thePULSEGadgets That Make College Life Easier, More Productive…and a Lot More Fun!
By Eleine Fang
Have you ever wanted to
· …record a lengthy lecture to review later?
· …find an easy way to keep in touch with friends between semesters?
Blue Microphones introduces two new tech gadgets that will help you do both: the Mikey portable iPod recorder for recording [dreadfully boring… or even interesting!] lectures, and the Eyeball HD audio webcam for keeping in touch between semesters with your friends and family.
RECORD! RECORD! RECORD!
With the Mikey it has never been easier to capture audio content on-the-go. With Blue’s CD-quality audio recorder for the iPod, just plug it into the base of the iPod and the Mikey’s adjustable microphone and plug-and-play operation makes recording those lectures, study sessions, voice notes and live music simple from any angle up to 30 feet away.
The Mikey’s 3 versatile selectable mic sensitivity positions allow you to capture everything from the music at a sikk concert to a professor’s [monotone!] voice in a classroom. Another bonus, the Mikey portable iPod recorder also comes with a convenient built-in speaker ~ play back your recordings anywhere!
Recordings can be synced onto Itunes, used for those long hours of studying, or shared with others in or out of class. Small enough to fit in your pocket and compatible with the iPod 5G, iPod Classic and iPod Nano; 2G, 3G and 4G, the Mikey is available at www.bluemic.com for $79.99, a great price for such a great tool.
The Mikey is perfect for campus life and satisfies all your recording needs!
CONNECT! CONNECT! CONNECT!
Whether you’re trying to keep in touch with your friends and colleagues until next semester or trying to keep in touch with the family throughout the school year, Blue Microphone’s Eyeball HD audio webcam is a great tool that helps you do both!
For only $99.99, the Eyeball is a user-friendly, portable webcam that combines CD-quality audio and HD quality video, making the Eyeball perfect for keeping in touch through Skype, Google Chat or any other webcam service. In other words, it can be used just about anywhere and on just about any video chat hosting website almost perfectly.
The driverless installation makes setting up the Eyeball soooooooo easy. By simply connecting the USB cable to either a PC or Mac, the Eyeball is up and ready to go. Even a caveman can do it! Using a custom-designed monitor adapter, the Eyeball is easily positioned on virtually any laptop or desktop monitor. The innovative camera-off privacy position allows the HD lens to *pop in and out* of the high-fidelity microphone, preventing accidental broadcast. All your embarrassing private moments will be safe! Well, from this webcam, at least.
The Eyeball is a fantastic way to make that distance between you and your family and friends at home during the semester seem not-too-bad (Hey, Mom will be sooo happy that she can talk to you for hours just as if you were at home!) and to help you stay in touch with your college friends (or that special someone!) during break. It’s the next best thing to being there in person!
Other locations for the Mikey and the Eyeball are flagship retail partners including The Apple Retail Store, Amazon.com and other fine pro-audio and consumer electronics retailers worldwide. For more information, visit www.bluemic.com.
PRINT, PRINT, PRINT!
The Pixma MX700 is Canon’s all-in-one printer that copies, faxes (you’d be surprised at how many times you need to fax something in college!) and of course prints while saving space! At $129.00 this printer has great picture printing quality and fast printing speed. Did I mention you can also directly hook up your digital camera and instantly print your pictures? That can save you tons of cash on photo developing! The Pixma MX700 is available at the Canon e-store (www.estore.usa.canon.com), Best Buy and other electronic stores.
MINI, MINI, MINI!
Can’t afford a notebook laptop on your college budget? Try the Inspiron mini laptop series! Whether it is the Inspiron 9, 10, 12, you’ll get more bang for your buck with any of them! Although the Inspiron mini 9 is less up-to-date than the Inspiron 12, all of the mini laptops will satisfy your desires ~ educational or…otherwise. Small and portable, you can take this mini laptop anywhere! In white, blue, red, pink, green or black, the Inspiron mini laptops start at $299 ~ half the price of a regular laptop! Just remember, great things come in small packages!
FLIPPIN’, FLIPPIN’, FLIPPIN’!
A small sleek video camera, The Flip Ultra can capture up to120 minutes of your new (or old) life in college! A flash drive is attached to the camera so that downloading videos onto your computer is a breeze! With one touch recording, this camera is so easy (dare I say it) a monkey could use it! Starting at $149.99, the Flip Ultra is a great tool for recording, memorable moments at any stage of your life. If you want higher quality video, try the Flip Ultra HD video camera! Although it is more expensive that the regular Flip Ultra, the Flip Ultra HD $199 camera definitely gives you more quality than you’re paying for. If THAT isn’t enough, (you greedy people!) try the Flip Mino for $179.99 ~ it comes in tons of fun designs (you can even put your own pictures on it)! If you’re thinking, “Well, what if I want a Flip with a design AND HD? I bet you can’t give me that,” then you’re wrong ~ Flip also has the Mino HD for $229. With funky camcorders and great picture quality, you can’t go wrong with Flip ~ check out www.theflip.com for more info and to order yours!
SPLURGE! Apple’s Ipod Touch allows customers to listen to music while playing games, going online, checking your email, or looking through photos. This nifty gadget can also play movies and TV shows With 8 GB, 16GB or 32GB, the Ipod touch can hold thousands of songs, videos and games! Starting from $229.00, the Ipod Touch is on sale at retail stores, electronics stores and on www.apple.com. Although it is not practical for those educational needs, it is a great gadget to play with in your down time or when your brain is screaming for a break from a long study session.
SPLURGE! The Nikon Coolpix S60 is a great tool for capturing those Kodak college moments or for showing your parents how well you’ve adjusted to your new surroundings. With its 3.5-inch LCD monitor and 16:9 widescreen display you can clearly view all of your stored photos. With10.0 mega pixels and 5x zoom, this camera is easily one of the best around. The $299.95 Coolpix camera also has a touch screen function that enables you to easily scroll through pictures and instantly select them. The camera comes with a stylus which enables you to use the draw and paint function which adds a bit of fun to photography. Available in Crimson Red, Espresso Black, Arctic White, Burgundy, Champagne Pink and Platinum Bronze, this sleek and smooth camera is on sale at Best Buy stores and retail stores everywhere!
pickRset
pickRset has stepped up to the social networking plate and has made the lives of bands and users on-the-go easier. Thanks to their pickRpic program, users can now update all of their various social networking pix at one time.
Starting now you will be able to use your pickRset updates to update your Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Bebo accounts all at once – saving a great amount of time.
Users only need to email their photos or updates to their account which will upload their photo to their pickRset profile and update their MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Bebo accounts all in one simple shot.
pickRset believes this new and dynamic feature will really aid bands who can now get so much traffic to their various sites from just one picture. Their updated picture will be right next to their tour dates and available merch.
pickRset.com is more than a just music site. It’s a hands-on interactive experience whose sole purpose is to provide fans and artists with an unprecedented amount of direct and unique interaction in a free, easy-to-use online experience.
Try it!
