Andy Taylor - TechtalkRadio HostAndy Taylor of TechtalkRadio talked with Emmy Anderson of Sprint today to discuss the Simply Everything and Everything Data Plans from the Mobile Provider. An Announcement last week had many pondering the effects of Verizon backing away from Unlimited Plans to metered services. Some had wondered if Sprint might follow suit however the unlimited service plans have been succesful marketing for the company competing for a strong foothold while not offering an Apple iOS enabled device.
What Sprint has going for the company is great customer service and a variety of handsets that have won favorites in the Android Class of Smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy Epic has been noted for great features on screen as well as a slide out keyboard for those that like the push to key devices.
In our Discussion Emmy lays out the reason for the continuing of the Everything Options and devices that are offered from Sprint.
Yes, I said it. Exercise. I know, I know. It’s a nasty word! Before anyone jumps to conclusions or gets upset I wanted to let you all in on a little secret. With new technologies like Wii, PSMove, and Xbox Kinect, we now have the option of getting an extremely beneficial workout at the same time as playing video games.
Working Up a Sweat
Back in the early days of the PlayStation2 I actually lost about 35 lbs using the Dance Pad with Dance Dance Revolution and got a pretty nifty little benefit of cardio endurance during my marathon trainings. Most of the time I didn’t even realize I was working out because it was so much fun dancing to the beats and trying to remember the combos to score extra points.
Then, came the Wii with motion controls. When I had a FirstGen Wii, I loved playing games like Wii Sports and Wii Dance. I never did get a chance to experience the Wii Fit but I heard it is pretty fun. There are many more options to choose from now. EA Sports just released Zumba Fitness and some other really awesome games like Football Trainer and likewise there are many versions of Just Dance as well. Unfortunately, I had to “donate” my Wii to someone else, but was lucky to have kept my Ps3, a feat I am proud of to this day.
This brings me to the purpose of this blog. I recently had been released from the doctor to work out again and wanted to do something different than I had done before. It’s boring going to the TV and popping in a DVD or watching Fit TV to get a boring exercise routine out of the way just to say I did it. Blechhh!
Like many, I don’t like using my gym at the clubhouse here either because people are gross and leave many things unclean. I also don’t have confidence enough to walk in to a local gym with Barbie and Ken doing their 5 mile hill climbs and 30 mile recumbent bike rides when I am walking briskly for 1 mile and feel like, “I am going to DIE!”
I found a solution. It’s completely awesome and so much fun. The game is called EA Sports Active 2. It’s a second version, similar to the EA Sports Active that was previously only released on the Wii a few years ago. This newer version however is available for all 3 platforms and uses Kinect for Xbox360. The cost is about $99.99 but I’ve seen it around the web for as low as $69.99. Pretty cheap considering the average gym membership is about $50.00 or more plus a personal trainer is going to cost you extra.
EA Sports Active 2 Personal Trainer Box
This game lets you personalize an avatar. Mine happens to be a bit curvy and has some junk in the trunk. Exactly my type of avatar! I don’t want to work out as Kim Kardashian if I don’t look like her. Maybe one day! Ha!
After you personalize your avatar, you create personal goals, and make a workout calendar for yourself. I began working out 4 days a week with 3 rest days as recommended by the game. I also chose the 9 week workout plan. It starts you off at a beginner level and then presses you through workouts at 3 interval phases throughout the program. You get to choose your own personal trainer. Mine is a motivating dude who lets me know when I’m doing a strength training move incorrectly by saying politely, “Stay still and make it count!” To which I usually reply, “Shut Up I hate you. No More Reverse Crunches!” Only because the game really makes you work hard but really it is truly fun. It’s definitely challenging for sure.
3 Phases of Fitness with Active 2
EA Sports Active 2 mixes cardio, boxing, kickboxing, step aerobics and strength training exercises all together. There are really entertaining exercises like Soccer Block, Bike Riding, Rail Sliding, and Basketball Shooting. We had a friend over on Thanksgiving when I got the game and he is an ex personal trainer at a well known gym. He did the exercises to try the game out for us for about 30 minutes and he was sweating. He said, “This game is way better than any of the other games I have played. It’s more real and makes you move.”
How does it track your movements? With the game comes three censors and a USB drive. There are two arm bands and one leg band. One of the arm bands has a censor on it to track your pulse and the other two are for motion censing. Now the first time I played, it was a bit awkward and the leg band kept slipping off my leg but I think because I didn’t have it tight enough was the problem. It also comes with a resistance band to help with the strength exercises like curl arm presses and reverse flys. It works pretty great at toning. I am already showing a bit of tone in my arms especially and my legs too from all the squats they have. The USB stick keeps track of your progress so that if you want to switch consoles or take it to a friend’s house to work out together you can travel and keep your progress on your stick. It’s pretty rad.
EA Sports Active 2 Equipment for Ps3
Your progress is kept daily. The games contains fitness goals, nutrition logs, tracks calories burned, fitness levels attained, weight loss and heart rates achieved. It’s rather thorough I’d say. You can also create custom workout groups to workout with friends and watch each other’s progress. Unfortunately, you cannot use cross platform groups. A friend of mine purchased Wii version of the game and created a group and I tried to join on my Ps3 version and we could not. However, we did make an online group on the EA Sports Active 2 website and were able to track each other’s progress that way. I like to track my progress on facebook using the Ps3 feature of posting my achievements on my facebook profile page via Ps3. It’s motivating for me.
As far as the game goes, if you are looking to workout but you hate gyms or monotonous workout videos, give EA Sports Active 2 a try. Similarly, if you have a Wii, try out the Football Trainer that just came out this month. I would be interested in hearing if anyone gets it going and how they like it. It’s really a blast and the health benefits are already showing for me after only 4 weeks of training. Run out and grab your copy! Happy Fitness New Year!
It would appear that the long awaited title Call of Duty Black Ops is exceeding sales figures of the last year sequel release to Call Of Duty Modern Warfare. COD Black Ops, I will call it that because something seem wrong about calling it COD BO. It’s far from Stinky and the sales of the game released this week have exceeded about 5.6 million copies. With a little under a couple of months left for the holidays to wrap up, Call Of Duty Black Ops will no doubt be a continued Best Seller of both Concole and PC titles. Even with strong competition from Fable III and Fallout New Vegas as well as a variety of Bond titles, the first week indications have been tremendous.
At the launch party for Call of Duty Black Ops, the CEO of Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick announced the donation of One Million dollars, a portion of the sales from the new title, to go to the Call of Duty Endowment which provides job training and placement for returning veterans of any branch of military service. While the estimates of joblessness for the Veterans is bleak, this endowment continues to educate and inform the American people on efforts within thier own communities and globaly to help our servicement.
The Star studded launch party included Scrubs star Zack Braff and Basketball legend Kobe Bryant who was featured in one of the most creative commercials for a Video Game title to ever air. The Call of Duty Black Ops TV Spot also features an appearance by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. Activision Blizzard has shared some of the footage from the Launch party which was help November 4th in Santa Monica California, although we didn’t get to see any of the concert footage from Metallica! Check the video out and find how you can help spread the word about the Endowment and learn of ways you can help out from your very home!
I was sitting here tonight working on an Audio feature for TechtalkRadio thinking about the Adobe Audition program. It seems like a couple of years have gone by since the program I have recommended to several Radio Stations for Production Work was released. It would be great if some of the companies that put out these full featured programs released the new versions similar to the way Hollywood puts out movies! It seems that now when a feature film is on the way, we get to hear about it, see previews and of course talk about it with other fans of films. I remember seeing the trailer for the first Iron Man film in theaters almost a full 6 months before the release date. Even games are using this technique to really wet our appetites for a new title. With Call of Duty Black Ops which arrives next week, we also heard about it months ago with a release date and a preview.
In the Marketing sence, this can be good or bad. The most recent addition of Medal of Honor features warfare similar to what we would find in the new Call of Duty. Did they get the jump in putting out the title and taking the 50-60 bucks out of the pocket of a consumer that may have been saving up for COD? Apple seems to never talk about a product officially until it is actually available. This works for them in the sense of excitement about a product and speculation of an announcement but we really are never quite sure. I remember some years ago waiting for another version of Adobe Pagemaker but at the same time, Adobe had this new program that worked similar to Pagemaker called InDesign. User to Pagemaker forums and chats were sounding the death knell for the program which seemed to have a huge user base but really couldn’t do more than it already was doing. That’s not good for the software industry isi it? A Product with a huge life cycle, one that does all it needs to do in a simple basic easy layout?
Generating sales is how even these large companies can continue to develop and produce solutions for a variety of products. For those that use Adobe Audition, it should be hard to argue that there is more that they could really do with it without making clutter of the program itself? The boards are beginning to talk and similar to the chatter heard during the “Pagemaker Crisis” we are hearing comparisons to Adobe Soundbooth. After careful digging I did find a light at the end of the tunnel with a Blog from Adobe Evangelist Terry White which last June he focused on the Adobe Audition package available for the Mac and gave a preview of a version he says should be avialable for both platforms. It looks like there still could be life to the Adobe Audition program and with more users taking the plunge to 64bit programs, this might be a welcome new version.
Take a look at Terry’s blog post on Adobe Audition and visit often, he always provides some great information without the rumors. His blog for me was like seeing a trailer to Star Trek 2, Can’t wait!
After talking with a few customers that have been contemplating websites, I decided to share with some of you in that same thought process where you really should be approaching the idea of having a site built. My article can be found at the TechtalkRadio website in our Articles section. http://www.techtalkradio.com/articles/newsite.html
I laugh when I see those commercials for Intuit which helps customers get on the web as well as manage the many facets of the business. The sad thing about that commercial is the complaints that many of the businesses portrayed. actually mirror what many Small Business Owners feel. Either a website was started months ago and no real development was seen, a friend of a friends kid was building the site or for the most frustrating, they themselves were trying to build the site.
Getting a website built doesn’t have to be that difficult and with the right information, you not only could have a site built for you that can drive new customers into your business but also have returning customers increase loyalty by visiting often and sharing thiers and your site with others. It’s a Win Win for both the Web Builder and for the business. The article shares some of the finer points of getting started but I’ll reiterate here, it is communication. Talk with your web builder but remember, you own the product. It should be 100% your vision with the function defined between you and the person or company undertaking the project. Enjoy the Reading, I plan on posting more articles on tips for getting a website built from picking the service plan, deciding on a monthly updating fee and other considerations for your overall site.
Thanks for checking it out, also – if you are looking for tip and solutions for problems encountered when working on a site – check out our forums, Register and Post there and we should be able to help you. Forum=http://www.techtalkradio.com/forum
— Andy
Admin Note: Andy also shared a link in the article for the Archive.org site where the TechtalkRadio.Com site from 1999 can be viewed.
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