Gadgets Part of School Plan to Fight Obesity

An Illinois school district is using a portion of a $15,000 grant from Fuel Up to Play 60 to purchase 60 wristbands made by Fitbit Flex that will track students' steps taken, distance traveled, active minutes, calories burned, the quality of sleep, and the hours slept. The effort is intended to help reduce teenage obesity, and officials said students will take the wristbands home for several days and potentially use the data to make healthier choices. A school in Arlington Virginia is doing something similar with even more kid friendly devices called Sqords that focus on winning medals, competing with pals, and sending positive messages through your “PowerMe” avatar.

Kindle v. iPad – One Woman’s Opinion

If you decided to wait until after the holidays to make a decision about an eBook reader you might be interested in reading what technology blogger Shelly Palmer has to say about the differences between a Kindle and an iPad. Bottom line: If you are just interested in an eBook reader than a Kindle is a good choice, but an iPad offers more since it will also run a plethora of apps, do email and let you surf the net and you can use eBook readers from Bluefire, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, Google and more on it, giving you access to more books.

How to Summon Home an AWOL Digital Camera

Here’s a clever trick to help bring a misplaced digital camera back home. Why not create a special set of picture-message clues that anyone looking through your errant camera’s memory would be sure to find ? That’s what Andrew McDonald suggests and you’ll find step-by-step instructions on the Photojojo site on how to create a poignant and funny trail of picture “bread crumbs” along with lots of other DIY (do-it yourself) ideas for your camera gear as well as good ideas for how to use your pictures in creative ways. Come to think of it this may be a good way to do the same for your smart phone as well!

Another Perspective on eReaders

I have to admit that despite being a techgadget-oholic I have been slow to warm up to the ebook readers that are now on the market. Both Barnes and Noble and Sony both have new eReaders on the market this year (and have already sold out until after the first of the year) but I think that those of us who use a smartphone find Amazon’s Kindle as well as these two newcomers a bit clumsy in comparison. My biggest problem is none of the three have a backlit screen and I find it makes the ebook useless on flights where you either don’t want to turn on the light or you are seating where it is difficult to hold the ebook in the light that is available. For more on the foibles of ereaders take a look at Nook E-Reader: Two Screens Are Not Better Than One.

Don’t Ask Because They Won’t Tell

It used to be if you lost a gadget you fussed and fumed but in the end you accepted it because there was no way to get it back. That is not really true anymore. Now many manufacturers can keep tabs on — and even profit from — gadgets that wind up in the hands of someone who has found or stolen them, especially when they are registered to a new and unauthorized user. Whether this has happened to you or not, if you own a cell phone or a Kindle or any other gadget, you should take a gander at Gadget Makers Can Find Thief, but Don’t Ask from The New York Times to read about one man’s odyssey with a lost Kindle.

A Guide To Texting and Kids

If you are facing the question of what device to give your toddler, grade-schooler or preteen if you have decided to let them take the texting plunge, you’ll be most interested in a recent article from the New York Times called They’re Old Enough to Text. Now What? It reviews some new devices that let toddlers think they are texting (Leapfrog’s Text and Learn ) so they don’t demand to chew on your iPhone and some phones with added safety features like the Kajeet for grade schoolers and the T-Mobile Sidekick LX for preteens. Advice in the article reinforces the advice often handed out in this blog – give them a little latitude but monitor, monitor, monitor. And as one of the experts in the article points out, kids can get carried away with what they type and things can get out of hand quickly, so if you decide to snoop remember that it is more important to teach overall responsibility than to attack individual texts you may come across.