H.I.T.S.
Happy New Year to all of you. It’s going to be another great high-tech year for all of us — and technology is getting less expensive all the time. This stands out in my mind because I just got two new gadgets to start the year off.
One was a new cell phone. I can at last say that I’m really pleased with my phone, and even my wife says the new one sounds good on speakerphone.
It only cost me $30 to upgrade to a Razr 3 with my plan. Although it’s not the fancy new Razr with an .mp3 player and removable memory, it’s still awesome compared to the last two phones I had.
It even has Bluetooth (which is not a dental condition). Bluetooth is a method of communicating with other devices. I can connect the Razr via a USB cable and have my iMac computer recognize it. A program called iMovie for the Mac will even allow me to export small movies to the phone. From there, I can send them to other phones that have video capability.
I also find the phone to be really well laid out and so easy to use, even without reading the 60-page book that came with it.
I no longer have to deal with pushing tiny little keys that I have to squint at to read, even with bifocals. It’s also got one of the loudest rings I’ve ever heard.
I’m amazed at how quickly these phones drop in price as soon as a “more bells and whistles” model comes out. Last year, these phones were far above $200. I remember my wife looking at a pink one and drooling.
I’m now patiently waiting for a protective case for the phone, an item I had to order online because it seemed that no one locally had one.
The online choices were mind-boggling, with every conceivable color and style available (except for a British flag, which, although tacky, I would have loved to have.)
Maybe I’ll download the English national anthem as a ringtone, although this phone came with a huge assortment of them already loaded on.
The final word: if you have the chance to get a Razr at a decent price with a good plan, go for it.
My second high-tech purchase of 2007 was a new DVD player.
They, too, have plummeted in price since the first models came out.
We’d been noticing that our old player seemed to be developing a jerky picture on some movies, so I looked online at the sites to see what players various dealers were carrying. We finally decided to just jump in the car and go get one.
The first surprising thing about the latest ones is the price, which was less than $40.
Sure, you can still buy really expensive ones that tout all kinds of special features, but the one we chose plays just fine (although it does have a distinctly cheap plastic feel to it). In fact, it reminds me of a child’s toy, but it does the job.
It also plays all kinds of disc formats as well as a format called DivX, which you can learn more about at a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DivX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DivX end
.
If you’re in the market for a new DVD player, you may want to consider one of the cheaper ones, as they really do offer excellent quality for their low price.
Also this week, I’ve been polling my students as to what gifts they received from Santa Claus.
It’s been an assortment of Xbox 360s ( http://www.microsoft.com/xbox/), as well as a number of PlayStation 3s ( http://www.us.playstation.com/).
A few lucky ones have also received the Nintendo “Wii” at a href=”http://wii.nintendo.com/ http://wii.nintendo.com/ end
.
I also have a lot of students who play a game called Guitar Hero, found at a href=”http://www.guitarherogame.com/buynow.asp http://www.guitarherogame.com/buynow.asp end
on their PlayStations.
In fact, my son, Graham, told me that he even caught his Mom playing it one day. I tell my students if they practiced guitar as much as they played video games, they’d play like rock stars.
Another obvious Christmas favorite was the iPod in its many forms — Video, Nano, etc., all in various colors. I also have a feeling that Apple will unveil some more cool things this year, as I’m sure Windows will, too.
Keep up to date on all of it by watching us on H.I.T.S. and reading this column.
Also, don’t forget to visit the H.I.T.S. archives online at a href=”http://www.bloodylimey.com/ http://www.bloodylimey.com/ end
Have a great week — and happy surfing.