Xbox Kinect

I love my kids. Since my natal day is coming up they saved up to buy me a gift.  I don't know if it's for me or for them.  They gave me a XBox 360 kinect.

XBox 360 Kinect Bundle

It comes with the Kinect adventures. It's like the Wii Resort Game but not the usual bowling, tennis and other sports games.  From what I saw it's like white water rapids, something like the opposite of dodge ball and a lot of other games.

We are a health conscious family, since my sister and brother-in-law are doctors and my son is a nursing student so we bought exercise games since we are lazy to go to the gym.  The one I play is called Your Shape.  I like that it has the Tai Chi and the Cardio boxing game.  I love the Tai Chi because it corrects your posture and improves my balance.  I haven't tried the Cardio boxing game because I lost 20 pounds already in the past month so I don't need to lose weight.

My son chose the UFC Training Game.  It was really intense.  If you could do this religiously for 15 minutes everyday, I think you could have a well toned body within a few months.

Of course, I can't dismiss my youngest son.  He's addicted to Plants Vs. Zombie, so he bought it.

Here is the really reason why we want to get this Xbox.

This game has a lot of dance songs but it doesn't comes with the Distrubia dance song.  You have to buy it online.  I bought the Distrubia dance song.  Don't be fooled by the kid in the video. It's not as easy as it looks. They have a lot of dance songs you can buy. 

You can buy games using your credit card or you can buy their pre-paid cards which you can buy at some games stores like Data Blitz.  I buy mine online through pcgamesupply.com.  Which I pay through paypal. I buy my iTunes cards here too so I can buy online books and apps. But that's another story.

Here is another reason why we wanted the Xbox.

They say that this will be out this first week of August. We are Fruit Ninja Fans, so we can't wait for it to be out.

UNTIL MY NEXT BLOG!

Communcation and Organization Part 1

There was a time that there were only a few who has landline phone in their homes. Even you have a phone in the house, you would be sharing the line with another family, which were called partylines.  It's like having an extension phone but with a different number and in a different house, which is usually your neighbor.  That must have been hard when you have an emergency or when you have teen-agers in the house. The line would always be busy.  Eventually, more line became available and the partyline became obsolete.


Then cellular phones came.  They used to call it car phones.  It was so heavy, it was like carrying a cement block. To call a car phone during those days you have to call National operator to call that car phone. The call cost was so expensive, not to mention, the unit itself was outrageously expensive.  Battery life was bad.  I can't remember how long the battery last until you charge it again, but I can remember that it won't last even a half day. So it's always in the car plugged in the cigar lighter plug.

 The 2nd generation of cellphones was no different from the car phones. Battery life is still bad but it's not like carrying a block of cement. It was like carrying a brick. 

In fact, the battery was so bad that you have to get a pager.  I think I got more than 2 pagers aka beepers. But I can only recall 2. My first one was from EasyCall. My unit was colored purple.  It was easy to call yet the message came very late. 

EasyCall Unit but in purple

My brother-in-law wasn't using his beeper during that time, so I got rid of my EasyCall and borrowed his Beeper 150.  It was better. I got the message on time and they also have a service where you don't need to talk to an operator and just send numbers. There were so many prank pages when that service came out so they have a caller id when these number pages were sent.  I remember that because one of my classmate is college paged me at 3 am. I noticed the number was in his vicinity.  You would know the vicinity by the first 3 numbers of the phone number, it's like an area code.

Beeper 150 unit

I named this blog communication and organization because I though I could get to write up to the PDA's since now Cellphones have organizers a.k.a. filo-fax built in. But I think I would write those to the next blog so I won't run out of topics in the coming days.

UNTIL MY NEXT BLOG!

Wi-fi

As a gadget geek, I could die if I don't have an internet connection.  So I should have internet wherever I go.

I usually go to an establishments where they offer free wi-fi.  These are usually, coffee shops, restaurants in Ayala malls, inside SM malls (as far as I know) and some Mcdonald's outlet.  I thought that all McDonald's outlet has free wi-fi, then one time we had a study group which need internet connection met up in McDonald's Greenbelt.  I was surprised that they didn't have wi-fi.  Even my friend's salon where I have my hair done has wi-fi. Some establishment will let you connect freely, but mostly they are password protected to be sure that they are giving access to their customers only. In Ayala malls, you can access their wi-fi through Globe, but I don't know how much they cost.

At home, we use PLDT DSL. I bought a wi-fi router so I can go any part of the room to access the internet. Unfortunately, anybody can access the wi-fi because, I still can't configure my wireless printer to access the wi-fi with password.  Sometime the friends of my son and my brother-in-law would park outside our house and surf while in the car.  I tried the Globe lines but I most of the time I couldn't access the internet so I let it go. When we got a new wireless printer, I got to put a password on our wi-fi at home, at last!

USB Stick

PLDT WeRoam

Then there was the USB Stick. I tried all of them.  Unfortunately, the signal here in the south is lousy. It was so slow.  Unless you put it on the roof, the signal would improve a little. But the best of the 4 for me would be Sun Broadband.

What I don't
like about this USB Sticks is that I have to install the driver  for each of the telecom companies.  I have a friend who has a computer sales store in Greenhills and he told me about the Sapido which I can use the USB stick without installing the driver.  The cons of this, that you need an electrical outlet.  If you're in a mall, you can't just sit anywhere.  You have to find an electrical plug and ask permission if you can plug it.

Sapido

The latest offer that the telecom companies are offering now is the Myfi stick. At first, I didn't buy this because it has to be post paid. It has a battery so you just need to turn it on then you can surf away.  It can serve up to 5 gadgets.

Then they are now selling it in prepaid.  All you need is to pay for the unit which cost around P5000.  When it was new, it cost around P7000. I still didn't get one because my IPad has 3g. So what's the use of that.  When I got my IPad2 I got the wifi only. I turned off the wifi on my IPhone because of  the unexpected charges. Then again, my friend who told me about the sapido told me about the same unit which is open line that cost around P5000.  I can use whatever prepaid broadband sim card I want to use. I can even use it when I'm going to the US, because all I need is to buy a prepaid broadband sim.  That was my problem when I was in the US. I couldn't use my IPhone to surf the internet when there is no wi-fi spot.  And it's so hard to find a wi-fi spot there.  I even bought one for my son, so he can turn off the 3g on his phone to prevent unnecessary internet charges.

Personal Wi-fi

Prepaid is now is very easy for me, thanks to VMobile LoadXtreme.  I can load my own broadband anytime I run out of load. I can also sell other prepaid load.  But that will be for another Blog.