Life & Technology

Selling like hot cakes at Christmas last year, the GPS is now becoming a standard addition to our cars. I like to think of them as a friend providing sound directions at regular intervals while you are driving!

I could recant many times as my GPS has shown me the way somewhere, but I instead I will tell you one. I jumped on the freeway on the way home from a Product Launch event (it was an hour away from home) and the freeway was closed 5 minutes down the road. It was midnight and all the traffic was detoured off of the freeway to the middle of nowhere and the detour signs all of a sudden stopped. I was lost and it was dark, however satnav replotted the course and I followed it home. It took me ten minutes longer to get home than normal. To me, the peace of mind knowing that I was no longer lost and able to get home was worth the investment.

This morning on the Today Show we discussed a number of current market options that I think are worth a look. When thinking about the option that is right for you, ask yourself these questions:

• How often will I use this?
• Will I use the extra features like camera and bluetooth connectivity?

If you answer, “no” and “not very often,” then look at the cheaper options first. For about $400 you will get a really good device that will get you from A to B.

This morning on Today we looked at some of the gadgets around that will help you keep fit and well this year.

Gadgets in the area of video games get a bad wrap, often because video games are seen as the cause of kids getting less exercise than nutritionists say they need. But who can blame them? Playing video games is fun, challenging, and you can play games on your own or play with a friend. You can play video games when you wake up, you can play them when people come around for pizza. You can no doubt tell that I am an avid gamer, but yes, I too need to ‘manage’ the time I spend playing video games to ensure a correct balance between gaming and exercising.

The first product that I think Aussies will love is Wii Fit. The first thing to know is this is NOT an exercise video replacement. As the player, you jump on the Wii Fit balance board and get the game used to who you are. It measures your balance, you type in your weight, age, height and a few other details so it can measure your Body Mass Index, how many calories you will burn and other interesting facts about your Wii Fit work out.

Once you are loaded, you can play balance games, do some Yoga or work on your body strength by conducting exercises. The balance games are a lot of fun especially for the kids, and will be great at parties too. You need to balance on the board and use your balancing skills to accomplish goals like head butting a soccer ball or slalom skiing through gates.

The Wii Fit will be on sale from May 8th, and will retail for about $150. Remember you will need to have a Nintendo Wii to plug the Wii Fit into!

Next up was the Gamercize Video Game Stepper machine. I love this thing, you step and the video game machine let’s you play the game, as soon as you stop – it pauses the game. Brilliant! Karl mentioned that for us blokes doing two things at once is tough: I kind of agree. However why not have your mate work the stepper while you play and then swap? We all learned about co-operation from Sesame street and this is another great example. Check out Childs Play Fitness for more details and where to get it, it retails for about $300.

This morning on the Today Show, Karl and I discussed ‘Your Privacy Online’ and in particular how you can manage your personal information when you use popular social sites.

It seems to be happening at exactly the same rate. As we become more comfortable with the internet, we also become more comfortable with posting more of our personal details online. Facebook, MySpace and sites that let you keep your own blog like Blogger have copious amounts of information from individuals happy to share. We’re recording our daily lives by writing blogs, posting photo’s and video’s, all of this allowing people who we have never met to learn more about us than we would most likely tell if we met them in some other environment.

Nothing new with all of this. But what happens when you decide MySpace is too 2006 for me, I want to go to Facebook? Or if you decide you don’t want to keep in touch with your mates from your last Contiki Tour and stop using Facebook. Have you tried to remove your details and what would you think if your details were still kept on file and shared around to advertisers for future marketing campaigns?

While you’re digesting, have a look at this website called The Web Archive. It’s a website that archives the internet. Type in some of your favourite websites and see how they looked many years ago. Search around for websites that you once created. Are your comments listed? Is the website listed?

When we become an internet publisher we must maintain in the back of our minds that the details we place online now, will be out there forever.