bluetooth 2 and GPRS for multi-player gaming. Additional in-built entertainment functions include a capability to play movies, MP3 player, SMS and MMS messaging facilities and a high-resolution digital camera.
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Copyright © 2003, ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing, a unit of Component Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.
Computing Unplugged is an independent publication of ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing, a unit of Component Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Component Enterprises, Inc. ZATZ, the ZATZ logo, and Computing Unplugged are trademarks of ZATZ Publishing, a unit of Component Enterprises. All other brands and product names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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