After recently coming back from spending a weekend on the slopes at Sunday River in Newry, Maine, I decided to look into some skiing and boarding gadgets. I had seen people using their iPods, attaching cameras on their helmets, and even pulling out their Blackberry phones to use as trail maps. I suppose the phone is easier to pull out than a paper trail map that will rip as you open it, but this is just more proof that technology will continue to make its way to the slopes. I am personally against technology on the slopes, but unfortunately, I do not think that we will be able to keep our slopes technology free in today’s world.

That being said, here is a gadget that I could be convinced of supporting. Called the SlopeTracker, this three ounce gadget straps to your arm and then proceeds to  spend the day logging your coordinates and calculating all kinds of interesting information. The SlopeTracker can log vertical feet, distance ridden, top speed, number of runs, the average grade of the slopes, and difficulty rating. To make this gadget even more effective, the SlopeTracker allows you to get a full print sheet of your performance. You even can get a GPS map of your skiing or boarding adventure.

If you want to talk about costs, I should let you know that the SlopeTracker is  available for rent at a number of resorts including Winter Park, Park City, Telluride, Keystone, Copper, Deer Valley, and Sunshine Village. However, if you are looking to buy this gadget, you will have to look for a version of the device, STATS, that  is available for purchase. As of 2009, this gadget is able to operate at over 640 resorts. Something like this is a great tool to have to see how you have improved, but it also is a luxury gadget.

The SlopeTracker is “the DNA of your extraordinary snow day.”

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In my last article, I predicted wireless peripherals would be taking over the electronic world.  Lexmark created a printer to make me look like a true genius.  It is the Z2420 WiFi printer.

I was getting film developed at Wal Mart and saw this printer sitting on the shelf.  I have been looking for a good printer to work into my wireless network because my other printer is too old to do the job.  This one caught my eye because of the WiFi capabilities and the $50 price tag.  This was not a tough decision.

As I was unpacking the box, I knew right away this would be a great bang for the buck.  It is a sleek little guy that has quality written all over it.  The person packing this took great care to tape down everything to prevent shipping damages.  I was ready to buy another!

Then I began the install process.  The CD walked me through every little step.  If you have zero computer knowledge, you should be fine hooking this up on your own.  Just make sure you have the password to your wireless network handy.

In fact, the only issue I had when setting it up was the network would not accept my password.  Finally, I got it to take my administrator password.  I have read that some people needed to reset their wireless router because they forgot the password.  Do not do this, unless you know what you are doing.  It can be a pain to get everything just right again.

Once the printer was up and running, it prints great quality documents.  The print speed is 25 PPM black and white and 18 PPM color.  Printing a one page Word document took no time at all, and the print was fantastic.  I printed a flyer with pictures, on it and the quality was good.  The pictures may be better on picture paper but nothing to brag about.

All in all, I would recommend this for anyone.  Those with laptops or netbooks especially will love the ease this product offers.

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This year’s CES week was held from January 7th-10th. CES stands for Consumer Electronics Show and is a non-public trade show held each January in Las Vegas,Nevada, and is sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association. It is pretty much a big “geek fest” in which reviews of products are introduced and new products are announced. It is the industry’s largest educational forum that helps companies expand their businesses.

Since the first CES took place in New York City in June of 1967, this event has grown ever so quickly. In 1967 there were 200 exhibitors and 17,500 attendees, but since then, this trade show has grown more than ten-fold. Companies clamor to have a chance to speak or go to this trade show because they know it makes for remarkable media coverage. According to a Burson-Marsteller Most Valued Podium survey, CEOs even rank the CES as one of their top 10 most desired speaking opportunities.

Here are some of the winners of the 2010 CES show.\:

For Best In Show–the Panasonic VT25. This TV will be among the first 3D-capable flat-panel HDTVs available for sale in the United States. Its release date is set to be late this spring. Ridiculous! The CES 2010 People’s Voice Award went to the Intel Wireless Display. Called WiDi, Intel has created technology that allows one to connect their PC to the TV. To do this, one would use a WiDi-enabled laptop and wirelessly connect to an adapter box that plugs into the HDMI port of any display.

Another piece of technology that turned some heads was LG’s Blu-ray player. Here are some key features of the LG BD590 according to Cnet.com:

• 250GB built-in hard drive
• capable of storing music, photos, and videos
• Can rip CDs directly to the hard drive
• Online streaming media services include Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, YouTube, Pandora, Picasa, AccuWeather
• Purchased Vudu movies can be stored directly on the hard drive
• Built-in Wi-Fi
• Allows you to stream music, photos, and videos from a connected PC

CES is the ultimate technology trade show.

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With the dawn of a new decade during the information age, there is much hope for great things to come.  I am going to ramble on as to where I see the trends going.  I am not a techno-geek, but as an investor I am always on the hunt.

First, the world of computers.  Everything these days has a hard drive.  Video cameras, digital cameras, MP3 players and even gaming systems.  All of this data costs a lot of money to replace, and many pictures are priceless to the parent of a newborn or the newlywed couple.  The trend is going to drive toward home servers to back-up all this data for the savvy and off site back-ups for the average Joe.  Those with the knowledge and marketing skills could make a killing.

Next, the touchscreen.  This type of technology is in cell phones and supermarkets.  People of all ages love it, and it is much easier to figure out than 20-button controllers.  Begin to look for this in television remote controls.  Now that we are using one remote to control a TV, sound system, DVR, etc., there is an increasing need to simplify the process.  Touchscreen remotes are currently very pricy, but once makers come to their senses everyone will need one.

Back to computers.  With the home server or off-site server coming to age, there is going to be much less of a need for the DVR and sound systems mentioned above.  We can do everything through a computer, and TVs are basically hopped-up computer monitors.  Having a centrally based data center will allow for the elimination of thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

The last will be the completion of a current movement…wireless.  Wireless mice and keyboards finally are getting to a good point where they are reliable.  Bluetooth is proving its worth in the headphone and earpiece world.  Soon enough, all speakers will be wireless, and freedom from wires will be granted except for the pesky power cords.

All of these are not far-fetched ideas, and the trends are moving that way.  Get ready to live more easily.

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Recently, I was at a friend’s house, and we were playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on his Xbox 360.  Well, as we played, we used his gaming chair, which made me think about writing an article.

Now, my primary question about them only has been if they are worth buying.  They have a variety of ups and downs and look really cool, but they tend to be pricey and aren’t always worth buying.

Pros:

• They rumble or vibrate like a controller does, which is very nice, as it keeps you alert and prevents sleep when playing an all-nighter.
• The chairs normally have speakers in them, giving you a movie theater type experience and adding fun.
• They are very, very comfortable!  They recline (a nice feature), some rock, and they are padded.   Most gaming chairs are a leather type material.
• There are chair custom made for racing games with built in shifter, steering wheel, and pedals set up like a real car.
• The headrests are great!  They are padded and are nice to sleep in, too. (Trust me).

There are some cons, though:

• Gaming chairs are very costly!  They range from about eighty dollars (US) to seven hundred dollars.  This is a ton of money for a chair!
• How often it shall be used plays a big factor.  If you only use your gaming system for two hours every day, is a chair just for gaming truly worth it?
• Positioning is important, as the rocker styled ones are very low to the ground, so being near a TV may strain your neck.

So, in the end, is it worth it?  In my eyes, no.  If you have to spend two hundred fifty dollars (US) to buy a quality one, it isn’t worth it.  I could buy four or five new games for that!  Also, the room it would go in is not set up in a practical manner for one.  But it is your call, not mine, so you choose.

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If you know technology, you know Newegg.com. If you know Woot.com, as I mentioned in my previous article, you probably also know Newegg.com, because I would assume that a person who loves Woot.com also would love technology and therefore would know Newegg. Nevertheless, if you have no clue what I am talking about, allow me to fill you in.

Newegg.com is a great place to get your electronics because the prices are so low in comparison to other dealers. It was founded in 2001 by a guy in an industry-based city. His name is Fred Chang–a Taiwanese immigrant. Newegg was originally a smaller division of the company ABS Computer Technologies, Inc., a computer systems integrator. According to sources, Newegg was made after ABS executives realized that there was an increased need to offer services for the “do it yourself” customer. ABS did not decide to change their ways of business– which sold their customers great PCs but did not allow the customers to buy the parts separately in order to make small updates here and there in the PCs. ABS wanted the customers just to buy a new computer rather than replace the faulty and not as up-to-date parts. After realizing that some other system had to be developed, Newegg was formed.

Newegg.com was named one of the Internet’s Top 10 retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine in 2005 with their 2004 sales revenue of just under $1 billion. In 2005, Newegg.com grew an additional 30%–clearly a successful company! It has some other pretty impressive ratings as well. For instance, Reseller Ratins ranked Newegg as one of the highest rated online retailers– 9.73/10 for a six-month rating (30,054 lifetime reviews)! As of January 2008, this put it in the top ten of over 13,000 stores. Then, in 2009, Forbes added it as #234 on the Forbes America’s Largest Private Companies list.

So, clearly Newegg is making some moves. I always check Newegg first to see their prices for the items that I want, and let me just say, I usually buy everything from Newegg when it comes to buying electronics online.

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Technology is advancing really fast, it’s almost as if we can’t keep up with its pace. I came upon a video about a new technology that blew my mind away; it’s a video about the SixthSense Technology. That video gave me a glimpse of the way we will live our lives in the very near future. If you haven’t heard about it, SixthSense is a wearable device that allows the user to make the physical world interact directly with the digital world. The wonder that is SixthSense Technology cannot be understood and appreciated if only seen through the line “make the physical world interact directly with the digital world,” one needs to see it demonstrated. That is why I have included in this post the video that “blew my mind away.” But before you hit the “Play” button on the video player below, here are some teasers:

• Remember the movie Minority Report? Of course you remember that movie, everyone does, especially the newspaper with moving pictures in it. With SixthSense the impossible technological wonders we often see in sci-fi movies cease to be just fantasies, they actually happen.
• Imagine being able to drag an image from a book (hard copy) and drop it unto your computer’s monitor.
• Imagine being able to write on any surface with your finger or play a digital game on any surface without bringing your bulky computer.
• Imagine meeting a person for the first time and seeing basic information about him flash before your very eyes.

Okay, I know that words are not enough when it comes to things like this one so here is the video, prepare for a mind-blowing viewing.

The inventor of the SixthSense Technology is Pranav Mistry, a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab. Mistry says he will give the software behind SixthSense as open-source so that people can make do-it-yourself SixthSense devices of their own.

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