ON COMPUTERS : A gift that rocks: Lessons, guitar from iPlayMusic
Posted on Monday, December 8, 2008
What could be more fun than a pink guitar for Christmas ? Not much, says Joy, who found her inner folk singer when we got a pink electric guitar from iPlayMusic. com. At first, the lessons threw Joy for a loop, but after an hour or two the frowns turned to smiles, and she says the lessons really rock (or “folk,” if you prefer ).
A bundle with lessons, amplifier and an electric guitar sized to fit a youngster lists for $ 200, the same as the adult electric guitar package. There's also an acoustic guitar with lessons that lists for $ 100 to $ 130. These seemed like very low prices to us, so we went to a busy local guitar shop to check things out. The owner said the prices were very low but the guitars were medium quality and a little difficult to tune. We had in fact broken a string trying to tune it. He replaced the string and tuned the guitar for us for a dollar.
The best thing about the iPlay-Music video lessons is that you can put them on “Loop” and let the teacher keep repeating himself until you get it. That’s something you can’t do with live lessons. After you learn the first three chords and a strumming pattern, you’re ready to play “Sloop John B,” popularized by the Beach Boys. Then it’s on to The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Bob Marley and others.
Must be because of the season, but a couple of days after the iPlayMusic guitar we got another one for review from Fret-Light. com. This one had LEDs that light up to show you where to put your fingers. The lessons start at the beginner level, but most of the software in this package seemed very complicated to us. You can get an adult-size FretLight guitar plus software for $ 200.
FUEL CELLS The Medis 24-7 Power Pack claims to be the first fuel cell for personal use. Squeeze it to start the chemical reaction and it will power a cell phone, flashlight, radio and many other portable devices for anywhere from several hours to several days. Fuel cells have been on the horizon for quite a while. The first one was demonstrated by a Welsh scientist in 1838, and magazines have carried gee-whiz stories ever since, speculating that fuel cells in the basement would someday power our homes. This hasn’t happened of course, but it still may. Some buses in Switzerland have been running on fuel cells for several years. The Germans recently built a fuelcell powered submarine capable of staying submerged for weeks. Things are moving along.
What ordinary individuals can get right now is the Medis Power Pack. It’s about the size of a deck of cards and twice as thick. Inside are chemical reactants that come together when you squeeze the pack to break a thin film. There are a dozen types of materials used to produce the reaction that generates electricity and most of them have just water and carbon dioxide as wastes.
The Medis Power Pack produces 3. 6 to 5. 45 volts and can generate up to one watt of power. It can run continuously for about 20 hours. The cost seems modest: $ 23 for the cell plus $ 12 for the cable that connects the cell to most devices. You really need the cable, so call it $ 35 for the whole deal. We wish we had one when we lived in Southern California, where power outages were frequent. You can get the cell and more information at their web site Poweritanywhere. com. LAPTOP THEFT PROTECTION You can get a free software alarm that goes off if someone tries to steal your unattended laptop. It notices when the computer is unplugged (and someone has to unplug it if they’re going to take it ) or if the mouse is moved. It’s called Laptop Alarm and you can get it at download. com or Syfer. nl. The program works with Windows 98 to XP, but not with Vista or Macs.
INTERNUTS A reader in Thailand alerted us to YouBundle. com, a very unusual site that has bundles of specialized knowledge on relatively narrow topics. For example, a contributor who likes fantasy books put together a group of sites he recommends for their information about books and authors. Another presents his choices for video games, some free, some not. Another lists places to go and things to do only if you’re rich. You can also bundle videos. Some of the bundles have user ratings, called bump or dump. It’s definitely eclectic.
You can listen to a “Slacker Holiday” at online radio station Slacker. com. We hesitated not a moment and caught a Japanese children’s choir singing something incomprehensible. But it sounded cute. You can also tune in “Holiday Hits,” “ Jazz Holiday, ” “Country Holiday,” “ Holiday Party, ” “Latina Holiday,” “ Soul Holiday, ” and for something weird, “Dysfunctional Holiday” music. You can download their free player and click “seasonal,” or just go to Slacker to listen. NOTE: Readers can search several years of On Computers columns at our Web site: OnComp. com. We can be contacted by email at JoyDee@OnComp. com and BobSchwab@gmail. com.
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