The Chronic Consumer

So I finally decided to download the infamous Words with Friends app for my tablet pc. This is the game that’s supposedly so addictive Alec Baldwin got kicked off a flight because he refused to turn it off. I’d been hearing buzz long before that, of course, but for some reason finally decided to get it.

The thing is, I’m not that impressed with it thus far. I have the Scrabble app, too, so maybe that factors into my reaction a little bit. Words with Friends is basically Scrabble Lite, in my estimation. It’s the same game, just with a differently organized board and a different amount of tiles. Some of the point values on the tiles are different as well.

The main point in favor of Words with Friends is how easy it is to play against friends. You can find friends by contact information in your device or via Facebook/Twitter if you give the game your login information. You can also play games with “randoms” if you want a bit of an anonymous go at it.

That’s all well and good, but the thing I can’t stand about Words with Friends is its excruciatingly slow pace! There’s no time limit for any of the moves, so games literally drag on for days and days. This reminds me of when my dad used to play chess via postal mail with a friend way back before computers were commonplace. It took 3 days to make a single move and then the waiting would start all over again. That’s exactly how some of these Words With Friends matches play out. Ugh. I understand that people are at work/school and might not have time to play a full game in one sitting. But there should definitely be a “Quick Play” option that limits either the time between moves or the number of rounds in the game so the thing speeds up.

Overall, I’m not sure what the fuss is about. Maybe I’d change my tune if more of my friends had the app, but as it is, I prefer playing Scrabble against the CPU and getting the game over with in a reasonable period of time!

I want to start getting more real productivity out of my iPad instead of just using it as a fancy notebook or web browser. Towards that end, I’ve been buying apps that let me use the device more like I would my desktop computer. My latest purchase was Pages, the iWork version of word processing.

Here’s the description from Apple:

Pages lets you create great-looking letters, reports, flyers, invitations, and more on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. And the story gets even better. Now iCloud keeps your documents up to date across all your iOS devices — automatically. So whatever device you’re on, your projects are ready for you to pick up right where you left off. Words have never come so easily.

I don’t need quite that much functionality, since I only have an iPad at the time. In fact, I don’t even know how to access iCloud (is it automatic??) or anything like that. But from the little bit that I’ve used Pages thus far, I have to say that the rest of the info from the description is right on.

Pages comes with a number of pre-loaded templates (formal letter, letter, resume, poster, visual presentation, etc.) so creating those kinds of things is a breeze. You just select a template, and then replace the existing text and/or graphics with whatever you want.

Creating new documents is even easier, and I love how there are quite a bit of options for fonts, sizes, and headings. This makes me feel like I’m using a powerful program, even if I do just select Times New Roman, 12-pt every time.

Another great thing about Pages is the ease with which I can add, edit, and otherwise manipulate photos and other objects in the document. I just grab photos right from my iPad, scale them down, wrap the text, and I’m good to go. This makes creating newsletters and similar photo-heavy documents easy.

And finally, I can open and edit Word documents, and export my own work as Word or PDF files so others can open/read what I’ve done. Oh, and did I mention that all my work is automatically saved as I type? No more worries about losing text if I get interrupted and have to shut down quickly.

All in all, I think Pages was a very smart purchase. It costs $9.99, which is expensive for an app, but I believe the product is worth even more than that. If this cost $19.99, for example, I wouldn’t blink an eye about paying that.

Anyway, if you want some true word processing functionality on your iPad, then you simply must get Pages. I wasn’t all that impressed with Numbers, but Pages is a great app!

I use my iPad for almost everything, including daily to-do lists and memos. Sometimes it’s a pain to have to type everything in on the touchscreen, so I decided to buy a stylus and note taking app. After checking out some recommendations, I decided to go with the Bamboo stylus by Wacom.

The Bamboo stylus has the length and heft of a regular pen, so it feels good in my hand. It also works very well with Penultimate. All of my brushstrokes are recorded and the handwriting rendered looks VERY close to what it does on real paper.

The only thing I have a problem with is that I can’t quite get used to its wide nib. This was my first stylus purchase for a touchscreen device, so I didn’t know that this is how they all are. I can control the line width in Penultimate, but even when I select the finest option, I can’t get used to writing that way. I prefer the thickest line option in Penultimate, in which case the Bamboo stylus works like a champ.

Overall, I think this is a good product. It does what I need it to do, which is general note-taking for daily life. I’m not in school and I’m not an artist, so if that’s what you plan to use your stylus for, you might have different criteria.

At $30 this was the priciest stylus at the store. I chose it anyway because I have used cheap accessories in the past and been burned. I don’t feel I was ripped off on this purchase, though.

There aren’t many shopping days left this holiday season, so if you haven’t covered everyone on your list yet, you better get a move on. Last minute gifts are always dangerous to your budget because you might feel the pressure to spend more than you’d ordinarily be willing to. That is a mistake that can last well into the new year as you continue trying to pay off credit card bills.

Instead of overextending yourself, why not get something simple like Mrs. Fields cookies? Cookies are always appreciated, easy to order, and most importantly, don’t cost an arm and a leg. I personally love receiving cookies, so if any of my friends or relatives are reading this, feel free to send me as many Mrs. Fields samplers as you want!

I don’t play many video games, but I do love the Mario Kart franchise, so when I heard that Mario Kart 7 was coming out for the 3DS, I not only went out and bought the game, but had to buy the handheld system as well. After a couple weeks of playing it, I’d say both of my purchases were well worth the money!

Mario Kart 7 brings fans the same great racing action that they’ve come to expect from the series, with a few added twists. For example, you can now customize your kart by choosing the frame, tires, and kite from various presets and unlockables. Yes, I said “kite” — there’s also some fun flying action in the game when your kart takes off from a particularly long jump! In addition, you can do tricks over each jump (this was introduced in the Mario Kart Wii version) for an extra little burst of speed upon landing.

The physics of the racing itself has remained pretty much the same, so if you’re a veteran of the Mario Kart series, it shouldn’t take you long to master this game. Also, out of the 32 available tracks, 16 are brand-new and 16 are old favorites from previous incarnations of the game. And some of the tracks are just a long, single-lap race instead of the standard 3-lap race that you might be used to. But those are still fun.

The unlockable characters aren’t all that great. You get the bee from Super Mario Galaxy, the big caterpillar from one of the Mario Kart tracks, the ghost (I don’t know the thing’s name, but it’s not King Boo), and something called Metal Mario that is basically a silver Mario that looks like it’s made of metal (and sounds like it’s talking from under water).

There are also the familiar mini-games/challenges, time attack mode, and balloon battle, as well as online gameplay.

Overall, Mario Kart 7 is a worthy entry into the series, and a fun game that Mario Kart enthusiasts simply must buy. I highly recommend this one!

When I got a new iPad 2, I had to reload all my apps into the device. I know, I know: I should have had a backup on iTunes, but I almost never plugged my iPad into my computer, so no backup was available.

At any rate, as I was trying to remember all the apps I had (this was before Apple revamped the iTunes store to make it easier to reinstall past purchases), I hit the Angry Birds HD game, thinking that I’d already bought it and that I would just get the standard “would you like to download this again?” message. But nope… I guess I had a different version of Angry Birds before, so I ended up having to pay $4.99 for the upgrade.

Frankly, I’m not sure if the HD version is worth that price. Sure, the graphics look much better than the 2x resolution for the iPhone app, but still… $4.99 is kinda expensive when talking about an app. Apparently there are some different levels too, but I haven’t gotten that far yet.

If you’re an Angry Birds addict or if you’ve never bought the game before, then I guess the HD version would be ok. But if you have the iPhone app already, there’s really no need to upgrade. Just play that one on your iPad and save your money.

I’ve always wanted a laser pointer, but never really had a good reason for buying one before. Then I learned that people use them as toys for their cats (and sometimes dogs), and that was good enough for me. I went out and bought one in the hopes that my dog would somehow be attracted to it.

I went with a Radio Shack model because I couldn’t really find anything else at the mall. It was $30, which was a bit more than I was expecting to pay, but not too bad, I guess. At first, the laser pointer is extremely fun. I’m not sure what is so mesmerizing about being able to control a thin beam of light, but everyone in my family enjoyed it. And yes, my dog actually did react to it — for a while, anyway, and then he got bored.

That’s pretty much where things stand now. The laser pointer sits in the pen holder on my desk, and I occasionally pull it down to point the beam around at random stuff in the house. The packaging said the beam can reach up to 600ft., and I’d say that’s about right. I took it outside and could clearly see the beam on a neighbor’s pool fence way at the other end of my subdivision. But that doesn’t do me much good here at home.

So…I guess if there’s anyone out there that still makes presentations needing a laser pointer, this would be as good as any. If you’re just looking for a cat toy, I recommend going with something cheaper. As for me, I need to quit with these impulse buys!

I heard about Slingbox years ago when it first came out, but I didn’t really understand the technology behind the device. I knew that it had something to do with being able to watch your TV even if you were away from home, but I thought the TV had to be left on in order for this to work. Because that seemed incredibly stupid to me, I never bothered checking out Slingbox more closely.

Well, after finally speaking to someone who actually has the device and learning more about how it works, I decided to buy one for my home. I went with the Slingbox Pro HD, which has iPhone/iPad/Android apps (all sold separately) for mobile viewing. The box cost about $300 because I didn’t bother with auctions, used equipment, or any other types of discounts.

Setup:

My husband set the Slingbox up because I am completely hopeless when it comes to anything with a wire sticking out of it. From what I could gather, it was pretty easy. Instead of connecting the TV and hard disk recorder to each other and the cable box, you instead route everything to the Slingbox. This helps the device capture the digital images from all of your equipment. The Slingbox must then be connected to the Internet modem. This was the biggest pain, as my television is nowhere near the modem, which meant we had to clip the wire to the baseboard and up the wall/ceiling to get it across a doorway.

Connectivity:

Once the physical installation work was done, we had to download and install a small program from the Slingbox website. This took just a few minutes. From there, we set up a Slingbox user account so we can watch stuff on our computer. This part required some specific details, such as the brand name and model of our HDD and modem. My husband found that information with no trouble, but you might want to have those things on hand before getting started.

Playback:

Slingbox works incredibly well! We were surprised by how crisp and clear the picture is, even on the iPhone app (which we also bought, for about $30.). When you choose a program to watch, it takes a little while to start as the video stream buffers. But after that, playback is awesome!

Recommendation:

Slingbox was very easy to set up. The whole thing was as straightforward as one could hope, and took about 40 minutes tops. The device works precisely as advertised, and allows you to watch and control your television, cable box, and hard disk recorder no matter where you are in the world. If you like to watch your own TV shows or sports events even while you travel, then Slingbox Pro HD is a must. Do I wish the iPhone and iPad apps were included in the price of the device? Sure I do. But for a one-time fee of $330 ($300 for Slingbox, $30 for iPhone SlingPlayer app) and no subscription charges ever, this purchase was still worth it! Highly recommended!