Digital Gear
Digital Gear
PC World
Agam Shah offers the gearhead’s guide to gadgets for use on the go or at home.
Snap It and Get Fit,New gadgets help you keep fit, and take better photos.
Agam Shah, IDG News Service
Thursday, March 23, 2006
A number of recent gadgets seek to deliver better workout results. For example, TheEnterTrainer.com sells The EnterTrainer, a remote-control system that optimizes a workout by helping users keep their heart rates consistent as they exercise. And the Tempo Trainer from Finis times stroke rates to help swimmers maintain a steady pace.
For those who prefer less strenuous activity, several interesting products for photographers were announced at the Photo Marketing Association International’s recent annual trade show in Las Vegas. Samsung Camera’s DigiMax L60 digital camera captures MPEG-4 video as well as still images. Digital Foci launched Picture Porter Elite, a portable storage device with a 3.6-inch LCD. Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., meanwhile, refreshed its line of disposable film cameras with the QuickSnap 1000
PC World’s Eric Butterfield attended the show; read “PMA: Say Adios to Blurry Photos,” “PMA: Sony Delivers the Big Zoom,” and “PMA: Sony Introduces Two Compact Point-and-Shoots” for his reports.
A Moving EnterTrainer
The $130 EnterTrainer uses an armband monitor to collect heart rate information in a 12-sided device, which then transfers the data wirelessly to a TV. If a user’s heart rate increases, the TV volume increases. If the heart rate falls, the volume drops, presumably thereby reminding the user to pick up the slack. The system turns the TV into a good personal trainer replacement, according to TheEnterTrainer.com, which makes the device.
The EnterTrainer calculates a user’s target heart rate based on age, type of workout (fat burn, cardio, or aerobic), and length of session. Using an included Velcro clip, the device can be attached to exercise machines such as treadmills and exercise bikes, said Joe Volpe, vice president of TheEnterTrainer.com, formerly PowerUp Fitness.
Keeping Tempo in Training
Finis, the company that makes the underwater audio player SwiMP3, also sells Tempo Trainer, a $32 device that maximizes a swimmer’s workout by monitoring stroke rates. The round device, about the size of a stopwatch, hooks to a swimmer’s goggles and emits one beep on the completion of a stroke and three beeps on the completion of a lap.
The device is meant to help swimmers develop a consistent stroke and lap rate, skills that help a swimmer conserve energy and use it efficiently.
Picture Porter Elite
To address the storage needs of digital camera users, Digital Foci in February announced the $499 Picture Porter Elite, which the company describes as a portable photo album with a color LCD and an internal hard drive that stores up to 80GB of data. The device also functions as a portable video player, MP3 player, and voice recorder. The LCD is 3.6 inches on the diagonal and can be used to view videos, images, and slide shows.
The Picture Porter Elite’s portability makes it a better alternative than a laptop for storing and viewing pictures while on the go, according to the company. For additional storage, it has a memory card slot that supports multiple formats, including CompactFlash, Memory Stick, and MultiMediaCard.
The device has a USB 2.0 port for connecting to a digital camera. The Picture Porter Elite weighs 0.6 pounds and measures 5.3 by 3.1 by 1.1 inches. Digital Foci says it is slated to ship in May.
Digimax L60
Samsung Camera’s Digimax L60 digital camera offers a 3X optical zoom, a 2.4-inch color LCD, and the ability to capture MPEG-4 videos as well as 6-megapixel stills.
The L60 records MPEG-4 files at 640-by-480 resolution at 30 frames per second. Developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group, MPEG-4 is a high-compression multimedia file format that delivers DVD-quality video at smaller file sizes than the popular MPEG-2 format used for digital TV broadcasts. The camera’s stabilization features keep video images steady and movies can be edited directly on the camera.
Still images can be captured during video playback and then cropped, resized, and rotated directly on the camera, according to Samsung.
Users can add special effects such as color effects and photo frames, and shoot fast-moving objects in a series of images, the company says.
The camera provides 11 modes for capturing still images, including a “text recognition” mode that supports extraction of editable text from images using optical character recognition software that comes with the camera.
The L60 has 32MB of internal memory and a Secure Digital/MMC memory card slot for additional storage. It also has a voice recording function. The $299 camera is designed for users who want an advanced model with easy-to-use functions, Samsung says. The company plans to ship it in April.
QuickSnap 1000
Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. will soon phase out its flagship QuickSnap 800 disposable film camera, replacing it with the new QuickSnap 1000 one-time-use film camera announced in February.
With faster film and an extended flash range of 17 feet, QuickSnap 1000 lessens blur and captures action shots better than the QuickSnap 800, said Joe Vaughey, vice president of marketing at Fuji Photo Film’s photo-capture division. The extended flash lets photographers capture better background detail in low-light conditions, he said.
Photos are digitized during development and can be returned to users on photo CDs. QuickSnap 1000 is priced at $13 for 27 exposures, though retailers are expected to offer it at lower prices, Vaughey said. It is slated for an April release.
Agam Shah is an editor with the IDG News Service, based in San Francisco. Questions or comments? Write to Agam Shah.
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