So much has been made of Amazon’s Kindle. The brand name has already become synonymous with the product, like Q-Tips, Kleenex, and iPod. And much of the hoopla is well deserved. The Kindle was a quantum leap forward in technology, accessibility, and user-friendliness.

But that was then; this is now. With the introduction of more and more Kindle clones on the market, is the Kindle worth the premium price?

Sometimes, the original really is better than those that follow. It’s tough to argue that any portable music device that has followed the iPod can match the original in feature and function. But sometimes, the clones are every bit as good as the first entrant into the market, or at least offer a better value. A $400 DVD player is better than the $30 variety at Wal-Mart, but is it THAT much better?

Kindle is faced with competition on a number of fronts. The Augen Book Reader, for example, offers all the functionality of the Kindle and then some. Augen has bundled together a book reader and an MP3 player with a 7″ screen and a SD card reader.

Then there is the $29.99 Nintendo DS 100 Classic Books cartridge. Assuming you’ve already dropped the $150 or so for a Nintendo DS, there’s no better bargain than this on the market. Your thirty bucks gives you the software to turn the DS into a book reader as well as 100 all-time classic books like Great Expectations and Little Women. Such classic characters as Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein’s Monster are included.

In addition to the 100 books included on the cartridge, there are ten more books available for download. Although Nintendo has not unveiled any expansion plans, the small number of downloads relative to the number of books pre-installed leads me to believe that there will be many more on the way.

You probably saw when Google had Pac-Man on their homepage in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the game. Okay, so you saw it; did you play it too? I thankfully did not get too invested in the game and probably played for about 10 seconds before my boss rounded the corner, but some people played for hours. Do you know how much time was “wasted” due to this game last week?

Five million hours– that’s right, five million. This, of course, is an estimate from companies that use a time-tracking software. This software, used at companies such as Rescue Time (a software firm), observes where workers go online and for how long. Apparently, the average Google search is 11 seconds long and most people conduct about 22 searches a day. However, when Google put Pac-Man up, that average length went to 36 seconds! Doing some extrapolating and assuming that there are about 500+ million users who use Google on a daily basis, then that is about 5 million hours of “Google’ing”! Putting that into more of a perspective for you, 5 million hours is about 550 years! Translating this into a money value, this 5 million hours of work equates to $100 million if you use a $20/hour salary!

Marcin Wichary and Ryan Germick are the Googlers who are responsible for this Pac-Man Doodle. It is the first interactive Doodle ever created by Google, and it probably won’t be the last. It was also pretty close to the original version of Pac-Man; this made it even better! To play you had to click the “Insert Coin” button that is usually the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. You then controlled Pac-Man by using the arrow keys. You could even swipe using your iPhone or Android! To make things even better, the Doodle makers inserted some fun things in the game. One was that you could tap the “insert Coin” button a few times and then Ms. Pac-Man would show up for some two-player fun. Also, if you managed to get to level 256, you would be greeted by the infamous killscreen. Fun huh?

To play the Doodle Pac-Man, click here!

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.

Computers are quickly growing even more popular than they already are. Before long, if not already, computers will become not just a part of our lives but a mere necessity. Frequent computer users know that everything is stored on a computer, much like their own brain. Some of the more important stuff includes, office and business files, banking information, music, movies, pictures and photos, word processing documents, such as books, articles, and homework, and even with this list there are still many others. The big danger with storing files on a computer hard drive is that sometimes if not protected correctly they can be deleted, erased or even become corrupted and therefore no longer readable.

With the creation of laptops also came the creation of portable accessories to compliment those with an on-the-go lifestyle. Arguably one of the greatest portable assets is the portable and external hard drive. External hard drives provide an excellent way to store and transfer files between many different devices.

External hard drives can be plugged into all types of computers and used to transfer, but for the most part store, files. This means that any type of electronic device that can utilize the external hard drive’s interface (USB, eSATA, Firewire) can access the files on the device. You can store a large variety of files to transfer from one computer to another. You can store music and movies and then connect the hard drive to a gaming console and interact with the media on your TV. You even can backup important office or banking files and then copy protect or security protect the files so only one user can access them.

There are, of course, many ways to use an external hard drive. The biggest thing to note is that they provide many advantages. For the most part, everyone wants their important files to remain safe and backed up in the event of a hardware or file failure. After all, before computers most people knew to make copies of important documents and keep them in several places. The same holds true for computers and in many cases is very important. Even something just as simple as a power outage can cause serious problems in different circumstances, and thus ruin files stored on a computer.

Wii Fit takes the concept of fitness and gaming to a new level. The physical and mental aspects of gaming literally merge because of the balance board peripheral that was included for exercising. This device can let you know how well or how badly you’re doing in the game. Nintendo definitely outdid itself with the Wii Fit, it is now marketing this innovative product as a gadget for individuals who want to have fun while being fit at the same time.

The main technology behind the Wii Fit is actually the balance board. It can detect the slightest change in pressure and weight while you’re standing on it because of its sensitivity feature. Similar to its predecessor, the Wii Remote, the balance board is highly intuitive as soon as the exercise game is on. However, you should take note that the board can only handle 330 pounds in maximum capacity.

Fitness buffs shouldn’t think that Wii Fit is a weight-loss solution, though. This is because the technology focuses more on improving balance and muscle tone than weight loss exercises. It does let you know and keep track of your weight, BMI, and time spent using the game. With this type of feature, it becomes easier for you to determine your health status.

The board connects wirelessly to the Wii and uses four AA batteries. Its functionality is undeniable, and the manufacturers even integrated four rubber feet to prevent users from slipping on its surface. The Wii Fit is definitely a great alternative to going to the gym or joining an aerobics class that is 30 minutes away from your home. With this kind of technology at your disposal, there is no longer any excuse for you to put off exercising because it is boring or tedious.

Growing up in the 1980s, one of the most popular toys I remember were handheld arcade games. These incredibly primitive devices consisted of a simple black and white LCD screen that allowed you to play something that was almost, but not completely, unlike the original arcade game. Donkey Kong was a particular favorite.

Flash forward to 2008. While the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP now put console-quality gaming in your pocket, they represent quite an investment of cash. Instead, why not look into the VG Pocket Caplet?

The Caplet is a true heir to the pocket Donkey Kong of my youth, with a sale price right around $20 bucks. But instead of getting a single game that is about as compelling as your typical CSPAN broadcast, the Caplet bundles 20+ classic arcade games (of course, to save on licensing costs, many of the games are actually clones of the classics, much like the Vresace and Tommys Htilfiger goods you used to be able to buy in China).

The Caplet is a nifty way to relive arcade classics like Space Invaders and my wife’s personal favorite, Bust-a-Move. If you loved the old arcade games, or if you’re looking for a cheap way to kill time when you’re waiting for the train, check it out!

If the entire population of Sweden (a little more than 9 million people) decided to  sign up for the Multi Role Player Game (MRPG), World of Warcraft (WoW), it still would not equal the total number of subscribers that WoW now has.   WoW broke the 10 million subscriber mark this month. The developers of the game, Blizzard Entertainment, announced this news this week along with an update on its next expansion pack for the game, Wrath of the Lich King.

According to Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime: “It’s very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft. We’re always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we’re looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead.”

Many people that are gadget aficionados and online music downloaders are also video game players. And by the looks of a new study from NPD, it appears that there are a lot of video game lovers in the U.S. Here are some of the top-level numbers from the study they just released:

• Consoles, software, and accessories sales rose 43% in 2007
• 8.5 million Nintendo DS systems were sold
• 6.1 million Wiis were sold
• 3.97 million PS2 and 2.56 million PS3 were purchased in the U.S.
• Microsoft was able to move 4.62 million XBox 360s
• $8.64 billion was sold on console game software with “Halo3″ being the biggest seller (selling 4.8 million copies)
• “Guitar Hero” had the biggest year ever for a new game franchise by selling $820 million dollars

It is obvious that video games (especially console games) are one of the hottest gadgets around.

Which one do you have?