Author Archive for jrjuan – Page 2

BodyTrace eScale – More Than Your Bathroom Scale

You have watched how countless overweight people compete for money and a chance for longer life at the Biggest Loser. While you can only get your inspiration from them, it needs real determination to lose all of those “accumulated holiday pounds”.

What BodyTrace sells isn’t just a regular bathroom scale. They are selling a fitness combo that begins with tipping on the eScale. The eScale is a weighing scale that wirelessly uploads your latest information to the BodyTrace website. From there, you can view various information that tells you more than your weight. If your traditional bathroom scale shows you your weight, the eScale tells you that plus your weight history, days needed to reach goal, grams of protein consumed, etc!

Tip the scale and there begins your journey towards a healthier life. You will see on the BodyTrace website your weight history and your goal. This way, you get encouraged to work on reaching that weight and see your actual progress. There is even a food tracker that shows how much protein, carbohydrates, fats, water, and energy you have consumed when you ate that greasy burger. This lets you know if you have already exceeded your recommended intake. Another great feature is the goal tracker that tells you how far are you from your target weight. Based on your past 2 weeks of performance, the goal tracker will compute the number of days ’til you achieve your goal. This makes you work harder to get an earlier date. But once you slack off or chow down some serious chocolate cake, the days will also add on.

Start losing weight by first having a measuring device. Look at different body scales at Amazon.

Compaq CQ1-1020 All-in-One Desktop PC

It is somewhat expected that Compaq would also release their own All-in-One (AiO) PC. I mean other manufacturers are making one so why not Compaq have one too, right? The direction that others are heading would be the entertainment/multimedia side while this AiO likes to keep it simple and affordable. No multi-touch screens, blazing processor or video card, the CQ1-1020 aims to cater toward casual computer users.

The Intel Atom D410 1.66GHz processor is based on the Pinetrail platform that we mostly see on netbooks. It is a single core processor and would be very much capable of handling Office applications and basic computing. An integrated Intel GMA 3150 graphics unit wouldn’t be able to play Crysis but Diner Dash, Plants VS Zombies or Cake Mania will do. There is a gigabyte of RAM installed but can be upgraded for up to 4GBs for added speed. You get 160GBs of hard drive space, DVD Super-Multi drive, WiFi b/g, speakers, and other components packed at the back of the 18.5″ display. There is also a microphone and webcam up front so video chatting can be started right away. You get the computer with a keyboard and mouse for just $429.99. This also comes with one-year limited warranty and support from Compaq.

Basically, the selling point of all-in-one computers is the clutter-free design. This way, you don’t need to manage all the wires that you have to connect or have to buy a specific computer table. An added benefit would be the lower electricity bill that you would be getting.

You still cannot get one as of the moment but you can browse over great deals on Compaq desktop computers here.

Top Gadgets To Beat The Heat

Climate change is very real and felt by a lot of people around the globe. Until humans stop destruction to mother earth, we can expect a climb in normal temperatures as we know it. But all of those cannot stop kids and kids at heart to have fun and games to chill out while the sun shines beautifully. Here are the top gadgets to have while enjoying under the sun.

1. Ocean Art Light-Up Mini Jellies – This little gadget would be perfect if you have a pool. Just place a couple of these and it would instantly make your pool party the coolest in the block. With its fiber optic tentacles, this is still way geeky than most of your friends might think. Enjoy a multitude of color without the sting with these babies.

2. Banzai Skimboard Surfer Set – Love surfing but stuck in the suburbs? You now don’t have to drive miles and miles just to enjoy surfing on waves of the sea. You just have to buy this surfer slide and have fun right at your own backyard! If you don’t know, skimboarding works on the concept of hydroplaning where the boarder runs over a thin layer of water. Just have enough forward force and the board would slide above water where you can do spins and tricks. You need not to spend thousand gallons of water and getting your own wave machine just to surf. Connect the hose with the slide and it will be filled with water a couple of inches deep; enough for you to hydroplane. Use the included 30″ pro quality skimboard and enjoy loads of fun moving through the 26-feet slide.

3. Little Tikes Beach Ball Sprinkler – You know for yourself that you love water parks because of all the water play that’s going on. Those fountains, water shots, pirate ships with lots of water canons, and many other things that just makes the child in you scream for joy. Have that fun in your lawn with the Ultimate Beach Ball Sprinkler. Just connect the hose and water will be sprinkled in four different directions. Your children can roll the ball around or you can also make this one a fancy way to water your plants.

4. Brain Freeze Ice Tray – I have to say that this thing is pretty clever. You know from your basic science that water takes the shape of the container holding it. You also have known that water solidifies at its freezing point of zero degree Celsius. Those two combined makes an excellent way to have geeky ice cubes. Enough with the cube design and in goes funky styles. Being a tech geek, brains is what we have and a good thing to have floating in your drink. This is really nice for special occasions to top off a chemistry themed party or a great conversation starter with friends.

5. Aqua Climb – The Aqua Climb give users a wall climbing experience while in the pool. With a minimum requirement of 5′ in depth, most pools can be installed with this. Just climb your way up and once you’ve touched the top panel, just let go and feel the splash! Prices start at around $6,000 (ouch!)

Sony Walkman NWZ-W250

Fitness buffs would love this new music player from Sony. The W250 features a lightweight alternative to the Shuffle. Instead of having the headphones and the music player as two separate components, it is joined as one in the W250. This give users a hands-free music experience while working out. Just imagine that you need not to have wires running underneath your shirt whenever you listen to music while jogging. All you have to do is attach this music player to your neck and ears and you’re ready to go. No worries getting this wet with sweat since it is also water resistant. So even if you sweat like a bacon on a frying pan, the music player will still continue to operate. A sudden rain wouldn’t stop you from jogging because of the reason that your music player might get wet – the W250 can handle it.

The W250 comes in 2GB or 4GB version. With the 2GB model, you can store approximately 470 songs (at 128kbps and about four minutes each). Transferring music from computer to the Walkman is very easy with the Content Manager. It enables automatic playlist syncing from iTunes or Windows Media Player.

Hate forgetting to charge your mp3 player? Then always have some music to your workouts with the quick charge function. You can have the Walkman charged for 3 minutes and keep it playing for 90 minutes! Let it stay in longer and you will get full battery that can keep the music playing for 11 hours.

Get headphones style Walkman music players at Amazon.

ASUS EeeBox EB1007

Laptops and desktops are noticeably more powerful these days with the newer “i” processors from Intel. Even MacBook Pro laptops are upgraded to these new processors with Apple’s latest laptop refresh. Still, the mighty Atom processor that revolutionized mini computing is still being shipped in new nettops such as the EeeBox EB1007.

The EB1007 features an Intel Atom D410 processor, a 160GB hard drive, and 1GB DDR 800MHz memory. There are six USB ports for USB gadget lovers out there. With 6 ports, you can have your USB humping dog, water fountain, rocket launcher, and cup warmer all connected yet still have ports for keyboard and mouse! Aside from that, there is also an ethernet port, audio ports, and VGA. There is an 802.11n Wi-Fi module built in so data transfers are significantly faster than 802.11g Wi-Fi connections.

According to ASUS, this nettop uses only 40watts of electricity which is 80% less than standard desktops. This means that you can let this computer turned on all night downloading stuffs and still not have the guilt of consuming much power. The EB1007 only weighs 1.13kg and can be mounted onto an LCD TV’s back with the included VESA mounting kit. This turns your TV into an instant all-in-one PC! You can even make this a media tank if you want since it practically costs much less than standard computers. Though keep in mind that no video card is built-in and the Atom D410 is a single core processor.

Get an EeeBox for just $279.99 (about $80 less after post-purchase rebate) here!