Life & Technology

School holidays again, so I spoke with Kerri-Anne about some of the games that were suitable for different genders and age groups.

First up was Tony Hawk Ride, which is a skateboarding game for older kids. Had a bit of trouble syncing the game to the Wii controller, but it is a lot of fun. Kerri-Anne even had a crack at in while in high heels, although I wouldn’t recommend it to most people. It certainly looks like a lot of fun, and you can have spills without killing yourself.

Then there was Combat of Giant Mutant Insects designed for the DS. It’s a cool game for younger boys whereby they can make up their own giant insects and fight other people’s insects via their DSi consoles. Can be great fun and it isn’t too scary.

We then had a look at Pony Friends 2, which is a sequel to a similar game that came out in 2008. Aimed squarely at young girls this one allows girls to groom, ride and feed their pony, but without the real-life hassle of buying hay or paying grazing fees.

Finally, we looked at It’s My Circus, which as the name suggests is about a circus. Players can be a ringmaster, trapeze artist, tightrope walker or any one of a number of circus-themed activities.

 

Spoke with Steve Liebmann about my trip to Los Angeles this week. Security software specialist Symantec sent me over there to check out a Global Cybercrime Symposium, which included security software specialists including the FBI. I’ll be talking to Steve over the coming weeks about some of the interesting things I learned there, including the fact that the FBI has stated that crime on the internet is now bigger than the drug trade. Hard to believe, but true. And the crims are getting smarter, too.

Phone calls included one from Chris whose 14-month old Panasonic DVD recorder is on the blink. In order to get it fixed, he was told it would cost him $400 for the part and $150 in labour. A couple of hiccups though – 1) it only cost him $600 in the first place and 2) the part isn’t available in Australia. I’ll go on record to say that Panasonic is a good brand, and I’m going to see what I can do to help Chris out. Sounds unusual to me that the product would fail after only 14 months and Panasonic would not come to the party.

Graeme was a bit despondent over Nokia’s alleged policy of only allowing customers to change handsets if they fail more than three times. Graeme bought a Nokia handset, but it lasted about an hour. The replacement set lasted about three hours, so he asked for a different model. The shop said no, it has to fail three times before that is allowed. Sounds like a strange policy, but will have to check it out for you.

Janet was looking at buying a new Samsung LED television and asked what to buy. With Samsung about to roll out its new series, plus the 3D TV, I advised her to either wait until the new sets come, or try and get a good deal on older stock that retailers will be trying to push out the door.

Bob was having problems with the software that came with his new Telstra handset. He has the Windows XP operating system on his PC and this could be the problem, with the new software from his handset not seeming to be compatible. I suggested to him, and anybody else who has a Telstra handset, to go to their local Telstra store. The staff there are pretty good at sorting problems out. I’d also suggest that he buy Windows 7 because I think in the near future, Microsoft will soon stop sending out updates for Windows XP.

Louis had an unusual problem in that his television and blu-ray set up gets interference when he uses other electrical appliances within the house including innocuous items such as a light switch being turned on and off interfering with the sound. Sounds like an internal problem with the television, so I suggest he goes to his local Samsung repairer to sort it out.

Steve asked about buying a 26-inch Panasonic television and if they are they any good. Panasonic is a good brand, and while I would probably go for a better model, a 26-inch unit should go for between $350-$450. I would pay any more than that.

Grant wanted to know if a 2D picture on a 3D television would be any good. It should be about the same. The real difference in picture will be the 3D content, or the 2D content that is rendered to 3D.

 

Spoke with Steve about the Powermat induction charger that is being released today and is designed specifically for charging portable gear such as iPods, Blackberries and Nintendo DS portable consoles.

I think this type of charging is going to be the future of how we power up devices. It’s clean, simple and in most cases more energy efficient because the power switches off once the unit has been charged. The Powermat basic unit is $149, with charging cases for the different phones costing $49.95 each.

Had a few calls too, including one from Roy and one from Harry, both with the same problem with their LG sets. It seems that at a particular time of the night their television turns off for a few seconds and then switches back on. In Roy’s case it was only the ABC that is affected, while with Harry it was Channel 7. Sounds like a the timer on the set has been set and needs to be reset. This is more than likely the problem.

Clare wanted to know how to download her SMS’s from her new Samsung handset. She should be able to connect to her computer uses a USB cable, and download it that way. There will be instructions with the handset that should show her how to do it. This should be possible with most modern handsets.

Dave is have a burnt or dead pixel problem. This is when one of the small pixels on your LCD no longer works and you can see that on the screen, which can be very annoying. Most vendors have a policy on replacing a screen if too many pixels are burnt or dead. I doubt they would replace a screen over one pixel, but if a few go within a certain time frame, then they should remedy the problem.

Liz bought a phone of Ebay. She said it was an E71, which sounds like a Nokia, but there are some generic brands out there who ‘borrow’ from others, so it might not be. Liz wanted to know if it was possible to turn up the sounds on her handset because she couldn’t hear her husband properly. She should be able to do so by going to the ‘Settings’ feature on the handset. Within those settings is a ‘sound’ feature that allows you to increase the sound output loudness.

Paul wanted to know how to put movies on his iPod without buying them through iTunes. There are a number of MPEG compression programs available online that help you compress the files, and then can be loaded via iTunes.