Archive for August, 2006

I wanted an MP3 player with video, but I couldn’t find one that I really loved. Then I found the iRiver Clix. It’s a flash player (2 GB) so there are no moving hard drive parts. This extends the battery life to about eight hours. The price is about the same as an iPod Nano - $200.

The screen is 320×240. At first I thought it would be too small for video. So I gave it the Seinfeld test. I uploaded an episode. Before uploading I used a free utility called Iriverter to convert a DVD video to the required Clix format (MPEG4). The resulting file was about 86 MB for 22 minutes of video. When I played it, it looked great. I would have no problem watching anything captured from TV on this player. If something is wide screen it is much harder to see. I don’t think I could make it through a two hour movie formatted in 16:9 on this little screen, but 4:3 is fine.

In addition to video, the player also handles pictures and music. These work exactly as you would expect. I found a program that batch converts my photos to 320×240 so I can carrie a few of them around on my player. The music player also handles WMA, ASF, OGG as well as MP3.

Instead of a menu area, the Clix uses the whole screen as the directional controller. Pressing the top of the screen moves up the menu. Right goes into a menu and so on. It works very well.

One other thing. It plays Flash games. I’m sure that will be handy at some point.

If you are thinking about a Nano, think again. You’ll like the Clix much more.

A young brain is better than an old brain. At least that is what the makers of this Nintendo-DS game think. I picked up a DS-Lite just to play Brain Age. I heard about the game on several podcasts. Everyone had good things to say about it.

The premise is simple. A younger brain (age 20 is idea) things faster and can concentrate better. This game measures how fast you can complete fairly simple tasks. It can understand your writing and your speaking. You start out with only a few games: arithmetic, color identification, reading, etc. You are suppose to play these games every day so that your brain starts to work more efficiently. Every few days another activity is added until you have about a dozen available. The additional games are geared toward concentration and short-term memorization. You can train as much as you like and the DS keeps track of your progress. When you are ready, you can enter the Brain Age mode. The DS selects several activities and based on your overall performance gives your brain an “age”. I started out at 70. Learning how the games worked help get my score down to the mid-forties in only a couple of days. Within a week I did achieve the ultimate - a twenty year-old brain.

I have been playing as many of the games as I can each day for more than a month. It only takes 10-15 minutes. My brain age is hovering in the low twenties (keeping it at 20 is impossible). I think it has helped my concentration and the speed at which I can recall things I know. It is also fun competition for everyone in the family.

It also comes with Sudoku.

http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=Y9QLGBWxkmRRzsQEQtvqGqZ63_CjS_9F