Weekly Daily Giz Wiz, week of May 30th, 2011, Netcast 1316

A piece of Bowflex equipment you wear on your wrist.

It's the BowFlex Pro Plus watch. If you’re looking for a strapless heart rate monitor watch that’s pretty inexpensive, the BowFlex Pro Plus is one to check out. It features things like Quick Touch Technology and CHR. CHR stands for continued Heart Rate display and it’s a good feature. It holds your last heart rate in memory for a few seconds after you remove your fingers. I like bargains, and I like watches, so when I saw a list price of $99.99 and a sale price of $14.99, I jumped. With shipping it came to under $20, which is my ceiling price for ordering something I don’t know much about. Now some of the stuff written in ads about this watch are a little much, like this: “With the Pro Plus Strapless Heart Rate Monitor Watch you'll be able to stick to your exercise regimen. You can reach your previously unattainable fitness goals as you watch and measure how your body is slimming down fat-wise and beefing up muscle-wise.” Really? All from a watch? Well you do get your heart rate by pushing and holding the lower left button until the watch face turns to three dashes & a heart icon appears. Then you put your thumb and 1^st finger on the sensors at the top and bottom of the display. In a few seconds your heart rate is displayed. I checked the heart rate on the watch against the heart rate monitor on the treadmill at the gym and there was just 4 to 8 heartbeats difference. I think that was pretty good. The watch also features day and date display and a 24-hour countdown timer, hi/low target zone alarm, calorie counter and backlight display. I think this is a discontinued model, but for $20 I thought it was pretty good! The place I bought it at has sold out, but I found it here for $20, including shipping.

http://bensbargains.net/deal/198008/ 

See or hear this netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1316

Can you hear my music now?

Eh?? Whadda say? I can’t hear you. Speak into my horn! This is a strange gizmo that harkens back to the old phonograph that used a big horn to amplify the music. Or the horn someone put in their ear so they could hear you better. It’s about as simple as technology can be. You just slip the BONE Horn Stand speaker onto your iPhone for some good, old low-fi amplification. Yep, it just uses old-fashioned acoustical science. The silicone stand is said to add 13 decibels of sound to your iPhone's speakers without a battery or power source in sight, because none is needed. It also serves as a iPhone stand and will hold your iPhone in a vertical or horizontal position. Great for watching movies or video podcasts (like the Weekly Daily Giz Wiz) when you want a bit more sound. It’s also fun-looking. And as you’ll see in the web ads for the BONE Horn Stand Speaker, iPhone is not included. It fits the original iPhone, iPhone 3G/3GS & iPhone 4. I tried it on my iPod Touch and it works pretty well, especially for the price. And what is that price? If you do a web search you can find it from about $6 to $30!!! It’s available in colors, and for some reason lime green seems to be the cheapest and black the most expensive. I haven’t bought anything at the link below, but they sell most colors for about $8, plus S&H. 

http://www.amazon.com/Bone-Collection-Portable-Amplifier-iPhone/dp/B0048YB5B2 

See or Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1316

Leo's Turn The Table Turkey of the week!

Leo’s pick this week is the new Third Rail iPhone Case. It really provides great flexibility when you need extra iPhone power on the go. Leo showed us how the thin Third Rail case not only protects your phone, but also lets you piggy back a battery for about 80% more power. But wait, there’s more! If you’re going to be on the road for a long time, away from AC power, you can swap out a fully charged Smart Battery for deleted one. However, for convenient charging from a single power source, you can stack your Smart Batteries on your Slim Case and charge everything from the single micro USB on your case. The Third Rail Slim Case is compatible with all Third Rail Smart Batteries so you can easily share Smart Batteries among family, friends, and coworkers. The durable hard-shell protection has a soft touch coating and provides access to all iPhone 4 features. Leo showed us the integrated on/off switch on the Slim Case that allows you to choose when you want power to flow from your Smart Battery to your iPhone. Simply flip the switch on the bottom left of your Slim Case to change it between stand-by mode (red) and charging mode (black). And this is neat - using your Smart Battery, you can charge your mobile phone, Bluetooth headset, MP3 player, gaming device, etc. using the included micro USB adapter. And if the iPhone changes shape in the next generation, your Smart Batteries will be  compatible with future Third Rail cases. That eliminates the need to purchase new charging accessories or battery cases with each new mobile phone purchase. A Third Rail System consisting on the case and a Smart Battery has a MSRP of $89.95.

http://www.thirdrailmobility.com/

See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1316

And from Dick’s Gadget Warehouse, another watch!

Keeping with “watch” theme, we return to a newspaper ad from 1989.

 It contains that attention-getter that always makes me ask – “If you’re giving something away – why are you charging?” But here it is:

 HOW CAN WE POSSIBLY GIVE AWAY THESE NAVIGATOR-STYLE WATCHES FOR JUST $2.  (Don’t forget this is 1989 – 22 years ago!)

 CLAIM THIS RUGGED NAVIGATOR STYLE LCD WATCH FOR ONLY $2. THIS IS NOT A MISPRINT!

 * Looks like the costly timepieces worn by flight and marine navigators!

 * Large multi-function LCD display plus ornamental 12-hour analog watch face!

 *At this low price you’ll want several to use as impressive looking gifts! (for people you don't care about!)

 *Each watch has a black matte sports strap and case, authentic looking bezel and more.

 At this low price there is a strict limit of five (5) watches per request. (Arr gee, just five?)

 At $2 + $1 shipping you don’t expect much, and you don’t much. It’s a pretty crappy plastic watch with a plastic band. And that quartz analog face you see embedded on the face of the LED watch? It’s painted on, so it’s ALWAYS ten after two! That’s what they meant when they said LCD “ornamental” watch face!

See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1316

Weekly Daily Giz Wiz, week of May 22nd, 2011, Netcast 1315

Don't You Hate It When A Power Tool Battery Dies in the Middle of Your Project? Nextec has a neat solution!

Craftsman has a new one-of-a-kind, time-saving technology for its cordless line of 12-volt lithium-ion NEXTEC power tools. With its new QuickBoost Charger, Craftsman can bring a completely dead battery back up to a 25 percent charge in just three minutes! That should give you enough extra power to finish up the job at hand. Sears says the new Craftsman NEXTEC QuickBoost Charger was developed to end the frustration of having to wait 30 minutes or more for a battery charge when your DIY project is almost complete. Now your only have to wait three minutes and you're set to go back to work! At the push of a button, the charger harnesses all its energy for a three minute quick boost charge, or a full charge in about 30 minutes.  This really works well. I dropped a completely depleted battery into the charger, and pushed the QuickBoost Button. The large green LED start blinking and became steady in just about 3 minutes. I could now go back to my project! Hardly enough time to grab a cup of coffee. The charger’s on board diagnostics monitor the battery’s progress and indicates the battery’s status including “charged”, “charging”, “complete” and “over temperature” using red, yellow and green LED lights. The QuickBoost charger is shipped as part of certain kits such as their new Hammerhead Auto Hammer kit which retails for $99.99. The QuickBoost Charger is also available as a stand-alone for $39.99. It's a great addition to any cordless Craftsman Nextec 12Volt lithium-ion power tools you already have.

www.craftsman.com  (I couldn’t find QuickBoost here yet, but it should be coming soon. And it may already be at your local Sear's store.)

See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1315